I've been pretty busy in real life, and thus I've been neglecting to update the blog. I've got a few projects in mind for the upcoming week(s) with an episode of the Chilldown Period in the works for the 8th of July.
I'm thinking about upgrading my libsyn account permanently to do not only the Chilldown Period, but also the Dubstep Directive on a monthly basis. I love chillout music and dubstep... so I might as well get em both out to the public. There are so many great groups/acts/etc. out there and the word needs to be spread.
Dubtrick is an artist I feature on my soundcloud version of the Directive, and he's a producer that lays down a heavy vibe! NICE stuff that is dirty, bouncy, and danceable!
I've also been wanting to write a short article about Chillwave music. It's a genre (or sub, sub-sub genre - gosh, I can't keep up anymore) which has been gaining some traction in the music scene for about a year. It's a style which is stripped down, and "simple" (don't know how else to put it). I dig the sound, and if the rest of the music world puts it aside, come to the chillout, downtempo, trip-hop side of things - I'll find a place for you!
OOOOOOOOO! Lest I forget, we have an old friend who'll be taking over the Chilldown Period in August. It's an amazing mix which you have to hear. Sheer necessity to hear it!
And, that's it for the update. Can't wait to hear from you soon!
It was suggested to me a while ago that I should do a dubstep show for SubLogic.fm, and so I did it. I chose to use artists from soundcloud.com because there is a lot of talent out there and I figured to see if I could find it and bring it to a larger audience. SubLogic.fm is an online radio outfit, and together we could do this.
So, why the name of Sleeper Cell?
In the olden days of espionage during the cold war, apparently the Soviet Union would establish "Sleeper Cells" around the world of agents waiting for the call to be activated to do their bidding. Some of these groups would wait years, and others a lifetime, for this chance.
The artists played on here aren't agents of some country, but they're agents of groove, bass, whomp and filth!
And it's time we activated them for your listening pleasure!
What in the everliving heck does Whopperjawed mean?
Okay - for this we'll have to head to the Outer Banks of North Carolina (the coast), and more specifically the island of Ocracoke and the village of Atlantic with a few areas around there.
They have a unique accent nicknamed "High Tider" which is pronounced "Hoi Toider". It's quite entertaining to hear. The dialect has a list of words such as mommucking (messing around, wind tossed), dingbatter (tourist), and pizer (porch).
Whopperjawed is another local treasure of a word. Let's say you have a building with a tower in the middle of it. Over time, the earth decides move and the foundation settles different than what you had planned for. Now, that tower is not plumb with the rest of the house.
That is whopperjawed. Just like the fence in the picture above - it's closer to the ground than to being straight up and down.
I've decided to hijack this word and apply it to the music on this podcast. The music which you'll find here doesn't really fit in a genre, or if it does - one that isn't mainstream. Tunes will range from dark to danceable to outright experimental. In a sense, if genres were houses, these songs would be the part which is whopperjawed.
And this is not a bad thing!
I did get one thing wrong in the podcast - it is Stage Magick, not Strange Magick, by Hideous Men.
Also: R.I.P. to the "Buzzer" - UVB-76 ... it's now offline.
I've been currently working on a project and in the midst of doing so I came across an artist on soundcloud who goes by the moniker Valabaluza.
Valabaluza dabbles in quite a few different styles from minimal to dubstep to drum and bass to house. One common thread between them all is they each have a dark quality which is quite delightful (except for Apache).
In Marsch, there is this quite bouncy, deep bass line with a dancing melody layered on top of it which is a full torso mover coupled with an infectious sound.
After Midnight has a great buildup with a low, synthesized melody taking over about midway. It's a nice, slow, grinding song with a nice bounce quality.
The Drum and Bass sounds do not disappoint, either. Gated is a speed freak fun ride! Not as dark as the other stuff, but quite a tasty treat.
Apache is another body mover. The guitar riff makes this song, in my opinion, alongside nice house beats with tight bass are just what the doctor ordered!
The song which caught my attention was Polka Dub! If you've followed me here or on my twitter feed, you'll know that I've been pining for a polka dub artist to come along. Valabaluza intertwines polka, dub and dubstep into a fascinating mix which helped me become a fan of his music.
I read the term quite a bit while searching through different netlabels, artists, what have you. In my mind it has a lot of potential as to where it can lead you from new sounds with old instruments, to artistic freedom, to someone just jerking your chain.
As a musical genre, post-rock is arguably too vague to be useful. Don Caballero and Tortoise were among the more prominent bands described as post-rock in the 1990s, but their styles are very different, despite being instrumental bands centered on guitars and drums. As such, the term has been the subject of backlash from listeners and artists alike.
Although firmly rooted in the indie or underground scene of the 1980s and '90s, post-rock's style often bears little resemblance musically to that of indie rock.
So, before I go into this review,I need to hear some other examples to get a point of reference.
Now, in some weird way, both you and I get a reference point for the wonderful task at hand. There's a ton of potential and possibility for the sounds, the atmosphere, the experimentation which can go into this genre.
This is where moolen comes in. moolen's latest work can be found on the LCL netlabel under their Carte Blanche releases. LCL releases some terrific dub sounds, and with their Carte Blanche series they allow other artists to spread their wings into other sub-genres of their liking.
When I first heard moolen's album, it had me intrigued. Here's how best to describe it.
There are children's toys (both homemade and from stores) which usually have rice or sand or some sort of fabricated "pebble" material in a type of pliable pouch or container. There is usually a list of items found on the other side, and as you move the main substance around in the container you can find the hidden objects listed.
With "art of heartwork", and this analogy in mind, you get a fun musical journey through this post rock trip. In the first song, Nineteen (the first one), you hear busy signals, recorded voices, a rainstick, and large crashing drums in the middle; all with calming guitar riffs playing in the foreground. The addition of music concrete and samples takes the album from nice to nifty.
Dreamshard goes from this downtempo sifter (?) to a more, ummm, upbeat acoustic chill song with little sounds and glitches and clicks in the background.
As you listen, see how many more "objects" you can find in the little pouch.
Fly pts. 2 and 1 (how they appear on the tracklisting) take this electronic/acoustic combination and adds in backwards playing loops, neat echos, sounds of the ocean coming into shore, computer glitches and bleeps, a cellphone ringing, a chimpanzee, bike bells - one song flowing in, and one song ebbing out. I'm sure your imagination will coming into play by now!
Then comes my favorite song of the whole set: brokentopflow. It starts with some high pitched "strings" overlaid with lower sounding keyboards. This goes on until the drums kick in with glitches and faint robotic voices in the background, then reverting to the strings and background atmospheres. It's a calm, melodic track with a gentle back and forth between acoustic and electronic until about 2:35 with the introduction of processed heavy metal screaming in the background. It is this unique contrast between heavy drums, gentle melodies, and "screaming" which makes this track such a keeper (at first listen, I thought it was a Lil' John soundtrack, but after a while I heard otherwise).
In my opinion, moolen also plays with track continuity by throwing different sections of song to opposite ends of the album. The first and sixth songs are both entitled "nineteen" with the second and seventh songs coming under "dreamshard."
Okay, now listen to the two parts back to back... one flows in with sounds and the other seems to take that flow, continue on the energy while finishing the thought started by the first part.
Heck, "dreamshard" part two takes this to the extreme. Part one starts off as an upbeat happy dream while part two begins with an aggressive vocal sample retreating back into softness then into the abstract. It is a dream which turns into something intense with a peaceful resolution at the end.
After all of this, what is my verdict?
It's such an interesting album with parts electronic, parts acoustic, parts samples, and parts artistic interruption. It is literally a splendid grab bag of sounds and samples which keep you playing and replaying the album just to catch a sound you hadn't heard before. Plus, with the unique song structure/continuity, moolen invites you to listen over and over. It is this, for the lack of better words, playfulness and imagination that both define the album. Compared to the Post Rock samples given earlier, there is a similarity.
But with the experimentation, the "road less traveled" becomes your main path taking you down the track to auditory exhilaration and contentment leaving you to say to yourself, "This is the way this album should be," then pressing play to listen to it all over again.
I was on the Bedroom Research netlabel website last night trying to find some information and came across their latest release from Himuro. So, I pressed play on the popup player and was addicted.
I'm talking a Dr. Pepper rush! The glitchy, the wonky, the IDMy... it's fantastic. I had to listen to the four song EP, called 4P, a few times.
As soon as "Pay for What" comes on, the big beats pull you into the system Himuro creates. You think you can escape the galatic gravitational pull he puts up, but the sounds are too big to let go. Basslines, vocal samples, and electronic buzzes capture you fully.
My favorite track on this roller has to be Pointing Answers. We're dropping heavy bass and glitch which could be found on a Muti Music album. Himuro's sounds make you move, taking you from potential to kinetic energy help you knock on the door of possibly becoming a perpetual motion machine.
Ummm, I've been reading a book about how to make science fiction possible... and it's seeping into my writing right now.
Do yourself a favor and head over to Bedroom Research and download yourself a copy. I don't need to say much more.
"Shallow and Pendantic"
Buy at 
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