2011 Recap: Celoso

Graintable is fam – dude has been repping PDX with his own signature blend of post-hop blap for a minute now with releases via Run Riot (RIP) & Car Crash Set. Earlier this year, he linked with Devin Landau of Surefire Agency to form Celoso, a stripped down, rhythm driven production outfit that adopts the minimalism & efficiency of 808-driven club-fare (peep their In Flux mix below). 2012 will likely produce some fresh noise from these two… stay tuned.

Big shouts to Graintable (and @Amalala) for making his way up to Vancouver for our 2 year celebration with Kingdom at the Waldorf this past Saturday.

Blawan “Getting Me Down”

Celoso: 2011 marked the inception of Celoso, a collaboration between Devin Landau & myself (Graintable). The two of us were really getting into all the newer sounds out today that are blending elements of house, techno, and garage both past, present and future. We decided to collaborate on a project and see where we could take it, so with Devin being a drummer we knew we wanted to focus on the percussive side of things. We also incorporate this into our live sets with Devin banging drums and bringing a more live percussive feel. So far it’s been an interesting experiment with our sound evolving with every tune and with all the great music that was made in 2011 we’ve got no shortage of inspiration.

The garage and UK funky sounds have always been a favorite of ours and this year saw some great releases from artists pushing that genre even further like Jamie XX, Sully, Sepalcure, Dark Sky, XI, HxdB, Kastle, and others. More techno influenced stuff kept coming onto our radar this year as well with Scuba, Objekt, and Disclosure’s beats taking the genre places it’s never been before. The house vibe was really alive this year too which brings us to our ‘track of the year” Blawan’s “Getting Me Down”.  This tune features a lot of elements that we dig: big drums, 90′s R&B samples, and just all around club bangingness!

With all that being said, there’s no denying that the Juke/Footwork influenece definitely hit hard this year. Planet Mu owned, with seminal releases from Machindrum, Kuedo, Chrissy Murderbot, Ital Tek and the 2nd volume of the Bangs & Works compilation. Chicago’s dance music influence could also be heard on other great albums that came out this year by Africa Hitech, Salva, Om Unit, and Krampfhaft and it certainly shows no sign of slowing down.

2011 was also a great year for music in our hometown of Portland as well. We feel really spoiled here with production companies and record labels like Abstract Earth Project, Dropping Gems and Bubblin’ bringing in great out of town talent. Portland is also home to some amazing local artists and DJs as well: Eprom, Danny Corn, Natasha Kmeto, Plumblyne, Barisone, Tyler Tastemaker, The Great Mundane, Noah D, Ryan Organ, and woah… this list could go on forever, so you better keep watch on Portland in 2012!

– http://graintable.com