Sneak Preview of 64 Bar Orchestra – Episode 3

The third episode of the 64bar Orchestra for Seeksmusic.com is a truly international show With excuslive beats coming from artists from Germany, the US, Chilie, Sweden, Scotland, Paraguay, Wales and Australia.

There are have two tracks from the forthcoming Ninja Forum remix chain, a mad 13 minutes from the 13th Tribe and two tracks from the recent Represents mix from 64bar music.

This is a dub version of the show, so no chatting from yours truly, the show host.

For the full show, with track information and a showcase from the wonderfully eclectic 13th Tribe,  go to http://www.seeksmusic.com

Represents Vol 1 – Cardiff vs Melbourne out now

Click this to listen on Mixcloud

The latest offering from 64 bar music is a mix of tracks produced from artists based in Cardiff and Melbourne and is the first in the Represents series

The first part of the mix comes from the people of Cardiff, with all tracks at the elected tempo of 114. The second half of the mix is 128bpm, the producers from Melbourne choosing the classic techno tempo for their work.

“The Represents concept was born at a Soundcloud meetup last year”, said Kovas from 64 bar music.

“It’s an extension of the 64barchallenge mixes originally completed by the members of the NinjaTune forum. The only differnence is the locations of the producers. “

Rebecca Coates aka Becy10 co-ordinated the project in Australia. The 10 tracks from Melbourne can loosely be described as progressive, dark techno.

The Cardiff mix is also largely electronic, and features tracks from seven different beatmakers.

An EP of selected tracks will be available from http://64barmusic.bandcamp.com/ on May 1.

Thanks to Bobby Corridor and Melbourne’s unknown DJ for mixing this.

Melbourne Representz

Artists from Melbourne will collaborate on a project dubbed Melbourne Representz, coming June 2011.

The project comes from the production house that conceived the 64barchallenge mix series, where contributors submit a track at an elected tempo, 64 bars in length. It’s then up to a DJ to piece it all together to form a coherent mix.

And now Melbourne becomes the second city to embrace the concept, after artists in Cardiff kick-started the concept last week.

Already signed up for the gig is Becy.  She has submitted tracks for both the fourth and fifth 64barchallenge mixes, and revealed why she wanted to play her part in organising the mix.

She said: Representz is a creation of an entirely new piece of work, collaboratively, cross-genres not a track, not a set, but something else.

“It’s a unique way to meet and interact with new people.

And Becy, who released on Vim records earlier this year explained how the creative process differs because of the rules of the project. “You can have an intense little nugget of creativity without the long process of creating a track, so it can be a bit spontaneous.”

Other names who’ve committed to the project include Ehsan Gelsi, Evan Sparks, Kultrun ,Enclave, Funkedub, John King, Pat Stormont, Komplex, all well known names in Melbourne.

To vote for a tempo, use the poll below. Voting closes on March 1, 2011 and the mix is expected in June.

If you’re in Melbourne, and would like to get involved in this project, leave a comment and we’ll be in touch real soon

Killer Tomato: On the guest list

64:5 DJ, Mr Killer Tomato speaks to 64barmusic, 0n the day he heard the tracks for the forthcoming mix.

Killer Tomato has been charged with splicing the 30 something tracks submitted for the fifth 64barchallenge mix, and if his vigorous head nodding is anything to go by, it’s something he’s going to enjoy.

“There’s a broad range of producers on there,” he observed. And he’s right. Not only broad in terms of age and profile, but broad in terms of geography.

Lets see, in this mix there are contributors based as far a field as China and Canada, Australia and France and that makes for a canvas of colours perfect for a painter of sounds.

To extend this slightly dodgy metaphor, Killer Tomato now is the man with the brushes and easel… painters use easels right?

Anyhow, making this mix is right up KT’s street. He said: “I first heard about 64barmusic through the blog site, there was quite a lot of buzz. And then Kovas actually called me up and asked if I wanted to get involved.

“There’s some really tight production on there. You’ve got the likes of Moneyshot, Rubberfunk and more it’s a privilege to be working with these people.

“I’ll be using Abelton Live to make the mix. I won’t be time stretching and warping, but just using it to sequence the sections I’ll mix on the turntables. Then I’ll add some cuts and master it.”

Killer Tom is super modest, so let your blog author makes some noise on his behalf. This man’s mixes are smart, highly crafted and clever. You can check them here

Find out more at his homepage

Ninja tune forum vs Tahrir Square – Swift loves them both

James Swift takes timeout to chat to 64bar and compares the Ninjatune forum to … wait for it… Tahrir Square.

He  has come a long way, literally a long way. This is a boy with an Irish accent who has lived in Austria, Australia and had to make a sharp exit out of Cairo last week as the troubles kicked off.

And with such a wide range of sights he’s seen, he’s developed a style that comes straight from the imagination – but somehow, he’s managed to get it down on file.

James has been a mainstay of 64bar since the project stated in 2009, when he was based in Australia at a time he claims he needed a lift to get back into writing.

He explains: “The first time I heard about 64barmusic, I was sat in Sydney with no inspiration, and it was like somebody gave me a task with some limits and that gave me the motivation to do something.”

He uses Abelton live, an MPD and a Macbook pro, and works to create “ a melody through the noise.”

He’s modest, and says: “The thing I like the most is that everybody is so surprisingly good and it makes me feel bad about the crap that I put in.

“But then you get feedback from people who really like it and you realise that what you’ve done isn’t too bad.

“My favourite 64barchallenge mix was definitely number four. That was stunning. It was very well mixed and super entertaining and a really nice thing to listen to while I was travelling.”

But what about his influences? Well as every good head will tell you, Dorian Concept, Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin cannot be ignored, but James also has aspirations of unlocking the secret of the mainstream sound.

“Just regular pop can be so fantastic. They are doing something so hard which is to make  something instantly accessible and occasionally great and timeless.

“That is harder than any knob twiddling, showgazing sound that many people who are respected in ‘the scene’ are trying to achieve.

James’ album, Killbots have feelings too is available here

James Swift – Killbots have feelings too out now on itunes

It’s hard to know what to say about James Swift’s album, ‘Killbots have feelings too’ without sounding too gushing.

I’m reviewing it while at work and have it on bud earphones in a busy office. I can say two things about it. 1. It’s transformed my mood from angry to calm, and 2. I drift in and out of actively listening to it, only to be occasionally jolted by how wicked it is.

It’s electronic, its glitchy, its jangly, its smooth and it hits the spot.

He breaks it down: “All the tracks at least in part follow a theme I tried to sum up in thetitle.

“Machines, moods, art versus technology, journeys, and a little bit of humor so as not to take myself too seriously. Sometimes I try and imagine what future robots folk would sound like and go for that. I’d be interested to see if you identify the same themes in the tunes.

“Also there are a couple of longish tunes that require patients and I think there is a pay-off after several listens. The only sad thing with the advent of mp3s is the slow death of the grower album so to write one (obviously, in my opinion) feels great. I think enough people will find it too harsh at times.

“Musically I like to play with obscured melodies and subtle variations. I personally love sounds that sound kind of half traditional and half machine noises. Then again it’s fun to just write something simpler and fun and not take everything so seriously, hence the closing track.

64barmusic friends and family will recognise Hesitant Pressure from being on fourth 64 bar challenge mix, however, for his album he’s given it the extended mix treatment and the result is a silky five minutes with the familiar jauntiness of the original embossed with a chunky ass kick drum and a haunting string section that hits the spot.

He tells me he made this album whilst on the move on an epic tour that began in his adopted home of Australia, and touched down in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and ended in Iran.

It clearly provided some cultural inspiration that build on earlier exposure to the likes of Orbital, Meat Beat Manifesto, Scanner, early Underworld and a lot of that 90s electronica after the pure fun days of the early 90s rave era.

But what about his method, how the fu*k does he put this sh*t together?

“Most of my recent tunes I did in Ableton Live. Some of I bang out on an microkontrol midi keyboard and some of the more natural rhythms I did on a MPD16, but it’s all hooked up to Ableton Live. On the road I’m limited to a cheap little netbook and it’s a completely different and challenging way to write music. No keyboard and no processing power for more then 1 or 2 effects in real time. So I have to bounce the tracks down a lot to wav and so on. Time consuming but it’s a good exercise to write with limitations. Too many toys can be distracting.

His album is available on itunes here, I suggest you buy it before you die.

For now: check it on Soundcloud

Becy10 set to drop on VIM Records

Red wine. Good stuff, we all know this, it’s a drink dear to the heart of me, the writer of this blog post, and also to a groovy lady called Becy, who has written a bunch of tracks whilst under the influence of said liquor – and by darn, they’re feckin good.

And now her inebriations have been rewarded with release coming out on VIM Records
a remix of Julson’s track titled Ni Ya Ba Saba.. and there it is

Mike Jules – Ni Ya Ba Saba (Becy Remix) 128kb by becy

So, what’s her style and who is she?

Quite honestly, no one knows better than her and she says: “I’ve been writing a lot of deep, dark, bassy prog over the past couple years, but lately I feel myself branching out into melodic, ambient soundscape styles with less emphasis on the 4 on the floor kick and driving bass, and more on vocals and atmospherics… We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s a link to the progressive kinda sound she’s built her reputation on…
Becy – coburg’s favourite son by becy
But what about her collab with Julson? What’s it all about?

She explains: “My friend Mike Jules is a tech-house producer I’ve been friends with for years in Australia, he just moved to UK and has been DJ‘ing around there a bit and making his own productions as well.

“We were getting pissed on cheap red a month or so ago and we blearily posited the idea we could do a remix of each other’s work. His track had just been accepted for release, so we began with that.

“With this remix Mike sent me the stems and I played around, whacking effects on them, distorting and playing around with the vocals, and adding some new elements into the mix…

It worked out well and with Becy neck deep into creating her 64:5 track, it seems Mike will be twisting up her track into a dubstep style

As with all good home producers, her lab is awkward, “I’m usually sat down in a properly uncomfortable spot with my laptop balanced precariously somehow, like now, for example, perched on the end of the couch in a freezing cold lounge room, computer on a ricketty magazine stand.”

How does one make cookies?

“I use Ableton and a bunch of vsti’s to create tracks. I’m in the middle right now of rendering all my previous decent tracks into stems so I can get a bit of an epic liveset going. I’m interested in reworking all those bits and pieces and combining them together to get one hour long new creation out of all those individual songs. Another thing that interests me production-wise is the effect of limitations on creativity – my view is it stimulates it.

“One of the experiments I did in that area was to take the shittiest drum loop I could find (here: http://soundcloud.com/becy/04-1) and create a new track out of it – fx and stuff allowed, but all sound sources had to come from that loop. The result was this

Virtual Original by becy

She’s also been getting good feedback for her cover version of  “Just be Good to Me”.. so here it is.. via the magic of soundcloud
Becy – JustBGood2Me by becy

After impressing with a sleek techno number at the heart of 64:4, and with her 64:5 track in the pipe, plus the forthcoming release on VIM, its good times down under, she puts it simply: “It’s an exciting time to be alive over at my place, that’s for sure.”