Making The Noise: Live in New York, January 2010

Making The Noise is no stranger to Basstown, and since we first wrote about him in 2007 the Boston native has made a name for himself as a great live performer and one of the top applications programmers for the Monome - the secret weapon for his MTN sound. Late last month, he came down to New York to headline the first istallment of The Vectory, a new party in Greenpoint's Coco66 that is heavily influenced by LA's Low End Theory events, which have been associated with Daedelus and Flying Lotus. Over the last few years, MTN utilizes his website to post live sets and new tracks, but the total pleasure of experiencing his music comes from his live sets, which are paired with mesmerizing visuals and his unwavering enthusiasm on stage. In fact, I commented on the set shortly after by comparing it to a live set I'd seen from Aphex Twin almost 10 years ago. If both were recorded and watched, there would be a variety of differences between the two, but the overall reaction that was evoked from the Warp-esque set was similar...one that doesn't come up all that often anymore for me. Below, you can watch the closing track to his set, but be sure to keep an eye on his rare but special appearances.

mtn - untitled track - live @ coco66 nyc 1-27-2010 from makingthenoise on Vimeo.

Fabric Goes Higher With 'Elevator Music'

fabric presents Elevator Music: Vol. 1 from Fabric London on Vimeo.

Fabric is a powerhouse among clubs and labels, and 'Elevator Music Vol. 1' is an authentic display that the institution is aiming to utilize the dawn of a new year and decade. Its press release states that the project "stands as an album in its own right, becoming more than just a collection of tracks. It's a collation of the variant strains of dubstep; a completely original and exclusive collection of future bumps that reflects the embracive nature of fabric's dance floor music policy." The mission is to - and I love this quote - "further the cocktail of sound that dubstep is currently thriving off of."

Featuring names well-known and obscure, this is a great compilation for newcomers to dubstep that have just sunk their teeth into Hyperdub's five-year anniversary release, which was lauded by tastemakers big and small in the last year. Bolded are the tracks that stand out, but Starkey's "Black Monolith" is by far the greatest track...quite possibly to 2010 what "Moth" was to 2009.

1: Hot City – If That’s How I Feel
2: xxxy – Sing With Us
3: Doc Daneeka – Drums In The Deep
4: Hackman – Pistol. In Your Pocket
5: Julio Bashmore – The Moth
6: Untold – Bad Girls
7: Octa Push – Doctor Bayard
8: Shortstuff – Behave
9: Skinnz – Ukraine
10: Mosca – Gold Bricks, I See You
11: Martyn – Friedrichstrasse
12: Vista – Elixir
13: Caspa & Rusko – One Of The Same
14: Om Unit – Encoded
15: Starkey – Black Monolith

16: Shortstuff & Brackles – Melvin Blue (Digital Bonus Track)
17: Hackman – Pistol In Your Pocket (Hypno Remix) (Limited Digital Bonus track)

DJ Die Young Remix Featured on Vice Blog

Just a quick post to let everyone know that DJ Die Young's remix of Zambri has been posted up on Vice's blog! Much congrats to Jamie, who has always been a solid remixer in the Basstown crew. His Teletextile remix was featured on XLR8R a bit ago, and his Frightened Rabbit remix went far within and beyond the Boston perimeter. Get a better feel for him over at his MySpace page.

Zambri - "Bang For Changes (DJ Die Young Mix)"

Eslewhere: the ReSolute 1+1 Anniversary

never go home.

This weekend marked the two year anniversary of NYC's ReSolute collective, who blew us away in March when they featured DJ Hell and Anja Schneider (among others) at a converted warehouse in Bushwick. Since then, there have been a handful of parties in that same location, and it was not only the home of their 2nd anniversary celebration but a special screening of Speaking In Code. Director Amy Grill was present, and it being my third time seeing the film, I have to say that it never gets old. Now living in Brooklyn, there are many scenes (sQuare loft, Thunderdome and various city shots) that make my heart leap with nostalgia for the community that still thrives at Make It New and related parties. It unabashedly exposes the very raw, human sides of Philip Sherburne and Gabor of the Wighnomy Brothers, which makes many feel incredibly honored to be able to view and understand the personal sides of these influential people.

But the music...the music!! San Francisco's Alland Byallo played a live set that completely rocked the house, and he was completely locked in to his controls. The hero of the night - or morning, rather - would be Alexi Delano, who played from 6am to 10:30 in the morning. There's little to say other than the set being absolute perfection, going hard and fairly fast for the entire morning. In many of these cases, people begin to filter out after 8 or 9 in the morning, but it's safe to say that there were just as many people there at 10am as there were at 7am. The crowd was really happy, and as far as I could see there were no fights or disturbances. Imagine being in one big, concrete room for 12 straight hours and being annoyed by absolutely no one...the bar never running out...the bathrooms never getting scary or gross.


Alexi Delano

ReSolute continue to conjure themed parties that really explore unturned stones in promoting events. Many of its regulars put their trust in Nektarios, Nikola and their partners to create not just an incredible line-up but an entire atmosphere that is safe, fun and mind-blowing.

Incyde Kicks Off Hot Flush Podcast Series

I'm not quite sure how old this is (though it is from 2009), but our friend Incyde kicked off the hot flush podcasts with his own mix. He not only runs the label with Scuba, but you can also catch him as a resident of DubWar (NYC) and often putting together and/or playing at Bassic in Boston. He also has a pirate radio show on Sub.FM and writes for Big Up magazine.

I guess you could say he's a busy guy...

Audible: Incyde - HotFlush Podcast 01

MySpace: Incyde

Dan Alcala Remixes Röyksopp

Dan Alcala has been a busy man. The Boston native is still stationed in New York, and has been working on mixes and remixes for the past several months. He received a lot of feedback for his track "Why So Serious?" which infused parts of The Dark Knight and techno. It was a smash at Make It New when he headlined last summer. Dan recently made a mix with his DJ crew, Rich Unkle Skeleton, which you can grab here. He's also made some strange YouTube videos. You can find just about everything on his MySpace page, but be sure to check out his latest - a remix of Röyksopp's "Tricky Tricky," which once again features Karin Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray, The Knife) on vocals.


Audible: Röyksopp - "Tricky Tricky (Dan Alcala Remix)"
MySpace: Dan Alcala

Website: Dan Alcala

How Was Your Summer?

Make It New had an excellent summer and Basstown returns in October. This time, the party that brought you The Field, Gui Boratto, Lauren Flax, Diplo and others will take place at the Good Life in downtown Boston, providing two floors of complete chaos. Facebook event details can be found here.

In the meantime, Nate (formerly Etan but now Shuttle) has been touring the world with Passion Pit, including a late night television performance on Jimmy Fallon's gig, where they played "The Reeling." (This is the closest I can get to linking, since it seems to have been taken down everywhere around the Internet...). They've been attracting a good amount of press, and Basstown has been brought up here, here and especially here, where the Examiner took time to talk to Nate, specifically.

Make It New recently featured Mark Ingram for the second time, a good friend of the Basstown crew and local Boston DJ who has been making a name for himself. Premiering at the party during August of 2008, he returned as Sleekit last month, and we recorded the night. You can also grab both Baltimoroder and Die Young's opening sets.

Audible: Sleekit @ Make It New, 08.20.09

Speaking of opening sets, Resident Advisor has a very interesting feature up on the matter. Definitely a worthwhile read for all. Editor Todd Burns also conducted a great interview with Richie Hawtin, but I want to send you that way mostly because of the lulzy photo they accompanied it with. Hang ten!

One other miscellaneous announcement of significance - our lovely Lauren DeVain has moved from Gigolo Records in Berlin over to Sportclub Music, which features a roster boasting the likes of Axel Bartsch, Oddvar, Sian, Alex Niggemann and Gabriel Ananda.