DOSHY Lowriders Mixtape 006

The sixth installment of our mixtape series comes from Doshy, a producer whose music is perfect for stilling our hunger for extra-terrestrial future beats. He finds himself somewehere within the dubstep and abstract beats regions and his knack for synth wizardry will always cause the end results to have a heavy impact.  Hailing from Berlin, he has been steadily releasing music on the Robox Neotech Imprint. The rest of the world seems to have finally noticed him as well, as he has releases forthcoming on various labels all over Europe. [audio: http://www.lowriderscollective.com/mixes/Lowriders-mixtape-006-Doshy.mp3] Download here Tracklist after the jump

+VERB Lowriders Mixtape 004

As he so adequately describes himself, +verb brings lasers n bass n bounce to the table. His combination of dubstep, glitch, hip-hop, electronica and breaks will surely melt anyone's brain! This talented producer lives in the rather isolated Arizona but thanks to the web, people from all over the world (like we) have started to take notice of him. His first release on Vermin Street will be out very soon. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out his bandcamp for a free tune. Interview and tracklist after the jump. Download here Stream: [audio: http://www.lowriderscollective.com/mixes/Lowriders-mixtape-004-+verb.mp3]

Interview

Let's start with an introduction. Who are you and what do you do outside of music? My real name is Dominic and I am a full time student studying computer imaging/graphic design at university. I also have a wonderful family! How would you describe your sound to the unfamiliar? The sound of the future with some elements repurposed from the past. All with an emphasis on arcade sounds and bass. This is typically held together by hip-hop drums and a hefty sub. The low end is very important to me. Oh yea, and it has to groove! :p Listening to your glitched out tunes it sounds like angry robots at war. At the same time it seems like they're making love because you always add a playful or melodic element into things. Is that something you try to find a balance in between those two opposites? Interesting! I like to keep the beats coming on pretty strong. But at the same time, I am also a fan of the more melodic electronic music out there. I write what I feel at a particular moment. Perhaps this is an example of call and answer, or tension and release? Either way, it is all done subconsciously. Hopefully it is working well. When did you start producing and what sparked your interest to do so? This might sound cliche, but in my younger days I used to frequent parties quite a bit! Coming from a hip-hop background, I was totally overwhelmed by the strange sounds that were coming out of these huge stacks of speakers. It amazed me how one could feel so connected to the music. Like the sounds were speaking directly to me... I immediately fell in love with electronic music. I picked up a copy of Acid Pro and then moved on to Cubase. Then I met Ableton. Around this time I also found my way to Macintosh and then Logic Pro. I create now solely for the purpose of enjoyment. It is the best release from life possible. Where do you draw inspiration from? Everywhere! Life is filled with these amazing events and we live in an era where we can experience quite a bit. If you are not living the most amazing life you possibly can then you truly are not living to the best of your capabilities. With that said, I also draw a lot of inspiration from worldly events, social situations, and hip-hop music and culture. What is your production setup? Right now I have a Macbook Pro for portability. Then in the studio I have an iMac. I interact with the computers via an Akai MPK25 and an Akai APC40. Sound comes out of an NI Audio Kontrol 1 and through a pair of KRK Rokits. I also smash buttons on a Korg nanoPAD from time to time. I like to also use my Focusrite LiquidMix DSP hardware unit for some nice compression or EQ emulations. What that box does to sounds put through it is amazing. I mainly write in Logic and Ableton. Though more and more recently, the creation of ideas happens inside Ableton and then the actual mixdown and mastering of tunes happens inside Logic. I use a bunch of various soft synths and effects. I really just try to use as few pieces of software as possible, and use what I have to the best of my abilities. I really, really, really want to get some analog synths again. Like a Juno or Dave Smith. I used to own a Korg Microkorg. That was a fun piece of kit. How is the scene in Arizona? There are some shows just an hour south of where I attend university that are trying to push the sound. Adam John who runs his own label and also has just released with "Muti Music" is down there representing bass and beats. Where I am at now is just infatuated with Indie Rock and Top 40 Rap. I'm really anxious to graduate and relocate to either Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Portland. A move is going to happen soon. That is exciting! Anything set for the future? Indeed! I have a 2 track EP out on "Vermin Street" very soon that will include remixes from "Frite Nite" label boss Salva, and also Norajean. It is going to be pretty slapping and boom blapping. I also have a few tracks that are going to appear on various compilations. There are a few other things that might pan out too. I am always down to do some more remixes. I find those can always be fun. I also want to start playing shows more. Ultimately, I would like to share more of my music with people. I have a story to tell and I think there are peeps who would like to hear it. :p Besides you are there any other artists we should keep an eye on? There are so many amazing people making insane tracks right now. With technology so readily available, everyone is an artist these days. Once you dig through all the crap out there you can find some truly jaw-dropping and awe inspiring tracks. I recommend people check out the artists that are on the Glitch Hop Forum Soundcloud group. http://soundcloud.com/groups/glitch-hop-forum-attack-of-the-bunnies-unofficial If you are wanting me to name people, then you could do no harm in listening to people like misk, Salva, Richard Sweat, Ben Samples, FreddyTodd, Knight Riderz, and De Novo Creation. Of course, Halp, Hovatron, and Coco Bryce are tearing it up too. But readers of this blog already knew that! Some finale words? Oh so many words I can think of right now!! But I will save you the hassle of reading them. In closing, thanks for digging the tunes and for bringing us the awesomeness that is Lowriders Collective. Lasers n bass n bounce, +verb http://soundcloud.com/verb-1 http://www.myspace.com/adverbproductions http://twitter.com/verbmusics

Tracklist

1. +verb - Poster Boy [unreleased] 2. +verb - Drank It All [unreleased] 3. +verb - Rongg V.2 (Cricket Blap-n-Gurgle Mixx) [unreleased] 4. +verb - Mead Bass Channel [unreleased] 5. +verb - K10 [forthcoming Vermin Street] 6. +verb - Tha Inside by De Novo Creation (+verb Remixx) 7. +verb - UnedDn [unreleased] 8. +verb - What's Good [forthcoming Vermin Street] 9. +verb - Raining Outside [unreleased] 10. +verb - Tab That Here [unreleased] 11. +verb - Why U Gangstah (ft. Tupac) [unreleased] 12. +verb - Integr [unreleased]

HOVATRON Lowriders Mixtape 003

Think Canada, lasers, fluorescent colors, synth funk, science fiction, explosions and you've roughly got an idea of what to expect. The third installment of our mixtape series comes from Montréal's Hovatron. As one of the co-initiators of the Turbo Crunk nights, Hovatron brings crunked up acid infected beats dripped in skweeeing synths with an hint of techno and pop music. Doesn't make much sense? Well... it doesn't! His sound is that unique!  The mix consists of solely his own tunes and remixes. Lots of new stuff in here which have never been heard outside of the club. Interview and Tracklist can be found after the jump. Download here Stream: [audio: http://www.lowriderscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Lowriders-mixtape-003-Hovatron.mp3]

Interview

Who are you in daily life? I work a full-time day job as an art director in an ad firm. Sometimes I like people and parties, other times I like being a shut-in, drinking too much coffee and making music. Your sound sounds so fresh and unique to me, how would you describe it yourself? Asking someone to describe what they do can be a pretty tough question. In some ways I like to see it as a complete synthesis of all things and ideas I have been exposed to in my life. My unhealthy obsessions with old house and techno, with rap music in general and pretty much anything related to electronic music and synthesizers. I think it also has to do with the fact I consider myself really bad at making any kind of genre-specific music, and always kind of have been, so my only other option is to try to "do me". When did you start producing and what sparked your interest to do so? I started producing music when I was in a lame rock band in my early teens and had many different ideas going through my head all the time, yet didn't know how to share them with anyone else. Got an early pirated copy of a DAW, and got going. Then when I was in 8th grade my history teacher introduced me to Warp Records, rest is history. Name your musical heroes. Kraftwerk, David Byrne, Maurice Joshua, Beck, Ricardo Villalobos, Boards of Canada, Young Jeezy, The Dream and countless others.

Where do you draw inspiration from? Technology and my relationship to it, movies, old overpriced dance records, late nights, pop culture & youtube. What is your production setup? Korg MS20, Juno-60, Roland TR-707, a growing euro-rack Modular synthesizer system, Analogue Solutions TBX-303 and a DAW to record / sequence. It's funny that most of my gear seems to be analog because to be honest I really don't care about the analog vs. digital debate, however I own hardware for the same reason I buy a lot records, it's more about real vs. virtual. I have no relationship to clicking my mouse to turn a knob on a VST. I feel no connection whatsoever to what I'm making and at that point. I also don't like using things I don't understand. I can wrap my head around analog synthesis with the circuit signal path and such. I don't understand binary code and that kind of scares me I guess. Also, I make electronic music, and feel like I should use electronic instruments, if I made classical music I would want a real piano, or whatever. How is the scene in Montréal? We have quite a few extremely talented people in the city I have looked up to from various sounds and cultures. Montreal is vibrant in many ways and it's a fantastic city to be in. People at High Food, Turbo Records, Neon, Ninja Tune, Pop Montréal and others all work really hard to keep interesting and forward-thinking things moving and crowds are quite often receptive. Another thing is people like to party here, so whether it was the Turbo Crunk stuff or a techno party, there are fewer chin scratchers and lame dudes than most other places I have played, with a packed and fun dancefloor, and that makes me proud. Tell us about the whole Turbo Crunk movement. All started at the now dearly missed Zoobizarre, which was a small cave on a second floor far from the other venues and clubs, where we all did various like-minded club nights. At some point we decided to join forces, and tried to do what we thought would be the funnest party we would ever want to go to. What was great and unique about the Turbo Crunk nights was that though every single resident and guest of the party performed a live set, it was very much in a club setting, sometimes there wasn't even a way to see what the artist up there was doing and the focus was on the sound and the dancefloor. I have always hated the "guitar-solo" approach to live electronic music and though sometimes I become guilty of sitting and staring at someone doing something cool, I would much rather dance and see other people come together in the real world in a welcoming environment and dance to interesting music. Turbo Crunk wasn't a movement, it was just a family. Some of the best nights of my life and my tightest friendships have resulted from those parties.

Don't hear a whole lot from Lunice nowadays, Megasoid is making house or something and you're heavily drawing influences from skweee. Is it actually still alive? You might not be hearing a lot from Lunice because he is busy at RBMA in London and planning a whole bunch of releases that will melt faces! The homie has gone IN on the "post-hyphy" or whatever you want to call it and I must say I'm tremendously excited for him! As for Megasoid, they have some of the best rap songs recorded with some of my favorite rappers right now sitting in the vault. Don't want to say too much except that I hope they surface sooner than later in one way or another! I didn't know I was drawing heavily from Skweee, but I really like that stuff so I'll take it as a compliment! But like I said, Turbo Crunk was never a movement per se and from the get go our sounds had their own directions. Lunice and I espeically were just getting started with more club-oriented music so all that has happened in 3 years is following these directions and getting more comfortable with our sounds and what we want to do. Anything set for the future? A few releases I'm really excited about, such as a slowish hyphy acid house remix of Ghislain Poirier that should be coming out on Ninja Tune in a month or so, and some solo things. A bigger apartment for all these keyboards and gear! Some finale words? Man I can't think of anything clever to say!

Tracklist

1000NAMES Lowriders Mixtape 002

Nr. 002 is here! This one is done by two artists we've invited to one of our events last year. We've been fans of 1000names since their releases on Eklektik Records. The irregular spacy beats and usage of outerworldly and vintage samples proves that these two have a firm grasp on future sensibility. They've always kind of flown under the radar but that's all going to change soon. With a mix done for Mary Anne Hobbs recently and also an LP forthcoming on Black Acre, the prospective of the new decade is looking good for the two Bulgarians. Tracklist and the interview can be found after the jump. Download here Stream: [audio:http://www.lowriderscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Lowriders-mixtape-002-1000names.mp3]

Interview

Hi, could you please introduce yourselves? We are 1000names, producers and dj's from Sofia, Bulgaria. How did you two meet? In the biology class we disected some tapes haha that was about 17 years ago since then we've been sharing the same music love. 17 Years later, how would you now disect your music as? Irregular beats, scape atmos, old fashion signals

What are your musical influences and how long have you been producing? Anything from ~scape to wu-tang to 70's 80's experimental electronic music to Myspace beat generation. we've tried stuff since 2000 but more seriously 4-5 years from now What's your production setup like? We use different sequencers like mpc and are now more into computers. we used to love not to see the sounds but now we are control freakz and do it all on the computerz. There's still room for random surprises. A record forthcoming on Black Acre, How do you feel about that? Very excited!@!!!## to be in that family with such artists like Blue Daisy, Akira Kiteshi, Loops Haunt.. [vimeo 8884811] How is the scene in Bulgaria? There are many people thirsty for fresh sounds and we've done couple of parties on our own and with guests, but its very hard to work with the local clubs, Mr Gready surrounds everything. Some important people have said the future of electronic music lays in Eastern Europe, 2010 will be an important year. What do you think of that statement? Well hope so, its true that east Europe is waking up. There's a good community in Moscow and good label born fresh in Serbia called "Svetlana Industries", we have plans with them also with our other project "Nuclear Nomads". there are very exciting albums coming up, and the new decade is just starting. On the mix there is only one track from yourselves. There are however quite a few artists on it of which I've never heard before. Was this a deliberate choice? Noo not deliberated. Actually we are connected on Myspace with a lot of up and coming producers who do dope music so we just play everything that we like and we leave the others to play our music think that's fair haha That's very noble. When I listened to the mix I sometimes got an old tv series intro vibe. Is that something you draw inspiration from? Very good friend of ours is mad about cinema, he also directs some stuff and we are inspired by old visions, unfocused video projections from our childhood, we like that as form and culture not particular series, just images.

Which artists should we definitely put on our radar? Lapti // Moscow Chits // USA Josip Klobucar // Zagreb As Valet, La Note and Gus La Tempete // Paris Very curious to see what will happen with the skwee scene Anything set for the future? There's an EP coming on Eklektik Records, 10" and LP on Black Acre, 12" on Svetlana Industries, B-ju rmx on Error Broadcast, AK Kids rmx, Coco Bryce collabo, and loads of beats and pieces with our french solar space bross As Valet, La Note and Gus La Tempete And one final question. If I ever were to visit Bulgaria, what dish would you recommend for dinner? Yeah we are obssesed with cheese, but its a white one, not like in west Europe. we put it on everything. so try "Giuvedje"

Tracklist

1. Bibio - Great are the Piths 2. Black Monk & Ras G - Juju 3. Wankers United - Superfunky 4. Coco Bryce - bit crushing 5. Inko - Alma Parodia 6. Gards from KC - Statement 7. Robot Koch - Gorom Sen (Shlohmo rmx) 8. Kidkanevil - Mega joy 9. Lone - Arcade 10. Yoggy One - Moonwalk 11. Alan Hwakshaw - Technicolor 12. A.Rodionov - Electronic Jokey(horse races) 13. 1000names - Telephony 2000 14. Blue Daisy - Hunters 15. Shafiq Husayn - Evil Man (Flying Lotus rmx) 16. Lapti - Polar Bear

COCO BRYCE Lowriders Mixtape 001

The first in our series of mixtapes is here! This one is done by our friend and fellow Lowrider Coco Bryce. Formerly more active in the Tekno scene, he has now made the switch over to the skweee and hip hop territories. After releases on Harmönia and Myor (which was coined as one of our 2009 favorites) and some new tunes coming up these months, he's definitely someone to keep an eye on. Check out the tracklist and interview we did with him after the jump. Download here Stream: [audio: http://www.lowriderscollective.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Lowriders-mixtape-001-Coco-Bryce.mp3]

Interview

Please introduce yourself, where do you live and what do you do? Senor Coco, residing in Breda, which is in the south of the Netherlands, right next to the Belgian border. DJ turned producer, and in REAL life I'm a messenger boy, about 3 days a week, which leaves me with just enough time to get some music done every once in a while.. Tell us a little bit about the mix you did. well, I put in a couple of my fav tunes from the last few years, some unreleased tunes by myself and this fresh little gem by '1000 names' which they were kind enough to supply me with.. I've been doing all my mixes in ableton lately.. I don't own cdj's and i barely buy vinyl anymore, and since I already had ableton to produce with it kinda figured to do my mixes in there as well.. About your production setup….. just Ableton? Yup, Ableton, one plug-in (Vstation) and a shitload of random cut up samples.. I first started out with some hardware though. Got a TR505 drumcomputer from my uncle, then I bought these second hand crappy Korg machines and an Alesis drumcomputer. Did most of my tekno stuff on this set up. Later on I also got a Yamaha workstation sampler from a friend of mine on which I did some hip hop beats and inbetween all of that a lot of Fruity Loops tunes as well. But right now it's all and only Ableton. I can get about a million times more stuff done on just that than on my hardware set up. But then again, mine is a pretty poor set up... What is your musical background? I guess my first love would have to be hip hop, though when i started dj'ing it was mostly hardcore and breakbeat rave, then tekno, funk, more hip hop, electro, club stuff, basically anything danceable, though i've never been too keen on trance :) ..didn't really dig dubstep when I first heard it, but I got pretty heavily into that stuff as well since Joker and Zomby etc started putting out records.. though lots of folks will argue that to be dubstep... Skweee originated from Scandinavia, there are some US and Spanish labels popping up, but it's still fairly unknown in the Netherlands. How did you come in contact with the sound and when did you decide to produce? To be honest i think it's still fairly unknown everywhere exept for maybe finland and sweden. I mean, it's spreading around, but it's still a pretty niche thing. I first heard that term (skweee) used by Sjak (DMDN from Antenne and Trigga). He saw me buying all that hip hop-ish dubstep stuff at his store and gave me some Flogsta and Harmönia records to check out. It wasn't really the skweee stuff that got me into producing though. I used to do a lot of tekno n break stuff under a different moniker, some hip hop beats as well... then through listening to Madlib 24/7 I got well into those crooked beats, into Flylo and Dabrye (which Hans, SIMcommander, tipped me!!) etc.. so I did a bunch of tunes and sent some over to Tatu at Harmönia and they put this ghetto freaks track on their compilation (thx a lot!!).. so now I'm a skweee producer I guess :) With the newest Harmonia compilation being received very well by all the critics and other new compilations in the pipeline, would you reckon 2010 to be an important year for skweee? Maybe even pivotal? Yeah, I guess so.. I HOPE it will be for sure. Though I think it'll blend more with all the other crazy beats stuff going on right now. For example, Rekordah is working on this compilation right now which has both skweee and more hip hop kind of stuff on it. And I think those 2 genres suit each other perfectly. Plus it's not bound to any bpm (like dubstep is), so there's a lot more different directions for it to evolve into when there's less 'restrictions'.. What artists have caught your attention lately? Definitely Slugabed, I haven't heard a single bad tune from him (yet :)) Really dig Debruit, 1000 Names, Nino, Gemmy, Guido... basically all those dudes doing hip hop and dubstep-ish stuff with sweet synth sounds... and I'm a big fan of Samiyam and Zomby of course... as for the new new new dudes, i'd have to say Nino and Pixelord. Any future projects coming up? Got a couple of collabo's in the pipelines with Slow Hands Motëm (some weird lo fi covers and him rapping to my beats), 1000 Names (snippet of the first tune is up on both our soundcloud pages) and AK Kids. Those last guys are working on an album consisting entirely of collabo's. and i'm working on getting together some tracks for the next Myor release, which is going to be a compilation 12" with Mesak, Nino, Saccage, myself and a couple of other guys. Plus I got some tunes coming out on 2 other comps. and I just did 2 remixes for Nino, of which at least 1 should be released somewhere this year I guess.. Some final words? Big up yer chest.. http://www.myspace.com/cocobrycebeats

Tracklist

1. ELIOT LIPP - FLASHLIGHT (HEFTY) 2. RUSTIE & 215 TFK - CAFE DE PHRESH (STUFF) 3. CANDY HANK & MC SHADE - WE ALL GO TO DIE TONIGHT (SONIG) 4. SAMIYAM - RETURN (HYPERDUB) 5. MAD MEN - KANZULU (HUM DRUMS) 6. 1000 NAMES - TERMINAL 5 (CDR) 7. COCO BRYCE - SLECHTE RIP OFF (CDR) 8. REKORDAH - BEDROOM SUITE (SOON TO BE RELEASED ON POLLEN) 9. POGFLIPPER - ANTHOLOGY - COCO BRYCE REMIX (CDR) 10. STARKEY - OK LUV - EPROM REMIX (PLANET MU) 11. COCO BRYCE - DIS CAM BELIE (CDR) 12. DEBRUIT - KO DEBOUT (CIVIL MUSIC)