Minnesota

Artists similar to Minnesota: Bassnectar, Digital Rust, J-Walk

  @MinnesotaBass

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Minnesota – Push It

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Minnesota – Push It

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Minnesota – California Dreamin’

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Minnesota has gained popularity while pushing the boundaries in both drumstep and glitch production and I am not talking about the state! Minnesota, also known as Christian Bauhofer, is one of the Northern California’s most up and coming DJ/Producers. His progressive sound blends dubstep roots with glitch-hop, trance and house influences. Minnesota is known for dropping heavy bass over carefully constructed tracks that focus on modal harmonies, chordal patterning and rhythmic synth riffs. Bauhofer looks like any other student but when the sun goes down his alter ego turns into DJ Minnesota at night into the morning hours.

In the past two years his producing has taken off, with both originals and remixes gaining great popularity on sites like Soundcloud.com. In Minnesota productions, big influences show through from songwriters Bauhofer looks up to — artists such as Mimosa, Martyparty, and Modeselektor. His first EP “Panda Snatching Tycoon” was released to great acclaim in January 2011 on Tycho Records, featuring three original tracks: “Push It,” “Purple Daze,” and “Twisted.” He has had the opportunity to perform alongside Datsik, Excision, 12th Planet and Lazer Sword. He explains in a press release,

“My goal is to make bass heavy dubstep/glitch hop music that’ll get you dancing, but it is not the same old three note transformer step, I try to focus more on the melodic side of dubstep, and hopefully, make quality songwriting a more relevant factor in the genre.” -Minnesota

Minnesota tracks are heard in dubstep/glitch sets all over the world, including those from DJs Reid Speed, Marty Party, Blackheart, and Rastatronics, to name a few. His latest and greatest remix of “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas has been getting tons of play — most notably by dubstep trailblazer Bassnectar a.k.a. Lorin Ashton, on his current U.S. tour.

Minnesota’s career goals came further to fruition when he was signed under Madison House Inc. in November of last year. With the support of Madison House Inc. and Vital Management behind him, Minnesota’s career has certainly been propelled to great heights in a short period of time. In terms of production, Minnesota’s tracks represent major influence from song writers that have gained his admiration. Other artists such as Mimosa, Martyparty, Modeselector, have truly had an impact on his production and success. Yet, it is impossible to undermine the value of some of his personal favorite artists such as Bassnectar and PANTyRAID throwing his tracks down during their sets.

This hidden musical gem will soon be a rising star that will be getting the attention he deserves. Minnesota has put his college life on pause as he is taking a break from UC Santa Cruz this spring to focus strictly on music. With multiple EPs coming out on MalLabel and Simplify records in the next few months, fans will be excited to hear some more of Minnesota’s signature bass-driven sound.

RJD2

Artists similar to RJD2: Ratatat, Wax Taylor, The Xx

  @RjD2

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RJD2 – Smoke & Mirrors

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RJD2 – 1976

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RJD2 – Ghostwriter

Rjd2’s music is a collage of hip-hop production that combines disparate elements to make for soulful, moody portraits of the world. RJD2 (born Ramble John “RJ” Krohn on May 27, 1976) is an American music producer, singer and musician. His sound is comprised of east coast hip-hop roots fused with funk and rock influences. RJD2 was born in Eugene, Oregon; and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He currently resides in Philadelphia. He was signed to the Definitive Jux label where he released two largely instrumental hip hop albums and has produced tracks for many prominent rappers. However, he has now left Def Jux and has signed with XL Recordings. His 2007 album, The Third Hand, is a striking departure from his usual style and features RJD2 singing and playing instruments on nearly every track.

RJD2 originally began his career in Columbus, Ohio, DJing in 1993 with a pair of turntables bought from a friend. He went to high school at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, where his mother taught dance, and graduated in 1994. He claims his name originates from another friend who referred to him as “Rjd2” in his raps, and the name stuck. Originally working the role of DJ in the Columbus rap group MHz, he later signed to Bobbito Garcia’s Fondle ‘Em label, releasing the self-proclaimed “mix CD” Your Face or Your Kneecaps. A year later he signed to El-P’s record label Definitive Jux and released his solo debut album Deadringer to much acclaim. Rjd2 later collaborated with Columbus rapper Blueprint under the name Soul Position, releasing Unlimited EP in 2002 and 8 Million Stories in 2003. He released his second solo album Since We Last Spoke on Definitive Jux in 2004 and released Soul Position’s second album Things Go Better with RJ and AL in 2006 under Rhymesayers Entertainment label. He still continues to produce tracks, working with many independent rappers, such as Copywrite, Cunninlynguists, Cage, DOOM, Diverse and Aceyalone. He contributed a cover of “Airbag” by Radiohead for the 2006 album “Exit Music”. 2006 also saw the release of the collaborative record “Magnificent City” with Aceyalone. In 2007, he released the solo album The Third Hand on XL Recordings, which he toured for extensively in ’07 and ’08.

In 2009, RJD2 established his own label, RJ’s Electrical Connections, and reissued Your Face Or Your Knee Caps, The Horror, and Since We Last Spoke as well as a box set entitled “2002-2010”. RJD2’s new full length The Colossus was released on January 19, 2010 on his own label, which is distributed by The Orchard. On January 7, 2010 a music video for “Let There Be Horns” premiered on Pitchfork followed by a video for “A Spaceship For Now” on March 3, 2010, directed by Michael Ebner, via SPIN Magazine. In 2010, RJD2 remixed indie rockers Yo La Tengo’s single, Here To Fall for the Here To Fall Remixes EP which included remixes by De La Soul and Pete Rock.

Nightmares on Wax

Artists similar to Nightmares on Wax: Groove Armada, Massive Attack, Wax Taylor

 

 

  @NightmaresOnWax

 

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Nightmares on Wax – So Here We Are

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Nightmares on Wax – Keep On

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Nightmares on Wax – Be, I Do

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If you throw a little bit of acid jazz, funk and soul into a musical blender, the result is a rejuvenating chillout mix from Nightmares on Wax. This sound features downtempo roots with funk, soul and jazz influences. The name Nightmares on Wax is an acronym for NoW, as the music has been described as “the sound of N.O.W.” to exhibit pure honesty and artistic freedom.

 

Nightmares on Wax consists of a English based DJ, George Evelyn, also known as DJ EASE (Experimental Sample Expert). Evelyn got his start in the music industry through an interest in hip hop and on joining a local breakdancing crew. George Evelyn currently resides in Leeds, UK while he became one of the brightest spots on the post-rave British techno map since the early ’90s. Nightmares on Wax formed in the late ’80s in West Yorkshire as an extension of Evelyn and company’s b-boy crew the Soul City Rockers, NoW’s first singles, “Dextrous” and “Aftermath,” were both highly regarded as the latter shot into the U.K. pop singles Top 40. The singles laid down a good deal of the groundwork and inspiration for the downtempo experimental hip-hop/electro-funk artists in the following years.

 

After Nightmares on Wax dissapeared on a four-year hiatus, Evelyn resurfaced with a track on the Mo’ Wax Headz compilation and Smoker’s Delight basically an instrumental hip-hop album with a distinctively electro downtempo eclecticism. Evelyn stated in a press release,

“Soul music is the earliest form of hip hop. That’s why I want to create it. It might seem like recreating what was done in the past, but what I want to do is merge soul and hip hop together. That’s why I’ll bring in the live aspect of what happened back then into current hip hop trends. That’s the angle I’m arriving at.” -Nightmares on Wax

 

Nightmares on Wax produced the first new track by De La Soul in several years, included on an EP (Sound of N.O.W) featuring the rap pioneers. Following not far behind was a volume in the Studio !K7 mix series. Two years later, Evelyn delivered his fourth LP, Mind Elevation. A longer gap preceded the release of his next proper LP for Warp. The Though So album was released as the final album for Warp in 2008. Although Nightmares on Wax created a sound that is not easily classifiable, the distinct chillout sound is what makes this artist a true expert in the musical craft.

 

Mr. Scruff

(Artists similar to Mr. Scruff: Quantic, Wax Taylor, Jazzanova)

  @MrScruff1

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Mr. Scruff – Feel Free

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Mr. Scruff – Get a Move On

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Mr. Scruff – Get on Down

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Mr. Scruff is far from your ordinary DJ as he owns a tea brewing company, draws his own comics and animations while continuing to create music for over a decade. The playful break-beat rhythms of Mr. Scruff’s sound has attracted the buzz of DJs and critics alike. Mr. Scruff features subtle vocal samples thrown over repetitive loops and mixes acid jazz roots with funk, soul and triphop influences. He is known for his marathon style of DJ sets that often exceed more than six hours of play time. Occasionally, he uses cut up recordings of voice-over children’s stories and nature documentaries to create surreal and silly stories in his tracks. Mr. Scruff is an avid record collector and his DJ sets reflect on this as he includes everything from the ’60s and ’70s soulful jazz and funk, scratchy old reggae clips, classic hip-hop beats, vocal pop and electro.


Mr. Scruff is the recording name of Andy Carthy, a British DJ and artist that has been in the music scene since 1994. His DJ name was inspired by his scruffy facial hair, as well as his trademark loose-lined drawing style. Mr. Scruff’s album covers, music videos and merchandise on his official website are noted for his signature cartoon style. All the cartoons are drawn by Scruff himself and he labels the style of his drawings as “potato style”. The images and animations created by Scruff are projected on a large screen during his live shows. He said in an interview with BBC,

“It’s about putting a lot of effort in and paying attention to detail. I get annoyed if I don’t take risks. I’m very hard on myself.” -Mr. Scruff

Mr. Scruff’s love for a “nice cup of tea” has grown into his own tea brewing business. He began selling tea from a small Manchester club called ‘The Music Box’, where he was resident DJ and gave the proceeds to charity. When Mr. Scruff started touring, he took the tea enterprise with him and gained a reputation for being the DJ with the teashop. When performing at festivals, such as ‘Big Chill’, he opened tea stalls and tents that were open for the duration of the music festivals. After realizing the amount of tea he was selling, he started an online tea company, “Make Us a Brew,” and produces his own Mr. Scruff variety of tea bags.

There are four different organic bundles of tea offered on his website that include:

• Mint & Chilli– A blend of organic spearmint and peppermint with a twist of chilli for an extra mini-tickle factor, without going over the top.




• English Breakfast The official make us a brew! Tea caddy, featuring Mr. Scruff’s quest for the perfect brew. Complete with 50 proper organic English breakfast teabags that are full bodied, malty & fantastic anytime.




• Big Chill – Organic rooibos, pear and cinnamon, with valerian, for a lovely relaxing brew.
  (Inspired by the Big Chill music festival)




• Look Lively – Organic lemongrass, yerba maté and mint for a proper uplifting brew. Guaranteed to keep you on your toes! Has been described as “Ecstasy in a mug” by Monkeymag.co.uk

Resources:

MrScruff.com

MakeUsABrew.com