The Weeknd - "What you need"

Yeah I know it's a little late, these guys have been all over the Net and rightly so for the last few months, but in case you missed it check these guys out. Soooo smooth. Perfect for playin late at night with your lady..

Free album download at http://the-weeknd.com/

Orelha Negra - "Orelha Negra"

Some of the most positively upbeat and funky tracks I've heard in a good long time. Don't know too much about this band except they're from Portugal and sound dope, nothing particularly groundbreaking I guess but constantly engaging and moving. Really, really feel-good funky instrumental vibes here, was especially feelin' "Forca da Razao" and "Entre", but everything flows nicely. Definitely don't sleep on this album.

Download it here

The elusive Godspeed returns

"The internet is a petty, tyrannical monster"

Recent note on their website indicates rumblings of activity from this post-rock juggernaut. Huge influence on me when I was growing up, very excited to see what they get into in the future. Heavy, dark, majestic, orchestral are but a few of the adjectives one could use to describe their music. For now, I can at least look forward to Silver Mt. Zion playing Cambridge in a few days..

Glitch Mob @ Middle East 5.5.10

Man. What a sick show last night. Boston really came out to represent last night at the Middle East, at one of the dopest shows I've ever seen there. West coast bass monsters the Glitch Mob headlined, with opening sets from Free The Robots and Deru.

I got to the show around 9:45, and found out that the opening sets had switched, meaning I had missed Free The Robots. I was kinda bummed, since I'm a big fan of the new album, which I did a post on a while back.. Anyways, walked into Deru gettin' down, doin' his thing. One of the things I noticed was that his main controller was an APC40! The same Ableton controller I bought not too long ago and have been happily using. Other then that though, I wasn't really that big into his set. His music was pretty rhythmic and pumpin', but lacked a certain edge and for some reason I wasn't that into it. Same thing with his album actually, or at least one of his recent ones. Not bad by any means, but just not my thing exactly. Dude had a lot of energy on stage though and had the crowd moving pretty well, so I gave him credit.

Glitch Mob was the reason everyone was there, and they definitely came through in a large way. On a smoke break outside with friends (Tim my fellow contributor on this blog actually among them) we could see the line to get in stretching down the street. The venue wasn't sold out initially but it must have been by the end of the night. They came on, and mentioned how it was an important show since it was Edit's hometown and his parents were in the audience actually, then proceeded to murder the floor for the next two hours. Visuals were complex, they brought out a bunch of different instruments, and bass was always present and heavy. Their songs are really heady, synth filled epic, banger type songs, and their set lasted a really respectably long time.

Killer, killer show. Got a nice video and a couple good pics to get some idea, and attached a video to a recent music project they did recently, filming large-scale projections in a LA warehouse district. Alright, that's it for now, peace.

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.

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..

ESKMO - Colorbrain Podcast

Been really bumpin' this mix a lot lately. Big thanks to my girl Lila out on the west coast for gettin' me into this guy, one of my favorite new artists. ESKMO aka Brendan Angelides, is a San Francisco-based electronic producer that's been making music for the last decade. Representin' the west coast/glitched out style, he makes some of the funkiest, illest bass-heavy tunes I've heard in a while. I saw a description on the net somewhere that labeled his music as "Classy Dubstep", which I thought was pretty dead on. A lot of dubstep (and to a lesser extent glitch music) gets a little boring and repetitive sometimes, but ESKMO always keeps it moving. Liquidy synths and glitch sounds float over massive, hip-hop style earthquaking bass lines. Killer, killer stuff, definitely check this one out..

Podcast on Brainfeeder Records

Emancipator - soon it will be cold enough

I know it must seem like every artist I'm putting up here is amazing, which they are, but this dude definitely is one of the sickest and most talented producers I've heard in YEARS. Yeah man, this guy makes music that's just too damn good, it's one of my all time favorite albums. I actually paid to download this at his official website, but that's your call. It's got perfectly fitted, processed piano lines mixed with strings, acoustic guitar, warm synths, and hip hop beats, blending them together seamlessly into a dynamic, moving work of art. He's got a new album coming out in January 2010, the first track is up on his site - more goodness. If anything, buy the new album or go see him on tour if you live on the west coast - sadly doesn't seem like dude is doing more then one show out here on the east.

http://www.mediafire.com/?j5tnmmduizn

http://www.emancipatormusic.com/

Dextro - "Winded"

This is another album I find myself frequently playing and then having to tell people what it is. My one friend even played it for one of his students in home room before school and the kid was really diggin' it. Dextro is a dude from Scotland who makes really beautiful, ambient, vaguely trip hop sounds. I read a review of the album somewhere that likened the new album "Winded" to a Van Gogh painting, in that layers are revealed upon deeper appreciation and contemplation of the work. He heavily uses ambient noise textures, reverberated piano loops, and chilled out down tempo beats as well as acoustic guitars and vocal passages that culminate in a work that is profoundly relaxing and uplifting at the same time. The first track "Closer" I am so so on actually, a little too Boards of Canada for me, but the album quickly gets amazing. Sososo good, I can't recommend this one highly enough.

http://www.mediafire.com/?uz3xmjwymzk