Great Article by DJZ

We’ve been digging our buddy Wiley Webb’s production steez for a while now, but his latest EP, Lavish Vitality, is just too dope… we can’t keep him to ourselves any longer.

Wiley is quickly gaining traction in the EDM world, listing Morgan Page, Don Diablo,Uppermost, and Nick Thayer among his supporters. Furthermore, it was only a year ago this week that he scored his first ever real gig, opening for 3LAU in Colorado. Mere months later he scored a seriously big-time slot, performing as the sole opener for Madeon’s sold out SF show at the legendary Ruby Skye.

There’s good reason why Wiley’s tunes have yielded him opportunity and recognition, and it’s not luck. Wiley works really hard, and he’s deliberate about it.

“I attribute my success to putting in the extra 20 hours… or 50 hours, as was the case with my latest EP, polishing each track until it’s perfect,” he says. “I strive to make music that really can be enjoyed anywhere. In the car, through headphones, in the club, in a box, with a fox… Really, it’s all about that balance between simplicity & danceability for the club, and complexity & replayability for personal listening experience.”

Wiley’s hard work and deliberate goals really shine through in his Lavish Vitality EP, which he dropped a few weeks ago. Wiley achieves the fine balance for which he strives, managing to bring subtle complexity and intelligence to tunes that are total candy-coated, pump-you-up, electro bangers. The tunes blend together so seamlessly that one does not initially notice the variety of different sections and melodies that they incorporate. With small touches like shreddy, Aerodynamic-style synth breakdowns, and fake-out drops that hit a beat later than anticipated, you can really hear where the extra 50 hours went.

Even though he’s relatively green as a performer, it’s clear that Wiley brings to his live performance the same skill, creativity, and discipline that make him a successful producer.

“I DJ a little unusually, using Ableton and an APC40, which frees me up to do crazy creative transitions and invent mashups on the fly,” he says. “For now, I’m focusing on improving my spur-of-the-moment track selection, aka the art of DJing *cough* as opposed to pre-mixed shows. I’m confident that a cool, unique Wiley performance beyond ‘just mixing’ will develop naturally.”

Despite this hint of cockiness, Wiley seems quite modest, and wide-eyed about his recent success.

“Basic aspects of shows, like traveling, dinner with the guys, and sound check, feel so new and exciting! And it’s crazy to be in conversation with brilliant people who I’m used to seeing on massive stages… The number of times I’ve screamed like a little girl upon seeing some of the names in my email inbox? Too many!”

Watch this kid grow from a masterful but wide-eyed fawn into the cool, unique EDM don he knows he can be. Follow him on Soundcloud, Facebook, and Twitter, and check out his cool homepage.

The up and coming Florida duo released a new EP today, Thundercolor, whose four fresh tracks push the envelope of melodic dubstep and glitch hop further. Who is Coyote Kisses? Their own bio puts it succinctly: “In a scene full of cookie cutter complextro producers and ‘womp womp’ brosteppers, Coyote Kisses’ intrinsic musicality is more than just refreshing.”

The EP opens and closes with the more relaxed “Diving at Night” and “Changing Guard,” respectively. They offer wonderfully slow, melodic combinations of wet drums, singing (real!) guitars, and soaring synth arpeggios. They also mark an appropriate beginning and end to what overall feels like an incredibly cohesive release – not only does each track have a wonderful dynamic range between hardness and softness, but the whole EP itself does too – a rare thing to find in EDM, where most releases feel more like a bunch of singles bundled together.

“This is How You Know” and “Stay With You,” the body of the EP, are definitely my favorites and really demonstrate the danceable power of Coyote’s melodic blend of tasteful dubstep and glitch hop elements. “This is How You Know” sounds like a more discoey, brighter Pretty Lights, with funky synths, thick pads, and a very soulful vocal. “Still With You” rocks some pitched up, catchy vocals, hard-hitting pads, and Coyote’s signature fuzzy square-wave synth which they popularised on their earlier hit “Acid Wolfpack.”

These young producers are definitely worth following. Download the EP on Beatport, or snag it for free on Facebook with a tweet for payment

Jack Conte might better be known as half of the immensely successful YouTube band, Pomplamoose. He’s come a long way from cutesy, re-imagined acoustic covers of pop songs and released his electro house debut yesterday on the new Patreon platform, which he co-designed as a crowd-funding platform for regularly released content. You can download and donate what you want here.

He’s still riding the buzz of a cool 2.5 million views on his Daft Punk Skrillex Remix video, which goes far and beyond the standard launchpad performance video format (as first pioneered by Madeon’s “Pop Culture”) by integrating programmed visuals and even a robotic hand. The elaborate “Pedals” music video, where Conte jams with several robotic friends, demonstrates that the EDM producer of the future is not just a musical artist, but a video artist as well.

But in the end, what really matters is the music itself; Conte’s self-titled EP features four brilliant electro house tracks, with “Pedals” being the most eclectic and melodic and “I Know Better” being the most hard-hitting. He’s clearly influenced by Skrillex(namely, Skrillex’s “Rock N Roll”), with his pitched-up, chopped vocal melodies and rocky-guitar-sounding synths. Each sound has serious personality yet nothing feels out of place, despite the very complex, captivating interactions between every little bass and synth stab (I imagine them as “arguments” between the “characters” of each song).

Overall, a very musical yet very hard-hitting start for this new face in the EDM world. And oh damn oh damn did he raise the bar for dance music performance videos. You can download Conte’s EP here

Today, Armin van Buuren releases his fifth studio album, Intense. It’s been two years since his last album, Mirage, and the musical evolution of DJMag’s #1 DJ is quite evident.

Although not nearly as much as a genre chameleon as Tiesto, Armin certainly has incorporated many influences of popular dance music, particularly the big-room progressive house sound. Tracks like “Alone” and “Beautiful Life” borrow heavily from the work of Alesso, Swedish House Mafia, and Avicii, with powerful synth pad riffs and well-written, pop-influenced vocals, while maintaining Armin’s well-established love of big, plucky synths and reverb-y vocals.

Nevertheless, Armin nods to his long-time trance style and fans with the driving beats and etherial vocals of “Won’t Let You Go” and “Love Never Came” with famous trance vocalists Aruna and Richard Bedford, respectively. It’s definitely worth a listen through this album, where each song is relatively unique, wonderfully dynamic and slow-developing. Here are more detailed looks at a few of Intense‘s best tracks:

“THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE”

With a breakdown rather reminiscent of Avicii with its is driving 8th-note piano chords, “This is What it Feels Like” builds up smoothly without any annoying drama. As sweeping strings support the vocal, you find yourself singing along to this plaintive yet happy simple song. A synth arpeggio pushes the track forward in the drop as Trevor Guthrie’s “woah” adlibs surround our ears. Sweet and simple, this one’s made for dancing lightly, eyes closed, smiling.

“BEAUTIFUL LIFE”

The strongest track on the album, “Beautiful Life” begins with a dark, catchy vocal verse, supported by trance-y bass and synth pluck arpeggios and repitched vocal chops. A huge synth riff builds out of the hand-lifting chorus into a powerful peak-of-the-night drop. Armin combines Progressive House and Trance beautifully here – creating an immensely catchy riff that would make Alesso envious yet still gratuitously using reverb, a Trance standard, so that “Beautiful Life” is not offensively in-your-face but instead graceful and airy.

“ALONE”

This is probably the most melodically-oriented track on the album, with Laura Evan’s passionate, sultry vocal performance. The breakdown features a beautiful vocal arrangement with catchy background vocal riffs that will ensure hand-raising, eye-closing sing-alongs at Armin’s shows. However, like in many of these songs, I’m struck by an unnerving feeling that I’ve heard bits and pieces of this melody before, and indeed, compare 0:00 of “Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem ft. Rihanna  with 0:37 in “Alone”. But that’s alright – all music is recycled to some extent

Don Diablo is one of my personally favourite artists because he combines amazing songwriting with creative, brilliant production and his new single, “Give it All”, certainly doesn’t disappoint. With a star-studded collaborator lineup of both Alex Clare (US top 10 hit “Too Close”) and Kelis (Calvin Harris - Bounce, David Guetta - Accapella), this dubstep track features some seriously talented vocalists and vocal melodies - let’s jump into them. 

(0:55) After a long, sultry verse from Kelis, Alex Clare “gives it all” in this impassioned chorus section, which sounds huge relative to the more tame verses (every perception is relative in music). Notice how the chords here are actually layered with a very fast ~32nd note arpeggio - try to imagine this section with only simple static chords instead - wouldn’t it lack some extra subtle energy?  

It’s worth re-listening to the chorus a few times because Don Diablo has an unsurpassed skill for hiding delightful layers of subtlety and complexity in what appear to be simple beats at first glance. Can you pick out the funky chord stab underneath each snare? The bass “wub wub” just before each kick hit? How many distinct layers of sounds that play the chord progression can you find (around 3)?  

(2:20) After an Alex Clare verse and another chorus, Don takes us into a dark breakdown where string-ish sounding chords swell over subbass and Alex’s spaced-out (aka very reverby) vocals. At 2:45, the listener gets a treat - an entirely unique, higher-energy, instrumental variation on the chorus.  Here, some basses run amuck, alternating with synth chords, as hints of the vocal tease us at the end of every phrase. 

Again, it’s worth listening to these 16 measures a couple times to notice the complex interactions between numerous little sounds. I particularly like the more auto-tuned vocal riff at the end of the first 8 measures (2:50) that leads us into the “I will give it all” refrain at 3:00. Don repeats this refrain a few times, each with a wilder “all” for punctuation - a very rock-star idea that adds a very human, emotional build to the end of the track. 

Indeed, I think Don Diablo achieves an incredibly human, emotional track overall because, somewhat ironically, he invests so much in intricate, refined production. Daft Punk may have recorded real instruments in their half-hearted attempt at sounding human in “Get Lucky” - but I think humanity via music production is better found in (tasteful) complexity. Ok, enough philosophy crap, let’s just dance. See you next week!

This week, I’ll be giving shoutouts to each of my musical heroes who support Humour and Ambrosia. I’m truly honoured to be in conversation with some of the best music producers in the world. 

First, Don Diablo. Sounds like: golden light and burnt edges. He employs a carefully crafted combination of powerful, emotional melodies and hard-hitting, fun-loving beats. Great, encouraging guy whose unparalleled passion comes across in all of his amazing music videos.

“Like the legend of the pheonix,” Daft Punk has arisen from the ashes, soon to be reborn with the release of Random Access Memories on May 21st. With the first single off the album, “Get Lucky,” the French duo gives us a hint of the reinvigorated, reinvented sound off their upcoming album. Let’s look at both the goods and bads of this highly anticipated tune.  

(0:00) Without any fuss, we start with the simple, fun, and catchy backing rhythm section which repeats throughout the track. Instantly we can hear the beautiful, crisp, and very human live-ness of “Get Lucky” in the tighly performed drum, rhythm guitar, bass, piano, and rhodes keyboard tracks - listen a few times and pick out each instrument. Notice how each sound has a beautifully crafted space around it in both frequency (meaning the guitar doesn’t clash with the piano around 400hz, for example) and time (the offbeat rhodes chords don’t overlap with the guitar chucks).

(0:15) Pharrell’s smooth, clean vocal begins with a crisply delivered verse. Compare this vocal section to the preceding instrumental section - there are many beautifully subtle changes in orchestration that accentuate the different rhythmic and sonic demands of the vocal section: for example, the rhodes quiets down to be less distracting, the bass plays a funky motif at the end of each phrase to accentuate the chord progression changes, etc.). However, these changes are too subtle to really remain interesting as the track repeats sections later on.

(0:33) A well-written prechorus cleverly ascends in pitch to subconsciously build drama and raise a crowd’s hands. Unfortunately, the instruments don’t support Pharrell’s rising vocal: instead, they remain static and repetitive. This is the main issue I have with “Get Lucky”; the backing instrumental is certainly an amazingly constructed groove, but doesn’t offer any interesting variations nor changes to support the rather dynamic vocal. It’s like Daft Punk didn’t really collaborate with Pharrell, instead just slapping his vocal on top of their groove made with Nile Rogers.

(0:50) However, in the excellent chorus, there’s far less of a disparity between songwriting and production. Notice the beautiful rhythmic interplay between the guitar and Pharrell’s sharp vocal. After the second chorus at TIME, Daft Punk “sing” a variation with their trademark robot (vocoder) voices; notice the delicious occasional little pauses. Here, finally, all the elements come together to create one of the most cohesive, solid grooves I’ve ever heard - impossible to not dance to. This is the brilliance we expect from Daft Punk; too bad the rest of “Get Lucky” isn’t as cohesive.

Let’s look at the harder side of EDM this week: Showtek & Noisecontrollers’ collaboration, “Get Loose,” released on OWSLA this April 16 (pick up the single here). While the more relaxed, pretty music that I generally review is more interesting from a songwriting perspective (notes, melodies, music arrangement, etc), the banging stuff is more interesting from a production perspective (sounds, rhythm, structure, etc.). This potent collaboration between the two Dutch production duos is pretty wild; let’s dive into the danger.

(0:30)

The breakdown features absolutely massive chords, which sound so thick because it contains several polyphonic voices, each detuned slightly/chorused to appear bigger). This is a solid melody because phrase 2 (the latter four measures) nicely leads back down into phrase 1 with its last few chords. Notice the high note variation in phrase 2, which creates a sense of development and growth. Showtek & Noisecontrollers waste no time continuing this growth with a speedy, short buildup, where the 8th/16th note synth layered underneath really accelerates the slow pace of the breakdown in time for the high-energy drop.

(0:58)

The drop is powered by a big, distorted kick drum, which is a staple of the hardstyle EDM sub-genre. In between the thundering stomp of the kick, a synth stab, also thick and detuned, drives each beat forward. Notice how the Dutch producers give us a little break on the last beat of every two measures to reinvigorate our interest. Note how they tastefully fade the synth bass stab out to make room for a snare drum roll to lead us smoothly into the second breakdown. This is in stark contrast to the typical big-room house track which builds senseless drama towards the end of its already high-energy drop section.

(2:45)

After a longer, more dynamic chord riff-powered breakdown, Showtek & Noisecontrollers drop us into a delightfully different second drop. Instead of powering forward on fast synth 16th note stabs as in the first drop, this second drop feels slower and grander because of its bass sound rhythms. The first beat of each measure is dominated by one fat bass sound, tortured by distortion effects and cleverly modulated to sound like it is bending under the pressure of the kick drum hit. Also notice the triplet (1/12 notes) high synths here — try to track how each measure has a slightly different sound — subtly engaging without distracting you from dancing silly.

AND AROUND (3:45)

The track slows down in epic fashion to drop to a moombahton (110bpm) rendition of this section — pretty fat. Overall, a highly engaging, smartly produced hardstyle-esque track — nasty can be artistic, too

Major Lazer’s 2nd album Free the Universe is finally out today and showcases the two man group’s impressive musical growth. Diplo and Jillionaire managed to cram all of the bombastic spirit of their notoriously ridiculous live shows into these 14 original tracks. The album ranges from slow, relaxed psychedelic dub adventures like Jessica (ft. Ezra Koenig) to wild, high energy dubstep bangers like Jah No Partial (ft. Flux Pavilion). The production style of Diplo and Jillionaire is present on every track: dirtied, rough sounds, big, visceral percussion, and wonky, unwieldy synths. Additionally, collaborators in both production (like GTA, Laidback Luke,  Flux Pavilion, etc.) and songwriting (Santigold, Wynter Gordon, Bruno Mars, etc.) lend their unique styles to Free the Universe. 

To envision the sound of this album in an image: a Jamaican shanty town, run-down but happy, that, as the sun sets, evolves from a sunny place of relaxation to a wild, primal celebration of voodoo spirits. Although Free the Universe certainly Major Lazer’s most complex and sophisticated work to the discerning ear, it is still shamelessly dirty and beautifully uninhibited. If you want to get silly, sweat, and add some primal Caribbean flavour to your day - take a listen, especially to these following highlighted tracks.

You’re No Good

Santigold’s plaintive voice emerges out of a fog of spaced out, dark and dirtied bells, piano chords, an “ooh”ed riff, and windy pads. Diplo shocks the listener at 0:15 with a scream and drop into a bouncing rap section where the rhythm of the vocals and percussion work beautifully together. Later, Danielle Haim’s soft, fuzzy voice takes over for a catchy verse that precedes the slower, more mournfully sweet chorus. Overall, an impressive display of Diplo’s musical ability, tying catchy, clever vocal melodies together seamlessly with fiery rap verses over a complex backdrop of sexy production.

Keep Cool

I think this is the best of the previously unreleased tracks on Free the Universe, mostly due to the smoky vocal work of Wynter Gordon. Within a few seconds, the massive sub-bass and snare in Keep Cool’s intro will tell you that Diplo means business on this high energy banger. Although some melodies in the verse are very close to those of Lana del Rey on “Video Games”, they lead well into Wynter’s catchy, hand-raising chorus. Underneath, Flosstradamus-esque trap synth stabs build into a drop featuring the island-flavored rap of Shaggy.

Get Free

Opening with a round, bouncy organ and muted guitar licks, Get Free is a modern reggae masterpiece. By keeping the background production rather slow, simple, and sparse, Diplo allows Amber, of the popular indie band Dirty Projectors, to really shine with a fast, impressive vocal verse. One of the already-released singles of Free the Universe, Get Free’s chorus is probably already on your lips already. Nevertheless, very simple, very fun, and very catchy - a future-classic song that will certainly continue to be enjoyed years down the road.

Bubble Butt

The title makes it clear that this track doesn’t take itself seriously. Indeed, it’s filled with goofy, pitch-bent synths that rise and pop like bubbles. However, with a fat sub bass underneath and thuggish rap verses above, Bubble Butt comes across not as stupid or silly, but as straight up fun. This wonderfully ridiculous track appeals to DJs looking to remove any inhibitions on a dance floor who don’t particularly care about appearing smart or sophisticated. Don’t miss the cool vocal chop rhythms, reminiscent of bubbles popping, that roll throughout the track (hear them easily at 3:18). 

Released today, James Blake’s Overgrown is a stunning collection of new songs which feature his mature production sense, his elegant minimalism, and of course, those agile, beautiful vocals. Whether enveloped in a thick atmosphere of dusted synths and dark percussion, or hanging on to the silence in between silvery vocal notes, the listener easily loses track of time within these tracks. The album features a few experiments, like Take a Fall, and a few sure to become timeless masterpieces, like Retrograde. Take a listen through one of the most unique and sophisticated releases to ever grace electronic music - even if Overgrown doesn’t speak to you, we can at least agree that James Blake is pushing the envelope.

Overgrown

The title track of the album is built upon a thick rhythmic bed of dark, round, and subtly warm percussive tones. Overall, it features a summery, evocative melody that has brilliant moments in which it switches between major and minor.

I Am Sold

The second track is more sparse in production and more mournful in songwriting. Notice the lovely guitar line in the background that contributes to this piece’s slow, melancholy plod forward.

Life Round Here

“And we’re at square one” Blake sings here, on top of rising and falling, driving and pausing synthesisers. The drum beat demonstrates the greater influence of hip hop on these new tracks in comparison to his less rhythmically-defined previous work.

Take a Fall

Unexpectedly, Take a Fall features the smooth, precise performance of a rapper. However, among Blake’s spacious arrangement and luscious sound design, I think it’s more appropriate to call this rapper a poet. Regardless, an interesting, inventive track certainly worth your analysis.

Retrograde

See my in-depth analysis of Retrograde on Anatomy of a Hit! This remains my favourite song on the release, only augmented by the songs surrounding it, only more enjoyable now knowing the full musical context of Overgrown.

DLM

Similar to the stripped piano plus vocal chorus arrangement of his older hit, Measurements, DLM surrounds you, enveloping you in Blake’s nuanced arrangement, exposing you to both his angels and demons.

Digital Lion

Previously released as the second single of the album, the middle track features a stunningly beautiful hummed background vocal that supports the wistful cries of “digital lion”. Wonderfully delicate and frosty, like the snow in Overgrown’s album cover.

Voyeur

Although prominently placed, the vocal is not the focus, as in every other track, and instead serves as a trance inducing, repetitive element under which rapid piano arpeggios raise and lower the track’s energy.

 

To The Last

This very slow, ballad-like song employs many tantalising moments of silence. The chorus conveys regret and wistfulness, fond moments past, and sunny, future hope - listen to how each pad chord changes the current emotion - beautiful.

Our Love Comes Back

Blake mainly hums on the sweet penultimate track that features sensuous synths and slow, bubbly pitched-up vocal chops.

Everyday I Ran

Blake closes the album with the airy, ethereal Everyday I Ran. Washed out with reverb and sustained synth notes, the final track is as grandiose as he ever gets, an arguably fit ending.

At Ultra just under three weeks ago, Eric Prydz’ set stood in stark contrast to every other DJ who graced the main stage. Instead of brusquely smashing the crowd with high energy hits for the entirety of his hour, the Swedish producer started more calmly, subtly building energy in a dynamic, smoothly sculpted set. His newly released track, “Power Drive,” played a pivotal role in the halfway point of his set, tipping the crowd from subdued to raging.

(0:00)

The intro of “Power Drive” features, as you can safely assume, powerful, driving drums. Listen to the hi hats — notice how they’re side-chained heavily to the kick drum (whenever the kick drum hits, the hi hats duck down in volume)? Even though the percussion (hats, snare drum roll, etc.) is playing a straight 16th note (four hits per beat) rhythm, the pulsating rise and fall between percussion hits adds a dynamic that sucks the beat down into the next kick drum, really driving the track forward.

(1:00)

In the breakdown, Prydz leaves us solely with the riff played by the plucky bell sound that has been ominously building behind the drums until now. Notice how the bell is slightly detuned – this creates a thicker, richer sound and a disorienting, non-comforting emotional effect, which is intentional: this breakdown isn’t about relaxation, it’s about anticipation.

(1:40)

A 16th note percussion roll slowly fades in as the musical riff grows in size, and strings and pads layer behind the bell sound, building ominously. The riff is only 2 measures long (paired in 4-measure-long phrases of riff “A” and variation “B”). Why is this rather simple musical riff so riveting and effective? Listen to the overall movement of the pitch between notes — it descends downward, giving the impression that it is constantly moving. Each pair of two notes zig-zags up and down, adding a little complexity and intrigue.

(2:20)

After 4 measures of introduction to the massive synth bass sound that takes over the riff from here on, the track drops to that fantastically driving groove, with the notable addition of a woop sound on every beat for extra craziness. Every element is heavily side chained to the kick, sucking the listener forward, tirelessly driving. This repetitious track is certainly musically boring — but that might be necessary in order to better serve the relentless, trance-inducing goals of “Power Drive.”

Bonobo’s new album, The North Borders, features 13 beautiful tracks of dreamy soundscapes, dusty percussion, and soul-searching melodies. I highly recommend a complete listen through the album, where Emkay, Transits, and Sapphires are my favourites, though there is something particularly special about Heaven for the Sinner, which features the emotive vocals of Eryka Badu. 

(0:00) The track begins immediately with the vocal verse; Eryka has a very interesting voice like that of Kendrick Lamar that shifts in timbre note to note and fits perfectly within Bonobo’s thick instrumental back drop. Pick out the bells that softly punctuate the piece, you’ll notice the ring of one hit every measure in your right ear if you’re wearing headphones. How cool is that cool guitar-esque strum that pokes out of the beat every two measures (actually three notes in very quick succession that sound like one note).

(0:30) After becoming accustomed to the beat for a while, you’ll notice the slightly off, shifting, wonky nature of the drum rhythms. Count the number of times you bob your head per measure and you’ll realise the track is actually in 3/4 time, a rarity in modern music. The drum and percussion rhythms feel wonky in order to accommodate the 3/4 time signature - if there was a kick drum on every beat, then the song would feel like a tame waltz and would lose its magical, ethereal quality. 

(1:55) After a sparse breakdown that exposes the individual beauty of each element, including the very subtle atmospheric sounds, we’re taken into a bridge section. Listen through this part just once ignoring all sounds except the plucked string/bell, which plays 8th note ostinatos of the chord progression but will burst into rapid upward arpeggios on occasion for dramatic effect. This sound continues for the rest of the track, adding another layer of energy and movement for the final few sections.

(2:25) The chorus is simple, consisting of Eryka’s incredibly catchy “uhuhuhuhhh” background vocals and her ad-libs in between. However, its simplicity is compensated for by the wonderfully thick production behind it, which thickens towards the end with the addition of orchestral elements. A lone clarinet/low woodwind comes in first to emphasise the root note of each chord. Later, strings ostensibly fade in at 2:45 to provide a variation on the chord progression, beautifully arranged and “performed” (quotations because these are likely software strings whose volume and timbre Bonobo carefully, manually edited to emulate the dynamics of a real performance). 

Overall, I seriously recommend going through this piece and trying to recognise every single distinct sound, from the atmospheric effect like the sound of shifting/falling stones to the little fuzzy bass stab that only plays once or twice the whole piece. Bonobo’s Heaven for the Sinner truly offers a diverse array of sound design to savour and appreciate more with every listen. 

LIKE BOOM: Why Avicii has balls the size of watermelons →

thayernick:

In case you didn’t hear, this weekend Avicii stepped up to the Ultra mainstage to premier his new album material. Let’s put that into context. One of the biggest mainstream ‘EDM’ artists closing the biggest stage at the biggest EDM festival in the US on the first night of its second weekend. That…

Pretty Lights unveils a fantastic new tune that spills over the brim with both classic soul and youthful energy. It’s supported by easily the most beautifully shot concert / live video I’ve ever seen. The video isn’t glaring or in your face like most dance music videos; it’s instead dark, overlaid with flares of colour, and incredibly classy, just like Pretty Lights’ music. Credit to video producer RadioEditAV for supporting the music absolutely perfectly, but now let’s get into the actual music. 

0:00 We begin with a solid groove with much subtle complexity; try to pick out the crunchy attack on the kick drum, the reverse swooshes before some snares, the delicate variations in the hihat/shaker sound. In the background, several layers, like sampled record needle noise and hints of orchestral strings and horns, create a thick juicy atmosphere. The intro subtly builds with the addition of the more elaborate piano riffs and rhythmic layers so that you barely notice the track’s development - so smooth. 

0:45 A thick, dark bass sound dominates the first beat of each measure, posing a “question” to which the vocal sample “responds” to in the second, third, and fourth beats of the measure. Listen carefully to that vocal response - some measures have guitar or other instruments carefully integrated into the vocal melody - so cohesive that it’s easy to miss.

1:20 We hit our first break from what so far has been a constant, driving, trance-inducing groove. Light, airy vocal melodies that are chopped, stuttered, and reverse over a simple acoustic guitar ostinato. For the first time in the track Pretty Lights breaks from subtle, clean sounds to briefly smack listeners in the face with a snare drum roll, heavily layer with dirtied white noise, to build anticipation for the drop.

1:50 The track drops to the same first beat bass & melodic response in the second half of each measure format. This section’s similarity in rhythm and arrangement to the other sections makes the track incredibly cohesive overall. Here though, the bass has more overtones (the warmth and fuzz that makes it nastier and more noticeable) and pitch bends down after each note. A synth plays a simple three note riff to draw dancers back down into the next 1 beat. Try to pick out all the cool edits and variations in sound and rhythm that start around 2:15. 

This track employs many incredibly simple musical riffs and sounds, at least twice as many sounds and riffs as a normal song. But Pretty Lights gets away such rare musical complexity because binds every element so seamlessly together, with a powerful “glue” of mixing, arrangement techniques, and sound design. Every time you listen you’ll discover new elements; I only covered a fraction here. This is truly a masterpiece of cohesion.

Following her massively successful collaboration with Disclosure on “White Noise”, AlunaGeorge’s “Attracting Flies” is the latest released single from her upcoming album. Although less overtly “electronic” than the typical track I review, it’s worth looking into the sharp, dusted production that makes this tune have serious pop appeal without compromising its seriously spunky personality.

(0:00) Dusty guitar stabs, claps, and wonky synth riff start us off, quickly hooking the listener in. Repeat this section a few times - try to pick out the fuzzy, warm (dusty) distortion on each element and the short reverb that adds space to the synth. Notice how dirty and punchy the clap/snare layered drum sounds - the technical term for this is “crunchy”, really.Just when your ear has had time to hear and (subconsciously) understand every component of the beat (which takes about four measures in this case), the track jumps into the vocal verse. Such quick starts and short sections like these are essential in pop-esque music in order to quickly grab a first time, casual listener’s capricious attention. The producer can’t afford to waste any time in the song’s structure because the difference between the song’s success and failure is often determined by how many people flip to the next video or radio station after just 10 seconds of listening. 

(0:10) Aluna’s vocal works wonderfully against the rhythm of the drums and little bubbly synth arpeggios at the end of each measure nicely complement the vocal’s melody. Notice how are a few sounds are removed from the drums at the end of the verse (0:25) - this is for the sake of variation and also for leaving some breathing room so that the following section sounds a little bigger. These subtle variations are crucial for smoothing over transitions, raising or lowering energy appropriately. 

(0:38) After a short pre-chorus, the chorus comes in with “little grey fairy tales”, supported by powerful piano stabs on the front of each measure, supporting the chord progression. I’m not going to dive deep into the amazingly catchy vocal melody here, but I encourage you to spend some time with it: put a pencil on paper and try to follow the vocal’s pitch up or down as you steadily move your hand to the right. Now you have a graph of the chorus melody over time and it’s easy to see, without caring about specific notes, how its rises and falls create the overall structure of the phrase. From here, the various parts interplay and combine in various ways that support the quick, sharp, spunky nature of the song and production - beautiful.  

As you can see, even a relatively simple pop-esque song like “Attracting Flies” is deceptively complex and worth a second (or third) look. You could spend an hour just studying the chorus melody or the sound of that wonky synth. See you next week, hopefully with some new proper dance music to review.