When I look at this guy, the last thing that comes to mind is University Professor; however, to the contrary, Steve Nalepa teaches ‘Principles of Music Technology’ at Chapman University Conservatory of Music. He shows really talented classical musicians how to use ProTools, Ableton Live, Reason, etc.

To indulge his passion, he also makes his own beautiful audiovisual masterpieces, under the moniker ‘Nalepa’. On his own, he’s released a handful of tracks on various artists compilations:

‘Fresh’ on Left Coast Liquid Vol. 1 {Native State [2005]}; ‘Porcelain’ on Beneath The Surface {Native State [2006]}; ‘Pomme Granite Dub’ on Future Sound Theory {Celestial Dragon Records [2006]}; ‘Blue’ on Devil in the Detail {Interchill Records [2007]}; and ‘Flatlands’ on Visionair #53: SOUND {Visionaire [2007]}.

Thanks to some motivation from the awesome artist Bluetech [founder of Native State], we can look forward to all these tracks [as well as a handful of others] getting re-released later this summer as a full length album – ‘Flatlands’. On top of this, it comes with a DVD packed full of sexy fun times videos by Benton-C Bainbridge, Brian Kane, Brian Ziffer and Thomas Williams. Not enough? As an added bonus, this disk of goodness will feature remixes by The Glitch Mob, Ruxpin, Deru, (a)pendics.shuffle, David Last, RD, RaNDom, Slidecamp, Kero, Rena Jones, Kraddy, Aerostatic, Bluetech and the Nosaj Thing track we posted already!! For anyone into this music as much as I am, you are thinking ‘what an album’, and you are right!

Here’s an interesting side story while you regain your composure — while I was researching this article, I was told a very old friend of Steve’s came across tracks off my Nosaj Thing article that had been cross posted to pampelmoose, including the Nosaj remix of Flatlands. The mp3 was listed as ‘Nalepa’, and due to the relatively uncommon last name, he decided to check if it was the same Nalepa. Sure enough, it was… So there ya have it – downtempo.ca re-unites people!

Steve and his friend MattB [aka RaNDom] from Japan, have been bouncing incredibly wicked ideas back and forth over the ocean [man, I love the 'net]. Together they go by Bass Science. On December 7, 2007, they dropped their debut EP on Native State, ‘Transmissions from Planet Dub‘. This very unique blend of well produced glitchy-bass-heavy-electronic-dubstep will slam you like a typhoon, and before you even notice you’ll be drowning in lush layers of atmospherics and angelic symphonics. If you make it through that, you most likely will be smacked around by crisp drums and crushed by an immense bass weight. Look out for the Bass Science LP slaughtering heads across the nation, due to drop late 2008. Try ‘Imminent Threat’ on for size below.

On top of all this, Steve has been working with Justin Rickles [aka Brasswork Agency]. Justin’s portfolio is as impressive as Steves – a sound engineer, who’s worked with greats like Public Enemy and The Young Dubliners, releasing music on Plex Records, as well as the infamous Merck Records [a big favourite here at downtempo.ca, i love you Gabe!], and also putting out an upcoming release on LeftHouse Records. These Chicago-born, LA-based music/multimedia event producers combine powers to make the killer duo The FMs. Just recently they dropped Fabulous Morning Swim, also on Native State Records [you can buy it from Beatport]. The FMs reminds me a lot of early IDM, but with a more modern spin. The production skills of both of these talented individuals really shines through across the whole EP. I’ve had a very difficult time picking out my favourite track from this album because I like them all so much! So, I’ve chosen ‘Fancy Seeing You Here’ because it suits my current mood the best.

Nalepa – Porcelain
Nalepa – Flatlands
Nalepa – Pomme Granite Dub

Bass Science – Imminent Threat [Buy the EP]

The FMs – Fancy Seeing You Here [Buy the EP]

Jason Chung aka Nosaj Thing has been catching a lot of peoples attention lately. The reason is obvious. People are starved for talented electronic musicians like this. When I first listened to Jason’s promo mixtape [recorded for dublab], my brain milk was leaking all over the desk …it was disgusting. Which brings me to an interesting question – at what point do words become completely ambiguous? The other day someone told me “yo, those shoes are rude!” and I wasn’t sure if this was a good or bad thing.

Ok! Sorry about the attention deficit influenced random tangent – listen to the mix: Nosaj Thing Live On Dublab

After I cleaned up the brain-mess, I hunted down his EP, which you can buy at Turntable Lab, iTunes and through Paypal. The release sounds like a combination of Eliot Lipp, Daedelus, edIT, Ooah, Lorn & Flying Lotus, but still has a lot of its own unique character and style to it. As I regard this as one of those pieces of art that are just an amazing journey front to back, it has been difficult for me to pick out single tracks as being my favourites. -sigh-

This is the part where I do anyways:

Nosaj Thing – Heart Entire
Nosaj Thing – Distro

In the process of searching for that EP I discovered that he’s dropped a slew of remixes, some of which have even been contest winners! Surprised? Unlikely.

Daedelus-It’s Madness (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Nalepa – Flatlands (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Health-Tabloid Sores (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Plastic Little-More Tongue Less Teeth ft. MF Doom (Nosaj Thing Remix)
Scarub from Living Ledgends (?)
Eliot Lipp (?)

Jason is planning on dropping a split 7″ with Lorn, as well as a full length LP sometime in mid 2008! Word is he’s been working pretty damn hard to get it all polished and finished up. I’m not sure who to be more excited about on that 7″ to be totally honest – Lorn and Nosaj Thing are both top notch electronic music producers.

Jason is yet to be signed to a lable, which kinda blows my mind! Hefty? Alphapup? Glitch Mob Unlimited? Seriously what are you guys waiting for? This guy is Glitch-Hop’s best kept secret!

I also recommend checking out his friend Kawata, and the Mixtape. It reminded me how much i love Ratatat. If you haven’t heard their Remixes Vol. 2 yet you really should cop that shit also.