Comprising three of the most talented early innovators of West Coast glitch hop - Ed Ma (edIT), Josh Mayer (Ooah / Of Porcelin / PANTyRAiD) and Justin Boreta (NastyWays / Slidecamp) - The Glitch Mob have done for their music in the US what Benga and Skream have achieved for dubstep in the UK.
The timeline is fairly similar too. edIT's first release on Planet Mu in 2004, Crying Over Pros For No Reason, is one of the earliest examples of the genre that now not only saturates the West Coast of Canada and America, but has followers across Europe, Australia, South Africa and beyond.
2007 was probably the year that saw the scene begin to consolidate itself, with a second album from edIT, a classic release from Bassnectar, glitch compilations on Muti Music and Interchill, and the first tunes from Ooah and Boreta. In the Bay Area and LA, edIT, Ooah, Boreta and co-founder Kraddy found themselves touring together to promote their sound.
A string of genre-defining remixes as The Glitch Mob followed, freely shared through their website, and collated in 2009's Crush Mode mixtape. The music had all the bounce of the most beat focused hip-hop, all the bombast of rock, and a tendency towards the epic, layered with g-funk synths and guitar crunches. Last year the departure of Kraddy foreshadowed the release of the collective's first self penned album, Drink the Sea.
The album marked a change. It was geared towards live shows rather than record bags, with pounding drums and a stadium feel. As a DJ, I was disappointed an found many of the tracks to be too similar, but Drink the Sea is loved by many and found the Mob a lot of new fans. Although I couldn't make it to their UK album launch at Koko and January 2011 tour, I heard reports of the live show: three guys fiddling with laptops, that didn't fulfill the promise of the epic music.
When we arrived, Pete Jordan was playing a banging bass set that just about covered all bases imaginable. In front of him sat three sets of Ableton controllers, touch screens and electric drums, all controls facing towards the audience. Where they going to be turned around? They surely wouldn't play with their backs to us?
As the edIT led the Mob onstage, black shirts, white ties, in a cloud of smoke, crowd chanting, the trio leaned over from behind their kit, still facing the audience, to begin sequencing and playing touch-pad synths and effects in full view. This was going to be a live show.
With the "put your hands in the air" sample of the opening track, things had the instant feeling of a stadium rock concert. As hundreds of live hand claps began to punctuate the beats, I couldn't help but feel a tingle up my spine.
While some might question the virtuosity of playing patterns on pre-programmed touch pads, tracks like 'Fortune Days' soon began to really show off edIT and Oaah's deft finger-work, trained through years of vinyl teasing. Meanwhile Boreta was a quiet presence on the left, like the rhythm guitarist of the group, constantly cuing and tweaking. The drums got a frequent battering from all three, adding a strong dynamic to their movement on stage.
The stand out tracks were the classic remixes 'Red Dress On', 'Monday' and 'West Coast Rocks', which really got the whole place popping like it was New Year's Eve. It also gradually became apparent that the 'same sounding' feel of the album tracks actually held the live set together as a thematic progression.
The set culminated in an encore opening with the suitably epic 'Drive it like you stole it' and it was another cover, The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' dedicated to all the "filthy fucking bass lovers out there" that wrapped things up in triumphant style, to a sea of arm, people sitting on each others shoulders and double-time clapping. The Mob's sound is so warm and all encompassing that I don't think anyone really wanted it to end.
On the basis of last night's performance, The Glitch Mob have successful overcome any criticisms leveled at their live show and are all set to be the melodic stadium-rock pin-ups of the glitch-hop world. The real strength of their achievement for me, though, is that unlike Magnetic Man they've managed to do this without compromising an almost entirely instrumental sound.
Having finally understood the context of the Drink the Sea, I'm now looking forward to seeing where they go with the next album.
Full props to Pete Jordan and the Spectrum crew for getting the Mob over here (twice now!). I'd love to see more US acts brought over next year (ill.Gates, Love and Light, Mim0Sa Stephan Jacobs) with support from UK talent like Zen Death Squad, KrossBow, Inaudible, Bobby Tank or William Breakspear. If you're with me, like this!
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...
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.
Based in Brighton and London, Wonkay Records pride themselves on a philosophy of free access - from rawkus parties to their ear pummeling brand of night time and progressive psytrance downloads.
This is the label's second compilation of more downtempo and dubstep flavoured tracks (download WONK#OUT vol.1 here) and I'm really loving the graphics by JOEK.
1. Hermit - Pontain
Surprisingly for Wonkay we're eased in with tranquil flutes and the sound of running water. More Chilled Buddha Vol.78 than Headfuck Bleeps vol.2, but there's a rumble of boneshaking bass lingering there underneath the shuffling percussion. A nice chilled basscape.
2. Duskky - Say You
A seemingly unrelated sample of 'One man went to mow' precedes a menacing bass and rimshot delay intro. It builds around a soulful trip-hop vocal into a slow stomping atmospheric downtempo-breakcore track, laced with static infused piano samples. The track holds tension throughout - one for a pensive mood, albeit with a positive vocal message. "You can be what you wanna be" innit
3. ZenDeathSquad vs Roger - Superman Remix
If you're gonna sample Roger Trout's talk box vocals you can't really fail to bring on the funk. This is classic gfunk-infused glitch-hop with whomping lazer basslines. West Coast sounds from London baby. I hadn't come across these guys before, but I'll be keeping an eye on them from now! With props from ill.Gates and Dov, you can get their debut release from Additech here
4. Bunkle - Curly Fries
Label boss Bunkle weighs in with an industrial stagger, sounding like a drunk production line with a nervous tic, or Ministry trying their hand at dubstep. I'd suggest downloading a full set from this man to get the bigger picture.
5. Kursa - Nanocluster (DEMO)
Despite a promising intro and some good jump up energy going in, I find myself a bit dissapointed by this one. The bass sounds a little too generic in that angry sawing dubstep mode and I don't feel like it really gets anywhere past the first minute and a half. On the other hand, if this was dropped live I can totally see it getting the room bouncing. With some development it could become a stonker.
6. Coda - Pablo
Coda are a live dub / dubstep band who've been breaking up the monotony of this DJ heavy arena for sometime. Upbeat and refreshing two-step breakbeat, swirling synths and bright trombone dropping into an oscillating bassline, dubwise samples and guitar chops with mesmeric ease. It's far too short - gimmie more!
7. Scamp - Frequency
Scattergun drum patterns bubbling with menacing squelches morphing into a slogging elasticated kick drum snare with eirie nightime harmonics underneath. My girlfriend thinks this sounds like robots farting whilst having sex underwater. With samples like "What the fuck are those noises?" this is like a down-tempo mirror for the Dark psy sounds of Wonkay's full on dancefloors releases.
Personal highlights: 1, 3, 6
Overall: It's free - download it for yourself and make your own mind up!
LO Peachi here - Hey hey, been a while and welcome to the end of the summer wind down. Good to see C-Ra last night and reminded me I used to write for a music blog... cobwebs off, here we go!
Top musical highlight for me this summer was checking out Slamboree at Shambala. Although I think SGP is by far the better festival on all fronts, Shambala did serve up this little gem. Pumping dubstep with live acoustics and a crazy amount of circus style things on stage. I did have the pleasure of camping next to them and hearing their rehearsal in the back of their Luton van - sounded great there too. Loads of crazy energy and great fun at 2am. Here's one favourite - but the other free downloads on soundcloud are also good ;-)
The other main highlight was PLAY festival which rocked the juggling festival type genre thingy. Great to have it back on the calender and sporting some of the best shows and workshop selections this side of Chrisendom! Off to Brizzle now for the last juggling fest of the season - back home to the heart of the British Juggling scene....AAAAaahhhhhh!
Here's Slamboree on facewaste... and another blog with a video of them on it. Book these people for next year now...THEY ROCK!
Here's some stuff by their DJ I think - Frear. This is a great free 30mins mix starting with a great sample - very high energy shnizzle ;-)
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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