UK Glitch Hop: November round-up

Big month for UK Glitch Hop! Not only have we got a Facebook community and Soundcloud group going great gunz, but there's been a shedload of quality music coming out, including...

...the return of the king! Following on from the Snake Eyes EP, Dave Tipper's dropped a stonker of a release the Bubble Control EP - accompanied by a promo mix that's had glitch hop producers the world over jizzing on their controls with excitement at the quality of his production. Just read the comments below...

  Tipper Promo Mix 2011 by tippermusic

You'll probably also like this well timed freebie from Enig'matik.
  Tipper-Cycleswithincycles (Sun In Aquarius BOOTLEG RMX) [ENIG'MATIK RECORDS FREE PROMO] by Enig'matik Records

Skanky Panky records co-founder William Breakspear's given us a tantalizing taster of his long-awaited album Bardcor, coming out ant minute now on Rocstar
  BARDCORE ALBUM PREVIEW! by William Breakspear

...and a tasty remix of K+Lab's and Funkdamunk's brilliant McFly was a Raver
  K+lab and Funkdamunk - Mcfly was a Raver (WB's "Power of Love" remix) by William Breakspear

Bobby Tank unleashed the epic Vanquish EP on Vermin Street right at the start of the month. Described by Zen Death Squad as a "Pure funk dream" the three original tracks and myriad of varied remixes span post-dubstep, glitch, wonky and funk. Brilliant:

  Bobby Tank - Vanquish EP (OUT NOW ON VERMIN STREET RECORDS) by BobbyTank

Swiftly followed by the even more off-the-wall Nexus Moonburgers EP:
  Bobby Tank - Nexus Moonburgers EP (OUT NOW ON PRIME DUB L.A) by BobbyTank

Plus here's a more recent freebie:
  Break Away by BobbyTank  

Inaudible served up a killer mixtape this month too, this one for Guildford's KaneFM, which recently got it's licence and have been havin' it even larger ever since. I don't know how he's crammed so much into 30 mins! Catch him in Birmingham on 22 December.
  Nov2011 Mix for Kane.fm by inaudible

Tracklist
01. Dimlite – Elbow Flood
02. Robot Kotch – Bugs
03. Nosaj Thing – Quest (Low Limit Remix)
04. Soulparlour feat. Raziel Jamaerah – Don’t Stop
05. Unknown - Thai Honeymoon
06. Amon Tobin – 4 Ton Mantis (Bonobo Remix)
07. Modeselektor feat Miss Platnum – Berlin
08. Milez Benjamin – Chop That Wood
09. Zen Deathsquad – Superman (ZDS Remix)
10. NastyNasty – Brooklyns Finest
11. Fulgeance feat 215tfk – Bien Rond (Kelpe Remix)
12. French Turist - seq6 (Vox Noam)
13. Montgomery Clunk - Sink The Clunkmobile
14. Acre – Patterns
15. Mad Zach – Glitch Villain
16. Modeselektor feat. Busdriver – Pretentious Friends
17. ill.Gates, Opiuo & Vent – TriLLogy
18. Spoonbill – Catfish
19. Logreybeam - Premonition (evac remix)
20. Tipper – LED Down (Serc Remix)
21. Lakritze – Killswitch
22. Monolithium-Selfish Lil Crunk
23. Nino & Coco Bryce - Metropolis (Krsur Remix)
24. Swedeart feat. Stray - Linguistics (Sam Irl Remix)
25. Mr. Bibal & Chiky B – Galaxy
26. Kraddy - Operation Prometheus

Mouldy Soul's been teasing us with two very tasty new EPs, on Colony Productions and Broken Records, and a laid back little remix for Riddim Fruit, release dates still tbc
  Supernova - Shimi Sonic (MouldySoul Remix) by Mouldy Soul
  Insert Ep by Mouldy Soul
  Hypersquelch EP by Mouldy Soul

If you can't wait for those, get your chops round these freebies in the meantime:
  Freebees :) by Mouldy Soul

Slugabed's let some kittens out the closet. (Doesn't he look cute?)
  KITTENS (FREE DL!!) by SLUGABED
 

It might not have been November, but Rustie's debut LP, Glass Swords, is still pretty fresh. It sounds a lot like a game boy at a disco. Grab the free sample of All Nite here:
Rustie - All Nite (taken from Glass Swords) by Rustie

Koan Sound's mixed-up another monster, this time for LAs Kill the Noise
  Kill The Noise - Deal With It (KOAN Sound Remix) by KOAN Sound

I was inspired by their Funk Blaster EP for my last mixtape:
   Are you funking my face? by Morbidly Obese Midget
TRACKLIST:
Koan Sound - Talk Box
K Lab / Funkdamunk - McFly was a Raver
Blunt Instrument - Simmer Gently
D Carls - All In
Koan Sound - Funk Blaster
GRiz - I'm Home (FreQ's Moombahton Relick)
K Theory - Glitch & Blues
Love and Light - Ninjas Brothas Motha
William Breakspear - Vowel Mouthed
Knight Riderz - Enter Reality
Eddy Crusher - Starting Blocks
Opiuo - Moose Tooth
Bobby Tank - Questar

Ninja Dave's put me onto this wicked slab of electro glitch-funk from London's Sabre Pulse. The rest of the album morphs across the hole gamut of bass music, well worth checking out!

On the flipside Orangudan's served up a beautiful downtempo mix. Good to see lots of Ninja Tune and other flavours in there: 
  UnDaMu by Orangudan

You can argue whether it's glitch hop, but Benji Boko's doing pretty well on the DJ Shadow remix comp:
DJ Shadow Ft. Little Dragon - Scale It Back [Benji Boko Remix] by BENJI BOKO

They're not from UK, but my personal vote's for Blunt Instrument's funky-arsed bass version, currently sitting at the top of the group:
  DJ Shadow - Scale it back (Blunt Instrument remix) Check Description to VOTE by bluntinstrument

And last but certainly not least, the grand master of west-coast digital psychedelia, Android Jones has an exhibition at Hoxton Gallery opening 28 November. You've probably seen his work in the Inspiralled gallery at Glade, at Boom Festival or in the Fractal Village at Burning Man where it graced the flyer this year and many of these works will be the result of his legendary live performances, where he visually realises his response to the musical environment he's in. Don't miss it!

What have I missed? If you want to be considered for inclusion, post your tunes and mixes in our Facebook community and Soundcloud group. Oh, and if you want to have a say in what we
 call our show on Glitch.FM, then vote here!

Laters

Review: The Glitch Mob at Spectrum Bass Bomber, Electric Brixton, 5 November 2011

Comprising three of the most talented early innovators of West Coast glitch hop - Ed Ma (edIT), Josh Mayer (Ooah / Of Porcelin / PANTyRAiD) and Justin Boreta (NastyWays / Slidecamp) - The Glitch Mob have done for their music in the US what Benga and Skream have achieved for dubstep in the UK.

The timeline is fairly similar too. edIT's first release on Planet Mu in 2004, Crying Over Pros For No Reason, is one of the earliest examples of the genre that now not only saturates the West Coast of Canada and America, but has followers across Europe, Australia, South Africa and beyond.

2007 was probably the year that saw the scene begin to consolidate itself, with a second album from edIT, a classic release from Bassnectar, glitch compilations on Muti Music and Interchill, and the first tunes from Ooah and Boreta. In the Bay Area and LA, edIT, Ooah, Boreta and co-founder Kraddy found themselves touring together to promote their sound.

A string of genre-defining remixes as The Glitch Mob followed, freely shared through their website, and collated in 2009's Crush Mode mixtape. The music had all the bounce of the most beat focused hip-hop, all the bombast of rock, and a tendency towards the epic, layered with g-funk synths and guitar crunches. Last year the departure of Kraddy foreshadowed the release of the collective's first self penned album, Drink the Sea.

The album marked a change. It was geared towards live shows rather than record bags, with pounding drums and a stadium feel. As a DJ, I was disappointed an found many of the tracks to be too similar, but Drink the Sea is loved by many and found the Mob a lot of new fans. Although I couldn't make it to their UK album launch at Koko and January 2011 tour, I heard reports of the live show: three guys fiddling with laptops, that didn't fulfill the promise of the epic music.

Which brings us to Spectrum's Bass Bomber at Electric Brixton last night, the second UK date on an epic European Tour for the Mob.

When we arrived, Pete Jordan was playing a banging bass set that just about covered all bases imaginable. In front of him sat three sets of Ableton controllers, touch screens and electric drums, all controls facing towards the audience. Where they going to be turned around? They surely wouldn't play with their backs to us?

As the edIT led the Mob onstage, black shirts, white ties, in a cloud of smoke, crowd chanting, the trio leaned over from behind their kit, still facing the audience, to begin sequencing and playing touch-pad synths and effects in full view. This was going to be a live show.

With the "put your hands in the air" sample of the opening track, things had the instant feeling of a stadium rock concert. As hundreds of live hand claps began to punctuate the beats, I couldn't help but feel a tingle up my spine.

While some might question the virtuosity of playing patterns on pre-programmed touch pads, tracks like 'Fortune Days' soon began to really show off edIT and Oaah's deft finger-work, trained through years of vinyl teasing. Meanwhile Boreta was a quiet presence on the left, like the rhythm guitarist of the group, constantly cuing and tweaking. The drums got a frequent battering from all three, adding a strong dynamic to their movement on stage.

 
The stand out tracks were the classic remixes 'Red Dress On', 'Monday' and 'West Coast Rocks', which really got the whole place popping like it was New Year's Eve. It also gradually became apparent that the 'same sounding' feel of the album tracks actually held the live set together as a thematic progression.

The set culminated in an encore opening with the suitably epic 'Drive it like you stole it' and it was another cover, The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' dedicated to all the "filthy fucking bass lovers out there" that wrapped things up in triumphant style, to a sea of arm, people sitting on each others shoulders and double-time clapping. The Mob's sound is so warm and all encompassing that I don't think anyone really wanted it to end.

On the basis of last night's performance, The Glitch Mob have successful overcome any criticisms leveled at their live show and are all set to be the melodic stadium-rock pin-ups of the glitch-hop world. The real strength of their achievement for me, though, is that unlike Magnetic Man they've managed to do this without compromising an almost entirely instrumental sound.

Having finally understood the context of the Drink the Sea, I'm now looking forward to seeing where they go with the next album.


Check out this interview with Ooah and The Glitch Mob's latest mixtape here:
  More Voltage by The Glitch Mob


Full props to Pete Jordan and the Spectrum crew for getting the Mob over here (twice now!). I'd love to see more US acts brought over next year (ill.Gates, Love and Light, Mim0Sa Stephan Jacobs) with support from UK talent like Zen Death Squad, KrossBow, Inaudible, Bobby Tank or William Breakspear. If you're with me, like this!