Out with a bang - The Snap Elect

Good friends of ours and London's finest purveyors of radiant psychedelic loveliness, The Snap Elect, have launched their triumphant debut album Mangled Angle Land at a nice ‘n crispy shind down the ol’ Rough Trade store in WC1.

Released on Pure Groove, made available December 13th.

Syd would like it. Ray would like it...probably why so many others do too. If infectious smiles, unshakable melodies, fun and happiness are your sorta things, then I strongly advise you dabble.

Well then, this is all great news...oh, uhh, except the launch party also doubled as the band’s farewell gig. Crazy shame - but at the same time somehow cool as fuk. Delighted yet sad. What to do? Put the record on, a'course!

More summerlove boogie-woogie song-bombs than should be healthy. Delicious. Go fetch

Ich bin eine long arse techno rave up, ja?

Back from a mini tour of Berlin/Koln - the spiritual homes of techno, relentless beats, thumping four-four rhythms, all that bollocks. Tons of graffiti n street-arts. Telling you, there's not an exposed brick untouched by spray paint - and it's proper good n all.

                              Blu                                                           Alias

But forget the graf for a sec, the highlight for me was Bar 25 in Berlin. A club with two main rooms, one much more techy than the other. There's open-air bars, a sand pit, a ropeswing, and just for good measure, a river. You heard right - a RIVER! Reminded me of the Shangri-la area at Glastonbury (remember that time MHR played Glastonbury?)

Anyway, doorstaff are assholes, so, look good n be cool. I don't mean in a Fonzie type way. I mean, relax dude, be cool, ya get me? - or you ain't coming in.

Bar 25's very lovely MySpace

Place is well worth hitting up though. Opens on Thursday evening and the party don't stop till some time Monday. Awesome. Get ready for a long arse techno party and very little sleep.

More pix like dis pix

Fancied something a bit different...

Found it.

This was amazing!
The Lodger

Mean, eerie, pea-soup London. Incredible LIVE sounds. (I counted two drum-sets, vibes, sax, bass-sax, clarinet, bass-clarinet, oboe, cello, baby grand, an assortment of keys and the obligatory woodblock). Brand new Paul Robinson score worked a dream with Hitch’s (first real) “Hitch”. Ivor Novello was both chilling and hilarious in the lead-role. Scary-looking mofo, check him out. Awesome.

Green Note saturday night

Sampled the soothing sounds of the Green Note in Camden saturday night. Took in some proper grown-up choons from the BluesMix boys. Real nice - and funky too.

Green Note

Gig cancelled

Tragic to hear that Courtauld (owners of Somerset House) have pulled the plug on our gig at London Fashion Week.

According to our man D’Arcy at the Lovebullets team, they reckoned the Lovetank contravened the building’s "naval history”. No Tank, means no promoter, means no MHR set. (We were soooooo primed).

Guh!? Now, what in good gravy has naval tradition got to do with us delivering a humping good party to the beautiful folk of London? Grrr. Next up; Fashion Relief Ireland. Alls well.

Performing Glastonbury with the help of the Lovetank

Saturday clash-up

Tough call...
Dam Funk @ Koko clashing with my boy Jonny Pioneer this saturday night.
HAS to be...the JP. Jonny Pioneer @ 333 Basement Bar

Eagle

What can you say? Genius what this guy's done with the Steve Miller band!
DJ Bottin

Somerset House. Confirmed

Oh, it's on. This could be special.
London Fashion Weekend

Rubbery goodness

Week spent polishing up guitar and vox 'dubs for new track We Used To Explode. Sounding tight. Got high hopes for this one. Très HEAVY, people!

Speakin-'a-heavy, word reached through Myspazz is; heroic perennial funk-banger, Dr Rubberfunk is diggin the brand-new dark-sumptuous "Digi-cles Mix" of Saturday Night Special. Checkit. Most kinda you to say so, Doc!

Progress

After some nice feedback for a live outing at Club.The.Mammoth last week, well chuffed to announce we lurch unstoppable toward a final mix of Alone Again. Been a couple of "messies" of our catchy set-closer floating round Soundclouds for months now...but Mr Lopez is finding real fire in the studio. That and other back-cat favourites ready in "weeks". Tasty.

Stunner Vizshulls

Friends of MHR, London-based VJ/AV collective, Fade In Fade Out, have said they'd love to work with us.

Likewise fellas. Your stuff's eye-poppin' mad! The thought of a collab makes my sensors go all...sensory! Here's my current FIFO favourite; "Planes & Defunct Media".

Club.The.Mammoth

Another great night from the boys at Club.The.Mammoth. More excellent moustache action throughout. C.A.M.P. is a very cool venue and we hope the Mammoth boys return to the scene of the crime - as it had one DEADLY system. Sounded awesome - loud 'n' crisp baby!

Highlight of the night were Hook and the Twin. If you've never seen them you need to. They're finishing off their album at the moment so we're not sure what the gig situation is - but in the meantime, check 'em out here: Hook and the Twin

On a personal note, I showcased our own Alone Again as part of my set for the good folk at Best Laid Plans. It went BANG!      Lopez.

http://www.myspace.com/clubthemammoth

MHR feature in The Metro

Nice new site

Warchild, CND...feel worthy...get behind this.
Lovebullets The Movement          Lovebullets Facebook

The Dawwwwwwwg with his Lovebullet (backstage, Shepherd's Bush Empire)

Album

Working hard on mix-downs of our back-cat songs that made up the Glastonbury set.

ANOTHER NIGHT ON THE DRONES : GO TAKE COVER : TONIGHT THE FIRES : LET’S BREAK IT AND FIND OUT: LOST AND FOUND: USE DISCRETION : WOLF ON THE STAIR : SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL : ALONE AGAIN : THE SAME THINGS

With North By North Circular (click for the video), Sad Song, Afterparty, Deep Scratch and an ultra-fresh stash of sik new cuts, the ingredients of what we hope will be a very special album are coming together. NO holes, NO fillers – just a sustained and sultry sonic-hug from The Rangers.

You’ll want to pick us up and hold us...again and again.

Hippest of the hip gigs

Machine Heaven Ranger have snared their next sonic victims and you’d be hard pressed to imagine anything cooler than this.

A very special set to be performed at one of London Fashion Weekend’s exclusive parties. Designers, models and fashionista liggers alike – all caught in the stately gaze of the Somerset House forecourt.

Beautiful people, beautiful surroundings - add to that, the sweet insane tunage of Machine Heaven Ranger and people, we are kickin' it! 23-26 Sept. tbc.

That's a wrap

On Monday evening Machine Heaven Ranger conducted a rare interview for the press.

That’s right, the thoughts of Mr Lopez and yours truly will make copy in The Metro, Thursday 12 August. Having had no idea it was actually national press (until somebody kindly informed me afterwards) here’s hoping I come off as coherent and charismatic as my brains have since convinced me I was. Doubtful...

Topics covered range from the band’s infamous inception in the bowels of hell and just how in-god’s-name we locked down a show at this year's Glastonbury. Answer, of course - we sound AWESOME! But for a slightly more detailed account, best grab the rag.

Hold the paper up to the light
Some rays pass right through
Expose yourself, out there for a minute
Some rays pass right through.    D.Byrne

The 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch

Causing a proper stir, WaVVes. BIG BIG highlight. Special mention to the bass player of The Vivian Girls who didn’t drop a single note whilst crowd-surfing mid-tune. Awesome. Peter Hook had drafted in a augmenting bassist. (Huh?!) Was he oblivious - or just unsympathetic to the idea a crowd had turned up to see him play the damn thing? Whichever, you gotta admire the neck on him for that. And causing ruck-riot with hardcore noize, Fucked Up. We're talking nine guitarists and a fat Canadian covered in blood. What more do you want? Savage.

The 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch

Go get some love

LoveBullets

Glasto thank-yous...and the future

Shout out to Jegede, Eve, Aubrey, Mikey, D’Arcy, Stevie Wonder-pass and every last one of the Lovebullets team for getting the Tank together and putting on a PROPER party at Glasto ’10. I’ve seen the crew in action. That’s one smooth-killer-efficient-operation. Respect. (Make sure you check their good work and cool stuff on the site).

The LoveTank rolls on to;
- Secret Garden Party
- Notting Hill Carnival
- London Fashion Week
- Urban In Ibiza…and us with it, maybe!

One final thank-you to the beautiful beautiful people who lent Machine Heaven Ranger a tent. Were it not for you, I’d still be pulling myself out of a hedgerow somewhere in Somerset. Ta. Tay.

Machine Heaven Glastonbury

yes yes

keep up to speed on what we're doing, where we're going, all that business.

First piece of news - we just got back from smashing Glastonbury, it was 'a bit good'