Afro Monk

Mindelixir is a name that many of you should be familiar with. Bill is a great friend and has been making some serious waves on the East coast. He recently just put out a full LP on Daly City Records and has been hustling harder than everyone I know. Besides working hour after hour in the studio he manages a team of minions in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mindelixir has been a rising power in the bass community and not be be underestimated. At the end of this month marks his one year anniversary of his legendary Bass Church monthly event. Bass Church is one the largest monthly events if not largest bass events in the States.

This is Mindelixir’s second full length EP and boy does it roll deep in diversity yet keeps the same organic flow and style. Ever since I’ve listened to it for my first time I’ve been impressed. 1492 instantly became my favorite track after a full listen. It has a unique melodic sound that appeals to my personal taste. I recently told Bill that it was my favorite and how I even throw it into sets sometimes. It was funny to hear that he said he’s never even played it out but our live styles are quite vastly different. The other track that really stands out and took me by surprise was A Man and a Woman. The track features a vocal sample that balances it heavy bass lines. If there was any track off this album that I can see being rinsed out it’s definitely A Man and a Woman. The rest of the tracks work off each other to create a journey into the mind of Mindelixir.

The one thing that I want to emphasize the most about this release is how much intrigue time and attention to detail this release has. Bill is a hard worker and puts his all into writing an album. While he is known for being one of the most explosive DJs out there his original work showcases the soul and work he puts into his music.

This marks one of his last releases that solely has been written in Reason. Expect his sound to evolve even more as he transitions to Ableton and the world of VSTs. There is much more ahead from Mindelixir as he continues to build his following, monthly event, and production. Expect to see his name a lot more and coming to a city near you as he can be found at many of the East coast festivals and other major events. His live sets are truly the highlight of any evening.

Nothing but respect and love goes out to my great friend, Mindelixir! I can’t wait till the next time we cross paths which might be sooner than later. You  can always expect a great time whenever Bill is around!

Tracklist
1. 1492
2. Doomsday Ticket
3. Aruba
4. Bassfunk
5. Captivation
6. Dubfunk
7. Galvanic Response
8. Nomura’s Invasion
9. Roadblock
10. Water hoarding
11. A Man and a Woman
12. Game Over
13. Gutfunk
14. Jabber Hockey
15. Collective Paranoia

BUY: Mindelixir – Doomsday Ticket

I just want sent over an article going into detail how Disney has bought out Deadmau5. They have tied it to how Disney has been making moves like this to acquire new appeal and trademarks.

Lets put this black and white. Disney now owns the trademark and logo of Deadmau5. WHAT?! I’m not a fan of his music but every festival and popular ‘rave’ is infested with tons of Deadmau5 gear and shirts. Hell at Nocturnal there was a dude who built his own Deadmau5 head and was taking pictures with people and letting them wear it.

The main reason I bring this all up is simple. The article quotes a former employer of Deadmau5 saying things that blew my mind and doesn’t surprise me. People pay attention to this!!!

“…makes perfect sense. Deadmau5′s live show is completely automated, so they can literally put the helmet on anyone, and nothing will change. Even the music creation process requires almost no human input, and if anyone can operate a one trick pony, it’s Disney.”

Do you have any idea what this means?! His sets are AUTOMATED!!! This is possibly the most disgusting thing I’ve heard. It truly gives a bad to a lot of electronic performers. This only gives more ammo to those vinyl and cdj purist who say people playing live is cheating. It really upsets me hearing this.

There is nothing more annoying for me to see djs or performers taking a cheap route when playing in Ableton or any live setting. Technology is here to move past beat matching and incorporate live remixing and edits NOT automation.

UPDATE:

Well turns out this is totally a spoof article i read. Unfortunately I trusted my co-worker who linked me to the site and didn’t dig deeper into it because it annoyed me so much and were on the way out to lunch. THIS IS NOT REAL!!!

Regardless if this information is fake the point of the post was about people who do this and give laptop DJs a bad name. We all don’t do this despite it being completely possible. I’m sorry it has taken me so long to update this but I was out for lunch drinking margaritas, HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

I never stop being amazed by my good friend Will Marshall. The concept and how this rack works is amazing. Right now I haven’t implemented this rack into my template but once I feel comfortable with it, just waittt.

Will is probably the reason I’ve gotten so far with Ableton. Having a mentor like this who is around to help is priceless. Wish him the best of luck with his interview with Ableton coming up.

Check out Will’s site at: http://marshall-law.co.nz

Alright lately I’ve been hard at work trying to organize an event for this years WMC. All my free time goes to trying to get everything ready for this. Now that I have become a Glitch.fm DJ and now just waiting to have everything ready to go on air. I’ve been practicing and trying out new things.

Unfortunately my cue hasn’t been working. It will be sorted out but it hasn’t stopped me from recording stuff. Yeah its a bit dodgy but practice makes perfect. Not to mention if get use to mixing without cue and know my tracks that well, then wow I’ll be amazed.

I put together a Crunkkkk mix that was going to showcase to people what I’ve been up too lately. It’s not the usual dubstep stuff I play in my car or around house. This is straight hip hop + electronic beats. That’s the true definition of Crunk, well according to Wikipedia =P

Last night I recorded a straight Glitch set because I realized ehhh too much of Crunk doesn’t seem to work that well now that I went back and listen to it and other mixes. That made me realize well lets go back to the glitch stuff but more glitch hop instead of hardcore crunk.

I don’t really believe in tracklist for my own sets. I put so much time into going out and finding tunes that I feel you should have to really want it to find it. There is nothing like finding a track from a mix you enjoyed and getting the single. That’s why I release most my mixes in 128bit or 96bit. I like to play the whole track out most of the time and don’t need rips of just singles.

Hope you can dig some of this stuff. Feel free to let me know how you feel. Be nice… total newb over here and only been using Ableton and APC for about a month. Not to mention lots of these tracks weren’t even prepped.

All those who are wondering when my radio show is… It’s going to be every Monday 11pm-1am EST. I’ll be sure to remind you to tune in ;P

Afro Monk’s 45min Glitch Set

Afro Monk’s Crunkkkk Mixxx

I was asked awhile back by my amazing new friend, Adam aka Munkz, if I wanted to DJ a house party. It would have to be a glitch hop funk oriented set similar to Pretty Lights show we had recently been to. I Agreed.

Women are silly creatures and turns out party was a no go at their place. I let Adam know that I have no problem moving the event to my house. I’ve been working on this parties set for awhile and had tons of friends asking if they could attend this event. He said forsure and December 18th is my first small glitch event. I’ve been hard at work and in a matter of less than a month I’ve picked up Ableton and APC40. It’s going to be the start of something BIG!

The party is a few days away now and feel fairly comfortable and ready for this. Instead of recording a live mix for December I plan on recording my set at this party and releasing it as my December mix.

Get ready Miami I’m going to try my best to bring this glitch sound to the mainstream as much as I can. Makes me sad when I see the events that go on the other side of the States. Miami, I believe in you and hope you embrace this.

Expect a more IDM Glitch mix for January. December has been more oriented to the glitch-hop and going to start 2010 with more of a mellow IDM feel of glitch.

After I record this mix on Friday hopefully it’ll be the last piece of my resume for Glitch.FM. This might get me the radioshow I’ve always wanted and goal for 2009 reached.

Big things popping in 2010!