Events

LOOKOUT! are proud to present Eric Lau who will be joined by the very talented Rahel who features on his debut LP 'New Territories'.


The production skills of Eric Lau are powered by his love of manipulating sound in a soulful manner. Influenced by artists like Jay Dee, Pete Rock, D'angelo, ?uestlove, James Poyser, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, and Shuggie Otis, he seeks to walk in their path of genre-busting, quality soul releases while adding a twist of his own. Using a blend of samples and instrumentation, his music already spans a variety of different genres and his collaborations with an eclectic collective of soul singers, musicians, dj's, rappers and producers with the same mind set will help push the envelope further.

Production credits include Dudley Perkins, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Lupe Fiasco, Guilty Simpson, Wildchild, Tanya Morgan, Hil St Soul, and his family of artists Rahel, Sarina Leah, Annabel, Meshach Brown, Tosin, Tawiah and Jodi Milliner.

Ubiquity released his debut LP 'New Territories' March 18th, 2008.

http://www.myspace.com/ericlaumusic


New Territories has a double meaning. It's the area in Hong Kong that the Lau family are from and regularly visit. "People have a vision of Hong Kong being sky scrappers and high rises everywhere," says Lau. "However, the area known as New Territories is full of mountain ranges, sea, villages and farm land. It's very peaceful and pure there, and these are qualities I try to incorporate into my production." Also, the title refers to the album and the global musical connections it made. "There are many young artists on the record and our roots are from around the world," explains Lau. "Even though we are from different backgrounds we approached the album with the same mindset and all want to help each other get to where we want to be. This record is a new territory for us as a group of artists, and I hope that it is, in turn, a refreshing listen."

UK born Lau has only relatively recently got into music production, but delved-in neck-deep. "I don't really have a very musical family or musical upbringing," he says. "But apparently my mother used to sing Chinese opera during the revolution in Hong Kong." Moving to London at the age of 19 his time at University there turned him on to the possibility of music as a way of life. "Just being in London, with an open mind, that's all it took," he explains. Now 26 years old, Lau is either in the studio, or can be found teaching at RollingSound, a youth-led multimedia education company. At RollingSound under-privileged inner-city kids get to learn music production, DJ-ing, video gamed design, photography, film and web design. "I've been their head tutor and artistic consultant for the last 3 years and have had a big say in the design of the courses and delivery," says Lau. "If I was not doing the music thing I would definitely put all my efforts in to teaching and work in the youth sector as I have seen so many talented young people take their skills in multimedia and more importantly life to the next level."

With New Territories, Lau wants to make connections in China, particularly with the growing music scene in Shanghai. "Music making by the youth there is quite rare. I mean the music scene in Shanghai is still growing right now. I would love to be part of that, and to hopefully even pioneer and set a good example in the soul, hip hop, jazz world." Lau has already made in-roads by way of a track he gave to Lupe Fiasco. Fiasco used it to produce a tune for Hong Kong movie actor, singer and entrepreneur Edison Chen.

"Being Chinese and growing up in England I was influenced by a lot of sounds. From Brit-pop, '60's rock, Chinese opera, UK hip hop, and of course the west London scene," says Lau. "I think that my Chinese roots have very subtlety affected my choice of key when making music, however it's not really an in your face thing." Jay Dee, Pete Rock, D'angelo, ?uestlove, James Poyser, Donald Byrd, Roy Ayers, and Shuggie Otis are frequently mentioned by Lau as main influences. But Lau has a sound of his own that jumps from the lush intro' to the twisted soul of "I Don't Do It To". "Right Side" and "Confession Lounge" bump with the right dose of bottom-end, while "Final Chance" injects the party vibe to make way for the more reflective tracks like "Don't Let Them." The latter was written on the day British Police shot a Brazilian man mistaken for a terrorist on the Underground. "In any trade you always look at the best. If you are aspiring to be a great basketball player you study and learn moves like Michael Jordan's fade away, Magic Johnson's passing, Larry Bird's shooting etc" he says. "I guess in the first few years I would try and see what these guys were doing and would learn from their music. I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn but I guess I've slowly but surely come into my own sound. I guess the key and frequencies of sound that I choose shape the feel of my music. The tempo and rhythm kinda' takes care of the mood," he adds




Rahel - is an energetic singer and songwriter. A dynamic performer who electrifies the stage, whether she is performing alongside a full band, solo guitarist or simply acapella, Rahel draws the crowd's full attention.

I love 'New Territories' and have it on constant rotation and am very excited to have these two very talented artists perform with us.


http://www.myspace.com/rahelonline

www.rahelonline.co.uk

LOOKOUT! djs in full effect keeping the beats rocking with all the tracks you love and those you didn't know you did, ya dig?

Khy Boogie (Sydney) - http://hyperadio.co.uk

Michael D (Paris) - Shoreditch House

DJ Cavalry (London) - your favourite bedroom dj

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