Today's post has been much anticipated by the crew. We've been putting the blade to the grindstone, just for you guys! Last Friday we had the chance to interview one of our favorites, Robot Koch, after the show he headlined with Madlib at 1015 Folsom, San Francisco. The half an hour we spent with Robert was much more like a bunch of friends hanging out rather than an interview, and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with such a cool dude.
Read the interview and peep the links after the jump!
We have quite the treat for all you eager music lovers; Andreya Triana!
This girl was blessed with a beautiful voice, and god damn does she know how to use it!! Originally from South East London, Ms. Triana caught her break from The Red Bull Music Academy, in 2006 she was selected from thousands to join their collective down in Australia. We should all take a moment to thank Red Bull Music Academy for choosing her, because without them she may never have met Flying Lotus and they might never have recorded their fucking beautiful collaboration, "Tea Leaf Dancers" [released on FlyLo's Reset EP].
It was this collaboration that caught the attention of Ninja Tune artist Bonobo and in June 2009 she released her debut album, Lost Where I Belong, produced entirely by Bonobo. The album is a the story of her journey that led her to where she is now, even if she is not entirely sure where that is or where she is going to end up. In a world where female soul singers are a dime a dozen, Andreya proves from the very beginning that she is not to be written off as another Lauren Hill or Erykah Badu. She has firmly staked her place, and maybe even carved herself a new niche, in the sultry land of low-fi soul.
Following the release of Lost Where I Belong, she let loose her first EP for the track,"A Town Called Obsolete," which featured a remix by the always amazing, Mount Kimbie!
Her latest release, the Far Closer EP, features remixes by Mr. Scruff and Tokimonsta as well as a live version of the title track. I really love when artist put live versions of tracks on their albums/EP's, it allows you to hear what they are actually like without all the studio tricks and layering and whatnot. Check out the video below of Andreya performing Far Closer live in London.
***BONUS VIDEO***
Please, take some time to listen to this beautiful songstress and if you love it [which I know you will] maybe buy her album? Or at least tell all your friends!!!
Scion AV must have some amazing people pulling together projects for them, as we see here another moment of progressive thinking in their most current remix series. The Dirtbombs are a pivotal garage/punk/soul outfit from Detroit, fronted by Mick Collins who also led his band The Gories into monumental status with their lo-fi rock n' rolling in the mid 80's and forever on into the future. The Dirtbomb's latest effort, "Party Store" is now out on In The Red Records, and you will find the remixed originals on that delectable release. Being from the Midwest, I thought that everyone called it the "party store," but it wasn't until I read another review of this album that someone mentioned it being a midwest, and even Detroit specific name for the purveyors of liquor, blunt wraps, various munchies and things to help our chemical indulgences. Omar S , a veteran Motor City DJ and producer gives "Sharevari" some signiture Detroit shuffling drums and doesn't stray too far from the amazing original track's format/structure. Ectomorph, also from D-Town, are a duo going back to as early as 1995. Their ephemeral filtery dreamscape of "Jaguar" is a gem, sure to keep the crowd moving or your foot on the gas during a midnight cruise as you imagine the industrial fallout chaos land that may have inspired it. CHUNKY is how I would describe Kyle Hall's rework of "Bug In The Bassbin." A new face in the Detroit underground, Mr. Hall's production is also choppy and has some really great swirling synths and a solid low end. Cop these fine works here, and the original, here. Peep this video too, I really like it a lot as I feel it is a perfect visual reference to the Dirtbomb's aesthetic, enjoy :)
Gucci Mane is ridiculous. A fucking ice cream cone?! I must be missing something. Honestly, I don't really care, his flow is effortless and so perfect for a refix. Last year Diplo and Mad Decent released, Free Gucci: Best of Cold War Mixtapeswhich had Gucci flowing over fresh beats crafted by the likes of; Zomby, Salem, FlyLo, DZ, Diplo, Mumdance and more. That mixtape was huge. And just released earlier today: Free Gucci 2: The Burrrtish Edition!!! This time Sinden took over and enlisted some of the UK's best, including HudMo, Rustie, Terror Danjah, Toddla T, Mele, Scratcha DVA & The Blessings. If you have any interest in this Future Bass/Space Crunk/Street Bass shit, I highly suggest downloading this FREE mixtape.
We're gonna have a new contributor who might be doing some German stuff (as well as other things) for us. His name is Rhett, he's multilingual, he has great taste in music, and I'm happy to call him a friend of mine... so all you German DJs, collectives, labels etc get at the man once he's officially on the site :)
He put me up on this song I totally would have missed that you may or may not have heard. Unfortunately the embedding is disabled for the video but follow this link to watch the awesome dancing here
Here's the song since I can't post the real video:
Anyway, be on the look out for him and welcome him into the Neon Lights Crew!
His work as Machinedrum is a glitchy haze of electro-futurism, soul claps reminiscent of the boom-bap era and soulful vocals. He has collaborated extensively with underground Hip-Hop artists Theophilus London and Mickey Factz [who have both been blowing up on the blogosphere in last year] and has successfully created his own brand of future-hop-ghetto-funk.
Check out a couple tracks below, and if you agree buy his album Do You Want To 1, 2?
More recently he has delved into the sweat drenched world of juke. Ghettotek, Juke, Footwerk, Booty Bass... they are all very similar. I feel like it is really up to the individual artist to say what the style of music he/she is making is called. Sometimes titles and names can become somewhat of a obstacle, which is why I like all these new "genres" that are emerging, it allows for more creative freedom. But I digress, Machine Drum!! JUKE!!!
So, he made this amazing mix of a shitload of juke/ghettotek classics for the LuckyMe crew and called it, appropriately;
He then proceeded to put out an album on LuckyMe [in 2010] called, "Many Faces LP," where he blends his own style of neon bass music with the future sounds coming out of the UK right now and also includes tracks like "Lemme F_ck It," that proves he fully understands what it means to make a footwerk classic!
Somehow, in the midst of all this sweaty juked out madness he still had time to create yet ANOTHER project of a completely different nature: SEPALCURE!
Sepalcure is a collaborative project between Travis Stewart [Machinedrum] & Praveen Sharma [Praveen & Benoit]. Their beats bubble with funky 2-step vibes and ooze tropical bass riddims that would make even the shyest party-goer forget their manners and slide out on the dance floor. That being said, these same tunes make perfect soundtracks for rainy afternoons and lonely nights.
Sitting around on a proper lazy feeling Sunday, I was hooking up my home girl with some fresh tunes for her daily commutes when I remembered this...
Which got me to thinking about (and now) doing some posts of older releases I would like to encourage all of you to look into as they have been the soundtrack to many of my most amazing adventures, travels, bus rides, nights in the studio, rhythms to my life etc. Maybe you'll get to know me a little better, and maybe these musical pasts will help us understand where music is going today and into the future, as well as small anecdotes about my personal experience with them.
I first heard "Funcrusher Plus" when around the time Patch was teaching me how to spin vinyl. It was either down in his musical basement cave, standing on massive piles of old NME, Rolling Stone, AP, and XLR8R mags that had spilled all over then place under the decks that I put this on, or perhaps at my place. He did so much for me, letting me borrow his decks, bringing over more and more stacks of records for me to practice with, and this was one that I found and fell in love with. Even after he took his decks and I got my own and started building my collection of 12"'s, I kept this one in my stacks cuz I just loved bumpin the fuck out of it, pissin off my neighbors as I jammed as many speakers in my apartment as I had power for.
This is another of Patch's vinyls "I couldn't find" when he was over to take records back to his place. Also, with all the hype recently on the evolution of broken beat music and.......dubstep....... I thought I might toss this one out there for you guys to see what was "progressive" 12 years ago. Here's one of my favorites, the title also relevant to my lazy ass today.
I know the quality is shite at the drop, but maybe that will prompt you to buy it, here.
Tune in next time for more favorites, gotta get back to new stuff for obvious reasons. Off to the record store to buy music when I should be buying food (I HAVE GOT to hear Jahbulon, really been waiting on that on it), going to get better at dumpstering real quick.
I was in the woods this weekend? I musta made everyone really sick of this song because I played this (and these crazy new Chris Brown/Benny Bennassi track) like over and over. These two songs have a lot to do with what is going to be "my" big project for the site... The Present State of the Mainstreaming Of Electronica... sounds like a masters thesis doesn't it?
UPDATE: Apparently we are so damn popular that we can't post shit we didn't get cleared because someone is always looking... therefore the song got pulled. What's up Universal? How are you guys doing? It's nice to know we got an audience so quickly :)
But seriously... is this badass song less awesome because the Beeb is on it? Is the Beeb cooler because people like 'Ye are getting him on their tracks?
And while you're thinking about that is it permissible to be listening to Chris Brown (you know, the guy who beat the fuck out of his super hot girlfriend Rihanna) if Bennassi wrote a scorcher of a radio house track?
Are you gonna cringe and switch teams when that Rusko & Britney Spears track shows up? Or if Diplo takes a couple more mainstream remixes, or productions, are you gonna forsake him (especially after the Blackberry commerical)?
I just put it out there because hip-hop, pop music, and electronica have become a soupy mess that I'm gonna try to pull apart over the next month or so (I wrote a paper about hip-hop and rave culture in the early 2000's that I need to find lol)... although I've gotta admit Simon Reynolds really should be the one writing it. Probably already wrote it lol...
"Dripping with the glitter and bright lights of the original track from Patrick Wolf "The City," Richard X's rework adds mid low synth frequencies and funky drums but maintains all the luster of the mainstream pop ballad. A sure win on the dance floor, especially ones frequented by those in search of angst and flashy lycra ensembles."
A bit of press here for the uninitiated... I thought Patrick Wolf was retiring?!?!
PATRICK WOLF TO RELEASE NEW SINGLE “THE CITY” ON MARCH 14TH 2011, FOLLOWED BY NEW ALBUM IN MAY
2011 UK HEADLINE TOUR ANNOUNCED
“Britain’s most innovative, radical and creative pop star”
The Observer
“…it lasts for four amazing minutes and nine amazing seconds. It is dramatic and romantic and we love it…the new Patrick Wolf single is a triumph and maybe even something of a career high. Hurrah.”
Popjustice
“The lead single from his fifth album, this is a quick-step ballad of strings and piano. Welcome back, Pat”
NME
“All hail the crown prince of alt-pop, then, who makes a dashing return with new material that’s romantic, urban and urbane”
Metro
“Suckers for pop heartbreak, handclaps and big violiny bits, consider yourself warned: not only is this POTW, it’s (Time Of My Life)shimmying up the Singles Of The Year”
The Guardian
Fresh out the studio, Patrick Wolf announces a brand new set of shows to take place across the UK in March 2011. After the storming success of his last single ‘Time Of My Life’, Patrick is now gearing himself up for what are sure to be some of his finest live performances yet.
Patrick’s new album is due for release in May 2011 through brand new label, Hideout Recordings, and will be preceded by second single “The City”, on March 14th 2011. The new single will be available for download and on limited edition 7”, with a selection of remixes available on limited edition 12”.
Discussing the new single, Patrick says: “The City’ saved my life. Living in central London, I woke up one broody morning having booked some studio time. It was a hot summers day and in the midst of the protests against the banks and BBC6 Music closing down. Seeing how the recession had worked its way into peoples relationships and ambitions, I went to my piano and started to fight against the negative by writing in the positive.”
Further details on the album will be announced shortly.
Full dates are as follows – tickets are on sale now:
21-Mar Dublin Sugar Club / www.ticketmaster.ie
23-Mar Glasgow Oran Mor / www.gigsinscotland.com
24-Mar Nottingham Rescue Rooms / www.alt-tickets.co.uk
25-Mar Birmingham Academy / www.ticketweb.co.uk
26-Mar Manchester Club Academy / www.livenation.co.uk
28-Mar Bristol Thekla / www.alt-tickets.co.uk
29-Mar London Koko / www.livenation.co.uk
For more information about Patrick see the newly re-launched www.patrickwolf.com
The topic here is FREE music. There have been loads of released recently and the most most most recent one is The Streets: "Cyberspace and Reds" which came out in the last 48 hours. If you scan that with your smartphone you're one step closer to having this free album! I had JUST been thinking "I wonder what Mr Skinner has been up to" as it has been a couple minutes since Everything Is Borrowed which was brilliant and a sort of understated record compared to his previous outings. The Streets – Cyberspace & Reds (Mixtape) by Hypetrak The first track comes bursting out with Kano in tow (who I got to see with Gorillaz, who we will also be talking about, this Summer) with "Came In Through The Door", a bouncing 2-step/grime/dubstep killer setting the pace for a wicked mixtape. I'm going to admit I don't actually know anything about the instrumentals on this album... they are probably well known tracks as opposed to unmastered originals from The Beats label (a la "G.O.O.D. Fridays" from KanYe West) although they could be? If anyone knows please say something in the comments or send an email! "Don't Hide Away" is totally single worthy with Wiley, Rinse, and Ice Kid and if this song is any indicator of what Skinner's new album witll be like? He's gonna have a MONSTER on his hands.
Speaking of monsters... Frankmusik put out the wicked psychological-issue-dancefloor-killer "The Fear Inside" at the end of 2010 priming us for a new album from Monsieur Vincent Frank Turner (a fav of sister blog In Search Of Arcadia). Since the dude spits out amazing tracks, with the frequency that the rest of us have bad ideas, he offered up Long Live Frankmusik EP here in January... and it's a good smattering of tracks to let newbies know what he's all about. It's hard to single out which track is best as he seemingly intentionally grabbed a bunch of tracks that have little similarity to one another in hopes of appealing to a broad audience. A track that cannot be ignored is "Our Discovery", the Daft Punk homage that works in the name of just about every track they've ever written as the lyrics to the song... this leads to it being a tad silly at times, as he tries to string together every title, but the ingenuity of the track is so striking that any silliness is quickly forgotten. The other tracks "Hurt You Again" (an introspective ballad reminiscent of the best moments on his debut), "Warrior" (a piano driven track that feels like a moody version of "Wonder Woman"), and the Digiraattii produced track "Hate Your Love" (which fans have anxiously been awaiting since a Youtube leak over a year ago, that reminds us of another recent killer collabo with Computerclub called "Losing Streak") paint a picture of what Frankmusik has been up to in between the final single off Complete Me and new single "The Fear Inside" and it's, undoubtedly, a promising glance into what his next album might sound like. As far as "free" goes this is VERY generous... but even if it had been $4 it still would be worth every penny so I suggest you go get it while you can... get it here (as apparently he took it down since I downloaded it last week) and get BRAND new track "Steroworld" here (which is part of Long Live Frankmusik PT 2). Here's a free one from a while ago you may have forgotten about... it's perfect though... Frankmusik - Confusion Girl (Russ Chimes Remix) by Russ Chimes
ISoA favs Klaxons also put out a killer EP for X-Mas that die hard fans had been eagerly awaiting for quite sometime. As titles for songs destined for Surfing The Void came out many fans made note of the names so they could look for changes between inception and completion (for example: "Valley Of The Calm Trees" not being called "The Parhelion"). If memory serves correctly Landmarks Of Lunacy are left over tracks from working with Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford... and are nothing short of brilliant (P4K diagreed giving the EP 5.7 I think). They are certainly more subdued than most of Surfing The Void but they are no less good. I can see why they were omitted because within the album they wouldn't have made much sense... but as their own collection of songs they take on a certain gravity, if you will, that strengthens each song substantially. Better said: As a whole these songs work well played one after another which they wouldn't have in another environment. Putting them in this order, in this format, at this time was the perfect way to deal with these excess tracks. They could have given it away with "this weeks" NME, or they could have been gimmicky and done a Radiohead asking you to steal/pay for it, or they simply could have asked you to pay for it lol... But by giving away high quality songs, that are in no way throwaway tracks, perfectly sequenced with no price tag, they effectively bought the on going affection of existing fans and perhaps the new found appreciation of skeptics? Anyway you cut it they are wonderful songs with "Silver Forest" standing out as my favourite. Really though they are all wonderful and should be listened to back to back as often as possible :) Klaxons - Landmarks of Lunacy EP by acid stag
Lastly there is The Fall from Gorillaz which was made during, well, the fall lol... it can be downloaded here... During autumn Gorillaz were touring this fair nation and were really taken by the U.S. so Damon made a whole album with an iPad! Each track is named after the cities they toured in (so "Detroit" and "Shytown" are my favs as they are the two closest to me... I went to the Chicago show and it was beyond words). The songs are very short but any offering from Gorillaz is bound to be interesting so I don't even need to tell you much about it lol... but in case you needed info here's some from Wiki:
"The Fall is an album from British alternative group Gorillaz. The album was officially announced on December 20, 2010[1] and soon after released on December 25, 2010 as a free download on the Gorillaz website, exclusively to fans in the band's Sub-Division fan club. The entire album was recorded on group founder Damon Albarn's Apple iPad, during the American leg of the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour in October 2010, and mixed in England by Stephen Sedgwick. The "Phoner to Arizona" music video, a compilation of footage and images taken from the tour and the phase was posted on YouTube on December 22. Damon Albarn has announced plans for the album to see a physical release in January or February 2011." Gorillaz - The fall by revolutioncontemporaine
Physical release huh? Reminds me of Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV or whatever that was called. Perhaps I need to revisit that slice of free music as I know nothing about it despite having it...
Since I've written all this about free music... do you download free music only to never bother listening to it? I mean I downloaded that NIN album but I probably listened to 5 minutes of it? Same thing with the last Girl Talk album... it gave me "Radiohead style options" and I downloaded it saying "I'll pay for it if I like it" and, again, I probably listened to like 5 minutes and then was bored with it. So, again, I pose the question... do you usually listen to free music? Does it age well like fine wine, or does it go bad like a keg of Milwaukee's Best at a frat house between Thanksgiving and Christmas?
I can tell you all these EPs/albums/offerings that I've gone over in this post have my full attention and I give them all a strong 5 star rating or I wouldn't have posted them and associated myself or my blogs with them! But I'm interested as to what you think of these albums and other free albums... so please leave comments...
Zander brought to my attention there are other free digital comps from Skream, Nastynasty, Terror Danjah, The Butterz Crew... and Tyler reminded me of M.I.A.'s "Vicki Leekx" mixtape and other killers like "kills" by jj... so there are obviously other killers... what have you been listening to (other than the HOLY GRAIL of free recordings KanYe West's G.O.O.D. Fridays; a free album almost as good as it's non-free counterpart My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy *perhaps the greatest album ever written*...
Let us know what's up! We love you and want to know about other free shit! Get at us! NLC REPRESENT!
We have all heard that country cover of Snoop's, "Gin&Juice," and yeah, we laughed. Maybe you have even heard Cake covering the disco classic, "I will survive." But this is on another level.
Part remix, part cover. Part pop music, part hip-hop. Entirely amazing!
jj is an electro-pop duo living and making their magic in sweden. Earlier this year they toured with The XX and their debut album [jj no. 2] was included in Pitchfork's Best New Music list in 2009 and received a solid 8.6 rating. Their most recent release is the hip-hop&pop sampling, spaced out, angel voiced mixtape entitled, "kills." Basically they remix/cover a bunch of pop and rap music. I may be biased, but my favorite track is the Dr. Dre sampling, "Still." Not much introduction needed for this track, just sit back, blaze it up for the West and enjoy this hipop music!
I am the newest member of the NeonLightsCrew[NLC!!] and I am here to share some things with you.
I LOVE BASS MUSIC.
So, with that being said, shall we begin??
I would like to start things off the right way, with some bubbly, tropical, future bass.
Just the way I like it.
This track comes from HxdB aka hexadecibel who makes his beats in Vancouver, Canada.
And his shit is ILL!
It's got that garage feel, nice and funky. But still delves deep into the bass realm.
This song, titled "Tropezoid", is a collaboration with fellow producer Self Evident and is set to be released on Kastle'snew label sometime early this year.
Hey everyone! Nice to be back on the blogatron, let's start from the beginings, these tracks were some of the ones that got me into this beautiful mess......
Ty turned me onto this and it's brilliant. I wish I could pretend like I knew about him since before he ever started writing music but alas no... not that cool... but the song is!
Sort of reminds me of this feel yeah?
Tyler has been turning me onto these mixtapes, as well, which he says are genius so I thought I'd share with you! These came from Alteredstates.com. I also wanted to mention I read on that site that the lead singer of Broadcast died... so in honor I post my fav Broadcast song too! oOoOO: "Favorite Discoveries of 2010" by alteredzones
Once my ex-girlfriend's parents went to their lake house for the weekend... so we threw a rager. I mean a real rager. Like a house full of kids, and research chemicals, and a hot tub time machine and stuff lol. Eventually everyone cleared out, and just as I'm getting my bearings in the morning I hear the garage door go up. I had to hide in my girl's closet until her parents weren't looking........ and I'll always remember I was listening to Broadcast's"The Noise Made By People" the whole time I was in that closet. Here's a track from it:
Random post of songs I'm relaxing to... nothing new... but who fucking cares?
I feel a real closeness to this song. A lot of people think it's negative? I don't! They're just really honest lyrics. "I might not be the right one, it might not be the right time" does NOT mean "I don't love you"... in fact in means the opposite in this clip... "I need you more than anyone in my life"...
Apparently there is no real video for this... this is someone's home video... but the song is what we were looking for. Also check out Diplo's 2010 remix...
And then I'm not usually into live shit... but I met Tricky on this tour and his performance was amazing. Did you know he wanted Aaliyah to sing this song? And that the song is roughly about Biggie and 2pac? Oh yeah, and he's a nice bloke Tricky... you always hear he's a paranoid prick but he hung out with me for like 10 minutes smoking in an alley... for a 16 year old that's a big deal lol. I just happened to have EVERY album of his on me. He signed em all, I kept one, gave one to my best friend, the boy he wanted to sleep with, and eventually my ex-girlfriend. Anyway, I digress...
I've been on a non-stop Kanye West kick. Whenever I say that people are like "He's an arrogant asshole" and I'm like "Yeah he should be, he's like a super genius! Fuck Einstein should have acted like Kanye, in fact he probably did!"...
If you haven't seen his epic, albeit slightly flawed (just the editing really before the end) Runaway movie you need to peep that before we go forward...
So anyway... the Kanye "Lights" songs... I think they're my favourites. No huge surprise right? I mean the blog is called "Neon Lights" right? It's even a topic that I end up having these weird long conversations about with artists (most notably Kenna; some high school students out there have a copy of that interview which I really wish I had). I just think lights change everything about atmosphere, and how you feel... go look at a nightclub during the day when there are no lights and then come back at night... or take a look at Tokyo at day and at night you know? Lights can be full of emotion or icy cold nothingness. So, anyway, this is why these Kanye songs really do it for me..........
The first was the soul baring "Flashing Lights" about him cheating on his girl, getting caught, begging for her back, and realizing he's lost everything (but still hasn't given up his ego).
Here was the non-violent version:
Then we have "Street Lights"... Kanye's accepting where he's at in an album that is full of loss and turmoil (coming to terms with his ego)...
And lastly there's the brilliant new "All Of the Lights" which has like 20 people singing on it... and is the most recent in his series of songs dedicated to the symbolism of lights. He gets a little more specific in this one...
No official video yet but it's pretty obvious this will be a single:
Anyway I think he's done a great job at creating a thematic thread through his last few albums that explain, or expose, his artistic and personal positions. Plus they're all badass songs you want to listen to over and over. Or at least I do.
I want to point out that it's hilarious, one of the only posts on this blog in the last few years was also about Kanye West... but why do I care?!? I run this bitch! Anyway this was just a ramble... I'm trying to get used to writing and I'd rather do it over here at this relatively "virgin" blog than my "baby" ISoA.
I do hope for this blog to get a make over and a team of badass people working on this... and we're getting close! So keep your eyes and ears fixed on this spot and hopefully the next post won't be able Kanye West... again lol...
So kiddies... this blog has been on ice for quite some time. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it as I was focusing mainly on the British stuff...
...but since then there has been loads of non-Brit stuff that I haven't really had a place to post... until now!
Neon Lights is going to have some new authors, a new "coat of paint" on the layout, and perhaps a move to a proper domain. IN FACT if you've ever wanted to write for a blog and you think you have what it takes wellllllllllllll... now might be the time to join up!
Now this is British but I thought it fit well over here. My mate Hostage did a very wicked dubstep remix of the Requiem For A Dream theme ("Lux Aetera" written by Clint Mansell and performed by the Kronos Quartet), called "Requiem", which is just a dancefloor KILLER! Here it is to shatter your speakers... Hostage - Requiem by HOSTAGE
