Trouble & Bass w/ Zomby (Sub Bass) @ STUDIO B

When: Sat 1/10 (10PM)
Where: Studio B
Address: 259 Banker Street, btw. Meserole & Calyer Brooklyn, NY Map

In Brazil, there are a number of rural communities called quilombos which were founded by escaped slaves or started on abandoned plantations. A new documentary called Quilombo Country, narrated by Chuck D, covers these communities in their contemporary state. The film is showing through Thu, Jan. 25, at Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village, and again on Fri., Feb 6, at the Taller Latino Americano theater in Harlem.

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Image by Jennifer Daniel

NEAR THE START OF THE NEW YEAR, Apple revealed that it would begin selling all of its music on iTunes without copyright software. The move was welcomed by many as the introduction of a new era. But where does the move actually take music?

By shedding the software, listeners have many more options about what they do with the music they buy. But there are hurdles on this path towards freedom of use, including new privacy issues and inflexibility in upgrading collections previously bought at the iTunes store. Furthermore, new copyright software - often called DRM, which is shorthand for digital rights management - is popping up at Apple and iTunes for other forms of digital culture.

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EasyWeb projects crisp video art onto public spaces and buildings. They use software so that the video interacts with the objects they appear on, giving the sedentary objects a life of their own.

(Via Digital Urban.)

Proper Villains, Here Comes the Neighborhood Mix, (Tracklist after the jump)

What can we say about this, other than it’s a heavy bass mix from a New York DJ collective?

The mix starts off a bit random but its all connected by fat, dirty synths, sawtooth bass, and the wobbles. Next, it moves on to solid bassline territory then flirts with dubstep for a bit. Finally, the ’90s come hard for the last 10 minutes, starting with Proper Villains‘ song “Vampy,” which is available exclusively on this here mix [Fixed]. The mix isn’t very evil, though.

Catch Jon [S], one of the crew, at the Bowery Poetry Club on Jan. 25. Also, you can pick up their new album, Nightshifters Classics vol. 3.

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PolyRhythMurder Mix
Subeena, “Circular”

L.V., “Dream Cargo”

Shackleton, “Death is not Final”

(feat. Vengance Tenford)

2562, “Circulate”

Lusine, “Flat”

(Dimbiman feat. Cabanne RMX)

Dustin Zahn, “Analog God”

(Drumcell, Audio Injector RMX)

Dapayk Solo, “Scratch the Surface”

Rapidflash, “Matter of Principle”

Cover image from “Future Ruins,”

An exhibit by Michelle Lord.

"Remaking the Night Sky," Graphite on paper. By Michael Schall. Show up now at Pierogi Brooklyn.

Long melodies written with sub-bass are generally the province of the bassline circuit. In a genre like this, where less attention is paid to sound design, that makes sense. It deals with a smaller sound palette and makes up for it with melody, similar to electro. But even in bassline, creating comprehensible melodies is an achievement, because wobbly sub-bass is such an unintuitive sound.

With a piano, for example, the notes are laid out in order; one related, subtlety different note after another. But wonky bass has such a wide variety of textures, pitches and speeds that putting them all together seems like it would be a daunting task. Even when successful on this front, however, bassline can leave more to be desired, since it has a tendency to lack depth of mood and tempo.

But now, such melodies in dubstep have begun showing up on on Culture System’s radar.

The most prominent label to push the sound is the young Sludge Records, situated in Brighton. Sludge was (presumably) birthed from Ed Solo’s "Sludge" dub from last year. Solo, who unsurprisingly is very comfortable with bassline, released this song which marked a distinct departure from the rest of his eclectic sound. Then recently, he released the "Age of Dub" on the new Sludge imprint and killed it. Next, Crissy Criss dropped "Don’t Mess About," arguably burning Solo.

Although it is hardly recognized at the moment, New York dubstep will not to be left out of this shift, thanks to DJ Dore. A couple weeks ago, Dore dropped "Dark Ecology (dubstep remix)," and it deserves a place alongside Sludge at all dance music distributors. Also notable among Dore’s portfolio are "Hidden Dub" and "Snowcone." Although loopier and simpler in composition, "Hidden" is a good listen. "Snow" also has a tendency to get loopy, but builds into an expansiveness of melody (albeit less rhythmic) that surpasses the aforementioned dubs, Sludge included. All these songs are on his MySpace page.

You can catch Dore, and the rest of the Code of Arms recruits at Synctank at Bar on A this Saturday, January 10th. The event, which we covered last time around, will again be hosted by Slouch. He released a new EP with The Great Mundane, which is available for free download at Mundane’s Web site. (It’s well worth your time.)

But they’ve got their competition cut out for them. London’s murderous Zomby will be performing has cancelled his appearance at Trouble & Bass’s show at Studio B the same night.

Bossasaurus, "The Wait is Over"

Bossasaurus keeps it movin’ and flips a classic sound to pop your lock to (that’s an innocent phrase, for those Ebonics-challenged among us). The standout joint on homeboys’ demo is "The Wait is Over."

On this song, they introduce new melodies or sounds every few bars that revolve around a loop which grounds the theme of the song. And over the course of this five minute song, they switch it up entirely three times, but keep it all within the family - still promoting the theme, but dipping into valleys and soaring into triumph, like the ups and downs of an epic story. They even drop the percussion at certain points and allow other instruments to carry the rhythm, or toss out the rhythm altogether for a hard piano solo interlude.

It’s great when you’re listening to a song, and after a kind of rolling, staggered progression, you realize that none of what it began with remains and the song is wholly different. Unfortunately, the shifts within "The Wait" can be abrupt since they’ll drop the main sample loop and shift the rhythm simultaneously. In fact, those primary sample loops drag out a bit too long.

With "The Wait" - and most of their sound so far - they have a tendency to rely on rather generic instrumentation. They’ll rock some guitars or pianos or plain vanilla drums and keyboards rather than seek out less thoroughly explored instruments and sounds. Guitars and such are great because they have such a broad range of notes, and you can bring your melody wherever you’d like to take it. But Boss relies on them predominately, and often uses them for a short loop that will play for a couple minutes.

Although I take issue with the selection for drums, they’re well versed in how to use them. This results in a complex composition that avoids the tiring repetition of some programmed or simpler percussion choices.

"Moonlit Trees" - another choice cut - breaks their J5-like, happy-go-lucky hip hop feel, and flips it on the moody tip. Although less intricate than "The Wait", its atmosphere and mood are undeniably powerful. It’s like walking through a winter forest in dense fog or lounging in a smoke filled room lit with deep red light.

Boss’s demo cover reminds me of a pillowcase I had when I was like six. Sorta like those hoodies some people still rock.

Overall? Big up! Can’t wait for more.

This is some really fresh VJ work by Vector Meldrew that uses the Joker/Jakes mashup on Hench.

I’m not a big fan of using wartime imagery simply for aesthetic purposes, but this is very stylish nonetheless.

Also, here’s a very Bond-esque joint using Chase and Status’s "Eastern Jam." Not as visually appealing, but it’s a better listen.

 Ups to Brooklyn’s own Nubloom for picking up on this ish.