Afro Monk

Michal Menert just released his new full length release, Even If It Isn’t Right, today on Pretty Lights Music for FREE. If you’re a fan of Michal Menert or the sound that Pretty Lights represents I highly recommend grabbing this right NOW!

I had the pleasure of meeting Michal over WMC this year and got to kick it with him and take a glimpse into what the future holds on his side of things. This album defies a lot of the norm for most releases and tells his story in this long composition. Spending a few days with him and his manager I knew that I had to help them out. It’s not very often you come across such a talented artist with the ideals and vision that Michal has.

He’s your regular guy who likes to play video games, chill, make music, and eat tons of sushi. His story is quite a unique one and he’s the only person who could say that early Pretty Lights music was composed of Derek and Michal. It’s something that I believe isn’t noted enough.

I had the pleasure of being in Denver for Menert’s debut of his new fancy projection mapped stage. The moment I walked into Cervantes I was totally blown away. The team that put together is the same team that has put together Pretty Lights past stages but this one has been taken to a whole new level. The dedication and effort put behind Michal Menert is second to none. It’s a honor to have been brought in to take part of it. There’s much ahead and can’t even describe to you how incredible the experience was that night except by showing you a video of how wild it all came out below. The video was done by the Swaager team/website and is only a small glimpse into this magical stage represented by mountain like structures with a sun/moon center where Michal performs in front of.  The lasers, video clips, and seamless combination of music and visuals are some of the best I’ve ever seen in my life.

Dear promoters of all locations. This show and stage will be touring in the Fall. I HIGHLY recommend picking this up. It’s one of the most amazing stages I’ve seen. The production levels is on par if not higher than Pretty Lights and other projection mapping stages out there. Cervantes was completely slammed and no one had any idea that the stage was being showcased for the most part.

Now go grab the album for FREE and download Dreaming of a Bigger Life if you haven’t already!
Michal Menert – Pretty Lights Profile

Also the new website has had a soft launch and ready to check out if you haven’t seen it. Check it out and watch it grow as I work my magic on it.

Michal Menert Official Website

So first things first – how can you not want to give a listen to a group that calls themselves Robotic Pirate Monkey? This fun trio from Boulder, CO brings the heat in their 4th release, Colors in Disguise. The nine-track album is upbeat, unique, and all-embracing; it provides an easy listening, soundtrack of your life kind of feel. Sprinkled with vibrant melody, tasteful samples, and resonant bass, the dynamic album leaves you with a feeling of bliss and exuberance. I have already been consistently listening to and really digging Rio de Fuego, which they released quite some time ago. The rest of the album is nothing short of brilliant! I love the deepness of Moon on the Man; the pulsating bass had me grooving in my chair at work. I think that Pantone Polygamy might be my favorite overall as I tend to lean towards synthy vivacious tunes.

I caught these guys at Lightning in a Bottle 2010 and have to say I really enjoyed their live set. They seem like the kind of guys you’d want to kick back and crack open a beer or light one up with. I’m also stoked to see them again at SnowGlobe on New Years Eve – if you’re at the festival (which you should be – the lineup is insane), make sure you don’t miss Robotic Pirate Monkey!

Grab Robotic Pirate Monkey’s free new release, Colors in Disguise, here.

Here’s to amazing, FREE music!

Lightning in a Bottle took place this year from May 27th-30th in Silverado, California. This was the second year where it was held at Oak Canyon Ranch. The layout of the festival was improved dramatically to allow campers easy access to the three immense stages. Last year one of the biggest issues was going up and down the mountain to reach the main camp area and stages. This year it seemed like The Do Lab figured out all the little kinks out and made for one of the greatest events I’ve ever attended.

Right when you drive into the venue an incredible force and vibe takes you. The community unites for this giant gathering of music, art, workshops, and more. People from all over the world unites and creates a small city made up of tents, RVs, renegade sound, shaded areas, grills, and beautiful people. There are three main stage areas that host some of the biggest and rising stars of underground music.

The Wookie stage is one of the first stages you see as you enter the festival looking for camp ground. It was an incredible sight to see. I heard the stage was rocking a FunktionOne sound system but to be honest I stayed clear of that stage. The Wookie stage is generally known for playing House music and too be honest I’m not a huge fan and there was way too much going on to even step onto that dance floor but it definitely was going off every time I came back to camp.

The Lightning stage is where the a lot of the big boys played. The area was massive with an enormous amount of room. This clearly was the main stage area. The production value on this stage was incredible with stunning pyrotechnics during Kraddy’s set. They also brought in giant LED screens for big acts like Pretty Lights and Mimosa. The vibe during the day was more of relaxed journey. I had great memories listening to Invisible Allies during the day on Sunday. I will say many of the opening bands were quite disappointing such as Metal Mother which almost made me wonder what was going on or if this all was just a sound check. The biggest crowd I saw was during Pretty Lights. The place was slammed and had to resort to going backstage to catch his set. Despite Pretty Lights set crashing and having dead air for about 2 minutes kids were still ready to party. Mimosa surprised me with his set as he is known for raging out and playing heavy popular brostep he kept it quite tame and one of the best sets I’ve seen from Tigran. It’s always a surprise though to see such a talented producer not play all originals or even more than 4-5 for hour and half set.

The Bamboo stage is practically where I lived. All my favorites and close friends were playing in this area. The first act I caught at LIB 2011 was Sex Pixels. They won the slot for the mixtape contest and wanted to see who these guys were considering I couldn’t find anything about them on the internet. Turns out they are a duo act and played mainly house music which I thought was odd they were placed on the Bamboo stage vs the Wookie stage considering the style of music they played. Going back to my initial shock of openers were Pussy Monster. I almost felt embarrassed for them as it was one of the worst sets I’ve seen on a major stage. Granted I don’t expect to love everyone but I was just shocked to see such a booking for the opening slot. The rest of the week-end everything I caught on the Bamboo stage was absolutely breath taking for the most part. The vibe and feel of the music being played in this area was clearly geared to more of my style and taste. Friday night NastyNasty stole the show for me. There was nothing that was going to top his set. Having a full 90 minute journey by Jasper was heaven. The way he flowed and broke his set into 30min pieces from dubstep to slow jams to 808 hiphop beats made his set my personal favorite of the entire week-end. A few of my friends also played on the Bamboo stage such as: Stephan Jacobs, Goldrush, Gladkill, ill-esha, Love & Light, Mimi Page, and Joey Mousepad. All of them did such an incredible job up there! Other notable acts were Emancipator, Phutureprimitive, Lynx, and Paper Diamond (which I only heard about and upset I missed Alex’s set).

Lightning in a Bottle doesn’t only cater to the people who are interested in the music but many other things. Many of the workshops I heard were incredible. The art and live painting going on all around the festivals created a real unique experience. Thousands of people dancing, hoola hooping, spinning fire, and sharing each others presence makes this festival one of the better communities to be around. All the vendors and food was excellent. I couldn’t get over how tasty the pizza was. Everything was done with thought and consideration. I never ventured up the mountain this year as it was something I didn’t need to relive. I heard it was gorgeous up there this year but I decided to pass and stay close to camp and others things going on.

Lightning in a Bottle truly encompasses everything you’d want in a festival. It changed my life for the better going last year and this year was nothing short of amazing. The community and people make this festival. The line up may change every year but what doesn’t change is the passion, love, and dedication put into everyone who is involved including you.

Of Porcelain aka Josh Mayer is no joke my favorite producer. Anyone who has ever talked to me about producing music eventually knows that my biggest influence would be Of Porcelain. The downtempo trip-hop artist is most well known by his other alias Ooah of The Glitch Mob. He also has other projects he is part as well such as PantyRaid and The Seedling Escape.

Josh has created such an impression with me that he’s probably one of the few artist out there that still feel starstruck whenever something appears from him. Despite recently seeing him preform with MartyParty as PantyRaid at Lightning in a Bottle he regained my faith that there’s a possibility of some more Of Porcelain or melodic sexy music still inside him after that underwhelming Superior EP. Watching him play you could see Marty jumping up and going crazy during the heavy aggressive basslines and you could see Josh just chillen grooving. It was obvious when Josh picked a tune as you could see him swaying to the chill beat and getting into it and see Marty just standing there. It’s interesting to see and hear the obvious differences in their music today. You can really tell the parts Marty wrote and the parts Josh wrote.

This new track by Of Porcelain brings so much faith back into music and where I first fell in love with chill glitchy beats. Ooah’s most recent track on soundcloud The Love I Need almost left me questioning if he was just experimenting or changing his sound towards this new direction PantyRaid was going for. He is extremely busy now with the upcoming Glitch Mob tour and has quite the insane life touring with Marty as well so I can only hope after the tours tone down we will see Of Porcelain revisited or hell even The Seedling Escape. Kitty D has been on a role as well and still has that unique sound which continues to stray away from the heavy bass beats. I can’t tell you how disappointing it is to see so many others fall to the trap of making heavy dance floor bangers.

Josh, Thank you for what you do and the music you create. I think I speak on behalf of many of your fans and lovers of music when saying this: PLEASE Of Porcelain album is way long overdue and in this brostep era something beautiful is needed baddddd. Take your time. BUT please everyone is craving something new with those hypnotic tones you’ve shown in the past. See you at the Dallas date if not out of town for a show. Much Respect & Love.

Grab the NEW Of Porcelain tune off the Seek Sick Sound Comp Vol. 2

Sounduo is a collaboration of Zach and Will which brings a live element to what many of us call dubstep or dub hop. Zach plays drums live while Will is behind the computer and guitar. Right now they are located in Miami where they met at The U (University of Miami). Will is originally from DC and Zach from Orlando. They are revolutionizing the game in Miami and proud to give them some light.

These two are bringing to life a new sound to Miami and can’t be happier to hear about them. As I was born and raised in Miami starting a DJ career there can be tough. The market there is one of the toughest and cliche out there. You’ll find your typical big names out there that everyone knows but extremely difficult to find something new and cutting edge in the moment out there. When Sounduo was brought to my attention it gave me hope for the future of Miami. Incorporating live instruments into the dubstep game isn’t a new thing but for Miami this is leaps and bounds compared to what is going on there. You’ll be lucky to find a dubstep producer out there who plays their own material let alone one or two of their tracks when I last was there. After watching a few videos and tracks on soundcloud I had to write about them. These guys are easily the best producers I’ve heard who reside in Miami.

Sounduo plays all originals and would be described as digital dub. They are heavily influenced by dub music and reggae. Now add the electronic vibe of dubstep, throw in some hip-hop beats, add some live musicians, and you’ve got yourself the formula of Sounduo. They are not the only ones doing the live thing as Miami has been curating some other live bands which seem to be uniting, Afrobeta, organicArma, and Telekinetic Walrus and The Pride of Ions.

The thing that got me most excited about Sounduo is that this only means more is to come and the East coast is starting to catch up. I can not tell you how big the contrast is in music compared to the both. Having live electronic groups appearing is just the start but I believe after talking to Zach and Will there is a lot ahead.

Sounduo will be planning a Florida tour in July and expect to hear a lot more from these two. I can’t wait to go back home to Miami to visit and get to kick it with them. After talking to them for awhile over Skype it makes me so happy to have an act like that to support in Miami. I can totally see these guys on the festie circuit real soon.

Much respect goes out to Zach and Will!

I’ll never forget the first time I heard PantyRaid, it was the mix for The Sauce. I even remember the post and saying The Sauce would be the best album of of the year. I still stand by those words and the dynamic duo of MartyParty & Ooah despite this follow up EP and uproar it has started.

What’s the cause of all this uproar? Easy. The new Superior EP is filled with heavy aggressive drumstep vibes. The fans of the duo are disappointed and I even have seen many people even calling them sell outs to the brostep movement. Marty and Ooah have gained the respects of many of the west coast crunk bass movement and lets just say most of them won’t stand for this change of direction. The Sauce was a major point of the crunk sound development.

It’s not that ohh no another brostep/drumstep EP its more about what people have come to expect from both of them. We all know how talented and musical they both can be. Hell go listen to Marty’s Skukuza EP or Ooah’s Of Porclain project. The production value of those versus this is quite astounding. Now lets not burn these guys at the stake they have the right to change direction and have fun. They aren’t sell outs because as the powerhouse Skrillex has said numerous times.

My biggest concern is how they are handling this as if to pull a big move to almost disregard and hide all the negative responses. Marty posted this on FB and I replied. It of course got deleted but WHY?! I’m here to support but also speak my mind.

MartyParty:
“You gotta love the hate on Facebook – WOW! Full time job deleting evil postings – to all those people that hate on art – LOVE and HATE are the same emotion – check yourselves and open your minds – I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!”

My response:

“I’ll be honest I’m not a fan of the new material but it’s definitely something interesting to listen to coming from two extremely talented producers. I wouldn’t call Love & Hate the same emotion. I personally think this album if anything shows the dark side of ones emotions where it has heavy aggressive angry monotones all over it but don’t we all have that inside at one point of time. Have fun but realize the new sound pushes a completely different emotion than The Sauce so what did you expect? Keep making that music and enjoying yourself. Do it for you and no one else but remember the art of music is conveying you and emotions. You guys do it well. Big ups!”

Now checking Twitter I see this.
Marty: “#3 on iTunes – THANKYOU – when we made these songs in the Brooklyn studio we knew they would stir up some emotion out there”

If you knew this was going to happen stop trying to delete and erase all the people speaking their mind and giving their opinion. Hateful messages yeah sure get rid of them but something tells me all of them aren’t hateful or evil. Everyone has their own personal opinion and doesn’t mean everyone thinks they have to follow or feel the same way. Hell if it has hit #3 on iTunes already you got a positive response but don’t be surprised if on social media mediums your fans who have been following you and actually pay attention to you won’t react in a positive light and be ignored.

Personally I think this is a huge push for people discovering The Sauce if they haven’t already. Look what The Glitch Mob did and it was in the complete opposite direction. They followed up all their free bootlegs with a straight downtempo chill LP versus a heavy crunk glitch release everyone expected. There were people who hated it and talked trash but want to talk about the press monster that came out of it. The same is about to happen with this release from Pantyraid.

I might not be a producer and making beats all the time but I know that music is a powerful medium of expression. There is music to rock out and party with and then there’s the listening to music. That’s how I mainly divide a lot of my music lately. This Superior EP is jump up and rage at a club and they execute it well. There is no doubt in my mind that heavy energy is the name of the game right now. Just remember to keep the diversity. Pantyraid shows us that you can get all sexy and crunk but also get all that pent up energy and push out some fun jump up dance floor stuff.

Love it or hate it check out the Superior EP @ PantyRaid Music

Quick references to hear the differences:

The Sauce

Superior

Mexicans with Guns has to be one of my favorite alias in the game. Ernest Gonzalez reigns from Texas and is easily my favorite dubstep producer from Texas. I had the pleasure of finally catching a set of his during SXSW and whoa. Ernest doesn’t mess around and totally rocks one of the dopest mask. This LP I’ve been dying to get my hands on and finally have given it a listen. WOW. Originality in the dubstep genre is so important to me. There are so many producers and majority of them all seem to blend together for the most part. Mexicans with Guns gives a brand new sound that has become so appealing to me and really has that Mexican/Latin feel to the genre. His classic hits, Dame Lo & Me Gusto, are back on this release which truly express this vibe.

Ernest is ready to take us all on this ceremonial journey of bass music with this 14 track release on May 10th. Truly I feel like this is a masterpiece. Highway to Hell has instantly become one of my favorites since I heard it, within a few minutes of hearing it I ordered the sexy red vinyl press of it. Restart ft Sasha Perera is also a track that blew me away with such beautiful vocals on top of chill deep beat.

Ceremony Tracklist:
01. Opening Incantation
02. Jaguar
03. Restart ft. Sasha Perera
04. Fields
05. Deities
06. Highway to Hell ft. Freddie Gibbs
07. Mirage
08. Me Gusto ft. Chico Mann
09. Corazon ft. Zacky Force Funk
10. El Sol y La Luna
11. Got Me F_cked Up ft. Nocando
12. Dame Lo
13. Death and Rebirth
14. El Moreno ft. Helado Negro

FREE Downloads:
Freddie Gibbs – Playa (Mexicans with Guns Remix)

Mexicans with Guns – Me Gusto ft. Chico Mann

Check out this insane video for Dame Lo:

I’d have to say the most listened to albums in my car are the ones from Robot Koch. His beats is the go to stuff while i’m cruising along driving into the city or going out to party. His beats hypnotize in this sick ill way. If you’re into the Doshy stuff I posted earlier this week check this out! Robot Koch is the producer behind all these tracks and the ridiculous flow of John Robinson on top of each track. John does an incredible job on spitting verses and hooks. I’m usually quite not too big on MCs or rappers but man I’d totally let this guy drop some words on top of my set and if anyone knows how I feel about that it’s saying A LOT!

One thing that really cheered me up about this release is that it was pressed to vinyl. I need to figure out how to order this here to the States. This needs to be in my vinyl collection. I’m listening to this whole thing over again and seriously wow. I’m totally blown away by this. This really is the next level stuff. There’s a line John drops where he goes “Robot is the future” and I could not agree more. These insane beats with a sick flow is what I think is the next phase of electronic music. I also believe the sexy melodic idm stuff has a huge future coming back as the heavy aggressive bass lines will eventually get old very quickly and the complete opposite is what everyone will be hoping to hear. Big ups to Robot Koch and John Robinson!

Be sure to check out the video for the single!

ill-esha is working on possibly making a music video for her track, Only Fair. She had decided to launch a kickstart campaign to help fund the project. The bar is set to $3,000 and it needs YOUR help! The video above goes into detail what she is hoping to accomplish with this video. We all know it’s a hard time to produce top quality products and with the decrease in album sales and labels lacking the budget this is her way of giving back a piece of herself in this video.

There are many benefits to contributing to this project based on how much you donate. What many of you don’t realize is that if the project does not hit its goal you will be refunded however much you have donated. Please spread this project as much as you can as I know that if there is anyone who has put in the time and effort into the community it’s Elysha.

I spent the past couple of days with her and every moment my faith is restored in where the music is going and seeing a loving heart behind the music. There’s so much music out there and seems to lack soul and seeing her preform and being around her you can just feel it. I hope you can give a little to this project and see it manifest itself into reality. Once the song is released all the profits made from commercial sales will be donated to the emergency relief effort in Japan.

For more information: ill-esha // Only Fair Kickstart

The Do Lab presented us with their LIB 2011 line up upon us!
May 27th through May 30th will mark the festivities this year!
I’ve been looking forward to see what this year might bring and boy is it sweet.
The diversity of this line up is sexy.

This time there are so many familiar names that I have no idea what to do!
I was in NYC with Gladkill when I saw this and wow! We both freaked out and had our mouths on the floor. Instead of posting the image with the line up I’ve decided to break it down by day and bold my suggestions. Expect Glitch.fm & Bwomp to be forming another camp this year! I’ll be somewhere running around in a complete daze. I can’t wait to go back to California for this one. The community and love out there is unmatched at these festivals. This festival is the one thing that totally shifted everything in the right direction for me in 2010 and know that it will do the same in 2011. I’m going to say that I highly suggest getting tickets for this now! I have no idea if this event can sell out but something tells me if it’s possible it will. Grab your tickets and make travel plans because this is the one festival not to miss out on!
BUY Lightning in a Bottle Tickets

Much Love and Respect goes out to The Do Lab!
Enjoy this video that is only a small glimpse into what Lightning in a Bottle is…

Friday, May 27th

Lucent Dossier Experience
MiM0SA
Nick Warren
PANTyRAiD
Random Rab and the Infinidroid
Claude VonStroke
Dub Kirtan Allstars (feat. Freq Nasty & David Starfire)
Emancipator
The Malah
The Great Mundane
Stephan Jacobs
NastyNasty
duckbutter
Flook
Mark Zabala
Kaminanda
MAV3N
Metal Mother
The Mowgli’s

Saturday, May 28th

Pretty Lights
Beats Antique
Kraddy
Eskmo
Jay Tripwire
Virtual Boy
Low Riderz
Y La Bamba
Android Cartel
Sammy Bliss
Octopus Nebula
Cohen
Heyoka
Jupit3r
ill-esha
Dj Maggie
Gladkill
Wobs
Lulacruza
Joe Rodriguez
Melanie Moore
Russ Liquid
Phutureprimitive
Desert Dwellers
Joplin

Sunday, May 29th

Thievery Corporation
Bonobo
Lee Burridge
Paper Diamond
Fools Gold
John Kelley
Baths
Invisible Allies
Idiot Savant
LYNX
Syd Gris
El Papachango
Pumpkin
Shawna
Brad Moontribe
dela Moontribe
Love in the Circus
Matt Xavier
Inspired Flight
GoldRush
Brutus