Ed Hogg: Actor Profile

Ed Hogg's humility is refreshing in an industry full of elephant sized egos that quite often see actors assume their craft is imbued with superhero like powers. The Sheffield born rising star makes no such lofty claims, as we chat over warm, soothing coffee that removes some of the chill from a frosty winter morning in central London.
“It's down to luck” he simply states of his career path to date. “I didn't go searching for the roles I've played. I think that the parts find you, not the other way around. I think if you're right for it you'll get it and you'll play the parts you're meant to play. You read about these big famous Hollywood actors picking and choosing their way to whatever they've done and it's just bollocks. They've been lucky just like everyone else, it's bollocks.”

Shackleton 3 EPs

Even at Sam Shackleton's most kinetic moments of dub-based munitions deployment, there has existed a fervent experimentalism in everything he has undertaken. Whether it has been the laissez faire approach to making his productions palpable club successes or a casual disregard for the very structures of what may deem a track to be called dubstep, it has been obvious from the first that inherent in Shackleton is to forge his own unique path through his music. Shackleton has been instrumental in turning on many techno heads to the charms of dubstep via some of the hybrid, cross genre pollinations on his Skull Disco imprint, but what sealed it was Ricardo's two part epic remix of “Blood On My Hands”.

The Editors

The bleak light of the Editors' maudlin pop dresses up with a lick of colour for their third outing.

Snatching a few moments during their rehearsal schedule at their North London studios, Editors' guitarist Chris Urbanowicz and drummer Ed Lay are in a relaxed, jovial mood as they give me the low down on new album, In This Light And On This Evening.

Mika

Will the pop prince's second album blow away some of the mysteries of Mika?

In today's musical climate Mika is a rare artist; his unabashed pop anthems are gloriously over the top, his stage persona and flamboyant style unapologetic and beneath it all is a serious young man with a single pointed determination and intelligence. His songs have been at once personal (his first album detailed childhood experiences while new album The Boy Who Knew Too Much looks at his adolescence) yet unrevealing.

Clubland September

With the sad passing of James Stinson of Drexciya some years ago, the dark aquatic electro sound of Detroit looked to be in decline, though in reality that has hardly been the case. Gerald Donald, the other member of the group has kept busy with Dopplereffekt, Der Zyklus, and recording most recently under the name Heinrich Mueller.

Simian Mobile Disco

The purveyors of big room mirror ball house are back with Temporary Pleasure.

First came the anthemic remix by Justice, then from the ashes of Simian stepped James Ford and Jas Shaw under the new guise of a mobile DJ unit. Their debut album was heralded as one of the best in modern dance culture, garnering critical praise and spawning a handful of recognizable hits, rare for an album of its genre. After intense touring and both members lending their production skills to other projects they are back with Temporary Pleasure, the instrumental album chock full of vocals.

Clubland August

For over fifteen years Moritz von Oswald has been rewriting the book on modern dub music, feeding stripped back German techno and house through vintage valve compressions and creating a legion of fans with his Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound projects with Mark Ernestus. Save for a couple of remixes we haven't heard from von Oswald since the last Rhythm & Sound release though his Recomposed album with Carl Craig last year was a dramatic shift away from his affiliation with dub techno and saw the veteran producer delving in to modern classical fused with electronics. Following on from that project we here witness the formation of the Moritz von Oswald Trio, a supergroup of sorts featuring Vladislav Delay and Max Loderbauer from Sun Electric.

Manic Street Preachers

The Welsh rockers tap into the spirit of gone but not forgotten lyricist Richey James Edwards for their ninth album as Real Groove gets up close and personal with Nick Wire and James-Dean Bradfield.

Their songs have long been a call to arms for alienated, disaffected youth and assorted castoff freaks. Faced with the sudden, shock disappearance of guitarist and chief songwriter Richey Edwards in 1995 on the cusp of real success, they decided to continue as a three piece and have since gone on to become even bigger and more successful than they ever hoped. Their latest album Journal For Plague Loverssees a return of Edwards to the group by way of lyrics long ago left to the other members shortly before he fell off the face of the earth.

La Roux

Elly Jackson shakes her famously coiffed red shock of hair, loosening fragments of white detritus which float down to the table of the Sheperd's Bush pub we are sat at.

“I had a show last night and I sprayed my hair with that really hard spray but I didn't get all of it out so if you see little bits coming off, it's not dandruff,” she explains.

Clubland July

If you figure in Holger Zilske's release history as Smash TV, Mindlab and Acrid Gain then his debut solo album has been a long time in the incubation chamber. For the past two years Zilske's productions under his own name have focussed on the meeting points between subtle, deftly crafted techno and house. “Mes Yeux”, the first single from the album backed with”Metrodancer” appeared just two weeks before the LP and as a foreteller of what was to come was exciting news.

Clubland June

They may not happen with the greatest frequency but one thing is assured upon tracking down a new Robag Wruhme release; you will be entertained. The veteran producer has a knack of injecting his tracks with a certain buoyancy and mirth that few others manage to conjure with each successive release. Abusus Adde, his latest on Vakant finds Mr. Schablitzki in top, maniacal form with three cuts that not only prove to be weighty peak time contenders but also remind you that this music is meant to be fun.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's

From their perfect thrashing entry into the world and the unchecked maelstrom of Fever To Tell, New York three piece Yeah Yeah Yeahs have constantly stayed ahead of the pack. Cue third album It's Blitz! and another sonic spanner is thrown into the works of expectation.

Clubland May

After the industrial strength artist album from Ben Klock on Ostgut Ton earlier in the year, which left some feeling a little too chilly the label have followed up with a decidedly warmer twelve from Berlin resident Nick Hoeppner. Makeover is nevertheless cloaked with a deep and brooding atmosphere, but there are touches of house licking around the edges of the clubby techno that immediately lightened the mood.

Kasabian

Possessed of an old school pomp that harks back to the days of rock royalty, Kasabian make no apologies for their unchecked egos and diamond swagger.

La Grande Dame

In the history of comedy and entertainment there has never been a character quite like her. There can be no imitators for she is truly unique; a cultural and comedic phenomenon. Armed with a crooked, wide-lipped smile, bejewelled gowns, an acid tongue and the most iconic pair of glasses in the world she has been dishing out her goodly brand of housewife wisdom for over fifty years to an adoring audience. She has been granted audience with some of the biggest stars in the world, cites herself as a friend and confidante to the Queen and now has her own line of make-up. And as this hapless journalist was about to find she can also inject a certain spookiness into a routine interview.

Razor-lite

Million selling albums, celebrity girlfriends, debaucherous revelry, charity gigs. Razorlight seem to embody all that is required for rock canonisation so why do the press constantly paint lead singer Johnny Borrell as a twat? Real Groove goes in search of the real Johnny Borrell.

Clubland March

Maybe it's the recession, perhaps it's the planetary alignment or it could even be down to Kanye's fashion mantourage making everyone pick their game up a little but there seems to be a wealth of incredible releases out there at the moment.

Mark Broom has been a constant figure on the techno scene since the mid nineties and unlike some of his peers has seemed to be able to adapt and push his sound with the times. He's pushing a particularly prolific level of output at the moment with no fewer than six releases to his name this year already.

No End In Sight

I love surprises; they relieve you of life's constant drudge through mundaneness, a breath of fresh air into the stale lungs of reality. Though some surprises are best left as the tantalising, unrealised morsel of promise they promote. To that end I was recently invited to a special function to celebrate the release of U2's latest collection of important music. It was to be held at a prestigious London hotel and would be followed by a big surprise!

Clubland February

The word purist used to get bandied around a lot when talking about techno in the 1990's. It was often in deference to the work of the (largely) Detroit and Berlin artists of the time as their music was tarred by association with the crude, cheesy Eurodance shtick of groups like 2 Unlimited and Aqua. The word became synonymous with the likes of Jeff Mills, Robert Hood, Derrick May and Underground Resistance; it was also a phrase used by ardent fans to align themselves with techno from the right side of the tracks.

Clubland January

There's something to be said for a sultry, disaffected German vocal electronic tune. The first time they won me over was back in 1983 when Nena's 99Luftballoons filled my ears with it's soft yearning incoherence. One year earlier Falco did the same thing when he cooed cool warnings about cocaine excess with Der Kommissar but I later found out he was Austrian so I'm not sure if that counts. In more recent years the Kompakt Pop series have catered to this penchant of mine for Kraut pop and steely synth tracks.