Five of our favourite moments from Field Day 2023This year’s edition of Field Day festival is over. The dust has settled in London’s Victoria Park; the stages taken down. All we can do now is reminisce on what a brilliant day it was for dance music.

READ MORE: The Aphex Twin machine causes chaos at Field Day 2023

We saw none other than Aphex Twin deliver an expectedly mind-blowing headline show. TSHA performed with a full band for just the fifth time. SBTRKT continued his return to the fore, playing his new album. Fever Ray got real weird on the East Stage. Jon Hopkins elevated the West Stage with a live techno-tinged set. And what’s more – it was sunny! We’ve gathered some of our favourite memories from the day-long event.
Jayda G’s sparkling DJ set

Fresh off the back of her new album, Canadian-born, London-based Jayda G, embodied a sense of celebration during her DJ set on the East Stage. Playing in the mid-afternoon, she fired through her usual collection of feel-good house music, getting the huge crowd warmed up for the day’s antics.
It was when she played her track Both Of Us, though, that the crowd really sparked into life. Now a usual sight in Jayda’s sets, she came right out to the crowd, clapping with them as the track built up its piano-laden drop.

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Check out Jayda G’s tour date via jaydag.com.
Arca’s fiery homecoming show

For Arca, her 7.25 pm slot on the East stage warming up for AFX was evidently important. The Venezuelan, real name Alejandra Ghersi Rodríguez, used to live in London, she told the crowd, so it meant a lot to feel such a warm reception. And she sounded so good. As she sang with pure sass through her mega mixture of IDM, reggaeton, avant-pop, and techno, performing tracks such El Alma Que Te Trajo and Rakata, she found her feet. We were also a huge fan of the leather outfit, topped off by a Batman-esque eye mask.
See when Arca is next performing near you at arca1000000.com.
Mount Kimbie’s Street View visuals
Mount Kimbie at Field Day
Mount Kimbie’s Kai Campos didn’t hold back with his modular synth-fueled techno set at the North Arena stage on Saturday. When both members of the band play live, it’s a calmer affair. When it’s just Kai, it seems, things get a bit harder. It was a fun introduction to the event at the early time of 4 pm and left many – who perhaps weren’t aware of Kai Campos’ modular techno sound – feeling pretty puzzled.
Mount Kimbie at Field Day
The funniest thing about the set though was the visuals. A massive LED screen behind Campos’ head displayed Google Maps Street View images, which at times felt strangely intrusive and at others were plain hilarious. It was incredibly strange to see various blurred faces appear on such a large scale to the eerie backdrop of Campos’ brilliant live set, saw a Doepfer synth at its centre.
Find out where you can catch Mount Kimbie live via mountkimbie.com.
Bonobo’s live band bonanza
Credit: Sarah Louise Bennett
While Aphex Twin’s mind-boggling set was the talk of the festival, for those looking for something a bit mellower in the build-up, Bonobo’s headline show hit the spot. As the sun set, he gently cruised through tracks from 2017’s Migration and 2022’s Fragments, making moments of musical magic. While Bonobo’s DJs sets are of course exciting, this was a live set with Bonobo’s full band, which was certainly a sight to behold..
See when Bonobo’s next playing live via bonobomusic.com.
Elkka’s dance workout
Andrew Whitton
Elkka, who showed off her home production setup to MusicTech in 2022, joined the Field Day lineup relatively last minute. Playing a DJ set on the BBC 6 Music stage, she joined the likes of Chloé Robinson, quest?onmarq and Anastasia Kristensen to add to the playfully energetic vibes provided all day long in the unique, domed stage.
She also played her own, forthcoming new hard-hitting track full of thumping drums and swirling synths, which sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Check out Elkka’s tour dates via elkka.com.
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Arthelion Releases MOLOSS II FREE hybrid synth plugin for Windows.
Arthelion releases MOLOSS II, a free synth plugin for Windows. MOLOSS II is a reworking of the original MOLOSS I hybrid synth. Some of you might remember we covered MOLOSS I back in 2019, and many of you felt it had potential but wasn’t quite there yet. As a free and open-source plugin, we expected [...]
View post: Arthelion Releases MOLOSS II FREE hybrid synth plugin for Windows.

“Now you can do an orchestral piece on a computer with 200 tracks – but it’s good to impose your own restrictions”: Calvin Harris on the benefits of limitation in music productionThough he’s now one of the most successful and acclaimed DJs in the world – with millions of streams and millions of record sales to his name – Calvin Harris, like so many DJs and producers, came from humble beginnings.
In a new interview with BBC Sounds, the Scottish DJ recalls starting his music-making journey using an old Amiga 500 Plus desktop computer his older brother left at home when he went off to university.

READ MORE: “I’ve never used a MIDI instrument in my life”: Jack Antonoff on his love of analogue gear

“I made my first album on that, actually. I used it long after I should have stopped using it,” he admits.
“I used to play a lot of computer games on it, and then my brother got this very sort of primitive – it was called a tracker programme – so you’d have four channels running vertically, and you could input samples on those vertical channels. Then you’d hit the spacebar and it would start playing. And as the line crossed these little inputs, it would [make drum sounds].
Commodore Amiga 500. Credit: James Sheppard/Future via Getty Image
“So I loved it – it was like playing a computer game, but actually you were making something at the end of it, so it was kind of creative.”
Harris goes on to highlight the importance of restriction in music making, and how it can actually be more beneficial than having limitless access to more and more channels and possibilities.
“It taught me to be very selective about what I put in my own tunes, simply because I only have five channels. So everything that was there had to be there for a reason. Now it’s limitless, isn’t it – you can have thousands [of channels].
“But I think if you learn how to do something and you’re very restricted – there were some songs that I couldn’t put a crash symbol in and a chorus vocal at the same time, it would take up too much memory. So I had to decide, would I put in this riff, or would I put in this hi-hat, you know?
He continues: “You can do anything now. And all the programmes are so advanced. You can literally go from doing nothing to doing an orchestral piece with 200 tracks, but I think it’s a good idea to impose your own restrictions sometimes, and work to that.”
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Orchestral Tools introduce Baroque Bundle Orchestral Tools are celebrating the release of the SINE version of Berlin Harpsichords by offering it as a bundle with their Miroire library.

The Chemical Brothers and Beck join forces for new single Skipping Like a StoneThe Chemical Brothers have teamed up with singer-songwriter Beck on new single, Skipping Like a Stone.

READ MORE: “I want to use chords I never used before”: Pharrell teases new N.E.R.D music

Speaking about the collaboration, Beck exclaims his love for the duo’s “great predilection for exploration.”
“They kind of sit in an unusual place between different eras of electronic music and DJ culture,” he adds. “It’s like they have one foot in multiple decades at the same time in a way that is utterly unique among their peers.”
The single is planned to appear on The Chemical Brother’s newest 11-track record For That Beautiful Feeling, set for release on 8 September 2023.
It will include a previously released single No Reason, as well as a new mix of The Darkness That You Fear and Live Again.
According to the band, a month after the album is released, they will also release a new book about their relationship and history with electronic music.
You can listen to the new track, Skipping Like a Stone, below:

In other news, the UK government is upgrading the church famously features on the album art of their 1998 compilation album Brothers Gonna Work It Out from a Grade II listed site to a Grade II* site.
Upgrades to the status of Our Lady of Fatima, which is situated in Essex, came after a recommendation from Historic England in a bid to protect its historical and architectural significance.
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James Blake and André 3000 are sitting on months worth of unreleased musicJames Blake has revealed he spent months working with rapper André 3000 on new music, but there’s a chance that none of it will be released.

READ MORE: The second single, Loading, from James Blake’s next album is here

Blake, revealing the news on the Broken Record podcast, tells host Leah Rose about working with the Outkast member, referring to the 48-year-old as a “living icon”.
Although the pair did release the collaborative track Where’s the Catch for Blake’s 2019 album, Assume Form, “they did months” in the studio, he says. However, André recently told the same podcast that he plans to release no new music in the future.

“It sounds like you have a lot of music that hasn’t been released yet.” Rose says. “Yeah,” Blake responds plainly. When asked if fans will be able to hear any of the music, he says, “I hope so.”
“My god, you’re dealing with a living icon.” Blake praises André. “It’s almost surprising to hear something new come from that person because you’re so used to the songs that exist, it seems impossible that they can be created. It feels like they were just divinely put somewhere and you found them like precious metals.
He goes on to say how lucky he feels to work with so many amazing musicians, but “in this case with André, he just had to pinch myself a bit.”

Also in the podcast episode, Blake, whose seventh album Playing Robots into Heaven, is set to be released in September, talks about working with Def Jam founder and revered producer, Rick Rubin.
Rubin taught Blake to “remember what it is that you have the most unique perspective on”, he says, and while many might criticise his hands-off approach, Rubin’s “big picture” perspective is invaluable.
On helping artists as a producer himself, he adds that “producers are supposed to change your life”.
“The most successful sessions with people I’ve ever had, I’ve enabled them to look at a song in a certain way or be confident in a way that they previously didn’t back because people were telling them ‘it’s not this, it’s not that’.”
“What I do in the studio is encourage them to be them. That’s something that people in the mainstream don’t often hear – there’s more reason to play it safe.”
Check out the latest single, Loading, from James Blake’s forthcoming album via YouTube. Find more episodes of the Broken Record podcast via pushkin.fm.
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Volume launches Artist Accelerator, offers chance to play BeachLife Ranch FestivalMusic live streaming platform Volume.com has launched an Artist Accelerator Program alongside a new artist partnership with indie alt-rockers The Foxies.  The new Volume Artist Accelerator Program includes weekly streamer. Continue reading
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How to use AI to generate band namesBobby Owsinski took 3 genres and used AI to find 60 possible band names that may just spark the inspiration you and your band have been needing… or maybe not.. Continue reading
The post How to use AI to generate band names appeared first on Hypebot.

patchpool VAST for Arturia Efx Fragments VAST for Efx Fragments the granular multi-effect processor by Arturia contains 112 presets (including six variations) spanning a vast range from atmospherical and ambient textures to complex,... Read More

AI Music Agreements need to address these 5 issues [Chris Castle]YouTube’s new deal with UMG to explore music and AI is among the countless initiates attempting to make sense of and monetize AI. Attorney Chris Castle cuts through the noise. Continue reading
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“I’ve never used a MIDI instrument in my life”: Jack Antonoff on his love of analogue gearProducer Jack Antonoff has spoken about his love for analogue gear and the way it “pushes you very hard” as a creator.

READ MORE: “They’re making bulls**t records with loops. Everything’s sampled”: Tony Visconti slams modern producers

In a recent chat with MusicRadar, Antonoff – known for his work with Pink, St. Vincent, Lana Del Rey and of course, Taylor Swift – describes his approach to gear as “completely out of the box”.
“I’ve never used a MIDI instrument in my life,” he says. “I’m always pushing myself by using different things, and what’s nice about analogue gear is everything is a completely new journey.”
The producer also says that while he likes modern stuff, “it takes a long time for something to develop a personality”.
“Very often the feeling of something after it’s been around for some amount of time has a different layer to it… I’ve noticed that the kind of music that I imagine in my head gravitates towards the mystery that comes out of things that are a bit more unwieldy.”
He explains, “When you have a new piece of gear – especially when it’s something that’s been around, and has a lot of life in it already, and is filled with ghosts – and you plug it in, you physically can’t make the sounds you’ve been making. You’re in the desert, you’re in a new frontier, and you just have to find your personality within it. I find that vintage gear pushes you very hard.”
“I think the most modern thing you can do is use things that have been around for a while in new ways,” says Antonoff, adding that the main thing about “older, analogue instruments”, is that “you truly can’t duplicate the sound.”
“Every time you turn it on, it’s on. The electricity, the fucking weather, all these things are changing the feeling of it. So it’s nice to know when you’re in the studio that you’re creating something that can only happen right there. Because at the end of the day, I don’t want to be able to duplicate things, I want to catch moments. I think vintage gear is very helpful for that.”
He adds that the sheer number of possibilities on a soft synth can sometimes cause musicians to “freeze up a little bit”, saying, “Sometimes, when it comes to soft synths, the ability to make so many sounds has an inertia within that.”
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Avicii’s Wake Me Up hits two billion Spotify streamsWake Me Up, one of the biggest hits by late EDM producer Avicii, has hit two billion streams on Spotify, joining an exclusive 40-strong club of songs in the two billion region.

READ MORE: Producer reveals how he made over $1,000,000 selling beats on YouTube

The track, which features Aloe Blacc and was released in 2013, joins the likes of 2018’s Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi, 2019’s Dance Monkey by Tones and I and Sunflower by Post Malone and Swae Lee. It becomes just the fourth dance track to do so.

The milestone was celebrated by Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, who took to X to write: “Some big news today. Wake Me Up by Avicii is the first song by a Swedish artist to break 2B streams on Spotify. It’s so amazing to see Avicii’s influence and remarkable work continuing to bring joy to so many around the world.”
Achieving two billion streams is huge, and was an unthinkable number not that long ago. But, if you’re now thinking about who has three billion streams, we have been too. This club is, as you can imagine, far more exclusive. Only two artists have achieved three billion Spotify streams so far – Ed Sheeran with Shape Of You and The Weeknd with Blinding Lights.
Wake Me Up is not just smashing the numbers on Spotify streams. In June, it earned RIAA Diamond Certification, which means 10 million certified units have been sold.
There’s no doubt that Avicii, who sadly died in 2018, is now revered as a modern great of dance music. It was revealed in May 2023 that a documentary about the EDM artist is in the works, which will “accurately and objectively” tell his story.
In other Spotify news, it was recently revealed that the streaming platform is missing out on an estimated $38 million after its algorithm has suggested less cost-effective white-noise podcasts designed for studying and meditation.
Listen to Avicii’s music via Spotify.
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Sampleson SKYWAVES: Analog Cinematic Soundscapes Creator SkyWaves is a soundscape and ambient creator built upon faithful recreation of analog synth oscillators and analog effects. High quality analog sound sources + spacious and... Read More

“I want to use chords I never used before”: Pharrell teases new N.E.R.D. musicPharrell has confirmed that new N.E.R.D. music is in the works.

READ MORE: “I’m an engineer first, producer second, performer third”: Deadmau5 follows up on his comments about pre-recorded DJ sets

In a new interview with Tyler, The Creator for GQ, Pharrell reveals that he has been working on “12 N.E.R.D. records” while in Paris.
Speaking about the process behind the new material, Pharrell says, “They’re big choruses, but you know, out of nowhere, I’ll just come out of nowhere with the three-bar, crazy-nuts chords that go three-bar to four-bar to eight-bar. It’s good bro, it’s good.”
“This is like that feeling that I felt when we made [2001 album] In Search Of…,” the musician adds. “I won’t sit here and tell you that they were hits. I knew it was different, and I knew there won’t be nothing out there like this. But I’m talking about the feeling.”
As for the kind of music fans can expect to see, Pharrell says: “I wanted to do everything. I wanted feelings. I wanted the motherfuckin’ great composition. I wanted great chords.”
“I want to use chords I never used before, and not just the dreamy ones. The ones that I’ve never done, that I fuckin’ hated. But using them in ways to get to other chords where the changes are such a release. And then, lyrically, the harmonies here…all the songs just have rainbow harmonies.”
N.E.R.D.’s most recent album No One Ever Really Dies was released in 2017. The record famously featured guest appearances from a number of industry heavyweights including Rihanna, André 3000, Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar.

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Night Tapes: “Other producers seemed like wizards. Then we found out they just had better plugins”Night Tapes are a seriously talented three-piece band creating electronic-tinged, psychedelic dream pop. Hailing from London, the outfit is made up of Max Doohan, Sam Richards and Iiris Vesik, three musicians who formed the band after a series of late night jam sessions.

READ MORE: Best synthesizers to buy in 2023: 18 of the best synths under $600

Perfect Kindness is the title of just Night Tapes’ third EP – which is early on in their journey when you consider how pristine each track sounds. It helped, we must add, with the maestro hand of mixing engineer Nathan Boddy, who’s worked with PinkPantheress, James Blake, Mura Masa and London Grammar. We speak to the band and find out about the plugins in particular that helped shape this stunning EP and why digital tools and synths help their music-making process.
Perfect Kindness by Night Tapes
Hey, Night Tapes! How are things?
Iiris: Hey, MusicTech! We’re deep into making a new EP (which will probably be the last EP before an album), preparing for a little tour in the UK and Europe in September/October and trying to enjoy the rainy summer we’re having in London.
What are your individual roles and how do you work together?
Ritchie: We don’t really have defined roles so much. We were all producing music individually before Night Tapes and this carries across to how we write now. Most of the songs start as a demo from one of us individually, which we then collectively work on it to carry over the line.
Tell us about your love of plugins.
Max: There’s a lot of innovation going on in plugins and plugins are generally a lot cheaper and easier to demo. While we love old hardware that’s tried and tested there’s something to be said for using new tools that create new outcomes in your music.
Iiris: I remember how everything I made used to sound shit and other producers seemed like wizards who could just magically make stuff sound better. Then I found out they just had better plugins and eventually I had to get a good microphone. Until those things happened, everything was just frustrating.
What’s your latest plugin purchase?
The God Particle. Image: Cradle
Max: We recently got a plugin called The God Particle by Cradle which is an enigma. It has a definite sound which either really works or really doesn’t. There’s a track on the latest EP Perfect Kindness on which we recorded the lead vocals with an iPhone and then cranked that plugin to 200 per cent to emphasise all of the artefacts.
What’s the best-value plugin you own?
Effect Rack. Image: Soundtoys
Max: SoundToys Effect Rack. This multi-plugin rack was a ray of light in the lockdown when it came out for $99. We use the presets all the time and it’s such a creative toolbox to have access to.
What’s the weirdest plugin you own?
Soundgrain. Image: Olivier Belanger
Ritchie: It’s not really a plugin exactly, but Soundgrain is an amazing tool for manipulating audio. It’s a little hard to explain exactly what it does, but it effectively time stretches and loops samples at different frequencies to create amazingly interesting textures. It’s an amazing way to create beds of sound and ambient pads.
What plugins go on your master bus without fail?
Max: Sonarworks SoundID Reference. our studio is not currently acoustically treated so it’s helpful for getting a more accurate sound in the room- especially for mixing.
What plugin would your latest EP, Perfect Kindness, be incomplete without?
ValhallaRoom. Image: Valhalla DSP
Max: ValhallaRoom by Valhalla DSP. It’s our go-to reverb across all of our music and has become an instrument in its own right. It doesn’t really imitate a real space like most VST reverbs – it’s got an ethereal quality.
You’ve created a really distorted atmosphere on Humans. How?
Richie: A big part of that distorted sound is running various instruments through cassette multitrack preamps – primarily our Tascam four track mixer. On certain parts, we’ll track to cassette tape and transfer that to our project. The cassette tape has quite a limited dynamic range, so it compresses the tape saturation in a musical way.
When it comes to vocals, we’ll often combine this saturated sound with software saturation so it’s easier to bed into the mix. Like many others, we’re big fans of using Soundtoys’ Decapitator to do this. Saying that, I’m a big fan of Logic Pro’s stock clip distortion. You have a lot of control over where clipping occurs, and it runs well in parallel with the mix turned right down. The big vocal sound on both Humans and Inigo is a result of this. It has a really bright, sparkly saturation that compliments the heavier, more midrange tape saturation of the Tascam.
Do you have any secret sauce plugins?
Virtual MixBuss. Image: Slate Digital
Max: Virtual MixBuss by Slate. It’s an analogue desk emulator which has become our default first plugin on our output chain. It adds a little more air and color to everything.
Richie: Virtual Tape Machines, also by Slate. It’s really subtle, but sounds warm and lifelike. I’m a massive fan of Waves’ (slightly less realistic) Kramer Tape too. Flux control is dangerously addictive.
What about a guilty pleasure plugin?
Richie: Fabfilter’s Pro L 2. Turning a mix up by 4db is apparently the real secret to impressing friends, family and A&Rs.
Listen to more of Night Tapes’ music on Bandcamp.
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