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Category Archives: Creators
A little birdie told me (Mr. Oizo vs. Mr. Saxobeat)
Alexandra Stan (or I should say her producers Marcel Prodan and Andrei Nemirschi) could learn something from Mr. Oizo when it comes to capitalizing on a saxophone sample.
“Stan and her personnel decided to make a new song to become at least a moderate hit.” – (Mr. Saxobeat entry on Wikipedia)
I always got that sense listening to the track.
But it makes me think of Mr. Oizo’s “Patrick122″ which features a clip of Bob Forman busting out a phat sax solo at 2:41 of the song, part of the well sampled Gary’s Gang “Do It At the Disco.”
DJ SPY
Brazilian beat genius DJ SPY unleashes the potent beauty of “By Your Side” to a Calgary crowd dripping with anticipation for the cinematic oeuvre. A classic drum n’ bass tune of the modern era. It’s been my favourite of his seeming boundless stream of creativity, so I wanted to grab a video of the opening. The relatively new Ten Nightclub positively erupted when this song lit up the dancefloor on the drop. Was worthy of a rewind and it achieved this no problem. You may recognize this number from FabricLive.55, or one of your more ethereal memories. A good tune to rinse it out to, for sure.
looks realistic – where does it come from? vhs (edit)
looks realistic – where does it come from? vhs (edit) from broken machine films on Vimeo.
looks realistic
‘where does it come from?’ (edit)
vhs edition
this is a clip or two from the full 37 minute version of looks realistic’s ‘where does it come from?’ vhs edition release.
…
video by joshua rogers of
brokenmachinefilms.com…
please enjoy.
and if you do not, pass it on to someone who will.
cheers.
Annie Mac Saturates: Inside the Question
One of the most respected entities on the planet in both the worlds of dance music and broadcast news is the one and only BBC. And the two BBC Radio 1 shows I generally listen to at some point during the week are the ones presented by Pete Tong and Annie Mac.
So when I found out that Ms. Annie’s bio page was linking here to the Frequency Horizon less than a day after I randomly put up a post with a photo of her DJing at 99 Sudbury in Toronto, I almost fell off my chair. So first thing’s first, I want to welcome all you international dance music fans to the Frequency Horizon, a place where the musical spectrum collides with fantastic visual perspectives and unbounded thought.
Strangely enough, all week while I was surfing the internet and prepping other blog posts, I had the distinct pleasure of doing it to the sounds of Annie Mac herself, since she was back in Britain and covering the Nick Grimshaw show all week (or “Grimmy” as she affectionately says).
So in honour of the Olympics and thanks to BBC spreading some love round this way to the Frequency Horizon, I figured I’d also turn my gaze across the pond and toss up a pic taken by my ‘lil bro when he toured the BBC complex in England.
What you’re looking at is the interior courtyard at the BBC News complex, as I understand it. The whole building is in the shape of a giant question mark and from this vantage point you are inside of it. “The BBC” or “The Beeb” is one of the (few) journalistic establishments you can consistently point to as a source of unbiased news focused on setting the tone for world affairs. So it’s nice to see that even the architecture is decided focused on keeping the corporate functionaries inside inquisitive for life.
Whether seeking out new music or blowing up huge stories that’s probably a pretty good mantra: stay inside the question mark and everything else will follow.
ADSR – Seekae
(Via Toothsvideo)
In this episode of ADSR we meet Sydney electronic trio Seekae in their Sydney City studio.
They go through the process of writing ‘+Dome’ – their 2nd album. You’ll find out what plugins and hardware they use, how they make their loops/samples and how they bring it all together to perform live using Ableton Live.
I snagged one of Seekae’s track’s off xlr8r.com I believe a while back and it just floated through various playlists over the months. It was always one of those tunes that worked well to move between disparate genres and electronic hodge-podge. It’s always rewarding to check in on the audio craftwork of percussive synth aficionados.
“It’s hard to say what ‘live’ is really.”
“Put more compression on the snares, or whatever.”
“Our last show at the Manning Bar the fire alarm went off and it was in some of our like more uptempo hip-hop tracks. And I don’t think many people realized it was actually the fire alarm going off, because it was kind of this kind of oscillating sine wave which was excruciatingly annoying for us.”
These are the sorts of quotes you can expect from the trio.
Annie Mac @ a Canadian Warehouse
Amid the flashing lights, cerebral techno and pulsating crowd intent on getting the most out of the evening’s British music offerings, Annie Mac stepped up to the decks and gave the Canadian partiers a dose of sonic energy.
Synth Bank
Just look at all these electronic music makers. Aren’t they lovely?
Don’t they just inspire you. Don’t they just take you higher? I feel like I should write a haiku about it, except that I don’t particularly like haikus. But I think you get the point.
Basically this is a wall of possibilities… possibilities that I certainly am not afraid to explore.
Because this moment is only the beginning.
Stabbing @ the Symphonic Typewriter
Courtesy of Music Fail Blog, where they referenced Cake’s “Shadow Stabbing,” so I have included a cool fan vid I found below…
Fozzy Fest Forest Fun
During the thick heat of afternoon slick rolling kick-drum beats woven among energetic hi-hats, jet propelled synth leads and gushing bass phrasing that pumps like oxygen through the bloodstream wafts between stately mountains in this Kananaskis river valley…
Lush hillsides sway side to side along with the music as banks of cumulus clouds roar across the sky at varying altitudes. The dozen kids give or take on the top of the white bus carry on a banter with no particular direction, sunning themselves as the set progresses into the next track.
Many of the campers have no way to tell time since our cellphones have died by now and we’re miles away from the nearest outlet. But that’s just fine by us. Since the music is continuous, with thematic elements rising and falling as seamlessly and unexpectedly as the drastic changes in the thermometer courtesy of the passing cloud patchwork, it’s easy to get lost in the energetic tranquility of Fozzy Fest.
It’s like Sasha scored for Frequency Horizon
(pic via dipity fyi)
I was listening Jian G’s program Q yesterday in his new CBC studio where Philip Glass dropped by (along with Cadence Weapon who infused the listening public with slick funky rhymes) and I enjoyed how Glass talked a bit about how powerful broadcast media could be.
(Good eye/ear: The Telegraph used this pulsating still from Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance to delve into what is undoubtably Philip Glass’s best repetitive soundscape)
When he scored Koyaanisqatsi and it was played on PBS he immediately racked up more “views” (in modern parlance) in one airing than the number of people who had ever seen him live, he said.
So when I came across this gem of a mix from international superstar DJ Sasha, I couldn’t help but feel like it might make a great backing track for Frequency Horizon.
The musical narrative was originally laid down in Tokyo’s Womb Nightclub and is less the spacey trance of the Xpander era but more of a house take on his New Emissions foray. So, basically perfect. What do you think?
Psytrance Eyes
Bitter center. Adorable outlook. Psychedelic beatology. Who else do you know who’s managed to get their artistic output sponsored by their favourite music festival?
That’s right, it’s Ms. Xu, of Tea Time With Annie fame.
Plump DJs On The Way: Condescending Wonka Approves
Best electro house track I heard all week, hands down. Make that best Plump DJs song of all time as well.
And of course the video is killer. Nothing we love around these parts more than watery things squirting everywhere and people getting punched in the face, especially in slow motion.
The song has promise written all over it, considering the name Gobstopper, is sure to remind you of the best things from your childhood — namely the colourful spherical candies of the same name. And it has an air of currency, given the rise of the Condescending Wonka meme in the past half-year. When a Quickmeme page was created for the original inventor of the Gobstopper back in November 2011 there were 800 submissions in 6 weeks, according to Know Your Meme.
The video has the same cheeky optimism of the Gene Wilder character, and when I say cheeky I of course mean that literally.
The best part about the song is that it starts out with strong intensity you might anticipate from prolific producers. And your like, “cool.” A lot of electro tracks have amazing buildups. The problem with most of them is that the whole song is like that and it doesn’t actually build to anything. At least the intro section of this track is quite intricate and varied. Then you hit the :50 mark and you’re slapped in the face with the freshness of the rising synths (in the original track it’s actually a minute and 28 great seconds in) which corresponds with the first image of a water ballon popping.
So listen to the track and let me know what you think in the comment section below if you want. But more importantly, if you’re a Calgary dweller or happen to be here on vacation, definitely don’t miss out on the HiFi jam coming up May 12 featuring Sonny Chiba (below), Syrup Smugglers and, you guessed it — Plump DJs.
Be there if you want to get your face rocked off by some insanely creative frequency masters.
Art Central Painter Explores Alt Beauty
After a long day at work I decided to get off the train at a different stop to switch lines, and decided to wander into the “Art Central” complex for the first time.
After poking around a few businesses on the main floor, I ascended to the second floor where I came across a painter in the throes of artistic inspiration in the bright afternoon sunlight streaming through the skyscrapers.
The canvasses on the wall touched on a variety of themes and displayed wonderful abstractions in swirling blues, silvers and golds, and it was one of the few true spaces of serenity in the entire downtown core that afternoon certainly.
Daniel Audet walked me around the small boutique space and pointed out the pieces he was working on for his upcoming show. Currently he had been struck by alt-porn depictions of the human form that conjured up a fresh kind of beauty to the world, and he was studiously trying to capture that essence, filtering though model shots, indie galleries and self-pic pages looking for a muse or three.
He seemed to be doing a good job, updating traditional notions of the female form by tapping into the current stream of consciousness where women are finding ways to take back control of the way they are depicted online, in all forms.
The best example of this as to be his interpretation of the ishotmyself.com (obviously NSFW) participant’s juicy pomegranate squeeze photo:
It was the perfect visual respite in the center of the city.