chicago

different sleep – infinite EP

My second to last semester of being an undergraduate student is coming to a close and I find that I keep hitting inanimate objects in a futile attempt to understand where the hell time has gone. As I direct my weekly panic attacks about the future to my parents, I can’t help but reflect on what I have accomplished, and what time I’ve wasted in being a directionless twenty-something.

While it doesn’t solve anything to harp on the past and debate the woulda-coulda-shoulda’s, as a senior I’m finally recognizing all the annoying advice my parents gave me as kid as something I should have actively followed. I’m a second generation Indian which should, theoretically speaking, make me a doctor, lawyer, astronaut, mathematician, or Indian breeding machine. Alas, I fear I have eternally disappointed my parents in pursuing music, baking, and a general distaste (i.e. lack of talent) in the sciences.

I COULD PROVE THE AMERICAN DREAM CAN COME TRUE, IF I BELIEVE.

Okay, enough shouting, my shift pinky hurts. Let’s bring in the latest EP by Different Sleep aptly named, Infinite. I’ve been very behind in writing this blog post due to school and life obligations, so please accept my sincerest apologies.

FIRST LISTEN

1. Be My Center

We open with one of my favorite Different Sleep releases from June which I dedicated an entire blog post to months ago. You can read that here. More on how I feel the song works in context with the rest of the EP later.

2. Infinite

We now have the title track to the EP and the first six seconds remind me of Baths production style, though less minimalist. It has rolls and waves sprinkled throughout the song making it an alternative song in a soundtrack for Ponyo. It has this twisting buildup and breaks into a very ‘old school’ Different Sleep production style. The sampling is on point with other artists on the Svengali label which is what draws me to their music to begin with. I can’t get enough of this song, it’s a stunner and makes me tear up thinking about memories of the past.

Also, I finally figured out what this song reminded me of – Taragana Pyjarama’s song, ‘Ocean.’ If you haven’t heard it already a link to it on YouTube can be found at the end of the post.

3. 2013

From the start it has an upbeat melody and boppy synths which leads to a lot of furious head nodding. The buildup in the first minute is so well executed. Different Sleep proves to be a very capable, diverse producer because this is a DANCE TRACK. It’s got a very Euro feel to it and is catchy as f**k. I’m freaking out so hard in my apartment right now because this EP is continuing to throw surprises. #@*($&#)@*( already building the perfect set for a sexy dance party with this track as one of the spotlight songs.

4. Make It Real

 The song starts off with a very dreamy quality to it. Coming off the energy-driven ‘2013,’ this adds for a nice transition into a dream of wandering through a forest on that horse from The NeverEnding Story. Straying awake from the darker tones the previous song introduces us, the synths and echoing vocals adds for a very sweet sound. It has a smooth beat which further adds to a dreamworld I never want to leave which is highlighted by the sounds of footsteps at the end of the track which makes it the perfect close to a phenomenal EP.

SAS

Both in and out of context, this EP absolutely nails it. Really loving all of the releases Svengali has put out on their label with a lot of Chicago artists being repped hard. It gives me insurmountable amounts of joy to have such mind-blowing music come out of this city because it’s been a part of my heart for over two decades now.

The EP is up for free download off the Svengali bandcamp page with a link to it in the picture above. DOWNLOAD IT. LOVE IT. SPREAD THE WORD.

As mentioned above, here’s Taragana Pyjarama’s song ‘Ocean.’

-jo.

guest blogger: kevin hsia x le knights

Graciously invited to write for jo’s musings, I am happy to share my findings and thoughts that I feel best spotlights music raising the bar on current trends. I will be cheesy. I will make up words. I will be opinionated and sometimes brash. If I step on any toes, please let me know.

To be brief, I enjoy 70s and 80s music and love disco and house in all its forms. Just as EDM and DJ culture has blown up in the world conscious, it is my understanding that genres must be progressive just as it pays homage to the past. As Isaac Newton said, if anyone has seen [or heard] further,  “it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” I realized as I explored the genre of house music, the classics never left. What I felt the classics had in common with “good” modern music is  meticulous production and musicianship.

I started DJing as part of a small collective of music aficionados in Champaign-Urbana since 2008. I wanted to share music that was under the radar and had those golden qualities. Having kept a selective presence, I played an intimate variety of house parties and shows in the Chicago area since college days. With a new summer mix on the horizon, my most recent work as Le Knights can be previewed on the soundcloud player below.

With every kid and his dad jamming on their new DJ gizmo, who is there to defend against the onsalught of crappola? Blogs and all writers who claim to “write about music” must be there to resist posting music and artists to simply receive internet hit points.  I accept this responsibility as my civic duty and working with jo’s musings, we will do our best to keep you informed.

As readers explore this site, I hope you visit often for your funkscription. See you on my next post.

– Kevin

*I also partake in photography. My photo work can be found on facebook and flickr.

mister lies

There’s something about summer nights in Chicago that puts me in a funk. Maybe it’s my distaste for the heat mixed with perfect circumstances for night walks that makes me all moody yet excitable for music.

Such is the case when listening to Mister Lies.

This kid (yes, a child, he is only 19) is a wizard with ambient music, down tempo, and something he and Different Sleep coined ‘ambient gospel.’ He’s a Chicago local with a penchant for dream making.

This past Wednesday was his official debut in Chicago as a producer at this dive bar/music venue in Wicker Park called Empty Bottle.

Holy goodness.

That kid knows how to build a solid set list, not to mention listening to any Mister Lies song on massive speakers is a very humbling experience. The music has a cascading effect on your body – my friend and I didn’t speak for the entire set. That’s a very rare occurrence for us. The only qualms I had about his live performance is the amount of time he spent fiddling with effects. I get that for this kind of music it’s difficult to throw curve balls, but it would’ve been cool to see him deconstruct his songs and put them back together on stage. Baths, Nosaj Thing, Daedelus, Star Slinger, among others, have a similar MO as trigger artists. Having DJed a decent amount and seeing enough electronic shows, I can say that just messing with the effects and EQ’s isn’t enough for me to stay interested.

I’m being hard on the guy, he’s only done a few shows. He’ll figure out a solid groove for himself soon enough.

Earlier this year he released his Hidden Neighbors EP which is absolute gold. I can’t tell you how many nights I spent walking all over my campus at night, or laying in bed losing myself in thought to “Cleam” and “Morgan.” The Jessica Blanchet vocals on “I Walk” are ethereal and yet grounding in the way Mister Lies messes around with them. The music surrounds you rather than something you only listen to.

I don’t know, this kid makes me act a damn fool when a track of his comes on.

Overall, Mister Lies has a very clean production style. It’s minimalistic (which I adore – how very Japanese of me) yet still lush and dynamic enough to keep interest. A friend of mine and I had a long conversation about the way Mister Lies makes music, in that, while it is heavily ambient, the bass lines and drums he sneaks in makes for a more musically rich experience. I find that, while being a big fan of ambient music, songs tend to get wrapped up droning instruments that the song loses itself. It becomes repetitive, boring, and overall a general waste to listen to multiple times.

“Cleam” comes dangerously close to doing this, with it being roughly six minutes long. It’s such a gorgeous composition though, that listening to it alone at night keeps it from falling into the stereotypical down tempo trap. The song has, wait for it, an unbelievably sexy bass line. The vocals make you want to sleep with someone in a destructive way with a man saying to “make a move.” How can you not?

The kid has a gift for composing his music. From the pianos, synths, drums, and especially the bass lines, he proves himself as a natural musician. He recently tweeted that he was heavily considering not making music anymore, not even three months ago, but holy damn is the music community glad that he did not partake in said decision.

We’re just over halfway through the year and Mister Lies has an impressive array of releases on his bandcamp and soundcloud pages. I hope he spends some time working on his live sets ’cause I know there is a lot of greatness coming from this kid in the near future. My spidey senses are going off non-stop about it.

-jo.

spring awakening recap

A couple weekends ago I hit up the first Spring Awakening Music Festival in Chicago. It was a standard, douchey electronic festival with a lot of bros, women who were in their thirties dressing like 17 year olds, and and far too much neon in all the wrong places.

Ladies, remember how you look and what your body type can handle before you dress yourself. My roommate and I remarked on how, at music festivals, girls treat it like Halloween: you can dress as scandalously as you like, and you can get away with it. Trust me though, you should really reevaluate.

Rant over and out.

SATURDAY

I dunno if you guys heard about the hellish heat that hit Chicago that weekend but it was an inferno of humidity and sweat. The sister, who accompanied me that day, and I decided to forego seeing Bart B More and wait until the A-Trak set to arrive at the festival. Despite Spring Awakening having a bunch of well-known DJs and producers performing, it was still a relatively empty event. Even 150 feet away from the main stage during A-Trakky Trak’s set, I still had room to tribal dance with myself.

That’s impressive.

This was the second time my sister and I have seen A-Trak perform and he absolutely killed it. His had to be one of my favorite sets at SAMF based on his varied set (dance, hip hop, quirky electronic stuff), energy, mad scratching after his final song, and epic posing on the amps.

After his set, the sister and I ran over to see Dillon Francis perform (no pictures, it was awkward lighting) and the cutest thing happened – after A-Trak finished on the main stage, he high tailed it to “Da Equinox Stage” (<– seriously SAMF? Weak) and hung out with Dilly. He hung back side stage where my sister and I just stared at him, seeing as that A-Trak was now 30 feet away from us. Crazy. Made awkward eye contact and continued Bernie-ing around the field.

It was also the second time catching Dillon Francis, when, the first time, he made a guest appearance at the Skrillex/Dada Life show back in November. That was a high energy performance if I’ve ever seen one. Haven’t felt that lively since I saw The Hives back in high school.

Grabbed sushi after Dillon Francis finished since we had no desire to see Skrillex (well, not again at least) and the sister had to prep for her flight to San Fran in the morning. Solid first day, overall.

SUNDAY

I was mad pumped for Sunday, mainly because I could finally see Felix Cartal live, which I’d been waiting to do for just under two years. This time, my best friend came with me since the sister decided to ditch me to go across the country (she actually left to go bike from San Fran to Indiana – pretty baller), and after a filling brunch at Sunda we made our way over.

Felix Cartal was the first set of the day, and he started and ended his set strongly. The middle was pretty boring, for a live setting. As a fluid set it made perfect sense, but when I’m at show I want surprises. Throw curveballs, take risks, because that’s the whole point of live performances – the messiness of it all.

The best part of the FC was his hair. Have you seen his hair? It should be illegal. I got a shot of him trying to act cool by playing with his stupid hair.

He finished up, we sat off to the side during Datsik’s set, then headed back to the Equinox stage for Diplo.

I’ve now seen a Major Lazer performance (which Diplo did – does anyone know if Switch ever does ML sets?) and a solo one by Diplo and can say, without a doubt, that if given the opportunity to see either show, go for the Diplo one. He had all the parts that FC’s set was missing and more.

It was a mix of weird Diplo finds with ML tracks, old school Snoop, and playing out many tracks I’d never heard of. Frequent dance festival goers will know just how exciting it is when you can’t recognize a song a DJ plays.

The best friend and I got mad sweaty at his set since everyone had turned into the best kind of raging monsters while I went into straight animal dancing. Madness.

Diplo at SAMF

Spring Awakening scheduled Sunday like complete turds. They decided that it would be a good idea to put Laidback Luke, Wolfgang Gartner, and Moby on at the same time. Seriously, guys? Luckily, I’d seen Laidback Luke a couple of months back down in Urbana, so we high tailed it to the main stage to catch Moby’s set which was so nostalgic. His style is classic DJ. The guy actually plays out his tracks. We got into our dance grooves and I nerded out over his older stuff.

It’s a mild pet peeve of mine that most DJs think they need to be ADHD with the way they play sets. Only getting 30 second snippets (if that) of songs doesn’t let me feel out how I want to dance. Nowadays it’s all about the drops and less about the melodic buildup. Thanks brostep.

We saw half of his set then ran over to some other crappily named stage to catch the second half of Wolfgang Gartner’s performance. It was a wave of sweaty air and drugged out dancers everywhere, but he also put on a great show. My inner nerd may or may not have freaked out a ton when I saw all the Japanese on his shirt.

This was the last guy the best friend and I were going to catch so we gave it our all in dancing, and befriended the security guy who let us into the VIP section just for being friendly. We had no desire to actually be in there but he seemed to like our old school moves: definitely busted out the sprinkler and shopping cart numerous times.

Gartner finished his set out strong, then the best friend and I parted ways and headed back to our respective apartments for the night. I could hear Afrojack’s set from the high rise I was in a good fifteen blocks away. Intense.

Gotta say it was a pretty fantastic weekend for SAMF. I’m assuming that next year’s will be more packed, but that’s the advantage for having an under advertised music festival for the first one. Wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s nice having that intimate of crowd interaction between most of the performers and the audience since it’s an uncommon occurrence at these big festivals.

Next one on my list is Pitchfork. Bring it.

-jo.

different sleep

Producers these days are getting to be so young, or rather, the internet is allowing for these bedroom musicians to foster their talents and make a name for themselves at an earlier age. Look at Madeon, or the duo Bondax from the UK – the first has already performed at Coachella, while the latter supported Star Slinger for a portion of his UK tour. These kiddies are screwin’ with my head.

Cue in Chicago producer Different Sleep. You’ll typically see his name paired with his fellow producer-friend, Mister Lies, both sitting at a pretty 19 years of age. Different Sleeps first single released on his bandcamp page offers for very promising future releases (which we have seen with his joint EP with Mister Lies, “Mass”).

FIRST LISTEN

  1. Next Time I See You
    It opens with recorded “city-scape sounds” followed by a sentimental acoustic guitar over a quiet bassline. The song, with its eerie breathing interspersed throughout the track creates a nostalgic atmosphere. Then, suddenly, it breaks! Are we led to a happier place? There’s a promise of it under the xylophone, making what was a song meant for staring out at the Chicago skyline in the late hours of the night with tears for company, into a nostalgic, yet fond, memory. I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone shed tears over this song.
  2. Turbulence
    Maybe it’s because I listened to this song at 4AM one night (morning? Night? I’m an owl) but it definitely had a happier vibe to it. The song offered a clear day-to-night transition for the single, and although it isn’t an upbeat song per se, it’s a track which offers a sense of completion for the overall fluidity of the release. That probably doesn’t make sense, but I don’t really care, it’s the wine talking.


    SAS

    Putting this single on reverse made me feel so down: this is a release meant to be listened as stand-alone tracks, or as it was released. If you listen to it on shuffle, beware – you will feel just a little more sad about life and stuff. I have a soft spot for somewhat depressing music so I’ll probably bombard ya guys with posts with similar downtempo songs.

    Keep your eyes out for this guy, big things are gonna come from him, especially if he’s tag-teaming with Mister Lies.

    Keep it secret, keep it safe,
    -jo.