Afro Monk

Hello everyone! This is the first of many posts I will be contributing to this fantastic blog!  I figured I would start out with a list of my favorite releases and artists from 2012, so as to give the readers an idea of my taste and preferences.  2012 was an excellent year for electronic music. I felt that comprising a list of the so called “best” would be impossible because of the sheer amount of innovative, unique, and genre defying beats that were released last year, so I chose instead to write about my personal favorites.

Favorite Releases:
1. TNGHT – TNGHT
2. Eprom – Metahuman
3. S-Type – Billboard
4. Tipper – Puzzle Dust
5. Blackbird Blackbird – Boracay Planet
6. G Jones – Mirage

Favorite Labels:
1. Rwina Records
2. LuckyMe
3. Saturate Records
4. Friends of Friends Records
5. Ghostly International
6. MalLabel Music

Favorite New Discoveries:
1. 813
2. Lindsay Lowend
3. Pyramid Juke
4. RuddyP
5. Mr. Carmack
6. Cashmere Cat

Favorite mixes/recorded live sets :
1. G Jones – New Originals 2012
2. NastyNasty – LazerBrain
3. Salva – Boiler Room set
4. RL Grime – Boiler Room Set
5. Groundislava – Boiler Room Set
6. Doshy – Live@Redlight Radio Amsterdam

Favorite Tracks (No particular order) :
1. RuddyP – “I Want U”
2. TNGHT – “Goooo”
3.  Lindsay Lowend – Cosmonaut
4.  Fiona Apple – “Every Single Night (Djemba Djemba Remix)”
5. Groundislava – “Cool Party”
6. Tipper – “Jook”
7. Grimblee – “Cheddar”
8.  Eprom – “Regis Chillbin (Machinedrum remix)”
9.  Eprom – “Sun Death”
10. Lindsay Lowend and Jonah Baseball – “Brian Williams”

It hasn’t been a secret on here that I’ve relocated back to my hometown Miami. Truth is I haven’t really made it a point to tell anyone except my close friends. The music community is so vastly different here and knew I was giving up a lot moving back to this market. It’s not meant to be taken in a negative sense. Unfortunately the music I’ve been playing/pushing doesn’t really have much presence here. We all know the meccas are Colorado & California.

I was lucky enough to discover a market in Texas that allowed me to do what I’ve always wanted to do… Play glitch-hop. I became extremely involved in Texas and turned my life focus on music for the most part. I’d go out every night and actually network/talk to people. I’ve always been shy and moved to Texas only knowing my roommate. Texas was a scary move but once I got there it took me for one of the best rides of my life. I was only in Texas for a year but it feels like I was there for over five years. The amount of talented artist is overwhelming! The festival crowd is full force and plenty of homegrown events.

Now that I’m back in Miami I’ve started an entirely new lifestyle. I know that bass music popularity has reached a new height but it has also left me much to be desired. I don’t want to become that bitter old man complaining non-stop. I’ve decided to put this mix out there to target the Miami audience and nightlife but at the same time tip my hat goodbye to this sort of style. It’s fun, party, dance, and rave out music but truth is I’m burnt out and have been for some time now I’m sure. If you follow me on FB and Twitter you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m a mid range bass hater. Yes, I admit it.

It’s time to focus on a positive new attitude and something different that will brighten my spirits. 2012 will be the start of many new things. As I said my lifestyle is quite different now. I don’t go out anymore and I’m going back to my anti-social recluse ways. My nights consist of me laying around my dream apartment on the beach listening to chill out lounge music and playing video games. My roots are in trip-hop/downtempo/lounge. I’ve decided to focus on that for 2012 and create a sister site that will built around that vibe. Expect a soft beta launch around Feb 2012.

This doesn’t mean this site will be executed!!! Ed and Tara have been doing an incredible job and I’ll still be writing post but come to understand I won’t be as active. It’s time to expand the market. I’ll still be around at all the events but keep in mind Miami doesn’t offer acts that I’ve been spoiled with while living in Texas. The bass scene is very alive here but it’s very brostep/moombah oriented which truthfully I can’t vibe with. Along with the sister site launch there will be a new weekly event that will be created to support the new movement here. I’m super excited to see how this pans out.

Now about this mix. It was designed on the fly to get you moving and sing along. There are times where I need to get motivated to go out to the club or bar and these tunes get me all hyped. They are mostly top 40 remixes with me giving them an extra umphhh to them and adding my glitches live. It’s been over a month since I’ve played or even mixed since I’ve been so busy with the move. Not to mention like I said I’ve kept myself isolated in Miami so not looking actively to play out. It was fun to rock out in my new studio to this. Anxious to see what the reception of this mix will be.

I hope you enjoy and have a happy new year!!!

-Afro

Bleep Bloop is the moniker that is Aaron Triggs, a bass music producer out of Northern California.

His style spans from Lazer Blap, Dubstep, and even to wonky-Glitch Hop, always pushing his productions further with every tune.

His sets are polytempo, fun filled sonic journeys comprised of original tunes, and remixes.

Bleep Bloop is signed to Gruntworthy, Lazer Town, and Prime Dub Records so look out for new original tunes on the regular.

We’ll start off with a free remix!

A full mix with unreleased material –

A free stream of his EP –

This is where you can purchase his EP on Addictech entitled, —> “Lazer Bouquet“. <—

For booking contact lazerlazerlazer@yahoo.com
http://www.soundcloud.com/bleep-bloop — Soundcloud
http://www.facebook.com.bleepbloopbass — Facebook
httP://www.twitter.com/bleepbloopbass — Twitter

Lokid, a glitch-hop producer out of Paris France just released his latest ep, “Fear of Heights.” This is a really fun ep and well produced.  Def throw this one on at your next party. I’m digging the M.S.D. (Mon Saigneur Demoiseau) dubstep remix of the title track a lot too!

You can download and stream the album for free from http://lokid.bandcamp.com/

Lokid’s Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Lokidmusic

Much respect!

-EA (EA@afromonk.com)

soundcloud.com/djeamusic

We get a ton of quality submissions to the website and unfortunately we often don’t have time to give them all a proper a write up with our full time day jobs, DJing gigs, and other various projects. I wanted to take the time to share just a few of the tracks that have come through that I’ve been enjoying as of late.  Make sure to check out their other sick tracks on soundcloud.com too!

Sick drumstep track from Hirshee! I haven’t heard a bad song from this producer yet:

New Remix from Eskmo:

New glitch-hop track from Cory O from the upcoming SpaceWork EP:

Every track that “A Girl and a Gun” is featured on is straight up fire!

New track from Profesher (Billy Blacklight):

Massive dubstep remix from Hot Mess:

If you’re into chill electronic music, def grab the new ep from Stumbleine featuring this beautiful track:

This new remix from Quartus Saul is a banger!

NastyNasty just released this face melter for free download:

This track from Shower Beer Graveyard is def a baby making remix, ha!

The Polish Ambassador has been bangin out sick glitch-hop remixes left and right!

Sick new track from Fractal Sky!

New one from Robokop!

The drop on this FEED ME  remix is redonculous!

Funky new track from the one and only Jobot:

Grab this new free track from Goldrush featuring the vocal stylings of Anneka:

Love this downtempo/glitch “Radiohead” remix from The Polish Ambassador:

Some dope futuristic luvstep right here courtesy of Nicoluminous:

Nice melodic dubstep remix from Carly-D:

This track is bonkers! The samples they used are clutch!

Some sexy spanish vocals on this one!

New track from Minnesota!

Another nice melodic dubstep remix from Akira Kiteshi:

Here’s a nice melodic glitchy track from producer, 1990:

Much love and respect!

-EA (EA@afromonk.com)

soundcloud.com/djeamusic

Sugarpill is a glitch/bass producer out of Los Angeles. I’ve been bumping his latest release “Mind Machine EP” in my car a lot lately.

My fave track off the ep is “Peeing on the Seat” which opens at a slow burn, combining 808 snare rolls, a glitched out Hammond, and a deep bass line before the drop where party moves into full throttle with heavy lazer bass, soaring synths, and one of the more colorful hiphop vocal samples used in recent memory. Here’s previews of the tracks from the release:

You can grab a copy of his debut ep for Simplify Recordings through addictech.com: Mind Machine ep

He also has just posted this dope track which is coming out March 20th on the Bass from Above compilation through subsynthesis.com and glitchdrop.com.  I highly recommend you grab this free release which features brand new tracks from some of the best glitch/bass producers on the scene right now.  Straight up fire! Grab it here: Bass From Above

If you want to know more about this talented producer, check out the interview Kate did with Evan (aka Sugarpill) last month: Sugarpill Interview

-EA (EA@afromonk.com)

soundcloud.com/djeamusic

Decided that last nights live mix should be online. There are some issues here and there since was hijacking my audio stream and sending it out to glitch.fm server but ohh well it’s all about sharing music with you. I had a real good time recording this mix. It showcases more of what I’ve been doing in live sets. There is more of a chill feel to this one but that’s sorta the mood I was in last night. Lately my live sets at clubs have been way more hype but this is the sorta stuff I’ve been listening to on my free time when just hanging out.

Expect anything when I’m playing out live though. The middle of the mix I just wasn’t feeling to progressive build I had started and brought it back down to how I was feeling. All I play really depends on how I’m feeling in the moment. I have no problem forcing drastic bpm changes. It’s always going to be about where I want to go.

Hope you enjoy!

Afro Monk – Winter is Passing

I had the honor of being interviewed for a blog filled with some extremely talented people who are making things happen in the music community. I figure some of you might want to know little bit about one of the people behind this site. I’m beyond blessed to have such a following. The past couple of months of my life have been unreal. Texas has been one of the best things that has happened to me. Have to thank all the people I’ve met here and all the people who support me online. It’s a pleasure to share all this music with you all. I just hope you all remember to stay true to yourself. Do everything because you Love it.

Thank you again to Elena for the interview. Glad to see how much coverage everyone is getting. Believe and go out there and things will make its way around. I wish I could respond to everyone but I never imagined for this to become what it was. Thank you to all the artist out there expressing themselves. It’s truly a honor to have people share so much with me.

Be sure to check out my recent mix to get a small idea of what comes about all the music my friends send me. Going to be posting a new mix once I hit 1,000 followers for Winter! Hope you all enjoyed the amazing show in the sky for the Winter Solstice! Thank you again to everyone who has come to visit this site.

Happy Holidays! Will be seeing my top 5 for 2010 soon!

INTERVIEW: Afro Monk Interview

Alright I’m working on a big project right now. I’ve been building afromonk.com for awhile now and plan to move to bigger things now. This does not mean things are going to change on the site. Trust me I brought in new staff in for a reason =) There are a lot of blogs appearing now and it’s sparked interest in this music even more. It’s great to see how many artist are finally getting the exposure they deserve. Now like I’ve told many of you personally I’m only here to help.

There’s a lot on my plate right now and finally starting to settle into my new home, Texas. I’ve decided that my online marketing knowledge is going to be the best use of my time for the community. I’ve set up a TexasDubstep/Glitch site and now I’m taking something MAJOR on.

I’m ultimately looking for anyone who is interested in being involved. The structure nor framework is done yet. It’s still in alpha stage but things will develop quickly. Ultimately this is a project that will be very special and be a new way to help producers get their name out there even more. I will need help adding content and making post. There will be no major writing needed just a good amount of knowledge in glitch-hop and all the producers out there with releases.

I’ll be straight up I don’t have any cash right now for this but there will be an opportunity to turn this into a paid internship per say but lets call this a non-paid internship as of now. I have a lot going on and just hope to find like minded individuals who are willing to help out and push the music further.

I assure you this will become one of the biggest sites pertaining to Glitch Hop once launched.

For more info contact me directly at JM@afromonk.com.

Ana Sia Birmingham Review!

On the corner of Birmingham’s 15th and 20th South streets lies one of the city’s best-kept secrets; entrance to Zydeco leaves the customer with two options – a lower level, where pool tables and sports television abound, and a second floor – which has, over the past several months, seen some of today’s most talked-about electro, dubstep and glitch-hop artists. Ana Sia’s August 25th show alongside Eliott Lipp was no exception and those in attendance came out early due to anticipation, some fully decked out as whomping fairies. I myself fell into the majority’s category of attire; a haphazard collection of brightly colored clothing along with whatever I could attach to myself that contained any degree of sparkle. While I was already familiar with both White Noise and Eliot Lipp (and was excited to see their performances), I really came for one reason; Ana.

The amount of attention this artist has been receiving over the past six months seems to have grown exponentially by the day, largely due to support from well-respected performers such as The Glitch Mob and Big Gigantic. Going into her show, I really didn’t know what to expect – and how could I? A review of Ana Sia’s releases to date revealed an interest in a wide variety of genres; couple this with her live experimentation with mixing, and I had simply accepted that this performance would be entirely dependent upon her vision during that moment in time.

What ensued were moments where I physically couldn’t stand still; Ana Sia has the ability to create sounds that consume the listener and build palpable tension leading to brilliant climax. That being said, there were also moments of awkward transition and confusion; to go from a moment where you, as an audience member, are in total harmony with the music both in mind and body, to a moment of overlapping rhythms definitely creates a bit of a stutter effect in the avid dancer. In addition, Zydeco’s walls are concrete and its ceiling incredibly low in comparison to its floor space, so some of the high-pitch rhythms Ana had going resulted in a foghorn-like ringing in my right ear for four days. However, that minor annoyance probably would have been avoided if I could have torn myself from my stance six inches from the bass bins up front; I have to admit Ana Sia has a stage presence that is purely magnetic. Even during those moments when I was awkwardly shuffling, trying to recenter myself to the rhythm, there she was, never missing a beat and always dancing to some degree, even when an extra-large man (roughly the size of a baby rhino) with an extra-large glowstick (roughly the size of a lightsaber) insisted on obnoxiously thrashing the pink thing in her face while headbanging.

This is an artist I would certainly pay money to see again. Ana Sia’s music has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two years, and the constant encouragement from other artists continues to pour in daily. My prediction is that, as time goes on, whatever arguable kinks or rough edges there are in her sound will smooth out as she continues to settle into her place as one of the most talked-about artists on the scene.
–Kate Zaliznock, The Gypsy Diaries

(Note: Huge thanks to Darren Goldberg & Ana Sia for permission to share photos & video clips from this performance.)