Cryst▲llized is an artist from London creating some brilliant and I mean brilliant bass heavy epic drifting beat and soundscape masterpieces, "post dubstep" is a phrase that does this dude down this is sonically awesome, melodic and beautiful and almost danceable. Sometimes it leads you down a path of dark skies and collapsing brooks all dreamy next it's rave dubstep beat is almost eclipsed by post-rock landscape guitar wafting in all of a sudden then a garage beat scrambles up, then its lost. Listen with headphones while absailing down the Eiffel Tower. There are three free downloads to grab from Soundcloud so go get.
"This video is made from more than 50 infinitely looping GIFS. Trapped in the gaps of the loops we can see undead sweethearts Jeremy and Elizabeth, invisible to the other revelers and stuck at their own party F O R E V E R."
..Damn, leave an idea long enough and someone else does it!
As the last few days of 2011 play out and NYE peaks on the horizon for tomorrow, anyone DJing will want to find something awesome to drop at some point.. now while these might not be midnight bangers they sure are way cool.
Stoned Boys just recently released their first full length album and its all free to download off their Soundcloud page!! Called Dangerous Skies its a dystopian hyper pop, strobe friendly future wonder. A glorious blissed out rave masterpiece that leaps and jitters it's way through a world of inverted suns and tweaking death rays, blasting the dancefloor clean.
Awesome video for DyE's new single, Fantasy. "Directed by animation wunderkind Jérémie Périn, the video tells the story of a group of highschool kids ready for teenage mischief. They break into the local swimming pool intending a session of innocent nightswimming, in an awkward climate of romance and apprehension. What happens next is for you to discover here." NSFW.
I've been meaning to blog this EP from Textbeak for ages, around 24 minute long and comprising of 4 tracks the EP, called Indiglo, is an intense and ethereal experiment in ambient, experimental downbeat and Witch House. Sonically beautiful it, runs through industrial soundscapes of off kiter beaat and slow wondrous drips and swooshes, lost in a maze of fog and Draged beats, close and only just there it rolls into your brain as if by mistake, setting up camp and declaring an Occupy protest in your senses. Go get it from Bandcamp now.
CULT goes Seapunk! One of the coolest club nights on the planet lends its support to this emerging genre/lifestyle choice. Just remember zeitgeist fly by night internet genres are the new punk. If you don't get it then you're not onboard! Facebook event here.
Like some of modern Austrian Bat For Lashes, Monsterheart powers into place with a killer 6 track EP called S/T thats some incessant childlike magic land of darkness, lo-fi garage pop and feral wild girl feelings, like some kind of fairy tale character on speed doing 60s girl group produced by an 80s goth, ..that's Monsterheart. Signed to Seayou Entertainment her EP is available from Bandcamp for 4 euros. Get it. There's also a free download to get from Soundcloud.
#2K12 WILL BE THE YEAR OF ENLIGHTENMENT. RELIGIOUS WALLS WILL FALL, SOCIAL OPPRESSION WILL BURST AND THE MIND WILL BE REPLENISHED AS WE WILL NO DOUBT ENTER THE AGE OF AQUARIUS LATER IN THE YEAR.
THE KEDZIE CASTLE, LOGAN SQUARE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS WILL BECOME AN OASIS FOR PEACE, LOVE AND CHAMPAGNE.
WE WILL COUNTDOWN THE LAST SECONDS OF THE YEAR WITH A DANCE PARTY UNDER THE WATER. DRESS UP AS THE PERSON YOU ASPIRE TO BE IN #2K12. HELP BRING IN THIS EPIC YEAR WITH POSITIVE VIBES AND PURE RAVE, POP, R&B, TRANCE AND NOTHING OVERPLAYED.
Before 2011 closes the door and ushers in the end times of 2012 I want to talk to you about Valeskja Valcav.. this is one awesome trance, blackmetal, postpunk, electro noise project, part of Hyperdelic Transmanifesto a close association of musical projects, Valeskja Valcav is an amazing, aggressively throbbing, sonic wonderland of white light white heat, trans warp inter dimensional future sound, grating int your ears, distorted pure light and unlimited bandwidth information banging hard through your stereo till the walls bleed colours, your brain astrally projects out through the top of your skull and the sky strobes rainbows.
Hailing from France this musical duo is comprised of: N A T H aka Ellah a. Thaun ~ mouth, guitar, drum machine, and keys. And JIM aka Rapport1984 ~ samples, visuals, bass. Their eponymousy titled album/EP is free to download from their Bandcamp. In the next few months a slew of releases is also coming, a live album, singles, unreleased demos and more.
"The wolves are back in these woods, amidst their pack a girl and her tales of loneliness, hunger and the moon. This girl is Monsterheart. She digs graves, blood and making you dance. Produced by Vangelis Labrakis in the ruins of Berlin the 6 songs on this EP take simple rhythms and catchy pop melodies and blend them with heartfelt lyrics about the ragged glamour of life, the beautiful crudeness of love …and cannibalism. The Monsterheart EP was written in Vienna, Tel Aviv and Berlin. It is about the diversity of life in death and the feeling of finding beauty in unlikely places."
Non-profit-videotribute to the Isabelle Adjani in Possession. Remix by ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ of Mater Suspiria Vision. From the ZOMBIE RAVE X-Mas Mixtape - ℑ⊇≥◊≤⊆ℜ /// ℑ is the sign for fictive - ℜ is the sign for real /// Do not believe in everything you see - the owls are not what they seem.
Its here! Finally the Crim3s EP is out! The first release by one of my favourite bands of 2011/2012. Released on Black Bus Records the 5 track EP is also accompanied by a remix EP by a whole slew of artists; GR†LL GR†LL, Mascara, Silver Strain, GuMMyBeAR, D4D and Party Trash. Its a glossy limited edition CD release with some great artwork and is priced at the Satanically awesome £6.66. Go get the EP here and the remix EP here.
Future Seapunk ocean colonists Coral Records have another brilliant release; Frozen Ocean. This one is a split between Indigo bunting and JAM, kind of a split 7" EP but digital. It's Seapunk ambient pop bass, electronic mood music for dancing to in your private aquarium, Chillout for the hyperactive, splash and bass music, tidal rave music. Its only $5 and its a winner! Go grab it from Bandcamp now.
Deca Mono has a sound infused with the underwater charm of a late night ride on the back of a porpoise through the phosphorescent water of a balmy Caribbean sea. Soft synth strings lulling the slow low hip hop beats and squelching keyboards through the night breeze, floating out across the bay, effervescent and eternal, chilled and sensual, the nod of the head, the bounce of the beat to the heat of the night. Deca Mono's album Octagon Mirrors is available to download for free from Bandcamp.
This is my 2012 HYPE LIST! Not a list of the best artists of 2011, or a best album list etc. This is ten artists who should, could and will be influential, successful and ahead of the game as we go into 2012, the apocalypse year, the end times. Now I'm not saying all these guys will be mega successful but they should be.
Unicorn Kid: With the release of his Tidal Rave EP Unicorn Kid set himself up as just the best thing ever this year, unsigning himself from his label, he released the EP for free as an unsigned artist and was being played on daytime BBC Radio1 within a month or so. Big things for this dude. You blogger haters better get it together and re-listen to this EP. Seapunk magic 2012 into the future!
Adeptus: This dude sprung to my attention producing the music for Kreayshawn's "Bumpin Bumpin" and the drag version of Justin Biebers "One Night Stand" these were slow epic prog trance tracks, just so good! Then he started the whole "trance war" competition that ended up being hosted by DIS Magazine. This guy has bigger balls than most and some of the best on trend close to the edge pop production skills ever. Post Trance for 2012.
Crim3s: These guys just rock. Not only do they look cooler than cool but they're awesomely lovely people IRL and together they make some of the most brilliant music ever. Within the last few months things have really taken off, with loads of little positive moves here and there that add up to a big things. These arent just another laptop and singer duo messing around in an obscurest musical backwater this is big time, this is a band with special moves, mortal combat style. V cool.
o F F: This is like a strange and subtle assault on the senses that moves in and before you know it is squatting in the upper floors of your brain. This is the what you get for all liking The XX so much; o F F is like some kind of ambient gothic R&B ghetto superstar in the making, lost in a fog of noise and wonder. why this is so great is its artistic take on a more commercial sound, something slick and sharp like Drake but through long tunnel of smoked glass and valium. Slow and drifting but total pop! Brilliant!
Teams: Since the release of the Dxys Xff album Teams has probably had a pretty great summer, if the two most recent tracks created since then are anything to go on. Embracing the Seapunk vibe as much as the 80s bass and glam, the funk and smooth woosh of LA. Throbbing heat and no sleep, sunlight through blinds, endless R&B speedboat chases echoing through street soundsystems, roller skates and a forever summertime vibe. If things are fair in music then this dude is rolling on some big times!
Crave: This dude is from Berlin and does heavy grunge electronica, neo folk bass, black metal dubstep, whatever you want to call it its intense and powerful as fuck and has all the sounds and influences that have made 2011 great. Salem sounds but just that bit meatier on all levels.
Heavy Strife: This artist made one of the best albums this year, Synthétiseur was everything you could want, it was shoegaze electronica, it was 80s synth, it was epic dystopian post punk, it was warm and relaxing and beautiful. It was all you wanted from the new M83 album but didnt get. Perfect Valium music hidden away and relatively unknown. How Heavy Strife is not signed and doing massive stadium tours with wicked lighting rigs is beyond me. Go download his album for free from Bandcamp now!
SHADES: I love hype, I love when people invent stuff; genres, movements, pop stars. So I was pretty psyched to discover that Witch House big hitters (if there's such a thing) Ritualz and Teehn Bwitches were the producers behind SHADES, a new and uninterested seeming Mexican pop star in the making. Whether or not she/they make it big is anther thing but I sincerely hope so because I love these kind of projects. So you never know this could be the big hope of 2012 and you'll all be surprised! THROWDOWN by SHADES ☺
Glass Popcorn:
This dude is like the most precocious teen ever, he truly believes he's the next big thing, cool thing, hottest thing. And that's all it takes to win big. It also helps he can sorta rap and produces some great tracks! Glass popcorn is total Tumblr generation, still in school and inspired from everywhere all the time and constantly evolving. Brilliant and all set for 2012.
Zombelle: Last but in no way least we have Zombelle. Zombelle invented a whole new genre this year, #seapunk (hashtag for added twitter props) less of a musical genre and more of a lifestyle, visual, conceptual genre to be fair. Seapunk has been a lovely addition to 2011 and has been adopted by more than one artist on this list, Teams, Unicorn Kid etc. Zombelle aka Shan Beaste has been more ahead of the Zeitgeist than nearly anyone this summer with her style being appropriated by people like Lady Gaga amongst others! This is all gloss and polish, luckily her music is also brilliant! A slow and low dub feeling witch house, squelchy pop. It reminds me of Grace Jones for some reason and thats a great thing. This is someone who'll only ever do her own thing but could easily take over the world if she felt it was important to do!
A good mate of mine's just produced his first t.shirt after years of designing them for other people, companies and bands. So go buy it from his site and give it to someone this Xmas, or hey keep it yourself and wear it round town.
Go buy it here. And check out the rest of his prints, artwork, comic stuff etc on his blog.
SC49 continues a minor trend for band names that sound like filing systems or car number plates, but whose music is anything but as mundane and boring as that sounds. SC49 creates sexy porn music, downbeat electronica in need of an '80 porn film to soundtrack. All slow gliding and orgasmic SC49's rich juicy sound, slow grinds your ear canal and lap dances its way into the bed of your music library. Breathy and insistent, it wants you to sex to it, it need you to use words like writhe and grind, lick and slide. There are only three tracks available so far one's up for free download on Soundcloud.
Oooh intense inscrutable witch rave sounds, epic post rave noise techno, throbbing stabbing trance synth swooshes echoing for eternity in a dark basement. Turn off all the lights and thrash your body, shake and bounce to its pulse. The track is Tomb Party and the artist is G.R Zombie, his tag is "Let me take you to the places you've never been & to the places you want to go."
Vortex Rikers new EP is dark winter Chillwave for Hipsters who dont live in California, whose homes are beside great lakes of ice, where snow falls to the ground very slowly all year round. A sound for staring at the weak midwinter sun as it disappears over the horizon bound for hotter climbs. This is beach music, this is surf music, but for beaches of cold grey stone, and surf roaring off in great deathly arcs as icebergs calf into the sea. Surf these winter waters if you will but you aren't coming back to shore. This is Chillwave for leaden skies and long dark evenings staying inside hiding from the trolls patrolling the tundra. Permafrost music. Iceberg music. Arctic fox hibernating in its burrow music.
Download the Vortex Rikers Oceanic EP for free from Bandcamp now!
KYNAN does a brilliant line in Chillwave style indie pop, this is such a Californian sound, so up and blissed out, so happy and warm. With track titles like "Happy When I'm High" and "Living Dreams" this is a sound that seems to be the bastard grandchild of Brian Wilson. As the UK winter wind bites and the sky grows dark at 3pm KYNAN blissfully drifts you off to a intensely beautiful and serene sound world deep beneath the surf where the golden sunlight filters through the crisp blue waters dappling the white sand below.
"Fueled by regret and feeling woozy, I started with a sound. In it I heard infinite possibilities. And for a moment…. the loneliness disappeared."
Blusher are from Brooklyn and create glacial and enigmatic synth pop indie on a beautiful and doom laden scale. Their EP "It Happened In My Memory" is a seven track little wonder all small and warm, a glowing coal amongst the vastness of the night. Its also free to download so go grab it from Bandcamp now.
New o F F track! "beating4U (in a different way)" So good and free to download from Soundcloud as well! Drifting ambient goth R&B autotuned bliss. oFF is supposedly playing down in my home town of Brighton in the new year so that's something big to look forward to!
Are you gay for SHADES yet? Here's more tracks to check out! Quietauto-tuned beauty pop writhing from the underground and spewing all over your screen in 2012. Check it before it checks you! THROWDOWN by SHADES ☺SPECTACULAR by SHADES ☺
Giant sloooow synth doom track from a band that usually like to hammer it into your head with more bpm's than you can count! Exciting witch house influenced stuff!
This is big.. SHADES is Ana, a young girl from Mexico City whose music is produced by the brilliant Witch House artists Ritualz and Teehn Bwitches.
This is emotional DIY pop, all 2012 and future, sucking in great little influences and styles; reggaeton, jungle, drum&bass, trip-hop, post rave etc. All made in an entirely DIY fashion but with the ambition a major label pop star. Mexico to the world in 2012.
SHADES is managed and produced by Negative Youth, a group of creative individuals also from Mexico City who do all kinds of DIY media things, parties, music etc,Ritualz and Teehn Bwitches are part of their number. Its exciting next level stuff, a proper pop star emerging from the fuzzed out chaos of Witch House, genious! The debut SHADES EP is coming soon. Watch this space. And check her Tumblr.
This is my 2012 HYPE LIST! Not a list of the best artists of 2011, or a best album list etc. This is ten artists who should, could and will be influential, successful and ahead of the game as we go into 2012, the apocalypse year, the end times. Now I'm not saying all these guys will be mega successful but they should be. 
SC49 continues a minor trend for band names that sound like filing systems or car number plates, but whose music is anything but as mundane and boring as that sounds. SC49 creates sexy porn music, downbeat electronica in need of an '80 porn film to soundtrack. All slow gliding and orgasmic SC49's rich juicy sound, slow grinds your ear canal and lap dances its way into the bed of your music library. Breathy and insistent, it wants you to sex to it, it need you to use words like writhe and grind, lick and slide. There are only three tracks available so far one's up for free download on Soundcloud.
