The UpHigh Collective presents their Teamworx event on Thursday May 13th. Uphigh that’s Title, Delvis and Sir-5 who played at our last event and i-Sa who opened the first one. Among others. From noon on you can expect a bbq, live painting, photo expo and lots of music of course. If the current stream of killer tunes they send us is anything to go by that alone will be killer. The Onda Sonora Soundsystem will play at the after party. Better not miss out on that. For those thinking it is an odd day to organise something, it’s a public holiday. So that’s no reason to go to Leuven.

TV Brussel came down to Beursschouwburg, filmed our event, did some interviews and made this nice report about it. It’s in Dutch.

Enjoy.

Slowly we’re gathering the many pictures and videos that have been taken last Saturday. Please add the pics to our Flickr group. Or send them and the videos to release [at] ondasonora.be …

Thanks.

It’s simple. Thanks to everyone who made RELEASE last Saturday such a success. Packed house, killer performances on stage, really nice art on the walls and high quality visuals projected on the screen. I will not name any artist in particular as everyone delivered in their own style. My highlights were the people who were surprised about the quality of the artists we’ve presented and who came asking for more info about them. Sometimes even being disappointed that their favourite didn’t have any CDs in our merchandise store. Or the impromptu interactions like the Delvis / JtotheC freestyle at the door or Fahar drawing the artists performing. I’m sure that will result in something we’ll be proud to present to you in the future. What pleased me too was the enthusiasm among all participants about our event. Everyone was very pleased to be part of it. Those are all reasons why we do it.

Up to the next one. We’ve still got some talent to present to y’all. Expect that after the summer, somewhere in October or November. In the meantime we’ll try to keep presenting you bedroom artists. Some plans are getting shape. We’ll see what comes of that. We’re motivated even more to keep pushing these talented creative minds. Watch this space to get the latest news about our future projects.

Rests me a final thank you to some people in particular. Big up to all partners and certainly Gunter and Alex for the effort they’ve put into this, relieving me of a few duties and boosting the standards. To everyone who helped spreading the word. Our own promo-team Yoeri and Dieter, Louis for the video teaser, y84 for the logo and everyone who has posted, twittered, mailed or put it is his or her Facebook status. To Koen, Vincent, Rudy, Cis and everyone at Beursschouwburg for the excellent and friendly support. To all artists of course. I’ll try not to forget anyone. Sorry If I do. But here’s the list; Peter, Brise, Roxy, Sibo, Lennart, Anthony, Benjamin, Lucien, Erik, Toon, Niels, Jay, Tim, Julien, Lien, Ziggy, Jo, Jonas, Sam, Wouter, Kobe, Bart, Adèle, François, Fahar, Bram & Kenson. And to all who came down to Beursschouwburg and enjoyed our event.

To everyone who took pics. Please add them to our RELEASE group on Flickr.

And we don’t stop. On-Point, RELEASE partner, and Mac Fly, Dynooo’s shop in Ghent, are organising a book signing of Shoe‘s ‘Calligraffti’. If you don’t know who that is we recommend you to look it up and be amazed by the man’s art. He was at our event last Saturday, by the way.

This Wednesday at Beursschouwburg the Umbrelladelika crew strikes again …

The last spotlight before we start our second edition of RELEASE.

City drive ( 3 am late night cruising mix ) by SubReachers

SubReachers might be, for many, the most unknown name on our bill but we feel confident that this won’t be for long. Since we’ve discovered them on Soundcloud we’ve had the privilege to get sent, at a steady rate, a series of well-produced, well-composed tunes. Usually situated somewhere between the deeper end of House and Techno and Dubstep with sometimes trips to more ambient territories. Always quality.

It can’t be long now before they’ll be releasing some of these somewhere. It’s simply too good to be enjoyed only by a small circle of insiders. Go check their Soundcloud account to hear some of those tracks. Saturday they’ll be doing their first live gig and we’re very curious about it. We’re sure they’ll be banging though.

Trashy Monks from narkoba on Vimeo.

We’ve coupled them to Narkoba for the visuals. He started his music career way back in 1996 as the bass player for one of Belgian’s underground punk rock bands called a200club. Using ICQ he got in touch with a guy in Huddersfield UK who wanted them to come to England to go on tour. Being back in Belgium and still full of excitement they recorded their first album and released it on Funtime records. In the meantime he was studying sound engineering in Brussels and assisted in recording Dutch hardcore bands in Midas Recording Studio.

In 2001 he and his buddy KinkyB went to Thailand and got hooked on travelling in Asia. Being enlightened they decided to form an indie band. Phoebus was born. What started as a bedroom project using a lot of appleseed cast delay on the guitars – turned out to be quite a rock act.

In 2005 Narkoba had enough of this emo stuff and travelled in South East Asia. Of course he did not forget his video camera and shot some ‘nice and far away’ footage. Being away from any computer all this time inspired him to work on a web project. A music sandpit where he can post his audio, video & web content.

In 2008 Narkoba was travelling in India where he met Mathew Masbro, a talented Indian singer songwriter. They decided to make some music and videos together. The first video is now being shown on various Indian tv channels.

During the Release event Narkoba will be supporting The Subreachers as a vj act. His travel footage has been put into the effects blender and will be mixed live on stage. Narkoba will be supported by graphic artist Lex. Lex likes doing stencil art and posting fhoompy comics on his site.

About time we introduce our graphic artists. Alex Deforce selected 5 very talented people for all of us to enjoy this Saturday. From graphic designers over photographers to illustrators and painters. Come check it out from 19h30 on at Beursschouwburg. We advice you to come early if you want to do so because once the gigs start you might not be able to wander around as freely as it should for maximum enjoyment of these pieces. That’s why we’ve reserved a chill moment before 22h when 72Soul starts.

Kenson
Antwerp-based graphic designer, who’s gained a strong reputation in graphic design, with strong roots in the street cultures.

Fahar
With a solid skill developed in the heritage of French manga culture and a Casterman series under his belt, Fahar - residing in Brussels – is one to keep your eyes open for.

Adèle Renault
Liège rude girl with style and finesse, inspired and based upon graffiti culture but reaching out both to the classic realistic oil paint styles as well as graphic design.

François Tusséki
Illustrator-typographical mastermind, that’s what covers the skill of F.Tusséki the best.

Ghozza
aka Bram De Keyser, presents a selection of his photography portfolio, work captivating to the eye, portrait photography as well as cut-up slices of urban life.

We’ve been pushing Title since we’ve got beats from him in the build-up to our first event last October. ‘Caravan’ turned out to be the biggest ‘hit’ that night at Beursschouwburg, getting a massive crowd response. Since then RELEASE partner On Point decided to put that track on the second 7” they will release. You’ll be able to get that piece of vinyl at our event this Saturday.

Recently been called a ‘wonky’ Belgian on national radio but in our opinion much more than what that foolish description stands for. What struck us in the music we’ve heard from him so far is the maturity and musicality of it. Much opposed to the often very basic loops we get. His tunes evolve and have structure. This adult approach to making songs is even more remarkably considering his young age.

Style-wise it’s much more than just abstract beats. It’s certainly has been inspired by the current stream of beatmakers but you’ll find hints of other genres in his music too like jazz, indie rock and electro. But we rather let you be the judge of that. Check his Soundcloud for examples of his work.

He’ll be joined on stage by 2 members of the UpHigh Collective; mc Sir-5 and singer Delvis. The first one you might have spotted on stage at our first event with i-Sa, the second you’ll know by now as the voice on ‘Blend’, the other a-side on the flip of Title’s ‘Caravan’ 7”.

We’ve paired him with Visual Kitchen to provide the visuals during his gig. Some of you might go ‘they’re not really upcoming, are they ?’ and you are absolutely right, of course. These pioneers of the Belgian VJ-scene have done collaborations with dance-events like 10daysOff, I Love Techno and Groovecity, had ‘artist-in-residency’-status at Concertgebouw in Bruges and have a pretty extensive and impressive CV to browse through. But who are we to say no when they apply to participate and agree to our conditions (which are do it for free as our event is a completely voluntary one). Plus it will, no doubt, be an introduction to their dazzling visuals for many among our crowd and that’s still the reason why we do it.

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A mix made with mostly local productions and if not certainly true to our bedroom artist philosophy by Sensiloop, one of the 2 DJs who be selecting tunes on our RELEASE event on April 17^th at Beursschouwburg.

Check his own Mixcloud account here.