Review: Phaeleh Gives Back with “Somnus”

Posted by admin on Aug 14, 2014 in Featured, Reviews, Uncategorized | 0 comments

–Reviewed by Mike Hogan

I’ve always been very impressed with how Phaeleh could accomplish so much using so little. All of his tracks are so minimalistic, yet so full. Take “Here Comes the Sun” off his 2013 full length, Tides, the majority of the song is just a drum track, a very simple bass line, vocals, and some very subtle atmospherics layered way in the back of the track. But it never feels like that little. It seems like a complete, complex track, one that actually feels a lot more whole than most other tracks out there.

The Daily Frequency (8/13/14)

Posted by admin on Aug 13, 2014 in Latest, News, Reads | 0 comments

–Written by Kevin Madert

This is a daily post we’ll be running to keep you as up-to-date on musical goings-on as we can. We’ll be gathering news tidbits from across the music world and compiling them for you towards the end of each day. This is not meant to be an all-encompassing source for music news, but rather a collection of news items we found interesting, important, or otherwise necessary to share.

Today, a lot of things happened in the world of music. Here are some of them.

1. DJ Shadow released (streaming, anyway) a short-but-sweet two song EP. The first new music from the legendary instrumental hip-hop producer in three years coincides with his decision to begin his own label, Liquid Amber Records. Included with the EP is a really, really good Machinedrum remix of Shadow’s classic “Six Days.” Via Rolling Stone.

Next Time I’ll Bring More Rope: Behind the Scenes (and Before the Crowds) at Big Dub Festival

Posted by admin on Aug 12, 2014 in Featured, Latest, Noise, Reads, Reviews | 0 comments

–Written by Michael Hogan

On Wednesday, July 30, people were beginning to show up to Big Dub in droves, sitting outside the front gate at some ungodly hour of the morning. I was most certainly still asleep, though I couldn’t stay asleep for long, I had work to finish, and unfortunately I had to finish it before gates opened at two to let all those people in. That was the 5th day of my Big Dub adventure.

Of course, people started pouring in much earlier than two, and I was greeted by every single one of them as my team and I worked tirelessly to finish up our last major deco installation, which was blocking the main road down to the bottom camp (much to the disdain of Four Quarters management). Nearly every person that waited patiently as we cleared the road in periodic increments to let campers by made sure to shout from their car windows at us to let us know how good everything looked, and what a good job we were doing. This was quite brave of them; I was hot, sweaty, and had gone far too many days without a shower. I couldn’t have looked like anybody worth a kind word.

But everyone appreciated all our work regardless, and that felt really good. That made all the setbacks and frustration worth it. Not only seeing our finished product in the air and working, but having everyone else see it, and actively appreciate it; that made it worth the trouble.

I couldn’t help but recognize that all of those people were only seeing the closing stages of the process; they were only witnessing the proverbial tip of the inflatable iceberg. They knew it looked cool, and I’m sure they knew it must have been some work to get it all up there, but that effort was not a tangible, identifiable action. It was a concept, a theoretical portion of time that had passed, and remained in their mind for only a fleeting moment as they first passed underneath the almost complete structure.

They had no idea we had a potentially disastrous light bulb oversight, or a massive calamity with the rope, or how we had to improvise with just about every makeshift ‘tool’ that we used. And that’s okay. They didn’t need to know about all of that. They were there to enjoy the show, and only processed the decorations as an object requiring effort when they could see the effort being put in.

And it’s that forgotten side of things that I’m here to talk about, because most of us rarely take the time to note all the hard work that actually goes into making these festivals look presentable. So here’s a timeline of my set up experience from start to finish.

It’s important to note that this is only a small piece of the pie; countless staff members put in countless hours of hard work to make this happen. But it should provide some relative perspective, and hopefully an interesting look at a side of the festival experience that you have never seen before.

Review: The Gaslight Album Bottles Instant Nostalgia On “Get Hurt”

Posted by admin on Aug 12, 2014 in Featured, Latest, Noise, Reviews | 0 comments

–Written by Michael Hogan

Late in the summer of 2008, I was settling into my new apartment in Boston. I had just moved there, and I didn’t know many people yet, so most of my time was spent either walking around the city trying to get my bearings or sitting on my computer listening to music. One day, not long after I had moved in, my good friend from New Jersey messaged me on AIM with an album that I needed to check out immediately. This was something he’d do from time to time – and in fact still does – but this album was different than all the others; this album spoke to me immediately.

Weekend Wind-Down No. 2: Piano-Driven Tracks

Posted by admin on Aug 10, 2014 in Featured, Latest, Noise, Weekend Wind-Downs | 0 comments

-Words and list by Michael Hogan

Musically, I’m a sucker for two things: songs in 6/8 – widely agreed upon as the most epic time signature ever – and a good piano-driven track. Pianos add a certain degree of weight to a song, transforming the latent emotion contained within and allowing it to resonate in sparse, clear, reverby notes. A good piano part can work wonders on a song; give it a swing, drive it forward, or provide the perfect amount of melancholy as each note rings away into nothingness.

Mix Review: Dieselboy Ups The Ante, Revs The Tempo With ” The Destroyer”

Posted by admin on Aug 9, 2014 in Featured, Latest, Noise, Reviews | 0 comments

–Written by Michael Hogan

Does anyone remember the brostep dance? One hand on your crotch, the other in the air, waving up and down more or less to the beat as you lunged your whole upper body along with it? Yeah, I’m glad that didn’t really stick. 2010 was an interesting year for EDM though – things were really starting to pick up steam in America, with crowds growing from hundreds to thousands seemingly overnight. And as the crowds got bigger and more unmanageable, so did the music; bigger, louder, and often incomprehensible.

Weekend Warm-Up No. 2: 30 Minutes Or Less

Posted by admin on Aug 8, 2014 in Featured, Latest, Noise, Weekend Warm-Ups | 0 comments

–Words and list by Michael Hogan

Like the inverse of the pizza delivery guys, prepare yourselves for an aural blitzkrieg this week. We crammed an hour’s worth of tunes into less than 30 minutes with a barrage of punk and pop-punk; from The Story So Far back to Alkaline Trio. For good measure we threw in one of the most frantic songs hardcore legends Converge have ever written, just in case the other nine songs weren’t quite fast-paced enough. So get up, jump around, break some shit, and enjoy your weekend.

In Case You Missed It: Tor’s Way-Chill “Drum Therapy”

Posted by admin on Aug 7, 2014 in Featured, Noise, Reads | 0 comments

–Written by Kevin Madert

It’s been a long time since I’ve come across an album as appropriately titled as Tor’s 2012 debut Drum Therapy. If Neil Peart and a few enlightened monks started a side-project, the general thrust would be pretty similar: there’s never a lack of forward-moving percussive elements, but the entire album listens like a slow stroll down a long beach. It’s this tightrope between heavy and light that Tor traverses with deftness befitting a producer albums-deep into a career, and it’s how well he pulls it off that has kept this album on heavy rotation two years down the road.

Emancipator announces Loci Records showcase, premieres new track “Diamonds”

Posted by admin on Aug 7, 2014 in Featured, Latest, News, Reads | 0 comments

-Written by Kevin Madert

It’s always a good day when Doug Appling releases new music. It’s an even better day when that music is coupled with an announcement of even more music. And it’s an even better day still when said new music will be a free showcase of the brightest talent in the downtempo scene. By these parameters, yesterday was certifiably fantastic: Loci Records – the label Emancipator founded in 2012 – will release a compilation album entitled Season One entirely free of charge. Featuring tracks both new and old from Tor, D.V.S*, Nym, Stratus and more, the nine-track collection promises to be a delectable sampling of the independent label’s artist offerings.

Frequency Of The Week No. 2: Cheshire

Posted by admin on Aug 4, 2014 in Editorials, Featured, Latest, Reads | 0 comments

–Written by Kevin Madert

Electronic music’s explosive expansion seems to have hit Australia and New Zealand harder than almost anywhere else in recent memory. The meteoric rise of artists like Flume has been coupled with the emergence of a plethora of smaller artists with huge potential. The region has become a hotbed for glitch producers in particular; Opiuo just embarked on his first full-fledged world tour, and labels like Adapted Records have begun to curate some of the most promising up-and-coming talent. That’s where we find Cheshire, the man who’s redefining glitch-funk with his blend of uplifting melodies, non-traditional instrumentation, and deceptively heavy breakdowns.