Category: Present

The electronic pulse of the British duo Orbital, made up of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, shakes up the first day of concerts at Phe Festival 2023 in their first live performance in the Canary Islands with their recent studio album Optical Delusion

The eighth edition of Phe Festival 2023 embraces electronic culture and dance music with the presence of the British duo Orbital, in their first live performance on a stage in the Canary Islands in their more than 30 years of activity. The electronic pulse of the brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll, snipers of rave culture and dance floors, one of the outstanding references of the British scene of the 90s, which takes its name from the London ring road, the M25, where raves and the electronic madness brought by acid house flourished, it is, for obvious reasons, one of the highlights of the programming of the music and trends festival hosted by the town of Puerto de la Cruz. 

Leading group, innovator and pioneer of dance music since the early 90s of the last century, Orbital reaches Phe Festival 2023 in top form and with a fresh repertoire, that of his recent studio album Optical Delusion, which was published last February. It is also the second date this year in Spain after passing through the FIB in Benicassim last July. With Orbital, the Phe Festival 2023 will close the first day of live music at the dock esplanade in Puerto de la Cruz. The British will take to the main stage around 12:50 am, according to the concert schedule for Friday, August 18.

Paired in the Olympus of electronic dance with rhythm alchemists of the caliber of The Shamen, Letfield, Underworld, Prodigy, Faithless or Chemical Brothers, Orbital has withstood the passage of time with better muscle, with an excellence reserved for a few artists in a scene such as electronic dance music in all its variants and known subgenres. His speech, with the vocation of playing music live from his first shows, with noticeable influences from punk rock and early electronics, has gone through techno, acid house, breakbeat and EDM -Electronic Dance Music-, and a endless labels.

Active between 1989 and 2004, Orbital has always had one foot in the present to draw the music of a future that was yesterday. Like everything else, the band has had intermittent moments, and it was in 2009 when the Hartnolls put their classic lighted glasses back on and since then they have maintained a regular schedule between recordings, productions and tours. Like the bands and artists who made their way into electronic music in the transition between the 1980s and 1990s, Orbital built bridges with techno to blur the boundaries with other styles, and contributed to popularizing electronic music through live performances and attachment to club culture.  

With more than 15 albums published since his celebrated debut Orbital (1991), the also called Green Album, that next to orbital 2 (1993), the Brown Album, are leading titles in electronica and rave culture; and references that cannot be ignored to put the British duo in perspective, such as In Sides (1996), snivilisation (1994), The Middle of Nowhere (1999), together (2001), Wonky (2012) or monsters exist (2018), which came after six years of silence in the studio and which until last February was the last published before the launch of  Optical Delusion (2023). Soundtracks for film and television and some four dozen singles, including several classic songs that have had a great impact on club, pop and underground music, complete a long career that places them above other artists of their generation. 

from past to present

Optical Delusion (2023) brings back to the present some veterans who refuse to fall into nostalgia. This tenth reference in his discography is an album generous in collaborations with artists who have little in common with the electronic seams of Orbital, in the case of Coppe, Dina Ipavic, Penelope Isles, The Little Pest, The Mediaeval Baebes, Anna B Savage and Sleaford Mods . 

Topics like Ringa Ringa (The Old Pandemic Folk Song), with The Mediaeval Baebes, which opens the disc, is a declaration of intent of what the disc contains as a whole. Day One, techno structure with Dina Ipavic; others like Are You Alive? with Penelope Islas, with a pop structure in the vein of Kraftwerk; the nod to breakbeat and drum'n'bass in Requiem for the Pre-Apocalypse; or the final coda Moon Princess, with the Japanese Coppe. To highlight above all, the outstanding dirty rat, with Sleaford Mods, the first single from the album, another blowout tracks from the Orbital factory, which is added to a repertoire with which the English duo move their audience to the dance floor as if there were no tomorrow. 

Recognized by Kraftwerk as outstanding students - the German group invited Orbital to do one of the six remixes of Expo Remix (2000)-, pieces that are the history of electronic music sprout from Orbital's suitcase, as is the case with chime, Satan, Belfast, Impact, Halcyon, Are We Here?, Remember, where is it going? (with Stephen Hawking), among dozens, in addition to that nod to the pioneers of electronic music with the version of the soundtrack of the series doctor who (1963), composed by Ron Grainer and performed by Delia Derbyshire for the BBC. 

The writer, musician and promoter from Madrid, former director of PIAS Record Spain, stars in a meeting with the public on Saturday 19, at 12 noon, with the presentation of his latest book 'This is how the 20th century (and part of the 21st) is danced’

A song for each year of life, from 1972 to 2016, is the literary alibi of Gerardo Cardboard  (Madrid, 1972) to take a musical and vital journey through the soundtrack of a generation, in a story where personal experiences and experiences intersect, and the most notorious socio-political and cultural events of the 20th century and part of the 21st. All this and much more will be found by readers in the book.  This is how the 20th century (and part of the 21st) is danced, edited by Muzikalia, which the writer, musician –Micromachines and Radio 77– and show promoter, activist of the independent scene and former director of PIAS Records Spain –a company in which he spent fifteen years– presents this coming Saturday, August 19 in Puerto de la Cruz, in the programming of Parallel activities of the eighth edition of Phe Festival. It will be a meeting with readers in an open conversation with the author about this publication, at 12:00, in the ticket office area and access to the concert venue.

"I think that before, and it's not for being nostalgic, there was more passion among those of us who dedicated ourselves to music, it was something more vocational, and today, although there are many people who like music, the way of living it it is closer to the consumption of a product than to a way of life”, explains Gerardo Cartón. In this context, This is how the 20th century (and part of the 21st) is danced It seems like a reference publication to delve into a collection of songs that, in the author's opinion and for the reasons and circumstances that he develops in each chapter, are major milestones in the history of music and in his life. 

“With each chapter I take a song from each year of my life, from 1972, which is when I was born, until 2016, which is as far as the book goes, and what I do is mix it with my experiences and with those events that happened in the world every year”, says Gerardo Cartón. In his opinion, the music that was generated at a certain time cannot be dissociated from its context. “I also wanted to do a historical summary of these almost 50 years in a more entertaining way, especially now that it seems that young people don't read stories, essays or anything, and let's see if at least with this we can educate the public a bit. staff," he points out. 

The story begins in 1972 with the song starman, by David Bowie, a song that connects with two of Gerardo's passions. “There are many lyrics that I use as the common thread in each chapter, and you will see how eclectic I am because the songs that I put in the book range from the Ramones to Kayne West, passing through Pj Harvey, Beyoncé, Gorillaz…, there is also a lot of that eclecticism of how it was danced before and now”. Along with this particular soundtrack, the phenomenon of engagement in social networks appears in the pages of this book, stories of the development of technology in the conquest of space - the result of Gerardo Cartón's fixation on science fiction -, literature, and without losing reference to the social and political context of each era that marked a change in cycle and life, "especially those that occurred in Spain, from the murder of Carrero Blanco, which is a bit where the book begins, until the irruption of Podemos, etc.”

"The artist has to work much more"

The music that is danced now is different. The industry has also changed, as have consumer habits. According to Gerardo Cartón, we must bear in mind that “the way the artist communicates with his fans changes; Today the artist has to work much more than before when he had a company promotion or marketing department that did everything for him and now he has to be the one who does a large part of that work”.

To get an idea of what is trending, what sells and generates box office in the national market, it is enough to go through the posters of the festival circuit, those of large format and those of medium capacity. A league in which the Phe Festival plays, which in its eighth edition bets on legendary artists, such as the British Orbital, pioneers in rave culture and electronic dance since the 90s of the last century; and new voices on the way to a planetary phenomenon in urban music, in the case of the Argentine rapper Trueno, among other style proposals presented by this year's lineup. “That eclecticism has always been the spirit of Phe”, says Gerardo Cartón. A festival that in his opinion "has known how to combine a lot of music with let's say more classic groups, even if they are from Spanish indie, with more advanced proposals, and I think it was necessary -in reference to Trueno- because I have always complained that the music was repeated, in fact I keep complaining that the posters of most festivals are like those of 20 years ago or something like that, and Phe is a new festival in every way”.

This is how the 20th century (and part of the 21st) is danced  It is the third editorial stake of Gerardo Cartón after Manual of the perfect festival goer (Lunwerg, 2015), signed together with Jorge Obón and Manuel Bartual, and of which a second part was made. “I have always really liked reading and writing, they have been my two passions, I would tell you even more than music. In fact, when I was working at PIAS I already wrote from time to time in rockdelux, in mondosound…”, reasons the author about a literary vocation that has him busy in his next novel. “When you are a fan of literature, what your body asks for is a novel, it is like the mother format of the literary, and I have been writing my next novel for some time now, which will be total fiction, it has nothing to do with this book, it is super crazy, a mixture of a generational novel, a travel novel, a thriller and science fiction.

The meeting with Gerardo Cartón, on Saturday, August 19, at 12:00 p.m., is included in the program of parallel activities of Phe Festival 2023 that are held in Puerto de la Cruz along with other sporting and relaxation events that revitalize the town of Puerto de la Cruz. . At the book launch This is how the 20th century (and part of the 21st) is danced are added in the Saturday day at noon orn eco-didactic concert with the title of Don't throw it away, touch it first, invitation open to the family public from 11.30 am; and the Ant Cosmos session in dj set format at 12:30 pm at the Levis Stage.

Subscriptions and tickets per day to attend the festival are on sale on the platform Tickety.es. 

Phe Festival is organized by Phe Team with the support of the Culture area of the Puerto de la Cruz City Hall. It also has the sponsorship of the Government of the Canary Islands through the Canarian Institute for Cultural Development and the General Directorate of Youth, Canary Islands Tourism, as well as the Cabildo de Tenerife through its cultural and tourism management entities. The brands and companies Heineken Silver, Deichmann, Aqualia, Hospiten, Ikea, Levi's, Vans, Gordon's, Pepsi, Schweppes, Jägermeister, Ron Guajiro, Fuente Alta, The Boss and Grupo Rahn, Labrador Cepsa Puerto de la Cruz, Vuse, Alehop, Isola, La Fast, Libby's. Collaborations in the mobility sector are grateful to Fred Olsen and Titsa. And in the local hotel field they have the support of the establishments Atlantic Mirage Suites & Spa (Macaronesian Hotels), Grupo Pez Azul, Atypicap, AFHoteles, Alua Soul Orotava Valley, Dwo Nopal, Hotel Marte and Skyview Hotel.