Thursday Throwback – March 3, 2011

For this throwback I present to you an absolute classic from the heyday of the production duo Ed Rush & Optical (c. 99):

You’ve got to love the calmness yet creepiness of the intro, the way the initial bassline breathes, and of course the riff at about 3:20 (although it wears a bit thin by the second half, but I can forgive this because everything else about this track is top-notch).

As I recall, the labels on my vinyl copy of this were actually flipped, so for the longest time I was under the impression that this side was “Bacteria” (I’m still half-convinced that might be the case 😉

To be honest I’m not sure how many times I actually played this track in a set – maybe once or twice as an opener? I think I’ll have to increase that number soon.

Thursday Throwback – Feb 24, 2011

I was hoping to cover a few other techy drum & bass artists before coming back to Kemal and/or Rob Data, but screw it…

I remember when this track came out in 2002. I was living in Montreal at the time. I specifically remember listening to it on my crappy little 128 MB MP3 player on the way to work – a metro ride and then a walk in the frigid death cold winter. I also remember Optiv (of C4C) playing it around the same time-frame at some club.

That’s my story. End of post.

Thursday Throwback – Feb 17, 2011

This week’s throwback is a track from Seba & Paradox. Vocals are courtesy of Robert Manos, who’s done several tracks with Seba, and occasionally Paradox.This is the “Version” version (go figure). The A side is much more vocal.I originally came across this tune on vinyl when it was released (2005) and was so close to buying it, but thought, “Nah, it’s not really my style, I won’t play it”. Funny how things change though – I just played the digital copy of this a couple nights ago.

FuturePresent.ca Launch Party

SnugSound and Zoo Productions present:
FuturePresent.ca Official Launch Party!

Friday March 4th, 2011 – Victor’s Bar & Grill
10PM – $8/door – 19+ w/ ID

Two rooms crammed full of East Coast electronic music talent, featuring:
KONFLIKT (Ch’town)
TEKTRIC (LyrA & JustinCredible – Halifax debut!)
TAKEABATH 
MOLDYLOX 
SNUG 
DVD 
P-80

Exclusive giveaway: as part of the launch we’ll be giving members, both new and old, a giveaway pack containing exclusive mixes and tracks by East Coast DJs and producers. Members of the board can download give-away content via this link, or you can preview it on SoundCloud.

More mixes and tracks will be added on a regular basis.

Thursday Throwback – Feb 10, 2011

Here’s a summery-sounding throwback to warm you up on this grey wintry day. This is probably one of my favourite cuts off of Klute’s 2004 album No One’s Listening Anymore, and definitely one of my Klute favs in general.

While most components of the tracks are pretty simplistic I think they come together quite well and I’d even venture to say its greater than the sum of its individual parts. And who could forget the pièce de résistance: the very up-lifting modulation from Dm to Fm. (Just don’t try harmonic mixing during these parts, hehe 😉

Check it out…

Also, don’t forget about the YouTube playlist!

Thursday Throwback – Jan 27, 2011

Going to mix things up a bit this week and share one of my favourite techno tracks by one of my favourite techno producers.

I think what draws me to this track is the fact that it’s so atypical for techno:

  1. It has a predominant bassline, and a unique one at that. It’s a little bit funky and really drives the track along.
  2. It evolves nicely – starting off very restrained but opening up noticeably by about 2 mins in.
  3. It has a melodic hook, another thing which isn’t particularly common in techno

Here it is, c. 1998:

(I also like that this rip has some audible vinyl pops & clicks 😉

FYI, Icarus is actually a pseudonym of Joel Mull. Here is another more recent track by him which I find has a similar aesthetic (and would also make my list of favourite techno tracks).

P.S. I would love to know what the vocoded sample at the start is saying – something about “all my homeys”? Haha. Tell me what you think.

P.P.S. I’ve started a playlist for the throwbacks I find on YouTube

Thursday Throwback – Jan 20, 2011

Happy Thursday! This week’s throwback is a track by yours truly, circa 2003. Surprisingly, I didn’t have renders of many tracks from this period, so I only had a few to choose from.

It’s always fun to go back and listen to how I’ve progressed – or in some cases haven’t! – over the past few years. I find most of my tracks from this period to be a bit underdeveloped. This is probably one of my stronger ideas, but as you can hear the track may be a bit longer than justified (the third drop at the end is probably unnecessary, haha). Suffice to say I’ll forgive you if you jump ahead in places 😉

One of these days I’d like to dig up more old tracks, polish them/refine them and either give them a proper release or give them away. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime I’ve posted a few others, as-is, on my SoundCloud.