RECOMMENDED: Mono/Poly – Manifestations EP [Brainfeeder]

Manifestations is the debut release for the Californian producer, Mono/Poly, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label. Long hinted at, it follows a slew of varying releases from artists like Jeremiah Jae, Taylor McFerrin and Austin Peralta, the EP marks something of a return for Brainfeeder to those clunky, unpredictable hip hop instrumentals FlyLo specialises in with tracks like ‘Forest Dark’ severely bringing the crush.

The first thing Mono/Poly’s released since his Paramatma album was released on USB by Tastefull Licks, Manifestations accentuates on the themes that made that album and tracks like the Fat City backed ‘Oil Fields’ or ‘Red & Yellow Toys’ so essential. Adept at both hazy synthesized sunsets, and facemelting bass growls he’s a producer for whom subtlety plays a bit part on tracks like ‘Punch The Troll In The Neck’ - which hits in a similarly scruffy way to the work of Free The Robots - but then he’s all about the interplaying nuances on tracks like the enigmatic ‘Glow.’

When we spoke to him back in November 2009, Mono/Poly admitted that his music is “everything from hip hop, drum & bass, fusion, dubstep, electro and more” and it’s a sentiment that this EP only further illustrates. ‘Glow’ for example, stutters through synth progressions, framed by clipped hip hop drums before an almighty bass line, freewheels out of nowhere, nailing the track to the low end frequencies and a track like ‘Needs Deodorant’ blazes keynote electrified boogie and the kind of scything bass synths Skream employs, simultaneously.

Put simply Mono/Poly makes you realise that a lot of other peoples beats are either unimaginative or well... just a bit shit; and Manifestations, in all its super compressed glory, is a great synopsis of his work - one part a colourful, textural explosion and one part brown tone, thunderous-bass-drop club music.

Words: Oli Marlow // Out: Now

RECOMMENDED: Dorian Concept – Her Tears Taste Like Pears [Ninja Tune]

Rightfully lumped in the whole ‘beats’ movement that exploded around LA and the release of Flying Lotus debut album Los Angeles album, Austrian producer Dorian Concept has since moved on. His ‘Trilingual Dance Sexperience’ 12” on the Affine label, upped the tempo, along with the quota for facemelting synthesizer workouts and since then he’s stood out during his live performances, unleashing new material live on the mini KORG (using anything and everything to hand – a shoe or his face are two memorable examples). Her Tears Taste Like Pears then, is his first outing for Ninja Tune - a label whose continual metamorphosis now includes Slugabed, an SR favourite whose recently signed to the label - and it really highlights Concept’s knack for caterwauling lead lines.

‘Thankyou For All Time Forever’ sets the tone for the 4 track EP perfectly. With the bassline permeating the found sound suddenly it’s the lay up for the title track’s alley-oop slam dunk. As the eponymous track rises and bubbles its evolutions dissipate, with the kick drum’s punch nailing the whole thing to the dancefloor. ‘My Face Needs Food’ travels that rude boy techno route we’ve come to expect from Wigflex staple the Hizatron, the kick drums toying with their route notes as the synths drape their melodies over the top, pirouetting down through the laser tones into ‘Toe Games Made Her Giggle.’ ‘Toe Games...’ centres itself around two things, the swell of the keyboards and the gallop of the drums, playing out like a high pitched sprint to the finish of the EP.

Her Tears... is a solid example of the kind of genius Dorian Concept, himself something of a child piano prodigy, is capable of; it’s frenetic, but grounded by the harmonics and chord structures. Whilst other producers might hone in on the beat, rigorously pushing the shuffle or reaching for the pound to get their point across, Concept does what he does best, layering harmonious synth after synth to jaw dropping effect.

Words: Oli Marlow // Out: Today

BUY: Various Artists – Nihon Kizuna

It’s harrowing to comprehend the state of the Pacific right now. Whilst millions of people’s lives have been irreversibly affected by last Friday's earthquake, its aftershocks and the tsunami it prompted, the Western world continues on the same, slightly altered axis. And whilst good intentions and well wishes make for great social network status updates, it takes a certain kind of person to pull their finger out and do something. Something that might actually make the average internet user donate to the Japanese Red Cross - an organisation that can directly help the Japanese population in this time of media hysteria.

What follows is information on Nihon Kizuna, a project and compilation cultivated by sometime journo Laurent Fintoni, who arrived in Tokyo the day before the earth’s surface ripped open, and his associates...

“Following the earthquake and tsunami which devastated the northern coast and prefectures of Japan on Friday March 11th 2011, a small group of Tokyo-based artists (from Japan, Ukraine and France) and one visiting London-based journalist (from Italy) decided to pull their efforts and contacts together to do the only thing they could to help the country and its people – sell music to raise awareness of the devastation that hit the area and raise money for its people and the relief effort.

The motivation behind Nihon Kizuna was simple: in face of the feeling of helplessness many felt here in Japan in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami this compilation seemed like the best way to express our support and love for the country and its people. Amid widespread scaremongering and panic from the foreign media it felt only right to stand tall alongside the people of Japan who have always welcomed foreign artists and musicians with open arms and hearts.”

Over 40 internationally renowned artists have contributed to the Nihon Kizuna compilation, which was reportedly put together in just 5 days, including people like Kode9, Kuedo, Illum Sphere, Rudi Zygadlo, Om Unit and a slew more who you’ll have read about if you’ve followed our writing over the past 2 years.

It costs £10, or whatever you are willing to pay for it, and the full list of artists who have contributed music is below.

BUY: Various Artists – Nihon Kizuna / 日本絆



Tracklist:

Kode 9 (UK) – 9 Samurai (Hyperdub Records) **
Don Leisure (UK) – Trio of Desserts *
Kuedo (UK) – Zap (Planet Mu) *
Himuro Yoshiteru (JP) – Missing Links *
Onra (FR) – High Hopes (All City Records) **
Tatsuki (JP) – Mirror In Bologna (Original Cultures) *
Om Unit (UK) – Lavender (All City Records) **
Danny Drive Thru (UK) – Prescience (Fat City Records) *
Slugabed (UK) – Rockin U (Ninja Tune) *
Ken One (JP) – Mindrain (Raid System) *
Paul White (UK) – Grimy Light (One Handed Music) **
Darkhouse Family (UK) – Lemon Drizzle (Fat City Records) *
Illum Sphere (UK) – Sweat The Descent (Hoya:Hoya / Tectonic) **
A Taut Line (UK/JP) – Azul (Dyskotopia) *
Fink (UK) – See It All (Ninja Tune) *
Mus.sck (US) – Happiness Is The Best Face Lift (Car Crash Set/Daly City) *
Rudi Zygadlo (UK) – Perdu (Planet Mu) *
Broken Haze (JP) – Move Forward (Raid System) *
BD1982 (US/JP) – Aluminium Riddim (Seclusiasis/Diskotopia) *
Nightwave (UK) – Hokusai Dream *
The Electric ft. Yarah Bravo (UK) – Beautiful (Memory9 remix) (Organically Grown Sounds) **
Ernest Gonzales (US) – Beneath The Surface (FoF/Exponential) *
Jono McCleery (UK) – Garden (Ninja Tune) **
Ido Tavori (UK) – Haunted Top Hats *
Jay Scarlett – The Rising Sun (Ampsoul) *
Paper Tiger (UK) – Lunar Notes (Jus Like Music) *
Kid Kanevil (UK) – One For Tokyo (One World Records / Ninja Tune) *
Takuma Kanaiwa (US) – Senpo World (Concrete Sound System) *
B-Ju (GE) – Philly Run (Mux Mool remix) (Error Broadcast) **
Primus Luta & Lonesome D (US) – Lockdown (Concrete Sound System) *
2phast (IT) – JapaN *
Doshy (DE) – Space Attack (Robox Neotech) **
Sesped (VE) – Too High To Drive (Jus Like Music) *
Yosi Horikawa (JP) – Passion (Eklektik Records) *
Audace (FR/JP) – Indestructible Soul (Inductive) *
Scrimshire ft. Inga Lill Aker (UK) – Warm Sound (Wah Wah 45s) **
Kan Sano (JP) – Bless (Circulations) *
Elliott Yorke (UK) – Wormhole Squirm (Five Easy Pieces) *
Daisuke Tanabe (JP) – Artificial Sweetener (Circulations) **
Super Smoky Soul ft. Guilty Simpson (JP/US) – Knockout Kings (Circulations) **
Emika (UK) – Count Backwards (Ninja Tune) *
Eccy (JP) – EFH (Slye/Milk) *
Throwing Snow (UK) – The Luck Without (A Future Without) *
XLII (UA/JP) – Standuptall Nippon (Raid System) *
Pete Sasqwax (UK) – Aggro A Go Go *
Virtual Boy (US/FR) – Thrust (Turnsteak remix) *
F.A.M.E (US) – Real Surreal (F.A.M.E/4OneFunk) *
re:ill (JP) – We Are Possible (Circulations) *
The Qemists (UK) – Stompbox (Ninja Tune) **
Kper (IT/FR) – Chotto *

*exclusive to compilation
** previously released

P.S. "Tokyo is not glowing green or empty, contrary to what you may have read in the press" according to Fintoni who is currently still out there.

RECOMMENDED: Beatbully - Kosmik Regn [Dødpop]

As bleak as the world can look sometimes, music has an unabashed and effective power to change and alter a state or thought process. A lot of our inner pains and outer squabbles seem inconsequential given the recent turmoil of international events, which is why I reached for Beatbully’s Kosmik Regn between my extended binges on BBC News 24 today. It’s like regular SR co-founder Jimi The Xploder says, ‘skweee just has that power to make you smile,’ and for whatever selfish reason I find myself clambering for it now.

Hailing from Norway, Beatbully co-founded the Dødpop label, an outlet who’ve proved themselves more than dedicated to the strains of computer funk and synthetic beat music you can find across their two Dødpop presents compilations and the preceding run of 7”s – which have been collated on CD on the aptly titled As and Bs. Reportedly influenced by electronic pioneers Kraftwerk as much as by the boogie of Egyptian Lover, Beatbully’s music is smarter than its primitive equipment suggests. Restrained in places, saving its punch for the underlying melodies (see ‘Move Your Feet’) rather than the force of the boom and the bap, it locks on to a groove, exploring the furthest possibilities in the truest sense of skweee – making the most out of limited means.

Tracks like ‘Bølleboogie,’ ‘RnBully’ (which was given away on XLR8R back when Dødpop Vol 2 hit the shelves) and ‘Ajer vel’ contort the lower frequencies, croaking and seething at the bass whilst blossoming into high pitched hooks and lead lines that embed themselves deep into your eardrums. With the laid back nature of ‘Expecting Company’ (which features one half of last week’s SR mixers, Slow Hand Motem on vocal duty) however, Beatbully proves that he also excels at the pensive, sunshine side of the synthesizer, offering more than just fluorescent clad 8 bit drum structures. Layering his tracks with relatively simple melodies (see album closer ‘Buddah nr. 2’) he creates an electronic haze worthy of lengthier lament.

Maturing a little in his harmony over the years (check ‘Robot I Tromma’ on As & Bs to hear him in tearout, smash and skweee mode) Beatbully’s created a happy distraction from reality, a clever debut album containing 9 tracks that explore his own sound set in depth and offer a neat progression.

Words: Oli Marlow // Out: 21st March 2011

PODCAST: Sonic Router x Bleep.com #005

The latest episode in our ongoing saga of electronic music themed podcasts for respected retailer Bleep.com just got uploaded to the internet.

For the 5th edition we more or less went for it, focusing on a little bit of everything thats been good over the past month with from rap from Tyler The Creator and Beans, hard style beats courtesy of Demokracy and Chairman Kato, with Brainfeeder jazz, half step drum and bass and the best in the current crop of dancefloor bass from people like Cosmin TRG, Falty DL, Pangaea, Boddika and Royal T to round it all off.

DOWNLOAD: Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast #005
SUBSCRIBE: Bleep.com Podcast

Tracklist:

1. Tyler - Yonkers [XL]
2. TAKE - Quartz for Amber (Mono/Poly Remix) [Alpha Pup]
3. Beans - Forever Living Fresh [Anticon]
4. Demokracy - Wintermute (Dies Irae Remix) [Robox Neotech]
5. Chairman Kato - Gemini Eyes [Pictures]
6. Siriusmo - Mosaik [Monkeytown]
7. Nicolas Jaar - Keep Me There [Circus Company]
8. Austin Peralta - Epilogue: Renissance Bubbles [Brainfeeder]
9. dBridge - Rendezvous [Exit]
10. Hackman & Jamie Grind - Saw The Light [Fortified Audio]
11. Cosmin TRG - Izolat [50 Weapons]
12. PhOtOmachine - Technicolour (Optimum's 808 Reduction) [Super]
13. DJ Dom - Sunshowerd [Blunted Robots]
14. Sinden & SBTRKT - Seekwal [Grizzly]
15. Ill Blu - Overdose [Numbers]
16. FaltyDL - Hip Love [RAMP]
17. Throwing Snow - Align [Super]
18. Pangaea - Inna Daze [Hessle Audio]
19. Boddika - Underground [Swamp81]
20. Royal T - Orangeade [Butterz]

SR Mix #71: Light Club (Slow Hand Motem & Coco Bryce) [Myor]

Further exploring the power of 2 in this, our ‘second birthday period’ here on the world wide web, this week’s SR mix is by a super talented duo. Light Club is a collaborative project between two beat makers who reside miles apart from each other. One, Coco Bryce, we’ve featured heavily before and the other? Well Slow Hand Motem is someone whos work has slowly but surely beguiled us. Working together on a collaborative 7” released on Coco’s Myor label, a homespun imprint that’s already put out two stunning 12”s in the Tropical Heat series, Coco lives in Holland and Motem rests his head in Canada but from talking with them both its obvious that the gulf in their social geography doesn’t halt their processes one bit.

Taking cues from each other’s music, with Coco’s lineage mainly in hip hop instrumentals and Motem’s pedigree as a singer and fractured drum mechanic always prevalent, their debut EP as Light Club mixed the weirdo synthesizers they’ve both harnessed individually with a certain type of pressing melodrama. The limited edition Night Bulbs EP - freshly released in an expanded digital format with remixes from people like V.C. and Boss Kite – is built around the musical clusterfuck ‘Scirocco Night Drive’ (which you can hear below) but also holds gems like ‘Ghost,’ a woozy nightmare that flips into a 4x4 strut and the criminally short ‘Nick Nolte’ which swaggers maliciously.



Having just released his debut album, ‘Boesoek,’ on the Fremdtunes label Coco remains calm conducting himself in the same way all our exchanges to date have gone: speedily and incredibly direct, leaving me playing a methodical game of catch up.

“It definitely was a task to sort out the tunes that fitted together as best as possible from the pile of tracks I'd made over the last years,” he concedes when pressed on the spine like thread that hooks the 10 tracks together. “There's some pretty old ones on there and on the other hand I did quite a few new ones that didn't make it onto the album, simply because we (DJ Mace, one of the Fremdtunes head honchos, and myself) didn't see them fit in so well with the rest. This was kind of the first time that I really spent a decent amount of time on that, you know, to make sure it wasn't just a collection of tunes, but a real album instead.”

And even though it sounds cliché - to produce an album rather than a collection of beats - you can hear that he’s unified his productions. He can range from fist poundingly intense boom bappers, to meandering synthesizer heavy skweee explorations, and for this outing his beats are concise, with only one passing the three and half minute mark. They’re pretty much all an exploration of a certain idea, a certain groove or a kind of sound sentiment that he’s shooting for, for example ‘Embarcadero’ is constructed simply around laid back chords, leaving a long woozy linger whilst ‘Wobble Trouble’ winds up and smacks hard powered by an insistent jagged chord progression.

“Skweee is more of a departure from the boom bap stylings for me,” he offers when we discuss the variety on offer. “I've been doing hip hop instrumentals for quite some time now, and I hadn't even heard of skweee until about 2 years ago. But, apart from the drums, I think ‘Boesoek’ is pretty skweee'ed-out. At least that's what I meant it to sound like, what with those high-pitched synths and all.”



Defined by a few stand out labels and compilations, imprints such as Harmonia and Flogsta Danshall and compilations like International Skweee and Skweee Tooth, the skweee sound – so called because the pioneers were squeezing out every sound possible from their primitive equipment – the sound is developing at a glorious rate with producers a great distance apart sonically managing to stand side by side.

“When the skweee guys first started to embrace me or whatever, I was almost like ‘do you really think I’m skweee?’” Motem reveals to me over a late night Skype connection. “I do funk music so I’m like ‘am I really skweee?’ but all the guys were like ‘you don’t need to worry about that. That’s stupid.’ Especially Randy Barracuda, he was like ‘you know when its skweee, because you feel that its skweee.' Its more like, just a feeling, its not like it has to sound super Scandinavian or Arabic or whatever. That’s not the case.”

The tracks that I do now are growing,” he continues, “like I listen to the new Poisonous Gases Skweee Cruise and stuff and the music is growing, like it is super young music still. Its definitely based in older things, standing on the shoulders of its predecessors but it’s a fresh music.”

In his track ‘Supernatural’ Motem croons in his very singular and iconic way, “the funk that I present you today // is serious but in a playful way // mis-use of words, is a big nae nae // and nature, keeps my being in check.” And its this sentiment that rings true when you talk to him. Repeatedly he tells me “I’m just doing me, I'm playful. Like a cat,” and from spending an hour in his company, whether that be just looking at a caricature like face in a laptop screen or otherwise, he is really like the character he portrays in his lo-fi youtube videos. He’s passionate and enthusiastic, fumbling over himself to tell me as much as he can in as much detail as possible. He’s funny, like laugh-out-loud-repeatedly, kind of funny and by using his body and face as much as he uses lyrics, he successfully manages to channel that charisma into his visual representations of his songs.

And they are songs. He does beats too like the tuba sampling ‘Go Rilla’ I played a couple of weeks back on our Hivemind.fm show, but he’s at his wonderful best when fumbling over lyrics atop his music.



And that’s why Light Club is a project that intrigues so much; Coco has the beat polish, and Motem the lo-fi weirdness. It’s a combination that works so well in principle and in practise.

“We were both on Harmonia’s International Skweee Vol 2, right? He had that track ‘Ghetto Freaks’ and I had ‘Smells Like Randy Barracuda’” Motem recalls when pressed upon the inception of the partnership. “It was in the dying days of myspace and he was like ‘I really like your track and it’s a great title’ and I was think ‘oh… thanks man’ and he was always really good about getting back to me on the emails. There was this time when I wasn’t really going out, I was just holed up making tracks and he’d always be shooting me back these emails super fast and I was like who is this guy!? He’s really on it.”

He started sending me tracks right away trying to get me to sing on them and then I sent him some tracks. It was very natural, it doesn’t matter that its an impersonal medium like email, it just felt super natural and then he was just like we should do an EP where you do some tracks and I do some tracks – so that was Slow Hand Coco, like the first run – and then he was like lets do a seven inch [Night Bulbs EP]. So I sent him the ‘Ghost’ track and he was like this is very, very different, ‘we’re expanding the whole thing of skweee’ so that’s what, I mean I don’t think we ever set out to do anything, but that’s what happened really. Its like beyond skweee or something.”

The ‘Night Bulbs EP’ is available now from the Myor bandcamp. ‘Boesoek’ is out now on Fremdtunes and you can grab a whole heap of Motem material, including his latest work, ‘Tales from the Cryptid,’ over at the Gebbz Steelo boutique

Words: Oli Marlow

::

DOWNLOAD: Light Club – Sonic Router Mix #71



No tracklist given sucker. Search ‘em out.

COMPETITION: Win Lazer Sword Swag & Tickets

Operating as Lazer Sword, Lando Kal and Low Limit have to date released a trio of singles and an album on the Innovative Leisure imprint. Having both made a name for themselves as singular entities with a smattering of beats on compilations like Beat Dimensions and a split 12” that minted the Numbers imprint the duo were focusing a little deeper on their joint project last year, working to create a synthesized haze of beat music on their debut eponymous album. With a selection of fifteen tracks that trickle up from a hip hop pace to a slow mo house tempo, it got a little overlooked back in November in our opinion. Beats like ‘Owl Tats’ and ‘Web Swag’ still bang - with their sound rooted in everything from southern hip hop to dubstep - and ‘Def Work’ should move any bass centric dancefloor that’s lucky enough to see it.

Everything included on the album seems like it’s been digitized specifically to give it a Tron like futurism, it’s all blossoming whirs and little intricate beat shuffles, but far be it from us to just give you a textual summation, we’re giving you the opportunity to grab a copy of it – and a borrowers mansion full of other prizes – courtesy of our family over at Earnest Endeavours.

Ahead of their date at the EE February throwdown next Wednesday – which also features sets from Cali based Edwardianist, Daedelus, Philly grime nutball Starkey and the first lady of Brainfeeder, TOKiMONSTA – we’ve been chosen as an outlet for you to grab two copies of the Lazer Sword album (on CD as well as on vinyl, that’s why we said 2), a copy of the ‘Batman’ 12”, the first single from the album which features remixes by Rustie and Nguzunguzu, a copy of the ‘Shot in the Night’ 7” - a slice of blue vinyl that isn’t on the album – a Lazer Sword t shirt and 2 tickets to the EE event itself so you can see them rock the secret venue in tandem and maybe even buy them a soft drink and tell them that you really like their glasses.

To scoop the swag just email us the answer to the below question by next Tuesday (22/02).

Q: Lazer Sword’s first 12” for Innovative Leisure was called what?

a) Gucci Sweatshirt
b) Gucci Network
c) Gucci Footwork

The winner will be notified by email. Please make sure you can attend the event before entering.



Tickets // Facebook Event // EE site

Links:
http://lazersword.net
www.earnestendeavours.com

NEWSFLASH: Sonic Router x Bleep.Com Podcast #004

The 4th edition of our podcast, the one that we make for Bleep.com, just went live.

Having missed January, we had a bit more stock to choose from, so we've collated music from brilliant producers like Pavan, Breton, Instra:mental, Roedilus, Julio Bashmore, Pearson Sound, Lunice (pictured), Jam City and Shackleton in this February themed edition.

DOWNLOAD: Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast #004 // BLEEP015
SUBSCRIBE: Bleep.com Podcast

Tracklist:

1. Pavan - Afrika [Harmonia]
2. Pixelord - Fish Touch [Error Broadcast]
3. Breton - Hours Away [Hemlock]
4. Wbeeza - Manual Mode [Third Ear]
5. Roedilus - Regenwurm [Bureau B]
6. Instra:mental - Detuned Heart [Autonomic]
7. Morgan Zarante - Hookid [Hyperdub]
8. Lunice - Purp Walk [Lucky Me]
9. Ad Bourke - 100 [Cininite]
10. Julio Bashmore - Battle For Middle You [PMR]
11. Jam City - Magic Drops [Night Slugs]
12. MIA - It Takes A Muscle (Pearson Sound Remix) [XL]
13. Jacques Greene - Holdin' On [Lucky Me]
14. SBTRKT - Hide or Seek [Young Turks]
15. Girl Unit - IRL (Bok Bok Remix) [Night Slugs]
16. Shackleton - Man On A String Pt 1 & 2 [Woe to the Sceptic Heart]
17. Instra:mental - Voyeur [Disfigured Dubz]
18. Arkist - Out Of The Sun [Deca Rhythm]
19. Orphan101 - Disemble [Apple Pips]
20. Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX - NY Is Killing Me [XL]

Link:
Bleep.com

INTERVIEW: Chairman Kato [Pictures Music]

For all our love of bastard house and the overloaded synth explosions of the current instrumental hip hop and skweee that we harp on about endlessly, it ain’t half clean sounding. OK admittedly, someone like Egyptrixx - whose just announced his debut album Bible Eyes will be released on Night Slugs in early March - uses a little more of that sheet noise aesthetic, trusting a lot of his stylistics to the overbearing presence inherent in his sound, but sometimes our ears just hanker for that completely immersive, brooding, drum kit falling down the stairs type of beat music. Plus, as Slugabed so eloquently pointed out recently, there’s not been so much of the slow, slow stuff round these parts recently.

Enter then Chairman Kato, a London dweller whose productions simultaneously imbibe the foreboding spirit of early El-P (think The Cold Vein more than Fantastic Damage) and Shackleton’s passion for drawn out drones as melodies. Texturally, it’s often hard to beat the crunch and depth in sound that you get from using analogue equipment, and Kato’s forthcoming EP for Pictures Music , the Wildfire EP, displays precisely what we mean by that sweeping statement. 5 tracks strong it revels in its own darkness, perfectly creating a darkened and lonely person’s dream state. ‘Gemini Eyes’ might well be the more floaty of the productions on offer on the EP, due out this Valentine’s Day, but with its sandpapered edges, scuffed synthesizers and far off kick drum it’s more of a turmoil inducer, coming on more cerebral than the obvious smash and blap of ‘Thuddd’ or the fierce head nod of ‘No Coincidence.’

As Pictures themselves put it in some early correspondence: “it's pretty fresh compared to all the other stuff that seems to be cycling around and there’s not a 2step beat in sight.” From one listen their point is overtly evident; Kato’s music is at once hypnotically subtle and tempered like gravel, probably the over-riding reason we wanted to see what he’d throw down for his contribution to our mix series…

SR: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Chairman Kato: I am Chairman Kato, a producer based in Hackney, East London, mate. I stay up all night making music and drinking Gaviscon. I am sponsored by Nong Shim Shrimp Crackers and Pictures Music.

Outside of music who are you? What do you do on the daily?

My nocturnal habits tend to get in the way of doing anything meaningful during the day time. I have paid the bills by allowing my body to be used for experimental research into the effects of anti-oxidants in oriental teas. This is conducted in the low lit basement of a teashop in East London on Mondays and Fridays.

How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?

Good question. I’m trying to trace it so I can undo the damage and get my life back together, maybe get a job and an Alfa Romeo or something. When I was a teenager I just had the feeling that listening to music wasn’t enough, that I needed to participate. Picked up a couple of instruments, did the usual thing of having a shit band, then started going out in Birmingham, got into DJing and later production.

What’s your production set up like?

It varies really, depending on what mood I’m in....got a lot of vinyl, some synths, some cutlery, a fridge nearby (essential). I ram most things through a vintage tape machine and make the meters go all nice and red. I often have a film on with the sound down too for extra mind-fuckery.

How would you describe your sound?

Raoul Moate’s ipod.



You share an affinity to people like Lukid, Cloaks and those who build beats out of rougher stuff. What kind of music do you listen to in your own time?

I definitely do respect people like that because they have an appreciation of depth and texture, which is something I try to spend a lot of time on. I listen to a loooot of different stuff....let me pull out my ipod and see what I’m on at the moment... Ducktails, Tame Impala, Robag Wruhme, Dakota Suite, Tommy Tempa, Tom Trago, Forest Swords, Broadcast….

What is an inspiration for you?

Being in London; mainly. Being here exposes me to so many ridiculously good things and interesting people. I get a lot of creative energy from this place. I feel lucky to be here.

Are there any producers you rate that the world should know about? Any peeps not getting the props you think they deserve?

My good friend Tommy Tempa is someone you’re going to be hearing about. Nochexxx is criminally underrated and hopefully that’s going to change this year. The first release on Five Easy Pieces is going to be an EP by a duo called Chesca Royalty that has some riddim and bounce.

You’ve got an EP forthcoming on Pictures Music. Can you tell us a bit about that and shed some light on what else people can expect from you in 2011?

The Wildfire EP is my first EP as Chairman Kato, I’m very excited to be working with the Pictures boys. It’s got a bump to it but it’s not particularly dancefloor orientated... lots of noise, lots of tape saturation, with little bits of light in there to stop you killing yourself.

There’s going to be plenty more from me in 2011. Currently putting another EP together and then I’m going to decide what the hell I’m going to do with massive pile of stuff I’ve got sitting here. Basically I’m gonna be putting out more EPs in various places and possibly an album. Also I’m working on an audiovisual installation. Oh yeah, and a live show.

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

I really enjoyed doing this mix. I knew that it would be easy to get waylaid for days short listing tracks so I just pulled out stuff that was to hand and took it from there. I think it’s important to vary tempos and styles in a mix to keep it interesting so as well as new stuff by people like Hype Williams and John Roberts I couldn’t resist throwing in some Joy Division and one of my favourite 7s, by the Fabulous Three. There’s a track by Broadcast there in tribute to Trish Keenan [who passed away recently], which I’m still in shock about.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Don’t wear your jacket inside and chew your food properly.

::

DOWNLOAD: Chairman Kato – Sonic Router Mix #67



Tracklist:

1. Leyland Kirby- ‘The Sound of Music Vanishing’
2. Harmonia and Eno- ‘Vanos Companeros’
3. Kassem Mosse- ‘Untitled’
4. Chairman Kato- ‘Streets Of Rage’
5. Lukid- ‘Rags’
6. Bat For Lashes- ‘Glass (Chairman Kato’s Rework)’
7. Hype Williams- ‘Rescue Dawn’
8. Fabulous Three- ‘Answer Me Softly’
9. Radiohead- ‘The Gloaming’
10. Redshape- ‘Manhattan’
11. Wbeeza- ‘Southern Girl’
12. Shed- ‘My R-Class’
13. John Roberts- ‘Navy Blue’
14. Luke Abbott- ‘Trans Forest Alignment’
15. Joy Division- ‘A Means To An End’
16. Com Truise- ‘Sundripped’
17. Broadcast- ‘You And Me In Time’
18. Chairman Kato- ‘Gemini Eyes (Teasmith version)’

The Wildfire EP is out on Pictures Music this Valentine’s Day.

Links:
www.myspace.com/chairmankato
www.picturesmusic.co.uk

DOWNLOAD: Jams F. Kennedy - A Heart-Breaking Work of Swagger & G Ness

Nepotize this: Earnest Endeavours are a transatlantic crew loosely based in London. Stretching over the Atlantic the core has secondary bases in New York and Los Angleles. They launched their conjoined aesthetic a few months back in fine fashion with the debut London performance of Nosaj Thing’s AV show and the first performance from Free The Robots (you can watch video footage of the event here).

Ahead of their second event, a double header featuring a gallery show from Kutmah – a DJ, producer and artist who whilst incarcerated regarding immigration issues made works of art armed with nothing but a short pencil and prison ID card – and an aftershow party featuring Kutmah, Dorian Concept, Teebs, the reason for this post: Jams and more (for more info on the party, which is tonight btw, go to the facebook event here), EE have unleashed their very first mixtape.

In their own words:

“Earnest Endeavours are proud to present the first audio outing on the label. An Earnest Endeavours mixtape, curated & mixed by the Patchwork Pirates. A Heart-Breaking Work Of Swagger & G Ness arose from a shared love of beats, bass and rap. Mixed by Patchwork Pirates in LDN, laced by Jams F. Kennedy in NYC and engineered by Bobby Evans in LA. The limited edition CD is packaged in a hand screen-printed heavyweight recycled board sleeve with full inlay. Start as you mean to go on…”

What you get, is a impeccably segued selection of drum heavy beats and some super fine lyrical ammunition delivered in Jams’ trademark drawl. The punch of the project is the new Widows material - the group Jams and Bobby Evans (both formerly of rap outfit Brother Reade) formed from performances with just two drum kits and a couple of microphones. Its completely stripped back and in the vein of Foot Village its pure, pounding skin laced with some gratuitously loveable emceeing.

“Rap, since the beginning, has never been a sound. It was always a method. It never requires more than two steps. 1: Listen to the wildest new music where there are people there to hear it. 2: Interject vocally." Jams F. Kennedy

DOWNLOAD: Jams F. Kennedy - A Heart-Breaking Work of Swagger & G Ness



Tracklist:

01. Intro – Jams F. Kennedy
02. Drama – Widows
03. Jams vs. Gemmy – Jams F. Kennedy
04. Don’t Start None (Boom Bip Remix) – Widows
05. Jams vs. Hudson Mohawke – Jams F. Kennedy
06. Find Your Way – Superisk
07. Jams vs. Guido – Jams F. Kennedy
08. Issey Miyake – Salva
09. Move – devonwho
10. Jams vs. Dizz1 – Jams F. Kennedy
11. LAX – Widows
12. Jams vs. Bobby Valentino – Jams F. Kennedy
13. Live & Direct – The Works feat. Jams F. Kennedy
14. Jams vs. B Bravo – Jams F. Kennedy
15. Us – Nosaj Thing
16. Room Temperature Liquid Plastic – Mushen
17. Jams vs. B Bravo – Jams F. Kennedy
18. Oil Fields – Mono/Poly
19. Orchid – Widows
20. Jams vs. Juice Aleem vs. Si Begg – Jams F. Kennedy
21. Orion’s Belt Buckle – Free The Robots
22. Mahjongg – Charles Trees
23. Jams vs. Flying Lotus – Jams F. Kennedy
24. Why Like This? – Teebs
25. Unsigned Hype – Widows
26. Glut – Ramadanman
27. Step 2 Funk – DVA
28. 7.62 – Widows
29. Outro – Jams F. Kennedy

For more info on the gallery show go here. For more info on the aftershow party go here.



Links:
www.earnestendeavours.com

NEWSFLASH: Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast #003

The 3rd in the line of Sonic Router podcasts for Bleep.com went live yesterday...

Featuring our look back at the past month of releases it includes work from Pearson Sound, Scuba (and a troupe of remixers including FaltyDL and Joe), Joker, Mosca, Lukid, A Made Up Sound and so much more.

DOWNLOAD: Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast #003
SUBSCRIBE: Bleep.com Podcast

Tracklist:

1. Mosca - Tilt Shift [Fat City]
2. Leatherette - Ashtro [Ho Tep]
3. Nosaj Thing - Quest (Low Limit Remix) [Alpha Pup]
4. Shigeto - Escape From The Incubator [Ghostly International]
5. Lukid - Rags [Werk Discs]
6. Games - Shadows In Bloom [Hippos In Tanks]
7. Computer Jay - Phantom [All City]
8. Airhead - Paper Street [Brainmath]
9. Seams - Nachtmusik [Pictures]
10. Terror Danjah - Bruzin VIP [Hyperdub]
11. Joker - Holly Brook Park [Kapsize/Punch Drunk]
12. Pearson Sound - Blue Eyes [Hessle Audio]
13. Hypno - Sunkin [Ramp Recordings]
14. Scuba - On Deck (FaltyDL Remix) [Hotflush]
15. C.R.S.T. - Roulette [Ten Thousand Yen]
16. A Made Up Sound - Rear Window [Delsin]
17. DJ Dom - Computer Love [PTN]
18. Lone - Let The Music Play [Hoya Hoya]
19. Funkystepz - Malibu [Forever Live Young]
20. SCB - Hard Boiled VIP [Hotflush]
21. Scuba - So You Think You're Special (Joe Remix) [Hotflush]

Links:
http://bleep.com

INTERVIEW: Eliphino [somethinksounds]

Tom Wrankmore is a guy who feels blessed by his luck in music. If there is one thing you can say about Wrankmore, and his work under the Eliphino moniker, it’s that he’s worked hard to get to where he is today. After circulating beat tapes and self releasing his 2005 hip hop tempoed album Out of Phase, he’s now on the precipice of big things. With a record out through Brownswood and his first solo EP for somethinksounds in shops now his music has morphed pace but retains the sort of characteristic that made his early work, re-presented by First Word Recordings, so listenable.

I reach him by phone early on a Saturday morning Melbourne time, 8pm on a Friday night his time, at his current abode - a warehouse space in central London. He is amazingly modest considering he has been working in DJing and at music for the last ten years - since he was 15 years old. Having recently made the move from Manchester to London things are quite fresh for him right now.

"Both cities are quite vibrant but obviously there is a lot more stuff going on in London I think..."

I guess it makes sense for an artist to be close to things?

"When events that I love to go to are so close, and every weekend, I can just see whoever I need to see. But there is so much going on, you literally have to pick and choose what you can afford!" he laughs.

Starting his bedroom production experiments at 17 years old after buying an MPC, he followed with roughly two years of DJing at a big club night in his home town. "I grew up in Leeds and there was a night called Drum Major. I got to be the resident DJ before I was even supposed to be in the club, when I was under 18." He confesses, sounding slightly incredulous about his luck. "I managed to DJ with Madlib, Q Bert and all those sort of hip hop guys who were smashing it around that time in the early 2000s."

"So I was really kind of blessed in the early days and I got to DJ a lot. Then I got addicted to production when I got my first sampler."

How did it feel to be invited to DJ as a resident at Drum Major?

"It was dope man. I think it was basically because I started off with, and I was quite enamoured with, the scratch stuff - the DMC battles and the ITF and all of that. So I practised on that level quite a lot and got to know quite a few people around the city who were into that. There were a couple of guys called Matman and Mike L who have both been in the DMC finals and they took me under their wing. I guess they might have seen some potential and then I got to be the resident of that night as a result of DJing with those guys."

That type of mentoring is commonly a huge part of the hip hop scene but it extends through artistic channels worldwide. As much as there is competition, the leading lights always seem to shine through. "I thought, for a while, that the availability of software might have changed the amount of people who make music. But I don't think that will dilute the quality of music coming out because it's only going to be the good stuff that gets the attention in the end."


Eliphino - Let Me Love You Forever [Brownswood]

"Someone who has been really forthright in terms of helping me out is Martyn. I have never met him because that's the nature of things nowadays, being online. I really look up to him because his productions are super tight and he is really willing to give time to break down one of your tunes. He's very honest about what he does and doesn't like."

"Also there's a guy called Illum Sphere up in Manchester. When I was living up there it was top that he and Johnny Dub were running Hoya Hoya - it was always somewhere good to go. I don't think I would site him as a mentor," he laughs.

A drinking buddy maybe?

"Yeah!"

Wrankmore has also gained support from a stalwart of music, Gilles Petterson. "We actually hooked up through the antiquated method of Myspace! Alexander Stevenson, who works at Gilles' label Brownswood, was in charge of compiling Brownswood Electr*c for Gilles on the label. He got in touch with me and it ended up being one of the two tunes that got pressed [onto vinyl]. That was around the same time as I moved to London so it was the best welcome that I could possibly have!"

The new Eliphino EP on somethinksounds, Undivided Whole, is a wonderful collection of beats, rolling melodies and morphing synths. The A-side of the EP bursts forth with ‘You'll Know’ - a kind of post-Burial garage gem that rolls out the stepper vibes - and continues with ‘L.F. (I Know)’ which forms a perfect twin track. The B side opens with ‘Condensation,’ is a far more muted house/funky affair, with ‘I Just Can't’ finishing off proceedings with a minimal, shuffling beat that is soaked in a single, mutating, droning synth. All-in-all it's a fascinating snapshot of a very talented producer.

"It has only been recently that I would consider myself to have been making songs," he reflects. "A lot of that has been through using Pro Tools and cleaning it all up."

"I have known the guys at somethinksounds for quite a while actually. We've come up in music together, somewhat. They've had the idea to start the label for a while and they finally put their heads together and got it to fruition. They're planning to have me as the first release on the label."

And for Wrankmore there is an added bonus: "It is being pressed on vinyl which has always been a main aim for me. So it's been relatively successful for me so far but we'll see how it goes. It's been kind of a strange road, I guess. I have always been into music, and I have been trying to make music and play it since I was about fourteen or fifteen. Around that age I was just listening to hip hop, old school Jungle, and a bit of garage as well. So it has always been a big melting pot of genres if you know what I mean."

"Dilla was a big influence, as was Madlib, but recently I have increased the speed of my tracks quite a lot. That's just a result of there being a lot of energy around certain genres and I have been more inspired to make music in that field."

Agreeing that it's a nice place to be right now with a great supportive community around the world he continues: "Yeah definitely. No one is raising eyebrows right now if people skip genres for each different release. You don't have to be dead set on one thing because it's all amalgamating now and everything is feeding off each other. It's good for creativity because there are no rules about what you're allowed to do."

"I'm definitely looking forward to [putting out] more releases. I have promised the lads that I will do another EP on somethinksounds. I have just finished a remix for a guy called Duffstep which is going to be on a label called Join The Dots - FaltyDL and Young Montana are on the same 12" so that's great to be on there with them… There is some cool stuff in the pipeline for next year; some labels are asking me for music... I'm considering changing direction in terms of the sound. I'm not really sure what it's going to be yet but I need to freshen up a bit. I will just keep making as much music as I can."

It's about being true to the music you want to create, right?

"Yeah totally. I usually get a melody in my head or mess about on the synth. Then I will work on a tune until it sounds alright - I will usually do the percussion on my MPC because it's easier for me. But I won't finish it as a song. I leave it for a month and forget about it and then I will load it up. I will either realise that it's awful or I will be surprised and finish it off."

"There are days when you will make something and half an hour later it will be done,” he continues. “I'm lucky enough to not have to work full time right now. I am living in a warehouse with no rent, doing freelance web design and DJing. So I get to sit around and mess about with music ideas all day anyway. I have enough time to get as creative as I can."

Words: Simon Hampson

::

Eliphino’s Undivided Whole EP is out now on somethinksounds.

Photo: Benjamin Eagle

INTERVIEW: Downliners Sekt [disBoot]

Followers of the writing that appears on this page and the stupefied textures that appear in our radio show should be aware of our penchant for weird abstractions. Long since a fan of Murcof and Philip Jeck, players that harness the full power of white (and pink) noise and - at the risk of sounding like a complete thundercunt - of the fulfilling kind of solace listening to the unfurling of a drone can provide, we like going to art galleries, and or big white painted spaces to listen to a heavy set Japanese dude detune a banjo for an hour and three quarters. Alt-rock band Fog remain one of the most important bands in this blog's editor’s musical history, and in a sense, they hit the nail we’re trying so hard to paint upon, on the head. Fusing conventional pop song melodies with awkward glitches, propelling drum lines and full on horn wig out sections, they’re weird enough to engage our elevated opinions and have pretty enough songs to make us listen to them way more than once.

Downliners Sekt are another one of the acts that appease all sides of our tastes. Ethereal enough to be ceremoniously stamped with a Burial influence, it’s the crackle of static that is the outfit’s biggest star on their June released Hello Lonely, Hold The Nation EP - put out as the first part in a trilogy of EP’s on Barcelona’s disBoot label - and it’s with their acre deep crunch that we’ve so openly bonded. Largely anonymous, never conversing using names, the rotating group began producing music under the Downliners Sekt moniker back in 2004...

“It's the classic story of a bunch of all time friends sharing the same cultural interest,” we’re told by the vocal representative of the group over the course of several emails, “but unlike most bands, we started working together when we got separated and were all living in different cities.”

“Thanks to the internet we broke the gap between us and started collaborating. Back at that time we were more or less involved with different major signed bands that were taking most of our time and energy. Downliners Sekt started to take shape back then, coalescing from individual projects, waiting in the shadows and growing slowly but immaculately from deadlines, budgets schemes, and formats. Because music it's always been a priority to us, we've been arranging our time to keep making it happen. We never know what's coming next, but after a lot of crucial changes and 6 releases, it's good to see we have a history backing us up.”



Stretching across two albums, 2005’s Statement of Purpose and 2008’s The Satire Wave the Sekt have built a catalogue that swims in diversity. From the early dubstep bass weight of Statement of Purpose’s opener ‘Benz’ to the blitzing textures on Hello lonely…’s closing track ‘Negative Green’ and the guitar infusions on their entire Satire Wave album, the group have skewed themselves across almost every genre, style and process. It’s only now, with the gift of hindsight, looking back through their discography and at the time they were constructed, that it becomes so evident how far ahead of their peers the group was, and are now.

“We were teenagers in the 90's so that's where most of our musical influences come from. We could be viewed as an indie/noise/garage band entirely submerged on a rave/DJ/party/drugs culture. With our second album The Saltire Wave, when we were working on it, we took a break from the machines, plugged in our guitars and the album was perceived by some listeners as post rock, which to us sounds a little bit reductive.

"when something we are producing begins to sound too clubby or too fancy we feel like taking an AK47 and shooting that whole dancefloor we've just imagined."

“We're never really sure of what sonic direction we are taking but we get more fun out of a huge noisy bass than a cheap 80's synth preset. We work on a very spontaneous way of producing tracks which is avoiding clichés, pre-made loops and stuff like that. To us it's about creating and destroying. It's like when something we are producing begins to sound too clubby or too fancy we feel like taking an AK47 and shooting that whole dancefloor we've just imagined.”

Positioning Downliners Sekt’s music in a club is another, wholly welcomed contradiction. Sharing little aspects of the beat scene – in that sometimes there is a beat and that the kick drum of that said beat thumps powerfully – their most recent work impacts upon speakers with a stuttered grace. Organic vocals float behind the powerpunch percussion on tracks like ‘Selfish G,’ and, in a traditional lazy point of music journalism reference, echoes the work of Mount Kimbie, whose constructions fuse similar uncomfortable frequencies, beat patterns, vocal snatches and reams of bassweight.

“We've been changing setups and methods of working since day one, but right now its basically laptops and drum pad controllers. Since we started working with computers we've always tried to avoid the machine taking control of our sound and the sequencer taking control of the rhythm patterns. At the end, the computer became just another sophisticated multitrack recorder to us. We've been recently trying some external analog gear, like vintage mixers and preamps but nothing really flashy. The final touch comes from the mastering studio when we work closely with the engineer and try to achieve the kind of sound we have in mind. He brings the gear and techniques while we suggest him to take some directions he wouldn't usually take.”


Downliners Sekt – Negative Green (video by Enrique Muda)

On the cusp of their 2nd EP in the trilogy, We Make Hits, Not The Public, it seems the troup are honing in on the glitches, fully making a feature out of those little crackle powered moments; always letting the snares rip through the mix with the stabbing high end snap of white noise.

“This trilogy is more like an album fragmented into three parts,” we’re informed. “It was a matter of urgency. After the release of 'The Satire Wave' came a long period of experimentation and when we got together again to start working on new material we realized that, because the way we work, it would've probably taken another year or so to complete an album. The guys at disBoot label were thinking on 7" singles or 12" so we started working in that line. It happens that this, more frequent sequence of releases is giving us more constant exposure than releasing a full length in that same period of time.”

On We Make Hits... the poignant roughness of tracks like ‘From Under Spinning Lights’ seeps out in fits, with the jagged edge of the chorus juxtaposing the layered vocals – that are actually just layered, and multi-tracked rather than chopped into fragments and rearranged into make shift sentences in that way so many producers seem to be fond of doing. ‘Incertia Gloria’ hits heavy with electrified kick drums piercing though the current, whilst ‘White Dawn’ paces things slower, making the most out of the sparse percussion and high pitched vocals and ‘Selfish G’ flutters impatiently, almost amplifying the aching anxiety of the whole release with its roughly sampled pads. Making music from such a broad palette can be daunting at times, having too much of a wealth to draw from can sometimes produce a work thats not streamlined enough to work as a whole, but Downliners Sekt make their genius sound casual. The perfect mix of the rugged and raw and the resplendent.

“It's not tough at all to categorize our music,” the anonymous producer ponders. “We have a whole list of styles that fit. When we have to tag our mp3 files we usually fuck around with made up genres: 'electronoise for breakbeat initiates,' 'slower but faster,' 'dawntempo,' 'r&k,' 'heavy mental,' 'noize in the woods,' '(under)grounded,' 'after hours post rock,' 'save as,' 'en descente de Portbou,' 'down the line,' 'by the way'... Really, people shouldn't spend too much time trying to categorize music; its better just listen to it."

Words: Oli Marlow

::

All the releases mentioned are available to download from the Downliners Sekt webstie. We Make Hits, Not The Public is out now.

You can download Downliners Sekt recent mix for the highly regarded Electronic Explorations podcast series, in show number 127 here: http://electronicexplorations.org/the-show/127-downliners-sekt/

Link:
www.downliners-sekt.com

VIDEO: Earnest Endeavours presents Nosaj Thing

Exclusive clip by Spine TV of Earnest Endeavours 1st London party which featured Nosaj Thing doing his visual show and Free The Robots.

Link:
www.earnestendeavours.com

DOWNLOAD: Pixelord - Magic Firn

Russian producer Pixelord is someone who has long been in our periphery. Floating around that Slugabed/Coco Bryce populated void between, skweee, straight up hip hop and its uptempo dubstep cousin, he’s to date released an EP on the Error Broadcast digital imprint entitled Lucid Freaks alongside a follow up remix package which featured fellow Russian up and comers DZA and Demokracy, amongst others, attacking his source material. Backing it up with the Love Is EP for the Car Crash Set label – a Seattle based label whose grasp on our inbox seemingly grows stronger by the day with top of the line releases from people like King Thing, Distal, MusSck, C.R.S.T. and Mistamen – he’s on the verge a couple more releases.

“I plan to do new EPs in 2011," he told us when we caught up with him. "One EP on 12" vinyl, including an Om Unit remix and there’s another EP with Car Crash Set to come in 2011 too with remixes from SRC, Monky, Doshy, VVV, Pariah, Submerse and more. These are the plans and I’m working really hard to make it all real.”

Structurally his beats manage to really perfect that vital snap, with the snares sitting perfectly on top his winding bass work and primitive pixel edged melodies. It’s a real call and response thing with his music; as soon as it rolls out, it moves you. With determination and the necessary beat talent to back it up – see ‘Cartoon Friend’ or ‘Bossworm’ on the Lucid Freaks EP, he seems more than aware of his niche.

“Pixelord is a solo project by me, Alexy Devyanin. I’m doing music and art, exploring modern electronic music, synths, beats and bass. The Russian new electronic so called ‘beat scene’ is a kind of mutation of past electronic music and new trends, so right now the scene is really small.”

With players like the Sonic Router featured Demokracy, Pixelord himself and the Black Acre destined DZA all firing, it sounds and feels like the core native players have got the necessary legs to develop into something truly special. Having followed his whereabouts via twitter, he got in touch recently to tout his wares and offer Sonic Router readers an exclusive taste of his music.

“I have an amount of unreleased tracks that I like to give away from time to time, when I feel it’s the right time for it. So this track, ‘Magic Firn’ is not really fresh, but it’s a good part of my past work from this year.”

DOWNLOAD: Pixelord – Magic Firn



You can also download the Lucid Freaks EP and its remix package at 192kbps over at Error Broadcast's Bandcamp.



Links:
soundcloud.com/pixelord
twitter.com/pixelord

INTERVIEW: Kaiser & Rory Power, Live From The Hive

Having been invited and involved in Hivemind FM since May of this year it’s easy for me to string together a few sentences on why the combined vision of its creators, Kaiser and Rory Power, is so very relevant to what we do here at Sonic Router. Giving people a platform to represent themselves sonically has become a vital thing to offer in this overtly digital age and, admittedly for us, it’s become way more of a focus for us since we joined the family of shows on the station.

Since then though, the station’s roster has expanded and its dominance on our social network feeds has become irreversible. With new shows from labels like Donky Pitch, Well Rounded, Robox Neotech and so many more the station is now less of a secret and with this interview should be set to become less of a mystery. Sonic Router sat down with the duo behind the hive to discuss the project after the launch of their spanking new web interface and in celebration they put together a mix spanning over 90 minutes and just as many micro genres…

SR: So, I’m super familiar with the concept of the Hive but for all those who might not be, what’s the thinking behind the station/site? Obviously the name suggests people with the same vision feeding off each other for a greater good...

Kaiser: I think that Hivemind has always represented something that transcends any kind of genre divisions or departmentalization in music - it's that feeling you get when you go to other parts of the country, or even other parts of the world and you meet people who seem to be on the same page, despite having different influences and backgrounds. I guess the internet is kind of responsible for this - the record-store-centric musical phenomenons of yesteryear have disappeared to some extent, and we now seem to be in a massive melting pot of sound, where you're not just influenced by the other producers & DJs in your postcode, but people from all over the planet. I like to think that the Hive represents this new approach to thinking about music, and that we're documenting this wild variety in some small way. Ultimately, we see Hivemind as more than just a radio station, but a culture or a collective way of thinking, at least in the future anyway.

What made you want to start it?

K: Haha, like most good ideas, alcohol was certainly a factor. We were sitting around Rory's kitchen table at like four in the morning after a night out, listening to some past mixes (Rory used to have a Murderbot-esque habit of making a mix for every single musical theme that seemed to exist) and we thought to ourselves "we should really put these somewhere online for people to listen to". It then evolved from that into the idea of an internet radio station, with other DJ's who we knew played amazing music getting involved. We were obviously aware of people who were already dominant in the field of web-radio, but felt that none of the big names really represented the story we wanted to tell. All of the other stations seemed to just let anyone have a show, and whilst I’m all for promoting grassroots DJs and giving them their opportunity, we didn't feel like there was anywhere where the 'heads' or the guys who had spent years documenting and understanding music (both its history and its production) were gathered.

Everyone who's on the station today has been invited personally by us, because we're aware of how good they are at what they do. We're really happy to have everyone who's on board at the moment, because they all represent everything we intended the Hive to be.

Can you give us more of an idea what shows are on the station?

Rory Power: Being Bristol based is great for us cause it’s definitely the most forward thinking musical hub outside of London. When we started we searched out the best Bristol selectors and crews which makes up the core of our content, people like notorious rave smashers Shit the Bed, Agro and Bashout regularly represent their sounds and on the deeper end of thing’s UFO, Pollen, Work, I Feel Space & Falling Up cover our love of all things house, disco & funky.

Since then we’ve built on this backbone with talent from further afield including Lowriders (NL), Kanji Kinetic & Z-Kat (UK/CZ), Donky Pitch & Slugabed (UK), Slit Jockey (US), Steakhouse & Pollinate records (UK,) Well Rounded (UK), Robox Neotech (DE), and of course yourselves… Plus there’s’ a few more Bristol crew’s in the shape of Tape Echo, Always Everything and Koan Sound. There are loads more besides these and plenty more to be added in the near future so keep ‘em peeled for schedule developments.

That ties in nicely with the next question… what kind of developments are in store for the project?

K: The first thing that we've got going on is the site re-launch. We're aware that up until now, the site's always appeared to be a bit of an empty shell. Due to our limited resources, we've always been reliant on the assistance of others in helping us shape our vision into something that people enjoy interacting with (we're useless at web design!). Fortunately, we found our savior in the form of Kane aka Neka, who's part of the Tape Echo project. Thanks to him, the site has a lot more scope for content, with a new blog feature, featured artist interviews with podcasts, recordings from live events and a much better timetabling system. We've got lots more exciting plans for the site in the future though, as this is essentially only version 1.5 of the Hive. With some of the things we have planned for the future, we hope to see the Hive grow and become a tool for the underground music community to interact with a massive variety of content.

We've also recently started doing nights in Bristol with some of our favourite promoters. The whole premise around the events is 'Hivemind Presents' - whereby we team up with our favourite promoters, and help put on more than just a party, but a snapshot of what's going on in music at a particular point in time. We recently hosted the Chicago Juke Tour in conjunction with our friends from Brock Out. DJ Spinn, Chrissy Murderbot and Girl Unit all absolutely killed it! We also did some mad carnival lazer bass thing with Pacheko, Deville & Hanuman which was probably one of my favourite nights I’ve ever been to in Bristol. We're hoping to expand the whole 'Hivemind Presents' thing to other cities around the UK and all over the world, hooking up with our favourite promoters and helping to show off a wide range of talent from all over.

As people, what have you got coming up worth plugging?

K: Personally, I’ve just put out my debut EP on Slit Jockey records called 'The Art of War' on a kind of synthy-future bass vibe. I got snapped up by Starkey pretty early on in my producing career, and the material on it is all from kind of around that time where I was experimenting a lot and trying to find my own thing. I'm really happy to have it finally out and I've had some nice comments from people about how it flows nicely from start to finish. Otherwise, I've got some nice offers from people and a few different EP's and side projects I’m working on, including a collab with me & Kanji Kinetic. By the looks of things, 2011 should hopefully be pretty exciting.

Can you give us a little bit of an introduction to the mix…

R: The Hivemind principle of shared thought is a presence throughout this mix. Me and Will approach things from totally different angles but we’ve managed to bring together all our influences to represent what we see as the collective vision for Hivemind: a willingness to dig through classics whilst staying ruthlessly on point. There’s a bit of everything we love in there; classic RnB, hip hop from the LA school of beats, synth-laden electronica, NY x UK house & garage, Berlin dub techno, Drexciyan electro, Chi-town juke and its Detroit based booty bass cousin. London is heavily repped with some grime and funky – all with a cheeky nod to the dancefloor and mixed together at a fairly breakneck speed. 62 tracks in 99 minutes ain’t bad!

::

DOWNLOAD: Kaiser & Rory Power – Hivemind FM x Sonic Router Mix



Tracklist:

1. letherette - eye to eye
2. take - neon beams
3. maxmillion dunbar - pretty please
4. oriol - flux
5. tropics - give it up
6. om unit - the corridor
7. american men - tenzin zopa (machinedrum remix)
8. dj rashad - gettin some head
9. kelis & andre 3000 - millionaire
10. pariah - c-beams
11. arpanet - grossvater paradoxon
12. jimmy edgar - one twenty detail
13. space dimension controller - journey to the centre of the unknown sphere
14. 808 state - flow coma (afx remix)
15. kidkut - ilove04
16. karizma - darqness
17. roof light - palm
18. falty dl - odyssey
19. cosmin trg - tower block
20. dva feat fatima - just vybe (soulepower mix)
21. oriol - lw
22. omar s - plesetsk cosmodrome
23. funkineven - heart pound
24. roska & untold - long range
25. aardvarck - cult copy 3 (dub)
26. bok bok & cubic zirconia - reclash (give it to me)
27. green velvet - answering machine
28. lone - once in a while
29. steve poindexter - work that motherfucker (paul johnson remix)
30. ramadanman - mir
31. subeena - wishful talk (ghosts on tape remix)
32. boddika - boddika's house
33. morgan geist - airpour
34. girl unit - wut
35. ti - yeah ya know (instrumental)
36. mosca - square one (bok bok remix)
37. scratcha dva - 32da4
38. terror danjah - power grid
39. royal-t - hot ones (remix)
40. plasticman - cha
41. lv - boomslang
42. seiji - straylight
43. crst - may not be real
44. wax - 10001 a
45. basic channel - phylyps trak ii
46. george morel - let's groove
47. hardrive - deep inside
48. jus ed - marco's love
49. africa hitech - how does it make you feel
50. kingthing - bump
51. boddika - syn chron
52. jameson - urban hero
53. dj funk - booty perk-u-later
54. drexciya - digital tsunami
55. mr de - time space scrilla
56. remote - the swarm
57. redinho - pitter patter
58. dj spinn & dj rashad - daydreamin (juktronik)
59. 2am/fm - landing dock two
60. rustie - dragonfly
61. model 500 - ofi

Link:
http://hivemind.fm

COMPETITION: Win Signed Test Presses of Mount Kimbie's Next EP

This year you’ll have been hard pressed to ignore the impact of Mount Kimbie. With 2 EPs and a solid, woozing full length album, called Crooks & Lovers on Scuba’s Hotflush imprint, the duo of Kai Campos and Dominic Maker have - since their album’s release - elevated their live show, touring to devastating effect. Awash with carefully tempered drum patterns, live instruments and warming live vocals, they craft a set that wholly reflects the care and personality they pour into their music.

With the release of their Blind Night Errand EP due on the 29th November we’ve been bestowed the honour of offering our readership 2 signed test presses. The EP features the eponymous track - which was something of an uptempo standout from their LP; ‘Before I Move Off,’ the cluttering, kind of lurching one that gets layered with computerized bleeps , their trademark snatched vocals and hand claps that sound like sharpened finger snaps, along with the ‘Dayglo’ edit of their earlier track ‘William,’ which re-imagines the original into a dancefloor weapon and a live recording, captured at their show at Berghain in Berlin, of their breakout hit, ‘Maybes.’

To be in with a shot a scooping the prize email us the answer to the below question before Weds 24th Nov.

Q: Mount Kimbie remixed which LV & Untold collaboration?



Link:
www.myspace.com/mountkimbie

NEWSFLASH: Sonic Router x Bleep.Com Podcast #002

Round 2 of your Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast is now live.

Featuring a look back at the best of this month's releases from an SR perspective it contains brand newisms from producers like Tokimonsta, Fantastic Mr Fox, SBTRKT, 2562 and Daniel Savio. Stream supreme on Soundcloud, kop the direct download or subscribe to the whole podcast feed - which features other noteworthy shows from Allez Allez, Bleep themselves and Alex Wilson.

DOWNLOAD: Sonic Router x Bleep.com Podcast #002 (Direct Download)
SUBSCRIBE: Bleep.com Podcast



Tracklist:

1. Tokimonsta - Lucid Waking [Listen Up]
2. Madlib - Young Guns [Stones Throw]
3. Samiyam - Bonus Mission [Poobah]
4. Kelpe - No Film [Black Acre]
5. Rustie - Starwolf [Warp]
6. Darkstar - Two Chords [Hyperdub]
7. Dylan Ettinger - Rico's Pawn Shop [Not Not Fun]
8. Daniel Savio - Warhead [Losonofono ]
9. Kontext - Sattva [Immerse]
10. Elgato - Tonight [Hessle Audio]
11. 2562 - The Wind Up [Monkeytown]
12. Hardhouse Banton - Sirens [Soul Jazz]
13. Doc Daneeka - Mario's Mushrooms [PTN]
14. Lone - Once In A While [Werk]
15. Jack Sparrow - Loveless [Tectonic]
16. Girl Unit - Wut [Night Slugs]
17. Numan - XX [Planet Mu]
18. Raffertie - Rank Functions (Ital Tek Remix) [Super]
19. SBTRKT & Jessie Ware - Nervous [Numbers]
20. Fantastic Mr Fox - Over [Black Acre]

Link:
http://bleep.com

INTERVIEW: Desto [Ramp/Noppa]

Finish producer Desto’s music came as something of a revelation to us. Succintly pushed through Dusk & Blackdown’s radio show, his own fusion of sonics at the dubstep tempo stood out, with his debut release for Ramp Recordings, ‘Disappearing Reappearing Ink,’ pushing that same kind of amped up glitch and offbeat percussion patterning that fellow Ramp artists like Zomby and Shortstuff also did. But it was the central motif of that single's B-side, ‘Broken Memory,' with that juttering synth that dances atop the sub low reverberations, that pushed Desto as far into the elctronic hip hop arena as much as dubstep – something that a lot of artists have positively strived to do since.

With a Noppa release, preceeding his Ramp single, at the turn of this year showcasing a sound that was more conventionally dubstep, Desto was hinting at the diversity of his productions; playing more for the atmospheric side of the club with tracks like ‘Dark Matter’ aiming squarely at the big rigs and beats like ‘Cold VIP’ commanding audience participation with its thick garage influenced skip. Having proved himself adept at both styles and cementing his intentions with a mix for Blackdown’s blog back in September of 2009, he got in touch to inform us of a few projects - including upcoming releases on Ramp again and the blossoming Channel Zero imprint – so we took the opportunity to snag a moment in his company, irking out our 58th Sonic Router mix and learning a little something about his processes as we went.

SR: Can you provide those who may not know you with a bit of background info?

Desto: I’m a producer and DJ from Helsinki, Finland. Been making music for ages but started releasing stuff when dubstep came along. This year I’ve released 12”s on Ramp Recordings and Noppa. I co-run two dubstep and related bass music club nights, Slam It and Theory out here with Dead-O of Clouds and Tes La Rok and host a bi-weekly radio show on Basso Radio (FM) with Tes.

Outside of music who are you guys? What do you do on the daily?

Music takes up the majority of my time really. I do freelance work in other fields in order to sustain my independence as an artist, I feel very strongly about keeping financial issues from influencing free creativity in the studio and in music in general.

How did you first get into making music? What was it that infected you to do so?

I got hold of Scream Tracker 3 in ’93. I was just a kid and had nobody to teach me how to use it but in late ’93 I managed to make a track on it. The software was nothing like the DAWs you have nowadays, it was 8-bit sample based, 16 channels, no mouse control, no effects. But it was what a kid could get for free in those days to make music on a PC. And working with those limitations was so much fun discovering techniques to work around them. As for what drove me towards making electronic music is difficult to say really but it always came very naturally. I was classically trained as a pianist for 10 years but I was always drawn to electronic music since I was a child listening to Kraftwerk casettes. I always wanted a synth as a kid but never got one so Freudians might have a thing or two to say about that.

What’s your production set up like? What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio?

I use Cubase SX3, Tannoy Reveals and a 10” Reveal sub which I seldom use though, I do most of my monitoring on my Beyerdynamic DT-880 headphones. And my neighbours love me for it. I’m not too fond of VSTi’s, I make most of my sounds on my synths and Commodore 64 plus some effect boxes as well as mics. I like recording audio and treating sound as samples. It’s a lot of fun. VSTi sounds can be a big turnoff although used right they can obviously be useful too but the majority of stuff out there is done with them so I don’t feel I need to contribute into making more of that sound. These are just personal preferences, in the end it’s not about what you make music with but what you get out of your setup.

How would you describe your sound? I mean it’s as much fluorescent like skweee as it is rooted in big drum kind of Joker/Starkey style productions...

I go about doing my music by for example taking a proto-dubstep approach to rhythm and fuse it with my influences and techniques to come up with something that could be an alternative future for what went on in ’02 or ’04. Or take a now-cliché element like wobble bass and come up with something that has a similar effect but in a completely different way. I’m very interested in the psychology of rhythm perception and the element that changes how we hear a rhythm for one way to the other. Not talking about drum patterns alone but entire tracks. The switches that we have built into us that make us experience rhythm in a certain way and how that switch happens by the change of a single element such as the length of a bass note in a track.

I haven’t listened to much skweee although some of the guys are my friends. I guess with skweee as well as Joker and Starkey things, the similarity in sound is down to similar influences, hiphop, soul and all the afro-American musics, computer games and so on. And the bpm is similar.



Would you say the above are an inspiration when making music? What else is an inspiration for you?

They all make great music and when I first heard Joker coming out with the purple sound it was instantly appealing to me. It definitely made me feel there should be more stuff like that out there. I draw from all my musical influences from Kraftwerk to Vangelis to early hardcore to 90s hiphop beats like RZAs work on Tical to DJ Premier and Jay Dilla to jungle to 90s Warp Records to Commodore 64 game music.

Hearing dubstep rhythms in ’06 was a big influence, Digital Mystikz, Loefah, Benga and Skream tunes in Youngsta’s sets got me back into electronic music and production after having been a bit tired of it for a number of years. Also witnessing the family vibes at DMZ and FWD>> and the genuine interest in music was inspiring. I have to mention the electronic hiphop movement too, the likes of the LuckyMe family as well as Dizz1, DéBruit, Rustie and others have made inspiring music. With the risk of sounding clichéd my part of town, Vallila and its residents inspire me. There’s an energy about the place. Last year I had to stay elsewhere for two months and getting back made me realize how much this environment is a part of my music too.

Where do you see your sound developing?

This is a difficult question as it presumes that an artist has a clear view of what he or she is about to create next. I just want to keep on exploring music through my production and continue to be able to not predict what the next tune will sound like. I find I get writers block if I know exactly what I’d have to do.

I think the first time a lot of people got up on you was with the mix you did for Blackdown around the time of your RAMP release... How did those come about? Did you yourself see the spike in interest when it went live?

I sent ‘Disappearing Reappearing Ink’ to Tom@Ramp and it just went from there really… We’d hooked up with Blackdown earlier, he had spotted me on myspace and asked for beats for his and Dusk’s Rinse show. So month after month they kept playing the beats and eventually asked for a mix & interview which I was happy to do as Blackdown’s writings had inspired me and given context to dubstep before I had the chance to visit DMZ and FWD>>. The mix definitely reached a lot of people, so much thanks to Blackdown for letting me do it.

What’s the scene like in Helsinki? I mean we’ve spoken to Non Person before to talk about it and he name checked you as a player in it; but would be great to get your angle...

The Helsinki dubstep scene is vibrant and audiences and producers here are very open to different sounds and flavours without the need to do ‘mandatory’ wobbles, strict halfstep rhythms and overdone compression on tracks - although all of this has a place and a time too. With our own nights we like to keep the sound diverse. Production-wise Finland has risen to new levels this year with new up-n-comers like Teeth, Jkrl, Kfka, Mikael, Koala, Vesicle and others pushing new sounds while the regulars like Clouds and Tes La Rok have been steadily delivering great sounds. I feel lucky to be a part of our Helsinki scene.

Are there any producers you rate that the world should know about? Any peeps not getting the props you think they deserve?

There’s a lot of undiscovered talent about like always, but I think it’s also up to them to get their music out there if that’s what they want. I don’t see anything wrong in doing music without any intention to take it further than your hard drive having done so for 15 years myself. But nobody is going to do nothing for you, come to your doorstep to request for your music unless you’re very very lucky, so you shouldn’t be scared of putting in a little work yourself to earn your stripes.


Desto - Can't Take It/Aquanaut [forthcoming Channel Zero]

In your pitch to us you say your working on projects with “Jimi Tenor as well as solo, got releases coming out on Noppa (Ice Cold) and Ramp (Glass Clouds/Stay Strong) and Channel Zero (Can't Take It/Aquanaut).” In your own words can you tell us what other projects have you got in the pipeline?

Well, that sums a lot of it up nicely. I have a feeling Desto will go live next year, I haven’t done electronic live performances since the few ones I had with an electronic project I was doing around ’98 but it intrigues me now. I’d have to scrape up the money for a few more pieces of equipment and I’d be all set. What I’d like to do is leave the computer at home and go all out hardware just because it’s fun, unpredictable and an electronic live without a laptop would be something that I’d definitely go out to see myself.

Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve put together for us…

When I play out I play about 50/50 of my own exclusive stuff and music that I’m feeling from other producers. I like to drop in a few old bits and try and connect them into new stuff in a fresh way. There should be a number of my tunes on there that people haven’t heard yet and the recently released bits from the likes of Ramadanman, Hypno, Bok Bok and Mensah were just too good not to be put into the mix.

Any words of wisdom, for our readers?

Having an open mind never hurts.

::

DOWNLOAD: Desto – Sonic Router Mix #58



Tracklist:

Intro
Rustie - Hyperthrust [Warp]
VC - Moon Braggin' (Desto remix) [forthcoming Lo-Fi Funk]
Desto - Glass Clouds [forthcoming Ramp]
Ramadanman - Glut [Hemlock]
Desto - Stay Strong [forthcoming Ramp]
Tes La Rok - Turn It Up [unreleased]
Superrisk - Find Your Way (Mensah remix) [Punch Drunk]
Desto - React [unreleased]
Girl Unit - IRL [Night Slugs]
Desto - Ice Cold [Noppa]
Stutta ft. Jammer - Konk [white]
Fex Fellini - Kolo (Desto remix) [forthcoming Top Billing]
Hypno - Go Shorty [Ramp]
Desto - Disappearing Reappearing Ink VIP [unreleased]
Youngstar - Formula VIP [DDJs Productions]
Desto - Aquanaut [forthcoming Channel Zero]
Desto - Neptune [unreleased]
Bok Bok - Say Stupid Things [Monkey Town Records]
Zomby - Orchid [Ninja Tune]
Desto - 4 a.m. [unreleased]
Desto - Stay Strong (Late remix) [forthcoming Ramp]

Link:
www.myspace.com/destodubs