solipsistic NATION: Live Electronica

About six months ago the folks at Areal Records were kind enough to send me a couple of promotional CDs. One of them was a live set in Berlin by Basteroid. I'm always on the lookout for new concerts to play on solipsistic NATION so I contacted Sebastian Riedl (aka Basteroid) and asked him to join me on the show.

It took a while to arrange an interview due to our conflicting schedules and the time differences between our countries. After a couple of weeks we finally nailed a date and I found myself up at 4:30 in the morning ready to interview Sebastian. Despite being sleepy I thought it went pretty well. Except for one small thing. In my grogginess I had failed to check the settings on the software I use to record the interviews. When I went to edit the interview there was just a recording of me talking to no one.

Fortunately, Sebastian was a good sport and recorded an intro for today's show. If you listen carefully you can hear his daughter in the background.

Enjoy today's show featuring Sebastian's live set in Berlin and be sure to check out his new project, IRR (International Recordings Records).

Photo Credit: ©dayvidday

01. Basteroid "Live Set (Areal/Berlin, DE)"

On today's show I'm going to follow up on last week's all dub set by playing live tracks from Dubmatix and talk to the man behind Dubmatix, Jesse King.

Dub is a tricky genre. While the basic elements of dub are understood, but it's difficult to do good dub well. I've wasted hours that must surely equal to weeks of sifting through some truly uninspired dub to find the true gems. The sort of stuff that's flat, unimaginative and, worse, ungroovable. And Dubmatix's Jesse makes some great dub.

Dubmatix has charted both in Canada and internationally and tours domestically and abroad. Jess has also collaborated with reggae greats like Sugar Minott, Michael Rose and Alton Ellis.

I've been a fan of Dubmatix since first playing "War, Peace & Dub" on one of dub sets. When I recently realized for all the live shows on solipsistic NATION and with all the different genres of electronic music those shows offered I hadn't gotten around to featuring dub. I immediately thought of Jesse and asked him if he'd come on solipsistic NATION and share some music from some of Dubmatix concerts.

Oh, and I have a retraction from Bruno Natal, the director of the Dub Echoes documentary, who was my guest on last week's show. When Bruno was talking about Joe Gibbs he really meant Errol Thompson.

01. Dubmatix feat. Kulcha Ites "Burn Out The Rich"

02. Dubmatix Soundsystem "My Selecta"

03. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix

04. Dubmatix Soundsystem "War, Peace & Dub"

05. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Sensi"

06. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Dub Phanatique"

07. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix

08. Dubmatix "Soul Dread Dub"

09. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Pirate Dub"

10. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix

11. Dubmatix & Howie Smart "Heavy Living"

12. Dubmatix feat. Treson "Praise Jah"

13. Dubmatix Soundsystem feat. Ranking Joe "Tornado"

14. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Jump & Twist"

15. Dubmatix Soundsystem "Champion Sound"

16. Interview with Jesse King of Dubmatix

Back in January I featured a recording of Steve Nalepa's Dub Beautiful Collective concert on solipsistic NATION. At the end of the show I played some studio projects from Steve's side projects with The FMs and Bass Science. I asked Steve if he had any more live material he's like to be heard on the show and he was kind enough to send me a recording of a Bass Science concert in Tokyo.

Steve has been singing the praises of Matt B (otherwise known as RaNDom and RND) and after playing Matt's "Crystal Dub" on one of my dub mixes I understood why. I love dub and Matt has created some of the most beautiful electronic dub tracks I've ever heard. That Steve and Matt would collaborate together on Bass Science was no surprise. That they took Bass Science in the direction of dubstep, however, was a surprise.

Seems like everyone loves dubstep these days. Hell, I love dubstep and listen to quite a few dubstep podcasts. Unfortunately, dubstep is one of those genres of music that is difficult to well. All to often artists will make dubstep tracks that just plod along while others will will create songs that are mired in the conventions of the genre. Not so with Bass Science. Matt and Steve are consummate soundsmiths and are able to craft exquisite dub and glitch tracks. When they combine their musical talent they create dubstep tracks that are subliminal. Or dubliminal, in this case. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

So crank up your subwoofer and prepare to have the top of your skull blasted off by the low-end frequencies of Bass Science!

01. Bass Science "Bass Science Live in Tokyo"

02. Interview with Steve Nalepa and Matt B of Bass Science

We kick off each month with a live performance from an electronic artist and today's solipsistic NATION features Aes Dana's set recorded at the Gaian Mind Summer Festival in Pennsylvania in June.

The Gaian Mind is a psytrance collective has been producing Goa-styled events in nightclubs and at outdoor locations throughout North America since 1996.

Aes Dana is an ambient trance project who's two members are Vince Villuis and Sunbeam who also run Ultimae Records.

Ultimae puts out some of the most breathtaking music you'll find and Vince and Sunny are wonderful people. Every time I talk to them they put a smile on my face.

Sunny has been on the show twice so far. Once back in October when she played select tracks by artists on Ultimae and once in December when she acted as translator for my interview with Hol Baumann. If you enjoy this week's show then you'll definitely want to go to download those shows as well.

I'm pleased to have both Sunny and Vince on this week's solipsistic NATION.

01. Aes Dana "Live at the Gaian Mind Summer Festival (Four Quarters, PA 2008)"

02. Interview with Vincent Villuis and Sunny of Aes Dana

03. Aes Dana "O Adonaï, Live at at Les Dominicains de Guebwiller (France, 2008)"

For those of you who live in the U.S., Happy 4th of July!

Today is a special day for me because July 4th of 2004 is when solipsistic NATION was first broadcast on Free Radio San Diego (FRSD). Back then, studio of FRSD was located in a toolshed. We had an air conditioner but that only brought down the temperature down a few degrees and I had to turn it off whenever I went on the mic for on-air announcements to avoid the air conditioner's hum.

Another challenge of doing an electronic music show on FRSD was that our station used Ots Labs radio software. Ots Labs has come a long way but when I first began solipsistic NATION their app was great for programing the schedules for shows but lousy for doing the seamless segues you expect from an electronic music show. Despite the software and our air conditioner I managed to put out a decent show each week and built up an audience in San Diego for people who were starved for just such a program.

In addition to solipsistic NATION's four year anniversary I'll have released 100 editions of the show as a podcast in three weeks and in September solipsistic NATION will celebrate two years of weekly podcasts. 2008 is a banner year for solipsistic NATION!

This week's show is special for another reason because I've released one show featuring a live performance by an electronic artists for nearly a year. When I began the live segment I thought it would be something that I would do occasionally on the show and never expected that it would become a monthly segment. In the last year I've has live sets from the likes of Robert Rich, Hol Baumann and Meat Beat Manifesto and in the next few months you can expect to hear concerts by The Orb, Bass Science and Aes Dana.

To celebrate solipsistic NATION's four year anniversary we have a live performance from Bubblegone and Verzerren. Play it when the fireworks begin!

One more thing: Travis Nobles of the hidenplace music blog, who I had as a guest DJ on the show back in February, has put out his first mix. Beautiful stuff and you can download it here.

01. Bubblegone vs. Verzerren "Live at the Darkroom (Chicago, IL 2004)"

02. Interview with Jason Engling of Bubblegone and Joe Pauer of Verzerren

03. Bubblegone "Live at the Dreamland Theater (Ypsilanti, MI 2007)"

04. Interview with Jason Engling of Bubblegone and Joe Pauer of Verzerren

When I relaunched solipsistic NATION as a podcast my only plan was to play for you the best of all genres of electronic music. But after a few weeks I realized that I could pursue the things I wanted to do but couldn't do at the radio station I used to spin at. At first it was just doing interviews but that quickly grew to include documentaries about electronic music, showcasing artists and record labels, guest DJs and featuring recordings of live performances.

The live shows have been a lot of fun because it gives me the opportunity to focus on a specific artist and hear music by them I might otherwise not know about.

When I began the live shows I thought it was just something I'd do every once in a while but it has become a regular segment of solipsistic NATION. The only problem is that very few live sets are an hour long. Originally I'd pad out the show by adding a few studio recordings by the featured artist but then I got the brilliant idea (okay, the obvious idea) of featuring two live performances back-to-back!

Today's show features Jason Chung, AKA Nosaj Thing, and Robin Rimbaud, AKA Scanner.

I first found out about Nosaj Thing through Nalepa. Nalepa was singing praises to Jason and Nalepa had never steered me wrong so I downloaded a few tracks by Jason, which were absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend Jason's Views/Octopus EP. Jason's set comes from his performance he gave for dublab.

I've been a fan of Robin's music for years, maybe decades at this point. Recently Robin made some songs from his many albums available to podcaster, which gave me the excuse to have him on the show back in April. Afterwards I asked Robin if he had any live recordings I could play in the show and he was kind enough to give me a copy of his concert at The Rhiz.

In the near future you can expect to hear concerts by The Orb and Bubblegone. You can also expect to gear more sets back-to-back!

01. Nosaj Thing "Live from dublab"

02. Interview with Nosaj Thing

03. Scanner "Live at The Rhiz"

04. Interview with Scanner

Let me tell you my favorite Meat Beat Manifesto concert story.

I had become a fan of Meat Beat Manifesto during the 99% tour and was psyched to see them again on their Satyricon tour. I went to the nightclub they were going to perform at with my buddy in hopes of catching their soundcheck. No such luck, but we did get to meet the members of Consolidated. Nice guys but I don't think they were to impressed to see me eating a Whopper from Burger King.

Later that night, Harry, my soundman from WMFO, and I went to the nightclub for the show. Consolidated put on an incredible multimedia show and as much as I loved Meat Beat Manifesto I didn't know how they could possibly top their opening act. I needn't have worried because Meat Beat Manifesto put on a show that I'll never forget.

That's saying quite a lot for two reasons. One, I've seen some top notch show and, two, I was out of my head that night. I'm amazed I can remember anything for all the beer and whiskey I was drinking, and I'm not much of a drinker in the first place.

Meat Beat Manifesto were phenomenal. The music was unrelenting and their multimedia stage show was a paranoid hallucination. The beats were pounding and the bass was throbbing and despite my tendency to be one of those guys who stands against the wall tapping his feet to the music I couldn't but help hitting the dance floor.

I met a lot of cool people that night. None that I can remember after all these years but cool all the same. That's another thing I like about Meat Beat Manifesto, they've built up a community of smart and wonderful people around them. To this day if I meet someone who is also into Meat Beat manifesto we almost always instantly bond.

Anyway, the night came to a close and Harry managed to herd me into his truck and drive me home. I don't remember anything after that. What I do remember is that Heidi, my girlfriend at the time, had spent the night working at a club and was covered in cigarette smoke, sweat and beer scum came home from work to find my passed out in a puddle of my own vomit. Not my proudest moment. Angel that she was, she undressed me, got me in the tub and washed me down and put me to bed. She's a far better man than I because if I came home to that, I would have just left me on the floor and went to bed.

Writing this all down I realize that this doesn't sound like such a great story but somehow I'm very fond of that night. If you have a favorite Meat Beat Manifesto concert story, email me and I'll read it on the show.

All the songs that appear on this week's solipsistic Nation come from Meat Beat Manifesto's Live '05 album, courtesy of Jack Dangers.

01. Meat Beat Manifesto "I Am Electro"

02. Meat Beat Manifesto "Spinning Round"

03. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

04. Meat Beat Manifesto "Hello Teenage America"

05. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

06. Meat Beat Manifesto "Radio Babylon"

07. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

08. Meat Beat Manifesto "God O.D."

09. Meat Beat Manifesto "No Purpose, No Design"

10. Meat Beat Manifesto "It's the Music"

11. Meat Beat Manifesto "Nuclear Bomb"

12. Meat Beat Manifesto "Helter Skelter"

13. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

14. Meat Beat Manifesto "Edge of No Control"

15. Meat Beat Manifesto "Prime Audio Soup"

16. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

17. Meat Beat Manifesto "Do It with Soul"

18. Interview with Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto

There is so much electronic music coming out these days that more and more I've come to rely on blogs. Just as solipsistic NATION acts as a filter to what is the best of all genres of electronic music so to do the blogs I frequent. And what blogs do I read?

Pitchfork is a great source for music news but Pitchfork's reporting is broad in scope and I find myself having to sift through a lot of articles to find information useful to me. XLR8R is more in line with the kind of music I'm interested in but I don't rely on XLR8R alone. Neural.it is a fantastic site for reviews of experimental electronic music. Igloo Magazine is a great site for reviews of electronic music, although I wish they would have more in-depth articles and reviews. More recently I've begun following the Headphone Commute and Phlow Magazine. Headphone Commute posts articles featuring music that I really enjoy as well as interesting and concise interviews with electronic musicians. Phlow Magazine extensively covers free MP3 music culture, which is great because you can download the music they review as you ready their articles.

I'm a big fan of Travis Nobles hiddenplace music blog. I respect Travis's thoughts on music so much that I had him on solipsistic NATION as a guest DJ back in February. One of the artists he featured in his mix was Planet Boelex. I was so taken with Planet Boelex that I contacted Ossi, the man who is Planet Boelex, to arrange an interview and to feature his release, Live At Virus Festival 2007, Lithuania, on today's show.

The music of Planet Boelex is a sonic soundscape that envelopes you like gossamer but is rooted in driving beats and an emotionally complex structure, giving his music a depth and force that belies it's tenuous first impressions. Just as Ossi's music metamorphasizes so to does his performances. Live At Virus Festival 2007, Lithuania is a document of Ossi's development as an artist at a specific time in his life. Ossi is constantly honing his craft and his next live release will significantly different from his previous release. Today's show represents a snapshot of where Planet Boelex was in 2007. I can't even begin to imagine where he is now.

01. Planet Boelex "Forever and Always"

02. Interview with Planet Boelex

03. Planet Boelex "Untitled"

04. Interview with Planet Boelex

05. Planet Boelex "Shower Curtain"

06. Interview with Planet Boelex

07. Planet Boelex "Seagull Scene"

08. Interview with Planet Boelex

09. Planet Boelex "Untitled"

10. Planet Boelex "Suunta"

11. Interview with Planet Boelex

12. Planet Boelex "Blinded Of You"

13. Interview with Planet Boelex

14. Planet Boelex "Sim Ten"

15. Planet Boelex "Direction Backwards"

16. Planet Boelex "100kn"

17. Interview with Planet Boelex

If you're new to solipsistic NATION, I kick off each month with a live performance by an electronic musician.

When I first introduced the live segment on the show I thought that it would be something I would only occasionally do on solipsistic NATION. I just assumed that recordings of live performance that artists would share with me would be scant. Happily, I was wrong.

As more and more live recordings came my way I decided that I would feature those shows on solipsistic NATION at the beginning of each month until the well ran dry. At this point I have enough recordings to take us until June and it at this point it looks like I can continue this segment on solipsistic NATION indefinitely.

This month's comes to us from Dr. Toast by way of the Dub Beautiful Collective. Dr. Toast's music is, well, beautiful.

I'd like to thank Dr. Toast and Maer from the Collective for their generosity. I had Maer on solipsistic NATION a few months back to feature some of the artists who have performed for the Collective in the past. I could probably continue the live segment on solipsistic NATION for the next year drawing from their archive alone.

This month I'm going to give away one tee shirt, courtesy of Threadless. Threadless is a community based tee shirt company with an ongoing, open-call for tee design submissions.

Send me an email and you could win a Threadless tee!

01. Dr. Toast "Live (November, 2004), recorded by the Dub Beautiful Collective"

02. Interview with Dr. Toast

03. Dr. Toast "Skronked"

04. Dr. Toast "Zero-Marking"

05. Dr. Toast "Somnambulist"

06. Dr. Toast "Deeper (Dr. Toast Remix Ft. Rena Jones)"

I have to say I'm really really impressed with how well the live electronic music performance segments on solipsistic NATION have turned out. In the last couple of months we've had some stellar sets from Nalepa, Hol Baumann and the Dub Beautiful Collective. We're going to kick off February with DJ Olive's performance recorded in Australia from on his album, Heaps As, Live in Tasmania, released by The Agriculture.

Rather than opening with a bombastic intro, DJ Olive's music slyly creeps in, establishing some nice head nodding beats. Almost without you knowing it, Olive takes you on a journey that, to me, sonically captures what it's like walk through the streets of New York City. DJ Olive's music seamlessly blends hip hop, funk, jazz, dub, dancehall and Latin rhythms, often within a single song! A lesser artist might have chosen to draw attention to all those genres by rubbing your face in it but here Olive creates an organic mosaic of where those styles and traditions flow together. He does it so well that it's almost impossible to imagine his music sounding any other way.

If you enjoy this week's show then you might want to check out an earlier edition of solipsistic NATION featuring an interview with James Healy from The Agriculture and a mix of music from the label, including DJ Olive.

01. DJ Olive "Bin Raider"

02. Interview with DJ Olive

03. DJ Olive "Lila Dog"

04. DJ Olive "The Furry Whale"

05. DJ Olive "Heaps As"

06. DJ Olive "Laughing Eyes"

07. DJ Olive "All'a'ya'alls"

08. DJ Olive "Budgie Smuggler's Cove"

09. Interview with DJ Olive

10. DJ Olive "Dancing With Poxy Stingers"

11. DJ Olive "Follow Me I'll Be Right Behind You"

12. DJ Olive "They'll Make Us All Want to Hate Each Other Don't Do It"

13. DJ Olive "At Least Some Knots Get Untangled"

14. DJ Olive "Snail Trails In My Arms"

15. DJ Olive "Agriculture Under the Tractor"

16. Interview with DJ Olive

17. DJ Olive "Sub Bass Commandante" [FREE DOWNLOAD]

18. DJ Olive "Bitchiman & Tenderfoot"

19. DJ Olive "Time for You..."

20. Interview with DJ Olive