64:5 taking shape

Kovas promo for 64 bar 5 by 64barmusic

With the fifth installment of the 64barchallenge mix series landing in just a couple of weeks, Kovas stepped away from the turntables, and spoke about some of the music, and where to get hold of it.

“I have to say, this one will be astounding,” he said.

“Its been a six month project putting this together. The last 64 bar challenge mix came in September on 2010 and so as I thought it was unlikely that people would drop tunes over Christmas, we made a deadline of Jan 31 to send tracks in.

“We signed up around 20-25 people, it gets a bit hard to manage but ultimately I’ve been left with approximately 30 tunes, the standard of which is really very high.”

There are a number of new faces for this mix, including Keep Up! records’ electro don Cosmo Lopez, long time big-shot Mike Ladd and the more than musical Andy Digitonal.

“Andy’s track (Eighteen) is off the hook,” said Kovas. “He’s done it in a 5/4 time signature, its got great rhythmic flow and its totally fresh for 64 bar. It’s nice to get a musician of his calibre on this project.”

There are artists from all over the planet on this mix, there’s Canada’s Day of Vengeance, China based Kultershock, Paris based duo of Mike Ladd and Monk A, and you gotta flip the globe to find Becy, who represents Australia.

“Becy has made this haunting love song which is very different to her other tracks and features her on vocals.”

Kovas added: “I have to say I’m a little bit gutted I’ve handed over the main responsibility for the mixing of this set of tracks to Killer Tomato as there is such an amazing range of tracks in there.”

The mix will be available from March from http://www.postbocks.com as a free download. It’s available as a stream on mixcould.com/sixtyfourbarmusic and on percussionlab.com

As well as the mix for download, there will be a name your own price EP coming out on Bandcamp, so head to 64barmusic.bandcamp.com
For more information, check http://www.64barmusic.co.uk

beat selection from kovas

Kovas has finally got around to uploading a selection of tracks to Soundcloud, saying “no point in them living on my pc for ever now is there”.

There are extended versions of tracks known to 64bar lovers, Desire, which appeared on 64:4 and Death Walk, which was on 64:2. There is also the highly ridiculous “This is Hardcore” track, which featured on Gas’ This is the Fucking Hardcore” mix of 2008.

Apart from those, the remaining tracks have all remained hidden on his laptop. He explains: “We’ll I had nothing better to do this particular Sunday, so I thought I’d wheel out some of the beats I’ve done over the past couple or three years.

“They are all very different tracks, I’m not sure it there is a theme running through them, so in that way it’s hard to define a sound for myself. They were just tracks I felt like writing at the time.

“Anyone who knows me knows I never sit down to write a track with the finished sound in mind, I just put noises together I think will work.. and try not to overdo it.”

the crane puts out new ep through bandcamp

 

The Crane, aka Stephen Hedley, who has been on both 64:1 and 64:4 has put out a rather dapper ep via Bandcamp.

It’s a collection of ambient/glitchy tracks which he made in the  summer .

He explains:  “It’s the first time I’ve deliberately tried creating several pieces with a similar feel and sound palette.

“The idea was to do a lot of tracks without any ‘proper’ beats in, as they’re always the weakest point in my productions. I didn’t think there was any theme to it, but when I came to the point of gathering the tracks together I noticed that a lot of the track titles obliquely refer to a girl-related heartbreak scenario which took up a lot of my headspace while I was writing the music.”

The big poof.

He continues: “That accounts for the somewhat melancholy vibe and the (rotten) punning title. I hope people enjoy it, anyway. “

lordy a fancy dj will be mixing 64:5

Hold up, Killer Tomato is the man who’ll be responsible for blending the fifth 64 bar challenge mix.

We’re all chuffed with this. Because he is the bomb. He’s also brave as the tempo of the mix hasn’t been decided.

Take a look at his Soundcloud page

Here’s some info about him: >>his blog<>here<< for his myspace