solipsistic NATION No. 197: Tangled Up CPU
June 24, 2010 | Comments Off
On today’s show I’m going to play bitpop and chiptune covers of your favorite songs!
When I first came up with the idea for today’s show I thought it would be cute and played for giggles. But when I sat down and really listened to the music I realized that these bitpop and chiptune covers stripped the originals down to their essence. And these tracks still stand up. They’re classics for a reason.
But the tracks on today’s show don’t sound great just because they’re covers of great songs, they also sound great because it took a lot of ingenuity of working within the constraints of chiptunes and bitpop to make these songs shine.
By the way, nearly all the tracks on today’s show came from the 8 Bit Collective website.
8bitcollective is the first completely open chiptune-related media repository and file sharing community. To learn more or to download more great music go to 8bc.org
You can learn more about Chiptunes by listening to my chiptune documentary. Some time soon I’ll be releasing a bitpop documentary so keep your ears open for that.
Join us next week for a special live set from DJ Spooky.
Photo Credit: ©Seth Chenard
- 8 Bit Weapon “Tron Scherzo (Sark’s Revenge Mix)” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Minus 5 “Little Fugue in G Minor” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- 486 “Martha My Dear” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- electrodreams “Where Its At” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- BeepBeepLOLZ “Billie Jean” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- 8 Bit Ninjas “Push It” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- The Listrix “The Model” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Facepalm Represent “Whip It” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- JINGELHEIMER “Blitzkrieg Bop” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- facundo “We Got the Beat” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Shonenn “Robot Rock” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Hellostereo “Buddy Holy” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Paza Rahm “Charly (Trip Into Drum and Bass Paza Chip Remix)” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Jellica & Dr Dru “i wld di 4 u” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Unicorn Dream Attack “l00m3r” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Zombectro “Raining Blood” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Joedouken! “Blue Monday” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Expect Delays “Assimilate” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
Download episode.
1:01:18 | 63.39 MB
solipsistic NATION No. 196: Meshuga
June 18, 2010 | Comments Off
I really enjoy having lots of guests on solipsistic NATION. It’s a lot of fun to play on track from each artist and then have them comment on their music or what their process is in making music. There’s something to be said about appreciating a song on its own merits but I also think it might make us appreciate a song a bit more when you hear the musician talk about their craft.
But I have to tell you, these shows are a lot of work.
Getting today’s show is the result of contacting everyone by phone or email and asking if an interview can be arranged. And then there are the follow up emails and phone calls. Not too mention coming up with a list of questions for the interviews, let alone doing the actual interview and then editing those interviews. Like I said, it’s a lot of work.
And that’s why I am so very happy how great this week’s show is when it came together!
First of all, my guests are fantastic. We’ll talk with everyone from Kraddy about mashups to Margaret Noble about her crowd funded 1984 project. And as an added bonus, a diverse as the genres of music on today’s show are, they conveniently segue together and nothing sounds incongruous.
From Kraddy’s glitch hop inspired mashup we careen off of two tracks from the Rare Grooves album (which you can download for free, by the way) Colin Steve drops some, ah, knowledge about Knowledge Magazine. Colin must cringe whenever that phrase is uttered but he was cool enough to give aways a Knowledge tshirt. Email me to tweet me for your chance to win! Rare Grooves takes us to trance where we’ll talk with Benoit Allirol about this years The Hadra Trance Festival taking place in the French Alps. And somehow, I don’t know how, this takes us to Carmen Rizzo’s gorgeous and melancholy music (if you dig Carmen’s music then you also might like Lulu Rouge, you can listen to my interview with them here). Music from Carmen’s album, Looking Through Leaves, unfolds to the dub laden strains of Eraldo Bernocchi & Blackfilm. I had Blackfilm on the show last year where he mentioned an upcoming project with Eraldo Bernocchi. The album is called Along The Corridors and it’s simply amazing. And this takes us to Margaret’s Noble’s 1984 project. I don’t know how but everything fits and makes sense.
I’d like to thank Kraddy, Colin Steven, Benoit Allirol, Carmen Rizzo, Blackfilm and Margaret once again for joining us on this week’s solipsistic NATION.
I know money is tight but if you heard anything on today’s show that you liked, show your support by purchasing one of their songs or albums. Maybe pick up a copy of All Crews drum and bass book from Knowledge. If you’re in the French Alps in July you might want to catch the Hadra Trance Festival. Or maybe give Margaret a couple bucks and help her out with her 1984 project.
Join us again next week. I think I’m going to do a mix of bitpop covers of classic rockers!
Photo Credit: ©Makbet666
- Kraddy “Luda Sebastian Mash (Kraddy Mash)”
- Echaskech “The Storm (Kraddy Requiem Remix)”
- Interview with Kraddy
- DJ Scape “Your Soul Can Rest” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Sighnature “I Sell Death Insurance” [FREE DOWNLOAD]
- Interview with Colin Steve of Knowledge Magazine
- Shotu “Conception”
- Digidep “Walking Alone”
- Interview with Benoit Allirol of The Hadra Trance Festival
- Carmen Rizzo “Until You Find Another (f/ Shana Halligan)”
- Carmen Rizzo “Element of Hope”
- Interview with Carmen Rizzo
- Eraldo Bernocchi & Blackfilm “Bethnal Green”
- Eraldo Bernocchi & Blackfilm “Mistakes pt.2″
- Interview with Blackfilm
- Margaret Noble “Watched”
- Margaret Noble “Frakture”
- Interview with Margaret Noble
Download episode.
1:09:08 | 63.39 MB
solipsistic NATION No. 195: Zero Digital Records
June 11, 2010 | Comments Off
Back in January I had Riley Warren on solipsistic NATION as a guest DJ. Riley is also one of the co founders of Zero Digital Records and we made plans so showcase her label at a later date.
Riley’s mix got a lot of love so I know you’re going to dig today’s mix featuring select tracks from artists on Zero Digital Records! This time we’re joined by fellow Zero Digital Records co founder Michael Ricca, AKA Kinetic.
Today’s mix is pretty awesome! It’s got a trance feel with some driving rhythms and beats that has a lot of textures and moods that will hit you in your gut. If you enjoy today’s show you can preview more music from Zero Digital Records at their website.
If you really like what you hear then why not buy a song or two from the label if not a couple of albums. You can find them on Beatport, Trackitdown, iTunes, Amazon MP3, Juno Download, etc. Oh, and be sure to listen to the Zero Digital Records podcast hosted by Stilwell!
You can also follow Zero Digital Records on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and on YouTube.
Join us again next week when our guests will be Margaret Noble, Kraddy, Carmen Rizzo, Colin Steven of Knowledge Magazine and much, much more!
- Ally Porwal “Terms of Life”
- Interview with Micheal Ricca, cofounder of Zero Digital Records
- Jane Silence “Break Easy (o3 Remix)”
- Ally Porwal “Look at the Stars”
- Ana “Blue Zana (DJ Mix)”
- o3 “Riven”
- Interview with Micheal Ricca, cofounder of Zero Digital Records
- Blaz Perus “Free Your Mind”
- Tashka Swe “The Trix”
- Jake DeSilva “Initialize (Nightshift Deep Mix)”
- Nash Donson “Distance”
- Verche “The Sea (Dan Freeman Remix)”
- Interview with Micheal Ricca, cofounder of Zero Digital Records
solipsistic NATION No. 194: Forensics, ill.gates & Terminal 11, Live
June 4, 2010 | Comments Off
So here’s the deal. When I first started featuring live sets on solipsistic NATION it was a segment I thought I would do from time to time. It took a while but it soon became a regular segment on the show.
I really like the live segments because on the face of it live electronic music seems like an oxymoron. Artists could easily just press play on their laptop and walk away and that would be the show. But obviously it’s more than that and each artist has a different approach to live performances. Their aesthetics are different, their gear is different and the venues are different. It’s those variables that make the live segments so engaging, not to mention it’s live! There’s so much room for improvisation and, gasp, failure!
But there’s the thing, I often found myself scrambling at last minute to get a live set and an interview with the featured artist for the next show. Worse, sometimes I’d have to skip the segment all together because I didn’t have anything for the show. So about a year ago I emailed a lot of artists I like and invited them on the show to feature recordings of their live sets. Makes sense, right? Build up a surplus of live sets and never have to worry about scrambling again.
Some of the live sets that I got were less than an hour. No problem, I just padded out the rest of the show with a few studio tracks from the featured artist. But sometimes I’d get live sets that were considerably less than an hour and my solution was to pair those set with other live sets of similar duration.
Here we are a year later and I’m down to the last handful of the shorter live sets. I could have waited another year and pair those remaining sets with other sets but I decided to release them today with an extended show. I just didn’t want to put off these live sets any longer.
So here you are: live sets from Forensics, ill.gates and Terminal 11! If you like what you hear then support them by seeing them when they tour your home town or by purchasing their music.
As I mentioned, today’s show is the last of the live sets that I accumulated a year ago. But I only needed to learn the lesson of scrambling once and I’ll have live sets from Prefuse 73, DJ Spooky, the Nortec Collective and The Bombay Dub Orchestra so stay stuned.
Join us next week when I’ll be showcasing music from Zero Digital Records!
- Forensics “Live (Dub City, Amsterdam, May 2009)”
- Interview with Forensics
- ill.gates “Live (Edmonton)”
- Interview with ill.gates
- Terminal 11 “Live”
- Interview with Terminal 11
Download episode.
1:32:41 | 84.94 MB