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.

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

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

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