Eskmo released mini EP out today! The EP includes the already hit Cloudlight. Eskmo has recently signed with Ninja Tune and is making a huge mark in the music community. He’s established his own label and has had releases on Warp, Planet Mu, and many others. His full length is due out on Ninja Tune in October 2010. This release features Come Back as well and a special remix from Lorn. The combination of Lorn and Eskmo is perfect. Eskmo chose wisely when he had Lorn do a remix. Lorn’s most recent album Nothing Else has been on rotation for me ever since I gave it a listen.
Be sure to check out Eskmo while he’s on tour. Good friend Sugarpill recently played with him and said wondrous things about his live set. He is on a few dates with the Bassnectar tour. I’ll be catching him at the Orlando show. I can’t wait to see Eskmo live.
Tracklist:
1. ESKMO : Cloudlight
2. ESKMO : Come Back
3. ESKMO : Come Back (Lorn Remix)
4. ESKMO : Cloudlight (Instrumental)
Check out the stunning video for Cloudlight. It’s amazing what they’ve done to capture all the emotion and passion of this song visually. I absolutely adore this video and give a bow to the director of this short film which is what it feels like.
Lyrics:
“Cloudlight, Floating and magically colorful pieces of sky.
Pieces of skylight.”
“Come back, I’m floating, Up to the Self.
Inside this. Without this. Self.”
Sugarpill releases his Flow Goggles EP today on Daly City records! I’m so proud to be posting this for a good friend. Sugarpill has been one of my mentors in the DJ and now he’s climbing to the top. This release is huge and if you’ve recently listened to me live you have probably been jamming out to some of these tunes.
Sugarpill aka Evan has a unique diverse sound. He brings such a groovy feel to his beats and stellar control of effects. This man truly goes wild during his live sets and these tracks are a great example of what the glitch elements are all about.
This isn’t the last you’ll hear of Sugarpill. Evan has been working on other big releases that are due out in the future. Be on the look out for all his remixes and collabs with some of the biggest names in the scene.
Congrats on this release my friend! It’s great to see a friend put out a big release like this!
This officially makes the 200th post for AfroMonk.com! I can’t believe it. It seems like it wasn’t long ago that I started this site.
I want to thank everyone who has ever been to my site and checked out any post. I want to give a MAJOR THANK YOU to all the producers out there that have actually answered my messages and e-mails. All of the people who send me their unreleased music and keep me up to date with all the latest tracks. If it wasn’t for you guys there wouldn’t be anything to write about. Keep doing what you love and making that sweet music.
It has been less than a year that Afromonk.com has gone live and it’s become one of the best projects I’ve ever done. I’m glad to have PBJ on board and have him part of the team. I plan to expand this site more in the near future and do a complete re-design. The next major project I’ll be embarking on is becoming a producer and starting a label. Lots of big news will come out of this week-end in Vegas.
I want to make a list of all the people who have helped me with this site. The ones who I love to help out and share their music with you. They’ve done nothing but hooked it up and be a friend and not just some other person online.
No particular order but this post is for you guys that I’ve met online!
Sugarpill, Shilo, Ben Samples, HipGnosis, Mochipet, Protohype, Mussck, Will Marshall, Great Scott, Richard Sweat, Lost in Bass, Freddy Todd, Pressha, Plus2, Willy Whompa, Stephan Jacobs, Kraddy, and all the others I’ve forgotten! Thank you!
Stephan Jacobs is becoming quite the legend in my book. Along with some of the biggest names in the west coast Stephan had to releases yesterday. His house tracks along with some dubstep tunes were released on his latest EP, Square 1. The EP features remixes from Sugarpill, Jupit3r, and Ruff Hauser. I’m telling you one thing and being serious about this. Stephan Jacobs isn’t going anywhere and remember to stay on top of this guy. His recent tunes have been stellar and have heard clips of the new ones ahead. Another next level sound producer. Truly an inspiration.
Stephan and Ben Samples had teamed up awhile ago on a fresh tune Nano Puppy. Samples EP was releases as well but worth mentioning this one track in this post. It’s one hell of a glitch hop track. These two working together is like getting pineapple and mango in one fruit, pure bliss. Shout out to homie Sugarpill on this one as well since he mastered the tune.
Defcon 18 is the LARGEST hacker convention in the world. It has been going 18 years strong and has brought in approximately 7,000 attendees last year. Defcon is held every year in Las Vegas and has some of the greatest talent come out and give talks and lectures on all sorts of interesting topics in the community.
It isn’t all about speakers and workshops. Defcon also likes to party and brings in quite a diversity of talented performers and Djs! This year the Rivera Hotel and Casino will be hosting the event and will have the pool open to party and ballroom ready to get down.
There’s endless things to get yourself into at this years Defcon. Here are links to information on all the talks and info about all the acts coming in to play.
Chris B recently has blown my mind. He is part of the Big 3 Ive created in my mind: Sugarpill, Stephan Jacobs, and Chris B. These guys are the biggest dudes in the West Coast coming up. They’ve all worked closely together and are on their way up to the top. Chris B is totally rocking out and putting out sexy sexy tunes. I have the honor of actually opening up for him while I’m in Vegas for Defcon 18.
You absolutely have to check out this mans tracks. The first time I heard Redshift I immediately turned the volume up as loud as possible on my headphones. This tune is absolutely breathe taking. His other tracks with Stephan and Sugarpill are nothing short of stunning either. Make sure you remember the name Chris B because out of all the talent in the left coast his sound is pure.
I’ll be honest I don’t think there is a correct answer to this question nor is there for any genre of music. At the end of the day music is music despite the label or genre. There have been many names for “Glitch Hop” such as lazer bass, crunk bass, etc… The question you probably want to know is what defines a track as glitch hop.
The beauty of Glitch Hop is that it’s not really a genre with specific rules or BPM. I like to consider Glitch Hop the type of music that incorporates glitchy effects like beat repeaters and sweeps. The tempo of the music doesn’t really matter at all. The genre of Glitch is where it falls into because of this. When Hip-Hop/Crunk samples are added with all these effects the result is… Glitch Hop! Yup that’s basically it.
Glitch Hop has really started to take off within the past year or two. The Glitch Hop Forum has appeared and helps unite the community of fans, producers, and Djs. Glitch.fm was started and specializes in this sound. Acts like Pretty Lights and The Glitch Mob are headlining festivals all around the world.
I don’t think it has been documented where the term was actually phrased but it most likely has ties to Prefuse 73, Dabrye, Funkstorung, or edIT. Glitch and IDM had been around a good while before Glitch Hop started to appear. It was around 2001 where the sound really started to take shape with the early works of Prefuse 73 on Warp Records. 2004 was when things really took off when Conartist turned into edIT and released Crying Over Pros For No Reason.
Another thing that is worth mentioning about Glitch Hop is that it’s for the most part it’s played Live. This means that most people who play this music use controllers and actually manipulate and create these sounds on the fly. Essentially technology has allowed us to use all sorts of fun toys to create these live glitch remixes. There are many producers and DJs who actually create songs as they play with extended amounts of loops they’ve created before hand. There’s more of a performance element when it comes to glitch hop.
I’ve asked some people who play a major role directly or indirectly with the sound of Glitch / Glitch Hop what they thought Glitch Hop is. These are direct replies when I asked them “What is Glitch Hop”
“It’s bigger than just a music genre it’s an artform, yourself as the beat maker is turning digital sound techniques such as clicks / bleeps / bit crush reduction and many more methods into music.”
- Mussck
(Pioneer in the Glitch sound)
“To me Glitch Hop is just another term for the latest form of evolved hip hop. Glitch Hop seems to be regionalized to the west coast of North America, and it is also quite popular in Australia. Other geographical locations have their own take on the sound. In England & LA they call it Wonky, In Scandinavia they call it Skweee, etc. Really it’s all just music, by labeling it we make it more accessible to those who don’t know about it. If a new artist emerges with a new sound that doesn’t quite fit in any existing (sub) genre, a journalist will come up with a name for it in their attempt to describe it. This is the same way the term Glitch Hop came about, as well as most genre titles from Rock to Dubstep.”
- Dewey Db
(Founder of Glitch Hop Forum)
“Glitch hop get its roots from hip hop, obviously looking at its name. It’s a kid or a man- not a rap star or his ego- doing whatever the fuck they want with a what-would-be hip-hop beat. It’s taking the swagger of a rap beat and glitching / stuttering / repeating the shit out of it in an intelligent OR unintelligent way. It’s taking hiphop vocals and mashing them through a blender. It’s NOT tailoring a specific beat for kanye or jayZ, rather to embrace a dancefloor, impress your friends, or just for your own 2010 glitchy satisfaction. And oh yeah, it’s also about the bass. ”
- Freddy Todd
(Up and coming Glitch Hop Producer)
“‘glitch hop’ seems to be the most common name for a genre of music which involves electronic production, loud synthetic bass, a hiphop/crunk feel and often (but not necessarily) includes edgy music production techniques which are normally heard in IDM.
although predominantly heard at festivals and underground parties on the west coast of North America it has been gaining popularity in Europe, Australia and Asia lately.”
- ill gates
(Master Glitch Hop Producer)
“Glitch is taking what most people would consider an error or a mistake and working it into something great sounding. Like distortion is to an electric guitar, glitch is to electronic production.”
- Kraddy
(Master Glitch Hop Producer / Former member of The Glitch Mob)
“In a very narrow sense, the term “glitch-hop” could be interpreted as ‘mid-tempo, twisted hip-hop beat with distorted, heavy bass and acapellas’, but I rather see it as a tentative name which somehow stuck and is now wide-spread (relatively at least). It is rather directed outwards to encompass various music styles sometimes also referred to as: acquacrunk, turbo crunk, lazer bass, future blap, future beatz, street bass, heavy bass, wonky, hyphy, usually falling within the broader categories of IDM, EDM and recently, quite often flirting with dubstep”
- Docktor Krank
(Runs highly respected Glitch Hop Blog)
“Glitch-Hop is like Hip Hop stuck into a blender whipped and then poured over layers of Bass lasagna and topped with a good heaping of Rave Synth Sauce and some 8-bit samples of Chucky Cheese Parmesan”
- Mochipet
(Producer / Founder of Daly City Records)
“Glitch hop is hip hop based IDM, music heavy with bass and rich in provocative melodic contortions, chopped up samples and artfully designed combinations of ancient drum beats and futuristic sounds. Largely rejecting traditional instrumentation for erroneously produced noises not found in nature, glitch hop is the brash back-talking ethos of HELL YES, I’m pushing buttons- and look what it does to my dance floor. It is the musical representation of the post-modern void of a world in which we live that could end any second with the press of another kind of button. Glitch hop symbolizes the failure of technology and the debunking of the myth of progress. Progress will not save us- but dancing just might.”
- Shilo
(Runs one of the most well known Glitch Hop/West Coast blogs on the web)
“I think glitch-hop in the most basic sense is just a geeky take on hip hop… splash some slowed down IDM patterns on some bass and add some weird sounds that someone might bob their head to and you’ve pretty much there.”
- Sugarpill
(Up and coming Glitch Hop Producer)
“It’s slutty imo” “Well I’m drunk at some ho’s house. Write that down” “Glitch hop is about banging groupies till sunrise”
- Ben Samples
(Up and coming Crunk Producer)
“I think Glitch-Hop is definitely more than just “bass” music by the very fact that it’s prefaced by the term “Glitch.” To me this genre has taken influence from a sort of “Glitch Design Philosphy,” which I interpret to be the act of exploiting any technology available for artistic gain; usually in ways different from the intended use of a particular technology being used. By virtue of the fact that this genre is explicitly influenced by Hip-Hop music, it is then only natural that it is also bass music.
For example, today I was browsing some tutorials from Tom Cosm that one of our bloggers, Binary Ally, had posted about how to make really fast rhythmically-sequenced pseudo-random fx automations. Even though Tom was accomplishing this through Ableton, I would say the techniques he used were clearly hacks in the sense that he exploited several routing/chaining features in a highly inventive way. He didn’t just go in and automate everything by hand, which would have probably taken on the order of days to accomplish, but instead accomplished this similar effect on the order of minutes. It’s truly boundary pushing stuff.”
- Scott Novich (Great Scott)
(Founder of Glitch.fm)
Here are some clear examples of what Glitch Hop sounds like. BOOM!
Lightning in a Bottle Music Festival is less than a week away. I’ll be flying out of Miami straight to California via Virgin America Friday morning. One of my great friends, Sugarpill will be picking me up from the airport and we’ll begin our journey!
Let me first tell you that I’ve never been camping in my life nor have had any interest in camping. You could probably call me a prissy bitch but honestly that’s just how I was raised and never got into the whole outdoor thing. I’m a huge geek/nerd and always spent my free time usually on the computer. Don’t get me wrong I played base ball, soccer, football, and track & field but probably would prefer being at home playing StarCraft while listening to music being young. I’ve become an adult and spent more time inside now when not traveling because nothing is better than a long night with a beautiful woman being inside listening to music, talking, and cuddling. WAIT a second…! That can all be done at this festival with the stars staring down at you?! NOW IT MAKES SENSE! hahaha
LIB is a festival where the creative meet and celebrate the world we live in with music, art, workshops, dancing, and all sorts of outdoor things people do *cough* hippies *cough*. What ultimately made me decide that I was going to go was my undying Love for music. At the end of the day LIB is a music festival. There is so much to do and so many artist to catch live! You could probably spend hours reading about each performer or workshop that will be at LIB. I’ve gone through the list of all the musical talent and made an “Afro Monk’s MUST SEE AT LIB”
Afro Monk’s Must See List @ Lightning at a Bottle 2010
An-ten-nae, Apparat, Beats Antique, Booka Shade, Daddy Kev, Daedelus, Eliot Lipp, Emancipator, EOTO, Heyoka, Jupit3r, KRADDY, MartyParty, MiM0SA, Nosaj Thing, R/D, The Album Leaf, The Glitch Mob, & VibeSquaD. Let’s not forget the BREATHE TAKING performance of Lucent Dossier!!! (see below)
Everyone on the East Coast please take notes of these… I can’t explain to you how talented each of those acts are. I have no idea how I’m going to catch all of them let alone catch some new music in the process!
EVERYONE MUST WATCH THIS VIDEO!!!
It’s absolutely hilarious and shows off some great photos!
Besides the unbelievable amounts of music there is endless amounts of art! When I mean art I mean it in every aspect: fashion, installations, gallery’s, sculptures, lights, dance, etc..
I’ll be meeting up with Shilo and part of the BWOMP Camp! Come say whats up and introduce yourself! Going with only knowing about a handful of people and hope to come back with many new friends! I’ll have stickers and cards so feel free to ask for some!
I’ve been hella busy this past week, especially at work.
Today I was swamped at work and totally passed out when I got home.
Tonight decided to stay in and just hang out with cousin.
Luckily I did cause just landed a link to Sugarpill’s latest mix.
Sugarpill wrecks it every time.
Be sure to check this mix out.
Hopefully I’ll be able to bring him into town over Christmas break.
Track List:
Hudson Mohawke – FUSE
Mimosa – Flux For Life
Raffertie – Wobble Horror
501 – Get Back
Eskmo – Angus Dei
Excision / Datsik – Swagga
Sugarpill – Coke and Wet
Gemmy – Supligen
Bar 9 – Shaolin Style
Kromestar – Bassbin
PANTyRAID – 09
Bassnectar – Boombox
EPROM – 64 Bytes (EPROM Remix)
Daedelus – Get Off Your Hihats
Dorian Concept – Color Sexist
Two Fingers – What You Know (Instrumental)
Beats Antique – Break Me
Flying Lotus – Disco Balls
Slugabed – Let’s Go Swimming
R/D – Cricket
An-ten-nae – Get Low
Bill Bless – Punchin Holes
Mochipet – Godzilla New Year (Vibesquad Remix)
Lazer Sword – Koopa Boss Mode
Audiovoid – Twitch Throb
St. Andrew – Snap
+verb – Whomp Sucker
Clavviq – Gangsta Shit
Nanda – Unknown
Samples – Portal
K-Lab feat MC Analog – Wreckked (Opiou Remix)
bartlomein – disneyland
Nailer – One Hundred
Mono Poly – Distant Form
The past two month or so I’ve sort of moved on a bit from Dubstep. Don’t get me wrong I love the music but I wanted something new and fresh. It almost seems like the dubstep bug is fading in me. I’ve always known about Glitch but never really followed it more than the typical artist like The Glitch Mob. After digging a bit deeper into Glitch and what it has to offer I fell in love with the Glitch Hop sound. It’s exotic yet so familiar.
After finding out all the latest and biggest stars in Glitch Hop I wanted more. I found Glitch FM recently and haven’t looked back. This community of people running Glitch FM is the real deal. They have been extremely friendly and open. Recently have been trying to get invovled and push this further. It’s hard when the Glitch Hop movement is predominately in the East Coast but I hope to change that with time. I’ve recently talked to many people active in the Glitch FM community. I’ve had small discussions with two of the DJs that have a weekly on the show, Sugarpill & .Spec.
The first night I ended up tuning into Glitch FM it so happened to be right during a live radio show done by Sugarpill. The mix was heavy and just piled high with exclusives and unreleased tracks. I’ll never forget that set and specific tracks in the set. Later found out during the set that Sugarpill use to live in FL but recently relocated to CA. Mentioned was in Miami and BAMMM one of Otto’s tracks comes on. Great to hear a FL DJ represent! Looking forward to tuning into his next set on Thursday night. Here is a mix I’ve uploaded… If you haven’t heard much Glitch Hop this is a great introduction. This mix is a big inspiration for me and what I want to do. Don’t sleep on this mix because its BIGGG! Check out Sugarpill online.
Another DJ I met was .Spec online. I didn’t get to catch his set live but did chat with him for a bit. He even gave me some DJ tips and real cool guy. He’s over there in Seattle for Decibel Festival. Talked about some of the different styles of mixing and DJs out there. Overall real good insight into somethings. I checked out some of his mixes online that he provided me with. Even jamming to one of them as I type this up. Definitely digging his style and no crazy bass just solid tracks blended perfectly together. You can catch his show on Saturday nights. You can also pick up some of his mixes on his site .Spec907
I’ve recently discussed starting a night of just glitch here in Miami. It’s a bit of a long shot but would love to be part of something new here in Miami. This is such a large metropolitan city and if I’m in it right now, there is no reason to start something that would invovled with music. I’m a huge believer that this style of music could be extremely welcomed here and no reason to be West Coast exclusive. For now I’ll just keep practicing and hope to improve my skills to maybe even spin some of this music so people can hear it out. Got to bring something different to the table as a DJ so you are remembered as a good friend put it…
Afro Monk
September 7th by Afro Monk 
Tags: Bassnectar, Eskmo, Eskmo Cloudlight EP, Eskmo Cloudlight Video, Lorn, Ninja Tune, Sugarpill
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