Every Wednesday Lokua of Moment Sound hosts the event Heartbeats @ Morsland, a night featuring a wide array of DJs and live performers from all walks of Chicago’s electronic music spectrum. Here we have two recordings from one of those nights. First is a live p/a from K-rAd, who immediately brought the dance-floor to life with an excellent cross of his own live material and DJ trickery. After that we have a completely improvised, synth-heavy set from the creator of Shiku Garu Projects, Dreamlogicc. Special shout out to M50 and Slowchildren for closing the night out, and to Gravity-Max who provided the live visuals, good times. Painting / Photo by J. Beckman

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Today it is really hard for an MC to impress let alone entertain me. Maybe I’m just turning into a bah-humbug, or possibly after submerging my head in the flows of the greatest MCs who ever lived for nearly 30 years, today it takes a lot to peak my interest. Simply put, it takes someone really…IL.

Chicago native IL. Subliminal‘s attack has a bit of everything that makes an MC listenable; style, delivery, voice, content, and above all, passion. As pop culture and corporate control continues to dumb-down the masses, intellectual hip hop looses more and more footing not only because of the culprits but frankly, majority of conscious rappers don’t sound “cool” enough. IL. Subliminal is a breath of fresh, cool air; a combination of underground conscious burnerism and no-frills rawness that is suitable for the aficionado as well as those who need catchy enough motives to be enticed beyond their A.D.D.

Designed to be listened to from beginning to end, this is a true mixtape featuring a plethora of producers and guest MCs superbly mixed by DJ SeaNile. For more information including production credits visit IL.’s blog. (photo by Kinga).

Easy,
-Lokua

Jamal Moss aka Hieroglyphic Being is one of the most forward thinking Chicago musicians. Rooted in old-school Chicago house, he pushes the envelope by creating noisy and pulsating compositions that, underneath a rough, distorted exterior reveal a sublime musical complexity and tenderness. Jamal’s sound is probably one of the most organic ones that can be produced with electronic machinery. His music throbs with life and, to me, sounds more like high-caliber free jazz then simply ‘techno’ or ‘house’. He also runs Mathematics Recordings, an internationally acclaimed label releasing raw analog Chicago-influence music.

Below is a mix from the Sample/Pattern/Freeform series in which Jamal is using outdated equipment to recapture and explore the ways in which old-school DJ such as Ron Hardy constructed edits and mixes. More info here. The mix is as heavy as it is beautiful. Out of this world!

image by Maxime Ballesteros

here are some sensual deep groves selected and arranged by our friend Gary LaCosta aka Eric aka Igor
enjoy:

The following cast is a combination of two live sets by Lokua performed at Morseland on Chicago’s North Side for the Weekly series Heartbeats. The first half of the cast (00:00-22:24) took place on March 25 and phases from grass-roots-hip hop to electro jazz-funk to space-krunk. The second half (22:25-49:34) actually took place on an earlier date (March 18) and is highly improvisational, stylistically ranging from ambient-experimental to a minimal tech-house sort of sound.

These sets have also been featured on Solipsistic Nation along with an interview and two extra studio tracks.

Download the release: Hi Rez ZIP or a smaller VBR ZIP

The dark wet streets sparkle with reflections of neon signs, break lights and mercury lamps. A pulsating aura emanates from cavernous bars, who’s dim atmosphere provides a solace from the harsh reality of daytime life. The drizzle doesn’t impede large crowds from lining the sidewalks, and if anything, adds to the overall brilliance by covering everything in a glistening mist. Almost everyone is in costume – bright clothing, futuristic hairstyles, metal chains, spikes, necklaces, ear-nose-lip-brow ring-studs, over-sized fake-diamond-encrusted glasses. Maybe this is the future we read about in sci-fi novels (minus all the post-apocalyptic drama). Or another planet, somewhere far away from mother earth… Or maybe a dream – an outgrowth of our innermost desires imprinted onto the real world, a fantasy. The neon lights must have generated some sort of portal into this strange world where the unpleasant details, so acutely accentuated by the relentless daylight, are blurred and distorted into agreeable forms, where we can forget about our petty ambitions and abandon the search for meaningless metaphysical entities such as purpose, meaning, reason, love, happiness and maybe for once, actually experience them as they are meant to be experienced – deep down inside – through our primitive animal unindividualized self.

all music by Slava
cover art by Jay Throne

you can also see/download the release on archive.org
or here

Slava on myspace

For your ambient listening pleasure, Moment Sound’s own Lokua has made another contribution to the net-audio community w/ his second release “Water Rock” available for free download at Soft Phase net-label.

Hi, everybody! Next up is another of my favorites! The mighty Protman!

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He is a programmer, an artisan, a craftsman and a musician. All my favorites in this series have this in common: they love what they do, they do it very well, and what they do is electronic music. I’ve witnessed Protman (aka Joe Hahn) create many clever set-ups using video game controllers. On one occasion, during his set at our Electro Buffet series, he danced along with patrons on the dancefloor – all while playing an Xbox360 controller and a Dance Dance Revolution Pad. But my favorite thing about Protman are his rich electronic textures. I also like Protman because when it comes to electronic music, and programing your own interface, he is one of the best in Chicago!
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Protman myspace link

Zip file of recent performance at the Empty Bottle

protman.com

UPCOMING:

04/27/11: FluiD (Live), Dreamlogicc (Live), video by Gravity Max

05/04/11: Garo (Live), Dario Ecks, video by Machinist

05/11/11: Antiphase, Qbot (?), video TBD

05/18/11: Yaroslove, Andrew Solomon, M50 (?), video by Machinist

05/25/11: Hakim Murphy, Chicago Skyway

PAST GUESTS:

The Primeridian
The Sound Conspiracy
Lazerhawks
Scottfree
Drunken Monkeee
Black Daylight
Tomorrow Kings
Radius
Kenny Keys
Dojo VS Twitch
The Abominable Twitch
DJ Kana
Elevation AKA Dee Jay Uncle EL
Tall Black Guy
M50
Slow Children
Curious J
DJ Editkut
Freezerburn
Makers Of Sense
Franco De Leon
Slant
Bijou
Walter Vandell Harris
Tevo T. Howard
1773
DJ Trew
J Slikk
IL Legit
BBU
Flamethrowers
Ghosthouse
Garo
Slava
Ross Kelly
Waveplant
The Great Mundane
Murry The Magnificent
Leo 123
Kenny Keys
Gera
K-rAd
Dreamlogicc
Gravity Max
DJ Moppy
Kollage
Raj Mahal
DJ Flash
Mexicans With Guns
Je July
Chicago Sewer
We Are Aliens
DJ Striz
Gee Cee
Resinator
0+1=Everything
Mark Hardy (Ottoman Vampire)
DJ Chip Chop
Noleian
Sibilant
Beautiful City
Glen Stephani
Mux Mool
Protman
Five Step Path
DJ Smut
DJ Qbot
Travael
Tigermoth
DJ Jean Shorts
patty
Michael Serafini
Mathias Matthew
Mike Brankis
Tyrel Williams
Blue J
Hakim Murphy
Sevron
Rice The Sound Transmitter
Shazam Bangles
Void Pedal
DJ Draw
ddcmusic
cpkay
DJ Kiddo
Senza 110
Mr. Sorry
Yazi

Download the whole release: Hi Rez ZIP or a smaller VBR ZIP

Yet another Chicago artists with a very unique style of his own, Blackdaylight cooks up a deep dish of trip-hop grooves. Sonically heavy, Black’s infusion of gritty vocals and acoustic samples over a sort of 808 purism is cosmic-tribal. The live recordings have sometimes have a rough, raw sound, resulting in very warm and personal feel. It is “deep in the sheets” music – sensual, throbbing and grimy. And while there is certainly a fair amount of “daylight”, the larger portion of this album is dark and serious. Imagine yourself standing on a rooftop watching the city burn as tracks like Quicksand bang relentlessly. This is mood music – intoxicating.

visit Blackdaylight on Myspace

you can download individual songs here: release on archive.org

if for some reason that doesn’t work, then here

…a downtempo set (for the most part) from april 2007 performed with an electribe es1

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later we’ll fire up the percolator

A mix of hot stew – cut up, edited and mashed – from Noleian!
Dark, dirty yet soft and warm at all at once.

links:
black tekno
myspace
audio hosted by infinite state machine

Out of the blue a band called The Bees Knees have emerged and left every dance-floor they’ve played soaked with the sweat of able bodies. Be it a hard core hip-hop crowd, gay stand-up comedy fans, or electronic music geeks such as myself, everybody goes ape shit (just when I thought hipsters couldn’t dance any more retarted). This kind of crowd response is usually reserved for die-hard fans of super-status acts, yet The Bees command the same sort attention from complete strangers. They are the total package of talent, originality, fun, good looks (a marketer’s dream), and while the people shake their goods I can’t help but think it’s only a matter of time before they are signed, sealed, and delivered. I’m almost scared to see what they’ll sound like after some weathering. The lovely Billi D on vocals, S2 on sax, Wizabee on Guitar, and the one Scottfree holding down beats, synths, and other scapes are doing the damn thing. Keep an eye out and if you live in or near Chicago be sure to catch one of their performances (they only play like, every week). Peep the demo and links below for more info.
-Lokua

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Hi, everybody! It’s me, Uncle Garo, and I’m doing a series highlighting some of my favorite electronic musicians. There are many here in Chicago and abroad, but I guess I’ll just have to start one by one…
This is Ipaghost:

Ipaghost is one of the most creative and hard working musicians in Chicago. His style is one of my favorites. Think IDM, Electro, video game music on amphetamines and steroids. I’ve watched Ipaghost play many times, and I must say, he has a serious command over his machines and performance. Here are some links to his music and related projects:

An excellent Live PA he did at our Darkroom night:

Some more songs.

MySpace.

Iron Chef of Music event series.

You know, my friends, it warms my heart when an electronic musician is working hard for the people; an artist who presents their improvisation, ideas, and machinery in a cohesive, enlightening and well crafted manner. Stay tuned for part 2 of “These are a few of my favorite things.”