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 12, 2014

Jantsen & Dirt Monkey – Ice Cream Sound [Dub Summer Anthem]

by Jake Groch EDM • Tags: Amorphous, Anthem, Blogs, Boulder, Chas, Chop, Chopped, Clinton, Colorado, Cream, Dance, Dirt, Dirty, Doctor, drumstep, Dub, Dubanimals, Dubstep, EDM, EH!DE, electronic, Filthy, Fools, Gold, Goudie, Groch, Heddy, Ice, Jake, Jantsen, Kairos, Karetus, Keegan, Me, Megeath, Monkey, Movement, music, No, Old, Onions, Other, P, Patrick, Play, Rager, Records, Reggae, Robertson, Rottun, School, Slightly, Sly, Sound, Spag, Step, Stoopid, Sublime, Summer, True, Vocals, Wicked

Personally, for this Rager, this next jam has been an unabashed pleasure of mine over the past week.

Capturing an unbelievably catchy tune in a four and a half minute track seems entirely effortless for musicians Jantsen and Dirt Monkey, two of the most promising up-and-coming American dubstep producers. Setting aside my unhealthy obsession with two other dub production masterminds (Spag Heddy and EH!DE), Boulder residents Patrick Megeath of Dirt Monkey and Jantsen Robertson additionally possess the rare ability to produce the filthiest, nastiest of beats while still managing to keep their chord progression unique and extremely melodic. I fear that as of late, simple qualities such as these are far too often ignored in an narrow-minded attempt to synthesize the ultimate “drop.”

Utilizing a classic rolling bass melody, which to us, sounds a lot like old-school Doctor P, and a unfathomably catchy reggae hook, this tandem of Colorado DJs have struck gold with “Ice Cream Sound.” Pay special attention to the way these two have incorporated the vocal chops as an instrument and how it elegantly intertwines with the original, “Slightly Stoopid-reminiscent” vocals.

The perfect song for the perfect summer playlist.

Enjoy.

Another from Jantsen…

Another from Dirt Monkey…

April 7, 2014

He’s Back! | 123MRK – ‘Versatile / Secret Secret’ EP

by Jake Groch EDM, Funky, Happy • Tags: #Etched, 123mrk, Bass, Dance, Downtempo, EDM Blogs, electro, electronic, EP, Flume, funk, funky, Future, Future Classic, Garage, happy, Hip-Hop, Holdin On, Jake Groch, music, original mix, Post-Dubstep, R&B, Rager Onions, Rap, Remix, Secret Secret, UK, Untroubled, Versatile, Vinyl, Vocals

Unfortunately, due to the disheartening fact that 123Mrk has left us without any new releases in quite some time now, we have not been able to properly introduce you to our favorite producer of the increasingly popular genre, Future Garage (Future Bass). Most notably in America, this genre of electronic music is gaining a lot of speed as its counterpoint style, Dubstep, is slowly becoming a thing of the past.

It’s kind of funny actually, it only took America an additional two or three years to catch up with the electronic dance music trends that had already taken deep root in the rest of the world (Europe/Australia). We are predicting that Future Garage, or Future Bass, whatever you want to call it, is going to be HUGE in the old US of A. This particular musical motif, that outrightly stands against and rejects the increasingly watered down dubstep scene, combines several musical aspects that we Americans seem to already dig.

Future music is a bit hard to describe really, but we will do our best. We believe that Americans will immediately fall in love with this type of music because they absolutely LOVE Hip-Hop, Rap and R&B. Utilizing the chilled-out and soulful downtempo aura of these musical predecessors, Future producers apply a particular touch to make a track their own.

This may include “re-pitched vocals” (probably the first thing you will notice), “soft leads with a round attack, subbass or square wave bass with a modulating filter” (source: Wiki) and classic, finely tuned snare drum/high hat arrangements. In fact, many remixes of the Future Garage flavor typically choose an original Hip-Hop or R&B track to restyle.

This next artist classifies his production style as “Future Garage Post Dubstep Hip Hop Electro,” so yeah. It’s a bit complicated to say the least.

However, without any further ado, we bring to you his Highness, the Future Bass legend, 123Mrk with his latest EP release, “Versatile/Secret Secret.”