Coyote Kisses

(Artists similar to Coyote Kisses: Big Gigantic, Ronald Jenkees, Flying Lotus)

 

 

  @CoyoteKissesXO

 

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Coyote Kisses – Ferrari

 

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Star Wars – Binary Suns (Coyote Kisses Remix)

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Coyote Kisses – Sunny Day

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Who needs coffee to wake up in the morning when you have the energizing sound of Coyote Kisses to liven you up a bit?! Coyote Kisses mixes funky glitchstep roots with trance, glitch-hop and house influences. They use a variety of synth sounds mixed with epic drops and structured soundscapes to create an astro-funk feel to their music. This adventurous glitchstep group will be pioneering their way onto the main stages of festivals in no time.

 

Coyote Kisses is comprised of two college students, Bryce Bresnan and Joseph Sussingham, both originating from the city of Lakeland, Florida. The duo formed during the summer of 2008 and Coyote Kisses began as an electro-pop project. The project exclusively combined vocals of the two artists with electronic audio hardware, piano and guitar to create a live-performance based band. As the summer came to an end, Coyote Kisses was put on pause, as both members headed off to separate universities to pursue their academic interests (Bryce- New College of Florida, Joe- Washington and Lee University, VA).

From the group’s sporadic communication over the years apart, Coyote Kisses decided to switch gears and start focusing on composing dance music in 2010. Investing in music software technology, the group’s music was reborn into its current astro-funk glitchstep sound. While their earlier compositions genre jump through several different dance categories. Lately, the two have been producing harder and heavier tracks. Utilizing structured rhythmic techniques inspired from several glitch hop and dub step influences, Coyote Kisses has started producing what they see as the reconciliation of the two. While the music itself is difficult to categorize specifically, many have given it an aptly named pseudo-label: “glitch-step”. The group said in a buzzndeezbeats.com interview:

“As for the future, we are both very excited about it. We are both full time students at very demanding universities , so during the school year we can only make music in our spare time. However, we will continue to do what we’ve always done. Set our goals sky high and never look back. -Coyote Kisses

 

The Acid Wolfpack EP was Coyote Kisses first release. It has three tracks on it: “Acid Wolfpack”, “Galactic Love Song”, and a remix of “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye that was released for free on the same day the EP went out under Burn The Fire Records. The EP hit #6 of the Beatport top 100 Releases, while individual tracks got some awards for themselves as well. “Acid Wolfpack” hit #2 in the Dubstep top 100 tracks and then got moved over by Beatport to Glitch-Hop where it hit #1. “Galactic Love Song” broke the top 10 in Nu Disco.

 

Coyote Kisses has big plans for the near future as they have a few shows lined up for the next few months. The group plans for their first tour this summer in 60 different cities. Unfortunately, both members are full time college students at the moment and it is difficult to manage their time. It’s tough enough to get spare time to work on music, let alone multiple weekends to spend out of town while attempting to concentrate on academic interests. Nevertheless, Coyote Kisses never seems to disappoint their fans.

 

Thievery Corporation

(Artists similar to Thievery Corporation: Polish Ambassador, Dub Syndicate, Noiseshaper)

  @ThieveryCorpDC

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Thievery Corporation – Outernationalist

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Thievery Corporation – A Guide for I & I

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Thievery Corporation – Sun, Moon and Stars

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Break out the incense, simmer down and explore the chillout-lounge aesthetic created by Thievery Corporation. Thievery Corporation’s sound is comprised of mixing reggae-dub roots with electronic, jazz and bossa nova influences. The unsyncopated ensemble rhythms are layered over the sparkling clean sound of the reggae guitar, lead bassline, dreamy synth effects and horn sections. Thievery Corporation is known for their international style of music production that includes sounds and vocals from around the world. The international style of Thievery Corporation blends the global sounds with elements of conscious lyrics and vocal samples.


Thievery Corporation is a Washington D.C. based DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton. The group was formed in 1995 at Washington D.C.’s Eighteenth Street Lounge. Rob Garza and the lounge co-owner Eric Hilton created Thievery Corporation with the inspirations of their mutual love for club life as well as dub, bossa nova and jazz records. They both decided to take a shot at mixing all these styles in a recording studio. Surprised by the chill-lounge sound of their music production, Thievery Corporation and their Eighteenth Street Louge Music record label was formed.


Thievery Corporation has taken progressive political stances on various issues opposing war and exploitative trade agreements, while supporting human rights and food programs. The album titled, ‘Richest Man in Babylon’ reveals the group’s opposition to the positions and initiatives of the former president George W. Bush’s administration. They followed Babylon with 2005’s The Cosmic Game, which featured politically minded collaborations with Perry Farrell, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, and David Byrne. In September of 2005, Thievery Corporation participated in the Operation Ceasefire concert, with the objective of increasing awareness to the devastation caused by the Iraq War.


In 2008, Thievery Corporation made awareness of the people’s resistance movements around the world with their album, ‘Radio Retaliation’ — setting an open mind type of approach with diverse sounds from Jamaica, Latin America, Asia, and The Middle East. Radio Retaliation, which questioned the profit-driven mentality of corporate media, earned Thievery Corporation a Grammy Award nomination for Best Recording Packaging. From their press release regarding their album Radio Retaliation, Garza said:

“Radio Retaliation is definitely a more overt political statement. It’s hard to close your eyes and sleep while the world is burning around you. If you are an artist, this is the most essential time to speak up.” -Thievery Corporation

Following ‘Radio Retaliation’, Thievery Corporation has released a sixth studio album in 2011, ‘Culture of Fear’ — a cinematic sounding exploration into psychedelic space rock which blends elements of funk and soul, with a bit of reggae-dub thrown in for a nice upbeat feel. Throughout the years, Thievery Corporation has provided a relaxing refuge for fans around the globe with their hazy sound collections and chill-out lounge atmosphere.

Below is a video released 2 months ago by Thievery Corporation w/ guest hip-hop artist Mr. Lif

Resources:

ThieveryCorporation.com

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

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

Pretty Lights

(Artists similar to Pretty Lights: Paper Diamond, Michael Menert, SuperVision)

  @PrettyLights

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Pretty Lights – Finally Moving

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Pretty Lights – Only Yesterday

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Pretty Lights – The Time Has Come

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Pretty Lights describes the genre of his music as ‘ElectroHiphopSoul’ and that term couldn’t be any more valid. The soulful essence of Pretty Light’s tunes consist of abstract hip-hop beats that fuse electro qualities with vintage vocal samples, potent hooks and bold synthesizer patterns. The output of Pretty Light’s music features digital sampling that crosses different genres together, forming a brilliant combination of electronic roots with funk, soul and hip-hop influences.


Derek Smith, better known as Pretty Lights, is an electronic music artist and producer from Colorado. Growing up, Smith was involved in a few different music groups ranging from punk to funk. While attending highschool in Colorado, Smith created and produced hip-hop music but always had an interest in electronic based music. He used music production software for a few years until he felt that his music was mastered enough to finally put a project together. Timeless music (music that has the ability to stand the test of time) such as Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were all very influential in Smith’s process of creating his own style of music. Smith references the name ‘Pretty Lights’ from a 1966 New Years concert poster with Pink Floyd and The Who that read “Come and watch the pretty lights!” Derek Smith explained in a Spinner.com interview,

“Throughout your life there are moments that inspire you as an artist — and creative people sort of have this eye for the world where they’re always looking for things that are beautiful, cool or inspirational. It’s the little things throughout your day that can turn into a big inspiration creatively.” -Pretty Lights

Unlike most artists, Pretty Lights has ALL of his albums and EPs available for free downloads on his website with the option to donate. Smith has been remarkably productive in creating music for his growing fan base. He has released several albums and EPs across the span of a few years, including the full-length albums: ‘Taking Up Your Precious Time’ (2006), ‘Filling Up the City Skies’ (two fully stuffed CDs worth of material, 2008), ‘Passing by Behind Your Eyes’ (2009), and three EPs: ‘Making Up a Changing Mind’ (2010 EP), ‘Spilling Over Every Side’ (2010 EP), ‘Glowing In the Darkest Night’ (2010 EP).


The album, ‘Filling Up The City Skies’ was downloaded over 30,000 times from the Pretty Lights website in the first 3 months of release, proving that the Pretty Lights sound is not only getting around, it’s spreading like a virus. Smith recently released two albums on his newly formed record label, Pretty Lights Music. The record label offers free downloads for any of Pretty Lights’ albums plus Michal Menert, Paper Diamond and Break Science, all currently on Pretty Lights Music. Gramatik is the latest addition to the Pretty Lights Music record label with his first album, ‘Beatz & Pieces Vol. 1’ (2011), available for download as well.

Pretty Lights puts on a real show when he is performing at concerts and spends thousands of dollars on his LED light shows alone. Pretty Lights has been touring across the United States while taking over music festivals. As a result, he has picked up an exponentially growing fan base in which most of his shows are sold out weeks before the day of the concert.

Below is a new video (released 2 weeks ago) by Pretty Lights for his newest song ‘We Must Go On’.

Resources:

Pretty Lights Interview by Spinner.com

Pretty Lights Music

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