NEW AFTER-HOURS EXPERIENCE AT WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL CELEBRATES ELECTRONIC AND DANCE MUSIC
KCRW’s Jason Bentley Hosts Performances by James Lavelle (UNKLE), Steve Spacek & Troubleman, and DJ Nobody
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2005, FROM 9 PM TO 1:30 AM
British producer and DJ James Lavelle, also a founding member of groundbreaking production collective UNKLE, co-headlines the evening with L.A. underground superstar DJ Nobody -- a former KXLU DJ who just wrapped up a tour performing with Prefuse 73. Described by UK's Style as "the Radiohead of Soul," vocalist Steve Spacek joins fellow Aussie and producer Troubleman, in this celebration of space funk and beats. In between sets, the sounds of breakbeat, trip-hop, and acid jazz will provide a sleek sonic backdrop for attendees’ mixing and mingling.
Endlessly innovative, electronic music has influenced and infiltrated popular culture in countless ways, blending and transcending musical genres and erecting signposts to its relevancy along the way, such as the 2004 Grammy category for Best Electronic/Dance Album.
With oak floors, walls constructed of Douglas fir, and a 400-person capacity, BP Hall features a dramatic, open “inverted-cone” design, replete with glass roof and skylights. Its transformation into lounge one eleven entails the installation of ambient lighting and three full-service bars -- two inside the lounge, and one adjacent to the lounge outdoors.
lounge one eleven is a pilot for future after-hours events at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and is open to all those attending the Los Angeles Philharmonic Casual Friday performance, as well as invited industry guests and winners of KCRW 89.9 FM promotion.
lounge one eleven at Walt Disney Concert Hall is presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, in partnership with KCRW 89.9 FM, and the Recording Academy/NARAS. BP Hall is located at 111 S. Grand Avenue, at the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue. Doors open at 9 p.m.
With a lifelong passion for music and culture, JASON BENTLEY has diligently served the greater Los Angeles community as a tastemaker radio and club DJ and established an influence worldwide through Music Supervision for film, advertising, and video games. Bentley’s programming on National Public Radio flagship KCRW (Metropolis, Weeknights) and commercial alternative giant KROQ (Afterhours, Saturday nights) has been a bellwether for an ever evolving club culture for nearly fifteen years. Bentley has helped break such artists as Portishead, Massive Attack, Jamiroquai, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Basement Jaxx, and many others. He has been recognized by the LA Weekly, and The New Times free weekly as the "Best DJ in Los Angeles" over a number of consecutive years. Metropolis and Afterhours have also helped to nurture a thriving music scene in the Los Angeles area, and Bentley’s weekly club Bossanova has showcased emerging talent for the last decade, hosting the debut of a range of talent from Daft Punk to Kruder & Dorfmiester. He also consults for the Los Angeles Philharmonic on special events at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. These shows have featured Paul Oakenfold, Nitin Sawhney, Sidestepper, The Crystal Method, and many others. He has also produced events at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skirball Cultural Center, and The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. As a Music Supervisor, Jason has worked on a variety of projects. He coordinated music for all three Matrix films, as well as the Animatrix companion and Matrix video game titles. Bentley was nominated for a Grammy for his work on the platinum-selling soundtrack to the first Matrix film, and recently completed work on a new Matrix video game called The Path of Neo. Other films to his credit include City of Industry (1995), Dark Fury (2004), Green Street Hooligans (2004), The Shooting Gallery (2005), and he is currently working on the film DOA for Impact Pictures and a documentary on Timothy Leary called Why Not?. In the advertising sector, Bentley has directed music for global ad campaigns and progressive marketing initiatives from Motorola, Jaguar, Reuters, Mitsubishi, and Ford Motor Company, among many others. In the video game field, Jason has worked on Full Spectrum Warrior (2004), Destroy All Humans (2005), and most recently The Path of Neo (2005). His background in the record business includes founding Quango Music Group for Chris Blackwell's Island Records, and working as an A&R Executive at Madonna's Maverick imprint for four years. He currently sits on the Board of Governors of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and was instrumental in the creation of a new category to recognize the Best Dance/Electronic Album at the Grammy's each year. He is based at Machinehead studios in Venice, California.
DJ NOBODY, aka Elvin Estala, hails from Carson, California, and began his musical dabbling in junior-high school, when he met a fellow named Chris that hipped him to X-Clan, PRT, Brand Nubian, and other pro-black groups. They immediately became the only junior-high rap group with the African image that had no raps. Once high school rolled around another fellow named Chris began to make beats with the young Nobody, as today, on a $1200 sampler called the Roland DJ-70. Throughout high school, Nobody would come to master the weird sampling keyboard with no onboard sequencer. Eventually buying one of his own in college and adding a Mac sequencer called Master Trax Pro, Estala, now christened Nobody, set out to add his two cents to the musical pond. Around this time, he entered Loyola Marymount University's recording arts program, where he learned how to record and mix music. By his sophomore year, Nobody had joined the campus radio station, KXLU 88.9 FM and began to pillage his way through tons of obscure music, including indie rock, jazz and eventually 60's psychedelia. After a self-released beat tape in 1996 sold 100 copies, Nobody decided to make a sequel. As it neared completion, renowned DJ Mike Nardone sent a copy to Ubiquity Records, who signed Nobody and released his debut in 2000. That same year, Nobody joined forces with other like-minded producers and DJ's to form the internet radio collective Dublab.com. Since then, Nobody has promoted his production skills by spinning at various events throughout Los Angeles, playing alongside locals such as Cut Chemist, Garth Trinidad, Carlos Niño and others. Although he has held only a few residencies, he is always on deck to open for his favorite artists passing through L.A., including opening slots for The Mars Volta, Tortoise, Juan Atkins, Lee Perry, Blackalicious, Antipop Consortium, and others. Eventually, Nobody's unique sets won him the praise of the LA Weekly, which has cited him as best selector in Los Angeles in 2001 and 2004. Nobody eventually shifted gears from his LA underground debut and followed with 2003's Pacific Drift. To promote the record, Nobody landed an opening slot on Prefuse 73's North American tour in Fall of 2003, which brought his selected sets across America. His meeting with Scott Herren eventually led to more shows in which he joined Herren on stage as part of Prefuse 73 live, including All Tomorrow's Parties (as curated by Tortoise) in the U.K., another U.S. tour with Savath Y Savalas, plus Prefuse 73 shows at Coachella, Sonar and a few major European festivals during the summer. He also participated in Dublab.com's traveling record sleeve art show "Up Our Sleeve", which made its way through Japan, Belgium, The Netherlands, France and The U.S. This year Nobody's schedule finds him boosting his game in the remix department, including remixes for The Postal Service, Her Space Holiday, The Free Design, Busdriver and a few more that are still under construction. The majority of his work these days is spent on in collaboration with Chris Gunst, the lead singer and songwriter for Beachwood Sparks, that they are tentatively calling "See Colored Trees". The album is a result of Mush Records pitching the idea for an album after hearing their first effort together, a cover of the Monkee's "Porpoise Song". Also, old pals Omid and Ellay Khule have been holed up for over e year finishing Ellay Khule's upcoming debut for Project Blowed Recordings. And to keep that touring spirit alive, Nobody hit the road with The Mars Volta across Europe, only to end and immediately join Prefuse 73 for his string of European and American dates.
UNKLE’s JAMES LAVELLE became a DJ because, “I couldn’t Breakdance and I was no good at Graffiti.” A UK native, Lavelle’s DJ career has taken him to performing at the best nightclubs across the globe, as well as supporting acts like Radiohead, The Beastie Boys and The Verve. Lavelle is the founding member of UNKLE – the production collective that defies definition with its blend of electronic dance and rock music. UNKLE albums have featured collaborations with vocalists such as Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Richard Ashcroft (The Verve), Ian Brown (The Stone Roses), Ian Astbury (The Cult), Mike D. (The Beastie Boys) and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age). UNKLE has sold upwards of a million units worldwide and the single “Eye For An Eye” off the album Never, Never, Land was nominated for Best Video at the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards. At the age of 19, Lavelle launched the now-legendary Mo’ Wax Records which released DJ Shadow’s groundbreaking album Entroducing. As a producer, Lavelle has worked with Oasis and produced South’s album From Here On In. He has also remixed the likes of Robert Plant, Metallica and Queens of the Stone Age, Portishead, and Junkie XL. Lavelle is currently in the studio in Joshua Tree, California completing work on the third UNKLE album.
STEVE SPACEK, the acclaimed voice behind the groundbreaking genre-pushing group Spacek who were championed by everyone from Entertainment Weekly to Mos Def, is readying his debut solo album Space Shift on Sound In Color. It's his great American album, produced largely in Los Angeles. Old partner Morgan from Spacek provides beats (check 2nd single "3 Hours of Fun"), but Steve created the bulk of the beats himself. Sci-fi and futuristic in vision, these beats still manage to take the previously London sound of Spacek into a whole new dimension. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Steve also brought in beat master J-Dilla (Common / Erykah Badu / Busta Rhymes / Tribe Called Quest) for the album's lead single "Dollar", a stunning master piece of modern soul. The legendary songwriter Leon Ware (Marvin Gaye) also makes a guest appearance in a brilliant duet.
Mark Pritchard (aka TROUBLEMAN), a trained chef from the deep South-West of England, stepped into the music business, teaming up with Tom Middleton, a collaborator of the Aphex Twin, 13 years ago. Together with Middleton, he set up the legendary leftfield Electronica label, Evolution, in the early 90s. In 1992, as Chaos & Julia Set, he upped the ante for Breakbeat music’s potential. Pritchard anticipated some of Drum’n’Bass’s future Funk explorations. With Reload, he took Ambient to new heights by employing sinister sounds, reminiscent of 80s Industrial music. Under his guise as Link, Mark also recorded for Warp Records. Together with Middleton, he formed Global Communication. This project garnered them big respect from the press and music lovers worldwide. The pair founded Universal Language in 1994, releasing their most commercially successful release to date – the Jedi Knights album, a tongue-in-cheek excursion into Electro Funk. Eventually, Pritchard and Middleton’s career paths were to take different directions - Tom turned his attention to London and House music, whilst Mark got to indulge in his growing fascination with Hip Hop and rare breaks. On Alphabet Zoo – the Hip Hop sister label of Danny Breaks‘s Droppin‘ Science imprint – he released an instrumental album as Harmonic 33, while on Droppin’ Science, Pritchard delivered left of center Drum’n’Bass tracks with his Use Of Weapons project. As Trouble Man, he’s dropped a Broken Beat styled longplayer on Far Out Recordings. And now the world eagerly awaits the resurrection of Reload, with an album due to be released on Warp.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, under Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, presents the finest in orchestral and chamber music, recitals, new music, jazz, world music and holiday concerts at two of the most remarkable places anywhere to experience music — Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to a 30-week winter subscription season at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the LA Phil presents a 12-week summer festival at the legendary Hollywood Bowl, summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. In fulfilling its commitment to the community, the Association’s involvement with Los Angeles extends to educational programs, community concerts and children's programming, ever seeking to provide inspiration and delight to the broadest possible audience.
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Adam Crane, 213.973.3422; Cathy Williams, 213.972.3689