Seattle knows what’s up. This week at Decibel Festival you will hear many of the more avant-garde and experimental new genres of electronic music, including beats from quite a crew of artists from Alpha Pup Records and our imprints Brainfeeder, Elm & Oak and Friends of Friends.
The West Coast of America has never had a problem with low self-esteem. Referred to as the “Best Coast” by chilled out lefties from sunny San Diego to the emerald city of Seattle, this slice of the country was settled by pioneers and immigrants in search of the boundless opportunities and freedom of lifestyle that this edge of the world provides. Today many dreamers, doers and nature-lovers still flock towards the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean to live in an area that enjoys a laid-back yet dialed-in vibe, progressive cultural attitudes, plenty of wide open spaces and green, green grass. Continue reading
If you have been losing faith in rap lately, you might just want to crack open that brain and give it a taster of what Nocando has offered up, because it is absolutely delicious- a pristine blend of the filth of modern life, the funk of doing it Cali-style and the fun inherent in the whole goddamn thing. Nocando’s debut album is the first major release on Alpha Pup Records for 2010 and is already receiving love and praise from many corners of the music universe.
First the business:
BUY THE ALBUM on iTunes and Boomkat (more to come throughout the day)
DOWNLOAD the first single “Hurry Up and Wait” for free here.
Now the fun:
With creative and entertaining lyrics on top of exquisite beats from some of the most talented producers of 2010, Nocando takes us on a bumpy ride filled with a mad variety of emotions- the good, the bad, and the crazy. The mood of the album is fresh as a slap, hardcore and so SoCal, with Nocando’s rhyming ruminations an apt reflection of day-to-day life: wild nights, girls, love, drugs, parties, getting fucked up, fucking, vodka in water bottles, house parties that get shut the fuck down, stumbling into orgies and masturbating with a gun in your hand.
Well maybe not YOUR day-to-day life.
But Nocando’s not just talking shit. He also speaks the truth, in the manner of exploits and glitches. Loud-mouthed MCs have taken the place of the court jester today, and Nocando does not waste his lauded position. Crammed in and in-between his words, bouncing between the beats and filling your head are inescapable truths, like LA’s finest offerings to the world: blue collars, bright lights, brown skies and bullshit.
Some tracks like “Two Track Mind” are more contemplative and insightful, others like the ode to skanks “Skankophelia” have an old school R&B feel to them, and “Flight Risk” sings the sad, sour side of love. Stripes of dark circus parties, tales of freaks and Nocando’s amusing words are backed up by a all-star cast of producers on the beats: Nobody, Nosaj Thing, Thavius Beck, Th’ Corn Gangg, Free the Robots, Maestroe and Daedelus all offer their unique musical visions to the album. I can see these producers’ personalities shining through their tracks, and the result is an engaging collection of perspectives from the groovy to the grimy.
Add in the guest vocalists: Busdriver, Nick Diamonds, VerBS and Iron Mike Eagle and you have an album brewed to perfection on the hot slice of reality we call life on the West Coast – amusing, entertaining, inspiring, and most of all:
FRESH! I love it, ten points. I have been listening to Jimmy the Lock in high rotation since I received it! THIS SHIT IS FIRE!
Buy the album on iTunes and Boomkat.
Come to Low End Theory every Wednesday night and hear resident MC Nocando here.
Read the piece on Nocando in the LA Weekly here.
Excellent interview with Nocando in LA Record here.
Read more about Nocando below the cover art.
MORE ABOUT NOCANDO:
The LA underground has many voices, some covered in grit and dirt, some slapping the asphalt, some hitting high and brassy- but none ring truer than that of Nocando. A seasoned member of the hip hop community who isn’t content to count his battle scars by the dozens, Nocando brings fresh rhymes week after week at the world-renowned club night Low End Theory where he is the resident host, as well as to a variety of steazy joints all around the West Coast.
With a witty style and open voice, Nocando’s raps are unpredictable, funny and lean towards social commentary, although this MC is just as likely to tell you about a wild night on the streets of LA as to make a point about the fallacies of the music industry. Brash and confident while also being laid back, Nocando’s lyrical delivery is an apt representative of the California attitude. Winner of the MC Battle at the 2007 Skribble Jam, the largest hip hop festival in the nation, Nocando’s mouth often seems to have a life of its own, throwing an excited energy onto any crowd he meets and providing an important connection between the music and the dance floor.
Nocando has held his own performing on bills with Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hills, Flying Lotus, MF Doom, Supernatural, Cee-Lo Green, Souls Of Mischief, Typical Cats, The Chicharones, Grand Buffet, The Visionaries, Nancy Sinatra, The Fucking Champs and Autechre. The MC has also released a myriad of collaborations with artists such as Subtitle, Aceyalone, Murs, Lucky I Am, Busdriver, Abstract Rude, 2mex, LMNO, Pumpkinhead and many others.
Never afraid to get dirty, Nocando has won (and lost) numerous rap battles. Countless Thursday nights spent spitting freestyle in Leimert Park in the Crenshaw District of South Central LA established him as Project Blowed’s new school poster boy and a Customer Service hard hitter. The tireless MC has traveled to New York City, Boston, Canada, France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Japan and many other locations giving international music fans a taste of Los Angeles’ main exports: blue collars, brown skies, bright lights, and bullshit.
With almost a decade of active duty in the LA beat scene and plenty of battle trophies under his belt, Nocando has earned the respect of peers, veterans and newcomers alike. Unpredictable and vivacious, Nocando will light any night and every crowd with his clever words and dynamic delivery style. With the continued convergence of the hip hop and electronic music communities in Los Angeles and around the world, Nocando is poised to shout his drops from the peak of the movement all the way to the vibrating dance floor of the underground.
If you don’t know Doktor Krank’s blog, check it out. Doktor Krank is one of my favorite fellow bloggers and holds down the bass music scene in Poland by delivering a fresh stream of sounds from the heavy, glitched-out future funk side of the universe.
Start with this post: Doktor Krank’s Top 20 Mixes of 2009, which includes choice selections from Heyoka, Nosaj Thing, Pantyraid, Mary Anne Hobbs, Pressha and Kat1lyst, Alex B, Samples, Sleepytime, Eprom, Lazer Sword…I think you get the drift!
I have for a while been singing the praises of Daedelus, Nosaj Thing and Jogger, not to mention Daedelus’ new imprint, Magical Properties, of which the artist has said:
“The label is supposed to be about, in a certain sense, taking music very seriously but also having fun. It’s trying to conjure up a bit of an outside idea.”
If you like outside ideas, check out this nationwide tour AKA “a whole cavalcade caravan across this great continent” which has been heralded by the LA Weekly and XLR8R. And you can read my interview with Daedelus for Covers Magazine here.
DATES:
Click here for the Facebook event page.
Happy 2010!
I keep this post updated and added to throughout the month and you can find it by looking in the right-hand column on my main page under “Shilo’s Event Calendar.”
Photo by Theo Jemison
Whoa.
LA, you have outdone yourself again. You have once again proved that this city rests not only on the San Andreas fault, but on a fissure to the future that steams out artistic productions far ahead of their time as well. There was a rupture in the earth last night of gargantuan proportions, and the world of electronic arts is changed today. My brain is changed today, after a meal like no other last night.
Yesterday evening I went to Brainfeeder Sessions at the Downtown Independent. As I walked past Jalisco’s Inn and up to the box office, I was thinking what the people on the sidewalk were saying: “Is this the right place?”
Then I heard screams flying off the roof and knew indeed we had accurately arrived. The Downtown Independent is a movie theater, but this was no Sunday matinee. This was something groundbreaking, something unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life, something that knocked me off-kilter and made my mind spasm and shake. In the lobby the line for concessions was snaking back towards the door; I ran into Gaslamp Killer who was whispering, which really threw me off.
Little did I know my entire brain was about to be thrown to Jupiter.
Inside the movie theater Mono/Poly had just gone on and the place was already filling up. People were crowded together by the entrance, trying to locate somewhere to sit in the darkness. The room smelled of beer, popcorn and weed- quite the delightful combination.
I quickly snagged a seat up by the front on the left, sat down and did not move for the rest of the set. Well, I moved, but not from my seat. The combination of Mono/Poly’s wacked out glitch-laden beats and fierce dubstep with Dr. Strangeloop and Synesthete‘s maniacal visuals held me captive, pushing me into my seat with my jaw dropped open like a lobotomy patient. I was freaking out. In a good way.
Eight zillion words could not describe eight seconds of the audio/visual experience last night. It was all the glory of an acid trip without the ugly comedown. The music alone injects you with this crazy energy, and then the visuals weave through the beats to further penetrate your brain: cutouts of steel-colored clouds, stuttering apocalypse cartoons, gold women from another universe, vibrating designs of screaming boxes, all perfectly timed and twirling and swirling with each booming beat. Every new sound and picture seems to stimulate a different area of your brain, and as it scrambles to keep up and connect all the pieces, your whole mind is illuminated and aroused and flailing in exhiliration. I would love to see brain scans of the crowd last night- we would have been lit up like the freakin’ Staples Center.
I had chills up the back of my neck, like some sort of specter was crawling down my spine. Multiple times, chills. I wanted to dance but couldn’t; alas all these emotions being squeezed out of my brain were coming out through my mouth, and the only way I could process this saturation of over-stimulation was to sit there laughing. The guy next to me is like, whoa crazy blond chick #953, but truly the experience affected me so very profoundly with such an eruption of emotions, I had to get them out of my body some way. Being unable to dance I was sitting there laughing out my amazement. I do the same thing when I am overcome with nerves: laugh.
FUCK I was freaking OUT. Twitching and wiggling and fidgeting like a madwoman in my seat, spit bubbles forming at the sides of my open mouth, eyes wrenched open like a candy kid at dawn. Mono/Poly was jumping around like the crowd’s synapses, giving shouts out to Low End Theory with a massive smile on his face, ending his set with a collection of dubstep BANGERS. The three rows ahead of me were as squirmy in their seats as I; people were yelling sporadically with fists in the air, clapping, hooting. The hyphyness continued to spread through the crowd and the hours until we were practically monkey-people by the end of the night. Our brains were spilled like soda on the floor, our feet were stuck in the goo and our lips could not contain the feral screams escaping our mouths.
I would say: give us a dance floor, Brainfeeder, and it certainly was said last night by some in the crowd who could not and did not want to contain their bodily movement, inspired by such a rich sensory experience. But the whole point of this arrangement is to make you sit there and fully experience the tsunami of stimulation, to shove the meal of madness right into your mind without any other distractions.
After a brief and very freaky intermission (still with music and visuals), Eskmo came on. He is one of my favorite producers in the world and hearing his music set to Strangeloop’s visuals was nothing short of spectacular, magnificent on the level of mountain ranges. UBER crunchy bass, twisted up, slapping you like a wet beach towel- but still immaculately designed and elegantly delivered. Wild images raced around the movie screen in the meantime, fuzzed out armies of beetle-people, exploding houses on alien planets, flashes into an ancient oblivion, the stringy dreams of a lunatic, all pulling your eyes forward and then popping them back with ferocity.
By now the movie theater was PACKED, sold out, people standing all up and down both aisles and in the back, sitting on the floor, like we were kids in a camp meeting preparing for a time warp. At the second intermission I grabbed a second beer and hit the rooftop, where a second bar and second stage were set up and the overall theme of the night’s conversation was, “Oh my god this is fucking unbelievable, this shit is so fucking crazy, wow what a show!” Teebs was dropping beats but soon they had to cut the music off in order to move it downstairs to the lobby where the party would continue after the last set.
Which. Was. NOSAJ THING. His visuals were unique to his show, produced by Fair Enough. They were more minimalist and color blocked, floating around the screen like layers of oil and water. At other times they were tricky lines and squares, all timed and designed for Nosaj’s beats, allowing the crowd to refocus on the music. Nosaj’s set was as beautiful and epically graceful as ever. His music touches that soft and breakable part inside of you that you always keep hidden, lest the self-proclaimed proud assholes of the world try to break it just to see it break, like those jerks who shot the buffalo just to watch them fall. Nosaj’s art is a salve for the world, or at least my world; a warm blanket to wrap my mind in and soothe it from all its suffering, a glistening and shimmering moment of truth in the landscape of life. Bravo!
People were a bit confused about last night; I don’t think anyone knew what to expect, myself included. Some people didn’t realize it was an early party, and this being LA, showed up halfway through Nosaj’s set. Next time, I am getting there early, and I suggest you do too. The party continued after the visual show in the lobby with the beats of Mr. Killer and we slowly filtered out into the beautiful city night.
Brainfeeder Sessions is nothing short of groundbreaking. Talk about future shit. Talk about next level. You say you want a revolution? Great art transcends personal preferences; I know I am in the presence of great art when I am thinking: I want everyone I know and love to experience this, regardless of their age or musical taste or location. I want my mom there, my grandma there, my hippie friends who only like reggae, my shit-talking dubstep freaks, the techno elitists, the happy house heads: I want them all to experience this. Wow.
BIG BIG BIG FUCKING UPS to Flying Lotus and his masterful curation, creative genius and hard work. Big ups to the Brainfeeder crew, to the whole crowd last night, and indeed to the whole city of LA for providing the geographical glue that unites us in the quest for life-stimulating experiences through artistic expression.
And holy mindfuck if you haven’t heard Mono/Poly, get your ass to Low End Theory this Wednesday.
Click here to watch a video of part of Nosaj Thing’s set last night, by Theo Jemison.
Click here to check out BNUT’s photos of the evening.
Amazing Brainfeeder logo art by Teebs
Eskmo fuses extreme energy, heavy drums, broken asphalt, warped cries from the netherworld, dirty boots, distant snow-capped mountaintops and a fat dose of whomp to create his unique sound which is more than music, it is a translation of messages from highly-evolved beings of the future. They are telling us to dance. Growling and intense, the sounds that Eskmo lays on the world ripens the ears of its recipients to revolution, to a new way of musical expression that cannot be captured but only lived with broken beats in the brain and shakes of the ribcage.
Also known as Brendan Angelides, Eskmo has been writing and performing music since 1999 and also produces under the name Welder for his more downtempo, ethereal works. Eskmo’s music has been featured in such publications as URB, DJ Mag, Knowledge Mag, BBC Radio1, Rinse FM and Breaks FM. A regular on the Left Coast festival circuit, Eskmo’s sick live performances and innovative bass camping has brought him many loyal fans throughout the US, UK, and Europe.
A firestorm of originality, Eskmo‘s music is always unique and inspiring. This San Francisco producer has just released a mix exclusive to Brainfeeder made up all of his own tracks and remixes; download it for free on the Brainfeeder site here. And listen. And then TELL ME that is not absolutely fucking amazing music. Wow. I am in love.
Eskmo plays a special experimental mix at Brainfeeder Sessions this Sunday night in LA at the Downtown Independent along with Nosaj Thing‘s visual show. See you there.
DJs, Producers, Live Mad Scientists, MCs, Beat Addicts, you know…
In no order, and I am going to update this once a week-ish:
HOLY FRICKIN’ HOLIDAZE I can’t believe 2009 is almost gone. This time last year, I wasn’t even considering moving to LA. And yet here I am now, smack in the middle of the most creative and exciting underground electronic scene in the world!
December is always party season, and this year is no exception. I keep this post updated and added to throughout the month and you can find it by looking in the right-hand column on my main page under “Shilo’s Event Calendar.”
Oh wow. It’s Monday and my cells are still shaking like little jello cubes from the massive thunderstorm of bass that slammed down on Saturday night. BASSFACE was ON.
Dubstep is very sound system-dependent music. Sure, every electronic genre hits best blasting out of a ridiculous stack of speakers, but dubstep practically requires it. On a rig like Pure Filth‘s, dubstep comes to life, lumbering at you like a mutant animal from a feral dream, with fur and horns and claws and big teeth and wild eyes and a crushing gate. If you haven’t heard dubstep on a proper sound system, well…you are hearby invited to the next Pure Filth show.
Lot 613 is a neat venue with somewhat of a playground feel; with separate indoor and outdoor areas there is plenty of room to run around, space for artists to do their thing, a line of booths for smoking or canoodling and a snack bar for late-night munchies. Stacks of television sets served as visuals fodder for Strangeloop and Kemst was jumping around working things into a lather. Sadly I missed Heru‘s opening set, but by 11PM the line outside was growing quick like a black snake firework and Novocaine9 was inside thrilling the early crowd, which was as hopped up and lively as always. The energy in Los Angeles is irrefutable; it seeps into every cracked smile at each underground venue, sparking ideas in the minds and fire in the eyes of the dance floor. LA is always ready for a good time.
Soon Nosaj Thing was on; this young producer has a legion of loyal followers who were out in force to hear his unique take on beat music, fusing several imaginable genres and then some. Crafty and sincere, the artistry evident in each layer of sound he lays down is always intriguing and entertaining; his tracks seem to dance in the air, deft and powerful castles of sound whose beauty is undeniable.
The crowd was ready and salivating for Joker; after an earlier customs snafu I was just glad to see he made it back into the States and was able to perform the show. MC Nomad is a complimentary match for the unassuming DJ whose stage presence belies the massive tracks he throws down, tunes so fresh they are still rubbing their eyes and shaking off the dew. And shake we did; colossal sound filled the room and allowed Joker a full sonic range and no excuses. There were too many rewinds for my taste; of course one rewind is usually too much for this dancer who wants to dance, not stop the music!
But Joker delivered a major set chock full of mountainous drops and we ate it up, swimming like lost fish in the sea of sound and putting our bodies to the bass limit, the sub-bass frequencies filling up every cell and every nucleus of every cell. The Pure Filth show Saturday night felt like the crux that the whole dubstep world was rotating on; in LA we tend to think we live in the center of the entertainment universe (because we do), but things are happening in the world of electronic music in this city right now that send a lightening bolt of electricity up my spine. The enthusiasm is undeniable and irresistible, and the Pure Filth show on Saturday night was absolutely delicious.
After Joker, the Professionals came on and proceeded to mop up the dance floor with what was left of people’s brains; in my case that was not much. However I know I wasn’t the only one wishing that the party went at least until 4AM! As always Pure Filth put on a quality show, achieving the right feel with the crowd and creating a swirl of energy, and I wanted it to swirl right on into the morning light. But I had more parties to go to, more dance floors to shut down, more friends to hug and more ass to shake, so I walked off into the fine LA evening, a deeper bass bounce in my step and a face full of Pure Filth, AKA: THE BASSFACE.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO PHOTOS OF THE EVENT!
Catch Nosaj Thing at The Changing Same Music and Art series this Friday December 4, a performance art party celebrating emerging artists of “Soul, Electronica, Latin and post Hip Hop sounds – or can we say new sh!t!”
The show goes down at the Agenda Lounge in San Jose and along with Nosaj Thing on the lineup: Low Limit of Lazer Sword and Square One of San Jose’s The Fingerbangerz. Sign up for the limited $10 guestlist at TheChangingSame@Ungrammar.com, and for more information, click on the flyer for the Facebook event page.
JOKER was just crowned “King of Bass Music” in the latest issue of XLR8R. That’s a pretty damn big statement but this 20 year-old makes some pretty damn big tunes, including Purple City, one of the undeniable party anthems of 2009 that has ripped dance floors to shreds all up and down the West Coast. I have seen it happen; I have been on the floor screaming and jumping up and watching my friends freak out, and I can’t wait to do it again Saturday night!
The latest episode of BASSFACE brought to you by Pure Filth also features Alpha Pup’s Nosaj Thing who will get his chance to rip the venue in half; Lot 613 is an upgraded warehouse, so you get the plenty of room, the egalitarian floor-feel, cheap drinks, an outside smoking and art space ALONG WITH a working restroom. Awesome.
Also on the lineup: The Professionals, Novocaine9, Heru, MC Nomad, MC Kemst, visuals by Strangeloop and the “most adventurous sound installation yet,” AKA get ready to wobble at the cellular level.
BASSFACE takes place this Saturday night November 28 from 9PM to 3AM, cover is $10 before 11PM at Lot 613 at 613 Imperial Street in LA. Check the Facebook event page here and see you on the dance floor!
Sean AKA Nordic Soul is the Decibel Festival Curator and Director, he is my good friend and one of the greatest contributors to Seattle’s thriving underground music community. This is a very insightful summary of electronic music in 2009 with his Top 15 list at the bottom as well:
From Sean:
Every year it’s part of my job at PlayNetwork to come up with a list of top albums and overall assessment of music trends for the year. Below is my brief review of what I felt was a pretty landmark year for electronic music in the US and in general. Barring any incredible releases over the next month, these are my picks for the year. Keep in mind this list is strictly made up of albums; not EPs, 12’s or remixes (i.e 95% of the electronic music I purchased this year).
2009 in Review : Binary Pop, Warp’s Legacy, Dub Mutations and the Return of Sexy Dance Music
2009 has been an incredibly innovative year in relation to music production. Artists like Animal Collective, Fever Ray, Royksopp and Moderat have proven once and for all that digital beats and electronic sound design can appeal to a pop audience that otherwise wouldn’t find themselves listening to “electronic music”.
This year also marks the 20 year anniversary of the greatest electronic music label (arguably greatest label) of all time, Warp Records, which has had an exceptional year across the board with strong indie releases from Grizzly Bear and Maximo Park as well as strong releases from their more obscure electronic artists like Tim Exile and Clark. Warp’s 20th anniversary box set is not only one of the best reviewed collections of they year, it’s also a brilliant testament to the label’s vast catalog of ground breaking artists (i.e. Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Jamie Lidell, Nightmares on Wax, Prefuse 73, Autechre, Broadcast, Plaid, Battles, Squarepusher, etc).
In addition, 2009 witnessed the rise of Dubstep as a respected genre in the US through acclaimed UK labels like Hyperdub (Burial, Kode9, Joker, Zomby, Flying Lotus) and Tectonic (2562, Martyn, DJ Pinch, Benga) both of whom continue to blur the boundaries between Grime, Dub, West Coast Hip Hop and Detroit Techno. With the avid support of tastemakers like BBC Radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbs and Low End Theory’s Daddy Kev (Alpha Pup Records) UK Dubstep and West Coast Glitch Hop / Hip Hop have both become quintessential styles on the electronic music frontline in the US. From Burning Man to this year’s Movement festival in Detroit, Dubstep and Glitch Hop have fully emerged in 2009 as a staple sound in North America.
Another emerging trend has been the Deep House and Tech House revival, which has been experiencing a resurgence the past few years as club-goers have tired of the heady, sterility of Minimal Techno and the frenetic, over the top sound of Electro House. Artists like Gui Boratto, Voodeux, Pezzner, Milton Jackson, Stimming, Mode D, Catz n Dogz, DJ T and Dixon have all helped in keeping underground dance music both sexy and musical.
Overall 2009 has been a phenomenal year for technologically driven music, proving that creativity is truly catching up with the tools used for musical expression in the digital age.
Here are my Top 15 albums of the year:
1. Animal Collective “Merriweather Post Pavilion” Domino Records
2. Various “Warp 20” (Box Set) Warp Records
3. Moderat (aka Apparat & Modeselektor) “Moderat” Bpitch Control Records
4. Fever Ray “Fever Ray” Rabid Records
5. Phil Kieran “Shh” Cocoon Recordings
6. Nosaj Thing “Drift” Alpha Pup Records
7. Jon Hopkins “Insides” Domino Records
8. Various “5 : Five Years of Hyperdub” Hyperdub Records
9. Lusine “A Certain Distance” Ghostly International
10. Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest” Warp Records
11. Gui Boratto “Take My Breath Away” Kompakt Records
12. 2562 “Unbalance” Tectonic Records
13. Modeselektor “Body Language Vol. 8” Get Physical Music
14. Tim Hecker “An Imaginary Country” Kranky Records
15. Voodeux “The Paranormal” Mothership Records
DANCEFEVER5000 