Brendan Angelides is a San Francisco based electronic music producer who records and performs live as Eskmo. His multi-genre compositions have been featured on influential labels like Warp Records and Planet Mu (most recently having been signed to the mighty Ninja Tune). While Angelides’ tracks encompass a wide range of electronic styles, he avoids classifications. Bleep.com described his tracks as “Masterfully produced… sophisticated, post-Dilla hip-hop funk“ (Last.fm, 2010).
Ghislain Poirier is a DJ/producer from Montreal who is signed to the Ninja Tune record label. He has, however, also worked with other labels such as Chocolate Industries, Rebondir, Shockout, Musique Large, Intr_version and 12K. His work mainly consists of original instrumental mixes and mixes featuring Montreal hip hop MCs including Omnikrom, Face-T and Séba. He also has collaborated with Beans, TTC, Lotek HiFi and Nik Myo. He is noted for popular remixes of tracks of rock and hip hop artists such as Les Georges Leningrad, Clipse, Editors, Bonde do Role, Kid Sister, Pierre Lapointe, Champion and Lady Sovereign. Though he has worked in many different genres of electronic music, he is known for his eclectic taste in music and appreciation of tropical bass sounds (Last.fm, 2010).
Released Albums:
Ghislain Poirier - No Ground Under
Ghislain Poirier - Breakupdown
Ghislain Poirier - Beats as Politics
Ghislain Poirier - Conflits
Ghislain Poirier - La Ronde EP
Ghislain Poirier - Rebondir EP
Ghislain Poirier - Running High
Ghislain Poirier - Sous Le Manguier
Ghislain Poirier - Il N'y A Pas De Sud...
Reference:
(2010). Ghislain Poirier. Last.fm. Retrieved from http://www.last.fm/music/Ghislain+Poirier
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Carlos Nino and Fabian Ammon are Los Angeles-based production duo Ammoncontact. Over the past 5 years they have released their unique brand of jazz and funk-influenced hip hop on a wide variety of celebrated indie labels such as Emperor Norton, Eastern Developments, Soul Jazz and Plug Research. Recently these highly acclaimed music makers signed an exclusive recording deal with Ninja Tune.
The majority of Ammoncontact’s releases have been instrumental, with sparse vocal elements and samples and an occasional full on collaboration with a rapper, singer or poet. Their latest - and in every way greatest - work to date, “With Voices,” is a new step for the group, where artists like living legend Yusef Lateef, Dwight Trible (“Love Is The Answer”) and Kamau Daaood (L.A.’s premier poet) are featured on tracks next to Prince Po (Organized Konfusion), Brother J (X-Clan), Abstract Rude (Project Blowed) and many others. Folk singer Mia Doi Todd and DJ legend Cut Chemist (Jurassic 5, Ozomatli) also make appearances.
Friends for over 10 years, Carlos Nino and Fabian Ammon consider themselves musical kindred spirits. Writer/arranger/producer/musician/DJ Nino is very busy in the music world with his projects The Life Force Trio, Build An Ark, Hu Vibrational, Go: Organic Orchestra, The Sound Of L.A. and Spaceways Radio, but he has always made his way back to home-base with Ammoncontact to focus on reaching a hip-hop audience. Ammon stays busy in his home studio making beats and taking care of his young son. Together, the two find time to share ideas and add to each other’s individual tracks. Nino is the primary producer and conceptual mind behind the Ammoncontact releases but the unique sound comes from the support, encouragement and creative input of Ammon, too.
“With Voices” was the result of an effort to collaborate with a diverse cross-section of L.A.-based artists. Nino and Ammon put together the tracks and Nino set out to enlist as many of his friends as he could to participate. The tracks flow naturally as an album and feel linked in a deeper way than is usual on “producer plus guests” albums. Live instrumentation and numerous sample and programming sources make up this soulful and profound sound. Please read the credits to see who did what and sail deeper into the sea of Ammoncontact (Ninja Tune).
Released Albums:
Ammoncontact - Sounds Like Everything
Ammoncontact - Brothers From Another EP
Ammoncontact - One In An Infinity of Ways
Ammoncontact - New Birth
Ammoncontact - With Voices
Reference:
Ammoncontact. Ninja Tune. Retrieved from http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/artist.php?id=114#biography
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Skalpel are Marcin Cichy and Igor Pudlo DJs/producers from Wroclaw, Poland. Being new recruits of Ninja Foreign Legion, they are rather hesitant to speak about their past.
Sufficient to say, they are talented DJs, whose 4 mixes were aired on Solid Steel in the past, two of which were released as "Virtual Cuts" - namely the best mixtape released in the history of electronic music in Poland. The year 2000 was a landmark for them, as they traveled the country with DJ Vadim and his Russian Percussion, presenting an amazing 4-deck show. Later that year they released demo CD-R titled "Polish Jazz", which not only received a lot of critical acclaim, but also led Skalpel to signing a contract with Ninja Tune.
For the last two years they've been digging in the crates, trying to build the most exciting collection of samples from Polish Jazz records. Now they are slowly unleashing the music created from these sounds. They ressurected dusty&smokey spirit of polish jazz of 60s and 70s, and reimagined it for 21st century audiophiles (Ninja Tune).
Musician, programmer, recording artist, beatsmith, dance floor commander, composer, sound designer, bad ass motherfucker. Amon Tobin is all of these things but most of all a forward thinker. Pushing forward and never looking back has always been his focus. This is what gets him up in the morning and what keeps him up late into the night.
Amon Tobin never set out to be in the music industry. To him, music is an end in itself, not a path to commercial success. His own success is basically a by-product of his obsession, and remains something of a welcome mystery to him. The fact is, whether or not the world had ever heard of Amon Tobin, he would still be creating music. His life has been a long-term love affair with sound and rhythm, and a personal study of both. His work is a contribution to the evolution of sound in the spirit of the pioneers of electronic music.
Amon has released a series of critically-acclaimed full length albums alongside a number of side projects varying from film scores to collaborations with artists ranging in classical music to hip hop, to all stylistic disciplines in between. Curiosity and a relentless drive to explore has lead Amon to various places in music, but the the real fruit of his labour are in the combined knowledge gained from these experiences of how music and sound work, and the passionate application of these principles to his own personal creations (Amon Tobin, 2010).
9 Lazy 9 is an acid jazz / downtempo group on the Ninja Tune label. Operating out of Italy in 1992, they soon gained respect for their first album Paradise Blown. Their sound, distinctively more sun than North Sea, is a smoky Mediterranean mix of vines and good times. Keir Fraserello and Giacomo Braddellini (a pseudonym for James Braddell — AKA Funki Porcini) had been making music for many years in different guises before combining forces in Rome in the early nineties. They have been working with some of Italy’s finest musicians on their latest album, Sweet Jones, recorded in the Umbrian Hills near Orvieto. Gianluca Petrella plays trombone, Mishael Levron guitar; Manu Bandettini plays flute with Adriano Tirelli on bassoon (Last.fm, 2010).
Luke Vibert is one of a new breed of European club music experimentalists whose work spans several genres simultaneously, and is one of a very few of that set to make any headway with U.S. audiences. A native of Cornwall, Vibert's work has been compared with other West Country bedroom denizens like Aphex Twin and µ-Ziq, although his output over the past few years has been far more eclectic than that connection would seem to imply. Beginning with tweaky post-techno and moving through ambient and experimental hip-hop as Wagon Christ and, more recently, experimental drum'n'bass as Plug, Vibert has explored the outer reaches of post-techno electronica without sounding hasty or swank. Although Vibert's first musical experience was in a Beastie Boys knockoff band called the Hate Brothers, he quickly moved into the low-cost environment of solo bedroom composition. Although he had no intention of ever releasing any of the work, his reputation as a creative young voice in stylistic crosspollination has created an increasing demand for his pioneering, often left-field work.
Vibert became involved in electronic music through his passion for hip-hop (he has commented that hip-hop is the only music style he really keeps up with), as well as the environment of bedroom experimentalism associated with the swelling late-'80s U.K. dance scene. He released an album through the Rephlex label (a solo album nonetheless billed as Vibert/Simmonds) before coming to the attention of Caspar Pound's Rising High label. As a result of the growing exchange value of the style, RH commissioned an ambient album from Vibert, who, despite never having heard much ambient, delivered the well-received Phat Lab Nightmare under the Wagon Christ name in 1993. Silent (but for the quickie EP At Atmos) for nearly two years following its release, Vibert came back in early 1995 with Throbbing Pouch, a collection of minimal, funky, off-kilter hip-hop that had fans familiar with his earlier work scratching their heads. Though lumped in with the so-called "trip-hop" movement attributed to Portishead, Tricky, Massive Attack, and the Mo'Wax label, the album's upbeat, cheeky edge was anything but stony and laid-back. Following up with a number of remixes and a Mo'Wax EP under his own name, Vibert embarked on his next major mutation with his Plug project, releasing a trio of sample-laden, epileptic jungle EPs, as well as the Drum'n'Bass for Papa LP in 1996. Wagon Christ's Tally Ho! followed in 1998, and Vibert reverted to his own name for 2000's Stop the Panic. Musipal followed in early 2001 (Cooper, 2010).
Released Albums:
Wagon Christ - Musipal
Wagon Christ - Sorry I Make You Lush
Wagon Christ - Tally Ho!
Wagon Christ - Throbbing Pouch
Wagon Christ - At Atmos Ep
Wagon Christ - Phat Lab. Nightmare
Wagon Christ - Sunset Boulevard Ep
Wagon Christ - Redone Ep
Wagon Christ - Rissalecki Ep
Wagon Christ - The Power Of Love Ep
Wagon Christ - Shadows
Wagon Christ - Receiver
Reference:
Cooper, S. (2010). Wagon Christ. All Music. Retrieved from
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:axfqxqegldhe~T1
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Underground beat maestro Anthony Simon, better known as Blockhead, first lent his production hands in the mid-'90s to then up-and-coming MC Aesop Rock, who rose to indie rap prominence during the 2000s. Blockhead's contributions to Aesop's LPs were a big factor to the indie MC's success, especially those from Aesop's highly regarded Definitive Jux debut Labor Days (2001). Nevertheless, in the following years the New York producer garnered his own acclaim as an instrumental rap artiste, turning his sampledelic beats into brooding, trip-hop-like concoctions.
Born and raised in Manhattan, Simon was one of seven children. The bohemian mentality of his father, a painter and sculptor, and the steadfastness of his mother, a social worker, confounded Simon's upbringing, but yet informed his musical pursuits. He was aspiring to be an MC -- that is, until he first met Aesop Rock in 1994, the one year he attended Boston University. After hearing Aesop spit verses, he hung up the mic and focused on producing. Blockhead provided most of the beats for Aesop afterwards, including Aesop's self-pressed material, Music for Earthworms (1997) and Appleseed (1999), as well as his proper full-length debut Float, released via Mush Records in 2000. In 2001, Mush wound up releasing Blockhead's first beat tape, Blockhead's Broken Beats, as well.
Blockhead continued producing Aesop when the abstract MC signed with New York upstart Def Jux in 2000. Upon the 2001 release of Labor Days, for which Blockhead produced nine tracks, critics and indie rap fans alike heavily praised the two's work. It led to the release of the EP Daylight the following year, which was based around the popular "Daylight" song from the Labor Days LP.
With this success, Blockhead began to break out on his own. Though not intended to become a real project, the Manhattan producer formed comedy rap duo Party Fun Action Committee with longtime friend Jeremy Gibson, aka Jer, issuing their debut, Let's Get Serious, on Def Jux in 2003; he also supplied beats for many of the label's signees, including Murs, Hangar 18, and later Cage. However, for his solo material, he shopped around to other labels, eventually finding a home in U.K. electronic stalwart Ninja Tune. Blockhead's proper debut, the Insomniac Olympics EP, arrived in 2003, and led up to the more cinematic and downtempo full-length, Music by Cavelight in 2004, and the ode to his Manhattan home, Downtown Science, in 2005. His work with Aesop diminished considerably during this period, until the recording of Aesop's 2007 album, None Shall Pass. That same year, Ninja Tune issued Blockhead's third long-player, Uncle Tony's Coloring Book, a more uptempo piece than his previous records (Cordor, 2010).
Released Albums:
Blockhead - Blockhead's Broke Beats
Blockhead - Insomniac Olympics
Blockhead - Music By Cavelight
Blockhead - The Block is Hot
Blockhead - Block in the Box
Blockhead - Downtown Science
Blockhead - Peanuts in Your Mouth
Blockhead - Uncle Tony's Coloring Book
Blockhead - The Music Scene
Reference:
Cordor, C. (2010). Blockhead. All Music. Retrieved from
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gvfyxq80ldse~T1
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Yppah (pronounced “Yippah”), sometimes know as Joe Corrales, Jr., released his debut album You Are Beautiful At All Times in November of 2006 on Ninja Tune records. This stunning debut is a lush mix of beautiful and often times melancholic electronica, breakbeat drum samples with shoegazer melodies set in an atmospheric sound landscape.
Joe spent his early teen years playing guitar and bass in rock bands, then later as a scratch DJ who mixed hip hop and house in clubs sets. He's also a founding member of the turntablist group The Truth.
Drawing on a cultural heritage that took in My Bloody Valentine alongside hip hop and heavily influenced by various forms of electronic music, psychedelic soul and rock, his music often mixes guitars shoved through massive reverbs/delays, keyboards/synthesizers, live drums, and other techniques.
Since the release of You Are Beautiful At All Times, Yppah has formed a live band consisting of himself, Caliban Goodbrain (Thomas Sutherland), Nicholas Noeding, Jr. and rotating band members. Live performances of the album have included shows at SXSW 2007 and the enormously popular Starbucks Mixed Media Series at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Yppah again made an appearance at SXSW 2008 as a DJ. He has traveled with the likes of DJ Food, DK, Bonobo and Zero dB taking part in Solid Steel Nippon 2, a hugely popular music event in Japan. He has also created remixes for DJ Kentaro and Zero dB.
Recently, Yppah’s music has been embraced by the entertainment industry. His songs have been featured in television episodes of “CSI” and “House”, the movie “21”, and in the videogame trailer for Atari’s “Alone in the Dark.”
Yppah’s sophomore album, They Know What Ghost Know, will be released in May of 2009. Employing the same atmospheric mix as his debut album, They Know What Ghost Know will consist of a more rock based sound. He is also a third of the electronic/rock group Day of the Woman with Pollination/Nick Noeding, Jr. (Albuquerque, NM) and Stenographer/Dave Salinas (Houston, TX) formerly of "Go Spread Your Wings" (Ninja Tune).
"Drill'n'bass" outfit Animals on Wheels was the first signing to U.K. beatfreak label Ninja Tune from the Bovinyl imprint, run by Cambridge-based Andy Coleman. Coleman is also the principle behind AOW, whose humorous brand of jazzy, hyperdriven breakbeat fracture is comparable to that of Aphex Twin, Plug, and Squarepusher, among others. (The curious name derives, reportedly, from a friend of Coleman's who claims the largest collection of the likenamed tchotchkes.) Coleman issued a trio of twelves on his own label, as well as a handful of compilation tracks, before releasing his debut for Ninja Tune, the full-length Designs and Mistakes, in 1997. A trendy blend of dimestore jazz samples, mile-a-minute breaks, and fizzy downtempo weirdness, the album probably missed the cheeky jungle curve by about six months, although it earned Coleman a wider audience for his music than the comparatively short reach of Bovinyl allowed. Nuvo I Cadira followed in 1999 (Cooper, 2010).
Released Albums:
Animals on Wheels - Joyless Fade Impeller Ep
Animals on Wheels - Cooked Ep
Animals on Wheels - Designs and Mistakes
Animals on Wheels - Nuvol l Cadira
Animals on Wheels - Dummy Ep
Reference:
Cooper, S. (2010). Animals on Wheels. All Music. Retrieved from http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll
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Sixtoo, aka Robert Squire, came out of the mid-90s underground hip hop movement, sharing stages with the likes of Buck 65, Sage Francis and members of the Anticon crew. His hip hop output is collected on the albums Psyche Intangible, Psyche Continuum and Songs I Hate and Other People Moments. But it was before leaving Halifax in 2000 that he made one of the most important moves of his career - from the mic to the sampler. Duration was the recorded result of this logistical shift. Squire then relocated to Montreal and signed with Vertical Form Records. The label put out Antagonist Survival Kit a dark album which showcased both sides of his skill: on the mic for half the record, on the sampler for the other. In 2003, Sixtoo signed to Ninja Tune, and employed a completely new style for Chewing On Glass & Other Miracle Cures. Using live musicians for sample sources, a massive confluence of styles and mammoth drum breaks, Sixtoo brought new life to the cut-up genre. Musicians including Can's Damo Suzuki, Norsola and Thierry from Godspeed You Black Emperor and Eric Craven from the Hanged Up can all be heard in the sinister mix of what is essentially a psych rock/jazz record made by a longtime hip hop producer (Spano, 2010).
Released Albums: Sixtoo - Psyche Intangible Sixtoo - Psyche Continuum Sixtoo - Songs I Hate and Other People Moments Sixtoo - Duration Sixtoo - Antagonist Survival Kit Sixtoo - Chewing On Glass and Other Miracle Cures Sixtoo - Jackals and Vipers in Envy of Man
Reference:
Spano, C. (2010). Sixtoo. All Music. Retrieved from
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:39fyxqt0ldfe~T1
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Hailing from Southern California, Dayeve Xienze, real name Dayeve Masangcay is a skilled underground hip hop and trip hop disc jockey, who loves to make sample-based music with a touch of acoustic guitar and keyboard, ever since 1998. His music can be considered abstract, experimental, distinctive, eccentric, weird and wonderful. It can be categorize as trip hop, underground hip hop, turntablism, breakbeats, electronica, cinematic, avant garde, film score, and space age.
This blog is dedicated to my Trip-Hop, Downtempo, Electronica, Dubstep, and Underground Hip-Hop Instrumental Addicts.In this blog, I will be spotlighting a beat innovator from around the world each day. I will also provide the artist's bio, album releases, music videos and more.
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