Polkadot - Close To Me

Get to know Polkadot.

Been listening to his tracks constantly for most of this week and have been extremely impressed with the material on the forthcoming 'Don't Pigeonhole Anything' EP, which will be released as a free download on the 6th April by 97Sides.

Above is the radio rip taken from Corporal F's Rood.FM show of 'Close To Me', one of the stand out cuts from the 4-track collection.

His production push all my buttons. Well structured and put together, great builds, warm rounded basses and completely zoned out vibes.

Addicted to this EP at the moment.

Below I've embedded a couple of Polkadot tracks, which is also up for a free download, which I've been hammering all week as well after finding it on his SoundCloud.

soundcloud.com/polkadotuk

Wiley - Skankin [The 2 Bears Remix]

The sounds of The 2 Bears take on Wiley's brilliant 'I'm Skankin', from his latest Big Dada released album 'Evolve or Be Extinct'.

This remix sounds wicked, perfect soundtrack to the weekend and all the lovely weather happening right now.

Thought this sounded like a bootleg, but it's an official release that I found when scouting the iTunes store for any purchase links. Pairing The 2 Bears with Wiley seems like a excellent combination.

Pre-order: Wiley - Evolve or Be Extinct B/W Skanking [The 2 Bears Remix]

Download: Wiley - I'm Skankin

Download: Wiley - Evolve or Be Extinct

Grimes - Genesis [Great Skies Rework]

I've been listening to the newly released Grimes album 'Visions' over the last week and 'Genesis' has to be my favourite track from the album.

Great Skies reworks 'Genesis' and put his own stamp all over the track, taking away the thumping drum pattern that dominates the original to embrace the eerie chant like vocal.

soundcloud.com/greatskies

Download: Grimes - Genesis

Download: Grimes - Visions

SoundCloud Selections #3

Another round-up of my favourite tracks to crop up over on SoundCloud and a bit of an opinion on why I like them so much. I'm getting better at keeping up with this now. Feel free to send over any track you have on SoundCloud, you can find the DPM dropbox over on SoundCloud.

Click the play button in the bottom right corner to listen to the tracks in a nice little playlist.



This one has been rinsing my soundcloud activity for the past few weeks. Great lead sample that goes round and round developing into a fantastic build, which grows with elements and samples catching on as it reaches a climax. Really nicely put together. Great stuff.



Been listening to more and more of Kid Smpl, I find his productions so fascinating and beautifully structured. Love the way that this pushes back and forth, pausing... waiting to kick back into place. Added with layers of reverberating vocal cuts, samples of crashing waves, melodic leading synths and little clunks of sound triggering off in the embedded sound-scape.



Absolute banger of a track, that has an impeccable build that snaps in gear when the base pushing through. The vocal sample makes this track a heavyweight.



It's the well executed sample and delayed synths leading the track that I most love about this. Delicate sounds made into a strong beat.



Majora goes in dark with this one. Bringing out the funky drum rhythms from the off, then letting off dub-styled baselines, all with a grime edgey. Complete hybrid of flavours going on.

Context - Drowning [Video]

Right, I've been really poor with posts so far this month.

Time to change that with the excellent video to the equally excellent single 'Drowning' from Context, produced by Great Skies.

Hard to believe this is a video from an unsigned artist.

I'm extremely excited to hear the remixes for Drowning, coming from two artists that I've been listening to a lot Kid Smpl and Dark0, who has previously collaborated with Context on 'Killing Me'. Both are talented producers and I'm intrigued to see what they come up with.

Pre-order: Context - Drowning

Context has also announced a live show in London at The Enterprise. More info can be found over on his website contextmc.co.uk.

J Cole - Nobody's Perfect feat. Missy Elliott [Video]

Without a doubt, this was my favourite cut from J Cole's album from last year. Had this one in my playlists for a long time.

The smoothest of hip hop beats, Missy on the vocal and some J Cole quotables. Great.

Download: J Cole - Nobody's Perfect feat. Missy Elliott

Download: J Cole - Cole World: The Sideline Story

Swindle - Do The Jazz

Swindle can do no wrong. No words, just listen to the funk.

Release date and label to be announced.

soundcloud.com/swindleuk

DPM Interview: B.Traits + Fever [Video]

I was kindly invited to send over some questions to the multi-talented B.Traits, in anticipation for her forthcoming single 'Fever'. Since then B.Traits has been announced as one of four new DJs to take over on Radio 1's 'In New DJs We Trust' slot, along with Mosca and Julio Bashmore.

Through the Q&A session, B.Traits discussed how Elizabeth Troy came to feature on Fever, working with Shy FX, differences between Canadian and UK crowds, plus we ask her to recommend us some music.

Firstly, get to know B.Traits' single 'Fever'...

"The first lady of Digital Soundboy, B.Traits, teams up with legendary vocalist Elisabeth Troy for ‘Fever’, her debut single release, out 25th March on Digital Soundboy Recordings.

Her debut single ‘Fever’ makes no apologies for what it is, a sure fire party starter that tips its snapback cap to those classic rave and garage anthems of the past whilst still sounding utterly fresh for 2012."


Pre-Order: B.Traits - Fever feat. Elisabeth Troy

*Click the play button at the bottom right to listen to all the embedded tracks whilst you read.


DPM: I'm in love with your new single 'Fever', which features Elizabeth Troy on the vocal. Was the track specifically intended for her?

B.Traits: Thanks! Not really to be perfectly honest. It had been a instrumental for quite some time. It took ages to find the perfect vocal for it.

Elisabeth had been on my list of vocalists to work with. My label boss Shy has known Elisabeth since way back and was able to schedule a session for me. After that session I knew I had found the perfect vocal and that's when it became Fever!

It's being released by Shy FX's Digital Soundboy label. How exactly did that link up happen?

I met Shy when we were both playing at a NYE gig in Germany back in 2006/07. Later that year we were both a part of the World of Drum & Bass tour and spent many long hours on the tour bus listening to beats and talking about production. Once I returned home, I ended up sending him a few demos over AIM. We continued to speak regularly about music, our passion for different genres, good dance music in general and we discussed where I wanted to go as an artist and my plans for the future. And a few weeks later he asked me to join DSB.

Shy is a pretty rad boss. He makes time for every artist on the label, especially in the development process. He’s a great mentor, he’s literally been through everything in this music industry and has such a clear vision for what Digital Soundboy is as a label.





You’re an established DJ and a lot was made of the DJ Mag top 100 not having a single female included. What are your thought regarding that and is that something that you'd maybe like to crack?

To be honest, I’ve never discovered a DJ (male or female) via any DJ list, so to me it doesn’t really hold too much status. I do think it’s rather silly that women were completely overlooked for the top 100 and it makes me wonder who is behind these lists.

The important thing is to concentrate on your music and working hard and if you get recognition from these so-called lists then great, but I won’t be fixating on them!

You were part of the Digital Soundboy pod at the London Eye for the Red Bull Revolutions event last year. That must have been a pretty surreal experience?

The Red Bull x London Eye event was so insane! So rad to be a part of that moment in history. Who knows if they will ever be able to do something like that again. It was such a memorable experience.

Nearly everyone in UK dance music was there! One place, one hub for the world to watch/listen. It was a once in a life time opportunity for all of us!

I'm sure that you were able to take plenty of pictures, right?

Yep! We brought our lovely photographer Sarah Ginn with us.

If you’d like to check out the photos go to the Digital Soundboy Facebook page.

With all that being said, would the London Eye be the most unique place that you've ever played?

Yes. definitely.

I've seen plenty of pictures, predominately from your Instagram account, of you playing in multiple countries, let alone clubs. Where have you not played that you'd love to?

Oh man, there are soo many places I have yet to travel to.

My list is: (in to specific order...)
Australia,
New Zealand,
Berlin,
Japan,
New York,
South Africa,
Jamaica,
and on and on...

Of the ones that you have played in, which do you really look forward to playing at?

I’ll be doing my Asia tour again this year and I always look forward to that circuit. I'm also represented by William Morris Agency now, so I’m very interested in seeing all of the cool places I'll get to travel to in the coming months.





Your initially from Canada. Has that meant you've had to relocate to the UK?

I didn't have to relocate to England, but music is my career now and since I'm a member of Digital Soundboy, I really want to work and grow with the team, as a team. I miss Canada at times, but I absolutely LOVE London.

Are there many differences in the crowds between the two countries?

Huge differences! In general, you could say dance music isn’t as big in Canada as it is here in the UK. Canada is more into pop and hip hop. The UK has a substantial lead in the practice of electronic music so it's no surprise, although there are parts of Canada such as Toronto that really has made a name for itself.

I’ve played some amazing shows in Canada, but the reactions in the UK are unreal. The punters here are up for anything! And they are often very educated in underground bass music. They crave to hear new music and they want to experience new sounds, rather than just hear bangers and anthems all night.

If you were able to take one thing from Canada & bring it here, what would it be? and vice versa?

From Canada, I would bring the food... especially the sushi. From the UK, I would like to bring the entire music scene to Canada!!





I've got three little quick questions for you... What's currently playing on your iPod?

Dismantle’s new track “More Funk”.

What album are you most looking forward to this year?

Shy’s got a few projects I’m quite looking forward to... but I’m being biased.

Speaking of biased... Zed Bias’s album is looking very interesting also.

Can you recommend an artist for me to check out?

There is a girl named Grimes, she’s also from Canada. Really cool voice and a very psychedelic style of music. I’d actually like to get in the studio with her one day!

Finally, what does the rest of 2012 have in store for B.Traits?

Lots of new music! I’ve been locked in the studio for the past year writing loads of material. I’m excited for everyone to hear! I don’t like to give away too much though! I like to surprise people as well as myself.

I also plan to do many more gigs this year and to travel to more amazing places. I live for performing and networking with like-minded/creative people.


'Fever' is released March 25th.

Pre-Order: B.Traits - Fever feat. Elisabeth Troy

btraits.com
facebook.com/BTraits
http://twitter.com/BTraits
soundcloud.com/btraits

Cam'ron - F*** You

Cam'ron's back!

This makes for exciting listening and has been a long time coming. Well, in my book anyway. Cam comes through with a throwback to the glory days of when him and The Diplomats made bangers for fun with the Heatmakerz.

These guys used to be one of my favourites, I was completely obsessed with the flows/lyrical abilities and the production styles. The double-disc 'Diplomatic Immunity' is still one of my most loved hip hop albums of all time.

The formula consists of a boom bap kick/snare combo (optional rapid fire hats), cut up sample and sped up vocals. Doesn't get any better than that.

See more examples below...

Scrufizzer - Steam [Video]

Jeeeez!

This follows on from his last offering 'Fizzy Flow', which also did well at showcasing Scrufizzer's exceptional lyrical delivery, although this is a more accomplished track than 'Fizzy Flow' with stronger hook lines. I'm really feeling the tight production on this one too.

Honestly can't get enough of this guy's flow, he completely eats up the beat laid down by frequent collaborator Funkystepz.

Have no idea when this ones released, stay locked to Scrufizzer's twitter for further announcements.

SoundCloud Selections #2

Some more SoundCloud talent for your ears. I'm still catching up with a few tunes, so these would have been about for a little while.



Beautiful little tune here from the incredible talented Submerse, who seems to create more original output with every single upload. Layers filled with cracks, pops, bass, soothing high vocals and pads that make for incredibly rich listening.



Magical house vibes from Admin, which took me away straight from the off. The beat makes you feel trippy, with fantastic little sequenced synths and piano chords. Love the part close to the end when the kicks turns into 4x4, the track does brilliantly to build up to that.



This one I discovered through the Life Crushed Blog. Love the pace of this track, it seems it introduce a high pitched sample and run with it.



Didn't realise how much I liked this one till after I'd come back to listen to it a few times. Consistent build up with funky 4x4 drum patterns and a little vocal sample which is decently executed, dipping the pace down before shooting it back up. Great vibe throughout.



I'll finish with an artist who has come onto my radar in the last few weeks and I've been streaming his material on SoundCloud ever since. This is a track rich in sound and I fell in love with all the melodic synths flavours that are used throughout. An accomplished piece of top notch electronica.

Teeza - The Setup EP [Out Now]

Today saw an extremely solid instrumental grime release from producer Teeza, released by DJ Cable's Triangulum Records. Teezla has put in the work releasing a steady stream of grimey beats and this is an essential release for any fans of the genre.

Highlights include the bounce along 'B4 The Storm' and 'Azkaban', which has a dramatic build up that then drops taking on a 'Woooo' type feel rhythm.

Have to say, I'm really feeling the artwork on this one also.

Teeza's 'The Setup' EP is out now in all digital stores released by Triangulum Records.

Download: Teeza - The Setup EP

BareSkin - That Girl

Another fine tune put together by the talented BareSkin. Meant to have posted this when it was uploaded almost a week ago.

Fantastic build ups and a excellently utilised vocal sample. Enjoying this one immensely.

soundcloud.com/joshthompson

Falcon Lake - Drown EP [Stream / Download]

"Falcon Lake is 21 year-old Leon Piers of Bristol, UK and he’s quietly been making a name for himself over the past year. The new EP drifts gorgeously between downcast slumber and upbeat, popping excitement."



Been tracking Falcon Lake for a little while now through SoundCloud, after picking up on a few of his tracks.

This lead me to his newly released 'Drown EP'. Some of the sounds that are displayed remind me slightly of what I've heard from M83 and you can hear plenty of retro electronic influences throughout. Falcon Lake does an impeccable job of absorbing emotive tones into his music and it's impressively put together.

The best is served till last with the outstanding 'Back to the Sea', which builds and builds towards a climax of reverberating vocal cuts and dazzling synth melodies.

Released as a free download by Bad Panda Records.

Download: Falcon Lake - Drown EP

facebook.com/falconlakeuk
twitter.com/leonpiers