BUY SXLND FROM BLEEP

On top of that, Azealia Banks - the NYC darling everyone’s eyes have been on – blessed “SXLND” with some sultry r&b vox.

Here’s a clip put together by our man Aaron Bergunder of thenumbercreative. He was kind enough to catch some footage of our 2 year celebration at Hush, where Eames & Monolithium tore the dancefloor up (you can download their entire set here). We all had a huge blast at this party, nice to have a quick glance back…

The tune playing is C.R.S.T.‘s bangin’ garage remix of Herve’s “Together”.

The Thursday/Friday night showcases at Lucky Bar are tip-top lineups that feature heavily integrated visual media elements fused with club music from across the spectrum. We’re especially excited to catch Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys on Friday – he’ll be playing an all vinyl set of Italo-house & techno.

Below you’ll find all the info, Facebook links etc to what’s happening, when & where…

Thursday Feb. 9 at Lucky Bar – Red Bull & transmitLIVE present…

↓↓4 decks of live scratch turntablism↓↓
SKRATCH BASTID
GRAND THEFT
GRAHMZILLA
with RHYTHMICON
FACEBOOK EVENT
tickets $12 available at Ditch Records & Lyle’s Place

Friday Feb. 10 at Lucky Bar – transmitLIVE presents…

JEREMY GREENSPAN of Junior Boys [ALL VINYL DJ SET]
DAN WERB of Woodhands vs. KIDS & EXPLOSIONS
with DREAMBOAT, GOLD & YOUTH, visuals by PETER HAGGE
FACEBOOK EVENT
tickets $12 available at Ditch Records & Lyle’s Place

Feb. 8/9/10 at The Mint – New Forms & sub⎹div present…

The transmitLIVE Lounge with visuals by Peter Hagge

Wed Feb. 8 - Niña Mendoza
Thu Feb. 9 – Calamalka
Fri Feb. 10 – Natron
FACEBOOK EVENT
admission is FREE

“Standoff” exists somewhere inbetween hip-hop and 2step, with touches of dub via the gorgeous delayed piano in this. An intriguing turn in direction towards the mid-tempo for Dark Sky, this one is a sure shot for any 1st or 2nd-up DJ’s looking to set the mood right on the dancefloor.

DOWNLOAD Dark Sky “Standoff”

Boddika & Joy O “Swims”

download Clams Casino Instrumentals

The one & only AraabMUZIK returns to Victoria in February. Alongside Atomique & Degree,we’re proud to present this beat phenomenon – in a short span, Araab has catapulted himself past leagues of post-cliche “beat producers” with real-live gravity-defying feats of quantized MPC dexterity. For those who caught him at Rifflandia or Decibel this past fall, AraabMUZIK live is a thrilling, adrenaline-fuelled thang. Do not sleep… FACEBOOK EVENT

Alongside Araab, we got our dude Rhythmicon & Nola’s finest, Jim-E Stack. Jim-E also graced Rifflandia with a blazing set this past September – the Araab show will be an ill night for a lot of heads to get to know this fresh US producer who’s forthcoming Come Between EP on London imprint Good Years will sit nicely alongside that label’s previous release, Lil’ Silva’s Patience EP.

DOWNLOAD Jim-E Stack “Lemme” via XLR8R

Just wanted to give a massive shout to all who contributed 2011 recaps over this past month. Always a treat to hear the opinions & perspectives of our community… here’s to a fantastic 2012.

Love,
sub⎹div fam

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COMMA… of Cali’s Frite Nite crew (pictured above)

2011 was the best year yet. My debut cassette, Colortronics, was released on Frite Nite and I played in a bunch of new cities, met so many cool people, and practically drowned in good music. The biggest highlights for me were playing Decibel Festival, and the Frite Nite shows where we got our whole label together in San Francisco and Arcata, CA. Driving around in the van with those guys was the best… we listened to a lot of rap. This was one of my favorite discoveries from those voyages…

Tune of 2011: Lil B “I Hate Myself”

I also released an album with Boreta as Slidecamp, which got an overwhelmingly positive reaction. The album really documented certain phases of my life over the last 6 years, it was very personal. I also did this remix for his band The Glitch Mob, and released a track called “Vacancy” on the Surreal Estate comp, which was another project I worked very hard on. It’s been amazing to see Frite Nite go from a San Francisco label to an international name this year. 2012 is gonna go hard.

OUTSIDER… our resident dNb selector 

2011 has been more than great for me personally, my momentum from 2010 continued strong and kept me excited and motivated thru-out the last 12 months. Has it really been 12 months already?

Dedication and focus was a big part of my year, not only on my music but on my design work as well. The launch of  outsider-inside.com also kept me very busy. Music and design is my hobby so finding motivation after an 11 hour day at work can be very difficult at times, but with dedication comes reward.

Expanding my sound was also a big part of this year, venturing out of my normal bmp range became a regular thing. That deep low end minimal sound hit the spot for me. Music for the heads as i like to call it (not your typical dance floor music). The new year will feature my second installment in the subdiv podcast series, it will pretty much sum up where I am right now in terms of musical taste.

I’m not very good with words so i will keep it short. Peace, Love and Unity.

GOBE… the great northern Big Red

“From A Distance”

Ends and Beginnings. Early February brought me the gift of fatherhood.

Most of my late nights used to be spent playing at clubs, they are now spent pacing with my daughter close, calming her with songs of dreamtime lullabies. With a fresh face in the family, a lot of my free time has quickly evaporated leaving little time for regular jam sessions on the turntables.

I have been keeping busy up here doing a bi-weekly radio show called Sub Low One Block (SLOB) on 93.9fm CICK www.smithersradio.com on Sundays. This has motivated me to carve out some time to contribute to a fresh scene here in Smithers while representing my take on bass music. Some gracious people have been sending me guest mixes to keep the SLOB show bumping when squeezing in my own turntable time has been tough. A few club (if you can call a pub a club) nights where I have served up a good helping of music to the Bulkey Valley people, have allowed me to become part of the small but vibrant scene in this small town.

With my second year living in Northern BC fast approaching, I am just now coming to terms with not living close to a music epicentre like Victoria/Vancouver. Going to shows, conversing with the local bass heads and just sharing a dancefloor taking in the music is something I will always miss. I have been fortunate enough to be invited back to Victoria for a couple of sub⎹div/Rifflandia combos, which always has a special place in my heart as it usually goes down as a Big Reds special

To try and stay current, I have been lurking on the interwebs; reading blogs, screening pics, listening to mixes and watching various videos of scenes vibrant and robust. Bass culture from a distance so to speak.

I still love dubstep music (there is so much 135-142bpm stuff that pushes my sub-buttons in all the right ways) but I also really enjoy that I can now dig out all my old house records to go with current 128-132bpm bass music. I’m also pretty keen on the timelessness that a good jungle tune brings to the speakers.

Top release for me in 2011 has to be…

Mosca “Done Me Wrong” (Numbers)

Mosca “Bax” (Numbers)

AA side business taking elements from house, speed garage, and subdub skanks. I found both to be  classic anthems that will stand the test of these music trending times

With 2012 in view, I am hoping to get more time mixing records and even dip into some production; as I have been dabbling with loops for years but haven’t really sat down and built a tune that I don’t just end up deleting. Of course coming back down to the capital city to hang with the sub⎹div family and jam out with the Big Reds is always on my radar, but I also have my wedding on the horizon this year; along with the ever-changing task of parenting a toddler.

Here is a mix I was able to put together on one of those rare occasions I get to have a session. Dubstep into jungle with a house finish.

Gobeyearendsublowdnb12.10.11

Cluekid & LD – Jupiter 9
Von D – So Many Faces [VIP]
Headhunter & Invisible – Luvdup
Mala – Left Leg Out
SPL – Lust
Goth Trad & Max Romeo – Babylon Fall
Mungos Hi Fi – Bad From Riddim
Mungos Hi Fi & Black Warrior – Buffalo Soldier
LionDub, Jah Dan & Sotto Bless – Heartbroken
Djunya – Wind Up
DZ & Awaken Lion – Chalice Dub x2
Sniper & MC GQ – Dub Plate Pressure (Remix)
Trace & Ryme Tyme – Move
Livewire – The Zone
Breakage – Staggered dub
Ray Keith – Girls Dem Want It [Serum Rmx]
Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass – Lemon Tree
Mosca – Done Me Wrong

All the best in 2012.
Gobe

THATS DEEP… subdiv fam/Calgary transplant

In early 2010 I entered a dark world within myself and my heart and my love was being compromised and abused. I always knew deep inside that the music and the meow of my life would anchor me and show me that the light existed and there was a home for me in the community of enlightened individuals creating artwork through sound. It seems that when you are going through your hardest times that you realize you’re not the only one who is fighting demons to reach personal goals. Artists including Lil B , James Blake or even Canada’s newest collab project The Weeknd all have been regular rotation for me in 2011, and the core reason being how much I could relate and understand the message behind the tunes. When artists cry with sound and get intimate in delivery, which is when I truly feel connected to a record.

2011 has definitely been a very inspiring and educational year. I moved to Victoria BC in November 2010 with the intention and will to separate myself from the promotion and events aspect of music culture.  As always I found myself living the laws of attraction with many great spirited and talented DJs and producers creating dope shit. I took a big step into the world of Ableton Live this year and I am slowly familiarizing myself with the live performance power this program offers, never the less the production capabilities it provides me for sound creation.

I consider myself a music junkie who is attracted to many genres and musical projects that have been released over the years. Taking tips and knowledge from the sub⎹div family, Chris Long and Quinn Dawson have really showed me what discipline and focus really create. I come from a hip-hop and soul background, a golden child with no doubt, which today is being slopped together with techno and trance grooves.

Normal folk would never understand the passion and personal affect that sound frequency and patterns have on your daily life choices and problems. This has been a key aspect of my current production scheme when I’m programming a tune. I personally think it is OK where music is currently at, with the flood of sub genres and post-errthing. Whether you are stripping down funk or punk or African dub, new and old producers need to accept and be willing to challenge themselves to change and experiment with the platter of history we have at our hands. Analog synths, dusty vinyl records, or even cassette tapes. The tools we have now are endless. I’m very thrilled that UK Garage/UK Funky are stronger than ever. 2step and UKG was the genre that actually hooked me on bassline and electronic music.

I just moved back to my hometown Calgary AB and I’m already getting opportunities to play at one of my favorite nights in Calgary Modern Math hosted by The RinseOut sound crew headed by Dan Solo and Mr. Geography. One thing I’ve understood through my travels and interactions is that very few actually “get it”. Sharing similar visions and foundations when presenting Avant-Garde experiences leave warm memories with guests and music enthusiasts alike.

Big Thank to the following people in Victoria for all the opportunity and shows I enjoyed playing at in 2011: Monolithium, Rhythmicon, EAMES, Okibi, Righteous Rainbows, The Big Reds, KMT, Whitebird Events, Hush, Lucky Bar.

With 2012 underway the conscious transformation has begun and I believe that Canadian artists and innovators have truly put obstacles and negative  energy behind them. With challenge comes big changes.  Do what you love, and follow your heart in all your future endeavors and projects.

Bless

That’s Deep top albums of 2012

SBTRKT SBTRKT
Gil Scott Heron & Jamie XX We’re New Here
Joker The Vision
Kuedo Severant
Rustie Glass Swords
The Weeknd House Of Balloons

That’s Deep top EPs of 2012

Jacques Greene Another Girl
Joy O Sicko Cell
Jamie XX Far Nearer
Aquadrop Soul EP
Mosca Done Me Wrong/Bax
Julio Bashmore Battle For Middle You
B. Bravo Kiss N Tell
Dam Funk InnaFocusDaze
Disclosure Carnival/I Love.. That You Know

THE LIBRARIAN… Bass Coast Queen

2011 was full of surprises, moments of inspiration, challenges, and beauty, and the year’s releases seemed to set the perfect soundtrack complete with innovation, tension, power and space.

Throughout the year I was fortunate to travel around the West Coast playing various shows including Victoria, Kelowna, Vancouver, Whistler, and Calgary – each of which has a thriving scene with a distinct style and approach to music. Calgary’s Modern Math nights are a favourite to play because the community is really supportive of new sounds and ideas. Vancouver saw a big change this year with a resurgence in attendance at shows as the lines between traditional dubstep, house music, and club music were knocked down and many new genres emerged. So much of this innovation was created on the West Coast and we have many homegrown artists to credit. 2011 has been a really creative year for music and I’m very excited in the direction set for 2012.

Festival season on the West Coast became year round in 2011. It started with a bang on NYE at W2 then carried on in March with Utopia Festival – the first annual women’s festival of digital culture at W2 in Vancouver and ended in October with Bass Coast Halloween. Highlights included Diversity Festival on Texada Island, where I was fortunate to play a sunrise set as the morning mist rose off the ocean. Next up was Bass Coast Festival, which exceeded all my expectations, and although I ended up with a broken foot on my birthday, I relished in the beauty of our West Coast musical family. That same weekend my Arctic Swallow EP was released on EVD marking my first release. A few days later we head into the interior for Shambhala Music Festival. Thank you to Living Room Stage who curated a solid vibe that carried me happily through the weekend crutches and all! The stars aligned later in August with the Addison Groove/Silkie show curated by Michael Red. Self Evident and I played together to close out the night. I didn’t want it to end.

Throughout the year I’ve been fortunate to play weekly alongside Mat The Alien at his night ‘Really Good Tuesdays’ in Whistler. Whistler is an interesting scene because many people are only in town for one season. This brings an excitement to the weekly night that is unlike anywhere else. Many guest artists have visited throughout the year and some of my personal favourites have been Reso, Distance and Eprom. I’m continually impressed by Mat’s skills every week. He is a true alien.

Bass Coast is a year round focus and I’m constantly learning more about the business, the community blossoming out of the festival, and the surrounding community that shares their home with and supports our festival.  Each year there are challenges that appear out of nowhere but these are counterweighted by the experiences and relationships that are developed along the way. I enjoy the process of working through these challenges… they dissolve as soon as the festival settles into its flow, disappearing during the first sunrise set.  This year Bass Coast matured both musically, in the community, and in the overall festival experience.  I feel like each artist on the roster played their personal best. A few stand out performances included: Salva, Calamalka, Jacques Greene, Dave Nada, DJG, Michael Red, Max Ulis’ 4:4 set, Luciterra’s outstanding performance, Dub FX’s surprise appearance, and Bassos Rancheros morning set complete with huevos rancheros served on the dance floor. So many people contributed to the success of the festival and Bass Coast Halloween, I can’t begin to express enough gratitude. Here’s to 2012!

These songs are often in my playlist at home or played out…

1. Dark Sky “Be Myself”
2. Dizz1 “Decay”
3. Max Ulis & Self Evident “Eastsiders”
4. Sepalcure “No Think”
5. Objekt “The Goose That Got Away”
6. Demokracy “Winterminute [Doshy Remix]”
7. Breton “RDI [Girl Unit Remix]”
8. Ghost Mutt “Thoroughbred”
9. Mele “Lego”
10. Salva “Policy”
12. Emalkay “Crusader”
13. Comma “Vacancy”
14. The Weeknd “High For This [NastyNasty 808 Edit]”
15. Africa Hitech “Out in the Streets [VIP]”

This year was not only fulfilling in music and Bass Coast biz but also in my home life. This past May my partner Andor and I tied the knot! We celebrated alongside friends and family in an intimate wedding not far from home. This day is etched in my memory and filled with happiness, good people, incredible food, and of course a wonderful soundtrack by our lovely and talented friends! This fall Andor and I took a month off to travel around Indonesia, surf, eat mangoes, and escape the damp BC November. It was the best way to close out 2011. The soundtrack to our travels will forever bring me back there: Michael Red, Prison Garde, Nicolas Jaar, Headhunter, Lunice, the Frite Nite Crew, Lighta! Sound, Night Slugs, Kryptic Minds, Monolithium, Doshy, Sepalcure, Throwing Snow, Sully and the sounds of live gamelan music floating out to sea during the early morning surf.

Thank you 2011!

Yet despite the ubiquity of the web, getting anyone outside of BC to take notice is still a challenge. Which is where Andrew Ryce comes in. A writer, critic & overall scene enthusiast, Ryce has been instrumental in chronicling the underground dance activity in Vancouver over the past couple of years. Writing for Resident Advisor, FACT Magazine & Pitchfork (among others), his reviews of albums, EPs & events have shone a slim beam of light on our corner of the dancefloor, giving global perspective to our very regional scene. On his Future Proofing blog, Ryce often delves a little deeper, choosing to navigate lengthy topics (the 2010 feature on Autonomic DnB is ace) with in-depth analyses & constructive critique. Most recently, Ryce has been profiling many of the West Coast’s key players with fantastic interviews & exclusive mixes (the most recent post on Max Ulis features an ESSENTIAL 15 min mix of all original Ulis beats).

At the rave, Ryce will be found at the centre of any dancefloor – he’s an active participant in this world, far from a chin-stroking pundit. The coverage our scene has received on the global platform via this fellow - while totally warrented – is greatly needed & hugely appreciated. We’re glad to have someone like Andrew in our midst soaking up all our hard work.

Tune of 2011: Blawan “Getting Me Down”

Andrew Ryce: Everybody had a hard year.  Everybody had a good time.  How’s that for a cliche intro? Sorry, that’s all I know how to do.

Music? 2011 was the year that house broke. Again. It never went away, and in its home sectors it was as strong as ever, but it seemed like halfway through this year that that pesky rigid line which divided what was once dubstep — “bass music” — from its four-to-the-floor cousin seemed to simply dissolve in a sea of crosstalk and coy flirtation.  By the end of 2011, it just feels like everything is house: whether you’re looking at it through the spectrum of soulful deep house, classic Chicago, skippy garage of the American and British varieties, whatever: it’s all about house.

This tectonic shift has its ups and downs: for every genius idiosyncratic take on the stuff there’s a million producers taking stabs at it who have no idea what they’re doing, with very few reference points outside of a few deep house tracks they may have heard as part of the whole resurging trend in the first place.  I won’t name too many names, but the whole thing was wildly uneven: take Blawan, who caught everyone off-guard with his Brandy house refix “Getting Me Down” — my personal favourite dance track of the year, and #1 over at RA as well — then proceeded to trot blindly down the same path, releasing the savagely disappointing “What You Do With What You Have,” a ham-fisted admixture of cliches that was simultaneously boring and maybe a little offensive.

But all that aside, and putting aside the general feeling of assimilation that all of this inspires, 2011 also felt like the year when, in dance music anyway, genre really didn’t matter anymore.  Everyone ran off on their own paths doing whatever the hell they wanted.  Though the d-word was thrown around a lot and misused as much as ever — and the d-word mainstream erupted to new heights, baiting moaning and controversy from all corners — it felt like there were no rules anymore. One of my favourite producers of the year, Salva, started the year with a fantastic album full of UK-friendly hip-hop excursions (Complex Housing) and ended it with an EP of muscular weirdo house music.  There wasn’t even any accounting for taste anymore: Scuba made trance (“Adrenalin”), Robag Wruhme made prog house (“Donnerkuppel”), and as time passed it seemed like those little things that used to make genres like that unbearable were suddenly everywhere — and totally acceptable, at least in the right circles.

I don’t think any artist embodies this better than araabMUZIK, whose Electronic Dream took his trusty MPC to a number of trance tracks — sampled almost in their entirety — and became one of 2011’s most addictive and inescapable albums.  Challenging notions of taste, genre, authenticity, and authorship, there’s a whole dialogue surrounding Electronic Dream that’s not worth getting into here, but suffice it to say it seemed the crown jewel of a zeitgeist of the intentionally gaudy in 2011.

I don’t know what the hell to say about 2011 personally other than… what happened?  Personally it was a landmark year: working harder than ever, I had an extended and life-changing stint over in Europe for the first time, seeing the club scenes and artists I had covered for well over a year finally in action in their own habitats: London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and especially Bristol all stole my my heart.  For me, 2011 doesn’t get much better than the twelve days I spent in Bristol.  Great people, great music, and a healthy appreciation for the arts of all kinds, it was an inspiring place to be.

But as much as I may have left my heart in Europe (anyone who knows me personally will attest for my distaste for many aspects of Vancouver), upon returning I also embarked upon a mission to really highlight the strength of British Columbia’s ever-bustling music scene.  Beginning my “Futureproofing Vancouver” series in the second half of this year, I couldn’t be prouder of the way it showcases the best our community has to offer.  Aleem Jamal-Kabani, Zia Hirji, Rob Prison Garde Squire, Kevin Eames, Chris Long, Michael Red, Max Ulis, Scott W, Cedric Meister, are the heroes here, tirelessly putting on adventurous shows and taking risks to bring Vancouver up to speed with the rest of the world: Addison Groove, Todd Edwards, Ikonika, Jacques Greene, Lunice, Metro Area, Levon Vincent, Prosumer, Marcelus Pittman… and so many more.  The change in the past year alone in terms of bookings, attendance and organization is a sight to behold.

Conveniently, 2011 also felt like the time everyone in Vancouver started firing on all cylinders: in this once-disorganized scene, people are now starting labels, putting out proper releases, and using the internet infrastructure for distributing music to the utmost.  Monolithium released the fantastic Simon & G-Funk EP on German label Error Broadcast, Prison Garde — undeniably my favourite DJ in the city — released TWO free albums this year, one of his own genre-jumping productions and the other a heads-down house collaboration with Vancouver’s sweetheart Kevin Eames.  Vincent Parker released an amazing free album, Max Ulis started a label and spent the better half of the year honing what is an absolutely amazing live set, and his brother Self Evident kept on blowing everyone away with his wildly diverse DJ sets.  It’s a good time to be in this place for music, and the growing success of crews like subdivision is absolutely inspiring: everything feels on a constant trajectory of onward and upward, whether we’re talking music in general or music in Victoria.  Onward and upward.  I’m just going to echo Michael Red’s recap and say that Vancouver duo Evy Jane might be most exciting of all: just wait for her killer EP to drop on King Deluxe early next year.

Some of my favourite things in 2011?  The Weeknd. Machinedrum. Kowton. ASC. Drake. Kevin McPhee. M83. araabMUZIK. BNJMN. Peverelist. John Heckle. Terius Nash. West Norwood Cassette Library. Frank Ocean. Kuedo. Brendon Moeller. Andy Stott. Junior Boys. The whole Friends of Friends crew. Frite Nite. T Williams. Scuba. Sigha. Boddika. Clams Casino. Milyoo. Idle Hands. Punch Drunk. Wild Beasts. ASAP Rocky.  Everything Planet Mu released this year. A lot of other shit, and everyone in this cozy little Vancouver community.  Decibel Festival. Plastic People. Ben Klock at the fuckin’ Berghain. Dubloaded in Bristol with DJG and Vancouver’s very own Daega Sound.  And, as ever, whiskey.

If you were into dance music in 2011, it was an exciting & busy time for you – things didn’t sit still for a minute. The steady cycle of dialog around footwork, r&b’s resurgence, AraabMUZIK, house’s return (we KNOW – it never left), dubstep’s demise, Rustie…  all of it soundtracked by latenight sessions listening to The Weeknd. This manic, often uncatchable stream of musical consciousness was mirrored by the phenomenal year delivered by Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum aka 1/2 of Sepalcure. Dude was busy.

Machinedrum “Fantastix” from Sacred Frequency EP (Planet Mu)

Stewart is no stranger to the underground dance world – via various guises, he’s been releasing post-IDM beats & breaks for the better part of the last decade. But this past year saw him deliver the payload that so many knew he was capable of. Starting with the Planet Mu teaser EP Sacred Frequency (which sported one of the most jarring, original takes on the amen break in a while, “Fantastix”) & the Alarma 12″ via LuckyMe, so much of 2011 built up to the release of Room(s), the Machinedrum full length that came through on the promise of footwork/juke being a palpable avenue to chart an album’s worth of material.

Machinedrum “U Don’t Survive” from Room(s) (Planet Mu)

Running at a steady clip between 150-160bpm through much of its duration, Room(s) is a euphoric mix of breakneck percussion & auto-tuned melancholia. Stewart’s favouring of sampled breaks over strictly 808-driven riddims gives Room(s) a looseness that escapes many producers toying with the 160bpm format. There’s a rugged intimacy that rears its head when, amid the bass & rattle of drums in, down-trodden r&b vocals appear through the clouds (see 3:00 of “Sacred Frequency”). This soft/hard dynamic spells disaster for many a producer, but Stewart has a coherent vision, injecting much needed dynamic into the stripped down template of footwork.

Machinedrum “Sacred Frequency” from Room(s) (Planet Mu)

And then quietly, sneakily, just as we were all getting ready to start reflecting on the past year, Stewart & his pal Praveen dropped the debut Sepalcure full length via Hot Flush. Due to its timing, this album is doomed to be overlooked somewhat, but it’s an astoundingly immediate dancefloor record, one that will hopefully receive rotation from selectors through 2012. It absorbs the urgency of Machinedrum’s jukes, but channels UK garage/funky & the echoes of Chicago house divas. Keyboard stabs & nimble drum programming are all melded together with a sexy, serpentine aesthetic that has come to define the Sepalcure sound.

Sepalcure “Pencil Pimp” from Sepalcure (Hot Flush)

And we gotta be honest, Machinedrum’s set at the final sub⎹div showcase at Rifflandia this past September was the show of the year for us. Having all the Canadian fam in the house (esp. XI & Falcon) for Stewart’s balls-to-the-wall hour of 160 madness was proper fun. Live, Machinedrum manages to service the dancefloor with the same intricate brutalism that sets his recorded output apart, inspiring & invigorating to say the least.

Congrats on an amazing 2011 Travis.

Machinedrum “Alarma” from Alarma 12″ (LuckyMe)