So, following a 2011 UK tour from Bassnectar (the first in 7 years), The Glitch Mob also return to the UK this weekend. With dubstep getting ever more US sounding (Flux Pavillion, Doctor P), a jaw dropping EP from Zen Death Squad this summer (pictured above) and an amazing forthcoming tune from Koan Sound on Zane Lowe's playlist this week, the time feels ripe for UK Glitch Hop to blow up in 2012.
On this tip I've started a UK Glitch Hop Facebook page to help you keep track of events and releases, as well as keeping everyone else posted with what you're up to (Like Like Like). According to Facebook there's over 30,000 of us in the UK who like US glitch hop acts, so lets get behind our home-grown talent as well. They fucking bounce! Here's a guide to what's out there at the moment...
Released today, here's a sample of that literal Funk Blaster from Bristol's Koan Sound: Funk Blaster by KOAN Sound
With heavy props from the likes of ill.Gates, Ben Samples and Muti Music boss Dov, this is my EP of the year so far from London's Zen Death Squad. They've just completed a US tour and have a new release on the boil. Cyber Dojo Lazer Training EP by Zen Death Squad
Bigup the originator - Dave Tipper is one of the artists that got this whole thing started and probably the first person I ever heard playing glitch hop in the UK
The first DJ I ever heard smashing balls of lazer crunk across UK dancefloors was Your Niece. He opened for Bassnectar at Secret Garden Party this year and blew the Colisillium apart Your Niece - Headshot Masterclass by Your Niece
I seem to remember Vent from London making heavy ass dubstep smashers, but they've recently co-produced a sick track with ill.gates and Opiuo and released more mid-tempo wobble through Colony Productions Ill.gates + Opiuo + VENT - Trillogy by VENT
Orangudan in Worcester has been smashing out the wobble and mid-tempo for some time NippleRash by Orangudan
On the mid-tempo / electro side of things there's a very tasty producer coming on in Guildford called WBBL Wbbl Up Here by WBBL
Also down in Bristol DJ Parker is rather partial to a bit of glitch-hop. Although I've not yet heard a full glicthed out release from him it can only be a matter of time (nudge nudge, hint hint) Parker - The Monkey Butler Did It...Mix by Parker*
So I've been travelling Europe for the last five months making streetshows - apologies for the silence on the music front... Now I'm back, I'm busily trying to catch up with everything I've missed.
Straight to number one on my list of BOOM TUNES is 'Slay It' from Cryptex's new EP, 'Isolated Incidents' available for download now (http://www.addictech.com/p/83125):
Smooth symphonic intro drops into HEAVY oscillator glitch... I freakin' love it!!
Next up, another new release, this time a collab between basically all my favourite artists: Aussie electronic rockstars Blunt Instrument and US glitch powerhouses Love and Light. This tune is off the brand spanking new EP 'Reheated and Remixed' and it's called 'Simmering Beans Gently for Pauly':
It's a mashup of tunes from Blunt Instrument's recent EP 'Twice Baked' - 'Simmering Gently' and 'Beans for Pauly', with some serious Love and Light crunk juice to spice up the mix. Get the full EP here (http://www.beatport.com/release/reheated-and-remixed/817976)
And finally, a cheeky hiphop curveball for all you electronic heads out there - I sniffed this out while I was travelling and didn't get to listen to it for a while, and since then it's really grown on me to break into my 'most listened' tracklist:
After yearning to to check out the West Coast bass music scene since 2007, this year, with clearance from work and a willingness to plunder my savings, I finally made it to Burning Man with D-ra.The theme was Rites of Passage and this certainly was a pilgrimage for me.
Burning Man takes planning. This is a desert festival based on radical self reliance in a currency free environment, not an English country garden with overpriced food stalls and potable water on tap. For more details check out the survival guide.
Getting to Black Rock City is all part of the experience. Stories of broken down RVs and hours spent waiting for a lift from Reno are common. We flew out to San Francisco and found an eco-bus traveling from Santa Rosa (using this brilliant new ride-share site) so had a fairly easy ride of it - until at about 10pm Sunday night we hit the most epic queue of tail lights you've ever seen. Even so, were one of the earliest to arrive on site and it was quite an experience to feel the city fill up around us.
Our base for the week was with the Pink Heart at the prima-playa real estate of 9.30 Esplanade. We couldn't have chosen a nicer camp to stay in or a better way to connect with others on the playa. As well as providing shelter from the sun and pink fluffy sofas for tired limbs, we were giving out Coconut Bliss ice cream and ice cold cucumber water to all who came.
Black Rock City (click on map above) is vast and full of distractions. The best analogy I can think of in terms of size is Glastonbury Festival, where it takes hours to get between stages. It's nothing like the muddy crush of densely packed bodies bogged down in drizzle though. With a vast open space between the two sides of the city and day-time temperatures of up to 50 C, it's the complete opposite.
The best piece of advice anyone gave me before we went is to get a bike. Without one you're either gonna spend your days trekking epic distances on foot or remain slave to the whims of mutant vehicle drivers as they meander across the playa at random. We had ours actually delivered to the Playa by the guys at Re-Cycle.
The other way to travel in style is to catch rides on mutant vehicles. These DIY art projects bring the mad max flavour to the festival and for me were one of the real creative highlights of the week Many take nautical or animal themes, but there's all kinds of craziness out there. You often only glimpse them emerging from dust clouds or far in the distance, somewhere out there on the borders of mirage and reality. At night they're lit up with EL wire and fairy lights, as are all the bikes and people (you don't wanna be a dark-wad and get run over).
After a day of settling in, we kicked off the party on Tutu Tuesday at Distrikt with M.A.N.D.Y. and Lee Combs. It's all about Distrikt for the daytime party. Set deep in the suburbs of 9 and Funeral, the system fires up at about 11am when it's got too hot for anyone in a tent to sleep anyway. This is the Ibiza beach party of the playa, albeit with a more steampunk disco feel. It reminds me of the daytime Origin Stage at Glade or Funky Beach at Boom - good time vibes, beautiful, semi-clothed people and pumping progressive house building into tech funk as the dusk draws in.
My favourite moment came later in the week when a group of Santas and their elves started to infiltrate the crowd around the rig. Before we knew it the dance-floor was being pelted with snowballs.
Later that evening the city came to life. With sound the main sound camps still pretty muted, we decided to jump on the first art car that came our way and ended up all the way out on Liminal at the edges of the city for a game of glo-frisbee. A few more cars took us via a few artworks to the Man, the Temple - a most beautiful, peaceful building that would look quite at home in the Alhambra - and eventually across to the purple geodesic shapes of Disorient at 2 o'clock and Esplanade.
I'd been told that one of the best places to see the sun come up is the legendary Robot Heart, a colossal mobile rig on the back of a truck, which we found somewhere out past the temple playing deep house and funky progressive techno.
By Wednesday I'd managed to find someone with a music line-up (thanks to the RockStarLibrarian) to scour for set times. One of the first must sees on my list was Stephan Jacobs, who I caught at Dub Scouts that night. It was like heaven to finally be submersed in some proper interesting bass and his set was right on point. Stephan is by far one of my favourite producers at the moment and has just dropped this sweet new EP on Simplify.
Next up was Sugarpill at Basscamp's Temple of Boom, on the corner of 10 and Esplanade, surrounded by glowing mutant vehicles an open to lasers stretching across the playa from other stages. I've been aware Sugarpill via our blogs for about 3 years, watching him progress to become a very exciting producer, so it was a great pleasure to see him play such a good set.
Sugarpill was followed by another of my 'must sees', local lads Love and Light from Reno. Alongside Opiuo these guys have been behind a funkier, squelchier bouncing glitch-hop in the last two years and their set really carried that energy, with girls and guys that had previously been lost in their own bassheads dancing together with the funk.
ill.gates kept the tempo up, bringing in some more ragga stylings and varied beats. Going for some kinda playa record, this animal played over 30 times throughout the week, visiting just about every sound camp, so I dipped in and out quite a few of his sets which between them covered just about every kind of bass music. A true innovator, he's just dropped his first full length album since 2008, The ill.Methodology.
I was woken up by some friends Thursday afternoon and headed back to Distrikt via a mojito bar built above an old school bus. On the way back we found the notorious snack food glory hole and thankfully avoided any complimentary cock.
Thursday night was Muti Music showcase at The Do Lab'sFractal Nation Village over at 2 and Graduation. The combination of Muti Music's Clipping Paths compilation and Fractal Nation's art dome coming to Boom and Glade in 2007/2008 are what led me towards a love of the West Coast bass scene in the first place. Now I was finally here!
After the Burning Man regional effigies around the man were burnt I headed over via a Beats Antique DJ set at HookahDome (more on them later), arriving in time to catch Heyoka perfectly setting the scene with some squelchy psychedila, whilst I caught up with my fire dancer friends at the back.
It was Mimosa that I was really itching to see though and I made my way to the front. He's been a favourite for a long time and his 2009 Burning Man mix had a hell of a lot to live up to. Thankfully he delivered. The set co-incided with a pyronaughts fire-show on The Do Lab stage, which really picked up the atmosphere, even if the people standing gawping with their mouths open did kinda dampened the dancing. It was going off on front of the DJ booth as Tigran played a set that spanned more club style hip hop remixes, classic Mimosa, some amazing tune with steel drums, and the newer d'n'b dubstep of the likes of Block Party. I got totally lost in it.
Tigran was followed by label boss Dov who played another wicked set through the full Muti Music repertoire of glitch-hop, dubstep and drumstep. We left while Freq Nasty was blowing the roof off with his own flavour of energetic dubstep.
Friday night a giant Trojan horse was dragged out into the middle of the playa by volunteer slaves. Gradually all the art cars parked up around it, sound systems blasting, jetting fire and spilling people to create the atmosphere of a mad max cruise cum space age carnival
It seemed like most of the crowd joined me in heading to the Fractal Nation Village again to see Beats Antique playing their full live set. This is quite the playa event. The place was so packed that I decided to hang out behind the mixing desk where there was space to dance with all the sound quality afforded to the legendary Monkey King at the controls. As a result I didn't see much of Zoe Jakes bellydancing, but the tunes were good and we had a loads fun.
Not interested in David Starfire ("he was just a wanker anyway", reports our Musical Mana correspondent) we split over to the Hookahdome to catch the end of Dulce Vita's dubstep set and to see Knowa Knowone, another target on the list. Due to some kinda tech issue that prevented clean switch-overs the crowd had completely disappeared by the start of Knowa's set. As he eased us into his glitched out percussive beats more and more people drifted toward the torchlight patch of dust, until by the end a very happy crowd were popping and swaying to Knowa's conscious sounds. Someone very kindly lent me some fire poi for my only voluntary spin of the week, finishing just as the technical hitch kicked in again. I went to have a chat to Knowa afterwards and he's a real lovely guy. Did you know he was at Secret Garden Party last year? Neither did I, but I hope he comes back!
After riding and dancing on a few art cars that were cruising up and down the strip at 2, we set off on foot into the deep playa for sunrise. Halfway across we found a Hawain hog roast BBQ going on!
I made it to Robot Heart just after sun-up to find a load of our mates for a magical morning in the hands of Lee Burridge. Sunshine out grooves, beautiful smiling people, girls in cages dangling off a crane, crazy art cars, amazing outfits and plenty of booty shakin'.
After dancing our fill we retired to the bar at Nexus, where Treavor Moontribe was playing some funky and floaty Opiuo laden glitch-hop. I think I reached the point where I was to drunk to stand, or climb the dome, around the time Nanda came on.
We didn't wake till Sat eve - just in time to rock the conclave with the Fireworks Collective before the man burnt. Hungover and drained, we went back to bed straight after, not waking up till just before dawn to see the sun come up from the temple. After exploring some art as far out as we could walk, we went back to pack up camp before watching the temple burn.
This review doesn't even come close to capturing the crazy scale of everything that happens at Burning Man. If you've not been yet, just do it and don't worry too much about catching all the DJ's you wanna see (I never got to see Opiuo, Samples, Sub Swara, Guttstar, Gladkill, Chris B, Mikhal and many more). Just go with the flow and don't get stuck on the sound camps. Make sure you make the time to explore all the art properly and to bimble through the weird and wonderful world of the suburbs - that's where the experience really lies.
Mana - A supernatural force believed to dwell in a person or sacred object.
Since December 2008, Musical Mana has been serving up fresh mixtapes and tunes for your enjoyment. It's all about sampling new music for free, so that you find the tunes, DJs, producers and nights for your future.
Tastes are predominantly underground electronica with heavy bass, funked up grooves and interesting sounds - glitch-hop, dubstep, future bass, breaks, electro, IDM, progressive trance, tech funk, wonky techno and soothing down tempo grooves.
Please get in touch if you've got something that you want to share -> chrisduballstar at google mail dot com
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