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Music Hervé: Ghetto Bass Guru, Producing Prodigy

March 5, 2010 - 11:41 am

Hervé, aka Joshua Harvey, is a UK-based producer and DJ with a penchant for mixing in a darker, more noir-ish side of jazz with the hip-hop beats he’s accrued and perfected over years of working with several different artists. Hervé also had a knack for finding new ways to make his live DJ attract a youthful, more rave-oriented audience, and set about remixing and/or producing everyone from MSTRKRFT to DJ Switch to The Prodigy to Kid Sister. All the hard work paid off when a lot of those artists began pimping his name all around the world, only helping to spread what would soon become a reputation throughout the rock world as one of the best producers and DJs to work with. Through his latest production and DJ artistry, he’s been working with some of today’s biggest acts like Shiny Toy Guns and genre stalwarts such as The Chemical Brothers. Here’s a little peek at his unique approach to producing on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Don’t Screw with DJ Krush

by Shop Keeper

February 26, 2010 - 10:14 am

It could be safely said there’s endless legions of bands with what one might call ‘lame’ names, or misleading monikers that seem anything but fitting when actually listening to their music. But it’s doubtful there could be a more fitting one for Hideaki Ishi, who hails from Tokyo and has lived a life that’s the stuff of a Hollywood (or Japanese Gangster!) films. A high school dropout, DJ Krush worked his way up from lower-level street gangs, only to become a full-fledged yakuza member. Based on that somewhat vague biography, one might anticipate rhythms of machine gun-fire or, at the very least, some ear-splitting drum and bass rhythms. But as things turn out, Krush is anything but aggressive. Instead, years of experience as one of Japan’s very first hip-hop DJs has led to a very ambient, laid back fusion sound, one that mixes a lot of sultry jazz with trip hop rhythms and stand-up bass, lounge music that intertwines with intricate time signatures and anarchic, across-the-board mixing of genres. Then again, he isn’t above mixing it up with heavyweights like Malik B and Black Thought. Here’s a peak at one of the genre’s innovators on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Geoffrey aka Mugwump

by Shop Keeper

February 25, 2010 - 11:18 am

If you’ve ever had the (dis)pleasure of seeing the movie version of Naked Lunch, you might remember that Mugwumps are the half-typewriter/half-beetle creatures that talked with British accents out of their buttholes to Bill Lee while he binged on skag, er, bug dust, and tried to avoid screwing his wife. While not quite as eccentric or visceral in imagery, there’s a certain surrealism to Geoffrey aka Mugwump, perhaps not to unlike a bug you’ve caught that makes you want to nod off and get lost in the sort of film-noirish world that William Burroughs created. Occasionally Mugwump veers into a hackneyed dance world of overused beats and rhythms, but when he’s on, he’s on — and at Red Bull Music Academy, you can get a brief glimpse of the ambient, trippy world Mugwump’s created, one that may make you think : Hmm, maybe I’ll try some heroin. I mean bug dust, hahaha.

Music DEVO

by Shop Keeper

February 24, 2010 - 12:33 pm

Most famous for songs like “Whip It” and “Workin’ in a Coal Mine,” Devo was another band that began as a more punk-sounding group that got lost in the glitz and glam of New Wave 80s sounds gone horribly awry. A couple years before that 1980 chart-topper, Warner Bros. had the good sense to sign a weirder, rawer rock n roll version that even in its embryonic stages displayed signs of eccentric genius. Think Talking Heads meets The Dickies, with a little of that dinky synth sound that would make them famous thrown in for extra good measure. After disappearing for a good long while, the Akron, Ohio quintet resurfaces on the RBMA, complete with red energy domes and sleeveless hazmat suits– it’s well worth a listen just to hear Gerald Casale look back at some surprisingly somber events which inspired them and their name.

To get a better picture of the weirdness behind Devo, you should check out the very bizarre and hilarious color study test at this website.

Devo also played the Olympics. Here’s a nifty video featuring a sea of energy domes:

Music Bad Brains : Forgers of a Foundation

by Shop Keeper

February 18, 2010 - 10:57 am

Given the current musical climate, it’s not hard to believe that so few know who Bad Brains is. And given the fact that there have been so few other great punk bands in music history, I sometimes feel ashamed for forgetting they even exist. But to re-establish the band’s significance for both of us, let me give you a quote (from what is probably to many another outdated act) by Adam Yauch, aka MCA from the Beastie Boys, who called Bad Brains’ self-titled debut “The greatest punk/hardcore album of all time.” Like many other admirers, Yauch saw the unique side of a band forging a unique punk rawness with what were often these sort of reggaeton-style, laid-back vocals. While there’s no doubt the Brains have come a long way from their humble beginnings in D.C. (read: living in poverty which forced a small getup act to dole out demo tape after demo tape so that they could move from a tiny label which would only press a limited number of cassettes to a bigger one like PVC which was only marginally better, combined with constant lineup changes and the usual band strife whew), it’s hard to say how much good it’s done them. But acts like Minor Threat and these guys helped solidify the punk sound of D.C., which I didn’t even really know until a friend passed me the equivalent of a “Punk 101″ cassette tape in high school and familiarized me with everything I was missing. Then they released “Build a Nation” a couple years ago, and it all fell back into place. If you’re remotely into punk, you’ll want to take a gander at what is essential genre history here. Catch a retrospective sell-out with the BB boys on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

Music Derrick May Wants to Feel You (Musically)

by Shop Keeper

February 16, 2010 - 10:44 am

“Mics live, music live, people absolutely live. ” Such is how Dj extraordinaire Derrick May would prefer you hear his music — a stealthful combination of intricate rhythms, beats, and DJing that pays tribute to the days of old — up front, in person, in-your-face. It’s not that surprising, then, that he has a sound similar to the likes of Kevin Saunderson and other purveyors of the genre from his hometown of Detroit, where the now-famous Detroit Electronic Music Festival has become an incredible success. But as the hoots and hollers would suggest, May’s live performance better captures his meshing of both worlds. It’s proved to be a successful marriage, one that encapsulates a DJ with a cutting-edge sound who is genuinely in touch with his audience live, more able to build off the vibe and emotion of his listeners.

Music A-Trak

by Shop Keeper

February 12, 2010 - 12:08 pm

If anything A-Trak can claim rights to being the very youngest (age 15) and the first Canadian DJ to win the prestigious DMC DJ Award. He’s also belonged to some of electro and hip-hop’s most beloved groups, including Invisibl Skratch Piklz, and worked alongside such artists such as Kanye West and MSTRKRFT. With an increasingly impressive list of accolades, he’s clearly become one of the industry/commercial darlings, and (refreshingly) one who has experimented with many different sounds and genres. Perfect for everything from raves to the sort of cyberpunkish-electronic wave, akin to Daft Punk (so aptly described on Red Bull Music Academy Radio). Get a closer listen at the RBMA website.

Music The Red Bull Music Academy Radio iPhone Application : Believe the Hype

by Shop Keeper

February 3, 2010 - 6:30 pm

The iPhone’s Red Bull Music Academy Radio application has turned into quite the event — iTunes App Store editors in Europe are already touting it as the next big thing to download, so add that to the already burgeoning list of Red Bull-related apps available online. What’s impressive about the application itself — and what’s pleasing so many of its newest fans — isn’t so much the sleek design or user-friendliness as its wide array of music: hundreds of genres are included here, from the latest in hip-hop, to indie, to old fashioned rock n’ roll.

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Music Hudson Mohawke…Stealing the gems of the Eighties

by Shop Keeper

February 2, 2010 - 1:01 pm

Hudson Mohawke is a series of wandering blips, beeps and noises coming from a collection of turntables and synthesizers from the days of yore — from Casio to Korg, from what sounds like theme to Airwolf to an almost stream-of-consciousness solo on an old-school synth. It honestly could remind you of anything from the soundtrack to any old NES game or like deluge from an old Phil Collins-era Genesis track. It’s no surprise then that “The Hawke” sports the 80s logos and wrestlers of the old WWF on his myspace page — and it’s apparent this is what the guy loves to do, imagine a world that was and shall forever be permanently 80s. Every soundtrack from every Jean Claude Van Damme movie of the time, every one-hit wonder that filled the radio and airwaves of MTV, re-imagined with a hipper sound. Check out Red Bull Music Academy Radio for more.

Music Friendly Fires Will Draw You Closer

by Shop Keeper

January 27, 2010 - 11:17 am

A little bit of The Killers, a little bit of old British New Wave, a lot of electronica and Jungle music (dance music of all types for that matter) all thrown into the mix — and what you’ve got is perhaps the next big thing to come out of dance punk since The Moving Units, perhaps even including the aforementioned Vegas-based genre-benders. You might be surprised to learn that Friendly Fires have risen from the ashes of an old hardcore band, growing into something quite different, what the boys themselves label as “lush shoegaze melodies” and what we may only assume is something infinitely more listenable. Their latest, Kiss of Life, is out now–here’s a sampling of it on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.