extracurricular beats

1Mar/100

’tis a melancholy march monday

What can I say, I'm a fool for horrible alliteration.

tehgeekmeister's pick

Enjoy the Moment, by Bop


Perfect chill track, but with more going on than your average ambient. I'm not sure what to classify this as, to be honest. It's got drum and bass roots, but it's certainly a chill/ambient track. As to where that puts it? I don't know, genres are beyond me, and they should be beyond you, too.

Also, a quick pointer to Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. Good if you want to get a bit of a grip on EDM as a whole, but don't take it too seriously. Be sure to look at the disclaimer.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
28Feb/100

final day of london elektricity

stardust's pick

Just One Second, by London Elektricity


To wrap this week up, I thought we needed a chill tune. There aren't words to describe how this track makes me feel, other than it's a good, kind of surreal feeling. Thank you, London Elecktricity.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
27Feb/100

acoustic dance music?

tehgeekmeister's pick

Subject Beautiful, by Phoneheads (live in Tonhalle)


I found this track yesterday on the DNB subreddit yesterday. Has the same basic musical structure as liquid DNB, but with live strings substituted for synths, and no overpowering bassline. When I showed my friend Tyson this, he dubbed it ADM: acoustic dance music. I think it fits. The live video for London Elektricity we posted yesterday is similar to this, inasmuch as it is performed live by musicians, rather than orchestrated from samples/synths by a DJ. I certainly wouldn't say one approach is better than another, but balance is good.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
27Feb/100

day six of london elektricity

stardust's pick

Houston We Have No Problem, by London Elektricity


From the first CD in the two disc London Elektricity Medical History release. Medical History is a series Hospital Records does of older tracks from producers on their label.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
26Feb/100

days four and five of london elektricity

stardust's picks

Bare Religion, London Elektricity


From London Elecktricity's newest album Syncopated City, I give you Bare Religion: An almost dark tune that retains the calm and dreamy feel of his previous albums.

The Strangest Secret in the World, London Elektricity


From the album Power Ballads. I freaking love this track, the rest of this album is a little weird to me and more experimental than some of London Elecktricity's work, but this track is exceptionally well done. (This is a live version, but it's quite similar to the version on Power Ballads.)

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
26Feb/100

live electronic/dub/reggae ish shit.

tehgeekmeister's pick

Made, by Dub FX


This is the kinda stuff I wanted to focus on this week, reminds me of the Kid Beyond I posted a few days back. Great track, but it's outside the nearly cookie cutter world of perfectly timed beats and over produced synths and samples that normally dominates in EDM. I love EDM, but it's important to remember the organic as well.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
24Feb/100

london elektricity, day three, and other miscellaneous crap.

Before we get to the music, a quick announcement: starting Very Soon Now there will be two posts a day, on average. We've decided to separate our posts out into individual ones in the future, as it fits our workflow better.

stardust's pick

Fast Soul Music, by London Elektricity

This is the first track I heard by London Elecktricity. It's fairly calm and melodic, like a lot of his work tends to be. You can find this track on the album Billion Dollar Gravy.

tehgeekmeister's picks

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

This is the wobbly wednesday bit, felt like throwing you some good liquid dnb even if I said I'd focus on other stuff this week. But that's what the next track is all about. Great track, throw the volume up as loud as you can. This one has never failed to hit me really hard.

Pompeii, by E.S. Posthumus

E.S. Posthumus blew me away when I first discovered them. Absolutely flawlessly produced music, and really quite unique. It's definitely not EDM, but definitely electronic. Yet with an undeniably classic feel. It's meant to be movie music, and you can tell this while listening to it.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
23Feb/100

more london elektricity, our first psytrance track.

stardust's pick

Main Ingredient, by London Elektricity

This track is from the album Billion Dollar Gravy. I'm fairly certain this is a love song, and a weird one at that. I was not under the impression that people had a sell by date, thanks for clearing that up for me. (tehgeekmeister's note: This is a liquid drum and bass track for sure. All London Elektricity is, and it seems he was instrumental in the birth of liquid dnb, given he started Hospital Records, one of the major liquid dnb labels.)

tehgeekmeister's pick

Break the Beat, by Ranji

This is our first psytrance track so far on the blog, and one of my personal favorites. Best listened to loud enough that it overpowers everything else around you, and paid a good bit of attention to.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
22Feb/100

a week of london elektricity and obscure stuff.

This week Stardust will be focusing on London Elektricity, who runs Hospital Records, and I'll be sharing some samples of more obscure/experimental music with a bit of an electronic feel, though mostly not EDM (electronic dance music) (well, depending who you ask).

stardust's pick

Billion Dollar Gravy, London Elektricity

Kicking off the week of London Elecktricity tracks, I give you Billion Dollar Gravy, a drum and bass anthem that is heavily played by Drum and Bass DJs worldwide.

tehgeekmeister's picks

Wandering Star, Kid Beyond (cover of the Portishead original)

This is an amazing beatboxing cover of the Portishead track of the same name. The original would certainly be trip hop, but this being a beatboxed cover, I'd guess this is closer to experimental than actual trip hop. Discovered this Saturday night at a blues dancing house party, and fell in love with it. Along with quite a bit of the rest of that DJ's set. We'll probably see at least one more track from that set this week. Good trip hop, industrial, and things that border on EDM but aren't quite will be the focus.

Beauty Beats, by Beats Antique

From what I can gather this is music built from the ground up for belly dancing. The band describes themselves as "electro-acoustic gypsy hip hop straight from a time machine" on their twitter, but I'd put them between trip hop and experimental, just like the last track. Amazingly danceable stuff, good old school feel, but also appropriate bits of an electronic feel/use of glitching. Good stuff.

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments
19Feb/100

breakbeats, a neglected genre

tehgeekmeister's pick

Don't have much to say about these tracks individually, I'm not very well acquainted with breaks, which is unfortunate, because it's a great genre. It was my first real love after happy hardcore, and I plan to explore it some more soon. Enjoy it, kids!

Plump DJ's - Electric Disco (D.Ramirez remix)

The Stanton Warriors - Hope Time

Filed under: Uncategorized No Comments