There is intelligent music, scattered pieces of art that make you feel, think, reflect.
And then there are bang0rz.
I’ll just pretend we’ve covered enough of the former and move to the latter: believethehype once again presents TSLA MUSIC, with Paul Tesla’s take on a more or less recent Marilyn Manson hit “The New Shit”. Remember Manson’s voice before he became a lovely, slightly depressed boy that he is now? Well, imagine that voice, accelerated beyond all speed limits, remove all the nonsense guitars and drums, and melody. Add insane kickdrums and bassline. A pinch of madness. Some salt. Ta-da! Simple. Pure destruction. Serious business.
While not the most elaborate thing TSLA (now “Paul Tesla” apparently) has produced, it is the most convincing to date. No need to complicate things. Simplicity is beauty – or, in this case, a big, ugly-ass track, running you over 122 times per minute.
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Remember Eumig & Chinon? Remember his rather amazing remix of “Get Me Out” by Camille Jones? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I urge you to take a look at our previous post on this wonderful guy from Copenhagen. While we were hibernating, E&C aka Christian Kastbjerg released a mix of “I Don’t Care” by Birk Storm, which I can’t believe I missed. Sweet Jesus, cut up vocals! Dear mother of God, dirty electro sounds! Well, you get the picture – it’s good. It’s even, dare I say it, exciting. You know what’s even more exciting (beside seeing Ellen Page in a movie hat is already being declared “the next Matrix”)? Christian creating his own label called Coy Boy Records and (gasp) releasing an EP. So what if most of the tracks have been around for months now – an EP still is a huge deal, and leaves us hoping for more stuff to come, maybe on a more frequent basis than before. It’s named “Crash”, it’s gonna be rad, and according to my thorough research (I clicked a link) it’s set to release tomorrow on iTunes.
In all seriousness, I consider E&C to be one of the most promising artists right now, and I really hope him managing a label won’t come in the way of a continuous release flow of fresh and genuinely interesting tracks. Christian reassured us that another EP is already planned and more remixes are on the way, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Listen to “I Don’t Care (E&C Remix)” (it won’t be on the EP) and “FUMB” (it won’t be on the EP either) below.
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Also, embedded soundcloud previews, because everybody loves those (everything below will be on the EP).
You can follow E&C on twitter or his myspace. Or bandbase. Or his label site. Or on believethehype – because we’ll be keeping track. Apparently, he’s big in Denmark, and it’s a mystery to me why he isn’t getting more love outside of his country.
EDIT: Chris wrote in and kindly informed us that we were sleeping through our Eumig & Chinon class. The remix of “I Don’t Care” is actually two years old. Our apologies! Let us try and smooth things over with an awkward compliment: it aged quite well.
Today I’d like to put out some tracks I leeched off other blogs, received and otherwise found in the wild that impressed me.
“Keep Up” by Wahlström & Valiant is a track that has been on loop for me since I got it off Dödselectro – incredibly powerful and funky sound with retro-vocoded vocals, and it doesn’t get boring after a couple of listens. I also enjoy their other public track “Chun”, but unfortunately it’s not available for download so far.
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Dilemn, the French guy whom I still adore released not one, but two tasty remixes (and at least one more that I’m just gonna ignore); first of all, he worked his magic on “Runaway” by Faces and created something that is maybe a little outside of his usual work. Sure, there are still some very recognizable Dilemn samples in it we learned to love, but it sounds a lot fresher than his other recent stuff. Speaking of which, his remix of “Disco Megablaster” by Le Jad & Ks is definitely a more conservative track, but still very much enjoyable. Also make sure to check out the new video for “Modern Slave”.
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Now for something a little different from the usual believethehype content: “I Need A Dollar” by Aloe Blacc. Those who are watching the new HBO show “How To Make It In America” might be excited to hear the full version of the intro song, and those who don’t: please do. It’s amazing.
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Now, CocoRosie: if you don’t know those two sirens with beautiful voices and eccentric approach to electronic music, I urge you to to give “Tekno Love Song” a listen. Their new album is going to be breathtaking (May 11th), some songs like “Fairy Tale” are already on youtube (cover the actual video with a piece of paper). Very unusual track for those two, but also immensely enchanting. Pure beauty.
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Florian has finally released the collective work of Zombie Nation and Friends: a very sweet EP called “The Mind of Many”, featuring remixes by a lot of people (including MAMM). Now some might argue that the final product isn’t as good as some of the early sketches – you might still find them on soundcloud – but then again, everyone was invited to voice an opinion while the EP was in producing stages, and to those complaining today: the boat has sailed, guys. Shut the fuck up and enjoy the EP.
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And finally, something from grandma’s attic: “Blind Tiger” by Layo And Bushwacka!, featured on the Animatrix OST and also the best thing they have ever produced. Enjoy this slow, noir and chilled out piece, feel the beat, know your classics. And if you’re already familiar with it, make yourself a favor: listen to it one more time.
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I have been sitting on this one for too long. TSLA, the up-and-coming producer and also a good friend of mine sent me this track with the not-so-cryptic name “QZ2-202… Computer Hero.” on my birthday, and I adore it. TSLA helped me realize what it feels like to be a part of the creative process (as small as that part might have been), and I can’t thank him enough – creativity might be a part of life and daily work for some, I however am not exactly on speaking terms with it and admire those who come up with new, exciting things in music, art or literature.
However, I’m getting off track. As I’ve written before, TSLA’s style has been evolving over the years and QZ2-202 feels like its culmination; there are hints of Undral’s Deep Space, a pinch of solid banger and lots of electro house. This just might be one of his best pieces as of today, I’m really glad it all came together this beautifully – the big breakdown with the leading in distorted high synths is just unbearably awesome. Just fucking download the track already, why are you even still reading this? Grab it below, grab it now.
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Also, I’d like to grab this opportunity and wish TSLA a happy birthday and best of luck on his path.
He will also DJ for your party if you ask him nicely. Hit him up on twitter or myspace.
As you might already have noticed, I’m a sucker for cut-up vocal samples; there is nothing more fascinating than altered human form and voice… And nothing more terrifying for that matter, but that’s a whole other topic (just read “Nesting Instincts” by Brian Hodge).
The slight delay, the choice of the sample, the very to-the-point approach to the idea in “Fog” by Nosaj Thing amazes me, makes me think, reflect. And there isn’t a lot of music that does that to me – some by Venetian Snares maybe (who deserves his own post, as well as a statue), and some by Amon Tobin. I highly recommend the whole album “Drift”, if you like “Fog” you won’t be disappointed.
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A special thank you goes to a erolforumite who linked to a live performance by Nosaj Thing; watching him play an improv set is a haunting experience.
Pictured above: my reaction at most of the new releases.
A lot has happened since the our last post – blogs were shut down, records got released, mails with promos were received, we got told that we have no clue about music (which is true), lots of real life work has been done. My conscience was nagging at me, telling me to finally suck it up and write something, so here we go – it’s 2 A.M. and I have a few hours to sum up some of what you might have missed.
First of all – our deepest condolences go to toomanysebs – they have been around for so long and have become such a bright star on the electro blogosphere that it seemed almost impossible for anyone to shut them down. And then they were shut down. Apparently, not everyone wants their music being promoted or their cover art being shown to the public, so toomanysebastians.blogspot.com is history as of yesterday. Thus, toomanysebastians.net was born, go there. Meanwhile, our Russian friends from -censored- openly share promos, write witty and dripping-with-acid, yet informative reviews and then tell the enraged producers to “go suck a dick”. That’s the spirit!
In other news, french express is opening their own label – best of luck! – jakob migrated to discodemons.net, and some records got released. Actually, loads of records got released, which made me feel like its 2007 all over again – Kavinsky, Surkin, Boys Noize, Les Petits Pilous, Burns, Noisia, Bonobo… way too many to cover in detail in one post, so I’ll just leave a few words for each of them.
Kavinsky stayed true to his style with “Nighcall”, delivering signature 80ies sound that makes some drown in nostalgia and bores me. Surkin finally released “Fan Out” on his new EP “Silver Island”, a track he debuted more than half a year ago on BBC Radio that I immediately fell in love with. Noisia impressed.. sorry, will soon impress us with their new LP “Split the Atom”; its “Red Heat” is both easy on the ears and absolutely gorgeous. Alex once again collaborated with Erol, producing a forgettable but fun “Lemonade” (preview it on Chemical Jump) as well as just forgettable “Avalanche”. Les Petits Pilous pleased us with the voicesample-heavy “Goog”, and disappointed with the rest of their EP. Burns‘ “So Many Nights” was exactly what I expected, a solid EP you won’t be able to spin in clubs. Overall, the releases were disillusioning, and although I won’t go down the “electro is dead” road and beat the rotten and smelly horse, I must say: as far as club electro music goes, I’m getting disappointed way too often.
More posts with actual content coming up soon, stay tuned!
Glitch, do you listen to it?
I don’t, usually. But I do occasionally listen to breakcore (you know, the kind that irreparably destroys your brain, Bong-Ra and the like), so when the new EP by Fractal – “F.r.a.c.t.a.l” actually – landed in our inbox I decided to give it a go. Besides, the guy behind Fractal with the non-French sounding name “Kaminski” is based in Paris, and who doesn’t love Paris.
First impression – oh my poor ears, used to smoothening sounds of French disco! Fractal takes a sharp saw to them, although without being as brutal as most breakcore artists. ‘Battlefield’ is the most eclectic and aggressive-chaotic track of the bunch, which unfortunately doesn’t make it good. It lacks character and direction, sounding like noise to me – not something I’m looking for in music. ‘Obsolete’ being the calmest track on the EP does bring some variety to it, but does seem a tad boring, the opposite end of the spectrum on this single. ‘Paperboy’ is textbook, not a bad effort to create classic industrial sounds with some juicy distortion that kicks in at exactly the right moment.
‘Arise’ is a rather playful track and unusual for the breakcore genre, making it my favorite piece on the whole EP, with ‘Resurrection’ and its lovely sampled female vocals as a close second. Also, both are very danceable and almost funky in a way, lacking the aggression of the other tracks. Those two are keepers for me, and thats two out of five, not bad at all.
You can grab ‘Battlefield’ for free on soundcloud, but I suggest you skip it and go with ‘Arise’ to sample the EP below.
I noticed a post on French Express just recently covering Eumig & Chinon, a producer from Denmark, and oh does he produce. I immediately fell in love with “Kaschow”, a heavy, yet funky track, obviously heavily influenced by Justice.
He literally just now released a new remix of “Get Me Out” by Camille Jones – and I wasn’t disappointed as I rushed to grab it. It resembles SebastiAn’s early style without copying it (think “Ross Ross Ross”) as well as Fred Falke (think “First Move” remix), and yet it’s not your typical myspace banger mixed by some kid from your block. The track is cleverly infused with disco funk and has enough spice to keep you interested throughout the whole thing. Not sure if I’ll remember it in a year, but for now it sure beats a lot of new stuff by the big guys (*cough* Breakbot EP *cough*).
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Follow him on twitter (29 followers? are you kidding me?) and visit him on myspace.
There are mixtapes you skip into a few times, and throw them into the trash. There are mixtapes you force yourself to listen to because it has ten seconds of “the newest shit by the hottest producer” with voiceovers by the DJ (yeah fuck you Kissy). And then there are mixtapes you keep on your drive and keep listening to them month after month – “20th Century Boy” by Beetnik has been one of those mixes for me. Tasteful track selection and great mixing are key, and Beetnik nailed them both; in fact, when I first heard Superfuture mixed into Mind Dimension I assumed it to be a full-blown remix (this is how I discovered Hidden Cat, and I’m still thankful to Beetnik for that). So yeah, skip the newer mixtape if you want, but make sure you check 20th Century Boy out.
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Just today I decided to look if the man has anything new to offer, and what do you know: a new mixtape appeared on his myspace just a few hours ago. The tracklist looks tasty (even though a little dusty), and while the mixing is not superb all the way through it’s still very much enjoyable. Actually, I’ll be frank and say that the mixing does suck at times, but at times it’s really good, and hey: Beetnik even uploaded a .cue (find it on his myspace – I wish every mixtape came with one), so I’m recommending it regardless. Besides, it contains a demo of Beetnik’s new track “Verona” which itself does contain a healthy portion of epic, don’t miss out on that!
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Beetnik also has a new single out, check it out on his myspace. Tracklists are in the comments.
UPDATE:
Beetnik was so kind to send us the .cue for 20th Century Boy, which I immediately put to good use and cut out the Superfuture/Mind Dimension acapella mashup I mentioned above. Enjoy!
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Remember Hot Pink Delorean? That’s what they look like.
Over to the more exciting news of the day: HPD finished remixing quite a few tunes, and most of them do convince me, as I’m sure they will do with you. Making ‘Lumina’ by The Rogue Element a banger-ish tune is a neat idea and it’s well-executed, even though I still prefer the clean-sounding original. The wobbling distorted baseline in HPD’s take on ‘Try Me’ by Steed Lord as well as the cut-up vocals don’t disappoint, but my favorite is their remix of ‘Drive Me Crazy’ by Glaude. Grab the 128s of those tracks below.
I’d love to hear some new original mixes from those guys.
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All music on this page should be seen as promotional samples only. If you like the music buy the eps or albums and visit the artist's live shows. If you are the owner of music files or pictures featured on this site and want them to be removed, send a short mail to kontactme [at ]believethehype.de and it will be taken off quickly. If you want to send us songs or previews to be listed on this blog, feel free to send us an email too.
