Chill Out Festival 2012
The 6th edition of the Chill Out Festival is back this month with an electic line up of acts that cover hip hop, rock, rai, electronica and more. It's happening on 20th and 21st April in the outdoor park and ampitheathre at Dubai Media City.
Here's the full line up and over the next week I will feature some of the acts and I'm looking forward to and share their music.
If you are in Dubai, block your calendar for this, it will be good.
Day 1
Friday, 20th April 4pm-11pm
De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres.
Rachid Taha is a French-Algerian musician. His music is influenced by many different styles such as rock, techno, and raï. Based in Paris where he began his solo career after his beginnings as the leader of the French rock band Carte De Séjour, he usually sings in Arabic.
His breakthrough album as a solo artist was Diwân, featuring remakes of songs for the Algerian and Arab traditions. His album Tékitoi, produced by Steve Hillage brought him great acclaim and recognition from other rock musicians. In 2005 he performed with Robert Plant, Patti Smith. He covered The Clash song “Rock the Casbah” (in Arabic, as “Rock El Casbah”), which appeared in the 2007 film about Clash frontman Joe Strummer, “The Future Is Unwritten”.
Iconic UK dance outfit Transglobal Underground are about to set off on a brand new musical journey, and joining them are some of the most exciting vocalists and musicians from the Gulf. In a fresh collaboration supported by the British Council, the band will come together with some of the Gulf’s finest vocalists, Oman’s Salah al Zadjali, Mansour from Qatar, UAE’s Hamdan Al Abri, and British Kuwaiti Nizar Al Issa. Teaming up with this powerhouse of singers are renowned British Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, and keyboard player Tarik Saeed.
The journey sees the group performing in London in July during the Olympic celebrations and a weekend of music from around the world; BT River Of Music. But the first stop is Dubai, where they will tell their stories - stories of urban lives unfolding in an ever evolving landscape; of change and opportunity; of people and cultures in transit.
Moodymann/Moody is the moniker under which Kenny Dixon Jr produces and DJs. He is a techno/house musician based in Detroit. He has created a thoroughly hybrid form of techno/house dance music via his innovative use of reworked riffs, samples and grooves taken from that city's historically influential jazz, soul, funk and disco scene. Some call it cut-up Detroit house.
He offers a friendly wink backwards at the innovative early 1990s rave scene musicians through his extensive use of old movie sound track samples, mainly culled from the old blaxploitation and b-movie genres.
The supporting acts on the first day of the festival include:
Noush Like Sploosh and Heinz Kahler
Rachael Calladine and The Everyday People
Shelley Frost featuring Khalil Ghadri and Pasha
The festival will continue from 11pm till 3am the following morning at Trilogy in Madinat Jumeriah with DJs and electronic artists Protoje, Magnetic Manand Moodyman (the festival ticket holders will receive free entry into Trilogy and additional tickets will be available on the door).
Day 2
Saturday, 21st April 4pm - 11pm
The Kooks are an English Indie rock band formed in Brighton, East Sussex, in 2001. A self-described "pop" band, their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion movement and post-punk revival of the new millennium. With songs described as "catchy as hell", The Kooks have experimented in several genres including rock, Britpop, pop, reggae, and ska.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1940, of mixed Nigerian and Ghanaian parentage, Tony Allen taught himself to play by listening to records made by the American jazz drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach. He began working as a professional musician in 1960, gigging around Lagos and variously playing highlife and jazz. Today living in Paris, Allen has long been acknowledged as Africa’s finest kit drummer and one of it’s most influential musicians, the man who with Fela Kuti created afrobeat - the hard driving, James Brown funk-infused, and politically engaged style which became such a dominant force in African music and whose influence continues to spread today.
Arguably the most commercially successful indie band in India, Shaa'ir + Func are certainly on their way to becoming the most prolific. Formed in 2007, Shaaír and Func, commonly known as S+F, have garnered a reputation as VH1’s top emerging artists of 2007 and best independent artists of 2008, nominations from the AVIMA Foundation as the top dance act in South-East Asia and recognition from the Jack Daniels Rock Awards for best female front-woman among bands in India. Their music includes a heavy dose of experimentation within the popular and cutting edge genres of dance/electronic and rock music, while retaining a world pop accessibility.
Dubai born and raised singer/songwriter Hamdan Al-Abri began vocalizing at ayoung age, but this soon developed into more than a mere hobby. Hamdan has released his self-titled solo debut EP. Comprising of not only five diverging tracks, but also exhibiting a burgeoning intimacy through the perennial questions of Life, Love and Death.
The supporting acts on the second day of the festival include:
Nik Uzi and Royden (Point of View)
Niki Mukhi and Rony Afif
Ticket details:
One Day Pass Advance AED 200 | Door AED 250
Two Day Pass Advance AED 350
Online tickets are available from:
whatsonboxoffice.com, virginmegastore.me, timeouttickets.com and platinumlist.net
Tickets are also available in the following locations in Dubai:
Virgin Megastores, Zoom, Souk Madinat Jumeirah Box Office, EPPCO and ENOC