Big Gigantic

Artists similar to Big Gigantic: STS9, Paper Diamond, Opiuo

  @BigGigantic

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Big Gigantic – Touch the Sky

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Big Gigantic – Fantastic

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Big Gigantic – Get On Up

Are you ready to get funked up with Big Gigantic’s groovy-electro sound? Big Gigantic mixes electronic roots with funk, jazz and dubstep influences. Big Gigantic is an instrumental electronic group based out of Boulder, Colorado consisting of Dominic Lalli (saxophone) and Jeremy Salken (drums). Both members have extensive backgrounds in music, and Lalli holds a Master’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Big Gigantic is known for their high energy performances including live saxophone and drums instrumentation. The group’s dynamic visuals at their lightshows are a prominent part of the live Big Gigantic experience.

From playing at small venues around Colorado, to instantaneously headlining shows throughout the country and hitting major festivals, Big Gigantic showcases an amplified array of compositions that combine elements of DJ production and a live band that leaves fans from coast to coast in awe. hey have played at a wide-range of large-scale music festivals, including Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, Ultra Music Festival, All Good Music Festival, Electric Forest Festival, Summer Camp Music Festival, Snowball Music Festival, and Global Dance Festival, and many others. Big Gigantic has opened up for groups like Pretty Lights and Bassnectar.

Big Gigantic is among one of the few groups that releases their music for free downloads on their website. Their most recent album “Nocturnal” is also available for full download on their website as well. In a TheKollection.com interview the group stated:

“We like having our music accessible to everybody, no matter how they get their music – torrents, iTunes, blogs, whatever. We want it there for people.” -Big Gigantic

Lalli has a Masters degree in saxophone jazz performance and has been making music for nearly 15 years. The duo used to live together and would do jazz and funk gigs around town in Colorado. After a little dabbling into music production software on the computer, they started making beats together blending electronic music with live sax and drum instrumentals.


They have been refining their sound into a genuinely unique fusion of saxophone melodies, acoustic drums and bass-heavy electronic music production. Their newest album, Nocturnal was released in January 2012. Their style cannot be classified into a single genre, but an exceptional variety of glitch, dubstep, drum & bass, and jazz that combines to form the essence of a funky groove.

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.

Gramatik

(Artists similar to Gramatik: RJD2, Sound Providers, Pete Rock)

  @Gramatik

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Gramatik – Itz Over

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Gramatik – DreamBIG

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Gramatik – Adriatic Summer Nights

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Kick back and relish in the solace of immaculately produced hip-hop beats and instrumentals made by Gramatik. His delightful musical style blends hip-hop roots with jazz, soul and blues influences. Gramatik’s ability to apply a hypnotic groove with layers of vocal samples, sounds, references, and metaphors has continued to fascinate those who have stumbled across his music. He is distinguished in his effort of using chordal patterning and tonal harmonies to create a clean and cohesive sound.

Denis Jasarevic, better known as Gramatik, is a hip-hop producer from Slovenia who is currently signed with the Pretty Lights Music record label. This Slovenian producer was heavily influenced by American music early in his childhood, absorbing anything from funk and jazz to soul and blues. When Gramatik was in the 2nd grade, he started taking piano lessons at his elementary school. He later received private piano lessons which opened his eyes to learn to play music like the Beatles and rhythm and blues in general. In the 4th grade, he formed a band with a few of his classmates and became the youngest band in the history of his elementary school while playing school events regularly.

As soon as Gramatik reached high school, the discovery of hip-hop music had taken over and he was compelled by the power of the rhythmically accented poetry. He studied the ways of an MC and started writing his own rhymes while his friends were amazed by his flow and delivery since there were no hip-hop artists in his home town of Piran, Slovenia. Throughout the years producing beats day by day he felt more compelled by the craft and magic of music production. It wasn’t long until he discovered a niche in sound and voice sampling which became his true love in the music making process, chopping up all those old funk, soul, blues and jazz tracks he used to listen to when he was younger.

Gramatik’s Beatz & Pieces Vol. 1 (album available for free download on Pretty Lights Music) is his first release on PML record label and builds on the mellow vibes created from his last release No Shortcuts and the Street Bangerz mix-tape series. Gramatik explains on the PLM website,

“The Beatz & Pieces series comes as a successor to the popular Street Bangerz series which was my first work as a producer. They are still raw, sample based beats, but with evolved arrangements and wrapped in a fine layer of live instrumentation. The reason I started adding live instruments is because I felt that classic hip-hop beats without vocals lose me after two minutes. I want to keep the listener through the whole track!” – Gramatik

The Glitch Mob

(Artists similar to The Glitch Mob: Deadmau5, The Xx, Daft Punk)

  @theglitchmob

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The Glitch Mob – A Dream Within a Dream

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The Glitch Mob – We Can Make The World Stop

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The Glitch Mob – Fortune Days

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If you have robot ears or just want to get a little glitched out, The Glitch Mob may have what you’ve been looking for. The Glitch Mob is notorious for their bass-driven electro rhythms mixed with addictive drum beats. This dynamic sound embraces glitch-hop roots that blends electronic, dubstep and rhythmic influences. For the past several years, The Glitch Mob has devoloped a solid fan base through showcasing their sound and technology during performance solos using laptops and MIDI controllers at various music festivals worldwide.


The Glitch Mob is comprised of a three-man electronic group including Ed Ma (edIT), Justin Boreta (Boreta) and Josh Mayer (Ooah). After the three DJs discovered that they were all loosely affiliated with each other when performing at the same venues, the trio began their musical partnership by DJing back-to-back in a tag team style while performing their sets in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The group formed in 2006 and eventually started touring from the West Coast to the East Coast, later gaining popularity around the globe. The group’s debut album titled ‘Drink The Sea’, debuted on the iTunes Electronic Chart at number five and peaked on the CMJ top 200 Chart for College Radio at #57. As a result of the successful album’s debut, the Electronic Musician magazine ran a cover story on The Glitch Mob. The group stated in a electronicbeats.net interview:

“We try to play electronic music with an energy like a rock band. So we just go crazy and have fun. The more fun the people have, the more fun we have.” – The Glitch Mob

Glitch sounds are often produced on computers using modern digital production software to splice together music samples from previously recorded works. These cuts are then integrated with the signature of glitch music in which the beats can be made up of glitches, clicks, skips and scratches. These glitch clips combined with digital synthesizers used by The Glitch Mob are usually very short, and are typically used in unison with traditional percussion. Skipping CDs, scratched vinyl records, circuit bending, and other sound distortions are prominently involved in the creation of rhythm and feeling of glitch.


The Glitch Mob has been able to incorporate technology into every step of their creative process successfully. The group’s upbeat energy has continued to shake up dance floors with a sound that transcends into the emotion of the listeners.

Below is a video released by The Glitch Mob who remixed Daft Punk’s ‘Derezzed’ Music Video, honoring the harmony of vision and sound.

Resources:

theglitchmob.com

The Glitch Mob interview

Emancipator

(Artists similar to Emancipator: Little People, Bonobo, Nightmares on Wax)

  @Emanc

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Emancipator – Oasis

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Emancipator – First Snow

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Emancipator – Nevergreen

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Chillax on the couch, sip on a warm cup of green tea and immerse your mind in Emancipator’s clean production of mellow break-beat rhythms. Emancipator’s music has a unique style of combining triphop roots with jazz, classical, and electronic influences. Emancipator is best known for his subtle buildup/breakdown, headnodic beats, hypnotizing bass and extended harmonic patterns with the use of tonal harmonies. The naturesque soundscapes of Emancipator’s music provides lucid imagery to the listener while supporting the compact layers of violins, electric/acoustic guitar, choirs, horns, banjos, bass, drums and piano.

Emancipator (Doug Appling) is a producer/musician from Portland, Oregon. Emancipator started violin lessons when he was 4 years old and later picked up the guitar, drums and bass. Growing up, he played in a few bands. When Appling was in high school, he started experimenting with music production software such as Acid Pro and Reason which really opened up new opportunities for him to create his own music and sounds. At the age of 19, he self-released his first album, “Soon it Will Be Cold Enough,” in 2006. A Japanese producer by the name of Nujabes found interest in the “Soon it Will Be Cold Enough” album and was able to press and sell 5,000 copies in the first six months of release. The album blends violin strings with artful piano lines that resonate before the drum beat responds to set the perfect tempo, allowing the listener to discover the wintry setting that Emancipator has cleverly created. He played his first live show in 2009, opening for Bonobo, Eskmo, and Gigantic. Doug Appling said in a Lost in Sound interview,

“It’s been a thrill to play with so many artists I respect and have been listening to for years, and to discover a great number of new artists at the same time.” -Emancipator

Emancipator has recently received a Puma sponsorship and one of his songs titled “Maps” was played at the Bejing Olympics. His latest album “Safe In The Steep Cliffs” blends his signature sound with new instruments (banjo, horns, mandolin). Emancipator is distinguished in his ability to combine different sounds and layer them so smoothly. Tremolo strings start it off, which fade into a plucked guitar pattern accompanied with a strong bassline that follows the piano. Emancipator is able to lay down subtle break-beat rhythms without disrupting the solid groove that is already in place. Doug Appling describes “Safe In The Steep Cliffs” on his website,

“This album has a new palette of sounds and samples from around the world, including more original recordings (guitar/violin/mandolin/banjo) and new guest artists including Japanese jazz musician Uyama Hiroto. It’s ominous and overgrown, dense and ethereal. And epic. Always epic.” -Emancipator

Appling seems to follow his signature formula for this album by creating electric guitar riffs that are thrown over the piano line. The guitar and piano fade out after a slight pause which leads to a mellow synth rhythm for a break, until it reappears and fades again into the darkness of a forestry landscape that has been painted for the listener. Emancipator’s ability to make the music flow naturally by layering different sound elements on top of a cadent drumbeat makes for a truly intriguing listen for any instrumentalist or triphop fan.

Resources:

EmancipatorMusic.com/

Emancipator Interview by Lost in Sound