Babe Rainbow’s “Screwed” Mixtape + Interview

August 11th, 2010

If you’ve ever woken from a dream with the feeling that something is incredibly wrong or seen occult-like scratchings engraved into a tree in the woods near your house, you likely have some idea how the new Babe Rainbow “Screwed” mixtape sounds. Saying it gets in your head and stays there is somewhat of an understatement.

I talked to Babe Rainbow (aka Cameron Reed) about what influenced him to make this creepy-as-hell chopped & screwed magnus opus. Plus, download the entire Screwed Mixtape and a bonus Freddie Gibbs cut after the jump.

Interview by Brendan Arnott, my text in bold.

“Screwed” takes on rappers from a lot of different sides of hip hop. Seeing a Gravediggaz track chopped & screwed might not come as a surprise to a lot of people because of their connection to pioneering creepy hip hop, whereas the same can’t really be said about Soulja Boy. What factors determined who you remixed?

I just picked a handful of songs by artists I had been listening to lately, plus one request (Soulja Boy). I’ve been going back into old Lil Wayne tapes and the new Big Boi got me hyped on re-listening to early Outkast. I consciously chose to have a mix between the classic and the new. It would be pretty lame if I just screwed up the XXL Freshmen 10, right? I mean, I’m listening to all that Wiz Khalifa and Freddie Gibbs and all that but it would feel weird if I didn’t pay my respects to what I grew up listening to.

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Producer Q&A- Untold

June 6th, 2010

The Bass Music Blog did a nice Q&A with London’s Untold for his latest sample pack with Loopmasters. You can read the full interview HERE, plus a preview of his loop package.

Very pleased this week to be able to introduce this producer Q&A from one of the producers I admire most in the scene; Untold. You don’t need me to tell you how he’s managed to get himself to the top of the bass music tree without stooping to cheese, populism, or any sort of compromise whatsoever – it’s inspiring. This week sees the launch of his new sample pack with Loopmasters, which is called ‘Dubstep Producer’. It’s out now, so go and check it out; or peep a few demo loops below. I’ll be doing a full review of the pack when I get a minute…

How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?

First off I write the concept down in a notebook. This is usually bullet points with
descriptions of the mood, other tunes or periods I’m referencing for inspiration, sometimes even beat pattern scrawled out in a similar style to a piano roll in the sequencer. Even if I don’t get anything done when I go to the sequencer I’ve got a book full of ideas for later use that are great for skimming through when I’m stuck on a tune. Once I’ve got a clear concept I’ll gather appropriate samples and build synth patches. I usually start sequencing with drums, but try and get them down quick and move on to the bassline. Sometimes I’ll get the rough rhythm down using temporary sounds, like a 909 kit, then replace the drum hits once I’ve got the bassline working with the rhythm.

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Mixpak Interview Series: DJ Gina Turner (Plus a bonus HellzBellz Mix!)

May 14th, 2010

One of my favourite things about DJ Gina Turner is her ability for musical versatility. Able to blend classic house sounds with new material without any dischord, Gina opts to skip focusing exclusively on “the big thing of the day” or blog haus trends. Instead, her sets weave together narratives honoring the sometimes forgotten 4am basement house jams that have carried dance music to where it is now.

2010 has brought great things for her as well- a standout single on Sound Pellegrino as half of the multiculturally dope dance outfit Nouveau Yorican, and the recent Morena Mix, created live on two CD-Js in one take.

Pulling some serious power moves these days, Gina is about to release the second Nouveau Yorican single “Jackit” on  May 27th through MixMash Records, backed by some powerful Drop The Lime and Tony Senghore remixes.

I got a chance to ask Gina a bit about the past, present & future of dance music. Also included is a free mix for New York sexploitation fashion label HellzBellz!

Questions by Brendan Arnott (my text in bold).

Teki Latex called your last release “A modern take on New York’s Puerto Rican artistic identity seen through the eyes and ears of an asian Dutch house virtuoso and a half-sicilian/half-latino part-time NYC, part-time LA resident” but puts a question mark at the end of it, kind of like he’s stumped about how to label it. How would you label your sound?

Well being a born and raised New Yorker, you are in a melting pot of cultures for sure, when going into making Boriqua with Luke, I brought everything that inspired me growing up in the NY House scene. The jacking sound mixed with Latin flavor, we also wanted to bridge the gap between the underground house scene and of course the big room house scene that’s so relevant in NY.

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Mixpak Interview Series: LOL Boys

April 27th, 2010

I am still wondering whether LOL Boys are real, or intricately constructed androids with a penchant for head throbbing, game changing percussive dance music. A  quick google search will give you an idea of how expansive their remix work has been over the past year, with an arsenal mainstream R&B re-edits to spine crumpling drum patterns overtop indefinable dance anthems of the future.

But who exactly are these two strange musicians? Real people, or a manifestation of the internet becoming aware of its own existence and using that consciousness to start making dance music?

These two mystical overseers of the web took a moment to shoot the breeze about influences, forthcoming work, (never) forgetting about Dr. Dre, and also provided us with a fantastic mix of exclusive club music – much of which I can absolutely guarantee that you have never heard in your life.

Interview by Brendan Arnott (my text in bold)

For those on the internet who don’t know – who are LOL Boys and how did they start making music together?

We met through a music message board.  We were both into each other’s music and thought “Why not try something together for this remix competition?” We liked how it came out, so we continued to work together. So, basically, the whole concept behind LOL Boys was like, to exist on the internet… to make music over the internet sending parts back and forth, try something different.  It’s an ongoing collaboration. We’ve made beats where we’re in the same room but normally we’re about two thousand miles apart.

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Mixpak Interview Series: NGUZUNGUZU

March 31st, 2010

I’m not even going to try to describe what LA-based NGUZUNGUZU sound like… to be honest, I don’t have a clue. Instead, I’d suggest that you give their independent deut EP a listen, which is available for free on their website… hopefully it will transport you to another universe within your mind where you can give it a meaningful description of your own.

I spoke to both NGUZUs (Asma & Daniel) just before they drove twenty four hours to SXSW, and they talked a bit about their tremendous vision- community, taking pride in being weird, plans to overthrow the status quo and create a new virtual reality world of future club music.

At request of the Nguzus, I have included both their responses under the same NGUZU heading. So even though there is only one “NGUZU” responding to my questions, there are three people in the interview. Got it? Cool, it only gets weirder from here.

Interview by Brendan Arnott (my text in bold).

What can you tell us about the origins of NguzuNguzu?

NGUZU: Origins? As in, how we started out? Or our name?

Both would be great. Maybe a bit about when you started making music together and what inspired the type of music you’re making.

NGUZU: Well, we started making beats together for fun on cassette tape. Super improvised with no edits, really raw live takes with mpc 2000 classic and keyboards. We made mixtapes that were always sort of dancey or raw beats that you could bump hard in your Chevy. Our friends really responded to these tapes and we began using Ableton and started sending stems to each other via emails. We compiled like 30 tracks onto cdr from cassette and sent it out to some people. Kingdom got a hold of one and we’ve been friends ever since.

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Mixpak Interview Series: Egyptrixx

March 17th, 2010

I once bumped into Egyptrixx as I was getting off the subway on my way to a tutoring job. Recognizing him immediately as the disobedient-dubstep-turned-global-gutter-house DJ hailing from Toronto, I quickly tried to think of something nice I could fit into the two second time period before he passed me and got on the subway. Nothing came, sadly. However, a few months later, I got in touch with him through Mixpak to talk about his eclectic connections to music, Night Slugs, pho, overwrought heavy metal, grad school, and breaking down barriers in dance music.

2010 has already been a notable breakout year for Egyptrixx with the release of an outstanding EP, “The Battle For North America“, and all indications show that he’s just beginning to pick up steam.

Interview by Brendan Arnott (my text in bold)

Untold, who you recently played with here in Toronto, said something I really like: “I hope dubstep continues to be hard to pin down, disobeys its manifesto, gets called stupid names, gatecrashes other scenes, and spikes the punch, elopes, and has lots of children”.  Do you feel similarly about your own music?

Egyptrixx: Haha, yes absolutely. What a great quote.

It’s quite comparatively easy and cheap to make electronic/club music right now.  The software is cheap if you decide to pay for it at all, the distribution methods are largely digital and similarly cheap. These are pragmatic excuses to be experimental, of course there are intellectual reasons as well. It’s amusing to me that everything beyond the traditional guitar/bass/drums/piano configuration is considered experimental or electronic, because even those amplified instruments were considered alien and experimental in the 60’s when they first started popping up. Sonic experimentation is as much a part of making music as coming up with a clever way to say “I love my girlfriend, it sucked when she dumped me”.

Read the full interview below »

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Mixpak Interview Series: Mosca

January 25th, 2010

mosca

It is 2010, bloggers and music fans have no idea how to describe anything anymore, and UK based Deejay Mosca sure isn’t making it easy. While Dan Hancox of the Guardian says that his music inpsires “a sense of epic grandeur befitting global house, shuddering dub echoes straight from Jamaica, Latino percussion and still undeniably UK”, I am still somewhat in the dark about what exactly comprises the hybrid sound that Mosca is putting forth in his Night Slugs Label debut “Square One EP”. I caught up with Mosca to talk about “ethno techno”, q-tips and the future of pirate radio over Gmail chat, here are the results.

Interview by Brendan Arnott, my text in bold.

Mixpak: A lot of people are gaining awareness of who you are through your debut release on the new Night Slugs label, but what have you been doing prior to this release? Can you talk about your origins in making this kind of ‘genre destroying’ music?

Mosca: I did a remix of Tempz’s “Next Hype” about a year ago, a kinda Baltimore rub with those UK funky strings off reason. I put that up on my blog and it got played on Rinse.FM and a few other places. So some guys called Kry Wolf got in touch and asked for a B-more remix of one of their first tunes, their first release on their new label called Sounds of Sumo. The tune that got put out was called “Mucky”. So that was my debut I guess, but not an original production.

So you started off as a producer before you were making the transition to DJing at clubs?

Yeah, definitely. I started with drum machines when i was about 15, I was in a band with Unknown Soulja and we didn’t have a drummer so got a drum machine, then started making jungle and hip hop and experimental stuff.  I got into DJing at University, about five years ago, but the production thing has meant way more bookings.

Read the full interview below »

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Mixpak Interview Series: Renaissance Man

December 23rd, 2009

Renaissance Man

They’re everything most men wish they could be: dapper, sophisticated, modern, and really, REALLY good at making a new genre of house music that has the world enthralled, ecstatic and confused, all at the same time. They’re also secretly a new breed of super-human warriors who can survive being submerged in lava and can go weeks without sleep. Okay, so the last part wasn’t true, but geeez, Renaissance Man have one of the most impressive work ethics I’ve heard of in years.

They describe themselves as “a platform for contemporary dance music” and 2009 saw a rush of new users embrace the platform. With an onslaught of remixes for Turbo, Kitsune, several classy bootcuts, and EPs on Dubsided and Sound Pellegrino, Renaissance Man arrived in style.

Scandinavian upstarts Martti (Jaxxon) and Ville (Downtown) took some time while they were in the studio to talk about the resurgance of open minded dance music. [Note: this interview took place several months back, apologies for our delay in posting.]

Brendan: What are some of your first memories and experiences of house music?

Jaxxon: The city where I used to live in Finland when I was younger called Turku had a very vibrant house scene in the 90’s. The whole late 90’s deep house thing hit me hard.

Downtown: Yeah, same here. I started feeling it in the late 90s.

Jaxxon: Actually we are now working in the studio one of the O.G Finnish house guys, Sasse, aka Freestyle Man in Berlin.

Read the full interview below »

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