Hailing from Huntington Beach, California, Ryan Stephenson under the Glen Porter moniker started producing music four years ago with the help of some friends and dusty records from the dollar crates. Influenced by Sixtoo, Buck 65, and Keola, Stephenson crafts his own sound out of disjointed guitars, sinister beats and harmonic atmospherics. When asked about his alias, he produced the following explanation: “Originality found itself on the edge of death, ready for suicidal sentiments until something came from Glen Porter’s broadcast. Changed the tide, sent his thoughts towards the epicenter of self-demise so he could kill this reliance on the past to explain personal nature. Answers never found, understanding such concepts are in the sound of silence during passionate day dreams. Cannibalizing the self soon became a fading memory, no longer held by the desire to explain things, he was left to create a symphony no one would ever hear until his heartfelt intent could be felt with the slightest gesture of turning the middle finger up so it meant love” (Inner Current).
Berlin based producer Robot Koch is the mastermind behind the critically acclaimed Jahcoozi and post rock/hiphop outfit The Tape vs RQM. If he`s not on tour with Jahcoozi or Djing somewhere in the world he still finds time to produce and remix other people and write music for film scores.
He made beats and remixes for artists like Infinite Livez (Ninja Tune/Big Dada) Justine Electra (City Slang), Raz Ohara (Kitty Yo), Data Mc (Hamton), Al Haca (Klein) and Christopher Wiltis (Ghostly International), Rustie (Stuff Records) and Amanda Blank (downtown rec) (Last.fm, 2010).
The Q4 (The Quadraphoni Quartet) is a collaboration of 3 young Dutch producers: Arts the Beatdoctor, Sense & STW. Who, though they all work in rather similar ways, all have a unique sound of their own. The - at the time 4 men - crew was formed in a sleazy, dark bar in Amsterdam during the fall of 2005 and have since then created an impressive amount of material together, coloured by a wide range of musical influences and collaborations. www.TheQ4.com
Although Hip-Hop is the foundation for all their music, material ranges from Jazz & Dub to Hardcore Hip-Hop beats and Drum&Bass. As opposed to continually repeating a loop, theQ4 composed their tracks practically note-by-note by making a collage of hundreds of dusty sampled notes and percussion hits taken from vinyl. Sometimes skilled instrumentalists are also recorded, only to chop up their work as well and layer it in the composition again. Due to this way of working, and the amount of sounds used, their work has a very moving/musical feel to it, to the point that every track becomes somewhat of a soundtrack on itself.
Arts The Beatdoctor (1983) started producing for emcees some years ago, only to decide he liked most of the tracks better without vocals. So he continued to develop his mostly instrumental style, and his warm sound and diverse yet ever dreamy style have since then gained in reputation. After doing several little projects and taking the battle honours that STW didn’t claim, he released his half-instrumental EP “Fragments” this spring on Unexpected Records, and is currently working on his first solo-album.
The Sense (1985) spent 5 years of day-in-day-out practicing and developing his instrumental style without ever releasing anything, until he found himself listening to his own stuff most of the day and realised it was about that time. Unlike his brothers in arms he doesn’t know the first thing about musical theory, and balances everything on his sense of harmony. His very defined ‘moody’ style, and unusual sample treatment and rhythmic patterns, saturate the sound of theQ4’s material through out the EP. Apart from theQ4, he’s also working on a solo EP at the moment, this time with vocalists as well and earns a little buck on the side with his clothing line ‘ouesT-shirts’ and graphic/multimedia-design.
STW (1981) born and raised in the middle of nowhere, had only two options to get his kicks: doing drugs or creating his own unlimited universe through music. The combination of both turned out to be most fertile. He’s played guitar in several alternative rock bands, but is best known for his soulful swinging hip-hop beats, which have earned him quite some recognition winning practically all beat and remix contests this little country provides. Like Sense, he has never released anything before either, but he just might release a mix tape of his (in)famous remixes, if Sense and Arts don’t ease up on bugging him about it (Last.fm, 2010).
No hay banda! (“there is no band”, Mulholland Dr. 2001) pretty much sums up where 40 Winks aim to take their instrumental hip hop: meticulously chopping and pasting samples together to create an atmosphere of beats and vibes that steps beyond unimaginative loops. Their emphasis on creating vintage organically sounding beats has left people wondering why 40 Winks won’t perform live… The answer simply being, ”there is no band!”. 40 Winks hit the scene about 5 years ago with a slew of laidback beats. Eager to share their sound with the world, they released a couple of albums independently. The attention received from these records allowed them to build links with people and record labels from around the world. One of these independently released albums, More Than Loops, was reissued in Japan on Swamp Records. From then on the ball kept rolling. On their first worldwide release, Extended Pleasure on Escapism Records (2005), they reached listeners well beyond the (instrumental) hip hop community with the song “melancholia”. After appearances on compilations, like Weapons of Hope on Little-D (2006), they got a chance to do their thing on the renowned label, Merck Records with Sound Puzzle (2007). All these exotic international adventures led them back to Europe, where the German based Project Mooncircle welcomed them with a spot on the compilation Heart on the right spot (2007). Right now 40 Winks are preparing to release their latest album on Project Mooncircle, called The Lucid Effect. This will be released on LP, CD and MP3 in 2008 (Project: Mooncircle, 2009).
Released Albums:
40 Winks - The Lucid Effect
40 Winks - Sound Puzzle
40 Winks - Extended Pleasure
40 Winks - More Than Loops (Japanese Edition)
40 Winks - More Than Loops
40 Winks - Hit the Hay
40 Winks - April to July (demo)
Reference:
(2009). 40 Winks. Project: Mooncircle. Retrieved from http://www.projectmooncircle.com/artists/21
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Born in 1983 in a small village in East Anglia. Moved to Brighton when I was 3. First track that I remember liking: Money, money, money by Abba. Made pause button compilation tapes of various types of dance music from the radio in my early teens. Got into good hip hop age 14. Started bedroom djing age 16. Computers got powerful enough to handle sample based production when I was 16. A friend of a friend showed me some music software when I was 16. Started making tracks age 16. First release as Mummy Fortuna’s Theatre Company on Lexoleum compilation on Lex Records with my good friend Sketch age 18. Released our first record proper, Born Of Man And Flies, the following year. Released Scarred For Life with vocalist and friend Legs MC as Amateur Dramatics. Played MPC in Sketch’s live band. Tried to make an album as Mummy Fortuna’s but didn’t really work. Both got into our solo stuff more. Released tracks with John Tsunam and Bougaloo. Released tracks on compilations on Project Mooncircle, Abandon Building and Subversiv Records. Finished first solo album. Called it Amongst Strangers. Amongst Strangers released in Japan and eventually worldwide on CD by Wimm Recordings. Got a live show together for Amongst Strangers with Irwin Max. Played some shows. Amongst Strangers released on vinyl by Project Mooncircle. Inertia EP released on Project Mooncircle. Sent Sage Francis a beat. Sage liked beat and used it on Human The Death Dance. Started work on second LP. Moved out of Brighton to London. Played shows in Japan. Played shows in central Europe. Started working with Gordon coordinating Project Mooncircle. Finished second LP. Called it What Else There Is. Released it on Project Mooncircle September 2008 (Project: Mooncircle, 2009).
DDay One was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. He has a double major in hip-hop as a turntablist and samplist. He also has a minor in graffiti art (as do most b-boys), noticeable by his signature. His obsession with manipulating vinyl records started in the early 1990`s, when at the age of 11 he began exploring the depths of Los Angeles’s thrift shops and record stores. Without a sampler at the time his first compositions were made by engaging in sessions of “dropping the needle” (placing the needle repeatedly in the same spot of a record to emulate the repetition of a break in a song) and repeatedly looping the desired sample segments on a tape deck. After using this method of creating beats and amassing stacks of records from years of beat mining, he furthered his manipulation of vinyl and love of music by utilizing the sequencing capabilities of a sampler (Project: Mooncircle, 2009).
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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