May 30, 2014

Varien & SirensCeol – Moonlight (Feat. Aloma Steele) [Monstercat]

by Jake Groch EDM, Happy, Heavy • Tags: Aloma, and, Bandcamp, Bass, Beatport, Beautiful, Beauty, Berkeley, Blogs, Burke, California, Dance, Dark, Drum, drumstep, Dubstep, EDM, electronic, Facebook, Feat., Featuring, Female, Florida, Ft., Groch, Jake, Major, Mix, Monstercat, Moonlight, music, Nick, Onions, Original, Pittsinger, Rager, SirensCeol, Soundcloud, Spotify, States, Steele, Stephen, Tampa, United, Varien, Vocals, Youtube

This next jam is simply beautiful.

Over the past year and a half, we’ve championed one of the next two artists, Stephen Burke aka SirensCeol, from the most embryonic stages of his production career. Fortunately for Stephen, both his work ethic and intellect (the man attends Berkeley University, need we say more?) have catapulted his talents to the forefront of EDM production with his unique approach to melodic dubstep and many other genres.

I vividly remember when SirensCeol opened for another enigmatic, the genre-blurring production prodigy known as Savant. Josh Hernandez, the CEO of Alek’s record company (SectionZ Records) also happened to be in attendance as well.

Before the show began, I had excitedly rushed up to him and told him to pay special attention to the opening act, Stephen.

After SirensCeol performed a wicked set and was transitioning to let Aleks set up his gear, I beckoned Josh over to the front of the stage where I was standing.

“You gotta sign that artist,” I yelled over the music playing during the entr’acte, “He’s incredible.”

Josh simply smiled and gave me an ever so cool, “Yeah, maybe.”

Next thing I knew, six months later, young Stephen had released his first full-length on SectionZ Records with Josh.

Funny, huh?

Despite the fact that I love telling people ‘I told you so’, I will try my hardest to abstain here.

However, California-based producer SirensCeol has come quite a long way. This next jam with Varien will only serve to further this fact. Featuring the incredibly dulcet vocals of Aloma Steele (which Stephen himself was incredibly satisfied with), “Moonlight” reached the number one spot on Beatport’s Dubstep charts in virtually no time at all.

Let’s give a congratulatory “follow” to Varien and SirensCeol on their prospective social media outlets. We hope you enjoy this absolutely fantastic track, which was released on Monstercat…go figure.

Great work boys, keep em’ coming.

▼ Follow Varien
YouTube: www.Youtube.com/VarienOfficial
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/VarienOfficial
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/VarienOfficial
Soundcloud: @VarienOfficial

▼ Follow SirensCeol
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SirensCeol
Twitter: twitter.com/SirensCeol
Soundcloud: @sirens-ceol
Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/SirensCeol

May 28, 2014

Two More EDM Songs (Minus The ‘D’) [Free]

by Jake Groch EDM, Funky, Happy, Heavy • Tags: 6, AFK, Blogs, BP, Bright, Chas, Chill, Chillout, Chillwave, CubeKin, D, Dance, DKS, Download, drumstep, Dubstep, EDM, electronic, Feat., Featuring, Forget, Free, Ft., Goudie, Groch, I, Jake, Keegan, Major, Matchbox, Media, Minus, music, Onions, Orchestra, Original, Park, Protohype, Rager, Ras, Rock, Side, Six, Sorry, South, The, We're

If the title left you scratching your beautiful little head, we’re sorry.

Please let us explain.

After stumbling upon both of these tracks in the very same day, we thought it proper to share them with you. The particular quality or motif that both of these songs share is a very simple concept to understand, however its role may be vitally important to the music industry as a whole. As stated in the title, both of these jams are EDM (Electronic ~~Dance~~ Music) without the ‘D’ or, more simply, Electronic Music.

Yeah, we get it. “EM,” as it shall be called, is most assuredly not a new concept in popular music. Hipsters have been doing it since they started making corduroy pants and fixed gear velocipedes (quintessentially indie way of saying “bicycles”)…and that’s a long time.

Trust us.

However, both of the tracks by artists AFK and Matchbox Orchestra incorporate particular qualities of Electronic Music that are more closely related to those heard in Electronic Dance Music. More and more these days we are begging to see these electronic sounds pop up in any and every other genre of already established popular music. Instead of boring you with the details of what we mean exactly, we figured it might be more fun if you just listened. Try and tease out these concepts yourself. See if you can understand exactly what we are talking about.

Both “I forget” by Matchbox Orchestra featuring CubeKin and AFK’s remix of “Bride Side” by Protohype and Ras feature a more minimalistic electronic approach than most EDM productions. We say this because both artists are EDM producers by trade.

If anything, the two songs sound more like regular old rock jams than anything. In our opinion, this method serves to make the individual breakdowns all the more dulcet and indicative of the emotion the vocalist is trying to convey in their lyrics. Instead of being stagnantly satiated with overwhelming electronic arrangements, they are saved for a time when the song truly NEEDS it.

Good luck getting either of these tunes out of your heads.

1. Protohype – Bright Side ft. Ras (AFK Remix ft. DKS)

2. Matchbox Orchestra – I Forget ft. CubeKin

May 27, 2014

Monstercat 017 – Ascension Ascends the Label Even Further

by Jake Groch EDM, Funky, Happy, Heavy • Tags: 017, A, Abyss, Aero, Album, All, Aloma, Ambient, and, Ascension, Astronaut, Au5, Away, Bass, Bowtie, Braken, Burke, Bustre, Case & Point, Cassandra, Chas, Cheat, Child, Chill, Chillwave, Choice, Chord, Codes, Covenant, D&B, Dance, Danyka, Deep, Do, Don't, Dotexe, Drink, Droptek, Drum, Drummond, drumstep, Dubstep, Eagle, EDM, electro, electronic, Elizaveta, EMEL, Eminence, Excellent, Eyes, Favright, Feat., Featuring, Feint, Fijiwiji, Follow, Forget, Fractal, Fracture, Frame, Fun, Gamble, Gasser, Glitch, Goudie, Grant, Groch, Halo, Haywyre, Hero, Holly, Hop, Hour, house, Insan3lik3, Inside, It, Itvara, Jake, Jonny, Kay, Keegan, Know, Label, LaMeduza, Late, Limb, Me, Melodic, Mind, Mix, Miyoki, Monstercat, Moonlight, Mr, Munsta, music, Nadeau, nerds, Night, Nitro, Noisestorm, of, On, One, Only, Open, Original, Out, Over, Pegboard, Phosphor, Power, progressive, Quantum, Reach, Remix, Riot, Rob, Rootkit, Rose, Schism, SCNDL, Seconds, SirensCeol, Solange, Soulero, Steele, Stephen, Stonebank, Surface, Surge, Taking, Tech, The, Too, Trance, Trap, Tristam, Trivecta, Tut, Up, Varien, Virtual, Walking, Wanna, Yohamna, You, Zenith

Over the past two years, we have watched this next label transform from the likes of a promising, transgenre EDM collective with loads of potential into the fierce jungle feline you see before you today.

Monstercat is most certainly where it’s at when discussing labels that have set the tone for the next few years of electronic dance music releases.

How, you ask?

Well, that next part is a bit tricky.

To begin, this Vancouver-based music label has elucidated talents from some of the most unheard of, eclectic groups of musicians in all of dance music. Not only have they championed said undiscovered artists onto the scene, but these new talents have proceeded to swell their fair share of waves in this vastly expanding ocean we affectionately refer to as the “EDM-o-sphere.” A quick glance at the “current roster” on the official Monstercat web page will reveal a staggering number of widely popular producers you may not have necessarily associated with MCat.

7 Minutes Dead, Astronaut, Au5, Braken, Case & Point, Direct, DotEXE, Dzeko & Torres, Droptek, Falcon Funk, Favright, Fractal, Haywyre, Hellburg, Insan3lik3, Krewella, Lets Be Friends, Mr Fijiwiji, Noisestorm, PIXL, Pegboard Nerds, Project 46, Rameses B, Razihel, Rogue, Soulero, Splitbreed, Stephen Walking, Throttle, Tristam, Tut Tut Child, Varien and Vicetone.

(Just to name a few of our favorites.)

However, words will only get us so far. You need to HEAR what we mean.

Without hesitation, the fat cats over at MC have released their 17th compilation LP to date. So far, “Monstercat 017 – Ascension” has garnered attention from every corner of the EDM world, making this their most supported album to date! With a four-hour laundry list of tracks, fantastic production quality throughout, and loads of prodigal EDM producers on top of it all, Monstercat presents to you a release that will only serve to exacerbate their stranglehold on the EDM industry.

Keep it up boys and girls.