Revolutions Per Minute is back again with the finest in North Carolina’s underground dance music hosted by DJ Triple X. This month, our special guest DJs are Soft and Disfigured Mindz.

8:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Soft is known for several things. Among them: a deft hand with graffiti artwork, the crazy martial arts movies he films with friends, and his impressive skill and selection when he’s dropping a house set. He keeps it funky with an emphasis on the old-skool tip. If he can’t get you moving you might want to check your pulse.

9:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Disfigured Mindz returns with Mike, Jeff, and Casey bringing some fresh dubstep to wreak havoc on the ears of the Triangle. If you missed their set on here from a few months back, well, you missed out. Don’t make the same mistake twice.

This on-air event will take place February 4 starting at 8 p.m. You may also listen via Web streaming at www.wknc.org/listen.

The ExMonkeys

Local electronic duo The ExMonkeys will not be in tonight, January 28, as previously stated. With so many schedules to keep up with, I forgot to check our women’s basketball schedule. We will be broadcasting the game tonight, so The ExMonkeys will have to reschedule, hopefully for sometime next week. Apologies for my goof up. –Chuck

Boys Noize

1. Boys Noize – Power
2. Felix Da Housecat – He Was King
3. U.S.E. - Love World
4. Amanda Blank - I Love You
5. David Guetta – One Love
6. Lusine – A Certain Distance
7. Wallpaper – Doodoo Face
8. Capsula – Sense of a Drop
9. Vinyl Life – Innovation
10. Yppah – They Know What Ghost Knows

Here are the top 10 albums for our Afterhours format from the past week, compiled by Afterhours Music Director Sean McKee:

Felix da House Cat

1. Felix da House Cat – He Was King
2. Tiga – Ciao!
3. Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do
4. Amanda Blank – I Might Like You Better Ep
5. Clark – Totems Flair
6. The Crystal Method – Divided By Night
7. Miss Kitten & The Hacker – Two
8. Kleerup - Kleerup
9. Josh One – Tolerence
10. Data Rock – Red

The music line-up for the Trinumeral Music & Arts Festival has been announced. Headlining is The Glitch Mob, a hip-hop group that incorporates live remixing and electronic music production sometimes labeled “glitch hop.” We mentioned the Glitch Mob in January when Pandora labeled them “post-modern hip-hop.”

Regardless of how they are labeled them you will dance to their beats. Yes you will.

List to the Glitch Mob’s “West Coast Rocks (Remix of Matty G)”

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The analog vs. digital divide is alive and well in music today. Let’s face it Garage Band, Reason, Logic, Final Skratch, the CDJ, and the like have changed the face of music and DJing. But still there’s something unique about the “real” thing–the crisp subtlety of old skool transistors and analog sounds.

Enter Vinyl Life, three guys in NYC making music under the names Richie Roxx, Phaze Future, and Butcha. With their old skool synths, Vinyl Life innovates a sound that’s equal parts (early) techno, (classic) hip-hop, and (nu) disco. Yet the despite the retro feel of the tunes and the band’s media kit—these guys can mine a pop sensibility without the dullness of kitsch, which what 80s inflections usually become. Vinyl Life is a reminder that on the other side of the neon eighties was a time when postpunk, hip-hop, techno, disco, and punkfunk were allied–sharing venues, promoters, and crowds as Andy Warhol’s pop sensibility met Basquiat’s graffiti.

OK, so the band photo is less Gorgio Moroder’s touch of class than party-addled Beastie Boys 1.0 circa Licensed to Ill, but listen to the audio clip. Amid the sonic reference to Kraftwerk and the Zulu Nation and the war against Autotune, an eighties sensibility emerges in more than the music—these guys walk the talk! The clip below is a snippet from their upcoming self-titled artist album. Over at my own blog the Soul Reflector I’ve also posted a 60 minute DJ set from the band called Jack the Hype.

Check out “Good Life” below:

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LA Riots bring West Coast party style to Raleigh, compliments of Deep Cover Movement

LA Riots, a DJ duo who have heated up the West Coast club scene, are bringing the heat back to NC.  Deep Cover Movement is presenting LA Riots this Thursday in Raleigh at Solas (perhaps not the underground, warehouse dance-party location that WKNC Afterhours listeners dream of, but exciting none the less) and then following up with a Friday, Greensboro performance at the Green Street Club (see the Deep Cover myspace for full details).  The boys have been turning up the heat with remixing dance, and not so dance, faves, ranging from such artists as Hot Chip, VHS or Beta, and Crystal Castles to Weezer.  LA Riots have been running full steam into 2009 after touring with MSTRKRFT in 2008 and being signed to Fools Gold Records, co-owned lable of Kayne West’s longtime DJ, A-Trak.

To get ready for the party, you can check out their Vol. 1 of remixes from their myspace here: PARTY TIME

And for their get-stuck-in-your-head-for-so-long-it-drives-you-insane track, check out this:  Kill Bill

To follow LA Riots into Raleigh, follow twitter feed DanielRiots

:hearts and guitar + dance pants:

WKNC has been good to me over the past 4 years.  I had the privilege of sharing some awesome tunes with everyone through the Dance Dance Revolution, and during my term as General Manager over the past academic year we did some awesome things here at WKNC, we even launched this very blog.

Unfortunately as a recent graduate of NC State University society has pressured me into “moving on with my life” which entails me leaving Raleigh and the warm embrace WKNC.  But before I bid you all farewell please join me and listen in as I take control of the studio for 24 straight hours from Tuesday, June 23rd at noon to Wednesday, June 24th at noon. I will be pumping up all of your favorite WKNC jams for a whole day across Daytime, Local Lunch, Underground, and Afterhours formats. No artists will be repeated.

Stay classy, triangle. (Especially you, Durham)

ARTIST: JON HOPKINS
ALBUM: INSIDES

Jon Hopkins is a British musician who writes and performs his own music, melody-led electronica. His album Insides is definitely worth listening to.

For someone who has recently supported Coldplay on tour, co-produced a couple of their tracks and has co-written the soundtrack to the forthcoming Peter Jackson film, The Lovely Bones, you wouldn’t think that Jon Hopkins would have any time or energy left to release his own solo album.

Fortunately, he did. And the composer, pianist and self-taught studio wizard provides another impressive album packed full of lose-yourself electronica mixed with beautifully haunting piano, synths and a pulsing bass. Insides, his third album offering, rollercoasters from track to track going through the gloomy, the upbeat and somewhere indescribable in-between with almost every song seamlessly interacting with the next.

Commit yourself to seeing the whole album through in one go and you’ll find the hypnotic rhythms will take you deep into Jon’s delicately created world. In ‘Vessel’ you just begin to understand the album’s title as the distant-thunder sound of pulsating waves merges into the dawn-breaking piano that transports the music deep into your consciousness before it’s suddenly regurgitated back up by some intense bass and awakening energetic synths.

‘Autumn Hill’, ‘The Low Places’ and ‘Small Memory’ are stand-out tracks due to Jon’s use of piano. Clearly a master of the instrument, it is never overdone, as he creates dark, occasionally balled-esque melodies on top of basslines that wouldn’t feel out of place on a dance-floor. ‘Wire’ has an industrial feel that continues to grow in volume until it reaches an intensive peak, before gradually and symmetrically slowing down and returning to beginning.

Messy-sounding ‘Colour Eye’ is the exception on the album. The track’s etching, scratches and crackles seem a bit too congested and it doesn’t quite connect with the rest of the album’s gentleness like many other of the songs. What makes Insides great is that it allows you to open your mind and let the atmospheres he’s created come in and take over. Jon’s in full control here: he’s had no remit or strict deadline, resulting in a carefully crafted collection of perfect escapism.

It isn’t particularly ground-breaking; in fact, on the grand scale of things it’s just another little slice of musical uniqueness. The fact that it comes from someone who understands music in a deeper and more personal way than most in this genre is what makes Insides stand out from the rest.

April showers brought the May flowers, and now the June sunshine and Dog Days of July are around the corner. Is it me or is everything better with lots of sunshine? With the official start of summer less than a month away, I’m excited about a lot, including the music . . . It’s gonna be a massive summer for electronic artists! As always, the global stage of electronic dance music pulses with life, and many ambitious forward-looking albums are on their way or were recently dropped—the sounds are futuristic, the grooves killer, the tunes huge. So what are some of the things that I will be listening to?

1. Kikomoto Allstars “House Music LP”

Dance music has a globe-spanning history, and right now few encompass that spirit more than Cam Farrar. Hailing from Melbourne, Farrar takes his moniker from Tadao Kikomoto, the guy at Japanese synth-giant Roland behind the TR909 and the TB-303. Of course these instruments landed in Chicago and helped to set new directions for the emerging house music sound, perhaps most famously in the case of the 303 whose growling baselines defined Acid house. (It ’s called acid because the 303 is a bass machine. . .get it?) This release is all original material, but also very much a tribute to the roots of electronic dance music. All the original instruments are used, and tracks such as “I’ll Make You Jack” and “Jack the House” conjure bygone days of nightlife as do “Can’t Stop the House” and “Warehouse Days.”

2. Louie Vega and Dj Pierre “Da Jungle EP”

This EP features nine different versions of “Da Jungle,” a colloboration that is itself special because Vega and Pierre are two pioneers of dance music. Vega is one half of the legendary duo Masters at Work, and a solo marvel for his soulful, Nuyorican flavored NYC house, fitting for the nephew of Hector Lavoe. Similarly, DJ Pierre is also a superstar of house music, a certified institution of Chicago House, responsible for bringing Wildpitch and Acid styles to that city’s house sound, and so to the world. Pierre’s Afro-Acid label grew out of a party in Chicago, and this collaboration is another remarkable track from what has quickly become one of my favorite labels in dance music.

3. Kris Menace “Idiosyncrasies 3-Disc” LP

Um, wow. . .just, wow. Kris Menace’s is my no doubt going to be my fav album of the summer. This one is a 3-CD release—two albums of original tracks and a third that’s a DJ mix. An embarrassment of riches, and almost too good to be true—this one is for anyone who likes airy and melodic synthesizers airy or dance music inflected by the eighties hold the cheese. Lots of that here, all spilling over tightly knitted beats, some of them in collaboration with others—Felix Da Housecat, Spooky, Alan Braxe, Fred Falke, Hexstatic all show up to lend different directions to these 26 tracks. The album certainly has a “sound”–one that after so many tracks remains surprisingly fresh, and non-repetitive.

4. DJ Hell “Teufelswerk” 2-Disc LP

I’ve been waiting for this record since I heard DJ Hell’s guest appearance on Tom Wax’s radio show in Berlin. There’s been a lot of hype around this one. . . It. Is. All. True. Hell’s third full-length artist record is brilliant. Dance music at its best. The double CD is split into Day and Night. “Day” is somber, melodic, and in places experimental–”Carte Blanche,” “Action (Interlude),” and the extended opening of “Germania” each sound like something out of Karlheinz Stockhausen; this dance music is one of ideas, extended languishing tracks filled with color and atmospheric subtlety. “Night” gets down to the brass tacks of the dancefloor. For this one, Hell enlists P. Diddy and Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music as vocalists as well as a number of other producers including Frankfurt’s Anthony Rother on “Bodyfarm.”

“I’m the Izza Kizza” by the Izza Kizza is an intoxicating blend of electronic and hip hop perfect for a basement dance party filled with foam and smoke, flashing strobe lights,  and full of sweaty kids dressed up in some weird theme, like that “redneck track and field” design school party i went to.

Check out the music video for “I’m the Izza Kizza”.

Hailing from Valdosta Geogria, The Izza Kizza is very much still on the underground, but has received attention from some big timers, like Timbaland, Lil Wayne, and David Banner.  Look out for an Izza Kizza world wide take over coming soon!

This 13-year-old video of Daft Punk performing without costumes in Furthur, Wisconsin has been circulating the internet. Wikipedia makes the following statement about the video:

… a rare bootlegged video featuring the duo in Wisconsin matches the verified identity of Thomas Bangalter. Less clearly seen, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is to Bangalter’s right and is mostly cut off from the camera. Comparing the artwork packaging of Homework to the video footage, one can verify that the album’s liner note photo was taken during this event.

So, why does Daft Punk wear costumes now?

Daft Punk have said that they donned their robot masks to easily merge the characteristics of humans and machines. However, Bangalter later stated that the costumes were initially the result of shyness. ‘But then it became exciting from the audiences’ point of view. It’s the idea of being an average guy with some kind of superpower.’ When asked on whether the duo expressed themselves differently within the robotic suits, Bangalter stated ‘No, we don’t need to. It’s not about having inhibitions. It’s more like an advanced version of glam, where it’s definitely not you.’

More about Daft Punk’s approach to managing fame is in the Wikipedia article.

Dj Benzi x Plain Pat x Kanye West: Sky High – A We Got The Remix Special Edition

After teasing fans with a streaming preview that was available for only one day, the finished product is finally available for download! Sky High features 21 Kanye tracks that have been remixed by top-notch producers and mixed by DJ Benzi. The first half of Sky High has hip hop sound while the last half has a more electronic feel. So after you finish breakin your neck to the first half of the mixtape, go ahead and diversify your bonds with the electronic sound of the latter half.

Favortie Tracks: Sky High (remix) ft. Kid Cudi, Good Morning (The Kickdrums Remix), Champion (Nick Catchdubs Remix), Flashing Lights (Diplo Remix), Addiction (Kenny Dope Remix), Electric Touch (Steve 1der & Mighty Mi Remix), Love Lockdown (Tom Wrecks Remix), Homecoming (Discotech Remix), I Wonder (Scottie B Remix)

It’s that time again: at the beginning of the year, every year, everybody offers their opinions about the music/books/movies/events of the past year.  Personally, I love reading other people’s opinions about the best music of the past year.   However, I also think that it’s a fairly ridiculous practice.  Ultimately, it’s just an opinion, and nobody really cares about anybody else’s opinion anyway.  Even the biggest award show in music, the Grammy Awards, is full of shit, and pretty much everybody knows it.  So, in order to avoid putting together yet another meaningless top-10 list, I’m going to parody those stupid awards by giving you 10 top-1 lists.  Yes, the commentary you are about to read is satirical (I’m only putting this under the assumption that if I don’t, moronic fanboys will be upset that I trashed their favorite album of 2008), but the albums I’ve chosen are actually some of my favorites (except for whichever section of commentary offends you most – that one’s serious) of 2008.

Best album nobody put into their top-5/1o/20/25/50/100 list of 2008:  Radio Retaliation by Thievery Corporation – personally, I think that this was a great album.  The first half is a world-tour of incorporating the music of various cultures into an upbeat-downtempo format that Thievery Corporation is known for, and the second half is a bit more reminiscent of their previous work.  That sounds basically like they put out yet another album of the same shit you’ve heard before, and it is.  (Also, this album wins 2 more awards: best packaging and worst packaging for the cardboard sleeve and poster liner notes – it’s catchy and environmentally friendly, but you’ll never be able to actually use it to package the album once you open it).  Actually, I don’t think it was a great album.

Best “more-hipster-than-thou” album of 2008: Crystal Castles by Crystal Castles – another album I greatly enjoyed (if only we could have kept it in the studio for more than 48 hours), this award is somewhat pointless because everybody already knew that this was the hipster album of the year (Passion Pit’s Chunk of Change E.P. being a close second).  Which is oddly appropriate, seeing as how pointless this album was.  The best song on here was “Courtship Dating”, which is basically a dance song with repetitive lyrics (which are screamed, by the way) that don’t make a whole lot of sense, as if we’ve never heard that.

Best album put out by a band from Australia of 2008: In Silico by Pendulum – it seems like Australia puts out a good album about once a year.  Last year, we were blessed with the “albums” known as Attack Decay Sustain Release by Simian Mobile Disco and Guns Babes Lemonade by Muscles (and maybe a few others as well, but who knows).  This year, we in the US got Pendulum’s sophmore effort.  Is it just me, or are they actually trying to make music for video games?  The first time I heard them was when I heard their song (from their first album Hold Your Colour) on Dance Dance Revolution, and several songs here sound like extras you could buy for Rock Band or Guitar Hero (though none of them are good enough to be included, and you’d be better off saving the money anyway).  Sophmore slump much?

Best album of 2008 by a bald vegan in his 40s that has long lost all cultural relevance: Last Night by Moby – to be honest, I kind of feel like this album was like Play-lite(to the point where the title seems a bit unintentionally ironic), but it’s still a fun album overall with a few songs that actually approach being listenable.  I like to joke with a few of my friends who are also avid fans of electronic music that I enjoy listening to “American techno”.  And we (my friends and I) laugh about it because American techno (that is, good electronic music from this side of the Atlantic) doesn’t exist, and this CD proves it.

Best album of 2008  that proves Americans are uncultured: Mardulce by Bajofondo – pencil this band in under “artist/band with the most commonly mispronounced name” (next to Björk).  This is also the only band (on this list, or possibly anywhere) that features a member that plays the … bandoneon.  Now, I’m going to be honest with you: I don’t consider myself to be a stupid individual, but I don’t even know how to pronounce that instrument, let alone what it actually is.  Judging from the album, something that sounds like an accordion.  God damn, that doesn’t even need a punch line…

Best album of 2008 that relates drugs to electronic music: Fucked Up Friends by Tobacco – Not only is the artist’s name an addictive substance, but the album title is a suggestion for both how and with whom you should listen to the album (for the dumbfucks out there, you should listened to it while you’re fucked up with your friends).  Not only that, but the album itself, from the time you see it, is addictive.  It comes with a crazy cover that looks like a broadcast of Tobacco himself getting electrocuted, as viewed through a malfunctioning cheap TV built in the 70s.  Also on the packaging front, the tray for the CD itself isn’t the usual black, white, or clear – Tobacco or whoever packaged this aural version of herion opted for a very subtle hot pink instead.  The music itself sounds like something god-awful from the 80s, using only analog tape devices and synthesizers (along with the equivalent of a First Act talk box), that’s been cut one too many times with bleach and cement mix.  This album actually wins several other awards, such as: Best album of 2008 for which I’ll require rehab, Best album of 2008 for which I’ll require therapy, Best album of 2008 for which I’ll require medication, and Best album of 2008 for which I’ll be pleading temporary insanity.

Best Album of 2008 which could have and probably should have been made in the 80s: In Ghost Colours by Cut Copy – The best band whose name consists of actions you can take in Microsoft Word (even though they got things kind of backwards – if you cut, you don’t have anything to copy, so you should probably copy before cutting, but that’s getting a bit technical) released this tribute to yuppies and disco this year that’s been getting a lot of acclaim.  Frankly, I don’t see why this whole “80’s” thing has been a trend for the past couple of years – is our creativity as a culture really that bankrupt?  If this is all we had to go on, the answer would undoubtably be a most-emphatic “yes”.

Best Album of 2008 that used only screechy guitar riffs and various noises that sound like animals growling and snarling: LP3 by Ratatat – this is the sort of sound that Ratatat has been cultivating for their entire musical career, and even I have to admit that it’s really come into its own on their third crime against humani… err, album.  On the other hand, being the best in the world at creating “music” that consists of what sounds like a 5′5″ hipster wearing Converses and girl pants savagely beating squirrels into his amplifier with a Fender Squire is a bit like … well, it’s not really like anything else, which is the only reason why Ratatat will win anything this year (assuming they’ll win anything, which is dicey to begin with).

Album with the Best Bullshit Story behind their sound on their one-sheet in 2008: Never Trust the Chinese by Mr. Meeble – Basically, the fabrication here is that this band was hired by a French cosmonaut to create this album for him or her to listen to while in space.  I wouldn’t really call this the best bullshit story in the sense that it was the most plausible or the most entertaining (although it’s up there for the latter), but it’s certainly the best bullshit story in terms of how ludicrously ridiculous it is.  A French Cosmonaut?  Do the French even have a space program?  According to the wikipedia category “French Astronauts”, there have been 9 French astronauts who are noteworthy.  This compares to 362 noteworthy “American Astronauts”.  Now, if we compare the populations of France and America relative to the number of noteworthy French and American astronauts there are on Wikipedia, we find that American astronauts are about 8.5 times more common than French astronauts.  Now, let me ask you something: how many astronauts do you know?  That’s what I thought; the answer’s a big fat zero isn’t it?  Now that means that you’re 8.5 less likely to come across a French Astronaut, thus proving that French Astronauts do not exist and making this story officially impossible.  Oh, and did I mention the offensive album title?  Seriously, I could go on and on about this thing.

Best album of 2008 that’s electronic but tries to bill itself as so-called “instrumental hip-hop”: Magic Monday by Michna – C’mon, this album was produced by a god damn trombone player for Christ’s sake.  I’ll be up-front about it; I don’t know anything about hip-hop, and even I know that nobody plays trombone in hip-hop.  Hell, people haven’t played trombone in popular music since at least the 50’s.  Even then, did anybody anywhere ever front a band as a trombone player?  I honestly have no idea, but my instincts tell me “probably not.  probably fucking not.”

So that’s it, my ten top-1 lists for 2008.  I hope that the swearing and what not didn’t offend people (I only do it because the FCC doesn’t want me to).  So, before I conclude this post, I’d just like to add a few honorable mentions of 2008 (for which I primarily didn’t have any jokes):

Brightwhitelight by Sounds from the Ground

Thought So… by Nightmares on Wax

Hercules and Love Affair by Hercules and Love Affair

Saturdays=Youth by M83

Apocalypso by the Presets

-Dischord

UPDATE: This blog took forever to get posted because it took me a long time to come up with the material I used for it.  That and Caid took forever approving this blog (something about providing links to the artists – it’s all really murky to be completely honest).

Pandora, describing The Glitch Mob as “four gents who are setting the dance world ablaze with their futuristic hip-hop deconstruction,” features three videos of the group talking about their music, and preforming live at the at the Mezzanine club in San Francisco:

• In Track 1, they explain their niche.
• In Track 2, they describes themeselves as being somewhere between a DJ and a live band, “we create our music with the intent of remixing it live.”
• In Track 3, they explain their creative approach in using hardware and software as “instruments.”