Why It’s OK To Keep Your Mix a Little Dirty

Posted by StrangeFlow on October 17, 2012
Posted in: Articles. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

You don't have to completely scrub the soul out of your music

FIRST THINGS FIRST…

Ok, so I wanted to write an article that – wait a minute, let me back up a moment… I NEEDED to write this article. It should’ve been one of my first articles, now that I think about it.

So, by now, as many of you know, I make music. Sometimes it’s glitch hop, sometimes it’s wonky, sometimes it’s weird skwunc acid chopped n screwed, etc… I try not to be a bandwagon jumper, although I will admit, when there’s a new style that comes along, sometimes I get into it, because I like the ideas or the sounds and vibes behind it… But, as opposed to your typical bandwagon jumper, most of my music has that trademark-StrangeFlow-sound to it… meaning there’s some funk in it, some hip hop rubbed on it, and often, I like to keep things somewhat tripped out, in a musical sense. It’s just the style I tend to go for.

Having said that, there’s a particular aesthetic in music I’d like to talk about… something I have dabbled with, but got pretty frustrated with, as well: for lack of a better term, I’ll call it that “Clean White Crunk” sound. Yea, it’s probably a little racially insensitive, but it sums it up pretty well, and besides, I don’t think it’s TOO horrible giving a little shit to White Folk (a group to which I am a member of) …
And besides, I’m not talking about ALL White Folk… But that aside, my point is: there are a lot of producers who make beats and mixes and tunes and epic-fucking-productions that are… well, *technically* perfect, but lack something very fundamental. DIRT.

You don’t have to bring your laptop into the shower with you. You see my portrait above? Do you see any gear in there? I mean… any computer gear, that is?

A LITTLE HISTORY

A little 90s history for ya… (some of you are probably very familiar with this, though) Some of you might remember back when the CD first popped up and took over the tape and vinyl era. A lot of people thought it was great (except for how fucking expensive they were back then) but after a while, some folks started expressing a certain complaint… They argued that there was something about digital music that lacked a certain authenticity, a certain soulfulness… When I first heard that argument, I dismissed it as naysayer bullshit. But then I learned a bit of the technical aspects of digital recording that got my attention.

If you look at the waveforms of a lot of digitally-produced tracks, they do look a little flat. Maybe, to some extent, it’s hard to work against that, BUT – what basically happened was that a lot of the peaks and variations in volume were compromised and/or truncated… You hear it in pop music more than anything else, so I will admit, it’s not just an electronic-music thing. But, when you’re dealing with digital musical encoding, you are, fundamentally, dealing with electronic music, in a way…

The ‘digital flatness’ argument is a good one, and although one thing I can’t stand is hearing an old 70s or 80s rock musician complain about ANYTHING in modern music (because usually their arguments against modern music are complete bullshit… “Oh, the lyrics were better BACK THEN…,” or, “Everything was better back when we only used guitars, ah these kids with their synths, I’m a crabby old fuck who can’t stand change, poor me, poor me!” etc…) I have to admit, they did have a point about the digital flatness thing…

Though, I must point out, there are DEFINITELY some artists who understand that argument, and act accordingly – and at very least, I must admit there certainly are artists who DO include peaks and valleys in their music. I’m not ripping on ALL electronic music, or ALL music in general, for that matter. Obviously, if I hated electronic music, I wouldn’t be writing this blog, would I?

…OR WOULD I?

No, no; I love electronic music. Don’t worry about that!

DON’T SCRUB OUT ALL THE SOUL!

The problem with making music with computers is that sometimes folks making music come up with sounds that are very vibrant and colorful and rich, but lack grime. And before anyone “calls me out” on that – no, I’m not insinuating that everyone has to make British grime hip hop… I’m just saying, add some dirt. Where’s the dust? Where’s the noise? Why did Americans have such a hard time digesting electronic music for so long? One reason (out of a list of about a hundred reasons… many of them stupid reasons) was that the music “doesn’t sound real.”

Back in the day (and still, to this day, though to a much lesser extent) this was something people would say, and, to be fair, some people still use that argument today (to which I would respond, “oh yea, and what the hell has your precious ROCK music done, besides give us the White Stripes, in the last fifteen years, that isn’t completely trite and unoriginal? To which they would have nothing to say, at which point I’d take out my pocket knife, slash their tires and run off)

But there is SOME reasonability to their argument, even if it came out of their rock-centric bias; where the fuck is the mud? The grime? The blood stains? The cum smudges? You hear all sorts of super-clean sounds in certain styles of electronic music, especially in glitch hop – to a point where some of the beats almost sound like plastic! A tiny little plastic drumset that nerds use to make their little bleeps and bloops on.
Am I hating? Ok, maybe a little bit… But I’m trying to promote a positive idea here… Although it’s somewhat subjective, it IS annoying to hear songs that lack any soulful humanity, aside from subtle velocity variations… or having three different snare sounds going on, instead of just one. Come on, make with the grunge (not talking about grunge rock) and make with the grime (not talking about grime rap) and make with the dust (not talking about pcp…. Or am I?) It’s entirely possible to have a shiny sound but still retain a bit of lint in your new mix’s belly button.

There’s so many things you can do…

SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT CONSIDER

…You could use samples. Actual samples – and please don’t scrub ALL of the 70s dust off of them.

…Distort things. MORE.

…You could even RECORD some feedback or noise and loop that in the overly-clean fashion that a lot of musicians do nowadays.

…You could incorporate real (actually-real) sounds into your mix.

…Accept that fact that it’s not the end of the world to incorporate a TINY bit of randomness or “clutter” into your mix; in fact, it might help…

…You could TRY going for the lo-fi aesthetic, maybe not in EVERY way possible, but it might be something to look into (and to elaborate on this anymore could be a whole ten page article in and of itself, and I’ll save that for another rainy day)

IN CONCLUSION…

I’m not saying every single aspect of the song has to be a pigpen; in fact, I enjoy the relatively clean bass. But there’s so much more than just the bass…

Why make something that sounds like you jerked off into Ableton for two hours when you can make something that sounds like you not only jerked off into Ableton but then also forgot to clean up after you made that mess? Damn, that’s a really disgusting way of putting it… Ok, I take back that last metaphor, but only on account of it being too gross… The point is, you don’t ALWAYS need to polish your grooves until they sound fake, corny, and nerdy. That’s really what I’ve been trying to get at, with this whole weird rant.
Again, I’m not saying you have to make your mixes as dirty as MY bathroom (I don’t know where all those flies came from…) but why would you want to make music that sounds fake? There’s at least a LITTLE bit of credence to that douchey modern rock fan argument against electronic music, as much as I hate to say it. Even if a mix is ‘technically’ perfect, if it sounds like you asked your computer to make a song for you, what’s the point?

So, this is just my opinion, and certainly, there are fans of the overly-clean sound. I just wanted to get my thoughts out, because, for one thing, it’s my blog and I can rant about whatever I want – but for another thing, I think adding soul (or NOT scrubbing the soul out) might be a piece of advice that too often gets left out of the discussion…

It’s an issue I wanted to discuss, and feel free to ignore this if you’re totally into that Clean White Crunk sound. If you like it, then by all means, I respect your artistic integrity to incorporate it – and I truly mean that, too – I just feel it’s something that’s probably overlooked by a lot of folks. Electronic music has come a long way, and, like I said, there are a good number of folks who already understand what I’m saying, and have been adding soul to their beats for a while now. Even mainstream rock and pop fans are starting to come around to rave and ‘edm’ now, so that’s good, right?

At least they’re not still calling all of it ‘techno’ and then running off to their shitty Saves the Day concert… or whatever it is rock fans do. It’s still a mystery how people are still so captivated by the blandest possible rock music… But, I’ll stop now before I start ranting about that.

Again, that’s a rant for another rainy day…

5 Things You Must Do Before Making Music

Posted by StrangeFlow on October 17, 2012
Posted in: Articles. Leave a comment

Here are five things you ought not to forget before going into the studio to make some magic!

Some of these might seem fairly obvious, some of them might not… But I thought I would write up this post as a basic reference… So here you go…

1.) A Good Night’s Rest

This seems like a pretty obvious point, so I won’t go into a terribly long analysis of why it’s important to get a good night’s rest. Of course you need your sleep!

I have an especially hard time getting my sleep, as I have to get up early, so to get a full night’s rest, I try to get to bed around 9.30 at night. That’s the hard part. Getting up early isn’t as difficult as getting to bed early. But, luckily, most people don’t have that problem. But whatever your schedule is, if you get the proper amount of rest, you should wake up feeling refreshed… Or, perhaps you need some coffee to wake you up. I know I certainly do.

Alright, enough of the ‘good night’s rest’ point, as I don’t feel I need to elaborate on this one anymore. It’s fairly obvious, so, moving on…

2.) Keep Food and Coffee In your Body

It’s not only important to get a good night’s rest, but it’s also important to eat well. I’m not going to lecture you on the ‘proper diet,’ exactly, but I will say this: make sure you put enough energy into your body that you will be able to put enough energy into your music. It’s really as simple as that.

Like I said earlier, I drink coffee. Some folks will definitely say you should not drink any coffee, as it’s… bad for your…. I don’t know… your soul, or something? Or it’s an addiction, blah, blah, blah. Well, I say, ‘sure, it’s an addiction, and an addiction I’m comfortable with!’ I don’t see why having an addiction to coffee should keep you from making good tracks. The trick is to know your body. If you feel like you’re drinking too much coffee (if you DO drink coffee) well then, sure, stop drinking so much! But if you’re like me, you enjoy a good half a dozen shots of espresso… Now, I’m not recommending you drink THAT much…. I probably shouldn’t be. In fact, I should probably warn against drinking that much, as it’ll probably lead one’s heart to explosions… but that’s really for another article. But I will say that when I drink that much espresso, it certainly doesn’t hinder me from making music, in general.
Wow, got into a coffee rant. Hmm… I suppose that was bound to happen. Ok, moving on…

3.) Set Time Aside

How the hell are you going to make music if you only set aside an hour a week for mixing?
Sorry to curse at you, I’m just trying to make the point that you’re probably going to need more time than that. I would set aside a good afternoon-sized chunk of time for yourself, at LEAST once a week, if you plan to make electronic music. But, I should’ve prefaced that point by saying that, well, if you plan to make music on a regular basis, and learn the ropes of what it means to become a decent musician, you’re really going to need to spend some time at it.

When I say one afternoon a week, I’m talking about a basic amount of time… Obviously, you could do it everyday, and do it for nine hours. There is, of course, the ‘ten thousand hours’ philosophy… the idea that, if you spend ten thousand hours on something, you will become a master at it. Well, I can tell you one thing for sure: if you DO spend that much time on pretty much anything, you’ll probably be somewhat decent at it. But it’s not just about quantity of time, it’s about quality, too. Maybe you don’t need ten thousand hours, you just need ten hours every week for three years… That would be 1560 hours.

The point is, you can’t spend two hours on a Sunday morning doing it, and expect to get decent results. Whenever people say things like, “oh, I don’t have any time at all for THIS or THAT, not EVEN two hours on a Sunday,” then I assume one of two things…. 1.) They clearly don’t have enough interest in it if they’re not able to spend just two hours a week on it, or, 2.) They’re lying. Straight up. They can spend how many hours watching movies and getting drunk or stoned or going shopping for things they don’t need, but they can’t spend at LEAST a couple hours on something they claimed they have an interest in? Nope, not buyin’ it.

So, do yourself a favor and decide whether or not you really do have an interest in making electronic music, or whatever kind of music you’re interested in, and commit time to learning everything you can about it, and commit time to making it. Like I said, it’s good to have a good chunk of the afternoon set aside, but obviously it differs from person to person. But you want multiple hours set aside because you need to get yourself into the music-making mode, and that sometimes takes a little while, especially if you’re new.

4.) Listen. Inundate. Internalize.

Figure out what artists are making music that sound similar to the kind of music you’d want to ideally make. It’s probably not super-hard to do. One you have that figured out, go and listen to their music. That’s it. Listen to their music, listen to music similar to theirs, and inundate yourself with the types of sounds you want to reproduce. Internalize it. Get so familiar with it that you can’t help but make something similar… I don’t mean that you should copy them, I’m just saying that if you’re REALLY into the sounds of Flosstradamus, and want to make music in a reasonably similar vein to Flosstradamus, well, then you should probably listen to as much of their music as possible, eh?

Another important point about internalizing music is this: find out who inspired the artists you’re inspired by. Learn the history of the music, and allow yourself to be influenced by that music, as well. It’s one thing to take influence from the present, but do you really think all the artists out there right now are ONLY taking influence from songs made in 2012? Of course not! They’re taking influence from the great canon of world music of the last ten thousand years! (well, some of them aren’t, but these fly-by-night one-hit-wonders tend to dry up creatively PRETTY quick…)

So learn some history, internalize your favorite sounds until they’re a part of your essence, and listen to your favorite tunes in your selected genre-of-choice to get yourself into a specific music-mindset, and then make the best damn song of the decade!

5.) Skeletal Preparation

Prepare with pencil and paper. Or draw up a rough skeleton of your track in the sequencer. Or, if nothing else, write down a list of ideas you have for your tune(somewhere you’ll see them) and look at it often, as you’re recording your masterpiece. It’s one thing to have notes in your head, but you might find, halfway into your track, that you’re straying from your original vision. What do you do then? You go back to your notes and see what you originally wanted to accomplish.

I do want to point out, however, that sometimes it’s good to let a track stray. Sometimes I’ve started a track and thought, “Ok, I’m going to be working on a junglish glitch hop tune, and then it turns into some kind of weird chopped-n-screwed acid-glitch tune. And sometimes, that’s great! So on this point, I’ll have to leave it up to you to decide what to do, as it’s all about what you want to accomplish as an artist, and one of my rules of respecting Artistic Integrity is to appreciate that an artist can delve into whatever territory they want to. Having said that, if you’re first starting out, it can be helpful (to say the least) to have a few notes (at least) about what you want out of this track.
Your notes could be both vague as well as specific… What I mean by that is that you might have some open-ended statements in your notes, such as, “make it bass heavy,” (a statement which could really lead your track in a thousand different directions) but you could also get incredibly specific, like, “incorporate hi hat triplets at 100-ish BPM,” and, “try to recreate pitched-down short-vocal repetition for the intro, like the one in that ‘Roll-up’ track by Flosstradamus,” etc (I’m using Flosstradamus as an example, because I mentioned them earlier…)

The point is, it’s NEVER a bad idea to have some notes. Even if you decide, halfway through the track, that your notes were great but that you’d like to take the song in a new direction; it might happen this way, but it might not, and having notes still wasn’t a BAD thing to do… So, try to make notes. I’d recommend LOTS of notes.

6.) Think Big, Fuck Haters.

Ok, so I’ve covered all of the essentials, but here’s something else to consider. Think big. Think REALLY FUCKING BIG. If you’re just starting out and don’t think you can conquer the universe with your beats, well, at least you could hope to get there at some point, right? And, why not? There are so many god-awful artists out there who ARE making it, why not pulverize their influence on the club by making something ten thousand times as good as the shit they’re upto? Why not? You can’t give me one good reason why you shouldn’t. Nobody can. Decide to make the best fucking Flosstradamus-influenced bass-trappin’ or neuro-glitchin’ or electro-stompin’ tune you possibly fucking can! (Again, the Flosstradamus reference… lol. Insert whatever artist name you want, though…) If it’s dope as fuck, I’d love to hear it, and so would everyone else. Don’t try to be good enough, try to be the best.

Modesty is overrated, and you deserve to make the best track you possibly can. Don’t let haters influence you, either. What are the haters up to, when they’re not hating? Working boring jobs, dating some lame boyfriend or girlfriend who sucks, and getting their teeth pulled next week? (woah, got pretty specific, there, didn’t I?) Maybe they’re hating because you get to spend your time making awesome beats, and they’re stuck in their dead-end life, going to youtube or facebook and hatin’ is their only means of having a good time.

Whatever the reason, don’t let them get you down, and don’t let them keep you from being your best… because with enough motivation and practice, you CAN become an amazing musician. It’s not just wishful thinking, its mathematics. It’s logic. How do you think the Beatles got so good? Were they just insane geniuses on acid? (Well, that’s part of it, I suppose…) No, that’s not really it. They played hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of shows, and fine-tuned their craft and their sounds for years before they got big. I mention the Beatles because to a lot of folks, they’re the pinnacle of modern music… (Wait, is pinnacle the right word? Or cornerstone? Yea, that sounds better, I guess…) They’re the cornerstone of truly great music, to a lot of folks… and they were around for about seven years before they were on the Ed Sullivan Show and electrified audiences by singing about holding underage girl’s hands.

My point is: give it time, but set out to be as incredible as possible. It won’t happen overnight, and it’s a good thing it won’t too; because if it does, people will soon find out that you JUST started, and that you likely have no idea what you’re doing! If you spend time with it, you, too, can do some truly great work.

Hudson Mo Traps it up With Lunice on ‘TNGHT’

Posted by StrangeFlow on October 16, 2012
Posted in: New Music, Review. Tagged: , , , , , , . 1 Comment

New trap tunes for you - 'TNGHT' with HudMo x Lunice

Trappity trap trap trap.

Every electronic artist seems to be getting into it. Hudson Mohawke is no exception, teaming with Lunice to give the world a five-track EP called ‘TNGHT.’

Well, it’s not bad. In fact, it’s downright enjoyable. Definitely a departure from Hudson Mo’s older, wonkier, weirder stuff. But change is good. And why not? I respect musical integrity, and I find that I must give this album a chance, because I’ve been a fan of Hudson Mohawke in the past, and I’ve become a fan of trap music recently, as well. (No trappaphobia for me) So, really, to quote Method Man in one of his film roles, “shit’s like bing – bang!”

‘Higher Ground’ is a good one. It has the sped-up rnb vocals, the likes of which you’ve probably heard in Hudson Mo’s music before. Also, there’s a big ol’ midi brass horn section in there, you know the kind you hear in a lot of Southern hip hop? The track breaks into a fast hi-hat triplet and syncopated half-time 808 rhythm. It’s not insane, but it is enjoyable. Some fun trap work, to be sure.

‘Bugg’n’ is the tune after that, and it’s got a real British grimey suit on, the entire time, bridging the gap, musically, between the British hip hop sound and the American Southern hip hop sound. Definitely fun, it’s one of the better tunes on this release….

By the time you get to ‘Easy Easy’ you can tell it’s been an album of sizeable Hudson Mohawke influence. A lot of the songs feel like they’re from that familiar HudMo school of musical ideas, but definitely with a different rhythm. HudMo in HuSton, if you will… Definitely worth hitting up youtube to see if you like it. If you do, go get it from Hudson Mohawke or Lunice online. Or, if you’re not in America, maybe you can get it at the music shop! Was that a diss on American music shops? Yes, it was! Most of them suck, here.

Hey, come on, keep it real, you know it’s true!

-Will (SF)

2013 & Beyond… What Styles of Music Will Get Big in the Future?

Posted by StrangeFlow on October 16, 2012
Posted in: Articles, New Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 15 Comments

What musical genres or styles might blow up in the near-future?

2013 & Beyond… What Styles of Music Will Get Big in the Future?

Ok, so, I thought I’d give my take on this subject, having seen the progression in electronic music firsthand for well over a decade. I’ve seen spikes and lulls in popularity of different genres and subgenres, and I’ve seen the rave scene transcend into different moods throughout the years, and I would like to offer my perspective on where electronic music might go in the next few years…

The Great Dubstep Crash

First thing’s first; we’re going to be living in a post-dubstep era. What that means specifically is that dubstep is already influencing a number of producers who would definitely NOT consider themselves dubstep artists, as the style is (and will be) having a major influence on everything around it.

Now, I’ll point out that I’m living in the West Coast of the United States, and the dubstep era for folks here might be taking place a bit later than it did in England, where it originated. There’s a lot that can come out of that knowledge, though – I remember hearing, a few years ago, that London was “completely saturated” with dubstep, and a lot of people were getting tired of it… So, what’s happening here in the states? Well, a lot of people have been getting tired of it, as well!

What’s next? The tree that the seeds of dubstep are helping to grow as we speak! I like to think of it as sort of a parallel to the rave scene twenty years ago, when house music begat everything post-house… (now, obviously, I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re in a post-house world, as house is still alive and well, and I explain why in this article, here…) but the point is, even though dubstep might not have quite the influence that house music had, back in the day, it is comparable. In terms of U.S. popularity, it’s definitely a new wave of electronic music and culture. Along with that come producers who weren’t previously involved in electronic music.

The point is, after the rubble and dust that’s come out of the meteorite explosion of dubstep comes a lot of interesting post-dubstep music. It will have a little bit of dubstep DNA, but perhaps different. There has been a style emerging that some folks call “100 BPM dubstep,” and others call it “neuro,” and still others insist it’s a kind of glitch hop. Whatever the fuck it’s called, it sounds a LITTLE bit like dubstep, but goes in its own direction, and its just one manifestation of what I’m talking about with the post-dubstep aftermath…

Trap

Another manifestation is – actually, it’s downright wrong to say this next style of music is entirely influenced by dubstep… I’m talking about trap, and it’s been going strong for years in hip hop and rap circles, but recently, it’s started to become infused with electronic music… Or, perhaps, electronic music is becoming infused with trap? Well, whatever the reason behind it, it makes for some interesting fucking music, that’s for sure.. Here’s one by Flosstradamus…

Not to be simplistic, but having said all that I just said about dubstep and post-dubstep, one other good tip for spotting a future trend might be to look to what England is doing, post-dubstep. Theirs has always been a much friendlier attitude towards electronic music on a mainstream level. Things here in the States are getting closer to that point, though, and more “mainstream-ish” or commercial incantations of what we call “edm” might be coming on…

To be fair, it’s been happening for awhile in rnb. I’ve noticed the juno synth and old acid house scales being employed in mainstream US rnb in the last year or two…. (And yes, I did use the phrase ‘acid house scale,’ because when you use midi long enough and try your hand at pitching up notes in that artificial computerized way that acid house producers did and a lot of folks still do, you sometimes notice a slightly-off version of the Western scales we’re used to) As well, look at how Diplo seems to have had his hands in everything dance-worthy as of late.
So I predict a lot more mainstream uses of electronic music.

Juke

Juke will get bigger. A style of Chicago dance music that developed, for years, out of ghetto house music; juke is catchy, fun, and FAST. I predict that, as we move out of recession, and the bulls go on parade again, and folks are getting their jobs back, a sense of optimism will manifest itself in music. Do you remember how music seemed to REALLY change a lot, a couple years after the year 2000? I think September 11th had a lot to do with it… Let me explain…

In the late 90s, music was getting faster and faster and faster, there was a healthy middle class, Clinton was in office, and then we got Bush, 9/11 happened, and music suddenly started slowing way down as things seemed to go in a much different direction. I could also liken my sentiments about juke and fast music to what I previously said about dubstep…. You can’t REALLY dance to dubstep. Come on. Yea, you can sway, or whatever, but people love to dance. Juke is gaining momentum overseas with artists such as Addison Groove, and if you look at history, you’ll see what happens to American music when it goes to Britain… it gets a makeover, takes on certain British characteristics (sometimes major, sometimes subtle) but often times, it comes back to the US, like a kid back from a foreign exchange program – with excitement in their eyes and a new appreciation for life, having experienced culture shock, firsthand.

…And that footwork dancing! You really have to see it, because I can’t rant and rave enough about how fucking cool it is. I heard somebody describe it as ‘a kind of breakdancing,’ but I think it is really it’s own thing. Though it’s not a brand-new thing in Chicago, since it’s been underground for so long it’s had a chance to bake and develop organically, fully cooked, and ready for the masses…

Here’s Addison Groove…

ALSO—Jungle-Juke Hybrid Sounds

A revolution has been brewing, and it goes by the name of ‘footwork jungle,’ or ‘juke / jungle,’ or something ‘jungle / juke,’ (you get the idea..) It’s a VERY exciting new sound, and I predict it’s going to get a whole lot BIGGER in the months to come!

There’s so much room to explore, musically, in the cross section of these two fast rhythmic styles of dance music. The territory is still being charted AS WE SPEAK, and to me, as a producer (and long-tome jungle fan) this excites the hell out of me. Juke has been steadily growing on me this last year, and I’ve been lazily hoping jungle got off it’s ass and did something new and different (instead of rehashing itself over and over, which is only partially fair, to be honest).. I recommend you check it out! Here’s a tune I found, but there are more, and I am going to try to post as much good jungle/juke as I can in the coming months.

Manni Dee & Deft – Jungle Jook

New Orleans Bounce

New Orleans bounce music is also something to keep an eye on. It’s also quite fast. Shockingly abrasive, drawing influence (as some genres do) from primarily just a couple of different beat samples… Ok, well, maybe that’s not doing it justice, because you can work around sampling “Triggerman beat,” (from “Drag Rap” by the Showboys) or the beat from “Rock the Beat” by Derek B, or, “Brown Beat” by Cameron Paul – but those three are, by far, the most popular. (I can’t help but be reminded of jungle and it’s heavy influence from the Amen Loop, and how much power just one single beat – or just a few beats – can have…)

This one’s by Diplo, and features Nicky Da B, and it’s called, “Express Yourself” and it is definitely in the vein of the New Orleans Bounce music… It’s fucking exciting, in my opinion. A departure from some of the other bounce tunes out there, of which there are many, but this one is by far my favorite:

Glitch Hop Getting Bigger

I also think glitch hop, with it’s lazer-funk zeal and extreme potential for dancing, is going to come out of the closet, as far as mainstream appeal. To some extent, this is already happening, though, so I don’t mean to downplay it; but what I’m talking about is a full-scale invasion of funky and sometimes hardcore and fuzzy grooves.

Here’s one by iONik…

So what about rock? Well, I’ll level with you – I lost interest in rock years ago, with one of the only exceptions being bands like the White Stripes, and I honestly couldn’t give a damn what rock is going to be up to in the next couple years, so I’m going to move on to rap. Yep. I’m a douche. Until rock gets more interesting, I’m not going to bother keeping track of it.

So what about rap? Well, in my opinion, I would liken the over-the-top glamour-era of mainstream gangsta rap to the over-the-top glamour era of hair metal…and look what happened to hair metal…

A lot of folks say grunge killed hair metal, and that might be true, but really, I think that shit was about to crash and burn, anyway. Not that grunge coming in wasn’t a very good thing, however. Maybe we’ll see a rise of what people now call “underground rap,” or maybe it’ll be something called, “cloud rap.”

A New Generation of Hip Hop

Yes, cloud rap. Airy textures, breezy atmospherics, and lyricists rapping in the clouds… It’s a nice image.

Some rappers who are helping to bring the cloud-rap style into popularity are Main Attrakionz, Lil B, Inkrowd, G-Side, and A$AP ROCKY. I was thrilled when I heard A$AP’s chopped-n-screwed-influenced tune, rhyming about how ‘everything is purple.’ It probably is not considered cloud rap at all, but it’s still airy, breezy, slowed way down, and, in the case of A$AP, sounds a bit dark. A ‘dark chill,’ if you will, and no, I’m not talking about witch-house, though witch-house seems to have been gaining a little bit of steam, with it’s lofi and “spooky” aesthetic. Personally I’ll be happy if all this witch and werewolf and vampire nonsense goes away soon, but I won’t say it isn’t popular, at least for the moment, in some circles…

Another interesting bit of music to peep is this: Space Age Hustle released a mixtape of cloud rap, and you can grab ithere. It’s worth a listen..

Aside from cloud rap (which is quite fun and interesting) the point I was trying to make, though, as far as rap music goes, is that there will probably still be gangsta rap for at least the next few years, but perhaps there will be more rap that is a bit less flamboyantly-gangsta, as in, rap styles that stray from the Gilded Age imagery of super-rich MCs with bags of money and naked women standing around and golden-everything. For a lot of folks, MONEY IS A THANG, and it’s a little frustrating, sometimes, to see someone showing off how easy their life is, especially if you have it a bit harder than they do… If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a 99% Movement going on for a little while, and even if you’re not actively and personally Occupying Wall Street, you might agree there’s a disturbing disparity between rich and poor, and showing off how rich you are and how poor everyone else is might not look quite as fucking hip as it did a few years ago… Just saying…

So, there it is; my prediction for the near-future of music. Hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, I would love it if you’d click the ‘Follow’ button up near the top on the right side of the screen. Feel free to leave any comments you have, as well. I’d love to open up the comments section for anyone else’s predictions on what the future of music holds! : )

-StrangeFlow

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AlunaGeorge is Fucking Fantastic

Posted by StrangeFlow on October 15, 2012
Posted in: New Music, Review. Leave a comment

AlunaGeorge FTW! Beautiful RnB Vocals + Cutting Edge Electronic Music

Cutting edge electronic music mixed with incredible RnB Vocals = AlunaGeorge.

This duo (comprised of a woman named Aluna, and a fellow named George) is making some pretty interesting music…

I heard the tune, ‘You Know You Like it,” and I was mesmerized by it. A few gabbery kicks spice up a lovely instrumental backing that reminds you of Mike Slott or Rustie… (actually, Rustie worked with her, on the track ‘After Light,’ so you should definitely check that out, too!)

I don’t get super hyped up about RnB very often, so when I do, it’s likely an incredible artist! Reminds me of the types of beats and sounds one might hear in a wonky or glitch hop type of number. The music video she did for ‘You Know You Like it’ is really something, too.

The video opens with a shot of AlunaGeorge and a bunch of …. uh… “other” AlunaGeorge women, dancing behind her. I didn’t realize they were all her, at first… I just thought, “wow, look at all the attractive women dancing and swaying hypnotically to the awesome grooves….oh, wait – are they all her?? Yes, I think so… Yes!”

Also – and I’m not 100% on this – but I think there are a couple shots in the video, when she’s wearing a certain outfit and posing a certain way – that she’s invoking imagery of Josephine Baker, the old movie star from decades past. I’m a Josephine Baker fan, so maybe I’m reading too much into it, admist the hype and excitement I found myself in when I came across the video.

Anyway, this video and this song were really something, and now I’m scouring the web in search of more by AlunaGeorge.

You can hear the one she did with good ol’ Rustie, here: