Emancipator @ Harper's Ferry 3.26 with Wobblesauce

So yeah, haven't been making it out to shows at all lately. Been way too busy at home working on music in Ableton and to some extent Pro Tools. I did make the effort out to see Emancipator, although there have been a ton of other shows recently that I missed, Debruit being a standout. That being said, Emancipator rocked Harper's Ferry last friday and I was there to catch it. I took the beautiful Maria Alejandra, a Colombian friend of mine, and we both agreed it was an awesome show.

Wobblesauce was the opening band, who I had heard of from a couple places. They had played at Wadzilla Mansion, a friend of mine from school's new music venue in Allston among other places I remember seeing them listed. I've actually sampled a song of theirs, since their album is free to download and worth a listen.Anyways, they had a really chill but rockin' jamtronica type sound that really did a good job loosening up the crowd.

Their music was like the Disco Biscuits I guess, although I don't really listen to much of that stuff myself. Some really nice, Santana/Dead style guitar licks paired up with some flowing, groovy key work and electronic button mashing, with a good bass and drums backing. Played some good reggae/dub stuff I was feeling in particular, plus their opening album track "Rubadub DUB" as a closer was definitely pretty rockin'.

Smoke break later, out came a couple girls and what was probably Emancipator on the stage. The girls, hot of course, started setting up a large white paint canvass on an easel. It was really cool, his show had live painting the whole time. Anyways, he started playing and was pretty much in complete control for the rest of the night. If you're not familiar with his music, it's downtempo and melodic for the most part, but nonetheless pretty powerful, with choirs, string sections, and much more. I was definitely curious to see what his live performance was like, in context with the chillout aspect of his albums, but he definitely didn't disappoint.

He played mostly original material, and it was nicely varied from the original but also retaining the initial magic I heard in his records. His songs are really atmospheric and emotional, with dense layers of sound combining in uplifting and powerful passages. And it all has awesome beats, in varying combinations, largely hip hop based. He blended in a remix of Nas "If I could rule the world", dope track for sure and his take on it was definitely pretty sweet.

My roommate was leaving for Japan in a few days and we were throwing her a goodbye party, so I had to leave after a solid hour and half of dancing, but I left feeling exhilarated and very happy. The girls had completed a really solid work of art already and were still adding small finishing touches as I left, timed perfectly to the duration of the set no doubt. Great concert overall, definitely one of the better shows I've ever been to. Look forward to more music from Emancipator in the future and wish the dude much success, he definitely deserves it.

Check his first album out here

Off to San Francisco, so probably no posts for a week or so. Gonna have some dope new ish up my sleeve when I get back though, for sure. Peace and love.

Mux Mool - "Skulltaste"

Definitely had to post on this one. Mux Mool is a Brooklyn based producer putting out music on Ghostly International, who have a pretty eclectic yet dope lineup. This album is his first full length work, and what a debut. Clocking in at 20 (!) tracks, this album is chock full of quality electronic hip hop and abstract beats. His sonic range as a producer is really impressive, the record encompasses all types of styles, from electro to breakbeat to DNB to video game music. All firmly rooted in hip hop, I might add, which really seals the deal for me. It's a record that grows on you as well, as repeated listens reveal new production details and surprises. Definitely someone to keep an eye on, hopefully he'll be going on tour to support this record.

Standout tracks for me were "Skulltaste", "Death 9000", and "Air Justins". Whole record is dope though, definitely check it out.

"Skulltaste" (2010)

Much Love for the Plastic People

Kieran Hebden has been making great music as Four Tet for years now but his recent material is his best so far. I saw him play the Middle East last month and was blown away by his set, which like this album, "Much Love for the Plastic People", was full of energy and ideas with a great pace and smooth transitions. The album is one mix track that lasts for over an hour and never gets boring. It was released in December 2009 (a month before his new full length, "There is Love in You"). It was never for sale, but free copies were given out at the club Plastic People in London to commemorate the end of his year long residency there. A lot of the material on the new album is in the mix and it's interesting to hear a different take on it all. There's bouncy techno beats, some world beat, vocal sections, and even a drum and sax duet. Much love for Four Tet!


Much Love for the Plastic People


Just as a comparison, here's a recording of a Four Tet live set from the NYC show of that same tour. I like that he changes up his samples often enough that the mix is pretty different from "Much Love" (all the world music sequences are gone). It's interesting to hear the differences between how he plays live and how the studio mix feels.
Live at LPR NYC 17th Feb 2010 by Four Tet

R.I.P. Nujabes

This post is a shout out to Nujabes, a talented Japanese hip hop producer that passed away recently. He was 36 years old and died in a motor vehicle accident, needless to say unfortunate. Really diggin' this one album I found of his, but I'm sure the rest of his work is pretty decent too. Overall relaxing, smooth, jazzy vibes on each track with gifted MC's providing counterpoint. R.I.P., respect.

Metaphorical Music (2003)

Kinetic Sculpture

From www.artcom.de:

The Kinetic Sculpture is a metaphorical translation of the process of form-finding in art and design. 714 metal spheres, hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually-controlled stepper motors and covering the area of six square meters, animate a seven minute long mechatronic narrative. In the beginning, moving chaotically, then evolving to several competing forms that eventually resolve to the finished object, the Kinetic Sculpture creates an artistic visualisation of the process of form-finding in different variations.
Technology: 714 metal spheres, individually controllable with millimetre
accuracy; cable winches with individual high-precision
motors for each sphere; software for defining animation
paths and controlling motion.

LICHTFRONT x GROSSE8 Augmented Sculpture

Augmented Sculpture by GROSSE8 & LICHTFRONT / Passagen 2010 from Lichtfront on Vimeo.

Pretty damn cool, no? Nuff said..

Nucleic - Sabretooth mix (Feat. Waters)

Sabretooth mix (feat. Waters) by Nucleic


Pleased to present here the Sabertooth Mix, v2.0 featuring Lionel "Waters" Semedo.

This track is a re-working of older material plus some new sounds, tailored to fit the vocal stylings of Waters Semedo. Many thanks to Waters for his time and energy on this project, I'm fairly pleased with the result. As usual, please, let me know what you think.

Peace, love, and beats!

Free The Robots - "Control Alt Delete"

Debut album here from Free The Robots, aka Chris Alfaro, even though he's been producing for years now. Official release March 30th on Alpha Pup records, but as you may know by now I stay committed to bringing you the freshest, nicest cuts. This guy is going to be HUGE, really enjoying his sound.

Heard a couple cuts from him before, but this album blows everything else outa the water. His style is pretty damn unique, especially in today's oversaturated electronic music scene. The tracks all bounce, but in different ways, and with tons of crazy futuristic styles. He uses a lot of chippy/8bit sounds, combined with thick dubstep style bass lines and crispy beats. He uses the trademark dubstep wobble sound in a new/fresh way, splicing it with off-beat hiphop sounds and claps. Highlights for me were "Mental Universe" and "Turbulence", but the whole album is dope. Even has one of the dudes from Mars Volta on a track, givin' you an example of the eclecticism represented here.

Get it here

Access to Arasaka - "Oppidan"

Dark, glitchy, ambient soundscapes from this upcoming NYC-based producer. Sounds like a modern day soundtrack to Blade Runner, for some reason. Futuristic, moody, hints of industrial noise and plenty of synths. I liked the artist's description, taken from his myspace:

this is my desire for a dark future with neon cities and cyberware.

my longing for fully interactive neural internet, gang warfare, and corporations acting as governments.

monolithic arcologies reaching for the sky in a city that's constantly shrouded by rain.

it's what i would hear in the soundtrack of the chatsubo. in freezone. in the metaverse.

it is the aural vision of the world i wish i lived in.


Download here

Debruit - "Heart Beats For Haiti"

Damn this dude is dope. Seriously one of the most jumpy, bouncy beat-makers I've heard in a while. Originally from Paris, Debruit has toured all over Europe and the US, including an upcoming appearance at Music Ecology in Boston soon! His sound utilizes a severely chopped blend of African sounds, vocoder effects, and crazy synth noises, all on top of slightly staccato/off-beat hip hop beats. Really solid, funky stuff, definitely one of my favorite new artists.

As an indicator of how talented this dude is, he released this album within 4 DAYS of the Haitian earthquake as a benefit album. So, even though most of the stuff I post about here I post free links to, this one you should pay for. It's for a good cause - 100% of the proceeds go to Haitian relief funds. Used a bunch of Haitian music samples on top of it. Don't sleep, this guy is wayyy too funky.

"Heart Beats For Haiti" (2010)

Nucleic - "El Segundo/The second"

El Segundo by Nucleic


My 2nd mix in Ableton Live using the APC40. Bit smoother and tighter then the first one, also twice as long.
Samples, roughly in order, include: Frank-n-dank, Beats Antique, Mogwai, A.M. Architect, Shlomo, Spinach Prince, Kaly Live Dub, Shipwrek, Joker, Jambassa, Son Lux, Santo & Johnny, etc..

Please, comments welcome!

Shipwrek - "Journal"

Tim - ask and you shall recieve. No, but seriously this album is awesome and I've been meaning to post it anyways. I think I played it four times in a row in it's entirety the first time I heard it. Couldn't find too much online about this guy, but he's an electronic music producer from the San Francisco area. Big ups again to my girl/friend Lila for introducing me to his album.

Really nice blend of sounds here. He is obviously influenced by the typical "whomp" sound of San Francisco/west coast but doesn't let it permeate his work entirely. Rather his sound can be categorized as a really enjoyable mix of acoustic and electronic sounds. Bass heavy, rattling synth lines fade away into mellow, ambient acoustic guitar/melodic passages. The opening track "Speakeasy" is pretty much a bumpin, epic banger but from there the album goes in many directions. Sounds equally as good coming from headphones as it does bumping out of giant speakers.

Don't sleep on this.