I’ve been working on a new project for 2012 and it’s about time I share it with you all! The past few months I’ve become a bit more critical than usual. Bass music hasn’t been doing what it use to do for me. My relocation back home to Miami has changed a lot of things especially my life style. When I lived in Texas I was always out with friends, partying, DJing, traveling, etc… Now I spend most of my time relaxing enjoying the ocean breeze on my balcony. My nights consist of digging for more music and that peaceful state of mind. I’ve grown up and feel like an adult. Music now plays a different role for me now.

It’s not that I’m disappearing now but expect much of my focus to go in this new direction. Lounge Temple is ultimately Afro Monk 2.0 with its primary genres being downtempo, trip-hop, and future bass. It’s a lot more laid back and lounge like.

Not only will the site be something new i’ll be exploring but also have a supporting weekly lounge night here in Miami. I’ve been offered an industry night at The Stage here in Miami. It offers a great environment as well as chance to start something entirely different from your typical club rave night. Gooddroid and I will be playing lounge music ever Sunday night! Chilled Out Sundays starts up February 19th, 2012!

For more information and your chilled out needs go to:
Lounge Temple: Downtempo, Trip-hop, & Future Bass Blog

Top 5 Best Releases:

1. Opiuo | Squiggle EP

2. Love & Light   | The Light we Bring EP

3. Kalya Scintilla | Shimmer EP

4. Mimi Page | Harmonious HeartBEATS

5. SuperVision | Telescopic

Top 5 Best Songs:

1. Lokid | Fear of Heights

2. Mokhov | Fragile Memories

Halcyon Days Ep

3. Enya | Boadicea (Vespers Remix)

4. Nominus | Rim Shock

5. GRiZ | iLL Type Moves

Being newer to this community of creative musicians I would have a hard time coming up with lists of my favorite new producers and events.  This year my highlight was Decimal Festival in my town of Seattle where I got to catch a lot of the sounds and beats that had been on constant repeat around my home.  I’m really hoping to make it to some of the other large festivals around this country next year.  Lighting in a Bottle is my top choice for next summer.  I just need an invite to camp with some new friends and would love to start getting to know all you people face to face instead of in the virtual world.  This world we live in is pretty amazing and inspires me each and every day.  Pretty excited about the coming year and all that it will bring.  Wish you all the best for the last days of 2011 and lets ring the new year in with some bass!

The way I came up with the list for this year was thinking to myself which albums did I listen to the most and can think off the top of my head as standing out. The Weeknd has been my obsession and biggest inspiration to my transformation into sexy bump n grid live sets. Tycho makes some of the greatest music to just drive/work too. Dive represents one of those timeless LPs that will never get old and pick me uppers when music seems to get dull. Robot Koch’s The Other Side is one of the most incredible albums that took me away into a dreamland and thought to myself why has no one talked about this release. I listen to it on a daily basis since I got it. Thriftworks is one of my secret weapons when playing to a crowd. Zen Zero is one of the fullest albums out there this year in my opinion. Tokimonsta stole my heart when she released Creature Dreams. I always somewhat enjoyed her music but never LOVED it but she sealed the deal on the Creature Dreams release. These are not as hype or heavy dance floor albums but encompass what I listen to on a regular basis.

Top 5 Best Songs
1. NastyNasty – Sweety Bodies

2. Kastle – Walking Away

3. The Weeknd – Wicked Games

4. Antenitas – Los Bandidos Cosmicos (Nico Luminous Remix)

5. ill-esha – Only Fair (Gladkill remix)

Top 5 Underrated Releases
1. Robot Koch – The Other Side
2. Shigeto – Full Circle Remixes
3. B. Bravo – Kiss ‘n’ Tell
4. Knowa Knowone – Sound Paintings
5. Chris B – Whats Your Fantasy

I mentioned that the Robot Koch album was rarely talked about this year and man did it go under the radar. It’s just beautiful and feel like all of you should take a listen to it. Shigeto is one of my greatest finds last year and the Full Circles release was mind blowing and just when thought it couldn’t get better it did this year with a remix version with some of the most talented in the game. B. Bravo is one of the most listened to artist in my entire library. I’ve been following his work for quite some time now and he doesn’t get enough attention in my book but I know he will over the next few years. Knowa Knowone has always been on my radar but never really put anything out that captured me till this year and take it might have been the same for many of you. His release Sound Paintings put him back on my map of an artist to keep an eye on. Chris B’s Whats Your Fantasy is one of those album I’ll never forget talking about with Simplify head hancho about before it got released and explained to him that was so glad to see Chris was finally putting out an official release. Simplify has now become one of the biggest labels in the bass scene and feel like despite the overall feel the labels puts out this was their best one.

Top 5 New Producers
1. Quitter
2. The Human Experience
3. Slidecamp
4. Guttstar
5. Lo Bounce

There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Quitter is the hottest new sound that brings back memories of that hip-hop/beats/bass mixed into a high quality product. Absolutely love the direction they’ve started with. Can’t go wrong with a NastyNasty + So What collab. The Human Experience caught my attention last year and really inspired me. His new release this year almost made it to the most underrated list but overall I feel like he’ll be making quite a stir soon as he just was in Europe doing a tour. Slidecamp is another astonishing project that Boreta and Comma have put together that blew my mind. I truly hope we’ll see more from them and not just another abandoned project from another Glitch Mob member. Guttstar is the new Joker for me. I first heard his music and thought to myself this guy is the purple king. He’s also in the SEO business and instantly connected. He’s got much ahead of him in the coming years. Lo Bounce has been working hard all year pumping out some of the biggest bangers of the year in my eyes. His Me & U remix that was exclusive to Afromonk.com always gets play time in any of my live sets since I received it.

Top 5 Events
1. Lightning in a Bottle
2. SXSW
3. Emissions
4. Sonic Bloom
5. Art Outside

Lightning in a Bottle is one of those magical events where some of the biggest names come together and express themselves in art, music, dance, and more. It’s commonly described as the closest thing to Burning Man out of all the festivals. I know that till the end of my life I’ll be going to LIB. This past year had so many incredible memories and being backstage with some of my close friends that I only get to see during these festivals makes it that much better. SXSW this year was complete madness. Austin is where the event takes place and mainly focuses on bands and live music but this year it seems like electronic showcases were the spotlight to many. The amount of talent and people around this year made it one of the best weeks of my life. I’m quite sad that I no longer live in Texas but think I’m going to skip out on WMC this year and just fly to ATX for SXSW instead. Man too think I played at 5 different showcases last year is insane. Emissions this year was one of the best line ups of all the festivals. If you heard of that one festival that it snowed and screwed up a lot of things up that’s Emissions. It’s a shame because it was setup to be one of the best showcases all season. I assure you that next years will be one for the books. Despite the snow I had a great time and was one of those extremely intimate festivals where all the talent is walking around freely and not separated from everyone else. My favorite memory of the year was when I first arrived and was by main stage checking out the booth and having Jasper hugging me and being like hey whats up! It’s just one of those events where everyone is there just hanging out like one big family. This year I was fortunate to visit Colorado for Sonic Bloom. I hadn’t ever been since I started getting involved into the scene. Sonic Bloom was a dream becoming reality. I expected to get such a warm welcome from everyone there. I got to meet so many friends in person after communicating with them via online for years. The lineup was stellar and was able to interact with everyone with my press pass and even got invited to play on one of the side stages. Overall a wonderful experience and great community in attendance since such a large portion of the scene lives in Colorado. Art Outside is a small homegrown festival in Texas. I was proudly invited to go play at it. It was a honor to play alongside such talented people as well as a great farewell to Texas. I found out a few days before Art Outside that I would be relocating back to Miami so it was that last hoopla in Texas. I’ll be sure to make it a point to return next year and recommend you all to give it a chance if looking to try out a new festival you have never out too.

I’ve been talking quite a bit about launching a new project/website for a while now. It originally was going to be Glitchhop.com but too be honest I feel like afromonk.com accomplishes what I want in that respect. It’s hard to not become jaded by all the talk of brostep, Skrillex, EDM, etc… It’s worn on me already and tired of people not understanding that all this exposure is probably doing more harm than good for the community. I’ve decided to take a step back from bass music while I haven’t pissed off many friends and still have the contacts I have.

What I’m looking for is a designer and a developer. The designer wouldn’t have too difficult of a job as I like plain and simple designs. It would be something sleek and clean. Just take a look at this site and Glitchhop.com. The major task would be developing a full blown theme or customizing it to my liking. Depending on what sort of responses I get for a developer would dictate the CMS that it would be on. I’m more inclined to something like Joomla vs WordPress at this point. Developers I’m looking for someone who would preferably be good with Joomla or any CMS that isn’t WordPress… Hell, if you can develop a custom CMS that would be even more ideal but that’s a bit extreme and know that don’t really have a budget for something like that. I’d essentially want some built into the backend that would have mandatory fields to fill in that would be part of a big database. It’d be easy to populate and display all the different categories in each field. Imagine an advanced interface where you can choose multiple categories at once for each specific field filled in for each post. If you think you can do this with WordPress I’m open to it but would love to stay away from that platform.

I haven’t gone into much detail about all this but I please contact me if you are interested so we can discuss more. Designers please links to your portfolio would help tremendously or any example sites that you’d base this design off of. Developers all I ask for is being able to put a good amount of work into this and not something that would take you over a month to turn around on. Proper recognition would be given and depending on the level of design and developer payment may be arranged.

I look forward to hearing from you. I couldn’t have been more overwhelmed by the response I got from the last call to action for writers. Please send me an e-mail directly to me if interested.

I’m looking forward to working on this new project in 2012 and assure you most of you will love it.

JM

Female vocals take tracks to a whole new level. My true passion is Trip-Hop mainly due to the fact that I melt when I hear solid vocals from a woman. I’ll even go as far as saying that some tracks would never live up to their full potential if wasn’t for the vocals.

Rayne, is one of the few female vocalist that I don’t think you might know about. Truth is the point of this post is specifically to put her on the radar because I was informed that she wasn’t getting credit for her vocals on an upcoming release by June Miller. The track is even the titled track for the release. The music industry has a way of forgetting to mention things in all the mess and decided to put this together.

As far as it goes as what I think I’ll keep quite and not raise my voice. I’ll just let the vocals on this one do the work. Rayne’s vocals are the closest thing I’ve heard to timeless trip-hop that I love on a drum and bass track. The track goes hand in hand with her voice on this one perfectly.

Rayne and I randomly became familiar with each other before I left Miami for Dallas. Over the past year we’ve become close friends and I have to say never have come across such a sweet girl with one of the most incredible personalities out there. She really does give me faith for humanity. Now that I’m back in Miami she shortly left for LA unfortunately. She’s one of those good people that you hate to see people take advantage of because their so nice. I couldn’t believe it when she told me they weren’t putting her name on the track and haven’t responded to any forms of contact. This one is for you. I don’t post much drum & bass but man this is one of those few tracks that just hit the soul and majority of it is because of her stunning vocals.

June Miller ft Rayne- Give up the ghost
Rayne Music

Big ups girl! <3

It has been awhile since I wrote a post that doesn’t have to do with a specific release or spotlight. I’ve been meaning to write a piece about the website but I’ve been quite busy. I just recently relocated back to Miami, FL.

The website has been around for over two years now. It’s crazy to think it has been that long. It seems like it was just yesterday when I built it. The purpose of this website was to post music I found and help support my friend’s music.

Recently I’ve seen an increase in music blogs and resources online. There’s so much music out there that people are finally using online mediums to share and promo new music. I’m happy to see this evolution of online promotion because it gives chances for new producers and DJs to gain exposure.

The format of this blog is a bit different as I mainly write about people I’ve personally connected with online. The site after all is Afromonk.com which is my DJ name and story of my experiences tied together with music. I want to give readers, fans, and music lovers more than just a download link. It’s important to me as a DJ to have a personal connection with the music versus just playing what’s hot or popular. I actually take pride in making sure that all the music I do play out to a crowd is by people I personally know versus just scanning through Beatport for something that’s in the charts.

The main goal of this post is to let my existing fan base, readers, new visitors, producers, and people interested in getting a featured on the site know that this website is designed for a specific sound. Afromonk.com, has no plans to expand into something huge and ultimate resource for electronic music. The objective for this website is to provide a place where SPECIFIC niche of music will be written about. Ultimately what I’m trying to say is that there will be NO BROSTEP. The site will always be a niche site and for people who are interested in the softer chiller side of electronic music.

I recently started a Turntable.fm room, glitch / chill dubstep / IDM. The purpose of the room was to create a room where I could create a place to listen/play music that I love and can sit back and listen to at work. We have a great following already and it continues to grow. The reason for this is due to the fact that we are extremely picky and have no problem with trolling the crap out of heavy dubstep. The room is designed to follow a specific format.

I have no problem pushing this specific sound. This does not mean that it’s all I support but in the current state of dubstep and electronic music we have people like Skrillex introducing the masses into electronic music. My goal is to create different mediums such as Afromonk.com, Turntable.fm room, mixes, etc… that promote a sexier side to electronic music. The influx of people interested in electronic music is great but there’s too many websites/blogs that push things due to the fact that they are popular or fit a generic genre. We’ve seen a rise in some massive websites overnight but catering specific to this sound Skrillex, Bassnectar, Nero, Flux Pavilion, etc… It’s not that these producers don’t have diversity but it’s more of the fact that people are constantly promoting specific major artist and sound.

I had a talk with my talented new writers Ed and Tara about this and let them know that Afromonk.com will continue to push a softer chiller side to electronic music. We encourage you to send us e-mails about anything new you hear about that fits to a setting where you’re lightning one up and just want to take in the music. It doesn’t even have to be electronic music per say but have a lounge chill feel to it. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy trip-hop and wish there would be more music created in that realm vs aggressive bass sounds that have become so extreme.

For the love of God realize that this website will not promote or post anything that resembles BROSTEP. If you can’t close your eyes and relax while listening to the music chances are we won’t consider. CHILL SEXY MUSIC PLZ.

Thank you for all the support over the years.

I’m sorry if any of you take this post as something negative but understand there are thousands of dubstep blogs out there now that post the heaviest filthiest sounds out there. This site is designed to be a contrast to this trend of music.
Please send any music you feel that fits into our goal to Demos@afromonk.com.

- JM

Malbec will be out on Old Tacoma Records Elliot Lipp’s label November 8th, 2011. This def has more of that glitch-hop vibe mixed with dubstep. There some straight bangers on here that will give you the power to rock a crowd like Ben Samples himself, haha. Look out for his upcoming Halloween tune he’ll be giving away and a funky 90s jam. For now grab the free demo track for Malbec!

DOWNLOAD: Ben Samples – Shadow of Love

Kastle is back with another to follow up the most recent Time Traveler release a few months ago. If you haven’t heard of Kastle get in the know now because he’s making some of the most incredible music out right now. I can’t think of any recent set I’ve played that I haven’t played one of his tunes.

The So You EP has the traditional sound we have come to love from him but adds much more emotion where some of his earlier tracks come from. I’ve listened to So You numerous times since I saw it appear on Soundcloud last night. I felt that Kastle was sort of falling flat compared to some of his earlier work but this track So You totally has grabbed me. The other two songs on the EP, Could U Want Me & You Know That I Know You Know, have been on his SC for awhile now but finally get a release on this small EP. He will be doing a small tour it seems to help promote this one. I’ll be sure to make it out to the show in Miami.

Be sure to grab this EP when it’s released on November 7th.
It’s perfect for those sexy R&B luvstep sets.

This past week-end I spent it in Austin for Movin’ Decibels Dub City Limits… They brought in Love & Light, Stephan Jacobs, Sugarpill, Chris B, Gladkill, & NastyNasty. Being in the crowd and spending the week-end with them really took me back to reflect on where this all started. Two years ago I would of never imagined to be so close to these superstars around the States. Now I can’t imagine all these artist not part of my life. Thank you for all the support you have given this site! This site is nothing without its readers and artist who produce and share their music with the world.

I took a look at the site analytics and since its launched there has been a total of over 100,000+ unique visitors to the site.  It’s unbelievable.

Thank YOU!

PS: There will be a special post this week to celebrate the 2 years! I’m thinking top 2 in multiple categories.

I just recently got up to date with things going on in the music community and stunned to hear about one of the main distributors in London was burned down. It was home to Sony’s UK distribution as well as PIAS’ headquarters. The biggest his was the fact that PIAS works with TONS of independent labels that I’ve come to LOVE. The list of labels hit by this are: Big Dada, Brainfeeder, Brownswood Recordings, Lex Records, Ninja Tune, Soma, Warp, XL & a lot of others.

The location was burned down, looted, and lost its entire inventory. This could be a devastating blow to a few of the smaller labels which housed their entire inventory at this distribution warehouse. A new site has appeared to help donate money to all the record labels hurt by this lose. Association of Independent Music (AIM) is urging people to buy and support these labels to help keep them afloat in this dishearten times. Cognitive Dissonance Records has launched a new website, LabelLove, to help donate to these labels.

Keep in mind labels such as Brainfeeder, Warp, and Ninja Tune are home to many of the artist I support and come to grow up on. We all know names like Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares call Warp home as well as Flying Lotus, Lorn, & Nosaj Thing call Brainfeeder home. Lets not forget the legendary Ninja Tune label which recently put out the Amon Tobin album and most recent Eskmo LP.

Please help support the cause and help smaller independent labels stay alive after this devastating event. Even if you can’t donate please share this article!