Lazer Sword [b.e.a.r.]
In the heart of the mission district in SF; behind the cogs & gears of XLR8R, their web techie and licensing guru, is Bryant Rutledge {aka LL [Low Limit, Lowest Layer?]}. If we recuse one level deeper; behind Bryant Rutledge’s nine to five facade is half of the music genius of Lazer Sword. The other half being Antaeus Roy [aka Lando Kal]. Throw in Ghosts on Tape and you’ll get what peeps have been callin the Fort Knocks crew.
Lando and LL have been workin’ hard, and will be droppin’ their first release on B.E.A.R. records. They also have a tune coming out soon on a B.E.A.R. compilation. Their live show is what I would like to hear more often in the future of live glitch hop performers. Anyone can beatmatch and mix, but these guys take it to the next level. Everything they do live is 100% improvised, an all-out remix-the-fuck-out-of-everything type of affair. You never know to expect when you hear them rock the party, ’cause they don’t even know either. Think improvisational jazz circa 2010, only with dope drum machines, synths, and laptops instead of sax, bass cello, and a drum kit. They’ve blown up the spot with the likes of the glitch mob, flying lotus, mstrkrft, the cool kids, chromatics, kid 606, trackademicks, ghislain poirier, white girl lust & others…Seriously, you’re so not ready for these tunes:
Edward Ma from Los Angeles is edIT. “Ed Ma’s first album as edIT features tracks that have been painstakingly sequenced, hiphop that takes glitchiness to the extreme. The style of the album takes cues from Prefuse 73, but taken to another level. Yet it is not really the tricky programming that really pops out at you – it’s the soulfulness and smoothness with which each track is glued together from extremely small snippets of sound. The opener features an electric piano first noodling then exploding into a shower of digital particles, it’s all put together with the ear of an expert artist. Guitars peek around the edge of many of the pieces, and there is homage to both underground beats and more g-oriented swissbeatz styles going on. Perhaps the album’s only shortcoming is its relentless pace of all things digital and beautiful, that can be almost too much to bear. Crying over pros for no reason is emotional, instrumental hiphop at its finest – looking forward with its digital edge but also beating with a warm analog heart.”
“It’s a busy life being John Tejada, a man who has graced some of the world’s most highly regarded independent labels with his signature presence — from the mighty Playhouse to Detroit’s 7th City and onto Ferox, Jazzanova, Plug Research, Scape and even Sub Pop — all the way to his own Palette recordings imprint. But it’s together with Japanese multi-instrumentalist Takeshi Nishimoto, however, that John has produced perhaps his most remarkable work — an acoustic overflow of ideas and post-rock configurations known as I’m Not a Gun — a project that has already delighted with a debut album for CCO entitled Everything at Once. For the last 5 years, almost without fail, John Tejada and Takeshi Nishimoto have swept aside their busy schedules every Wednesday to record material for their I’m Not a Gun project. John plays the drums, the guitar and his trusted laptop, while Takeshi completes the equation with his signature guitar and bass padding. Their music is not only a homage to the post-rock soundscaping that Chicago has become so well known for, it’s an advancement of its sound.
Lost Subject is the chilled out debut of a Portland based producer Deceptikon. Creating smooth jazzy downtempo beats, his music is evocative and atmospheric, equally drawing upon hip hop and jazz elements for his gorgeously produced carefully crafted grooves. Utilising numerous techniques, yet regularly arriving at a similar funky location, Deceptikon effortlessly creates the kind of highly composed beat orientated instrumental hip hop pieces championed in recent times by Ninja Tune via the likes of Sixtoo or Blockhead. Whilst not necessarily pushing the sonic envelope, Deceptikon is peerless in his ability to get a groove on, though he is at his best on cuts like /treeghost/ where he doesn’t rely solely on the beats, utilising acoustic guitar and synthesizer to create an intimate sense of longing. Composed over the last few years, Lost Subject is a journey that fits perfectly into the lounge room – funky basslines, crackling trip hop beats and lush gentle atmospheres that act as a relaxing tonic to all the stressors of daily life.
Sam Nelson doesn’t use a single truly novel sound or effect on his first album as Little Plastic Pilots. Every sample and tone you hear has been used by one electronic auteur or another, and most have been done half to death. What’s most remarkable about Little Plastic Pilots, then, is the fact that an absolutely unmistakable personality and musical vision arises from the arrangement and interplay of these utterly familiar elements. Nelson doesn’t attempt to redefine or reinvigorate his genre (as have some of his biggest influences, including Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Boards of Canada); rather, he’s the sort of artist who, finding a complete set of tools and genre parameters available to him, exploits one corner of that established framework to the utmost. More often than not, it’s artists of Nelson’s temperament who create most of a given genre’s most memorable statements.
