Sonny John Moore, also known as Skrillex, is an electronic musician from Los Angeles, California, well known for his role as the former frontman for the post-hardcore band From First to Last. In late fall of 2007 he embarked on his very first tour as a solo artist, the Team Sleep Tour with Team Sleep, Strata, and Monster In the Machine. After recruiting a new band lineup, Moore toured North America on the Alternative Press Tour, supporting bands such as All Time Low and The Rocket Summer, and appeared on the cover of Alternative Press' annual '100 Bands You Need To Know' issue. In June, 2008 Moore went into recording for his debut album, titled Bells alongside producer Noah Shain. He is currently signed to Atlantic Records, and runs an imprint label called Owsla, named after an organisation in the book Watership Down. And with this new track of his, he has certainly put himself well into the electro/techno scene. To download his free tracks, click here. Has the digital zeitgeist blown the CD out of irrelevance and into the realm of retro art curio? I just stumbled upon this hybrid audio object by electronic musician Jeff Mills. Mills' new project 'The Occurrence' blends the truly antiquated with the relatively old-school in the form of a standard CD and five-inch vinyl amalgam on either side of the same circle. This limited release reminds us, of course, of the failed Blu-Ray/DVD crossbreeds that never seemed to take off during the start of the digital disc standards war; but Mills' work will invite comparison between the sound quality and listening experience of the same tracks on either side, creating a more dynamic musical experience. The album is available (with a somewhat droning sample of the included audio) over at Axis Records Todd Fischer, manager of national sponsorships at the Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm, was keen to assert that EMI had been "at the table" throughout the negotiation process on this latest video, which started back in fall of last year. But clearly he's also more than happy that State Farm gets to play the part of forward-thinking innovator, working to supply fans with what they really want and need (the ability to take the video and include it on their own sites). In supporting a band that epitomizes the DIY, can-do, I'll-take-it-and-I'll-mash-it attitude of contemporary culture, the insurer taps into a young audience in a cool, appropriate way. The band, meanwhile, gets to make another fantastic video, harness buzz and win over new fans: the film had nearly 1.4 million views in less than 48 hours. Official music video for Blockhead's 'The Music Scene'. An animated mind melt into a post human New York where TV and animals rule. All cast to the sincerely melodic soul of Blockhead's 'The Music Scene.' While programs like Ableton Live have truly democratized electronic music making, most hardware interfaces can't hold a candle style-wise to traditional instruments (or even the MIDI gear of the Awesome 80s). Rather than merely bemoan this depressing fact, however, a musician from Zurich named Zander Ander has built his own controller -- and it's truly a thing of beauty. Based on the uCApps.de MIDI hardware platform, this thing employs custom acrylic knobs, colored LEDs, and a whole bunch of buttons to bring his DAW controls into the real world -- while kicking the ass of controllers like AKAI's APC40 in the process. But don't take our word for it! Check it out for yourself after the break. Aviary has made a name for itself by offering creative types free, Web-based tools like image editors and color palette generators. Not long ago, it got into the audio editing game with Myna, a simple but functional tool for recording and tweaking sound. Now the company is expanding its music creation lineup with 'Roc,' a basic sequencing app for creating loops. 'Music Creator,' as it's officially known (although you'll see it called by its codename 'Roc' just as often), is an extremely basic app. It has a selection of pre-programed "instruments" that you can load into the sequencer. Individual sounds from each instrument can be added to the sequencer in any combination you want, but you can't load multiple instruments. This probably wouldn't be too big of an issue if it weren't for the fact that "instruments" in Roc are simply sample packs. This means melodic instruments (like guitar and bass) are limited by the number of samples that can be loaded at once. In this case, it's 12, so you're constrained to a single octave's worth of notes or chords. A small collection of very cool and creative VJ Animations I found. Definitely worth a look! Demo of the RHIFID speakers developed at CIID. Using a combination of RFID technology, Processing and Arduino, the speakers work as location aware controllers, allowing the user to interact with music and the environment by moving the speakers around.Paragraph. Putting the two speakers together triggers the speakers into playing one common song, creating a social listening experience. The RHIFID speakers can also be modified into musical creators rather than just controllers, allowing location and rotation to control such things as pitch, samples and effects. Era-defining records, especially in terms of the hyper-accelerated eras of dance music, can often become an albatross around their creators' necks: last season's essential tune is today's sonic throwback. But completely changing tack between albums can be treacherous, too, as Booka Shade discovered when they followed up their acclaimed second album Movements (2006) with The Sun & the Neon Light (2008). Where Movements sprang agilely between electro-house, minimal, Metro Area-style disco and the Cologne label Kompakt's branded fusion of techno and pop – and included, in Body Language, Mandarine Girl and In White Rooms, three of the most ubiquitous club tracks of 05/06 – the latter album was a leaden plod into more brooding territory, awash with live orchestration and 'proper' songs, that didn't seem to play to Arno Kammermeier and Walter Merziger's undoubted talents. There are moments when the poised Booka Shade of old can be glimpsed. The Door, which cribs its compressed bass chassis from Azzido da Bass's Doom's Night, develops into a tightly sprung house groove which in turn gives way to a simple retro electro synth pattern. Teenage Spaceman is the classic Booka Shade template – essentially a muted take on Germanic trance – at its most familiar, but abetted here by a melancholic synthesised brass riff. Such moments are rare, however, and merely competent when measured alongside the purposefulness of Movements. When Booka Shade are this off the mark, More! is undoubtedly less. Nevertheless, it's Booka Shade, and it's always worth a listen! Booka Shade - Teenage Spaceman A mash up of hilarious robot sound effects made into an electro track. Funky, funny and weird, it's worth a watch. The music can be annoying though, but it will definitely make you smile. |
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