Guest of the Month July 2011: Luke Meadows
After a fantastic year at the Foundation I am now moving on to new adventures in the world of advertising. Thank you to everyone I’ve worked with, for all your energy, support, enthusiasm – and of course all the amazing new music. It’s been great fun promoting an organisation involved in such an enormous amount of extremely diverse and unusual projects. Special thanks go to the incredible Foundation team and Trustees for all their work.
Before arriving at the Foundation I’d had 5 years in the commercial music industry – where, entirely coincidentally, I’d crossed paths with the Foundation a number of times. I took my first steps in the world of music promoting drum & bass and jungle nights during the Edinburgh Festival (while studying History at the University of Edinburgh). After graduating I moved to Bristol to immerse myself in the city’s incredibly diverse, intense and open-minded music scenes. I held a number of DJ residencies at club nights, including the award-winning Monkey!Knife!Fight! and Kuantum_Window. I worked with underground dance label 1 Man Army Records – judged and DJ’ed at their ‘laptop battle’ nights (supported by PRS for Music Foundation) and helped promote their club nights and releases. During my time in Bristol I also released a number of mixtapes and mash-ups through Bristol records shops, including the amazing Rooted Records. In 2006 I moved to London and worked for more commercial outfits including Exceptional Records (to which the Foundation’s very own Culprit1 was signed), EMI, Relentless (Joss Stone, KT Tunstall, Ben’s Brother, Seth Lakeman etc.) and ATC Management (Rumer, Kerry Leatham, Aviv Geffen etc.) – where I successfully applied for the Foundation’s British Music Abroad funding to get rapper Master Shortie to SXSW (off the back of which he signed a deal with Sony Jive/Hitz Committee).
Anyway, enough about me, let’s listen to some music that has of late been rocking my world:
Beastie Boys: ‘Fight For Your Right (Revisited)’ (Full Length)
I love the Beastie Boys. When I grow up I want to be Mike D. A very good friend of mine once said, “If you’re not listening to the Beastie Boys any more, you’ve forgotten how to have fun.” I couldn’t agree more! This video is about as much fun as you can possibly have with a music video. Watch this, then buy the album! (Apologies for the strong language. Do not watch this if you are easily offended. Instead, buy the clean version of the album ‘Hot Sauce Committee Part Two’ from iTunes.)
Beethoven’s 6th (Pastoral Suite) performed by Aurora Orchestra at LSO St Luke’s as part of When Doves Cry
Probably one of my most favourite pieces of music in the world, ever. This was the first time I ever saw it performed live. It was incredible. I also own a recording of it on vinyl. It sounds so beautiful on record.
Rinse 14: Youngsta
I love dubstep and this is my latest favourite mix CD – from the legendary Rinse series. No one does technical, introverted dubstep better than Youngsta. Last time I saw him was at this year’s Glastonbury – in the London Underground club – and he was phenomenal. Perfect mixing and apocalyptic beats, what more could you ask for? Special shout out to Rinse FM and all the FWD>> crew for pushing this sound before anyone even knew what it was.
Kryptic Minds: ‘Can’t Sleep’ and ‘One of Us’
My last two favourite albums are from former d&b duo, Kryptic Minds, who’ve now turned their hand expertly to creating the most incredible and beautiful minimal dubstep – with basslines that rattle your chest and snares that shoot through your soul. If you like it dark, listen to both of these – a lot!
The Good Natured: Be My Animal
This isn’t out yet, but when it is – buy it! The most catchy song I’ve heard for months. It’s great on record, it’s even better live, with frontwoman Sarah strutting her stuff around the crowd (catch them at a small venue if you can!). We supported The Good Natured to play at this year’s SXSW and they very kindly played our Camden Crawl showcase. I’m a big fan and I’ll sure they’ll be bouncing up the charts very soon.
