City of Bass Vocode Project

Lost in the City of Bass since '88

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we've moved operations ...

in case you're into electro music and stumbled across this tumblr - I did this as an experiment a while back but I moved back to my original blogging platform. Please visit www.djmadwax.com and subscribe to the feed, bookmark or follow on twitter. 

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[Vinyl] Haron - Smoke & Mirrors - Tape Records.

If you're a head, you'll remember that classic label Delicious Vinyl. Great label name, great concept and exactly what comes to mind when I hear records like this. This is the sound of Detroit, soulful strings, electronic body music. 3 cuts of housy techno from the motor city with electro soul as long as you don't define it by a drum pattern. It's imported from Amsterdam, but definitely inspired by Detroit. You can cop this here

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[Electro] Doubleheart - Roca EP - ShipWrec. I'll have some of what this dude was smokin when he produced the B-side cut #2 of this rather tasty slice of future funk. Vinyl here

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Influential Electronic Albums

I've been seeing this social app running around facebook about taking a little quiz to see if you own a certain amount of the most influential albums of all time. Most of the albums are by folks who use devices such as "guitars" and "drums", so here's my list of influential electronic albums that shaped me and my now 20+ year pursuit of dance music. No particular order

[1] Berlin II Detroit - A Techno Alliance - Tresor (1992)

On one of my first visits to europe in 1992, my older cousin was already DJing in Northern Poland. They didn't have fancy shit like Technics 1200s so he was manning two ghetto cassette decks and playing selector - it was my first introduction to techno, and seeing heads in 1992 going nuts to this crazy music had me craving more - this was the first techno cassette tape I bought first thing when I came back to the states. Listen

[2] Techno Trax Volume One (1991)

Same cousin hooked me up with a bootleg cassette of Techno Trax Volume One, the entire plane trip home from Frankfurt to Chicago to Texas was comprised of rewinds and mad study of this crazy new sound. Techno Trax showed the the transition period between the electronic body music and industrial sound of late 90s detroit and the new morphing sound of techno in the early 90s. "Are you new here? Riiiiiiiiight in front of me" Listen

[3] Laurent Garnier - Mixmag Live Volume 19 (1994)

Hearing the opening jazz chords of St. Germain Deep In It and how blissfully he introduces tension with the classic DBX Losing Control showed me what mastery a true DJ can have over a set. Best quote ever ""This CD-mix is not idented, which means you cannot flip straight ahead to selected tracks. This is because Laurent felt his mix told a story as a whole and that it should be listened to as such." Shame today's spastic non-stop stream of attention seeking couldn't sit still for this classic, but its well worth the journey. Oddly, almost 20 years later a lot of these cuts still don't sound dated. Listen

[4] Carl Cox - F.A.C.T 1

Aside from a truly stunning album cover that stood out back in 1994 from all the rest, this two CD mixed set described itself as a compilation of the most forward thinking music playing the most forward thinking clubs around the world. They were written by someone who's clever with the words, but they were 100% on point. Listen

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I stuck to albums and mix CDs but this list would get a lot longer if I started rolling individual songs. Respect

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[Electro] Cell Engine - Self Titled - Shameless Toady

The next offering from the relentlessly dope Shameless Toady stable comes from Cell Engine. Why relentlessly dope? The best electronic music labels are curated - it's a sense of vision and taste for quality that makes labels stand out, and the man like Pip Williams has his eye on some kopfnicken business. From the opening track of Cell Engine (I'm discounting the ambient intro here) you know you're in for future funk, liquid sonics. The type of cuts that aren't going to sound dated 10 years from now. Beautiful music for the head.phon kru as well as the dancefloor. Brilliant, and available now direct from the label. Cop here

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[Electro] Alavux - Repetitor EP

As a run up to his forthcoming full-length album release, Alavux releases the Repetitor EP, four slices of dark electro techno vibes. One of Serbia's most prolific producers and electronic activists, I've been following his music from the beginning and seeing the raw vibes and energy that were displayed so early on come to fruition with top notch production skills by a seasoned veteran is a pleasure. But don't get it twisted - knowledge on the boards hasn't resulted in any slick digital sheen wrapping itself around the cuts - this music is raw, it pulses, it vibes and most importantly it will get played in the clubs. You can cop the EP directly from Alavux via bandcamp here. 

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[Electro] =UHU= Calibrated Minds - Transient Force. Latvian producer =UHU= outdoes himself on this latest LP released via the mighty Transient Force label. Mixing up the sounds of electro, techno and warped dusty disco 8 trax loops from a long abandoned alien ship, an outstanding listening experience from front to back. 'Curving Space' features a killer melody that will get stuck in your head for the next few days. The rest of the cuts are on that ill disco space vibe - equally for head.phon kopfnicker sessions or DJs with a full dance-floor - top notch release.

City of Bass picks: 'Calibrated Minds', 'Curving Space' and 'TOTM'

Available directly from the label. 

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[Techno Vinyl] DRVG CVLTVRE - Offender Status - Pinkman. Deep druggy techno from the Netherlands Pinkman label. The first two cuts are the ones to really take a long listen to here, 'Offender Status' and 'Quasimodo..'. 

Drvg Cvltvre stands with a crop of producers such as Clatterbox, Pip Williams and a lot of the output on Duality Records and Digital Distortions (just to name a few) that are twisting and morphing the sounds of techno and electro into the next level, the future.

The digital bins today are filled with tons of cuts and producers who know their craft, but stay far too restricted by the confines of the blueprint laid out by the artists that came before them. Whether that's by choice or not we'll never know, but I only wish more heads would start pushing the envelope a bit more. Actually fuck that, a LOT more. 

Stamp this one as officially "Recommended". Available to buy here.

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[Electro] Pip Williams - Complexities - Duality Records. Between being 1/3 of the London Modular Alliance and Chief Kopfnicker at Shameless Toady Records, Pip Williams somehow manages to find the time to produce dope records. The next feature from my month long highlight of the latest Duality Records compilation, Pip's contribution is a deep warpesque electro groove, with some of the deepest drone bass I've heard in a minute. It's not for the dancefloor, it's not for the headphones, but it's for those siderooms or warehouse bunker basement parties with a bangin' soundsystem. In other words, it's for the heads. Top pick. 

You can purchase this here off the new Duality Records ‘Exile’ Compilation, with some of the brightest producers in the game: so much so that I’ll be featuring choice picks from this compilation over the next few days at City of Bass. 

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[Techno Vinyl] Trevino - Forged EP - Klockworks. Marcus Intalex is on a creative roll and from the sounds he's been crafting under the Trevino moniker, looks like he's having tons of fun with music. Inspiring.

'Forged' and 'Doldrums' are the ones. Available here 

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Stunning look and feel, it's either this or the Allen & Heath Xone 22. 

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[Electro] Ascension Électronique - Harmonic Defiance - FBI Records. A master of melodies and intricate blending of sounds, the new album from label-head Morphogenetic under his pseudonym of Ascension Électronique wraps you up with layers and layers of deep vibes.

I don't have a sneak peak into the studio set up, but a lot of this sounds analogue to me - warm and rich in tones, despite a despair and darkness that envelops juggernaut bass beats that drive the album forward. Rich, warm synthesizer music - lovely business. One for the head.phon kopfnickers, and a few cuts for those 4 AM closing sets. Available for purchase directly from the label here. Recommended

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[Electro] DeFekt - Basements - Duality Records. Ever building in layers and filter sweeps, this joint from Ireland's finest is the sound of hapless East German border patrol guards watching events unfold on the 9th of November 1989. Relentless, timeless electro. 

You can purchase this here off the new Duality Records ‘Exile’ Compilation, with some of the brightest producers in the game: so much so that I’ll be featuring choice picks from this compilation over the next few days at City of Bass. 

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[Sneak Preview] One more ... damn its a good day for electro but what day isn't eh? New music from the mighty Cultivated Electronics stable - again full review upon release in February. Take a listen

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[Sneak Preview] The finest electro from producers who know what the funk they are doing on the boards, and from labels who sign them. Both of these releases forthcoming on Clone and Shameless Toady will be getting a full City of Bass review upon proper release. 

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[Electro Digital] Geistform - D-Branas - Duality Records. Dark sweeping blanket synths backed up by relentless distorted 808 drums of doom - the key in making a record like this work is understanding how to EQ, sidechain and layer the elements. Geistform does this perfectly - picture A 4 AM crowd in lock-step with the DJ, eyes closed, moving as one, letting that bass fill their chest cavities. Wicked

You can purchase this here off the new Duality Records ‘Exile’ Compilation, with some of the brightest producers in the game: so much so that I’ll be featuring choice picks from this compilation over the next few days at City of Bass. 

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[Electro Mix] True school electro, banger of a mix courtesy of Croatia's N-Ter. Listen here