Tag: Ministry of Sound

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Hagop Tchaparian is a rising British-Armenian electronic music producer, whose music career started in earnest back in the 90s: As a teenager, Tchaparian played guitar in post-grunge, punk outfit Symposium, an act that had a few years of some international success: They toured the States on the Warped Tour. They played Reading Festival‘s main stage and opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica. Then they became disenchanted with the music business, and split up debt-ridden. 

After Symposium, Tchaparian contributed to a 2000 compilation Hokis, which featured music by Armenian artists — but he mostly got drawn into London’s club scene, where he quickly became friends with Hot Chip and later a tour manager for both Hot Chip and Four Tet (a.k.a. Kieran Hebden).

“After wanting out of guitar bands and with a massive interest in all things dance music, my first job (mainly due to being broke) was flyering outside many of London’s clubs,” Tchaparian recalls. “I would stand outside all of the main clubs starting at around midnight in East London, ending up outside the Ministry Of Sound around 9am. I would hear the sounds from outside and see the people coming out and really wished I was inside! I began to get inside finally and was checking out as much of it as I could and by a huge stroke of luck, ended up helping out people like Hot Chip and Four Tet on tour. I got to travel and observe them and many others at festivals, clubs and shows creating these special unforgettable moments.” 

He would make the occasional remix that friends like Four Tet would play in their DJ sets, but working on new, original music wasn’t foremost on his mind. However, during that time, he kept gathering little snippets of rudimentarily recorded sounds. There was a deep emotional resonance in continuing to fit these samples together into a storyline that made sense to him. On their own, the rhythm tracks could successfully power an underground dance floor, but the elements surrounding the beats were the undercurrents that he felt helped push the music beyond party rituals. 

When he played some early bits and pieces for Hebden, the acclaimed producer, musician and DJ encouraged Tchaparian to continue, and turn it into a full body of work if he could. “I love synthesizers and music gear but there are some sounds that I hear around me as I go about my life that make me sit up and really pay attention,” the rising British-Armenian producer says in press notes. “I try to capture as much of them as I can and have used them as the main building blocks of the album. I need music to mean something to me otherwise I’m not as interested. It’s a bit like younger days where I would just gravitate to certain inspiration like oxygen – I just really need it.” 

Tchaparian’s full-length debut Bolts is slated for an October 21, 2022 release through Kieran Hebden’s Text Records. Bolts will feature ten songs of hyper-personal rhythm-driven music that mixes techno with field recordings of his travels through Armenian and Mediterranean culture. Essentially, the album combines the audio evidence of a life’s experience with the notion that lo-fi techno can be the appropriate canvas for conveying that experience. 

He has been gathering sounds and vignettes for the better part of 15 years, having begun accumulating before smartphones included a record function. The British-Armenian producer would isolate sounds from videos that his friends sent him, like an Armenian wedding clip that showed members of the party jumping over a fire while a drummer played in the background. He would stop street musicians and ask them if he could record their playing, like the women playing the qanun, a harp-like Arabic string instrument; or he would record with professional musicians, who would play instruments like the zurna. 

Tchaparian also listed places that were important to his family, like Anjar, Lebanon, where his father’s family took refuge after being driven out of the Armenian-Turkish town of Musa Dagh in 1939. He documented himself following the almost exact footsteps his father took. 

The end result is an album that can be described as a man chasing and following his heritage around the world — while sprinkling bits of his everyday life among the manipulated folk instruments of his ancestry. So the album’s material has a deep, emotional power to it. 

Last month, I wrote about Bolts single “Round,” a woozy yet contemplative banger, centered around skittering beats, tweeter and woofer rumbling low end and glistening layers of reverb-drenched, pitchy synths paired with bursts of electronic bleeps and bloops, manipulated instrumentation and the rising British-Armenian artist’s knack for hooks and swooning nostalgia.

Bolts‘ latest single “Right to Riot” features layers of rolling, tribal percussion, wobbling synth arpeggios and bursts of Middle Eastern instrumentation in a way that sonically seems like a sleek and anachronistic synthesis of classic Middle Eastern music, Omar Souleyman, and house music.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Bubba Brothers Share Sultry and Euphoric “Let’s Have Sax”

Portuguese DJ and production duo Bubba Brothers — Eliseo Correia and Justino Santos — formed back in 2015 and since their formation, the duo have produced and released an increasing number of dance floor hits, including:  

  • 2019’s “Carla’s Beat” which landed at #21 on Beatport’s Top 100 Chart and at #6 on the Top Releases Chart. The track received airplay on London-based Trickstar Radio’s Metropolis, and as a result they were invited to play at Spain-based Los 40 Radio.
  • 2019’s “Tonyca,” which was selected as one of the songs of the summer at Faro, Portugal-based club LICK.

Adding to a growing profile across the European Union, the Portuguese act have made appearances on a number of TV channels including TVI 24. They’ve played sets at the international electronic music festival circuit including Faro Academic Week, Sun and Moon Festival, Dancefloor Leiria and Pete Tha Zouk’s Infinity Sunset. They’ve also played clubs like London-based Ministry of Sound.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written about four singles in the Portuguese duo’s growing catalog: 

  • “Amandla (Tutu),” a euphoric, Balearic house meets tribal house banger, featuring skittering and percussive beats and a soulful vocal sample. 
  • “No Name Song,” a deep house banger, centered around tweeter and woofer rattling beats, explosive hi-hats, glistening and a trance-inducing groove meant to get you off your ass and moving. 
  • “Karma” a seemingly Ibiza-like deep house banger centered around percussive, tribal thump, skittering beats and glistening and oscillating synths placed within an expansive, hook-driven song structure. 
  • “Make House, Not War,” another club banger, centered around a reverb-drenched, chopped up vocal sample, tribal beats, deep bass drops and a propulsive and melodic bass line. And although the song continued a remarkable run of euphoric bangers, the song draws from our uncertain and tumultuous time: “Music has always been a form of peaceful statement and freedom of expression,” the duo explain. “Our message is clear in this track: More House. No War.” They add that the strong and intense drops in the song specifically represent the violence and bludgeoning of war while the melodic bass line represents the peace that they hope prevails in the end.

The Portuguese duo will be playing their first ever club gig in Ibiza at El Paradis on June 26, 2022. And to celebrate the occasion, the duo recently released a new single, the propulsive club banger “Let’s Have Sax.” Centered around skittering hi-hat, woofer and tweeter rattling beats, chopped up vocal samples paired with a mournful modal-like sax line, “Let’s Have Sax” finds the duo crafting a warm, soulful yet playful banger that nods at classic, Larry Levan-era house.

The duo paired their latest club banger with a punny and sultry visual that shows a hand unzipping a little black dress, that same hand running up the woman’s body with interspersed split screens with a saxophone player. The couple becomes increasingly sensual as it glides to its conclusion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Portuguese DJ and production duo Bubba Brothers — Eliseo Correia and Justino Santos — formed back in 2015. And since their formation, the duo have produced and released an increasing number of dance floor hits, including:  

  • 2019’s “Carla’s Beat” which landed at #21 on Beatport’s Top 100 Chart and at #6 on the Top Releases Chart. The track received airplay on London-based Trickstar Radio’s Metropolis, and as a result they were invited to play at Spain-based Los 40 Radio.
  • 2019’s “Tonyca,” which was selected as one of the songs of the summer at Faro, Portugal-based club LICK.

Adding to a growing profile across the European Union, the Portuguese act have made appearances on a number of TV channels including TVI 24. They’ve played sets at the international electronic music festival circuit including Faro Academic Week, Sun and Moon Festival, Dancefloor Leiria and Pete Tha Zouk’s Infinity Sunset. They’ve also played clubs like London-based Ministry of Sound.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written about three singles in the Portuguese duo’s growing catalog: 

  • “Amandla (Tutu),” a euphoric, Balearic house meets tribal house banger, featuring skittering and percussive beats and a soulful vocal sample. 
  • “No Name Song,” a deep house banger, centered around tweeter and woofer rattling beats, explosive hi-hats, glistening and a trance-inducing groove meant to get you off your ass and moving. 
  • “Karma” a seemingly Ibiza-like deep house banger centered around percussive, tribal thump, skittering beats and glistening and oscillating synths placed within an expansive, hook-driven song structure.

The Portuguese duo’s latest single “Make House, not war” continues a remarkable run of euphoric club bangers featuring a reverb-drenched, chopped up vocal sample, tribal beats, deep bass drops and a melodic and propulsive bass line. If this song doesn’t make you get up and start moving, you might probably be dead by now.

But while euphoric, “Make House not war” is deeply informed by our wildly uncertain and tumultuous time: “Music has always been a form of peaceful statement and freedom of expression,” the duo explain. “Our message is clear in this track: More House. No War.”

The Portuguese duo add that the song is their message for this time with the strong and intense drops representing war and the melodic baseline representing the peace that they hope prevails in the end. May peace prevail — and may you get out there and cherish the freedom of being on the dance floor.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Portuguese electronic music DJ and production duo Bubba Brothers — Eliseo Correia and Justino Santos — formed back in 2015, and since their formation, the duo have produced an a growing number of dance-floor hits, which include:

  • 2019’s “Carla’s Beat” which landed at #21 on Beatport’s Top 100 Chart and at #6 on the Top Releases Chart. The track received airplay on London-based Trickstar Radio’s Metropolis, and as a result they were invited to play at Spain-based Los 40 Radio.
  • 2019’s “Tonyca,” which was selected as one of the songs of the summer at Faro, Portugal-based club LICK.
  • Last year’s “Karma,” which landed at #1 on Beatport. 

Adding to a growing profile across the European Union, the Portuguese act have made appearances on a number of TV channels including TVI 24. They’ve played sets at the international electronic music festival circuit including Faro Academic Week, Sun and Moon Festival, Dancefloor Leiria and Pete Tha Zouk’s Infinity Sunset. They’ve also played clubs like London-based Ministry of Sound.

Last September, the Portuguese duo started their own label Mossdeb Sounds. Now, as you may recall, i wrote about “Amandla (Tutu),” a euphoric, Balearic house meets tribal house banger, featuring skittering and percussive beats and a soulful vocal sample.

“No Name Song,” landed at on Traxsource‘s House and EDM charts for a number of consecutive weeks, and once you hear it, you’ll quickly figure out how that happened: “No Name Song” is a deep house banger, centered around tweeter and woofer rattling beats, explosive hi-hats, glistening synth arpeggios and a trance-inducing groove. And much like “Amandla,” “No Name Song” will get you off and ass and moving.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Portuguese electronic music DJ and production duo Bubba Brothers — Eliseo Correia and Justino Santos — formed back in 2015. And since their formation, the Portuguese duo have produced an increasing number of dance-floor hits, including:

  • 2019’s “Carla’s Beat” which landed at #21 on Beatport’s Top 100 Chart and at #6 on the Top Releases Chart. The track received airplay on London-based Trickstar Radio’s Metropolis, and as a result they were invited to play at Spain-based Los 40 Radio.
  • 2019’s “Tonyca,” which was selected as one of the songs of the summer at Faro, Portugal-based club LICK.
  • Last year’s “Karma,” which landed at #1 on Beatport.

Adding to a growing profile across the European Union, the Portuguese act have made appearances on a number of TV channels including TVI 24. They’ve played sets at the international electronic music festival circuit including Faro Academic Week, Sun and Moon Festival, Dancefloor Leiria and Pete Tha Zouk’s Infinity Sunset. They’ve also played clubs like London-based Ministry of Sound.

Last September, the Portuguese duo started their own label Mossdeb Sounds. Their first release on their new album, “No Name Song” landed at #1 on Traxsource‘s House and EDM charts for a number of consecutive weeks. Continuing upon that massive momentum, the Portuguese duo’s latest single, “Amandla (Tutu)” is a euphoric, Balearic house meets tribal house-inspired banger, centered around skittering and percussive beats, a soulful vocal sample that will get you off your ass and moving.

As the duo explain, “Amandla” is a homage to the righteous activist and minister Desmond Tutu. They see the song as a joyous tribute to what’s life all about.

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Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Dramatic and Vivid Visuals for Uppermost’s “Perseverance”

Over the past year or so, I’ve written quite a bit about the Paris, France-based electronic music producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist, Behad Netjabakshe, best known in electronic music circles as Uppermost. And as you may recall, the French producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist has developed an internationally recognized profile with the release of material through renowned labels like Sony BMG, Ministry of Sound, BugEyed Records, Starlight Records and his own Uppwind Records; in fact, singles like “Equivocal” landed at #3 back in 2009 and his Biscuit Factory EP landed at #1 on the JunoDownload electro-house charts. Additionally, Netjabakshe has received attention for his remixes of  Daft Punk, deadmau5, Burial, Crystal Castles, Jonathan Coulton, Syl Johnson, Congorock and others — and he’s had his work playlist by a number of superstar producers and artists including  Tiesto, Armin van Buren and Steve Angello.

Las year, saw the release of Origins 2011-2016, a comprehensive compilation that featured ed some of Netjabakshe’s most popular tunes, including “Flashback,” “Beautiful Light,” “Reminder” and “Mistakes,” as well as new, original material including the shimmering and anthemic M83-channeling singles “Thousand Colors,” and “Emotion,” the Pink Floyd-channeling,  cinematic “Reminder,” the 45:33 and Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem-leaning “Alive,” and a lush, cinematic rendition of “Constellation” performed with members of the Paris Symphonic Orchestra. Origins 2011-2016‘s highly anticipated follow up, Perseverance officially dropped today, and the album reportedly features some the most personal and impassioned material Netjabakshe has released to date while collaborating with vocalists with backgrounds in folk, hip-hop and pop.

Last month, I wrote about the album track “Atoms,” a collaboration with Birsen that paired her gossamer-crooning with arpeggiated analog synths, a motorik-like groove and an infectious hook — and while being both dance floor and radio friendly, the song possessed an aching humanity, as it pointed out humanity’s vulnerability and smallness in an incomprehensibly immense universe.  Building upon the buzz around the album, the French producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist released the album’s latest single, the swaggering “Perseverance,” a collaboration with singer/songwriter Harry Pane, that pairs Pane’s soulful vocals with an ominously thumping production consisting of twitter and woofer rocking beats and arpeggiated synths and an anthemic hook; but despite the seemingly ominous vibes, the song is actually extremely uplifting, as it features lyrics that focus on determination, dedication and — well yeah, perseverance in the face of life’s obstacles.

Directed by Joseph B. Carlin, the recently released video, which features live action and animation follows as a frustrated yet determined painter (Sebastian Iturria) through both his daily routine, commuting to his cramped studio. Despite the fact that throughout most of the video, it’s implied that Iturria’s painter is extremely talented, he’s in the middle of a creative rut in which he either feels uninspired or everything he tries to create feels uninspired before a deep dive into the artist’s bright and Dada-eqsue inner world.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past year or so, I’ve written quite a bit about the Paris, France-based electronic music producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist, Behad Netjabakshe, best known in electronic music circles as Uppermost. And as you may recall, the French producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist has developed an internationally recognized profile with the release of material through renowned labels like Sony BMG, Ministry of Sound, BugEyed Records, Starlight Records and his own Uppwind Records; in fact, singles like “Equivocal” landed at #3 back in 2009 and his Biscuit Factory EP landed at #1 on the JunoDownload electro-house charts. Additionally, Netjabakshe has received attention for his remixes of  Daft Punk, deadmau5, Burial, Crystal Castles, Jonathan Coulton, Syl Johnson, Congorock and others — and he’s had his work playlist by a number of superstar producers and artists including  Tiesto, Armin van Buren and Steve Angello.

Las year, saw the release of Origins 2011-2016, a comprehensive compilation that featured ed some of Netjabakshe’s most popular tunes, including “Flashback,” “Beautiful Light,” “Reminder” and “Mistakes,” as well as new, original material including the shimmering and anthemic M83-channeling singles “Thousand Colors,” and “Emotion,” the Pink Floyd-channeling,  cinematic “Reminder,” the 45:33 and Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem-leaning “Alive,” and a lush, cinematic rendition of “Constellation” performed with members of the Paris Symphonic Orchestra. Origins 2011-2016‘s highly anticipated follow up, Perseverance is slated for release this Friday, and the album reportedly features some the most personal and impassionaied material Netjabakshe has released to date while collaborating with vocalists with backgrounds in folk, hip-hop and pop.

Last month, I wrote about the album track “Atoms,” a collaboration with Birsen that paired her gossamer-crooning with arpeggiated analog synths, a motorik-like groove and an infectious hook — and while being both dance floor and radio friendly, the song possessed an aching humanity, as it pointed out humanity’s vulnerability and smallness in an incomprehensibly immense universe.  Building upon the buzz around the album, the French producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist released the album’s latest single, the swaggering “Perseverance,” a collaboration with singer/songwriter Harry Pane, that pairs Pane’s soulful vocals with an ominously thumping production consisting of twitter and woofer rocking beats and arpeggiated synths and an anthemic hook; but despite the seemingly ominous vibes, the song is actually extremely uplifting, as it features lyrics that focus on determination, dedication and — well yeah, perseverance in the face of life’s obstacles.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Behad Netjabakshe is a Paris, France-based electronic music producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist, best known as Uppermost, who has developed an internationally recognized profile through the release of material through renowned labels like  Sony BMG, Ministry of Sound, BugEyed Records, Starlight Records and his own Uppwind Records; in fact,  singles like “Equivocal” landed at #3 back in 2009 and his Biscuit Factory EP landed at #1 on the JunoDownload electro-house charts. Additionally, Netjabakshe has received attention for his remixes of  Daft Punk, deadmau5, Burial, Crystal Castles, Jonathan Coulton, Syl Johnson, Congorock and others — and he’s had his work playlist by a number of superstar producers and artists including  Tiesto, Armin van Buren and Steve Angello.

The Parisian producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist released a comprehensive compilation, Origins 2011-2016, which featured some of Netjabakshe’s most popular tunes, including “Flashback,” “Beautiful Light,” “Reminder” and “Mistakes,” as well as new, original material including the shimmering and anthemic M83-channeling singles “Thousand Colors,” and “Emotion,” the Pink Floyd-channeling,  cinematic “Reminder,” the 45:33 and Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem-leaning “Alive,” and a lush, cinematic rendition of “Constellation” performed with members of the Paris Symphonic Orchestra.

Netjabakshe’s latest effort Perseverance is slated for a March 23, 2018 release and the album, which reportedly features some of the most personal and impassioned material he has released to date, finds the Parisian producer, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist collaborating with vocalists with backgrounds in folk, hip-hop and pop — all while retaining the swooning and earnest emotionality that has won him international attention. Interestingly, Perseverance‘s latest single  “Atoms” is a hazy and anthemic track that features chilly and shimmering, arpeggiated analog synths, twinkling and a motorik-like groove; however, Birsen’s gossamer-like crooning that gives the song its nostalgic punch and its aching humanity, as the song’s lyrics point out our vulnerability and smallness in the face of an immense universe, but perhaps more important, our inherent connection to it.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the last few months of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, you’ve most likely come across a couple of posts featuring the , Paris, France-based electronic music producer and electronic music artist Behad Netjabakshe, best known as Uppermost. And as Uppermost, Netjabakshe has received attention internationally for material released through a series of renowned labels including Sony BMG, Ministry of Sound, BugEyed Records, Starlight Records and his own Uppwind Records — with singles like “Equivocal”landing at number 3 on Beatport’s electro house charts in 2009, his Biscuit Factory EP ranked first on the JunoDownload electro-house charts.And adding to a rapidly growing international profile, Netjabakshe has had his work playlisted by superstar producers and artists such as Tiesto, Armin van Buren and Steve Angello. Netjabakshe has also received attention for his remixes of Daft Punk, deadmau5, Burial, Crystal Castles, Jonathan Coulton, Syl Johnson, Congorock and others.

Uppermost‘s soon-to-be released full-length effort Origins 2011 – 2016 is a 23 song LP that features some of the French producer and electronic music artist’s most popular songs, including Flashback,” “Beautiful Light,” “Reminder” “Mistakes” as well as a new material including the shimmering and anthemic M83-channeling singles “Thousand Colors,” and “Emotion” and the Pink Floyd-channeling, funky and cinematic “Reminder.”Origins 2011 – 2016‘s latest single “Alive” will further cement Netjabakshe’s reputation for slickly produced synth pop as the Paris-based electronic music artist and producer pairs layers of shimmering, arpeggio synths with a sinuous bass line, Nile Rodgers-like guitar and and a rousingly, anthemic hook; however, where two of the album’s singles were reminiscent of M83, the album’s latest single leans a bit more towards 45:33 and Sound of Silver-era LCD Soundsystem, thanks to a club-friendly and accessible style.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Behdad Netjabakshe is a Paris, France-based electronic music producer and electronic music artist, best known as Uppermost who has received international attention for material released through a number of renowned labels including Sony BMG, Ministry of Sound, BugEyed Records, Starlight Records and his own Uppwind Records with his “Equivocal” landing at #3 on the Beatport electro-house charts back in 2009 and his Biscuit Factory EP ranking first on the JunoDownload electro-house charts, as well as having his work playlisted by renowned artists and producers such as Tiesto, Armin van Buren and Steve Angello. Adding to a growing international profile, Netjabakshe has remixed the work of Daft Punk, deadmau5, Burial, Crystal Castles, Jonathan Coulton, Syl Johnson, Congorock and countless others.

Netjabakshe’s forthcoming full-length effort Origins 2011-2016 is a massive 23 song LP that features some of the French electronic music artist and producer’s most popular songs such as “Flashback,” “Beautiful Light,” “Reminder” and “Mistakes” as well as a ton of new material including the shimmering and anthemic M83-channeling single “Thousand Colors,” a single that possess enough muscle to rock clubs all over the world.

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Better known under the moniker of XO, Sunil Heera is an up-and-coming, Stoke-on-Trent, UK-based teenaged producer, who has gained quite a bit of attention across the blogosphere, across major media outlets such as BBC Radio 1, NME, XLR8R, Ministry of Sound, and Mistajam’s […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Based in Stoke-on-Trent, UK in the county of Staffordshire, the teenaged producer Sunil Heera, better known by the moniker XO – and in a relatively short time, the young Heera has gained quite a bit […]