emerging subgenre: 'postdubstep'

In 2005 and 2006, a new sound from south london grew out of the fertile mixture of electronic music genres including 2step, funky, garage, acid house, minimal techno, grime, and jungle. it was called dubstep, a term which included a wide range of musical activity, but generally characterized by an emphasis on synthesized sub bass, instrumental beats, noise like sounds, and a rhythmic profile which grew from traditional hiphop beatmaking. Dubstep was london's main dance music export until 2010. Now however, a new crop of artists are taking the tradition into new terrain. The term 'post dubstep' is beginning to surface around the works of composers like Mount Kimbie and James Blake. Also, retroactively, the term suites the music of Burial very well; he can be seen as a founding figure of post dubstep. Listen for manipulations of identifiable instruments, ghostly effected vocals, and a new tonal palate which brings deep emotions to this music. Barely born, postdubstep seems to be a powerful new vein in the constantly evolving conversation of IDM.
here are some highlights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7AF8IG7Eg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBsJ09RhqZw

Sufjan Stevens: Age of Adz

Sufjan Stevens is an artist who, over the course of the last decade, has positioned himself at the crossroads of baroque pop, folk, and minimallism. His last effort, Illinois, was a huge and rich record of sentimental songs, meticulously scored for various instrumental ensembles. On the 'Age of Adz' album, Sufjan reaches out to the trending styles of beat music and minimal techno/ electro pop. his songs are still highly produced and often feature live orchestral instruments, but much of his detailed work here happens in the cleanliness of his bouncing synths and R&B piano. He also lets his voice go more than ever here; its impossible to imagine his current trajectory without Joanna Newsom's career. Apparently the two are friends. check the link for the great video to this album's single, 'Too Much'.
http://pitchfork.com/tv/

Concert 11/19 ElSuper Music Collective

Cozy - Blud from Nelson A. Melgar on Vimeo.

This coming Friday night, very important concert at the ElSuper Music Collective, titled:The Hot Box. Come at ninePM for the kick it, stay past ten for the jams. Sets from Feed Me, Xei the Ghost, Cozy, Ded Pimpin, and Supa Ape will cascade in immediate succesion. Everyone will have fun exploring different elements of contemporary L.A. music. all are welcome, 906 N. Ave 56 90042 in Highland Park

above is a video by the collective

Profile: Shangaan Electro

Nozinja Music has released a compilation called Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa. Shangaan is a new dance music style emerging from the townships of South Africa. Blazingly fast drum machines, soulful repetetive singing, and emotional chord progressions lend this entire comp an pulsing beauty. At first these songs will sound impossibly fast and giggly, but with repeated listens the effect becomes very romantic, evoking the ambient two step of UK producer Burial. This compilation is a wonderful profile in an exciting new music, stick with it and it will stick with you.

Announcement: Concert at Booth 11/13

Attention all music listeners: this coming Saturday evening, at 8pm, there will be a concert in the courtyard of the Booth music building. The Los Angles chillwave/ gloFi / new Disco outfit called Kisses will be headlining. Expect rhythmic, tropical pop songs which typify the recent interest in 80's synth sounds and catchy pop writing. Very L.A. right now. The show will be opened by the Highland Park act Cozy, aka Doug Rosenberg, aka me. whassup. for Kisses listening, I refer you to their myspace.

http://www.myspace.com/blowkissess

for Cozy material, and a backlog of music from his house @ElSuperMusic, check their soundcloud here: http://soundcloud.com/melvinrichardson2011

Wonderful Free Music Program: Audacity

I thought I'd take tonight's blog post to profile my personal favorite music application: Audacity. You can download the program for free, and legally; Audacity is open source software that's meant to be used by anyone. Compared with other, expensive software like Ableton, ProTools, or Logic, Audacity might seem very basic. Its simplicity, however, is its greatest asset. With only a little bit of fooling around with the program's interface, users can begin crafting high quality music without any instrumental or theoretical music knowledge. it doesn't take long to learn to read the waveforms, just click File>import>import audio and choose a song you like. then begin playing with the suite of effects available and you'll realize the power that Audacity bestows upon its user.

Concert 10/29 @ElSuperMusic collective

alert to all readers/listeners out in the blogosphere/ interwebs... Highland Park artistic collective El Super (follow on twitter @ElSuperMusic) will be performing a concert at 906 n. Ave 56. Resident artists Xei the Ghost, Supa Ape, Ded Pimpin, and Cozy will be playing an extrachunky combined roundrobin style set, running the gamut from ambient techno, free hiphop, spiritual electronica and noise pop. Surely it will be the best thing you can decide to do at 9pm this coming friday night. refer to the collective's music page for listening pleasures.

http://soundcloud.com/melvinrichardson2011

New Talent: James Blake

With his newest E.P. 'Klavierwerke', Londoner James Blake cemented his young reputation as one of the most muscular and exciting in a new generation of IDM producers. Klavierwerke is a very restrained, almost classically austere group of four songs. The bulk of the material Blake is sampling is his own piano playing and singing; he's blending the line between a sampler like Burial and a singer songwriter. And the effect is tremendous, with earlier E.P.'s Blake proved he can make you dance, now he can make you cry. Klavierwerke is a perfect candidate for the term 'spiritual electronica'. Check out his video for a Feist cover 'Limit to your Love' and expect great things from this boy...He's clearly making moves.

Teebs-'Ardour'

There's a newcomer to Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label, and right now he's king of the hill. His name is Teebs, and his first album, 'Ardour' is about to drop. For anyone new to the burgeoning L.A. electronic scecne, (as of yet unnamed but still they try... "beat music" "bass music" "spiritual electronica" "L.A. dubstep" etc...) Teebs' record is a perfect entry point. Flying Lotus, the grandaddy of this musical community, creates very dense records which can be offputting to the casual listener. 'Ardour', however, needs no sugar to go down. It is a lush, and viscerally beautiful album which sounds like a space jungle. Teebs is a master of establishing a musical enviroment, and he restrains the impulse to fill those enviroments up. The result is a very satisfying listen for anyone interested in hip-hop, dance music, neo-soul, dubstep or more. Anyone who drives around Los Angeles at night should definitely cop this gem.

Low End Theory

For anyone looking for a true taste of the L.A. underground electronic music scene, the club Low End Theory features amazing line ups every wednesday night. Regular musicians there include Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer, Nosaj Thing, and other LA scenster musicians. The club boasts an extra 10,000 watts of sub-bass speaker power, the perfect compliment to these musician's works, which increasingly have been including ludicrous amounts of bass tones. (hence, "low end") audience members will receive a glimpse of latent musical ideas bubbling up under the surface of mainstream electronics, and many of the producers who frequent L.E.T. are responding to a vital dance music community which extends far beyond america's borders. In fact, this club is a rare hotspot for musics which have not yet caught on in most American scenes, such as the south-london based genre "dubstep." check this speacial club out next wednesday for a great night of music and dancing.

Warpaint

In her "shows to look out for" section, staff blogger Laura mentioned the Warpaint show coming up, and that they're great. Those of you who go to this show will be in for a special treat. Warpaint is a band in a very exciting position right now. Constituted by three women, Warpaint's intense, brooding post-rock inflected jams are supported by a rock chemistry between the members which makes their live show excellent. Also, they are very well respected and stand to gain some popular success, but they have only released one five song EP, 'Exquisite Corpse" So they are writing and developing more material right now, in the studio and on stage. You never know what you're going to get, except a mouthful of one very intriguing rising band.

Jelly Blog

Announcing the formation of a new blog, the Jelly blog! Being worked on by a collective of artists, including Herklotz employees Brian and Doug, Jelly is an multi-media blog posting submissions by various and talented artists working across the country (and at least one other country so far.) Our goal is to present material in all aspects of artistic thought, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, video, music, stand-up and written comedy, painting, sculpture, and photography. Jelly features a community of young creators whose work will be recurring, and in dialogue with the other artists shown. So far we have featured works by Dead Pimpin, Defense (Jaxon Veseley), Isaac Cohen, Doug Rosenberg, Griffin Newman, and Shoshone Johnson. Check back weekly to follow the conversation, and if you have work that you'd like posted, feel free to send it to rosenbergd@oxy.edu.
getoutthekitchen-jelly.blogspot.com

Spotlight: Derek Bailey

Whether you listen to music in the classical tradition, jazz, noise, or just good guitar playing, you should check out Derek Bailey and his work in 'free improv.' he's an old British man from the 20th century and he has a wonderful approach to dealing with the classical legacy as well as the changing currents of 20th century composition and performance. his playing leaves behind tonality, atonality, and all but the freest of jazz to work with the voice of the guitar itself. though not conventional, his playing is very beautiful and he has collaborated with many great composers such as Haino Keiji and Tony Conrad. take a listen

Spotlight: Flying Lotus

For some, it's a name spoken almost daily. for others, it means nothing: flying lotus. In just a few years of activity, the Los Angeles based producer Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) has radically expanded the gray matter between Hip Hop, techno, dubstep, elecro, and soul. To hear what I mean, just YouTube "massage situation" for a taste of his tasty music. He is constantly releasing a stream of remixes, collaborations, singles, and EP's. You really can't go wrong if it's got Flying Lotus written on it, but his album "Los Angeles" is essential. Stay tuned for his new album, "Cosmogramma" due in the US on may 4, or keep an eye out at any tight concert or party in LA and you may catch a glimpse of his smiling face.

Featured Score: Cage

Today we are featuring a very special score from the Herklotz stacks: John Cage prepared piano sonatas. (pictured is the score for the first sonata) in the middle of the twentieth century, John Cage was responsible for several stunning innovations. His concept of indeterminitism reframed the compositional process forever, and successfully introduced his interest in Zen into the classical music lexicon. This particular score features another one of Cage's innovations: the prepared piano. This work is written for a piano with specific objects wedged between and through the strings. the effect is that some keys remain tonal, and some produce varying percussive sounds. These works are very ethereal, and they make an even more satisfying listen when following the score. So come on down and take a look at a very important document in 20th century artistic thought!

'Black Noise'

Like dance music? Dancing? Music? Looking for an entre to the growing world of international techno? A Berlin musician named Pantha Du Prince just released his amazing new album, 'Black Noise' and I recommend you listen to it. His first album, 'this bliss' is a nearly flawless work of minimal techno, and on black noise he cranks it up a notch. Pantha du Prince opens up cavernous spaces on Black Noise; it is always elegant and always dark. and it makes me want to dance. in a genre dominated by repetitive, at times atonal music, his songs are always shifting, always gorgeously tonal, and very meditative. check out his stellar collabo with Panda Bear 'Stick to my Side"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEd4Hzpj604

virtual tour

hi there. for all you hundreds out there on the intraweb who've never been to the occidental music library, here is the virtual tour:

have one on me!

Joanna Newsom's third album, 'Have One On Me" just leaked, and though the expectations were great, it is suprisingly good. Following the acclaimed and gorgeous "Ys' would be a challenge for any artist, and she took her time. But the two hour 'have one on me' is dense, enjoyable, and a deepening evolution for Newsom. Her sound has grown to include gospel, classic rock, folk, bluegrass, celtic music, and classical romanticism, and her divisive voice has undergone further maturation. She sings with conviction and soul. Any song on this immense album would be a good introduction to her work, and this album firmly establishes her as one of America's most exciting composers.

Broken Bells

When the (eagle rock) producer Danger Mouse illegally sampled the Beatle's White Album and mixed it with the vocals from Jay Z's Black album, and released it online for free, it was a huge hit and Danger Mouse became a symbol for the pastiche model of internet art. A high profile law suite against him cemented his fame. His next big success was the song Crazy, created with Cee-lo from Goodie Mob, which was a radio smash and made him a household name. Never one to settle in one style or genre, DM has now hooked up with indie pop icon the Shins' James Mercer. This unlikely duo has recently recorded an album under the band name Broken Bells. You can listen to two songs from that album here

http://pitchfork.com/artists/28316-broken-bells/

Tonight, february 19, the band will be playing their very first gig in Los Angeles at the bootleg theatre. This is an exciting chance to hear a top-rate collaboration present their material in public FOR THE FIRST TIME. the show was only announced last night, and will surely sell out at the door. If you can make it to the Bootleg Theatre tonight, make an effort because it will definitely be a memorable evening.

Beach House's Great new Record

In 2008, the duo Beach House released their second album, Devotion. It was much more popular than their first, and with a very distinct style of rich, slow pop songs they earned a lot of fans. After a success like that many bands are unable to rise above their own hype and deliver either uninspired attempts at regaining the old sound or unfounded failures in totally new territory.
On their brand new album, Teen Dream, Beach House skirts both of these extremes and synthesizes all of their existing strengths with exciting expansions of their sound. It's impossible to accurately describe the sound of good music, but suffice it to say that Teen Dream should be a very enjoyable listen for anyone with tastes from classic rock to shoegaze and electronic pop. with especially wonderful vocals from Christiane Legrand, Teen Dream should not be missed.