As I'm sure many of you are aware of by now, Cut Copy's new album, Zonoscope has officially been released. What I find most interesting about the release of this album is that some retail copies of Zonoscope include a special bonus hour-long mix, entitled "A Tale Of Two Journeys," which, according to a press release, is...
"...a medley of hits performed live at the Island Diamond Dance Hall in '87 by Bobby Boomerang and his band."
However, while perusing Pitchfork's "News" section, I stumbled across an article, entitled Hear a New Cut Copy DJ Mix by Tom Breihan, which included the following commentary on what was stated in the press release (see above)...
"This is, of course, not true. Instead, it's a collection of smoothly funky tracks that moves freely across genre lines. Highlights include the Brothers Johnson's "Strawberry Letter 23", Ace Frehley's "New York Groove", and A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray".
I included the previous tidbits of info pertaining to Zonoscope for those of you who actually enjoy knowing more about an album than just its name. But for those of you who are, at this point, saying... "Fuck it! I just wanna hear some music!" ...in Cut Copy album bonus fashion, I too have a few goodies for you ; )
.:: STREAM & DOWNLOAD :: A TALE OF TWO JOURNEYS ::.
Guess what? You don't actually have to buy the album to hear the bonus hour-long mix, entitled "A Tale Of Two Journeys." Stream the mix and/or DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE.
I first heard FreQ Nasty's music on a remix he and Switch did of the Santogold (aka Santigold) track Creator in 2007.More recently, I was steady bumping the bass-heavy FreQ Nasty vs. Bassnectar remix of Everybody for a few weeks straight. It seems as if, no matter how many times I play FreQ's music, I never get sick of it. I believe this can be almost entire;y attributed to the fact that the music he creates is a perfect blance, and mix, of heady Rasta (aka REAL DUB), Dubstep, and Electronic.
While digging a little deeper into FreQ Nasty's online presence, I found an extensive bio of the artrist on The Untz and thought it would be a nice addition to this post, for those of you who actually read the posts I write and enjoy knowing more about the artists you listen to, than if they prefer blunts or tequila.
Freq Nasty (also spelled as FreQ Nasty) is a glitch hop, breakbeat, dub, and electronica producer. Born in Fiji and raised in New Zealand, breakbeat pioneer Freq Nasty is widely-acknowledged by critics for consistently breaking boundaries with his music, from his classic breaks tunes such as "Boomin Back Atcha" and "Move Back," to remixes of pop icons like Fatboy Slim, Kelis and KRS-One. At the same time, Freq is receptive to all that surrounds him; for example, his move to London and immersion in its developing scenes in the 80s resulted in seminal releases on Botchit & Scarper. Forward thinking and progressive, his releases evidenced a sign of the fast-moving times.
These days, FreQ Nasty is staying one step ahead of the ongoing, hype-fueled evolution of electronic music with his contributions to the Futurestep sound. The recently released FABRICLIVE.42 mix album is evidence of this shapeshifting sound: with it, Freq takes on the bass heavy stomp of L-Vis 1990's UK take on Baltimore house, the blistering shatter of TRG, and several of his own storming productions, including Creator, a co-production with Switch on a Santogold tune released in 2007.
Freq is also well-known in the music scene for his socialactivism. In early 2008, Freq launched Giveback.net, a socially-conscious site featuring music campaigns, whereby musicians donate music in support of non-profit "action campaigns".The first campaign, in support of the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement, featured a collaboration with West Coast breaks artist, Bassnectar, Viva Tibet. The campaign successfully raised $8,000 in support of TPUM's March to Tibet earlier this year. His reasons for supporting the campaign, in his own words:
"It's time we as a music community reached out on a grassroots level and showed some love to those who need it, to whatever extent we feel able. Most of us don't vote, most of us see the news as something that happens to somebody else, and most of us have excess that the majority of the people we see on the news can only dream of. If we can help spread the idea that creating positive change in the world elsewhere is an investment in our own security and happiness then I'm a happy DJ."
Freq also collaborated with San Francisco-based Heavyweight Dub Champion, remixing the group's Snared tune, in support of The World Family's creation of an irrigation system in the village of Gara Dima, Ethiopia, and Michael Franti, remixing Franti's "The Future", in support of a Bay Area nonprofit to help create a music studio for at-risk youth.
While perusing The Untz, I also stumbled upon a press release, dated January 25th and entitled, "FreQ Nasty at the Controls" (see below) announcing that FreQ Nasty's first release on Muti Music was set to drop the folllowing day.
"Dread at the Controls" is the first track from FreQ in quite a while, and represents the future of futurestep, among others. FreQ Nasty has been at the forefront of several D&B genres, from garage and grime, to dubstep and now drumstep. Along with "Dread at the Controls", his track "Drum Play" shows off his ability to smash genres. In this case, it's Drumstep and Dancehall. A bombastic pair (what would you expect from the creator of "Boomin' Back Atcha"), Dread at the Controls is even more evidence that FreQNasty will always be a vanguard, and Muti Music keeps putting out the freshest sounds around.
I will finally get the opportunity to see FreQ Nasty throw down on stage when the Monster of Bass Tour hits Chicago on March 8th.
If you live in the area, and don't have tickets to this event yet, get them NOW! I truly believe this tour will be one of the best to roll through ChiTown all year. In addition to FreQ Nasty, MartyParty and Opiuo, two of my favorite Electronic music-makers, are also on the Monsters of Bass bill. And if you don't understand why I'm so geeked on this ish, or why it is imperative that you score tickets to Monsters of Bass, watch the promo video below. Okayyy, get ya mind right...
The music that will be made by these MONSTERS OF BASS on March 8th is going to be so grimy...
Thanks to Soundcloud and super-blog Mad Decent, I bring you...an exclusive remix of the Deerhunter track entitled Helicopter.
As some of you may know, Deerhunter, who goes by the name Bradford in the "real world", is Diplo's cousin. Diplo and Canadian-born producer Lunice, collabed to rework Helicopter, a track off Deerhunter's latest album, Halcyon Digest.
I had yet to hear of Lunice before today. Wait wait wait...not true! While I have "heard" Lunice's music, I had not "heard of" him (by name). Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I didn't know what to expect. It's not like I thought the track would suck...I mean, with Diplo and Deerhunter both in the mix, how could it? That being said, I still didn't know what to expect.
I don't know if I've told you this before, but... I LOVE ♥ SURPRISES!
And I knew, as soon as the drippy, droppy, dribbly beat kicked it, that this track would only keep getting better the longer I listened to it.
As I searched for deets on the new Diplo remix of Tell Em by somewhat still unrecognized Indie Rock gods, Sleigh Bells, I stumbled upon commentary from the man himself, on the pages of Mad Decent, a blog I frequent from time to time. The following are his words (with a few slight punctuation and capitalization corrections)...
"Derek from Sleigh Bellz and me have matching Florida tattoos and we both are from shitty parts of Broward County ... And their last album was one of the sickest of '10 ... It's soo sick, it gave me a stomach ache ... Half Lnyrd Skinnard, half Bangladesh, half man, half alligator ... Me and Derek and Alexis are bros and sis for life. In fact I like Sleigh Bells so much ... Me and Switch was in studio in NYC tryin to make tracks with Derek and Beyonce last week after we played her team their album ... Dunno if we gonna manage to finish, but was good times. I started this mix for them like a year ago, but it took Derek about 6 months to send stems so it was kinda in remix limbo, but i really wanted to get it out to u guys cause I think the bass and the drums sounds nice and u can play it at your next party."
The track is getting a ton of love, and hype, from bloggers. I could have left this post alone after the above statement from Diplo, but I wanted to find the one blog that had something to say about the remix, that differed from the rest. After a few minutes of intense googling, I found the following commentary on Prefixmag...
"The write-up Diplo put up underneath his okay remix of Sleigh Bells' massive "Tell 'Em" is probably more interesting than the remix itself: Apparently Diplo was having meetings with Beyonce for her new album, and he played her team Treats, which lead Slegh Bells' Derek Miller to team with Diplo and Switch for tracks that could be on the new Beyonce album. Can you imagine what it would be like to hear Sleigh Bells on the radio? Sleigh Bells would win this internet indie rock shit, hands-down. They'd go from unsigned CMJ hype to producing for Beyonce on a song that will surely be Top 40. Nuts. But that's just in the planning phase at this point. For now, we've just got Diplo fucking around and cutting up "Tell Em."
OUCH! Right? Prefixmag seems to have nothing but straight-up hate for this one.
I, on the other hand, have nothin' but... L.O.V.E.
As I walked away from the wreckage, bloodied and torn, I felt free and unrestrained. Every problem and worry, every cruel clawing castigation was buried beneath the steel wire frame. Unclouded and autonomous - I was able to walk away from everything that burdened me. Broken and bruised, I was completely unconstrained for the first time. You were no longer there - now enshrined in a fragmented tomb - your contorted and calloused body. Nothing satisfied me more than the thought of complete independence - away from the invisible restraint you so gleefully wrapped around me. (unholy rhythms)
Purity Ring’s “Ungirthed” may be one of the most amazing and addictive tracks I have heard in a long, long time. The second "Ungirthed" started to creep in, I immediately started bopping my head to the - what seemed at first to be off - beat, turned up my speakers, took a sip of the piff, closed my eyes, and let my mind, body and soul become lost in the glitchy, topped with a lil bit of grime, pulsing, heaven-sent sounds that surrounded me.
The original cut of Magnetic Man's single "Getting Nowhere" is set to drop on February 21st and here is Yoruba Soul's funky house remix of this undeniably amazing track.
