Author: joseph

Drum and bass emerged out of the UK in the 1990s as an offshoot of the breakbeat and rave scene.

Like most forms of electronic music, drum and bass is flexible enough to incoporate other genres of electronic music such as dancehall, house and electro. It is perhaps for this reason why drum and bass has remained relevant for over 15 years. In fact, after a brief lull, there is currently a resurgence of excitement in drum and bass!

Many of the songs on today’s edition of solipsistic NATION came from my interviews with Simon “Bassline” Smith of Technique Recordings, Nathan Vinall of Skynet Recordings, Doug Kubiks of Rubik Records and Barry Lundie and Simon and Ashley Arnold of Jerona Fruits Recordings, not to mention erb N dub. Head over to small WORLD podcast to hear the interviews and to hear more great drum and bass!

This week solipsistic NATION continues to promote art and design culture with another t-shirt give away contest, courtesy of Noah Singer and Mike Andrews of Imperfect Articles. Email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could be a lucky winner of one Imperfect Articles t-shirt of your choice.

Photo Credit: Mr. phelps

1. Skynet “Lucifer (Ft. Messinian)”
2. Phetsta “Intergalactic”
3. DJ Panik “Party Time”
4. BioUtopia “Psychological Continuity (Jungle Mayhem Remix)”
5. Mijatoho “Something True”
6. Sabre “Floating Source”
7. Physics “Far East”
8. Roberto “Ayeshia”
9. CLS & Wax “Double Bubble”
10. Roni Size “Friends”
11. erb N dub “Don’t Know Why (RMX)”

Back in September I released a documentary about nerdcore on solipsistic NATION. That epsiode got such an overwhelming response that I thought it was time do another show on the genre. Besides, I identify more with songs about video games and comic books than songs about drive-by shootings and smacking bitches.

If you dig the songs on today’s show you can download all of them and more at the Rhyme Torrents web site.

Since we’ll be listening to nerdcore on today’s show, I thought it would appropriate to give away a few tshirts from J!NX. J!NX specializes in clothing for discerning gamers and geeks. You know, people like you.

Hit me up with an email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could be a lucky winner of one J!NX tshirt of your choice.

Photo Credit: Elinay

1. Benjamin Bear “Interlude”
2. Old Scratch “To Hell With Hip Hop”
3. Metamystiks Incorporated “Superior Beings (Ft. ArmageddonMan)”
4. Dr. Octagon “Ants”
5. Myf “Top Secret (featuring Masta Cwik)”
6. Super Dragon X “When You Wanna Win: The Cheate”
7. Futuristic Sex Robot “WoW”
8. Nursehella “Nursehellamentary”
9. Beefy “Tub of Tabasco”
10. MC Hawking “Rock Out With Your Hawk Out”
11. Baddd Spellah and MC Frontalot “Nerdcore Hip-Hop 2006”
12. Benjamin Bear “The Last Fantasy”
13. Rai “Big Lie”
14. Ultraklystron “So Long Kids”
15. funky49 and Redvoid “RPG (Rhymes of Phatness and Greatness)”
16. Baddd Spellah “Gawd Particlez”
17. YTcracker “In My Time”

Dubstep is a genre of music which came out South London’s dark 2step sound. “Dubstep” was coined by Ammunition Promotions and first used by XLR8R magazine on their feature on Horsepower Productions.

The dubstep sound is all about sub bass, reverb and delay and utilizes halfstep beat patterns to create a heavy and foreboding music. At it’s best you feel the bass more than you hear it while the drums are like a kick in the head.

I’ve got some more schwag to give away on solipsistic NATION. This time I’ll be giving away dogchains, courtesy of Radioactive Future, a San-Diego based collective of underground artists. Hit me up with an email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could be a lucky winner of one of the dogchains of your choice.

1. Luke Envoy “Gamma”
2. Sileni “Twitchy Droid Leg (Vex’d Remix)”
3. DLI “Forsaken”
4. Cotti “Breaking Point Mixd 2”
5. 4N General “Daylight Robbery Orgi”
6. fliPPo “Techno Ghosts”
7. subduxtion “Forewarning”
8. Burial “Spaceape”
9. Metalboxproducts “Boom Boom (0.2)”
10. Pompende “Inhouse Vibes”
11. Shonky “Talking Drum”
12. Vonboyage “Flippin Livid”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, House is one of my least favorite genres of electronic music. This week’s solipsistic NATION, however, features some of the sexiest House music you’ll ever likely to hear.

You may be wondering that if don’t like House why do I play it on solipsistic NATION. The answer is simple: I play the best of all genres of electronic music on solipsistic NATION. Even House.

Why I don’t like House is difficult to define. My initial answer is that House often sounds cheap. The cheesey synths, the lame drum tracks and boring bass lines just put me to sleep. Sounding cheap isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. There are many artists who can craft great music out of those same elements but I think most musicians who create House music simply fall into the most overused clichés of the genre. It’s artists like Dorfmeister and Chuck Love who appear on today’s show who keep House fresh, exciting and oh so sexy!

Photo Credit: mr_max_mercury

1. Richard Dorfmeister/Madrid De Los Austrias “Valldemossa (Parov Stelar & Raul Irie Remix)”
2. Novalima “Candela”
3. Quasimode “Ipe Amarelo (Spiritual South Skitzophremix)”
4. Spiritual South & Sleeptalker Sleepwalker “Hullabaloo”
5. Funk Harmony Park “Silence Me”
6. BangGuru “I Wanna Dance”
7. Isla Deejay “New York Mood”
8. Chris Wilson “House In The Dark”
9. Onionz “Woman Of The Sun (Hipp-E’s Stripped Out Mix Ft. El Feco)”
10. Chuck Love “Beat Down”

This week on solipsistic NATION I’m going to give away some schwag. Hit me up with an email at solipsisticnation@gmail.com and you could be a lucky winner of a MindTrix tshirt. Check out which shirts are available at solipsisticnation.com.

MindTrix is a fusion of eastern wisdom and western fashion. The clothing’s unique design is ruled by MindTrix’s passion for the environment, eastern philosophy and fashion. MindTrix is devoted to opening the eyes and enlightening the minds of the masses. I figure why not rock one of their cool shirts as you rock out to solipsistic Nation.

1. My Robot Friend “Problems”
2. Walter Meego “Wanna Be A Star (Protman and Dangergirl Remix)”
3. Pink Punk “Yapolitical”
4. MSTRKRFT “Work On You”
5. In Flagranti “Business Acumen”
6. Momentum & Delicious Groove “Old Nasty”
7. Royal Sapien “Triple Nine (Royal Sapien Body Shot Remix)”
8. Ryan Crane “Just Like That”
9. Los Brutos “Mr. Nice (Original Mix)”
10. The Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow “Lollipopsichord”
11. Trans Mania “Boing Boom Jack (Pulsinger Remix)”
12. Plankton Man “Me Voy”
13. Urban Delights “Revolution Number 1”

Exquisite corpse is based on a parlor game. The game was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal their part of it, and pass it on to the next player for her contribution. Each collaborator adds to the composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. “The adjective noun adverb verb the adjective noun”) or by being allowed to see the end of what the previous person contributed.

What made this game so charming was the collaborative efforts in creating a piece of artwork and the unexpected results when the whole was revealed to all the particpants.

Years ago I adapted exquisite corpse for radio when I was spinning at WMFO. I would invite several DJs to the show and begin the set with a song. The next particpants had exactly the length of the song to choose a track that he thought should be played next. The DJ could stay within the same genre or mood or segue into an entirely different direction and the next DJ would do the same. It was a lot fun and made for some amazingly diverse mixes of music.

Today’s episode of solipsistic NATION is an exquisite corpse mix.

I invited the hosts of some of some of the best electronic music podcasts to participate in the exquisite corpse mix. As above, each podcaster was sent a MP3 of the song most recently added to the mix and were asked to select a song to play next. None of them has any idea what the final exquisite corps emix will sound like until the release of today’s show. The mix will be just as much a surprise for them as it will be for you!

Photo Credit: raindog

1. Stop Paving Roads “Spanish Evil”
   Selected by Bazooka Joe, solipsistic NATION
2. Halou “Everything Is OK (Different)”
   Selected by Anji Bee, The Chillcast
3. Pale Beneath the Blue “Inside”
   Selected by Jim Nye, Idyllic Music
4. Hexes & Ohs “Alive Until Saturday Night”
   Selected by Julien Smith, In Over Your Head
5. Christian Walt “Sooner Or Later (Once Again)”
   Selected by Jason Smith, Both Sides of the Surface
6. La Caution “Je Te Hais”
   Selected by Thomas, Yo La La!
7. Aegis “Computer Chips”
   Selected by Guy David, Advanced Electronica
8. I Am Dog Biscuit “Yakuza VS The Robots”
   Selected by Neil, Well Made Music
9. :brownstudy “Do Gets Done”
   Selected by .8bliss, Omnipresent Podcast
10. Ewun “Screw Up”
    Selected by Mr. E, The DJ Class
11. Blue Hand “Novokaine”
    Selected by Patric Bakkenist, Electron-X

Mind the Glitch!

While some consider Glitch a sub-genre of intelligent dance music, Glitch does away with traditional instrumentation, and instead focuses on the use of mechanized and non-natural sounds. While rhythm is a central focal point of Glitch, the style’s various sub-genres range from the ambient to the dance-oriented.

While putting together today’s episode of solipsistic NATION I wondered what my attraction to Glitch is. In the hands of, say, Throbbing Gristle or Ministry, Glitch would be a sonic barrage of static that would reduce a cinder block to a pile of dust. While some artists do use that approach with Glitch there are many more who prefer to use the elements of Glitch with a more ambient approach. The unnatural sounds of static, hisses, bleeps and pops become soothing and hypnotic. At the same time, the broken beats and fractured rhythms of Glitch can also for listeners to pay more attention to the music than other genres of electronic music.

In any case, Glitch captures the zeitgeist of the world we live in. The whir of harddrives, the jerky sounds of printers, the beeps of our mobile phones take on a new significance against the backdrop of Glitch.

1. Zephyr Nova “Iota”
2. Parts & Labor “Processional”
3. DJ Slip “Utopia Revealed (She’s A Time Traveller)”
4. Rik Rue “My Life With Speed”
5. Nalepa “Durian”
6. krill.minima “Holzwurm”
7. Shen “Causation”
8. Land Shark “Dangerous”
9. Drop The Lime “Try Harder”
10. Mouse On Mars “Inocular – A”
11. Deru “Tapah”
12. Socks and Sandals “Lover (OG Edit)”
13. Aerostatic “Drone Mix2 limNORM”
14. Miskate “Ditty Dumdum”
15. Ultre “Being Invincible”
16. Balún “Opening The Box”