Tuesday 17 August 2010

Primeline Artist to Launch EP


Up-and-coming dubstep star on first release…

Primeline: Coventry’s non-profit youth organization currently promoting hip hop, dubstep, and grime in the community. It is a record label with Coventry roots, looking to help unrepresented young artists from all walks of life.

Amec: not an American share-holding company as perhaps you first thought, but rather the next artist eagerly awaiting his launch date. But given his plan, there may be a day when you can actually invest shares in the enterprise that becomes Amec.

Within the next couple of months Amec releases his debut EP- a few tracks which represent the time and training he has received through Primeline. The artist learnt his trade at a youth centre known as the ‘Venny’, in the Henley Green area of Coventry. From this base, the organization focus their energy honing the talents of unrepresented youths looking to express themselves.
Amec began on the dubstep path out of a social inclination. He explains "I used to go out to my mate’s car and listen to drum and bass in the back". After that it wasn’t long before the team at the Venny got him into recording.

"Really it was just trial and error- just stick me on it, tell me what would break it so I know then what not to do. I got advice from my mentors there, listened to different types of music and just found my own sound from that".

Amec’s sound itself is not strictly dubstep and he ensures to involve a variety of genres into his work. "I’ll always try different things. My love will always be dubstep, drum and bass but I’ll always try to make other stuff." He adds that "I do like the Arabic sound, I like the whole snake charmer thing", and he so far he has an existing track which make use of Chinese Zen sounds.

Dubstep really emerged as a genre within the last decade but has mostly been treated as a trend on the outside of mainstream awareness. Amec recognizes that it gains most recognition in the Midlands, Shropshire, Bristol, and London music scenes, and believes strongly that "it needs to be more commercial. If they give it a chance on radio, then a lot more people will buzz in to it".

The genre becomes increasingly attractive as we plunge further into the electronic age. Traditionally music takes timely and costly means to produce to a commercial standard, yet dubstep is the bass-heavy alternative reflecting the work of good computer skills.

On his tracks, Amec says that theoretically he "can get one done in two or three hours", although he admits that "another time it can take two or three months. It’s just translating what’s in your head, to what’s on the computer".

So with all the right tools and enthusiasm provided by the producers at the Venny- who strongly emphasize passion and a love of music over the money-making machines of industry; Amec prepares to make his impression and take his art as far as he can.

"I’d love to make it some sort of full-time career, whether it’s engineering, or making music for other artists under an assumed name. Kind of like Timberland, I‘d love to be doing something like that".

Listen out for his name in the coming months.


Primeline Built on Passion

Coventry youth organization determined to succeed against all odds.

Primeline Music is a is a newly founded recorded label helping young artists to follow a passion, removed from the reins often seized by the wider music industry.

It is comprised of a team of people willing to help promote local talent- without the funding that major labels can so readily supply. The label is instead run on the belief and passion of it’s contributors, leaving monetary ambition far from priority.

Based in a youth centre known as ‘The Venny’ in the Henley Green area of Coventry, the non-profit organization boosts the productivity of youths who may not have otherwise had the chance. Removing the capital from the project leaves an enterprise solely focussed on talent, music, and education.

Carl Farquharson Primeline Coordinator, feels that "Primeline is a record label that’s about putting out great music that is new and edgy from talented young artists that would not normally get the chance to showcase their music".

Though not only focussed on helping young musicians, the label also provides the scope and voluntary employment opportunity for young up-and-coming journalists, PAs, promoters, technicians and many other roles required to produce the music and put it out onto the market.

The project is not strictly local either, and Michael Bailey (Primeline Director) can reveal that "Primeline works with talented people from all walks of life including inner city communities, some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country to develop and create new opportunities for young people to harness their music and enterprise skills".

They are currently promoting acts focussed on grime, hip hop and dubstep; but are looking for, and would encourage artists of all genres. Think of them as a local unfunded version of Island Records- bearing the same unbiased agenda as their enterprising foregoer.

The current tracks can be considered a product of technology, and Primeline provide the tools and the guidance for the youths involved to use to become competent artists.

From this point in time, Primeline look forward to nothing more than to recruit the artists that stand-out and make people react- whatever style of music that may encompass.

Thursday 5 August 2010

HotBeds Debut EP Release


If isolation and alienation are the products of living in London, then London has been the factory for HotBeds’ debut EP.

IntenseCity carries the notion of seclusion over a synthy wave, and across dance floor rhythms; sounding almost like a product of the ‘80s. It reflects the intense disaffection that can be generated when living in a big city- literally as it says on the tin. The songs are extremely lyrically focussed, and so the storytelling element confirms a genuine truth that can easily touch upon empathy and also make for sing-along material. Tracks such as Stop Forgiving and Frantic particularly epitomise life in London, and the latter could surely prove to be a club hit.

The band’s influences have often been cited as Gary Numan, Joy Division, and the Pet Shop Boys. I would add The Killers and present-day Madonna to the list, but having such a marble jar of influences will sadly always strip individuality away from composition.

The album is also tediously repetitive, and the lack of texture and refusal to alter from an incredibly monotone formula prevents HotBeds from striking out with any particular audible impact. The last official album track Christmas Started in October seems to provide the first break from continuity, but the most soul is revealed in the bonus unplugged tracks at the end.

London electro-rock duo HotBeds stand on the verge of releasing their debut album IntenseCity on September 6th, when their hybrid genre will be available on CD and download.