Both Popskarr and Gazelle are no strangers to Electrotrash. They are rather regular features, definitely two of the most prolific flag-raisers for local Electro. And certainly Gazelle is no stranger to the Red Bull Music Studios often popping in to collaborate with various artists and work on his much anticipated upcoming album. What you may not know is that pretty much all of Popskarr’s stuff was and still is being recorded at the Red Bull Music Studio. This collaboration was one of the most epic from last year, and the track itself a culmination of hundreds of recorded takes from singers Xander and Yannick. The title of the track, “Obsession” explains it in a nutshell: the feelings for someone that mutate from genuine love into something far more out of control.

Rather than feature a Red Bull Music Academy Radio show this week, I will direct you all to the Red Bull Music Academy website, as the Academy has been in full force in London for a week now. When I was at the Academy in Rome 6 years ago (and believe me I’m not dropping props for myself, I have a point), the likes of Goblin, Alexander Robotnick and Daniel Baldelli were speaking. I had no idea who these cats were, little did I know that they were of the main driving forces behind the scene that I would later embrace and the likes of Justice (who wholesale sample Goblin on “Phantom”) would not exist. My point is the Red Bull Music Academy guys are way ahead of the pack. So when you look at the list of lecturers you don’t often pick up on who the names are but you better pay attention.

As I walked into the Academy today I saw that the first lecturer of the day was DâM-FunK. Only a week ago Spoek Mathambo got me onto this guy, whose soul / funk / electro sound on Stones Throw sounds like Prince, Peanut Butter Wolf and Afrika Bambaata in a freaky menagois a trois. Who knows what other forward sounding ish is going to surprise me next. Keep your eyes peeled to the site: http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/london

dirtyoldman here. The guys from Popskarr also sent us another track entitled the finish line. Grab it below!

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After a long hiatus the Red Bull Music Studio column on Electrotrash is back. To kick things off for the new year we present a video made for the workshop conducted with french electro-rocker Toxic Avenger when he came out last year to play at Assembly and the Alex. Toxic’s link to SA comes from his remix of Playdoe and you’ll see that Sibot and Spoek are quite prominent in this video.

On that note we head over to Red Bull Music Academy Radio to take a look at another french maître de la musique électronique, Djedjotronic who incidentally has also worked with Spoek Mathambo. This mix recorded live at the Pantiero festival in Cannes is a strong signifier of the current sound of banging electro: a mad tapestry of rave, distortion, afro-rhythms and the hype energy you expect when you listen to someone off Boys Noize records.

Technorati Tags: Red Bull Music Studios Cape Town, Toxic Avenger, Djedjotronic

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With Mujava taking the dance world by storm last year, there is a peeked interest in local SA dance-floor electronica. Lots of things are happening for local electro producers. In fact you should read this piece already written by Ol Dirty Man, about Gazelle’s Bloody Beetroot collab and a general encouraging message for local musical electricians.

The Red Bull Studio roundup for this week introduces a new act to the scene and hopefully a new Electrotrash artist (and they’d be perfect for the site). Zim Dollar Bill is comprised of two prolific Cape-Tonians, Naartjie and Liver (who already have several other side projects). They make pounding, pulsing, poes-hard electro. But there’s an African flavour in there as well, mainly in the rhythm. Off-beat snares and claps follow the tried and tested local house music syncopated drum sound, only rather than being set to mellow chords, they fight for space with dirty, filthy synths.

One of the synths used was the Moog Little Phatty, which is the main reason these guys came into the Red Bull Studios: to abuse our favourite little synth. My only contribution to this project was to set up the Phatty’s output through a side-chain compressor in Abelton, lock the studio doors and come back in several hours to see what the dastardly duo had come up with. You really need to hear for yourself by checking out their Soundcloud page:

Latest tracks by zimdollarbill

The RBMA Radio mix for this post comes from Djedjotronic. He is honestly my favourite producer on Boys Noize records right now, even more than the mighty Alex Rider himself. Djedjotronic’s style of music has been described as Ghetto-Tech. It’s a brilliant concoction of the electro sound that Boys Noize has made famous mixed up with cut up rap, afro-style syncopated rhythms and huge doses of ‘rave’ (trust me it works). His collaborations with Spoek Mathambo have yielded one of the best records of the year, the mammoth “Dirty & Hard”. Listen to this live mix at the Pantiero Stage in Cannes:

Technorati Tags: Red Bull Music Studios Cape Town, Liver, Naartjie, Zim Dollar Bill

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Although there are a considerable amount of Electronica music makers of distinction around South Africa, particularly in Pretoria and Joburg, for a long time Cape Town was considered the hub of it all. Reason being it was the hometown of African Dope Records and the wave of glitchy, beautiful and, in some cases, hip-hop influenced music by the likes of Felix La Band, Waddy Jones and his various projects, the Considerate Builder’s Scheme and of course the almighty Real Estate Agents. Cape Town is still home to these artists, but it’s been awhile since we’ve heard that distinct low-slung, glitched-out sound coming from them.

No matter, because there are a new breed of sonic perverts who’ve taken the baton from the likes of Si, Markus and Waddy in pushing the low-down, dark and quirky sound we’ve come to call glitch-hop or hiptronica. Most notable of these are P.H.fat and Dank who really deserve their own posts here and hopefully I’ll get to that one day.

Rather I’m gonna be sharing some music from a smaller project (as of the time being) which features production by Disco Israel from P.H.fat, and rhymes from two of the mother city’s busiest boys, Fuzzy Slippers and Jake Lipmann. The project in question is the brainchild of these two muppets and is called Voicetag. Although a lot of their music is experimentations in beat-box KAOS pad sampling, the track below is just mad glitch-hoptronica brilliance.

So here’s a roundup. First up a selection of tracks from Mr. Oizo who is arguably one of the central influences of the Cape Two scene with his seminal Analogue Worms attack setting the tone. Then a DJ mix from Warp’s Hudson Mohawke, one of the most innovative beat makers around. Lastly a live set from Daedelus whose cut-n-past, glitch-core sound has seen him become one of Ninja Tunes most successful artists over the past years.

For more posts from the Red Bull Studios Cape Town, click on the RBMS CPT button on the menu above. New posts from the studio fortnightly!

Technorati Tags: red bull music studios cape town, voicetag, spiders and moths, disco israel, ph fat, fuzzy slippers, jake lipmann

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Hey Electrotrash heads. Some time back you may have read a blog post about the Red Bull Music Studios down in Cape Town.

Following on from that I’d like to introduce a regular Electrotrash post to do with the RB studios. As many people would agree, Cape Town is a hub of mad electronica, being the hometown of African Dope and the mid 2000 wave of brilliant glitch-hop courtesy of the Real Estates, Waddy Jones, Considerate Builders Scheme and many more.

There are a whole new wave of beat-smiths, emcees and DJs coming up the ranks and over the past months I’ve gotten into the rhythm of getting these guys into the Red Bull Studios to make music. Of course they’re all pretty amped to get stuck in, cause we have some sweet noise making artillery down here.

And it doesn’t stop in Cape Town. Of course anyone familiar with this blog will know that cities like Pretoria, Joburg and Durban have their fair share of sonic-manipulating genius. We’re going to endeavour to get as many mad music makers from around the country into the studio to bring the noise.

All the music coming out of the studio will be available on the exclusive Red Bull Studio blog at www.redbullstudioza.com. Of course the blog is just starting out, whereas Electrotrash is the online hub for local electronica, being around since before some of the artists on here even knew what an oscillator was. This column will be a roundup of the great electronic music coming out of the Red Bull Studios in Cape Town and wherever possible I’ll make sure to get exclusive content onto Electrotrash for all your downloading pleasure.

Kicking things off is this Dubstep remix of DJ MX’s “Like I See You” featuring song bird Black Porcelain. While the original is a rolling South African house number, not really in line with Electrotrash’s vibe, the remix is a dark, asthmatic juggernaut that fits in perfectly with the meteorically rising Dubstep scene in Cape Town.

DJ MX feat. Black Porcelain – Like I See You (Darkstep Remix) – Soundcloud link, 13.8MB

These tracks were recorded and produced during the Red Bull Music Academy Taster some months back at the studios. The taster, dubbed ‘A Third World Perspective’ saw 20 music minds from around South Africa come together to share knowledge with music greats such as Sipho Hotstix and Trevor Jackson for three days. To find out more about the taster, and to get the lowdown on the studios in general, head over to the Red Bull Studio Cape Town blog here – www.redbullstudioza.com

Before I leave I would like to introduce one last musical innovation courtesy of the world’s biggest energy drink: Red Bull Music Academy Radio. An internet radio station, RBMA Radio has a catalogue on some of the most incredible artists making music in the world, I kid you not. As an example you can see this playlist embedded into this post below which you can actually simply play off this post.

RBMA Player Code:

A banging electrified mix from Crookers, a one on one Dubstep session featuring Benga and Skream and a live recording of electro-pop king, M83 should be enough to make you head over to www.redbullmusicacademyradio.com to see what the deal is for yourselves.

Otherwise keep an eye out on Electrotrash as well as the studio blog for more Red Bull Studio Cape Town freshness in the weeks to come.

Richard the Third

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