Easy now - Upstart here for the first time in loooongtimes. I'll blame a lack of internets during my time in Berlin, but really it's just chronic laziness. Still, despite not having posted here for a couple of months, I've been snuffling away for musical truffles like a big metaphorical piggy.
But I think rather than bore you all with my lukewarm banter, I'm just going to crack on with the bangers.
First up:
Stumbled upon this massive banger while out in Berlin: IMF by Terry Lynn
This for me is the biggest tune I've heard this year, so imagine my surprise when I found out the album came out in 2008! If you can already see me goggle-eyed and amazed, imagine my further surprise when I found out as I was writing this post that THE WHOLE ALBUM IS AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD.
Yes, that's right, I'm shouting, partly because it's phenomenally awesome and partly because I need to distract my work colleagues from the fact that I need to change my trousers now...
Ahem... moving swiftly on, next up is Bust a Fuze from southern UK's mysterious mastermind WBBL. Crank up your bass cannons in advance:
Hells yea.
If your neck is not yet broken from nine minutes of ferocious bouncing, wrap your lugholes around this - Benji Boko's mahoosive remix of Roots Manuva classic, Witness:
This tune is coming out on Benji Boko's Remix album, released (I believe for free, it's actually a little unclear) on the 28th of May, which is this Monday. Get updates by signing up for Benji's newsletter, here: http://eepurl.com/dfGIU
Ready for another bassy funkgasm? Spark up a fat one for DJ Voita, Mr Cocoman and The Solid Vibes:
I think that's what they're asking for anyway...
So one last bouncy tune before I steer back towards MusicalMana-licensed genres - gird up your swing pants and wiggle to this little gem from Kid Kasino:
I'm finding it harder to track down Glitch Hop and Glitch that really floats my boat at the moment - lots that I'm hearing recently just sounds like a re-hash of the Glitch Mob or Koan Sound... Having said that, Mouldy Soul, in my opinion, never fails to crank out the bangers.
Chilled it may be, but don't underestimate The Harangu:
And now, the dubstep. Whether you are a Skrillex-hater, a Skrillex-lover, or downright Skrillex-agnostic, this beat from Skullee is BRUTAL:
So that's it from me, aside from a resolution to post more often! And now, before I get in trouble with MoM, here's a picture of a fish:
ill-esha's first album, Circadian Rhythms (above) was a real grower for me and stayed playlisted for a long long time. The latest release this summer on Muti Music, Reverie, has been no different - it just keeps getting better! Her sound is really organic, with some kinda bass soul. She just makes damn good music. Check out the samples below and Get the album!
Full tracklist Reverie (Muti Music)
1. Sidewalk Chalk 4:56
2. Retrospect 3:57
3. 33 and a Third feat. Joe Mousepad 4:21
4. The Golden Mean 4:53
5. Iron Waterfall 5:18
6. Pretty Banger 4:46
7. Slide Over 5:39
Recent banger with Opiuo
Here's a nice bunch of remixes that always go down well too...
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.
Friday lunchtime I saw the Fabric line up for the Scratch Perverts Beatdown on Friday night. One name stood out above all others... BASSNECTAR! What the fuck was he doing in London? Why did no-one tell me? Why did I not tell me? I can't remember the last time he was here, I just know that I have a 2006 promo my housemate gave me from a Freq Nasty night she can't remember if he played at. And that's been it for years...
After getting the news I went straight to Lorin's tour blog to find out:
"Hello Bass Heads!
"I remember years ago, the thought of playing a show in Europe felt like a Pilgrimage. When my agent started sending me to places like Arkansas on a Teusday and Tennessee on a Wednesday, I threw a fit. In my mind electronic music belonged in international meccas of prestige like London, Paris, Tokyo, New York. Not random spots in middle America where nobody even listens to electronic music.
"But after a lot of international touring in 2002 and 2003 I had lost interest in an unlimited scope of travel, and I wanted to focus on building a deeper, more fanatic network locally. I began gravitating towards the idea of bringing the music to places where it did not exist previously, and kind of forging a path for bass music here in the states.
"This was after the rave scene of the 1990′s had dissolved (or been extinguished) and I never expected to find such open arms scattered in essentially every American town I visited. So now after over 10 years of hardcore touring stateside, the number of bass heads is larger and more intense than I ever would have imagined. The shows are beyond a ‘rave’ and something more like an experience, and I am utterly stunned and grateful to continue taking this space ship deeper and deeper into the unkown.
"But we figured, why not go back to Europe… I haven’t played in London since a night with Freq Nasty back in 2004 (or 2003?) since the schedule over here got so jam-packed.
"This is exciting for several reasons; in part because it is a chance to explore fresh ears, and to delve much deeper into both the CLASSICs in my record box, and the baaaaangers that i have been rinsing over here. But also some of the shows over there are a whole different ball game… tiny-ass little rooms like I used to play regularly on stateside tours years and years ago.
"While I do not mind the huge venues and huge stages over here, I do miss the impeccable freakishness of a low ceiling and a room, a bat-shit crazy crowd bouncing off the walls, and the feeling of borderline panic as the room appears to burst at the seams."
He certainly got what he wanted at Fabric. By the time I managed to get in Bassnectar's set had just started and Room 1 was packed to the max and bouncing to the ceiling. As we fought to the bar the tunes were on the lighter side of things, switching between glitch-hop and mid tempo breaks or d'n'b and a wicked reggae vocal tune I didn't recognise. As the set developed, so did the bottom end, and by the time we'd squeezed our way into the centre of the room he was dropping dubstep-eque bass slabs from Wildstyle, Cozza Frenzy and Timecode.
The crowd, the majority of whom like me had never seen (or in a lot of cases heard) this before, were mad for it. To see Lorin on the decks is an experience in itself. He's an animal, bouncing around with his straight long hair hanging down over his face and the occasional shouts on the mic of 'London lemme see you go wild!". Technically he really uses the tempo controls to full effect, with beats of different styles mashing into each other seamlessly and getting through tunes at a pretty epic pace - his own brand of omni-tempo maximalism in full effect!
It was when Lorin dropped the remix of Metallica's Seek and Destroy that the place really went nuts though. The dancefloor exploded into a full on mosh pit frenzy with the raw testosterone force of the metal / dubstep combo awakening some kinda primal urge in the club's under 25 male population. Personally I've never much enjoyed moshing in clubs, I used to go to metal and punk gigs for that, but the craziness kicking off was testament to the energy in the room. I didn't even mind the split lip.
The mosh-bass frenzy continued for another 20 odd minutes before spitting us back out into the realms of more danceable downtempo broken beats and bubbling squelchy bass from Cozza Frenzy and Underground Communication. With no Andy C in sight Lorin got to drop one more old classic before shaking as many hands as possible and disappearing to leave many wondering exactly what just happened.
The tour played Birmingham last night, but if you're lucky enough to live anywhere near Sheffield, Manchester, Cardiff or Dublin there's still time to catch him in the UK.
Opiuo is bar far the biggest and funkiest thing to happen to glitch-hop in 2010. With a prolific flurry of releases throughout the year, his funky, chunky, beautifully produced beats, squelchy synths and elastic bass have taken a genre that's recently become bogged down in dubstep-inspired bass swamps and simply put the good times bounce back in it. And it's infectious - almost every music head I know seems to have Opiuo, whether one of the two EPs or the album! The kiwi's got there first of course...
I first came across Opiuo last year via the killa tune King Prawn on An-ten-nae's seminal Acid Crunk Vol.2 compliation (Acid Crunk Vol.3 is just out btw) and it's been in my playlist ever since. I somehow missed the Boganus Proteinius EP, but picked up the awesome Slurp and Giggle album that came out in July a few months ago.
Hi, Peachi here - with just a quicky really. Follow the link below to a nice mix by DJ Gamma of a load of Dubstep remixes of a few tracks that you will be familiar with. OK its a bit cheesy in places (e.g. Lady Gaga and Cold Play) but there are a few corkers in there like the following (my favourites):
Delerium - SIlence (High Rankin & Evolve or Die Rmx) ANS - Voltage DJ Fresh - Gold Dust (Flux Pavillion Rmx) The Moody Blues - White Satin (Zeds Dead Rmx)
But by far the best is the first track - which is Bassnectar'a remix of Magical World ft Nelly Furtado - love it! ....enjoy!
But you decide for yourself... and just notice how much meatier these tracks sound with a big whomp whomp bass treatment... nice and Phat (bit like DJ Morbjit...but not as short... or morbidly depressed about it!)
Go to DJ Gammas Music page of his website here for more mixes... good luck, not tested them myself yet!!
Here's the track listing for - These are the Days:
Bassnectar - Magical WOrld ft Nelly Furtado Lady Gaga - Alejandro (Rusko's Papuseria Rmx) The Boogaloo - Days Go By Delerium - SIlence (High Rankin & Evolve or Die Rmx) ANS - Voltage DJ Fresh - Gold Dust (Flux Pavillion Rmx) MGMT - Kids (Datsik Rmx) Goldhawks - Keep the Fire (Bar9 Rmx) Nero - Innocence The Pixies - Where is my Mind (Bassnecatar Rmx) Pendulum - Set me on Fire The Moody Blues - White Satin (Zeds Dead Rmx) Cold Play - Fix You (Datsik Rmx) Orbital Tribute (Notation Dubsteppin boot) Matisyahu - One Day (CASSETTi Rmx)
Big thanks to OscarR for his heads up to this on Face Waste.... last seen rocking the pimp hat at Southern Lights 2010 ;)
MMMMmmmmm fancy dress train smash wonder... nice concentration face too ;)
So upfront, I have a confession to make. A few months on and I'm actually slightly disappointed by the Glitch Mob's debut 'Drink the Sea'. This is not too say that's it's bad. In fact if you're only going to read this part of this review, buy the album, it's well worth it! As stand alone tracks they're beautifully produced and there's plenty of those sharp hooks, tonk beats and enough bounce to get your arms swinging like you're really throwin' it down (see We Swarm below).
So what's my gripe? Well maybe I've kinda built it up to much in anticipation - eDit and Oaah have long been two of my favourite whomp and glitch-hop producers and I've always liked what I've heard from Boreta.
Drink the Sea certainly solidifies the Glitch Mob's sound, but for me the downside is that too many of the tracks sound a bit too similar and use many of the same tricks as the epic remixes with which they made their name. While this means that the album holds together in terms of cohesive sound, I get the same emotion from every track. They're occasionally a bit slow and overly epic (rock drums, Gfunk synths and guitars), without enough of those really poppin beats, glitches and deep whomp that make the individual artist's work so godamn addictive. This may be partly explained due to a slight void in the heavy crunk department, left by the departure of Kraddy not long before release, or a desire for album to be realised by a live band, as Lowri points out in this review.
THE COMPETITION
Anyway, one way to get me really excited about an album again is to put out a bunch of sick remixes (see Freestylers' Raw a Fuck, Deekline and Wizard's last effort and Freeland's Cope).
Eskmo's chop up of Fistful of Silence is a case in point:
Full props to The Glitch Mob boys for putting the next one out to tender with an open invite to remix another of the stand out tracks, Drive It Like You Stole It. The prizes are many, the deadline is 20 August, all stems are available up on the site and there's already some sick entries. So let's see some of you bass heads steal this mix and put some proper breaking crunk funk in it!
For non-producers you can grab a lot of this tasty shit for free. Having had a listen to a few I'd recommend Mirko-Kosmos (sick!), Matty B (different), Technobears' Redux and the self explanatory Funkadhesive Remix.
Inspired by our posts on this blog and our shared love of the artists and music we feature on it, Peachi and I are trying to get a podcast off the ground under the monicker of Radio Ra.
So far we've only managed a few sketchy pilots as we attempt to get our heads round the technical side of things. The first attempts at a joint podcast took place in Nottingham a few months ago, but were hampered by technical issues and far too much alcohol.
Since then Peachi's had a go at a some more sober solo shows and I recorded my first attempt at a pilot using my spanking new Reloop Digital Jockey 2 mp3 controller last night. I've only used the kit a few times so far so there are a few glitches, in particular a rather obvious technical fail at the end - *must* remember to plug laptop in next time - but mainly there's a whole bunch of fat bass heavy tunes that rock my world right now. Enjoy!
PLEASE NOTE: The views expressed in this recording are entirely my own and most likely wrong. No facts were verified in the making of this podcast, so believe what I say at your own peril!
Shilo from DANCEFEVER5000 recently sent me this info about Lucent L’amour, a Valentine's Day music and art festival on February 13 at the Shrine Expo Hall in downtown LA. It looks sick so I've offered to post here since so many hits seem to come from stateside and I'm jealous...
MUSIC: The festival is presented by The Do LaB, one of the premier Burner tribes in Los Angeles, known for throwing fat parties with eclectic lineups and colossal bass. This year’s Lucent L’amour festival has two stages and a keen selection of beautiful beats on the lineup. Both big names and critically acclaimed artists will provide a rousing night of fresh beats for the crowd: Bassnectar, N.A.S.A, Stanton Warriors, Yard Dogs Road Show, Lucent Dossier Experience, Beats Antique, Lazer Sword, Lynx & Janover and Patricio.
ART: Visual arts go hand in hand with music at Lucent L’amour, and you will find a stimulating feast for your eyes all throughout the festival. In addition to a huge art gallery curated by Mike Russek and Deborah Vogt featuring the work of dozens and dozens of artists, we will have a live mural painting by The Mac and Retna as well as a silent art auction, with proceeds going towards the purchase of music and art supplies for under-funded schools. Capping it off is the avant-garde electroart of Andrew Jones, whose inspired creations resonate with the West Coast electronic music community like beats rolling out of a bass bin.
SELF-EXPRESSION: Lucent L’amour promises to create a collision of music, art and creative self-expression. The festival is not a series of performances or a show, but rather an interactive art event where everyone becomes part of the experience, immersed together in one fantastic night of revelry. Come as you are, or deck yourself out in colorful and romantic attire: petticoats, corsets, zoot suits, ruffled parasols, purple polka dot knickers, feathered top hats, green corduroys, striped stockings, and sequined boots- or all of the above.
Mashing up breaks, d'n'b, reggae, dubstep and glitch-hop in his own genre and tempo defying style, Bassnectar rules. I have very little else to say on the matter except that you NEED this mixtape like you need bass to breath...
I'll leave the rest to the man himself:
Welcome to another Bassnectar Transmission.
This episode is 44 minutes and 25 seconds of 10th-generation genre-re-wiring, exploring bass music through an open-minded lens, regardless of tempo, or even beat-structure… this sound clash aims straight for your body, with the intent to melt you down into a fidgeting, wobbling mess of enthusiasm and delight. In addition to some of my favorite old records and samples, this mix features several brand new Bassnectar tracks, heaps of exclusive edits, re-edits, and re-re-re-edits. Lot’s of re. Lot’s of mix. Lot’s of edits. We tore our favorite drum & bass to shreds, injected hip hop with some pogo-stick bass, amped up the tempo of dubstep, freaked out the gypsies, gave a nod to the dreamy 80’s and ended up similar to where we started off: omni-tempo maximalism strikes again.
1. Azzido Da Bass - Doom’s Night (Timo Maas vs Bassnectar) 2. Bassnectar - Cozza Frenzy (Mega Bass Mix) 3. Rye Rye - Bang feat. MIA [aca] 4. S.C.A.M. - Let Me Hear You Say 5. Stagga – I Got Bass 6. Seductive Dubz - Hey! 7. Caravan Palace - Starscat 8. AAK & Double Step - (Bassnectar Edit) 9. Bassnectar - Boombox (Bassnectar Remix) 10. The Pixies - Where is My Mind? (Bassnectar Remix) 11. Nextmen - The Lion’s Den (Sigma vs Bassnectar) 12. Zen - Your Shout ft. Killabeats & Gry (Bassnectar Re-edit) 13. Bassnectar - Teleport Massive (Bassnectar Remix) 14. Bassnectar - Slam Dunk feat. Dunkelbunt 15. Bazznectar Medley - Tears for Modern English Masher 16. Damian Marley - It Was Written (Chasing Shadows Remix) 17. Kid Cudi - Day & Night (JOTS vs Crowdrock vs Bassnectar) 18. Malente & Dex - Lions (Bassnectar & iLL Gates Remix)
So when glitch-hop first crunked on my ears in 2007 one of the big names that stood out for me was Vibesquad (aka. Aaron Holstein). I didn't realise at the time that he'd only dropped the first Vibequad live set at Symbiosis Gathering the year before, but along with Tipper, Ooah, Edit and Bassnectar he's certainly been one of the producers that's led the way for the new west coast dubsteppy flavoured bass sound.
"When Aaron isn’t playing bass/keys/vox/efx for Boulder Colorado’s all improv-breakz-d-tempo-ecclectica band ZILLA or SPORQUE (w/Ooah & Jamie Janover) he is hard at work makin the electr0-crunk-gnasty-gooey-dancefloor-throbberz and 3rd eye squeegeeing d-tempo-dub-psy-hopperz"
Whether making crunk style glitchhop or psy-dub, Vibesquad's production is just right - a tight reigned wobble rather than an over-excited over-simplified bassline, with plenty of intricate psycedelic high end arpeggios over the top to keep those synapses twinkling. He's recently put up two mixsets on his shiny new website - get your ears around these for a full flavour.
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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