Category: Blog

Doot Dedoot – “Syncromesh”

It’s an exciting time in the Saint John electronic music scene because Doot Dedoot has finally released his debut album, “Syncromesh.” It sounds awesome and if you love ’80s-style synth jams it was definitely worth the wait.
Doot Dedoot is also known as Jack Lepper. He won DJ Of The Year at the last Party Sauce Awards under his vinyl-slinging persona, DJ Jack Buster.

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
Well, I love hardware synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines. With the doot/dedoot project, I set about getting as much out of my hardware as I could. It’s probably not surprising that using those machines lead to music that harks back to my youth as my music has a definite 80s vibe to it. Lots of lush chords, sparkly arpegiators, and slightly mechanical drums.

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
Lots of different stuff. Synths on this album include classics like the Oberhiem Matrix 6 and Yamaha DX7, 90s syths like the Roland JP8000 and MicroKorg, and modern stuff like the Waldorf Blofeld and the Korg Volca Bassline & FM. Drums come from the Alesis HR-16B, Yamaha RX-5, and Akai XR-10. Finally, everything was sequenced through an Alesis MMT8 and tracked using an ancient copy of Cubase SX3.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
“Syncromesh” became a concept album about driving. It occurred to me that nobody really writes driving songs anymore, so I set out to write songs for, and about, the car. Hopefully, I’ve captured the sorts of experiences we all have when we’re behind the wheel of our favourite automobile.

Contact Doot Dedoot:
facebook.com/dootdedooty/
https://soundcloud.com/doot-dedoot
https://www.orfium.com/profile/doot.dedoot/
https://dootdedoot.bandcamp.com

Jaguar Knight – “Runnin’ Down A Dream” (Tom Petty cover)

With all the other shit going on in the world, Tom Petty died. That sucks. I was just reading his life story last week. He wrote good songs.

I stayed up late and recorded this drum & bass cover of “Runnin’ Down A Dream.” Hope you like it. Hang in there everybody xoxo

1995 Zellers – “After Hours”

Straight off The Red Grill, Saint John’s 1995 Zellers has a fresh album of saturated party jams to lead you into the hazy nights of summer.

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
Think of an abandoned mall in a Blade Runner setting.. That’s what 1995 zellers is. Really though it’s just dumb vintage house music at the core.

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
My music is mostly sample based, so I like to sample vintage funk records by connecting my turntable to a soundcard with an RCA adapter, recording whatever the song I’m sampling is in audacity, and then once I get the WAV file I start work on the actual track in FL Studio, which usually starts with a 4/4 kick drum and Slicex to chop up the actual sample. I usually sidechain the kick to the sample and put reverb on the actual sample in addition to a few other effects, the most difficult part of working with samples is actually cutting it up and making it sound like a coherent song. Honestly the most important part of this project is just about the vibe, the simplicity of the material works in its favour.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
I just want people to dance

 

https://1995zellers.bandcamp.com/

 

Whaleskin – “U Freak Me”

Summer is just around the corner and this is the best time for a new Whaleskin release! I can’t wait to enjoy this music on a beach somewhere on a boombox in the sun hanging out with some of my best friends. ?

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
1) beachy 2) lush 3) fun

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
the holy trinity for this record was definitely the Roland tr-8 drum machine , minimoog voyager , and Roland Jx-3P. Other drum sounds and vocal samples mostly came from old boogie and pop records. I typically perform all of the parts live through a rotating lineup of rack fx modules and an old Yamaha mixing desk. finally everything is tracked into logic 9 where I mix / master.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
I think this record lends itself to a nice long drive maybe at dusk to a party or the beach. Basically I want people to feel like they’re about to have a really great time ha.

https://whaleskin.bandcamp.com/

FWLR & Twistex – “Without Borders”

Saint John’s FWLR has a new album out! He collaborated with Twistex from Norway on the aptly-named “Without Borders.” FWLR won the Party Sauce award for “Producer Of The Year” so we all anticipated this album would be a monster of headbanging proportions.

FWLR’s studio is in the middle of the forest in Eastern Canada. Twistex’s studio is in the middle of the forest in Norway. In May of 2016, through two very shoddy internet connections the producers connected on Facebook. At first they were just sharing synth patches and chatting about production techniques, but soon they became good friends. In December one of the songs they had written over Skype called ‘Breakout’ was landed in a Maybelline commercial providing them with more than enough money to purchase a plane ticket. A couple months later, after a very sketchy trip, Twistex was in Canada. Finally their workflow wouldn’t be slowed down by the near-dial-up internet speeds. Nine days later, ‘Without Borders’ was created. This 10 song album is full of energetic tracks with refreshingly unique sound design. Drawing heavily from their love of experimentation, the two created a complex blend of their two styles. Twistex brought to the table his love of all things bass, while FWLR provided melodies and surgical production. The album is available for free on Bandcamp, and for purchase on all major digital distributors.

Here’s a quick Q&A with Mr. Nick FWLR~~!

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
I have a pretty overactive mind and I think you can hear that in any project I put my hands on. Andre (Twistex) is very similar. We both love complicated music that takes a few listens to wrap your head around. We definitely wouldn’t consider this album “easy listening”, but we think that its worth it since each time you listen you’ll probably notice some little detail you hadn’t before. As far as style goes we are both metal heads that love making electronic music, so expect lots of heavy riffs and distorted synths.

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
Andre and I both write pretty much exclusively in FL Studio. Andre has been using FL for way longer than me so it was amazing working with him, although he had to get used to my ultra-organized project arrangement. After a couple days, we could seamlessly hop in and out of the driver’s seat in my studio as we seemed to work as one collective mind. As far as plug-ins go we used a lot of FM8, Harmor, 3xOsc and Serum for synths. We would spend hours making complex patches in FM8 and render out seemingly random riffs, then take those riffs and load them into Harmor and create something completely different. We also used my Novation Bass station 2 for some bass sounds, as well as a couple other synths like the Microbrute and an old Yamaha PSS-something-or-rather.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
We had an aggressive state of mind while creating this album. Andre and I love rocking out and headbanging. The amount that we headbanged while creating each song was kind of a barometer for how it was progressing. This album definitely is best listened to loud on a good set of speakers while you’re in the mood to punch something. Though we love the heavy and aggressive sounds I’m sure you’ll notice quite a bit of melody and emotion sewn in which gives it a good balance between punching someone and hugging someone.


LINKY LINKS
FWLR
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/FWLRmusic
Facebook: http://facebook.com/FWLRmusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/FWLRmusic
YouTube: http://youtube.com/FWLRmusic
Instagram: http://Instagram.com/FWLRmusic
Snapchat: FWLRmusic

Twistex
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/Twistex
Bandcamp: http://twistex.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: http://facebook.com/TwistexOfficial
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TwistexOfficial
Snapchat: Dr.Twistex

Pick A Piper – “Distance”

I heard “Geographically Opposed” by Pick A Piper and I was hooked right away. A gorgeous, haunting track with a video to match:

Pick A Piper was kind enough to answer a few questions about the latest album, “Distance.”

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
Music is always hard to describe, especially when it’s your own. I would say that we make electronic music with a lot of natural sounds. Sometimes these are acoustic sounds processed to sound more electronic, or vice versa. Often we simply mix acoustic and electronic sounds together with the hope of creating parts that don’t distinctly sound like a synth or an instrument. There is an emphasis on rhythm as well. When in the studio, this rhythmic edge comes from a lot of different drum and melodic sounds. Live we emphasize it by having 3 of us playing drums! Not at all times, but we use drums to help build tension and energy over the course of our live show.

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
The album was made in Ableton live using a ton of soft synths, such as Monark, TAL U-NO-LX, TAL BassLine-101, many acoustic VST sampled instruments (either ones I made myself by sampling individual notes of things or ones that I found online) and hardware synths too, mainly the Prophet 6 and the Minimoog Voyager. Drum wise I don’t have any hardware drum machines. I have a ton of drum samples I’ve collected over the years that I used to make most of the beats on the record. Some of those I’d even snip from a track if I heard a snare or something I liked, etc (if there was an isolated moment to do so, like a drum intro of a song). There are a couple loops I performed on a drum kit that I used, but for the most part beats were put together sample by sample.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
I hope to evoke a sense of reflectiveness for the listener. I make music from a positive standpoint and hope it comes across positivity to those who hear it. However I also recognize that people need music during dark times and I’m happy if my music can help someone through a dark time, even if it means staying in the darkness a while longer to sort things out. Mainly, I feel like our music is up to the interpretation of the listener and I’m happy to evoke any feelings that they personally want to gain from it.

photo: Kendall Fraser

https://www.facebook.com/pickapiper
https://soundcloud.com/pickapiper

Russell Louder – “Think of Light”

Russell Louder is an electronic musician from Charlottetown, PEI. Their latest release is entitled “Think of Light.” The music features catchy synth layers topped off with an excellent singing voice that should be famous. Have a listen!

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
I would descibe my latest EP as dark – sometimes bouncy – feelings-pop. I have an experimental project as well – which is this sort of brutal, ambient cornucopia of distorted voice and found percussion, so my general ‘sound’ tends to vary.

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
For Think of Light, I did a combo of both found and software-generated percussion. When I’m recording at home, I use Logic Pro X. Recording set-up is super simple: Computer, M-audio interface, Novation Launchpad, and a mic. The common thread of ‘technique’ that ties my experimental music with my pop project is the way I shape individual sounds. it’s a very painstaking and brain-draining process – I call it the logic-hole. I’ll have anywhere between 20 and 50 tracks for one session (sometimes I have to sort out the musical sections and develop them in separate files from each other). That’s probably where I spent most of my energy – just combing through really dense landscapes of sound i’ve laid out, to shape it and make it listener-friendly.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
I don’t know if I really had set an intention of what I wanted someone to feel while listening to Think of Light. I think I’m just naturally drawn to dark, warm sounds – but then I’m also obsessed with the sonic colours of the cheesiest, bounciest stuff – like old italo disco and early electronic music. So that was the auditory information (for lack of a better term) I was working with. I think as the EP developed and the melancholic nature of the sound became more evident (particularly the first 3 tracks), I guess on a subconscious level I really wanted to create something to counter that, and that’s where the last track, ‘In the Morning’ came along – which initially happened in like 15 minutes.

https://russelllouder.bandcamp.com/
http://facebook.com/russelllouder
http://soundcloud.com/russelllouder

Wangled Teb – “Water EP”

Wangled Teb from Fredericton combines breakcore and ambient influences in a way that is unique and very cool. Their latest EP is called “Water” and is the first in a series of EPs based upon the classical elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.

How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard you before?
Probably not very well. I’d be really anxious about coming off as pretentious or overly technical. I think I’d most likely just say something like “Yeah I do electronic/ambient/breakcore type stuff… What’s breakcore, you ask? It’s like drum and bass except not boring.” My music is pretty varied, I think, though it all tends to be based primarily around drum loops chopped into complex, fast patterns, and analog (or analog modeled) synthesizers. For my most recent EP I also integrated some ambient noises that I just downloaded from freesound.org, but I’d like to get a portable recorder and start recording my own samples to use in my future work. I do some chiptune-style stuff occasionally too, as well as the occasional ambient spaced-out improvized thing.

I’d say it’s like fast-paced electronic music but designed more for headphones than the dance floor. I haven’t played live much (actually, only two Wangled Teb sets which are both on Youtube if you wanna check them out) but I tend to approach it completely differently than my normal production, since, well, it’s being performed live, on speakers, in a venue where a lot of detail will probably be lost and most people probably won’t be listening overly closely anyway. I like the idea of writing a completely new set for each show but the flipside to that is it takes a long time to prepare. Also, I get really bad performance anxiety, though apparently that’s supposed to go away if you do it enough. Maybe. Hopefully.

What gear/software/techniques did you use in making this recording?
For my new EP I think the only outboard/hardware synth I used was the Korg Minilogue, which is an absolutely gorgeous 4-voice analog synth that just came out a year or two ago. I use it in almost everything I do now. I used some ambient sounds as I mentioned earlier. For software synths I think I just used the Korg Legacy Series (which is amazing by the way) and Arturia’s Moog Modular V, which is really cool and flexible even though it does some weird things with clicks and pops and voice-stealing that I’m not huge on… It always seems like the more a plugin tries to do, the more issues it has. Which makes sense, I guess, but I generally prefer synths that do a smaller number of things very well, because I like that reliability, I guess?

So anyway, yeah, I use FL Studio’s Direct Wave plugin for drums. When I find a drum loop I like, I’ll open it up in Reaper and chop it up into individual hits and then import those into Direct Wave so I can easily play them using a keyboard or piano roll. It sounds tedious and it is, but it’s worth it once it’s done because then it’s a resource you can use basically forever (or until you get a new computer and it messes up your sample locations or you lose some stuff). I probably use the amen break more than anything, which if you don’t know what that is, it’s probably the most well-known and oft-used drum break in history. It’s a clip from the break of a song called Amen Brother by the Winstons. I also use Funky Drummer by James Brown and Good Old Music by Funkadelic a lot. Then it’s just a matter of entering the notes in. I like to use a mouse and keyboard to enter the notes and then do some of the modulation by hand and some of it live. It really depends. I feel like I’ve gotten pretty good at creating drum tracks that propel the music forward and maintain the focus while leaving room for the melody and other parts… I’ve also been thinking a lot lately, and with this album in particular I tried to accomplish this, about, like, the use of space in music and rests and giving things room to breathe in a way that I don’t hear in a lot of breakcore music, which, don’t get me wrong, I love breakcore, but a lot of it can sound overly frantic and relentless. There needs to be contrast for that to be effective. I also tried to explore the use of different time signatures, which is something that one of my favourite artists, Venetian Snares, does a lot. The last track on the EP, Bon Voyage, has a section in like 17/4 time or some shit. I dunno.

What mood or mental state do you hope to evoke in the listener with this music?
With this album I wanted to create something that could relax people while still being energetic and driving. I wanted something people could listen to after a hard day and close their eyes and feel transported. A lot of the time I think electronic music gets frowned upon as a form of expression but I’ve been doing it long enough that I feel like I express myself through synths and a DAW better than through words… Though I have been thinking a lot about lyrics and I’m planning on taking voice lessons soon. That’s another thing I’d like to do in a future album. I really just, like, I’m always trying to make something that moves people. I don’t believe that music has to be played live or come from a “real instrument” (i.e. not electronic) to be emotional or impactful. A lot of my favourite music, by artists like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Ruby My Dear, Venetian Snares, those are artists that have created music that is very, very dear to me despite not having lyrics or any “real” musicians’ performances. So I’ve been a strong believer in the potential and power of electronic music as a form of art and synthesizers as a legitimate musical instrument for a long time. I feel like I probably didn’t answer this question very well and just kind of rambled, sorry.

Links: wangledteb.bandcamp.com – where you can see my more “professional” work… aka my official albums

www.soundcloud.com/kefkarjp – where I post a lot of odds and ends, random ideas, extended jams, chiptunes, and unfinished, possibly-never-to-be-finished tracks

https://www.facebook.com/LoFi.Goddx/ – where you can follow me on Facebook.