VCTRE Expands His Horizons in Palindrome LP

The last three years have seen VCTRE stake an audacious claim within the underground bass community. The vicious, punk veneer across his music has made him a fast rising star amongst his contemporaries, earning him prime slots across numerous festivals, showcases and concerts, as well as a rapidly growing, flamboyant fan base. He’s brought his production and engineering chops to new heights across the last year especially, culminating in the full-spectrum album Palindrome.

The earthy grit featured in VCTRE productions takes on new dimensions in Palindrome as he pushes his sound design chops towards wider horizons. The amalgam of styles and moods on the album is a testament to his evolving compositional perspective, with some of the most standout tracks in the collection also being the least imposing. While plenty of guttural distortion and massive stereo compression find a home in the latter half of the release, the first half features an abundance of downbeat, chilled-out tunes, fully equipped with VCTRE’s trademarked, speaker-blasting textures. It’s a noteworthy combination, given that so much of his catalog thus far has focused on the brawny end of bass music. 

Of particular note are the tracks “Human Eel” and “Morning Sky”; side by side, they best capture and display the depth of character featured across Palindrome. With its ungulant, viscous stabs and syncopated arrangement structure, every burst of low end in “Human Eel” responds to a bend in the frequency spectrum. What carries itself primarily as a gun slinging, half-time saunter quietly and impressively transforms into a skewed full time breakdown to close out the track. It’s the kind of composition that flexes the full potency of VCTRE’s patented aural aggression while simultaneously pushing his envelope beyond its traditional edge.

“Morning Sky” takes the attitude of Palindrome in an entirely unique direction, wielding a classic 4x4 beat accentuated by swelling pads and brooding atmospheres. It’s industrial and lucid, and the minimalist production allows for each aspect of the track to shine clearly through the mix. Sky Swift makes an appearance with her flangered, saturated vocals, adding a fresh breath of life into the veins of the song. Soft edges and acute harmonies put her at the center of the arrangement, giving the direct, austere dance floor tune a warm glow and an infectious bite.

2019 saw VCTRE rise with meteoric velocity, and the fanfair is well earned. He’s separated himself from the pack through intuitive, potent production skills and a knack for redeveloping his sound at every turn. He’s staked his claim onstage across the United States, blasting through the festival and touring circuits with few signs of an impending slowdown. As we enter 2020, the landscape of bass music is bound to change as it always has. Of the few constants we can guarantee, VCTRE’s continued dominance of his niche is certainly one of them.

FOLLOW VCTRE: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook

Exept, OaT, & Volatile Cycle Team Up with MethLab Recordings

MethLab Recordings has built their music label brand on the premise of focusing on experimental electronic music. Never restricting space to just a specific genre, MethLab Recordings strives to break the mold, and in doing so has had the opportunity to share some powerfully unique sounds with the public. The release of “Broken Mechanics” & “Attitude” is a prime example of their progressive artist roster and ear for originality.

Drum and bass is back on the forefront of the bass scene, and with its reemergence there has been a plethora of experimental sound design to go along with it. Exept, a production duo from Rome, and residents to the MethLab label, paired up with some fresh faces for two collaborative tracks.

“Broken Mechanics” features OaT, who is new to MethLab, while in “Attitude” we hear what happens when four minds become one with an appearance from the UK duo, Volatile Cycle. Both tracks join forces with the heavy dnb influence of Exept, while incorporating techno and rhythmic halftime, making these songs stand out during casual listening. The combination of these international artist’s techniques raises the bar another notch with dance friendly, intricate, drum and bass music while introducing elements from other adored genres.

FOLLOW Methlab Recordings / Exept / OaT / Volatile Cycle

Aaron Johnston's J.E.D.I. - Momento [Single]

Aaron Johnston stands at the helm of an ambitious live project that brings together virtuoso musicians across a broad span of genres; Aaron Johnston’s J.E.D.I. An acronym for “Jazz-Electronic-Dance-Improvised", J.E.D.I. is exactly what it suggests; a high-octane, hybrid-jazz fusion with a dance floor mentality and jazz fluidity. The group’s roster is improvised, too, in that it rotates and has included members of the String Cheese Incident and Thievery Corporation, among others. Recently, Aaron tapped the talents of Borahm Lee (Break Science, Pretty Lights Live), Dominic Lali (Big Gigantic), and Josh Fairman (SunSquabi) to take J.E.D.I. out of the live sphere and into the studio. The group is working with the upstart Color Red imprint out of Denver, a progressive new label focusing on jazz, soul, and the gooey bits in-between, to record and produce original J.E.D.I. compositions to be released on a monthly basis.

The third of these monthly tracks is “Momento”, a vibratory, seat-of-the-pants excursion into instrumental harmony. Bringing the sum of the band’s influences and styles under a single release, “Momento” sets the tone with a vivacious keyboard melody, slowly introducing the washed-out synthesis and low end. Not but a few measures in, the percussion punctures the stereo space with a drum and bass saunter that flips the atmosphere from pensive to industrial. All along the way, the saxophone takes the lead with a meandering legato, dancing above the instrumental interplay like the canopy of a forest. Bringing the energy to a ballistic climax, the percussion launches into a mad build-up, buoying the rising textures of interpolated synthesis around it. As the tension breaks, a simpatico of improvisation and instrumental dialogue sets off through the jazz multiverse. As the song reaches a break-neck conclusion, all instrumental elements are left adrift, slowly fading out through a haze of smokey tones and asymmetrical audio glitches.

J.E.D.I. found a home on Color Red through a chance meeting at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. According to Aaron:

“Eddie [Eddie Roberts, guitarist of The New Mastersounds and Color Red founder] and I had the chance to play together for the first time last year when J.E.D.I. played at Jazz Fest. I had played the fest earlier that evening with David Byrne so I was able to slip that one gig in between tour dates with David. So happy I did!  Everyone just had a blast. I think it was refreshing for Eddie to be placed in a different element.  We hit it off instantly and from there we continued working together when our schedules allowed, and then he basically brought up Color Red to me and the timing was right for me to start to get some music recorded and out there.”

The timing feels ripe indeed. The burgeoning sounds of modern jazz are in constant flux, and rightly so. It is an inherently amorphous genre that flows in and out of musical modality. Aaron Johnston is a quintessential audio astronaut and explorer, combining the cutting edge with an ability and desire to look back on our sonic origins. As a result, J.E.D.I. is a project with few comparisons. With Color Red connecting the group to extremely talented audio engineers (the label always prioritizes top tier mixing and mastering talent), and with Eddie producing and co-signing the vision, it’s no wonder this quartet feels like it’s been a decade in the making.

FOLLOW Aaron Johnston’s J.E.D.I: Color Red / Bandcamp / Facebook / Soundcloud

FOLLOW Color Red: Official / Soundcloud / Spotify / Bandcamp / Instagram