Digitalcasm Daily Play #33

Sola Sistem by Underworld

Real Quick

I've been falling slightly behind on posts these past couple of weeks.  Things have picked up a bit for work, and I've been spending more time preparing for some of my first solo gigs with  the company I've been DJing and Emceeing for.  Have also been ramping up and preparing for a show with one of the bands I play keyboard for. To boot, some other obligations that are catching up with me, and my time management skills aren't super great.  This has meant that I haven't had the time to sit down and properly focus on seeking out cool tunes and writing about them for a coupla days.  But today's tune. Man.

Digitalcasm Daily Play #30

That Smooth by Eric Hodges

About this guy

Eric Hodges is a producer, composer, recording engineer, out of Los Angeles.

Soundcloud

Why I like this

That Smooth, according to his soundcloud description "cannot be described in words! You can only hear it in your soul."  I don't know about what you are feeling in your soul, but this track is a hard thing to describe.  That Smooth has elements of jazz, and experimental electronic music.  All the strangest samples are cut short by a hilariously thin and quiet clap noise before cutting to some soulful keyboard riffs, and then finally to that squeaky sound an inflated balloon sometimes makes when you rub it.  Eric has made something that draws a perfect line between weird schizo electronic music, and good hip hop jazz and funk.  This is a rad track, and your ears will agree.  

See you tomorrow.

Digitalcasm Daily Play #22

Shinkansen Girl  by Katsucurrytime

About these guys

According to Soundcloud, Katsucurrytime is based out of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, and has produced music inspired by the Akiba arcade scene in Japan.  Seems legit.

Website  -  Facebook  -  Soundcloud  -  Itunes

Why I like this

For Some reason Shinkansen Girl reminds me of Super Metroid and is part of a self titled three track EP.  It has a good hook, and an unusual chord progression that definitely makes you wax nostalgic for 16 bit sidescrollers.  With Shinsansen Girl, Katsu has re-imagined that experience as if these games were  played in dark dingy clubs with smoke machines, instead of on the living room floor with bottles of Squirt, and your neighbor friend.

See you tomorrow.

Digitalcasm Daily Play #7

Untrust by fuckmylife (Joel Zimmerman)

 

About this guy

Fuckmylife aka Joel Zimmerman aka Deadmou5.  Funny enough, I didn't know any of that until after I heard the track.
Website  -  Facebook  -  Soundcloud  

Why I like this

Untrust is the kind of song that reminds me why I love electronic music.  With a nice ambient start and an unusual chord progression this track builds and "effortlessly" morphs in to electronica bliss.   Untrust has a pattern of five chords, and begins building in to a pulsating cacophony.  In fact the music keeps getting to a  point where I'm sure things have reached their ceiling.  But instead of stopping, or changing, or going to a drum break, something interesting happens. Untrust keeps growing.  It keeps intensifying beyond what I thought was possible for good commercial sounding music. It sounds like it's purposely messing with my expectations, and it kind of gives me the impression that the music is breaking through a ceiling.  Here are two metaphors that help describe how this song makes me feel:

1.  Listening to Untrust is like watching the status bar for an internet download go to a hundred percent, then stop for a second before the little green or blue line bursts through the edge of the window and starts spilling out on to the desktop for a while before abruptly stopping and five or six hundred percent. 
2. Listening to Untrust is like seeing that point when Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk.  That transition point when he begins to outgrow his clothes, his sleeves rip as his chest and biceps enlarge.  Only it's happening more slowly than we see in the movies.  Its that transition point when you watch something grow and are at the same time aware that something old and previous, that no longer suits is being shedded.  

Well, I guess i'm a Deadmau5 fan now.  See you tomorrow!

Digitalcasm Daily Play #5

Switch On by Electroconductor

About this guy

Electroconductor is an electronica producer based out of the U.K.  The real man behind this track is Arlo Giunchi.  His influences mirror my own, including film soundtracks, alternative rock and left field dance music.

Website  -  Soundcloud  -  Facebook  -  Itunes

Why I like this

Switch On is great for a number of reasons.  It starts with some ambient synth sounds and immediately begins evolving in to a very unique blend of drum and percussive beats that are extremely articulate and  cut up really well--making it easy to sink in to the complex groove EC has laid down. Very mellow electronica chords join in and start getting cut up along with the beats and suddenly things are very deep, but without my ears struggling to find something to latch on to, and without sounding pretentious.  Switch on is  full of movement, and definitely progressive in that you don't end up close to where you begin by the time the track plays through.  Listening to it feels like Arlo is trying cover a lot of ground in three minutes, unlike simple Chorus/Verse/Verse/Bridge type music where a few simple ideas are expressed over and over.  At the same time this is not experimental music (like a lot of this type of music ends up sounding) everything that happens sonically in this track comes off polished, deliberate, and with extremely nice transitions.  It feels like a very thoughtful tour of EC's world of sounds, and is another great Daily Play addition.

Other artists that came to mind while I was listening to this: Bluetech, Spacetime Continuum, Squarepusher, Underworld, Eric Serra.