Howard Dean screams at Iowa caucus (CBS News)
Photo: CBS News

After his disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses on Monday (see "John Kerry Scores Solid Victory In Iowa Caucuses"), a red-faced Dean made an impassioned entreaty to his supporters in Des Moines that left him hoarse and sounded reminiscent of wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage's patented "Oooooh yeah!" The gruff, fist-pumping appeal made its way onto the Internet, where inventive and aspiring remixers have added their own sardonic twists to the fiery speech.

One of the first remixes to surface, Jonathan Strong's "Dean Goes Nuts Remix" hosted by Right-Magazine.com, featured Dean's shrieking yowl set to Aphex Twin's frenetic electronic "Wax the Nip" from 1995's I Care Because You Do. The track has since been taken down due to bandwidth issues. With many pundits speculating that Dean's campaign has gone off the rails, it's no surprise that a remix with Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" has also made its way onto the Web. Other remixes include Dean paired with Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and Lil Jon's "Throw It Up."

	Dean goes wild
	"Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train (Dean's Aboard)" mix
	"Welcome to Dean's Jungle" mix
	"Dean Goes Nuts" mix
	"Yeagh" mix

"Not only are we going to New Hampshire ... we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico," Dean enthused in his speech to supporters. "We're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeeeeeeah!"

That "Yeeeeeeah!" figures prominently in many of the remixes, mostly created by resourceful college students and blog enthusiasts, such as the high-energy house version ("US Tour (Chris Flyer Remix)"), the funky horn mix, (Jonathan Barlow's "Howarddean") and the Ministry-like alarm call version (James Lileks' "Yeaahg"). Metal band Viral Solstice even made their own hardcore punk tweak, "Hardcoredean."

Other approaches were less sonically ambitious but proved just as satirically effective. On Wednesday, shock jock Howard Stern played a recording of Dean's speech set to crowd noise from a professional wrestling match. Later he played it with the theme from "Rocky" underneath, but the most popular versions heard on Stern's syndicated radio show have yet to spread online: Dean's shouting played overtop a Nazi rally and AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)."

The overzealous gaffe also has become fodder for the late-night comedy circuit. "The Daily Show" turned the speech into a spoof of ads for monster-truck competitions, and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" had the host throwing jabs at the man once considered the Democratic front-runner: "I'm not an expert in politics, but I think it's a bad sign when your speech ends with your aides shooting you with a tranquilizer gun."

Interested in talking about these issues with other young people in your community? Become one of the 20 Million Loud who make their voices heard in this year’s presidential election. Click here to find an MTV/Rock the Vote Meetup happening in your area.”

• Ozzy Osbourne
• Aphex Twin

Howard Dean screams at Iowa caucus
Photo: CBS News

Howard Dean may have a shot at a pro wrestling career if his bid for the White House doesn't pan out.

After his disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses on Monday (see "John Kerry Scores Solid Victory In Iowa Caucuses"), a red-faced Dean made an impassioned entreaty to his supporters in Des Moines that left him hoarse and sounded reminiscent of wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage's patented "Oooooh yeah!" The gruff, fist-pumping appeal made its way onto the Internet, where inventive and aspiring remixers have added their own sardonic twists to the fiery speech.

One of the first remixes to surface, Jonathan Strong's "Dean Goes Nuts Remix" hosted by Right-Magazine.com, featured Dean's shrieking yowl set to Aphex Twin's frenetic electronic "Wax the Nip" from 1995's I Care Because You Do. The track has since been taken down due to bandwidth issues. With many pundits speculating that Dean's campaign has gone off the rails, it's no surprise that a remix with Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" has also made its way onto the Web. Other remixes include Dean paired with Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and Lil Jon's "Throw It Up."

	Dean goes wild
	"Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train (Dean's Aboard)" mix
	"Welcome to Dean's Jungle" mix
	"Dean Goes Nuts" mix
	"Yeagh" mix

"Not only are we going to New Hampshire ... we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico," Dean enthused in his speech to supporters. "We're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeeeeeeah!"

That "Yeeeeeeah!" figures prominently in many of the remixes, mostly created by resourceful college students and blog enthusiasts, such as the high-energy house version ("US Tour (Chris Flyer Remix)"), the funky horn mix, (Jonathan Barlow's "Howarddean") and the Ministry-like alarm call version (James Lileks' "Yeaahg"). Metal band Viral Solstice even made their own hardcore punk tweak, "Hardcoredean."

Other approaches were less sonically ambitious but proved just as satirically effective. On Wednesday, shock jock Howard Stern played a recording of Dean's speech set to crowd noise from a professional wrestling match. Later he played it with the theme from "Rocky" underneath, but the most popular versions heard on Stern's syndicated radio show have yet to spread online: Dean's shouting played overtop a Nazi rally and AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)."

The overzealous gaffe also has become fodder for the late-night comedy circuit. "The Daily Show" turned the speech into a spoof of ads for monster-truck competitions, and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" had the host throwing jabs at the man once considered the Democratic front-runner: "I'm not an expert in politics, but I think it's a bad sign when your speech ends with your aides shooting you with a tranquilizer gun."

Interested in talking about these issues with other young people in your community? Become one of the 20 Million Loud who make their voices heard in this year’s presidential election. Click here to find an MTV/Rock the Vote Meetup happening in your area.”

• Aphex Twin
• Ozzy Osbourne

Linkin Park's Meteora is poised for a meteoric rise to the top of the Billboard chart. Following up Hybrid Theory, the biggest selling album of 2001, the boys have refined their angsty rock-rap for the new album, which features the single "Somewhere I Belong."

French duo Air release City Reading (Tre Storie Western), an instrumental interpretation of the Italian writer Alessandro Baricco's novel City, about a young math genius and his vivid fantasy life. Produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead), the hour-long CD contains just three tracks.

Meanwhile, Aphex Twin's 26 Mixes for Cash features, you guessed it, 26 tracks. The double-disc set features ambient remixes of David Bowie, Philip Glass and Saint Etienne on the first CD, and a more deconstructed, driving sound working with Nine Inch Nails and Meat Beat Manifesto songs on the second.

The indomitable Celine Dion is back again to deliver her signature power ballads and inspirational adult contemporary on One Heart. Plus she even tries her hand at some "dance" tracks like "I Drove All Night."

The Diplomats — Cam'ron and pals Jimmy Jones and Juelz Santana — drop their debut album, Diplomatic Immunity, which finds the crew taking on September 11 on the track "Ground Zero," and an unlikely quasi-cover of Jefferson Starship's "We Built This City."

Les Nubians, the French lovelies who gave us 1998's Princesses Nubiennes, have finally taken One Step Forward, while the D4, a New Zealand garage band, release their 6Twenty alongside Cradle of Filth's Damnation & a Day and Vic Chesnutt's Silver Lake, featuring the love story "Band Camp" and the Brian Wilson homage "Fa-La-La."

Finally, you know the drill about this compilation: all hit songs all the time. Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 12 is no exception. Just to name a few, there's Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You," "Jenny From the Block" by Jennifer Lopez, and B2K's "Bump, Bump, Bump."

Now let's see what else we'll be bumping this week.

Out Tuesday, March 25:

• 702 - Star (Motown)
• 9th Creation - Bubble Gum (P-Vine)
• Acid Ape - Fleshspa (Abstract Sounds)
• The Adventures of Jet - Muscle (Suburban Home)
• Afro Celts - Seed (Real World)
• Air - City Reading (Tre Storie Western) (Astralwerks)
• All Systems Go - Fascination Unknown (Bad Taste)
• Tony Allen - Home Cooking (Shakti)
• Antimatter - Antimatter Vs. Antimatter (Asphodel)
• Aphex Twin - 26 Mixes for Cash (two CDs, Warp)
  Buy Now: 26 Mixes for Cash (Warp)
• Appalachian Express - I'll Meet You in the Morning (Rebel)
• Apple Thieves - Lads Will be Lads (Crazy Love)
• Appliance - Are You Earthed? (Mute)
• Joan Armatrading - Lovers Speak (Denon)
• Dave Audé - Mixed Live Club Velvet St. Louis (Moonshine Music)
• Big Mountain - Cool Breeze (Rebel Ink)
• Boulevard Knights - Boulevard Knights (Familia)
• Brave Saint Saturn - Light of Things Hoped For (Tooth & Nail)
• Garth Brooks - Complete Set (CD and Book, Lake Shore)
• Dave Brubeck - Park Avenue South: Live at Starbucks (Telarc Jazz)
• Call Me Ishmael - Effervescing (Americans Are Coming)
• Rosanne Cash - Rules of Travel (Capitol)
• Vic Chesnutt - Silver Lake (New West)
• Christian Death - Ashes (Cleopatra)
• Codec & Flexor - Tubed (Emperor Norton)
• Freddy Cole - In the Name of Love (Telarc Jazz)
• Steve Cole - Ny La (Warner Bros.)
• Copeland - Beneath Medicine Tree (The Militia Group)
• Cradle of Filth - Damnation and a Day (Red Ink)
• Cream - BBC Sessions (Universal)
• D4 - 6Twenty (Hollywood)
  Buy Now: 6Twenty (Hollywood)
• Chico DeBarge - Free (Koch)
• Derailers - Genuine (Lucky Dog)
• Celine Dion - One Heart(Epic)
• Diplomats - Diplomatic Immunity (two CDs, Diplomat/Roc-a-fella/Def Jam)
  Buy Now: Diplomatic Immunity (Diplomat/Roc-a-fella/Def Jam)
• DJ Cam - Soulshine (Koch/In the Paint)
• Dream Evil - Evilized (Century Media)
• Even in Blackouts - Myths & Imaginary Magicians (Lookout!)
• Experience Unlimited - Experience Unlimited (P-Vine Japan)
• The Exploited - F**k the System (Spitfire)
• F-Minus - Wake Up Screaming (Hellcat)
• Fine Arts Militia - We Are Gathered Here (Koch)
• Fox - For Fox Sake (Cherry Red)
• Jerry Garcia - Complete Set (CD and Book, Lake Shore)
• Gardeweg - All I Want (Radikal)
• God Dethroned - Into the Lungs of Hell(Metal Blade)
• Heavils - Heavils (Metal Blade)
• Hot Boys - Let 'Em Burn (Universal)
• Idlewild - The Remote Part(Capitol)
  Buy Now: The Remote Part (Capitol)
• Iguanas - Plastic Silver 9 Volt Heart (Yep Roc)
• Wanda Jackson - The Wanda Jackson Show (DCN)
• Daniel Johnston - Fear Yourself (Gammon)
• Joy Electric - The Tick Tock Treasury (Tooth & Nail)
• Sammy Kershaw - I Want My Money Back (Audium)
• Kindred the Family Soul – Surrender to the Love (Epic)
• Greg Koch - Radio Free Gristle (Favored Nations)
• Toshinori Kondo - Death is Our Eternal Friend (Diw)
• James Last - A World of Music (two CDs, Eagle)
• Tom Lellis - And in This Corner (P-Vine Japan)
• Les Nubians - One Step Forward (OmTown)
• Les Sans Culottes - Live at Arlene Grocery (DCN)
• Linkin Park - Meteora (Warner Bros.)
  Read: "Linkin Park Expand Meteora's Musical Horizons ... In 40 Minutes Or Less"
  Buy Now: Meteora (Warner Bros.)
• Los Hombres Calientes - Volume Four: Vodou Dance(Basin Street)
• Madonna - Complete Set (CD and Book, Lake Shore)
• Brian McKnight - U Turn (Motown)
• Miss Kittin - Radio Caroline 1 (Emperor Norton)
• Monsters - Hunch (Crazy Love)
• Motorbass - Pansoul (Astralwerks)
• Maria Muldaur - A Woman Alone with the Blues (Telarc)
• Nataraj XT - Ocean Birds (Nutone)
• Willie Nelson - Broken Promises (Proper Pairs)
• NOFX - Regaining Unconsciousness (EP, Fat Wreck Chords)
• Oasis - Complete Set (CD and Book, Lake Shore)
• Old Man's Child - In Defiance of Existence (Century Media)
• Stacie Orrico - Stacie Orrico (ForeFront/Virgin)
• Ozzy Osbourne - Complete Set (CD and Book, Lake Shore)
• Overkill - Killbox 13 (Spitfire)
• Pearls Before Swine - Jewels Were the Stars (Water)
• Perpetuous Dreamer - Dust.Wav (Radikal)
• Plumb - Beautiful Lumps of Coal (Curb)
• Doc Powell - 97th and Columbus (Heads Up)
• Rage Against the Machine - Complete Set (CD and Book, Lake Shore)
• Dave Ralph - Resident Alien (two CDs, System)
• Royal Beat Conspiracy - Dig It (Bad Afro)
• Ray Ruff - Buddy Holly Sound (Hydra)
• Dino Saluzzi Trio - Responsorium (ECM)
• Sea of Green - Chemical Vacation (The Music Cartel)
• Scars of Tomorrow - Design Your Fate (Thorp)
• Severed Savior - Brutality Is Law (Unique Leader)
• Sharks - Live in Japan (Crazy Love)
• Wayne Shorter - Alegria (Verve)
• Sixty Stories - Anthem Red (Smallman)
• Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder - Live From the Charleston
• Music Hall (Skaggs Family)
• Slowpho - Hotel Sleep (Water)
• Stage - Stage (Maverick)
• Stairwell - The Sounds of Change (Hopeless)
• Kay Starr - For Real (Perfect Pairs)
• Ringo Starr - Ringorama (Koch)
• John Stewart - Havana (Appleseed)
• Sugar Ray & the Bluetones - Sugar Ray & the Bluetones (Severn)
• Trent Summar and the New Row Mob - Live at 12th and Porter (DCN)
• Sunday Driver - A Letter to Bryson City (Doghouse)
• Supernatural - The Lost Freestyle Files (Babygrande/Koch)
• Sworn Enemy - As Real as It Gets (Elektra)
• T-Love - Long Way Back (Astralwerks)
• Larry Tee - The Electroclash Mix (Moonshine Music)
• George Thorogood - Ride Til I Die (Eagle)
• Tourniquet - Where Moth and Rust Destroy (Metal Blade)
• Waterdown - The Files You Have on Me (Victory)
• Josh Wink - Herehear (System)
• Erica Wylie - Stoop (Artemis)
• Savina Yannatou - Terra Nostra (ECM)
• Youngster - Firme Oldies (Familia)
• Various artists - Best of Narada World (Narada)
• Various artists - Best of Return of the DJ (Bomb Hip Hop)
• Various artists - Black Flag Tribute - Black on Black (Initial)
• Various artists - Euro Lounge (Putumayo)
• Various artists - Gotta Serve Somebody: A Gospel Tribute to Bob Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)
• Various artists – "Hellraiser" Chronicles (Silva America)
• Various artists - Inside Deep Note: Music of 1970s Adult Cinema (Ost)
• Various artists - New Latin Noveau (Shakti)
• Various artists - Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 12 (Virgin)
• Various artists - Smoking Popes: Tribute (Double Zero)
• DVD: Jane Bunnett - Cuban Odyssey (Blue Note)
• DVD: Various artists - Straight From the Projects (Image Entertainment)

April 1:

• White Stripes - Elephant (V2)
  Read: "White Stripes To Put Their Best Trunk Forward On April Fool's Day With Elephant"
• Robbie Williams - Escapology (Virgin)
  Buy Now: Escapology (Virgin)

April 8:

• Russell Crowe and 30 Odd Foot of Grunts - Other Ways of Speaking (Artemis)
• Godsmack - Faceless (Universal)
  Read: "Godsmack's Visions Of Spinal Tap, Dio, Worse Prompt A Change"
• Lisa Marie Presley - To Whom It May Concern (Capitol)
• Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun (Matador)

April 15:

• Thicke - Cherry Blue Skies (Interscope)
  Read: "Robin Thicke: Mixing The Beatles, Zeppelin And Hendrix With Jay-Z"

• Linkin Park
• The Diplomats
• Aphex Twin
• Celine Dion
• NOFX

Sigur Rós
Photo: Fatcat Records

BARCELONA, Spain — Catalonians know a thing or two about the slow build, as evidenced by the bewildering 18-plus hours of music at the opening day of the eighth annual Sonar International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Arts.

There is no better location from which to scout the front lines of electronic music's forces than Sonar, which unites the scene's wide range of sonic renegades and parades them through the vibrant city. Thursday's performers alone — from Vladislav Delay to Terry Riley, Sigur Rós to Carl Cox and Darren Emerson, Sonic Youth to Aphex Twin — were enough to send a visitor home both satisfied and enlightened.

From the first record, reflecting the midday sun, spun at noon until the light shone again early Friday morning on still-crammed dance floors, Sonar was in full swing — and it was just getting started, with two more days of stunning lineups still on tap.

Like other global techno gatherings such as the Winter Music Conference in Miami Beach or Berlin's Love Parade, Sonar's attendance has grown exponentially with the music's ascent over the last decade, as witnessed by the 10,000-strong flock Thursday night. It has also managed to avoid those festivals' pitfalls, however, by sticking to its guns as a celebration of electronic music's artistic core and providing a glimpse at what the leaders of the avant-garde and the experimental are up to today.

Divided somewhat manageably into day- and nighttime sections over three days — the former presented on four stages at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània in downtown Barcelona, the latter in three hangar-like spaces (one outdoors) at a massive expo center west of the city center — Thursday's sun-dappled warm-up was capped by a solo outing from Terry Riley, who along with Steve Reich and Philip Glass is considered one of the gurus of experimental electronic music in its myriad guises. To an overwhelmingly youthful crowd that appeared well informed of Riley's far-reaching influence, the composer moved fluidly through a range of styles. One piece found him on the piano, wowing with a steady harmonic pulse with one hand while fluttering out a playful rag-like blues with the other, combining minimalism and jazz with aplomb. Moving over to a synth for his next piece, Riley triggered a stuttering electronic rhythm that showed he's been keeping up with the techno Joneses, and he accompanied it with soaring raga-influenced scales, even adding a few Eastern chants along the way. Riley's minimalist aesthetic has been all the rage with the latest crop of experimental producers (whether they're aware of it or not) over the last year, not least among them the Finnish phenom Vladislav Delay. Performing from his achingly spare and deliberate oeuvre (he will present his deep-house persona, Luomo, Friday night) in the Capella dels Angels (Chapel of the Angels) Thursday night, Delay's cascades of gurgling washes swirled through the chapel's chambers, enchanting and exciting as they soared. At Sonar by Night, the arty Icelandic ensemble Sigur Rós, a last-minute addition, revealed that they, too, can achieve great musical heights with an uncomplicated palette. Following a performance by Sonic Youth that further highlighted new and old by presenting works by pioneering experimentalist John Cage and Yoko Ono (both covered on their 1999 self-released collection, Goodbye 20th Century), Sigur Rós began a set that continued to swell in intensity throughout its 45 minutes. First accompanied by a guitarist and two keyboardists and eventually surrounded by seven with the addition of a violinist, cellist, bassist and drummer, singer Jon Thor Birgisson, with bowed guitar, effected a pained-ecstasy expression to accompany his spine-tingling vocal emissions, and the look never left his face. When the band's gradual arch hit full tilt — on "Svefn-G-Englar," from their 1999 album Ágætis Byrjun, and the closer — the effect, straight outta the hypothalamus, was simply breathtaking.

Aphex Twin, perhaps techno's most directly descended minimalist, dispensed with any formalities upon taking to the decks for his much-anticipated DJ set, embarking on the sort of distorted, hyperactive drum'n'bass excursion that has become his trademark in recent years. The man (a.k.a. Richard D. James) who built an infallible reputation on tranquility and subtlety has entered the realm of the inexplicable, and, often, the undanceable. Aphex followed on the heels of an excellent live set by the U.K. duo Plaid (Ed Handley and Andy Turner), whose matching consoles and flat-screens emit reliably warm and creative dance grooves nearly every time they perform.

Across the hall of the expo center in SonarClub, beats of the more conventional, but by no means generic, variety could be found pounding out of the loudspeakers via the expertly manned turntables of Darren Emerson and Carl Cox, who kept the dance floor moving until dawn with a mix of hard house and techno, including what appeared to be the club debut (spun by Cox) of Green Velvet's "Lala Land," the first single from his upcoming album (see "Green Velvet Completes Whatever, His Most Personal Work"). The eighth annual Sonar International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Arts ends Saturday.

• Sigur Rós
• Aphex Twin
• Carl Cox
• Sonic Youth
• Green Velvet

Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell
Photo: Warner Brothers

A revamped Jane's Addiction, pop deities Weezer and uber-DJs Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim and the Chemical Brothers will headline the second Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, to be held April 28 in Indio, California.

Promoters announced the lineup, heavy with hip-hop and electronic performers, Thursday (March 1), just two days before tickets go on sale.

Other acts on the bill include the Roots, the Orb, Roni Size's Reprazent, Gang Starr, Ozomatli, Mos Def, Iggy Pop and Tricky. At least five stages will be set up at the festival, according to organizers.

The inaugural Coachella Festival took place at Indio's Empire Polo Field on October 9 and 10, 1999, and featured more than 80 acts. Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Beck and Underworld were considered the headliners, though dozens of premier artists performed. The event, held just two months after Woodstock '99 ended in riots, gave concertgoers a renewed hope in music festivals.

This year's Coachella Festival, at the same field as the original, marks Jane's Addiction's first performance together since December 8, 1997, when the alt-rock rulers played the final show of what singer Perry Farrell dubbed their "relapse tour." Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, who replaced original member Eric Avery on that tour, will again be joining the band.

Although Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro have gone on to separate projects, Jane's Addiction never announced an official split.

Farrell, who has built an audience as a DJ in recent years, performed a set of world beat music at the first Coachella festival, which also included the Chemical Brothers and Raymond Roker (a DJ and editor of sponsoring magazine URB), both of whom will perform this year.

Several top names in the dance music community are slated to perform this year, such as Kruder & Dorfmeister, St. Germain, Richard D. James (a.k.a. Aphex Twin), Christopher Lawrence, Photek, Doc Martin, Uberzone, Ian Pooley, Smith & Mighty, Dieselboy and the Detroit Grand Pu-Bahs.

Other acts include the Dandy Warhols, Blonde Redhead, Del tha Funky Homosapien and Pedro the Lion.

A complete lineup is available at www.coachella.com.

Coachella organizers, which include the Los Angeles-based Golden Voice, chose to have a one-day festival rather than a two-day event, so they could focus on the quality of the entertainment, according to Josh Levine, promotions director for URB. "Logistically, having 80 bands can be a nightmare," he said.

URB's record label, URB Music, had planned to release live albums from the original Coachella Festival in the fall, but when Golden Voice decided to have the festival in the spring, URB Music delayed the release. Instead, live albums from Coachella 1999 will be released in the summer, with live albums from 2001 to follow, according to Levine.

(Check out "The Jane's Addiction Relapse Interview" for more on Jane's Addiction.)

• Jane's Addiction
• Weezer
• Fatboy Slim
• The Chemical Brothers
• The Roots

Aphex Twin
Photo: MTV News

LONDON — A hip-hop festival in a trailer park? The inaugural Dedbeat Weekender, a sold-out festival held this past Friday through Sunday two hours northeast of London in Great Yarmouth, married of the exotic and the mundane. It also proved that independence and innovation — not a single corporate sponsor was tapped, and advertising was non-existent — are viable options for large-scale events that can also create a unique concert-going experience. The cozy atmosphere of Vauxhall Holiday Park, a summer resort in this seaside town reopened for the occasion, lent a distinctly British feel to the festival, which hosted a crowd of 2,000. With a lineup stocked with live sets by Aphex Twin, Big Daddy Kane, Andrew Weatherall, the Pharcyde, Jeru the Damaja, Hefner, Red Snapper and more than 50 DJs, the three days were jammed with top names in hip-hop and electronic music. Sound wasn't the only source of joy at the Dedbeat, however, as the admission price included four-star "chalet" accommodations, while outdoor entertainment on the grounds featured such distinct offerings as maggot racing and ten-pin bowling.

"Years ago, festivals were low-key events. Glastonbury used to be about people going to a field and bringing instruments along," said Mat Carter, one of the Weekend's organizers. In the past decade, with festivals, especially in Europe, growing more massive and more commercially oriented, Carter and his friend Sam Reid decided to create one of their own. "We found ourselves whining so much about them that we decided to go back and do something ourselves: a festival based on our sort of music in a holiday park." Indeed, the summer trip to the holiday park — a sort of all-inclusive "luxury" trailer park, complete with amenities such as supermarkets and gyms, located in coastal towns around the country — is a staple of British family life. The spirit of the weekend certainly distinguished the Dedbeat from other British festivals, but the music, too, was on another plane. Aphex Twin's (born Richard D. James) set produced the digital cacophony of often strident sound for which he has shown an affinity in recent years. With no visual accompaniment, James lay down on his stomach behind a fake palm tree, invisible to the packed audience, and triggered sounds from a laptop on the staqe floor. On the other end of the crowd-pleasing spectrum, Hefner (the producer Lee Jones, not the English band) replicated tracks from his recent debut, Residue, with a five-piece band that included a drummer, keyboardist and bassist, as well as a singer, Josie, who was one of the Dedbeat's few female performers. Through his iBook, Jones fluidly mixed between songs, ingeniously incorporating elements of a DJ set, with each cut accompanied by a corresponding video projected behind the band that culled footage from Motown '60s artists such as the Four Tops. The peaceful crowd was exuberant throughout the festival, especially on Saturday night during the call-and-response hours in the hip-hop ballroom, where hands were in the air for hours on end and the dance floor overflowed with enthusiasts. London hip-hop producer/rapper Roots Manuva, slow-beat maestro DJ Vadim (joined by his Russian Percussion outfit), Mr. Thing, human beat-box Kela, MC First Rate and Big Daddy Kane all appeared back-to-back in a beguiling display of underground hip-hop from over the years. "I was intrigued by the idea of having a whole room of hip-hop next to an electronic room on a holiday camp in the middle of nowhere, away from London," said festival-goer Karen Pearson, a 22-year-old assistant producer of Gilles Peterson's world-famous weekly BBC radio show, "Worldwide." "When I first arrived I was pretty skeptical, it reminded me of a school disco. But when the weekend kicked off, the atmosphere totally changed."

• Aphex Twin

November 5 [10:00 EDT] -- Aphex Twin, a.k.a. Richard D. James, is one of the stranger birds flying through techno's skies these days, as evidenced in his latest video, the ultra-creepy clip for "Come To Daddy." [900k QuickTime]

The video, in which an army of children terrorize a town while all wearing James' face, leapt from the imagination of James and director Chris Cunningham, and won the approval of MTV's "12 Angry Viewers" last week.

James' unorthodox approach to his craft doesn't end there; the techno veteran owns and drives a tank, and lives and works in an abandoned bank in London.

But to hear James explain it, living in a bank makes perfect sense.

"Well, I mean we stopped playing live and doing interviews and other industry-related stuff and just locked ourselves away for a few months," James told MTV News. "I just bought like a massive bank in London, and not getting any hassles or noise or anything or neighbors nagging me, trying to get me evicted or anything."

The fruits of Aphex Twin's time in the bank can be heard on his new EP, "Come To Daddy."

• Aphex Twin

September 30 [12:00 EDT] -- Billboard is reporting that the film on the rave scene being shot by video producer Jonathan Reiss is now tentatively tagged "Better Living Through Circuitry." The full length documentary was original referred to as "Rave: An Electronica Documentary."

Billboard reports that filming, which has been underway since March, is in its final stages. A theatrical release is expected in the Spring, although the producers, Cleopatra Films and Entertainment, have not confirmed a distributor.

The project features interview and performance footage of Moby, DJ Spooky, Aphex Twin, Sneaker Pimps, The Crystal Method, Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot, DJ Frankie Bones, Electric Skychurch and Rabbit in the Moon. Key behind-the-scenes personnel from the techno scene have also been interviewed including Todd Muellor, the producer of MTV's Amp, MixMag founder Tony Prince and New York Sputnik rave promoter Scott Richmond.

Reiss's credits include Nine Inch Nails' "Happiness in Slavery" video as well as productions for the Black Crowes, Type-O Negative and Diamanda Galas.

• Aphex Twin
• Atari Teenage Riot
• The Crystal Method
• Alec Empire
• Moby

And finally, "Electronica" is an annoying new name for the sort of electro-music that's been a rock-and-pop staple at least since the mid-seventies, when the German band Kraftwerk erupted out of Dusseldorf with their "man-machine" act. Today, this music constitutes a genre unto itself, as was demonstrated during last week's "CMJ New Music Marathon" here in New York. At the CMJ concert, such burble-and-tweet acts as Crystal Method, Fluke, Sneaker Pimps, and the venerable Aphex Twin headlined their own show, and we were there.

JON FUGLER, Fluke: It's a live thing. It's about being large, L-A-R-G-E.

RACHEL STEWART, Fluke: It is totally about being large.

MTV: As once faceless electronica artists leap from the underground to the mainstream, their stage shows and their personas are swelling. As the scene shifts from clubs to more visual media outlets, acts like Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers are gaining success by putting their best face forward -- leaving some purists wondering if the music is taking a back seat to the look.

KEN JORDAN, The Crystal Method: I think that is a lot of B.S. When we were growing up and we liked a band, we liked to know more about them. What they looked like, how they dress, what is their favorite TV show. I think that is natural.

LIAM HOWE, Sneaker Pimps: I think that pop music has always been about personality and the music -- it has been the combination of the two.

JORDAN: We're not doing anything to jump out and be publicity hounds, but at the same time, we aren't hiding either. We are not wearing masks.

MTV: No, that would be the French duo, Daft Punk. They lead a legion of reclusive artists who are intent on remaining faceless in the press and in their videos.

HOWE: To be anonymous and kind of dance-oriented is kind of exciting on an underground level. But when it comes to actually selling records, we try to have a personality and try to have integrity.

MTV: And while it may be true that image helps sell records, it's still the music, not the marketing, that matters most.

JORDAN: Labels or publicists or promo people, they really think that they have to set up everything and tell people before they hear it that it is going to be this and it is going to be that... But okay, you play the music and it's like yeah, it's cool.

FAN: I really don't care how they look on stage. What comes out, comes out, and if it makes you move, it makes you move.

FAN 2: The music like goes through my whole body and I love it. The noise it is beautiful.

RICHARD, Aphex Twin: I just always considered myself as a mutant mucking around in his bedroom. That is what I will always see myself as. I have just somehow managed to make a really good career out of it.

Electro... whatever. That about wraps it up for this edition of "The Week In Rock." Do join us next week when we'll be celebrating our tenth anniversary, if you can believe it, with LL Cool J and the most unbelievable book of the year by rock relic Kenny Loggins. We'll see you then.

• Aphex Twin
• Fluke
• Sneaker Pimps

June 19 [16:00 EDT] -- After several attempts to bring some sort of roving electronic festival tour to the highways and byways of America, someone has finally done it.

Moby, Aphex Twin, B.T., Banco De Gaia, and LTJ Bukem will be on hand when the Big Top tour begins making its rounds on August 27 in Detroit, Michigan. Logical Progression, Loop Guru, 808 State, Nico, and many others will be joined by local DJs at each of the tour's ten stops before things wind up in Los Angeles on September 13.

Here's where Big Top will be pitching its tents this summer:

• 8/27 - Detroit, MI @ Pine Knob
• 8/30 - Washington, D.C. @ Nissan Amphitheater
• 8/31 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Atlantic Park
• 9/1 - Boston, MA @ Great Woods
• 9/3 - Rochester, NY Fingerlakes Amphitheater
• 9/5 - Atlanta, GA @ Lakewood Amphitheater
• 9/6 - Orlando, FL @ Central Florida Fairgrounds
• 9/9 - Dallas, TX @ Starplex
• 9/12 - San Francisco, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheater
• 9/13 - Los Angeles, CA @ Snow Valley

• Aphex Twin
• Moby