To cap off 2011 and take you into 2012, we linked with the NYC transplant / wonder from down under DJ Dust to assemble our last cloudcast of the year. After propelling herself to the forefront of the DnB scene in Melbourne over a 10-year career behind the decks (and scenes!), she recently opted for a change of scenery and moved to NYC this past Spring. She continues to write for the blog weareallsorts.com along with DJ Fiend and is already busy holding down a Thursday night monthly hip hop gig down at Sutra Lounge in the East Village. You'll also be able to catch her playing a DnB set at Natural Selection on February 4th down at National Underground. Her cloudcast takes a look back at some of the standout releases from the past few months, with carefully considered blends and solid mixing that you can come to expect out of Dust, regardless of genre. Enjoy.
1. Falty DL - Atlantis - Ninja Tune
2. Space Dimension Controller - Tiraquon's Return (A New Home) - R&S
3. Radiohead - Lotus Flower (Jaques Greene rmx) - Ticker Tape
4. Throwing Snow - Shadower - Sneaker Social Club
5. Mosca - Orange Jack - 3024
6. Sully - 2 Hearts - Keysound
7. Spectr - Dance 4 Me - Roska, Kicks & Snares
8. Jon Convex - Falling Again - 3024
9. GoldFFinch - Red Mask - Numbers
10. Debruit - Nigeria What? - Civil Music
11. Ben Westbeech - Falling (Dark Sky rmx) - Brownswood
12. Sweet Exorcist - Testone - Warp Records
13. Blawan - Peaches (Freestone) - Clone
14. Fantastic Mr Fox - Sepia Song - Black Acre
15. Kentaphonic - Hiya Kaya (Rocco Deep Mix) - Stalwart
16. Anette Party/Patlac - Moreno feat. Anita Coke - Liebe Detail
17. Jamie XX - Far Nearer - Numbers
This Saturday night, Reconstrvct returns to it's home at the Morgan in Bushwick for another 6 hours of low frequency with decency. This month's lineup features the NYC debut for both Lost and Commodo, as well as the return of San Francisco's DJG to the nitty, gritty. To mark the occasion, Reconstrvct resident Truenature has put together a promo mix to help familiarize yourself with the talent:
10$ presales for Saturday night are now available through ResidentAdvisor.net
In case you were unable to reach September's event which featured support from Tunnidge, Bunzer0, C Dubs, as well as the Sub Culture: Visions of Sound art exhibition; here's some of what you missed:
Mixing freshly squeezed love in an elixir of epic beats, juicy analog synthesizers, and atmospheric guitars, California native electronic artist/producer Eric Larin, Eyelove, creates a universe of infinite sonic possibilities.
The embodiment of universal love and positive vibration is clear in the spirit of Eyelove's music. Like the sun and the moon, the rise and the fall of the tides, and all of the earth's endless cycles, Eyelove develops music that is naturally balanced. His music, capable of deep outer and inner space transmission, has a mellow vibe, but never lacks energy.
Eyelove's live performances are for every sense, tickling your ear and permeating your soul with bass, allowing you to feel love. Eyelove has even been known to burn sage and incense at his live performances giving the audience an extra dimension of sensory experience. Drawing influence from artists like Air, Flying Lotus, STS9, Daedelus, and Trentem繪ller, Eyelove is part of a new breed of artists that are pushing the envelope and pioneering in live electronic music.
Sunday proved to be the day of rest, with 3:00 in the afternoon declared the official wake up call. Thankfully, Seattle was still serving Biscuits & Gravy which functioned as a much needed Morphine Drip. Heavily sedated and in horizontal format, an afternoon of explaining American football to the Canuck and watching "They Live" and "Rumble in the Bronx" on Netflix were the day's sole accomplishments.
Sunday's weather was shitty at best. It was October after all and the rain had presumably returned to stay for another 9 months. With members of our crew bowing out early, it was unclear how many others would do the same on this rainy Sunday night.
Unwavering in their support, Onset regulars and Decibel attendees alike filled out The Baltic Room to see what dBridge had in store to close out the week's festivities. To quote Fabio, "Drum & Bass is unique in that Drum & Bass people will go anywhere, in any kind of weather, they love their much so much."
Kid Hops probably appeared on the most bills throughout festival and spun a wide variety of beats. One can think of a number of monthlies across the United States who could easily afford to diversify their bonds by booking dude. Catch his radio programs twice weekly on award-winning KEXP 90.3fm Seattle. www.kexp.org
Dbridge's selections included many different sub-genres of Drum & Bass, but for the most part were heavily based around the Autonomic sound. These styles were a great way to wind down the festival, providing enough energy to keep everyone going, yet chilled out and soothing all at the same time. The deep atmospheres paired with techy hi-hats complimented the Blade Runner type conditions outside.
This is the offical transportation of Bass Music in Seattle. Also the best interior in the game. Much Respect to Adam for being a true pillar of the scene. Always on the grind and holding it down each & every.
Five days had come and gone all too soon. Extra thanks goes out to all the friends new and old for letting us crash on your couch, steal your cameras, eat your food, and drink your booze; couldn't have done it without you. Can't stress enough how smoothly everything ran over the course of the week. Truly a festival with talent and organization of the highest caliber. Much respect and a big Thank You to Decibel and all the collaborating promoters for continually raising the bar. Can't wait to see next year's line up.
Washington is home to a plethora of well known companies, many of which are headquartered in downtown Seattle. With it's recent relocation of offices to Fremont, nestled between Adobe, Google, and Getty Images sits Mervin Manufacturing. What goods does Mervin Manufacturing produce? Snowboards mostly, widely acknowledged by many as the best in the industry. With Saturday morning's Bloody Marys meeting their demise, it was called to attention that just down the street they had a keg.... and even better a mini ramp.
Decibel in the Park always seems to cement itself as one of the highlights of the festival. This year it's location was back on Capital Hill in Volunteer park after a one year jaunt directly under the space needle. While last year's location provided excellent views and awesome spectating, there is something to be said for the free for all and escape from the city that is Volunteer Park. This was the first year in our attendance that the weather was not absolutely perfect, but hardly anyone seemed to notice.
We arrived to the sounds of Danny Corn, who got the ball rolling for the rest of the Frite Nite crew. Unfortunately at this time it was apparent that the previous three all nighters had taken their toll on the camera batteries. Salva, Comma, and Eprom continued to lay waste for the remainder of the afternoon. Truly awesome to hear those beats in broad daylight outside of a club setting, with children and dogs running amuck.
By this point in the day much of the crew had pretty much drank themselves sober. Not necessarily a bad thing as it provided a lacking purpose to the pre-game and with that, an opportunity to literally recharge the batteries before the penultimate night's shenanigans. The plan of attack for the evening was to begin at the Showbox, hit up The Crocodile, and formulate the after-party on the fly.
The Showbox has played host to many legendary performances. Founded in 1939, it's arguably the premiere music venue in the city for live music. It boasts a healthy sized dance floor surrounded by tiered sections with bars flanked on both sides. Spacious enough to accommodate plenty while still retaining an intimate feel.
Plain and simple, Jaguar Skills put it down. Easily one of the top sets witnessed over the festival. At this point in the night most in attendance [one of dB's few All Ages showcases] probably had a curfew and one could venture to say that this was likely their first rodeo. Most people would complain about this aspect, but personally found that the young'ins contributed a great deal of energy to what would have otherwise been a dull room at 9:30 at night. Couldn't think of a more suitable DJ to school them on all forms of Bass music than Jaguar Skills. Quick with the mix, no genre was left untouched. With a heavy emphasis on jump up Drum & Bass and all the rinsed out dubstep anthems cut up and dropped in a fashion that you've never heard before. Did it matter that the kids didn't believe that Benga & Coki's "Night" was infact a dubstep tune? No. They didn't know any better and presumably had never even heard Drum & Bass music before that night. What mattered was them being exposed to a whole new range of sounds that will hopefully expand their horizons. Jaguar Skills put on a proper clinic for those both young and old.
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BF: Can you give our readers a quick recap on the story of Jaguar Skills?
JS: I'm a dude from the Uk who plays a lot of bad-ass electronic music in a mask. I have a mix every week on the national radio station in the UK, BBC Radio One. I jump up and down a lot when I DJ.
Tools of the Trade?
I use two 1210 Technic decks and a laptop running Serato.
Favourite Festival?
Bestival in the UK. That shit is crazy dope!
Favourite meal on your North American tour so far?
I've been trying to go to all the spots that the dude from Man Vs Food has been too. I had this massive double-dipped french sandwich in LA which was amazing!
Favourite & Least favourite thing about North America?
I did notice that San Fran had a whole load of crack-heads walking around. It's a bit like a zombie movie sometimes in the US…..
Favourite release of 2011?
My Son - Maximus. He popped out at the start of the year!
Outside influences/inspirations?
My Dad. He was a Dj in the UK. He taught me everything.
Most underrated Selector?
Jazzie B from Soul II Soul. I'm not too sure if he's 'underrated' - but he's definitely an influence and someone I utterly respect as a DJ.
Estimated amount of records in the collection?
Oh shit, like, 100,000 - maybe more….
If you had to pic only one D&B label to draw from what would it be?
Ram Records. Andy C is a hero of mine.
Working Time Machine: What era are you going to?
I've always wanted to go into the future maybe 5 years - and get all the amazing records - then go back to 2011 and play them first. Or even remake them and get the credit! Ha! Yeah, take me 5 years into the future, leave me there for a few days, then take me back. I'll be a Back To The Future type thing on this music game.
One thing a ninja can't live without when assembling some of your massive mixes?
My computer!
Much respect for doing what you do, thanks for taking the time!
Many many thanks….I'd love to talk more, but I have a party to rock!!!! HoooooOOOOO!!!!
Notable Jaguar Skills Mixes that should occupy every hard drive:
Keeping to the original game plan, it was time to bounce after Jaguar Skills and trek it north a few blocks in hopes of catching the end of Ital Tek's set at The Crocodile. To say the place was packed would be an understatement. Bartenders handled this well though, as little time was spent waiting for the reasonably priced drinks.
Ital Tek's set was packed full of, for a lack of a better term, just crazy dope beats. Don't really know how else to describe them other than it's probably what the standard hip-hop beat will sound like 20 years down the road if we're lucky.
Machinedrum followed suit and certainly kept it live, as billed on the flyer. At this point the venue had reached the certified sauna phase, and perhaps not ideal for the claustrophobic. Bottles were the preferred beverage vessel for these conditions, as many a drink hit the floor in the twerkd out madness. Slippery, but a godsend for those pretending to footwork.
Kraddy had closing duties on the night. Having witnessed Kraddy on the buttons numerous times before, this would be the first with a live drummer in tow. Glad to see Kraddy still keeping the Kareem Abdul-Jabbaresque sky hook alive, a staple in every Kraddy set.
