30 April 2010

The Boxer Rebellion

Daedelus' latest album came out pretty much exactly a month ago now on Brainfeeder, artfully crafted as always, but doesn't really hold up to his last couple albums, don't get me wrong, but theres nothing very hard hitting about the album, got some amazingly trippy, dreamy, ethereal must-have tracks, but it lacks the energy of his last album, in fact it never really brings the energy up at any point, that said its full of Daedelus' trademark celestial guitar pluckings and ghostly whispers, beautiful record for what it is, 'An Armada Approaches', 'Order of the Golden Dawn', and 'Fin De Siecle' are the really stand out tracks. Anyways it's only seven songs, and you can pretty much count on anything from Daedelus being awesome, so grab and enjoy this one ( great album cover too, no?)>

-Jumpman


Bonus Track:

Banana Fridays


Animal Kingdom I'd like to introduce our new King in the electro music scene. Andy's Ill is an EXCLUSIVE producer/dj for the daftwho? website. Just to give you an idea of how exclusive this guy is.... You wont find him on beatport, Juno, Boomkat or Itunes.
In short:

My name is Andy Sills, I’m from Toronto, Canada.
I was always involved in stupid pretentious tech-metal bands when I was younger, but as I grew up I realized that it wasn’t about how cool you think you are, but the friends that you make along the way, and the people that enjoy your music.
They’re the ones who make you “cool”.
I got into trash electro from some french dudes when I lived in Banff Alberta.
The French fucking know how to throw down.
My biggest influence is Systematic Earthly Gadgets. Great fucking guys.
I hope my music makes you want to hip check people at the club.
Mad Daftwho love for throwin me on this.


Apes, baboons, chimpanzees, monkeys or whatever animal you are, i'll keep it simple... Once you press the play button there's no going back.

The Struggle - Andys Ill (320)

Gruesome - Andys Ill (320) <3 Banana Foreign - Andys Ill (320) <3 banana Houdini's Alarm - Andys Ill (320) Filthy banana...

ps: Zip coming soonish...

I'm Simple P


29 April 2010

Back to a time when House was a state of mind!

Treating you all with a bit of throwback today, all the way from the second summer of love, one of the seminal Acid House albums, from our freinds from Manchester, 808 state's Quadrastate (1989)
808 State was formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price, and Gerald Simpson (better known as A Guy Called Gerald) they started out originally as hip hop djs but soon turned on to the Acid House scene and released their debut album in the genre Newbuild in 1988, following it up with their album Quadrastate, which features their infamous track 'Pacific State' which was hyped up on BBC Radio 1, helping with their success in the then emerging rave culture.
Mm So lets get that 808 pumping and that 303 squashing, drop it if you got it, yea, this is Acid!

"Enjoy!", Jumpman


BONUS TRACKS:
Im sure you remember the epic Bingo Players track 'Devotion' which J posted in his batch here back in october, (by the way if you don't remember that than go get it, now)
but what i was getting at is, i've got the original track, a bit o' hip-house awesomeness all the way back from '91,
Nomad - (I Wanna Give You) Devotion *those vocals get me every time*

28 April 2010

Human Life After All


Human Life, although they popped up fairly recently, has exploded into the Los Angeles Electro scene with a great sound and an awesome live performance that shouldn't be missed.  We've been in contact with them for some time, and we're finally proud to present our interview with Human Life's own Matt Wasley:



Apes With Barrles:  If you were to collaborate with Daft Punk, what would you call yourselves?

Matt Wasley:  Human Life After All :)

AwB:  Would you be a Jedi or Solid Snake (or insert other awesome video game character)?

MW:  I would be Mario from Super Mario bros 3.  Eating mushrooms for strength and a leaf that makes me fly sounds fun.  That's stuff you can pull out when your bored or in trouble and go back to being a producer on the off days.

AwB:  Why Human Life?  Seems an odd name for an electronic music group.

MW:  Actually we had a long list of more "fun" or "cool" names we were throwing around at first.  But as we wrote more and more songs, we started to realize that all of the lyrics centered around the way human beings interact with each other and the world around us... our feelings, our surrounding, our experiences and of course the evolution of technology which seems to be controlling our lives to a greater extent every day.  From there the name just came to us, Human Life.

AwB:  How did Human Life start?

MW:  I was at my friend's birthday party and he kept telling me about how Joshua Collins was gonna come to the party.  I didn't know who Josh was at the time, but this guy and his friends kept talking about how he was this Chicago house badass with more than 100 vinyl releases out.  When he showed up a the party we were introduced and I was surprised to find that he was not a douchebag!  After our meet and greet Josh asked me if I wanted to work on a tune together.  Josh played the results of our collab with Rachael who immediately asked if she could jump in as well.  The rest is history!

AwB:  You guys for the most part appeal to fans of the softer/pop side of electro.  Who were/are your influences, how have they shaped your music, and where do you see your music going?

MW:  We definitely do appreciate the more melodic side of electronic music, but some people may be surprised to learn that we love harder, techier music as well.  In fact we just finished a remix for London label "Grand Hotel" that may scare you:)
Our influences are all over the board, I'm heavily influenced by intelligent pop music like the Beach Boys and synth pop like Michael Sembello and Howard Jones.  Rachael loves driving dancefloor stuff like Underworld, while Josh has been perfectly preserved in a time capsule where the only music playing is Chicago house from the late 80's and early 90's.  We also bond together over our love of French Touch, especially Alan Braxe.

AwB:  What equipment/software do you use to produce and what does your live setup look like?

MW:  We have a studio built out in Orange County in a building with bunch of other serious musicians.  It's inspiring because we'll walk down the hall and hear Korean Pop coming from one room and prog-metal coming from another...  all really high quality production though.   We use Ableton Live and Cubase to produce and we've been leaning more towards Ableton recently.  We use ALOT of VST/soft synths along with a few hardware pieces like the Moog Little Phatty and Korg MS2000.  Our live set is run completely through Ableton as well, we use a combo analog/midi mixer to control all the levels right on stage.  At the same time Rachael and I are singing live.  We also play live keyboards and I pull out my bass for some slap funk silliness.  We anticipate adding a live drummer and perhaps another player or 2 to the live setup over the next few months.

AwB:  You’ve played several shows with House legend and AwB favorite Alan Braxe and you’ve got an EP set to be released on his Vulture label.  How did this relationship come about?

MW:  Our booking agent in Paris also looks after Alan and we asked her pretty please to introduce us!  We met up with him last year at WMC in Miami and became great friends.  Since then he signed a few of our tracks to Vulture and Alan also flew out to LA to produce some music with us.  It was really such an amazing experience to learn how Alan works in the studio and get his opinions and suggestions on our music.  I can say that even after we have worked with Alan directly he is still one of our biggest musical heroes.

AwB:  You don’t have many releases out yet, but it seems like you’ve got big plans for the future and the promotional team to back it up.  What have you got in store for us in the future?

MW:  We just released a track called "We Won't Stop" on France's Boxon Records, it's out on vinyl and digitally now with a remix from Tom Deluxx.  After that, the first single on our own label LIFEX Recordings will be out June 7th.  We are so excited about this and we have some AMAZING remixes (I can say they are amazing since I didn't make them, hehe).  Our friends Jaymo & Andy George, Kris Menace, Acid Girls, Louis La Roche and Lazy Flow who is ruling Paris right now.  After that the Vulture EP will be out in what looks like early September.

AwB:  What do you expect is in store for Electro as a genre in the future?  Are we going to look back at this time with embarrassment like people do for Disco and the 80s?

MW:  Actually I was thinking recently that I believe this era will be looked back on with fondness and perhaps even envy.  To me what has happened in electronic music over the past few years is akin to the Psychedelic movement in the mid to late 60's, in the sense that a somewhat underground genre of music has evolved into a more widespread youth culture.  Right now we are in a rare time period where previously cheesy bottle service clubs are playing nu-disco and electronic music has crossed over to form the basis of pop and even hip-hop.  Who knows how long it will last, but I far prefer it to the past.  As for the future, it's tough to say.  I think we could see a resurgence of a madchester type sound... we'll just have to take it one day at a time:)

AwB:  What is your opinion of the established Los Angeles electro scene, in other words, opinions on Steve Aoki and Dim Mak?

MW:  I'm aware that some of my peers tend to hate on Dim Mak and Steve Aoki, but we are all big fans of the Dim Mak crew.  I'm not sure if people really understand how much of a hand Steve and DJ AM had on making electronic music "cool" again.  Back in 2003-2006, electronic music was a niche market.  You would go to parties in LA and I always felt like the youngest person there, it would be nothing but dudes over the age of 28 looking pretty bored with the scene because the big clubs pretty much only booked the top 25 DJmag DJ's.  In late 06 early 07 I stumbled across Steve's 'Dim Mak Tuesdays' and 'Bananna Split' parties and I was blown away by the energy and creativity happening there.  They would bring everyone from MSTRKFT to Alan Braxe and the crowd was full of kids excited to see these artists for the first time.  Dim Mak also served as a welcome next step/bridge from the typical Hollywood scene which played nothing but hip-hop and open format at that time.  Nowadays Dim Mak is putting out some of my favorite artists.  Specifically the new EP from 'Sound of Stereo' is phenomenal.  Also he signed SonicC who is doing some crazy stuff, especially considering he's only like 17.

AwB:  Many of our readers are also from Los Angeles.  Will they have the chance to catch you guys in concert in the next few months / summer?

MW:  Definitely!  We played at Avalon's Control party recently and we will be playing several local shows again this spring and summer in preparation of our fall European tour.  We'd like to try out some new/crazy stuff for our friends in LA so we will be doing a bunch of underground/surprise apprearances.  Become a fan on Facebook or follow us on twitter and you'll hear all about it.

http://twitter.com/HumanLifeDJs
www.facebook.com/humanlifedjs




A big thank you to Matt for answering our questions.  And now for some music:

We Won't Stop (Dub Mix) - Human Life (Golden Banana)
Not your typical Human Life track, but definitely my favorite.  Pure banger, really incredible bass.

To Forever - Human Life
The song that turned us onto them and their first single.  You'll find yourself singing these vocals to yourself over and over again.  Hopefully, we'll be able to show you our remix of this track in the near future.

Show Me The Night (Human Life's West Coast Girls Remix) - Jump Jump Dance Dance
Relaxed, funky, and poppy.  Way more their style.

Gymtronic (Human Life Remix) - Alan Gay
Big bass, funky track.

In It Together (Acid Girls Remix) - Human Life
Weird track, kinda got an old school rave feel to it with some new touches.

Human Life After All Zipped

Also, be sure to cop their Spring Mix, you can do so HERE.

25 April 2010

Smoothy Banana








For those who aren't familiar with the chill out/ lounge music compilation called Buddhar Bar. It's been around for a few years and was created by Claude Challe who took the Tunisian Luxury Chill out/ Lounge scene by storm in 2006. He now is one of the most sought out Lounge/chill music producer in the industry. He's produced the whole two first Buddha Bars but now the legacy is carried on by other DJs/Producer. He also has his own personal compilation CDs called Claude Challe.

K this first track is from one of the Buddha Bar compilations. Elveda (Meaning farewell in arabic) Is the ultimate achievement in mixing violins, synth sounds blended in with arabic lyrics (language diversity is always a plus) and a beautiful latin like percussions. With out a doubt a tune for those who like their music to drift them away to forgotten lands.
Elveda-Metin Arolat

Not a new face to the world of Apes With Barrels is Trentemøller whose done a great job giving this track a modern chill out house of vibe opposed to your usual lounge music.
Les Djinns [Trentemøller Remix]-Djuma Soundsystem

From Claude Challe's personal comp CD. What can I say this has Exotic Music written all over it, after all this is Claude Challe's very own selection.
Crying Angels - Said Mrad

Bonus:
For those of you who aren't into the whole exotic music feel here's an Electro-Jazz dj/producer from the misty sides of the UK called Eldoko. Who will be playing in a 2 day Music festival in Wales.



eLDOKO - Run For The Trees MixbyeLDOKO

Track List
1 - Gene Krupa Jazz Trio - Liza
2 - Riot Kid - Shalom
3 - James Curd - Be My Baby
4 - DJ Bam Bam, Bear Who? - The Beatbox (Greenskeepers Beatdown Mix)
5 - Bonde Fumegante - Bonde Fumegante feat Nick Maurer (James Curd Remix)
6 - Shab Ruffcut - Happy
7 - eLDOKO - Run For the Trees
8 - Forro In The Dark - Perro Loco (Solo Remix)
9 - Emanuel Kosh - Make My Music (Chris James DubNoir Remix)
10 - eLDOKO - How To Kill A Frown
11 - eLDOKO - Woodworm Blues
12 - Poligono - Calambres (Chris James Remix)
13 - Mad Kids - Balo Bomba
14 - Visti & Meyland - Yes Maam (Trentemoller Remix)
15 - Malente - Gipsy Kings feat Analogik (Round Table Knights Remix)
16 - Daniel Steinberg - Rush Me
17 - James Curd - We Just Won't Stop

Facebook event

MySpace

I'm Simple P

Clint Eastwood


What a G.  Here are some tracks that I've been obsessed with.

-M
Sweet Shop - Doctor P (Golden Banana)
Crazy ass Dubstep.  Apparently dropped in basically EVERY set at Coachella.

Galaxy Traveler (Neelix Remix) - Felguk
Apparently this is Psy-Trance, according to Beatport.  Regardless, this shit hits so fucking hard, and is definitely my favorite track at the moment.

Ghosts N Stuff (Sub Focus Remix) - Deadmau5
Deadmau5 x DnB

Bangkok (Original Mix) - Boris Dlugosch (This Shit Is Banananas Banana)
This track is really just unbelievable.  If you haven't heard this yet, prepare yourself.

You Feelin Lucky, Punk? (ZIP)

ALSO

PLEASE SOMEBODY FIND A DECENT QUALITY VERSION OF THIS TRACK:

23 April 2010

New FlyLo: Cosmogramma


As if new leaked albums couldn't get any better, I've got some brand new Flying Lotus for you.  One of the tracks features Thom York.

-M

Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus

22 April 2010

Crystal Castles II


I'll be honest, I haven't actually sat down to listen to the whole thing yet, but I've heard about half of the tracks in my friends room and goddam this is a comeback album.  Way more mature than their last, I'm a huge fan of what I've heard so far.  Big ups, everyone wants to cop this, hipsters and ravers alike.  And remember, if the link stops working, check the comments to see if the Crystal Castles fairy decides to bless us with a link.

-M


Crystal Castles II - Crystal Castles

Update:  I have now listened to the whole album straight through, opinion remains the same, if not more impressed.

Bonus:
Atlantis To Interzone (Crystal Castles Remix) - The Klaxons
Good remix, I heard them open with this live once.  Brings me back to the old Electro days.

21 April 2010

Ikon Do Anything~!

London DJ/Producer Sara Abdel-Hamid (aka Ikonika) just released her debut LP last month, and believe you and me she is leading the way with her own sound, a bit funky, dubbed out & grimey, 8-bit, undeniably British, off-kilter, Garage. Like falling in love, SNES style, all over again. A Dark, Beautiful, and Soulful Dubstep Flavor. Don't wait to get your hands on this, got it for you right here> It's Called Contact, Love, Want, Have, released on the Hyperdub label the 6th of April. Enjoy!>>>
-Jumpman

Ikonika - Contact, Love, Want, Have (Full Album DL)

BONUS TRACK:

But Wait, There's More, This ones all the way back from september, but i couldn't help but post this album aswell, cause its got a very similar chippy vibe, and the title track and the finale should be in everyone's bag. UK Producer Extraordinaire (lousy DJ though, don't believe the hype) Zomby's 09 LP One Foot Ahead of the Other.
Zomby - One Foot Ahead of the Other (DL)
And in case you missed it, and you probably did, this is from way back on the blog, the original Ikonika post, for her EPs

Swede Disposition


So I'm back in business.  I've got a brand new macbook with my old hard drive inside.  I hope this doesn't slow down the posts from the others, but I have a pretty solid feeling that it will.  Anyways, its good to be back.

The Swedes are really on top of House music.  I haven't really been following blogs recently, but I feel like that's still a safe assumption to make.  None of these tracks are new, but they are all perfect for your rave crowd.  Oh, and Dirty South counts as Swedish, so does Laidback Luke sometimes.  And all of these tracks are big Golden Bananas.

-M

Sweet Disposition (Axwell & Dirty South Remix) - Temper Traps
Probably the best Progressive track to have come out somewhat recently.  Huge bomb.

One Love (Avicii Remix) - David Guetta
The line that comes in right before the drop, so amazing.  Gotta love that Prog.

Let It Go (Axwell Remix) - Dirty South
Classic.  This might be the greatest track of Swedish House, this track right here.

Tivoli (Original Mix) - Steve Angello
Massive track.  Even got an Electro bass.

Silvia (Sebastian Ingrosso & Dirty South Remix) - Miike Snow
Really digging this track at the moment.

Gypsy (Laidback Luke Remix) - Steve Angello
Still one of my favorite rave moment of all time was seeing Laidback Luke drop this one before I listened to House music (we mostly went to see Steve Aoki, I'm sure you can see how we've changed our ways).

Meich (Original Mix) - Dirty South, Sebastian Ingrosso
This track is really cool, great line, cool false drops and whatnot.  Maybe a bit repetitive, but hey isn't it all?

We Are Kidsos (ImanoS Bootleg) - Dirty South Vs. Sebastian Ingrosso 
Best fucking bootleg ever, and super Swedish.

Happy Holidays

20 April 2010

Got some tracks I know your gonna like...

^L-Vis 1990, Myself, and Bok Bok^
Hello all, hope your celebrating 420 with full enthusiasm, though it is a tuesday, so mind your works done.
Going to be starting it all off with some deep house flavors, from Hamburg> an amazing track by dj/producer Stimming, and then we have Rocco's incredible remix of South African House outfit Kentphonik's track 'Hiya Kaya'


The rest of these tracks are absolutely bananas, &in proper spirit, &'cause im feeling it, the rest are gng to be all Funky.


And to save yourself a bit of trouble, here's the zip to DL the whole lot (don't worry, it includes the Deep Stuff from up top too)> (((DL)))
"Come Together in Love & Perfect Unity"
- Jumpman

19 April 2010

Oh My Word, Roska!

Well, 1 of my favorite producers in the world of Funky, South Londoner, Roska just released a smashing debut album, the first start-to-finisher i've gotten my hands on this year, 'Rinse Presents Roska' delivers dubby, housey goodness in every track, be sure to grab this one, been hearing these tracks round sets for a minute now, couldn't wait for the release. Yeaaaaa!

18 April 2010

A Jumpman Post

YO, well, here i am again, Jumpman, i'll be dropping by now and again to indulge you with some of the tracks ive been digging, only the best in new and old UK music, some Garage, Dubstep, Grime, House, Funky, Drum and Bass, you get the idea. Anyways, get excited, and as always, enjoy!







&fineLEallin1zip4yu^_^ (DL)

A Few Tracks While We Figure Things Out


So for now we're a bit stuck with what we're going to do with the blog layout. It's gonna change somehow, but for now we're gonna stick with this till we get some ideas. We're considering buying our own website and getting out of the blogger limitations. But then we would need somebody to help us build the layout and stuff. But be patient we'll try and have something up to par soon.

Until then, it should be said that M's computer is officially dead. So I don't think we should be expecting any posts from him for a while. I'm gonna try and pick up the slack and hopefully P will be back soon. It would be REALLY nice if Jumpman did a post: I think it's relevant to link this post again.

For now I've got some bomb ass tracks for everybody. Cause you gotta remember, it's all about the music in the end. We still keepin it real and playin this shit live keeps it fresh in our minds in terms of crowd appeal.

Stay fly everybody, we're gonna keep bringin it.

-J

Don't Say A Word... (feat. Anousheh Khalili) by Sharam (Golden Banana), This is obviously an old track from his album Get Wild and has been one of M's favorites for some time now, but I guess just never got around to posting it. So I'm picking up for him and gettin this out there. This is definitely the definition of a vocal track. Real simple, but real nice with that techy feel to it. If you havn't heard this yet, GET ON IT. His set at Love Fest when we saw him was fuckin baller. GO GO GO

Won't Go Quietly (TV rock Remix) by Example, TV Rock does it again, always bringin it plain and simple. The vocals from this track have been stuck in my head for a few days now, that's how oyu know its good. It's beauty lies in it's simplicity.

303 (Acid Mix) by Spencer and Hill, Really interesting for Spencer and Hill. I've never heard this sound from them as far as I can remember. It's a catchy line I guess but I just don't understand where this came from. But if you're a fan of Spencer and Hill you should definitely get on this. Still got their magic in it

Drop the Gun (Gregori Klosman & Danny Wild Remix) by D.O.N.S., some electro for those people who feel that shit in their blood. Just gotta move your head to this one.

14 April 2010

New Layout?


While the dust hasn't completely settled and there are definitely still some details to polish off, this is the general gist of AwB's new layout. What do you guys think?

Links & Friends


Here are a few links to other sites that we frequent. Credit to some of our inspiration and recognition to our friends out there as well. Come back for more.

Apes with Barrels (Wordpress Backup) : http://apeswithbarrels.wordpress.com/

Are You Here To Confuse Me: http://www.thenewconfusion.com/

Audible Musings: http://audiblemusings.com/

Bastille Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bastille/27029659926

Bastille Mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/bastille

Bastille Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wearebastille

Crustacean Cognition: http://crustaceancognition.blogspot.com

DJ Olmec: http://www.myspace.com/olmec420

Ian Sloane Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/iansloane

Jared Bailey Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/officialjaredbailey

Joseph Cool Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/joecooljoecool

Just Gravy, No Potatoes: http://nopotat0es.com/

Machines Can't Wake Me: http://obzejta.blogspot.com/

Mute with Stupefaction: http://mutewith.blogspot.com/

Shlomo Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/shlomoshun

Stay Magic: http://staymagic.blogspot.com/

We Did It Collective: http://www.wediditcollective.com/

Yellow @ The Light Podcast: http://yellowatthelight.podomatic.com/

13 April 2010

NEW BLOG LAYOUT IN PROGRESS

So for the next couple hours and probably into the night, AwB is going to be under a bit of construction. Keep your pants on. We'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Sssensation


Sssen sort of exploded quite recently among my friend group, which led to them coming over to open for Beach House.  They're an awesome live electronic act from New York that really piqued my interest due to their awesome sound and performance.  We also share a friend my the name of Dan Obzejta, who actually made some album art for us last year (check the art HERE, as well as his awesome blog of mind blowing art HERE).  I got the chance to ask them a few questions, so without any further delay, we are proud to present our interview with Sssen:


Apes With Barrels: You find yourself on the, lets say Williamsburg bridge, and an army of barbarian hipsters are approaching rapidly from both sides armed with broken pbr forties. What's your next move?

Anthony Natoli: Blast Passion Pit and watch their confused faces as their anger suddenly dissipates and they start dancing ironically and exchanging high fives.

Alex Klein: Yeah, or use the imperious charm. It works really well on hipsters.

AwB: Cheetahs or gazelles?

A.N: Tigers.

AwB: We’ve got to ask. Sssen?

A.K: It's from Spirited Away, we really identified with the protagonist. A sorceress steals her real name and gives her a fake one, Sen. There's something about the surrogacy of it, the traces of loss, like spirit photography. So we digitized it and added a few s's...

A.N: ...It’s what I imagine an electronic whisper would sound like.

AwB: What are your musical backgrounds, and what piqued your interest in electronic music?

A.N: In high school Alex and I wrote pieces for piano and viola. (Me on piano, Alex on viola). I was always really into house music from a young age and once Alex started using music software we began to fuck around with electronic sounds and sequencing. I also had this synthesizer that I used to make beats on. We showed some of the things we had been working on to people and they liked it so we decided to keep going. Also living in New York and partying we started to listen almost exclusively to electronic music and we started moving more and more in the direction of dance and electro.

AwB: Care to describe what your live setup looks like?

A.K: We use two synthesizers live, a Korg triton extreme and a Kawai K4 from the late 80s that I circuit bent and makes really beautiful pad sounds or really fucked up bass growls. We use a native instruments Maschine for drum sounds, two microphones (one going through an effects unit one through a vocoder), and then a laptop running Ableton live. We also have a sidechain compressor and stereo exciter in our live rack to brighten up the sound and make it kick. We mainly use the computer as a sequencer and for effects - we send out midi tracks to the synths and then process the signals live. We've found its better to avoid playing back audio tracks unless absolutely necessary... we try to keep everything as interactive as possible.

AwB: I don’t get to ask this question a lot, but I feel like it applies to you guys more than most of the people I interview. What’s the inspiration behind your music?

A.N: For me, Sssen is about celebrating the ugly side of technology. It seems that people are interfacing more and more with machinery and computers and the result is an increasingly fractured way of experiencing the world. At a party last year I realized that I feel far more comfortable in a dark room full of dizzying hyper-bright strobe lights than I do on a sunny street, and I think a lot of people can relate. We're into computer junkyards, broken machinery, loose wires, empty parking lots, police sirens, L.E.D, neon ads with letters missing…you get the idea...

A.K: ...Yeah, I think part of our aesthetic is definitely in the inherent deviancy of dance music, the beautiful nihilism behind it. It's also really interesting to think about what's behind all the technological interfaces we use, for me that's the appeal of opening a synthesizer or drum machine and "corrupting" its perfect order. It's kind of like humanizing technology, dehumanizing humanity. Like Wall-E.

AwB: Describe your best and worst gigs. Were there any lessons you could take away from them?

A.N: Oh my god, we played a show last summer at this warehouse, Refuge, in Brooklyn that was EXACTLY the wrong fan-base for our music. All the dj’s before us were playing top-forty remixes and the crowd was drunk and loving it, and then we got on there and played some crazy shit and kids were like this is fucking weird I just wanna grind with my baby momma. Some drunk kid kept knocking over my mic stand and asking me to play Reggaeton, so I asked this muscled raver who was rolling hard next to us on stage to get rid of him and the guy launched him into the crowd and kept on dancing.

A.K: I think one of our best gigs was this other warehouse party at the 1896 that we had played a month before THAT fiasco. They were running super late so we didn't go on until like 3:30... but people stuck around and we got the whole floor moving. There was these really drunk kids who kept climbing up the walls and falling down. I remember for that show we had added an extra track in Ableton that just played the LOUDEST bass drum imaginable, looped, throughout the whole set. The bass drum would keep booming when the music stopped... and people would be like "WHAT!!" and keep bouncing up and down. The musicality of that trick is kind of doubtful, but what's more universal than a heartbeat?

AwB: What genre would you categorize yourselves under, if any?

A.N: Electronic is really the only thing that applies to us as of now. We’ll see what other labels we get as time goes one. Best case scenario, the hipster gods come up with some chic new ironic word to describe our genre.

A.K: I would say the direction we're moving in is kind of like electro-industrial... or I guess you could call it spook-house...

AwB: Tell us about your production process. How does a song start, how long do they take to complete, etc?

A.K: Anthony usually thinks more in terms of the chord changes and melodies and I usually mess around more with sounds and effects. Finding the right sound is hard, because sometimes you find something and you know exactly what to do with it, but usually it takes forever to create the texture that perfectly fits the emotions we're going for. Our production setup isn't all that different from our live set-up, but we're able to do more adventurous things when we're recording. Like for this new track we're working on, "Night Shiver," I used this MAX/MSP patch I created that triggers all these distorted vocal samples as pulses when you run an external signal through it. So we just screamed into the mic for 2 minutes and got all these amazing dehumanized voices bouncing around our ears, which we used as the intro sound for the track. It's a cool process but one that would just NEVER work live... too much CPU drain. As far as our long term process, we wrote all these songs in high school that we're still mining for material. So I guess you could say that some of the tracks have been in production for years.

AwB: Are you planning on getting into remixing, or just focusing on original compositions?

A.N: We definitely want to start remixing. We are at the point now where our equipment is consistently making gorgeous sounds and we want to start going headfirst into pure house/dance/electro for a while.

A.K: Yeah, it's only a matter of time. We have our eyes on a few projects, we really want to do a remix of Circus by Britney Spears...

AwB: Favorite electronic music concert?

A.N: Hard NYC in October 2009. Greatest fucking party ever. Despite the fact that I was rolling really hard the whole time, I can confidently say crookers and major lazer blew my mind.

A.K: I saw Crystal Castles play in rome last summer. As much as I hate them, they put on an a pretty amazing show... All the Italian hipsters went crazy, and the place ended up getting completely trashed... it was a night to remember.

AwB: If you could collaborate with any living artist…?

A.N: The Knife, Trentemøller, or Bjork.  [AwB: GREAT ANSWERS]

A.K Enya

AwB: What should we be expecting from Sssen in the near future?

A.N: Our Spook House EP (which is closer to album length) will be released soon. We’re in the process of making some music videos and collaborating with other artists to produce tracks and remixes. Other than that, we’ll be performing in NYC forever so if you feel like thrashing, come check us out.

_______________________________________________

Here's a video of Sssen performing their track If Your Head Is Empty live at Wesleyan University on March 27th while opening for Beach House:


 (More art from Mr. Obzejta inspired by Sssen)

I'll definitely work to bring them back for another show next year, except introduce them to my disgusting dance scene that's notorious for people having sex against the radiators in the venue. And now for some tracks (all 320):
_______________________________________________

If Your Head Is Empty - Sssen (Golden Banana)
God I love this track, when I heard it live I freaked out (yeah, that's my voice in the video).  Especially love the end.  Fun Fact: they actually hadn't recorded it yet and did so on my request for this post.  Most recomended to Electro and House fans

Taken - Sssen (Silver Banana)
Sick drums, and amazing track all around.  Haunting. Definitely take this one if you're not as into the whole Electro House thing.

Masquerade (Eyes Full Of Color) - Sssen
Kinda got that Italo thing going on with the bass, but just way more dirty.

Polaris - Sssen
Not really DJ-friendly tempo, but a very pretty. I love the chipy/video-gamey arpeggiated line.

BONUS:
Snowflake (Live Version) - Trentemøller
Since one of my all time favorite producers got brought up, I just had to post this.  One of the most beautiful/sinister tracks ever made, I can't even begin to fathom how much effort an undertaking like this must take, it's like the word "loop" isn't in his vocabulary.

 ____________________________________________


ALSO (completely unrelated note)..

A big shout out to Electro Nirvana, a brand new blog that clearly reads us.  Glad to have you on board.

12 April 2010

I love Video Game Themes


I feel as though all the people who love electro these days can't say that they don't love video games or didn't love video games at some point in their life. Those simple but catchy synths which get you going in order to beat that final boss. You know this song is good because it was stuck in my head all night and brouht about video game like dreams where I fought other strange creatures in a turn based fashion. I love this song.

-J

Innuendo (Original Mix) by Jean Elan, if you like From Miami to Atlanta by Pryda then this is for you. I've gotten mixed review about the normal doray i posted before, but I don't see how anybody couldn't love this song.

And now for a quiz, name these 15 video games that these screen shots are from (these are some of our favorites):

The Pictures are also links and some of them have the answer in the URL, if you would like to cheat please feel free to do so, but really try and see how many you can get without that

#1:


#2:



#3: 



#4:



#5:


#6: 


#7:




#8:


#9:



#10:


#11: 



#12: two pictures for both related games:

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#13:



#14:



#15:



EXTRA CREDIT for 1 Billion bastille Love and Admiration points:







Good Luck kids!

10 April 2010

Normany Doray and Dada Life

 He looks like a baller in this photo.
Gotta Love this shit. Gonna keep it short and sweet for the weekend. Here are these two tracks to keep you entertained.

Yo, be killin it all the time and jus leavin trails of amazinnness behin. Keep it Fresh.


-J

Make my heart (Norman Doray Remix) by Toni Braxton, Fuckin crazy. One of the best songs I've heard in a while, immediately decided this needed to go up. Norman u be seein what this song needed, and you kept it real. That big buildup is just amazing, best part of the song. Golden Banana with an additional A++++  from this chic:

French Jeans (Dada Life Remix) by MVSEVM, Incredible, heard it once and fell in love. You won't be dissapointed with this track. Then again, how often does Dada Life dissapoint. These dudes know whats up, they should be stars like Kanye? I feel as though some peeps may like this one better that the one on top.

Blog List



Another compilation of relevant and influential music blogs that you all should hit up.

Buzz En Direkt:

317 Electro:

Aerial Noise:

Are You Here to Confuse Me?:

Asian Dan:

Boom Boom Chik:

Boysnoize Records:

Brainfeeder:

DAFTWHO?:

Danger! Danger!:

Data Sapiens:

Dattt Honey:

Discobelle:

Discodust:

DJ Robson Michel - In The Mix:

Electro Nirvana:

ElectroStation

Fancy Sounds

Find Voltorb, Catch Voltorb

Funkagenda - DJ/Producer/Raconteur/Layabout

Gotta Dance Dirty™

ilictronix

Just Gravy, No Potatoes

La Friendly

Laidback Blog

Let's Bring Back French House

Nashville Nights

nightmagnets

OCSDbeats

ONEUPMANSHIP

Penned Madness

play the music loud!

PUSHVOLUME

[redthreat]

Sauce

~ShiftyRhythms~

Solid Goldberger

Stay Magic

Stoney Roads Dance Music Blog

SWEHOUSE - Swedens BIGGEST and BEST house blog!

SYNTHETICROCKS

TechnocolorKids™ | Electro Music Blog

The Lemur Blog

The Remix Archive

The Temple of House Music

THREE ONE OH! New Electro/Fidget/House Served F...

Too Many Sebastians

Tradehooks

Trashbags Kid

voulesrandom

WEDIDIT COLLECTIVE

WWW.4DJSONLINE.COM

Yellow@TheLight

You Can Call Me Pelski

Zaber Riders

05 April 2010

Double Oh Shy Guy


Shy Guy is an awesome hip-hop producer from Dallas, Texas, but I believe he's in New York right now if anybody's looking.  Well, he's gone and made a beat tape of all James Bond samples.  You're excited, I know.

-M

Diamonds Are Forever - Shy Guy
My personal favorite beat from the bunch

Beats, James Beats - Shy Guy
Here's the whole thing