Taking place on 15-18th July 2010, Latitude will be set once again in the beautiful countryside of Henham Park Estate on Suffolk’s Sunrise Coast.  A place like no other; an intimate world away from reality that encourages you to be all that you’ve ever wanted to be whilst indulging in the spirit of exploration and discovery.

Celebrating its fifth year, Latitude continues to lead the way as a bold and pioneering festival cherry-picking the very best from the worlds of music, theatre, comedy, literature, film, poetry, dance, art, fashion and cabaret and bringing them together for one glorious weekend.

Cute and cultural contrasts against great music here, they have a smoking ban that I am yet to fully understand but that’s up to them I suppose. There is a big focus on spoken word, performance art and general creativity and set in the beautiful Henham Park.

As mentioned this is balanced against music – Highlights include – Nick Cave, The Rumble Strips, Regina Spektor, We Have Band and Bombay Bicycle Club.

The music give away of all music give away’s is here. Keeping with a tradition now in it’s third year, a chap named Ben Stolt has put together a torrent of free tracks, the sample package for this years event which kicks off next week. The bundle is in two parts, one with 646 tracks and the other with 292, do the math that’s a lot of music. How very generous, you can pick it up here. It’s a biggie so be patient.

SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in theUS , with more than 1,400 performers playing in more than 80 venues around Austin over four days, in March. Though it is an industry-based event, SXSW Music links locally with events and is now the highest revenue-producing special event for the Austin economy, with an estimated economic impact of at least $110 million in 2008.

SXSW Interactive’s focus on emerging technology has earned the festival a reputation as a breeding ground for new ideas and creative technologies, we shall have a presence over in Austin next week with ‘Hello Stranger’, more on that here, do get in contact if you fancy a chinwag or just to say hey, in tradition with Southern hospitality ya’ll will be most welcome.

Yeeehah!

It’s a hard life here at Mewbox. We’re currently splitting our time between sorting a load of events with one of the majors, getting our shit together for SXSW with Strangers in Stereo, drinking, dancing, laughing and talking to overtly glamorous ladies. Where did it all go wrong? Anyway, I’ll stop waffling, and let you see what someone more interesting has to say (in case you can’t work it out for yourselves, the questions are by us and the answers by V).

Hey Viktoria, I don’t really know whether to start with questions about you, your music, or your participation in the Evo Music competition. Probably best to let people get an idea of who you are first, then move on to the music, I think. I’ve read your bio on your website, and it’s left me with more questions than answers. First off, you came over from Latvia in 1999, and started modelling at 15 – what brought you to the UK?

My parents brought me to London in search of better future as living in post USSR Latvia wasnt exactly full of opportunity or any normal living.

And how did you get started in modelling? Was it a conscious decision, or were you approached to do it?

By age of 14 i was totally involved in exploring my personality and was mixing in alternative circles in Camden Down. Pushed to the edge of normal society for being different and not quite fitting in any the box i started my search for somewhere i can be myself. Modelling was a natural progression as i met many photographers and designers it became more apparent to me that posing in at from of camera was something very natural for me.

A lot of your modelling seems to have been subculture/fetish oriented – is that a purely professional choice, or do you have a long standing interest in these area?

It wasnt a professional choice as such but after some experience it seemed that alternative styling and my rather changing personality and image suited the edgy, extreme and sometimes sexual image that subculture modelling offered. Despite that in the more recent few years i have conciderably moved around in the fashion circles touching on avante garde high fashion and art projects.

I see you’re the face of Torture Garden. I remember going to Torture Garden a few times, a long time ago now, and my most entertaining memory of the place is my first visit when I was talking to a friend and found myself being energetically paddled by a fat man in a nappy and baby’s bonnet. I gave him a gentle slap on the cheek to stop him, and he started crying until someone came and put a dummy in his mouth, which seemed to calm him down. What’s your most entertaining memory of Torture Garden?

God! Soo many years n so many parties merge into 1. I think my first Torture Garden was the most unbeatable experience as it was the first time i felt totally free in my self expression, fashion and sexuality. It is never a dull moment i can assure you!

You’re now taking Torture Garden events on tour on your own. You seem very busy these days, with mainstream modelling, event hostessing, the TG events, award ceremony presenting, and work as an artist’s model and a stylist to cope with. Where do you find the time to write and perform in a band?

Well i am incredibly self driven I spent most of last 5 years working on music in the background while modelling and styling. But music has been a constant passion for me since i was a child attending performing arts school in Latvia. So when i moved to London few years down the line i started having lessons again and went through a dozen producers which really helped me understand what my musical style is and what kind of artist i want to be. If you want to do something very very much there is always time!

I see Viktoria Modesta (the band) is a collaboration between you and Nik Hodges. Is Nik Hodges invisible? If not, tell us something else interesting about him.

‘Nik is the ‘man in the shadows’ . He prefers to occupy the studio leaving me to occupy the spotlight, although you may catch him onstage with me hiding behind a large bright white guitar.’

Having listened to the tracks you have up on your site, I’d describe your music as slightly downbeat, very well crafted electro pop. Would you say that’s a fair summary?

Id say its pretty accurate. I think the music reflects me in many ways as it has all elements of music i like electro, pop and twangy guitars layered through the music.

How did you decide which song to use for the Evo Music Rooms competition?

Jane Bond was the first song Nik and I wrote together and it has been one of public favouties.

If you win the competition, what are your plans?

Get a record deal, write new music and put on some amazing shows on!!

And what if you don’t?

Just the same

As a final note, I read on your site that you had a leg amputated in 2009. It certainly doesn’t seem to have stopped you working very hard at what you do, and doing it very well. A lot of people would give up, or hide, after something like that happening, but you don’t seem to feel that way. What has kept you going?

Proving every person that doubted me wrong

And do you see what you’re doing as having a message for other people in similar situations?

Absolutely its all about how you see yourself

So there she is…if you like what you hear and see, vote for Viktoria at Evo Music Rooms now.

I did. And even if I hadn’t, I would. Just for Camden Down.

The Dub Pistols have returned once more with another hot joint, entitled ‘Ganja’. In a furthering to their long term collaboration with the rhythm killa’ Rodney P who has been involved with the band since 2006, forming an integral part of their studio time and live sets along with The Special’s Terry Hall on occasion.

Taken from their 4th album ‘Rum & Coke’ the single is helmed by UK hip-hop legend Rodney P, who works his lyrics into an original blend of dub, hip-hop and reggae with a feel-good, laid-back groove. Ganja? They’ve never touched the stuff! Honest. It’s illegal.

An accompanying video has been released too, given the subject at hand I’m sure you can imagine the ‘visual story’ if you can use such a term in polite society? When you get a moment grab a cotch and get lean up with it. If that’s how you get down off course. Here at Mewbox we do not actively ‘promote’ narcotics abuse but respect the freedom of the individual.

There’s also a Facebook campaign set up by some Dub Pistols fans (The Unofficial Chemicals) in an attempt to ‘break the stranglehold of contrived, manufactured pop and get some real, home-grown talent into the chart’.

Sounds promising.

Following her superb gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Corinne Bailey Rae has announced details of three brand new UK shows including a hometown gig in Leeds. The full dates are as follows…

MARCH

27th – Leeds Metropolitan University

29th – Glasgow Oran Mor

30th – Leamington Spa Assembley Halls

Corinne started work on the songs for her second album at the end of 2007, following a whirlwind two years which saw her go from unknown singer-songwriter to worldwide multi-platinum, award-winning artist with a string of Grammy and Brits nominations to her name.

It is also an album that will linger long in the listener’s memory and imagination, a direct opposite to the disposable, fast-paced consumption of modern music. Dark, seductive, emotional, honest and yet full of hope it offers total immersion in its world.

As Corinne recently told the Observer Music Monthly, “There is something miraculous that pushes you along, makes you keep going, makes you carry on. It’s really about the mystery of that. In fact, the whole album is about that in a way; it’s about loss but it’s also about hope, about keeping going and trying to find that beauty”.

There has been a noticeable shift the aggregation and distribution of content on the web, a move toward dialogue and debate, and a development that the web has afforded us. Conceptually this is the beauty of the internet, the near instant access to information and content, the seemingly anonymous relationship we have with it, the freedom to quote, reference, download and distribute has in itself started a media revolution.

For this concept to exist it must exist not only beyond the realms of legal framework and it’s charges, but also the abuse and misuse of this legal framework. Copyright infringement, unlike Global Warming, is a topic we can fully understand and react to accordingly. The unquestionable economic impact on the creative industries is no laughing matter, though I can see how, like bankers, the public could enjoy seeing label executives running scared.

Steps must be taken to curtail this, legal certainly, educational definitely. Collusion is after all more effective than coercion. The aforementioned anonymity allows a lapse in conscience that exists purely as the public does not understand the full consequences of infringement. Take the following as a basic equation.

Less Money = Product Consolidation + Cost Cutting = Less Artist Development = Less Good Music + More Drivel

I for one am an advocate of addressing this issue fully, though the current approach bears, purely through it’s totalitarian vagueness, some enormous pitfalls or what some creative lawyers may label potential.

By allowing a High Court judge the power to curtail content on the web under the premise of it being ‘infringing’, a term yet to be fully defined in law both domestically and internationally in this context paves the way for a legal and accessible D-Notice for private business. An extreme comparison admittedly, but a valid one too.

The Mandy Bill is effectively creating a situation where business will be allowed to force consumers to their model under the guise of protecting a digital economy. In truth the application of 18^th / 19^th centaury copyright law, tainted with shades of libel legislation, to a 21^st centaury social-technological zeitgeist is just plain lazy and naïve.

Who knows, it may just stifle the new models it is seeking to protect as well as infringing freedom of speech.

• Hotel booked for SXSW, see you all in Austin, Texas! #
• Kicking off an 8 week intensive developer push, working on improvements to the app, server upgrade, the works. Dev team READY, SET… GO! #
• just loved The Hood Internet – Cult Logic Forever (Drake ft. Kanye West and Lil Wayne vs … http://awe.sm/5224h on @hypem #
• just loved Bella Ruse – Dark Horse http://awe.sm/522Aa on @hypem #
• just loved Professor Green (feat. Adele) – Hometown Glory http://awe.sm/522FE on @hypem #
• Lail Arad EP – mint! #
• Please don't die Guru, the world needs you! #
• We saw Crystal Fighters at the Old Blue Last yesterday eve. Ummmm, energetic? http://bit.ly/afR28K #
• Congrats! RT @mixcloud: MIXCLOUD IS 1MILLION STREAMS OLD! #
• @headshearts Make-up looks BRILLIANT in that photo! in reply to headshearts #
• If your in Texas, we'd love to have a beer with you at SXSW. Come, Come! http://bit.ly/d8a8jF #
• @strangersstereo Nice one. Good to see it all kicking off for you. Let's celebrate at SXSW! #
• just loved Laura Marling – The Captain And Hourglass http://awe.sm/529fw on @hypem #
• What a truly beautiful day. #

Even knowing that there are several members of the Top Billin crew, I’m still always impressed by their output. Seems like every week they come out with a great remix or edit… sometimes it’s difficult to keep track! And this week is no exception with their offering on the “Ayoba” (Remix EP) by the fantastic Schlachthofbronx from Munich (If you’ve not heard of these guys yet you should really check them out!)

The EP also includes remixes from Ku Bo, Beataucue, Phon.O, Beware+Motorpitch… and you can grab it at all the normal online outlets, but Top Billin have made their remix available free through Soundcloud!

Schlachthofbronx “Ayoba” Featuring Spoek & Gnucci Banana (Top Billin Remix) by MANRECORDINGS

Justin Ringle of Horse Feathers has turned out to be a songwriter strongly influenced by the seasons.  His Portland, Oregon-based band’s last record, the critically acclaimed House With No Home, was a Winter album par excellence, from it’s chilly cover art to his frostbitten songs of loneliness and loss.

From the first piano notes of the title track, plinking like Spring rain on a windowpane, Thistled Spring shows itself to be an album of rebirth, renewal, and fragile hope.  The sun is out in the world evoked by this music, and in the first couple of songs it feels like the sun of early Spring, how very appropriate.

‘Thistled Spring’ and ‘Starving Robins’ both continue Ringle’s trademark use of space in song-writing , but in this case, the space is full of potential, like the spaces between drops of melting snow.  The sun gets stronger and warmer as the album moves along, shining most brilliantly in the jaunty, joyous, ‘Belly of June’, where Ringle’s characteristically spare vocals become fattened up with delicious harmonies as the music swells with strings and banjo.

Lyrically, Ringle continues to explore broken relationships, longing and pain, but this album has an undercurrent of heat that translates to a thawing of frozen hearts, and music which rushes like spring torrents, all of which points to a resurgence of life after a hard Winter.

Thank God spring is here!

Johnny Flynn has announced details of a nationwide tour of the UK to occur in May. Ahead of this, a main support to Mumford & Sons in Europe will occur for the duration of April, as well as numerous appearances at the SXSW Music Conference in Austin, Texas in March. You can see why the phrase ‘behemoth tour’ is appropriate I’m sure.

Johnny Flynn’s been about. Born in Johannesburg, grew up in south Wales working on a fishing boat, won a singing scholarship to Winchester College, hung out in the New York anti-folk scene, ran with the London folk-punk scene and then toured the world acting with a Shakespearian theatre company. Rather intimidating isn’t it.

The dates will be performed with full band, The Sussex Wit and act as a pre-cursor for his soon-to-be-announced and much-anticipated, second album, expect news on this in the coming weeks. With contemporaries ranging from Iron and Wine to Laura Marling, Johnny is certainly on the cusp of the UK’s flourishing alt-pop / folk, an ilk that seems to grow by the week much to my glee.

The full list of dates, can be viewed at his Myspace here – the tour culminates in a solo tour of the Scottish Highlands, sounds lovely at this time of year. Just lovely.