And welcome to the post where I disclose the best and most exciting dance music I have heard all year. And I fully understand that this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and that any claim to have discovered the best of anything at any time is fraught with danger and division, but nonetheless here ’tis:
Who also hold the title of being the best/only artist I have ever discovered in a shoe store. But there I was, four odd weeks ago, reclining casually as the shop assistant struggled frantically to find the right sized shoes (“do you have anything in 8 and 3/4?”), when my ears suddenly tuned in to the gritty and pounding background music… so not really all that background when I think about it. Turns out I was listening to The Glitch Mob’s 2008 Crush Mode Mixtape and, well, it’s a doozy. And by doozy I mean the best DJ mix I’ve heard since Freq Nasty’s FabricLive from around this time last year. The best in that not only is it filled wall to wall with blistering tunes but, as with Freq’s FabricLive, it also completely reformatted my approach to dance music. The Freq Nasty mix introduced me to properly slamming dubstep and the way it could be thrown together with various other bass heavy genres to become something entirely unique. But this Glitch Mob mix, in a slightly narrower way, introduced me to glitch… funnily enough.
In a way I guess they’re riffs on a theme. Both dabble in half-time, broken and hip-hop tinged beats. But whereas the Freq Nasty FabricLive was the amalgamation of a whole suite of sounds I’d been loosely tracking anyway, the Glitch Mob stuff was pretty much unlike anything else I’d heard before. It’s kinda like everything I wanted from dubstep mixed with everything I wanted from hip-hop, tied together with the party vibe of nu school breaks. My brother perhaps described it best: this is black music for white people. The Glitch Mob are three dudes – edIT, Ooah and Boreta – who hail from the West Coast of the US and purvey a fine line in heavy as shit party jams. The BPMs wander from 90-120, which is pretty novel, and there’s lots of melodic breakdowns and massive drops, alongside jagged edged synth stabs and plentiful glitchy asides. But the vibe’s not so much dance your sweet ass off as it is throw your whole body into every beat. There’s a difference. Either way, listening to this music just makes you feel really fucking cool. Like you want to be that guy cruising around the city and ruining everybody’s day with your overly loud car soundsystem. Because, man, people have got to learn somehow. Anyway, I should probably actually include some of the music, so here goes. All come with my highest recommendation. No, seriously, download them all:
The Glitch Mob – Crush Mode Mixtape [tracklist after the jump]
STS9 – Beyond Right Now (The Glitch Mob Remix)
Matty G – West Coast Rocks (The Glitch Mob Remix)
Nalepa – Monday (The Glitch Mob Remix)
Kraddy – Android Porn [A former member of The Glitch Mob, but a fucking caning track nonetheless]
The Glitch Mob are also notable for a) not having produced ludicrous amounts of middling material on the path toward making a name for themselves (I’m looking at you Crookers) and b) as far as I can tell not putting out a single mediocre track to date. It’s all great and it’s all worth procuring. iTunes has the goods. And apparently they’re working on an album too. I’m girding my loins for that one.
Now, please, please somebody bring them down here over the summer. I promise it will be good. Really good. Really, really good. Great.
-luke
1. The Glitch Mob – Crush Mode
2. Boreta – Bubblin in the Cut
3. edIT feat. J Dilla, Phat Kat and Dabrye – The Game Is Not Over
4. Fine Cut Bodies – Beaver Blink (Ooah Remix)
5. Kraddy – Steppin’ Razor
6. Ooah – Hacksaw
7. edIT – Headbanger’s Ball
8. Nalepa ‘Monday’ – The Glitch Mob Remix
9. Kraddy – Android Porn
10. Evil Nine feat EL-P – All The Cash – The Glitch Mob Remix
11. Lil Wayne – Lollipop – Nasty Ways* Remix
12. Matty G – West Coast Rocks – The Glitch Mob Remix
14 Comments
Legal.
You should also be checking out Pantyraid if you’re down with this. (One half is Josh Mayer of Glitch Mob.) Not only an excellent name, but a sublime mix of crunk beats, electro, dubstep and – on the track Upset – African style chants.
Check bleep.com for love.
Outro!
Luke, this shit is the craziest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. You can’t go around telling people you found this in a shoe store. Tell them Glitch Mob was revealed to you in a dream, or a corn field in Iowa. This is so damn good.
I interviewed these guys at Lollapalooza this year. As they say, they slay.
Here’s the interview:
http://www.roxwel.com/player/lolla09theglitchmob.html
Woo! Mixtape!
@jesse: oh man, you got to see them live? so jealous. i’ve been watching videos online and that shit looks off the charts!
@milo: glad to be of assistance
Totes! PantyRaid is siiick!! I saw them last thurs @ cervantes masterpiece ballroom in Denver, CO !! It was EPIC
that “android porn” track is just BEGGING for some amen break jungle treatment.
HUGE…. very impressed.
It was their remix of TV on the Radio earlier this year that made me fall in love with them. It smokes, at a chugging tempo.
Thanks for the mixtape.
Glitch Mob changed my life filled the void between hip hop and dubstep. Check out the mix and some of our productions on my soundcloud page.
http://www.soundcloud.com/djlbiz
I remember seeing edIT for the first time on his birthday party in early 2005 at the Little Temple in Los Angeles. I continued to attend many of his shows that year and following in the LA underground, watching the likes of Daedalus, and Ooah first collaborate with edIT, back when Ooah had no laptop and was exclusively scratching records like crazy while local MC’s Subtitle and Busdriver improvised over edIT’s crunked out sound–which eventually became his signature style as heard on Certified Air Raid Material. I remember “hearing” of Flying Lotus as edIT introduced him as one of his favorite and upcoming producers in LA at an Alpha Pup party at the Echo club celebrating Blackbird’s debut album release.
Watching IDM evolve and branch out yet another sub-genre of what I like to call “glitchtronica” was an amazing thing, all happening in beautiful Los Angeles. I remember when the Low End Theory parties were first taking off and checking out Tom Burbank and Nosaj Thing and attending The Do-Over for Flying Lotus’ 1983 release.
The next year I remember seeing a series of collaboration at edIT’s shows mostly with Ooah and then eventually Boretta and later on Kraddy. I missed their performance at Burning Man but I really think that it was then that they made their spot in the limelight and gained the following they have. And now to hear how solidified their sound has become and to see their pictures on flickr or videos on youtube as mini rock-stars is just a wonderful thing!
Much love and respect from another fan
West Coast peoples… (this means you all over California) see the Glitch Mob live in Los Angeles Sat. Jan. 9th 2010!! For info & tix visit: http://thedolab.com
much love to electrotrash, keep writing and we’ll keep reading!!
~The Do LaB~
they also remixed Coheed and Cambria’s “Feathers” which was pretty awesome
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