Saltus & Pathwey - Mirage [Single]

The latest single from Street Ritual finds two mystics of underground bass, Saltus & Pathwey, joining forces to cast a powerful sonic spell called “Mirage”. Saltus hails from Boston, MA and co-founded the production powerhouse Rezinate. Pathwey is from Asheville, NC and was recently signed to Street Ritual’s booking agency. Both put their best foot forward here and the result is one of the strongest tracks in either’s catalog.

As its name might imply, “Mirage” has a disorienting effect on the listener. Clocking in at more than five minutes, the song maneuvers through multiple forms before leveling the listener with its third drop, a sharp slice of neuro bass that comes from way out in left field. The sub bass is extreme, and sets the foundation for a brilliant use of stereo space. Sonic elements abound in the track - hi-fidelity glitches, foley, ambient pads, vague vocal samples - but the producers maintain a sense of dimension by carefully rounding the edges of their sounds manipulating the reverb delicately. They create a spatial hierarchy for their sounds so that glitches seep into your ear, percussive elements pop with force, and the sub bass, like water, both flows and crashes at different moments.

Both Saltus and Pathwey primarily focus on 140 & 85 bpm music. Their music emphasizes atmosphere and soundscape more than most 140 fare, but without compromising the style’s thumping, drum-driven essence. This summer, Saltus intends to drop a project long in the making - the “Nightsky” mix - an all original and unreleased (save for “Mirage”) dive into the deepest, truest part of the producer’s universe. Pathwey recently released an absolutely epic and earthy mix through the Shanti Planti series on RadiOzora, one your correspondent’s personal favorites of 2019 so far. (This renaissance man also put together the lunar lattice artwork for the single). Choon in to those frequencies but also be careful, because “Mirage” could come soon to wreck a dance floor near you.

FOLLOW Saltus:  Soundcloud  /  Bandcamp  /  Spotify / Facebook

FOLLOW Pathwey: Soundcloud / Spotify / Facebook

MALAKAI - Milieux

Over a year has passed since the release of MALAKAI’s Saros, an ambitious and exploratory EP that set the standard for future productions from this sonic sage. Since then, he has compulsively honed in on his signature tones and high-fidelity synthesis textures, stirring and broiling his choice ingredients and audio engineering education into a perfect fusion. One result is Milieux, a matured collection of melody-driven compositions that puts MALAKAI squarely on par with the fidelity-driven cornerstone producers of the modern age.

Milieux is remarkable for its richly-colored atmospheres and instrumental dialogue. The balance of clarity in the mix coupled with sufficient textural evolution and tonal layering is paramount to the MALAKAI musical vision, and he enacts said vision with the confidence of an auditory Philippe Petit. His righteous pursuit of pure aural experiences has brought out the best of his abilities to date, and while arrangement has always been a particular strong suit for MALAKAI, his translation and interpretation of musical language has become his most striking characteristic.

The opening track “Appa”, for example, is as aloof and playful as its namesake bison companion; a collaborative piece created with Smigonaut, the composition follows a crescendoed dance of supple warps and counter tones that gradually evolve into a mist of low-frequency oscillations. In a similar display of MALAKAI’s familiar percussive melodies, “Prunes” is a delicious, pitted groove that shuffles between anchoring bass lines and warm plucks that bounce around the upper registers. While his note choice and tonal dialogue are the backbones of his compositional structure, his use of stereo depth is the life that he breathes into his music. “Ubuntu” features an arrangement soaked in reverb and meticulously crafted to make the most of spacial dynamics, resulting in an appropriately airy track that rises and falls with the available frequency space from measure to measure. Bringing an energetic end to the EP is a particularly rusty collaboration with 5AM titled “What’s Matter”, a symphonic, orchestral finale to this four-part auditory adventure. Developing along a minor melody that sings through the speakers like angels at the gates, the track blasts headfirst into an emotive explosion of the largest synthesis featured on the EP, serving as a reminder that all is not always so subtle and spatially humble with MALAKAI’s musical vision.

In conjunction with the exposition of his highest musical watermark to date, MALAKAI is primed to take the stage this coming Saturday at Tipper’s highly anticipated three-night King’s Theatre run. In the short time between now and then, Milieux is available through the venerable Street Ritual on all major music platforms, primed and ready to emulsify in eager eardrums. While you’re not sleeping ‘til Brooklyn, don’t sleep on getting intimate with the musical mechanications of this atmospheric pioneer.

FOLLOW MALAKAI: Soundcloud / Spotify / Facebook / Official

DeeZnauts - Disruptor

DeeZ and Smigonaut are two Boston-dwelling bass mages practiced largely in the crafts of halftime and glitch hop. In the past, the convergence of their sound waves on tracks like “Moonlit Excursions” and “Lost at Sea” has been revelatory. It’s also hinted at the potential for crossover between the two producers while boosting each individual’s signal into the other’s territory. Now, the inevitable has happened. The two have alchemized their labor into a single project and Street Ritual now blesses the world with Disruptor, the first release from the hilariously-named DeeZNauts. This EP - the 150th release from Street Ritual - is fittingly a testament to the evolving sounds of the next generation of electronic enthusiasts.

The title track plays largely to the Smigonaut sound, emphasizing a glitch hop rhythm and swagger, and plunking out a midi melody cobbled from snare rims. The fuzzy distortion on the midbass shines bright as a firm halftime presence. They create a funky time signature and squeeze these sounds into unpredictable shapes, pitches, and patterns. By contrast, the crowded cacophony in “Scale the Perimeter”, while frenetic, is a short-lived two minutes and 20 seconds of tightly-wound go-hard with no wonky side-trips. The track has a distinct DeeZ halftime feel, introducing heavier flow through furious drum breaks. Smigonaut’s influence is felt in the occasional Mario-sounding chiptune throwback.

The truly majestic fusion that illustrates the potential of DeeZNauts appears on lead-off single “Escape Pod”. The contemplative synth wanders through a dark and spacey halftime dub with a quickly shuffling snare pattern, while textural elements are brought to the fore. After ambience is built with wood percussion and echo chambers, the final third drops into a growling space engine that shifts gears and blasts the listener into a different headspace. This track, the most balanced of the bunch, tells its story well. “Observatory”, a collaboration with Hullabalo0, is the wildcard of Disruptor. It presents a smattering of lounging solos in keys and guitar, while a smoky crowd speaks leisurely over a reverb-dipped sax. The rhythm is almost an afterthought, a structure to prop up the smooth jazz experiment with sweet melodies to swim through while soft fuzz'n'pop moments resonate with a vinyl nostalgia.

With Disruptor, DeeZNauts establishes itself as a new force of bass magic, a stunning challenge to co-create your art with neighboring aesthetics, and a testament to the influence the pair of producers have on one another. This EP is a brilliantly curated listen that emphasizes every element of the combination in turn, speaking its story in a scant four tracks but wasting no time. Armed with a diverse spell book of new music and a name sure to elicit laughs when read off a lineup, DeeZ and Smigonaut declare here their continued commitment to the craft and culture.

FOLLOW DeeZNauts: Soundcloud / Facebook

FOLLOW DeeZ:   Bandcamp  /  Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

FOLLOW Smigonaut:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Twitter   /   Instagram

Sound of Solasta - spacegeishA

For the next installment of the Sound of Solasta series, we're tapping into another industry powerhouse who will bring a multiplicity of talents to Solasta Festival on August 17-18. Rebecca Drylie-Perkins, better known by Becca or her performance moniker spacegeishA, is a top-tier DJ and the co-owner and director of Street Ritual. Born in 2006 from burn culture and a pervasive west-coast influence, and officially launched in 2008, Street Ritual is a digital label that puts maximum focus on spreading glitchhop, IDM, psychedelic bass music, and their various offshoots.

Leading the pack in many regards, spacegeishA has cultivated clout from over a decade of DJ sets. She also tenaciously advocates for the more than 70 artists that Street Ritual has come to represent. When each time comes for her to get behind the decks, the bounty of the relationships she's forged presents itself in the plethora of unique tunes, both released and unreleased, that she chooses from her collection. Those relationships, however, provide more than just access to good tracks. She is positioned among similar industry players who focus on the communal nature of this widespread counter culture. With this in mind, her booking at Solasta is no coincidence, with “community” being no buzzword for the Solasta team, but the ethos of the entire event. Understanding the dynamism of Becca's career requires more insight than can be gathered from just surface-level digging, so we’re grateful she afforded us the opportunity to ask a few questions.

The Rust: You're the label director for Street Ritual. How did that journey begin? What challenges do you currently face in the position?

I am one of two co-owners of Street Ritual and have been the Director of the record label for seven years and booking agency for two years. As one might imagine I am also the accountant, marketing team, social media manager, merchandiser, staff liaison, artist scouting, and recruitment supervisor.

There are a myriad of challenges that record labels face; mostly that of the evolving trends of digital music sales, social media, and streaming platforms. Spotify didn’t exist when I began, and now it’s an integral part of our business. Initially Facebook was beneficial; not so much anymore. To combat this, I research and strategize to stay in line with current market and online trends. In regards to the booking agency; every artist wants more shows. Booking artists/tours successfully requires confidence, patience, and a vast understanding of the nation’s “scene.” I contend that HYPE is the driving success of a large percentage of artists and it begs the question; where did the hype originate and how has it sustained itself?

The Rust: How do you build relationships with the producers and other music professionals that you later work with?

 I’m really happy you asked this, because I believe that ‘networks’ are the key to being successful in this industry. I come from a small town in NJ, so connecting with the top tier industry professionals on the west coast back in 2011 was a challenge. Initially I invested significant time reaching out to forge these connections with minimal results. I attended the Symbiosis 2010 Festival with only knowing my small group of friends. In just six years my network includes hundreds of patrons, musicians, artists, producers, directors, and fans in a dozen countries. My work in event production for festivals such as Lucidity, Enchanted Forest, Symbiosis, and even BOOM festival in Portugal afforded me the opportunity to expand my connections and build these lasting relationships. This endeavor entailed unpaid 16 hour shifts, angry artists, hot tents, flying to gigs all over, and a lot of miles on my car. The cool thing for me was, a lot of these sacrifices resulted in awesome releases, DJ gigs, or bookings for the artists I manage.

Relationships expand and grow to the next level when you attend an event and elevate your relationship from digital to physical. I recommend that you make sure you are not another email or unanswered facebook message. Get out there, be confident in what you are doing, and go talk to someone important. If you have to work for free to get your foot in the door it is  *probably* worth it. Aside from reaching out to a stranger, solid relationships can be built online through sharing music, ideas, feedback, and more. The amount of access we have to our community through the internet has allowed me to make connections all over the country and world! If you really like someone's tunes, tell them; they'll be happy to hear.

The Rust: Your DJ sets showcase music from a vast cross-section of producers. Where do you look to find fresh inspiration for your sets?

I find inspiration from a variety of creative sources. I love to watch successful DJ’s and producers performing, and the growth of our fan base filling the dance floors. Another source of inspiration comes from following my favorite labels. I listen to tracks that may not be included in my own DJ set but are a perfect fit for our label, or vice versa. This requires patience, however I live for that feeling of surprising the fans on the dance floor with something they don’t expect or know yet. There is a lot of rinsing of well known tunes in this scene, and while I like to have one or two in each of my sets that are "hott rn", I mostly aim to go for the songs that no one on the dance floor knows yet.

The general vibe of the song is a crucial part of my inspiration for building sets. I wait for that scrunch-face reaction when I hear it. I look for the funky, sexy, deep, dark, hard, weird, minimal, scary, crunchy, and hard-hitting. I don’t genre-discriminate. I intentionally organize my catalog by my bpm and key instead of by genre (which a lot of people do) because I don’t want to DJ out of genre folders. I use Soundcloud, Beatport, Bandcamp, and DJ mixes to discover new artists; and can’t say it’s an easy task. There is extensive digging, organizing, and filing necessary to be a DJ. Your time on the decks is earned by time spent on the computer. I invest on average $100 a month on buying tracks, even with the benefit of all the unreleased goodies I have access to. I feel strongly that we need to contribute to digital music sales and the charting and online performances of artists and labels we support.

Lastly, I get a big rush of the go-get-em feels after I play sets and talk with people who were there. I still get a little shy when people tell me they’ve been following me for a while or they’ve listened to my mix over 50 times, but those moments humble me, stay with me, and ultimately reinforce that I'm on the right path. Without the community or communication; there is no success to be had!

The Rust: How did you begin DJing, and how has your attitude as a DJ evolved over time?

 I have been a” selector” of music since I was young.  My 8th grade gym teacher recognized this talent and chose me to provide the list of tunes for the school dance. My mom talks about my constant commandeering of the radio in the car when I was young to blast Busta Rhymes and Jay-Z. Fast forward to Philly with my college lacrosse team; I created a hip-hop mix every year for our pre- game warm-up. This helped intimidate teams (as if our field in West Philly didn’t already do that). When we threw big parties I’d be DJing from my IPod. Upon graduation I moved to Portland, Oregon and spent my free time DJing by myself and for after house parties (compliments of our fat living room sound system and serato station-- thanks DP). I got tired of hearing all the boys play tunes out that I would also play, so I decided to get more serious about it. Then, I went to Burning Man and found myself spinning on a few different sets at my camp since I had curating and was managing five full nights of the most badass bass music to be found on playa that year. I played my first real set after that at Wormhole Wednesday in Oakland when it was still at Era Bar, opening for the legend Digital Rust.

I don’t think my attitude ABOUT DJing has changed, however I continue to see an increasing value and importance in it as an art form. A lot of success in our industry comes from producers, but I feel DJ’s supporting their tunes (by buying them, playing them out, etc.) is a piece of that puzzle. DJ’s can pivot if a dance floor falls flat; producers don’t always have that option. DJ’s can spread the word on tunes, artists, labels, or genres and producers should be taking advantage of that as it is a symbiotic relationship. DJ’s are the vibe curators, where producers create a certain vibe. We are all in this together; and I’ll be the first to speak up for the importance of DJ’s in this rising underground movement.

The Rust: Solasta is set to offer a plethora of production, audio engineering, and industry-focused workshops. What are your thoughts on festival seminars like these?

It is important for our community to educate and explore various aspects of our industry through group discussion. When we examine the positive and negatives we face as musicians, promoters, and participators in this scene, we grow collectively. Bottom line is, we are all in this together so let's get together and talk about it more. Sets from a bunch of firey producers and DJ's are workshops on their own for me. However, being able to leave with more knowledge about bookings, production, management, or our culture in general is just a bonus. I had the pleasure of speaking on a ‘Women in Music’ panel at Lightning in a Bottle last year, and it served as a potent reminder for me about the challenges women face in this industry. I still reference that panel discussion frequently and would love an opportunity to continue that discussion again some day. The more education covering a wide variety of topics at festivals, the better. In regards to the above question about forging relationships, these can serve as a great opportunity to do that. I am scheduled to be speaking on a panel at Solasta; stay tuned to hear more about that as it develops. See you on the dancefloor!

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As the weeks fly by and Solasta Festival grows ever closer, the excitement from all involved is palpable. With such an outstanding assortment of intelligent and meticulous organizers, producers, and DJs tapped for this year, it’s important to afford these individuals the proper spotlight for their actions and operations. If you plan to make the journey to Spirit Crossing in Sneedville, Tennessee for the weekend of August 17-18, be sure to find yourself front and center during the spacegeishA set.

FOLLOW spacegeishA:  Soundcloud  /  Facebook  /  Street Ritual

FOLLOW Solasta:  Website  /  Facebook  /  Tickets

Maxfield - Under the Pink Umbrella

Sometimes it feels like alternative electronic music has reached a critical mass; as if all the experiments have been run through, the wildest sounds have all been played out, and the arrangements have been mashed up so thoroughly that we're through the ringer and a straight-up four-four beat has become innovative.

Within this landscape, the Boston-based producer Maxfield feels right at home. A string of EPs and singles tied together across Gravitas, Wormhole, and The Rust Music in the past year has perked ears in the right places, but with so much excellent music dropping daily, it wasn't cutting through the noise. Now, as his performance schedule has begun to ramp up this festival season, Maxfield comes with Under the Pink Umbrella on Street Ritual. It's his strongest work to date, breaching the surface with dynamic tunes that bear his own unique fingerprint as a producer. Ironically, though, Under the Pink Umbrella is less the product of a concerted effort towards an envisioned goal, but rather the result of a wandering creativity that Jake Maxfield has been wise enough to indulge.  

Across his catalog, Maxfield blurs the already hazy distinctions between sub-genres of electronic music. Under the Pink Umbrella expands on this thread. “As electronic music gets a little more popular the fan base is getting a little more educated about, like, what makes a genre a genre," Jake told me at the Psychedelic Sleepover in June. "People hear certain sounds ...for so many years now that they know those sounds and they know what defines a genre. I like to take bits of that and then smash them together, so that people are like, 'woah, what is this.'” Take "Tiny Hand Low Five" as an example. There's no discernible genre at play here, or even a familiar pattern or movement. It's refreshing. The lead melody is carried by a heavy bass synthesizer that strives forward like a giant roaming the countryside. The breakdown is full of darting and ducking effects, the kind of vowel-sounding synthesis epitomized by the Formant synthesizer. "Some people think of electronic music and they think of clubs and stuff," says Jake, "but this was kind of a shift towards a more 'go out in the woods and get abducted by aliens' kind of vibe." Touche. 

(Credit: Kyle Harrington)

For all the value in experimentation, some people including your correspondent are just partial towards a straight-forward bumping beat. Give me a kick, snare and a little swing and I'm aces. That's what Maxfield delivers on "Kids These Days", our standout cut on Under the Pink Umbrella. The organic percussion is well executed and the sound design is so crisp. Split seconds of synthesis sound like laser beams poking in between sandy, open hi-hats. A whopping snare guides the arrangement and a sprinkling of cowbell adds texture to the mix.  The inspiration behind the tune is relatable. "There’s these really young kids making all this mind altering music," Jake says. "You’ll hear the wildest song and your friend's like, 'you know that kids like 14?' It’s just about envy, and the motivation that comes form envy. That day I had heard something that was just so good that came from someone a couple years younger than me. I had this knot in my stomach until I got something out,  and the 'Kids These Days' idea is what started from that."

The EP winds down with a special cut, almost a ballad or ballet called "Outsource to Outerspace". It takes courage to put a slow, seven-minute song on your EP in this climate where producers are all jockeying for the limited attention spans of listeners. This song has deep meaning for Jake, though. It offers an enchanting and reposeful end to a roller coaster of an EP. Despite the calm setting, Maxfield opens up the hatch on his sound design with more force and fullness here than anywhere else on the EP.  The main movement is replicated across several instruments, and an electric guitar played by Jake himself wails into outerspace like someone begging a question, lost in their own thoughts. 

Jake's introduction to electronic music was atypical, and that may in part account for his tending toward unique, left-field composition. He attended Berklee College of Music seeking to become "the world's shreddiest, nastiest guitar player", but soon found that he had too much ground to cover on his peers for this dream to become a reality. On a whim he took an introductory Music Technology course and the rest, as they say, is history. "When you’re doing music education for a long time, you learn a bunch about rhythm, you learn a bunch about harmony, you play instruments, and you do all these things. But nobody was ever like 'what if you could change the sound of that instrument?'" With his roots in the world of tonal instrumentation and his branches reaching out into the exciting realms of sound synthesis and automated percussion, Maxfield is uniquely positioned to push boundaries in electronic music. While impressive, Under the Pink Umbrella feels like just a starting point. 

FOLLOW Maxfield:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Spotify   /   Instagram

Smigonaut - Constructs EP

"The small dude facing the big skyscraper...the individual's struggle with society as a whole" - Josh Kipersztok a.k.a. Smigonaut (Artist: 5AM)

You heard the Boston-based producer Smigonaut become untethered on Oxidized Vol. 2, now prepare yourself for a visceral and intellectual music experience; Constructs EP, his most outstanding work to date.  

"My big theme for the EP and the artwork [created by 5AM] was feeling like sometimes it’s you vs. the world, and how that can feel alienating especially when you try to defy conventional norms,” says Josh Kipersztok a.k.a. Smigonaut. “How many of these feelings are just based on social constructs?"

Having first heard him on collaborations with Jade Cicada, we’ve always known Smigonaut to possess exceptional production capabilities. Josh was recently promoted to the Quality Control Department of the award-winning production plug-in designers Izotope, so we trust his ear to say the least. In this instance, Smigonaut goes for the jugular with his sound design again and again, particularly on the title track “Constructs”. This was a tasty ID on Smigonaut's Tipper & Friends Mix, and it bangs even harder the second time around. 

Every sound on the four-track EP is deliberate, defined, and delicious, be it a split-second crunch on “Pocket Drones”, oscillating sub-bass on “Double Life”, or the music box melody on the downtempo track “Anomolous”. The work is also exceptionally mastered, polished to pulse with a cerulean luster. Andy Widdecomb a.k.a. DeeZ performed the mastering on the first track “Pocket Drones”, and Sandy Finlayson a.k.a. Seppa is to be credited for the rest.

The Constructs EP is the most jammin’ example to date of that sound which makes Smigonaut special; propulsive and dirty left-field bass presented through melodious, jazzy songwriting. Hear this on “Double Life”, when the producer pulls the rug out from under a Saturday Night Fever-ish bassline and whimsical key lead to reveal a hyped-up wobbler. Josh played classical piano throughout his childhood and adolescence. He says he's "out of practice", but he clearly crafts his music with a fundamental understanding of note relationships. 

Utilizing the emotive power of these note relationships within the context of electronic textures and timbres creates dramatic moments, as when an indulgent piano lick swaggers in on the heels of some absolute filth on “Constructs”. Where the music is so precise and mechanized, it is also so human, so dependent on feel. The high technicality would be hollow without the intuitive, emotional threads woven often with the piano. By the same token these catchy and accessible melodies wouldn’t strike nearly as hard without Josh’s reinforced electronic synthesis. 

The prevalence of technology is hinted at across the work. “Pocket Drones” reminds us of “black mirror” or other such ominous nicknames for the smart phone. The turn of phrase conjures dystopian themes, particularly the concept of surveillance, and the album artwork syncs up with this thread.

From the subtle play of ideas, to the daring sound design, through the personal relevance for the artist all tied together by the alluring artwork, this is a magnum opus of sorts for Smigonaut. "The individual should not fear their own path even if it doesn’t follow the norms,” Josh says, again touching on the theme for his EP. In other words, being anomalous or different is not something to fear, but something to embrace. In his creative endeavors, Smigonaut has been faithful to this ethos. In this instance,  it's led to his most outstanding and impressive work to date. Pick up Constructs here.

FOLLOW Smigonaut:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Twitter   /   Instagram