Monday 19 July 2010

Nicolas Jaar, 19

Jaar was born in NY, raised in Chile and returned to the apple in his teens. His name is the one on everybody's lips at the moment. As the profile of New York based Wolf + Lamb records increases, so does the hype around Jaar. His frist ever release was with Wolf + Lamb at the tender age of 17, he has recently had a scintillating podcast mix put out via Resident Advisor and he is clearly very clever as he is now studying at one of the US's top Universities. Everything is looking good for the youngster. But is all this hype so necessary?

It is easy to make a fuss about his age, but it's warranted as he is younger than the genre itself and there aren't many young'uns out there. Techno is a genre of ageing veterans. The Beltram's, the Lawler's and the Atkins are not in their prime. Seth Troxler described him as one "of the most talented minds that dance music is about to see develop". A mind heavily influenced by the most famous Chilean in dance music Ricardo Villalobos. It was Villalobos' work which introduced Jaar to techno and since then he has made strides towards becoming a bigger and better producer than the man himself. Jaar has many other influences including Ethiopian Jazz legend Mulatu Astatke and of course a Latin tinge from his time spent in Chile.

One thing can be said of the youngster he produces very forward thinking music, it's not all necessarily very danceable but there are some club classics in his armoury of releases. You can be sure that you will seeing and hearing a lot more of this guy in the future.......




Enjoy the tracks

Jossa
Claude Von Stroke stands out as one of the great names of the electronic music scene. People who don't even listen to techno will have at some point have heard of him or heard his music. Tim Green's remixes of artists like Booka Shade, Cassius and Tiefschwarz have become anthems in the scene too, so only good things can happen when work from the two producers is combined


Jossa x


Saturday 10 July 2010

Highgrade Disharmonic Orchestra

I was lucky enough to see the first live set that these guys played, at Watergate in Berlin. They worked a truly breathtaking combination of analogue synths and Abelton coupled with cdj's a vinyl mixing to create an amazing live experience. If you get a chance to see these guys then go for it.....


Jossa x

Tuesday 6 July 2010

Bit O Funky

It has been somewhat inactive around these parts recently. I have just returned from a trip to Berlin, a city I always wanted to visit because of the techno scene present everywhere. Let me just say to anyone who has thought of going at any point DO IT! I have never been out in such a nice environment. The city itself is amazing and there is so much to see and do and at night it goes mad. I can safely say Watergate is the best club I have ever been to. Berliners go out on Friday nights and come back on Sunday afternoon...that's how it should be done

Polar opposite to the pounding techno and fresh minimal sound waves one can sample in der fatherland is the unique sound of UK funky. Because it's summer and it's shining it's a good time to whack out some funky vibes and act like snoop and 2 pac in the photo above....




Jossa x