Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intro. Show all posts

Scottish producer Jeye has an EP titled "Hatch End Dot" coming out on Gravity Halo next week and he's kindly agreed to grace the Rotation(s) blog with some knowledge over the course of June.


Jeye, better known as John Muir, has been creating melodically focused soundscapes for 10+ years, performing gigs around his native Scotland as well as releasing a few EPs on the independent circuit.  His style blends atmospheric ambiance, live instrumentation, field recordings, haunting melodies, chilly, evolving beat work and progressive song structures.  The following track "So It Goes" is taken from his upcoming release on Gravity Halo.

So It Goes by jeye_musik

After a mostly dark month in May (thanks to Fluorescent Grey for filling the void a bit), we're psyched to have the Rotation(s) back in effect, so give Jeye some love and stay tuned!

Bay Area producer Robbie Martin, better known as Fluorescent Grey, has developed a reputation as a bit of a prankster over the course of his career. He's one of the few people on this planet that can say they not only earned a permanent spot on Autechre's shit list for releasing fake music under their name along with software enabling anyone to easily imitate their music, but he also instigated a massive beheading hoax video that exploded across the world's mainstream news outlets during the height of the new Gulf War's "terrorism" scare that solidified him a slot on the FBI's shit list as well.


Since releasing his debut on Isolate Records, Robbie has released on various labels, including his latest "Antique Electronic / Synthesizer Greats 1955 - 1984 Part 1" on the Irish label Acroplane, as well as on his own imprint - Record Label Records.


On "Antique Electronic...", Fluorescent Grey collages together thousands of loops and samples from early electronic records into a rich tapestry of sounds and grooves that pay homage to the pre-rave days of electronic music while rebuilding them in a way you've never heard before.  It's an awesome record and has been in my rotation since its release last month.  Contrary to this record though, much of his work focuses more heavily on original sound designs than it does on samples.  His soundscapes range from minimal and ambient to extremely complex and mathematical and his ability to mold and manipulate electronics is second to none.

Get familiar with his back catalog, if you aren't already and stay tuned to the Rotation(s) blog because it's going to be an interesting month of insight and reflection from this talented artist!  You just might learn you somethin', dagnabbit!

Hailing from Leicester, UK, 23 year old Jonathan Ace has been producing dub-tinged beats as Lucid Rhythms for a few years now and his sound is refined with every new release. His style is always layered with effects, atmospheric ambiance, live instrumentation and a sense of restraint that often goes missing in electronic productions these days.


Lucid Rhythms doesn't use a computer packed with VST plugins or fancy gear to achieve his sound, opting instead for playing and recording instruments, found objects, samples and anything else he can get his hands on. While his style has been trending more towards "dubstep" these days, I use that term pretty hesitantly because this isn't your typical big room bass wobbles and overproduced stock drums. What comes through most in his style of dubstep is the reggae roots, utilizing dub delay, sub basses, steel drums, skanking guitars, junky pianos and lo-fi electronics reminiscent of old school dancehall riddims.


Check out a few of Lucid Rhythms' tracks below if you aren't already familiar with his music and get ready for what sounds like an interesting month of content from this talented young artist.

Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse (Lucid Rhythms Remix) by Lucid Rhythms

Lucid Rhythms - My Dubplates by Lucid Rhythms

James Blake - Limit To Your Love (Lucid Rhythms Remix) by Lucid Rhythms

Well, it was bound to happen...the artist we originally had scheduled for February needed some more time and is being pushed back a few months. Luckily, I was planning on doing a Rotation myself at some point anyway, so I will be filling in and helming Rotation #2.

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Producing for many years as Cats On Earth, Dr. Science and Nova Satori (among many other aliases) I decided to delve into my latest project - moto-SLAVE - in late 2009. At that point in time it’d been 4 years since my last Cats On Earth album ("La Fin Triste" for binkcrsh) and I was having a hard time trying to figure out where to go from there. After that break in producing trying to pick up where I’d left off felt really forced, so I decided I wanted to start from scratch and go back to the days when I didn’t really know what the fuck I was doing, just experimenting and having fun. My interests had been steadily moving away from IDM-ish stuff and more towards the vintage sounds of electro-funk, glam-rock, acid and that period in the late 70s-early 80s when disco was evolving into house music with artists like Larry Levan, Patrick Cowley and of course the Italo and hi-NRG stuff.

So I started working with a stripped down setup of old-school drum machines and vintage synthesizers, taking a lo-fi approach and making tunes that evoked the types of things I was most interested in. Influenced by cyberpunk, anime, John Carpenter movies (and soundtracks), retro-futurism and the storytelling elements of 70s-era glam and prog rock, the moto-SLAVE sound started to define itself with fuzzy electronics, urban field recordings, drum machines, acid squelches, ambient pads and digital blips, all doused in reverbs, delays and tube saturation.

During 2010 I released my first album as moto-SLAVE called “Midnight Mass” and then a follow up EP titled “Colors” and am currently toiling away at another EP as we speak, which I hope to detail a bit throughout my rotation.

But moto-SLAVE isn't just a musical endeavor - all the sounds I produce, the lyrics, artwork and atmosphere of the tracks are supplemental to a larger creative world I’ve been crafting that is further detailed in an ongoing near-future sci-fi story, also called "Midnight Mass". Recurring themes of urban decay, exploitation, drug abuse, political and corporate corruption, radicalist hacking, technological escapism and fetishism flow through both the music and the writing, coming together to create what I hope is a multi-faceted portrait of a city divided by class, idealism and apathy. I probably wont delve too much into the writing/story aspect of the project here, but if you’re interested you can read the first 4 chapters on the Midnight Mass Blog, which I update and add to with each subsequent release.

Over the course of February I’ll be touring you all through my little ghetto fabulous studio Super Dimension, showing you how I work, doing a few tutorials of my gear, previewing my new live set and whatever else happens to come to my mind at the time, so stay tuned and feel free to drop me a line in the comments section if you have any questions.

Hello all and welcome to the Rotation(s) project blog!

We're excited to introduce you to the artist that will be helming our inaugural Rotation - The Carrier Wave!

The roots of electronic music run deep in Chicago, Illinois - the birthplace of House and, of course, Acid House. Artists like Frankie Knuckles, Phuture and Mr. Fingers picked up where disco left off and laid the groundwork for pretty much everything that followed. Using neglected synthesizers, drum machines, samplers and a whole host of cheap recording equipment they pioneered not only the sound of electronic music from that point on, but also a methodology of independent productions that changed the face of music. Instead of relying on recording studios, engineers and big record labels, they created mini-studios of their own in their bedrooms, basements and closets, cut their own dub-plates and spun them for crowds in the local clubs. It was that pioneering mindset that paved the way for independent artists all over the world to start up their own bedroom projects and experiment with electronic music.

Coming out of this environment, it's easy to see where Christopher Westphal gets his inspiration. His tunes are heavily reminiscent of that classic Chicago sound - 303s, 808s, 909s, 101s, tape smudges and tube amps. His debut EP "Live Takes Vol. 1" pulses with a whole slew of classic electronics that he's collected over the years. With 3 more EPs to follow in as many months, we'll be seeing a lot more of what The Carrier Wave has to offer and hopefully he'll be showing us all a little bit of what took place behind the scenes to create those releases.


Check out the "Live Takes Vol. 1" EP now and stay tuned to the Rotation(s) blog as The Carrier Wave takes control for the entire month of January!



One of my favorite artists for the last year or so has been Belfast's Space Dimension Controller. Y'all already know I love the electro-funk, the italo-disco and the acid house, so naturally any combination of those elements is going to strike my fancy, but that's not to say that SDC is derivative or easily categorized as any of the above. His tracks delve into all the lush analog goodness you've come to expect hearing on this site with some beautiful melodies and grooves that you can't help but get down to.  It also doesn't hurt that the name is totally badass and reminiscence of Macross.

SDC has a free mp3 album called "Unidentified Flying Oscillator" that you can download from Acroplane, but he's also got a 12" on the awesome Dutch label Clone as well as one on Boxcutter's Kinnego Records.

Check this dude out...you'll be hearing a lot of him from now on.