A weekly update on all things music, advertising, and technology coming straight to you from Anthony Vanger at MassiveMusic. #TWIM
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: NILÜFER YANYA – THE DEALER
Nilüfer Yanya, 27, a London-based alt-rocker on her sophomore album, Painless, caught my attention from the start. Her smooth voice juxtaposed against a drum-machine rock beat creates a whole musical universe that invites the listener in (on her IG page it says “welcome to my world”). The slacker guitar riff is difficult to pin down, revolving around and around. “When I was writing this song I was thinking about the transient nature of life and the cyclical nature of the seasons,” Yanya said of her new single in a press release. The Dealer is minimal from start to finish with only the bass and some synths marking the beginning and end of choruses, but it works. Yanya’s songwriting and attitude remind me a bit of another English singer-songwriter-guitarist, Joan Armatrading, not just the sound of her voice, but also the attitude. It turns out that Yanya had once been given an invitation by a pop impresario to join a girl band, but she decided against it. After the smash success of her first album, Miss Universe, she is someone who likes doing it her way.
@niluferyanyaaaaaa #nilüferyanya #atorecords #missuniverse
www.niluferyanya.com
AD OF THE WEEK: SUPERBOWL
It’s Superbowl time which means lots of very expensive (and some funny) ads. It’s the only time of the year when advertising hops on the time machine back to a few years ago when the internet did not exist. At $7 million per 30-second Super Bowl ad spot, ad site dailycommercials.com has calculated that companies will be dropping a record-breaking $450 million on Super Bowl ads in 2023. Now that FTX has crapped out, who is going to pick up the mantle and really deliver? A big change is that Pepsi will no longer sponsor the half-time show, with Apple Music stepping in after signing a $50m, 10-year deal. Cosmetics billionaire mega-star Rihanna is the talent this year. With tickets costing between $4,852 USD and $27,449 USD, it is without a doubt still the must-see event in the sporting calendar. While we wait for the big event (and the big ads), let’s cast our minds back to one of the best Superbowl ads ever, from 1995. So simple but so brilliant. Let’s hope this year’s crop does as well.
#budweiser #superbowl #superbowllvii
SCIENTISTS CREATE WORLD’S SMALLEST RECORD — SO TINY, IT CAN BARELY BE SEEN BY THE HUMAN EYE
Scientists in Denmark have created the world’s smallest “vinyl” record, which is so tiny that it can barely be seen by the naked human eye.
Measuring just 15×15 micrometres, with grooves of a depth of just 65 nanometres – the tiny record plays 25 seconds of ‘Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree’ in stereo, per EDM.
In a YouTube video demonstrating the making process, Postdoc Nolan Lassaline at DTU Physics at the Technical University of Denmark explained that the record was “so small that the entire thing we’re patterning can fit within one single groove of a regular vinyl record”.
It uses DTU Physics’s Nanofrazer Scholar 3D lithography system, and prints the grooves of the record into polymer film.
Professor Peter Nøggild explained that although they are unlikely to be mass-producing minute music anytime soon, the technology could be critical in future scientific research. He said: “While this record is of course a little bit of Christmas fun, it’s also a very serious exercise for something that is important to our research.
DTU Physics’s work is not the only example of people experimenting with the decades-old technology of vinyl records. Last year (November 2022), two Korean artists created a record player that plays music from discarded plastic.
THE WORLD’S SMALLEST NIGHTCLUB HAS OPENED IN MADRID
Teledisko, said to be the world’s smallest nightclub at just one square metre, has opened a new location in Madrid.
With five tiny nightclubs already set up in and around the city of Berlin, Teledisko’s brand new silver edition marks the first location to appear overseas.
The phonebox-shaped club has been the source of fascination for many in Berlin over the years, hosting intimate parties at a small fee. Punters are encouraged to contribute €2 to enter and “go crazy” with friends.
“The teledisko is the smallest disco in the world,” reads Teledisko’s website. “You can insert your favourite song by inserting a coin, then print out a photo directly and download a video via a link. What happens in the teledisko stays in the teledisko,” it adds. “Dance like there’s no tomorrow!”
Once inside, a selection of songs including ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’, Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’, and Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ can be chosen from, while effects such as strobe lighting, a spinning disco ball, and fog machines can be altered by punters.
The club fits three people at a time and lasts for just three minutes once a song has been chosen and activated from the screen outside the club.
COACHELLA ANNOUNCES BJÖRK, OVERMONO, TSHA, JAI PAUL AND MORE FOR 2023 EDITION
California festival Coachella has announced the lineup for its upcoming edition this spring.
Slated to run across two weekends at its usual home, Empire Polo Club, this year’s first weekend will run from April 14th through 16th, and it’s second from the 21st through 23rd.
The programme includes Björk, Frank Ocean, Overmono, Mura Masa, TSHA and Charli XCX. Coachella has also tapped Jai Paul, TESTPILOT (AKA Deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin), Yaeji and Underworld to perform.
Presale tickets will go live on Friday, January 13th, and are available here. See the full lineup in the flyer and event listing below.
ROLAND ANNOUNCES “360 DEGREE” PIANO CONCEPT COMPLETE WITH FLYING SPEAKERS
Roland has revealed its 50th-anniversary concept… a piano with flying speakers.
Built from one piece of Japanese oak, the piano was revealed at Roland’s CES 2023 exhibit in Las Vegas.
Set to “hoover over the piano” speakers have been set on drones as the team behind this design aimed for a “360-degree experience”.
On the piano, there are 14 general 360-degree speakers which Takahiro Murai, General Manager of Roland’s Keyboard Instruments Development Department says in a statement, “can recreate a three-dimensional sound space not achievable with conventional stereo speaker systems found on digital pianos.”
He adds: “The idea is that if you put speakers in any direction, you can create any sound field depending on the settings.”
To boost the immersive sound experience, Roland combined the technology from its already-made PureAcoustic Ambience with remote-control drones.
Therefore Murai worked with drone speaker developer Masaaki Matsuba on the issues which have resulted in the drones still being “somewhat noisy” however they are planning to keep updating the system whilst more technology becomes available.
Roland were initially inspired by Erik Satie’s idea of “Furniture Music” which they say resulted in a “beloved piece of musical furniture with which one can’t help but engage.”
Watch a clip from Roland’s CES 2023 exhibit of the concept piano below.
Written by Anthony Vanger
Additional research and reporting by Adam “Badger” Woolf