Phamel Cat

Fancy a free tune? Would you also like to see a video showing you how the whole tune was made in 1 hour and 20 minutes....

Well, you know what to do....

DNB producer Emperor, who is signed to Critical recordings, was sent a message sometime on Friday providing the challenge that he couldn't make a tune in an hour or so. So, with the gauntlet unveiled the challenge was absolutely smashed, and the result is there for everyone to see.

I briefly watched this whilst it was happening (and I'll definitely be going back over it again properly) but Emperor's production style replies laregly on having pre-made and somewhat pre-processed samples ready to drop into projects and exploit them as he likes.

This video also shows off the power of Fruity Loops as a competitive DAW. I think the days of joking about Fruity Loops is long behind us, as when you see the outcome you'll soon agree.

VIDEO > "Phamel Cat" http://www.livestream.com/emperordnb

FREE DOWNLOAD > Emperor - Phamel Cat https://soundcloud.com/the_emperor/emperor-phamel-cat

"Phamel Cat" > read the full post

RIP - To The Rock 'n' Roll Animal

Most of you will have heard of the passing of Lou Reed here is an LSS obituary...
Now Lou Reed has died Keith Richard's is the undisputed holder of the "Rock's Wrinkliest Man" title. But there was more to Reed than his facial creases. Many many years ago he wrote some of rock and roll's most joyous anthems. For a guy with such a curmudgeonly reputation he sure knew how to kick out the jams. Songs such as Sweet Jane, Rock and Roll, Beginning to See the Light, Satellite of Love and White Light/White Heat defined all that was great about rock music before it lost the "roll". Despite the gloomy junkie proto-goth reputation of the Velvet Underground, all dark glasses and pale faces, their music looked back to the best of Little Richard and Chuck Berry capturing the clever/dumb excitement better than any other white band until 70's Rolling Stones. While Reed's more extreme lyrics have gained the most notoriety many of his best tracks were almost straight faced love ballads or had an under current of sly humour that was lost in the controversy. The band pre and post Andy Warhol, pre and post John Cale, could not have been more different. And while the earlier epics such as Heroin and Venus in Furs gain the most plaudits they have dated rather badly, sounding immature and rather camp these days.  Also the VU may have influenced many bands but they have also influenced many rather terrible bands and movements. Shoe Gaze and Goth just two genres that worship the VU while completely missing the soul and drive of the originals. Lou and the VU felt like a band that you were obsessed with between 15 - 22, fell out of love with as you discovered a world beyond pale ale and cigarettes behind the bike shed, and then come back to as, with life experience,  you saw all the good things about their music you missed the first time round, the warmth, humour and passion of the playing and lyrics and the unexpected joy in Reed's voice.  


Sadly you could almost hear this joy drain away after the commercial failure and break up of the VU. His first two solo records contained bright moments and include some of his best, and best recorded, singing. But the stardom he had so craved did not seem to sit well with Reed. With out the anarchic but soulful playing of the VU and the calming down to earth personalities of Mo Tucker and Sterling Morrison, Reed descended into an abyss of hard drugs, big haired floral shirted session player and a series of increasingly depressing albums. His voice became a harsh dry rattle and at many concerts he seemed almost to mock the simple beauty of his earlier music. However something interesting happened. His bitterness and cynicism was perfectly in tune with the rising tide of Punk. The decadence and nihilism of albums such as Sally Can't Dance and the noise rock master work Metal Machine Music found a new generation of fans who took these feelings to the logical conclusion in the rock and roll poetry of Patti Smith and later the sneering anarchy of the Sex Pistols. Suddenly Reed's simple grinding rhythm guitar and monotone vocals became the most influential sounds in rock music, despite the basic ingredients of his style having been set in stone by about 1967. 

However Reed was always one to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Just as he defined the era with his Street Hassle album we decided jazz fusion was his music of choice. Jazz mixed with alcoholism and self loathing is always an unhappy mix and for most of the late 70's and early 80's he became an entertaining freak show. There were sparks, for instance his album Growing Up in Public contains some of his greatest lyrics, but the music was a horrible bland mess sounding like Hall and Oates. Then the worst thing that could possibly happen happened. Lou dried out, grew a mullet and started writing songs with titles like "My Red Joystick". God awful yuppie rock with god awful yuppie videos. At least he had the decency to look completely miserable while he was prancing about in rolled up sleeve Armani suits. Even working with punk guitar genius Robert Quine failed to lead to much satisfactory music and all seemed lost. 

But like a cockroach after the apocalypse the tide turned and the eternal survivor found himself back in fashion again as yet again musical trends embraced his dark outlook on life. Grunge and Industrial were but two genres that sprang up from seeds planted by earlier Reed epics such as the grinding 17 minute Sister Ray and the splattering guitar noise of Metal Machine Music. He slowly got back on track with preposterous but exciting albums like Ecstasy and The Raven. Even the horrible collaboration with Metallica had some edge to it. At least he had lost the Armani although a modified mullet stayed as his default hair cut for the rest of his life. 

All in all an epic life and I think you can do worse for an epitaph than read rock critic Lester Bangs' amusingly confrontational interview with Reed here: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/nov/08/lou-reed-lester-bangs-interview 

and his hilarious review of Metal Machine Music here: http://www.rocknroll.net/loureed/articles/mmmbangs.html 

For a dip into what made Lou Reed great download these albums: Velvet Underground and Nico (the Banana Album), Velvet Underground - Loaded, Transformer, Berlin, Street Hassle, Metal Machine Music, Ecstasy....Farewell Lou! maningrey

"RIP - To The Rock 'n' Roll Animal " > read the full post

Free plug ins! The AJ picks

When it comes to free plug ins, you can go into a download frenzy. It is as if someone shouted "FREE BEER!!!", you are then left with a pile of plug ins to dig through with little patience to find anything that actually works well enough to become a "go to" tool.

Recently I have tried to purge my mac book of the hundreds that I never use. This is when I stumbled upon two great plug ins from Klanghelm. They make several plug ins that are extremely affordable and probably worth picking up, but it is the two free ones on the website that I love...read on...

The DC1A (Compressor) 
http://www.klanghelm.com/DC1A.html 

How can you go wrong with a two knob compressor. This could not be more simple to use. It is a combination of Opto and Fet designs that just gives you great punch. The idea here is an input knob and output knob. Great for a drum bus, parallel punch, or individual drums. 

IVGI (Saturation and Distortion)
http://www.klanghelm.com/IVGI.html

This one is a little less simple, but give you good flexibility. The great thing is that every one is making a saturation plug in, in order to emulate that sound of running your mixes through classic consoles. Honestly this one should not be free. This is just smart, it gives lots of control for only 4 knobs, and even has modelled cross talk for those stereo tracks. If you don't have a saturation plug in to use on your drum bus to control the drums,  I would expect to see this one.

I am currently working on a new EP for Marvin Live and find myself reaching for these tools over some of the plug ins I have paid for in the past. They are available from the Klanghelm website on a free download in AU, and RTAS. I am hoping to see 64 bit AAX soon. 

You can check out some of the mixes I have done for Marvin Live at his website below. His new EP featuring these plug ins is called Butterflies and Goldfish and will drop this year!

http://www.marvinlive.com/

Enjoy! 

Aaron at LSS

"Free plug ins! The AJ picks" > read the full post

My favourite albums of the last 10 years or so..

As the school manager I get deluged in new music, mainly recommendations from students. Also as part of my job I have to try and stay up to date with what our students are listening to! Here is a selection of albums I have found myself returning to again and again. It is rather frightening that some albums I tend to think of as "recent" are often 20 year old, so I have tried to keep it within the last 5-10 years or so. Mainly electronic music as frankly I find most rock or indie music these days a bore. However this list is by no means definitive, just personal picks, so please feel free to educate me to your favourite albums of recent times whatever the genre in the comments section.

2562 - Aerial 
My all time favourite dubstep album. While a lot of Dubstep has aged rather badly, either intentionally raw to the point of unlistenability (Digital Mystikz, sorry I will get stick for this!) or so techy as it disappear in a cloud of automated reverb (Scuba), Aerial strikes the perfect balance between the icy modern digital sheen and the warm groove of bass heavy dub. While not losing the urban dread that made Dubstep so edgy it has a warm fuzzy glow that makes it enveloping rather than alienating. As a miserable old git who likes King Tubby and Lee Perry I found this album to be an excellent bridge into the new sounds of modern dub, a perfect blend of retro and modern. More importantly it keeps it simple, crisp and funky, unlike a lot of Dubstep this actually skanks!


Neosignal - Raum Und Zeit 
I have always loved Phace and Misanthrop so I was excited to hear their latest project Neosignal. Looking to branch out from their dark Drum and Bass into both Dubstep and pop their debut album throws "Numbers" era Kraftwerk, Noisia style monster beats with dashes of Daft Punk in an industrial teutonic blender. Everything is over the top, from the mysterious title of the album (Space and Time in German) to the grinding fuzzy bass riffs that tear through every track. Each song could perfectly compliment Alan Partridge's infamous leather posing pouch lap dance in "I'm Alan Partridge". If you like balls out electro then this album is for you.  

Barker and Baumecker - Transsektoral
Moody German techno is as distinctive in it's way as the pioneering sounds of Detroit. Over the years it has developed into a diamond hard music bringing together a peculiarly German love of Dub Reggae with a need to whir and clank like a Audi factory. Much like Audi's all conquering Le Mans sports cars everything here is clean, precise and beautifully propulsive.  

Instra:mental - Resolution 653 
Being a huge fan of original acid house and later abusers of the 303 such as Richie Hawtin and Luke Vibert I was turned onto this album as soon as I saw the song title "Aggro Acid"! I'm a sucker for squelching sounds so I was instantly sold. The whole album moves beyond drum and bass into the shadowy but accessible sounds of the Post Dubstep/Future Soul touted by labels such as Nonplus, Autonomic and Exit Records. After many of the revolutionary strides made in alternative ways to compose and produce music during the 80s and 90s, the 00s now seem to be an era where the basic ingredients have been set and music is now about recontextualizing and refining. This album is like all your favourite acid house records squashed into a glittering new robot body like the liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 from Terminator 2. 

Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
I like this album because it is the musical equivalent of Bret Easton Ellis's books, specifically his nihilistic debut novel Less That Zero. Eschewing the usual Cristal and bling blather of much contemporary RnB, Ocean's lyrics give a bleak portrayal of bored stoned teens and end of their tether strippers and junkies and makes me think of some of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield's pained socially conscious funk of the 70's. Tied to weird spacey productions that combine 80's synth funk with the jazzy darkness of Sly Stone, Ocean spins sweet melodies that twist and turn in unexpected ways. It feels like a step on from the more street and rap influenced Neo Soul movement of D'Angelo and Erykah Badu, but while that movement consciously aped 70's instrumental sounds this takes the same hard messages and attaches them to sounds that are startlingly fresh and modern.  

LV -  Routes 
A strange mixture of UK Garage, Funky and Dubstep this collaboration between LV and Joshua Idehen keeps things effortlessly foot taping while adding disorienting synth effects to produce a set of songs that sound like every 5AM post club night bus journey from hell you have ever experienced! Again it is hard to put a finger on what makes it work but Idehen's sometimes humorous sometimes pensive lyrics riding over beats that sound like a potted history of recent UK urban music just hits the mark. LV's next album on Hyperdub featuring three three South African rappers is equally good.  

Consequence - Live for Never
Another link in the Autonomic mafia's chain. This album just snuck up on me..in a dark alley with a chain! I wanted to hate it as the whole vibe is a bit portentous and twiddly. The name of the artist and song titles, everything seemed a bit arty for my tastes. However the whole album projects the attractive force of a dying star, it comes on your playlist and you grudgingly give it a listen and soon you are sucked into it's murky depths. A huge sense of space pervades it's turbid surfaces, once again it is hard to tie any of the songs to a specific genre. Elements of Photek's more housey tunes, a dash of Dubstep and elements of hardcore Moog prog rockers like Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre make up this unique meditative work.  

Kryptic Minds and Leon Switch - Lost All Faith
Drum and Bass veterans who really kicked out the jams with this album. One of the few Drum and Bass albums that manages to be "intelligent" without boring the pants of you, it realises that "jazzy" does not mean just chucking a few Fender Rhodes 7th chords about and sampling Weather Report drum breaks. One of the few Drum and Bass albums that took up the challenge of Dubstep while still keeping all the things we loved about Drum and Bass in the first place. So much modern DnB (aka Hospital) has become rigid hands in the air neo soul music, this album keeps the darkness of Dub Reggae, the space of Dubstep, and the jagged synths of classic Neuro Funk and strings them out over rattling beats worthy of Paradox to create a classic album.  

Karriem Riggins - Alone Together
Riggins is a well known beat maker and session museum for the likes of Common and Slum Village. While his debut album is certainly heavily influenced by J Dilla it has an off kilter jazzy flow to it that is all his own. I could also have gone for Damu the Fudgemunk's equally excellent "How it Should Sound" as one of the best beats albums of recent times, but while that LP stays firmly within the parameters of beat making established by golden age legends like Pete Rock, Riggins has a broader vision. Combining jazz, unusual sample sources and an odd ball but head bobbing sense of rhythm this 34 track album is a tapestry you can go back to again and again and hear something different.  

Jam City - Classical Curves 
A bit of a random one here, possibly just a flavour of the month that I will tire of soon. But for now this albums sounds like it could be the future, but a very 80's mullety future. A clattering fusion of old school rap beats, icy rave synths and a dash of Prince at his most synthetic. Many of the songs sound like music to a film that has yet to be made. However once it is made the film will almost certainly include high speed car chases through futuristic cities, lots of neon, mutant zombies, killer robots and swaggering through it all an eye patched anti hero in the mould of Snake Plissken from the sci-fi classic Escape from New York.  

Juju and Jordash - Techno Primitivism
I got into this album recently. I was digging about for some good techno but only finding boring Detroit rip offs or rather hand baggy party tunes. This album came to the rescue with weird slightly frightening textures making me think of some of Surgeon's work. Fingers Inc hollow bass lines, creepy late night synths and mystical Augustus Pablo melodica flourishes meet more far reaching influences like industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, all mashed into a heady bitches brew.  

Kode9 and the Spaceape - Memories of the Future
The ultimate masterclass in the dark art of the infamous "brown sound" this dank dirty album positively quakes with malice and sub-bass frequencies. Kode9's excellent Hyperdub label has released some of the best dubstep music but also a lot of boring rubbish. This album however pretty much sums up what Dubstep was before it went overground. A mighty fusion of The Spaceape's Linton Kwesi Johnsonesque ramblings and Kode9's claustrophobic textures it is amazing how Spaceapes growling patios blends sonically with the bass lines. Through the despairing views on modern society a line can be drawn back to previous urban landmarks such as Massive Attack's Blue Lines and Ghost Town by the Specials, accept this is a hell of a lot more gloomy and less commercial, and all the better for it!  

Samiyam - Sam Baker's Album
Former LSS tutor Ben Wood used to react like a dog at a fireworks show whenever he heard Samiyam's berserk unquantized beats! They would drive him insane but in the right mood there is simply no one like Samiyam! After a couple of excellent EPs he burst out with an instant classic debut album. Like a demon child of J Dilla and Dabrye his music completely refines what "rap" or "beats" means, let alone what is now considered pop music. If there is a better example of how avant garde ideas from the 50's and 60's have permeated mainstream (albeit niche) music I'd like to hear it. Fragmentary ideas fly by and listening to an individual track is rather like looking at an individual square of a mosaic. Soon all music will sound like this.  

I hope you find something good in the list! Maningrey

"My favourite albums of the last 10 years or so.." > read the full post

Got wood?

Maybe the days are over for those that have a "black crack" habit. Seems as though someone has devised a technique to cut records to wood instead of vinyl and/or acetate.

Ignoring the newspaper the report is filed from, it still makes for an interesting read and brings a new angle to things. Best of all you can apparently cut your own records....

Although I wouldn't suggest using an MP3 as your "master" to cut from, I'm not sure if this is a limitation of the code that was developed to perform the process....


 Hopefully this might lead to some record labels doing limited runs of certain tunes on wood, which I think is a really cool concept. As a record collector myself, I'm a sucker for anything that's remotely limited or special, and would love to own a version of a song from one of my favorite labels cut to wood.

Find out how to cut your own records to wood

Here's the actual site of the creator and how to cut your own records 

"Got wood?" > read the full post

Time & Space EZDrummer Lite - Absolutely Free

"Ever wanted to try Toontrack's EZmix 2 or EZdrummer? Well now you can as until 31st May, you can download EZdrummer Lite and/or EZmix 2 Lite absolutely free!"

 
I've just tried this out myself and the order went through fine, just make sure to enter the discount code "EZDL100" when purchasing and all shall be fine. Waiting for my download to be sent to me, but as far as I can tell you shouldn't have a problem at all.

Happy drumming!

EZDrummer Lite - For FREE!

"Time & Space EZDrummer Lite - Absolutely Free" > read the full post

Sega Synthesis

The original games machine may be a little bit before a few of our younger students time, but all that aside this is a pretty sweet idea for a synth!

"Sega Synthesis " > read the full post

Sound City

Just a short to the point post here. If you have any interest in music (which I imagine you would being on this blog) just go check out the film "Sound City."
Nothing much else can really be said, just thank me later :)

SOUND CITY.

"Sound City" > read the full post

Great Promotional Video

This seems like a great solution to many live mixing engineer's worries, and if you've done it yourself you'll understand why. The ability to roam around the crowd and see what it sounds like to the people that matter why adjusting any parameter on the desk - what a liberty!

In no way are we endorsed by the company in question, but it sure is a great promotional video none the less.

"Great Promotional Video" > read the full post

What is this I don't even...

Water + Sound? Nothing more to be said than to watch this video and try and persuade one of the lectures that doing this in the live room of studio 2 is a great idea....

"What is this I don't even..." > read the full post

Won't catch me riding dirty....

SO! It's been a while since I posted. And I guess as part of some new years resolution I said I'd make an effort to submit some blog posts. It just so happens I've come across a great solution for Logic Pro 9 users who have experienced the "spinning beach ball of death" one too many times.....

So I'd heard about this before, but in all honesty I've not had to use or panic to try and find it as Logic has been pretty stable for about the last year or so on my machine. I've had the occasional crashed project. But nothing like a few years ago where some projects would end up being called "Idea 1 (crashed) (crashed) (crashed) (crashed) (crashed).logic"
Anyway, I digress.
What this is and what it is useful for is when you're performing a task in Logic and you're greeted with the spinning beach ball of doom. Usually your only solution to this is 'force quit' the application and just hope your CMD+S habit has saved you only a small bit of work to recover manually.
I'm not going to bother to try and explain the technicalities behind it, it's best to just watch the video as the guy walks you through pretty well. But essentially from what I understand is that you force logic to crash and therefore save a (crashed) version of the project at the hang up point.
I tried this out today as it finally happened to me and it worked a charm. He says it will work about every 9/10 times. But I'm fine with those odds!

"Won't catch me riding dirty.... " > read the full post

Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap

We had the gift of Hip Hop which collectively described the DJs, MCs, Break dancers and Graffiti artists thrust into our lives in the mid 70's by a bunch of creative and inspired adults and kids from the inner cities of New York City. Now three and a half decades into Hip Hop's existence there have been many DJs and MCs come and go, so many styles born and stories told from not just the east coast of America but worldwide.

We had the gift of Hip Hop which collectively described the DJs, MCs, Break dancers and Graffiti artists thrust into our lives in the mid 70's by a bunch of creative and inspired adults and kids from the inner cities of New York City. Now three and a half decades into Hip Hop's existence there have been many DJs and MCs come and go, so many styles born and stories told from not just the east coast of America but worldwide.

Ice-T, a founding member of the Hip Hop movement now turned actor, takes the directorial seat in what can be referred to as a homage to the pioneers of a cultural ideology and past time that grew and became commercially the biggest music genre of modern times.

Scenes of MC greats such as Rakim, KRS-1, Nas and Eminem, to mention just a few, reminiscing on what made them start writing their rhymes plus their views on the cultures progression are what this film manages to convey pretty well.

There are also moments of genius that occur when the artists are asked questions about their favourite reciteable rhymes, from other MCs who have influenced them. These are met with nostalgic laughs and gesture heavy raps, often done in the original MC's voice tone, emphasising the passion for a well written verse that these classic raps can still stir up. Narration over the movie's interwoven scenic shots and locations is provided by Ice-T himself who also conducts all of the interviews the film.

The shortcoming of this experiment in trying to bring a deserved attention to the humble beginnings of Hip Hop culture and the art of rap is that at times it comes off looking and sounding a little bit like an old boys club reunion; backward looking and, harshly, irrelevant to a newer generation to whom these icons are simply music their parents liked. Patronage from and acquiescence to our favourite rapper is as evident as there are differences in the regional rap styles present in Hip Hop today. While I can't deny the importance of this documentary it's relevance to those who are carrying the torch for the art might be hindered in that it almost wags a disparaging finger at them.

The newer generation of Hip Hop tend to be referred to by rap elders as dull, materialistic and lacking in the ethics that made the Hip Hop songs of their era so memorable to this day. While there are many relevant points made about the corrupting effects of commercialism on what started out as a joyously simply sound track to a party, mixing turntable skills and slick poetry, there is no real evidence presented to show that todays artists place in the evolution of rapping has contributed to the legacy. This indifference to the future of the music will certainly be a divisive point to younger viewers and may dam the documentary to simply being seen as an exercise in cosy and narrow minded nostalgia.

While there are so many ways to express oneself with poetry over rhythms there are only so many ways that a documentary of this nature can concisely convey the diversity present in this form of expression that accurately represents all manner of rap artist. Constraints of time mean we are missing some popular names from the role of honour interviewed. All you have to do is wonder what happened to the opinions and experiences of the likes of The Sugar Hill Gang, Stetsasonic, Kid N Play, Mr. Scarface, Queen Latifah, Busta Rhymes, Black Thought (The Roots) and the list can go on forever. Also certain MC s featured only provide reminiscences without a rap and vice versa. Hopefully there are some extra interviews and raps as DVD extras!

To sum up you are certainly left with an appreciation of the featured living rap legends and their legacies by the time you get to the final words which bring the show to a close from our beloved Cop Killer. We are simply reminded of the love that we'd forgotten we had for what seemed like a handful of MCs and DJs on a couple of now world renowned record labels. Ultimately it is a subjective personal tribute from Ice-T on our behalf to these 1st and 2nd generation Hip Hop men and women. Something from Nothing; is precise and there is probably a more poetic phrase tucked away somewhere that better sums up the phenomenon now known to the world as rapping. The chosen one will do as it is seeks to make a point without pretence and it does so, it could also do some more on the subject and it won't surprise if another installment follows soon and a franchise is born!

"Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap" > read the full post

Pop culture reads

In preparation for the UK summer (yeah right!) I have dug out some top pop culture reads...

Stick it Up Your Punter!: The Uncut Story of the "Sun" Newspaper by Peter Chippindale and Chris Horrie. Hilarious account of UK tabloid newspaper The Sun's rise to notoriety during the 1980's. At the rotten core of it all is editor Kelvin Mackenzie who comes across like a modern Rasputin crossed with John Self (the amoral capitalist from Martin Amis' novel Money). Repulsive but you end up strangely rooting for him as he influences all the worst aspects of politics and pop culture, a poster boy for Thatcher's Britain, with a deranged swagger. The way he is privately canvased by the Conservative party as a tool to win elections is a salutary pointer towards the future world of spin developed under New Labour. Laugh out loud funny and written like a cautionary tale about greed, power and the gullibility of the great British public.

The Strangest Man: The Life of Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo. Interesting study of the bizarre Nobel Prize winner Paul Dirac. Dirac is regarded as the founder of quantum electrodynamics and this book treads a fine line between hardcore science and an intriguing character study of the possibly autistic Dirac. The strong contrast between his sensitive obsessive search for beauty within complex equations and his taciturn socially inept persona is extremely moving. The book also works as a concise history of the leading players of quantum physics such as Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg. One for the geeks!

Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer by Tim Jeal. A big thick book and admittedly a bit of a struggle but once you get past Stanley's boyhood it reads like a boys own adventure. The madness of Stanley; walking across Africa, picking fights with angry natives, suffering flesh eating foot rot, his party cannibalising babies and colluding with a despicable European tirant along the way in the rape of Africa...this is a real life version of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Nico, Songs They Never Play on the Radio by James Young. Young's excellent account of his jaunt across Europe with Nico, while acting as her keyboardist, is both harrowing and hilarious. Features a cast of grotesques you just don't find in today's anodized music business, Young is both thrilled to be in the presence of a legend and desperate not to be dragged down into the drug fueled insanity of the tour. The best bit is Nico playing Deutschland über alles to a gig full of liberal students in Poland.

Warhol: The Biography by Victor Bockris. Extremely readable biog of the enigmatic Mr Warhol. A nice mix of critique and dirt this is the most fully rounded portrait of both the artist and the man. Not afraid of the lurid details, Bockris stakes a claim for Warhol to be recognised as the Machiavellian architect of todays fame obsessed culture. Virtually everyone who is anybody from the 60s to the 80s makes a cameo appearance from Dylan, Bowie and Jagger to Capote, Jack Nicholson and Jean-Michel Basquiat. But it is the various desperate hangers-ons like Edie Sedgwick, used up and spat out by Warhol once he tires of them, who make the strongest impression.

Iggy Pop: Open Up And Bleed: The Biography by Paul Trynka. Long before he was selling insurance with a possessed puppet by his side Mr Pop was the original bad boy of rock. Trynka is brilliant at describing the sheer visceral power of Iggy at his best (or worst). Pop comes across as both a naive innocent and an arch manipulator, particularly with his treatment of his band The Stooges, who will do anything to survive. In-between rolling around in broken glass, covering himself in peanut butter and bedding every groupie he can lay his hands on Pop invents Punk rock and rock show as performance art. The book flags a bit once Iggy becomes a rich rock icon in the early 90s but the first half charting straight A student James Osterburg's drug led transformation into Iggy is enthralling.

Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven's Gate by Steven Bach. All the madness and vanity of Hollywood in one handy volume. Steven Bach was senior vice-president for United Artists studios who bank rolled and were then destroyed by the legendary flop film Heaven's Gate. Rather than the expected Hollywood greed and idiocy the final impression is more of starstruck naivety on the part of the executives in the face of Oscar winning director Michael Cimino's excess perfectionism. Miles of film were shot looking for the magical take while an army of extras wondered about in exquisite costumes and sets as the production hemorrhaged money. The final product was a beautiful but soulless mess than tanked and took United Artists and everyones job's with it..The tragedy is that the freedom previously given to film makers by the studios which produced such epic cinema through out the 1970's was subsequently snatched back after the Heaven's Gate fiasco.

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-drugs-and Rock 'n' Roll Generation Changed Hollywood by Peter Biskind. ...Or how the industry ended up with Heaven's Gate! A terrific page turning story of the revolution in 1970's cinema where the director became god and art was paramount, until they blew it in a hurricane of drugs and egomania. Gasp as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and William Friedkin churn out such classics as The Godfather, Taxi Driver and The Exorcist while pursuing a scorched earth approach to celebrity which puts todays bland handwringers to shame. Dennis Hopper who pretty much kick started the freaks are taking over Hollywood theme is the most incandescent lunatic on display, a gun brandishing self proclaimed acid Christ figure who has it all and throws it in the bin with terrifying speed. A good companion piece is the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now, "Hearts of Darkness" which covers the nightmarish shoot in all it's torrid detail.

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad. The history of the pioneers of American punk and hardcore who paved the way for the underground becoming corporate "Alternative" rock and the subsequent world domination of Nirvana. Pioneers is not too strong a word as bands like Black Flag almost single handedly build the audience, distribution and venues for hardcore music. Traipsing around in a beat up van and playing to tiny audiences with flame thrower intensity Black Flag's quest was built on by icons like Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth as well as more obscure but still brilliants bands like The Minutemen and Mission of Burma. Devoting a chapter to each of the leading bands this book is written in a pacey style which keeps you charging through it, totally absorbed.

Hotel California: Singer-songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons 1967-1976 by Barney Hoskyns. This book is about everything the hardcore punk movement was fighting against. The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, CSN, lost in a blizzard of coke and money, in a bizarre twist the self satisfied millionaires of California soft rock come across as more nihilistic and hate filled than Black Flag. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are the star performers with their demented coke histeria. David Crosby getting a blow job while being interviewed, Stephen Stills so out of his mind he tells people he served in Vietnam, the brilliant anecdotes go on and on. Even artists who survived the fall out of punk like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young come across as petty and money mad, their present credibility appearing more a product of artful spin than integrity. Orchestrating it all is the arch executive David Geffen like an evil puppet master.

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: 100 Years of the Disc Jockey by Frank Broughton and Bill Brewster. Brilliant history of the DJ, from such bizarre uncool pioneers as Jimmy Savile through the more credible David Mancuso and Nicky Siano up to the current superstars. What comes across is the strange mix of characters from the sober Al Pacino look alike Mancuso with his almost messianic approach to parties at The Loft contrasting with the barn burning druggy House debauchery of Ron Hardy, all drawn together by a total commitment to playing music. The chapter dealing with the intense Hardy and his club the Muzic Box is my favourite, it is hard to imagine Tiesto leaving such an impression on his clubbers!

The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries by Bill Brewster. A companion volume to the one above, this is all the original uncut source interviews for Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. Great to hear the history of DJing straight from the mouths of such legends as Grandmaster Flash and Francis Grasso.

England's Dreaming by Jon Savage. The definitive account of the rise of punk rock. An epic tome which starts at the proto punk nihilism and pranksterism of the Dada and Situationist art movements, takes in radical sixties political groups like the Weathermen and then crash lands in CBGB's and the Westway with Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Clash and the meat of the book, The Sex Pistols. Captures all the excitement, scheming and social upheaval of the times perfectly. It is a detailed book and maybe a bit of a struggle to get into but there is no better social history of the movement.

Howling at the Moon: The Odyssey of a Monstrous Music Mogul in an Age of Excess by Walter Yetnikoff. The wild ride of President of CBS Records Group Walter Yetnikoff during the 1980's as he threatens and abuses virtually every major rock star of the day. Driven wild by power Yetnikoff bullies and bribes his way to the top but artfully makes himself come across as a lovable grizzly bear forced to use tough love on his spoilt children. Despite the numerous amusing stories about Michael Jackson and Mick Jagger you get the feeling Walter still has too many friends in the business so holds back from the juiciest details! The first half when he transforms from a straight arrow lawyer to a figure whose volcanic personality almost overshadows his rock star employees is the most interesting. The book takes a sentimental dive near the end when he undergoes a "spiritual transformation", but up until about three quarters of the way through this is a great read. Happy reading!

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LSS "Dark" DNB Selection

A while back Frank asked me to point him in the direction of some DNB albums he'd hopefully find interesting... That time has long passed and he's now asked me to find a few more bits he'd be interested in stemming from that selection....

Frank was leaning towards the darker side of DNB from what he told me. So I've started a play list (which I'll continue to add to) of some of the harder hitting stuff from the past few years. There's some recent material in there, as well as some older pieces and a few classics. This is by no means a definitive selection, just some tunes that I'm hoping he'd like.

As said, I'll continue to add some more songs to it over time. It's quite funny how when pressed to think of certain songs your mind goes blank! And YouTube recommendations only lead so far!

The problem was he wanted a few more albums as well. With DNB culture traditionally revolving around 12" singles or 2 x 12" EP's (albums seem to have only recently been truly embraced) I was initially struggling for inspiration. So what I've said is, he are some artists you might like, and if you do - explore their back catalog further. Also, knowing which labels release which type of music helps a lot as you can then delve into their archives and stumble across a whole new heap of talent.

Self exploration is extremely rewarding!

Anyway, enjoy it for now and check back in the future where I'll hopefully have updated it quite significantly...

LSS Dark DNB YouTube Play list

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Downloading discussion

A recent download made me think about the difficult ethics of illegally downloading music from the net...



A friend of mine recently passed me a USB stick containing the MP3s of a very rare album on it, by a French fusion group called Dun. Their sole album was going for £250 on Discogs and was impossible to find to buy anywhere else. He had ripped from Youtube by converting song posts into MP3's. Poor quality but the only way to own the album. I have immediately passed on the album to several friends who would enjoy it and spread the word. It struck me that this band are almost completely forgotten and I only heard about them through people posting the album on Youtube. Without someone having stuck up their music illegally online they would remain an unknown myth inaccessible to all apart from the rich obsessive vinyl collector. If enough people hear and pass on the music then there is a possibility that a small label will eventually rerelease the album due to the interest.

For cult artists this can work as people into obscure music would most likely buy the CD if rereleased, mainly due to the improved sound quality, but also to support the label, invariably small and fan driven, and band. Even if you buy an album at an inflated price second hand the band still does not receive any royalties, if the CD is rereleased and available new they hopefully will. In the past the recordable cassette was seen as the death of the industry but did not significantly effect sales, in fact it was soon seen as an unlikely form of stealth promotion. In the past many albums such as The Modern Lovers then unreleased demo's (a huge influence on the UK punk rock movement in bootleg form) and more recently The Beach Boys "Smile" album have only been circulated and reevaluated through dissemination as illegal bootlegs. Often a flood of bootlegs forces the artist to acknowledge an audience for a particular aspect of their work, such as Bob Dylan's "Biograph" box set and Led Zeppelin's "How the West Was Won". Ripping files from the internet is just the new form of bootlegging.

However there is a possibility that the downloading phenomenon has damaged the industry in another way. Record companies' back catalogues are proving significantly more stable income than newer artists principally through the massive costs of promoting a new act. A rerelease frenzy that has created a retro obsessed "dad rock" industry. Too busy re-promoting the past to spend time developing the future? Newer music is absorbed by a generation to whom packaging and historical significance is less important than before, in general people have a less personal connection to artists. The emphasis in breaking a modern act, which is closely linked to film and advertisement tie-ins, is that the music is now selling the concept of consumption not the idea that you consume because of your believe in the values or messages expressed in the product. Modern pop is seen as a tool to fluidly create connections between disparate products in the minds of the public. You are as likely to picture a soft drink when hearing a pop song as you are to remember the lyrics.

Another aspect in retro active consumption is that modern music is such an extravagant display of wealth, either explicitly through the clothes and jewelry or through the subtle technological showcase of the promo videos. Many people imagine that either the artists will not be significantly financially effected by your illegal download, after all they are practically forcing their wealth down your throat, or consumers desire the music but resent paying money to fund such ostentatious neo yuppy life styles during times of recession. An artist from the past is protected from this to a certain extent by the passage of time. They are not constantly in your face through the over saturation of multimedia, and their extravagance or foolishness is given the protective perception of "retro", the 70's, a decade of terrible record company corruption, prejudice, the worst excesses of rock star arrogance and debauchery is now seen as a fun pimped up era of afros, bell bottoms, double necked guitars and disco glitter.

It will always remain a controversial topic but it is worth remembering the amount of money and resources squandered by the record business. It is unfortunate that artists and sound engineers are suffering because of a situation created more through record company incompetence and mismanagement than what is promoted (by the record industry) as the greed of the consumer. I see the industry splitting into two linked but ideologically divided sides. One will retain the old model and will see music become merely a supporting player to reality TV, film and advertisement. It will not be created for aesthetic worth or longevity but as a cog in a capitalist machine for aspiration and consumerism. On the other side a new industry will grow up from the grass routes level where small labels of enthusiasts promote artists driven more by the music than the desire for fame and money. This is already happening, with artists accepting that their music will remain something which has to give satisfaction in and of itself without being a route towards financial independence. Future music for both creator and listener will provide a spiritual but not a financial release from your day job.

Maningrey







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The Maningrey Review # 2 - Larks' Tongues in Aspic

An informal series of reviews of prog/psych/weirdness for the drug crazed and incontinent...

Does anyone else have the thing where you KNOW a particular album is the best creation by a band but time and again you read reviews where inferior albums by the artist are recommended in magazine reviews and blogs?

Well with KC you will be told that their debut album or "Red" or "Discipline" or "Starless and Bible Black" are the first port of call to get into the band...They are not...the pinnacle of the Crim's catalogue, and possibly prog rock in general, is "Larks' Tongues in Aspic".

Don't get me wrong I love a lot of KC's previous albums, I love the weird culty appeal of liking such stodgy over ripe fair as "Lizard" or " Islands". Yes they are easy to mock for the pretension and opulence of the arrangements, hell "Lizard" practically defines the word "rococo" with more folds and ruffs than a King Charles II portrait, but they are bold, imaginative and unique. In a world of Starbucks and X Factor such strangeness and exuberance is almost shocking when rediscovered on dusty old vinyl.

But early Crim suffered as much as any band of the era from the flaws that bedeviled prog and still keep it as the music you hide in a cupboard when a girl comes to visit. In fact with their massive debut album "In the Court of the Crimson King" they more or less defined the genre in both the positive and negative aspects. Hideous "poetic" lyrics, hilariously overblown chest beating vocals (by Greg Lake later of the god awful ELP) and aimless jamming.

Following the collapse of the original band guitarist Robert Fripp led a motley crew of ever changing sidemen and drifted further and further into complete abstraction, nothing wrong with this of course, but it was by way of a particularly weedy form of light jazz which reached it's nadir in the terrible track "Formentera Lady" as bland as "21st Century Schizoid Man" was fiery. Fripp was at a cross roads and he made the first step towards a brave new world by jettisoning the horrible lyrics and influence of Peter Sinfield and sought out a younger hungrier set of musicians to reclaim the fury and promise of the first line up.

Having poached drum prodigy Bill Bruford from mega successful Yes, former Family bassist John Wetton and deranged free jazz percussionist Jamie Muir the band's first shows created an instant stir. Gone were the flourish and ornate orchestration of old, replaced by a brittle sound based on improvisation that foreshadowed both obvious progeny such as Tool and more unlikely bands like Public Image Ltd and This Heat.

The new units first record together is a culmination of all the varied strands that Fripp had been attempting to weave together but until now a firm alloy had always eluded him. Serene violin reminiscent of Vaughan Williams (by David Cross) abruptly switches into spasming Teutonic riffing. Dark swathes of mellotron glower over bubbling Gamelan percussion. Sludgy Wah bass straight from a Sly Stone record rumbles against percussion which sounds like scurrying cockroaches after a nuclear fall out...and that's just the first track, the mighty "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 1"!

The seemingly ridiculous title of the album actually sums up the twin obsessions of impossibly gentle pastoral and terrifying bludgeoning which have always been a KC trademark. Except this album combines both poles within tracks rather than the traditional "heavy track" vs "ballad" split on previous albums. This schizophrenic quiet/loud arrangement trick was later turned into a cliche by bands like The Pixies and Nirvana. Oddly Kurt Cobain was a fan of the follow up album "Starless and Bible Black".

One of the features of the album is how Bill Bruford's elegant drumming is prevented from the fussiness which permeated his work with Yes by the thuggish brutality of Wetton's distorted bass and Muir's scatter gun approach to percussion. I still have no idea how Muir creates half the sounds that squirm throughout the music. Scurrying insects, buzzing flies, ripping suspenders, laughing clowns, Muir has a whole menagerie of creatures at his disposal. There is a crawling sense of unease in even the gentlest tracks, a Gothic crepuscular tension as the instruments fight for space amid the sound effects.

The second track is also the weakest, "Book of Saturday" is a gentle ballad with terrible lyrics in the tradition of older tracks like "Cadence and Cascade". A pretty tune but bland after the fireworks of the previous title track. One positive is that it shows Wetton to be a much stronger singer than previous members although I tend to think of KC as an instrumental unit who happen to sing the odd song.

However the next track more than makes up for it, "Exiles" is possibly my favourite track by the band. Massive and mysterious it drifts in on a swirl of dissonant mellotron, not unlike something by Tangerine Dream. Delicate verses are interrupted by this returning storm cloud of sound at regular intervals preventing the melody becoming saccharine. This track shows off the melody of Wetton's bass playing and the restraint in Bruford's percussion. Few guitarists have such an ability to match exquisit lyricism with brute force as Fripp and this track is a web of fluttering Spanish guitar and liquid soloing. Despite the technique the solo at the end is simple and melodic, completely servicing the song. This is the reason Fripp had a concurrent session career with such artists as David Bowie and Brian Eno.

The next track "Easy Money" could not be more different and is the most dated song. An uneasy mix of jazzoid chords, funk and power chording anthemic chorus the track is let down by rank lyrics about a prostitute. KC were unable to find a good lyricist until Adrian Belew joined the 80's line up with his Talking Heads inspired word play. After the song part of the track it breaks into a elongated jam with some inspired minimalist funk between Muir and Bruford before Fripp's dense tangle of notes brings the track home. This track shows the influence on bands like Rush and Voivod.

The last two tracks are brilliant as they are released from the restraint of supporting lyrics and charge headlong into the music pure and simple. "The Talking Drum" starts with a simply drum patten and the sound of buzzing flies before being joined by a repetitive bass line, so far it sounds a bit like Neu. Gradually the track moves up a gear as first David Cross with his violin and then Fripp start playing variations of a riff which crosses dervish intensity with a sitar drone. David Cross was an often overlooked member who eventually left due to being reputably drowned out by the Wetton/Bruford axis in concert. Live sound systems of the day were simply not up to capturing all the nuances of this band so perhaps inevitably it was the harder heavier material which won out in concert. Fripp was an admirer of the Mahavishnu Orchestra so perhaps Cross was added to mimic that band's mix of instruments? On this track though he plays like a demon and the track finally explodes as Wetton steps on his fuzz pedal and the music grinds to a halt amid a scream of feedback.

The intensity does not let up as the second part of the title track comes in like Godzilla destroying Tokyo. One of their most violent pieces of music "Larks' Tongues in Aspic Part 2" starts with a simple hacking chord which is then slice and diced by Wetton and Bruford. A hall mark of this album is the way the rhythm section play with time signatures, juggling the "one" about, while still keeping a hard pounding groove. Fripp plays with punk like abandon, he is the only guitar player of his generation who could play with such dirty jagged fury in such a complex context, assimilating the brute force of a garage punk Les Paul with the bare wire harmolodics of Derek Bailey. Cross rips into the music with a shrieking solo before the song rumbles to a halt with a blaze of thrashing chords that sound like a dentists drill.

If you want to get into a truly unique band then this is the place to start.

Thanks for reading.

Maningrey

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Loxy & Resound - Kernel [Free Download/Session Files]

Ever wanted to know what a "professional" Drum & Bass session looks like? Thanks to Loxy & Resound, the wait is over...














Well, Resound & Loxy have given away their tune Kernel for free download via Loopmasters to promote their new sample pack.

In conjunction with this, if you're a Logic user, you can also download the project files and see what's happening in the arrange & mix windows.

It proves for some interesting viewing (and listening). Which should get you thinking and analyzing your own projects, as to what you may be doing right or wrong, and open your eyes and ears to some new ways of thinking. 

But before you rush ahead and start copying channel strips and doing things because you think you should....  Resound will be answering questions about the session. Anything that doesn't make sense, or techniques you don't understand etc, he'll aim to answer in a video he'll be doing through loopmasters.

If you check out Resound's site, he's got all the relevant info on how to obtain the free mp3 & session files.

His site is actually packed full of other useful information including weekly tips and he offers chances to mix and master your tracks as well as tutoring services.

Unfortunately this is not available for anybody on any other DAW, but the final video where he aims to answer questions should be of general interest all the same.

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The Maningrey Review # 1 - Future Days

An informal series of reviews of prog/psych/weirdness for the beardy long hairs out there...

My first introduction to Can was the excellent but haphazard "Anthology". Fortunately Can are such a distinctive band that it still all seemed to fit together but I always found myself returning to the tracks "Future Days" and "Moonshake" so eventually I bought the album "Future Days" itself.

For me it has always been the peak of Can's music and for a long time I only really enjoyed this and "Ege Bamyasi" from their extensive catalogue. There is a definite split in Can's music between the jagged Velvet's inspired one chord garage drones of the Malcolm Mooney era and the more liquid and original Damo Suzuki music. From Damo's first track with the band "Don't Turn the Light On, Leave Me Alone" you can feel the change in feel as the band mold their music around Damo's voice. With Mooney it often felt as if they were being dragged in his wake such was the strength of his personality. Damo is no less striking but much less declamatory, the tone of his musings blend with the guitar and organ in such as way that with the liberal doses of reverb and delay which cloak the music often it is difficult to say who is creating which melody within a tune.

The title track has been a perennial favourite, it has always felt like a perfect piece, just the right length with not a note out of place. Can with Damo were the only "progressive" band who managed to be both excellent players but also write extremely catchy melodies. The sounds are always extremely organic, no flashy excessive soloing, even though Michael Karoli plays extensively he always plays intricate little tunes which Damo plays off and vice versa. The magic of Can is how they subvert certain prog rock cliches with unexpected twists. The mesmerizing samba rhythms master drummer Jaki Liebezeit weaves beneath "Future Days" is as silky as a Tom Jobim ballad yet also propulsive and muscular. Think of any other prog or Cosmic rock band who would use this groove? Oddly Liebezeit's playing reminds me of Fela Kuti's drummer Tony Allen in that it is jazz influenced but accented in a way that is neither rock, jazz or funk while combining the grooves of each genre.

The next track Splash is my least favourite from the album and feels like it could have come off Can's next album, the Damo less "Soon Over Babaluma" where the jazzy improvisation was removed from the discipline of working with Damo's songs and became indulgent. However being Can it is never less than fascinating, on any other album it would be a stand out track.

It is interesting that noted Kraut rock fan Julian Cope (faded 80's pop star turned all round guru) hates the second side of "Future Days" calling the oceanic 20 minutes of "Bel Air", a total "mess". However I think that this track perfectly demonstrates the perfect balance Can had with Damo. Yes there are self indulgent parts and yes it could haver lost a few minutes here and there but Damo is always there singing his strange incantations whenever it looks like the band has drifted into ambient doodling. Remove Damo and yes it would be a mess, infact I often see "Soon Over Babaluma" as a series of "Bel Airs" without the tunes. Like any long track it demands your attention, but if you look at "Bel Air" as a series of short pop songs which blend together rather than one intimidating slog the beauty unfolds itself, every time Damo sings it is a new song.

I see "Bel Air" as a follow up to Jimi Hendrix's track "1983" with it's washes of sound which never fall into ambient banality due to the delicacy and sensitivity of the playing and the tough beats which anchor them. There are parallels in the mood to John Martyn's album "Solid Air" which was also released in 1973 with it's blend of electric piano and reverbed twanging guitar. However where Martyn finds sorrow and darkness in this mix Can find a massive neutral charge, removed from any identifiable human emotion, more like standing on a beach in the sun as a cool breeze brushes your face. Not quite elation, not quite pensive.It is this aspect which means this is an album you can listen to in any mood and find yourself in a different place. Only a later album like "Loveless" by My Bloody Valentine would combine this level of the avant and the pop in one sound although again the prevailing mood on MBV's masterwork was intense nostalgia and pain.

Before this monster track comes Can's sweetest pop song. Moonshake has the same sexy samba groove as the title track but this time the Jobim in the beat is given free reign. A cousin to "One More Night" from "Ege Bamyasi" and directly reused by Can themselves on the later "Saw Delight" for the soundalike "Don't Say No", this is a propulsive stomper which is both funky and weird with the odd scratches and bleeps which take the place of a solo in the middle. Can's disco side would coem to full fruition on their one UK hit, the facile but fun "I Want More".

I can see why this album is often under rated compared to the more obviously rocking Mooney era "Monster Movie" and the Damo led "Tago Mago". It is possible that "Future Days" could be perceived as being a little bland after their previous fire breathing sturm und drang. However I feel that many of the early Can tracks are too close to The Velvet Underground and The Mothers in style and simply lacking in the narcotic melody they would find on Ege Bamyasi" and "Future Days". Despite the ferocity of Malcolm Mooney I find much of the garage rock Can boring in the same way I find much of the proto punk critics darlings like The Stooges tedious. If you are going to have no tune then go all the way and sound like "Negativland" by Neu! I would suggest that at least half of "Tago Mago" and "Monster Movie" are more of a "mess" than "Bel Air"!

Of their later albums after "Future Days" I dislike "Soon Over Babluma" and "Landed" (their worst album by some way) but enjoy "Flow Motion" for it's odd dub experiments and poppy disco and enjoy the first album with new members Rosko Gee and Rebop Kwaku Baahchaz, "Saw Delight" which has a sunny around the world in a day vibe.

Thanks for reading

Maningrey

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LSS Student Profile: Nadim Amir

Name: Nadim Amir

Courses Taken: Electronic Music Production (SU510) Summer Program

Featured Track:

Nadim - MMXI ( original mix ) by Dj Nadim

Links: 

http://soundcloud.com/dj-nadim

How was your time at LSS? And how did it help you develop your music career?

To be honest I had an amazing time at LSS, the atmosphere is fantastic and I enjoyed the fact that there are students from different backgrounds and musical tastes all together in one class. This made me love the process of learning! 

Taking a course in music production was the perfect step from taking my love for music and my curiosity towards music production towards the right track, and LSS was the ideal place to take it to the next level.

What have you been up to since you left LSS? 

Since I finished my courses in LSS I have been working non-stop for the past year locked away in my room producing tracks and trying out new equipment and techniques. It is important to say that experience is very important, and through it each new track sounds  better than the last because the learning process never stops with music production.

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LSS Student Profile: Andreas Pallikaras

Name: Andreas Pallikaras

Courses Taken: Professional Certificate: Music Production 101, Sound Engineering, Structure Form & Creativity, Sound Design & Synthesis.

Featured Track: 13 Stitches (Dubstep Remix) 

13 Stitches (Dubstep Remix) by NΕΚΡΟΛΥΤΕ

How was your time at LSS? And how did it help you develop your music career?

When I came to LSS I wasn't familiar to anything really and I can say with certainty that I wouldn't be able to learn all the things I have learned so easily. 

LSS for me is a fun place to be at in general and even more fun studying, the people there are always helpful and no question ever seams hard for them to answer so I would say that I had a great time. 

What have you been up to since you left LSS? 

As for now, I'm in Cyprus working a full time job and on my extra time I make music, mostly Psychedelic, but I've also started working on a dubstep project that will be followed by more to come.

 Links: 

http://soundcloud.com/necrolyte

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