Fatboy Slim
Photo: MTV News

Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method and Orbital will headline America's first Creamfields festivals in Long Island, New York, and Las Vegas in September.

DJs Timo Maas, Tall Paul and John Aquaviva will also perform outside of the Big Apple on September 1, while Basement Jaxx, Sandra Collins and DJ Dan will play Sin City on September 29, organizers announced Monday (May 21).

Several other top electronic acts are slated for both shows, including former Underworld DJ Darren Emerson, Stereo MC's, Uberzone, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, Josh Wink, Photek, Max Graham, Scott Henry, Scott Hardkiss, Scanty Sandwich and the Dub Pistols.

The Long Island festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and several circus tent arenas hosted by influential clubs from the East Coast and the U.K., will also include DJ Feelgood, Christian Smith, DJ Dara and DJ DB. The event will run from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Dave Ralph, Donald Glaude, Bad Boy Bill, Christopher Lawrence and Adam Freeland will spin at the Las Vegas festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and six tents. That show will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

More acts, along with ticket information, will be announced later this month, organizers said.

Leading European dance event promoters Cream staged the first Creamfields in the U.K. in 1998. Held annually since, it has become one of the biggest dance-music festivals in the world, attracting 50,000 fans last year.

This year's U.K. fest will be held August 25 at the Old Liverpool Airfield in Liverpool. Fatboy Slim, Gorillaz, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Paul van Dyk, Goldie, Seb Fontaine, Judge Jules and Pete Tong are among the artists scheduled to appear.

• Fatboy Slim
• The Crystal Method
• Orbital
• Timo Maas
• Basement Jaxx

Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method and Orbital will headline America's first Creamfields festivals in Long Island, New York, and Las Vegas in September.

DJs Timo Maas, Tall Paul and John Aquaviva will also perform outside of the Big Apple on September 1, while Basement Jaxx, Sandra Collins and DJ Dan will play Sin City on September 29, organizers announced Monday (May 21).

Several other top electronic acts are slated for both shows, including former Underworld DJ Darren Emerson, Stereo MC's, Uberzone, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong, Josh Wink, Photek, Max Graham, Scott Henry, Scott Hardkiss, Scanty Sandwich and the Dub Pistols.

The Long Island festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and several circus tent arenas hosted by influential clubs from the East Coast and the U.K., will also include DJ Feelgood, Christian Smith, DJ Dara and DJ DB. The event will run from 2 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Dave Ralph, Donald Glaude, Bad Boy Bill, Christopher Lawrence and Adam Freeland will spin at the Las Vegas festival, which will feature an outdoor main stage and six tents. That show will run from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

More acts, along with ticket information, will be announced later this month, organizers said.

Leading European dance event promoters Cream staged the first Creamfields in the U.K. in 1998. Held annually since, it has become one of the biggest dance-music festivals in the world, attracting 50,000 fans last year.

This year's U.K. fest will be held August 25 at the Old Liverpool Airfield in Liverpool. Fatboy Slim, Gorillaz, Paul Oakenfold, Carl Cox, Sasha, John Digweed, Paul van Dyk, Goldie, Seb Fontaine, Judge Jules and Pete Tong are among the artists scheduled to appear.

• Fatboy Slim
• The Crystal Method
• Orbital
• Timo Maas
• DJ Dan

Stereo MC's
Photo: Steve Double

Now that they've crawled out of hiding, British hip-hoppers Stereo MC's have lined up nine North American shows to support their first album since 1992.

The group will surface in Toronto a few days before the June 12 release of Deep Down & Dirty for a show at the Opera House on June 8. From there they'll proceed to Montreal, Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They'll knock out some European dates starting next week.

Stereo MC's last toured stateside in 1993, when they were out promoting Connected. Though the album achieved worldwide success, the group essentially disappeared following the tour. Rapper Rob B and DJ/producer the Head formed a publishing company called Spirit Songs, which handles Jurassic 5, as well as a label called Response Records.

Deep Down & Dirty carries on the Stereo MC's' trademark blend of funky, knee-deep grooves, hard hip-hop beats, synth effects and samples. Longtime singer Cath Coffey remains on the mic (see "Stereo MC's Reconnecting With Deep Down & Dirty").

Stereo MC's tour dates, according to stereomcs.com:

• 6/8 - Toronto, ON @ Opera House
• 6/9 - Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
• 6/10 - Boston, MA @ Axis
• 6/12 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
• 6/13 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
• 6/15 - Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
• 6/16 - Chicago, IL @ Metro
• 6/19 - West Hollywood, CA @ Whisky A Go Go
• 6/20 - San Francisco, CA @ Slim's

• Stereo MC's

Stereo MC's
Photo: Steve Double

Thanks to the many advertisements and soundtracks using the title track of their 1992 opus Connected, it's hard to believe it's been nine years since we last heard from England's Stereo MC's.

With the follow-up, Deep Down & Dirty, finally coming out June 12, one can't help but wonder what took so long.

"We've done about 100 interviews, and that was the first question on everybody's lips," said Stereo MC Nick "The Head" Hallam. "All we can say is we kinda lost the plot a bit and had living issues we had to deal with." Though they haven't put out a new full-length since 1992, Hallam and partner Rob Birch did throw their fans a bone with last year's DJ Kicks mix disc, which featured three new songs.

Interrogations as to their musical whereabouts over the years notwithstanding, Stereo MC's are just happy to be here.

"It's great that we're still making music. We feel totally as fresh about it as we ever did." Hallam said. "Music's become a bit of a formula, really. It's good to do the unexpected. I can say if we'd carried on, we'd probably have stopped doing it by now. You can get a bit tired of the routine of it." Deep Down & Dirty's first single, the title track, has garnered favorable reviews and is getting decent airplay back home in England, according to Hallam.

"It's an important time for that track," Birch said. "Then again, they're all important 'cause they all play a part in the picture." On the performance end of things, Stereo MC's always received high marks for breaking the otherwise hackneyed dance-show mold — so much that they caught the attention of U2, who brought them along for a European tour.

"We've always been different," Hallam said. "You look at the stuff that's happening in dance these days and there's very few people that are actually groups. It's either two guys noodling away on a couple of keyboards with some big back projection or it's somebody just playing some records. I think we go a bit deeper than that." U.S. fans will see how deep when Stereo MC's bring their show to the States this summer. Birch and Hallam — along with drummer Owen If (born Owen Rossiter) and singer Cath Coffey — will play New York's Bowery Ballroom on June 12. The group has plans to do a sweep of the States following the New York show, but the band's label could not confirm further dates.

• Stereo MC's

Japanese abstract-electronic music artist Nobukazu Takemura has released the follow-up to his acclaimed 1999 album, Scope, and will put out a second LP May 29, according to a spokesperson for his U.S. label, Thrill Jockey. Hoshi No Koe, which came out Tuesday (March 20), combines the tension of the disorienting digital effects that typified Scope with calm, warm tones and textures. Sign continues Takemura's Child's View project of minimal bass, drum and guitar productions. Takemura will be the opening act on Tortoise's North American tour, which begins May 11 in Cleveland. ...

English hip-hop group the Stereo MC's will return to the scene with their first album in nine years, Deep Down & Dirty, June 12. Following the worldwide success of their first three albums, including their 1990 debut, 33-45-78, and 1992's Connected, the band, led by rapper Rob B (born Rob Birch) and DJ/producer The Head (born Nick Hallam), essentially disappeared, with only rumors of a return in their wake. During that time, the pair formed a publishing company called Spirit Songs, which handles Jurassic 5 and Finley Quaye, as well as a label called Response Records. Deep Down & Dirty — which follows by a year their mix-CD in the DJ-Kicks series, which included three new tracks by the band — features 13 songs that tap into the Stereo MC's' trademark mix of heavy hip-hop breaks, deep, grinding grooves and gritty synth effects and samples. Vocals are handled by longtime singer Cath Coffey. ...

Ken Ishii, Japan's top techno DJ/producer, will release his fourth full-length, Flatspin, later this month on Sony Music Imports. He will support the album with eight DJ dates around North America, beginning March 27 at the Winter Music Conference in Miami Beach. Ishii came to prominence in North America with his 1995 album, Jelly Tones, which featured the hit single "Extra." His DJ tour dates are as follows: March 27 in Miami, FL at Red (Winter Music Conference); March 28 in Montreal, Quebec at Jingxi; March 30 in Columbus, OH, at Pulse; March 31 in Chicago at Rendofive; April 4 in Los Angeles at the Knitting Factory; April 5 in San Francisco at Optimal; April 6 in Toronto, Ontario at S.O.S.; and April 7 in New York at Centro-Fly. ...

UNKLE, the recording project of Mo Wax Records head James Lavelle and Rich File, have released their first new music since the 1998 hit album Psyence Fiction, which featured DJ Shadow on several tracks. "NarcoTourists," a collaborative single with the Glasgow, Scotland, duo Slam (Stuart McMillan and Orde Meikle) was released March 6 on Soma Recordings and includes the original track plus a remix by each of the artists. Slam will release their second album this summer. ..

Detroit techno veteran Stacey Pullen has released his first album in four years, Today Is The Tomorrow You Were Promised Yesterday, in the U.K. Starkly gorgeous and minimal in the classic Detroit style but driven by intricate, jazz-influenced rhythms, Today is a challenging, complex work. Pullen's most recent full-length was the 1997 singles collection Electronic Poetry: The Collected Works of Kosmic Messenger, named for one of his aliases, which was preceded two years earlier by The Theory of Silent Phase, a proper studio album released under the name Silent Phase. ...

Following appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, drum 'n' bass superstars Roni Size/Reprazent will continue a series of unique in-store appearances on Sunday (March 18) at Tower Records in downtown New York. The events, which include signings of their recent album, In The Mode, and current single, "Who Told You" (RealAudio excerpt), also feature performances by the group — Size, DJs Krust, Die and Suv, MC Dynamite and vocalist Onalee — as well as audience participation. Fans are encouraged to add to the performance, either by singing, playing keyboards or manning the turntables, with Size using the contributions to instantly produce a new track, which he then plays for the crowd. The New York in-store coincides with the group's Hammerstein Ballroom show on Saturday (March 17), with support from Bahamadia and special guests. Other in-stores are scheduled for Washington, D.C. (March 19), and Miami (March 25). ...

German electronic-jazz trio To Rococo Rot have teamed up with New York experimental producer I-Sound for their fourth album, Music Is A Hungry Ghost, which is due May 8. Berlin- and Dusseldorf-based To Rococo Rot — brothers Ronald and Robert Lippok and Stefan Schneider — met I-Sound (born Craig Willingham) when sharing the bill on the New York stop of the trio's 1998 U.S. tour in support of their second album, Veiculo (1997). The four later collaborated in Berlin on a song, "A Little Asphalt Here and There," that appeared on 1999's acclaimed The Amateur View, and worked together more extensively on the new Ghost. ...

Eclectic English producer Squarepusher (born Tom Jenkinson) will release his first new music in a year and a half with the single "My Red Hot Car," which is due May 15. Squarepusher's most recent release was the album Selection Sixteen, which came out in November 1999. ...

The Angel, one of the few accomplished women producers in underground music, will release her latest album, No Gravity, May 22 on Supacrucial Recordings. The album mixes instrumental hip-hop cuts with tracks featuring rappers Tre Hardison (formerly of the Pharcyde), Divine Styler, the Freestylers' Navigator and Mystic. The Angel, a Brooklyn native and longtime Los Angeles resident, has released two albums, Thru the Haze, a 1997 collaboration with Smith & Mighty called Jaz Klash, and '98's Tune In Turn On, which was released under the pseudonym 60 Channels. ...

The third album by English electronic duo Plaid will be titled Double Figure and is due May 29 in America on Warp Records. Following their 2000 compilation of early tracks, Trainer, the duo, Andy Turner and Ed Handley, have made snippets of five songs from Double Figure available on the Warp Web site (www.warprecords.com). In a similar vein to their first two albums, 1998's Not for Threes and '99's Rest Proof Clockwork, the new album is packed with Plaid's warm sense of melody and inventive, pulsing beats. ...

Chicago house legend Larry Heard (a.k.a. Mr. Fingers and Fingers Inc.) will return to the fold with his latest album, Love's Arrival, which is due in early June on the Brooklyn, NY, house label Track Mode Recordings. Following a flurry of releases that ended with 1999's Genesis, Arrival will be Heard's first release since last year's "Missing You" single. The creator of such seminal '80s house cuts such as "Mystery of Love," "Washing Machine" and "Can U Feel It?" continues in the vein of subtle, enveloping deep house on the new album, which features 12 cuts, including Heard's own Jazz Café mix of "Missing You" and 11 new songs. — sonicnet.com staff report

• Nobukazu Takemura
• Stereo MC's
• Ken Ishii