Category: instrumental

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Rwandan-born, Brussels, Belgium-based producer Wantumeni is a self-taught producer and artist, who has started to receive attention in Brussels for production techniques and a sound that’s reminiscent of The Beatnuts, Madlib, J.Dilla and others. His full-length debut, Prima Nocta is slated for release later this year through N.M.L.O.P. Records; and to build up buzz for himself and for the full-length effort, the Rwandan-born, Brussels-based producer and artist will be releasing a beat every Sunday in a series he’s dubbed Meni Given Sundays.  

The fifth installment of the series “Baby Blue Panties” has the producer pairing skittering and industrial-sounding drum programming with a chopped up, warm and subtly soulful sample that features guitar, synths and drums in an instrumental track that to my ears reminds me quite a bit of singles I’ve heard off Oddisee’s latest album, as well as Madlib and J. Dilla. Of course, this track will clearly remind listeners not just of J. Dilla’s massive influence over hip-hop but that hip-hop is truly the lingua franca of the modern world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Floating Points Performing on KEXP Radio

Interestingly, as Shepherd announced his tour and the forthcoming release of Kupier, Shepherd released live footage of him and his backing band performing “Silhouettes I, II and III,” “Argente” and “Kupier” in KEXP’s studios last month. Naturally, the live footage should give you a good sense of a live Floating Points set — including as the announced joked a visual display behind the band, which included floating points; but it also should cement Shepherd’s burgeoning reputation as an sonically challenging and inventive composer, whose material also manages to be trippy, expansive and mind-altering while being approachable.

The live session includes a rather revealing interview in which Shepherd discusses the origins of Floating Points, his influences, how he met the members of his backing band and his incredible 10,000 album record collection.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Check Out the Gorgeous and Thoughtful Tribute to the Human Soul in Oddisee’s Video for “Brea”

Washington, DC-born and Brooklyn-based emcee and producer Amir Mohamed el Khalifa, best known to hip-hop heads as Oddisee has developed a reputation for being a former member of The Low Budget Crew, as a current member of Diamond […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Jonas Ronnberg, the co-owner of Northern Electronics who’s known for recording caustic techno under the moniker of Varg, as well as his involvement in renowned experimental acts Ulwhednar and Dard A Ranj Fran Det Hebbersalska Samfudet; renowned Swedish composer Erik Enocksson, who has scored a number of independent productions including an orphaned soundtrack to Apan, which was re-mastered and re-issued by Posh Isolation Records last year; Frederikke Hoffmeir, the mastermind of highly-regarded industrial and experimental electronic act Puce Mary;Vit Fana’s Ossian Ohlsson, who has appeared on a number of Northern Electronics and Posh Isolation compilations; and Loke Rahbek, co-founder of Posh Isolation and member of Damien Dubrovnik, highly-regarded act Lust For Youth — and for recording with Croatian Armor, Body Sculptures is an All-Star side project of renowned Scandinavian experimental electronic and electro pop artists.

Last year marked the act’s live debut, a set at the Berlin Atonal Festival and the release of their debut effort together, The Base of All Beauty Is The Body. And June 3, 2016 will mark the release of the act’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort A Body Turns to Eden.The album’s first single — and album title track — “A Body Turns to Eden” will further cement the act’s reputation for crafting stark and uneasily tense music as background electronic buzzing is paired with slowly unfurling and churning synths, minimalist beats in a song that only partially unfolds and reveals itself to its listeners.
 

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The combinations of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, the soiled traces of genre, and the mixed modes of experimentation, are here pitched as an eternal requiem, letting the play between the project’s orthodox and unorthodox methods reflect a sharp fatalism. Each song presents familiarity and intimacy within an aura of claustrophobia. And as if out of a cruel awareness of this fact, unease blooms into a comforting form. A Body Turns To Eden is an essential piece for anyone with interest in Scandinavian electronic music today.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Check Out This Live Studio Footage of John Carpenter Performing “Distant Dream”

If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the better part of the past year, the renowned director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composter John Carpenter has quickly become a mainstay artist after last year’s critically and commercially successful album […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Washington, DC-born and Brooklyn-based emcee and producer Amir Mohamed el Khalifa, best known to hip-hop heads as Oddisee has developed a reputation for being extremely prolific as a solo artist, as a former member of The Low Budget Crew and as a member of Diamond District, for bouncing back and forth between full-length hip-hop albums and instrumental efforts and for being uncompromisingly difficult to pigeonhole as his sound effortlessly meshes jazz, soul and hip-hop.

The Brooklyn-based producer and emcee’s forthcoming instrumental album, The Odd Tape is slated for a May 13 release through Mello Music Group, and the album’s first single “No Sugar No Cream” much like the rest of the album is informed and influenced by the rhythms and patterns of every day life — in particular, the artist’s own life while subtly drawing from Roy Ayers, Bob James, Shuggie Otis, Fela and others. Sonically, Oddisee pairs squiggling and soulful keyboard chords, boom bap beats, tons of hi-hat, staccato chopped up beats with brief bursts of congo before morphing into a jazz-lenaing coda comprised of gorgeously intricate piano chords and shimmering organ chords paired with boom bap beats to craft a song that sounds equally indebted to J. Dilla, bop-era jazz and old school soul in a way that feels warmly familiar while revealing a unique artistic vision. Personally, listening to the track evoked eating breakfast, drinking loads of coffee and bullshitting with friends while trying to preparing to tackle the day’s plans.

2016 looks to be a rather busy year for the Washington, DC-born and Brooklyn-based producer and emcee as he’ll be embarking on a lengthy summer tour of the US and UK backed by Good Company — and he’ll be releasing a new solo effort slated for release in the fall. As for the tour, it includes an NYC area date at Northside Festival in June. Check out tour dates below.

Oddisee & Good Company (Full Band) Live Tour Dates
5/3/2016  Middle East Downstairs – Boston, MA
5/6/16 Mainstage – Morgantown, WV
5/7/16 Strange Matter – Richmond, VA
5/8/16 Kings Barcade – Raleigh, NC
5/11/16 Jack Rabbits – Jacksonville, FL
5/13/16 Orpheum – Tampa, FL
5/14/16  Backbooth – Orlando, FL
5/15/16 Side Bar – Tallahassee, FL
5/16/16 Parish @ HOB – New Orleans, LA
5/20/16  Foundry at SLS – Las Vegas, NV
5/21/16 El Rey Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
5/22/16 Constellation Room – Santa Ana, CA
5/24/16 Soda Bar – San Diego, CA
5/26/16 The Independent – San Francisco, CA
5/30/16 Sasquatch Festival – Seattle, WA
6/4/16  Bunbury Festival – Cincinnatti, OH
6/12/16 Northside Festival – Brooklyn, NY
6/25/16 Glastonbury Festival – Pilton, UK
6/27/16 O2 Academy – Oxford, UK
7/7/16 Les Ardentes Festival – Leige, Belgium
7/8/16 North Sea Jazz Festival – Rotterdam, Netherlands
7/9/16 Open Source Festival – Dusseldorf, Germany
7/10/16 Cactus Festival – Bruges, Belgium
7/16/16 Melt! Festival – Gräfenhainichen, Germany
7/19/16 Valkhof Festival – Nijmegen, Netherlands
7/23/16 Hip Hop Open Festival – Vienna, Austria
7/27/16 Blue Balls Festival – Lucerne, Switzerland
7/29/16 Appletree Gardens Festival – Diepholz, DE
7/30/16 Stuttgart Festival – Stuttgart, DE

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Retro-Futuristic Visuals and Sounds of Toronto’s Princess Century

Maya Postepski is a grizzled Toronto, ON music scene veteran, who is arguably best known as being a member of renowned electronic music act Austra, a prolific DJ and remixer, and for her work collaborating […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their 2010 self-titled EP and their 2012 full-length debut Differance, South Korean trio Jambinai, comprised of   Bongi Kim (haegum — a Korean fiddle-like instrument), Ilwoo Lee (guitar and piri — a Korean flute, made of bamboo) and Eun Young Sim (geomungo, a Korean zither), the trio have developed a rapidly growing national and international reputation for an intense, adventurous, headbanging worthy take on traditional Korean instrumental music. As the story goes, the trio met while studying traditional music at Korea National University of Arts, and they quickly bonded over a desire to present traditional music in a new way, “to communicate with the ordinary person, who doesn’t listen to Korean traditional music,” as the band’s principle composer and writer Ilwoo explains in press notes. Interestingly, Jambinai’s approach eschews several generations of Korean modernists and post-modernists, who Lee notes have based their sound and approach around Western classical music, jazz, jazz fusion to create a prog rock/experimental rock sound.

And while shocking Korean audiences, the trio have also been critically and commercially successful as their full-length Differance was nominated for Best Crossover Album and Best Jazz and Crossover Performance at the 2013 Korean Music Awards, and won Best Crossover Album — and as a result, the band used the album’s success as a springboard for several international tours as a quintet featuring  Jihoon Ok (bass) and Jae Hyuk Choi (drums) that have seen praise from a number of major Western outlets including The Guardian and others.

A Hermitage, the trio’s forthcoming sophomore effort and Bella Union Records debut is slated for a June 17 release, and the album’s latest single “They Keep Silence” is a tense, throbbing and furious song full of angular and stabbing chords paired layers upon layers of feedback and distortion in a composition that consists of downtuned and punishing power chord-heavy sections and brief and quite sections of respite and introspection. Sonically, the song sounds as though it draws from Tool and Ministry  — or simply put it kicks ass, takes names and kicks more ass just to ensure that you got the point. In fact, the song seems to tape into a universal feeling of anger and isolation of people, who are growing both impatient and suspicious of the forces that are controlling and influencing their daily lives.

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Samiyam at Stones Throw’s Dungeon Sessions

Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based producer Sam Baker, best known under the moniker Samiyam can trace the moment his musical career truly started in earnest to when he was at a Detroit strip club Platinum, where he encountered a self-described […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ixra Divide Returns with a Madlib and J. Dilla-Inspired Instrumental Beat Track and Surreal Visuals

Towards the end of last year, I wrote about Virginia-based producer and emcee Ixra Divide, who has collaborated with JOVM mainstay artist, Toronto, ON-born, Brooklyn-based Joanie Wolkoff, who has recorded with Her Habits, Gemology and as […]