Noisia @ The Observatory

This past Thursday, Noisia graced the decks at The Observatory in Santa Ana.

Two out of the trio showed up for the show, which apparently justifies the "Live" distinction that was advertised for ticket sales. Noisia played a full 90 minutes and stayed pretty consistent for the whole night. They would occasionally fall into trap or down-tempo, but the majority of the night consisted of a lot of their own classic DnB bangers from their debut album Split The Atom, like Alpha Centauri and Stigma. They also played some of their remixes, such as Labrinth - Earthquake, The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up, and even Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon. Overall the show was fantastic - the crowd was much better than at Loadstar, and the security was much better, without being too overbearing. For example, a girl actually got up on stage and danced for a considerable amount of time before she was asked to just step down, not even kicked out. (Though, she was kicked out the second time she did it, dumb bitch.)

Another somewhat important thing I want to address is a new trend that is occurring at The Observatory. In the past, shows tended to be spaced out and on different nights, so that parking in the venue lot was a non-issue. Parking was also free which was one of the huge benefits of this particular venue. I live in Los Angeles, so not paying for parking of even just $10 greatly offset the costs of gas that it took to get there

Lately, they have been double booking shows - one in the Main Room, and another in the Constellation room - to the effect that the one parking lot is insufficient and they have expanded parking to an adjacent lot and are now charging $10. While this is definitely unfortunate, the fact that Bassology pulls in so much great talent to The Observatory makes me really mad they were ever booted out of LA in the first place.

In other news, the Noisia x Foreign Beggars group I Am Legion drops their eponymous debut album on September 2. Grab it here when it drops! And check out the album preview down below! Have a happy Labor Day weekend everyone!!

September is going to be awesome.

Been a while since I last posted, but that's only because I'm saving myself for September. There is so much going on:

New LPs -

• Figure
• Camo & Krooked
• I Am Legion
• Krewella
• Sub Focus

Shows -

• Krewella w/ Candyland & Seven Lions

Plus, I'm seeing Noisia (Live) tomorrow down in Santa Ana. Expect big things coming next month. Or at least more posts. 

Drum & Bass is a way of life.

I saw Camo & Krooked in March 2013 and it was one of the best sets I've ever seen. It was the day after their set at Beyond Wonderland and Dim Mak was hosting the Hospitality label - which means the night was filled with other DnB masters High Contrast and Fred V & Grafix.

Now, as a legend, High Contrast had a fantastic set. But it was Camo & Krooked's first time in LA and the entire room was volatile. We moved like a liquid, back and forth with the bass and the room was cramped with hot bodies moving as if connected by a red string. It was an amazing set. So when I heard that they had a new album, Zeitgeist, coming out at the end of September, I was beyond excited.

They've only released two singles so far - 'Move Around' and 'All Night' - but it's slated to be one of the biggest releases of 2013. These two tracks still feature the signature smooth style of Camo & Krooked but they have definitely stepped it up a notch.



Another group I saw - Noisia - played a pretty damn good set when I saw them at HARD Summer 2011. They're dropping a new collaboration called I Am Legion, a collab between them and well-known featured artists Foreign Beggars. Their debut album comes out also in September of this year. Check out their first single, 'Make Those Move.'

Monday Madness

I just started my new job in Koreatown, LA ... 4 hours in the middle of the day just gone, so it was great to come home and find some awesome tunes had been released in the past 48 hours!!

First off, we have a return appearance of one of my favorite producers, Invader!. His remix of Radon Radon's 'Black & White' is labeled as electro house but very nearly gets into moombah territory. It's bouncy and fun, with a consistent bassline that would kick everyone's ass at a show. If I had to pick, this would be a fantastic transition track for any mix. Alone, it is somewhat generic, but the possibilities for its use in mixes I can see are endless. I'm only sad that it's a little short and not as well hashed-out as I would've liked.



Next up, Tantrum Desire released a new remix earlier today of Sigma ft. Taylor Fowlis - 'Summer Calling'. At only 1:43, it seems like just a clip but it's not mentioned anywhere if there will be a full-er version coming out. The intro feels like summer - lifting vocals by Taylor Fowlis make me feel like I'm driving down the PCH on a sunny afternoon. Then the beat drops and I can't help but be reminded of the piercing beats of Holdin' On (Skrillex & Nero Remix). See what you think for yourself.



Last but not least, Gramatik drops his Street Bangerz Vol. 4. According to the man himself, these are all tracks leftover from Volume 1, that he found in his "digital basement." They still manage to have a great flow. And even though I'm not that into hip hop, Gramatik's style, and of course his placement on Pretty Light's label, PLM, have earned him a lot of respect from myself and producers, as well.

SKisM & Eptic

Last night, Future Events held the one-year anniversary for their Next Level concert series. Talent included Definitive, p0gman, SKisM and Eptic. Vodex also made an impromptu appearance.

Definitive and p0gman started out and played deep and grimey dubstep. It was a lot like listening to FuntCase's tunes the whole night. But ... even FuntCase doesn't play all his own shit. So I was a little disappointed and a little bored. A friend asked me how p0gman was and I told him, and he said "So he changed his style." Perhaps he was better/different before, but that didn't show in this case.

Just as p0gman was leaving, and I was ready for a change of pace, Vodex made a surprise appearance and played more of the same. He is playing tonight for a free after-party for Next Level so last night's appearance was truly unexpected.

SKisM reached the stage at about 11:28 and just seemed to be waiting for Vodex to get off the decks so he could play his tunes. And with 4 decks, SKisM is just the kind of DJ that can mix in multiple tracks and make them sound unbelievable. The most amazing moment was him mixing Killing In The Name Of, with Robot Rock, with a little Block Rockin Beats. You can hear it for yourself below in his Lowlands 2012 mix at about 33:30.


SKisM - Live @ Lowlands 2012 by SKisM

And then Eptic... wow. From his EPs and usual style, I would not have guessed that he would play such an eclectic set. He played tracks from his new EP like Mastermind, but also had many famous new bangers like Squid Attack (FuntCase Remix) which the crowd went absolutely nuts for. But the most surprising this, is that after the second drop in Faster Than Light by Far Too Loud which goes into DnB, he kept playing drum and bass! He dropped Camo & Krooked, Sub Focus, even Hold Me Close by Flux Pavilion, which I haven't heard in a set in ages. Eptic really showed his true colors, and for many it was the set of the summer.

The best part of my night though was as I was leaving, I happened to see Skism walking along ahead of me. I called out to him and told him how great his set was, and how it was the second time I was seeing him. The last time I saw him was with Dodge & Fuski. You were opening for them down at the House of Blues. He says to me...

I fucking hated that show. I wanted to punch the sound guy in the face. Don't ever mention that show to me or anyone else ever again.

Then he laughed and said he was just kidding, but it was a pretty great moment in my book.

Skism plays today at Shambhala 2013 Music Festival and Eptic can be found next Friday at The Wall in NYC.

Morbid Sickly "Quiet Scary"

Four adjectives.
Four apt descriptions of an amazingly composed, well put-together album.

I first learned of both the producer and album from reddit and it's garnered a lot of attention in /r/electronicmusic since then. It apparently took him 4 months to make - he created, recorded, mixed, and mastered it all on his own.

The sounds are complex and dark, not surprising as he notes Amon Tobin as one of his main influences. The seamlessness of the album is what really gets me though. Every song blends perfectly into the next. That has pretty effectively prevented me from playing any one song off the album by itself. As one redditor put it, "Oh woah man, this isn't just an album, it's an experience."

"Quiet Scary" has great diversity for a first album. The tracks span in length from as short as 1:47 ("Awake") to as long at 8:05 ("Reward"). It can get a little repetitive at times, but it is offset by the fluidity of the work, making it almost unnoticeable. The tracks get progressively more complex, and more dark, until we reach "Soggy Rotten." Soggy Rotten is an ongoing project by Morbid Sickly, the goal of which is still unknown, but he had this to say about it:

Morbid Sickly is a small vile creature with unknown intentions. He stands only 4 feet from the ground and maintains a very hunched and rounded posture. He is plagued with a disease known to us as "Soggy Rotten" This disease makes his skin very...well...soggy, and rotten. What we know is that he travels neighborhoods around the world, hiding in the shadows, constantly looking for the next target. When he finds his victim, he sneaks into their home, enters the kitchen, and makes them a snack with their own food while they're fast asleep. He then scratches his soggy rotten skin until it becomes jelly under his finger nails and then inserts it into the food hes making for his victim. He distracts his victim from the creepiness of the whole situation by dancing for them. When the snack is ingested by the victim, the victim soon after turns into an ALMOST identical creature to Morbid Sickly. The victims soon become an obeying army of the Soggy Rotten Variety and they continue to creep through the world looking for the next partner in the soggy rotten family.

 I am really looking forward to hearing more from Morbid Sickly. His tracks are well-produced and give me the fucking chills. Listen to the whole album here before you buy it on his bandcamp.

Jakwob @ Velvet Jones, SB, CA

Jakwob came on stage at just about midnight to a very anticipatory crowd. The three openers were nothing special - no big names, just local acts. Santa Barbara has no venues for small EDM acts like Jakwob. And I'm only saying that he's small in comparison to Tiesto who played the Santa Barbara Bowl two years ago.

Santa Barbara is home to UCSB who has its own fair share of producers and burgeoning DJs; and so, many of the supporting acts at EDM events around the town feature local names. The only name on the Facebook event that was listed as an opener was Archive '95 - his soundcloud is devoid of information and his FB page nonexistant. I'd like to tell you more but there's nothing really there.

Jakwob is known for his deeper bass sounds and trying out different genres at his live shows. We didn't see much of the deep bass that was expected, and it seemed that Jakwob knew his crowd. UCSB and SBCC students from all over the county - Isla Vista, Goleta, downtown SB - flock to State Street for the bars and night life and Jakwob definitely put in a good job of getting the crowd going. The true fans in the crowd however were left a little disappointed. Either I wasn't listening, or he didn't play many of his own tunes. His remix of Ellie Goulding's 'Under the Sheets' made the cut, but hits like 'Let It Fall', 'The Prize', or 'Electrify' were noticeably missing.

So in all, it was a bit of a let down. But don't worry if you missed the SB show, he's playing again at Dim Mak Studios on August 6th. I suspect that might be a better show - the LA crowd is much more discerning than Santa Barbara and Dim Mak Studios is known for their quality shows.

Jakwob

Jakwob's official bio on Facebook says

His style is now notable for transcending genres and its relative 'accessibility' given the dubstep genre.  Both his original work and remixes combine elements of dubstep, electro, classical piano, cinematic orchestral soundscapes, Indian fusion music and breakbeat. This eclecticism also manifests itself in Jakwob’s DJ sets, which typically feature dub, hip-hop, drum and bass, dubstep and beyond.

I can't say much about the producer himself other than the fact that his music is very calming and very well produced. He jumped to fame when he remixed Ellie Goulding's 'Starry Eyed' and 'Under the Sheets' back in 2009. His show tomorrow in Santa Barbara, CA is free w/ RSVP or $12 for VIP.