Whomptronica

Plastic Thumbs Boardrider mixtape slays your face!

2010-07-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I really, really wish I had a time machine, so these guys could play my Bar Mitzvah

Plastic Thumbs, a criminally underhyped DJ duo from the UK, have just dropped their fourth mixtape, and it's a whomper! Their last three have all been classics, you can check them all on their soundcloud.

The Plastic Thumbs sound is a fresh mash of classic ragga party jams, big whompy basslines, and extra crunky beats running the gamut from dancehall to b-more to baile to bashment. Their sets are constantly accelerating tornados of crunky, sassy, lose-your-shit party music.

There's obviously a wealth of collective DJ experience between these two. Their craftsmanship as DJs is masterful. A thick, delicious undercurrent of cheeky juxtapositions runs throughout their work, like a fudge ripple in Ben-n-Jerry's. I don't wanna ruin anything for you guys, but there's a point where he drops "WHOOMP! THERE IT IS" over sped-up Major Lazer and then moves right into a Drop The Lime followed by Luda. No tracklist, just get into it!

Boardrider & Insight 51 Mixtape by Plastic Thumbs

Lowriders Collective Mixtape 006 by DOSHY

2010-07-01T12:40:00.000-07:00

Best thing yet today (so far)!

Lowriders Collective brings into the world the sixth installment of their mixtape series, curated by Doshy (mysp/soundcld), who is one of my new favorite berliners. While they categorize it (at least in their blog) as 'dubstep', the reason I'm taking the time to write about this is that it's emphatically not dubstep. It's lush, ebullient future-crunk lazerbass. The kind of stuff that makes your hip hop friends go "Yo, who did this beat!? Shit is fucked up!" Certified next level bastard grand child of techno and hiphop. If you like Lazer Sword, EPROM, or the way you felt when you first heard glitch mob like 3 years ago, then dive right in.

Get the mix HERE,

tracklist plagiarized below:

1. Intro

2. Elecktroids - Thermo science(Edit) (Warp)

3. Monky - Miss(Demo) (Dub)

4. Girl Unit - Shade on (Night Slugs)

5. NastyNasty - Damn Girl (Dub)

6. Eprom - Sweatboxxx (Dub)

7. Mensah - Pulse 80 (Hench)

8. lakritze - Adama(Doshy Remix) (forth. Robox Neotech)

9. Doshy - Scatter (forth. Robox Neotech)

10. Slugabed - Take off (Kuedo Remix) (Dub)

11. Jagged Edge - Tip of My Tongue(instr.) (???)

12. Demokracy - Starheaven (Dub)

13. V.I.C - Wobble(Lunice Ass Wobble Edit) (Low Bass Vol.1)

14. Hovatron - Super Soaker (Dub)

15. Eprom - Boubles (Lsd)

16. Superman - high (instrEdit) (Dub)

17. Powell - 1234 (forth. Robox Neotech)

18. Doshy - Blub(Demo) (Dub)

19. Goldzilla - Goldzilla (Edit) (Dub)

20. Doshy&TheUnik - Meeting (MyanmarEdit) (Dub)

21. New Boys - Jerk (instr.Edit) (Dub)

22. Doshy - Worms(BadYeahEdit/Demo) (Dub)

23. Demokracy - Zone (forth. Robox Neotech)

24. HALP - Leek(Doshy Remix) (forth. Seclusiasis)

25. NastyNasty - New York Legs (Dub)

26. Zet. - Modhunter (forth. Robox Neotech)

27. Guido - Mad Sax (Punch Drunk)

BONUS:
Another mix from Doshy's soundcloud, also chock full of bleepy goodness
DoshyCluBmiX2009 by doshy

Check out some of these next-level animated-gif flyers from Doshy's myspace - serious cinema in a seriously tiny format:

Shuttle, The Captain, Jubilee playing HiFi Cartel 1-Year

2010-06-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

the motherfucking ORION NEBULA

Y'all should go RSVP yo ass to The HiFi Cartel One Year Anniversary Party, cuz it's TOMORROW, it's FREE, and The Captain ( T&B) and Jubilee (Nightshifters/Flashing Lights) are playing with Shuttle (aka zomgitsthedrummerfromPassionPit) who put out my FAVORITE mix of the year, The Orion Mixtape, linked below the flyer -

Get Shuttle's "The Orion" Mix HERE

RSVP to the party HERE

And we're back!

2010-06-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

art by Josh Mays, str8 outta Philly (just like Starkbot!) - www.soldren.com

[insert obligatory apologies for not posting recently here - and on to the whomps!]

Shouts to top-notch whompbloggers Chrome Kids for posting this Starkey live show from Sub.fm. I love the internet because of things like this - you get to hear one of the best DJs in the game play all the newest, freshest, whompiest beats. Look past the Drake and Soulja Boy crust, and you'll find a luscious futurebass frittata, bursting with tasty fillinz. Great new stuff all around with standout tracks from Monky, Gemmy, NastyNasty and Egyptrixx.

Tracklist:

01 - Starkey "Alienstyles"
02 - Drake ft. the Dream "Shut It Down"
03 - Soulja Boy "Pretty Boy Swag"
04 - Grum "Can't Shake This Feeling"
05 - Kano "Get Wild"
06 - Egyptrixx "Rooks Theme"
07 - Helix "Untitled"
08 - Sheba "Serious (Starkey remix)"
09 - Halp "Leek (Astroposer remix)"
10 - Speaker For the Dead "illusioNaire"
11 - Mestizo "Let It Spray"
12 - Teddy "Devil's Mansion"
13 - Royal-T "Damn It"
14 - Clairvoyants "Modern Day Slavery (Wonder remix)"
15 - Monky "Hypa Nova"
16 - SDUK "InValid"
17 - Gemmy "Jah Kno"
18 - Verb "Drank It All"
19 - Stagga "Ghetto Yutes"
20 - P-Money "Woo Riddim Freestyle"
21 - Slugabed "PO"
22 - Siren "Summer Time in Oakland"
23 - NastyNasty "Apologies"
24 - Stagga"Beyond"
25 - Miki Grems "J'Thumilie"
26 - DJ Nate "See Into My Eyes"
27 - Kastle "Better Off Alone (NastyNasty remix)"
28 - Kanye West "Power (ft. Dwele)"
29 - By Proxy "Under Ground"
30 - Epcot "Bad Dreamcatcher"
31 - DJ Nate "Footwurk Homocide"
32 - Mr. Scruff vs Kirsty Almeida "Pickled Spider"
33 - Swede:art "Wonkybikez"
34 - Amp Live "Turn It Up (Marty Party remix)"
35 - Brisco "On the Wall ft. Lil Wayne (instrumental)"
36 - Range "Ghetto Dance ft. Rick Ross"
37 - Reso & Starkey "Untitled New Thing"
38 - Innerpartysystem "American Trash (Starkey remix)"
39 - Siyoung "Eros"
40 - 8Bitch "G41 (Rustie remix)"
41 - Terror Danjah "Air Bubble (Starkey remix)"
42 - Slugabed "Sex"
43 - Drums of Death "Everything All At Once"
44 - Numan "Quezt"
45 - Mr Healan "Mad Love For Zaggins"
46 - Nelly Furtado "Turn Off the Lights (Dro Carey remix)"
47 - Grimelock ft. Rose T "Balance"
48 - Distal "Coke Bottle"
49 - Cassie "Me & U (Kastle remix)"
50 - Chrissy Murderbot "Poison"
51 - Monky "Hey Miss"
52 - Ghost Mutt "Thouroughbred"

DOWNLOAD HERE.

Tropical Whomp

2010-06-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

For the next two months my musical tastes will fall on the side of tropical, a summer-long adventure in South America impending. All this means for all of YOU is MOAR TROPICAL BASS! Yes, it's true. So expect bass-infused Baile Funk, Cumbia, Dancehall, and Samba, etc., to be ALL up in this bitch from now until I come back from the rainforest.

Here's a list of what jaguars and shit listen to nowadays:

BAOBINGA is back with Riddim Team EP (on British label Steak House Records) which is tough and unfuckwithable. I personally have not been listening to something on repeat like this since Redlight's Bad Boy Crabmeat Mix, which is also essential tropical bass ear chow.

Grab it July 15 on 12" and digital.

(Psssst! Click Raggipahop ft. Killa Benz)

STEAK 003 - Baobinga - Riddim Team EP by Steak House Records

Here we got some terror na baile Rio baile. Fun and bouncy with a little bit of horror, just how we like it:

MC Marcelly-Bonde das Prostitutas (Bumps-Twilight In Rio Mix) by Bumps

Here is another treat for you guys by Altered Natives aka DannyNATIVE, more warm, tropical vibes:

ALTERED NATIVES - RESTLESS NATIVE by ALTERED NATIVES

Major Lazer and La RouX present Lazerproof

2010-05-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

how does she fit that hair under the helmet?

This is a blatant reblogging of the breaking story over at Stoney Roads, but apparently...well, you can read the title of this post. The mix just dropped today, head over to the official site give Mad Decent some demographic info in exchange for a free download.

I'm not saying this is gonna be awesome. I'm not even saying that you'll listen to it more than once. Diplo's a great producer, but his mixtapes always fall flat for me - I thought "Piracy Funds Terrorism" sounded like a top 40 night. But something tells me this will at least be entertaining - maybe it's the illustration of La Roux in an Iron Man suit? Or maybe it's this track title: "In 4 The Kill Pon De Skream". Either way, I'm downloading this now, and suggest you do the same.

Fresh FlyLo: Heave (n)

2010-05-26T00:23:00.000-07:00

FlyLo put up a link via Twitter to a video of a previously unreleased track this past Monday, "Heave (n)", on his YouTube channel. Yes, folks, this is his legit channel.

Watch these guys make a badass pyramid (via 130BPM).

Also, while you were sleeping, Flying Lotus came in through your window on his magic carpet made of chimes and crackle and fuzz and gave you a kiss on the forehead. Then he floated away, trailing vinyl static in his wake...

From an interview with FACT magazine:

Cosmogramma is different, more expansive, more far out than its predecessor. What’s the significance of the title?

“It’s the study of the universe in relation to Heaven and Hell. Also, it’s a word that haunted me for a long time. The actual words that I heard that haunted me were cosmic drama, but Cosmogramma was how I heard it. I was like, ‘Wow, is that a word?’ I went and looked it up and it actually was a word, and it described the exact place where I was trying to take this record. It was destined to happen that way.

“I like for it all to be like a journal, for the music and the art and the work to represent a specific time in my life. That’s how you stay honest with yourself.”

Don't have Cosmogramma yet? Buy it here (iTunes).

LORN

2010-05-23T02:44:00.000-07:00

I once heard a legend about a bass so low that it makes you involuntarily move your bowels. Call me facetious, but tracks like Lorn's "Tomorrow" may have purposefully been made in that tradition. Lorn is Holy Grail bassheads have been looking for: woeful and brooding, blending anger and despair, heavy yet phlegmatic: it makes for a fitting zombie anthem. Illinois seems to be the kind of place to breed that type of sentiment in some, I'm sure.

His debut full-length LP Nothing Else drops June 8th on Brainfeeder.

Tomorrow (download) - Thanks to LA Weekly!

Lorn - "Tomorrow" by Funny Ha Ha

Ohhh ho ho wait, there's more:

Muse - Supermassive Black Hole (Lorn Remix) by truant

... And now for the coup de grace:

Notorious B.I.G. - Suicidal Thoughts (Lorn Remix) (download)

Big up to our brother in bass, Doktor Krank, for putting me on.

Dub War: footcrab edition

2010-05-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

footcrabfootcrabfootcrabfootcrabfootcrabfootcrabfootcrab

Dub War at Love without a doubt the place to be for discriminating bassheads in NYC tonight. The legendary monthly, headlined by Headhunter (who, trusted sources tell me, played a facemelting set at Halcyon last night) has a special crustacial/podiatric bent tonight. Some of you might be adjusting your monocle and pondering aloud over a snifter of fine porto, "What is this Addison Groove chicanery!? Headhunter's Dub War podcast #9 was a magnum opus of sub bass, atmospherics and dubby riddims! Surely one musical alias is more than sufficient!" But then, that was before footcrab.

Addison Groove is when Headhunter makes juke, and I'm ain't mad about that. However, for something so hyped, I thought this track was pretty unremarkable the first time I heard it. I love the 808-porn of chicago juke as much as anyone, and there's a nice spacey thing going on between the propulsive bass kicks and the dubsteppy synths. But the vocal sample was just....mehhhh. Not doing much for me. Dumbshit, like the B side.

And yet it grows on you. Sticks in your brain at really inopportune moments. It's as infectious and tenacious as the imaginary std that you might have first thought 'footcrab' referred to. And most importantly, when Headhunter/Addison Groove drops it tonight, the place is going to go OFF. So get there before midnight for $10 admission, and get ready to footcrab like a motherfucker.

New Aphex Twin?!

2010-05-20T00:35:00.000-07:00

Looks like the Windowlicker, (and apparently now very attractive!?) Richard D. James, still has a few tricks up his sleeve! If the following clip is any indication of what a possible upcoming album will sound like, I may have to invest in adult diapers.

@Parc de la Seille for the inauguration of the Centre Pompidou-Metz

That particular piece of the set gets crazy maybe 20 seconds before some random ass starts climbing the tree (about 1:58 minutes in).

I would have, too.

Here is some footage (with surprisingly good audio) of a *supposed* unreleased Aphex Twin track:

Check out more video of the set here.

Upcoming sets:

5/26 - Düdingen, Switzerland - Kilbi Festival

5/29 - Ibiza, Spain - Space Ibiza
6/12 - Inverness, Scotland - Rockness
8/28 - London, England - LED Festival

Biscope - Let Your Love Grow

2010-05-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yeti's need love too.

An appropriately titled mix, as this does grow and expand the contemporary notion of lovestep. I know the last thing we need is another subgenre (and this is not the time or place to rehash the brostep debate) but lovestep is an apt term, crystallizing something significant going on in music right now; a lush, flourescent corner of dubstep, awash in gorgeous mid-heavy synths and female vocals that yearn, nourish, challenge and engage a tender part of the listeners consciousness. In a space usually dominated by buzzsaw noises and disembowling bass-drops, it's refreshing to hear producers using the tropes of dubstep to tell a more hopeful, emotionally resonant story with their music. Beating audio swords into plowshares, as it were. . .

Biscope - Let Your Love Grow Mix by biscope

Tracklist:
1. Joy Orbison - Hyph Mngo
2. Biscope - Dragonfly featuring Zaki Ibrahim
3. Biscope - Little Dragon Versus Burial Twice
4. Cosmin TRG - Strobe Lick
5. MJ Cole - Sincere (Nero Remix)
6. Biscope - Slip featuring Black Porcelain
7. Modeselektor - Let Your Love Grow featuring Paul St. Hillaire
8. Mala - Level Nine
9. Biscope - Lace featuring Black Porcelain
10.Breakage - Higher
11.Simian Mobile Disco - Bad Intentions (Joker Remix)
12.Cinnamon Chasers - Luv Deluxe (Scuba Remix)
13.Erykah Badu - Trying to Decide (Biscope Boot)
14.Efdemin - Acid Bells (Martyn's Bittersweet Remix)

YEASAYER - O.N.E. - UDACHI REMIX

2010-05-17T12:44:00.000-07:00

Totes random: A Haeckel-ian interpretation of Metroid Physiology by Kalapusa on DeviantArt - via MishkaBloglin

Udachi, one of the best damn producers in Brooklyn, quietly put up this slice of pure summer gold a few weeks ago as his submission for the Yeasayer Remix contest. I don't listen to Yeasayer, but I've been listening to this on repeat. Sounds like "Graceland"-era Paul Simon driving to a summer rave in LA, at sunset, with all the windows down. Luscious, jubilant mango music. Also check out Udachi's super-fresh Spring 2010 mix, chock full of all dat good new shit you never heard.

Yeasayer - O.N.E (Udachi remix) [Remix Contest] by udachi

SUBEATER

2010-05-17T12:43:00.000-07:00

My boys Mad Zach (aka Count Spankula) and R2 the Specialist have been killing it for a minute now with their uniquely west-coast sound. This is one of the most mashing tracks from their new album, "Wolfspiders", out now on Muti Music. It hit #1 on the addictech charts the week it was released, so you'll be hearing this stuff out. Look for them making a SUPER SPECIAL SECRET east coast appearance this summer - I'll keep you guys posted.

subeater! by R2thespecialist

BUY THE ALBUM HERE!

Also, as a special bonus for you lucky devils, here's a vid of R2 doin his thing, makin live ambidextrous analog whomp - SERIOUS SAVAGERY - NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN OR OLD PEOPLE

RUSKO + 2NA

2010-05-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

Note: The above image is an artists approximation of the events described below.

First thing in my ears this morning is a leak of the new Chali 2na single Feat. RUSKO! My favorite mc from middle school doing a track with the King of Brostep? It doesn't disappoint folks - 2na rides the beat with dexterity, and Rusko brings the wobble, but tones down the chainsaw noises to keep things head noddin, not neck snapping. A surprisingly tempered affair, and a good sign of things to come - not just from 2na's album, but also intelligent, well matched collabs between dubstep producers and emcees.

Check it over at DJ Cable's blawg< (your resident authority on the intersection of hiphop/dubstep), or just go str8 for the download link.

FUCKING FELDSPAR

2010-05-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

You know what I hate? When a DJ is talking about how good a track is, while said track is playing, so that the listener can't really hear it, enjoy it or come to their own conclusions. That being said, I don't mind it in so much in this case: the track is "Feldspar", by Bay Area homie EPROM, and the DJ is Philly's Street Bass Don, Starkey. Starkey's enthusiasm is just so effervescent and genuine, and it's hard to be mad, given what great exposure this is for EPROM to get biggup'd from such a preeminent tastemaker as Starkey. Nice one bruva!!

Feldspar (Starkey SUBFM Radio Rip) by eprom

GHOSTTOWN

2010-05-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

"This town...."

The Specials have always been a very special band to me. They were the first live show I ever saw, in LA at the Key Club, when I was maybe 10 or 11 (this was when they reunited in '96). All nostalgia aside tho, they were one of the most forward thinking and influential groups with a predominantly dub sound. If you think you've never heard em, pick up a copy of their self-titled LP from 1979 and you'll realize you probably know half the tracks.

So never have I been more thrilled to hear a cover, than when Ghetto Bassquake (whom you should be subscribed to, because they are amazing) dropped this little jewels in my ears last week: Fantasma's incredibly excellent cumbia cover of "Ghost Town" - that cumbia shuffle just works so brilliantly over a reggae song performed by Londoners featuring an orientalized snakecharmer riff... this is a quintessentially postmodern jam, with musical roots on just about every continent.

Download HERE.

Essential Partying: Turrbotax UK invasion, CASSETTENYC, Roni Size @ Love, MAH Mahnday

2010-05-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY 5/6:

METROPOLIS at Love ft. RONI SIZE
Roni Size is pretty much the godfather of Drum n Bass. If you're reading this blog, you've heard his shit. Go see him rip it up on Love's uber soundsystem with the whole Bass Fueled Mischief crew - Hellfire Machina (who have been absolutely crushing it with their Headspace parties), Code of Arms, Odi and Morphous - holding it down.

Git yr tix here. This is TONIGHT!!!!

FRIDAY 5/7:

TURRBOTAX: BUSINESS EDITION at The Cove ft. HOT CITY, SUBMERSE, DJ DOM

Hot City, whose tracks have been a staple at every Turrbotax, is fittingly making his US debut there! He just dropped a mix on the prestigious XLR8R podcast. Also on the bill from the UK is Submerse, who just had his mix featured on BigUp magazine's podcast! What a bunch of tastemakers and trendsetters!

If you haven't been, Turrbotax is a monthly at the Cove, formerly Hugs, a loveably trashy bar with a weird curved ceiling off the Bedford L stop. The resident DJs all fucking kick ass - Mayster in particular always knocks my socks off and I run into Steph Neptune/Video City at every good party.

CATURDAY 5/8:

CASSETTENYC at the Paul Robeson Theatre
Cassette is a uniquely awesome party. Pseudo-monthly, and held at a different unsexy Brooklyn venue each time, the residents include big names like Machine Drum, Lando Kal (of LazerSword), Eliot Lipp and Praveen (who isn't a big name afaik but deserves his props cuz he holds it down with the crew).

This time around, they have the very savvy addition of Mike Slott and FaltyDL - who've both put out music on such uberhip labels as Planet Mu, Ramp and Hotflush.

What makes Cassette really awesome, though, is how all the DJs tag team, song after song. There's usually 2 tables with 3 or 4 DJs with laptops and a gaggle of midi controllers and cables - from this techy stew arises a relentlessly danceable mash of original productions, exclusive shit, big tchunes and throwback jamz. Bring your outta-town friends, and tell them you're takin em to the coolest party in Brooklyn - because you are.

SUNDAY 5/9

Shakey's Record Fair at Public Assembly
Take a day off from partying and wobble, and go check out this record fair and party. 7PM to 2AM, so you 9-5ers can come too!

They wrote it up pretty damn good over at the Dubspot Blog, so I'm just gonna quote them:
"Dubspot friend, veteran NYC DJ, and founder of theWarper Party, Julie Covello, aka DJ Shakey, is hosting one of her renowned record fairs on May 9th. Be sure to stop by, roll up your sleeves, and dig through some dog-eared gems, just like those hero’s of yours did before all this DVS digital-DJing craziness.

Julie carefully selects dealers for her fair through a network of vinyl devotes she has met through years of experience in the music industry – it is guaranteed that you will find great selections, fair prices, and avoid sifting through loads of bad LPs that somebody bought at your grandmother’s yard sale.

Sponsored by Dubspot, Wax Poetics, Turntable Lab,Cine Noir Film Society"

MONDAY 5/10:

Mary Anne Hobbs at Cielo

First lady of Bass on a Funktion 1 system? Jesus christ on a bicycle, this one is a fucking no-brainer before I even mention that it's FREE and there's a FREE OPEN BAR. And the legendary astral-traveler Francois K will be on decks as well, as it is Deep Space.

Get RAVEY

2010-04-19T21:38:00.001-07:00

Doc Trashz - Mixtape April 2010 exclusive for www.blattainesha.com by Doc Trashz

Shameless, shameless, shameless bass straight from Sicily.
Mush your nose in it.

Hostage plays NO GAMES. This mix will make you wanna go look for the UFOs you stashed away so long ago...

Hostage - April 2010 Mix by HOSTAGE

LAZER SWORD MEGA FRESHNESS

2010-03-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Lazer Sword just upped a whole buncha tracks to soundcloud from the Golden Handshake EP. Composed in '07, but released this week, you'll recognize a lot of these tracks from your favorite mixes. A few initial rxns to hearing these on their own:

3d Action Jackson -
Music to blast in your space cadillac on as you order get your astro-burgers with EXTRA lazer sauce. Serious top-notch glitch-disco.
Lando Kal - 3D Action Jackson by LAZER SWORD

Trapperkeeper -
A trackname that will thrill any 80s baby, is a mega-man boss theme on ketamine. Get into it.
Low Limit - Trapperkeeper by LAZER SWORD

Penguine ft. E40-
Hugg n Pepp have been doing some big things lately, evidenced by their recent collaboration with the scion of hyphy, E-40 (at least until the resurreection of Mac Dre). Big tchune here, classic ninja-turtle sewer murkin shit.
Hugg & Pepp - Penguini (Lando Kal Edit) by LAZER SWORD

Gold Star Radiation -
With a nice variety of robot squawks, sporadic claps, digital slap bass and chunkily-reverbed space-synth stabs, Justice comparisons aren't that far off the mark. But there's a nuanced funk here, that informs the listener this comes from a producer more interested in seeing your booty move than seeing his name move up the hypem charts.
Hovatron - Gold Star Radiation (Lando Kal remix) by LAZER SWORD

Where ya Been 7.0 -
pretty standard gangsta-blip-hop with lots of gun-noise samples, but the slowed down, glitched-out breakdown at 2:38 will have you reachin for the TURBO button on your custom SNES controller.
Low Limit - Where You Been 7.0 by LAZER SWORD

vade

2010-03-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Roel Funcken of Funckarma is a solid reason why I still have faith in contemporary electronic music. His full length debut Vade (off the Ad Noiseam label) is an enterprise in fresh sound; it sets a new standard in a time where everyone points ears towards previous analogues, expecting to hear something familiar and created by a familiar mind. Vade is in the least bit concerned with meaningless, insipid aesthetics and that is how, boys and girls, good music is made: with a prideful lack of self-restraint and boundaries coupled with precise, specific and abstract sounds to create memorable moods. This album sends a non-threatening if material message: If you're gonna produce music, take pride in your work. I say this with the utmost pride: I will be dropping cash on this album.

Here are some snippets:

Roel Funcken "Vade Snippet #1" by ad noiseam

Roel Funcken "Vade Snippet #2" by ad noiseam

Roel Funcken "Vade Snippet #3" by ad noiseam

Go to the microsite for the album and pick up a free full-length download of Vertox Dreaming (0:39 on Vade Snippet #1).

Vade is released on CD and mp3 March 29th. Pre-cop it here.

- γ^R

5 BRAND NEW BASSNECTAR TRACKS

2010-03-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hot off the cloudpress this morning! The King of All Whomps himself, Bassnectar just uploaded 5 BRAND NEW tracks to his soundcloud. There's a lot I could say right now, but I'm gonna opt for content over commentary and let the new heat speak for itself. WHOMP!!!!!

Bassnectar - Magical World feat. Nelly Furtado (FREE DOWNLOAD) by Bassnectar

Bassnectar - Bass Head by Bassnectar

Bassnectar - Timestretch by Bassnectar

DJ Vadim - Maximum ft La Methode (Bassnectar & ill.Gates Remix) by Bassnectar

Bassnectar - Timestretch (West Coast Lo Fi Remix) by Bassnectar

dBstep - International Dubstep Documentary! Yeah!

2010-03-09T00:30:00.000-08:00

No background info on the creators, but this new documentary gives a really great and nuanced look at dubstep via interviews with producers who created it. Borgore, Benga, Starkey and more. There are subtitles the whole time, which is good, because between the heavy beats and heavier UK accents and all the French, German and other languages in the film, language kinda melts into the background.

watch it here, for free: http://www.dbstep.be

(via)

EMIKA

2010-02-27T12:50:00.000-08:00

DROP THE OTHER (SCUBA'S VULPINE REMIX)

It's always exciting when you hear of a new artist who seems to just have materialized from out of the ether. In this case, the artist is Ninja Tune's soon-to-be first lady Emika and the ether is Berlin, what she now calls home. For us, she is most definitely the First Lady of Whomp. Her debut single 'Drop The Other' harks back to the wraithy lyrics written by Nadia Ali of iiO and the soothing/brooding/seething vocals of Kelli Ali with Sneaker Pimps, albeit a la trip-hop-influenced dubstep. Genres and likeliness aside, Scuba's Vulpine Remix of Emika's 'Drop the Other' is a sultry little number; in all respects it's a perfect nightcap to end in clotheslessness.

From an interview with mog.com:

H.Q. What's the history behind Emika?
Em: I was at my grannies house eating sweets when I was 11, She was playing David Bowie's 'China Girl', and for the first time I realized that music was coming from the cassette player, it didn't just happen in the air by itself. I wanted to make that. By "that" I don't mean song writing, I mean producing sound which effects people through listening and hearing. In between now and then I studied classical piano, creative music technology, fell in love with techno, and developed a deep awareness of how people perceive different music.

Emika = aural pleasure.

- γ^R

LOAD CLIP. POINT MUZZLE.

2010-02-26T14:15:00.000-08:00

Amon Tobin remixes Noisia

My favorite part of the day is when I can feel my pet parasitic robot tunneling and worming its way around my brain. Amon Tobin's remix of Dutch trio Noisia's latest release, Machine Gun, from their upcoming debut LP "Split the Atom" (out April 15th on Vision/Division) captures that in a very convincing way. Less industrial than the original, it goads and tramples and transfixes your earcunt 'til... well.. 'til you bleed with joy. Easily my favorite track so far of 2010. Simple formula: NOISIA + Breakbeat + violence = LOSE. YOUR. SHIT.

Noisia - Machine Gun (Amon Tobin Remix) by NOISIA

Noisia - Machine Gun by NOISIA

Noisia - Machine Gun (16bit Remix) by NOISIA

Noisia - Machine Gun (Spor Remix) by NOISIA

Also, here's a fantastic Noisia DnB mix recently put up.

Noisia - Invisible Studio Mix January 2010 by NOISIA

Boys, don't ever lose your swagger...

Free download (320!!!) of 'Machine Gun (Amon Tobin Remix)' here, up for two weeks till release of 'Machine Gun' and remixes on all major online retailers. You can also *pre-order* 'Split the Atom,' on the Noisia site (in link).

- γ^R

CANNIBALISM

2010-02-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

You've all been misinformed: HUMANS ARE THE OTHER WHITE MEAT... and King Cannibal is quite the cook. Zilla aka Dylan Richards serves an anything-but-delicately-prepared dish of over-aggro industrial dancehall, face-mushing CRUSHstep, and indecent melodies that compel you to shamelessly pantomime skullfucking. Lube up your aural cavities before any of his sets and prepare to take it raw.

My dear Whomptronicae, please excuse the previous profanities but this shit truly blurs the lines between happy dance floor murder and the after-party anger fuck. Yes, it's true: King Cannibal's Let The Night Roar US & Canada tour is officially over but his war cries still reverberate throughout New York City.

"I believe in death. I believe in disease, injustice, torture, and anger... and hate. I believe in murder. I believe in pain. I believe in cruelty and infidelity. And I believe in slime, and stink... AND EVERY CRAWLING PUTRID AND EVERY POSSIBLE UGLINESS AND CORRUPTION INSIDE OF ALL THINGS. I believe... in you."

Call Me Mr Cold Blooded - King...

It is, in fact, too dark... and here at Whomptronica, that's just how we like it. Here's a small collection of his trademark sound that promotes pure, unambiguous INTERGALLACTIC BOMBACLART:

King Cannibal - Funeral Again vocal mix by kingcannibal

TheProdigy-TMTTH KC Rmx Ltd by kingcannibal

King Cannibal - Dirt (Original Mix) by Ninja Tune

Arigami Style - King Cannibal

A Shining Force - King Canniba...

Do not delude yourself into thinking that his live sets are something to pass up; King Cannibal is THE purveyor of all things dark and progressive in this generation of bass. As Ninja Tune's latest progeny you can see in his style all the elements that has made this record label infamous as well as where the boundaries and parameters have been stretched. There is nothing cut and dry; there is no track that is just "dubstep" or purely drum and bass or dancehall: it's all sewn together to create an unprecedented sound and King Cannibal, in this respect, is a happy opportunist. It is without a doubt certain that he will rise among the ranks to become one of the electronic music producing elite...and soon.

We had the rare opportunity to see King Cannibal shredddddd the concrete jungle @ Santos Party House last Tuesday here in NYC and the tinnitus is still going strong. Unfortunately some technical difficulties (and the ensuing blizzard of heroin that kept people glued to their couches) resulted in a dishonorable turnout, but for those who came that just meant MORE DANCE FLOOR FOR THE MASSACRE. And I'm proud to say we took advantage. It was the right party for the wrong planet.

(From left to right: King Cannibal, GammaRay, Squidelephant, LenoraJayne)

Ninja Tune Night at Santos was also the playhouse of GHOSTBEARD who decimated with a tropical bass-tinged set and Beans & Priest (Anti-Pop), whose set I regret to inform I missed. Needless to say, I was honored to be in the presence of such greatness.

Nuff said. Upcoming live dates for you lucky fuckers overseas:

2/18/10: 3-D Soundclash presented by Red Bull Music Academy @ Royal Albert Hall, London: (The Bug, DJ Food, King Cannibal DJ sets + Live 3-D Audio Visuals.
Further details here. Buy tickets here.

3/5/10: Leisure System 7 @ Berghain, Berlin: Flying Lotus, Bibio, King Cannibal, MFOC: Raf + Superdefekt, Voltek Vs NED

3/6/10: Plaid @ Koko, London. Buy tickets here (TicketWeb)

3/9/10: King Cannibal Set @ Apple Store, Regents Street, London. Ableton London user group launch

4/1/10: King Cannibal live @ Electron Festival, Geneva, Switzerland

Check out some of his mixes on GODS OF WAR:

*** Maida Vale Vampires Mix (highly recommended)

And of course, cop Let The Night Roar now.

- γ^R

DJs You Should Be About: BARNEY ILLER

2010-02-16T12:57:00.000-08:00

Barney Iller, aka Alex Ferguson, is an equal opportunity shit-destroyer

BIG BIG BIG UPS to our homeboy DJ Barney Iller for snagging a spot on the lineup at Mad Breaks Tea Party on friday the 19th. He's spinning with some of the finest: Marty Party (1/2 of pAnTyRaId with Ooah of the Glitch Mob, you can google them yourself) and Do Lab resident Braden. Incidentally, Braden started the 16bit & Beyond (warning: loud autoplay) party in LA, which is hosting whomp-faves Sub Swara in Los Angeles on friday. Between that and Bay area faves EPROM + ESKMO at Dub War the same night, there's some SERIOUS East Coast/West Coast bass science cross-pollination going on this weekend!

But I digress! This post iin't about that, it's about the man DJ BARNEY ILLER. First off, hit play on this mix, then keep reading:

Barney Iller - Barney Iller Don't Give A Fuck mix by barneyiller

K, now that you're startin to feel kinda wiggly, let's get into it: Barney Iller has been makin peeps do dances they've never done before for many many years now as a resident at Rubulad (I think it's so funny that there's a Yelp page for a legendary underground party venue - since '94, son!). My first Barney Iller experience was maybe 6 months ago, when a certain pink-haired friend of mine told me, to paraphrase,

"You know those amazing Baptazia videos? Well there's a party just like that at Rubulad this week. Where everyone wears there Sunday Best and loses their shit to Drum N' Bass."

Turns out Barney Iller is the (a?) mastermind behind that. And it was pretty much a done deal from there on out. His mixes and remixes are all choice, eclectic, and his sense of humor only serves to reinforce his sense of how to make you dance like you're feelin the holy spirit. Fuck a tweet, follow this dude on soundcloud! RIGHT NOW!

Barney will also be gracing the decks at Bass Fueled Mischief's next event, METROPOLIS #2 at Love, tag teaming with 45 legend Shakey (founder of the almost 4 years old now Warper parties). This event totally deserves it's own post, but for now, just know that it is an EARTHSHATTERING lineup of NYC faves:

THURSDAY MARCH 4TH 2010 @ 10PM CLUB LOVE – NYC

FEATURING ARTISTS:

Udachi
Hellfire Machina (UK)
Joro Boro
Barney Iller and Shakey
Morphous

LOCATION: 179 MACDOUGAL ST, @ 8TH ST NYC – SUBWAY A,C,E,B,D,F,V, to WEST 4th ST

TIME: 10PM – LATE

PRICE: $10 BEFORE 11 PM/ 21+ (BRING ID)

WEBSITE: www.musicislove.net

ESSENTIAL PARTYING: Trouble & Bass ft. Kanji Kinetic + DZ

2010-02-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

T&B 3 year anniversary party with Skream & Benga. Photos by hificartel.com

DZ said it best: "Dubstep is Boring". That's why Trouble & Bass is so damn amazing. While every other party promoter seems to be hopping on the dubstep bandwagon (that's been in a ditch for a few years now*), Trouble & Bass is creating their own genre of much more exciting party music. For 3+ years now, the T&B crew (AC Slater, Star Eyes, Drop the Lime, and The Captain) have been obliterating dancefloors across NYC and beyond with their signature Brooklyn Bass. They always make a point that these aren't club nights, they're parties - and not just any parties. Consistently, more than any other entity that throws em, they throw the best damn parties in New York City. Everyone who comes out is sexy, dressed fresh to death, and dancin like a motherfucker.

Their special guest this week is DZ (who gets plenty of press) and the criminally slept-on Kanji Kinetic, who (much like Chrissy Murderbot or the post-deserving Squire of Gothos) is pioneering some serious speed wobble - like happy hardcore on downers or if a rave got twisted through a moebius strip; it's 140-150 BPMs of neck-breakin, lose-your-shit relentlessness. This is workout music - get ready to sweat on Saturday!

Kanji Kinetic - Mix for ScenexScience

Kanji Kinetic - drop.io (free random tracks, bootlegs, remixes)

Trouble & Bass - Smashcast #2 ft. Kanji Kinetic (itunes podcast)

DZ - For Love RMX (youtube)

Oh yeah, and it's at Santos Party House, which is the only other club sound system on par with Love's. Seeing Joker there was the first time I'd been in the downstairs when they turned it ALL THE WAY UP. It was bone-jelllifying

EVENT INFO: TROUBLE & BASS
Saturday, 2/20 at Santos Party House (map)

$7 adv/$10 day of

*for the record, I ain't hating on dubstep - lord knows how many times I've lost my shit to Eastern Jam, Caspa, Rusko, etc...but I'm definitely hating on everyone who promotes a party and plasters their flyer/event listing with the word "dubstep" (invariably in all-caps) as though it's some magic salve that will transform their trendy culture-grab into a halcyon blasty blast of a good time. Just because you're not funded by a corporation doesn't mean you aren't engaging in cultural appropriation. Your whackness is seen, and noted.

ESSENTIAL PARTYING: Dub War ft. EPROM + ESKMO (Friday 2/19)

2010-02-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

sickass art that came with the EPROM '09 mix

THIS FRIDAY: Eprom and Eskmo are supporting Shackleton at DUB WAR, the original NYC bass party. Eskmo we've talked about already. It's EPROM you need to know about. His "Enter The Psyphy" mix, even before Jantsens polyponymous "whomptronica", was a turning point in my life, musically speaking. It's what put me on to the whole west coast glitch-hop sound in early '07.

ESKMO's new productions trade bwomp for remorselessly bitcrushed granularized bassline crunk - his snares sound like a bowl of capn crunch, dr. pepper and pop rocks gettin nommed by a decepticon. It's dark and nasty and raw stuff, but also kinda has this saturday morning cartoon adventure vibe.

And now Dub War is back at Love, after a 3 month hiatus and something I heard about a renovation; if you've never been, Love is a magical and literally underground club with a midsized wood dancefloor and a soundsystem that will rip your fucking face off. The walls made entirely of subs. I always make a point when I'm there to crouch in a corner and take a "bass bath" - it's basically vibrating every molecule in your body on intensely pleasurable frequencies. I heard the fraggle rock area is for sale, too, which I guess means that they took out that deliciously slutty 2 level cave-couch leather and fur playpen room where you could watch projections on a waterfall between you and the bar.

EPROM - 2009 Mix

EPROM - Enter The Psyphy Mix

Dub War

Friday, 2/19 at Love (map)

$10

Ruckus Roboticus and Stevie Wonder meets Dubstep

2010-02-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

Ruckus Roboticus - R.U.C.K. in the U.K. MIX
Just dropped 3 days ago, Ruckus Roboticus once again proves why he is one of my favorite party DJs, like, EVAR. Don't listen to this anywhere you'd be embarrassed to rip your pants from goin' all the way to the floor whilst dancing.

R.U.C.K. In The U.K. - UK TOUR DJ MIX by Ruckus Roboticus

and also ...

Beardyman - Stevie Wonder meets Dubstep
Vocal whomptronica. Just watch it.

Essential Listening - Mosholu, Pure, Ruckus Roboticus, Paris DJs

2010-01-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Art by the most excellent inumocca

AT THE FIRE
ASTOUNDING new mix from Dutty Artz's own Mosholu Park, entitled "I'm At The Fire! Baby, Where Are You?". According to the post,

“At The Fire Is NOT a MIX - it is an EMOTION — or rather a series of emotions".

And he's right - this is future emo at it's finest. Robotic dub tears. Not party music, but more like the soundtrack to those unstoppable 3-6am creativity sessions after fighting with your lover. It sounds like a supercomputer cluster going through a messy breakup. And it's the first mix I've heard really successfully drop that new Big Boi joint, "Fo Yo Sorrows", which I find more compelling with ever listen. Also has fresh shit from Shadetek, Terror Danjah, Schlohmo, Lucky Dragons and lots more.

GET IT HERE

PURE HEADNOD
New mix from Pure! This guys has put out tons of classic mixes that I've found via subnav.com. One of the few DJs that is truly and effortlessly in control at the intersection of hip hop, experimental and electronica. This one features choice cuts from Dabrye, Skipless, Machine Drum, Blue Sky Black Death, CanOx and Four Tet.

Honestly, I haven't listened to this yet, but Pure has a flawless track record with me, and it comes highly recommended via my girl Ashton at UG Strategies. Plus, it's brought to us by Percussion Lab, who are purveyors consistently high quality mixes.

GET IT HERE

BRING THE RUCKUS
Brand new remix from Ruckus Roboticus. This guy is a big favorite over here at Whomptronica Industries, plays all our holiday parties. Makes the whole accounting department go dumb, every time.

In his own words:

"My official remix for Fool's Gold (the band). One part "World Cafe", one part indie pop, and one part lo-fi electro... Please ENJOY!"

Fool's Gold - Nadine (Ruckus Roboticus Remix) by Ruckus Roboticus

BONUS! Ruckus Roboticus remixes Australian rap duo KillaQueenz Boyfriend single - LOVING the sample from The Angels My Boyfriend's Back.

KillaQueenz "Boyfriend" (Ruckus Roboticus Remix) by Ruckus Roboticus

You should be following him on Soundcloud RIGHT NOW. Get on that. And then you wouldn't be sleeping on his hilarious mambo remix of I'm In Miami Bitch.

PARIS DJS

Grant Phabao and Djouls are two world-class diggers and mixtape maestros, running the site ParisDJs.com. While they mostly focus on world music, dub, hip hop and other funky shit, they also dabble in some whompier stuff.

One of my favorite ongoing features is their mixtape series, "Who is Molesting Laura", now on installment 17! The "Laura" series is always all covers, but each one has a different theme. They dropped 3 of them the yesterday, and episode 14 is a mix of roots reggae mashed with hip-hop and classic party jamz. Supreme.

Starting off with a VERY inspired mashup of Max Romeo's Chase the Devil (famously sampled by Prodigy in Outer Space) and Lauryn Hill's "Ready or Not", there's also a ragga cover of Shimmy Shimmy Ya, Jamie Liddell's Multiply getting chopped and screwed over a totally different chord progression, and Blackstreet, MJ and Wu Tang all show up to get irie too!

GET IT HERE and subscribe to their RSS and podcast already!

How many fingers am I holding up?

2009-12-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

TWWOO FFINGERRSS ...

The most exciting (and underrated) production unit of 2009, Two Fingers' Amon Tobin (Ninja Tunes) + Joe "Doubleclick" Chapman (formerly on Fly Casual) ARE what the 20-teens will sound like, even though they're way before their time. What with the product of the slow and painful deterioration of hip-hop leaking into the ears of the innocent and undeserv'd, Two Fingers takes a step back and reanalyzes hip-hop as being both a social commentary and progressive, and can be JAW GRINDING in the absence of all-too-well-known-and-praised phase vocoderized auto-tune bullshit (unless you're auto-tuning the news cuz that's just hilarious...).

Their self-titled debut Two Fingers and their follow-up Instrumentals released in April this past year (on Big Dada for UK & Europe and Paper Bag Records for North America) is not the sort of thing to be cheapened by earbuds...

THIS IS SURROUND SOUND SHIT.

...and I föcks with it hard...

Vocalists include Sway (who worked closely with Two Fingers in the making of this LP and contributed to 7 tracks), Ms. Jade, and dancehall vampiress Ce'cile.

Keman Rhythm - Two Fingers

What You Know - Two Fingers, S...

What You Know About (Emalkay R...

***This Emalkay Rmx IS MASSSSSIIIVVVVE.

Scott Foster Rhythm - Two Fing...

Doing My Job - Two Fingers, Ms...

Better Get That - Two Fingers,...

Makes you think: Middle Eastern/ Asian/ slowed-down jungle/ bats with laser guns for genitalia/ subway trains with a vendetta for people / robot zombie hoe-downs in zero gravity, etc.

Also,

For your aural pleasure…

A *RARE* interview with the peanut butter to Amon Tobin's collaborative jelly done by the kind (and wise) folks over at Solipsistic NATION!!!

The interview starts off with Keman Rhythm (33:57), but by NO MEANS does that imply you should jump ahead and miss out on the others in this episode with Bassnectar, Kush Arora, and Great Scott...

Download the interview here. (1:05:56 | 60.46 MB)

Previously I had a full transcription up; those who saw the post first were lucky enough to get to read it.

Here are the highlights:

SN: Can you give us an example of one of the musical styles you discovered that you wanted to pursue further?
There was one particular case that where, me and Amon were in a taxi on our way back across Montreal to his apartment where his studio was and the taxi driver was playing a CD and our ears pricked up immediately because this was some phenomenal Middle Eastern music. We didn't know what it was so we were asking the taxi driver, you know, "What is this? Please tell us what this is!" cuz we gotta hunt this down and buy it and the taxi driver was insisting, "Oh no, you'll never find it," you know, "It's incredibly rare." There was no way Amon was gonna leave the taxi without it so he ended up paying the driver another $20 to wait outside the apartment while Amon rushed in and copied the CD and then came back to give it to him. We will take music wherever we find it you know and, uh, as you can see it's uh, it sometimes involves a bit of focused persistence to get what you want.

SN: You and Amon bonded over your mutual love for music. How did lead to you two working on the Two Fingers album?
Well we met in Brighton where we both lived at the time and it wasn't just a matter of us bonding over music as such, it was, um, also us just becoming good friends. The first collaboration that we did on a record that Amon was making for Ninja Tune on his Verbal Remixes and Collaborations EP, that came about largely because we'd be around at his place a lot of the time playing Tekken on his Playstation 2 or whatever and it just came up in conversation, you know, "I'm making this record... do you wanna be on it?" "Yeah, alright then." So, it was kind of a very casual thing about us first, um, getting involved in making music. I think the thing that made me stand out to Amon was that I didn't have the usual assumptions that a lot of people have about what kind of music he's likely to be into. Where we have a lot of common ground isn't just in the kind of obscure material that we might find when hunting for samples, it's also in big pop tunes. We've both got a bit of a weakness for quite sugary R&B tracks, for instance, which a lot of people might not expect, as well as there's uh, there's a band that I got Amon into which was my favorite group, Cardiac, who are a quite an obscure, quite difficult post-punk band. So we just found that there are so many things that we had a common appreciation for and I think it comes together as well in terms of the sound of Two Fingers that we've created a new sound from what we listen to that doesn't directly copy any of those things. It really is uh, a mix-up of all of that stuff.

Also, here is an interview done by URB magazine, again with Doubleclick (no audio)

Highlights:

How did you choose the name Two Fingers? What were the other ideas you kicked around before you decided on this moniker?
As any musician knows, picking a name is an unrewarding exercise in being disappointed by Google! I can’t remember all the names we went through. We settled on Two Fingers because of a number of things. It describes us as a duo, and it’s nicely ambiguous so it can mean different things to different people. Some people might hear it as a completely abstract name with no meaning. British people might immediately think of the offensive gesture, but people elsewhere might think of the ‘V’ peace sign. Maybe a paleontologist would think of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Best of all though, the name makes girls giggle.

What pieces of art, musical or otherwise, influenced and inspired the making of the album?
It depends what you define as art. Computer games are definitely a part of it – many late night production sessions would culminate in a 5 A.M. session on the Xbox 360. Movies have been a huge influence on us, both for the visual side and the sound design, although it’s hard to fully sink into a film sometimes when you’ve got a special department in your brain that’s analyzing every little noise.As people who hunt beats, we’re used to long days trawling music shops for any rhythmic elements we can use. If you do it properly, you end up with a collection of music from all over the world, much of which you would never have heard otherwise. We’ve also soaked up a lot of influence over the years from UKG, grime, and dubstep. The major musical inspiration is D&B though. That dedication to cleaning, twisting, and processing sounds in D&B is our ace in the hole. There’s a competitive urge that fuels D&B which has its parallels in hip-hop, to push the music further and make something that’s hard to follow, and we are constantly mindful of that. We could never make tracks that just tick away in the background. Every one is something bold.

What other MCs excite you? Who would you like to hear on a Two Fingers track in the future?
If I’m being invited to fantasize here, then I immediately think of Spank Rock, Phat Kat, Clipse. It’s a tricky question though, because there are so many MCs whose work we love but who wouldn’t necessarily fit on a Two Fingers track. If we could pick absolutely anybody and it would just magically happen, give us Busta Rhymes! When we’re writing the music we like to check how a vocal sounds with it by sticking an acapella over the top, and something lovely happens every time with a Busta vocal.

You're very welcome.

- GR

Hot Toddies in Audio Format!

2009-12-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Some freshness for ya face:

SUB SWARA PODCAST #008
Hot off the podpresses, Subswara's third podcast in as many months! This used to be one of those every 4-5 months podcasts, so I'm really glad they've been picking up the pace. I really can't stop saying good things about Sub Swara until I see every one of you at their shows (and they've been hinting at the next Sub City Sessions - the last one was epic).

Featuring superfresh unreleased exclusives from DZ, Benga, Dev79 remixing Erykah Badu, LD remix of Mungo's Hi-Fi, and a spanking new track from Sharmaji and Juakali of Sub Swara.

You've Got the Love (The xx Remix) -

couldn't find the original story, but this song was one music bloggers entire year-end list, eloquently stating that (and I'm paraphrasing here, sorry) while it might not be the most facemeltinglyskullcrushing blah blah whatever, it does exactly what all good music should do, "get you laid"!

BRAINFEEDER PODCAST - 10 YEARS OF FLYING LOTUS MIXED BY GASLAMP KILLER
ft. Art by Flying Lotus.... really nothing more to say here that the title doesn't already. These two names are synonymous with awesome in my book.

SCHLOHMO XLR8R PODCAST
This kid is 19? Jesus, he was a freshman when I was a senior! And he's totally killin it on chilled-synth-wonk-wobble-nu-illbient juicebox beats for introspective kids who spent a lot of time watching cartoons with spaceships and robots and staring out car windows. I mean, seriously, he drops a track by Low Limit (of Lazer Sword) called "Trapperkeeper"! 80s babies ftw.

Oh and for the record, Schlohmo is not, afaik, the UK Beatboxer Shlomo as some others have asserted.

BONUS XMAS MIX BATTLE:
DJ Cable vs Murdertronics

Both Cable and Murdertronics dropped Christmas-themed mixes this week (tho Cable's was from last year) and both feature quite a few of the same tracks. Who killed it harder?? Both have their merits but I'd be interested to hear what y'all think...

Link to Cable's Mix and post about it.

Murdertronics Christmas featuring MegaBone Mix 01 by Murdertronics

Y'ah GLOWIN tonight??

2009-12-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

flyer by the effervescently phosphorescent LenoraJayne.com

This is going to be a seriously Brooklyn throwdown...soooo many good people will be in the building tonight!!! We got Code of Arms, Odi & Diggadee representing Konkrete Jungle and Methods and the Darkroom Crew. Jubilee and Proper Villians repping Nightshifters, and American Dream Team will kill it as always, Atom C will bring out the NYCRavers krew, no doubt, Ritalin and Sam Black (TOGETHER AGAIN!!!) for some serious Original Brooklyn flava...

If everything goes off, this could be a historic night...see you there!!!

Info below ripped + condensed from the fbook event:

COPY:

Join us as we take you on a musical and counter-cultural experience that explores our electronic community and its long-lasting relationship with all things chemiluminescent. This evening will truly be a trip to the cutting edge of psychedelia and beyond...We encourage you to bring items of a glowing, fluorescent, luminescent, and blinking nature.

LINEUP:
MICRO
VENOM
X-DREAM
GONZO
ODI and DIGGADEE
HAVOK
THE AMERICAN DREAM TEAM
PROPER VILLIANS
COBRA KRAMES
JUBILEE
DREAD
RITALIN and MurdaMouf
JOHN BAS
CODE OF ARMS
JET VS AUDIOPHILE
KB SONIC
ATOM C

INFO:

DOORS by SAM BLACK (natch!)
TIME: 9pm sharp till the sun comes up. (10-6)
AGES: 18 to enter 21 to glow (Please have proof positive ID for entry and purchase of alcohol. In other words ... no ID no entry)
LOCATION: Hello Brooklyn 18 Commerce Street Brooklyn (map), NY (F or G Train to Smith/9th) (RED HOOK)
PRODUCTION: We will be sparing no expense this evening to make this venue truly glow!

Lights, Lazers, and Black light installations by Power Trip Lighting. (this is a very good thing)
Visuals by VJ Awaiz
sound by AudioLust

FREE: U.V. face and body painting and Glow Sticks ALL NIGHT!

ADMISSION:
$15 in advance @ BROOKLYNGLOWS.COM till dec 24th
$20 @ The door Before 11pm
$25 After 11pm

Drink specials all night
$5 vodka shots with PBR
$5 vodka well mixer drinks

Get yo' Hannuchrismakwanzica on

2009-12-17T16:40:00.000-08:00

From all of us here at Whomptronica Headquarters in Brooklyn,

To all of you and yours, wherever that might be...

Happy Holla-Daze!

And a whompy New Year!

And now... a heavy dose of remixed holiday audio/video schlock from dem boys called Eclectic Method. Get your xmas Love & Hate on in under 3 minutes! Party hard with the Gremlins, Muppets and the Pumpkin King! Heavy beats + choice samples!

Eclectic Method - Haul The Decks 2009 from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.
via Brian Life (thanks homie!)

TONS of free tunes from Streetlab!

2009-12-16T21:47:00.000-08:00

One of the really standout artists I found this year was Streetlab. Based just down the road from us in Brooklyn, these two gents have been cranking out remixes that absolutely knock my socks off.

And today they announced via facebook that THEY ARE GIVING AWAY EVERY TRACK & REMIX THEY PRODUCED THIS YEAR. Click on that bigass link to get em! These are two prolific dudes - something like 20 remixes and another half dozen originals. And they all slay. In particular, I want to listen to that Hall & Oates remix all the goddamn time.

Their style really reminds me of The Philip Steir remix of "Magic Carpet Ride" from the GO soundtrack (anyone else play that one till your discman broke?) - they preserve the vibe of the original track while amping it up with modern production... par example, peep their most excellent remix of Gimme Shelter below:

The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter (streetlab mix) by Streetlab

So what are you waiting for?! Go cop the rest of these fantastic tracks!

Streetlab - 2009 Roundup

REDLIGHT

2009-12-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

(Dancehall reggae + 50 stars simultaneously going supernova + aural autofellatio) / 2009 =

REDLIGHT

It's no wonder the likes of Rusko, Jackmaster, and Toddla T have his tracks in rotation...

Here's his Badboy Crab Meat Mix (dl in link) for FACT magazine

Tracklist:

Redlight & Dynamite - Weepers* MASSIVE
Redlight - Kid Soldiers (2:25)
Redlight - Champion Style (4:42)
Redlight Feat Serocee, Dread & Omi - Be With You (Dubplate Mix) (6:00)*
Redlight - Rock Bottom (8:22)
Redlight Ft Jenna G & Jammer - Pick Up The Phone (9:44)
Redlight - Stupid (12:14)*
Redlight Ft Redskin & Scorpio - Twist Up (13:23)
Redlight - MDMA (15:12)* MASSIVE
Redlight Ft Redskin, Zaniah & Dread - Feel So Good (17:00)*

Cop Lobster Boy EP on Lala sooner rather than later.

Redlight - MDMA (192kbps)

You're welcome.

HOLY SHIT NEW ESKMO - COLORBRAIN MIX

2009-12-08T14:26:00.000-08:00

I get so HYPED when the little blue dot shows up next to the Brainfeeder podcast in my iTunes. More than any other crew, Brainfeeder makes me miss the West Coast. And today's mix is extra hype because it's chock full of fresh exclusives from one of my absolute all-time favorites....from San Francisco, California:

E-S-K-M-O.

Eskmo's sound has really matured with this latest batch of songs. Make sure to listen to this on a good system - his big warm gooey synths roll across the soundscape like herds of giant pancake monsters, bouncy riddims keep it moving, and the bleeps are sooooo tasty. Like a freakyass dream you can't really remember, it feels simultaneously underwater, baroque, and hyperfuturistic.

This guy has been in total CRUSH MODE this year. In February he dropped The Ancestor Mix Described as "classy dubstep" or "dinosaurs fighting robots", depending on you who ask; all that really matters is that it's been in heavy rotation on my speakers for damn near a year now. In April his Hypercolor EP got props from Amon Tobin, then he did some remixes for STS9 and the Brooklyn's own Sub Swara crew (who will be getting their own post very soon). Oh and he toured as Welder (supporting STS9) with Evan Bluetech, who has a great name and also rules at the whole downtempo-whomp-space-dub thing. And now Eskmo's got remixes out on Warp and a split with EPROM out on Planet Mu! Not bad for a years work, going from self-released on your own digital label to getting pushed by 3 of the biggest labels in dance music. And that's just the abridg'd version.

TO SUM UP:

ESKMO - Colorbrain Mix - Get it Here

ESKMO - The Ancestor Mix - Get it Here

...and a special bonus for you lucky devils, Evan Bluetech has an EP for download by donation, so go support his philanthropic ass, wouldja?

EVAN BLUETECH - Call of the Wild EP - Get it Here

Who's the real King of the Jungle!?

2009-12-06T12:12:00.000-08:00

TWICE in as many weeks, my ears have been filled with mellifluous remixes of "I Wanna Be Like You", King Louie's ode to transpecies socialization from the Jungle Book

The first is DJ Parker's smash dubstep-comedy audio/video do-over of TC & Caspa's uber-played "Where's My Money", entitled "Where's My Monkey!". Extra points for all the found footage of monkeys talking on phones.

"ehhh, what with the state of the zookeeping industry these days..." - classic!

VS

The second is by The Correspondents, a UK duo that specializes in expert blends of the swinging sounds of the 30s with DnB, Hip Hop, etc. When I saw the description I got pretty hyped - this is a combo move that was worked really well before.

via lypsynchstuck via chromekids

So the question is, who flipped it better? And who else is remixing the 30s?? I wanna know! Donate your 2 rubels in the comments!

"I Wanna Be Like You" remix by The Correspondents - GET IT HERE

"Where's My Monkey" by DJ Parker - GET IT HERE

BONUS: Hear Ewan Hoozami mixin up "The Bear Necessities" from the Jungle Book with a classic Beastie Boys jam on his uber-party mix "It's a Stick Up!", around the 12 minute mark - GET IT HERE (thnx subnav.com!)

More heat from that Yemenite kid, Diwon!

2009-12-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gents, I present to you producer, DJ and ethnomusicologist Diwon, from the Hasidic hip hop clique shemspeed. Shemspeed is also home to such artists as Matisyahu, Y-Love and Yuri Lane (the original beatbox harmonica!). But DIWON! It would greatly behoove you to not sleep on his SABRA SESSIONS mixtape. In his own words, it's "remixed, chopped, and sped up Israeli and Hebrew music to the style of Baltimore and Miami club music and beyond".

If you ask me, he's being entirely too modest. This is a full-blown thesis on the influence of traditional Jewish and middle eastern music on more modern hip hop, pop, r&b and electronic music. He does so by brilliantly mashing up artists from all ends of the Diaspora, spannin decades and genres like nothin. In between the current club beats and heeby stuff, though, he also seamlessly blends such cheeky selections as The Eurhythmics, Dick Dale and the Deltones, Funky Town, The Doors, The Beatles; revealing their Hebraic influence by juxtaposition. This is a master at work, and your booty will move accordingly.

Get the SABRA SESSIONS mixtape HERE.

While you're at it, grab all his other mixes and free downloads, (including the mixtape that hooked me on Diwon, The Beat Guide to Yiddish) from his download page.

Hudson Mohawke at Santos 12/19!

2009-11-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

Just saw a poster on the street informing me that young badbwoy Hudson Mohawke will be appearing December 19th at Santos Party House! This is so fresh, it's not listed on his myspace or Santos' website! Anyone who has been to Santos knows it's a brilliant venue with a great staff and killer sound. Anyone who was there for Joker on saturday for his bone-jellifying set (full review coming shortly!) will attest to that. I dunno how HudMo is as a DJ, but his productions are seriously next level. All he really has to do is show up and play his tracks on that system, and I'll be a happy, happy boy.

Marry Anne Hobbs has been leading the hype charge on this kid for a minute now (anyone else think she sound like a total cougar/borderline pederass as she gushes about "this brilliant young producer.... Just twenty years old!") but when I heard his new full length, Butter, I was convinced. A lot of stuff on MAH's so-called "experimental" show is, I feel, just a lot of ambitious young bedroom producers being massively derivative of a few main innovators; faltyDL, appleblim, flying lotus etc. Just because these subgenres splinter too fast for our vocabulary to keep up doesn't mean producers aren't biting. But that's ok, because we have folks like HudMo pushing things forward way beyond the minimum necessary threshold of innovation required to be labelled "fresh". This guy is doin it for himself, and it shows. Here's a youtube minimix sampler of his new album:

Also playing is Mike Slott, of LA's most excellent brainfeeder crew. He has a somewhat more cannonical style of wonk, but sweats quality production just as hard. I wasn't impressed with his first performance at dub war, but subsequent live sets and mixes have really grown on me. I'll SEE YOU THERE!!!!

Put this in your ear and smoke it:

2009-11-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

Here are some tracks in heavy rotation on 51 Pegasi b:

Aragami Style - King Cannibal

[Ray once pointed out to me that the best part of every Amon Tobin live set is when he drops King Cannibal and Two Fingers tracks. You'll recognize the one above if you copped Live in Bruxells; "Isn't there anyone out there who can beat me!?" Yeah, it's that track. - Evan]

Virgo ft. Face-A-Face - King C...

Insh'allah (Ghislain Poirier R...

Pixel Fist - Get Down

Downlink - Gamma Ray Burst (any track bearing my name is buzzworthy)

Proceed with caution and clean yourself up afterwards.

Also, some tasty quasar-flavored nonsense:

French freakophones Paral-lel, comprised of Slush & Praktisch, laugh in the face of the exhausted and overproduced and promise a future full of spaceships, lasers and tiny wobbly bass robot slaves. How exactly does one make sweet and sour laptronica a la lyonnaise?

Coretefax - Paral-lel

BigRedKlit - Paral-lel

Also, check out this video of Paral-lel's live set at Warper Party at the Delancey on April 1st:

Fellow BEE Records gem Cosmos70 makes you dream of Gliesean whales breaching the orange sherbert waters of Gliese 581 d, or the far-off beeping of satellites trapped in the atmosphere of 79 Ceti, or the aural representation of ionospheric perturbations...

...the video not so much, but heed it's warning...

Whatever it makes you think of, it certainly keeps alive your early Earth tradition of listening for extraterrestrials instead of looking for them:

Cosmos70 - Two Thousand

Two thousand

[ ALSO you can hear that Downlink track and other exclusives from Bassnectar, The Widdler, Jakes, DZ, Defstar, Subvert and Proxy on Excision's 2009 Shambhala mix. Check the facemelting art art below and GRAB IT HEAH. -Evan]

This day in the future:

Nov. 22, 2256: First attempt made at superluminal travel by Earth humans by using exotic matter to keep open throat of a nearby wormhole; theories on wormhole traversability confirmed while those on parallel universes formally debunked.

Behavior Report: The effects of Bassnectar on Homo whomptronicus

2009-11-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

[note to readers:]
Gamma Ray, my partner in this blog, is a transchronal exobiomusicologist from the 25th century, studying the effects of the theoretical subparticle known as "whomp" on sentient species, and tracing it's origins through the 12 dimensions. So yeah, he's a time-travelling bass scientist from the future. Here's his report on our ways and customs. -Evan

Academic Note: Data on this matter is drawn from a number of studies done on social creatures on the easternmost littoral boundary of North America on Telluric Planet 48893 ("New Earth"), Terra Sirenum in the Memnonia quadrangle of Telluric Planet 48894 ("Old Earth" or "Mars"), as well as various locations on Telluric Planets 48824 and 48820 in Satellite Galaxies I and III of the Andromedan Galactical Syndicate. Also, planetary nomenclature herein will follow naming conventions set in New Earth year 2155 after First Contact; this was greatly influenced by the so-called "constellations," partly from which its 21st-century Flamsteed designations are derived. Taxonomy of various creatures, terms, and ideas will herein reflect common practice of the same time period; the majority of data I've collected has been from observations of interstellar life in the latter half of the 4th Aeon.

I extend sentiments of esteem and affection to my dear friend and colleague, Evan Rosen, for contributions made to my understanding of contemporary human social interaction, as time-jumping can often complicates things, especially when entertaining the vast amount of information the diachronic study of exoplanetary cultures can offer. Many more regards to Dr. Rosen for allowing for this information to remain confidential at the time, as New Earth was then still a test site for exopaleontologists (who are, for the nature of the science, licenced time-skippers) as well as exobiologists.

I returned from a convention on social insects of rocky planets near the 55 Cancri solar system and decided to conduct fieldwork analogizing New Earth insects and human subcultures of its 21st century, from which I believe I have made important corollaries about patterns of culture among social creatures there and on contiguous planets. I detoured and reverse time-skipped via Time Tunnel B3 (a well-known dark energy tunnel in the Eridanus Supervoid) and arrived 1AU from New Earth, 84.9% into the current sidereal year, corresponding to November 13th, 2009. Moments later I met with Rosen and another colleague, Lenora Jayne, and observed a large swarm of Homo whomptronicus gathered together in, what I later learned to be, mutual enterprise for the consumption of sound at the Fillmore New York in Irving Plaza (a sound-hive of Southeastern Manhattan). Lorin Ashton, the very well-respected founder of the sound-mongering project Bassnectar, arrived for his exhibition.

Fellow 25th century exoethnomusicologist and exobiologist Corsica Cetes has made mention of the Bassnectar project with respect to "dubstep, grindcore, and other sub-genres of 'bass'" (one of many present-day genres of stylized pattern-vibrations) in her study on sound-eating among Whomptronicus novum senior and iuniur of TP-48893. "Sound-eating," according to Cetes, refers to the ability of organisms like those in the Homo whomptronicus superfamily that can consume, digest, and metabolize sound, the effects of which can result in deep trances via uncontrollable and spasmic movement of the fleshy vehicle, possibly as a means by which this genus pays homage to those controlling the sound. Cetes has argued that sound-mongers like Bassnectar have synthesized a "healthy addictive substance by which all members of whomptronicus frequently become inebriated yet from which much difficulty is exhibited in abstaining."

The Sound-nectar Theory hypothesizes that humans forage for sound they can assimilate into their physical systems ... very much like the ways in which members of Earth's apis insect family forage for nectar to make honey; ergo, the term "sound-nectar."

It is speculated that the name Bassnectar may have been derived from residual memory of the Sound-nectar Theory that Ashton and many other sound-mongers were accidentally exposed to via extraterrestrial contact early in the development of electronic music (all accounts of this have been, for the sake of preserving the integrity of exclusive and otherwise damaging information, forecfully removed from their memories). The Sound-nectar Theory hypothesizes that humans forage for sound they can assimilate into their physical systems and metabolize for use in a variety of ways that alter the emotional, psychological and physical state. This is very much like the ways in which members of Earth's apis insect family forage for nectar to make honey; ergo, the term "sound-nectar." It would not be overambitious to postulate that the effect that sounds synthesized by Bassnectar has on the human body is much like that of methylbenzoylecgonine, or "crack."

Similar patterns of enculturation have been observed among hymenoptera and Homo whomptronicus of TP-48893, as well as among the comet-hoppers of the outer Öpik-Oort Cloud. This was made abundantly clear to me upon deciding to enter the sound-hive. At this moment I conceded to a dance that required me to remain stationary while the guard touched his hands to places that I understand are culturally referenced as taboo, with what I assumed was the supposed intention of making sure I was part of the hive and had enough facial hair (maybe so that it is easier to collect nutritious particles in the air).

Seemingly, for those of a certain age, entrance into the hive was contingent upon display of this plumage

.I noticed that a certain species proudly advertised appurtenance to its evolutionary ancestor with a distinct attire: a combination of what are called "tie-dye t-shirts" and "candy," which is a form of symbolic plastic jewelery, both of which are prevalent forms of dress among the subspecies Whomptronicus novum iunior. Seemingly, for those of a certain age, entrance into the hive was contingent upon display of this plumage.

Certain species of New Earth Apoidea have guards which monitor the comings and goings of hive members and assess their membership by touching antennae. He then granted me access, at which point I was made to understand that my only responsibility within the hive was to either mate, socialize and engage in trite conversation, become inebriated, or most importantly, find the source of sound-nectar. I quickly found it, and no sooner than that did I understand the reason why whomptronicus is so dependent on this vibrational substance.

Since my physiological make-up is not to dissimilar to that of human beings', I found it impossible to ignore the instantaneous effects of sound-nectar inebriation. What is more, I observed the dances that had been described by my predecessors and began to analyze them visually as well as mathematically. It seems that one could derive, if without the ability to assimilate through sound, the quality of the sound-nectar by observing the vigor and abandon with which a sound-eater dances. This means that one could also derive the celebrity of the selection of a specific sound-nectar by the same means.

"The more zealous the dance, the better the quality of the nectar."

New Earth honeybees are known to engage in communication with each other by way of a "waggle dance" or a "round dance" to disclose the location of a variety of things, including nectar and pollen. This dance is performed with careful attention paid to the angle of the sun with respect to the hive and the source(s) of nectar. The longer the dance, the greater the distance of the nectar; the more zealous the dance, the better the quality of the nectar. Homo whomptronicus' dances in the sound-hive is similar, yet the longer the dance, the closer and finer the nectar. Bassnectar himself describes the phonic taste of his sounds as "omnitempo maximalism," which seems to be of the most appetizing to all sound-eaters, and he also enhanced the quality of the delivery with built-in nectaries within a custom-made P.K. Sound System.

With respect to a now-well-known track Bassnectar frequently serves up, he says:
"Cozza Frenzy is about the impact of sound on human beings and the sort of frenzy that can result. A lot of the venues I’m playing are beautiful theaters and whatnot. But they're rock 'n' roll venues and I make bass music. So we bring a perverse amount of augmented sound. Years ago, we were renting in different cities, but now through my relationship with [Canadian sound company] PK, they're custom-building a sound rig that we can bring on the road. I have a whole sound crew that comes along. Some places don't need a whole lot, and some places we just shut off the house system and use our own rig. It's really important to protect people's ears, so we buy tens of thousands of earplugs and pass them out at every show. And we want to broadcast the sounds thinking in terms of weight, not just volume. So it’s not about how loud is the show, but how heavy is the sound? How much of a full body experience is it?"

To read the rest of the interview, I direct you here.

I am pleased to say as a born-again sound-eater that hearing Bassnectar live was a delicious, if filling experience. For those unfamiliar with the subjective experience of Bassnectar, here's the audio of the afforementioned track, "Cozza Frenzy"

- GammaRay

"when we bend the
waves in a frenzy
all night day dreams
bangin' on 18's
sneak a poem in dirty zones
super soaked in honeycomb
hologram or telephone
coming out your speaker cones"

Review: Lickwud, 11/7

2009-11-16T00:22:00.000-08:00

THIS WENT DOWN SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH

I can't say enough good things about Lickwud, Junglist Jess & Code-D's night of dirty bass at N. 4th Bar in Williamsburg. Here's the short version: They killed it on every conceivable level. As I said in an email to Jess after this show, "I go out a lot, in pursuit of exactly the experience I had there". The DJs, the crowd, the venue; everything was on point. But let's break things down in a little more detail:

I came in and Tommy D was on the decks. I had heard positive reports, but he really tore it down. That ODB-more Shimmy-shimy-yah re-edit he does got a very deserved first spinback of the night, and I guess a second one would have been excessive for the first DJ...but I was rooting for it. All together, I was getting ENTIRELY too hyped during the opening set of the night. Tommy kept things moving with a really crowd-pleasing mix of high energy remixes.

Human? came on next, taking the decks in style. His first tune was a very artful Vince Guaraldi-esque jazz piano thing, chopping and screwing it into a drop into the depths of genreschitzophrenia. When this guy lists "FUCK YOUR GENRE" as his affiliation, he ain't kidding. Each successive track he dropped hop-skotched through all shades of dub and bass related whomp-things, tickling every genre on the flyer, but never lingering for more than a moment. Raucous but classy; constantly surprising me with every breakdown - this guy is a champ! He took the abundant vibe Tommy D laid down and built it into a raging dancefloor beast.

30 or so minutes into his set and people were CUTTING LOOSE. I mean putting in serious work, with faces squished from exertion. The dancefloor wasn't huge but at that moment it was perfectly packed and just about everyone was losing their shit. It was at this ecstatic juncture that two mediocre b-boys cleared the dancefloor, moved all the dancing patrons to the sidelines for us to watch them...warm up or something. This was probably the only whackness of the night - the height of the rage getting squelched so these two guys could do some really bland, really weak "breakdancing" for way too many minutes. I'm not trying to trash on these guys - keep practicing - but if you're gonna effectively HALT EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CLUB FROM DANCING, you better have some fucking hot moves. And all you had were some poorly microwaved, still-kinda-frozen-in-the-middle moves. After it became entirely too clear that this wasn't going anywhere exciting, the dancing started back up again. But for the rest of Human's set (and really the rest of the night) it never quite got back to the frenzied fever pitch achieved right before the dancefloor fillibuster. Ok, rant over.

Human really killed it in a truly classy fashion. Towards the end of his set, he got on the mic a few times and freestyled, which could easily be a wank fest for a DJ with less moxie. But he kept things mad tasteful, and brought the energy down nice and easy, citing the need to save some energy for the many other DJs playing after him. It's really refreshing to see DJs that are so in tune with their environment.

I stepped outside for a little freestyle session with that firespitter Broke MC. I run into this guy everywhere and he's always down for a cypher. He's one of my favorite emcees to beatbox for, because his cadence is so well calibrated to whatever beat I bring him. I know he wasn't on the bill, but his performance was one of the highlights of the night for me, and had to be included.

Came back in for American Dream Team, who absolutely murdered it. I remember when my eyes were first opened to these guys, seeing Udachi at Exit this summer. They played afterwards, and even though I had planned to bounce after Udachi's set, I just could Not. Stop. Dancing. Incidentally, they just dropped a new mixtape, Blue Dream. It's getting some love in the blogs, but not nearly enough considering what a weapons-locker of dance-floor bunker-busters this thing is. If anyone is still sleeping on this, please stop it now. Oh and the art (and all of TADT's visuals really) is totally amazing. BEHOLD:

I honestly don't remember a ton of Rob Threezy's set, but not for lack of quality. I just spent most of it running around talking to people. It was definitely nice to hear a more Chicago sound - makes me realize just how many NY DJs sound the same. And while I love the NY sound, (and hate that Streetlab song about it...tho I love everything else they do) it's important to remember that there's a great big world out there with infinite sonic refreshment.

Finally, Crooked Disco. Their set was awesome - at first there was a little more hands-in-the-air piano houseyness than I'm usually into, but it was appropriately disco flavored without being overwhelming (For the record, I am not on the whole nudisco train). And thankfully, neither are they! From their website:

"Crooked Disco’s really hard to explain sometimes… its house, its breakbeat, its dub reggae, its electro… its really whatever we’re feeling at the time."

Hell yeah. Apparently they have a monthly at the LPR gallery called "Play Date"... well sign me up! What I really have to give them props for is bringing the night to a scintillating close with a choice selection of reggae favorites, and of course, Drum n Bass. After all, it's not really a dance party if nobody drops some 180 bpm shit at 4am. And this was most certainly a dance party.

All together, big big big props to Jess and Code-D. I hear the next one is in January... see you there!!!

PS: Extra special thanks to Jess for the shirt!!!! I'll be rocking it out as much as possible.

I CAN'T FEEL MY FACE

2009-11-09T00:40:00.000-08:00

And so the saga of whomptronica begins.