Wednesday 29 December 2010

Morbidly Obese Midget: Mega Meal Deal

I've been spending more time actually mixing and playing myself lately. The result is this collection of Morbidly Obese Midget mixtapes bundled together here for your listening pleasure. A late festive pressie for your ears! Thanks to Peachi for keeping Musical Mana going over the last few months with a fat selection of mixtapes while I've been otherwise distracted...


London Spinners Party Mix by Morbidly Obese Midget

This is a condensed version of a set I played at the Spinning@ London Jugglers Christmas Party, recorded the following week at the Synergy Spinners Solstice Party. I get a lot of my practice playing for spinners, twirlers and jugglers who are a great audience because if they like what you're playing they'll play harder to it and the floor will become a frenzy of activity, even if there's only five people in the room anyway. The set moves from bass loaded breaks into more straight 4/4 driving electro. The electro almost always gets people moving more, but the breaks is a nice warm up.

TRACKLIST:
Tittsworth - WTF (Deekline and Ed Solo Remix)
The Fort Knox Five - Shift (Deekline and Dustin Hulton Remix)
Sporty-O - International Wingman (DJ Fixx And ILL DJ Chris B Original Mix)
Slyde - Move ya Body
Beat Assasins - Put Em Up (NAPT remix)
Nick Thayer - Let it Go (Cutline remix)
Neurodriver and Atomic Drop - What You Gonna Do?
Far Too Loud - We Want to Dance
Dirty Loud - What U Think
Neelix - Disco Decay (Felguk remix)
Tegma - David's Song
Perfect Stranger - Stardust (Felguk remix)


  Morbidly Obese Midget - Droppin bombs on ya glitch - Nov 2010 by Morbidly Obese Midget 

Bass bombs straight outta tha suburban jungle! I've been trying to nail a good glitch-hop mix for a while - getting the right balance between bass, glitch and bounce. Drawing from a whole bunch of tunes I've been enjoying over the last few years this comes pretty close to the sound I've been aiming for, keeping the tempo up, the bass whomping and the beats popping. While it gets my head bobbing and my body swaying, I'm not sure it translates too well to the dancefloor, but I'm hoping the Opiuo's more bouncy sound is going to open a whole new range of mid-tempo breaks and glitch-hop next year that will do just that!

TRACKLIST
Mimosa - Pandora's Box
SubverT - Speaker Humpin' (Knight Riderz Remix)
Blunt Instrument - Battle Toad
Nasty Ways - The Good The Bad The Squishy
DJ Vadim - Maximum feat La Methode (Bassnectar & ill.gates remix)
Opiuo - King Prawn
ill.gates & Filastine - Pharma Sutra
SubverT - Curbstomper
Glitchy & Scratchy - Midgets
edIT - Battling Go-Go Yubari in Downtown L.A.




This one's a downtempo dubstep mix. It's an attempt to find the blurred lines between Bristolian 'purple wow' sounds and West Coast whomp and dubstep influenced crunk. The mixing could be better but this was on the fly and I've not had the time to re-do. This is a streaming mix on soundcloud, but hopefully soon I'll find some time to re-work it for a Soundcloud DL.

TRACKLIST
Nastynasty - Priceless
Gemmy - 1987 Bounce
Guido - You Do It Right
Professor Green & Lilly Allen - Just Be Good To Green (Joker Vocal Remix)
Luniz Vs Joker - Kraddy's Next Level Mash Up
Joker - Tron
Nit Grit - Love Songs
Nastynasty Vs. Nit Grit - Say My Name
Mimosa - F.T.A.M.F.
Nit Grit - Grit Shifter
Mimosa - 140bpm On That Kriptonite (Point Of No Return Remix)
Pantyraid - Enter The Machine

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Monday 13 December 2010

Katty Grooves - Bangers and Mash & Factorydelic


Peachi here - another short one, just to give you the link to this fairly feline "Funky Fidgety Filth" for your ears.... fablious! Nice heavy, bumpy and funky tracks all the way through I fink... enjoy! ;) [I like lovely alliteration a lot]

Bangers N Mash by Katty Grooves

I particularly like the drop at 26.50... drool!

Check out her soundcloud page for some udder stuff :

"Funky Monkey" is more psy trance and not really my ting, but you may like it... and of course its a great name ;)

"Factorydelic" (below) is a tiny bit older but is lovely and PHAT and aptly described as: "A dirty wander through a scummer's dream" . It certainly is scratchy-scratchy behind the ears tech funk - so download it NOW for aural pleasure! (its a WAV file for some reason so takes a while, but well worth it! ...or is it "Fuck-tory-delic" as it appears when you play it... much better name... ha ha ha ;)

FACTORYDELIC by Katty Grooves

Keep it up Katty Grooves.... loving your work dahhhling! ;)

TRACK LISTING

***************
BANGERS AND MASH

Far too Loud - Bring Back Boogie
Olmec - Push It
Olmec - Aliens Love Underpants
Alex Mind - The Fart Track (!)
Perfect Cell - Straight Up Music (Darth Vader rmx)
Campbell - All Aboard (Jacksaw rmx)
Jho fm - Funk Bass Energy (Perfect Cell rmx)
Alex Mind - Omen to Mumbai

***************
FACTORYDELIC

1. Far Too Loud - We Want to Dance
2.Bruno Barudi - Fucking Music

3. Alex Mind/ Electrixx - No Discussion
4. Dirty Loud- Disco Records
5. Wolfgang Gartner - The Undertaker

6. Aaren San - Apes from Space (Dirtyloud remix)
7. MOnk3ylogic - Where's the car? (Olmec remix)
8. Far too Loud - Banana Boy
9. Code Zero - Blackout (Kiwa rmx)
10. Hedflux - Music is my weapon (far too loud rmx)
11. Electrixx - Tetris


Its all about animals with earphones on innit! ;)

Monday 6 December 2010

RaFlux Mix - by DJ Peachimpy-Ra


Peachi here - Hello all. Well this is just gonna be a short one to post up my first full power tech funk psy breaks mix. I'm still learning but progress is being made. Hope you like it ;) All constructive comments gratefully received!

RaFlux by Peachimpy-Ra

This is pretty much my ideal music to dance to and is mainly a series of my favourite PHAT beated tracks. A lot of them have quite serated and thick bass lines and are generally funky as f*ck IMHO!

Track Listing:

Rebels - Beens
Play it Loud - Far Too Loud (Broken Robot Mix)
Robofunk - Neurodriver
Basscake - Hedflux
Bass Association - Far Too Loud
What You Gonna Do - Neurodriver / Atomic Drop
Musik - The Beatpusherz
Disco Decay - Nelix (Felguk Remix)
Apes From Space - Aaren San (Dirty Loud Remix)
What U Think - Dirtyloud
Revolve - Hedflux
Disclaimer - Ed Solo and Skool of Thought

Big thanks to Dr.Hedflux for advance copy of Revolve. Looking forward to its release in 2011. Every time I hear the voice sample I just love the sentiment more and more... plus its a lovely deep and warm funky track... lovley ;)

Monday 15 November 2010

Ninja Tune XX: XLR8R Podcasts from Coldcut, DJ Food, DK and Toddla T

For one reason or another I've missed most of the Ninja Tune XX anniversary celebrations this autumn / weekend, but for those of us that did these two XLR8R podcasts are a pretty good way to celebrate.


 
The first, mixed and compiled by label founder Coldcut and stalwarts DJ Food and MK, is an epic combo of original Ninja classics from Scruff, Food, Hextatic, Amon Tobin, Kid Koala and more recent highpoints from Diplo, Shuttle, Andreya Triana, Daedalus, Toddla T. With plenty of sick remixes from both fresh UK newbloods - Warrior One, Benga, Rustie - and US future hoppers - Gaslamp Killer and Flying Lotus - it shows just how much the label has influenced and kept up with the progress of beats over the decade since their last milestone.

XLR8R Podcast 170: DJ Food & DK vs. Coldcut (click through for DL and tracklist)


The second is one of the best mixtapes I've downloaded this year from 2010 Ninja Tune signing Toddla T, who landed a massive three album deal with them earlier this year. The mix is so varied you never have time to pin it down - full of dancehall fire, but packed with both evocative old rave skool samples and future beats. Reminiscent of NY label Nightshifters (AC Slater, Hostage, Proper Villans) at their best, with flavours of Diplo, Zinc's Crack House, Buraka and Zomby, it's right on the money and shows how Ninja Tune remain so even after 20 years. I can see myself buying a lot of these tunes...

XLR8R Podcast 168: Toddla T (click through for DL and tracklist)

If you like what you hear Ninja Tune have got two double compilations out to celebrate their anniversary, which include many of the cuts from that first mixtape. Going by the Zen Cuts X CDs which still sound as fresh 10 years on, they're going to be well worth the effort. I've certainly got 'em both on my Xmas list.

Sunday 14 November 2010

Bass in your face London! Bassnectar review and remaining UK tour dates


Friday lunchtime I saw the Fabric line up for the Scratch Perverts Beatdown on Friday night. One name stood out above all others... BASSNECTAR! What the fuck was he doing in London? Why did no-one tell me? Why did I not tell me? I can't remember the last time he was here, I just know that I have a 2006 promo my housemate gave me from a Freq Nasty night she can't remember if he played at. And that's been it for years...

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

After getting the news I went straight to Lorin's tour blog to find out:
"Hello Bass Heads!

"I remember years ago, the thought of playing a show in Europe felt like a Pilgrimage. When my agent started sending me to places like Arkansas on a Teusday and Tennessee on a Wednesday, I threw a fit. In my mind electronic music belonged in international meccas of prestige like London, Paris, Tokyo, New York. Not random spots in middle America where nobody even listens to electronic music.

"But after a lot of international touring in 2002 and 2003 I had lost interest in an unlimited scope of travel, and I wanted to focus on building a deeper, more fanatic network locally. I began gravitating towards the idea of bringing the music to places where it did not exist previously, and kind of forging a path for bass music here in the states.

"This was after the rave scene of the 1990′s had dissolved (or been extinguished) and I never expected to find such open arms scattered in essentially every American town I visited. So now after over 10 years of hardcore touring stateside, the number of bass heads is larger and more intense than I ever would have imagined. The shows are beyond a ‘rave’ and something more like an experience, and I am utterly stunned and grateful to continue taking this space ship deeper and deeper into the unkown.
"But we figured, why not go back to Europe… I haven’t played in London since a night with Freq Nasty back in 2004 (or 2003?) since the schedule over here got so jam-packed.

"This is exciting for several reasons; in part because it is a chance to explore fresh ears, and to delve much deeper into both the CLASSICs in my record box, and the baaaaangers that i have been rinsing over here. But also some of the shows over there are a whole different ball game… tiny-ass little rooms like I used to play regularly on stateside tours years and years ago.

"While I do not mind the huge venues and huge stages over here, I do miss the impeccable freakishness of a low ceiling and a room, a bat-shit crazy crowd bouncing off the walls, and the feeling of borderline panic as the room appears to burst at the seams."

He certainly got what he wanted at Fabric. By the time I managed to get in Bassnectar's set had just started and Room 1 was packed to the max and bouncing to the ceiling. As we fought to the bar the tunes were on the lighter side of things, switching between glitch-hop and mid tempo breaks or d'n'b and a wicked reggae vocal tune I didn't recognise. As the set developed, so did the bottom end, and by the time we'd squeezed our way into the centre of the room he was dropping dubstep-eque bass slabs from Wildstyle, Cozza Frenzy and Timecode.

  Bassnectar - Bass Head by Bassnectar

The crowd, the majority of whom like me had never seen (or in a lot of cases heard) this before, were mad for it. To see Lorin on the decks is an experience in itself. He's an animal, bouncing around with his straight long hair hanging down over his face and the occasional shouts on the mic of 'London lemme see you go wild!". Technically he really uses the tempo controls to full effect, with beats of different styles mashing into each other seamlessly and getting through tunes at a pretty epic pace - his own brand of omni-tempo maximalism in full effect!



It was when Lorin dropped the remix of Metallica's Seek and Destroy that the place really went nuts though. The dancefloor exploded into a full on mosh pit frenzy with the raw testosterone force of the metal / dubstep combo awakening some kinda primal urge in the club's under 25 male population. Personally I've never much enjoyed moshing in clubs, I used to go to metal and punk gigs for that, but the craziness kicking off was testament to the energy in the room. I didn't even mind the split lip.


                       

The mosh-bass frenzy continued for another 20 odd minutes before spitting us back out into the realms of more danceable downtempo broken beats and bubbling squelchy bass from Cozza Frenzy and Underground Communication. With no Andy C in sight Lorin got to drop one more old classic before shaking as many hands as possible and disappearing to leave many wondering exactly what just happened.

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

The tour played Birmingham last night, but if you're lucky enough to live anywhere near Sheffield, Manchester, Cardiff or Dublin there's still time to catch him in the UK.

NOV 16: @ TUESDAY CLUB in SHEFFIELD, UK

Alongside Sub Focus!
I play @ 12:00
NOV 17: @ RETRO BAR BASEMENT in MANCHESTER, UK
NOV 18: @ IFOR BACH in CARDIFF, UK
NOV 19: @ CRAWDADDY in DUBLIN, IR

Lorin - if you read this, please come back again soon and bring more stateside bassheads!

DOWNLOAD:
The Pixies - Where is my Mind (Bassnectar Remix) (Click through for DL)Bassnectar - Boombox (Bassnectar & ill.gates remix) (Right click save as for DL)

Saturday 6 November 2010

Devils Music: Nicolas Collins, Keith Rowe and Tetsuo Kogawa at Cut & Splice

One of my professional clients whose area of influence crosses over into my extra-curricular, music addicted existence is a brilliant organisation called Sound and Music. They were formed around 2 years ago from a group of other organisations that included the Sonic Arts Network and the Contemporary Music Network to promote, support and spread the love for sound art and experimental new music in the UK.

Through working with them over the last year, I've had a whole new worlds of aural exploration opened up to me by sonic legends such as Bill Fontana, Chris Watson, Nicholas Collins and Keith Rowe, all of whom I've had the privilege to meet in person. Thurdsay night it was Nic Collins and Keith Rowe at BBC Radio 3's annual Cut & Splice festival, which this year takes the poignant theme of transmission - the use of analogue radio in avant-garde performance.



The setting for Cut & Splice is Wilton's Music Hall near Tower Hill - the oldest surviving building of it's kind in the world. If you've not been there before it's worth it just for a trip to the bar (built around 1725), so that you can see the original wooden trims, peeling paint and crumbling masonry. It really is like stepping back in time. With the distorted, warped sounds of crackling radio signals pervading the air for Cut & Splice it takes on a truly magical feel.

First up was hand built electronic instrument pioneer Nic Collins, whose 1985 performance work Devil's Music used a intricate web of analogue pedals and effects to capture and loop live radio signals, effectively allowing Nic to DJ between radio broadcasts, with FX provided by looped static and white noise.



Due to his location and the time specific nature of broadcast radio, each performance is entirely unique and reflective of the time and culture it is performed in (a common feature of many of the works in the festival). You can get hold of vinyl reprint of recordings Nic made in 1987, including a piece performed in New York sampling dance and hip-hop stations that is credited as prefiguring glitch hop by about 15 years!

Since I missed his workshops earlier in the week, I managed to collar Nic for a quick chat after his performance at Wilton's. He told me that he now uses a MacBook to run a programme that performs the same function as his original setup, which he has available for a free download from his website! I'm looking forward to testing it out. I'm also very intrigued by Nic's book on how to make your own handmade electronic instruments.


Another act that highlighted very similar themes to Nic's was a group conducted by Keith Rowe, of pioneering 60s experimental group AMM, performing a version of 4 Systems by open form, NY composer Earle Brown . The score, made up of a four series of black lines, looks like it way originally written for keyboard and "may be played in any sequence, either side up, at any tempo."


Keith Rowe's group had adapted this to involve four people tuning in and out of static and broadcasts. I presume that they took the 'width of the keyboard' indicated by each set of long parallel lines to be the width of their tuner bands (I should really have asked Keith about this, but instead ended up talking about beer when I met him). The effect of doing this in East London was a beautiful amount of urban beats and bashment pirate station type adverts creeping into the mix, giving it a great uptempo feel most of the way through.

If you're still wondering who Keith is by the way, in the 1960s he was credited by Syd Barret as being an influence on his guitar playing. Unlike poor Syd though, who lost the plot quite early on, Keith went on to do far more radical things with his guitar.



The final act of the night was Tetsuo Kogawa, a cultural activist who helped lead a movement for free radio (rather than the one state controlled channel in each city) in Japan in the 1980s. Using small, handmade transistor units this helped feed an explosion of alternative youth culture in the country. 

Tetsuo's radio art takes on a shamanistic performance aspect, as he builds transistors in from of you using electromagnets and the proceeds to conjure beautiful noises from them through the use of his hands, a pippet of water and further magnets. It's truly mesmerising.



I'm heading back to Wilton's tonight for the last day of the festival, where we'll see classic works written for radio's as instruments by John Cage (of recent 4'33" notoriety) and Karlheinz Stockhausen performed by Apartment House, as well as live performance by Ma Le Pert (Tony Condrad). All weekend there's also an installation by John Wynne (of Saatchi exhibition fame) and a beautiful film by Esther Johnson about Gerry Wells, curator of the British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum.

Of course this is all very poignantly timed with the impending digital switch-over in the UK and it's only £12 on the door.

(Yes I am getting paid by them, but not to write this!)

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Opiuo: Monkey Crunk from down under


Opiuo is bar far the biggest and funkiest thing to happen to glitch-hop in 2010. With a prolific flurry of releases throughout the year, his funky, chunky, beautifully produced beats, squelchy synths and elastic bass have taken a genre that's recently become bogged down in dubstep-inspired bass swamps and simply put the good times bounce back in it. And it's infectious - almost every music head I know seems to have Opiuo, whether one of the two EPs or the album! The kiwi's got there first of course...

Just listen to this:

  OPIUO Triple J Mix January 2010 128kbps by opiuo


I first came across Opiuo last year via the killa tune King Prawn on An-ten-nae's seminal Acid Crunk Vol.2 compliation (Acid Crunk Vol.3 is just out btw) and it's been in my playlist ever since. I somehow missed the Boganus Proteinius EP, but picked up the awesome Slurp and Giggle album that came out in July a few months ago.


ESSENTIAL FREE DOWNLOAD:


 Recently Empanthy Recordings have release a series of mixes of another early classic, Monkey Crunk, from the brilliant Physical Symptoms EP. For my money it's all about this collaboration between bass heavyweights Ben Samples and ill.gates, which properly puts the crunk bass bombs back in the mix alongside some sick amen breaks, while keeping all the original Opiuo funk! Good monkey samples too.
    [EMPD018, PART 2] Opiuo - Monkey Crunk (ill.Gates & Samples Remix) by Empathy Recordings 

Check Opiou's website to LISTEN TO HIS WHOLE BACK CATALOGUE!

Sunday 24 October 2010

Neurodriver, Om Bongo & Wotchamacallit?

Rae from the Wobbly Squadron is off to India for the winter, so we all had a bon voyage knees up last night. As you'd expect round Rae and Ade Om Bongo's Guildford house (which now houses Dan Agent Smith and Dom Neurodriver too) there was a healthy percentage of music geeks present (Chris IP Cress and Dennis Subsource making up the numbers).

Dom's just released a cracking new tune on his Broken Robot label, Snakecharmer, a classic twister of a psy-breaks monster. I'd thoroughly recommend the Broken Eye remix as well, there's some definite Far Too Loud influence going on there (whether it's actually Dom or Oli under another alias a totally forgot to ask).

SAMPLES:
  BRR011 - NEURODRIVER: SNAKE CHARMER + REMIXES by BrokenRobot

For a full flavour of the latest releases on Broken Robot by the like of Hedflux, download Dom's latest mixtape below.

DOWNLOAD:
  Neurodriver DJ mix - Autumn 2010 by BrokenRobot

Dom also showed us this video of himself playing the awesome Root Society stage at Burning Man this year. It looks mind-blowing and he swears it's the best stage he's ever played on. I can't embed the video but click through for the Facebook page:

VIDEO:

Neurodriver plays Root Society, Burning Man 2010

Now's also the time for the first plug of Ade's next night, the Om Bongo Christmas Party. If you like anywhere near Guildford come on down on Christmas Eve for some proper heavy partying with some of the best DJs and live acts in the UK including Slackbaba, Ade, Dan and Musical Man favourite Mary Miss Fairy!
Flyer by Agent Smith :-)
















One of the two acts I hadn't seen until last week is Wotchamacallit? whose live downtempalisms were sounding pretty lush on the pub system. There's whisperings of a first release on the way soon.

  .....On A Spinning Planet by Wotchamacallit?

Nasty Ways: The Good, The Bad and The Squishy


I downloaded the Nasty Ways remix of Lollipop a little while back, purely from a stumble on Soundcloud. It fitted in with some Tron/Mimosa/Marty Party that I was playing around with, and wasn't even too cheesy or club stylee (for Lil' Wayne that is). I had no idea at the time that it was Eprom and Boreta (of The Glitch Mob) together though. I did find out after looking into this new (old) tune though. Tasty squelchy glitch-hop with a nice wilds style sample dropping over the top. Gonna work nicely with Subvert, Ill Gates et al. Schweet...


DOWNLOAD:

  Nasty Ways - The Good The Bad and The Squishy (Free DL) by boreta

DOWNLOAD:
XLR8R: Lil Wayne - Lollipop (Nasty Ways remix)

Saturday 23 October 2010

Purple Wow: Joker, Gemmy and Guido


In the last few years Joker has fast become of my favourite (post-)dubstep producers. This is mainly because he dosn't make straight dubstep, but what's been called 'purple wow' - a g-funk inspired sound that seems to have more in common with the Californian whomp of Mimosa and LA future-hop of Nosaj Thing than the rest of the UK scene. Lots of computer game type noises, heavy warm bass and g-funk high end, within the framework of a dubstep two-step beat.

DOWNLOAD: Joker – Purple Wow Sound Mix (Jan 2009) (Rick click and save as)

  Joker "TRON" + VIP Mix by Multiverse


He's not alone in digging this vein though, and is often cited alongside fellow young Bristol producers Guido and Gemmy as 'The Purple Trinity' (above left-right: Gemmy, Joker, Guido).

  Gemmy "Maroon Chant / Last 3 Digits" by Multiverse
(ignore Maroon Chant and go for Last 3 Digits)

DOWNLOAD: Gemmy – The 1987 Bounce

  Guido 'Orchestral Lab' by Punch Drunk Records

DOWNLOAD: Guido - Orchestral Lab (right click save as)


ALBUM REVIEW:
I picked up Orchestral Lab Guido's first single on Punch Drunk (Pervelist's Bristol label) a while ago, but I only recently bought his full length album Anidea and can thoroughly recommend it. It's a chilled out and organic album, lots of MIDI strings, guitar, piano and saxaphone interlinked with lush synths and bass. As such it has a laid back jazzy feel at times (Mad Sax, Take Me Higher). Apparently he's a jazz pianist so that might explain something. I've read somewhere else that he also grew up playing Final Fantasy VII, so that probably has a lot to answer in the computer game soundtrack type melodies (Woke up Early, Cat in the window, Tantalized). There's also more traditional feeling dubstep (Tango) and cinematic moody soundscapes (Shades of Blue). Meanwhile the two vocal tracks (Beautiful Complication feat Aarya and Way You Make Me Feel feat Yolanda) manage not to come across to hackneyed or cheesy. Kinda like wonky R&B, but good. So all in all it's a beautifully melodic multi-layered album, described elsewhere as incandescent, which I'd have to agree with.

If yo want a taster before you go out and buy, try these two mixtapes first. They're a bit more moody and  traditionally dubsteppy than the album, but the XLR8R one has plenty of choice cuts on there.

DOWNLOAD:
XLR8R Podcast 155: Guido (2010 mixtape)
FACT mix 108: Guido (2009 mixtape)

Friday 22 October 2010

4 Monkey-o-Philes - DJ Peachimpy-Ra

Well its not pretty but its a sort of a silly monkey mix. Well not much mixing involved but a fun first attempt. Struggled with tracks with speeds ranging from 60 to 160 BPM!! Enjoy... especially the Funky Gibbon - classic ;)

For some reason Soundcloud wouldn't let me upload it (its too hot for them!?!) - copyright issues I guess.... if you do want a copy let me know. I will sort it ;)

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Hedflux - Summer2010 Promo Mix


L O... Peachi ere: Well September sees the return of a favourite on the MM blog. YES its another SMASHER of a set from our good friend Dr. Hedflux and what better way to end the summer than with a lovely hour+ mix of very Hedflux'esque psychadelic tech funk. Download it for free on Soundcloud now - Summer 2010 Promo Mix - featuring 4 outstanding Hedflux tracks and two lovely remixes of his too (see track listing at end). Please support this lovely man by buying at least one of the tracks online if you like the mix (these things take time and he needs to eat!):

Hedflux Summer2010 Promo Mix by Hedflux

For me the stand out tracks have to be Revolve and Rhythm Prism that are just lovely examples of psy trance with a funky ass bass line and some lovely tech-future sounds: hence psy tech funk!! ...simples innit ;) (basically what I used to call techno-trance in my Escape from Samsara Days - but much more evolved) ......Revovle has all the spaciousness of Basscake with the driving bass and cheeky stops over lain by mind tickling psy licks to fiddle fondly with your flowing flux. I really like the "revolution" sample just before the big drop in the middle of the track. Rythm Prism just makes me want to BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE with its cheeky blip and blaps and upbeat boinging bass. Mind Cell is a corker but a little bit older and White Nights is new to me and is a lovely end to the mix.

In terms of overall composition this is a really evenly paced mix, unlike his Feb 2009 Promo mix (also free) which definately builds, this just gets going right from the start, which is great for using as a party mix if you want to UP the energy in the room sharpish. Things go a bit less playful after Revolve as Dr.Hedlux shows his darker side, but I think this sets it all up nicely for the final track as you emerge into the sunshine out of the more heavy techno laden last quarter; even though the last track is still still quite hard but FULL ON! (like a double rainbow OMG!). Great mix all round, thanks Steve and keep on keeping on!

A man who obviously takes himself too unseriously
(but big Dr to Dr fancy dress respek!)


In terms of developing and expanding this genre though, I wonder if there isn't some scope for fusion using some more dubstep'ey baselines and top end licks like in Mimosa and Nit GRit. There are some lovely grating serating bass lines and some crazy sounds that would mix well with Hedflux's style tracks. I think the range of beats/bass lines in dubstep is much more innovative and interesting than in the tech funk arena and why my attention has been there mostly recently (see previous). Lets hope there is some fusion, no harm in dropping a hint or two is there ;)


So Dr.Hedflux has being blowing our minds in other ways with, in his words, a "humble contribution to the LSD magazine: to be be found in Issue 5, page 104. And a right royal good read it is too... really honest, open and a far out there introduction to the ideas behind his " its the future brought to us now" music. Read and contemplate hmmmmm:


Formatting FAIL but fuggit! ;)

Hedflux - Summer 2010 Mix Tracklist:

1. Orzels Machine - Spaced [Trick Music]
2. Hedflux - Mindcell [Broken Robot]
3. RMS & Peak - Ten Dimensions [Broken Robot]
4. OOOD - Oddball (Hedflux Remix) [Broken Robot]
5. Hedflux - Rhythm Prism [Broken Robot]
6. Subliminal System - Into the Burgh (Monk3y Logic remix) [CDR]
7. Hedflux - Revolve [Broken Robot]
8. Lee Coombs - Light and Dark (Neurodriver remix) [Lot49]
9. Meat Katie & Dylan Rhymes - Rollplayer (Hedflux Remix) [Lot49]
10. Dual Boot - Trigger (Triple Agent remix) [Ridiculoud]
11. Hedflux - White Nights [Broken Robot]

Saturday 18 September 2010

NiT GRit - Burning Man 2010 Mix


Peachi here - WELL are you ready for some more HEAVY BASS GUNS of: dubstep, thugstep, grime, glitch hop, filth, laser bass and (my favourites) fractal womp and future glitch womp?

Yeah?

Well its time to listen to Mr NiT GRit (thats capital N, small i, capital T etc etc...) - aka. Danny Beall from San Jose, US of A (fuck yeah!) - thanks to Morbjit Chris-Ra for spotting this first!

And YES finally NitGrit has something out on soundcloud that you can download for free- its uploaded by Chronodog and its only 27 mins long but its a corker. I also recommend just going to his soundcloud home page and just listening to everything there. There is also a free EP - Pedro the Destroyer - to be downloaded from his (pretty basic) website. So go on have a click-a-thon and please buy one of his EP's or his album if you like the free stuff - support the dude (see below):

NiT GRit--Burning Man 2010 Mix by chrondog

So sorry to have missed him and Burning Man this year, but if you did too, here's a great video with a lovely dub step soundtrack ;)

His four main EP's that I can work out are (in sort of chronological order, most recent first): Awakenings, Synthetic Heaven, Heavy Machinary and Pedro the Destroyer - although there are many other tracks on his soundcloud page (and according to his website Heavy Machinery comes out in December 2010 - so yeah that really needs some work - his Face Waste page is much more up to date and he checks in there failry regularly it seems). He has one album out that is also on his webpage that is self named NiT GRit which has 13 great track on it.


Of the EP's Awakenings is by far the most evolved and beautiful, with the others getting steadily harder as you go back in time. I'm not going to give a big analysis because someone has already done it much better than I could here. And I pretty much agree with what's said there so no need to repeat it - its a really good read too (very insightful and inspiring review - respek!). Love Song on the Awakenings EP has a beutiful haunting lyric on it and Grit Shift is pumping full of life force. So I recommend buying the Awakenings EP at least. You can buy it here I think. They're around $5 each so why not buy the lot aye ;)


I would say though that he still has some way to go to capture the subtelties, depth and epic'ness found in, for instance, Mimosa - which is also a lot more varied IMHO. But its still rockin it and its got some beautiful future-tech sounds in there!! All could be a good accompaniment for a massive space battle - and that's my litmus test for a good hard track ;)

If you want to hear some of his earlier stuff then there is Lay Awake and Sloth Logic - which I think are more down temp - but I haven't gone through them yet. ENJOY!!

Sunday 5 September 2010

Robin Triskele - downtempo electronica mix


Hi Peachi here - just a quick one to give you a heads up on a nice downtempo mix that is quite floaty and psy-style chill out by DJ Robin Triskele. This blog has been a bit bang bang bang recently so I thought it would be time to put something up a bit more soothing. No intro or biog this time - just the a quick and simple link. Just click on the download icon on the play window below (the arrow pointing down) or go to the soundcloud page linked above - simples! Thanks to Dr Hedflux for the original heads up. Take it away Robin Triskele (and thanks for the free mix):

RobinTriskele Downtempo Mix by RobinTriskele

Please let us know if you are aware of any more nice downtempo stuff to check out.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Dj Gamma - These Are the Days


Hi, Peachi here - with just a quicky really. Follow the link below to a nice mix by DJ Gamma of a load of Dubstep remixes of a few tracks that you will be familiar with. OK its a bit cheesy in places (e.g. Lady Gaga and Cold Play) but there are a few corkers in there like the following (my favourites):

Delerium - SIlence (High Rankin & Evolve or Die Rmx)
ANS - Voltage
DJ Fresh - Gold Dust (Flux Pavillion Rmx)
The Moody Blues - White Satin (Zeds Dead Rmx)

But by far the best is the first track - which is Bassnectar'a remix of Magical World ft Nelly Furtado - love it! ....enjoy!

These are the Days by DjGamma

But you decide for yourself... and just notice how much meatier these tracks sound with a big whomp whomp bass treatment... nice and Phat (bit like DJ Morbjit...but not as short... or morbidly depressed about it!)

Go to DJ Gammas Music page of his website here for more mixes... good luck, not tested them myself yet!!

Here's the track listing for - These are the Days:

Bassnectar - Magical WOrld ft Nelly Furtado
Lady Gaga - Alejandro (Rusko's Papuseria Rmx)
The Boogaloo - Days Go By
Delerium - SIlence (High Rankin & Evolve or Die Rmx)
ANS - Voltage
DJ Fresh - Gold Dust (Flux Pavillion Rmx)
MGMT - Kids (Datsik Rmx)
Goldhawks - Keep the Fire (Bar9 Rmx)
Nero - Innocence
The Pixies - Where is my Mind (Bassnecatar Rmx)
Pendulum - Set me on Fire
The Moody Blues - White Satin (Zeds Dead Rmx)
Cold Play - Fix You (Datsik Rmx)
Orbital Tribute (Notation Dubsteppin boot)
Matisyahu - One Day (CASSETTi Rmx)


Big thanks to OscarR for his heads up to this on Face Waste.... last seen rocking the pimp hat at Southern Lights 2010 ;)


MMMMmmmmm fancy dress train smash wonder... nice concentration face too ;)

Saturday 21 August 2010

Heyoka "Cosmic Boogie Promo Mix" - & Tigran Mimosa generally

Peachi here: Well on my quest to find more Tigran Mimosa style Whomp Whomp Glitch Warp, I found this delightful little ditty 'promo mix' from Heyoka to promote his "Cosmic Boogie" Album which you can buy here. But for free you can download his promo mix here or listen below.

Heyoka Cosmic Boogie Promo Mix by Muti Music

Another really nice heavy mix is here - but alas no free download.

Heyoka - idm, dnb, glitch hop, halfstep mix 2010 by Heyoka

You can also find his own stuff on soundcloud here. I like his Shlomsky track too which you can listen to here and buy by following the links. And here is his myspace page.

I also recommend having a listen to the Muti Music page linked here and above (muti is South African slang for medecine).

Heyoka is also known as Andrei Olenev and he harks from San Fran. I really liked this comment on one of his tracks on soundcloud:

"Having listened to a lot of Andrei's choonz, it seems like that's all he's got: big guns and bigger guns. Except that they shoot funk instead of bullets. Guns of massive interstellar electroshamanistic metafunk. Yeah, that."

- yeah, electroshamanistic metafunk guns - thats it ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So back to Tigran Mimosa and still probably my favourite mix at the moment is his "False Idol" mix available here for download and its already been on this MM blog here. This mix has really grown on me and its constantly running around my head these days. Been listening to the individual noises and really appreciating how complex and layered this music is. Some really original and fun noises in there.... listen to it without doing anything else! trust me ;)



So "False Idol" is about as close as I come to imagining the sound track to some rightous epic space battle/ opera. Which reminds me of the eloquent words of the mighty fine DJ Hedflux:

"Doesn’t good electronic music just make you feel super-fuckin-cool and futuristic? To me it feels like a window into the future. When I’m havin’ it on the dancefloor I feel like I am marching into the future with joyous determination."

- YEAH! with electroshamanistic metafunk guns - thats it ;)
I love the phrase "joyous determination" BTW.... full on power-Ra phrase... at your most euphoric and optimistic on the dance floor you can take on the world with power surging up from the ground all around your body (like a bass inspired Popeye - this actually happened to me at Nowhere Festival early sunday morning listening to this style of music RAAAA!) ;)))))))

Ahem....Anyway, confusingly this downloads as "2010-Remote Viewing..", so don't loose it in your pooter folder like I did for a while.

There is also a very nice free mini-mix here and below and you can find a few other free tracks. These are easy to get on his facebook page here and on his blog:


CrunkSteppers Guide into the PsyPhy MiNi MiX by TigranMiMoSA

Enjoy and watch out for more Whomp Glitch Ting coming your way in the future (slightly addicted it seems)... Wonkey? pah! its all about the Whomp baby ;)

P.S. Anyone know what IDM means?....JFGI? its Ok I dunnit... but still don't know what it iz?!?

Wednesday 18 August 2010

Slugabed: Drop a Donky On It


I first came across Slugabed through a review of his Ultra Heat Treated EP on Doktor Krank's epicly prolific bass blog. If you haven't heard it yet, at least get Skyfire - it's an epic slab of off kilter future-hop, with arcade game pings and blips morphing in and out of the most addictive melody, fading between bass runs and floaty pauses. Overall I'd probably describe his sound as somewhere between Joker and Flying Lotus.


More recently the learned Doktor has flagged up this dope mixtape he's done for Brighton night Donky Pitch. It's properly sick, with remixes of La Roux, Wu Tang Clan and what sound like Erykah Badu and Bjork and tracks skewed somewhere between filth and the sublime. I've been addicted for well over a week now. Enjoy!

  Slugabed - Put A Donky On It Mix by Donky Pitch

If you like that, Slugabed and the Donky Pitch crew are taking over Cafe 1001 just off Brick Lane in London this Saturday. Due to the usual twists of universal irony that flow through my life I'm due to be down in Brighton though. Oh well...

You can read more about Greg Slugabed in this recent Quietus interview. Apparently he's now moved to Kingston for some bizarre reason... will have to track him down sometime as that makes us practically neighbours and I've never heard anyone else playing music this good anywhere near here.

Phew! Managed the whole post without describing his music as wonky.... oh shit...

Thursday 12 August 2010

DJ Mag Top 100 DJ's - Morbjit's vote

The DJ mag top 100 DJ's are always gash. That's why this year I've actually voted. Weighed heavily by who I've actually seen the most of (Mary and Ade) mixed with the three that I've enjoyed the best mixtapes from and have been consistently producing the best tunes. So, they are....


  1. MaryMissFairy
  2. Mimosa
  3. Bassnectar
  4. Fort Knox Five
  5. Ade
http://www.top100djs.net/

Wednesday 4 August 2010

The Glitch Mob: Drink the Sea and Remix It Like You Stole It



THE REVIEW

So upfront, I have a confession to make. A few months on and I'm actually slightly disappointed by the Glitch Mob's debut 'Drink the Sea'. This is not too say that's it's bad. In fact if you're only going to read this part of this review, buy the album, it's well worth it! As stand alone tracks they're beautifully produced and there's plenty of those sharp hooks, tonk beats and enough bounce to get your arms swinging like you're really throwin' it down (see We Swarm below).

  We Swarm - DRINK THE SEA - Out Now by The Glitch Mob 

So what's my gripe? Well maybe I've kinda built it up to much in anticipation - eDit and Oaah have long been two of my favourite whomp and glitch-hop producers and I've always liked what I've heard from Boreta.

Drink the Sea certainly solidifies the Glitch Mob's sound, but for me the downside is that too many of the tracks sound a bit too similar and use many of the same tricks as the epic remixes with which they made their name. While this means that the album holds together in terms of cohesive sound, I get the same emotion from every track. They're occasionally a bit slow and overly epic (rock drums, Gfunk synths and guitars), without enough of those really poppin beats, glitches and deep whomp that make the individual artist's work so godamn addictive. This may be partly explained due to a slight void in the heavy crunk department, left by the departure of Kraddy not long before release, or a desire for album to be realised by a live band, as Lowri points out in this review.


THE COMPETITION

Anyway, one way to get me really excited about an album again is to put out a bunch of sick remixes (see Freestylers' Raw a Fuck, Deekline and Wizard's last effort and Freeland's Cope).

Eskmo's chop up of Fistful of Silence is a case in point:

The Glitch Mob - Fistful of Silence (ESKMO Remix) - Right Click for free download

Full props to The Glitch Mob boys for putting the next one out to tender with an open invite to remix another of the stand out tracks, Drive It Like You Stole It. The prizes are many, the deadline is 20 August, all stems are available up on the site and there's already some sick entries. So let's see some of you bass heads steal this mix and put some proper breaking crunk funk in it!

http://www.theglitchmob.com/music/remix_competition/

For non-producers you can grab a lot of this tasty shit for free. Having had a listen to a few I'd recommend Mirko-Kosmos (sick!), Matty B (different), Technobears' Redux and the self explanatory Funkadhesive Remix.

Remix It Like You Stole It Competion - The Glitch Mob