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
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
As one of my favorite artists of 2010, Stephan Jacobs has churned out one addictive track after another over the past twelve months. With a decade of experience already under his belt, Stephan continues to sharpen his skills to deliver some of the most ear-catching glitch-hop tracks coming out of the West Coast right now. He just finished up some fresh magic with his remixes of Samples’ Drop Bombs and +verb’s Cough (to be released Feb. 1 on Addictech via Muti Music) as well as a collaboration on Level Attack with Sugarpill and Naada (links at the bottom of this feature). Here Stephan talks a bit about his goals, reaching his creative peak and his ultimate message to fans.
TGD: Looking into the new year, what would you say your artistic goals are? Were there any particular turning points or notable moments in 2010 that helped to shape these goals?
SJ: Well, My primary goals are to keep making music and continue to refine my personal sound. I would also like to consistently release new music and travel more with my music. Basically continue to improve doing what I am doing.
2010 had some really good highlights; Playing at Coachella was a huge turning point for me. I was really happy when we made it to #1 on soundcloud’s “What’s Hot” for my collaboration with +Verb – “Blind Dreams”; seeing that so many people were listening only pushed me harder and forced me to raise my standards for myself.
All in all 2010 has been a big year for me in all ways. My personal improvement and passion for music has never developed so rapidly as it did for me last year.
TGD: Along with the high demand for your music comes a huge amount of travel; how do you maintain your steady stream of new tracks? Would you say constantly meeting new people and seeing new places provides more inspiration, or more distraction?
SJ: Traveling in itself is so transitional. I am so grateful for the opportunity to travel with my music and bring it to different people in different places and see how they react to it first hand. Of course, I love playing in my hometown but it feels nice to get out and play in a place where you don’t often play and maybe you’re taken less for granted. I also think it’s great to get to visit a homie when you’re touring in their town and sometimes I even get to collaborate on a track with someone while I am away.Can traveling be distracting to me? Umm that depends on how much partying I do. LOL. Even if I have been gone a while I come back and it takes me time to get back in the swing of things. I think most of the time traveling pays off more than its slows me down though.
TGD: What do you require to reach your creative peak? This can be a place, a time of day, a mindset, a person; absolutely anything.
SJ: I feel like music can effect me emotionally so much and when I am making music I feel like the sounds are influenced by my state of being too. Sometimes my creative peak can come out when I am extremely happy but it also comes in a completely different way when im sad.
Sometimes to improve my creative workflow I just need something as simple as a good walk, a cup of coffee and cigarette, or just to step away for a minute and come back to it later with a fresh mindset.
TGD: What is the ultimate message you are trying to send through your music? What aspects of your own personality do you think are reflected in your work?
SJ: I think any musician ultimately just wants people to relate their music to their own lives. It feels nice when each individual person responds to music in their own way and has their own individual experience of my music. In the same way it feels nice when musicians make music in their own style. Individuality is so important, otherwise it’s not as special when you create something unless it is your own. I love that one of my songs can relate to someone’s specific memory and as [a] musician in some weird way I get to be a part of that moment.
When I choose to do a remix, I choose a song that I like that relates to my personal experience of that song. Then I want to accentuate that feeling in my own musical language.
TGD: Tell us a bit more about your collaborations with Chris B. and Sugarpill; how they came about and what effect each of you has had on the other’s artistic growth.
SJ: I think they are both strong individuals, they are my good friends and they both have very specific styles of there own. It’s nice working with them cuz it’s nice to blend those styles together and see what happens, the feeling of being in the studio and vibeing off each other is priceless.
My interview of Stephan is the final installment in a series of three features I’ve put together spotlighting him as well as Sugarpill and ChrisB (code-named the TRIPLE-THREAT TRIFECTA INTERVIEWS, or T.T.I. for short – scroll down to check those out).
For more from Stephan Jacobs, please visit his website,SoundCloud, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Download the SamplesDrop Bombs remixes album, featuring two tracks with Stephan Jacobs
Chris B.
I’ve mentioned several times how 2010 was a big year for a lot of us, but perhaps none understand this as well as Chris B. A long-time guitarist, Chris grew uninspired by the limitations of the instrument and eventually discovered bass music and digital production. After buying his first computer a mere year and a half ago, Chris B. is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after performers on the West Coast.
TGD: You’ve told me a bit about your rapid evolution as an electronic artist; what were you doing musically before you started experimenting with Ableton? What are the biggest ways you’d say your life has changed over the past two years?
CB: Well I have been playing the guitar since I was 11 years old so about 10 years now. The first electronic music I was ever really exposed to was Sound Tribe Sector 9 back in 2004. They completely blew my mind because they fused live instrumentation with the electronic element which I had never even seen or even fathomed before. This was right before Artifact was released when those guys were on fire. Around 4 years ago I kinda started to fall away from playing guitar because I reached a peak in my playing and became sort of uninspired musically. When I was 17 I went to my first rave and that’s when I was really exposed to straight forward electronic music. Of course most of it was electro garbage but still marked a turning point of my musical taste. I had my hippie roots and the whole candy cane rave thing wasnt really doing it for me. Raves were more of a social experiment for me and I wasn’t really into the music. Not too much longer after this I became really good homies with my hairstylist Omri. It was kinda weird because he said that I reminded him of himself when he was my age. Going to mad Grateful Dead shows and raves too. He was the one who first told me about Burning Man and exposed me to bass music. He was just getting into producing music himself so I would go over to his studio and just watch him make tracks and he would pretty much give me the watered down version of what was going on. It was all over my head at the time and didn’t realize that that would be my next musical passion. Finally when I was 18 and went to Burning Man for the first time I realized that all these new sounds that I was listening to were what was really inspiring me. At the beginning of 2009 was when I really first started showing interest in trying to Dj with Ableton. I would download the trial version of Ableton onto friends computers and burn a cd with a bunch of tracks and just start fucking around trying to teach myself since I didn’t have a computer of my own. At that moment I became infatuated with it. I naturally had an ear for it due to my prior musical training and caught on quick. That summer I would go around to several festivals like Sonic Bloom and Rothbury and set up a renegade stage with some friends and throw down late night sets. People would go nuts but it still wasn’t doing it for me, I had to start making my own tracks to fully be satisfied with my musical potential but I still didn’t have a computer of my own. To this day lack of equipment is what is really holding me back. I still don’t even own studio monitors! Anyways right before Burning Man in 2009 I got my first computer and shortly after that I took Ill Gates electronic music workshop. Not too long before that all I had done production wise was write a couple hip hop tracks for my friend who was a mediocre producer and MC. After taking that Ill gates workshop it made me realize that I didn’t know jack shit. I kinda just sat on the knowledge I obtained and didn’t really do anything with it. Shorty after that I had met Sugarpill for the first time and showed him a couple jingles I wrote and he saw the potential in me. I was still not taking it seriously at all until I went to Manifesto Gathering in Costa Rica last year. I brought my computer with high hopes of potentially playing a set out there. Now this was Marty Party’s party and people who have played it in the past were people like Ooah. Turns out I ended up playing 3 sets and people loved it including Marty. At that moment I realized that I could actually achieve this and the only way to do so was to produce my own music because I already had the dj thing on lock. That’s when I really started to hit the grind. This was exactly a year ago. Since then Ive been geeking out as much as possible. Sugarpill has definitely helped me out a lot along the way. Evan has been there for me not only as a teacher, but a close friend and mentor. I owe pretty much everything to him. It was definitely cosmic how we fell into each other’s lives, some crazy force of nature that is way beyond any of us.
TGD: In terms of artistic guidance, who would you say are your biggest influences? Why?
CB: I have tons of different influences, mostly my friends. A lot of my friends growing up were insane jazz musicians so the bar was always high musically. All my favorite shit is all stuff my friends make in all sorts of genres. I hear something they do and now I’m at the point in my production where I can come back at them with something that makes them raise their eyebrows.
TGD: Where have you yet to play that is a top spot on your list of tour stops? What are the elements of this place that make you want to perform there?
CB: Right now I would really love to play at a Do LaB event or one of An-ten-nae’s events up in SF as well as several festivals this summer. As far as places I would like to play, I dunno, thats a hard one. I’ve already played on the beach in Costa Rica which is one of the most beautiful places on earth as well as Burning Man. Europe, Australia or Canada would definitely be cool. The scene in Canada is going off right now.
TGD: You have great chemistry with Stephan Jacobs and Sugarpill both musically and socially. How important would you say it is to collaborate with other artists whose company you can appreciate both on and offstage? Would you say a friendship is necessary to achieve the best possible collaborative effort?
CB: I am definitely fortunate to have friends like Stephan and Evan. I definitely think its important to dig the other person’s music in order to collaborate and make something dope. However, I don’t necessarily think friendship is required to achieve the best possible collaborative effort but it definitely helps. Look at Pink Floyd. Those guys fought all the time and they made some of the most incredible music of all time. Also Stephan and +verb have made some banging tracks together and they haven’t even met before. Not to say they wouldn’t become good friends if they did meet, but yeah you catch my drift When Stephan and I first starting writing tracks together, we didn’t know each other very well but it definitely was the bridge to our friendship. It definitely does help to be homies with someone when writing tracks because if you are in a room with someone for hours on end working on something who your not vibing with personally, I’d imagine you would drive each other nuts.
With two fresh new releases (“Malefic Planet” w/ Sugarpill & a remix of Samples’ “Drop Bombs”), ChrisB. is already starting 2011 off on the right foot. March 4th marks the exclusive drop on Addictech of his debut EP, What’s Your Fantasy, (featuring a collaboration with another one of my favorites, Gladkill) to be released on Simplify. To stay updated on this artist’s upcoming events and new music, please check his Facebook and SoundCloud pages.
Sugarpill
Featured on this episode of TGD:radio was Sugarpill, a high-energy melody maker based out of Los Angeles. Evan has a brand new EP scheduled to drop this February and was so kind as to share one of these highly-anticipated tracks with the TGD:radio audience. I had the chance to ask this cutting-edge artist a few questions; below are his responses!
TGD: From getting to chat a bit, it seems as though you have experience in several fields outside of music. When did you make the decision to shape a career out of your talents and what prompted the commitment?
SP: I don’t think it was really a decision in a big sort of way, things just seem to happen and I just keep working hard at whatever I have the opportunity to do.
TGD: How would you say your sound has evolved over the past year? In comparison, what would you consider to be the hallmark elements of your music?
SP: I’m pretty sure my sound has evolved a lot in the past year. I think I probably broke through a major barrier because now I actually complete way more tracks and get them sounding much more clear and polished. I used to record and produce records for a band that I was in and for some reason when it came to my electronic stuff, I was just slacking on applying those techniques up until about a year and a half ago.
I’d like think the most prevalent elements in my music are bass and glitch, but it seems like I’m really stoked [on] really strong melodic content. I feel like the melodies draw me in and chill out some of the harshness of the glitch sounds.
TGD: What do you have coming up in 2011 so far that you’re most excited about?
SP: Right now I’m stoked on my next release. It’s a 4 track EP coming out on Simplify Recordings. It’s going to be prereleased on Addictech.com on Feburary 4th. I kept to a lot of the elements I really liked about my last release and also cleaned up some of my techniques, so hopefully it shows. I also tried to add a little more of a contrast between the tracks across the whole EP so people could either play a single track out or just listen to it straight through.
I also have a little mini tour I’m working on in Feburary to support the release. Its looking like I’m going to be in Los Angeles 2/4, San Francisco 2/10, Portland 2/11 and Arcata 2/12 so far and definitely have some more to come that I can’t announce yet.
TGD: Your sets are packed with energy; for someone who’s on the go so much, where do you find the inspiration to maintain this so consistently?
SP: I don’t really know, I just really like getting on stage and playing music. I’m usually a pretty mellow person, but when I get up there I feel like its my chance to let loose and the whole thing just takes over me.
TGD: What’s your take on the creative process behind your collaborations with Stephan Jacobs and ChrisB.?
SP: Collaborations are a really interesting thing for me. I definitely think the stuff that I have made with Stephan and Chris has been some really amazing work that we’re all really stoked on. The process is pretty simple it kind of just works itself out. We just get in a room together and take turns “driving” ableton and recording each other. Its really nice to have the momentum of another person working on the same thing to push you to make something a little better or try something a little different than we might do alone.
For frequent updates on Sugarpill, please check his website, Facebook,Twitter and SoundCloud pages.
This weeks Fire Friday Mix comes from the downtempo/trip-hop duo The Seedling Escape! The group consist of Ooah and KittyD. This mix was done back in January 2007 and is by far one of my favorite mixes out there. As much as I push the banging glitch-hop my heart truly lies with this style of music. The mix is a compilation of all the tunes they’ve worked on together. Imagine a slightly more hype version of Of Porcelain in this mix.
My dream show would feature The Seedling Escape or Of Porcelain. I’ve been messing around with production and to be honest Ooah is one of my biggest influences. Hearing a mix like this just makes me smile. It’s just pure chill vibes and no hype needed but sends those chills through you after each hit. Hope you all enjoy this weeks mix despite it being an oldie.
Proud to announce that MartyParty next release SKUKUZA will in Stores December 14, 2010!
Marty has been touring non-stop and it isn’t about to slow down either. His purple sound is going to be unleashed and you’ll get to have a piece of it soon with the Skukuza EP.
Right now he’s touring alongside the infamous Ooah teaming up to form PANTyRAID. The duo create such an eclectic sound. After putting out The Sauce it’s time for Marty’s debut. December 14th, will be the day we will all get to experience his first EP release. There’s many more to follow with a possible EP due out later on in the month, Lebata & Satara. Marty had mentioned in the interview done with him that he also has 3 full releases due in 2011. It’s going to be a big year for Purple sounds. The debut EP will be available through all major online music retailers, as well as in special packages sold direct through the MartyParty.org website. Check out a short video of one of his live shows!
SKUKUZA Tracklist:
1. Chelsea Hotel
2. It’s Complicate
3. Loud Mouth
4. Los Angeles
5. Skukuza
6. Trinity
The release is brought to you by The Confluence Post Label alternative.
They have given me permission to release a FREE copy of Los Angeles to give you a small taste of Marty’s Purple Opera. Be sure to support this release and pick it up when released.
MartyParty is one of the most known producers in the glitch-hop, purple, dubstep,etc… game right now. I had the pleasure of seeing him come out to Austin, TX for a show. I put some questions together for him. Unfortunately I was unable to do the interview in person but his team was helpful enough to get them back to me. Austin is wild and something going on every night so didn’t get to say whats up to him but he’ll be back!
Marty takes us into his world in this interview. There’s a lot of things ahead. The man is truly going to revolutionize the whole purple sound. There will be more information about his next upcoming Skukuza EP later today on the site. I really want to thank Marty for taking the time to get back to me with these answers. I can’t wait to catch him again when he returns to Texas.
MartyParty Interview:
When did you start producing music at what age and what sort of medium did you use at that time and how has it evolved into what you do today?
I started producing my music in 2005 – I downloaded Ableton Live evaluation and picked it up fast – I bought Live a week later and produced my first digital album in 6 weeks – I havn’t looked back . I still use Ableton Live, however my tooling has evolved to include all the latest and greatest VST and Audio Unit plugins, synthesizers, filters, effects and volumes of drum one shot samples. My approach has evolved considerably and Im able to complete a track, mastered for release in an 8 hour day. This is through the invention of various “formulas” for developing the musical evolution of a basic chord transition and melody. Id love to talk more about it but its top secret
You have been hard at work with tour and just wrapped up a tour with The Glitch Mob. Can you tell us a little bit about tour life.
Touring is pretty new to me – The Glitch Mob tour was my first “every day” tour – Ive had been doing fly ins up until then. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot. I went from that tour onto the Mimosa/EOTO tour and that was also amazing. In 3 months I played in every major city in the US and Canada which is where touring really makes sense – you just make so many fans on the road. Having a good tour manager is the most important lesson I learned. I’m on PANTyRAiD tour currently and then onto Monsters of Bass tour with Freq Nasty and Opiuo for 35 dates across the whole country again in February and March. I plan to do my first MartyParty tour in Summer 2011 and am starting to plan that – I’m going to get to take the purple opera to a whole next level with some production budget. I will also be playing my preferred 3 hours sets on my own tour. That lets me really take the audience through the various flavors of MartyParty Music.
Clearly you have lots of tracks to date but are there any that stick out to you the most while you were producing them and do you feel a certain vibe when you create music?
When a hit comes along you feel it early – its just the way the instruments and tones of the layers sit in the mix with the beat, and the way the original intention flows through the whole piece. It just makes a magic feeling. I have several of these on the releases planned late 2010 through 2011. I write two kinds of music – 80-90bpm sexy pretty music or more Acid Crunky music – for that I try make sure to create a specific dance which I imagine a sexy woman would do to the track, and then purple music, which is 140bpm dance music which is just about losing your mind and jumping around the studio. If I feel those vibes in the tracks I know I’m on to something. Lately its been hitting quite a bit, on the upcoming EP Skukuza, the Los Angeles and Its Complicated tracks really illustrate the intention of MartyParty. On the next releases there are several standouts. Take a listen to www.martyparty.org – I dump every song I write very early on onto my website to stream and I have over 2000 listeners a day on there. Its become a bit of a radio station. See if there are any you think will stand out when mastered and released.
Honestly – when I make a beat that I just know will make the fans go WILD or make my wife run into the room – that is when I know its a goody -its a feeling you get as a producer/DJ – u know what the people want to hear, and you can make just that.
What do you have planned for 2011? Can you tell us about any new releases you working on?
I currently have 2 EP’s going out on The Confluence label in early December, then I have 3 full length albums of material I’m releasing in early 2011 – still working out how to package them – but they are all the tunes from my 2010 DJ set. I spent the last 2 months slowly mastering them whenever I return home to my studio. I will start writing the 2011 set in December and want to develop a pattern of a month in the studio, then touring the content of that month for 2 months, and so on through the year – then releasing the entire set each year.
Where do you think music today will be say 5years from now? Do you feel the day and age of vinyl will be lost? What do you currently use to preform?
Hopefully in the mainstream! Gosh. Yes vinyl is thankfully gone. I couldn’t do what I do with only two decks. I use Ableton Live and prepare a very unique DJ set made up of my tracks, and then acapellas, one shots and effects which I trigger using a MIDI pad controller in the live show. I use a M-Audio TriggerFinger still as all the newer controllers break and don’t travel well. I found the Triggerfinger to be the toughest – I hit those pads very hard in the middle of a flying leap and often spill my beer and sweat on my equipment. I mix 3-6 channels at once which is what really makes my set unique. Its the purple opera. It cannot be done with turntables/Serato/CDJs etc. Those are legacy tools now. I travel with a very high quality audio interface and my tracks are rendered as 48000 24bit resolution files (80MB each) – the result is a very high quality A to D conversion and outstanding sound quality. Another MartyParty differentiator, because I make all the music I play – its the highest possible quality – no mp3′s in my set I also never pre define a set – my set is like a game of Mahjong – I have probably 70 tracks in a set and try and navigate through them differently each time, attempting to clear them all by the set end. Obv. this is not possible in 60-90 min sets, but lately in my 3 hour MartyParty headline shows Ive got through almost all of them. Its a huge victory for me when that happens and it was seamless.
Traveling so much city to city how do you manage keeping it fun and building connections versus it strictly business?
Practice – its a job and is not as glamorous as one might think. From the start of the set to the end of the set is the easy part – the hard part is the logistics of traveling – often driving from one gig to another with no sleep, or dealing with airport security and layovers. Its tough, but I love my job. Once I’m at the venue and the fans come in it all becomes worth it again. My fans are amazing and loyal and make me feel at home anywhere I travel, and it keeps building to a point where I have relationships with groups of fans in each city I play. Its an amazing organism.
Are there any interest you have besides music that totally captivate you? Is there something else you do to take a break from music. What are other things in the world that makes you smile?
My wife Mary and dog Mackie are my life away from music. But I spend way too much time in my studio and sound design, arrangement and all the various crafts in the process of original music production have addicted me beyond explanation. It is an unbelievably rewarding art, where the feedback from your efforts is immediately felt and the possibilities are endless. I spend my days inventing new sounds and music styles. What a life! I don’t want to miss a second of it. OBSESSED YES!!!
You’re originally from South Africa and moved to the States but are there any other place or city that you’d absolutely love to call your home or visit for a short time? Feel free to make a place up and describe it.
I moved from Johannesburg South Africa in 1995 and settled in San Francisco, I since moved to New York where I have lived for 2 years. I love NY!!!!! Couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. However I have a special place in my heart for Amsterdam , Berlin, Cape Town and Malpais, Costa Rica where I surf and worship the sun.
If you had to describe love or what you feel as a human drives you to be complete content what would it be for you?
We encounter people, things and experiences on our journey through life which just make us feel more complete, and we miss them when they are gone. This is the love zone and the more incomplete you feel without something or someone, the more you love it. I am currently madly in love with purple music and the evolution of electronic music as it enters the mainstream to challenge contemporary music genre’s in a whole new way. I love music and could not live without it. If I don’t create a new song after a few days I get depressed and frustrated. I am addicted to creation. I cant imagine life without art anymore and don’t know what I did before to find contentment.
Biggest influence, person you respect the most, and can call a friend in music?
Its a draw between Josh (Ooah) and Tigran (Mimosa) – I consider them the best pure musical talents Ive ever encountered. We are all very close friends and whenever we hang out we make amazing music together. I would be nowhere without those two guys.
Who is your top musical influences that really hit you with emotion that you’d like to share?
Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin really made we look deeper into musical composition. They both taught me what a song was – I very soon learned the difference between a beat and a song after I got to know their music. Bob Marley and Dr Dre influenced my intention a lot. Currently Mimosa influences me as I’m a huge fan of his overall intention and tonal quality.
Anything you want to say to anyone or message you want to conclude with for your final words?
If you havn’t seen or heard the purple opera – you don’t know what you missing. Music is back and its prouder and louder than ever. Catch my show – you will be an instant fan. Its just that fun.
Here are some of Marty’s latest tunes! Seriously purple opera on big system is mind blowing.
PANTyRAID Mini Mix for this weeks Fire Friday Mix! MartyParty & Ooah are back with the most insane duo out there right now with the most hype, PANTyRAID! Last year their mixtape came out and took the world be storm. The Sause was released and it blew up even more. They are back for some more! New material and end of the year tour!!!
I just had the pleasure of seeing MartyParty here in Austin, TX and WOW. The new material he is pushing out now is stunning! Imagine the purple sounds mashed together with crunk bass. The combo is as fresh as it gets for live sets. Now add the new PantyRaid tunes into the mix and the legendary Ooah and now you’ve got some serious panties dropping as if it weren’t enough with just one of them.
Here a preview and one of the best videos online of them throwing down. Anyone remotely near any of these cities where events are GO CHECK THEM OUT!
1. PANTYRAID – BRUSH IT OFF
2. PANTYRAID – RUN IT
3. PANTYRAID – BECAUSE OF YOU
4. PANTYRAID – PURPLE BLUES
5. YO GOTTI ft. LIL WAYNE – WOMEN LIE, MEN LIE (PANTYRAID REFIX)
R/D is a name you all should become familiar with if you haven’t already. You might have heard his remix he did of Fever Ray earlier this year which gained great hype. He also just put out an EP recently that I featured, Face of God EP. R/D is no new comer by any means. He’s been doing this for quite awhile but has come into light again with his recent glitch hop beats. He has been taking the US by storm playing Coachella this past year and Lightning in a Bottle.
R/D is back again with a new release to be featured on The Glitch Mob’s Drink the Sea Remix album. He has outdone himself with this remix but not a surprise as he is close friends with the members of The Glitch Mob. Random fact: Hes actually lived with edIT and Ooah. This release is due out this week and I wanted to share with you all this epic remix from R/D.
Here is another bonus to build hype for his next release.
R/D – Third Eye High Remix out September 20th 2010
The Glitch Mob’s Drink the Sea album has been chopped and skewed by many of the biggest names recently. They ran a remix contest that just ended. The prize was to have their remix be featured in the Drink the Sea Remixes release as well. Mindelixir was the winner and here’s his remix of Drive it Like You Stole It:
I’ve never done an event review and always said I most likely would never write one but this time I’ll make an exception. I had been planning on writing a review of The Glitch Mob’s latest album and their new live setup but never got around to it because I felt it would cause up only more of a stir. The reason why I always said I wouldn’t write a review of anything is because I’m one of the most critical humans I’ve come across. While this may seem like a great thing it can actually get me in a lot of trouble especially on a blog that has a decent following.
I’ve seen The Glitch Mob three times with two of those events being a few hours apart from each other (Lolla & Smart Bar in Chicago). This was after Kraddy departed and the boys were using the Lemur as their main setup. The occasionally used a drum pad with drum sticks but usually only to close their set. The sets at this time were very similar to their infamous Crush Mode mix. They were high energy and in complete slay mode the entire show. I’ll never forget seeing them rock out like that!
The third time I saw them was when I flew all the way to California for Lightning in a Bottle 2010. Their album Drink the Sea had recently come out and they were tweeting and announcing they had an entirely new setup. Many people had harsh feelings and were skeptical of all this because I feel that many thought that the Drink the Sea album was quite radical from their earlier works. I personally felt that the album was extremely well put together but yes lacking on slay juice. Drink the Sea is an album I cherish tremendously and play it on vinyl on certain nights where I have a smoke and just sit back and enjoy the music in quite environment.
This is the reason I felt a bit offish about their new set when I heard them at Lightning in a Bottle. However I had been warned that they played an extremely laid back set at Coachella and had truly changed their live show dynamics. I personally didn’t mind their set at Lightning in a Bottle but I felt like I was ready for what they were doing and had been given the heads up. I just felt like it was a whole new experience where they skidded away from the slay stuff. Let me not paint a picture that it was all new chill material because it wasn’t. They played some of the old favorite and created a mix of both new and old. The problem I had was that it was a bit too extreme when going to chill laid back beats to the heavy high energy bass. I appreciated what was going on but couldn’t help but thing man what are they thinking?! How can you not notice that you use to have crowd going wild the whole set and now just sit back and watch crowd barely bounce on some of these tunes. I feel like theirs a time and place for those tunes and big environments like that are extremely risky. They pulled it off and feel like they impressed many yet of course disappointed others who might of heard how they were before.
One thing that is worth mentioned about the LIB set was how they incorporated so much more into the live set compared to when I saw them in Chicago. They had edIT rocking his SG guitar, Ooah having two synth keyboards, and Boreta with some more drum pads. They incorporated more instruments without using the Lemur as much as they are known too. They almost felt like a live band but yet didn’t. I have to tip my hat off though because that must take tons of practice and tons of extra work to re-work their whole set to include additional gear on top of their lemurs.
This past Monday I saw The Glitch Mob for the fourth time. I had no idea what to expect. Their new Mixtape had just come out which added a bit more to the Drink the Sea album. It flowed more like a mash up album and totally added more energy to the overall feel of the new tracks. It seemed as if the mixtape could of stand more on its own as an album as well compared to just a mix. After hearing the mixtape and posting it on the blog I wrote how who know what they will do with this. I even suggested that they could even be working these versions of the songs into their live set. They opened up with epic lightning system that they seem to be traveling with. Their setup seemed to be stripped down a bit and they all have an electric drum kit. Drums is definitely a new concentration in this new over-haul again. At the LIB show I felt like they were doing a little less but presenting in a way they were doing more since they using instruments people are familiar with. This time they clearly are going back to the Lemur. edIT is on the top of his games running complex patterns on the Lemur. Boreta is running most of the synth lines and hold down a good amount of affects on board. Ooah is just keeping a clean layer over edIT and doing some fresh work in all aspects of their sound. The three of them are live the whole time and it’s amazing to see it all over again. Every drum pattern, synth line, and sample is being controlled by them. It brought a huge smile to my face when I realized that they really were re-working the new tracks with the mash up version. It’s as if they had completely revamped things to bring more energy using the vocals of familiar hip hop/crunk vocals. One of the highlights of the night which gave me goosebumps was hearing the La Roux mash up from the Mixtape.
Overall their performance was flawless. My only concern was the lack of power on the speaker system. The sound was extremely low. There was someone who literally told me at the start of the set how low it sounds in the back of the venue. I said really?! He replied with I’m using my regular voice and you understand what I’m saying (we were in the front area of the pit). I feel like there could of been a lot more energy put out if the sound was bumping. Another thing I felt like was a bit weak was the crowd. Granted it was a Monday night but I felt a bit ashamed for S.FL. The crowd seemed like they had never heard these tracks before. Honestly I felt like most people weren’t moving or dancing as much because the beats were different style than what they were use too. It’s me over thinking everything probably but felt like if we took photos of every event on the tour and compared them to the S.FL show it’d be a whole different picture. I’m glad that they did make a stop in FL and that I was here to see it.
I want to say thank you to edIT, Boreta, and Ooah for putting on such a show. It takes a lot of work and energy to do a live show like that. I appreciated it beyond belief. I’m totally loving what they are doing now and hands down much respect for evolving so much.
I didn’t get into MartyParty’s set but let me tell you this guy doesn’t disappoint. It was amazing to see him bouncing around and jamming out. He was straight killing it. My only complaint is that his setup was at an angle and not facing the crowd. This might of been the case because The Glitch Mob’s gear was all setup behind him. Hearing some of his unreleased stuff on a big system was fantastic to relive. His set at Lightning in a Bottle had a lot going for it compared to the FTL show but he still rocked out. There’s a ton of new stuff he’s playing out and can’t wait to hear on the new EP due out soon. MartyParty continues to be one of the performers that I look too as a role model. I’ll even admit that half of the tracks he played were tunes that I played at Get Low w/ Lazer Sword. His track selection to me was absolutely perfect. He even dropped the Roxanne remix he did with Love & Light and the Beatles remix by L&L as well. I’m not going to lie I was disappointed when he dropped a Borgore tune but ohh well people eat that stuff up.
Thank you good sir Marty! Thank you for tweeting my post about you as well.
Much love out to you guys! It was great meeting you guys and seeing you in my home state.
Best of luck on the rest of your tour!
Also a big thank you to Def Owl and Chad for everything. It’s risky business to bring acts like these into the South Florida market. Thank you!
The Glitch Mob are coming back to Miami! You have no idea how excited I am to announce that The Glitch Mob is coming back for a solo show!!!
I’ve spent months trying to bring the Glitch Hop sound to Miami and show people something different. The Mob is one of my main influences and loves. I got to see them live not long ago at Lightning in a Bottle. They clearly have a new sound. I wouldn’t say it’s a good or bad things but I do believe it will appeal to a broader audience.
Def Owl is behind this glorious event. It’s great to know that there are people out there who know about The Glitch Mob and invested in booking such a big act. It’s extremely risky to bring these guys in this hood. I hate to say it but people here need to go witness more live music. Boreta, edIT, and Ooah are truly talented musicians who pour their soul into the music and rock out hard. They’ve recently incorporated drums, keyboards, and guitars into their shows along with their Lemurs.
I promise you Miami/Fort Lauderdale you haven’t seen anything like this. Def Owl were behind bringing Pretty Lights and I was blown away by how well it was received. They’ve taken it to another level in my eyes with booking The Mob. They are doing amazing things for South Florida with their bookings. Pretty Lights, Orchard Lounge, Black Violin, and now THE GLITCH MOB!
Afro Monk
June 8th by Afro Monk 
Tags: Josh Mayer, Kitty D, Lightning in a Bottle, MartyParty, Of Porcelain, Ooah, Pantyraid, Superior EP, The Glitch Mob, The Seedling Escape
1 Comment »
When Stephan and I first starting writing tracks together, we didn’t know each other very well but it definitely was the bridge to our friendship. It definitely does help to be homies with someone when writing tracks because if you are in a room with someone for hours on end working on something who your not vibing with personally, I’d imagine you would drive each other nuts.
I also never pre define a set – my set is like a game of Mahjong – I have probably 70 tracks in a set and try and navigate through them differently each time, attempting to clear them all by the set end. Obv. this is not possible in 60-90 min sets, but lately in my 3 hour MartyParty headline shows Ive got through almost all of them. Its a huge victory for me when that happens and it was seamless.
