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.

Summer’s over in case you didn’t notice. 6 weeks of sun this summer was a bummer but seems like there is always tons of action going on this time of year. Olio, VIFF, yada. I checked out the 11th annual New Forms Festival on Sep. 9 and also was at the Concrete Park jam at the Woodwards’ atrium on Wednesday night. New Forms really should be higher on the radar in the city. I think for doing what they do and combining what they combine together they are not worth missing. The media art and electronic music festival has been doing it up for over a decade which of course is no joke in this town. And as we sadly are missing the Livestock block party this year (though they had that thing at Strathcona park earlier this summer), the Hastings Set and W2‘s Concrete Park jam in the Woodward’s atrium could turn out to be a cool replacement. It was in the spirit of the old school hip hop park jams with the soundsystem, bboying and best of all, a free event in a nice public space.

Check out the review and tons of pics below.

…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.

Blueprint Events is Vancouver’s top of the line when it comes to electronic music events and has the Clubvibes Nightlife Awards to prove it. With events hosted at PNE Coliseum & Forum,UBC’s Thunderbird Arena and the Vancouver Convention Centre and with artists such as Deadmau5, Armin Van Buuren, MSTRKRFT and Steve Aoki it is not surprising that this September they are celebrating their 14th anniversary of bringing some of the hottest local and international DJs to western Canada. After starting in Vancouver in 1997 by founder Alvaro Prol Blueprint Events has now reached out to neighbouring locations such as Victoria, Whistler and Edmonton. Their goal is simple, to continue producing the best and most memorable electronic dance music events in Vancouver and beyond.

Starting on Wednesday the 21st of September in Victoria Blueprint Events will be bringing the west coast a slew of artists in celebration of their achievement. The schedule will be as follows:

…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.

Winnie Cooper is a Vancouver DJ collective that speaks to a generation of music lovers. Through their blog and shows they bring us some of Vancouver’s and North America’s newest and unique musicians. Starting as a way to share music Tristan Orchard and Christian Flores found that they could reach a worldwide audience through blogging. “We used to DJ more corporate gigs” says Tristan, “but we wanted to play the music we liked as oppose to the music that sells to large audiences.”. Now throwing their own shows with bands they want to book and with music they want to play these DJs have a lot to offer the biggest music fans.

Photo: Joel Levy

How long have you been throwing events?

We have been doing this for about three years but have been pushing really hard for the last 2 years. We started at the bourbon but the scene changed and we weren’t into it anymore so we moved to funky winkerbeans after attending the venue for a friends bday. We started a night there and started booking bands. I really liked it there but people thought it was really sketchy so we decided to move on. we started bringing in friends bands because we didn’t know much about the local scene. It forced us to learn about the local scene and we got to meet and find a lot of good local music.

…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.

Lokeynote was one of the first producers in Hip Hop that caught my attention when I moved to Vancouver. Like many producers he began making beats for his own raps and has now become one of the must haves on any Vancouver Hip Hop album. Starting only 10 years ago and only 5 years ago in Vancouver it is amazing how much this producer has accomplished. Coming from Winnipeg to Calgary and now setting up shop in Vancouver Lokeynote’s skills transcend any genre providing many local artists with the engineering and production they need for an amazing album.

Photo: Joel Levy

How did you get involved in other genres?

Lately I have been trying to expand the musicians I work with. If I hear an artist and I think they are really talented I will try and work with them. I like the best music of every genre so I am not afraid of trying to produce music other than hip hop. I have a background as a beat maker not as a musician so all the instruments I play are self taught. It can be a challenge to avoid putting my natural hip hop influence into the other genres. If you do, It increases the amount of tools you have in your toolbox.

…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.

Woodward’s W2 spaces have been an ongoing contribution to the electronic scene in Vancouver. From DJ shows to art galleries thee spaces have given many of us a place to enjoy the scene we love. This summer the W2 Media Café is having it’s first ever DJ camp for girls. The camp runs from August 1st – August 5th and is aimed at young women ages 14-18. The Goal for the camp is to empower young women by teaching them the skills to creatively express themselves through music. Campers will learn a variety of skills like how to setup and sound check a P/A system, traditional turntablism, setup and use of digital controllers and turntables, cataloguing and maintaining a music library, and how to create their own mix. All with no experience required.

DJs Betti Forde and DJ Miss M will be the instructors and I have included a little bit of info about them. Betti Forde has been DJing for over a decade and has toured internationally, including shows in London and Paris. Her music goes from house to hip-hop, disco to electro, retro to futuristic and she is also in the electro/hip hop duo Stink Mitt. This summer Betti was truly honoured to be selected as the DJ following Cyndi Lauper at her record-breaking Queen’s Park Pride concert, where Betti spun for hundreds of thousands of people. She used to be based in Vancouver but now works in Toronto and we’re lucky enough to have her extend her stay in Vancouver a little longer just to teach the camp.

Photo: Dre Weiss

DJ Miss M has proven to be one of the busiest female dj’s in North America. She has already received nominations for Toronto’s 2009 and 2010 Marc Ecko Stylus Awards for “Central DJ Of The Year” and “Best Female DJ Of The Year”, respectively. She has previously opened for T-Pain, Collie Buddz, Crooklyn Clan’s DJ Riz, DJ Shortee, Fatman Scoop, Montell Jordan, Girlicious, Jabbawockeez, Mario, Nelly and many more.

…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.

This is a band from Vancouver that I want to see make it. There’s a lotta cool music from this city but we need a band like this to make it. We need an “indie electro soul pop” act to rep. Robbie Slade (originally from Nelson) and Peter Ricq (originally from Montreal) became Humans in 2009 in Vancouver. They’ve released the digital album Avec Mes Mecs back in October of 2010. They also got some new stuff entitled New on their site as well. I checked them out live for the first time this past July 1 at the Cobalt and dug the electronicness, odd singing, live drumming, the chant they lead for the DJ that came on after their gig to play Sandstorm. Below, Robbie and Peter tell us more about them. If you like what you read, you can check them out at the Crankworx Festival at Garfinkles in Whistler tonight, at the Astoria here the night after (Sat, Jul. 23) and then they open for Digitalism at Gossip, Aug. 2.

Photo courtesy of Eli Wener

How do you guys describe the Humans’ sound yourselves?

Peter: Electro indie pop mixed with brown rice and jell-o

What did you guys listen to growing up? How about these days?

Peter: Grew listening to the Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Fat Boys and loved the movie Boyz n the Hood. Lately, I don’t know but what comes to mind are bands like Metronomy, Grizzly Bears, Bikini, Tom Vek, LCD, Daft Punk, Ty Segall, No Gold, Twin Shadow, Sleigh Bells.

Robbie: I grew up singing the Beatles with hitchhikers in the back of a Landcruiser.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>