Starting tonight, and happening each Wednesday throughout the summer, Waterfront Wednesdays will host a slew of amazing artists at Water Taxi Beach in New York (across the river from the United Nations in Long Island City). Tonight’s free first installment features Perlon artist Ark and Leonardo De La Posso, and will be followed up in the Wednesdays to come with Todd Sines, Dylan Drazen, and Thomas Murphy. Get your midweek summer groove on!
photo Josh Sisk
B-more queen Rye Rye gets the video treatment from her mentor M.I.A. on this clip for “Bang,” replete with lots of lo-fi tape effects, neon lights, and hard-hitting beats.
Who:Toddla T
Where: Sheffield, U.K.
While the hype over bassline house has already begun to subside, Toddla T’s dancehall-infused take on the sound is still revving up dancefloors on both sides of the Atlantic. The 23-year-old producer was born Tom Bell, and grew up listening to “Biggie and right boyish hip-hop,” but later opened his mind to more electronic sounds once he began sampling, and eventually playing, Sheffield’s underground rave circuit. Work in a local studio allowed Toddla T to hone his production chops, and in 2008 he started unleashing bass-heavy tracks like “Fill Up Mi Portion” and “Soundtape Killin’.” Remixes for Hot Chip, Little Boots, Ghislain Poirier, and Roisin Murphy have followed, along with a monthly residency at Fabric and an invitation to join Hervé and Sinden’s all-star Machines Don’t Care collective. He also just dropped his debut full-length, Skanky Skanky.
Listen: Grand Puba “Get It (Toddla T remix)”
Watch: Toddla T & Hervé “Shake It”
The dublab collective has been offering free films for streaming via its website as part of the the VisionVersion film series, which follows L.A.-based artists around the city. Next up? It’s none other than Busdriver, whose installment was filmed from his own vehicle as he cruises around Echo Park. Watch it here, where you can also download a version for your iPod.
Since the release of his 1999 opus Play, Moby has been busy—flirting with mainstream pop, collaborating with international superstars, and even revisiting his raver roots. Yet, for all his dabbling, none of these efforts has achieved anything approaching the success of Play. Wait for Me is unlikely to break that streak, but its somber restraint is more in line with Play than anything else he’s done recently. Recording in his home studio, Moby hasn’t started recycling old gospel samples again, but the album’s ’90s Mo’ Wax beats and sweeping strings certainly sound familiar. The folksier, female-voiced tunes are a little bland, but Wait for Me has enough bright spots to be licensed for a commercial or two.
Dancehall beatsmith Toddla T is one of four producers to get down and dirty with this cut from Brand Nubian’s Grand Puba as part of Scion A/V’s latest remix project. Injecting his mix with a heavy coat of bass, bounce, and ping, T’s spin on the track takes the cake as far as we’re concerned.
While an increasing number of aging indie musicians have made the dubious decision to enter the “music for kids” game in recent years, Japanese duo Lullatone has been assembling precious lullabies since 2002. Songs That Spin in Circles is the couple’s sixth album, albeit the first since the recent birth of their son. As always, the music is a sleepy collection of bells, chimes, and pleasantly plucked notes. Unquestionably serene, the music is nonetheless at its best when accentuated with listing vocal snippets that practically double as white noise (“A Mobile Over Your Head,” “A Merry-Go-Round in the Park”). The bossa nova guitar and gently hip-shaking percussion of “A Plastic Bag in the Wind” is another welcome diversion.
The Oakland-based rapper-producer schools us on his post-hyphy synth-hop.
Trackademicks (a.k.a. Jason Valerio) moved to the head of the class with his remix of E-40’s “Tell Me When to Go,” which gave the hyphy hit an entirely different musical context. Since then, he’s remixed everyone from J*Davey to Platinum Pied Pipers, and Honeycut to Chromeo, plus Mistah FAB, J-Stalin, Lyrics Born, Joyo Velarde, Goapele, and Pharrell. Oh, and have you heard his update of Ready For the World’s faux-Prince classic “Oh Sheila”? Ba-na-nas. Track’s also an artist in his own right, affiliated with both A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold label and Honor Roll, his Bay Area crew. Equally grounded in hip-hop and electro, his synth-based style recalls ’80s freestyle while retaining a forward-thinking, progressive approach. From his Oakland studio, he spoke about his creative process, and why he considers Tears for Fears and J. Dilla equally influential.
XLR8R: What’s your current gear set-up?
Trackademicks: I use the Ensoniq ASR-88, Roland Juno 60, the Nord Lead, two Technics 1200 turntables, and an iMac. Basically, a real low-budget pre-production-type studio—real synth-based and centered around the workstation. In the last year and a half, I’ve warmed up to soft synths. I really like the sound I get from analog gear and hardware, but software definitely helps round out situations. There’s so much you can do with it. I use Reason, too, and I’m actually about to get up on Logic. But that’s pretty much the tools that I use.
Not a whole lot of equipment.
Nope. Occasionally, I’ll have someone come in and lay some guitar down or something like that. But pretty much, the bulk of my sound is around the ASR-88, the Juno, and the Nord.
What piece of equipment could you not live without?
My studio burned down a few years ago. The first thing I got back was the Ensoniq. I had to find it. With this piece of gear, because of the onboard effects, I don’t care what [else] I need. It’s that warmth I get from it, that fat-bottomed sound.
Which of your remixes are you the most proud of?
Oh, man. At this point I’ve done so many remixes that it’s hard to say. With the remixes, I like to showcase my sound. When I work with people, I like to bring out their sound with mine. It’s kind of like a hybrid. A lot of the remixes are kind of like my pet projects. I’d have to say Violet Stars’ “Happy Hunting,” “Many Moons” for Janelle Monae… “Tell Me When to Go” remix, that one was one of my favorites. I was running around the room after I finished it.
That one brought a whole different aspect to that song that I don’t think anyone even imagined it could have.
Yeah, definitely. The Bay Area is a region that a lot of people like to confuse all the time… There’s a lot of different sounds that come out of here. That one was a sampled, hyphy-type track, but it wasn’t really hyphy—it was uptempo and energetic. There were a lot of people who didn’t like the quote-unquote hyphy sound, but they could get with that. That’s the main objective in anything I do.
Does your approach change when you’re doing a track for someone else, as opposed to a track for yourself?
Usually the songs I do for myself are just right on the spot… But when working with somebody else, I actually consider their past catalog. I consider what it is they’re trying to do for their present project. You gotta match their energy and their temperament and their feeling.
Do you consider yourself a hip-hop producer or an electronic music producer, or both?
I usually don’t put myself in categories. I will say if I had to answer that question, hip-hop, because hip-hop has grown so much nowadays. I definitely do hybrid music; you hear elements of electronic music, which is a monster in itself. You have a million types of electronic music. I can’t say that I do all of those, but definitely some house music, some electro, new wave elements. It’s definitely under the guise of hip-hop, ’cause that’s my frame of reference… I’m just trying to create something that’s worthy of all my influences.
Who are some of your production influences?
Oh, man, that’s crazy all over the board too. I definitely have to say OutKast, The Neptunes, Tears for Fears, Todd Rundgren, The Roots, Khayree from Young Black Brotha, DJ Quik, everyone from Pete Rock to Dilla—I wanted to be him when I was younger.
Who do you try not to sound like?
I try not to sound like everybody else, if that makes any sense. I try to sound not like someone who is trying to sound like somebody. Because that’s when ya lost.
Trackademicks’ remixes of J*Davey’s “Slooow” (Interdependent Media) and Boy Crisis’ “L’Homme” (B-Unique), as well as his production on Kid Sister’s Dream Date (Fool’s Gold/Downtown), are expected in the coming months.
Jack Revill (a.k.a. Jackmaster), Neil Morton (a.k.a. Nelson), and Calum Morton (a.k.a. Spencer) are the three heads behind Glasgow, Scotland’s Wireblock imprint, and for their next project, they’ve crafted a free, three-part mix to Resident Advisor’s fine site (there’s an extensive feature on the label up as well).
Download now, all ye who love electro, dubstep, techno, grime, and U.K. funky house. And then keep an eye out for our feature on the label in August’s Labels We Love issue.
Wireblock:
Part 1 – Mixed by Nelson
Redinho – Boy Racer (Wireblock/Numbers)
Cajmere – Percolator (Cajual)
Cooly G – Narst (Hyperdub)
Ghosts on Tape – Predator Mode (Roska Remix) (Wireblock)
Lil Silva – Pulse vs. Flex (White)
Emvee – Glitch Dub (Wireblock)
Part 2 – Mixed by Spencer
Roska – Feeline VIP (Stop Start Remix) (Roska Kicks and Snares)
Shake – For the Lamented (Frictional)
D Malice – Gabryelle Refix (White)
Shystie – Pull It (Ill Blu Remix) (It’s Funky)
Waxmaster – Going Down (Dance Mania)
Apple – Siegalizer (Slimting)
Manix! – Special Request (Reinforced)
DVA – Nasty Nasty Nasty (Earth 616 White)
Rustie – Bad Science (Wireblock)
Part 3 – Mixed by Jackmaster
Radioactive Man – Goodnight Morton (Rotter’s Golf Club)
Rich Boy – Throw Some D’s Accapella (Interscope)
Untold – It’s Gonna Work Out Fine (dub)
DJ Deeon – Freak U Rite (Dance Mania)
AFX – PWSteal.Bancos.Q (Rephlex)
Human Action Network – Eating Angelic Diamonds (Alphabasic)
DJ Assault – Ass N Titties (Assault Rifle)
Drexciya – Digital Tsunami (Tresor)
Mr. De’ – Y2K Bug (Electrofunk)
Redinho – Pitter Patter (Wireblock)
Ghosts on Tape – Kryptonite (Dub)
Ginuwine – Pony (550 Music)
As noted earlier, cult imprint Ze Records—who helped define the early-’80s dance and post-punk scene in New York—celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and in honor of that, Strut Records is releasing Ze 30: Ze Records 1979 – 2009. Here’s a track from the release, by no-wave duo Casino Music.
