Fall Tour Announcements: BassNectar, SBTRKT, Alex Grey & Up Until Now feat. Special Guests

Mark your calendars! Several events have recently been announced, and for two of them tickets go on sale this Friday.

Alex Grey & Up Until Now
Thursday, September 20th - Highline Ballroom
Tickets (available 9/13) - $25-$30

In a rare joint music and artistic collaboration Alex Grey will be collaborating with fellow psychedelic artists Mars-1, Oliver Vernon and Damon Soule to accompany Up Until Now featuring David 'Murph' Murphy of STS9, and Jon The Barber of the Disco Biscuits. I've personally had the pleasure of seeing Up Until Now perform with Murph at Camp Bisco X, and it was easily one of my favorite sets of the weekend. Here is a video of them performing together in the Good Life Village VIP at this year's Electric Forest Festival. 

SBTRKT (LIVE)

Thursday, October 11th - Terminal 5
Tickets (available 7/27) - $32-$35

SBTRKT was one of last year's surprise acts. Donning a mask, the anonymous DJ revealed himself to London-based DJ Aaron Paul. Now SBTRKT performs live with singer and fellow producer Sampha. I managed to see them perform last year at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and their rich, vibrant sound left me hungry for more. It will be interesting to see what they've come up with over the past year. Here is a video of SBTRKT featuring Sampha performing their song "Trials of the Past" live at Abbey Road.

BassNectar
Friday, November 16th - The Wellmont Theatre (feat. Gramatik & Gladkill)
Tickets (available 7/27) - $40-$45
Saturday-Sunday, November 17th-18th - Terminal 5 (feat. GRiZ & Gladkill)
Tickets (available 7/27) - $40-$45

It seems that Lorin Ashton, aka BassNectar is incapable of slowing down. After a successful album launch with Vava Voom, a hectic summer festival schedule which will soon be taking him to Europe, he's just announced his Fall 2012 North American Tour. Supporting him on this ambitious ride will be Gramatik, GRiZ and Gladkill. The tour still has a few "surprise dates," but will be finishing up in the New York area with 1 show in Montclair, NJ at the Wellmont Theatre, and 2 back to back nights at Terminal 5 in NYC.

Song Of The Day: Archnemesis - Every Man For Himself

Archnemesis have just released the titular-first track from their forthcoming album Every Man For Himself. The album, their third release after Peoples Radio and Diamond & Glass EP will be released for free on their website on September 4th.

Archnemesis - Every Man For Himself


Archnemesis is currently touring the South and Mid-Atlantic U.S., and had recently performed at this month's Camp Bisco XI in Mariaville, NY. If you missed them, they will be performing in Woodstown, NJ at the Mint Green Music Festival on August 25th.

Song Of The Day: Goldroom - Pacific

Los Angeles-based producer Goldroom, aka Josh Legg has just released a new track called "Pacific," which is also featured on the Scion A/V Presents: Swimming with Sharks - Sharkwaves Vol. 2 Mixtape.



This instrumental track captures the carefree spirit of Summertime nicely. Goldroom also recently released his Verano Mix 2012 just last month, and like all of his mix tapes it is available to download for free right here.



Goldroom will be performing a late show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on August 24th at the Glasslands Gallery with Body Language (DJ Set) and AIMES (DJ Set). Tickets are $5 advance or $10 at the door, and doors open at 11:30PM.

New Release: Kill the Noise - Roots Remixed EP

Two years ago, Jake Stanczak, aka Kill the Noise, teamed up with Craze to form Slow Roast Records and put out their first release Roots EP. Today as a tribute to this original EP, they are releasing Roots Remixed EP, featuring remixes from Kill the Noise, as well as Brillz, Torro Torro, Codes, Will Bailey and Kastle Slow Motion.  Here is a release from their website:

"Just over 2 years ago Craze and I started Slow Roast Records together to share both our own music and music we believe in from rising stars all over the world. Our first record release was my "Roots EP". I worked my ass off on that record! I wrote half of it in my hometown, ROchester, NY, and half of it as soon as I moved out here to Los Angeles. That record is special to me for a lot of reasons, mostly because it marked the moment I decided to start taking my music production much more seriously. Obviously it also marked the beginning of Slow Roat Records and my partnership with Craze. I decided that it might be fun to revisit "Roots" and get some others involved too! It's no exaggeration when I say that everyone involved in the making of "Roots Remixed" is a friend of mind! We've all spent time out on the road together or in the studio over the course of many years. That really makes this all the more meaningful!"

In addition to 2010's Roots EP, Kill the Noise also released the single "Kill Kill Kill" in 2008 on Nitrus Records, 2011's Kill Kill Kill EP on Skrillex's Owsla Records, and collaborated with Korn & Skrillex on 2011's "Narcissistic Cannibal." Kill the Noise's style has evolved steadily from Deep/Electro-House to Dubstep, as his following has grown considerably in that time. It is always interesting to see how an artist like hones their sound over the course of a few short years. Below you'll find a sampler of the remixes from the upcoming release: 

Roots Remixed EP is available today on Beatport.

Friday 7/20/12 - Last.fm Live in NYC : Blondes, Telepathe (DJ), Andy Petr and TEZEO

Tonight, Friday July 20th, Last.fm will be curating an event at Santos Party House featuring performances by Brooklyn natives Blondes and Telepathe, as well as Andy Petr, and Tezeo. For many years, Last.fm has been one of my most trusted resources for tour dates, bios, and exposure to new artists, so it is nice to see them getting into the event production side of things. Here is a rundown of the artists:

Blondes

The Brooklyn-based duo of Sam Haar and Zach Steinman will be headlining the event. I had the opportunity to see them perform a DJ set last year at Brooklyn Bowl on May 13th, and despite the lackluster attendance, they exceeded my expectations. They seamlessly blended their own style of deep house with some slightly more upbeat electro/progressive house tracks, and had everyone in the venue moving. Their most recent release was the EP Lover/Hater on RVNG in March of 2011.



Telepathe (DJ Set)

Another Brooklyn-based group, Telepathe is made up of Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais and formed in 2004. Their laptop-electronica style focuses heavily on electronic percussion and a synth-pop style. Their most popular track, "So Fine," comes from their first full length album, 2009's Dance Mother which was co-produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio.

Additional support includes Milwaukee-based Andy Petr whose track "Yesterday" from his new EP Obsession was recently featured in XLR8R. Finally we have the elusive TEZEO, who recently announced a forthcoming EP and have several tracks on their SoundCloud page including the demo track "Friends." Their style meshes well with the overall feel of the evening, and it will be nice to have an unknown variable in the mix.

Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door. The show starts at 7:00PM.

Remixes I Like Better Than The Originals - Part 2

Today I will share the second part of what I hope to be a recurring series of remixes that I like better than their original songs.

Foxes - Youth (Adventure Club Dubstep Remix) vs. Original


Adele - Set Fire To The Rain (Plastic Plates Remix) vs. Original


BassNectar - Voodoo (Beats Antique Remix) vs. Original


Foster the People - Houdini (RAC Remix) vs. Original


Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) - Bibio Remix vs. Original


Special Consideration
Avicii - Levels (Skrillex Remix) vs. Original*


*Note that the now well known vocal hook from this song was sampled from Etta James' "Something's Got a Hold on Me," and was previously sampled by Pretty Lights in the 2006 track "Finally Moving." Pretty Lights used the same sample again two years later in "Finally Moving Remix," and again in 2010 in "Finally Moving James Brown Remix." It boggles my mind that such a great original hook was sampled in not one, not two, but three good songs from a solid artist, but never became widely known until it was used in a shitty house song in 2011.

Special Screening of LCD Soundsystem's "Shut Up & Play The Hits" on 7/27

If you're like me, then you were likely kicking yourself yesterday when you realized that the new film "Shut Up & Play The Hits" about LCD Soundsystem's last performance was only playing for one day. "What the hell?!" you may have thought, "How can they do this?!"

To all of those who, like me, felt they missed their one and only opportunity to relive this experience in a theatre, you may breathe a sigh of relief. Brooklyn Bowl will be holding a special screening of the film with full concert sound on Friday, July 27th and will follow the screening with a DJ set from the band's own Pat Mahoney. Tickets are $15, and the event starts at 11:59PM. 

Return from Hiatus - New Video: Lorn - Diamond

It's been about 5 months since my last post. Certain responsibilities in my day-to-day life had made it difficult to explore and share music in the way I used to when I began posting here, but I am resolved to return to the blogosphere and share as much of the new music I have uncovered, and many of the experiences I have had as well.

To start, here is a new video for the song "Diamond" off the album Ask The Dust by the U.S. artist Lorn.


Lorn - Diamond from mase on Vimeo.

My first exposure to Lorn were the remixes he did for Amon Tobin's songs "Hokkaido" and "The Clean Up" in 2011's Chaos Theory Remixed. The release showcased various Ninja Tune's artists, including Lorn, Daedelus and ESKMO, remixing tracks from Amon Tobin's 2005 critically-acclaimed soundtrack for the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory. Ninja Tune also recently curated a tent at the EDM-focused Camp Bisco Eleven on July 12-14 in Mariaville, NY, featuring numerous artists from their roster including Amon Tobin: ISAM, Daedelus, Bonobo, Blockhead, Starkey, FaltyDL and Hot Sugar.

Ask The Dust was released on Ninja Tune on June 18th.