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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

full & paid

That Cool Kids mixtape "That's Stupid" went live last night - grab the free download from their myspace. I only started listening to it this morning, but sounds pretty good. Got that same old skool hip hop sound, with phat 808 slow beats, first track has a sorta "Slow and Low" sound, and "Full and Paid" is a pretty good Eric B and Rakim inspired track.

Another excellent discovery, which Roel Funcken introduced me to, was Bretzel Zoo, friends of theirs from Belgium, who also do a really crunchy electronic project by the name of Herrmutt Lobby. I've been listening to these Bretzel Zoo tracks on repeat - on quite a similar sound path as Hayzee, who i posted about yesterday, nintendo inspired lurching hip hop.

dang, so much good stuff going on in hip hop at the moment!

Labels: bleep, bretzel zoo, cool kids, downloads, hip hop, nintendo

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

back to the blog!

this past weeks been a bit too hectic to scribble much on here, but back to work now, tuesday morning, things are ticking along and my boss is on holiday, so i'll have a lazy start to the day while penning about a couple of things i've been listening to this past week..

Frank N Dank "Xtended Play Version 3.13"
When we were doing the Plastic People gig last week, i got talking with the sound man, Slim, about J Dilla, and he asked if i'd heard of Frank N Dank - he described it as hip hop mixed with detroit techno. I hadn't heard any of it, and downloaded an album to check out. The one i grabbed is "Xtended Play Version 3.13" which is excellent, but on further investigation, its not all produced by Dilla, and actually some of the better tracks are done by different producers.
I'll need to find some of the earlier Dilla produced Frank N Dank still, but i would highly recommend Xtended Play. Check the full list of producers at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xtended_Play_Version_3.13

Hayzee - Next Level
Slightly Dilla related - i joined the DILLA group on last.fm, and found a recommendation to check out Hayzee. Their myspace doesn't list the members, but from the photograph, its three guys, from Amsterdam, doing an excellent take on 8-bit hip hop. Easily falling within the current batch of producers from Flying Lotus to Rustie, with skewed tumbling hip hop beats, big midrange synths, and bleepy Mario-style melodies. They have a full 8 track album for free download linked from their myspace page, and its pretty infectious stuff. Some of it is a bit too close to the formula you can imagine just from the description "8bit hip hop", but other tracks are total standout productions, such as "Press Start" and "Last Boss/Final Form".

Mike Dearborn - DJ set from the Smartbar, Chicago, march 2008
Just found this mix this morning via Fun In The Murky. 2 hour deep dubby techno set, starting out pretty mellow and basic channel sounding, working up into some classic old chicago and detroit techno. I wish i had a track listing for it, as theres a bunch of old stuff i recognize but couldn't name, some old classics i remember from Glasgow's Tin Pan Alley, back in '90/'91.
excellent stuff!

Phantom Channel Presents - Part 2
Second release from Phantom Channel, who i've written about a wee while back. 13 tracks of really sublime organic ambience, drone and experimental recordings. Still delving into this one, but so far, all sounds excellent!

Ikonika
Just wanted to say a few words about her DJ set at Plastic People last week - absolutely top notch! Really excellent selection of tunes, hefty bass-weight, but leaning more towards 2step than dubstep, really uptempo and dancefloor friendly, and almost completely stuff i didn't recognise. Her mixing skills are tight as hell and she was constantly working the decks. Everyone was up on the floor for her set and loving it. She's playing Plastic People again at the end of the month for FWD>>, and i'll definitely be along to see her play again.

Ramadanman and Pangea
The day after our Plastic People gig, I took the Funcken brothers out around london to see what was on, and I had spied a free Hessle Audio night down at Cafe1001, off Brick Lane. I usually hate that venue, its so overly crowded with hipsters and scenesters (is there a difference? painfully fashionable anyhoo!), and tonite wasn't much different, but it well worth checking out, as Ramandanman and Pangea's back to back DJing selection was impeccable, lots of their own productions being played leaning towards that same outside-genre as Martyn's productions - elements of techno, dubstep, 2step, mixed together effortlessly and really enjoying themselves.

The Cool Kids - That's STUPID
And.. haven't heard it yet, but The Cool Kids, recent XL Recordings signing, release their new mixtape, That's STUPID", via their myspace later today.

Monday, June 16, 2008

dilla-gence

rar, what a pretty good weekend...

Friday went along to the Jahtari/Werk nite at Plastic People, which was pretty ace. When i first arrived Lukkid was just starting and did a pretty good chopped up soul/hip hop set. Some other decent stuff over the evening, one guy who i *think* was Newworldaquarium, played an excellent detroit-style set with loads of little recognizable snippets of tracks including a Nexus 21 track which me and Matt/Spendlove got excited about. The total highlight of the evening, and the reason most everyone was there, was for Disrupt - fuck, by that point the volume was up so loud i was almost feeling queasy with the bass thud - it was perfect for his set and everyone was skanking to his 8-bit-videogame-dub.

Saturday i was recovered enough by the evening for the Warp Brainfeeder night which has a massive lineup - Ras G, Samiyam, Rustie and Hudson Mohawke, Kode9, Flying Lotus and Mala. Quite a decent crowd of us out for it, and the whole evening was excellent. That venue, Hearne Street Car Park is great too, spacious enough to relax and not feel cramped, with external areas to the main dance-room, and somehow escaping the non-smoking laws - my guess is that its classified as a private party, judging by the use of drink tickets and the setup.

Finished off sunday with some light-weight movie action to see the new Hulk movie, which was actually better than i expected, sort of in the same league as the latest Iron Man movie - not amazing but tied in enough with the Marvel comics universe to appease comic geeks and enough in-jokes to keep you amused.

Feels like a slow start to the week today though, but i found a few new free downloads to be start the week right:

Theres a download of Flying Lotus' live set for radio one last year, shorn of the radio one bits. Link found via his myspace blog:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VSR24FW5

New mix went online over the weekend from DJ Synflood featuring an excellent mix of the hip hop such as Flying Lotus, Daru, Dilla, Madvillain and more.

Best of all - via J Dilla's wikipedia entry i found a free mixtape of unreleased Dilla production with Busta Rhymes. Grab is from here. Via mickboogie.com

Labels: dilla, downloads, flying lotus, mixtapes, weekend

Friday, June 13, 2008

mighy praise

Warren Ellis is perhaps the best writer in comics these days, certainly one of the most creative and out-there storytellers, with themes and ideas more akin to those explored by the minds of technologists and contemporary sci-fi writers like Bruce Sterling and William Gibson, than your usual comic book author.
Apart from that, he's very into his music, which is a constant topic of his excellent blog postings.
I sent him over a copy of Funckarma's upcoming Dubstoned EP, and was mightily chuffed to receive an email from him yesterday saying that he loved it, and that he posted this review:.

"It's an evil, lurching, jagged piece of science fictional noise that shoves about eight different kinds of music into a centrifuge in order to spit out a life form configured for life in the last city on earth when the next ice age comes. Or something. Any fifteen second stretch of any one of the five tracks can include hip hop, crackle, 1983 videogame noises, industrial grind and dubstep mutations. It evokes the image of mad scientists doing live mixing with DNA. I like it."

Check out some free Warren Ellis goodness at Freak Angels, a weekly webcomic set in a post-apocalyptic steampunk London. its fuckin' great!
Theres a load of his work to recommend, but some of my favs have been his runs on Hellblazer and the Authority, his superhero stuff Ultimate Galactus, Iron-man: Extremis, some of his own creations like Desolation Jones, Fell, and his recent novel Crooked Little Vein. Check his wikipedia entry for even more info..

Labels: comics, dubstoned, funckarma, reviews, warren ellis

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

bristol style

Had an excellent weekend up in Bristol for the Venn festival. I was fighting a cold off for the whole weekend, but still managed to catch some great music and have a really good time!

Me, mat and lisa all went up on saturday afternoon, and came back on sunday at 6pm, so didn't get to see all of the festival, really just saturday's events.

Philip Jeck was the highlight of saturday afternoon, really nice sound in the auditorium and quite a captivating set. Hauntology seems to be the buzzword of the moment, and i guess Philip Jeck's scratchy records found in second hand stores which evoke all sorts of strange times and places may well fall under such a categorization. Caught Infinite Livez vs Stade shortly after that, which was pretty entertaining too - a very funkadelic inspired sound and look from the whole band, and a lot of onstage energy. In fact that reminds me to try and find some recordings of theirs - its someone whose name i've seen loads but hadn't actually heard - the set was fun enough that i'd like to check out some recordings and see how they differ.

Saturday night was the main reason for going up to the festival - Peverelist and Mortiz Von Oswald, and neither disappointed. The venue for the evening was the Motion skatepark, which as venues go, and being an ex-skater, i thought was fucking excellent. It has a nice outdoor patio garden on the bank of the river, plus three of the rooms were setup for music tonite. Peverelist's set started off slowly with a classic dub skanker, almost just an introduction to get everyone's attention, before dropping into some really good dubtech sounds, from the more familiar tracks such as his own productions, his work with Appleblim (who was dancing around very happily during the whole set), and some 2562 tracks, plus a load i didn't recognise.
He was followed directly by Moritz Von Oswald who had a massive stack of classic dub 45's. Fighting off the cold, i was starting to fade a bit by then, and moved through to bar where you could still hear and feel the bass from his set. Wandered around checking out most of the other rooms after that, but we called it a night around 3am and went back to the hostel to play some pool!

Almost over the cold now i think, and been finding a good few records and downloads these past couple of days..

One of my recent obsessions has been Daru and Rena's 'Turn It On' which i mentioned briefly before on here, i think my description was something like 'flying lotus producing En Vogue' which still kinda fits, but Daru has a load of projects on the go and working with loads of different people. Last night i came across his blog - http://darujones.blogspot.com/. One of the best finds from the blog was a free mixtape you can grab from here and actually, quite a few other places round the net - if for some reason that link doesn't work just google "daru spirit soul-hop sampler". I do warn you tho - its quite on the neosoul tip, not something i go for often, but i dunno, the production is just so good you get sucked in!

Was out with Matt Spendlove recently, and he informed me about the Jahtari and Werk showcase at Plastic People this friday which looks so good! Its got disrupt, Rootah, Mikey Murka, and Actress all playing live. I visited and downloaded quite a load of releases from their site months ago, but went back today to re-explore, and grabbed a bunch of excellent free download releases - been particularly enjoying the Blue Vitriol release. Well worth an explore!

Labels: bristol, daru, daru and rena, jahtari, peverelist, plastic people, venn, werk

Friday, June 6, 2008

Hessle Audio

Hessle Audio is a label i've just come across recently - out of Leeds and run by Ramadanman, Ben UFO and Pangaea, according to Discogs.

Those recent downloads i had bought, the TRG ones, and then the Martyn and Ramadanman remixes of TRG, were both on Hessle Audio, however i hadn't actually paid attention to the label. Yesterday i bought another wee batch of new downloads from boomkat, two of which also are on Hessle Audio: Untold's "Test Signal" EP, and Pangaea's "Coiled". Both are super good and show a nice advancement in the dubstep sound, with off-kilter rhythms more akin to 2step than the standard halfstep plod, and I've had both releases on constant repeat for the past 24 hours. Untold's 'Kingdom' is a particular standout, nice low-end sound palette, a slow motorik beat and undulating hypnotic bass, sprinkled with a smattering of on-safari-style samples. Thats definitely in my set for the Plastic People gig coming up!

Check em out on their myspace page

Labels: dubstep, Hessle Audio, label, reviews

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

dubTechno2StepAcidBassline mix

while preparing for DJing at the upcoming Funckarma release parties, i've been assembling a set in Ableton Live. I made a recording this past weekend of the more uptempo tracks which beat-match. I was pretty happy with the results, it seems to have turned out all right - from 2step to bassline via some 303!

Download here.

Tracklisting is:

thorsten's dubTechno2StepAcidBassline mix

1. Ramadanman - Kablammo Eleven
2. Appleblim - Vansan
3. TRG - Broken Heart (Martyn's DCM Remix)
4. 2562 - Enforcers
5. Peverelist - Infinity Is Now
6. Kit Clayton - Aspoket
7. Plastician - Cha
8. Voltaic - Darkhaze
9. Acid Jack - Mookie (Curses! Making You Nervous Mix)
10. Boy 8 Bit - Fogbank
11. Surgeon - Whose Bad Hands Are These (Autechre mix)
12. Ron Hardy - Welcome To The Club
13. Theo Parish - Falling Up (Carl Craig mix)
14. Blaqstar - Shake it to the ground (Drop The Lime remix)
15. DJ Pierre - Box Energy
16. Ron Carrol - Walking Down The Street
17. Ramadanman - Carla
18. Lethal Bizzle - Mr (produced by Dexplicit)
19. Adonis - No Way Back
20. Gescom - D1
21. The Village Orchestra - 2652 remix

Labels: dj, downloads, mixes

Monday, June 2, 2008

dubstoned EP preview

i have a wee Funckarma mp3, sort of like a megamix of their current Dubstoned project, including the upcoming EP1 plus stuff from EP2. Grab it from here.

Labels: downloads, dubstoned, funckarma

Friday, May 30, 2008

slowcoach

yeah, i know - sometimes a bit late to the party! I've been checking out some Martyn tracks and really enjoying them. I've heard quite a few of them on DJ mixes, especially on the new Appleblim Dubstep Allstars, however i didn't own any vinyl or mp3s. I was searching to buy some tracks this afternoon, and have come across a couple of download stores i hadn't used before, both of which allow purchases by Paypal which is something i've wanted for ages. I usually have some money in my paypal account, and it always feels more like internet money rather than real money, so I kinda prefer paying for things via paypal as its not actually coming out of my bank account.

First download store was junodownload which i actually found late last night while purchasing Joker's 'Kapsize' EP. Its a nice simple clean interface, allows easy previewing, and as i say you can use Paypal. They have a good selection, and its a different selection than boomkat or emusic, although album prices were more expensive than at boomkat.

Second store was Digital-tunes.net which again has a different catalog from boomkat or junodownload. Thats where i found the Martyn tunes i was looking for, and even easier - actually allows you to login via Facebook, weirdly, but yeah, nother nice easy store to use with a clean interface.

While I was searching for the Martyn tracks, i found a forum post linking to Lower Depths which has a load of freely downloadable mixes, including four different Martyn mixes, and also two Dogdaze mixes, which is another pseudonym used by 2562/A Made Up Sound. Theres a load of other mixes by people i don't know, but i'll be having a delve in over the weekend. One of the Martyn mixes was from Skream's Stella Sessions, same as the Joker mix i posted the other day - i said i didn't know what the Stella Sessions were, but i think its just the name of his shows on Rinse.FM.

Labels: 2562, downloads, joker, martyn, mixes, mp3

mr Lotus loves his comic books!

Just found this Flying Lotus interview where they briefly touch on his love of comics - http://www.prefixmag.com/features/flying-lotus/interview/18753/ - he mentions 'Y: The Last Man' and Grant Morrison's 'The Filth'. rar! comic books and good music go together like Peggy and Al!

Labels: comics, flying lotus

Thursday, May 29, 2008

pants music

aiight - first up - Roel Funckarma was in for the record laquer cut yesterday and says it sounds amazing! Still looking like we're on schedule to get it back in time for the UK record launch parties! rar!

Couple of new things on the (virtual) turntables:

With my recent infatuation with all things J Dilla, i've come across a lot of Stones Throw Record releases, the latest of which has been getting a load of hype - James Pants' 'Welcome' album.
It came out on the 27th, and I finally found it on a download store that wasn't some dodgy russian one, and bought a copy on tuesday night from Juno Downloads. I can't say i'm into it all, some of its a bit too synth-poppy, but other tracks are big wonky disco hip hop jams, and are well worth the price of admission alone. One track is particular has been lodged in my head, and requires playing first thing in the morning - "We're Through". You can download a copy of that track from over at RCRD LBL. Its got an excellent thick big synth that carries it along and an excellent little cowbell percussion.

Buckshot and 9th Wonder - The Formula.
I saw a few people talking about this on blogs earlier this year, saying it was one of their most anticipated releases of the year. i saw on it one of the download blogs i follow and grabbed a copy yesterday - had it on repeat a few times. I've been really enjoying it, quite chunky beats and, a load of little pitched-up soul/disco samples and vocal flow is really smooth. Theres nothing ground-breaking about it, production could easily have come from the mid '90s; it's not part of the current crop of synth-midrange-heavy hip hop, it's much more classic sounding than that, but yeah, quite enjoyable.

I got a copy of Voltaic, which is Rustie's project with Martin Patton. All very different from his own hiphop styled productions, its very electro and dancefloor heavy, but yeah, excellent stuff.

I'll leave you with one new download - Joker did a mix for Skream's Stella Sessions (i have no idea what his Stella Sessions are, i'm just quoting!). It's an excellent 30 minute mix, one of the freshest dubstep mixes i've heard in a while. Grab it here.

Oh! one more last thing - that MF Grimm comic book i read was really good - artwork is really nice, sorta exaggerated hyper-reality - the drawing style reminded me of Eduardo Risso from 100 Bullets. The story itself is excellent and Percy Carey/MF Grimm comes across as an eloquent intelligent guy - he doesn't glorify any of the gangsta life, in fact far from it - he was chasing hip hop as his way out from the lifestyle. Theres loads of highlights to his story, from being a child star on Sesame Street to the amount of characters making cameos in the artwork - chuck d, mf doom, dre, snoop and many more.
Check more details at DC Comics. Oh, while searching for a link to the comic there, i just came across a really indepth article about the beef between MF Grimm and MF Doom. read it at http://www.wutang-corp.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-28558.html - i'm off for a read myself!

Labels: downloads, mf doom, mf grimm, mixes, reviews

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

grimm

yar! nice long weekend - the Public Enemy show on friday was excellent fun!
Edan and Dagha were on first, like pretty early - just after 7pm. They have a pretty good stage show, with Edan MCing and DJing at the same time, only using one hand for scratching and cutting the records. Anti Pop Consortium were up next and tho they were okay, i wasn't really feeling them too much. Trying to go for my first cigarette break at that point only to discover they weren't letting anyone outside - "come back in an hour" i was told. waaaaaa!
Kool Keith - fuck!!! he was ace - during the first song tho, he barely said a word with the vocals being played back from the record, so i thought he was gonna lipsync the whole thing, but nah, it was only the first track, and after that he was bounding around the stage dropping all the big Dr Octagon tracks. The Bombsquad were on next and played straightup dubstep for their whole hour, which wasn't doing anything for me - you hear so much dubstep in london, i would much rather have heard new US hip hop, or at least have it mixed up, but just playing dubstep kinda lost my interest. (i heard they were also DJing at DMZ the next night). PE finally was pretty class - i mean it wasn't anything you weren't expecting - they were just 40 year old hip hop icons jumping around shouting out all their old hits, but Chuck D and Flavor Flav were stilling oozing stage presence!
Rest of the weekend was mostly spent indoors avoiding the rain, watching movies and smoking out. Its been a busy few weeks so it was actually super nice to chill out, and with the rain i didn't feel guilty about not going out. I've started working on a DJ set for the upcoming Requirements shows and its coming well.

Arriving at work this morning, there was a package waiting for me which i had ordered from Amazon last week: "Sentences: The Life Of MF Grimm" a comic autobiography of MF Grimm which looks pretty good. I'll have a read tonite and see how it is. Artwork looks ace. I could copy and past a lil bit of his bio here, but easier if you go have a read of his bio at wikipedia which is pretty interesting. I don't know too much about him and only have one album "The Hunt For The Gingerbread Man" which is pretty decent, but yeah, being a comic book fan and a hip hop fan, i figured the book was worth checking out anyhow..

Labels: comics, hip hop

Friday, May 23, 2008

nation of millions!

very cool - my friend is taking me along as her +1 on the guestlist for tonites Public Enemy gig, playing the "It Takes A Nation of Millions" album in its entirety! Support from Kool Keith and the Bomb Squad - should be fucking excellent.

My first ever gig was to see Public Enemy, just before the release of Fear Of A Black Planet. 1988 as i remember - *goes check facts* - huh. according to the Barrowlands website, it says it was in 1990. I guess it could well be, i was 16 and had started going clubbing by that point. I always thought my first gig was earlier, like when i was 14 or so.
But anyhow, yeah, an excellent night, full of excitement and trepidation - me, big gerry, and gordon hamilton all trooped into glasgow to see them at the Barrowlands, however in my mind we were going to Hammersmith Odeon, just like the intro to "Countdown To Armageddon"!
"It Takes A Nation.." was the soundtrack to many skate sessions back then, and a massive influence on us all. Having recently read the RunDMC biography i mentioned before, theres quite a lot about Chuck D in there when he was doing his own radio show and only starting to produce, about how Russell Simmons not liking their music and not wanting them on Def Jam. Chuck D seemed to totally know what he was doing right from the start.

Go reacquaint yourself with "It Takes A Nation Of Millions" at last.fm!

Labels: hip hop, live show, public enemy, reminiscing

Thursday, May 22, 2008

updates and links (boring stuff!)

loads to be working on at the moment - Funckarma are going along to the pressing plant next week to oversee the laquer cut at RecordIndustry in the Netherlands. That *might* even speed up the process as the plant won't need to send me a testpress if they can approve it on the day. rar!
Hopefully booking their flights today as well which will be one less thing i can stop stressing over!

Been sending out loads of Magnetism vinyl - dropped off a load at Phonica records last saturday and bundled up a batch for our distributor, Cargo, which went out this morning - you should hopefully see it turning up a few more local stores. If your local record store doesn't have it, ask them to pick it up from Cargo - the more orders Cargo get the better for us.

not found anything too amazing to listen to recently. Still digging through J Dilla's back catalog which i'm enjoying immensely, but its not satisfying my craving for new sounds.
Heres a few things i've come across on the interneds lately (Linked to the blog i came across it on):

Flying Lotus interview 1

Benga on how to make dubstep

How to setup your own pirate radio station

rar!

Labels: gigs, links, magnetism, new releases

Monday, May 19, 2008

stubdaned!

aiight, where to start?

The Funckarma 12" is now sent off for pressing - sent it off last week, so should hopefully, fingers crossed, be ready for the two upcoming shows in June! 5 tracks on 180g heavy weight vinyl, which are gonna blow up! Flyers are ordered for the show too, so should get them back this week and start getting the word out - i've posted on all the message boards i frequent, but if you know of any others that it should be on, leave a link in the comments.

I'll be out flyering every show i can find between now and then, so say hello if you see some lad giving out "Requirements of a Modern" flyers - just as well theres a shedload of excellent shows between now and then..

Theres an excellent looking Benbecula showcase coming up at 93 Feet East, and a sheer jaw-dropping lineup for the Flying Lotus album launch for his "Los Angeles", with Samiyam, Digital Mystikz, Kode9, Danny Breaks, Jose James, Hudson Mohawke, Rustie, and RasG. In the same venue (Hearn st car park) as the last Autechre show, and i'm pretty sure its the same sound system as well from D&B Audiotechnik. fucking rar!

Musicwise, been on a somewhat random tip this past week - digging through the back catalog of J Dilla and loving it. I've tried to dip in before and although i've liked what i heard, i just didn't seem to be getting it properly. With me listening to so much Daru and Rena lately, plus loads of Flying Lotus and Rustie, it's totally put me in the right headspace for J Dilla now.

Audiobulb have an excellent new free compilation out which features some stunning works by Calika, Build, He Can Jog and a load of other label regulars. Grab that here. I found that link via http://www.electronicmusicworld.com/ but if you just navigate the audiobulb website its not publicly linked - they say if you sign up for the mailing list you'll be sent a link to the album - so go sign up!

Used up my emusic subscription this month on quite a few nice dronier pieces -
Philip Jeck's 'Sand' which is very lush, Stephan Mathieu's 'Radioland' again very nice, and the latest Strategy LP 'Music For Lamping' which is quite different from Future Rock and Pacific Agenda - much more ambient and introspective.

I'm always writing lists of my current listens on here - I'd be very interested to hear some recommendations from you lot! drop a comment to let me know what other stuff i'm missing out on..

cheers,
thor

Labels: gigs, new releases, reviews, upcoming releases