We’ve recently decided to migrate this website to Squarespace, for a variety of reasons. What you as reader will get outta the deal is a much improved site in terms of usability and a host of new features that will add to the awesomeness within these bass-nasty walls.
Currently, the domain name is transferring to Squarespace (can take up to 48 hours). When this occurs, accessing 507projex.com will direct you to the new Squarespace home which is currently “under construction.” Please note that a lot of the cool shit (links, pages like the 507 Vault and Jump & Jamp info) will not automatically show up in the new Squarespace environ. We’ll have to manually bring that glory back (that is the “under construction” biz). However, you will be able to view our main feed which has enough content to appease you for at least a few minutes
As a result, there won’t be a lot of new content on 507projex during the interim. You can keep up with the trials and tribulations of this move by following @rtn‘s tweets (who will likely bitch and bemoan and yip and holler every step).
Thanks for sticking around as we strive to add value and relevance to the site. You rage.
Some of you know and some of you don’t know that I’m moving to Crested Butte, CO on Aug 12th, 2010 so we are throwing one last party at Kathy’s before I bail…. Good Friends and Super tight jams are in order…
Come down to Kathy’s Pub (Rochester) and check out everyone’s favorite jamband amalgamation, Friends of Friends (Aaron Peterson – guitar, Larry Kawasaki – bass, Kevin Gastonguay – keys, JIMBO – drums)! Starting the night off is Key Lime Special.
Additional guest performers to be expected…check back here for confirmations. 507projex will unfortunately not be on hand for the festivities (there is a purple dinosaur playing breakcore in Minneapolis…and that was sort of on our New Years Resolutions list…it’s complicated), but we wish Jimbo well on his new adventures in Colorado and hope you all rage him a proper send-off!! JUST HIT THE JUMPS, DUDE!
Just in time for a July 4th rageathon, the Glitch Mob’s edIT (Ed Ma) has released a new self-produced cut, Pound 4 Pound.
The six minute piece is equipped with the musical standards forged by TGM in their early effort, Crush Mode (2009), yet is mindful to incorporate some of the heavy-synth layers exhibited in their latest release, Drink the Sea (if you haven’t picked that up, do so now).
Pound 4 Pound is just a few clicks and an email login away, and is definitely primed to pervade 507projex‘s holiday playlist. What are you waiting for?
Headlining the kick-off to TCdubstep’s summer season was Israeli Borgore (Asaf Borger) accompanied by Phoenician (Arizona, not the ancient civilization) SLUGGO.
Held off of 25th in an alcohol-less lava pit packed with a 16+ crowd, the gorestep massacre was welcome respite from the bass music drought plaguing the area since the departure of ill.gates and Tipper. Live painting, lasers, moshpits and all around rage fueled the soberish evening, reaffirming the Twin Cities reputation as one of the nation’s dubstep hotspots.
TCdubstep returns to the Loft July 9th for Reid Speed. Get your tickets here. 507projex may be on hand to cover the event, but considering she dissed this site in its bass-nasty infancy, we’re not committing.
Subliminy is an album by Neil Zumwalde, who records heaps of albums for a shitload of local acts under the label NewTectonics.
In little more than a year, he’s birthed albums for Moonstone, Anders Ponders, Tender Meat, Buffalo Moon, Canon Chorus, Chelsea Boys, Slapping Purses and Velvet Davenport, among others. Musically, he describes himself as a generalist, but let’s be more precise—Neil samples tom-toms and manipulates their pitch in Reason, he howls through vocoders while blasting away on synthesizers, he is a dark mage of midi. His live performances are as legendary as the exploits of Cortez; he hypes his shit like Flava Flav and the crowd devours him alive. If the Roman Empire was still around, they’d crucify Neil’s ass.
His newly released solo sound stretches from the minimal to the eccentric. The delivery varies, sometimes as an ecstatic vocoder-fit coupled with raunchy backbeats, and at others as an introspective meditation done vis-à-vis down-tempo stylings, with a heaviness echoing Depeche Mode. The lead-in track, “Boiling Cats and Ruing My Beliefs,” flies out of the gates like a Pegasus with flaming wings, but quickly settles into a lovely electro-ballad. This sets the tone for trying to understand what I kept hearing: moments of pure excess bridled by a sense of intuitive control over the effects at work.
The majority of the tracks on Subliminy move seamlessly from one to the next; almost as if the ten songs are actually five married pairs. The lead-in track flows beautifully into its softer counterpart, and as “Electric Night” fades out, “No Matter What the Mystics Say” begins with a trance-like transition, evolving into a power-electronica dance track that climaxes with serious intensity; my favorite part of the album. The title track and its successor also complement each other, as do the next two, and the next. Having a larger scope when crafting an album can often mean weak singles, but nearly all of Subliminy’s songs stand stoutly on their own.
Zumwalde suggested “Baby Goo Goo” as a featured track. Affectionately dirty, percussion-heavy—it was immediately likeable. After listening to the entire album about fifteen times, I’d look to the aforementioned tracks, “Terrible Genius,” or “Cutting the Lime” as the most iconic songs on the press.
In terms of food, Subliminy unfolds like a tasting menu—a thoughtfully-ordered series of glimpses into a greater creative spectrum, but unlike carbonated truffle foam and watermelon caviar, I feel satisfied with its whole progression, with its heart, like I’ve gotten what I paid for. Zumwalde manages to execute his range of aesthetics with an astounding level of precision—there’s that word again—with Neil, being precise is synonymous, even subliminal. 9/10.
Editorial Note: Neil is so beyond rad he’s given us permission to upload his track, No Matter What the Mystics Say, to our new bonafide 507projex Soundcloud page. If you’d like to have a track featured on 507projex Soundcloud/the site itself, inquire within. Pick up the free download here:
No Matter What the Mystics Say — FREE DOWNLOAD
This review of Neil Zumwalde’s Subliminy was penned by 507′s all-star gonzo columnist, Hijo de la Tierra. If you think you have the balls to contribute to 507projex, contact us at 507projex @ gmail dot com.
Catch Neil Zumwalde live, backed by a full band at the Turf Club on July 2nd, and on July 6th at the Kitty Kat Klub as a solo electronic act. Bring a change of underwear.
Ashes is a drum and bass/dubstep sound slayer hailing from of Ottawa, Canada.
Ashes has been handling the dubplates for six years now and after coming onto our radar via everyone’s fav sharing site, Soundcloud, 507 asked Ashes to answer a few questions, and being the rad dude he is…
STATS: Ashes, 25, Ottawa CAN
What do you use to produce and mix your tracks?
Hardware Macbook pro 2.4, KRKv8 Series2 near field monitors, KRK10S sub, Saffire LE, Novation RemoteSL25, Ableton 8, Massive, Sylenth, VintageWarmer, Decapitator and Ozone4 are the ones I use the most.
What artist(s) have you been listening to the most of late? Lots of indie rock. I discovered Broken Bells recently which is a team up of Danger Mouse and James Mercer (lead singer of The Shins). They have this tune “The Mall & Misery” which I must have played at least 100 times last week. I don’t really listen to a lot of Dubstep on my own time but some of the tunes that I really dig are:
Pendulum – Set me on fire
Blame Ft Ruff Sqwad — On my own (Drumsound & Bassline remix)
Example – Kickstarts (bar 9 remix)
Noisia – Machine Gun (16 Bit remix)
Listen to Ashes’ “Dubvine” and grab the free download while you’re at it:
We’ve got a pretty intense dubstep scene here in Minnesota. What’s the scene like in Ottawa, dubstep or otherwise?
Ottawa has a pretty small scene but it’s picking up. We recently had Borgore down which was awesome from what I heard. I didn’t get the chance to go due to lack of funds. Come to think of it I actually have never been to an all Dubstep show. I think that would drive me crazy since I’m not a big fan of a lot of stuff that gets played. I find it’s either too quiet and dubby or too squelchy. I like going to shows where there is Dubstep, Breaks and DnB. That’s the perfect party.
You recently started dabbling in dubstep the last few months, was there something specific that drew you to the sound? Or was it more about getting on the bandwagon (when Deadmau5 starts dropping dubstep wobbles, it’s safe to say the sound is trending…)?
I heard the potential for Dubstep to be awesome but nearly all of the songs I heard annoyed the hell out of me. My buddy played Giant – Drumstick in one of his sets and it was the first time I had heard a nice melody in a Dubstep tune instead of the same old squelchy disjointed madness. I decided to see if I could remake the song from scratch which was a ton of fun to do. After I did that started digging Dubstep a lot more and at the same time I discovered a bunch of epic tunes and I was hooked.
The line between dnb and dubstep exists, but can get hazy. How do you find the equilibrium between them?
They serve different purposes. DnB is good for jumping around like a maniac while Dubstep is good for gettin’ down. They compliment each other very nicely in DJ sets – I pepper Dubstep throughout my sets to provide a break from the jumping. Tempo changes are very effective at keeping the dancefloor’s attention. There is a huge variety in the kinds of DnB and Dubstep that you can get. That’s my favourite thing about broken beats – they can take on whatever vibe and influence you want them to. There are really organic mellow tunes, robotic synthy tunes and everything in between.
Any shows coming up?
July 15 @ The Lotus Lounge
July 22 @ TBA
July 31 @ The Cajun Attic
August 28 @ Warning: Incoming Game (Montreal)
Anything else you’d like 507projex’s readers to know?
507 gets a flood of email from artists and promoters all clamoring for a spot in our feed. Not sure why, someone somewhere must have added us to some insanely awesome bass music email distribution list. Not complaining, not for a minute. Anywayzzi, this fellow DJ I.D., hailing from Bristol (UK) reached out to us and the “dangerous bass lines” certainly caught our ear. Plus, it’s available for free 320kbs download (#win). Check out “Mustang VIP” below and tell us what you think! Don’t forget to download!
If you like what you hear, pick up I.D.’s four track Mustang EP on Beatport and support one super rad DJ (check out his name-your-price download of which all proceeds are benefiting Dove House Hospice, in Hull, UK).
Recorded live at Neumos in Seattle, August 7th, 2009, legendary DJ/producer Amon Tobin displays true mastery over his form as he commands a live four deck set…described in his own words:
The mix features a preview of the track ‘Sweden’ from the upcoming new Two Fingers album, alongside various selections ranging from the classic to the obscure. As always, the set focuses on building new arrangements from combinations of existing material.
dn’b, halfstep, dubstep, flip hop and nextflap all rendered meaningless in the pursuit of heavy, bass-driven music.
Get ready for a serious head trip.
Amon has a host of exclusive goodies coming up for those on his mailing list…so get on there.
Grab Amon Tobin’s live four deck basslaughtery HERE (accessible through Facebook Connect, and subsequently “Liking” Amon’s page there…really not a long process, and TOTES worth it)!
If you haven’t heard of Kraddy’s Next Level Mash-Ups, you obviously don’t subscribe to Kraddy’s email newsletter. Don’t worry, 507 will be sure to keep you in the glitchsonic loop. So once a month Kraddy is releasing a new mashup from his arsenal for your listening and DJing pleasure. The first installment of Kraddy’s Next Level Mash-Ups is:
LUDACRIS – GET BACK
vs.
SEBASTIAN – H.A.L.
KAPOW! You can listen and vote for this track HERE. If you have a Twitter account please be sure and click VOTE FOR THIS TRACK. Let’s get it to #1!
Rocking clubs and parties for over a decade now, The Freestylers are still one of the most exciting names in dance music. They’ve had Top 20 chart hits, headlined big festivals, sold half a million albums, toured the US supporting Lenny Kravitz, and were the first electronic act to play fully live on legendary BBC TV show Top Of The Pops.
Aston Harvey and Matt Cantor were both making different styles of music when they first met in London in the mid-90s. Uber-engineer Aston had been half of pioneering breakbeat hardcore act Blapps Posse, getting busy
with cuts like ‘Buss’ It’ and ‘Don’t Hold Back’ before going on to work with Definition Of Sound, Rebel MC and DJ Rap. Matt Cantor, meanwhile, was recording with Andy Gardner from the Plump DJs as Cut ‘N’ Paste and
Strike for the fledgling Freskanova label.
Discovering a mutual love of hip-hop and electro, Matt and Aston started making tracks together. The first record they sampled was old skool electro classic ‘Don’t Stop The Rock’ by Freestyle Express, and the resulting
track ‘Drop The Boom’ on Scratch City Records launched them as The Freestylers – the non-genre-specific name with hip-hop connotations fit them like a glove.
