BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - December 2016

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ZEDS DEAD KAROLINA KAPUSTA ZEDS DEAD ELECTRONICALLY RECREATES THE BRILLIANCE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS ON THEIR FIRST ORIGINAL LP. After almost a decade spent releasing an onslaught of EPS and remixes, travelling worldwide on several massive tours, and most recently, completing their first full-length studio album and starting a brandnew record label, Dylan Mamid and Zachary Rapp-Rovan, also known as Zeds Dead, have accomplished an insane amount in their careers so far. “I still think we’re freshmen in this scene [in terms] of people [that we] look up to. I forget [that] we’ve been in it for [so] long,” Rapp-Rovan answers humbly over the phone. Rapp-Rovan and Mamid first met in their hometown of Toronto in the mid-2000s where they bonded over their mutual love for hip-hop music and production. Growing up in the Myspace era, the duo originally teamed up under the title Mass Productions and independently released a free LP inspired by 1990s hip-hop titled Fresh Beetz. Pretty soon thereafter, the two friends first discovered electronic dance music and began to produce dance beats under Zeds Dead, a moniker inspired by the movie Pulp Fiction, in 2009. As their fan base began to expand, the duo founded a weekly underground party that they called Bassmentality in the actual basement of a Toronto bar called 751. Used as a platform for new DJs to freely play, the night championed the early EDM scene in Canada and explored sub-genres like dubstep, UK garage, and bass. Over the years the party became known for featuring local weekly performances by Zeds Dead and The Killabits as well as international acts like Skrillex, Nero, Borgore, Bare Noize, and Camo & Crooked, to name a few. In 2013 Zeds Dead released their breakout EP Hot Sauce through Diplo’s Mad Decent label, which quickly placed them on the international EDM circuit. A short year later, the young producers showed off their knack for collaboration by working closely with Toronto-based rapper Omar LinX as well as other well known artists like Twin Shadow, Big Gigantic, Bright Lights, and Dirtyphonics to release their EP Somewhere Else to much critical acclaim. Northern Lights is the first original LP from the Zeds Dead camp and showcases a striking compilation of musical genres and partnerships from beginning to end. Listening to it, the bass and dubstep genres that some of the first Zeds Dead fans initially fell in love with merge with party-ready electro-house tracks, calming soundscapes, and that fusion of hiphop the pair is known for, to create both a cohesive and encompassing sound. With vocal features from a haphazard collection of artists including Weezer’s frontman Rivers Cuomo, rapper Pusha T, Swedish rapper Elliphant, Jadakiss, and Freddie Gibbs, it all somehow works together on the album. “I’m really proud of who we got to collaborate with for Northern Lights,” explains Rapp-Rovan. “We collaborated with [so many] of the people we looked up to growing up listening to music. We’ve wanted to make our own album since we started Zeds Dead. It’s just the way it went that we ended up releasing remixes and EPs instead.” Two years in the making, the pair decided to lighten their show time having been touring nonstop since 2010 to dedicate the necessary studio time to work on the album. “We wanted to make a real album that was kind of like the stuff that we grew up on, where it wasn’t just a collection of songs, it was more like something you could listen to front to back [that] was cohesive and told a story. Northern Lights is representative of the feeling that we were going for.” While the backdrop of the album is very moody, mysterious, and dark, the bright range of vocalists guide the listener through the album like the beguiling shimmer of the aurora borealis itself. “Sort of like beauty in darkness, if you want to call it that. It’s interpretative but it’s definitely dark, but there are light moments, and it’s not all super serious,” concludes Rapp-Rovan. “We did our best to put together a cohesive piece of work. It took two years and we made a lot of music before narrowing it down to the best of what represents what Zeds Dead [truly] is.” According to Rapp-Rovan, the most challenging track for them to create was most definitely “Stardust,” featuring synthpop singer and producer Twin Shadow. “We went through so many different phases. We knew that we had something really dope and there was a lot of experimentation. In the end I think we came up with a really cool piece of music that isn’t easy to place or put in a box,” he explains. Released just last month, Northern Lights was also the first release on Deadbeats, the official musical imprint of Zeds Dead. “We’ve wanted to have a record label for a really long time now. [Just] to be able to release our own music as well as put out artists that we think are really great,” says Rapp-Rovan. “We’ve always been kind of do-it-yourself so it just furthers that story.” So far, the label has also rolled out the debut EP of French electro producer Nebbra and plans to also release a compilation of songs from promising upand-coming artists that Deadbeats has picked set to come out at the end of the year or early 2017. The label won’t be limiting their releases to just electronic music either. “We’ve always been hiphop heads and we definitely want to showcase that side of us,” says Rapp-Rovan. More than a record label, Deadbeats will also act as a community for like-minded artists, a literal expansion of the Zeds Dead world. Having just released a music video for their single “Too Young” off of Northern Lights, the creative duo wants to send a message to their fans using the pastel-coloured, hash-tag adorned stop-animation by artist Chris Ullens as their means of delivery. “It’s a critique on our overuse of social media,” states Rapp-Rovan. As artists that first released their music via Myspace and have seen social media, and media in general, evolve at breakneck speeds, the song is pretty on point with the social media conundrum our generation faces. The claymation in the video, like the catchy song itself, appears attractive and bright where the dark lyrics and even darker motifs catch you off-guard. Much like social media has changed, the electronic music scene has transformed almost past recognition since Zeds Dead first started producing music, and yet, Rapp-Rovan says they’re not worried. “I think we [just like to] keep to ourselves and stay in our own world, and it hasn’t failed us yet.” The industrious pair plans to take it easy in the New Year after hitting up multiple cities across North America and Europe on the Northern Lights tour. The dynamic duo has collaborated with Strange Loop (the company behind Flying Lotus’ psychedelic visuals) for some very trippy production to unleash on the audience. “Generally our sets are almost completely our own music and the visual accompaniment that we have goes perfectly with it,” Rapp-Rovan promises. “It’s going to be a real audio-visual experience.” Zeds Dead performs at Contact Winter Music Festival at BC Place on December 26th. 20 December 2016
FLUME Australian producer Flume, known personally as Harley Edward Streten, has been enthralling electronic music fans since his first critically acclaimed, double-platinum studio album, Flume, released in 2012. His innovative, matchless work fluctuates between experimental, electro-pop, hip-hop, and future bass. His second chart-topping studio album, Skin, was released earlier this year to more critical acclaim and features the popular single “Never Be Like You” with Canadian vocalist Kai. BeatRoute’s must-see acts KAROLINA KAPUSTA & VANESSA TAM After a successful summer festival circuit, local dance music fans were left looking forward to the reveal of one of Vancouver’s largest winter music events. Contact Winter Music Festival’s lineup this year is loaded with something for everyone and takes place at British Columbia’s largest venue, BC Place. Here you can check out our eight must-see acts on this year’s festival, and wrap up the holiday season dancing with your crew to some of the top sounds in EDM today. MIJA Born in Phoenix, Arizona, Mija, also known as Amber Giles, is an electronic music producer, DJ, and promoter who first became popular by playing a back-to-back set with Skrillex back in 2014. Not wanting to be categorized, Mija describes her sets as “fk a genre” and regularly traverses everything from trap and heavy bass to disco, bounce, and beyond. BIG WILD Well known for his distinctly atmospheric, groove-driven tracks, Matt Collar, who produces music under the name Big Wild, is an incredibly talented electronic music DJ, producer, composer, and engineer. Inspired by the natural beauty of Northern California, the young artist is known to mix his computer-based recordings with live piano, drums, guitars, and other instruments on stage during his performances. ZEDS DEAD Zeds Dead is a bass-fueled Canadian electronic music duo that has worked relentlessly to make an imprint on the global electronic music scene. Over an onslaught of EPs and remixes over the years, they have recently released their first studio album Northern Lights which is a prime example of their edgy and untouchable sound – a medley of dubstep, trap, hip-hop, and drum & bass. DISCLOSURE Grammy nominated brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence are two English electronic music producers that are most commonly known together as Disclosure. Gaining international recognition for their debut studio album Settle, the hysteria currently surrounding the project first came to light almost solely based on the success of their single “Latch” featuring Sam Smith, which later helped launch the album to the number one spot on both the UK and US Dance/ Electronic Album Charts. MARSHMELLO Marshmello, like this producer’s name suggests, doles out fluffy gooey electronic music goodness with every song he releases. The mysteriously masked music maker (whose identity remains anonymous) creates happygo-lucky synth-filled dance music and originally blew up in 2015 after remixing songs by Zedd and Jack Ü, while also releasing his own original singles “Summer” and “Alone.” DREZO Los Angeles-based Drezo, or just Andre to his friends, is known for the signature deep house style he brings to his sets throughout the underground music scene. The unique sound that he has created continues to innovate house music with equal parts ominous, repetitive, and impulsively driven beats. HUCCI Although not much is generally known about the UK based trap producer Hucci aside from his first name probably being Oliver, all you really need to know is that his hard hitting bass heavy tracks supplemented by intermittent showers of hi hats and soaring vocal drops will truly knock you on your ass. Contact Winter Music Festival 2016 takes place December 26-27 at BC Place single bill $11 DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS double bill $16 DEC 1- 9 BEST FILM OF THE 21st CENTURY? MULHOLLAND DRIVE DEC 10 - 14 BY / WITH / ABO U T FASSBI N DER DEC 15 - 19 December 2016 ELECTRONICS DEPT. 21
Page 1 and 2: December 2016 1
Page 3 and 4: december ‘16 PUBLISHER BeatRoute
Page 5 and 6: HENRY ROLLINS past that, there is n
Page 9 and 10: BRASSTRONAUT an amorphous sonic ent
Page 11 and 12: THE VIPER SESSIONS a collision of V
Page 13 and 14: BEST OF 2016 LOCAL RELEASES BY HEAT
Page 15 and 16: GALEN ROBINSON-EXO YASMINE SHEMESH
Page 17 and 18: DIECEMBERFEST AND THEIR PETS the so
Page 19: CLUBLAND DECEMBER 2016 VANESSA TAM
Page 23 and 24: The best way to countdown to Decemb
Page 25 and 26: KEITHMAS VII a legendary party for
Page 27 and 28: DARCY MICHAEL part sass king, part
Page 29 and 30: Photo by Graham Spence JANE SMOKER
Page 31 and 32: REVIEWS THE WEEKND Starboy XO / Rep
Page 33 and 34: flash-in-the-pan that seemed to be
Page 35 and 36: have pushed through the muddle of d
Page 37 and 38: LIVE REVIEWS PUP, Meat Wave, Chasti

BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - December 2016

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?