And then there were four! citizensound has been joined by a new recruit Mariana Duarte Silva, which not only means we can add Portuguese to the our portfolio of four spoken languages (English, French, Spanish and Geordie!), but we also have an experienced club promoter in our midst! Mariana, or the Madame to her friends, is promoting a bunch of amazing club nights with some of her friends at Plastic People in Hoxton, which as Mr Scruff keeps telling us has the best sound system in London town! So now you’ve got no excuse for not going out this July…

For more information about the nights and the DJ’s click (more…)

Kids at the back of the bus. One plays a beat that he made the night before to his friends. They decide whether it lives or dies before the bus comes to a stop…

There is the obvious outcome of high irritation levels of fellow passengers. Plus the future of the music industry could look more precarious if creation, distribution and consumption takes place beyond the number 137 bus.

Furthermore, with such a public display of your music tastes, the protagonists know they will irritate some people but get approval from your group at the same time. This is not new though, this trend reminds me of the boombox generation.

What is worse…people cutting themselves off from the community with little white ear plugs or people making a statement with their mobile music? Give me the second one any day…

In a recent article in Mojo magazine, Otis Williams of The Temptations was quoted as follows:

Motown used to throw local industries parties at the Roostertail Club and the Greystone Ballroom. At one of these I overheard a couple of white guys who worked for other labels.

One said, “We’ve got to stop this. Too many more of these Motowns” - meaning successful independent companies - “and we’ll be out of business.” When you’re successful enough to make the establishment nervous, that’s success.

Music scenes used to be referred to as city based, yet the more you look the more localised they are than that. After all, Hip Hop was Bronx, not NY.

Right now, so many local music scenes are out there, greased by the power of myspace. Croydon dubstep, Ladbroke Grove Broken Beat and so many more…

So much of this music is finding their own ways to consumers…

After so much consolidation in the music industry, are we on the verge of the return of the spiirt of Motown?