Crispo – ‘Lost in Time’

January 19th, 2012

Highlighting another garage track this week, with an artist that is relatively new. His name is Crispo, he’s been making garage tracks for a bit over a year.  Piano’s violins and a classic garage beat structure make ‘Lost in Time’ incredibly atmospheric.  Akin to Burial, some of his tracks are a little deep and ambient, perfect for film, or just chilling to.

Crispo – Last Night Flavor – Lost in Time

Crispo – Last Night Flavor – I’m only Reflection

 

Something else you may like:

Araab Muzik – Streetz Tonight

Duncan Powell – True UKG

January 18th, 2012

Garage music has been on the mind these days, it’s surge in popularity has been no mistake at all. It is the perfect intersection of pretty much everything, from house to even it’s cousin form dubstep. Evolutionary Biologists and taxonomists may find it best to put their talents into classifying electronic music, and charting it’s many clades. Hopefully they’ll know that UKG is the most effective place to start.

Duncan Powell combines almost all of my musical tastes. I hear everything in his music, downtempo to dubstep, house to soul. Moody  electronic music with soul and melody; incredible samples meet subtle, perfectly crafted beats and basslines. The comments on his soundcloud truly and concisely describe his music, the words ‘beautiful,’ ‘deep’ and ‘wonderful’ are all you’re left with after hearing some of his tracks.

Duncan Powell – Nasty3

Duncan Powell – I Never Cried

Jack Steadman’s ‘Mahalia’

January 15th, 2012

There’s an increasing trend for the frontmen of British indie outfits to engage in musical escapades, such as experimental beats and hip-hop. Jamie xx has used his success with the xx to launch a career in producing, something that we are very grateful for here. Musical talent is something that shouldn’t be limited to one genre so when we found out that Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘Jack Steadman’ was doing similar things, we got a little giddy…

Jack’s actually incredibly good at the whole producing thing. He’s been making mixes and tracks for quite some time now, more notably the remix of his band’s latest hit ‘Shuffle.’ Other tracks, such as ‘Mahalia’ and ‘Cheating’ are detailed and equally impressive, in fact almost all of his songs are worth a listen to. Enjoy these tracks? Have a look at his soundcloud, I also recommend ‘Osaka’ and ‘Beat Plate’ located at the bottom of his tracklist.

Jack Steadman – ‘Mahalia’

Jack Steadman – ‘Cheating’

Bombay Bicycle Club – Shuffle (Jack Steadman Remix)

The Direction of Dubstep?

January 14th, 2012

It’s really hard to determine the direction of dubstep these days, everyone’s got their fix of heavy hardcore bass infused dubstep, drumstep, and yes bro-step.. but the question persists: will dubstep stay this way forever?

Many sources have proclaimed that dubstep is evolving. Some even point to new sub-genres of “post-dubstep” citing the rise of several offshoots of dubstep; incredibly different sounds all synced to a steady 140 bpm. Beats, downtempo, moombahton, and pop all have had success in recent months, the masses of fans wanting their snares and claps with a twist.

While it still may be hard to tell if dubstep will survive it’s current surge in popularity, what’s sure is people will continually be experimenting with sound and trying to push music to somewhere it’s never been before.

Here are a sample of tracks that I believe may indicate several varities of the future of dubstep And, yes, i Included some pop-step in there.. not Britney Spears, trust me it’s worth listening to.

Dubstep is like particle-physics, ever-changing, complex, and endlessly experimental.

Emancipator – Safe in Steep Cliffs

Yogi ft. Ayah Marar – Follow You

Karin Park – Tiger Dreams (Photek R Edit)

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Lianne La Havas – Forget (Shlohmo Remix)

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Lunice – I see You (Girl Unit Remix)

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If you happened to be listening to Kissy Sell Out this week on BBC’s Radio 1, you might’ve came across this remix of Radiohead’s ‘Iron Lung.’ Valabaluza’s pretty new to the scene, but his mixes will convince you otherwise. Whilst his mix of Radiohead brings a deep darker feel, i love his other mixes for their goofy and fun vibes. His soundcloud even has mixes of youtube’s epic meal time, pretty crazy stuff. Hope to see a  lot more from him in the months and weeks to come.

Radiohead – Iron Lung (Valabaluza Remix)

Valabaluza – Sensi Dub 

Valabaluza – Can I Kick It?

 

The hdmi socket on my screen is broken so I’ve resulted to other means to get posts up (if anyone is good at soldering please email me). Thanks to this tech dilemma, there’s an incredible backlog of songs I’ve been meaning to post… So for now the tablet shall suffice!

Electrixx’s work brings out the rager inside me, electro house beats with the occasional drop to a bit of dubstep offer something every dj should consider including in their sets. They’ve been around since 2003, apparently they ‘were founded on a drunken binge in Berlin.’  Like it’s name, Electrixx’s ‘Crispy Cake’ is an incredibly tasty treat. Pushing pure unadulterated electro house, the tracks are simply perfect for sets. Crispy Cake and Tetris are by far some of the more noteworthy tracks by the berlin-based duo. And of course, they love remixing video-game tracks, so I had to include their remix of Zedd’s ‘The Legend of Zelda.’

Electrixx – Crispy Cake

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Electrixx – Tetris

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Zedd – The Legend of Zelda (Electrixx Remix)

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Ital Tek is pushing UK experimental to a new level. His name is Alan Moyson, a Brighton native, he’s proved that basically anyone physically south of London has the ability to produce miraculous electronic music. Just rent a flat out and witness the raw effect of south London’s atmosphere on your creativity and artistic inspiration.

The magnificent sounds of Ital Tek may further blur the lines between beats and dubstep… It’s quite possible that Ital Tek may have the power to bridge basically anything.  Despite our reservations, international conflicts are a far less priority than bridging the divide between beats and dubstep. Kim Jong-Un is breathing a sigh of relief upon hearing that Ital Tek does not engage in international conflict mediation. Dark, moody deep basslines comprise dubstep  infused with rhythmic melodic synth-filled beats, work to create quite the electronic orchestra of sorts.

His latest EP, titled Gonga retains the Ital Tek signature style, whilst a few tracks offer a little versatility and increased tempo.

Ital Tek – Whip it Up EP Atom River Promo

Ital Tek – Pixel Haze (Clip)

Ital Tek – Spectrum Falls

 

Kaskade’s new album Fire and Ice is a mix of the old and the new Kaskade. Lost in Kaskade’s non-deubut albums, the early Kaskade sound characterized by a deep, progressive house sound. It seems rare anymore that an artist will return to his or her early music style but Fire and Ice is a mixture of Kaskade’s usual rave beats and his earlier groove-house songs. Kaskade has mixed with the likes of Skrillex, Quadron and Marcus Bentley to produce songs that you could hear in the likes of a club or in a dimly lit restaurant. To me, Kaskade’s ability to throwback to his early sound and still include the high energy that he is known for really shows his diversity and growth as a DJ. As Kaskade said to DJ Mag in his top 100 DJ interview – “this is an exciting time for house music in the U.S.”

Kaskade – Waste Love (feat. Quadron)

Kaskade – Let Me Go (feat. Marcus Bently)

Kaskade ft. Haley – Llove


Ginger’s got game yo

The thoughts that occur whilst on a flight to finalize one’s cross country move are a mercurial thing. The grass is almost always greener and the future is almost always brighter. So as the rocky mountains pass by underneath me, it’s amazing to think of all the new things I’ll do on the west coast in a city flowing of milk and honey  craft beer. However there are, invariably, all the things I left unfinished: the punk ass bitches I never laid out all and more importantly, all the girls I crushed on but never kissed.

Zoo Kid – Ocean Bed

In this emotional state Zoo Kid was able to make a ridiculous assault on my playlist. His lyrics in “Out Getting Ribs” paint a bleak picture of a convoluted relationship but the song seems to end on a bright note. And his words are set to tunes which conjure romantic images on a beach. Now this song is sort of old but I decided to take a peak at this obviously long haired, been around the emotional block, beach hipster, lets see here…

Zoo Kid – Baby Blue

Motherfucker…I love when 16 year old La Roux look-a-likes from London have accomplished a lot more in life than me.

Moscow based Pixelord is heating up!… grabbed this one of the Sbtrkt Essential Mix a couple weeks ago, something you should really listen to if you crave a wide variety of bleepy futuristic electronic sounds. Pixelord is a testament to the growing EDM scene in Moscow, we’d love to see more Russian producers emerge from the woodwork over there. Beat infused dubstep with a touch of vintage gamer tones, and maybe a scoop or two of hip hop, minus the hip. That’s really the best I can do… try to classify it and you’ll end up more confused.

Pixelord – Iron and Cream Pt. 2

Pixelord – Kiwi Dream

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Essential Mix: – Sbtrkt