Posts tagged with apparat

06/04/2011

Apparat – Ash / Black Veil (Amtrac Remix)

It should come as no surprise to you by now that I’m a big fan of Apparat. Not only do I consider him my introduction to electronic music, but he was also one of the first artists I posted way back in 2009 when this weird website first began (Fractales Pt.I and II. So good), after I was inspired by attending another great Movement Festival right here in Detroit (which you may have seen or heard a little bit about around here lately). Well, we recently posted his newest tune “Ash/Black Veil” from his yet untitled new album coming out some time in the future (these things have probably since been revealed/announced, so don’t take my word for it) and then I was lucky enough to receive this great rework of that tune in my inbox and I’ve been meaning to post it for some time now. But with last weekend’s Movement Festival now under my belt, it seems completely appropriate now. The remix is from Kentucky native Caleb Cornett, perhaps better known as Amtrac. He took the blissfully beautiful original and slowed it down a little bit to make it just a tad harder and just a tad more soulful. I’ve been listening to the two versions back to back and just can’t decide which I like better. That’s what we like to call a win-win situation.

Apparat – Ash/Black Veil (Amtrac Remix)

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04/10/2011

Apparat – Ash/Black Veil

Pretty excited to find out that Apparat is releasing a new album in the very near future. The album, his first on Mute Records, his new label, does not seem to have a name or a release date as of yet, but we know it’s coming, so that’s good enough for me. It promises more prominent vocals and live instruments, and all of that mixed with Apparat beats is sure to be a winning combo. Apparat sort of holds a special place in my heart, as it was a fateful cd burning of his Walls album from my friend Ulia (I also made it out of the transaction with my first taste of Akron/Family in the form of their beautiful self titled album) that I feel is ultimately responsible for my first true introduction to electronic music, and we all know how that turned out. And even though the new album doesn’t yet have a name or a release date, we know that it has at least one song, as Apparat is giving away “Ash/Black Veil”. I can’t say that I ever in a million years would have guessed this was Apparat if nobody told me, but I’m still totally digging this song, mostly because it’s really pretty. The nearly 6 minute track gives us a taste of what we can expect with prominent piano and various stringed instruments all over the subtlest of beats and it only gets prettier as the song goes on. The blips and bleeps come more front and center as the track goes on, and there’s just a really great buildup that carries through the whole song. Sonic bliss.

Apparat – Ash/Black Veil

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01/02/2011

CutOff!CutOff! – T Is To N

If you recall, earlier this we posted about Diamond Messages, a new sort of trippy minimalist mostly instrumental act with its first release on Spontaneous Rhythm. Well, the good folks over at Spontaneous Rhythm have sent us their next release from German producer CutOff!CutOff! and we are digging his sounds as well. Just like Diamond Messages, the music is somewhat desolate and atmospheric but with a really nice beat. It’s got that low key dubstep flavor that I love so much and feels like some sort of iteration combining elements of Burial, Apparat, Pantha Du Prince and Four Tet, or something along those lines, a pretty winning combination in my book. The Sing EP will be available at all the usual online outlets beginning on January 3rd, but you can check out a few tracks below and listen to the whole EP right over here.

CutOff!CutOff! – T Is To N

CutOff!CutOff! – Sing

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06/22/2010

Summer Drive Mixtape!

As you hopefully recall, last month, we put together our first ever mixtape entitled A Blogwave Summer which was curated by 20 of our favorite music blogs, each contributing a track of their own and mixed together by none other than myself. Well, I had so much fun putting that together that I decided to do it again with a bunch of tracks of my choosing. There wasn’t really a theme at the onset, it was just a lot of mostly high energy (and, for the most part, extremely bright) tracks that I love, most of which I hadn’t heard until I started this site last May. When I gave it a listen this past weekend on a 4-hour solo drive up to Traverse City, I decided it made pretty great driving music, especially on a sunny day, and thus, Summer Drive was born.

I could have also very well called this mix dailybeatz 101, because for someone who doesn’t visit the site regularly, it’s a fantastic representation of exactly the type of music that we love here. In fact, most of these songs have been posted on this site at one point or another, so you may have heard many of them here already, but I must say there’s something to be said for the way that juxtaposition can really change the feel of a song.

Special thanks to CrystalSister whose picture I used for the mixtape artwork.

Just like last time, you can right click/save as the zip file below which includes the mix split into individual tracks as well as front and back covers. Or, you can download the full mix from the soundcloud player below (this is what I recommend as you are sure not to encounter any split second gaps between tracks which really hurt the flow) and you can save the front and back artwork from this post. Either way, I really hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and please please PLEASE let me know what you think. I apologize for naming every mixtape “summer” something, but it’s what I love, and what the music sounds like for me. Check out the track list below.

Summer Drive mixtape (individual files)

Or listen and download one continuous file from the Soundcloud player below (what I recommend) by clicking on the down arrow on the right side of the player.

dailybeatz.com presents: Summer Drive by dailybeatz

Here’s a sample track from the mix that’s become one of my favorites the last few days. It’s the beautiful, flowing “We Ah Wi” by Javelin, which sounds like a breezy summer afternoon.

Javelin – We Ah Wi

buy it on We or amazon

Read the rest of this entry »

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05/26/2010

Imogen Heap @ The Fillmore 5.22.10

Last Saturday night, a night in which there were shows in every which direction, I decided on going to see Imogen Heap thanks to being the lucky recipient of a few tickets. After much fretting over a partner in crime, Shaunna decided to make the drive from Ann Arbor to join me. We got there just as the first opening act Geese was finishing up, so I’m not really sure what they sounded like, but I do know there were violins and drums, so that’s a great start. As soon as they left the stage, Imogen came out to introduce the second opener Ben Christophers who, along with Geese, would end up making up the majority of Heap’s supporting band for her set.

The stage looked a lot like how I remembered it from her Coachella set. Piano and instruments to the left, large tree in the center of the stage. Only this time there were more instruments on the right. A few notable songs were played during the setbreak, namely Fever Ray’s “When I Grow Up” (which brought back fond memories, since just about a month earlier, Heap performed just before Fever Ray to close out my first day of Coachella ever) and Apparat’s “Over and Over Again” (the song that I knew that I knew, but I couldn’t identify until hours later. Isn’t it so satisfying when that happens and you actually later figure out what the song is?

Now let’s talk about her performance. A lot of times you will go to a show and the band will play through all their songs, maybe say something like, “We’re so happy to be here in [insert city name here]” and that’s about it. Well, Imogen Heap is not one of those acts. She lets you know everything that’s going on and everything she’s about to do, and she makes sure the audience is an active participant in the show. First off, she held a poll prior to the tour, and 12 of the songs she plays each night are those that the fans voted on. As she put it, that night’s set list was crafted especially for Detroit by Detroit. During “Just For Now”, she divided the audience into thirds and used us as her backup singers rather than using a voice repeater as she says she did in the past. She told stories, like when she had a male friend over for a lunch date, a man who didn’t eat any meat or dairy products, but ended up eating a biscuit anyway. When she asked why he ate the biscuit, which definitely had butter in it, he said, “It’s just a biscuit” to which she replied, “Then why didn’t you just eat the fucking meat!?” And perhaps most surprisingly, we learned about halfway through the show that she was going to improvise a song every night completely at the whim of the audience. We picked the tempo (I think it was 123 BPM), the time signature (3/4. She apologized that we wanted 6/8 but she didn’t have a 6/8 beat preloaded. The exact honesty and humor that makes her such a presence) and the key (G# minor. She started in G# major and about 30 seconds in realized her mistake, swore and started again, to the amusement of the crowd). And then she announced that the improvised songs would be available to download and all proceeds would go to charity, in our case Urban Farming, a great local cause that I think has been picking up lots of steam lately.

But what’s more than her charisma on stage is her impressive performance, often playing piano, keytar, drums and programming beats and loops all within one song. The last time I saw her she was solo, but even with a full band, her multi-tasking skills did not change. And with her headset microphone, she often stands singing front and center, hands free and nothing getting in the way. The set was pretty stellar too, as you will see in some of the pictures below, with the large illuminated tree as the centerpiece and an impressive floor to ceiling backdrop that was constantly changing. Perhaps my favorite part of her performance was the final song, in which she announced that she doesn’t do encores and just includes them as part of her show. Why don’t more artists do that? It sort of defeats the purpose of an encore if it happens every single night, doesn’t it?

Anyway, I sort of knew what to expect after Coachella, but I was very pleased with her performance, not to mention her ability to multi-task with the best of them. Special thanks to Nick Zalewski for letting us use his pictures (I clearly need a more powerful point and shoot for situations such as this). You can check out his Flickr page here.

Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek (Mt Eden Dubstep Remix)

Imogen Heap – The Song That Never Was (The Zodiac Social Version)

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05/20/2010

[first listen]Ellen Allien – Dust

I was sent the upcoming Ellen Allien album Dust recently and was pretty excited about it. I had never really listened to her albums, but I knew she was a kick-ass DJ and that she’d done an album with Apparat, maybe one of my first true electronic loves, so I knew I had to give this one a listen. And then I found out that she’s playing 3 shows in the states next month, one of which is in my very own Detroit! What are the chances? And then I found out that she runs the BPitch Control record label and is a fashion designer as well. Is there anything she can’t do? Here are my thoughts on Dust, released earlier this week, based on my first listen.

1. Our Utopie: Starts out with birds chirping, a nice steady beat and a Halloween-esque riff. Lots of really subtle background noise. About a minute and a half in before a new element is added into the mix. Vocals are spoken over the music. Now it kind of sounds like we’re at the beach, but at night.

2. Flashy Flashy: Starts out a bit more up tempo than the first track. A little riff that seems to go up the chromatic scale with each new phrase. Distorted vocals that alternate from a little girl to a demon. “Flashy flashy flashy flashy disco lights.” Now it’s sounding like the girl and the demon are at the club dancing together. I can buy into this. Nice addition at about 2:55.

3. My Tree: Great contrast between the heavy and the light in the intro. Vocals sound like Fever Ray if she had a more high pitched voice. It’s sort of minimalist overall, but there are tons of tiny pieces that come in and out. Two things are becoming clear: 1. This is not your typical album. 2. This album is probably best enjoyed with headphones. Oh, really really awesome change! Some clarinets just came in and totally brightened up this dark song.

4. Sun The Rain: Starts out with a guitar riff before the beat comes in. So far this sounds the most like a conventional song compared to the others. Vocals about life feeling so easy. Ok, this tune is really pretty now. Layers building upon layers. Great harmonies going on with all the guitar in the background. The title is perfect for this song. It really sounds like the sun coming out after the rain. I now have a big ole smile on my face.

5. Should We Go Home: Starting out much more abstract than the last one. Almost 2 minutes in before we get a real sense of what’s going on. It’s a sort of wave of sounds right now. I’m growing the tiniest bit impatient waiting for something else to happen. Much more of a conceptual song, but didn’t do a whole lot for me.

6. Ever: Ok good, a solid beat is what I needed. Totally cool electronic goodness comes in at about 1:10. Really fast notes running through that I can’t really tell if they are major or minor. Reminds me a bit of Pantha du Prince. So far I’m liking this 6+ minute song much more than the last. All sorts of cool effects running through the main melodies now. This is a total minimalist electronic jam.

7. You: Starts out with bass and guitar. Another more conventional sounding tune. Definitely the most straightforward track thus far. But it still fits in perfectly with the tone of the rest of the album, and there are still cool electronic elements sprinkled in here and there, but they are not overpowering. That sort of rock song was totally unexpected and I liked it.

8. Dream: Total headphone track. You can hear the beat going back and forth from the left and right channels, and there’s this ascending melody that almost sounds like it’s circling your head.

9. Huibuh: I like the bongos in this one. One of the seemingly heavier beats on the album even though the overall sound is really laid back. Really nice synth just came in, and everything is working in great harmony. Vocals sound as though they’re being sung through a fan or something. I don’t know how to describe it other than sort of a lazy, cloudy day on an island. But a good one.

10. Schlumi: The beat really builds up in the beginning. I’m not really sure what to say about this one. Definitely sounds the most like outer space at times, but a fitting end to the album.

Overall thoughts? A pretty cool album that must be experienced through headphones, or else you will miss so many of the details that Allien has meticulously placed into these songs. There was a good mix of abstract electronic tunes and more straight forward songs, as well as a good mix of styles. It works really well as an album, but there are definitely a few songs that could be great as standalone songs too. I know this album is somewhat laid back, but I’m sure she brings the fire live, so I sort of can’t wait to see her on May 28.

Here’s a little sample, one of my favorite tracks “Sun The Rain”, which is being offered as a free download over at XLR8R. And don’t you worry, because I will be bringing you pics from one of her only 3 US stops next Friday in Detroit, the (perhaps self-proclaimed?) home of electronic music. It will be the perfect start to Movement weekend.

Ellen Allien – Sun The Rain

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11/20/2009

ok ikumi – shining path pt.2

ok ikumi

gonna keep this one short and sweet. check this one out. the artist is ok ikumi, which is actually karl jorgensen from salt lake city, ut. and the track is “shining path pt. 2″ but im not really sure if there is a part 1 and where it can be located, but i know that there is a part 3 on his myspace page. thats pretty much all i can find out about him. this track is a great example of the shiny and happy wing of the electronic music castle. it doesnt have to be all scary kick bass madness all the time (even though i happen to like that wing as well). this characterizes a lot of the music of ok ikumi, so if you like this one, definitely check out his other works. at times, im reminded of both apparat and milosh, and that is a good thing.

ok ikumi – shining path pt. 2

2 comments

05/25/2009

apparat – fractales

apparat

i just returned home from day 2 of the movement festival in downtown detroit. it was pretty enjoyable for the most part. we caught a few minutes of dennis ferrer, then caught all of rjd2′s set, and headed back to the main stage to catch loco dice vs. luciano, which was a little too housy for my tastes, although im not quite clear on the exact definitions of house, trance, techno, dance, etc. but what i mean is i like it better when djs mix songs with words rather than just the same beat over and over. anyway, the point is, i wanted todays song to be sorta electronic. im obviously more into indie rock electronic than dance/techno electronic, but i can definitely appreciate both (and in fact may go back tomorrow to see benny benassi, who i know will be mixing it up the way i like it. i need to get one of those beat pad things that all the djs use, mostly because i have no idea how they work and im intrigued by them. and when i become a famous musician, there will definitely be electronic aspects to my game, so i need to learn how that shizz works fast.

the other crazy electronic music making gadget i want is the reactable, aka the coolest thing ever. i first saw this device at the bjork show i went to fall 2007 (was it really that long ago?) and had no idea what it was. after some research, i found out that you cant even buy these things, and that she was pretty much the only person who was able to acquire one for non-exhibition use. its basically an interactive screen that reacts to certain markers that you place on it. depending on what pattern is on the blocks, how far from center they are, how theyre turned, etc, you can control the beat, pitch, volume, etc. and on top of all that, it looks like it comes from the future — always a plus.

anyway, todays jam is a 2 for 1, mainly because the song has two parts. its by apparat and was my instant favorite when i first heard his latest album “walls”. other favorites from the disc include arcadia and headup. part one is the up-tempo mover and shaker, while part two is the calm after the storm, if you will, nicely complimenting the rigor and speed of part one. i think i liked this song (and album) so much the first time i heard it because of my aforementioned secret dream of putting together a bunch of electronic rock on my own. i know how hard of a time i have trying to write music mainly because im not in a band, and all of my influences have big full sounds that i cant get on my own with one guitar, so everything i come up with inherently sounds boring and not awesome. but electronic is the one place where you can do it all on your own and still get as big of a sound as you want. kind of blows my mind how some of my favorite songs were probably made by some guy on his laptop, and how that could be me. “we could be that mistake!!” enjoy.

apparat – fractales pt I

apparat – fractales pt II

Apparat - Walls - Fractales, Pt. I buy part I on itunes
Apparat - Walls - Fractales, Pt. II buy part II on itunes
buy part I on amazon
buy part II on amazon

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