Filed under: Beats, Dance, Electronica, Experimental | Tags: bass, beat, beats, future beat, Hip Hop, instrumental hip hop, music, Upbeat
I used to have crazy amounts of fun playing as Yoshimitsu in Tekken because he had this one move where he’d stab himself. I was such a sadistic little shit back in my childhood I’d play the game as him just to watch Yoshimitsu stab himself in the gut over and over for my own enjoyment.
Anyway, that’s completley irrelevant when discussing this particular Yoshimitsu collective. Blaster Master displays future-beat at it’s finest; a perfect blend of Fly-Lo style syncopation and engaging sounds. Marisa Tomei shows a subtle hint of down-tempo romanticism and tranquil repose. I’m posting Kaligraph E‘s harder remix of Bugz from a few months back though. It’s a stand out.
You can check out some free downloads if you like what you head from their soundcloud.
Filed under: Chillwave, Electronica, Upbeat | Tags: 80s, chillwave, Electronic, Synth, Upbeat
Calvin Harris sung about life was better in the 80s and artists like Sydney-based Jordan F have been incorporating this theory into their music since the re-emergence of the cheesy synth sounds of chillwave.
There’s something strangely motivational about the sounds of phat-filtered Roland synths and TR-808s, but Jordan F takes it a step further- with just enough modern flair to avoid invoking images of jelly bracelets and, like, totally grody hairdos (see what I did?- 80s slang).
If I was going to go back in time have sex with the hot redhead from the breakfast club… or Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend- I’d have something like Aurora as the soundtrack for sure.
Filed under: Beats, Chilled, Electronica | Tags: beats, Electronica, Hip Hop, Hypnotic, music, nosaj thing, Sydney, sydney australia, Trip-Hop
Sydney-based Nakagin has been on his game for around a year now, and I’d call him Australia’s very own Nosaj Thing.
Releasing a split 12″ with Guerre in September, Nakagin is a familiar name in the vibrant Sydney/Melbourne beat scene complementing names such as Polographia and Oliver Tank.
Raincoats comes off of Nakagin‘s EP Elsewhere from July last year. You can pick it up here. Or try out Raincoats as a single below:
Filed under: Beats, Dance, Dubstep, Electronica, Trap | Tags: bass, beat, Dance, Dubstep, Electronic, Electronica, Hip Hop, trap
Fucking aye. Lindsay Lowend dropped this monster trap beat track two days ago and it’s been blowing the shit out of my sub-woofer.
I’ve been listening to this 808-riddled heavy bass beat music for quite some time before I knew that we were calling it ‘trap’- I’m not quite sure how I feel about the name- but as I said in the last post, I’m not here to needle genres. And who gives a shit anyway, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” after all. The facts are; its accessibility as a crossover for fans of electrionca, trip-hop, hip-hop and dubstep really puts trap in a position to be taking off in a BIG way. After seeing EDM heavyweight Diplo embracing it in what is possibly one of my favourite tracks of the year, I’m legitimately excited to see if it will creep into mainstream music as dubstep did, and perhaps inject some life into the ubiquitous sorry excuse for ‘hip-hop’ that we hear on the radio these days.
Filed under: Ambient, Electronica, Experimental, Mellow | Tags: ambient, boards of canada, dark, Deep, downtempo, Electronica, experimental, female artists, music
Why is it that electronic music seems to be a boys club? I can rattle off a few female artists, sure; Rainbow Chan, Tokimonsta, Boyfriend, Sleep ∞ Over… but when it comes down to it, the majority of guys out there producing beats are just that- guys!
Ellie Herring‘s atmospheric downtempo pieces brink on the experimental- a Heligoland era- Massive Attack- or eerie evil cousin of UNKLE. Something about Defect puts me in the mindset of a mouldy tunnel- the vocal line teeters precariously on the edge of ‘creepy’, yet manages to avoid being un-nerving. Touch Point is over a year-old now, off of a release on Racecar Productions. I feel it’s more accessible than her newer tracks, while staying true to her dark sound. It’s also available for free download off of her Soundcloud which is always a bonus. If you are feeling like something a little more comforting- her Boards of Canada (Damp Heart Mix) is nice to have on in the background (also on Soundcloud).
Filed under: Electronica, Experimental, Rock, Vocals | Tags: experimental, Guitar, Progressive Rock, Rock, vocals
Getting exotic today with some goodness from Lithuania of all places. This unique breed of… experimental-indie-pop? I don’t know what you’d call it. Alternative electronica perhaps? I don’t know. My job isn’t to needle genres anyway.
Benas Aleksandravičius (+10 points for impossibly difficult surname) is a tricky one to write about due to my inability to speak Lithuanian. Even armed with Google translator, you’d have to do some pretty crazed Facebook stalking to find anything beyond the fact that ‘ba.‘ is what he calls himself- assumably derived from his initials.
Now I’ve briefly spoken about my past love for German rock before on this blog (albeit in a hugely un-related context), and there’s just SOMETHING about ba.‘s music which tingles that little bit of my brain. That being said, the rock sound is only a subtle tinge in Paklauskyk compared to his other tracks like Tai nėra rimta (split) and Era. Worth a listen to all the same- something a little different for your ears today.
Filed under: Beats, Dance, Electronica, Upbeat, Vocals | Tags: beat, Dance, Electronic, Electronica, gaming, Happy, music, ocarina of time, Synth
Those that played or knew someone who played Ocarina of Time in their younger years (ie. everybody) are probably very familiar with the ever-persistent little blue fairy thing bugging you every two seconds trying to boss you around the game. HEY! LISTEN!
Luckily, L Λ WNMOWHER‘s wonderfully produced Navi track has more to offer than bringing back memories of telling the Nintendo 64 to SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Filed under: Chilled, Chillwave, Electronica | Tags: chillwave, clams casino, dream pop, dreamy, Electronic, Electronica, music, Soothing, Synth
This beautiful release from Giraffage late last year slipped by me. Embarking on a tour of Europe alongside XXYYXX in sept/october, the floaty synths, glitchy, chopped samples and sprinkles of tight 808 percussion bring the best out of dream pop’s potential as a widely appreciated genre.
Visible‘s romanticised vocals build in a climactic side-chained beat which is simply blissful. For fans of Clams Casino, XXYYXX and Sleep Over. The whole album is available for a pick-your price download with no minimum:
Theo Krish aka Theoish brings some mighty fine electronica to the table- Roobios drifts gracefully through the air with a beautiful underlying piano riff working to fuse jazz and dreampop vibes. It’s hard to classify this one; usually a lazy music blogger can just coin a thousand different subgenre terms and sound like an expert, but this track transcends the bullcrap.
Filed under: Chillwave, Dance, Electronica, Experimental, Upbeat, Vocals | Tags: chiptune, Dance, dream pop, Electronic, Electronica, glitch, glo-fi, melbourne, vocals
More or less a slight step-back from the usual swirling game-boy-style chiptune arpeggios and excitable dream-pop hyperactivity found in Hawaii94‘s previous releases; Cruise CTRL brinks on progressive-disco-esque thumping and sweeping filtered waves of sound. Something that anyone can groove to; especially when the familiar vocal swoons drift in over the top. A final highlight is when Hawaii94‘s glo-fi sound climaxes into a glitchy crescendo of fun-noise.
Filed under: Beats, Chilled, Electronica | Tags: beat, Electronic, Electronica, Hip Hop, instrumental hip hop
Some dope instrumental hip-hop coming at you from Portland, Oregon. Turismo Chris‘ Evolution is constructed with clear verse/chorus structures behind it, but can survive as a pleasurable listen without any vocal track over the top of it. There’s a cosmic sci-fi style sleekness to his sound that makes me think of an utopian future… but that retro style neon future where everyone wears cool glittery rubber jumpsuits and there are hot alien chicks who look just like humans but they have antennae or something crazy. Worth checking out next time you are ploughing through your old comic book collection and need some backing music for those old issues of Silver Surfer you have tucked under your bed… Or when you are cruising through the solar system in the car pictured above.
Filed under: Ambient, Electronica, Mellow | Tags: bass, bass sound, bassy, Chilled, Deep, downtempo, melbourne, mellow, music, wabz
Some VERY deep sounds from Melbourne-based Wabz, it seems the bass is bottomless- extending to unfathomably distant depths. The percussive sounds are organic and satisfyingly crisp sounding. There’s some amazing atmospheric work going on here, worth checking out.
Filed under: Ambient, Chilled, Chillwave, Electronica, Experimental | Tags: ambient, Chilled, dreamy, Electronica, mellow, music, Psychedelic, Soothing, Trip-Hop
Woot woot, the second Fuck the Radio party was a success, with acts Yosemite, Flash Forest and Sub Dapper killing it on-stage with a surprise set by exciting up-and comers Willowbeats.
The hangover has subsided and the blogging must go on. To bring us all down from our parties induced-highs I present you an ethereal track of purified dreaminess.
Patterns In Plastic already had a wonderfully fulfilling sound on their hands, but for me it was Sina. who brought the wonderful to marvellous with a divine remix of Sleepyhead.
I’ve been playing way too much Diablo 3 latley, so the entire list of of the adjectives I know at the moment is like looking up ‘evil’ in the Thesaurus. But if you were to look at the ‘antonym’ section of the thesaurus for ‘evil’, you’d probably find some neat descriptive words for this track…
…what a bizarre review…
Patterns In Plastic – Sleepyhead (Sina. remix)
Filed under: Electronica, Experimental, Live Show | Tags: Australian, downtempo, Electronica, entertainment, Guitar, Live show, music, Psychedelic, Rock
Collingwood’s Gasometer Hotel is another punk rock fortress in the midst of Melbourne’s north-eastern inner suburbs…Lots of distortion-riddled power-chords and highly energetic performances can often be heard radiating from the top floor as you enter the venue or duck out with your mates for a smoke.
Downstairs however, there’s an intimate back-room there behind a ubiquitous closed door which has been playing host to the opposite; punks of a different breed… the downtempo/electronica/beat scene in Melbourne has it’s many branches, and climbing their way to the top of the tree one killer set at a time are Fuck the Radio faves, Squarehead. Also on the bill this particular night was The Black Galaxy Experience who were fresh off of the launch of their 3-track EP, an atmospheric and moody work of prog-rock/jazz sounds. The music in this room may not have been punk rock- but it certainly dared to be different.
Squarehead (above) create their songs in-front of you, live. And you can tell they love doing it. Tobi (on the right) fronts with a bass guitar hooked up to a pedal board bigger than Kanye West‘s ego. They opened their set with a new song which expanded dramatically into a room-filling climax of cymbal crashes and reverberation; and while there’s a subtle hint of underlying melancholy present in their music, it’s masked with a dash of velvety mystique. Tobi knows his way around the bass fret board, and as the tracks build in passion, his ability to rip out some pretty killer solos really comes to the fore-front. Playing through the rest of their ZZ Tunes catalogue also made for a great show, King of Birds absolutely rocks it live, there’s a-lot of energy in that breakdown section that translates to stage very well, as well as serving as a device for breaking up the more downtempo pieces.
Also I want to stress that when I say ‘down-tempo’ I do not want you to think I mean ‘boring’. There’s enough intricacies and rhythmic patterns that lie throughout all of Squarehead‘s music to keep you listening intently from start to finish. I Dream At Night, (the second last track of the set), is reminiscent of Ratatat‘s relaxing-yet-stimulating sound, and when translated to the live stage, it takes on another special element you miss out on if you just listen at home with your iTunes. I think perhaps the most fitting description I have for Squarehead‘s live-sets are ‘perfect for taking a girl to’.
After Squarehead; The Black Galaxy Experience set up all manner of synths and instruments that would make any music-geek drool. The drummer Andrew writes all the music and is quite adept at what he does; there’s an interesting prog-rock/psychedelic feel to the jazzy electronica he performs which fills the entire room and envelops you whole like a sonic cushion. It’s clear that as a musician, Andrew is a skilled artist- the dynamic levels and expressive drumming was a stand-out. With tunes that can fall close to the 10-minute mark in length, the constant evolution and flow of the music kept the room totally fixated. Whats’s Going On in-particular built and built with fluid smoothness into a swirling crescendo of drumming prowess which was just out of this world.
Definitely some of the most musically impressive bands in the underground electronica scene at the moment, if you live in Melbourne, check them out next time you see their name on a poster.
Squarehead:
The Black Galaxy Experience:
Filed under: Beats, Electronica | Tags: beats, Electronic, Electronica, Flying Lotus, future beat, Trip-Hop
Nice Icles’ release on DAGOBOT features some great trip-hop composition, and general electronica goodness. The release’s title track features some collaboration with Kwala; creating a jangular future beat piece, kind of similar to something Fly-Lo would develop. Unfortunately, the track finishes quite suddenly, but luckily the rest of the fantastic record is there to follow it up- only a dollar of DAGOBOT‘s bandcamp.
Nice Icles – Shiverburn (ft. Kwala)
