“NOTHING BUT THE BEATS”

Music Interview and Music Feature by code314 - Fri 24/10/2008 at 05:31

“NOTHING BUT THE BEATS”

Deep inside “offbeat music” with Mr Beatnick
by code314


How did it happen ? One day, you are watching some Flying Lotus or Samiyam live performances at Low End Theory club in Los Angeles, on Youtube. The day after you are listening to some Bulgarian 1000names smashing tunes on MySpace. The third day, scotish Hudson Mohawke is playing on your turntables. Well, you got it, you caught the bug... Obviously, something exciting is pumping... and it hasn't even got a real name yet.

Few months ago, I received a message from Brussels Mc Kalonji aka Dr Kwest : “off beat music is the real next dope”. The Hell, man, what and who is offbeat ? New genre ? new move ? where is it located ? What does that name mean?
Furthermore, I discovered that this music was now “mixed” in some ways with London dubstep. Sounds heavy... The real big next step? The morphed Hip-hop revenge? Let’s have some explanations.


FlyLo rules the world
First strike and most visible representative is Flying Lotus himself, alias Steven Ellison. Story is well know : After an album on Plug Research (1983), the Los Angeles musician has been signed on Warp Records in 2007 : great Reset EP on warp, and then the release in june of his LP “Los Angeles” with amazing tracks. Self described as a computer man and a child of the Nintendo generation, “FlyLo” is now definitely the icon of this new weird hip-hop.
But Beatnick got a wider point of view...
After some research on the web, I luckily found a guy who could give me more informations : Mr Beatnick, alias Nick Wilson, from London, 26 years beat producer (first loop at sixteen on amiga 500), dj (a warm up for madlib and jay dilla at the Montreux festival...), makes frequently great set on deepfrequency.org , has released “I know all the bitches” with featuring by Ahu / Dolly (who made some feat on flylo album), underground activist, party promotor, related to other great hip-hop producers Bullion & Paul White and to Gilles Peterson from BBC/radio1. As if it was not enough, coCreator with Charles II of Shhhh records mix series. The guy knows the “business” , got a good intuition and deep knowledge of this “new” beat scene : “I have watched it evolve around me from years”.
“Not surprisingly the main artists that people have heard of are Flying Lotus and his L.A. cohorts - Samiyam, Gaslamp, says Beatnick, obviously with the amount of promo / coverage for FlyLo / brainfeeder they are getting lots of attention. But actually the dark wonky electronic beats exist all around the world. For him, FLyLo doesn’t resume everything : “brainfeeder release (release of FlyLo warp LP in London - ndlr) was only the top of iceberg” What really matters is the whole community sharing this nu vibe via the web, with each time particular unique voices. “Its all around ! its a bunch of friends, a lifestyle, people community sharing music”.
Let’s appreciate his unexhaustive list made by Nick :

Hudson Mohawke, Mike Slott, Rustie, Lucky Me crew, All City Records dublin for Scotland & Ireland.

Labels in

Amsterdam / Netherlands: Eat Concrete, Kindred Spirits, Cinnaman, Tom Trago, Mamiko Motto aka 1.1 (check for her radio shows on Samurai.fm).

London / England: Lukid, 2Tall, Morgan Zarate, Steve Spacek , Jackhigh, Mark Pritchard (Harmonic 313), Danny Breaks, Bullion /Paul White, Soundspecies, Burntprogress // CDR crew, Analog Jones, Tightface.

Japan: Circulations (label), Jazzysport (label) - roster includes Grooveman Spot, Budamunky, Dj Mitsu The Beats.

Turkey: Onur Engin, Ahu aka Dolly.

Bulgaria: 1000 names .


Are you still there? Or already myspacing? Obviously a lot more than the L.A. stuff as you see. “Right now, in this "beat" music all you have is people combining lots of influences their own feels and inspirations”.
It has been a challenge to make the connection : “someone like Paul White sounds nothing like Rustie but if you like one, you might quite like the other”. And that is an evidence that you can hear. For Beatnick, The first one who made the link between those people is Andrew Meza. Andrew made a show on a college radio (www.btsradio.net). He was the first to play Hudson Mohawke, Flying lotus , etc. This young 23 years old guy has really connected the dots between nu beatmakers.

Beatmaking
So what is that music, what’s the connection between all those producers ? According to Nick, this is not really a genre. For him “it might be more a way of thinking”. Everything starts from the beat. Its about beatmaking “beatmaking is the process. the result is all about personality”. Even if it’s at a final point a lot more than beats, you can't name it otherwise then “making beats”. This is the starting point. Nothing else.
To get more in this, let me recommend to read the article written by our guest, on Shook Mag : “From Tokyo to Tashkent, Paris to Glasgow, Los Angeles to Lisbon, a new made-up sound is mashing up bedroom speakers, influenced equally by classic hip-hop productions, ’80s film references, Nintendo library sounds and a shaolin self-discipline… From Flying Lotus to Hudson Mohawke, ill dubbio to 1000names, Bullion to Pursuit Grooves, this is the beat generation smashing things up”.


Foundations
Mr Beatnick’s hip-hop memories are the story of this offbeat music : Lets rediscover hip-hop history with him : roots in Afrika Bambaataa, Diamond D, Jam Master Jay, Raymond Scott. Right after those foundations, second wave with Run DMC, The Wu, etc. was the time when beat production has been invented in the modern sense. “and later that morphed into enjoying mowax, and early ninja stuff; and all that stuff in the tradition of early hip hop, which was progressive in the "prog" sense as well as being, the roots of the style as a production art lots of raw breaks, mad synth samples. Then later, I went to shows and watched those same artists from the mowax era innovate this london music, or this west london music, "broken beat" which was a crap tag line for what was a really innovate music style. the early work there by dego, seiji, alex phountzi, phil asher, daz and especially kaidi tatham really caught my ear” As you see, this is a long story that has lead to the offbeat, and those words would need many more to be complete.
However everything in music got a long story. We may say: hip-hop has made a new turn with this weird/wonky nu sound that has now “a wider audience". That part is definitely true. And now the “beat scene” is deeply reaching and gaining Europe.


Now, what about dubstep ?
When you ask Beatnick what is happening exactly in London between dubstep and offbeat. He says: For me, Flylo broke through and has merged the audiences a lot. At FWD parties, Alex nutt for example plays fresh beats . Mark Pritchard, big fan of dubstep is also signed on Warp. And that is correct, examples are not missing : Samiyam EP on Hyperdub, Gaslamp mixing DMZ stuff in L.A., Kode9 vs Flying lotus mixes (the famous versus mix on rinse fm...) and remixes... lots of people are joining the worlds since end 2007 or help cross them.
For the London release of the Los Angeles LP at Brainfeeder, Flylo had indeed decided to invite some monsters from LA and some unbeatable local heroes : Kode9 & DMZ from London, and some Glasgow killers as Rustie and Hudson Mohwake. Insane party... as you can imagine. This party has mixed with happiness the bass and the beats as wanted by Flylo. The first time both worlds were consciously merged. This may be, or not, the end of the first wave of dubstep producers (and when you see Skream and Benga on stage at the Red Bull Academy show in Barcelona...well, you could think you are far away from the Brixton the spirit), the beginning of a second era ? Let’s see what is gonna happen now. Exciting isn’t ?


Conclusions:
1 : Buy a plane ticket and go directly to Low End Theory club in L.A.; the basecamp of LA offbeat.
2 : Enjoy London side of the offbeat with Mr Beatnick : monthly last Friday Shhhh party @ Gramaphone or Burntprogress parties CDR @ Plastic People. Check Beatnick for more underground informations cause offbeat music doesn’t come in usual venues...
3 : Maybe easier and certainly less expensive : don’t miss FLyLo live performance @ Botanique on 26th November... I’ll be there, will you ?


Thanks to Beatnick for time and sharing knowledge.
Code314 – http://www.Myspace.com/code314
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