Preorder through iTunes USA Random Access Memories – Daft Punk

Preorder through iTunes Canada Random Access Memories – Daft Punk

Daft Punk’s massively anticipated new album Random Access Memories is now available to stream in its entirety exclusively on the iTunes Store (iTunes.com), providing fans their only means of hearing the album in advance of release date. The album stream will remain available until release day of May 21. The 13 track album, the duo’s first since 2005’s Human After All, is out May 21 on Columbia Records and features collaborations with Pharrell Williams, Julian Casablancas, Panda Bear, Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder, Paul Williams, Todd Edwards, Chilly Gonzales, and DJ Falcon, amongst others. Fans can also pre-order the album now on iTunes. Listen to the album here, iTunes.com/DaftPunk.

The album was preceded by the single “Get Lucky” featuring Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers, which hit #1 on digital charts in 55 countries including the US, UK and France.

Featuring some brilliant commentary from Moroder himself about “freeing your mind from ideas about music and harmony”, as well as the distinctive bass work of perhaps the best electric guitarists who ever existed (Nile Rodgers), this album is a mind-blowing experience. It’s smokin’ hot, as you will attest for yourself with just one listen. Be sure to check it out.

Georgio Moroder

Nile Rodgers

Who Loves the Sun: A Vivoscene Interview by Shane Scott-Travis

Something in Vancouver-based interdisciplinary performance artist prOphecy sun satiates a ravenous, art-bruised intellectual curiosity. Having always been the sort to devour art, books, and music, of the sort that detonate ideas like Roman candle bursts, crossing paths with sun is straight-up solace and an admission to sonic and artistic occurrence and inspiration.

Set to release her fourth solo album, Sleep Fever, on April 1st via the stylish experimental net label Panospria, as well as an onslaught of accompanying music videos, expect sun to subvert all expectations. And not only will she most assuredly be subversive, sun will spook the listener like the ghost of a reoccurring dream, suggesting a fading castle in the clouds and civilizations gone to ground. As the track “Follow Me” affects the audience, her artistic mystique redefines what it means to engage in musical genres. Blending dabs of R&B rhythms, minimalism, DIY electronics (including a modified homemade theremin), process-driven Eno-approved techniques and the adventurously anecdotal narrative to unheard of heights.

Like her other varied and ever-active projects, The Adulthood, Her Jazz Noise Collective, Spell, Tyranahorse, Under the Sun, and VEE, sun, somehow, never stops shining. That she’s now also an expectant mother adds another layer and deeper denotation to her role as a creative force. The term “prolific” is probably too tattered and timeworn to apply to one like sun’s ever-active oeuvre. Somehow, in all her activity sun made time to ensconce with Vivoscene and share some of her infectious optimism, ideas and her near-perfect purity of desire. She’s as radiant and refreshing as you’d expect, and then some.

How are you doing today? What’s new?

I’m well. Just, you know, trying to stay productive between hanging with the cats and enjoying naptime. I’m usually not much of a sleeper and now being preggo makes me love sleeping all the time, anywhere, anytime.

Wow. Add “new mom” to the pile of projects you’ve got on the go. Speaking of which you’ve got the aptly titled Sleep Fever ready to drop and a slough of videos, too. Please tell me about all this new material about to be released en masse.

Well, all the songs for Sleep Fever were captured live on my iPhone over the span of three days, while I meditated over sounds, never left the house, ate everything in sight and slept zombie-like between recordings. Over the last year and a bit I’ve started to collaborate with others to materialize my vocalizations and soundscapes. Creating visuals for my work is the same as the soundscapes themselves and the process is the most important, no matter what medium I work with.

I was thrilled when Blair Dykes (A Vancouver-based Indie filmmaker –Ed) approached me about working on a future project together. His eyes lit up when I responded with “how aboutnext week?” The “Follow me” video was born.

I like working on things and trying to do all the production and filming in one day. Gathering a talented/ trustworthy crew of friends to work on a video is also important. I’ve been lucky to have customer and set designer Kendra Patton on my side and make-up and hair artist Amy Teng on my side. They take my dream visions and make them reality.

For “Give Me” I netted the insanely funny director Brian Johnson, who had me climbing around and through a car. We scouted parting lots a week earlier and settled on this odd one in Chinatown. The day of filming was a fun challenge as it was insanely cold and rainy, but I came out the victor, though feeling hungry and on the whining with bruises on every part of my body (laughs).

I have 3 more forthcoming videos in various levels of production. “You Won’t Find Me” is conceptualized around a challenging relationship, glass jars and old bathtub with award-winning director Jem Garrard behind the camera. I had the pleasure of working on the solo video for “Moments Pass” and on Tyranahorse’s “Rumble Tumble” with her last year and her final products blew me away.

Photo copyright Victoria Johnson

You’re so busy with so many projects it just boggles my mind. I’ll never forget reviewing the last Spell EP you even handed over to me a jar of delicious jam you’d made. How do you find the time to keep so active and creative?

Thank you. Well we all gotta eat, right? Why not share time hanging out with friends who also just happen to all be part of a local canning collective? I love working on any project collaboratively. One of my passions is cooking for others.

I really don’t think I’m just a one-sided kind of person. I’ve always worked on multiple things at the same time. I feel that they all feed a need inside of me. I would be scared or bored if I couldn’t share these other parts of myself. I really feel like life is too short to just let dreams slip by. I feel the urge all the time to just do, make or create. I can’t explain it more than if I feel, hear, or visualize something, I just want and have to get it out of my head. If something is scary to me, well then that’s a part of myself that I need to have a serious conversation with. One day I want to look back and know that I tried…

I know your other bands have stuff going on, too. Can you elaborate?

Currently Tyranahorse is getting ready to release our third EP, Spell will be releasing a few more singles and the Adulthood is recording our first EP late Spring.

Photo copyright Ariel Kirk-Gushowaty

Do you think your ability to keep so busy, to create so much, is a result of living where you do? Could prOphecy sun do this if she was someplace else?

Wow! I think my drive is a key element here. I think every challenge is an opportunity awaiting to unfold. I think I’m very lucky to be surrounded by amazing and creative individuals whom all work in many mediums. I do think that positive energy attracts like-minded people, no matter where you live. I have travelled all over the world and still Vancouver holds this mini-town vibe that feels like home. I feel completely comfortable in my own skin. I do think, however, that it takes a lot of energy to find grounding no matter where you lay your head. I’ve had the pleasure finding out about different aspects of myself through near death accidents, heartbreak, partnerships and collaborations in this city. I seem to channel my experiences into art-making and along the way enjoy new levels of transformations.

Wow. Well, now I have to ask you something specific to Vancouver. Sometimes this place gets called “No Fun City” and I wonder if you, like I do, ever find yourself sticking up for this place?

I think that any city is what you make it. We are living around change. It’s silly to see how many glass towers are being built. I wonder who will live in them? Will I run into them while I’m gardening, riding my bike and hanging out at locally owned coffee shops?

I’m a firm believer in opening up yourself to people. Be yourself. Support your friends, your cat, your neighbours, rad shopping cart and bottle collectors, bus drivers, galleries, music shows, and youth. We are share this city and make it what it is. This coming August my neighbours and I will be hosting the 3rd annual all-day SIX FEST where we block off our street and have bands playing on porches, artists and dancers performing in the streets and food for everyone. So, truly, our city is what we make it.

When not making music or canning delicious preserves, what do you like to do?

I dream, garden, dance, make hand-sewn creatures, cook—I’m currently making tonnes of soups, watch films, spend hours cuddling with my cats, and now mostly dreaming of my new belly friend.

Well, I think you’re going to be the coolest mom ever, obviously. Now, apart from your musical accomplishments, what’s something you’ve done that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Thanks! Teaching movement and sound workshops to youth at rock camps make me warm and fuzzy.

Photo copyright Tristan Becker

There’s a lot of variety in the different musical acts and projects you pursue. I’m just curious who some of your musical influences might be?

Oh gosh, early childhood sounds of gongs and monks chanting—thanks dad! And also the Cocteau Twins, DV8, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, and Kate Bush.

I imagine there will be some touring in support of this release or at least some local gigs? Where do you fit in when you tour? What kinds of venues? Where do you like to perform?

Right now I’m taking a show break and letting my baby grow. Oh, well I guess also fitting in album recording, playing a fest in Quebec in May and doing a residency in Seattle for June.

Do you have any current fixations, not necessarily musical, that makes you enthusiastic?

Eating! Watching birds. Collecting chairs, street signs, and shopping carts from alleyways.

What does the future hold for prOphecy sun?

Writing a children’s book about a city of cats. Starting grad school at Emily Carr University. I will be working on a project called “the Moving Stories,” with a select few from around North America. Oh, and having a baby.

Do you consider your journey thus far to be a success?

Oh gosh, I feel like I’ve just started! Everyday a step forward.

************************************************************************************************************************************************
Artist website: http://prophecysun.ca

Check out prOphecy sun’s new album Sleep Fever here

Watch: “Give Me”

prOphecy sun in “Give me” from prOphecy sun on Vimeo.

Watch: “Follow Me”

prOphecy sun in “Follow me” from prOphecy sun on Vimeo.

A Vivoscene Feature Article by Shane Scott-Travis

A Dream in Sound

Where are we? What’s happening? What’s going on here? Straining to make out something, anything, in the quiet chasm that envelops you a wispy scrim suddenly dins, a sissing white noise. Something else penetrates the stillness, no, not a hum, something insect-like and altogether alien. Could it be the flapping of fantastic wings or maybe the purl of pinching mandibles?

“Recently I’ve been working with a lot of insect sounds and that’s been really strangely inspiring,” says Vancouver-based sound artist Kristen Roos, with a merry malice aforethought. In cahoots with Carleton University’s Neuroethology Lab in Ottawa, Roos has been honing in on acoustics created by bark beetles and caterpillars.

Photo at left: Females of the pine engraver beetle, Ips pini, produce acoustic signals using a vertex pronotum mechanism. From Jayne E. Yack, Ph. D. Lab, Carleton University.

“I challenge myself to come up with new ideas and to work with new mediums”, says Roos. “This insect project is delving into a whole other world of sound and science but also ends up being a multi-channel video work including five parts of caterpillar rhythms, a polyrhythmic piece where you can see in to the five different parts, with different video projections. It’s all pretty new to me, it’s really pushing me into new places. This is the sort of thing I try often to do.”

There’s an art-damaged air to Roos, particularly when underscoring the aspects of his work that have a sometimes oblique and obscure relationship to music qua music. As part of the celebrated and cerebral electronic duo, Spell, Roos’ oeuvre is tech- savvy, sure, but respectful to preexisting genres? Well, the answer is an inconsistent yes and no.

Often unearthing sounds found in nature or industrialized settings Roos’ work can be found in the avant-garde archive but also electronic, improvisatory, even the outsider niche, perhaps applies.

“I guess you could say the general theme of my work, recently, anyways, has been expanding people’s ideas as far as listening goes,” Roos enthuses. “I do workshops too, for kids and adults, consisting of listening exercises with sound, and these get people listening to things they wouldn’t normally listen to. It’s also through sound walks I do that accomplishes the same sorts of thing. Like, being quiet for an hour with people. Until you really do one it’s hard to realize how powerful and effective it can be—almost like doing a drug, or meditating—it gets you to this sort of concentrated level; an other consciousness. Listening closely with a group of people opens up parts of your brain that I think you don’t generally access all that much.”

For some it may be fair to suggest that seeking out art in this way, especially noise art, is to pursue ill-favoured and unpleasant challenges that embody a certain rejection of social norms rather than paying such ideas lip service. A sort of nihilism that offers uneasy challenges. Or, more simply, Roos type of art and inkling makes people pause, give thought, and take part.

“A lot of the material that I collect with sound recorders points to things that aren’t heard or that people don’t pay attention to. It’s not just about collecting it but also about pointing things out to people and expanding peoples consciousness and opening their level of listening. Most of my work is interested in those ideas and breaking things apart that maybe we take for granted.”

Running the gamut from listening to sunny sounds in your neighbourhood to needling high-end pitches, industrial cacophonies, dull-aches of low end throbs, capturing, collecting and sharing aberrant sounds can be about as far away from sing-a-long choruses and power chord anthems as you can get. Roos, the sound artist, is at the margins of musicality, both below music and above it at the same time.

Pet Sounds

“We met through a festival called Square Waves, which was basically a bunch of people who were doing electronic music,” says Roos, of his introduction to prolific musician and performance artist, PrOphecy Sun, the other half of his innovative Spell. “We were both collaborating with other people and I liked what she was up to so I just asked her if she wanted to jam. Right away I was recording vocal experiments with her doing these droning sci-fi inspired soundscapes. It turned in to our first EP.”

The net label Panospria, who specialize in electronic and experimental music, was quick to back up Spell, who released their debut EP, Hex to great acclaim in 2011. Last year’s follow-up, Lull, broke even more ground, garnering glowing praise.

“We’re sort of akin to Cocteau Twins, I guess, like, some nice drum machine sounds there,” says Roos, fingers running through his hair as he tries to relate Spell to something a more traditional music audience might grab hold of. “There’s a fair bit of that shoegazing stuff from the 90s in our sound, so maybe PrOphecy and I kind of fit in to that. There’s sort of a new wave-ish or what some people are calling cold wave or witch wave, whatever that stuff means,” with that Roos laughs amicably.

Drawn from bewilderingly wide territory, territories where there aren’t any maps, is Roos’ and Sun’s playful and serious Spell. Their creations are an amalgam of poetics, DIY electronics and technology; lo-fi recordings, arbitrary snippets of media, audio cut-ups, bizarre, William S. Burroughs-like strangeness coupled with avant-garde ideology, creating an expansive mélange of traditions both musical, exploratory, and otherwise.

“PrOphecy and I work pretty quickly,” Roos reveals with a sensible smile. “She throws vocals down on stuff that I’ve made, she’s pretty amazing and in the moment. Usually she’ll come over and have some books with her or a newspaper or something and just find something on the spot, and come up with lyrics. It works out well and I feel that a lot of her personal experience surfaces because of who she is, like I said, a very in the moment person.”

There’s an inescapable art-chic eclecticism to the music Spell casts, and though that may sound imposing or feigned, it isn’t. “Guided Highways” for instance, haunts, especially when Sun’s whispery lullaby visits like a sad spirit over Roos deliberate, ghostly glitches. There’s something sacrosanct in the auditory collages they conspire too, something unworldly, which might explain the holy ambiance it creates and why so much of Roos’ work finds itself in museums and galleries.

The Sound and the Fury

“There’s a gallery in Quebec City, Le Lieu, where I’ll have a sound installation in May,” says Roos. “It’s a really site-specific work, it’s ephemeral and about place and time. I’ve had this idea for a while now and Le Lieu is accepting of this kind of sound art. I’ll arrive there and be collecting sounds from the space for a week before the show, using a combination of varying mics and a receiver to collect frequencies, WiFi, cell phones, that sort of thing. I’ll use those sounds and those of the building, the cars that go by and rattle the windows, whatever else I can find. I’ll also put these tactile transducers which are originally sold to vibrate your couch for home theatre, and attach those to the walls and see how they vibrate the space. There will be a combination of composing with the sounds and also reintroducing the sounds to the space to hear how the space responds to them.”

After Le Lieu, Roos will be participating in the Transmission Art Symposium in Toronto as well as focusing on works in his recently acquired artist residency in the Hadden Park Field House in Vancouver.

And still Roos’ musical muse will also be getting a boost. Panospria, who just released a new Spell single, “No Matter,” will also be releasing a bunch of recordings Roos made for a collaboration with the 605 Collective, a Vancouver-based dance troupe.

“Yeah, it was a challenging pairing to work with a dance company for a lot of reasons,” Roos agrees. “When I make music I’m not really thinking of other people having to find cues in it or count certain points, so it got me being very exact about certain movements in the music and keeping timing. There was a lot of music that I made there and it’s going to come out this Spring. Then I guess we’ll have to see how soon before Spell does another EP or whatever,” teases Roos. “There are no plans yet but its great working with PrOphecy so you can expect to hear more from us.”

Be it with his odd sound experimenting or his more wonted work as a solo artist or his share in Spell, Roos blazes brightly, a comet of enchanting exception casting a strange inescapable light.

Watch: “Guided Highways”

Hear: ” No Matter” by Spell

Visit the Kristen Roos website here

Hear more of Spell on SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/s-p-e-l-l

Photo Credits: Photos of Kristen Roos and Spell, above, copyright by Angela Fama www.angelafama.com

Pick a Piper is one of Canada’s most compelling dance-electronica projects. Spearheaded by Caribou’s Brad Weber, who is ably assisted by Angus Fraser and Dan Roberts, among others, their music is a synthesis between, in their words, “the organic and the synthetic”. Brad lists their influences as Turkish psychedelic rock and organic dance music, as well as the usual bedroom electronica artists. Pick a Piper has released two Eps to date and have a full-length self-titled album nearing completion, due out in early April 2013 on Mint Records.

Weber produced the project as well, showcasing his considerable studio abilities. He called in members of the Ruby Suns, Enon/Brainiac (John Schmersal), Born Ruffians, and Braids to assist. Schmersal in particular does an outstanding job on “All Her Colours”; as the lead guitarist for the Dayton, Ohio synthpunk group Brainiac he went on to become a founding member of Enon.

And speaking of “All Her Colours” the vid for this powerful composition was recently released. It’s a triumph of artistic imagination, visual complexity, and integration with the music. Scroll down below for a highly memorable experience!

We look forward to reviewing the album in its entirety upon release. You may audition “Lucid in Fjords” from the upcoming album, as well as several tracks from their previous EPs here, courtesy of SoundCloud.

Watch “All Her Colours”

Pick a Piper – All Her Colours (feat John Schmersal) from abandon building on Vimeo.

All roles played by Liz Kelly.
Crafted and animated by Sarah Winters and Matt Yarrington.

It’s a conceptual scifi album that follows the adventures of Kyra, a unique and mysterious character who holds the key to our fate. Something is closing in on the Earth. What is it? What is its purpose? What will happen to Earth? Discover the storyline, full of surprises and mysteries, as we follow Kyra on an epic journey to find her purpose, faith and destiny throughout the album.

The album consists of a 12-page booklet with original artwork, 70 minutes of music with 12 brand new tracks and a Bonus track.

This new album explores even further the sound of the previous album Melotronical, pushing it beyond the boundaries of the Electronic Progressive Metal genre. Expect poignant melodies, heavy passages balanced by atmospheric parts, rhythmical changes and instrumental sections that are sure to delight all who appreciate the genre.

Track highlights are the explosive “Neutron Star”, the epic “Join Us into Sound”, the powerful “Dark Season” featuring Magali Luyten, the beautiful Seashore Dreams (cd includes the full version of this track ~7 min) and “Angel Tears” featuring great interaction and duets between Jessica and Raquel Schüler.

Hugo Flores also decided to remake an older song called “Playing the Universe”, now revamped by Jessica’s vocals, that perfectly fits the storyline.

The brand new album features amazing guest vocalists and musicians. Check them out:

Magali Luyten (www.magali-luyten.com) of Beautiful Sin, Ayreon, Epysode – Vocals

Raquel Schüler of Hydria (www.hydria.com.br) – Vocals

Lyris Hung of HUNG (www.lyrishung.com) – Violin

Chris Brown (www.csbrownmusic.com) of Ghost Circus and Roswell Six – Guitar

Tadashi Goto (www.tadashi-goto.com) – Keyboards

Shawn Gordon of Psychic for Radio (www.therecordlabel.net) – Keyboards

Narration by Mark Ashby, Angela Merrithew & Nathan Ashby
Produced by Progrock Records & Hugo Flores, mixed and composed by Hugo Flores
Mastered by Chris Brown
Artwork by Venefica Luna of https://www.facebook.com/circleofwolvesjewellery

Factory of Dreams is:
Hugo Flores – Music / Instruments/ Sounds / Production
Jessica Lehto – Lead vocals, vocal harmonies / arrangements

Track List
1 – Prelude
2 – Strange Sounds
3 – Escaping the Nightmare
4 – Angel Tears
5 – Seashore Dreams
6 – Dark Season
7 – Sound War
8 – Hope Garden
9 – Travelling
10 – The Neutron Star
11 – Join Us into Sound
12 – Playing the Universe
13 – Seashore Dreams (BONUS video version)

You can PREORDER the 4th album for a $2 discount @ http://www.therecordlabel.net/progressive-rock/factory-of-dreams/some-kind-of-poetic-destruction

And check out the trailer video here:

A Vivoscene Featured Review by Megan McClean

Vivoscene rating 7.7

Jake Ridley, the man behind bassDrumsnareDrum, is back with his second EP, Blue Moon. Since the release of his debut EP, Pause/Rewind, Ridley’s been busy producing music for a British feature film and collaborating with other London artists. But don’t worry, Ridley’s been working on his own music as well.

Blue Moon showcases his distinguished chilled-out electronic sounds and experiments with more upbeat tempos. The three-song record begins with an instrumental number, named after the EP. A catchy synth carries you through the track, progressing from minimalist melodies to a complex and well-structured combination of sounds. It’s an intricate instrumental. Its complex sound must have required a lot of thought yet it manages to come off as a breeze for Ridley to weave together.

The second number “Death by You” was first released as a single in the U.K. It starts with a consistent synth beat until Ridley starts toying with different melodies to build on the first, as he does so well. Then calm descends as t Nefera’s haunting vocals advance, carried by the entrancing synth. This song etches away from bassDrumsnareDrum’s signature chilled-out vibes. It’s an upbeat number that’s rhythm works perfectly with Nefera’s voice. Her voice singing about the mixed emotions she has for a man coexists with the repetitive and coiling synth. As she coos, “I feel my body craving, anticipating death by you,” the melody evolves, building to a sharp launch into an up-tempo rhythm. As with his last EP, Ridley uses his musical expertise to compliment the vocals of the artists he collaborates with.

The final sound, “2013,” is a punchy tune that takes you back in time. It begins by resembling a disco hit from the 80s until bDsD’s zippy synth creeps in before it takes over the next five minutes with intense electro. A drum beats kicks in and you are swirled around in a zippy ride reaching hypnotic peaks until Ridley pulls you back down for a moment of chilled-out riffs. “2013” exhibits bDsD’s strengths, his gift for building up layers of sound and knowing when to break it back down to the basics.

Ridley certainly hasn’t been slacking off these past few months. This progressive EP demonstrates his strong and unique electronic sound while experimenting with other styles of blending sounds.

Who knows what Ridley’ next step will be; all I know is that I‘ll be awaiting it with eager anticipation.

You may audition the entire EP Blue Moon here, courtesy of SoundCloud:

A Vivoscene Feature Review by Brian Miller

Vivoscene rating 8.5

The recent activity of Radiohead had their millions of fans wondering what would happen next for the undeniably brilliant group of guys who had dominated intelligent popular music for going on twenty years. Their fine album, The King Of Limbs, broke followers into two distinct camps: those who loved it and those who thought its (to the disappointed) lack of thematic clarity hardly compensated for the admirable sonic sheen. Hence the considerable buzz surrounding the frontman’s side project: Amok Thom Yorke’s new collaborative project named, perhaps permanently, Atoms For Peace. It should not only satisfy both camps but bring along the curious musos who spend their time haunting other genres. The project derives its name equally from a 1950s quote by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and also from a song on the 2006 York solo album The Eraser. And as for the album title, Amok summons up emotions and images that somewhat contradict the concentrated interior focus of the compositions.

Yorke utilizes longtime producer Nigel Godrich, as well as Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, “guest percussionist” Mauro Refosco and REM’s Joey Waronker. The collaboration came together in Lost Angeles (yes, you’ve got that right) in several sessions characterized by a freely admitted common love of “getting wasted … and listening to Fela Kuti”.

The instrumentation, particularly the bass work and drumming, is superb throughout. Yorke’s vocals manage to be both simultaneously dreamy and direct. In fact, it came to mind several times throughout auditioning these tracks that there is no one else in popular music that does what Yorke can do. Spellbinding, melodic electronica with human warmth as an essential ingredient? – an oxymoron for most other established electronica groups. In decades past Talking Heads and Brian Eno pointed the way. In recent years only James Blake has managed the feat, and he might be excused for that achievement considering his youth. But with Amok, Thom Yorke has done something quite magnificent. The album is an organic whole of dazzling composition and swirling complexity that simply demands to be played again and again.

Yes, it’s heavily influenced by Afro-beat, but we wouldn’t also be surprised if Yorke has steeped himself lately in free-form jazz, going back to Miles and Coltrane. Sheets of electronic sound wash over the listener, while Yorke’s voice dredges up images of Miles playing long muted lines in a smoky club, fusing classical and jazz and funk.

Flaws? – you pick ‘em out. We’re in sonic heaven.

For the next few days, you may audition the entire Amok album here, courtesy of the npr music First Listen program (a site we love):

Track Listing:

1. Before Your Very Eyes
2. Default
3. Ingenue
4. Dropped
5. Unless
6. Stuck Together Pieces
7. Judge, Jury and Executioner
8. Reverse Running
9. Amok

A Vivoscene Feature Review by Harley Cassidy

Vivoscene rating 7.5

A$AP Rocky: championer of randomly placed currency signs, master of A-list guests and self-confessed “pretty motherfucker”. And it’s only his first album I hear you gasp? Well, yes. Aside from 2011 mixtape “LiveLoveA$AP”, Mr. Rakim Mayers has managed to create something of a furore surrounding this hotly anticipated debut. It hails from Harlem and boasts a pretty sturdy backbone of a powerhouse roll call featuring the likes of Drake, Florence Welch, Yelawolf, Joey Bada$$ and Skrillex.

A$AP’s rags to riches ride is the major theme of this album, especially on “Hell”, a nifty little collaboration with Santigold in which she plays on a nice MIA style hook whilst Rocky claims “We use to wear rugged boots, now it’s all tailored suits”. The title track is just as keen on pushing the obscurity to fame tale in our faces, delivering chunky, screwed down beats, an unexpected falsetto break by A$AP and the rather predictable, rap-assuming lyrics that are tied so tightly to hip-hop’s flagpole.

In terms of production, Long.Live.A$AP cannot be faulted. Rocky made the rather wise choice of handpicking a selection of music’s finest record producers including Grammy Award winning Jim Jonsin, Usher collaborator Rico Love and California native Hit-Boy amomgst others. However, some would assume that all this friendly co-working with big names is somehow compensating for what very little A$AP Rocky actually has to give. They would be right. A$AP Rocky has a lot to prove out there and with fellow New York alumni Angel Haze stepping on his toes he needs to be more computed than ever.

It’s not like the songs are bad, as each is a little gem in its own right; but lyrically A$AP is more predictable than a Rocky plot. He cusses the haters, (“quit the riffraff, bitchin’ with yo’ bitch ass”) brags about all the money he has attained and generally fabricates on the generic rap caricature. Just like most other rappers. Same old, same old, right? If Rocky could work on his wordsmith skills he could well and truly be onto something. Rap is a big game to play but A$AP stands out with his two singles; “Goldie” and “Fuckin’ Problems”. “Goldie” is a comatose sounding, sinister piece with a background of intentional vocal distortions and a reverberating chant. It’d be pure genius if it wasn’t for the, oh wait, calculable lyrics. Once again. They don’t stop either on “Fuckin’ Problems” which features possibly the most catchily dirty hook from 2Chainz and a verse apiece from up and coming wonderkid Kendrick Lamar and current rap heavyweight Drake.

Fusing 90s old school, freaky, futuristic beats and a rich menu of unique sounds, Long.Live.A$AP should’ve been better. A$AP already has a BBC Sound of 2012 and MTV US Artist About To Go Global nominations under his belt and it would seem quixotically stupid to suggest that Rocky is going anywhere other than up in his career. But perhaps a little more depth next time please?

You may audition the entire album here, courtesy of Rdio:

Riding the first wave of DJs that emerged from Diplo’s Hollerboard site in the mid 2000s, Pete Emes and Mike Grimes, aka Smalltown DJs have played shows across the globe from Fabric in London, to Paris & Helsinki; from U-Hall in DC, to Brooklyn to LA. With highlights that include a one-year DJ stint in Las Vegas and performing at Sean White’s gold medal party at the Olympics in Vancouver. After some production success with Smalltown Romeo, a collaboration project with Shad, their track “Boom Ha” was featured in the HBO show “Girls” and in the Jonah Hill movie “The Sitter”. The video deserves another round it’s that good –so check it here below>

This year has been a busy one for the Calgary producers. They released four tracks including “Love Decoy” with Bonjay songstress Alanna Stewart, “Loving the Vibe” featuring Trigga Nom (T&A Records); “Blow” (on Sabo’s Sol Selectas) and “Wicked” with Willy Joy (No Brainer Records). Listen here:

These tunes have been played by DJs around the planet namely A-Trak, Diplo, Toddla T, Sinden, Annie Mac, and more. With a new single “Good People” coming on November 20th (out on T&A) and a full-length planned for the new year, this production duo is really set to break through.

The Smalltown DJs have toured relentlessly this year with stops at SXSW, the Winter Music Conference and then a run of festivals that included the Mad Decent Block Party Toronto, Shambhala, Basscoast and VEMF. Don’t miss them on their next Canadian tour with Grandtheft.

SMALLTOWN DJS TOUR

Oct 25th – Memorial University, St John’s NFLD
Oct 26th – The Hoxton, Toronto ON
Oct 31st – Mount Royal University, Calgary AB
Nov 2nd – The Central, Fernie BC
Nov 3rd – Spirit Bar, Nelson BC
Nov 15th – Green Room, Winnipeg MN
Nov 16th – Louis, Saskatoon SK
Nov 29th – Mercer Tavern, Edmonton AB
Nov 30th – Sapphire, Kelowna BC
Dec 1st – Heartbreaker’s, Prince George BC
Dec 13th – 9ONE9, Victoria BC
Dec 14th – Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver BC
Dec 15th – GLC, Whistler BC
Dec 16th – Aurora, Banff AB

Smalltown DJs on Facebook here

A Vivoscene Feature Article by Jason Schreurs

“You can hear them, but when you walk by they shut the fuck up!” – Skrillex referring to his detractors as “crickets” in a 2011 interview with mixmag.com

It’s easy to trash-talk Skrillex. For as long as music has existed, it’s been simple to blacklist and denounce skilled musicians that we either don’t understand or don’t want to understand. Before I was assigned to review Skrillex’s debut EP, My Name Is Skrillex, for one of my freelance outlets, I was of the opinion that all DJs were coked-out hacks who made a career out of spinning other artists’ music and wearing glow bracelets around the brim of their sideways-turned hats, while dancing and hand-gesturing like douche-bag marionettes. Not real musicians.

Skrillex changed my misconceptions and preconceptions. And it all took was some splicing and dicing, some sampling and mixing and mashing. And, yes, a kid named Sonny Moore who probably spent every waking moment since quitting the emo-core boy band From First to Last in 2007 holed away in his bedroom, writing the music that would soon be changing our whole landscape.

“Bangarang.” We’ve all heard it, at least a dozen times. It’s replaced “Girls, Girls, Girls” at the go-to stripper pole tune. It’s that song that every jacked-up truck in every small town in North America seems to keep on repeat for those daytime jaunts to the lake and those nighttime Budweiser runs. It’s the song my kids always want me to wake them up with in the morning, like a tricked-out alarm clock. My friends hate when I say this, probably because I say it all of the time, but “Bangarang” is this generation’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” I know, you all hate that, but deal with it. And how dare I compare Sonny Moore to the genius of Kurt Cobain, right? Well, guess what folks, Sonny Moore has more talent than Cobain ever had. And guess also what? He’s. Not. Dead.

I rated the debut Skrillex EP four out of five stars. I was being generous. It wasn’t fully developed, but I was so endeared by this kid’s energy and enthusiasm that I got carried away and just kind of went for it. It was like the time when my oldest son made me a pottery trinket jar and it was all misshapen and twisted, but it was so original and cool looking that I just had to hug him tight and trust that someday this kid would be an artistic genius. Four years later he was doing paintings that blew my mind and designing side-scrolling video games that should have had Nintendo battering down our doors.

Skrillex was/is a wunderkind. His second EP, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, was a beast of epic proportions. Sure, the underground will claim that he was just aping those dubstep, drum ‘n’ bass and [insert countless other electronic subgenres here] legends that came before him. I won’t be listing names.

But, in actuality, Sonny Moore took everything he knew about the dance-floor and kinda threw it out the window. This was a kid raised in Los Angeles and San Francisco, bouncing between punk rock shows in the urban cores and raves and dance parties in the suburbs. The kind of kid who early in the night, after grabbing the most authentic burrito in the Santa Ana, would hit The Locust and Jenny Piccolo show at Koo’s Cafe, then much later go and dance to Spice Girls with a different set of friends over a half-dozen Smirnoff Ices* (*This very well may have happened). The rules followed by most DJs in the dance scene didn’t really apply to this particular young fellow.

And so came the notoriety, and the groupies and the haters. And real fast-like. When I met Skrillex at a sold-out Toronto show a few years back, he was the most humble person I’d ever encountered in my music coverage travels. He invited me backstage after reading my review of his first EP, and was stoked that the punk rock publication for which I wrote would be covering his stuff. I explained that due to his start in the punk/hardcore/emo crybaby scene with From First to Last, there would always be interest from the underground in what he was doing. He smiled, lit a smoke, closed the dressing room door to keep out any hacks or hos (of which there were copious amounts in the room next door, hanging out with Nero), and offered me a glass of whiskey. We hung out, chatted a bit, kinda did some deep breaths together, and then I decided to leave him with his thoughts. Sonny Moore hugged me, thanked me for my review and sent me off into the night. It felt like I had just caught up with my eccentric nephew, the one with the unfortunate haircut and the wonderful smile.

Of course, we all know that Skrillex is one of the hottest things going in music right now. Mention his name in any circle and you’re bound to get some sort of reaction. The 65,000-plus who saw him at the Festival d’Ete in Quebec City, the largest outdoor music festival in North America, in the summer of 2012 (myself included) experienced a performance that transcended music genres, an event that they would be hard-pressed to ever wipe from their memory banks, no matter how drunk or high or heat-stroked they were that particular night.

Skrillex, like all great musical artists, has the power to bring people together over a common cause. And even though I don’t completely understand what that common cause is, besides saving the world one rump-shake and “no, no, no” hand gesture at a time, what really matters is that we can all be together and connect with each other. Hate all you want, trash-talk until all of the big-wheel monster trucks have run out of the earth’s supply of petrol and we’re all running around like the misfits in Mad Max-land, but Skrillex is the future of music. And he’s damn well going to save it.

“I never really even hear these haters’ views, mainly because I don’t have much time for the Internet. I go to shows and all I see is love.” – Skrillex quote from a 2011 interview with mixmag.com

Here are a few essential Skrillex songs you won’t be hearing on the dance floor (unless your DJ is really fucking rad):

“With You Friends” from My Name Is Skrillex
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that this one is inspired by Sonny Moore’s love for everything related to the Spice Girls.

“Scatta” from Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
Featuring UK rappers Foreign Beggars and British DJ Bare Noize, this is the kind of track you’d expect from grimey limeys, not some pimply kid from northern California.

“Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Zedd remix)” from Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
Straight-up circus music, remixed by a German DJ who I once referred to in a live review as the “Justin Timberlake of dubstep.”

“This Is The Shark Attack (Skrillex remix)”
Sometimes I think Skrillex is just fucking with us with some of these remixes. This one is for those late-night MDMA binges.

“Get Up (Skrillex remix)” from Korn’s The Path of Totality
The first time I heard Skrillex’s collaboration with nu-metal originators Korn, I made a massive stink-face and thought, “You have got to be fucking kidding me?!” Now I often listen to this song when I brush my teeth in the morning to get pumped for the impending day.

“Kyoto (featuring Sirah)” from Bangarang
Would be a slamming dance-floor tune, but it all depends on whether your DJ wants to risk playing the same track for over 26 minutes. I would.

Watch: Korn featuring Skrillex “Get Up”

Hear: Our Skrillex playlist (Missing is “This Is The Shark Attack” – not available through Rdio)