Author: Darren Ressler

Not only is April 22 Earth Day but it is also the release date for Soul Clap’s long-awaited new album, WTF (World Transformation Force), a sprawling 15-song affair featuring collaborations with Nona Hendryx, Desmond ‘DSP’ Powell, Harry Dennis, Rich Medina, Tra’zae Clinton and more.

To commemorate the album’s launch, Soul Clap’s Eli Goldstein and Charles Levine have collaborated with revered New York City craft brewery Finback on a limited-edition beer.

Named after one of Soul Clap’s new songs, Back 2 Love is a sour ale brewed with rhubarb and ruby red grapefruit. The brew clocks in at a quaffable 6 percent. Finback’s sours are as funky as Soul Clap’s music, so this is a match made in heaven.

On Earth Day, Finback’s Brooklyn studio will be livestreaming the release party for WTF with sets at 4 PM, 6 PM and 9 PM.

Proceeds from sales of the beer will go to Climate Justice Alliance.

No paywalls, free to all. Help us remain 100% independent and unbiased. Please give to Big Shot by making a secure one-time donation to help us continue covering DJ culture and electronic music like we’ve done since 2003.

As an homage to the classic JVC RC M90 boombox depicted on the cover of LL Cool J’s 1985 debut album, Radio, which featured the lead single “I Can’t Live Without My Radio,” and The Beastie Boys’ Solid Gold Hits, London-based candlemaker Cent LDN is offering King of the Boom Box, a hand-poured soy wax candle replica of the legendary blaster.

For those too young to remember, in between the advent of the cassette tape and the Walkman (ask your parents), portable boomboxes were a mainstay of urban life. Able to be taken anywhere — as long as you had extra D batteries — the portable AM/FM/cassette sound machines were a vital part of hip-hop’s musical and cultural rise in the ’70s and ’80s.

Though mainly intended as a piece of conversational home decor, each of the boombox’s 22 candles is made to order and burns for 100 hours. The piece weighs 1900 grams — 4.18 pounds — and measures 28cm width, 14cm height and 6.6cm.

Cent LDN’s King of the Boom Box can be yours for £149 (about $192). Compared to the sky-high asking prices stereotypical collectors are willing to pay for the actual vintage units, it’s an offer some boombox aficionados won’t be able to turn down.

No paywalls, free to all. Help us remain 100% independent and unbiased. Please give to Big Shot by making a secure one-time donation to help us continue covering DJ culture and electronic music like we’ve done since 2003.

“Collusion 33,” the first collaboration from techno artists Ken Ishii and Greencross and Different Is Different Records‘ Collusion NFT series, will be minted and made available for purchase today via Mintbase Fiundation at 3:30 PM Central European Time.

The premise of the nine-part series is that each producer creates a track, then “colludes to remix each other’s originals and deliver it as a four-track release.”

Each NFT has its own 33-second animation created by Federico Bebber, an acclaimed Italian VFX and 3D artist. To view the entire nine-part animation, you will need to watch each track’s animations in order.

With the purchase of each non-fungible token (NFT), collectors — who will own 33 percent of the publishing rights — will unlock the master file for the track in lossless WAV, plus a 4K video file of the animation.

No paywalls, free to all. Help us remain 100% independent and unbiased. Please give to Big Shot by making a secure one-time donation to help us continue covering DJ culture and electronic music like we’ve done since 2003.