As there are just days left until Bass Coast begins, we’re launching the next piece in our pre-event coverage with an in-depth piece from another headlining artist; Monolithium!
A figure in the Victoria electronic music scene, Monolithium (a.k.a Chris Long, a.k.a Longshanks) has had a monumental impact on the development of the city’s underground scene. Leading the charge with sub|division, a group of local music and dance enthusiasts that throw regular events for you to shake your booty at, they celebrated their fifth year of annual events this past winter. Known for bringing underground artists through the city in intimate style events, sub|div shows have featured international headliners (Addison Groove, Lunice, Flying Lotus etc) among local Canadian talent (Philthkids, Self Evident, Dan Solo etc).
Currently readying a forthcoming collab project with Bass Coast in the form of a three part series of EPs, the sub|div Selects gathers together tunes from Bass Coast alumni (all of which will be playing at the 2015 festivities). Artists featuring tunes include not only himself but also Max Ulis, Sergio Levels, Daega Sound, Michael Red as well as a Self Evident remix. With the release getting dropped tomorrow (July 1st) via the sub|division bandcamp page, checkout the Bass Coast Soundcloud page to hear previews of the tunes.
As such an active part the our local scene, in addition to his longstanding Bass Coast festival contributions, we’re excited to have Monolithium on board as part of our pre-event coverage. We decided to pick his brain on his Top 10 Records; the ones that were instrumental in shaping him into the artist he is today. For more on Monolithium, be sure to check him out on the usual Facebook and Soundcloud spots.
Plus, with 10 days remaining until Bass Coast, be sure to grab those last minute tickets at local outlets near you or via the Bass Coast website!
Top 10 Records: Monolithium
I am a sucker for musical conversation. Ironically to some, for me, that dialog is a place free of judgement; I am genuinely interested in the why behind the musical affinities of anyone I within my social circle. I especially enjoy dialog with folks that wield polar views to my own—I don’t really fuck with a lot of contemporary internet rap, but I have a lot of friends that soundtrack their days with it. No matter how brief that interaction is, that’s typically an interesting conversation for me.
So regarding this feature, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Om Unit vid that Amy sent through for reference. I consider him a contemporary influence, his Lightgrids/Lavendar EP was a key release for me through my formative production period. I totally enjoyed watching that vid and hearing his connection to those tunes and thus picturing how threads of those tracks somehow came to subtly weave their way into his own production.
So, being the thorough musical twerp that I am, I need to state that this list represents music that I feel tangibly contributes (and has contributed) to my own art; these are the stone tablets that I believe in. Big shouts to Nick Cave, Robert Wyatt and Leonard Cohen who I love dearly, but have fuck all to do with how I make music.
Dabrye “Smoking The Edge” from One/Three (Ghostly International)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRWpUvNTYNg
Many people have that story where they meet an artist that they’re a huge fan of their work… and they’re so nervous and unsure. And then the artist turns out to be a complete fuckface and it kinda ruins the music and just leaves a horrible taste in the mouth. Well I’m glad to report that my interactions with Tadd Mullinix aka Dabrye are the complete opposite. I am blessed to have been able to do a mini tour with Dabrye when I was promoting my first Error Broadcast release. Playing low End Theory with Dabrye is the highlight of my “musical career.” Not only was he theeeee nicest dude, but the interactions were genuine and, man… he was already a huge musical influence so getting to connect with him poured golden cement all over his OG status. So yeh, amazing human. Also makes dope techno as JTC (peep!).
Tadd’s music continues to still be the gold standard for glacial, instrumental hip-hop beats in my mind. When I was figuring out my Simon & G-Funk sound, his music loomed large. He was pre-wonky, pre-aqua crunk, pre-beat-scene, he made a fucking beat for Dilla for chrissakes! His Ghostly debut One/Three is a classic and “Smoking The Edge” best typifies not only the complete control over the sounds in play but… it’s so fucking minimal! It’s so confident with that one slippery vocoded bassline and all that sub-bass. Just nasty shit.
Ricardo Villalobos “Dexter” from Alcachofa (Playhouse)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0i1Szq6GM8
Ah Ricardo. I do enjoy much of what the Perlon/Playhouse cannon has under its hood. The world of meticulous clicks and shakers juxtaposed with overly-engineered kick drums; there’s a lot there that my ears agree with. This specific track is very basic, but rests on the monolithic mantle of a descending, gloomy analog chord pattern. To me, it’s one of those musical absolutes: an idea so well formed, this tune is just a vessel for that one idea to orbit in time, rotating in all its melancholy glory. “Easy Lee” is another fave, but “Dexter” just… keeps me locked. There’s a magnetic field woven into that phrase of chords.
Levon Vincent “Double Jointed Sex Freak II” from NS08 (Novel Sound)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1gjuQq_Rfg
Gotta admit, I’m far from up to speed on contemporary techno (or classic for that matter!) but Levon Vincent’s is someone from that world has grown on me a lot over the past 3 years. This tune specifically, was at the centre of his Fabric Mix a few years back and I found myself coming back to it over and over, focusing on its trance-like simplicity. “Less is more” is far from a new mantra in techno circles and “DJSF II” is barely melodic, but still so engaging. It employs similar tactics to Basic Channel, albeit slowed down and therefore much “groovier”—the kick drum is kinda puny, but there’s all this sub bass activity that really comes to life when the tune is played on a rig. The melodic elements that do crop up—the pads etc— it’s as if they’re wrenched out of metallic clouds in the atmosphere; it’s greyscale and not terribly musical in the traditional composition sense, but the pay dirt when everything finally clicks at5:10 is always rewarding. Deep choon. That fucking shaker pattern!
Company Flow “8 Steps To Perfection” from Funcrusher Plus (Rawkus)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ra3enj8zhQ
I have been an avid consumer of hip-hop and rap for as long as I can remember anything relevant in my life and truth be told, if we’re talking lifetime influence, Wu-Tang Forever is definitely the record that I clung to most dearly as a developing youth. But I’ll be straight, aside from Ghost & Rae, the Clan’s twilight output has really done their legacy no justice and as a result, I’ve been on a bit of a Wu sabbatical strictly to preserve the magic for a later period in my life. So all praise due to the Wu.
But this record. Co Flow. Funcrusher Plus is a record that, for me, has weathered all shifts in stylistic preference and trend. I discovered it much after latching onto Black Star and Soundbombing II… it went out of print real quick on CD, so I was actually a latecomer El-P, Big Juss and Mr. Len. The album is a beast; sprawling, dystopian lyricism, an oil tanker’s worth of attitude and ego, beats so dusty that you thought they might have been recorded incorrectly. The spacey synth melody of “8 Steps” has so much contextual resonance for me—it is a perfect musical moment in time that anticipates all of El-P’s groundbreaking progressive work to come as a solo artist and with Cannibal Ox. Then the drum roll. Then “Rugged like Rwanda…” – it is worth noting that over time, I’ve flipped perspectives on the vocal performances; I think Big Juss’ first verse is the one. El’s got some heater lines, but Juss’ flow is just, timeless. Its influence is… attitude. The spirit of “Independent as fuck” from the liner notes… everything about Co Flow is just a huge FUCK YOU. When I listen to it, I feel younger. I will never tire of this tune.
Speedy J “Ping Pong” from !ive (Plus 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlxnSms1oPw
Most of my initial decade with electronic and dance music was through the backdoor of IDM and more experimental, explicitly non-dance forms. With artists like Orbital, Aphex, Future Sound Of London, Plastikman, Squarepusher etc… my interest was parallel to how I processed metal and hip-hop; I wanted full length albums, I wanted artists with vision and scope and I wanted trippy music. So I simply was not interested in 12” club culture through my early twenties—if you weren’t trying to make an LP, I wasn’t interested. Obviously now, that shortsighted perspective is comical considering the passion I’ve developed for American house/techno specifically on 12” vinyl… anyway, Speedy J’s “Ping Pong” is near the beginning of !ive, a bonus CD that came with G-Spot. I remember thinking at the time “Oh, this is that stuff built for the club that I really like.” Hahah comedy. The tune is… I dunno, progressive trance I guess haha. But the 303 bassline and the constant evolving/adding of building block percussion and atmospherics—it’s really the first tune I remember thinking now THIS is techno, and I love it. If someone plays this at Bass Coast, I would lose my tits.
Boddika “Crack” from Steam EP (Swamp 81)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s101Dno5Grc
Al Green of Instra:mental is likely the most played artist over my time as a DJ. I do love all of his work, it taps an icey, mechanical aesthetic that I never tire of. His music is relentlessly futuristic, all of it squared off in a space dominated by robots and lazers and dystopia. This particular tune ends his most recent Swamp 81 EP. Couple things I love about it: 1) it’s evil sounding, always love that and 2) it’s really sparse on kick drums, only 1 per bar, but the tune still has a serious groove to it. Also the snare/clap is compressed so low, it was obviously done on purpose and it makes the whole thing click. A belter!
Godflesh “Xynobis” from Selfless (Columbia)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t2oDPfyhO4
I have a bi-annual cycle with a few heavy bands where I phase in and out of consuming almost just heavy music: Converge, Cursed, Isis, Dillinger Escape Plan are the key culprits… but Godflesh’s crawling sludge has this weird crossover with the techno part of my brain as well; it’s due to the focus on repetition and their obtuse use of drum machines and samples. The bass is always guttural and Justin Broadrick’s guitar lines embody a balance of anger and melancholy that is much more difficult to execute than he’s credited for. “Xynobis” is quite repetitive—which is why I like it. It’s almost ecstatic to me; music to close my eyes to. So glad they’re back together, their new LP A World Lit Only By Fire is top notch.
Autechre “Clipper” from Tri Repetae (Warp)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLK70Ipe-tI
More dystopia, more futurism. A big theme throughout my life with music is driving around, connecting with my favourite tunes and I have vivid memories of driving around Alberta during my short stint living there in my early twenties, listening to this and thinking “I need to leave this fucking place.” I remember getting into this album and feeling like it was over my head, but as I soaked it in, the detailed musicality of the composition glued my mind to Tri Repetae (the album is definitely a top 5 LP all time). I dunno… listen to this shit! It’s melancholy but futuristic. It’s melodic, but the drums are essentially static. It’s paced, but never boring. The baseline is… genius. It is beautiful art.
Untold “Never Went Away” from Gonna Work Out Fine (Hemlock)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGoQ5oWaA0M
Jack Dunning is my fave producer from the glory era of dubstep/bass music. His production as Untold from 5 years back is still a huge source of inspiration for my current approach to production & sound design. His Hotflush and Hemlock output is sonically so interesting to my ears; it’s referential—drawing from established scenes and using easily identifiable genre-based elements—but married with immaculate engineering and a clear approach to bass weight that isn’t overbearing. His percussion often has an aquatic feel and he is unafraid to punt the kick drums and just let the sculpted sub-bass do all the low end work. “Never Went Away” caps off what I think is his best work, the Gonna Work Out Fine EP. This tune weaves that classic grime kick drum amongst other UK rave elements, all at a pace that allows it to mix with styles north & south of 130bpm. Always in the crate.
Aphex Twin “Vordhosbn” from Drukqs (Warp)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwe10iDlFQo
I do like a good communal chat with other hardcore Aphex fans and I distinctly remember there being a tangible backlash from a lot of “devotees” when Drukqs came out. Accusations of “random drum programming” and “inconsistency” were frustrating for me, since the record, to my ear, was immaculately conceived bliss. Additionally, I seem to constantly read journalists that regard this masterwork as the one blight on an otherwise perfect report card, which to me is comedy. So fuck the Drukqs haters.
“Vordhosbn” doesn’t so much influence my creative process, rather it stands as a reminder of work that is out of reach… something to aspire to on a more visionary creative/musical level. The baroque melodic intro, the moment of earth-crushing majesty at 1:18, the placid left turn at 1:58 after break-chop insanity, and the motherfucking drums. Holy hell the drums. Unbelievable push/pull control of the cadence and rhythm through the entire thing, all at 180bpm! Simply the most entertaining and engaging drum programming I’ve encountered, yet all the technical proficiency is weighted with heart-wrenching emotion in all the chords and melodies. Anytime I listen to this tune, I am humbled, followed by an overwhelming sense of doubt and dismay… but ultimately I leave inspired.
