All bands need to get on this right now

One of the coolest & most useful (not to mention easy to use) new promotional websites for musicians:

http://www.bandcamp.com

terrible name, but amazing features and stupidly easy to use. A very very very useful tool for musicians.

DJ Aesthetic

( By Jim Wicked )




As a budding DJ myself, I'll be the first to admit that DJ's are a bit silly. They've become so competitive that they've burned these egomaniacal standards and ideals into their heads. They somehow think that their precious time is worth large amounts of your money. A quick perusal of Craigslist ads on behalf of DJ's or even just meeting them in a club quickly reveals how shallow these bastards are, and how they are the scum of the earth. I know, I shouldn't be basing an entire caste of people on interactions with while many, still only represent a handful of the DJ's in existence, but the ones that I've had dealings with really irk me.

One of my favorite stories to relate is about a DJ at a club I used to frequent regularly with my old band. I'm not going to be a complete asshole and mention names, but I will say that he was a prominent member of the DJ community and a regular at this particular club. Between the bands' sets, he would play tunes for the audience to dance to while gear got torn down and put up. Well, oddly enough, he wasn't in the booth. He would be wandering around the audience proclaiming how awesome he was that he picked out the tunes that we're listening to. So, I went to go schmooze with him as one in a band regularly does, and I asked him a question that I was surprised had stumped him. 'Which band is this we're listening to?' Should be an easy enough question considering that he hand picked the music himself, right? Instead, he responded that he didn't know and that he'd have to check the CD when it was done playing. Fair enough. So, we went on stage, did a fairly good show, and as we were loading up our gear, the DJ showed up again. He proudly announced that the name of the band I asked about earlier was... (I honestly can't remember who it was or what they sounded like by this point as I'd gotten a good number of drinks in me and had forgotten about any interest I had in what was playing at the time) and hands me a CD to have a look at the name. Well, interestingly enough, this was a collection of different songs on one CD. I thought maybe it was some kind of promo disk at first, until I saw the giant writing on the front of the case that read 'Continuously mixed!!!' ( 1, 2) So this kid didn't really even do any DJing or take part in the clever beat matching I'd heard earlier. Instead, he bought a premixed CD, popped it in the deck, and pressed play. And he was getting paid more money than I was that night to do this! Sadly, this isn't the only time I've ran into this situation. Turns out lots of 'DJs' are just playing the works of other DJs or playing premixed material and getting paid for it. Just watch Paul Oakenfold's older videos some time: he will often stand in front of the audience doing the Jesus pose while the tracks magically transition between each other on their own. ...and this was before computers could do it for him. Kind of cheapens the experience, doesn't it?

None of this of course is to mention the DJ egomania that destroyed electronic music in the nineties. When people stopped caring about what music was being played for them and were instead more interested in who the guy with the headphones was, you knew things were going downhill. The raves started to become focused on partying for the DJ's sake rather than for the party-goers sake. Few people even know that the song with Sarah McLauchlan singing that Paul Oakenfold popularized was actually composed by Delirium. Isn't it amazing that the DJ has made the true talent of his music unimportant and secondary to his own ego?

And speaking of ego, you haven't understood the meaning of narcissism until you've perused Craigslist and had a look at the DJs for hire! I was having a look at the competition to see what others were charging. I was wondering if my ideal rates were too high because since I've got the gear, I thought it might be a good idea to pursue DJing for fun with minimal charges rather than try to make a living at it like so many others in Las Vegas do. Out of hundreds of ads, I only found one that was willing to give his rates online, and he wasn't very cheap. As for the other ads, the DJ's would banter on about how they refuse to give set dollar amounts as needs may vary. The general consensus is that 'using a $50/hour DJ (which I think is a bit on the expensive side myself) is a bad move because you can't get a professional DJ for rates that low and as these people are obviously morally bankrupt in the first place, if he gets offered $60 an hour for your slot, he will take it without hesitation!' To suggest that because a DJ is not trying to make a killer profit, he instantly has no standards of decency makes for a fun read, but all in all, this statement only damages your own credibility as a supposed professional and makes you look like an egomaniacal asshole in the process. Reading these narcissistic comments towards others in their industry has admittedly made me a little bitter, so let me become really petty and shed some light on what exactly is involved in professional DJing:

First of all, there's the gear. For a touring DJ like the kind you hear about on MTV, those guys are going to want some pretty high end gear like analog filters, rack mount effects, premium mixers, stable decks, maybe a sampler or two, headphones, but in most situations you won't need your own sound system as the club and/or promoter will supply that for you in ninety-nine percent of all situations. Without being stingy or going on eBay and getting better gear than what's at your local music store for cheaper, this is about a three-thousand dollar investment. For the wedding DJ who needs his own sound system and his own lighting for corporate events, you're actually looking at around four-thousand dollars as your sound system will be expensive as hell if you want it to last, but you don't need the samplers, filters, rack effects and other little touches like that (when was the last time you were at a wedding reception and the DJ started cutting into the mix with a phaser before low-pass filtering into the next track?) so you can cut corners with those. Let me tell you as a synthesist: four-thousand dollars isn't shit. Plus, if maintained and selected properly, this is a one-time investment which obviously needs to be paid for before you can start getting gigs (though, I would pay money to see somebody air-DJ the way one air-guitars.) I will shit a brick the day that a bank gives an individual a loan so they can become an aspiring DJ, so it isn't like they've got some debt related to their craft that needs to be paid for. So, my point in bringing up how much DJ gear costs is that there is no regular expenses that have to be paid for after every gig. You don't have to change strings, replace your beer-soaked microphone, replace your amps' tubes, or even replace speakers (guitar amp speakers go out a lot more frequently than PA speakers do and even then, since it's almost always a tweeter that goes out, replacing the driver usually only costs about $30 and they practically last forever.) Gear maintenance for a DJ is not a justifiable expense in the way that it is for touring musicians.

Next, if you're a decent club DJ, you have to learn beat matching. It's not exactly a requirement per se, but continuously mixing tracks can really keep a party moving. Don't ask me why, but stopping to change records or even having a short pause between tracks on a CD just doesn't cut it. It's not a necessity for the wedding DJ as he's not expected to drop the hottest house and goa tracks into each other, so this argument doesn't apply to them (thus, making me wonder why they generally cost more.) I've learned firsthand that beat matching takes skill and practice when using turntables or CD decks. But here's the thing, you can master it in a couple days, a week or two if you're a slow learner like me. By contrast, with a guitar, it takes about a month and a half just to learn to play your first song, and it's not going to be a very good one. It can take years before you finally nail that Metallica solo you've always wanted to play. Modern bass technique (I'm not talking about proper slap bass or funk solos) is a little easier, but it still takes a good couple months to really master it in its entirety. As much as everybody rips on death metal/black metal/industrial vocalists, it still took about a whole year to train my pipes to handle an endurance growling/screaming fest. As for regular pop-style singing, I've heard of vocalists fighting for decades to really get their voice to become the icon of musical prowess. So a couple weeks to learn how to get your songs to flow into each other is nothing in contrast to other instruments. To make matters even more disappointing in the physical skill department is that those who choose to use laptops for DJing have the hard part done for them. Most DJ applications automatically map out the tempo of any song you drop in the deck and mark where the down beat is. So that's half the work out of the way already. But then to make things even easier you can just hit the 'sync' button, press play, and voila! The music is instantly in sync! So when a 'professional' DJ tries to tell you that you're paying more money for some amazing skill, just tell him to go fuck himself because the homeless guy sitting on the street corner wailing out Eric Clapton tunes on his pawn shop acoustic guitar for change has FAR more talent than some hack DJ does.

Now, since we've already lightly touched on the subject of DJ mediums, let's go ahead and open up the whole can of worms to show why expensive DJ's aren't worth the money. I'm mainly talking about turntables and the vinyl records used on them. Turntables are impractical. The needles wear out fast, the cartridges are becoming more expensive to replace, and they skip like you would not believe! Ways I've seen demonstrated of trying to keep records from skipping that still didn't work include mounting the turntables on rubber bands, using tennis balls as shock absorbers, and expensive foam mats for the case to sit on. This is not to mention that records are much more sensitive than any other form of media. CD's need a lot of continuous heat in order to warp, but a quick fifteen minute car ride in an air conditioned car on a sunny day can decimate your entire record collection! Plus, carrying around all of those records is extremely clumsy. Even CD's can be put into carrying cases that can hold eight times as many CD's as records could be held in the same amount of space. And good god are they expensive! Sure, you can find some classic house records at a thrift store for a buck a piece, but getting the latest and greatest tracks can cost about $35 a track or even a lot more in some cases.
Not only that, but manufacturing them is no small cost either. A small time trance artist who has potentially created one of the most amazing synthetic songs of the modern era that could instantly become the highlight of your set just can't realistically afford to put it out on vinyl. Putting that track out on CD can cost as little as $75 for a hundred of them even when using a large manufacturing company. Even then, worst case scenario, he puts that song out on the internet as a high-quality mp3 and sells it for ninety-nine cents, then a DJ could burn that track to CD for his CD decks. So, why exactly are DJ's still using vinyl?

The answer is deceivingly simple: nostalgia. That's all it is. When DJ's first started out, there was no other medium that had the pitch control that vinyl did. So it was the only way you could beatmatch. As the DJ phenomenon spread, it became a common belief that professionals had to use vinyl. The CD decks are still shunned by many so-called 'professionals' and the only reason for this is because it's a reflection of an era that has long ago passed. Now, as previously demonstrated, laptops have really proven their worth as a replacement technology in DJ booths. Not only do you have access to a near infinite number of tracks, many of which you can't get on CD or Vinyl, but there's no clumsy plastic media to lug around, you can stick your entire rig inside of a backpack, including a hardware DJ interface if you so choose, but in the long haul, it's a whole lot cheaper than a full DJ rig! Just a laptop, an audio interface, the DJ program of your choice (worst case scenario, Traktor is two-hundred dollars) some extra VST effects if you so choose (most of them run at around $20 a pop or you can use free ones that are far more interesting in most cases) and a bucket of mp3's to fill up that night's set. Plus, there's no parts that are going to need to be replaced down the line. Unless you're just a feeble drunk at the club, all of this gear will last a lifetime! And all of this at the same or in many cases better quality than on vinyl! (How many times have you popped in your favorite continuously mixed CD and heard a crackle or pop on one of the tracks just to find out that it's at the exact same spot every time because the pop came from the DJ's record?) So when you're paying more for the self-proclaimed professional, you're essentially paying for that DJ's stupidity, not his professionalism.

Now here's a typical argument you hear from musicians as well as DJs in regards to why it costs so much to hire them: Understandably the time spent getting ready for your job is important, and as such is expensive to you as you could be doing something more entertaining like beating off to midget amputee porn. This applies to the daily grind as well as musiciandom. Doesn't it feel like part of your life has been wasted ironing work uniforms, packing up lunches, and driving across town to get to your job? It's not much different for a musician: As a guitarist, before you go play a show, you typically spend a lot of time rehearsing, restringing your instruments (life sucks if you play songs in different tunings as you need to restring a case full of guitars in some instances), getting your tone right, getting your effects programmed, polishing your guitar, loading up the gear in and out of vans and clubs, helping the drummer get his kit into the van or club because like most drummers, he doesn't understand simple concepts like spatial displacement... all that stuff that turns your potentially enjoyable source of income into manual labor. Like a nine-to-five job, you're only getting paid for the time that you're on their clock, not the time getting ready. Now, let's look at Dj's: As a DJ, you really need to be well versed in all of the tracks that you may or may not play that night. Sometimes you have to catalog BPM's, but oftentimes there are little programs or gadgets that do this for you. So what this translates to is that before, after, and probably during the gig, the DJ's job is to... now brace yourself for this because you're not going to believe what you've been paying your DJ $200 an hour to do: listen to music. That's all he has to do. Just sit there and listen to some fucking music. Real hard work there, douche bag!

Okay, so surely there's one skill that makes your expensive-ass DJ worth the money, right? Well, that leads to your typical DJ's backup argument when you've exhausted all reason on him: talent. It's not in beat-matching. The talent is in being able to read your audience. You have to be able to guess what kind of track they're going to want to hear next. It's a difficult skill that can't be learned, either you have it or you don't. ...don't believe the hype. It's not as hard as they act like it is. The trick is to not get involved in the music you're enjoying, but to keep an eye on the audience. If it looks like you've been letting them ride that crescendo for too long and they need a break, drop a track or two that's a little more laid back. Before they get bored, bring back some energy. That's all there is to it. It's not some mythical skill that nobody else can do. It's just a matter of paying attention. With regards to wedding DJ's, it's the same thing only you're not allowed to inject too much energy (Grandma and Grandpa are really getting down, so let's throw them some psychedelic trance and see if they're still feeling groovy now!) and as such, unfamiliar dance numbers can't be tossed at them nor extreme metal. Just keep it radio friendly in other words with the extremes of the spectrum being 'The Twist' and 'Who Let The Dogs Out.' ...oh and when it comes time for the actual ceremony, turn off 'Let Me Smell Your Dick', grab a mic, and announce the little shits so they can feel special knowing that you remembered their names before they divorce in two years. ...and don't get cake on the gear. It's a bitch to clean. So yeah, that's the 'talent' end of DJing in a nutshell.

But you get the point here, right? DJs expect payment for a craft that with a nominal capital investment a couple weeks of hard work, and an ear for music, anybody can do. Don't let anybody, especially a DJ, fool you into thinking that it's some amazing feat that goes against the laws of nature and can only be done by a select few because the truth is that a monkey can do it. Mind you, he'd have to be a pretty intelligent chimp, but it's a monkey nonetheless.

The snobbery doesn't just end with the money or the image, either. Oh no, the personalities of these people are so dull... If a conversation ever starts with "Hi, I'm a DJ!" you know you can disregard that person as at best only having the intellectual capacity of a simian. (If you had to look up the meaning of simian, get the fuck off your computer and go buy some turntables now.) This is not to say that all DJ's have shit for brains. Some of them are just in it because of the insane amount of profit created by ridiculous standards. But if somebody starts off communication by introducing themselves as a DJ, then this is the kind of person that I'm referring to here. If you must, try to converse with them and learn the hard way: you will find that aside from grunts, moans, and pointing to one's own mouth, the conversation will revolve around your new-found DJ friend's occupation, how great they are, and how everybody loves him. If you try to stray the conversation away from his narcissism, he will redirect it there, as if the only way that the DJ can get any sort of attention when he's not carrying a stack of records is to talk about the time spent playing you those same records.

I think I've ranted on this subject long enough, but I hope that you've learned something from this: the DJ is not a person to be respected and any of them that try to pull out some shpiel about how their talent is worth more to you than a reasonable dollar amount per hour is a douche bag who's only source of self-esteem is his self-worship.


(See also, Dead Acts, - CW.)

SE - "Epiphora"

Artist: SE
Album: Epiphora
Year: 2009
Label: Tympanik Audio
Genre: IDM, Ambient, Downtempo
Website: www.myspace.com/seonline

Packaging: 4/10
1 Fold digipak. The only artwork is a 3D rendering of a syringe. It’s done really well, so if you like syringes you will be happy. That’s pretty much all there is to it though.

Composition: 7.5/10
After a couple Tympanik releases I wasn’t too keen on, I’m glad to see them releasing some nice, atmospheric ambient IDM. ‘Epiphora’ blends lush sweeping pads with subtle rhythmic clicks and beeps and even throws in the occasional melody. It starts off slow with a dark, spacey ambient intro and then gets into some very sloooow IDM. It’s quite minimal, just beats and pads, but the pads are very beautiful and transport my consciousness to distant lands of mechanical dreams and the beats serve as a perfect companion, not too demanding but simply pushing the track along, guiding the listener. Anyway after the first couple songs the album picks up, speed-wise, and showcases some diversity. There are some more upbeat songs and more slow ones. Some tracks are a combination of both. They are all done well, and SE puts enough effort into developing his beats so that the tracks move and progress and keep my attention. I don’t feel like the same shit is being rehashed over and over within a song. The album sounds to me like a strange and dilapidated space-station floating dead and aimlessly through space. The pads and synth sounds are other-worldy (in an outerspace-y / dream-y sort of way) and all the sounds seem to have a gritty texture to them, lending to the imagery of something distant, illusory and decaying…also it lends to stuff sounding muddy.

My only real complaint is that as the album goes on, the pads in every track have a similar sound, and all the beats start to sound the same…i.e. the sound of the drum hits in every song are too similar. It sounds like he uses a lot of distortion on his very digital beats which has a pretty recognizable sound. This sound is pretty cool at first, however it becomes less-so when hearing it in every single track.

There are three remixes at the end: Flaque, Quench and DNN & Huron. The only one I am familiar with is Quench, who I usually enjoy, however this is not one of their best pieces. The Flaque remix is nice, it’s got some very interesting melodic elements and it’s nice to hear a beat that is not made with the digitally distorted hits in every other track. I’m not terribly keen on the breakbeat used, but it’s not bad at all. I think my favorite track on the album is the dnn & huron remix because it has the best production and sounds the most mature…but it’s slooooow so you’d better listen carefully.

Production: 6.5/10
The production here is pretty competent. The levels are pretty good, although, on the more “upbeat” songs that have a substantial amount of rhythmic stuff happening the beats sound kind of messy and thin (it sounds like too much digital distortion, or distortion on digital drum hits, or both) and a bit loud.

Artistic Merit: 6/10
SE is competent at making this style of music, however it’s not totally innovative and if you’re a fan of IDM there will be a few times where you think ‘hmmm haven’t I heard this before?’ This is SE’s debut so I can’t fault him too much…let’s see where he is in a few years.

Flow: 8/10
The cd is fairly consistent in mood, atmosphere and tempo so globally it flows well. The songs themselves flow pretty well too. The tracks are a bit minimal in that they are mostly pads and beats, but the beats are interesting enough to keep your attention and they change frequently enough to keep you engaged. The pads and beats are a little same-y track to track, but this gives the album it’s trademark sound I suppose.

Overall Rating: 6.5-7 /10
I have to admit, ‘Epiphora’ is one of those records that took time to grow on me. The first listen or two really didn’t phase me, but with additional listens and with more actual listening I realized that this is a pretty solid record. I love this style of melodic ambient IDM, so it would be hard for me to hate this, but it also means I’ve heard a ton of this type of stuff before. SE isn’t the best or most original, but this is definitely a record I can get into. If you like the style you won’t be disappointed. I am really curious to see what kind of stuff he puts out in the future. If he continues to evolve his style and polish his production than he could grow into a very worthy IDM producer. Cleaner beats though, please.

-dan barrett 5-22-09

Blog that has sick ass darkstep sets

I came across this site today, it's got a bunch of DJ sets of REALLY FUCKING EVIL drum and bass. I am in love. Please listen and sorry if your head explodes:


http://satanicalbotsritual.wordpress.com/

The set by DJ Katwon is vicious


Goddamn, industrial music is pussy.

Totakeke - "The Things That Disappear When I Close My Eyes"

Artist: Totakeke
Album: The Things That Disappear When I Close My Eyes
Year: 2009
Label: Tympanik Audio
Genre: Electro, IDM
Website: http://www.myspace.com/elekatota

Packaging: 4/10
1 Fold digipak. The cover graphic is a picture of a hallway turned sideways. It looks strangely ominous, and is of very high quality. Hope you really like that picture though because it appears on 3 out of the 4 panels. Totakeke has never been one to go all out on the artwork though.

Composition: 4/10
Knowing that Totakeke has released something like 6 cds within the past year and a half, I had pretty low expectations for this. CD1 opens with an awesome dark, epic and slightly orchestral ambient intro which builds into a nice downtempo piece. And then the album falls off. It seems like Totakeke was going for a more electro feel on this album, as electro-type synths are much more prevalent here than previous efforts, and the drums often take a back seat while layers of synths play. Now this isn’t inherently bad, but it’s not pulled off so well. It seems apparent that his prolific-ness has come to bite him in the ass, as this CD feels rushed and unfinished. It sounds like he tossed a whole bunch of ideas into each track, but didn’t take the time to iron them out into cohesive parts that mesh and flow. As a result we are presented with a jumble of synths, noises and beats that just sort of float there, each part doing its own thing ambivalent of where to proceed and how to interact with its cohorts. Even though it has its moments, it simply does not compare to the unique and well constructed material on eLeketota.

So if one (more) Totakeke CD wasn’t enough, “The Things That Disappear…” comes with a second cd (and if you pre-ordered you get a THIRD cd). The second CD has some alt versions of songs, a couple new ones and some remixes. The alt versions/remixes by Totakeke are totally unnecessary, as they are but pale shadows of the originals (this brings us to something like version 5 of “Pull The Plug”…just a little superfluous don’t you think?). The new songs are ok but suffer from the same afflictions as CD1, although I think I actually prefer them over CD1. The remixes are the best part of this whole album, but even still I prefer most of the bands’ original material. My favorite two remixes are Autoclav1.1 and Flint Glass because, not surprisingly, they sound much more like the remixer than the original artist. For the other remixers, if you like their original material you will probably like the remix. I wish the ZIA remix had been more like their “…No!” album though.

Production: 6.5/10
While the last few Totakeke albums had solid production, the production on this album is noticeably weaker. The tracks seem “too full” at times, as if every sound is vying for the listener’s attention instead of interlocking. In every song there are sounds that are louder than they should be and stand out too much in the mix, and the mixes themselves just seem muddier and messier than previous efforts. According to the linear notes Totakeke mixed and mastered this record himself, however I think it may have been wiser to hand this over to someone that has more experience with mastering.

Artistic Merit: 5/10
While it’s cool to hear Totakeke changing directions slightly, these tracks don’t feel complete enough to showcase success. As a result its one of those cases where the listener can say “oh it was better when he did his older style”. There is nothing here that he hasn’t done better in the past.

Flow: 5/10
It seems to me that most of these tracks lack direction. They are just some sounds which plod along to nowhere in particular and along the way meet up with some other sounds and then they go together for a while and then some leave and others come. There isn’t much cohesion and very little direction for any of it. Sometimes there are straightforward sections and sometimes there are glitch-fests, but not really any spectacular transitions. I find most of the record a bit hard to follow, mostly because the juxtaposition of sounds and sections is awkward and annoys me.

As a whole the record has an ok flow because he uses the same style of electro synths and the same sort of drum hits throughout so it sounds sort of uniform. Although I’d venture to say that it sounds too uniform and to some extent lacks diversity/variety.

Overall Rating: 4/10
Not surprisingly, after releasing about 4 albums/6 CDs in the last year and a half Totakeke has started to lose his touch. “The Things That Disappear…” lacks focus and cohesion and simply feels unfinished. It’s not all bad and it has it’s moments, but when compared to his previous output it simply does not hold up. In addition, the fact that there are so many remixes, alternate versions of songs, and songs that appear on free samplers/compilations just adds to the over-saturation of Totakeke material this year. There are what 4 or 5 versions of “Pull The Plug” (and probably as many of other songs), with the original being by far the best. I think that says all that needs to be said. Did we really need a new Totakeke this year? No. This could have waited 6 or 8 or 20 months until it was fully crafted, developed and polished. Since I now own 6 or 7 Totakeke CDs, and several comps that feature his tracks, I can honestly say that I will probably never listen to this one again. My advice to Totakeke is: take some time off, remember the things that made eLeketota great and the reasons why you made it, and take your time with the next album.

-dan barrett 5-15-09

Aphorism - 'Surge'

Artist: Aphorism
Album: Surge
Year: 2009
Label: Tympanik Audio
Genre: IDM
Website: http://www.ap5m.com

Packaging: 4/10
1 Fold digipak, close-up pictures of water on all four panels. The pictures are really cool and crisp, but the music doesn’t seem to have anything to do with water. Not much infos inside.

Composition: 4/10
‘Surge’ starts off really slowly, the first two tracks are pretty much just a beat for 5 minutes with some clicks and pops and very few other things throw in. Things get a little better on track 3 “Covert/Convert” because Aphorism figures out that other elements like pads and melody are sort of important, although he employs the service of too little of either. I love ambient idm because of the use of huge evolving lush pads and atypical melodies that transport me into the dreams of a computer…but with ‘Surge’ I feel nothing.

For the most part this album simply sounds like very boring, under-developed IDM. There are a few nice, albeit thin, pads and even fewer interesting melodies, but most of the songs are bland, straightforward, and forgettable. Aphorism relies much too heavily on beats to carry his songs, and while his beats are indeed interesting, they alone are definitely not enough to complete a “song”. I mean shit, half the tracks take no less than 2 minutes before something significant comes in (aside from the beat, and assuming something significant appears in the song). There are a few tracks of some interest, such as “Chrysanthemums for Carrion” which mixes in acoustic guitar with good results, although its basically the same thing for 6 minutes, and “Two Sides of the Bullet” which features a speech from Martin Luther King Jr which is new and exciting. But even though some songs have some interesting elements within them, in the giant ocean of IDM these are still pretty small fish which could get eaten at any moment by a very high number of larger fish.

Production: 8/10
‘Surge’ has pretty competent production. The levels and so forth are as they should be. Most of my favorite IDM was from the mid 90s to early 00s and had sort of a gritty sound due to using hardware drum machines, samplers and analog outboard gear. ‘Surge’ has a little of that vibe combined a newer more digital vibe. It works pretty well although some some of the drums sound a little thin and digital. For the most part the production works well for this type of IDM.

Artistic Merit: 2/10
This is where this album really fails. If you don’t know what IDM is and you’ve never heard of Warp records or Planet Mu than you might find this record to be a little weird or different. However IDM has been around for almost 20 years, and this record is pretty weak compared to what the bigger, established names (and many of the not-so-big names) of the genre have been putting out for years. If you’re familiar with IDM than you will have heard everything on this record a hundred times before, done in more interesting and more innovative ways.

Flow: 7/10
The whole CD sounds pretty cohesive, but there are a lot of times where tracks seem to randomly stop for some reason and something really quiet is happening, and then after a bit the track kicks back in. I feel that this detracts from the flow of the songs.

Overall Rating: 4/10
This sounds like a “my first experience with IDM” record. If you’re totally new to the style than this might impress you a little bit, but if you know what IDM stands for than you probably don’t need this in your collection. Aphorism has an ok sound, and a penchant for making clicky IDM beats, but he really needs to work on developing his songs into just that…songs: pieces of music with progression and depth. Preferably songs that stick out from the heaping mounds of unmemorable IDM.

-dan barrett 5-15-09

Awesome netlabel

Just came across this netlabel recently, and I'm very, very impressed. Downloaded a few things over the weekend and haven't been disappointed at all. Tons of good IDM, ambient, misc electronica, even some free album samplers from big names like Solar Fields and Hol Baumann (both on Ultimae):

Kahvi Collective

must check out: Esem, Planet Boelex, Hol Baumann, ah fuck it just download everything

More free stuff

Today I came across this cool netlabel:

Sutemos

It's got some idm/ambient/experimental stuff, all free

stuff to check out: V/A - Intelligent Toys vol 4, 5 (like most comps very hit and miss, but hey free tracks from SubtractiveLAD, Funckarma, Quench, Esem, Jvox, Near The Parenthesis, etc)

I am now a writer for Connexion Bizarre

Check it out, I now write reviews for this great zine:

http://www.connexionbizarre.net/

For the week of 4-27-09 you can read my reviews of

Fractional - 'Still Life?'
MCKMN - 'Orphan Ristophe'

and more coming in future weeks


- dan barrett

Mobthrow - 'Mutant Dubstep Vol. 3'

Artist: Mobthrow
Album: Mutant Dubstep Vol 3
Year: 2009
Label: Spectral Liquid
Genre: Electronic
Website: www.myspace.com/mobthrow

3^rd in the series of “Mutant Dubstep” releases from Spectral Liquid

Packaging: n/a
We were giving a promotion copy with no packaging

Composition: 5/10
First of all I have to point out that the name “Mutant Dubstep” is a misnomer, as this release bears very little resemblance to what is generally considered dubstep. Dubstep is usually fairly lo-fi, minimalist, and marked by heavy emphasis on the low end (especially the subbass), and said low end usually consists of wobbly modulating basslines. “Mutant Dubstep vol.3 ” contains nearly none of the above. Maybe he is making a statement that typical dubstep sucks or something, I don’t know. Anyway, that aside…on to the actual music.

This is only 5 songs so here they are:

1. Jazz Monsta – Ok so here we kick off the album. This sounds very modern. It sounds very digital and the production is very “big” and bold sounding. This sounds a lot more like The Prodigy than dubstep. It’s done pretty well, it’s got a fairly simple melody overtop of a few layers of pads and a clunky beat (not clunky in a bad way). It’s sort of boring like most dubstep and then it turns into more of a sci-fi thing with laser-y synths and some modulating bass. The bassline is cool and sounds very furistic and digital. The beat is nice and evolves a bit and he throws in different sounds every few minutes. Again this sounds more like The Crystal Method or Prodigy, but that should be a compliment. A lot of stuff is going on at any given time which is nice.
2. Breakstar – This one starts off with a big distorted lead synth which again bears a strong likeness to The Prodigy. This one is mostly a beat, some weird noises + subtle ambiance, and the aforementioned synth. The lead synth is the only thing that has any melody and it’s not enough to keep my interest. The beat work is nice and the production is suburb, but aside from the pristine production, it’s not any more interesting than the usual dubstep beat. As a whole the track doesn’t really evolve or go anywhere. I usually skip this one.
3. Deathstep – This is the first one that has some definite dubstep characteristics. It’s actually got a groove to it and wobbly bass. The beat is a lot faster and more complex than the usual minimal dubstep stuff, but it sounds good and definitely works. Like the previous tracks there is no melody here, just bass, beat and various other noises. Halfway through he adds in a low distorted synth sort of similar to the one in Breakstar. It’s cool but it still feels like the track is missing a lot. I would’ve really dug this had it had some melodic elements or maybe some breakdowns without the bass or beat, as it is it just feel like too much of the same thing. The fact that it’s almost 7 minutes long doesn’t help either. This really could’ve benefited from a D1 or Eskmo type melody.
4. My Dub Kingdom (Mobthrow remix) – This track is a remix of The Future Sound of London and it is hands down the best one on here. This follows the rest of the album in that it is primarily composed of a beat and various futuristic sounds, however in this there is a big focus on atmosphere! I guess that comes from the original FSOL track. There are some really awesome and weird sounding atmospheric pads, and some awesome trippy synths which capture the feel of FSOL. A great cerebral downtempo track. I think that Mobthrow should take note of how well he did the atmosphere on this track and the fact that the atmosphere really ties together the track and makes it feel like a cohesive song rather that just a beat and a bassline meandering along. If he could carry that over into his original tracks they would be spectacular.
5. Jazz Monsta (Mad EP remix) – The Mad EP remix of the first track. There are some really cool ideas explored here, most notably the use of the violins (I assume it’s a violin). However the violin sound really does not match up that well with the highly digital sounds of the bass and plethora of spacey sound effects. The violin sort of sounds like a dying animal and it plays for almost the entire song and it gets on my nerves. It’s cool for about 2 minutes and then I always want to turn it off. There are good ideas here, but they work better on paper than in practice. There just isn’t enough variety or cohesion in this piece.
   
   

Ok so my big gripe…if this is a dubstep album then why is there so little bass on this album??? Listen to any dubstep track, even crappy ones you can download off last.fm for free, and you will find that they are massive in the sub-bass department. This…isn’t. Even when there is wobbly bass like on Deathstep, it’s not even a focual point of the track…it’s quiet and almost buried in the mix. Now I guess he wanted to make the beat really stand out and sound big and powerful, but if you listen to something like Takomo, their beats and atmospheres sound really thick and crisp, but their bass is still so huge. I listen to dubstep for the wob wob wob and the groove…so where is it?

Production: 9.5/10
The production is probably the most notable thing about “Mutant Dubstep vol. 3”. It is very big sounding, like what you would hear on a more mainstream electronic album (which is good because the ‘more mainstream’ albums have probably been graced with very expensive production, mixing, and mastering). Anyway all the instruments are very clear; the synths are huge sounding and very powerful; the beats are also nice and thick, and all the sound effects and pads are crisp and can be heard side by side of the beats and bassline. A lot of dubstep is focused on the lo-fi sound, and sometimes the production is kind of weak and thin sounding. That said, I think it’s cool that Mobthrow was able to give ‘dubstep’ his ultra modern sounding production. Well, I guess he forgot the dubstep part, but the production part is quite solid.

Artistic Merit: 5/10
I guess on the one hand it could be considered artistic that he has a release with dubstep in the title, yet very little of the content resembles dubstep. Is that an artistic statement? Is he rallying against modern dubstep? Or is he just throwing the buzzword dubstep on his electronic tracks hoping to grab a bigger audience? We may never know. On the one hand maybe it’s ahead-of-its-time post-dubstep, or on the other maybe it’s just regular electronica following in the footsteps of The Prodigy, Crystal Method, etc.

Flow: 6/10
The flow is ok. The tracks have similar speeds, styles and level of production so they all match up when placed next to each other. It’s not a hugely diverse body of work, and it gets stuck in the fact that the tracks don’t really progress that much and just repeat similar sounding sections nearly the whole time. However, ‘My Dub Kingdom’ shows that Mobthrow does have the ability to build a nice atmospheric work that has a steady pacing yet manages to evolve and keep the listener’s interest.

Overall Rating: 5.5-6 /10
Unfortunately when I got this I was really looking forward to a dubstep album. Being that this has very little to do with dubstep I am quite disappointed. My feelings aside, it is competent at what it does, however there are a lot of well known bands already doing this style and it is hard to compete with them and their legacy. I’m not really into The Prodigy (which is why I really can’t compare this to other similar artists…I am unfamiliar with that style), so honestly I don’t see myself listening to this too often. It didn’t really offer me anything new and innovative that grabbed me by the throat and said ‘this is really above and beyond’, nor did it make me feel high or want to move like the dubstep I typically listen to. At only 5 tracks, it's a bit hard to recommend this. What I took away from this album is simply that I should listen to more Future Sound of London and Takomo.
It is quite apparent that Mobthrow knows his stuff when it comes to production, however I think his compositions need more inspiration and variety. If you dig The Prodigy type stuff with really big modern sounding production than this might be for you. If you’re looking for dubstep then you might be disappointed. If you want to take my advice for some reason, than just get 'Deathstep' and 'My Dub Kingdom'. Or just get a Boxcutter album instead.

-dan barrett 4-13-09