Backchat - 17 November 2005

My Humps – Black Eyed Peas

In a week where the charts have included the scattergun ramblings of an animated klein krokodil (“shnappi schappi schappi”), you could be forgiven for suspecting that My Humps might be a riposte from his Bactrian buddy. But no, My Humps is the latest joint from R&B worldbeaters, Black Eyed Peas.

Backchat - 5 November 2005

Concrete Proof & 
Other Extreme Measures

I have to say I get a bit shirty when I hear stories about new urban apartment-dwellers breezing in and whinging about ‘noise pollution’ coming from the next-door pub that’s been supporting live music for the last 50 years. I mean to say… please. It’s like moving next door to a church and complaining about

Backchat - 20 September 2005

Crazy Frog with Axel F

“Crazy Frog is an abomination.” “Crazy Frog makes novelty pap like The Teletubbies and Bob the Builder sound like Shostakovich.” “Crazy Frog’s so-called ‘hit’ is a tissue-thin fabrication — a blip on the musical landscape… an aberration. It’s a substandard pastiche of someone else’s hard work, a shoddy piece of animation, and a ‘lyric’ that

Global - 5 September 2005

Duvet, New York

Duvet: www.duvetny.com Partial to snuggling under a doona with a packet of Tim Tams? Who isn’t. But why restrict one of life’s great guilty pleasures to your own bed when you can head to New York’s Duvet restaurant and club and live it up in one of theirs? This sexy, bi-level ‘dining boudoir’ is a

Backchat - 17 July 2005

Let Me Love You – Mario

Mario is undoubtedly the nice guy of R&B. His clean-cut credentials are beyond reproach. He’s not one of those dubious R Kelly types. Oh no. In fact, just to ensure there’s no confusion, the video kicks off with a peculiar little visual anacrucis. As the intro vamps away in the distance we see Mario with

Backchat - 17 May 2005

Gwen Stefani — Assorted

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Gwen Stefani. Her songs are almost uniformly interesting and her music is so professionally produced she could be singing the words to a Victa lawnmower manual while playing Rolf Harris’s wobble board and you’d still be rushing to the nearest dancefloor. All that’s a complete ‘given’.

Global - 5 May 2005

Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi

» Emirates Palace: www.emiratespalace.com Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, the most expensive hotel ever built, recently raised its portcullis. Costing an estimated $2 billion to build, the Emirates Palace is wall-to-wall gold leaf and touch-screen everything, with not a camel in sight.

Backchat - 20 March 2005

Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone

Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Kelly Clarkson I’m aware that many of our readers have a nagging suspicion that music video clips are the ultimate vapourware of our generation — expensively-generated three-minute visual vignettes that wash over you like a Bertelsmann-sponsored summer shower. Well

Backchat - 14 January 2005

Anthony Callea, The Prayer

There’s lots of jokes flying around about Anthony Callea at the moment, nasty stuff about him being a warbling homunculus or the type of Sicilian midget the Mafia prefer to use as police bait, but I reckon he’s luckier than that. Given his taste in torch songs this first single could well have been some

Nightclub - 5 January 2005

CocoonClub

CocoonClub: www.cocoonclub.net Thought your club design was a bit ‘out there’? Think again. DJ Sven Väth has opened a new dance venue, CocoonClub, in Frankfurt, and it really is something else entirely. It’s wall-to-wall state-of-the-art: involving impressive interior design, and high-end sound, video and lighting systems throughout. Design agency 3deluxe created four zones, offering something