Dancehall Queen Video

Directed by Pomp&Clout (who have done vids for the likes of Boys Noize, Rusko, Congorock, etc.), Red Foxx and ... Diplo?

Mad indie-hipster cred! Amirite or amirite?

Also! The new Mad Decent forums are (IMO) simultaneously awful and dope.

Dubstep these days

I'm really torn with dubstep these days. I feel like I've been with dubstep since it first made waves in the US when Rusko put out cockney thug (cuz let's face it, that's when dubstep really took off) but these days it's been brought into the ever-genre-fucking light of the MAINSTREAM~~~~

This isn't all bad. We're seeing stuff like the luvstep mixtape which pushes dubstep into different vibes (trading violent gargling wobble basses for tame sweeping melodic basslines). Also you get badass remixes of big named producers by other big names, for instance this remix of a track off of rusko's upcoming LP on mad decent:

Rusko - Hold On (Sub Focus RMX)

Hey, genre pushing is great, but i think it gets ruined by jokers like bassnectar who cater to the drugged up, hippy, jamband scene. I don't like this american-version of the british raver. what the fuck america? does everything we do have to turn into some sort of mcdonaldized, mass-pleasing, money raking bastardization? ahh well, there's more to life than bitching about the mainstream. let's focus on the good shit, shall we?

First up is Freddy Todd. This dude churns out crazy, syruppy glitch-hop styled dubstep a la Rustie and some of the other lucky me crew. But he kinda trades the lofi nuances of lucky me for a fat, american hip-hop touch. Can you call it dubstep if it isn't 140bpm? Cuz a lot of his stuff isn't. (looks like he's even done stuff with my beloved Mochipet! yay!) But I fucking love it. oh yeah, he's from DETROIT, TOO!!!

Freddy Todd - Space 5 Penthouse

This next one is a real chopper upper. Seriously heavy, I'm going to get subby to throw it in a mix or something. I like how it feels as though this sort of ultra-heavy/grimey style of dubstep has evolved from simple wobbles to crazy shit like this (and it doesn't even feel that repetitive). You should check out Bar 9, his shit is heavy and he srsly knows how to keep it real fasho with the grime and all. However, I'm a little tired of the whole BLACK AND WHITE MYSPACE PAGE DUBSTEP ARTIST LOOK AT ME I'M A BADASS COMPUTER NERD WHO CAN DJ meme.

Sidney Samson - Shut Up & Let It Go feat. Lady Bee (Bar 9 Remix)

Lastly is a subvader release. A kind of otherworldly approach to dubstep, this Mr Hudson x Kanye x Gucci Remix is pretty nuts. Not many producers change up the feel in one song as much as Subvader, and nobody does it as well. His EP IS DUE MAY 1st!

Mr Hudson x Kanye West x Gucci Mane - I'm the Supernova (Subvader Remix)

Hopefully these tracks are enough for your grimey needs. And hopefully they're enough to help battle the upcoming epidemic of shitty popstep.

LOve,
pacman

AFREAKCAN RIDDIMS 4 SUMMER!

ZOMG IT'S SO HOT OUT!
Great weather in the AA, and everyone knows sunny weather calls for appropriately "sunny" music. And while Sublime and Bob Marley may be staples for tropical tunage (at least for me), recently I've been really digging on "African themed" dance tunes. There's just something so happy and vivid about contemporary African dance music that I find completely irresistible in weather like this.


If ur into the whole mixtape-dance-music-'electro-bro'-blog-scene thing, then the Culture Club Mixtape #1 by DJs Genie and M!G!H! is a must download. I threw it on my pod when I read about it on Mad Decent and didn't really give it much of a chance, but after listening it today amidst the warm sunshine and budding trees, I fell completely in love.


Download/listen here:
Genie & M!G!H! - Culture Club Mixtape #1

Now I know what yall cynics is thinkin: all that 'modern african dance music' is too repetitive and abrasive for me. And yeah, this is true a lot of the time. I prolly like the stuff that's like "140+bpm (lil faster than house, doubletime of dubstep) with 4 on the floor kicks and sporadic snare/tom offbeat flurries and repetitive mono-chordal samples on the downbeat" as much as the next bro, but srsly, the stuff on this mixtape digs deeper than that.

It's able to retain pop sensibilities and interesting samples that keep middle class white boys like me listening. at about the 4:30 mark, for instance, the mix goes into some African bros singin over Architecture in Helsinki. There's even some lion king samples in there! (Think 'aahhhhh-za-bennya---a'feli-si-mamaaaaaa' etc.)

I don't speak any African lingos, but it sounds to me like it spans more than just Angola (which was all the rave for like a week late last summer) and maybe even more than Africa (do I hear portuguese/espanol around the 25 min mark?) Not very many repetitive moments in this mix that characterize all too many 'niche-mixtapes'.

(wish i took this photo but i totally jacked it from flickr)

I work on the radio @ WCBN FM Ann Arbor 88.3 FM, and one day while I was jes chillin in the fm studio I decided to rip some South African dance chune 'best of' compilations. Among the many gems, the "hope diamond" among them (if you will) was def this 1999 tune by Brenda Fassie:

LISTEN YO! (=^D) (<
Brenda Fassie - Vuli Ndlela


Prolly the sweetest part of the whole thing is the intro before the beat drops (cuz the beat just sounds a little uninspired to me, but it's not bad). I relly want somebody to sample the beginning and use it in a mixtape or something. Her voice is just so perfect. and did you here them ANALOG SYNTHS? Just sounds so sexy to me. And it really truly does make me want to get up and dance. The downside is that it comes in at around 110bpm... too slow for an electro house mix and too fast for hiphop... Maybe could fit in a disco set or sumthin? It's funny cuz the rest of the tracks on the compilation are about that tempo, too.


Okay, I couldn't help myself. I love this track too much to not put it up. It's from the same comp as the last track. The organ is absolutely fucking unreal. Trust me. You'll listen to it and be like, goddamn... that organ is fucking unreal. but, kinda like brenda's jam, it kinda loses something once the track gets goin. It's not that it's not a great song--cuz it is--but it just doesn't continue to keep picking up. BUT-->great sample material nonetheless.


All I ask is you hear like the 1st 30 seconds and not fall in love.
Soul Brothers - Mama Ka S'Bongile

Yeah, so that's all I gotta say. We're gonna have an interview with electronic artist BOAS comin up real quick. And also>>>>

SUBVADER'S EP IS COMIN SOON!!!
Like, we're talkin it's a matter of less than 2 weeks or something. Here's the artwork:

You can preview one of the tracks on his soundcloud called "Ghost Ship." There gonna be some CRZY, bizarre vibes on it, you can betchurr booty!

most importantly:
Kkeepp the SUNSHINE COMIN!!

Much sunny love,
Pac to the Man

Lazers Never Die (even in Ohio)

Call me a fanboy, about 3 months ago I bought tickets to see Major Lazer (and Bassnectar) twice in one week in April. That week is finally here and I finally saw the greatest dancehall/rave act of the century...
...in Cleveland fucking Ohio on a Wednesday night.

Needless to say, the dancefloor was a strange array of people: hippy-dreadlockers for Bassnectar, bros in Ed Hardy for god knows why, and the occasional guidette/sorostitute/raver/hot chick. So maybe I'm exaggerating about the lack of girls, but I'm not exaggerating when I say the dancefloor smelled like BBQ, corn and chicken pot pie. Golly-gee-willickers, I love the midwest.

Major Lazer put on a great show--Skerritboy mindfucked the wholesome audience by daggering the shit out of some girls they brought up on stage. All sizes of girls. It was awesome.

Skerrit also continued to climb around the light fixtures that enclosed the dancefloor. motherfucker is crazy.

Diplo held shit down--wish he would have laid off the house in favor of something a bit more fresh, but can you blame a DJ for trying to please his audience? People were responsive, but as I woulda guessed, everybody seemed to confuse Skerritboy with 'Major Lazer.' Skerritboy is not Major Lazer. Major Lazer is not a real person. He's a cartoon/concept Jamaican post-apocalyptic zombie killer whose story is told through the tunes produced by Diplo and Switch. So really, Major Lazer was everybody on stage (diplo, skerrit and that one girl they tour with). He is less of a personifiable entity than a thing which exists only in and of itself, therefore allowing the blanket term to be applied to the whole crew. Less of that, more of what came next-->>>>

<<<<----bassnectar. I was a little sad that the soundguy kept ML's set noticeably quieter than bassnectar's. I suppose this is a standard of club-gigging ethics, but it still pisses me off a bit. He was pretty sick to see live, tho... kept the energy at 110% the entire set. I've only seen that sort of crowd working at metal shows.

come to think of it, his set was very metal. maybe too metal for me, but the dancefloor ate it the fuck up. he hit the brown note and then some (approx sub-10hz). The place was flexing under his turntables. Speaking of, the guy is a fucking turntable whiz; adding crazy shit all over the place.

i scored some autograffs 2! Had a mini-convo w/ diplo in which i told him how awesome i thought his music is. I tried really hard to not suck his cock, but that's really what ended up happening.

all in all, exceeded my expectations for a venue in ohio. with friday comes their next show... in the mother fucking D. PUT YO' HANDS UP FO' DI-TROYYIT!!

!!!

oh yo, peep these crazy urinals! they bees in there! painted on like!

<====-PAC MOTHERUFCKNG MAN