This track comes for a pick-your-own-price bandcamp download; off of NxxxxxS‘ moody Fujita Scale. The full release is worth a peep too!
Filed under: Experimental | Tags: album, Dance, Disco, Electronic, experimental, future beat, IDM, independant
Cult Cosmos’ latest release is an assortment of sounds and genres ranging from disco to future-beat to straight up IDM-like breaks. It really puts the emphasis on the mix in mixtape. We could also comment on the appropriate titling too- with emphasis on the meta in METAMUSIC but that would just be, woah, so meta.
Highlights include tracks 7 & 8- Nervous and Tension, well titled to fit next each-other, despite one sounding like something you could play alongside one of FlyLo’s earlier works, while the other sounding like it belongs as the backing track for a segment on Soul Train… no… really, try it yourself:
Largely sample-based, some tracks swell through synths while others chop though sounds from all over the place. Peep it if you haven’t already above.
Filed under: Beats, Dance, Electronica, Upbeat | Tags: beat, beats, Dance, Electronic, Funky, future beat, music, Perth, Trip-Hop, Upbeat
At a gig last night I was discussing one of the main reasons I gravitate towards trip-hop and future-beat is because it has the largest variety of sounds available to it- more so than any other type of music.
|w∆lla| C‘s T∆mborimOdyssey EP is a perfect example- weaving chopped up acoustic guitar, synths, percussion dancing through samba rhythms and intricate aural textures together into a straight up dose of head-nodding syrup. Drink up!
Filed under: Beats, Experimental, Interview, Lunch With, Psychadelic | Tags: Electronic, experimental, future beat, interview
FTR: So, great and venerable Tigermoth…
Tigermoth: Hey man.
How’s it goin’?
Really good! Had a really strange night though…
Why? What happened?
(shakes head) Oh man… fuck… man…
(laughs) You can’t just shake your head and swear, you gotta elaborate!
Uh… Crazy women.
This is going in the interview so be careful what you say!
(laughs) Exactly, I’ll leave it at that!
You are on your best behaviour- although you do have some exciting times ahead; the album release…
Yeah! Vinyl.
The vinyl is being released, what’s the story behind the name Traversing Karma?
Initially I had the idea of calling it ‘Traversing Karma Across Divides’.
It just popped into my head one day a few years ago and I knew I’d start making this album- I was piecing it together.
I just had this concept that had being evolving for a while- what my karma was… what ‘karma’ meant. Looking back on things and looking forward and seeing… I got this idea that sometimes what you think is good or righteous maybe isn’t, and people can get caught up in righteousness and soapboxing and I was really conscious of avoiding that and exploring what was right and wrong, who I was, and sort of navigating through that, you know? Without trying to be too self-righteous- just being true to myself without causing any detriment to anyone around me or anything like that. And it can be a difficult thing sometimes, you know?
And that spiritual sort of theme is something that not only comes through in the title and the artwork, but also the samples that you’ve used.
Yeah
Was that a very conscious decision on your part?
Not conscious in the way that before I start making the music I say I’m going to make ‘spiritual music’. I think that’s maybe just who I am, and so the sounds or whatever I gravitate towards, or the samples that I use are things that I’m drawn to. And the melodic ideas, it’s what I’m feeling I guess. So that’s going to come through, not consciously- it just is what it is.
So it’s just the way you feel it flows out of you?
Yeah
Has it always been that way?
I think my first album Underwater Beats… I started making before I went to live in Japan. When I got to Japan I really found a-lot of music that resonated with me. I found a-lot of spiritualism that I had been looking for that I hadn’t been able to find in Australia. So back then when I started on the first album, I’d make it, and then decide that’s not what I wanted it to sound like- I’d go back and add a couple of songs, take a couple out… It took me quite a while to create that channel where it could easily flow out. So I guess in the beginning it was much more conscious, but after I created that channel, and the more I did it- the easier it became.
Absolutely
You know, I’m making a-lot of music at the same time too, and a-lot of it’s not sounding like this… I just don’t let people her that kind of stuff.
Do you think then there’s room for an alias? Or is it just for yourself?
I’ll be releasing a hip-hop remix album under the Tigermoth name, but the alias I have been thinking for the more ‘club’ or ‘party’ type music stuff is ‘TJ Tigga’.
(laughs)
My nickname in school was ‘TJ’ or ‘Tiger’ so it really just chose itself.
You’ve got Traversing Karma on CD… there’s one in my car that I bump all the time. What was behind the decision to bring it to vinyl?
I released The 9th Tiger on vinyl. The digital album was 18 tracks but I couldn’t afford to press a double record so I had to go back and choose 8 tracks that fit on a twelve inch.
I’ve been DJing for… I think I started in 2001, I was DJing for a couple months just to get some money on the side as I was a musician- jazz, funk, hip-hop musician when I was younger. A couple of months after I started DJing I bought an MPC… Back then I knew four people who owned an MPC- two of them lived in Adelaide and two of them lived in my house. I kind of had a different route, these days some people start with beat making because it’s so easy to access the tools, but back then there wasn’t even Protools for home computers. So I grew up with DJs and vinyl was always really important to me. Ever since my first album I wanted all of my albums to be on vinyl. I was very lucky that before I started Tigermoth I already had labels who had released vinyl for other projects I was involved in- I came in with that ethic. I think it’s really important for the legitimacy of the music to have it on vinyl and stay true to my roots.
So I make music now with the album in mind, and knowing that I have to make 35 minutes of music for one LP. And I’ll keep doing that… One day if I get more money coming in I’ll make double LPs. I’m always going to release on vinyl. I did Duality and the Infinite and that nearly got picked up by a label in the states and that was also made for vinyl so I’ll be coming back to that and putting that out on vinyl too.
So the end game for you is to always have your music in that physical form?
For these kind of things. These albums are very focused with specific ideas as albums not just track after track, you know? It’s a narrative, almost like the album is one long track itself.
So vinyl is the best medium to do that on, you put a record on and let it play out without skipping through tracks or putting your iPod on shuffle or whatever.
Yeah man! I was talking to Aoi yesterday- he started making beats on computers and he’s come back over to using samplers and he was talking about how anyone can get a computer program these days and watch a YouTube video on how to make a beat. You can do it in a week and develop some sort of proficiency but the music that really resonates with me and always has… I mean I might hear a dope track but it doesn’t hit me in the way that my favourite albums have. Albums are things that I listen to over and over again, it grows every time and it takes a level of commitment from the listener and that’s how I grew up liking to listen to music and it’s the type of music I want to make as Tigermoth.
So you’ve got the release party for the vinyl coming up on the 23rd, tell us about the line-up you’ve curated for that
Well, I’ve got Bevin Campbell from The Blend program on PBS 106.7FM. He has been very supportive of me for quite a-while now- going on three years. He is very under-rated as a DJ I think.
Absolutley! I was a guest on his show last Monday. The tunes he’s packing are phenomenal
Dude! Even as a radio host he’s one of the best in the world! I’ve always said that to him, like “Dude your voice is like butter man!” It’s made for radio, like they’ve cloned… or, you know…genetically modified classic radio DJs and put them all into Bevin’s voice or something (laughs). I hope he has a-lot of success with what he’s doing because you know, I know, and people who know, know what a great DJ he is. And as a selector, which is quintessential man. Super humble.
I’ve also got Able8 from Uncomfortable Beats. He’s been doing a-lot of things and is super supportive of other people, he’s had me down at one of his nights too.
And then after that we’ve got Amin Payne…
From the Condensed Milk collective
I really like what he does with his beat show… He’s coming from a similar place, although his music is quite different to me- he’s got a certain sensibility with it that I like. I think it might be his Iranian heritage and I think he was a guitar player when he was younger too. He’s part of The Operatives too and doing a-lot of great things at the moment.
So the people I’ve been picking are people who I think are doing good things and are also slightly different to me, I didn’t want a whole line-up of my-sounding music the whole night, I wanted it to go through waves.
It’s looking like a must-go gig for Melbourne beats…
I hope so! I’ll be there! (laughs)
In terms of curating a line-up of guys from different collectives, there’s a strong beats scene in Melbourne; coming from Brisbane yourself though, what’s the comparison?
They’re different cities you know? I was really lucky when I was younger that the guys who were a bit older than me were really doing cutting edge stuff worldwide. And I was fortunate to have that as my influence.
There are lots of people doing things in Brisbane; I’m not really up with it because I was always a bit of a recluse up there. What I was doing didn’t really fit into it at the time I think. Brisbane is kinda like a hippy town, a-lot of the beat scene is… how would I put it… the live band scene is more prevalent than beat makers in Brisbane, so the audience is still slowly coming around to it. It’s really hard to put a beats night on in Brisbane because people have been doing it for quite a-while but it’s hard to generate interest. It’s not like Melbourne man, people love the beat scene in Melbourne- they do in Brisbane too- but there’s not the same quantity of people into it that there is down here. It can be difficult sometimes to put nights on and get large numbers, and maybe there’s not the same quantity of quality that there is down here!
If you are lucky enough to be down in ‘burn city on the 23rd you can check out Tigermoth‘s vinyl launch party here
You can also peep his Facebook and his bandcamp.
Filed under: Interview, Lunch With | Tags: future beat, interview, melbourne, melbourne australia
Able8 is a Melbourne-based beatmaker with ties to The Operatives, Uncomfortable Beats, Boom Bap Professionals, Innit Records & The Community Records. Kassie sat down with him for our ongoing ‘Lunch with‘ interview series.
How was the gig at Black Cat last night?
It was good, I think everyone was so hungover (laughs) myself included. It was definitely a very hungover gig, but it was good vibes.
It’s a bit like that on Sundays!
Definitely.
What are you up to today?
I’m meeting my friend James, U-wish. We’re going to work on some beats for awhile. And then later tonight I’m going to be mixing tracks for a local rapper called Slackjaw, most likely.
Is that who you went to Wide Open Space with? With Melody Myla as well?
Yeah!
How was that?
It was amazing. A really great festival. I’d recommend it.
And it’s in Alice Springs isn’t it?
Yeah, in the middle of nowhere really. I think it’s on a traditional Aboriginal ground. So they have permission to use the ground for the festival. There are just really good vibes there. We got really good feedback for our set as well, so hopefully we’ll be back next year.
Do you have any more collaborations planned?
Well, today I’m starting one with U-wish. I have a Dubstep collaboration in the works with 2fuddha. And also started a future beatsy, chill thing with Dr. Res from Barcelona, but he’s now living here. A few other random little bits and pieces.. I just finished one with Dusty Ohms, from London. That’s coming out on Free The Beats, which is a compilation label based out of Sydney.
You’ve got so much going at the same time!
Yeah (laughs) I like to keep busy.
And how’s Uncomfortable Beats going? Are you still spending time working on that?
Lots of it. The last couple of months have been particularly busy, we’ve released a compilation with 21 different beat makers from around the world. It’s a free compilation called Outer Crust. That’s online. There’s another by an artist called Wermonster, who lives in Berlin. He’s french, and makes really nice Hip-Hop beats. There’s 28 tracks, really short loops. We printed cassette tapes for that one. So there’s digital and physical copies up in stores here and around Europe, which is great. Just the other day I also released a new free track called Nintendoe, which is up there too.
How do you make all these connections from around the world? Do you meet them online, or while touring or…
It’s a mixture of a lot of things really. Sometimes there will be artists who come to Melbourne and other friends will get in touch with me online and say “hey, this guy is coming to Melbourne, can you show him around, or do you have any gigs?”
So for instance, with Dr. Res… My friend Tamin from Barcelona, came to Melbourne and I helped him out with a gig. He’s now back home and has since said I should meet his friend who’s now visiting Melbourne. So we made contact and just from his music we got chatting and kind of realised that we’re into the same stuff and started a collaboration from there.
I guess some of it is online too. For example, there’s a compilation called Pure Dopeness, on the label Sinoptic International, which is based in France and the US. They just released one today which has 38 different artists. I’m on that as well. I feel like every time I do a track on one of those sort of compilations I always have beat makers adding me on facebook and other social medias, and we just stay in touch. But travelling is another good big one. The first time I travelled to Europe I didn’t know many people at all, so I was on my own looking for gigs, making contact from SoundCloud and things like that. I met a lot of people through that and we just organised to meet up in various cities. It’s a bit of column A and column B. I’m always open to connecting and collaborating with like-minded individuals, and I think a lot of people feel the same, they just want to be around people that feel or think the same way they do, or are into the same shit. The internet makes that easier for sure.
And is that how you book your artists for Tastemakers?
Sort of, most of the artists I know already. It’s different to Uncomfortable Beats. Tastemakers is more driving bass music. So it’s artists that I’ve always liked but who might not necessarily fit the Uncomfortable Beats sound. Tastemakers is more it’s own thing. But yeah, often there are artists online who I haven’t heard of before who will hit me up to play, and if their style fits I will book them.
And how has Tastemakers been going at Lounge?
It’s been great! Lounge are a good great venue to deal with. The nights themselves, they go from low attendance to high attendance, so it’s quite random, but it’s more hit than miss. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel like a Tuesday, it feels like a Saturday or something. So when it’s going off, it’s really going off. Overall it’s been going great!
How do you manage to keep all of these going at the same time? What keeps you inspired?
It’s both a blessing and a curse. For me, I really enjoy doing it but sometimes I get bored of booking, and I’ll have a big binge of writing music and then a big binge of events and promotion and things like that. So I kind of bounce between my own desires to different creative outlets. I don’t do too much stuff apart from all of this. My day job at the moment essentially is working with kids on music in Juvenile detention centres. So most days I’m doing something music related.
That’s great! Yeah I admire people who can maintain that level of creativity. Some days I just wake up and think, I don’t want to be creative today.
Yeah totally. So when I’m not writing music, I’ll think, well what can I do to help promote this release or future releases? Or I’ll go through samples or download new music to listen to. Having the gig every Tuesday inspires me to go out and look for new music. It’s also influenced the way I write music as well to a degree. I’m still writing really mellow hip-hop stuff, and electronic bits but I’m also trying to write stuff that I would DJ out at say Tastemakers or in more of a club environment. So that’s been cool. My Tuesday ritual is basically going through music people have sent me. Sometimes it’s a drag, but most of the time it’s really inspiring just to listen to new music.
And where do you hope Uncomfortable Beats, Tastemakers and ABLE8 will be in the future?
Well I definitely have long term visions for Uncomfy Beats. I want to be doing vinyl releases at some point and doing more worldwide releases. I guess, up until recently, all of the compilations and releases were by Australian artists, or at least artists who were currently residing in Australia. So more recently, trying to make it a bit more international and get releases from say Wermonster from Berlin, and the last compilation was artists from all over. So that was one of the things that I can tick of the list. But I’m going to try and keep going on that tangent, making it a bit more worldwide. For myself as ABLE8, I just want to keep expanding what I’m writing, on a bigger scale. I want my stuff to be heard more, tour more places, I haven’t been to the states or anything like that, yet. I want to be able to, in the long run, survive by just solely doing my own music and tours.
Do you have any gigs coming up?
Actually Benny Diction, who’s from London, he’s coming to Melbourne in August. So we’re teeing up some gigs while he’s down. The 25th of July I’ll be playing at the Gertrude Street Projections Festival. Where they have lots of gigs at different venues on Gertrude Street.
So is it a bit like White Night?
Yeah, like a smaller White Night. I think they do projections on the footpaths and little things like that, it’s pretty cool. On the 31st of July, that’s the day after Benny arrives, I’ll be doing an Uncomfy Beats takeover at Section 8. So there’s going to be a whole lot of people playing there, should be quite fun. And then on the 19th of August, just before Benny leaves, I’ve organised a Tastemakers gig, but rather than just being about the DJs, each DJ is going to be paired with a vocalist. So there’s going to be Alaska playing with Fraksha, Lady Banton with Nikki Finn, and I’ll be playing with Benny Diction. It will be a mix between grime, dubstep and reggae, dub etc.
Sounds great! I will be there! And if I (or anyone) were to buy you a drink, what drink would you ask for?
(laughs) It’s either going to be like a pint of beer or a scotch on dry.
So what determines the choice?
I guess most likely it would a pint of beer (laughs), and then probably later in the night I’ll be on the Scotch.
And what are you eating for lunch?
It’s from Coconut House. I got barbecue pork, barbecue chicken with egg noodles. It’s one of my favourite places to eat in the city, in a hurry. Malaysian, good stuff.
Whenever I’m in a hurry in the city, I go for Don Dons.
Don Dons is great.
I’ve never been to Coconut House. Where is it?
It’s on Elizabeth Street, near Latrobe. It’s around there. There’s another really good Japanese place that’s really similar to Don Dons; it’s less busy, less take awayish, but it’s still the same prices. It’s called Kanada, it’s in a little mall in between Little Bourke and Bourke Street. It’s really good.
I’ll check it out! I love Japanese food.
Yeah me too. I love all Asian cuisine. I’m always eating Asian food.
Yeah same here, except I’ve actually got this kind of gross Macaroni cheese. It’s one of those frozen meals…
Filed under: Beats, Dance, Electronica | Tags: beat, Dance, Electronic, future beat, glitch, independant, music
Snuck this one out after it had been sitting in ‘private-only’ for awhile.
Filed under: Beats, Dance, Dubstep, Electronica | Tags: album, bass, Dance, Dubstep, Electronic, future beat, melbourne, music
So very tempted to make this blog all about the dope shit coming out of Melbourne, there’d be more than enough to post about.
Ex-Bristol turned Melbourne local Titus 12 had his Karnak EP unleashed by Uncomfortable Beats just before our long weekend. Filled with both familiar sounds and what appear to be some quirky field recordings, the production behind Karnak is a tight mix of dub and future beat.
Filed under: Beats, Chilled, Dance, Electronica, Experimental, Hip-Hop, Psychadelic, Upbeat | Tags: Acid, album, beats, Electronic, Electronica, experimental, future beat, melbourne, music, Psychedelic, Synth, Trip-Hop
Fuck the Radio Collective picked up Melbourne’s FLOW around 9 months ago after peeping an amazing live set. His first album has finally hit the Internet for your listening pleasure. If described in one word? I’d use something like ‘trippy’. Melbourne is surely delivering on the electronic beat goodness lately.
Filed under: Beats, Electronica | Tags: Electronic, future beat, glitch, Synth
Future-beat junkies will dig this new release from Fresh Yo! label’s HLMSNRA.
Filed under: Beats, Dance, Electronica, Upbeat | Tags: Dance, Electronic, Electronica, future beat, glitch, music, Synth
Outlier Recordings has a catalogue filled with goodness. Jimmy Pé’s Fairy Tale EP is the label’s 55th release and includes two remastered versions of older tracks Mexico and Don Barzini (both really dope in their own right) with the fantastic new Fairy Tale remixed by Anthony Drawn, Je$u$, Mute Speaker and oddlogic. Do not ignore this release; it’s a great find.
Filed under: Beats, BRILLIANT | Tags: album, beat, beats, Brilliant, Dance, Electronic, Funky, future beat, Hip Hop, instrumental hip hop, melbourne australia, Mixtape, music, Upbeat
Our friends at Condensed Milk have released an instant-classic. This is a must-have compilation of amazing future soul and beat-music.
CDMK‘s Dusty Milk Crate compilations have being important chapters in the book of the contemporary underground beat scene around the world since the first volume’s debut last year. This volume boasts an impressive line-up of producers from all-around the world including (to name only a very few) Vanilla, Roughsoul, Oisima, Flash Forest, Silent Jay, M-Phazes, Amin PaYnE and many, many more.
Go ahead to grab it. By the way, it’s totally free.
Filed under: Beats, Hip-Hop, Jazz | Tags: album, beat, beats, Chilled, future beat, Hip Hop, instrumental hip hop, Jazz, music, sample based, Trip-Hop
To celebrate his 20th birthday, Shag promised (and delivered) a new beat tape. If you dig tight sample-based trip-hop do not hesitate- Shag consistently releases fantastic stuff, with a variety of moods and noises to keep you entertained from start to finish.
Grab it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vtt25g7f1eslhom
Filed under: Chilled, Chillwave, Electronica | Tags: Chilled, Electronic, Electronica, future beat, mellow, stephanie meyer
Skymning is the Swedish word for twilight, but not of the Stephanie Meyer vampire variety. One could listen to Skymning‘s 1993’s (released just two weeks ago at time of writing) and still feel it’s emotive hooks and melodies make for a better love story than Meyer’s trash.
The EP includes four original tracks, then four remixes of said tracks. Cemeteries as an original already stood out to me with it’s dank and mellow sound, but Totems has mixed it up into a lof-fi future-beat piece wildly different to the original- you could almost dace to it.
Filed under: Beats, Chilled, Dance, Electronica | Tags: beat, beats, Dance, Electronic, Electronica, Found Sound, future beat
I think what makes the music on this blog so compelling are the different sounds. I know that sounds fucking stupid, of-course it’s a music blog and music is just decorating time with lots of organised sounds- but if I really listen, I mean, really take my time to let the music into my brain… I like the particular noises; each little bleep and bloop used in these tracks and where they are placed.
There’s nothing ubiquitous about the sounds used in twisted soul and and future beat- unlike say, dubstep’s modern screeches and squeals that are replicated by every producer in every new release. Experimentation with sound is one of the coolest and most appealing creative outlets I can think of- the same way if you put a kid in-front of a drum-kit they’ll have a ton of fun making a huge amount of noise… When that kid is grown up he’ll have his field recorder, tapping light-globes with scissors, reversing the sound and adding copious amounts of reverb to create something your ears have never had the pleasure of experiencing yet.
Anyway, I guess what I’m getting at here is that I love the sounds in Aki Aki‘s Cockroach. It’s about 3-months old now, there’s been plenty of time for it to become boring and plain. But instead we all go on, simply doing what we love- creating sounds.
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.
fucktheradio 