Afro Monk

ARTIST: Nicoluminous
TITLE: Bass Muze
LABEL: Street Ritual
CAT-NO: SRR-005
FORMAT: Digital
RELEASE DATE: 05/29/2010

The hip hop and beat boxing of Nicoluminous has taken form in
synthesizers and drum machines for his second official release, Bass
Muze. Beats and bass dive through the sonic landscape in glorious
pristine west coast flavor, shined up like some hundred spoke 13″ gold
wire rims on an amphibious moon buggy. Nico’s got the juice, the
fiyah, the dirty girdy if you will. Don’t sleep on the super belly
bass bizzle. It’s for rizzle…all inspired by the low end, just in
time for you favorite speaker freakin’ summer festival.

1) Bass Muze
2) Belly Funk
3) Bass Bizzle
4) Souljah Crunk
5) Battery Juice
6) Dirty Girdy
7) Carpet Ride
Keep the FiYa!!!
9) Toki Dub
10) Sinewaves for Mermaids

Download one of the tracks off this release, Me Against the World Souljah Crunk.
Pick up the full release Bass Muze

Nico Luminous is located in Oregon and be on the look out because this dude is a total sleeper. It may seem at first that he is just another beat boxer but then you realize the mans skill as he creates loops on the fly and incorporate all mixed sounds in a full live performance. These are some tracks put down by him. Check out this video where he has taken the time to show you how a live performance can really go deep with using Ableton Live. It’ll makes you wonder what really all is possible when you see someone out there.

It has finally been unvieled to the world! The partnership of Ableton and Serato has produced something that looks to change the face of DJing all over again.

The Bridge is an updated version of Serato that integrates the session view that we’ve all come to know in Ableton into the Scratch Live interface. Launch clips and controlling them via decks or CJS. Also they’ve out done themselves with having it all work together and using many tricks that Ableton has for mixing. Sampling couldn’t have become easier either.

One great feature that I know I’m going to take advantage of is Play Hard(ware) where it allows you to hook additional hardware controllers like the new APC20, launch pad, or APC40. It will automatically change the Ableton layout to match your controller and have your clips run like regular tracks using Scratch or Itch. Truly the possibilities are endless.

Those of you who are into recording mixes and tweaking them up to sound perfect can also export recorded sets in Serato into an Ableton file. This lets you go back and edit or add anything into the mix.

The future is now and we are going to start to see DJs and Producers starting to share a common bridge. This to me is big because now a DJ who is use to conventional Scratch setup has oppertunity to finally pick up on Ableton and enter into production a lot smoother. This also gives a chance for producers to get a feel for using decks or CDJs in mixing with an environment they are familar with. Everyone wins here and only helps to push things further along.

Since early December I’ve been working real hard. I decided to put all my free time into learning Ableton and using the APC40.

I knew it wouldn’t be an easy task but with great support from some friends online I was guided in the right direction.

I was invited to play at a house party and had made a promise by the time that party I’d be ready. I spent countless hours finding the right tracks that would fit. This party was most likely going to consist of people who have not heard much glitch so I consintrated on the glitch hop style.

After many nights of watching videos, having discussions with other DJs, asking for help, and overall just playing with Ableton I decided I had reached my goal.

The only problem was the party was moved to my house and I hadn’t been sleeping for the past 2-3 weeks more than 5hrs. I have been treating my body like crap and staying up late prepping tracks for the APC40. When it was time to preform I couldn’t for more than 20mins. I felt horrible but I wasn’t going to preform when completely burnt out and it’d come out liek crap. Also I realized I was missing something quite important, a laptop stand. Bending over the laptop and APC was killing me after 20mins. I had been sitting down when practicing and working on my laptop.

I was disappointed with myself in the end but knew I’d record something. A few friends came over later to play some Fifa. I figured this would be the perfect time to record while they were playing. Not to mention see how they’d react to the music while playing a game. To my surprise everyone was digging it.

I have over 3-4 mess ups that I’m quite frustrated with but it’s a learning experience. Never had I played an entire set through with the APC. After going through a whole entire hour set I know what definately not to do and where to be careful. There are even some new tricks I picked up while in the zone. This was more of a trial and error mix.

Check it out and feel free to give some feedback. The reason I’m posting this now is because it’s a preview of the type of stuff I’m working on. Come January I’m going to modify the overall feel a bit to more of a IDM feel instead of hip hop feel.

Miami, it’s time someone has a try at this glitch thing. Hopefully this will be the start of something fresh! Wish me luck because I’ll need it!

Afro Monk’s First Mix with Ableton & APC40

Transitioning to Ableton and APC40.

I’ve only been doing this DJ thing since mid 2009. The first purchase I made was a Numark NS7. I believe it’s one of the best controllers out there. After the NS7 I finally made the plunge and picked up turntables. As of late November I’m a proud owner of the Akai APC40.

The APC stands for Abelton Performance Control. Ultimately what it means is that it’s mainly designed to be used with Ableton Live. It is layout so you can go out and use Albeton for live acts flawlessly.

I’m not going to lie; I’m no pro at DJing and mixing. Right now I’m pretty terrible at beat matching. Yet after really understanding what a standard DJ does I’m ok with not being the best at it or remotely good at it. The APC40 takes care of all that and yet introduces a new challenge, programming. Whereas a standard DJ with CDJs or Decks is limited in playing a track and slight control on a mixer the truth is all they are doing is popping in a CD or record and matching the beat and moving to the next track. Yes they do mess with the EQs but nothing too crazy. The APC gives you endless possibilities when using Ableton. The amount of things you can do is mind blowing.

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