Tour Telegraph VI: Californication

Welcome!

Here comes the 6th and last telegraph from our Into Bass And Time US release tour. This time we travelled to sunny California and we really had a blast. Our whole tour was incredible so far with killer gigs all the way through, but it´s always a blessing to go to California. So we flew over to San Francisco to stay there for the next 8 days. Thievery Corporation´s Rob Garza just moved to SF with his family and just launched ESL Music´s west coast studio. The newest member of the ESL family is Pleasuremaker, our soul brother from the Afrolicious crew in SF who helps Rob Garza with the studio. Pleasuremaker together with his brother Oz and their crew of highly talented musicians hold it down strongly in SF for many years.

When we arrived in California we first had an interview with Grown Kids Radio in Oakland (Big Up the crew!) and then played with Afrolicious at the Boom Boom Room, a classic live venue that was owned by John Lee Hooker back in the days. Such a great club where you can nearly breathe music. Next up was the weekly Afrolicious night at the Elbow Room. And it was on fire! People if you ever go to San Francisco you should check out Afrolicious at the Elbow Room. The place is filled with groove and love. trust us!

So after 2 killer nights already it was time for a huge ESL Music night. We smoothly started the night at the Stanford C ourt Renaissance Hotel where we played an early happy hour set at the bar. Then we left for our ESL music night to the great Public Works club. And what a line-up we had: Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation, J-Boogie, Afrolicious and us. Of course all sets were backed by the superb percussionst and musicians from Afrolicious. And on top the Public Works club had some of the coolest and most creative visuals we ever saw in a club. It was strictly amazing.

We also send out our love to Sunset Promotions, Mojito Bar and Six Degrees Records crew. SF we will be back!

From San Francisco we went on to Los Angeles for the first time. It also was our first real meeting with the US team of ETNIES, our new sponsor and partner. We were picked up at the airport by Eladio Correa who is the Entertainment Marketing Manager (and a supernice person) who brought us to our hotel in Hollywood. Eladio also showed us Huntington Beach, Venice Beach and great sites in Orange County. We also had the honor to visit the ETNIES Headquarter, meet the people behind the brand and its sub-brands (Es, Emerica, ThirtyTwo) as well as check out and get some of the newest products. Much love and respect to ETNIES for taking us into their big family!  In july there will be the official brand announcement that Ancient Astronauts are the newest add to the worldwide ETNIES artist family. We will keep you updated.

Of course we were not only in LA to meet our new sponsor, but mainly to spread our music and vibe. Jeremy Sole from radio station KCRW invited us to play at the legendary Afrofunke night at Zanzibar that he runs with Cary Sullivan and Rocky Dawuni and we were very excited to play there. So to make this a really special gig we brought our friend Kiran Gandhi from Rhythm & Culture Recordings to add some extra percussion madness to our set. Those of you who saw us already playing with her know what we´re talking about. She just kills it on the percussions and adds perfectly to our music. Zanzibar itself is such a beautiful venue (loving those bass speakers built into the stage) and Jeremy Sole a dope dj and great person, so guess what? The night was off the hook. Much respect to the whole Afrofunke posse and thanks a lot for having us there sharing our beats and grooves!

peace, love & light!!!

Ancient Astronauts

P.S.: Join our fanletter and receive an unreleased DJ Mix by us!  http://eepurl.com/dS6MD

Tour Telegraph V: Newseum, Washington D.C.

Good day,

we´re back again with tour telegraph number 5 about our Into Bass And Time release tour in the USA. After a highly success SXSW Music Conference in Austin/Texas we stayed another week in Washington DC. As you might noticed Washington DC is our US home base (so to say). This is where ESL Music is based. We really love this city with its great live music scene and clubs like Eighteenth Street Lounge, Patty Boom Boom, U-Street Music Hall and more. The week was full with meetings with our label management but we also played another 2 great gigs. The first one was together with label mate Nickodemus at the Newseum. That place is incredible. it´s a huge 5 level museum for news, directly in the heart of DC. The night was presented by Brightestyoungthings.com, a great website from DC that is focused on art, media, music, food and more. This was such a great show with more than 3.200 visitors through the night. It´s always big fun playing with Nickodemus.

On sunday night we played at the beautiful Eighteenth Street Lounge again alongside Names Thompson and Kiran Ghandi on percussion. As always this was a night of smiling and dancing people shaking what they got on the dancefloor. Much love to the DC massive!

Take a look at two short videos to catch the vibe of the night:

We have a fanletter now! If you would like to receive our fanletter featuring exclusive music and news, please click the link below. After your signup you will receive a previousely unreleased DJ MIX from us! Thank you!

http://eepurl.com/dS6MD

Have a good time,

Ancient Astronauts

Tour Telegraph IV: SXSW Festival review

Hey guys,

sorry for the long silence but after returning home from our recent US tour we´ve been busy with our European album release party in Cologne and a lot of new work in the studio. This is the second part of our USA tour telegraph. This time it is about our week at SXSW Music Conference in Austin/Texas:

We were very happy to return to Austin for SXSW and this year we had a much bigger appearance there than last year. This time we were the most gigs playing German act during SXSW, playing 11 gigs in 7 days. Plus interviews and photo sessions. We started monday night at The Mohawk at a superb event that combined the elements of SXSW Interactive and SXSW Music, meaning the most talented graphic artists doing live animations and art to cool club music sets. Honestly folks, there should be more events like that. Makes perfectly sense.

That was a great start of SXSW for us and we kept on going with great parties by Soul Of The Boot Entertainment, Wax Poetics Magazine, ESL Music,  Dubspot, Giant Step, Etnies, Sunset Promotions and our official SXSW gigs. We had the pleasure and honour to play with bands and dj´s like Empresarios, Bellerushe, Nappy Riddem, Ocote Soul Sounds, Chico Mann, Thavius Beck, Nickodemus, J-Boogie, Funk Ark, DJ Sun, DJ DRM, Afrolicious, Adrian Younge, DJ Yoda, Rob Luis, DJ Manny, etc. The list goes on and on. Great times all over.

SXSW in Austin is really worth the visit because it is the perfect happening that gets fans and music lovers

together with the artists and the music industry. The only negative thing in our eyes was the treatment at the official SXSW gigs. As an artist you didn´t feel threatened that good as you would expect from a festival that invited you to play. There was no artist lounge at events to get free drinks. All you got was 2 drink tickets per person and if you ran out you had to pay for your drinks. Also the manners and behavior  by some official SXSW people was not really friendly, more rude so to say.

So to sum it up we have to say that SXSW is big party with great people. Austin is beautiful down to earth city (surrounded by great nature) that get´s a great mixture of music fans, freaks, artists and industry people together once a year. Hopefully some of the photos from our time in Austin can reflect that vibe.

Our second album “Into Bass And Time” is released worldwide now. You can grab your copies in the stores below:

Digital Download

iTunes

Amazon

Junodownload.com

CD & 2LP Vinyl

HHV.de

ESL Music Shop

Amazon

Thanks for your support!

Peace,

Dogu & Kabanjak aka Ancient Astronauts

Tour Telegraph III: Photos from the W Hotel / Washington D.C.

Hello!

We want to show you some photos from our gig with Frank Mitchell Jr. at the W Hotel in Washington D.C.

 

Thanks to Daniel Swartz for the photos. Now we’re off to California in order to play the next leg of our tour!

Enjoy your day,

Ancient Astronauts

Tour Telegraph II: SXSW Festival & A Cherry On Top

Wow,

SXSW Festival in Austin was a blast. We played 11 gigs in 7 days which made us the most playing German artists at SXSW. The vibes and crowds were incredible and we wanna thank all the artists, labels and sponsors we showcased with such as ETNIES, Dubspot, J-Boogie, Funk Ark, Ocote Soul Sounds, Empresarios, Nappy Riddem, Nickodemus, Bellerushe, Afrolicious, Rob Luis & Tru Thoughts Massive, DJ Yoda, Thavius Beck, DJ Shiftee, DJ Obah, Bary Cole, C3 Management, DJ Manny, Chicken George, DJ Sun, DRM (Bastard Jazz), Adrian Quesada & The Echocentrics, Adrian Young, Shawn Lee, Dennis Coffey, DJ Chorizo Funk and Erik The Red (Giant Step). What a pleasure to be able to play with such a variety of great talent who support true music. We Love you guys!

Definately one of our greatest memories come from the Silent Disco event by our friend Motion Potion and his Sunset Promotions crew during full moon in an enchanted forest in Austin. This event was amazing. We were really stoked how easily you can get into the “sound zone” of your headphones and dance through the wood all night. Imagine 400 people dancing with headphones on and being able to switch channels between 2 different dj sets.

This year´s SXSW was even stronger than last year and we can´t wait till 2012 to move forward. Right now we arrived safely in DC again where we will play 2 gigs this weekend (Newseum & Eighteenth Street Lounge) before we head over to the West Coast.

And to lay a cherry on top, please find our first official music video for our song “Worldwide“. Yesss!

 

 

Much love & good vibes from the Ancient Astros!!!

Tour Telegraph I: W Hotel, Washington D.C.

Hello,

our first gig in Washington D.C. was at the W Hotel with the Frank Mitchell Jr Band. Had a fun time playing at this high class place with a nice view on the White House. We spent the night there and enjoyed their king size bed!

For more fotos and review, please visit:

http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/articles/livedc-w-happenings-presents-ancient-astronauts-w-frank-mitchell-jr.htm

Now: Austin, Texas. SXSW. 11 gigs in 7 days, what a pleasure!

Big up,

Ancient Astronauts

Into Bass And Time Release

People,

 

it´s Astronauts release day. We are very happy to announce that today ( March 8 ) is the official US release day for our new album Into Bass And Time. Woohooo the day has come. It´s our second studio album on ESL Music and it features our trademark variety of conscious Hip Hop, Dopebeats, Funk and Reggae. Our collaborations on this album reach from former collaborators Azeem, Raashan Ahmad, Phat Old Mamas, Entropik and DJ Zeph to new partners in crime Akua Naru, W Ellington Felton, Monsoon, DJ Brace, Dave Finnell, Kiran Gandhi and Will Rast.

Into Bass And Time

Into Bass And Time

UK graphic artist Will Barras, our partner for all Ancient Astronauts art and design, took it to next levels with the artwork for Into Bass And Time rounding up a bass- and beat-heavy album that rides through different cosmic music genres. Enjoy the ride!

 

Order your copy here: http://www.eslmusic.com/shop/albumDetail/into_bass_and_time

(Info: the 2LP Gatefold Edition will be released on Apri 8, 2011)

 

We are starting our US release tour very soon and will be visiting Washington DC, SXSW Festival in Austin, Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles this time. Please check the Dates Section for more information!

 

One love,

Ancient Astronauts

Release of “Worldwide EP” and new DJ Mix

Hey world,

today we are proud to announce the release of our “Worldwide EP” (ESL 171) through ESL Music. This EP is the first release of our upcoming album “Into Bass And Time” (ESL 172) that will be out on March 8 in the USA and April 8 in Europe.

The EP starts with title track “Worldwide” which is a sampladelic block party anthem that features Oakland based DJ Zeph on cuts and it is dedicated to all original beat headz worldwide. Then we have “Eternal Searching” with DC native W. Ellington Felton on vocal duties who kicks it with some timeless conscious rhymes who are backed by outstanding live strings from UK string ensemble Entropik. And last but definitely not least is our song “Fear Is The Only Darkness” who gives you some downtempo dopebeat goodness in order to overcome your fear and strengthen your soul.

http://www.eslmusic.com/shop/albumDetail/worldwide_ep

For those of you who are devoted snowboard heads we have the info that we will be rocking the VonZipper party at legendary Air & Style snowboard contest in Innsbruck/Austria this coming Friday. It´s a pleasure to be back again at this event in the beautiful city of Innsbruck. The theme is “Vampires & Zombies” so come and have a dance with us you little monsters!

VonZipper Vampires & Zombies Party / Air & Style 2011

VonZipper Vampires & Zombies Party / Air & Style 2011

Wanna know what sort of music we will spin? check out our brand new DJ Mix called “Tales Of Tomorrow” that features a lot of our music from Ancient Astronauts and Kabanjak as well as tunes from our labels Switchstance Recordings and Foot Forward Music.

 

Celebrate life & keep it real !!!

Ancient Astronauts

MIDEM 2011 & free Track “Worldwide”

Dear beat headz,

just returned from a successful Midem Music Conference in Cannes/France. We had beautiful sunshine but it was very cold in this famous town at the Cote d´Azur. Midem seems to attract less and less customers the past years but still it is a good source for meeting the some of the real headz in the international music business. Of course we are talking about international indie business here.

Big Ups to Thomas Colinet and his legendary Sun7 Café (we will miss this place, only cool spot in Cannes), Finetunes, Tru Thoughts, Lizzy Parks, Kid Hops, Ninja Tune, Freddie Cruger & Anthony Mills aka Wildcookie, Kudos Records, ADA Global, Initiative Musik, Rights Flow, Inertia, ST2 Records, Outpost Media, Ping Pong Promotion, Soul Seduction and all those I forgot. It´s all you guys that are doing good things and that made this trip to Cannes a very special one again. Keep on doing what you are doing. Conscious and intelligent indie business is what makes this world a better place.

To start, we would like to share a song with you. “Worldwide” from our upcoming album “Into Bass And Time“.

 

Peace, Love & Respect !!!

Dogu / Ancient Astronauts