The frenetic world of electronic music is full of distractions and diversions, hindering the ability to find transcendent music. Let Oggie James be your guru and lead down the path to musical Enlightenment.
Album, song and event reviews, mixtapes, and radio shows, light the way to Enlightenment, conveyed by Oggie James.
The Prodigy (which in retrospect is an incredibly fitting name) and their legendary track "Smack My Bitch Up" just got a face-melting, face-lift from LA based producer, Bloodtone. The original, big, break-beat laden, electro track has been converted into a dark, hard house number, that is as filthy and foul as the controversial title. Bloodtone said the original "embodies everything that I think dance music should be," and I fully agree. Furthermore, I believe this rework is perfectly suited for the version of house that is most prevalent today; I can easily envision the likes of Drezo, Hunter Siegel, Dr. Fresch or AC Slater, dropping this to great avail. The bass transforms the subwoofer into a giant's stomping footsteps, ominously tromping towards you. This imagery is only intensified, as the vocals in the middle section scream satanic ritual, calling upon the abhorrent monster to rise and wreak havok. Like the ant in the artwork, Bloodtone's remix easily crawls under the skin, irritating and shaking listeners to the very core. He succeeds at the difficult task of remixing a classic; he does not render it unrecognizable nor does he make mere tweaks. It is original. A thoughtful, carefully done rework of a track that you can clearly tell is close to his heart. This dark house remix can be yours for free, via the artist union here.
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File this one under furious fire, and Friday freedom, Bloqshot's latest release on Wolv Records, "Lightning," is like a combination of The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and Flosstradamus. It's rocky metal beginning, followed by rap and hip hop references, convalescing into an especially turnt and twisted drop, makes this release extra appealing. It's fresh and nostalgic all in one. The groove grabs you immediately, filled with the riveting design of Bloqshot's percussion and growling, electro licks. The squeaking lead synth sets up the salacious drop, that upon its arrival urges even the most straight laced listener to lose their shit. There's no question, in my mind, that this track can command a crowd, garnering some of the best stank faces and hysteria, when that dirty drop infiltrates their eardrums.
It seems Bloqshot has found a way to capture "Lightning" in a bottle, and is now selling it to the masses. Get your bottled bolt via Spotify, Google Play, Deezer, Tidal or Napster.
Harrison showcases many of the samples and manipulations of the "Amen Break," it's variations and, in return, the creation of various sub-genres. Arguably the inciting force behind the jungle sub-genre, the four bar loop has found itself in everything from NWA's "Straight Outta Compton," The Prodigy's "Poison," to, more recently, Keys N Krates' "Save Me." While it spread like wildfire, it pushed past the boundaries of copyright and royalty law forcing the lawyers to play catch up. As Harrison states in his recording, sampling wasn't mere appropriation but an attempt to re-create and breathe new life into older artwork.
The reflexive nature of art may have become a postmodern problem, as the "Amen Break" literally broke into popular culture, where money was now able to be made. Of course this is the big problem with electronic music and its sample heavy, remix driven nature. As always money is the problem. Big money-hungry labels do their best to shutdown bootleg remixes, but why? This is a problem centuries older than the "Amen Break." Shakespeare said art is a mirror held up to nature, to which Bertold Brecht refuted "Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it." What is true art and at what point does it become a commodity?
Once again Harrison hits the nail on the head when he questions whether Richard Spencer (the "Amen Break" copyright holder), thought of sample-based music as not "having any potential, beyond a limited underground appeal." But since we now know that the "Amen Break" has been such a money maker, Spencer sees the recordings that use the sample as both "plagiarism" and "flattering." It's perhaps this reconciliation that best illustrates the inherent problem behind art as cultural production, and the eventual rendering of its aesthetic value into commercial value.
True art cannot be created as a commodity, it's merely an aesthetic release. If there is an audience open to and accepting of such a piece, it can be shared in such a group, lending credence and credibility to the work. However, it no longer remains art, as its use and value change (for better or worse), when it reaches an indiscernible point at which it achieves commercial value (a commodity). It essentially becomes alien and gains a life of its own, perverted by public consumption, no longer owned by the artist.
Art, and much of music (popular music, that is), has become a person's ability to sell their creation as a commodity, that is, artistic goods and services. And while I do not get paid for this blog, and do not get sold by artists to write about their work, I do often engage in and enjoy commodified, pop music. The thin line between art and business is tremendously blurry and seemingly inescapable. Music and its consumption, becomes an entirely subjective and personal endeavor, that can invoke a multitude of emotions and elicit endless meanings for its consumers. Perhaps that is the magic and allure of art. It is both, something so close to our hearts that it seems incarnate, while at the same time being something so mystifying and incomprehensible.
Tonight is the highly anticipated debut of NGHTMRE at the Hoxton, with support from locals, Thugli and LUKAV. Here are six reasons why you simply need to brave the cold to embrace the heat, the speakers of the Hoxton will be blasting tonight, lighters optional.
