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Brainfeeder London part 2, June 2009

Airhorn. It’s sometime around midnight on a warm June Saturday night in a carpark near Liverpool St in London’s east end. This carpark has been taken over for the night by the Brainfeeder label/collective (headed by Flying Lotus) and Warp records for the second edition of Brainfeeder in London. Kode 9 is on the stage, located at the back of the carpark’s main ‘area,’ which acts as the dancefloor for the night, honking a yellow plastic airhorn while setting up for his live show as Gaslamp Killer finishes his set.

Rewind a couple of hours. I reached the venue, Hearn St carpark, around 10pm thinking that pacing may well be key to surviving Brainfeeder’s second London party, following their debut in the capital in June 2008. With an impressive lineup of modern beat/hip hop/electronica/dubstep/good music luminaries and an advertised ending time of 5am, I thought pacing might well come in handy later on in the night. And it did.

One of L.A’s long-standing pioneers of the beat scene and one of its best kept secrets, Take (who is in the process of renaming himself Sweatson Klank – you try and google any info about an artist named Take and see how long it takes you to sift through the irrelevant results), was getting into the full swing of his live set as I stepped in. Having seen his live show a week before at the Gramaphone, where it didn’t quite get the reaction or have the setting many of us felt it deserved, it was a pleasure being able to see it once more this time in a setting much more conducive to its full impact – the crowd was amassing in the carpark and the walls of speakers were pumping out Take’s beats, as he twisted and turned them from his laptop.

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By Laurent –

To my PR people

CDs

I’ve been doing the music writing thing for a while now. In that time I’ve learnt a lot about the cat and mouse game that is being played between PR companies/people and music journalists. It’s an at times friendly game, and at times infuriating one (for both parties I’m sure but here I’m mainly referring to the journalists). I’ve been on both sides of the fence, albeit for the PR side from a small company (very small actually) point of view but still it’s allowed me the benefit to appreciate both view points.

When I moved to Japan in late 06 I had to pack pretty much all of my life’s belongings – in the process I realised just how much PR CDs and other goodies I’d accumulated over the years. The ratio between ’stuff I wanted to keep’ and ‘useless pieces of plastic, CD, paper’ was far from equal, weighing quite heavily in favour of the latter.

I took a rest from music writing for most of 07, and during that time most of the labels and PR companies I deal with seemed to change their ways, opting to send music digitally thus helping to save the environment, as well as (and I’m sure more importantly) saving a shit load of money and time. Personally I was more than happy to switch to a digital system for PR, not the least because all my stuff is in storage and I’m currently of no real fixed abode, hoping around countries while I set up the Original Cultures project and figure out just where I’m going to end up.

Thing is, despite this move to digital some labels and companies still seem intent on sending through CDs. Which I just don’t understand. Especially when I sometime receive a CD of a digital promo I’ve already got. This week I got a watermarked CD for an upcoming rap album, it’s numbered, tagged with my name and all that malarkey about stopping piracy. Thing is, the first thing that happens when I get a CD I actually want to listen to (which is pretty rare these days, all the stuff I’m really after comes digitally) is I rip it to listen to it on the laptop/iPod. If you really want to stop journalists from pirating your shit, do what a US label did to me recently and only send out stream previews – the only option is then to fish out the files from the temp cache in glorious 96kbps quality, which no idiot would pirate (and if they did they would only reinforce the idiot statement).

I love getting free shit don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the only reasons I keep regularly reviewing. I treat it as the ‘payment’ for my work. I don’t live of writing about music but considering the hours I’ve spent over the years promoting people’s stuff through sites, reviews, radio shows and more I consider the privilege of receiving promos my payment. A few years back I was ‘connected’ enough to also get really decent freebies like limited edition vinyl etc… and even then I was still late to the party considering some of the promo gems that used to be around years before I started writing. The last decent thing I got was probably some limited edition Def Jux coloured 10″s.

So PR people, my friends/nemesis (delete as appropriate) please stop sending CDs, it’s only gonna make it less likely for me to review stuff and it’ll just end up in the bin soon as I ripped it. Stick to digital, embrace it, use it cleverly, ok there are still people out there who want a physical promo product but even then it’s only a matter of time before the majority of your contacts start requesting digital, so why not jump ahead of the game and make an impression? The labels/artists that have stuck most in my mind in the last few years have been the ones who’ve done just that, embracing the digital side of things not just for the consumers but also for the people promoting stuff. And please for the love of god stop thinking that some of us journos are idiots/good-for-nothing and need to be treated accordingly.

However if you want to send over some vinyl or other collectable freebie, please do. One love, etc…

PS: interested in what other writers/journos have to say on the subject, feel free to drop a line in the comments.

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By Laurent – June 30, 2009

2009 in mixes… so far

Photo courtesy of norambler, Flickr

Photo courtesy of norambler, Flickr

At the end of last year I posted up my selection of the 12 best mixes of the year. The list proved popular so I’ve decided to continue. One thing I commented on was that for some reason or other the majority of mixes I’d chosen were from the second half of the year, and I mentioned that hopefully the first half of 09 would prove as fruitful as the second half of 08 in terms of mixes.

I’ve been thinking for a few weeks that it’d be a good idea to put together a list of the best mixes of 2009 so far, partly to see if the first half had indeed been fruitful, and also because I like the idea and there’s been quite a few mixes in firm rotation in the iPod for a while.

I put together a rough list earlier today and it seems that indeed 09 has been a pretty good year so far. So here are 6 of my favourite mixes from the first half of the year so far, plus a few bonus ones. As with the previous list, each mix is linked, titled, dated and comes with a short description. The music covers various styles and there is no order, all come heavily recommended. Enjoy.

2009 in mixes… so far

J Period presents… The Abstract best, vol1
Originally released February 09.
Download the mix / J Period website
A comprehensive look at Q-Tip’s career featuring new remixes, insights into recordings and some of his best tracks ever. A dope, dope mix incredibly well put together.

Jamie Vex’d – Sunday Walkman mix
Recorded for the LuckyMe mix series, February 09.
Download the mix / Jamie Vex’d myspace
Under 30 minutes but better than most 60 mins+ mixes. A snapshot of the most exciting hip hop and electronic music around today.

2tall – The Space Race
Recorded for Rhythm Incursions podcasts, February 09.
Download the mix / 2tall myspace
One hour of the finest beats from around the world, a true showcase of the worldwide renaissance of hip hop producers.

Fulgeance – Live at Mondayjazz second birthday party
Recorded live at the Mondayjazz second birthday party, April 09.
Download the mix / Fulgeance myspace
The French hip-house-electro gentleman shows why his Low Club style is the best, sweatiest club music around today.

Kryptic Minds – Studio mix for Blackdown
Recorded for Blackdown Soundboy blog, May 09.
Download the mix / Kryptic Minds myspace
Moving from drum n bass to dubstep, Kryptic Minds show that the dark halfstep template can still be exciting when done well.

DJ Broke – Butter 4.0
Recorded May 09.
Download the mix / Broke myspace
A reminder of why the 90s was such a great era for hip hop, over an hour of classics from established to slightly forgotten rap acts.

Bonus mixes

Simbad – Supercosmic Revolution
Recorded for the Brainfeeder podcasts, June 09.
Download the mix / Simbad myspace
Conspiracy theories, celestial ramblings and the sweet sounds of some of the best underground electronic and hip hop today. Gets better the more you listen.

Take aka Sweatson Klank – Sweatson’s Trajectory
Recorded for Dublab proton drive, June 09.
Buy the mix here (donate to get your copy) / Take myspace
While not a freely available mix, this is definitely a CD worth donating worth. Featuring unheard/rare psych and 70s electronic blended with some of today’s best beats from the new school of producers.

D-Bridge and Instramental – Autonomic Podcasts
Download the podcasts here / D-Bridge myspace
Stumbled across this monthly podcast series earlier this year thanks to Twitter. Great selections from the old to the new and unheard. The first time I’ve got even remotely excited about drum n bass tracks in a long time.

Part 2 in 6 months. Till then enjoy…

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By Laurent – June 26, 2009

De-hyping in the digital age

I was speaking to a friend on Sunday. As we smoked outside the club, this friend, a producer, DJ and record label owner who shall remain nameless (you’ll understand why in a minute), told me he wanted to ‘de-hype’, that he wanted to be able to bring down the hype surrounding him and his music, and I’m also assuming possibly his label. Knowing him, his comment didn’t necessarily surprise me though it made me think, prompting me to tell him, ‘how the hell do you de-hype in this day and age? When everything is up for grabs, scrutiny, discussion and spreading?’ Ok I probably didn’t quite word it like that considering how tired I was from staying up till 6am the night before, but you get the jist.

Over the last couple of days his comment kept running around my head, not least because it echoed with various discussions I’ve had recently with artists/producers. How the hell would you go about bringing down the hype surrounding you, when hype today comes at a much faster and much less controllable rate than ever before? Do you try and disappear and let things die down in your ‘absence’? Do you publicly make it clear that you want to step away from whatever hype has built around you? Or do you just do it, slowly step away from instances and situations that help bring hype and hope it slows down in the process?

If you take someone like Burial, his approach was a good example of someone who seemingly wanted to not play to today’s hype system – he hid behind the moniker Burial for nearly 4 years, quietly doing his own thing, at his own pace, in his own time, letting the hype around him build for one reason only, his music, and not feeding into it whatsoever, aside from the rare couple of interviews he gave in that time. Ultimately, even his approach proved no match for today’s hype system, forced to come out publicly after a certain British tabloid decided it was everyone’s business to know who he was following his nomination for the Mercury prize.

Having never been an artist, never released music, it’s hard to think how’d you even go about trying to de-hype today. As a fan, someone who writes about music and someone who has a keen interest in media, old and new, I can however think about how the media, especially the internet, feeds into this new hype system, how it helps build things into a hype in the time it used to take for a dubplate to be heard in another continent.

This is a discussion I’ve found myself having a lot recently: during the recent Original Cultures pilot, with 2tall, Will Barras and Hentsix, and during a late night chat over dinner, wine and more with L.A’s Take aka Sweatson Klank, Architeq and Mr Beatnick (from which there’ll be a feature/interview coming very soon by the way). Every time the discussion revolved pretty much around the same thing: we’ve seemingly reached a point where the internet is helping create hype around musical trends/movements in such a short time that what used to take years, now takes barely months it seems.

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By Laurent –

Hip hop headz and skratch kidz

reynoldsblog

Simon Reynolds, who I recently mentioned on this blog and whose work I have written about before for various reasons, has just written an interesting article about J Dilla’s legacy in recent years for the Guardian’s music blog.

While the title of the piece (The cult of J Dilla) might be a bit alarmist as a friend pointed out, it’s a really good read even if I do find the tone slightly patronising at times and some of his arguments/examples rather strange/baffling. The only thing I’ll mention, and which I discussed briefly with Beatnick earlier today, is the seeming fixation on backpack hip hop, especially when Dilla has always publicly stated his interest for things far removed from the whole backpack stereotype – see lyrics on the unreleased ‘Cars’ or even those on ‘Game Over’ from Dabrye’s ‘Two/Three’ album. And also because some of Dilla’s most lasting productions, for me anyways, are actually anything but backpack hip hop gold – his remix of DJ Cam’s ‘Love Junkie’, his remix of Spacek’s ‘Eve’ or his remix of D’Angelo’s ‘Those Dreamin Eyes’.

That’s neither here nor there though right now, despite what some purists/fans might think (and I guess I count myself as one of them) Reynolds’ piece is informative, well written and more to the point serves as a great point of entry for anyone not familiar with Dilla’s work and who, as most people end up realising, might actually already know some of it but not have realised the extent of the man’s influence and reach.

And the reason for this post? Well beyond the above, the piece actually links to this here blog and the ‘Return of the Boom Bap’ feature I wrote last summer for Serie B magazine. Simon mentions ‘hip hop headz talking of Dilla as the catalyst for a return of the boom bap’ which is pretty spot on and makes me feel rather chuffed. So thank you Simon, though I’m not sure about spelling headz with a z though! ha ha

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By Laurent –