Tag Archives: Frost Magazine

New Music Profiles | Nehedar

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This profile is a first in a series for Frost magazine. We are profiling new music and trying to discover new artists. The artist might not be actually ‘new’, but someone who we think may be about to breakthrough or go onto another level of fame. They do say it takes ten years to become an overnight success….

Artist: Nehedar
Location: NYC
CD: High Tide
Release date: Out now.
Production: Craig Levy @ Little Pioneer Cider House, Brooklyn, NY
Websites: http://www.nehedar.com, www.facebook.com/nehedarmusic
Streaming link: http://music.nehedar.com/releases
Secure download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?8axodrg39c5ra2e
Styles: Indie Pop, Alternative, Singer-Songwriter
Similar to: Tracy Bonham, Aimee Man, Emma Pollock

Highlights/Accolades: Power Plant Beach was selected as one of Mother Jones Readers’ favorite albums of 2011. Emilia Cataldo was a finalist in the We R Indie singer songwriter contest in 2011. Nehedar provided most of the soundtrack to an upcoming independent film. (working title: Strike Anywhere Matches).

Nehedar is the project of New York-based singer-songwriter Emilia Cataldo.

The daughter of two New York musicians who fled urban life for the country, Cataldo was born in Southbridge, Massachusetts, where her family lived in a barn on the outskirts of town. Music always permeated their home – her mother a hippie piano teacher from a Jewish home & her father a Puerto Rican jazz saxophonist.

The Cataldo family which grew to six children, moved from Massachusetts, to Miami FL, & eventually to the religiously-infused town of Zion, Illinois, on the outskirts of Chicago where Cataldo briefly attended high school.

Cataldo quickly grew disenchanted with her small town surroundings. As soon as she was old enough, she left high school to travel the country, and later the world, on a journey that would eventually lead her to Israel, where she would study the Jewish faith in Seminary, and take on the Hebrew name Nehedar, which means ‘wonderful.’

In 2000, Cataldo settled in New York City, where she began writing & performing her own music in 2001 following a difficult period involving the loss of her mother to an aggressive brain tumor. She adopted ‘Nehedar’ as her stage-name & that of her band. Eventually, Cataldo would return to school to complete her B.A. in music at Stern College in Manhattan.

Nehedar has self-released five albums – Pick Your Battles in 2007, the critically-acclaimed Dreamlike in 2008, Pterodactyl Baby in 2009, Power Plant Beach in 2010 and just released her latest album High Tide on March 15, 2012. For the duration of her recording Nehedar has worked closely with Craig Levy of Little Pioneer Cider House in Brooklyn New York, although she has enjoyed experimenting with other producers. Nehedar’s backing band has included a revolving cast of friends and thereby changed shape over the years. Whenever possible Nehedar includes Luis Cataldo (her saxaphone playing father) in the mix.

While spanning indie-rock, folk, jazz and pop genres, the music of Nehedar has continued to deliver her blend of deeply personal lyrics, beautiful vocal harmonies & a variety of instrumentation. Momentary departures from strict chord progressions set her music apart, surely a result of her childhood spent listening to jazz. As a writer and performer she has enjoyed comparisons to Tracy Bonham, Bebel Gilberto and Ingrid Michaelson.

Calling all football fans! Win a training session with Anton Ferdinand

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Calling all football fans! Win a training session with Anton Ferdinand

A once in a lifetime opportunity is up for grabs for budding footballers and fans of Anton Ferdinand and Queens Park Rangers FC, all in the name of charity.

Premier League footballer Anton Ferdinand is taking time out from his rigorous training schedule to support Billi Mucklow and Cara Kilbey of The Only Way is Essex, who are aiming to raise a massive £10,000 for Samaritans. Anton is offering an hour’s football training session for ten lucky people, to help raise vital funds for the charity that answers more than 5 million calls a year from people who are struggling to cope.

To be in with a chance to win this dream prize, bidders need to take part in an online auction which is open now and will run until midday on Monday 2 April 2012. Place a bid now by visiting http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150786207098 The 5 highest bidders will win the opportunity for them and a friend to attend a training session with Anton which will take place at Lucozade Powerleague Docklands on Wednesday 18 April at 2pm.

Anton said: “I’m really pleased that I am able to offer this prize and support Billi and Cara in their marathon challenge. Samaritans is a fantastic charity that offers 24 hour confidential support to anyone, no matter what the problem. Get bidding, I will make sure this is a training session you will never forget!”

On Sunday 22 April Billi and Cara, from The Only Way is Essex are running the Virgin London Marathon in aid of Samaritans. As well as putting themselves through a punishing training schedule in preparation for the 26.2 mile race, the girls have been busy enlisting their celebrity friends to help them reach their fundraising target.

Billi said: “Massive thanks to Anton for donating this prize and supporting us in our crazy quest!”
Cara continued: “We really believe in the work of Samaritans and hope that the general public get behind us and help us raise as much money as possible so the charity can continue their lifesaving work.”

To help Cara and Billi reach their huge fundraising target, please sponsor them by visiting their Virgin Money Giving page: www.virginmoneygiving.com/BilliandCara

CELEBS TWEET IN SUPPORT OF DROP4DROP FOR WORLD WATER DAY

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Twitter is good for so many things, but the main one is raising awareness, and this week celebrities tweeted in aid of Drop4Drop.

March 22nd was World Water Day. Rihanna, Cheryl Cole, Russell Simons, Stephen Fry, Paloma Faith and Rob Thomas have all tweeted in support of drop4drop to get clean water for all. Follow @lifewater_ and @drop4drop.

Life water is the British bottled water company founded by Simon Konecki and Lucas White. drop4drop is Life water’s charity and was also founded by Simon and Lucas.

The Next Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis – We Have Learnt Nothing

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Some lessons are never learned and the boom and bust of the housing market is one of them. As we finish one housing crash we are already setting ourselves up for the next one. The seeds for the next sub-prime mortgage crisis have already been sown.

It stems from a desire by all parties to encourage people to buy their own homes and keep house prices going up. This results in an unsustainable boom followed by a sharp correction, all to the detriment of stability and economic growth.

Everyone from the building companies, estate agents, mortgage brokers, banks, government, owners and even buyers all want to see the market rise. Prior to the crash we had mortgages being offered for 120% of a home’s value. We now have offers encouraging people to buy houses which are equally or more dangerous.

The reality of the situation is that house buyers (particularly first time buyers) are not earning enough to get onto the housing ladder at the moment. There simply isn’t the demand.

Desperate to sell the houses on their books, Estate agents and builders have been offering shared equity solutions to first time buyers. The buyer only buys a percentage of the property (making it more affordable and much easier for them to get a mortgage). They then pay rent to the building company on the percentage they do not own. The scheme is all over housing websites. The government has been encouraging this scheme. In fact it is taking part in it.

On the face of it the scheme looks attractive. I admit even being interested in it myself initially. However once you understand the motives behind it and the reality of it we see how dangerous it can be.

You can see how it can become very expensive for someone who takes on this scheme. They are paying a mortgage, rent and service charges, not to mention maintaining 100% of a property they don’t fully own.

Many newspapers were initially very critical, until building companies started taking ads out in their papers advertising the scheme.

The service charges and rent often rocket and the homes are almost impossible to sell leaving owners completely trapped even when they need to move in an emergency. You can read some people’s nightmare experiences here.

Now, in what can only be described as utter madness, the UK government’s latest plan is to guarantee 95% mortgages. The ‘New Buy’ or mortgage indemnity scheme (MIG) only requires a 5% deposit from the buyer and if they default the government will pick up the tab along with the bank.

The government is trying to artificially inflate demand in the short term to boost the construction sector and push house prices up so everyone feels wealthier. This should also boost consumer spending and the economy as a whole. But this is a typically short term politically motivated view. The current government cares nothing for a future crisis which might occur in 10 years’ time. At some point the market will have to correct to an equilibrium level and the more we inflate prices artificially the bigger that crash will be. All the jobs created will be lost along with many more as well.

Nothing has been learnt from the recent crisis. With a government guarantee, banks and mortgage brokers will be flogging mortgages to anyone they can. This is exactly what happened before the recent crisis in America. Just look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

When prices do start to fall owners will have no incentive to keep paying their mortgages as they move into negative equity. If house prices fall by 20% and you have only put down a 5% deposit what incentive do you have to keep paying the mortgage? As prices continue to fall this gets worse and turns into a negative cycle.

When the bubble does burst the ensuing crisis will be just like the recent one, except this time instead of the banks bearing the brunt of the loses, it will be the you and I the taxpayer.

Unfortunately we never learn from our mistakes. We must stop creating these damaging bubbles. We should just let the housing market correct itself naturally; unfortunately the government just can’t help itself. It is now just a matter of time before the next major sub-prime mortgage crisis. I just hope we can survive the fallout.

Leading scientists ask British public to measure their sleep

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· International survey findings to be discussed at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival

· What is sleep, why do we need it and how much of it do we really require?

Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Munich have called on the British public to contribute to an international survey looking at the quantity – and quality – of sleep amongst the population.

Professor Russell Foster, Chair of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival, and Professor Dr Till Roenneberg from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, who are both experts in chronobiology – the study of the circadian rhythms which govern our waking and sleeping patterns, and their interaction with daylight – will discuss the responses to the survey at the Festival in June 2012. The pair will discuss the regenerative powers of sleep as well as comparing and contrasting the sleep patterns of the UK respondents with their continental counterparts.

The survey takes just a few minutes to complete online, and asks questions relating to work schedule, differing sleep habits during the week and at the weekend, consumption of alcoholic and caffeinated drinks, exposure to cigarettes and the time taken to fall asleep each night.

So far, more than 65,000 people in Germany have taken Professor Dr Roenneberg’s simple online survey relating their sleeping habits, and the scientists are keen to capture more data relating to the British population.

Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at Brasenose College, Oxford, and Chair of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival said, “We felt that the arrival of British Summer Time, with its lighter mornings and longer evenings – plus people perhaps feeling like they’ve ‘lost’ an hour’s sleep – was an excellent moment to get people thinking about the quality and quantity of sleep they get.

“With the help of this questionnaire, we aim to understand the underlying complexity of the biological clock by gathering a picture of everyday behaviour. We all know that individuals show distinct preferences for various activities over the course of a day. A simple example is the time at which an individual prefers to go to bed and get up. Collecting this information will help us understand how and why the biological clock ticks.”

Each participant will receive a personal profile which evaluates their chronotype, and compares their results to those of other participants. A person’s chronotype relates to their preference for mornings or evenings – those who are at their best at the crack of dawn are often described as ‘larks’, whereas people who brighten up in the evenings are known as ‘owls’.

Professor Dr Till Roenneberg, of the Munich Centre of Chronobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, adds, “It will be particularly interesting to gather more information on British sleep patterns in order to compare chronotypes of people living in different geographical locations.

“This will enable us to consider factors such as longitude and latitude, which can make a difference to the amount of daylight to which people are exposed.”

People are encouraged to take the survey online.

Professor Russell Foster will be talking about the regenerative power of sleep at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival on Tuesday 12 June 2012 at 6:30pm.

Priority booking is open to Cheltenham Festivals Members from Monday 26th March, ahead of public booking from 2nd April. The full programme is available at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science

Storm Launch New Range | Preview

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I love watches. It must run in the family as my dad has well over 100. The first ever watch I bought was a Storm watch, it was silver with a big purple face. So it is fair to say I am a fan of the brand. I went along to The Sanderson Hotel to check out their new range.

Storm are always have cutting edge designs. Their watches are well made and beautiful to boot. Storm is the only recognised British watch brand on the market today. Storm is still quite young, it was launched in 1989. Their range has expanded to include not only watches but also jewellery, bags, eye wear, sleepwear and fragrances. All of which is sold in 45 countries internationally. Well, it’s enough to make you feel proud.

I will be honest and say that I did not know that Storm did perfume, but they do, for him and her. The packaging is slick (like everything with Storm) and the smell of the Touch and Electric are both divine.

The Touch gift set is only £19.99 for 100ml fragrance and 150ml of shower gel. It smells the right side of tropical with lemon, green leaf and tropical fruits on the top note with a blend of white jasmine, cedar amber and brown sugar. The make version runs along the same lines but is a but different with patchouli and sandalwood, ginger and lavender. Makes me want to eat it….

Another thing I love about Storm is that I am not allergic to any of their jewellery. I really love men’s watches on women, I am partial to a chunky watch, but love a slimmer, elegant one for evenings. I have chosen some of my favourites from the range. Which was a hard thing to do, as I love them all!

Featured watch: Atlas

Bion. £99.99

Black Out

Dualon

Elody Gold

A multifunctional timepiece with a pearl dial, sparkling crystals and stainless steel case and strap. The Elody is Storm Black’s Newest gem. It has Swiss movement and Storm Black’s signature Onyx set in the crown. This watch is perfect if you want a bit of luxury in your life. Price is £279.99 – £319.99.

Excalibur

Limited Edition with only 5.000 piece available worldwide. Has a wonderful fully exposed watch face showing it’s mechanisms. Also water-resistant up to 50m. Silver: £369.99

Kelli

This is very in at the moment. It embraces this seasons colouring blocking trends. Has cut away strap. £99.99

Trilogy

This is another limited edition piece. Only 3,000 made. It has 3 time zone, raised face, leather strap, stainless steel case and is water resistance up to 50m. Perfect for travellers. From £169.99

It is the Olympic year and Storm is a British brand, so it makes sense for the Nexon to have the colours of the British flag featured in the polycarbonate links in racing stripe form. RRP £109.99

The Una also has patriotic style. These stylish watches can be bought in red, white and blue. £69.99 – £84.99.

Storm also does some great bags for men and women.

And some great jewellery.

Thomas White – Yalla! | Music Review

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In August 2010 Thomas White, after a decade on the road with The Electric Soft Parade, The Brakes and British Sea Power and following the death of his mother, took himself off on holiday. Firstly to Dubai, then onto Egypt. On arrival in Egypt, White realised he didn’t much like it and wasn’t having the time of his life. Fortunately the troubador was armed with an acoustic guitar and a laptop and so spent his days in his documenting backwards a story that has often been; the story of a man somewhere quite drab dreaming of glorious sunshine. White was somewhere beautiful in the sun but was dreaming of home; specifically Brighton in the drabness of autumn. Whatever the circumstances, though, a delicious record came of it.

White’s previous record, The Maximist, was his David Bowie moment, a bombastic stop of glam-punk. Yalla! is White’s Beatles moment. The spirit of Lennon and McCartney run down the spine of this record, as if they were sat in that hotel room in Dahab.  Opening track ‘All The Fallen Leaves’ oozes regret; ‘I’ll See Her Again’ is a tale of lost love that appears to have picked up the baton from Elliott Smith, the same one that was mistakenly picked up by Graham Coxon. ‘The Heavy Sunshine Sound’ is his finest Lennon/McCartney impression with the moods and shades turning from dark to light and back again as quick as his voice moves.

At times White sounds like he’s about to enjoy himself with a big soaring chorus but then he pulls it all back to the bleak; that post-tragedy feeling where life should never be enjoyed again and that any feelings to the contrary are self-indulgent. ‘I’ve Seen the Sunrise’ documents lost love and loneliness but muddles it with the highs and the feeling that all is not lost.

The one criticism of this record is that the pill tastes a little bit dull after 7-8 songs of the same shade. A stunning record but one to be eaten in reasonable sized chunks but if you’re feeling melancholic then pop it on repeat and it’ll soothe your soul.

Throughout Yalla! White seems as homesick-for and rooted in Brighton and his favourite landmarks that he lists, as it is possible to be. He’s a veteran of the music scene there having burst onto the scene aged 17 with the much-hyped Electric Soft Parade and having been around for over a decade and been in more bands than Mike Patton (possible exaggeration), it is easy to think of White as a veteran but at 27 you hope he’s just getting started and has enough melancholy to make a record like Yalla! at least once more.

Spring into Easter Sunday with Lunch at Babylon

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Looking to banish winter blues and summon the spirit of the new season? Head straight to the award-winning Babylon Restaurant at The Roof Gardens in Kensington and treat the whole family to a memorable Easter.

To celebrate Easter Sunday, on the 8th April each guest will be treated to a complimentary Easter bunny rabbit shaped chocolate lollipop from a lucky dip. Each lollipop will have an envelope attached to it where guests will find out if they’re one of the lucky ones to win a fabulous mystery prize. Prizes will include 20% off your next Babylon booking, a year’s Club membership for the Private Members Club on the 6th floor, a VIP table for you and your friends in the Club to name but a few.

The delicious Easter menu offers a selection of favourite roast dishes including tender roasted Pork Belly with Bramley Apple Sauce or mouth-watering Roast Beef. All roast dishes are accompanied by sharing platters of seasonal vegetables and roast potatoes. With a menu bursting with equally enticing starters, vegetarian dishes, and indulgent desserts, the whole family will be catered for this Easter. Kids (and adults too!) will also be able to enjoy a visit from The Roof Garden’s very own magician Easter Bunny as they tuck in to a three course children’s menu priced at only £8.00.

The Babylon menu is priced at £26.00 for two courses and £29.00 for three courses. For reservations please call Babylon on 020 7368 3993 or visit Babylon@roofgardens.virgin.com