Archive for the ‘Photo of the Day’ Category
Seoul's Simo & Mood Schula Drop EP of Bass Heavy Beats
Photo credit: Sound On Muzik
Offbeat cowbells? Synth leads? Womp womps? Sounds like a couple of cats in Korea have been feeding their brains the same stuff served in LA.
Producers Simo and Mood Schula are producers from Seoul, Korea, a neighborhood of the world known more for painstakingly pretty boy and girl pop groups. But this music is no tween bait. This month, the duo dropped a release of instrumental heat called Simo & Mood Schula EP, combining the bass heavy beat stylings of Simo with Mood Schula’s slow minimal sound infused with traditional Korean instruments.
You can hear the Simo and Mood Schula’s individual tracks here and here, respectively.
Learn more about the record here.
Bands We Like: Vienna's The Clonious Does Soul Music for Robots
Photo credit: Affine Records
The Clonious is an Austrian making soul music, but it’s been warped beyond recognition. The elements of ‘soul’ have been turned into their robotic equivalent; electronic clones gone haywire. No wonder it takes a helmet made of six headphone cups to make the stuff.
From bouncing two-step beats to slow grooving beats and vocals that experiment one step beyond Jamie Lidell, The Clonious’ tracks are varied. When he’s working with labelmate Cid Rim, the tracks are way upbeat and playful. His most recent tracks are featured on Affine Records What A Fine Mess We’ve Made compilation, but the label’s Souncloud page is littered with gems by The Clonious and other Austrians making this kind of noise, including one Dorian Concept.
Hear some samples from Full Nelson EP below, a collaborative record between The Clonious and Cid Rim that dropped at the end of last year on Affine.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F7060505 Cid Rim vs. The Clonious – Full Nelson EP Preview by affine records
Slideshow> Braids @ SXSW 2011: A Lesson On Why This Stuff Is Called 'Shoegaze'
Photo credit
Montreal must be a dreamy place, seeing that it inspired the ethereal, warm-Sunday-pleasant-mushroom-trip sound of Braids. The Canadian band of four echoed their way onto everyone’s radar last year and built internet hype that exploded at SXSW this year. Subsequent explosions continue as the band remains on the road with electronic mastermind Baths.
Yeah, Baths and Braids. You would think that there’s some kind of quip you could make with those two names, but I’ll just save you the time, there isn’t.
Watch out for Braids, prohpecy states that this is only the beginning of their reign as leaders of the electro shoegaze movement.
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Japanese Producer Kan Sano Releases a Tribute to Northern Japan
One for Northern Japan
Photo credit: Kan Sano/MySpace
We recently introduced you to Japanese producer Kan Sano, who we found through his work with Project: Mooncircle.
A fan of jazz samples, Kan composes his tracks with diced up cuts of the good old stuff, but he’s dopping into a different crate for his tribute to the victims of the earthquake that ravaged Japan in recent days.
His remix of Stevie Wonder’s “You & I” is a sentimental two minute track that borrows liberally from the original song’s melody, laying it over a stuttery, bass-heavy beat.
Kan is the first guy on our radar to drop a track just for Japan, but we know there are lots more where this one came from.
Let us know of tribute tracks that you see popping up in the wake of this disaster.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11932265 YOU AND I (3.11 Remix for Northern Japan) by Kan Sano
New Track from Young Parisian Beatmaker Mr. Bibal
Mr. Bibal
Photo credit: Chillysoul
I seriously thought it was pronounced “Bee-BAL” but according to the little voice emulator clip on the new track by the Parisian producer, it’s “BIB-bull.”
Doesn’t matter, really.
The beat is still nasty.
Bibal is back with a one of track built on J Dilla loving drums and oscillating synths.
The instrumental remix of “Trop Flow” is a sweet beat that you can ease back to. While you bump this on your headphones, dig into some of the old Bibal tunes we told you about.
Remember Ra.
And his more recent collab with vocalist Chiky B.
Hear “Trop Flow” below.
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11775184 Trop Flow (Instrumental Remix) by misterbibal
Montreal Beatmaker Shash'u Makes Us Love Montreal Even More
Young producers we love from Montreal:
Photo credit: Shash'u/MySpace
1. Lunice
3. Shash’u (new!)
This kid spins his sound out of 8bit, dubstep, hip hop, and a general love for jittery-ness. He’s a drummer with a knack for instruments, not that there’s a hint of actual playing in any of his available tracks. Nope, this is pure production, and it’s impeccably done.
Just listen to the snare sound in the track below. It’s like it never ends. And the airy, reverbed sound of a chick singing in French? Dude! Sick.
He’s apparently also a skilled hip hop dancer in the popping and locking realm. If Lunice won us over with his unhinged stage dancing, Shash’u has the potential to make us melt.
You’ve made a great first impression, dude. Give us more!
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F10770242 SHASH’U – MYLÈNE FARMER CALI REMIX by shashu
Odd Future Tear It Up on Jimmy Fallon
Say the name.
An Odd Future awaits us. Photo credit: Bananahill
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All is a name that we will all have memorized pretty soon. Last night, they beamed into the homes of people whose curiosities have been piqued by the buzz, and those who find Jimmy Fallon entertaining and stick around for the musical act. Shock and awe all around.
The duo from Odd Future had Fallon’s house band The Roots playing the grimiest beat they’ve ever played as group leader Tyler the Creator and Hodgy Beats bounded around the smoky stage amongst lawn gnomes and a zombied out girl they likely brought from home. Tyler ender the show with a forced piggy back ride from Fallon.
The crew of 11 underage Angelenos are the next big thing in hip hop of the informed lyrical kind. The flows are evil and cynical, the beats are undeniably LA (think of the regulars at Low End Theory), and the content channels Gravediggaz and the the darkest personas of Kool Keith. Their debut is due out on XL later this year.
As far as the Fallon performance, the question is not “Is Odd Future ready for TV?” Rather it’s “Is TV rea…” you know the rest.
Odd Future on Jimmy Fallon
LA's Mophono Drops "Cut Form Crunch" ft. Flying Lotus
Mohpono+FlyLo=…
Mophono at work. Photo credit: BrooklynRadio.net
When he’s rocking a party playing record after record, he’s DJ Centipede. When he’s creating compositions that fall in line (albeit a squiggly line) with his compatriots at Brainfeeder, call him Mophono.
The LA producer just dropped the title track from his forthcoming album Cut Form Crunch. This little ditty features guest production from Flying Lotus, who gives it some of his signature sounds from space.
This being the only sound we’ve heard from the upcoming full length, it’s hard to say if Mophono has adopted the current sound of LA instrumental hip hop or if he’ll adhere to the breakbeat centered, Blockhead-esque sounds of his earlier work, like his debut I Cry.
Whatever, either way it will be awesome. Hear “Cut Form Crunch” below.
“Cut Form Crunch”
Q&A with Generation Bass' DJ UMB: Bada$$ International Basement Beat Hunter
DJ UMB needs the world as much as the world needs DJ UMB.
DJ UMB. Photo credit: Mikkel Munch Mortensen
The UK selector developed a taste for sounds from musical traditions all over the planet. His life’s work revolves around bringing them together through the universal crunchiness of really raw electronic music.
Along with Vincent Koreman, UMB runs Generation Bass, a blog dedicated to the discovery of electronic music from obscure corners of the globe. The two scour the globe to find artists who make fresh beats in bedrooms and dank basements worldwide. All of that cultural influence finds its way into the mixes compiled by UMB. The newest one is due out in February.
Transnational Dubstep explores the fusion of the cut-time dubstep beat with styles from Japan, India, the Middle East, the Carribean and more. On one track there’s a melancholy bansuri wailing over buzzing synth bass. On the next, cowbells and Latin percussion swing into effect. On the next, bells and violins battle for the sonic foreground. You’d have to be some kind of music scholar to name every instrument in this collection. We caught up with DJ UMB and asked him to shed some light on what it means to be a truly global-minded DJ.
Do you own the bejewelled skull on the cover of Transnational Dubstep?
Transnational Dubstep
Well, I suppose I do now because it’s becoming pretty synonymous with me. It’s owned/created by a fantastic artist called Amy Sarkisian, but I’m going to talk to her about selling the exclusive rights to me. ‘Cause although she created it, in reality I own it. [Laughs]
Go and check out her works here. I just want to point out that she did that skull in 2005 and so it was way before Damien Hirst did it, so who knows, maybe he ripped her off! I’ve used most of her skulls as covers for my “Dubstep Monday” posts on Generation Bass. People were just gobsmacked with the sheer beauty of them. As was I, when I first discovered them.
When the idea for the compilation came about, there was only ever one cover that would do the job. So I tracked her down and convinced her (basically I begged like a dog) to allow me to use it as my cover. I also had to seek her permission to change the color. She agreed ever so gracefully and with full majesty. The original is mint-colored and it’s just as beautiful — but for the album cover, the shade of aqua suited best.
Transnational Dubstep is the most eclectic dubstep mix we’ve ever heard. Where did you find the artists/songs that you included?
Wow, thanks so much, I’m so glad to hear that. Well, I’m one of the most eclectic DJs you’re ever gonna come across. Joking of course.
Most of the artists on the compilation I discovered almost two years ago. Some discovered me, knowing what I was into. Some like Celt Islam, Bandish Projekt and Barbarix I’ve known personally for a longer period. Others were introduced to me by various people in the industry after they heard my mixtapes.
I’ve been into global sounds for as far back as I can remember. There’s just something about music from foreign shores that excites me so much and so I have always been interested in that. I suppose in way, it’s my way of finding my own utopia on this earth through music.
For me as a DJ, I have always found African, Arabic, Indian, Balkan, Latin and Far Eastern sounds far more fascinating. When they’re fused with Western beats, it’s my idea of heaven.
Also for me, it’s like to trying to paint the kind of world I’d like to live in through music — where there is no prejudice, racism or intolerance, and where people take each other for what they are without prejudging on the basis of skin color, ethnic/religious background or nationality. It’s a perfect world for me. I know it sounds a bit hippie, but there isn’t anything wrong with that in my opinion. I just want to live in that kind of world.
What qualities does a song have to have to catch your ear and make it onto one of your mixes?
It just needs to move me in some way — emotionally, mentally, or physically, that’s all.
I think I go for quite melodic stuff with a lot of musicality. Brilliant production also helps, because it needs to sound right and there needs to be sharp clarity within the sound. It also needs to sound different or unique and not generic. I really don’t go for generic stuff unless I’m dropping a mix and a segment of it requires it.
DJ UMB Live. Photo credit: Mikkel Munch Mortensen
I also go for stuff that is not so obvious and less well known because, for me, half of the enjoyment is the discovery and sharing of it. So if it’s plastered all over the Beatport Dubstep Charts or everybody knows it already, then that’s a bit of a turnoff for me and I’m less likely to use it in my mixes or blog about it. That said, I would still play it out.
These days you hear every kind of traditional music mixed with 140 BPM dubstep beats. What do you think it is about dubstep that makes it meld so well with other styles?
Dubstep just seems to have the space to allow that cross-pollination to occur. Like house music, it just seems able to adapt itself to most things and that’s why I love it so much. It can meld itself with pop, global roots, reggae, soul, rock, punk, funk, and so on. It just has that magic ability to mutate itself without losing its essence.
There are many divided camps on the scene, all vying for the dubstep title. I feel that is a bit of a shame because dubstep is all of those things, but they don’t seem to be able to understand that. Sadly, like politics and religion, music can also be divisive too, and so you get neo-fascists and elitists in music too.
We try to avoid that on the blog because we just wanna chronicle what we feel is great music and give everybody a platform and not choose any sides.
NEXT: The scene in India imploded…
Bands We Like: Bruno Belluomini's Sao Paolo Dubstep Movement
DJ Bruno Belluomini listening hard. Photo credit: Tranquera.org
I’m a little rusty on my Brazilian Portuguese (all I have are “picanha” and “obrigado”), so much of the text on DJ Bruno Belluomini’s garishly colored website didn’t bless me with a history lesson. The one portion in English bore the heading “Dubstep’s Gone Global.” Interesting. We’ve written extensively on why this statement is true, and Bruno Belluomini is the man driving the effort in Sao Paolo.
I went for the music player and allowed my headphones to do the rest of the talking. Bruno remembers, like many dubstep DJs do, that a drum n’ bass break sounds great over the half time dubstep beat. In fact, precursors to the dubstep style were often infused with the sped up break associated with dn’b. His live mix from this past summer’s Tranquera party is packed with variations on this combination. His track picks are dark as hell, and the set reflects it. To contrast, you can hear the crowd in the background, and they sound pleased.
Bruno has been holding it down in Sao Paolo for quite some time as a producer and a DJ. He and the artists in the Tranquera collective that are pushing the bounds of electronic music in a part of the world that has a ton of great musical traditions. If you’re in Sao Paolo, go to the next Tranquera party. If you’re not, listen to the mix below, close your eyes and pretend you’re there. Be shocked when you suddenly realize you’re still sitting at your desk.
Bruno Belluomini’s live mix at Tranquera
http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F4129162&show_comments=false&color=ff0099Live At Tranquera 2010 June 4th by belluomini
Read about other artists globalizing the dubstep sound.
Powow Step Originators A Tribe Called Red Drop “Red Skin Girl”
