DIPLO "BUTTERS THEME"

DIPLO "Butter's Theme" (ft. Gent & Jawns) from GABRIEL THOMAS A on Vimeo.

Die Antword - Fatty Boom Boom!

This one woke me up from a deep slumber, War song. Lady gaga cameo attacks... most importantly a rich Zeff visual style and aggy proper riddim. Up front and in your face as usual, Die Antword may be able to save hip-hop electro relevance yet. I'm nut sure if it's honest, but it is pure.

Bassnectar's European Vacation Mix by Bassnectar

Bassnectar's European Vacation Mix by Bassnectar


Bassnectar doing what he does best, taking hip-hop vocals and samples, bro-step basslines and electronica errata, putting in a blender and pressing pulse. Boom!! There's a quite a few standout tunes, deconstructed and glitched-out to nth degree. No track list unforntunately, but in case you were wondering, yes the the title of the mix is a nod to the 1985 Chevy Chase classic. "Look kids there's Big Ben." Indeed.

Ikonclasta - Detained In Lisboa

I got a message from a promoter that I regularly get updates from, and he asked me to help spread the word on this situation. In his own words:

A friend of mine is a political activist in Angola, he s actively involved in the student movement which is fighting to restore democracy locally. Luaty aka Ikonoklasta spoke out against the government during one of his shows, he urged the crowd to attend an anti-government rally, and ever since he s been beaten up, arrested, his house was broken into, his girlfriend kidnapped, his whole family terrorized with anonymous death threats etc. 

On June 11 he flew into Lisboa to join the Portuguese Kuduro group Batida for their European tour. H was arrested at the airport, the Angolan secret service planted in excess of 1kg of cocaine in his luggage. It's highly improbable that he will serve any time, as it was even clear to the Portuguese customs officers that it was a set up, but he s yet to stand trial. 

Click the "CC" on the video to get the English subtitles.

Here's some of Ikonoclasta's music, it's kind of political soca/grime/electronica with a whimsical edge:


Batida - Cuka feat.Ikonoklasta (English Subtitled) from Fazuma on Vimeo.

It's not often that electronic music explore topics beyond partying, especially one promoting explicit political viewpoints. This particular tune about about many things, but the message that stands out is don't waste you time boozing, the government is using it to distract you from it's suppressive conditions. In context with the current regime in Angola it makes prefect sense.

And some background on the student protest movement in Angola.



Additional info about other detained protesters can be found here: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/05/angola-protesters-detained-disappeared

Help do your part to spread the word and raise awareness. Like, share, tweet, and repost this article and videos among your social network. Thanks and big up to Lukasz for bringing this to my attention.

Noisia - "The Devil May Cry" Melting X-Boxes Everywhere in 2013.

Got an interesting press release from the The Collective today. Apparently Noisia isn't content with murdering your home stereo equipment, there' set on melting your X-boxes too. So far these bass merchants have done no wrong and are still one of the most consistent and brutal bass acts around. I prefer their drum n bass, but this is good too! Check it!

Today Capcom announced that the popular video game series, Devil May Cry or DMC’s soundtrack will be produced by Noisia and the rock band Combichrist. Noisia recently released the “Devil May Cry Soundtrack Sample” on Soundcloud and made the almost 3 minute track available for free. They also released a statement surrounding their work on the upcoming video game, which is due out in stores January 15^th 2013 on Xbox and PS3.

"Its been an awesome experience working with Ninja Theory on the game. We had great freedom but were also bound by certain criteria typical in the game world, these are challenging boundaries (for example; consistency in sonics over 180 minutes of music) but also lots of space in terms of dynamics & progression and instrumentation, being able to create soundscapes without having to worry about holding the attention of a dancefloor. Also, their music director was great to work with, good vibes. It's great when you get to play to your strengths. And the game kicks ass." - Noisia

K Chico - Burn - Blues Beat

Here's a cool blues beat little electronica thing by K Chico. It sounds like the opening for the Sopranno's if it was remixed by a heroin addict. You know it's that Grinderman/ Nick Cave brain melting vibe coated with a syrup dripping upright and gentle wave of white noise. Southern mellow guitar plucks and pitched-down vocals channeling Tom Wait on salvia divinorum... this is the kind music that heroin kid on Treme should be making. The video is drenched with sweaty morphs, telling the story of a model and photographer on blurry whirlwind adventure to nowhere. There's a few interesting animations that are added on such as ink spills, fractal make-up flames, subtle optical flares, and basic composites. The overall effect is a slow motion drug trip exploring glamour and beauty.

some facts:
pre production - 5 Months
days of shooting photos - 2
people on set - 6
total Pictures taken - 3072
Pictures used in the Video - 256
average time of work morphing one scene - 6Hours
scenes morphed in total - 108
scenes used in the video - 42
actual videos used in video - 3

Filastine (with Nova) - Colony Collapse

"Colony Collapse" is more on the song side of dubstep, and while it may not have the one of most original tear-out bassline ever, it makes up for with vocal melody and atmospheric riddims. This video is dirty and filthy in the literal kind of way. I like the D.I.Y. ethics of this kind of production. Here are some people that pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and made a song focusing on environmental issues.

Colony Collapse is filmed at sites of ecological friction, the fault lines of conflict between humanity and (the rest of) nature. We snuck into a gas drilling site gone awry, and performed in the midst of traffic jams in a megacity where those fossil fuels get squandered. We filmed in a landscape of garbage, and in a supermarket where all that discarded packaging originates. This is the slow-motion apocalypse, uncomfortably close and personal.

The audio EP of Colony Collapse drops February 29, 2012, and comes accompanied by some beautiful remixes made by production talent gathered from the four corners of the world: Beats Antique (US), Squeaky Lobster (BE), L'Ouef Raide (FR), and Fletcher in Dub (SA).

Colony Collapse is an early warning for £ooT, Filastine's third album, coming April 2012.

As their kickstarter page states:

...our goal for these videos is not only to make something beautiful, but to confront and indict the catastrophes that are the very fabric of our globalized economic order.

Noisia & Upbeats - Diplodocus REMIX Smashes You in to Next Week

This is the Upbeats remix of Noisia's classic 'Diplodocus' as featured on BBC Radio as a world exclusive. It will be released on Quarantine. For the total mix, check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b0194h8

Oh the ridiculous 'Diplodocus', you a sick and filthy beast now aren't you. The Upbeats absolutely smashed it with this remix. Experimental tunes like Diplodocus with beats that sway and swagger like that can be tough to remix. I gotta handed to the Upbeats for taking it further down the rabbit hole. Get lost in this tune.

Re:Generation more like Regurgitation

Am I right? This trailer made me puke a little bit in my mouth. The last beat is actually kind of dope, but the whole idea of even making a movie about this... barf. Here's the write-up quote:

“Follow DJ Premier, Mark Ronson, Skrillex, Pretty Lights and The Crystal Method as they remix, recreate and re-imagine five traditional styles of music. From the classical perfection of the Berklee Symphony Orchestra to the bayou jams of New Orleans jazz, our five distinctive DJs collaborate with some of today’s biggest musicians to discover how our musical past is influencing the future”

That paragraph makes slightly nauseous as well. Hey producers, get over your self.

Top-Twenty Bass Tracks of 2011

Oh man here's is my obligatory 2011 top ten list. But it isn't ten, its twenty. I'm lazy and can't make decisions, sorry. Anyways here you go, I'll post up links to the tunes as I stumble across them and start rambling about how they are epic-ly brutal. Happy Belated News Years you bass freaks.

 Top-Twenty Bass Tracks of 2011 

 1. Dub Mechanics - Propane
I first thought this dubstep tune was by Coki and posted up about this on the blog here looking for a tune ID. Some helpful soul on dubstep forum finally pointed me in the direction of a you tube video and it's by some Dub Mechanics, whom are unknown to me. Best info I can find on them is on there sound cloud page.

"The Dub Mechanics, a South London based duo who Dj & produce Dub, Dubstep and various other genres of music."

As exclusive and mysterious as this dub is, it's actually nothing compared to it's gnarly roar. This tune is devastation and mega-death. It's the gamma bomb rage virus that triggers a zombie apocalypse. Barking rabid robot dogs commanded by lord Darkseid that will devour you and all you're little twilight raver buddies. A whirlwind of comic book violence and crappy metaphors. In otherwords, sick. For that it earns my top spot on the list.

 2. Evol Intent - Hollow Earth
Neurofunk inspired drum n bass tearouts tunes never really seem to get old do they? Alot of 2011 was me rediscovering my love for drum n bass. I found the landscape had changed and everything became slower   and mixed with old school flavors. Which is great, but I was looking for tunes like this that jumped forward from where I left off.

Evol Intent delivers one mother of a payload with Hollow Earth. A twenty megaton explosion of plasma pulsing bass and wreckage. It's got that sci-fi cinematic intro similar to a Dom + Roland or Virus tune, with some very lush and over-produced flotsam and jetsam spaces sounds. They are all too familiar trimmings of a tech-step epic. It drops straight into a hardstep runner, spits you out the otherside of the blackhole into a dubstep breakdown that dissects the beats and provides lot of delicious edits for the beard-stroking massive to fawn over.

So yeah basically I'm saying it's got some straight forward banging phrases on one hand, and complex breakdowns, on the other. Makes it an interesting tune to listen to again and again. All while being kick-ass and heavy and make me want to run around and play lazer tag and shit.

 3. Phace + Mistanthrop - Energie
GAH! What a stormer! This one draws a dark sci-fi vibe from films like Alien, Bladed Runner, Terminator and maybe Hellraiser In Space and injects it into a brutally futuristic beat. A tradition set forth by godfathers of tech step such as Dom & Roland, Ed Rush & Optical and )EIB(. It's not groundbreaking by any means but the sheer bass weight and energy makes it noteworthy. It's just fun having proper tech-step back in the lime light.  4. Modeselektor feat. Nazizi & Abbas "Monkey Flip"
 5. Digital Mystikz - Animal
 6. Basher - Androids
 7. Zinc - Recovered
 8. Azealia Banks - 212
No brainer on this here. Huge bangin'track from the indy breakout artist out of Harlem, Azealia Banks. Azzy can be as soulful as she is raunchy, and the contrast between the salty and sweet styles make "212" the perfect dancefloor banger. Granted, production on this isn't on the heavy side, but it's decent bass track. The groove is funky enough to get people moving and the hard-hitting bars amp up the vibe 'till screaming takes over the breakdown and dives into the honeycomb vocals on the refrain.  9. Mosca - Bax
 10. Magnetic Man - Karma Crazy
 11. Skream - Exothermic Reaction
 12. Excision + Datsik remix of Noisia - Alpha Centauri
 13. The Aliens - Xterminate
 14. Stinkahbell - Something In Your Eyes
 15. Interface - Twister (Ft. Shahin Badar)
 16. Wickaman - Free Bea
 17. Critycal Dub Feat Level 2 - Touch The Sky
 18. Noisia Remix of Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon
 19. MRK1 - Cardiac Arrest
 20. ill.Gates + Dov Remix of Greg Reve - Decoy

Modeselektor feat. Thom Yorke - "Shipwreck"

Wonderfully sublime tune from Modeselektor feat. Thom Yorke. Warm moog-y pads flood the main builds ups while York floats mysterious vocals on a sound bed of galloping, skippy breaks and rolling subs. Fuzzy, dubby, and sunny with a sense of dread and panic lurking in the distance, and another tune I find hard to pigeon hole, which is fan-fucking-tastic.

The video feels like what Hanna would have been in the short form. Some texured dark near-future, with a kid running from a large dog, scrounging for batteries, so he can go to sleep with the lights on. It's simple, tactile, and whimsical. Also cold, and kind of lonely in the vein of Where The WIld Things Are. While it looks and sounds great, I'm a bit over this kind of look and story. Can we move on from the dirty sweaters, twigs, sunny ruins, and wild lost kids?

Great Scott vs Transmissions - Mad Hydraulic Bounce / My World Mashup FREE Mp3

http://40hzmedia.com/Music/GreatScott/Great_Scott_vs_Transmissions_-_Mad_Hydraulic_My_World_Mashup.mp3

Great Scott vs Transmissions - Mad Hydraulic Bounce is lush aural gltichscape with a mid tempo breakbeat. Safe enough to be used as a film soundtrack, but interesting enough not to make it on the radio. It's a freebie and being used to promote:

Glitch.FM Founder Great Scott Drops New EP on Muti Music + Freebie and Music Video "Glorious Dystopia" Now Available on Addictech + Music Video for "Looking Good" feat. Dual Core

Link to: GLORIOUS DYSTOPIA on beatport.

So Undead! Trailer

SO UNDEAD! trailer from so undead on Vimeo.

So Undead! is an exhibit about making connections between seemingly unrelated genres: Extreme Guitar Music ie. Punk, Metal and HC and the endless shades of Electronica. The art that will be shown at the event is wholly based on interviews conducted with artists, who in the past have dabbled in guitar distortion and are currently masters of the art of the synthetic. The interviewees include: Mary Anne Hobbs, Robot Koch (Jahcoozi)..., Cristian Vogel (Super Collider), T.Raumschmiere, Lars Kirchbach (Tolcha), Vladislav Delay (Luomo), The Foreign Beggars, CREEP, Sneaky (Fingathing), The Bug etc.

This looks pretty cool. I myself have a a strong background with punk, hardcore, grindcore, death metal and black metal. In high school I did a death metal fanzine called "Lockport Underground", and contributed to several others. Put out several tape compilations and one professionally released cassette EP by a band from the Netherlands. Years later, in college I did a punk/hardcore/extreme music fanzine called "I Hate you!" which was later changed to "I hate you! (And I hope you fucking die)" so I wasn't confused with a another 'zine that took my exact name (even though I had it first). Also a more lifestyle/story garage punk 'zine called "Fucked For Life". This was like '96-'98. I got into drum n bass in '98 and started a record label called Assassin Records around 2000. Put out two DnB 12"s before calling it quits after our European Distro closed owing us hundreds of dollars. Not to steal the thunder, and make this about me, but I'm interested in checking out this movie/ doc, as it seems to closely parallel my experience in underground music and many of my friends. I don't often get a chance to reflect on that part of my past, and this is the first I've actually blogged about it.

There's is something interesting in people on that journey searching for uniquely voiced aggressive music and taking similar paths to get there. Musicians get there one way, journalists and label owners another, and fans probably take the longest most winding trek of them all. It will be cool to examine this subject in a longer form and make the connections. I remember being floored when I first found out drum and bass producer Klute was also the drummer for U.K. skate punk band The Stupids, a band I used to listen to all the time. Mitch Harris from Napalm Death, Terrorizer, and Scorn fame; also went on to producer drum n bass and various dubstep projects. And Borgore, of course, was in the death metal band Shabira, and influenced by the band Death from their LP "Scream Bloody Gore" in taking his Dubstep moniker. "It comes from Borger, which is my family name and then Gore comes from Death's album, ‘Scream Bloody Gore’." For a music nerd like myself it will be exciting to examine those kinds of personalities, and just hear people talk about hardcore, punk, and metal; that are into bass culture as well. If you are down, support this movie, spread the trailer.

KRADDY - Operation Prometheus and Free Album update

KRADDY - Operation Prometheus Well my Kraddy heads, here's another new freebie for you all to devour. Bit-crunching Van-Halen styled guitar soloing rise up and explode to trance-y hollowed-out rave organ riffs over a hip-hop anthem beats. It's a mish-mash of unlikely elements forced into a unsettling shotgun marriage, and it kind of makes me uncomfortable. Like in a overly-art directed kind of way. By that I mean it sounds like there were too many cooks in the kitchen. The styles clashed on me a bit, in a high school kind of way. This feels like it should be a in a video game trailer for some dystopian futuristic first-person shooter, or maybe a Zack Snyder movie like Sucker Punch.

I got privvy to a couple of other choons on his upcoming free album. "Holy Avenger" is a mid-tempo steady-as-she-goes talk-boxer with some freak-out classic rock stylings at the end. Like if Peter Frampton and Chemical Brother's had a baby. As ridiculous as that sounds I mean it in a good way. I really dig the dramatic cinematic break-downs, and warbly vocoded keyboard rolls. My only crit was it seemed really reliant on the looped rhythm and could have benefitted from better phrase and riff variations. It would make the overall tune more dynamic and interesting instead of just being surprised by the dope ending.

See my other post for the Black Box review. To paraphrase I basically thought it was a dope strip club grinder. Unfortunately the other tune on this called "NYC" I wasn't much feeling much either. Guitar and beats with a electro synth can be done a million different and exciting ways, but this isn't one of them. It sounds like a freeplay tune used to open a lame CSI ripp-off show. It's slow, it meanders, it tries to be a little funky and wail, but ultimately it goes no where. There's just no payoff and as a result there's very little point to this tune. It could be the foundation of a cool glitch-hop type tune. But could've, should've, would've it's not. This is a case where less is less. There's just not enough going on to keep my interest.To sum up, 2 for 4 is the count and so far Kraddy's new album is batting .500. I guess that's pretty good for baseball, but we'll have to see how the rest of the tracks work for a proper real world album evaluation. Hopefully it's not just pandering to the post-production world in order to get a movie/TV score deal.

*UPDATE*: Here's the full free album. Looks like at least one tune got renamed, NYC changed to Bare Bones. After giving it a full listen, the batting average get's far far worse, like Ryan Dunn bad. Just wasn't feeling most of this one, and the post-prodcution demo reel diss is not far off really. Oh well, it's free at least. ANTHEMS OF THE HERO by KRADDY

Kraddy - Black Box Free Track

Kraddy - Black Box (Free Track) Got this in an email yesterday saying

BLACK BOX is the first single off of the upcoming album ANTHEMS OF THE HERO out on Oct. 10, 2011.

This is a strip club grinder. A heavy break-beat tune with a sweaty throbbing bassline, perfect for some throw-down action. Like Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction" but without the lame samples and S&M overtones. This squeals digital sex appeal. It screams in bit-crushing glory with guitar distortion wails and marches to a stomping Zepplin beat. Simple, dope and free. Say thanks for the freebie in the comments.

Kim Pimmel - Compressed 02

Compressed 02 from Kim Pimmel on Vimeo.

I love this video. Made with ferrofluids (fluid that reacts to magnetism), a magnet, soap bubbles, and dye this video tells a simple and energetic story. I'll be fucked if I know what the story is, just an abstract tale really. A life/death cycle? A journey of discovery? A chemical rite of passage? The ambiguity is the charm here. That and the soundscape matches perfectly with the frantic energy of theses macro exploring visuals. What's you're take on it?

Birdy Nam Nam - Goin' In

"GOIN'IN" - OFFICIAL VIDEO from Savoir Faire on Vimeo.

Rhythmic chanting, pitched down vocals, and a simple deconstructed, almost beat-less, electronica. I don't where it falls on the music spectrum to be honest. Songs and videos like this are always a pleasant surprise. I wan't to label and categorize it, but I really don't know what to call it, so it sits in limbo to be judged on it's own merits. The video is a weirdo mash up of 2d and 3d computer graphics, some vector, some pixel-pushing and all of it bizarre.