Browsing “The Bassment Series”

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

Last week Vancouver was home to the The World of Drum & Bass Tour 2012 which was held at Club 560 on Seymour St. The event showcases some of the world’s top DnB acts such as this years headliners DJs SS and Crissy Criss. We sent down our friend Jak to check out the show. He had this to say.

Drum and Bass lives.

You have to give it to Vancouver — you can always rope a ton of people into hitting the club when major out-of-towners are meant to destroy dancefloors.

DJ SS absolutely, positively lived up to expectations. Sub Focus and High Contrast showed up and smashed the crowd (not in person — I’m talking tracklist)– then Chrissy Chris came on, and reminded us all of why delay units are an essential part of any self-respecting DJ’s arsenal.

Oh, and DJ SS decided to MC Chrissy Chris’ set.

Seriously.

EPIC should be spelled D-J-S-S-A-N-D-C-H-R-I-S-S-Y-C-H-R-I-S.

Here’s why Vancouver Is Awesome: DnB is still going strong here, and most other scenes are also thriving (particularly Dubstep, and I can’t hate, because that ish is awesome). It takes very little for us to wrangle a proper crowd for a proper event, and that’s exactly what this was.

I highly recommend The World of Drum and Bass Tour, in any incarnation.

-Jak

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

Dance crews have become more popular than ever. The once underground art of breakdancing and bboying has found a new stage with the world as its audience. TV shows and the internet have brought us the magic of choreographed contortionists right into our living rooms. One of Vancouver’s veteran crews is Now Or Never. I asked crew member Eloquence if he could answer a few questions for us about life in the pack.

Photo: Courtesy of N.O.N.

Who are the members of your crew?

Jax

B-Minus

Twist

Muggy Mug

Trickey

Savage Rock

Pay Day Ray

Style Jack

Taiyo

G

Hao2

Eloquence

How and when did you all meet and get started?

The crew has been established since 2002. Most of the members joined the crew at separate times in the past few years. Jax, Hao2 and G are the remaining original members. Having similar goals helped bring us together as one unit. Our main goals are worldwide recognition and to represent Vancity to the fullest.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

I have received a ton of new recordings and video releases from artists over the past month so I decided to once again share some of them with you. The first is a video released by The Boombox Saints on Valentine’s Day. The song is entitled “The Break Up Song” ft. Jill Laxamana. It’s the fourth single from the EP, “Bringin’ the Boom Back: Based on a True Story”.

Check out the video!

SonReal has been releasing tracks off his upcoming album building up to the day of the album launch. Here are – “Bomb” (Prod: Burd & Keyz) - Excellente (Freestyle) - Bedtime (Feat. Saigon) Produced by: Superville

Felix Cartal has released another song and video for his new album coming in March. Check out “Domo”

Fresh off The Train of Thought Tour comes a video with Jeff Spec alongside Muneshine, Timbuktu, Ghettosocks and Moka Only. Check out “The Mustard Station”

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

Undoubtedly one of Vancouver’s biggest (legal) exports these days is young musical talent. Having played together in various projects for years, Panther and the Supafly are part of this crop of new sounds being harvested in Canada’s music scene. Comprised of a five person crew, the multi-dimensional group brings a unique style of hip-hop to the table, with emcee Josh ‘Panther’ Matumona flowing effortlessly over richly constructed beats.

We had a chance to sit down with them before their recent show at Fortune Sound Club to talk about the band, their influences, creative process, and what the future has in store.

Photo: Joel Levy

So you guys are obviously not a traditional hip-hop group. You have the full band with vocals. How does that affect your creation process regarding making your music?

Josh: Well 3 of us are actively producing beats for the group. So usually one of us will produce a track then I’ll write some lyrics to it, then after that we’ll decide if we want to play it with the band or not. Other recordings that come from other beats will just stay at production, or like one of us will bring a riff to band practice and then we’ll build a song off that. And then maybe I’ll have to go home and write something to it, or I’ll come with lyrics and a main idea to it and we’ll go from there.

Nate: Its definitely a lot different with a band compared to a beat because theres a different energy as soon as there’s a band there. Theres drum fills you would never have in a beat so it completely has a new energy. More freedom to change things around on the fly and (the process) is just more free.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is. If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

I have wondered a lot recently about the evolution of music and the current explosion of electronic music in particular. With stadium shows being sold out and artists like Skrillex getting 5 grammy nominations there is no doubt that the DJ era is still upon us. I had a chance to sit down with the owner of Blueprint Events Alvaro Prol to chat about music, City & Slope festival, the next step in entertainment and of course Blueprint Events.

Photo: Courtesy of Blueprint Events

Electronic music has been around a long time and people may have underestimated it’s full potential. Why do you think that is?

I don’t know if people underestimated it. People may have thought of it as a sort of sub-culture. Something that is not as popular as it is now. I have seen electronic music be popular for a long time. I have been going to shows since the early nineties. It wasn’t just jungle. It was house music, deep house it was everything. I think now it has become a little more popular where Rihanna is doing tracks with Calvin Harris or Skrillex getting 5 grammies. It has just become a bit more broad and accepted. Not just a sub-culture. It can be as popular as pop music. A lot of famous pop musicians have their music produced by electronic producers.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The Bassment is a weekly article bringing you coverage of the best in Hip Hop and Electronic music from around Vancouver. Weekly interviews, event coverage, album and concert reviews that show how awesome our city’s electronic and hip hop scene really is.If you think there is someone or something that needs coverage in this city in regards to the Hip Hop / Electronic community then get in touch with us.

Going on right now at Ayden gallery until February 5th is Dedos’ Day of The Dead exposition. Dedos a member of the well know AA crew is a multi medium artist who many of us know for his murals and street art. Ayden gallery which is known for finding some of the most unique and talented artists in the city has once again presented a show for the masses. The art work ranging from aerosol on walls, acrylics on canvas and colour pencil also include artists such as Scott Suemes and Kaput. I checked out the show on opening night and asked Dedos to answer a few questions about the show.

Dedos – Acrylic

Explain your ideas behind your latest show at Ayden gallery in Vancouver?

I tend to believe that most people know what a Mexican day of the dead theme is,  i tried to capture even a slight impression of the feeling I received being in Mexico when we lived there for a year or so, plus we added a bit of word play.

“Day of the Dedos- the Art of dying while living”, well first off,  I wanted people to get my name pronounced correctly so by re-enforcing the beginning part “Day of the….,” people expect the word “Dead” after it and when they see my name they’ll know how its supposed to sound.  Dead -os is mucho better than Dee Dos.  I got that alot growing up.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>