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]

Ooah is a seriously amazing turntablist. Listen to some of his older mixes, and you’ll be spoiled with delightful scratching, beat juggling and mixing [do i really need to mention mixing, i mean isn't that part of the definition of a mix? I guess it depends you could be really hot on noisecore "mix" tapes]. Seriously, what ever happened to turntablism? It’s like ever since Q-bert destroyed the DMCs for a couple years in a row its been kind of a dying art. I’m sure I’m going to get heckled for saying that. I mean, don’t get me wrong here, but turntablism used to be so much more intigrated into an [electronic music] DJ’s set than it is these days. I guess turntablists have been replaced by ableton live dj’s with their armory of VSTs like buffer override, or at least this is what has happened to Ooah.

Besides being a member of the glitch mob, Josh is also one half of the Seedling Escape duo (see below for their promo mix). The other half being Kitty D, another member of the glitch mob. Ooah has a slew of mixes (complete list below) hidden on the otherwise useless glitch mob website [edit - well i guess you could be a fanboy like me and stare at their logo while you masturbate to glitch hop].
Ooah released Hacksaw and Tubstomper on Alpha Pup’s sub label Glitch Mob Unlimited. You can buy those tracks from addictech here and here. He also released Stomp The Yard on a Muti Music compilation I talked about recently, you can buy that track here. And finally the only other tune I’m aware that he’s somewhat officially released is contained within a mix, so i don’t really consider it as counting as a full release of the track. The tune, Tuesday Again, was released as track 4 on the Devil in Detail mix cd which came out on Interchill Records on Sept 27th, 2007. You can order that CD here. Although this mix cd is tight, I can’t wait for a proper release of this track for my own greedy mixing purposes, and well because its mental!
Biggup Ooah, you got nothin’ but love commin’ from me.

Mixes:
The Seedling Escape Mix
Scientific Sound
Dub(step)
Ooah Days
Ghetto Fabulous
Tastes Like Vinyl

Tunes:
<REMOVED>

Oh and just in case you weren’t already overwhelmed with good music, heres one last mix: Local Area Network
This CD was given out the last night after three nights of incredible STS9 performances @ Red Rocks and the Ogden in Denver. It was distributed at the Cervante’s Masterpiece Ballroom after party on September 8th, the bill included Ooah, edIT and Boreta of Glitch Mob and Bassnectar.

1. Ooah “Tuesday Again” (Interchill Records)
2. edIT “Straight Heat” (Alpha Pup Records)
3. Boreta & Eprom “The Good, The Bad, The Squishy” (Unreleased)
4. Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg “The Next Episode” (Kraddy Remix Instrumental) (Refiner Records)/Mr. Vegas “Under Mi Sensi” (Acapella)
5. edIT “The Sirens” (Alpha Pup Records)
6. Boreta & Eprom “Psyphy feat. Mc Epcot” (Unreleased)
7. Ooah “Stomp The Yard” (Muti Music)
8. Lupe Fiasco “I Gotcha” (Kraddy Remix) (Refiner Records)
9. Boreta “Lobegrinder” (Glitch Mob Unlimited)
10. The Grouch “Artsy (edIT Remix)” (Alpha Pup)
11. Clipse “Mr. Me Too (a.k.a. Jalapeno Body Poppers) (Ooah Remix)” (Unreleased)
12. BlackStar “Bright As The Stars (a.k.a. Mos Beautiful) (Kraddy Remix)” (Refiner Records)
*Mix by DJ Yogurt, MC Rev

So, on that note, someone whose persistently kept the emails flowing – Ernest Gonzales aka Theory Of Everything, the man behind Exponential Records. He had originally sent me Exponential Presents: Collapsing Culture, but that was during my one year hiatus from blogging. So, although I did indeed listen to it, I never really worked up the motivation to write about it. Since then, he’s sent me all sorts of music, among other things. Most of it is really good, but I, being not only a very critical and picky listener, but also an avid deleter, ended up only keeping a few tunes. As it turns out, these all happened to be by A.M. Architect. Coincidence? Unlikely.

Like all of the musicians behind Exponential Records, A.M. Architect (Daniel Stanush & Diego Chavez) are from San Antonio, Texas. Currently, they are working on releasing an EP or LP through Exponential later this year. Their production style is awesome – all tracks are well mastered, and the content is always very jazzy, luscious, and melodic. It reminds me a lot of Aphilas, or Sofa Lofa.

Recently, Ernest let me know about Wait Till The Ice Melts, a various artists compilation due to drop sometime in March, ‘08 on Exponential. This time I listened to it front to back. And then I listened to it again, which is rare for me. Like I mentioned, I have a lot of music to go through, so something has to be pretty damm good for me to listen twice. The songs I felt really stood out the most were Ernest’s “Caviar, Cigarettes, Dynamite, & Laser Beams”, and of course, A.M. Architect’s “Upon”.

Check them out! I’ve also linked a handful of A.M. Architect tunes that aren’t on this compilation. Enjoy, and make sure to grab a copy of the compilation when it comes out in March.

Ernest Gonzales – Caviar, Cigarettes, Dynamite, & Laser Beams
A.M. Architect – Upon
A.M. Architect – Next of Kin
A.M. Architect – Sleepless Night
A.M. Architect – Unspoken

Vibesquad aka Aaron Holstein is a musician / producer based near Boulder, Colorado. He not only makes music with computers, plays bass, keyboards, guitar, sings, bangs on drums, shakes things, manipulates synthesizers, samplers, doo-dads & what nots… but he also creates websites, digital graphics, writes words and spreads good vibes! Can you ask for more? He plays with Zilla & Sporque, and makes his own special blend of musical sounds & vibrational transmissions as VibeSquad.
I first heard Vibesquad live, last summer (2006), but could not get my fingers on anything until he dropped the Return Of The Pudding People EP on Native State Records. In late 2007 he released some of his hottest material yet, an EP called Sounds to Accompany the Dance Move: The Worm on Proboscis, a label which was created by James Watts (KiloWatts) and Bil Bless. He also dropped a single, Snagglepuss on a pretty dope glitch-hop compilation, Clipping Paths, which was released on the Muti-Music.
Here are two of my favourite tracks by him to date. Please buy his tunes if you like them, this genius has a child to feed!
Biggie Shorty (BUY!)
Dome Piece (BUY!)

So I guess this should be a post all about why I haven’t written anything on any of my websites for over a year…ok, so, moving on, I have two great mixes for you to listen to, they’ve been posted over at dubstep.ca by Crendore.

The Shambhala Mix is very chill, serious downtempo, dubstepy vibes, lots of burial and even an exclusive track by Crendore, Rainy Days. The StripHop Mix is much more of a dancefloor party mix, lots of glitch hop in the first half and finishes off with some heavy whompity ragga dubstep tracks. He’s also packed in a .cue file incase you want to burn the mix as the 32 individual tracks instead of one long track.

Shambhala Mix Tracklist:
01.Kode 9 – Find My Way
02.Scuba – Dream
03.Matty G – Bitter Love
04.Fat Freddy’s Drop – Cays Crays (DMZ Remix)
05.Digital Mystikz Feat Spen G – Anti War Dub
06.Tom Burbank – Slab
07.Boxcutter – Tauhid
08.Vaccine – Wishful Thinking
09.L Wiz – Girl from Codeine City
10.Rusko – Action Dread
11.Burial – Unite
12.Djunya – Rooted
13.Martyn – Broken
14.Crendore – Rainy Days
15.Scuba – Harpoon
16.Various Productions – Lost
17.Plasticman – Japan
18.Tom Burbank – Riding Off
19.Burial – Wayfaring Stranger
20.Burial – Gutted
21.Burial – Southern Comfort
22.Mala – Bury the Bwoy
23.Scuba – Frisco
24.Jawbone – Duppy Conqueror

StripHop Mix Tracklist:
01.Boreta – Bubblin in The Cut
02.Health – Tabloid Sores (Nosaj Thing)
03.Vibesquad – Biggie Shortie
04.Vibesquad – Funk Iz
05.Ooah – The Seedling Escape
06.Markus Wormstorm – J.O.T.D.
07.EdIT – Straight Heat
08.Nosaj Thing – Heart Entire
09.EdIT – Arty
10.Lazer Sword – Stuntin Like My Daddy (RMX)
11.Ooah – Hacksaw
12.Tipper – Learning Is Remembering
13.Breakbeat Budah – Endurance
14.Eprom – Scratchedizzle
15.Lazer Sword – Last Level
16.Unknown – Good Bad Squishy
17.PRGz – Rollin
18.Crendore – Rollin (Mashup)
19.Matty G – One Step
20.Skream – Pass the Redstripe
21.Crendore – Living in Love (Mashup)
22.The Black Ghost – Some Way Through This (Skream & Plastician RMX)
23.Burial – Block Party Where is Home (RMX)
24.Marlow – Machine
25.Rusko – Jahova
26.Skream & Cluekid – Sandsnake
27.Marlow – Convoy
28.Quark Rukspin and Planas – Miserere
29.Unknown – Intercom
30.Babylon System – Everyday Hustle
31.Coki vs. lil jon – act a fool
32.Crendore – Cockney Thug (Mashup)