[Doing it Right] Shpongle’s Museum of Consciousness Tour

March 13, 2014Leave a comment

Last night, Hollywood went Hollyweird as Avalon Nightclub opened their doors to Shpongle, Desert Dwellers and San Diego’s Vokab Kompany; all thanks to the Do Lab, one of my all time favorite production companies – not to mention, the brainiacs behind my favorite festival, Lightning in a Bottle! At a show like last night’s – costume’s aren’t just welcome, they’re encouraged – and beyond being part of the Hippie Olympics, last night was full of friendly faces, new and old, all getting down to the psytrance sounds. It was absolutely beautiful and I’m so glad I could share the night with my friends! For the ‘Museum of Consciousness’ tour, Shpongle had visual team at Zebbler Studios create their second version of the ‘Shpongletron’, an ever changing, 3D, 3 story, projection mapped stage that evolves and manifests itself through amazing colors, flashing lights, sound reactive elements and all around trippy imagery throughout the evening; overall, this is the third version , dubbed Shpongletron 3.0. Today, Shpongle is cruising up the California coast to San Francisco and Arcata, then the tour will be making stops in Portland and Seattle before venturing off into the Mid-West. If you have a hankering for a good time, great people and fantastic music – check this tour our, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

[The Audiofiles] Putting A New Spin on Some Old Favorites

March 12, 2014March 12, 2014Leave a comment

I don’t know about y’all, but there’s nothing quite as sweet as a track that I loved in my youth getting a proper revamp for 2014. From strong female vocalists to timeless basslines, funky breakdowns and catchy choruses – these tracks had it all back in the day, and now thanks to exquisite ears, their new sounds more than hold their own against the original tracks (truth be told, I actually like them better). In my opinion, and in your dictionary, a remix is a piece of work designed to sound different than the original; let’s be real, if all you’re doing is enhancing the ‘four to the floor beat’, I probably won’t appreciate the artistic quality of your work. Another pet peeves in remixes is when the vocals are either eliminated or reduced to a repetitive whimper. So, when artists come along and do a song absolute justice – I definitely notice. The remixes below have completely blown me away, so whether you’re wishing Wednesday was over – or you’re happily plodding through the day, take a listen these kickin’ remixes and take a load off, it’s halfway to Friday !

[Track of the Week] The Polish Ambassador – Girl Control

March 6, 2014March 6, 2014Leave a comment

“I keep it playin’ while some choose to play it safe…”

As I cruised through the lineup for Lightning in a Bottle, a wave of confusion washed over my body – I recognized about two thirds of the entire line-up but the closer I got to the bottom of the bill, the more questions I had: who are you, how did you get here and can you move my head, heart and / or feet? Moby, Phantogram and Little Dragon grace the topline and rightfully so – they’re household names that you actually have the chance of hearing on mainstream radio. Then you work downwards: Amon Tobin, Gold Panda, Simian Mobile Disco, Beats Antique, Gramatik, Chet Faker, Thomas Jack, Random Rab, Desert Dwellers; those names might cause some to scratch their heads, but if you’ve been on the outskirts of indie electro or in the electronic underground – they’re just as familiar, if not more so than the latest work from the ‘headliners’.

Slowly but surely, I’ve been chronicling the artists starting from the bottom right corner and heading up that bright headline of familiar faces. Over the past few years, this process has become more of a tradition – starting with my first Coachella and leading me here – to my second Lightning in a Bottle experience. And now that I’ve gotten aquanited with some of the lesser known acts, let me just ooze with excitement for a second: between the world music out of Natasha Kmeto, the delightful deep house grooves of Marley Carroll and the groovy, jam-band Plantrae – the bottom of the lineup has just as much, if not more talent than the top. And of course, I already have a steady list of favorite artists that I’m delighted to be sharing with the world. The cherry on top of my ice cream sundae is that two artists that I’ve featured in my Rising Star Spotlight series made the line-up – Thomas Jack and Flume, who’ll be performing as half of the duo What So Not.

The original plan was to meander through the artists repository on Soundcloud and throw a few tracks into my LIB Prep Playlist; but then, I put on The Polish Ambassador – and somewhere between the one woman dance party that started in my living room, rocking out in the car and then sharing my favorite jams with my friends, I’d realized that I’d been on a 2 hour kick and wasn’t planning on coming out of it anytime soon. From the funky soul grooves to the ambient, ethereal soundscapes, The Polish Ambassador has effortlessly and successfully crafted music for any occasion. My current favorite called ‘Girl Control’; it’s an oldie, but a goodie – and I’ll bet your bottom dollar you won’t stop booty shakin’ til its over.

As the festival gets closer, I’ll be shining the spotlight on the artists, entertainment, live talks and music that will be filling the hills of the San Antonio Recreation Area in Bradley, CA. I can’t wait to share what makes this festival so amazing with everyone, and hopefully I’ll be seeing your beautiful faces in the mountains!

[Track of the Week] Kiesza – Hideaway

January 29, 2014January 29, 2014Leave a comment

Back when I was geeking out over The Magician’s latest mixtape, my infatuation turned to a specific moment of the mix – minute 26. Somewhere, between a delicious disco rhythm and empowered female vocals, my feet started sending out unknown Morse code messages throughout my office and my head began to slowly sway to the delicate beat drops. What was this magic and where do I find more? As I scoured through all my social media resources trying to piece together a track list, I found myself rewinding the mix in an incessant fashion. I feverishly tried to find out everything and anything I could about my addiction. Originally from Calgary, Canada – Kiesza has been hopping all over the globe – first to New York City and as of this week, London. Her first mark on the scene was ‘Oops’ back in ’12, but with ‘Hideaway’ she’s sure to make a more memorable splash.

The track begins by ushering in a rumbling beat and sultry vocals, with deep and open notes and slowly, progresses into a powerhouse Deep Disco vocal anthem. Featured last Friday as Annie Mac’s BBC show as the track of the week, this infectious earworm is guaranteed to leave the dance floor grooving. Think Disclosure with a soulful female vocalist (much like the addition of Mary J Blidge on ‘F For You‘ or Duke Dumont with a little sass and that’s exactly what you’ll get from Kiesza. With support from The Magician, Tenesnake and Route 94, there’s no doubt that ‘Hideaway’ will get plenty of play this year.

Follow Kiesza on her socials and don’t forget, the Hideaway EP releases in the US this March on Lokal Legend!

Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter

Photo Cred: Arjan Writes Music Blog

[The Audiofiles] ‘Listn’ Up, Music Lovers – There’s A New App For You

November 6, 2013November 6, 20131 Comment

One of the many amazing benefits to growing up in an excessively digital age, is our constant accessibility to music. Whether it’s by our choice or not, it feels like our brains are being bombarded by beats on the daily: it’s the hold music on your company conference calls, the muzack playing in the elevators between the floors at the doctors office, your iPod at the gym, the SiriusXM radio in your car, the Spotify app you hooked up to your Facebook account or the occasional stop off on Soundcloud. Believe you me – I’m not complaining by any means; in fact, if possible I would have an ongoing soundtrack to my life and I would always be in charge of the volume.

Listn’s Dashboard

Throughout the years of being expertly plugged into the interwebs, I’ve developed a network of sites that I use to feed my thirst for tunage. Back in it’s inception, I dove right into Soundrop.fm – which is a great social resource for new music; slowly but surely, all that came from that was a reintegration into Spotify. I currently dabble in Hypem and Soundcloud when I’m on the prowl for something new, Spotify when I’m curious what my friends are groovin’ to and then the occasional YouTube video for some visual treats. The only downside to having multiple music platforms is that there hasn’t been a quick or easy way to streamline all of the sites into one. Thankfully, with the growing popularity of websites like Klout that aggregate your social media presence it only makes sense that some group of music loving techies thought to do the same with all of the streaming media around the web. So, world – meet your new best friend, Listn: a social way to aggregate your audio and find out about the latest and greatest in the music scene.

Trust me when I say – you don’t want to know how many tabs I have open in my browser right now and about a third of them are devoted to the pursuit of music. There are a host of stites that Listn uses to manifest user data, and right now that’s iTunes, Spotify, Hypem, Youtube and Soundcloud. The latest and greatest to addition is Rdio – a website that lets you stream high quality audio for a minimal fee: after 6 months of free listening, $4.99 a month or $9.99 for unlimited listening capabilities. If you’re like me, you’re thinking- WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER – and if you’re not, we might want to rethink the future of our relationship.

The brainchild of Montreal’s MFive Labs, Listn is currently being funded through Kickstarter – where creative endeavors (like Apps, Movies, etc) go for funding. As of right now, they have raised approximately $500,000 and have released the application for free! Right now the application is only available for the iPhone (le sigh) so if you’ve been eating your Apple a day, you’re in luck. As with most everything in life, good apps come in due time for Android. The iPhones have an essentially seamless interaction between their applications that Android simply doesn’t have yet, so hopefully there will be a a version that can work with the upcoming Android KitKat 4.4 OS installation in January (fingers crossed).

Listn’s Userpage

Weekly Dose of Wisdom

September 9, 20131 Comment

The Audiofiles: Top 20 Songs of All Time

June 6, 2013June 6, 2013Leave a comment

There’s nothing that piques my interest like a challenge – and when that challenge involves my favorite tracks of all time? Well, that’s simply music to my ears =) So, when my best friend posted about creating a list of favorites for a friend, I couldn’t help but be inspired. We exchanged a few quick IMs and I went on my merry way through the interwebs and back in time.

Even though I’m currently living as a pseudo-raver-kitten, I’ve enjoyed my fair share of classic rock, country and slow jams – it’s just been extremely few and far between as of late 😉

It only took me about an hour, and I only thought about the fact I was limited to 20 jams three or four times; I’d call that a success in itself. So, what we have here are songs that resonate in a special way with my soul. I hope y’all enjoy this trek down memory lane as much as I do =)