Tremor “Viajante”
Argentina-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Leonardo Martinelli (a.k.a. Tremor) is known for his film scores, TV show soundtracks, and his pairing of traditional folk music with synthesizers, glitchy breaks, and IDM flavors. His skills have earned him a coveted spot on the U.S. tour hosted by Zizek, the weekly Buenos Aires party aimed at bringing its blend of cumbia, hip-hop, reggaeton, and grime to the masses.
Blue Scholars New EP, Tour, Tout Politics
Seattle hip-hop duo Blue Scholars should change their name to Blue Collar Scholars. Such is the steady work ethic of the grassroots Northwest team, who, on April 29, will release their new EP, Butter&Gun$ (Massline/Rawkus), whose title is an allusion to a government’s tough economic choices.
Together for five years, with two albums and several EPs to their credit, the Scholars’ emcee Geologic and DJ/producer Sabz have never shied from exploring political and social justice themes in their music, a fact which makes them unique in a “rims and chains” rap landscape. As second-generation children from working class Filipino and Persian families, Blue Scholars have forged an intellectual lyrical perspective and polished sound that’s earned them a strong college and university fan base.
Currently, they’re finishing a tour with Oakland legends Hieroglyphics, and have scheduled upcoming dates with GZA of Wu-Tang Clan (performing his legendary Liquid Swords album).
Blue Scholars will release the digital-only Butter&Gun$ EP via Massline, in partnership with Rawkus Records. The four-song EP, produced by Sabzi, includes the previously-released “Loyalty” (from their album Bayani), the EP title track, and the politically-charged “The Ballot or the Bullet,” which outlines the group’s oft-asked stance on this year’s presidential elections.
A video for the song “Loyalty” will be released simultaneously in conjunction with the EP, and be directed by Zia Mohajerjasbi (who also directed the group’s “Back Home” and “Joe Metro” videos).
Butter &Gun$ Tracklisting
1. Loyalty
2. Butter&Gun$ (Loyalty II)
3. 27
4. Loyalty (instrumental)
5. Butter&Gun$ (instrumental)
6. 27 (instrumental)
Tour Dates
03/08 Oberlin, OH: Dionysis Night Club
03/15 Austin, TX: SXSW
03/28 San Diego, CA: Canes*
03/29 Los Angeles, CA: El Rey**
03/31 San Francisco, CA: The Independent**
04/01 San Francisco, CA: Independent**
* = w/ GZA performing Liquid Swords
** = w/ GZA
Loading… Metal Gear 4, Halo Lazer Tag!
Metal Gear 4 Gets Release Date. Helps Save PS3
2007 was a pretty crappy year for the PS3. It sold relatively poorly when compared to the Wii and Xbox 360. It was more expensive, confusing, and most importantly, didn’t have any games that really warranted a purchase of the Blu-ray based console.
Well now that 2008 is in full swing, things seem to be looking up for the PS3. For starters, HD-DVD is now totally dead, and despite the PS3 still costing more than the other two consoles, it is still the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market, which makes it more interesting for those looking to upgrade from standard DVD movies.
Secondly, the PS3’s online viability is finally picking up steam. The PlayStation Store, which is accessible for free through the PS3, now offers dozens of downloads (the majority of which are not free, however), and with the spring release of Home, Sony’s free virtual hub, the PS3’s online capability has become much more interesting.
Finally, and most importantly, the PS3 is finally getting some major games–the biggest of which is Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Originally promised last year, the cinematic stealth espionage epic now has an official release date of June 12. Not only that, but Sony will also bundle the game with 40GB PS3s and the newly announced Dual Shock 3 controller for $499 (It’s $399 sans game and controller which run about $60 each) on the same day.
With MGS4, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Turismo 5, Home and the much-missed rumble of the Dual Shock controller coming to the console in the very near future, and with Blu-ray emerging as the dominant HD format in the last couple of months, my purchase of a PS3 is all but imminent. And I have to say, as down as I was on Sony the last year and a half, I am now equally as excited.
Halo Lazer Tag!
If you are a child of the ’80s, then you certainly remember the toy industry’s fascination with the cutting-edge tech of INFRARED BEAMS!
There was Captain Power, Photon, and, most famously Lazer Tag! Which, if you don’t recall, was pretty much exactly what the name implies. Sets of futuristic guns that made the requisite “pew pew” noises could be purchased along with sensors that you could to attach to your body and would notify you if had been tagged… by a laser.
You and your friends would then run around the basement or backyard, pretending you were in Star Wars or The Terminator or some such thing, and proceed to never hit each other when you thought you ought to have (and vice-versa) provoking many fistfights and the revocation of any borrowed He-Man guys.
The makers of Halo 3 and Jasman Toys realize that there is still love for infrared beam weapons, and this week have teamed up to release the first in a series of Halo-themed light-guns, dubbed Halo Command.
The first two guns resemble those of the Covenant Plasma Pistol and Plasma Rifle, and from images and video we have seen, these aren’t your average fake alien guns. These are big, heavy-duty, recoiling, noise-making, over-heating fake alien guns. And we want them.
A set of two pistols will run you $80 and a set of giant rifles will set you back $130. Each includes a “shield generator” unit, which acts as the target you are aiming to blast furiously away at.
The Plasma Sword is expected later this year, though we aren’t sure how that would work. But who gives a shit. It’ll look awesome.
Bostich + Fussible Prep Album
You’ll know Bostich + Fussible as two-fifths of Nortec Collective, and also for their contributions to the group’s Grammy-nominated Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3, which put the entire crew on the map as authorities on the Latin electronic scene.
The duo headed back to the studio last year and will release Tijuana Sound Machine on May 6, and whereas their work on Sessions was synth and vocoder heavy, the musical elements on Sound Machine lean in the acoustic direction. “[With this album,] we tried to achieve a better balance between the acoustics and the electronics,” explains Fussible (born Pepe Mogt). He also notes that many of the songs on this new album were written while the two were on tour with Nortec Collective, so the tracks span a time range of two years.
Meanwhile, they have some interesting “making of” videos posted on their MySpace page. Worth checking out while you wait for the album’s release.
Tracklisting
1. The Clap
2. Nortena Del Sur
3. Brown Bike
4. Tijuana Sound Machine
5. Shake it Up
6. Rosarito
7. Akal 47
8. Jacinto
9. Mi Casita
10. Mama Loves Nortec
11. Cetron
12. Ciruela Eléctica
13. Retén
14. Wanted
15. Playbox
Run
School of Language Sea From Shore
Field Music’s David Brewis hasn’t decided to go it alone: School of Language is just his laptop side project, which in a way is a testament to tech. This solo effort built of bytes rocks nicely, buttressed by smoking guitar anthems like “Poor Boy” and “Disappointment ’99.” Angular funk makes “This is No Fun” a spirited jam, while the four-part concept pop of “Rockist” is a sonic Tower of Babel built with the help of Garageband, semiotics, and soul music. Brewis doesn’t seem to have wasted a moment in the studio during this sojourn. If the other two members of Field Music churn out solo projects this energetic, Thrill Jockey will have a four-headed Hydra on its hands.
Bisc1 “Turbulence”
Following his debut EP, The Basics, and The Stay Up Project mixtape, Queens-based Bisc 1 readies his first full-length, When Electric Night Falls. Here, the MC and graphic designer takes the listener on a lyrical trip of highs and lows through New York’s boroughs, while meticulously crafted beats play below.
Kelley Polar: Viola Disco
Like virtually all musicians, Kelley Polar relies on playing live to pay the bills. But touring with his live band isn’t his only source of income; he regularly plays viola with the Apple Hill Chamber Players, who perform in war-torn areas such as Northern Ireland and the Middle East.
Despite his pastoral living situation–he resides on a farm in Sullivan, New Hampshire–Kelley Polar is perhaps uniquely suited to playing in troubled areas, as his music, and his musical career, has been rife with conflict of its own. Polar–whose real name is Mike Kelley, and whose sister is Blectum from Blechdom’s Bevin Kelley–had enough classical training to land him at Oberlin and Juilliard… and enough love for the wild life to get him expelled from the latter.
This tightrope walk between the diligence of composing and the dangerous hedonism of clubland characterizes Kelley’s sound. While studying at Juilliard in New York, he met nu-disco revivalist Morgan Geist, and appeared on his and Darshan Jesrani’s Metro Area record, peppering tracks like “Miura” and “Caught Up” with his skillful viola playing. This led to his first record, Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens, for Geist’s Environ label, a disco-inspired slow burner with plenty of classical strings and careful melodies.
Having retired to the countryside, Kelley now issues his second album, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky is Falling. From the deliberate delicacy of “Zeno of Elea,” which takes a minute and a half before any beats interrupt the layers of vocals and keyboards, to the resolutely rubbery uptempo funk of “Rosenband,” whose choppy synths threaten to spin out of control, the record shows an ambitious breadth of scope tied together by Kelley’s hyper-emotive singing. Echoes of disco reverberate through Kelley’s songs (though less so here than on his first record), contributing to a pervasive feeling of teetering on the brink of all-consuming decadence.
“An escape from the horrors of reality… can always be found in music–it’s both inherently decadent (it’s not feeding or clothing you, after all) and indisputably essential,” Kelley writes, when asked to comment on the skein of depravity that underpins his work.
Contrary to I Need You’s shiny, big-city air, the album was actually composed and recorded in his farmhouse cabin without running water. “I’m low-tech, but want everything to sound like [Stevie Wonder’s] Fulfillingness’ First Finale,” Kelley says.“So I work and think hard to try to improve my production and recording skills… usually that means things like remembering to turn the heating fan off while recording.”
Robert Owens Night-Time Stories
It’s time again for Robert Owens, the buttery voice on epic classics “I’ll Be Your Friend” and Fingers Inc.’s “Can You Feel It,” who defined the soul of vocal house, to bless us with a collection of tunes built in collaboration with producers as varied as Kirk Degiorgio and Jimpster. Owens’ graceful, transcendent voice and an insistent house pulse weaves these tracks together, even as the productions sashay from the trappings of Germanic techno (“Merging”) to the futuristic R&B of “Now I Know.” Those in the know will remember Owen’s DJ and production chops are nearly the equal of his legendary voice, and his self-produced piano mover “Press On” will remind any who forgot.
