Listening right now...

I've been away from New York, but obviously not from my computer or music. Actually, I've been back for over a month and have been to some amazing events that I will soon be sharing. But easier to get back into the groove with a warmup track, here's something I've had on my playlist lately. Hope you enjoy it...

  Aloe Blacc - Loving you is killing me (Mano le tough remix) by manoletough

LIstening right now...

Here's the track list:
1. Positive Force / We Got The Funk / Rhino
2. Tim “Love” Lee / Superappin Vol. 5 / Tummy Touch
3. Ray Okpara / Ajali
4. Maya Jane Coles / Focus Now
5. DJ Wild! / Amor
6. Rodriguez Jr. / Orinoco
7. Sebo K / Mr. Duke / Mobilee
8. Burnski / There Is A Culprit / Dessous Records
9. dOp / Your Sex
10. Martin Landsky / Morning Caffeine / Mobilee
11. Alex Kid / Yemsa (Fabrizio Maurizi Remix)
12. Gemini / At The Café
13. The Specials – Ghost Town / Goldenlane Records

  dogandpony.com podcast by Ralf Kollmann by mobilee records

Psychedelic consultation

DJ Vikuna is my psytrance consultant and I asked his opinion when a friend told me about the upcoming Pakawala Fest on June 28-July 4, 2011 and Elemental Evolution in July 20-25, 2011 - both in Sandras Mountain. I'm not the usual audience for these raves, but I'm hungry for new music and always for live acts.

U-Recken and Atomic Pulse are two of Vikuna's Top 5 DJ/Producers and here are some of their recommended tracks followed by a recent favorite from Mr.Peculiar "to get me in the mood."

Quoting Vikuna's style, "more than anything I'm super picky about the style of the music and really dig their [U-Recken and Atomic Pulse] sound which is full on power but also elegant and minimalistic, as opposed to more acidy goa or really dark trance...Once you're hooked on psy, it's a never ending journey of pleasure, good vibes, and booty shaking."
Tune in:

Listening right now...

One of my favorites: Sidestepper

We're changing the pace a little bit, and by no means it is due to my latitude. Although I speak often of electronic music, my musical palette is a lot more diverse than the events I cover in NY. Latin music has a special place in my heart and my playlists, Sidestepper is one band I discovered a few years back and at last I share them with you.

First - tune in to this playlist and we can start talking about them:

Sidestepper is British producer Richard Blair's brainchild upon spending 3 years in Bogota, Colombia back in 1992. Having helped produce and engineer music of Carlos Vives and Aterciopelados amongst others, Blair released Sidestepper's first debut EP Logozon in 1999 - the year it transformed from being a solo electronic project into a full live band. 2000 brought More Grip and 2003 brought 3am (In Beats We Trust). Fusing Latin roots with modern sounds, Sidestepper's energy is a sum of afro-cuban d&b, sometimes venturing into dub and reggae on a canvas of salsa romantica. I like their music, hope you enjoy it too...

Here's their video for my favorite song by them and also first encounter with Sidestepper, Deja:

A weekend envisioned

I'm back from a long weekend of music/art/sacred movement - which in festival terms this time translated into (as Tanyarica calls them:) dirty hippies dancing like crazed animals on a former field of bamboos with crocodiles lurking from the adjacent river. Organized by regular burners, the festival was full of an eclectic crowd of people, some i suspected to be part-time medieval warriors. It amazes me that some of these people just follow festivals around the world and of course multiply in time, as there were quite a few babies/kids who were running around in the mist of hash clouds we were collectively generating. AsKer Oz definitely has a doppelganger who was painting psychedelic pieces of art during the day, and selling them by night. There were numerous workshops from sustainable building with bamboo to unleashing the sacred warrior within (somehow I missed that one); I attended an African dance class with my friend Christine and it left us sore for the next 3 days when combined with surfing for multiple hours. The music in general was whatever, I thought Bluetech blew, neither Random Rab nor Imagika, David Starfire were my cup of tea - the highlight was the tico bands that I got a chance to listen to: Sonambulo Psicotropical (sonambulo means sleepwalking) and Lucho Calavera y La Canalle. Here are some pictures and videos from a great weekend:

 

Envision green and blue

Embarking on a weekend adventure on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica in Dominical with a few friends tomorrow, Envision Costa Rica is where art, music and "sacred movement" will come together in this tropical paradise. The music is seemingly mostly dubstep, which is not really my cup of tea, but surrounded by luscious green forests, surfing by day, dancing by night, waking up to yoga and organic groceries is...

I had featured a Guy J remix of a favorite Bluetech track last month, it just so happens that Bluetech will be at Envision this weekend. Labeled as "one of the best ambient artists" by NYT, Bluetech is a dj/producer from Hawaii and if you like his downtempo beats, take a note - he's going to be playing at Pianos in New York City on March 18th. Listening to couple more of his tracks, it seems appropriate that he's playing this weekend:
Mysteriosa Flambeau by Bluetech

Profile: Maya Jane Coles

Maya Jane Coles's Louche podcast is on our playlist on this very day. She's a 23 year old British/Japanese producer from London, and has been producing some very nice tracks. What's with all these young musicians? They make me feel like a musical cougar, first Nico, now Maya...speaking of Nicolas Jaar, have you guys heard his new Space is Only Noise album? I liked it, but we'll save that review to another time. Back to MJC - first a few tracks for your taste, then hopefully you're convinced to ride her podcast in full length. I didn't include some of her newest tracks like Beat Faster and Play the Game, opted for older ones as I find them more original and like them better actually. Take note - she's coming on her US tour on April 13-24 so we should be able to catch her in NYC at some point. Enjoy...
Humming Bird by Maya Jane Coles


Maya Jane Coles mix for Louche

Jungle trip

I spent the weekend in the jungle off of the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica with my friend Ana from Spain who is setting up a sustainable organic farm there with her boyfriend Ian. Slept outdoors to the sounds of a thousand+ animals that inhabit these luscious forests, learned about the indigenous trends on when to plant and harvest (they watch the moon cycles), picked all those tropical fruits they sell at crazy prices at whole foods from the trees and ate them, and got introduced to at least 10 new types of produce that I was not familiar with. On the ride to Puerto Viejo from San Jose, my soundtrack was the dOP - Watergate album I got at Base in Miami. This first Wareika track stands out amongst the compilation, so if you dig it, go and get it - and if you don't know of Wareika or dOP, whats good stationers?

Daniele Papini & dOP - Carte Blanche - Watergate rec. by Daniele Papini



Riders On The Storm by Wareika

11 minutes

Feast your ears on the most unanticipated single of last year. All 11 minutes of our scandinavian electro connoisseurs bringing you a new hit. I can't wait for this one to get a remix.

enjoy

The Knife - The Colouring of Pigeons :

Here we come Martin & Matthias

A little playlist to prep for tonight at Good Units...

No regular countdown

Weather has been spoiling us in NYC as of late, but I ain't no foooool! I don't trust it neither do I get my hopes up; actually, I will strike preemptively and bounce off to Costa Rica for 5 weeks starting on Monday. In the spirit of many a countdown, couple cool tracks for the table, a dash of Stimming, followed by No Regular Play...

Melodica by stimming

Solomun & Stimming - 2007 - Feuervogel by Electro-Mix-Memory

No Regular Play - Owe Me (Nicolas Jaar remix) (Wolf + Lamb 2009) by Clown and Sunset

Favorite tracks

Off of the same compilation disc, these two tracks often find room in my playlists and at last I find the time to share them.

This first minimal track comes from Underground Sky, a bit more melodic than I'm used to but starts off the compilation on the right path. I recall one occasion when this album came on last July as 15 friends from New York crowded a small canal boat which happened to have a crazy amplifier&sound system - mind you, in Dalyan/Kaunos:
What Should I by aysh

Second one deserves a special & separate place as it is one of my favorite tracks for quite a while now, this two-part Difuzor mix rocks my world from time to time, hope you enjoy it.

Mousse de Soupir by aysh

Weekend Update + Chewsday track

Winter in New York has been musically so busy that we haven't been minding the unplowed streets that we had to track to get to venues around the city. If you weren't there, what's your excuse?

BLKMarket brought Tyrant to play an extended set at Good Units; the mysterious promoter Adventures in the Deep (haha - awesome name yaar) brought Art Department&Anthony Collins to a Brooklyn art studio - very very cool...We also caught Cem & RG last Friday at CVZ after stopping by the Autobrennt shindig at Thompson Hotel Soho featuring Slow Hands & Bea Tricks; Saturday night was Guido Schneider after Taimur+Fahad's opening set - but let's take a moment and get the blkmarket duo to play a longer set one of these days please? Taimur played at Rivington this past Sunday with Three and Tanner Ross, but we haven't heard Fahad primetime in a while.
*Taimur is soon playing at Fabric London (in March - details to follow).

Let's get straight to it: Thursday is Sigu's Buddies party with Matthew Dear & Phillip Jung at Tribeca Grand Hotel; then this upcoming Friday's big event is no doubt the 10 Years of Moon Harbour Matthias Tanzmann & Martin Buttrich gig at Good Units (thank you Verboten) - will you be there?

We're going to save the warmup tunes to tomorrow onwards.

Here is Guy J's remix of the Bluetech EP Honey in the Heart, we've been a long fan of his mix after hearing it on the Coast Connection set, here's our first Chewsday track, tune in for more in the hours to come:

Bluetech - Honey In The Heart [Guy J Remix] by P.Ancsi

Chewsday tracks

On our radar is Deniz Kurtel, a dj and artist hailing from Turkey. Apart from her delicious sounds and beats, Deniz is a phenomenal artist designing computerized LED arrays and mirrors. You may have seen some of her work at the Wolf+Lamb parties in Brooklyn, at the Marcy Hotel perhaps or at various art festivals such as the Burningman or Rabbit Hole. I strongly advise you to tune in to the following track while checking out Deniz's website or you may also view a walk through of one of her installations right below her track we are sharing here.

Hoping you will enjoy this recent track of hers (and the one after) as much as we are enjoying it right now on this cold day in New York...

Untitled from Deniz Kurtel on Vimeo.

Clown and Sunset

Nicolas Jaar (Wolf+Lamb) is a long time favorite of mine, but I've only recently been following his record label Clown & Sunset and I can honestly say that it is music that excites me. I am very content with the diversity of the sounds, and the delicious tracks that have been coming out.

First I must share my first taste of Clown and Sunset to be fair, it is from Soul Keita, Nico Jaar and Nikita Quasim:
Soul Keita /// Jude nelson is a bassist by Clown and Sunset

Here's a recent podcast from CS that is very fitting to this sunny Sunday, soulful and eclectic. Enjoy.
CS Podcast 003 - QUENTIN PISTOL by Clown and Sunset