With the unmistakable opening melodic flourish, Kinetic announces without a doubt that Phutureprimitive’s looooong awaited second album is finally here. And there was much rejoicing!

Where his first record, Sub Conscious—released on Waveform records in 2004—was a moody, Shpongle-influenced, psydub exploration, Kinetic shows how Rain has updated his sound in line with current musical trends and expertly fuses heavy doses of dubstep and West Coast womp with hints of big-room trance and his trademark melodic tendencies. And boy does this combination work! The distorted basslines ground the compositions and command your attention while the trance gates and arps keep it all from getting too heavy.

Check out “The Changeling” via the player below. It’s a free download until the official album release on March 15, 2011. This track is one of the mellower songs in the lineup, but perfectly illustrates Phutureprimitive’s new sound pallet. Though, most of the other tracks are vocal free, including the noticeable absence of Alyssa Palmer who appeared on Sub Conscious and the Luminous EP.

The whole album is smokin’ hot, but my personal faves are “Xotica” for its bassline so filthy you may need to check your undershorts, the perfect crunch-to-smooth ratio of “The Changeling”, “High Rez” for its perfectly balanced level of sunrise trance cheese, and “Predatory Instincts” which is just begging for a proper psytrance mix. Seriously, there is not a dud on the album… that is a rare thing to say indeed.

This album is going to be big, and with the extensive tour lined-up Rain will surely be destroying a mid-tempo dancefloor near you in the coming months.

Get Kinetic when it’s released on March 15 at phutureprimitive.bandcamp.com.

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Finally! Some fresh new music from northwest psychill hero, Phutureprimitive. Out today is the Luminous EP, containing three new(ish) tracks. I say “newish” because it seems like Rain has been dropping these tracks in his sets for a while, and it’s nice to finally have my own copies to play out. Style-wise, fans of his first album and subsequent compilation contributions will recognize that signature Phutureprimitive moody atmosphere and delicious bass lines. What’s new is the addition of lyrical vocals in the forefront of the mix as the new driving force for each track. These lyrics, by Alyssa Palmer and Rain, have been tastefully edited and are seamless additions to the already lush Phutureprimitive soundscape. Vocals of this caliber seem to be tricky to find in this kind of electronica, and Rain pulls it off. My gut tells me that some old fans will not be so into this new lyrical direction, but it will most certainly open up his music to an even wider audience. With Phutureprimitive now performing as a full band, this new direction should be not much of a surprise, and thankfully, in Rain’s capable hands the vocals and music continue to push the mature downtempo vibe that first caught the world’s ear six years ago.

Well, that was the largest Seacompression yet, and with this being the fourth Seacomp in that hanger space, I do believe the army of production folks have finally figured out the best way to work with that giant concrete box of a space. Participating in the H’Art Center “chillout” dome was a grand time, with lots of squish, beautiful art and all my favorite people, but in order to compete with the live music stage at the far end of the room, we all had to up the chill a tick and keep the bass pumping. Certainly not a problem, but I walked in hoping to play a super mellow set of lovely ambiance.

The dance stage in the side room looked and sounded amazing this year, and I applaud the decision to only place on sound system in there. I know it was tough to whittle down the list of 40 some DJs that wanted to play to the 10 or so that got slots, but it was a better party because of that effort.

The only real knock against the night I had was that due to the new extra stringent fire code mandates, the space did feel significantly sparser than past Seacomps. Not being able cover canopies in flowy fabrics and wacky art made for a colder, less inviting space. I know everyone did what they could under the new rules, but it did make a notable impact on the decor of a typically sensory overloading event.

I have some photos still on my camera, so until I upload them to the cloud, please enjoy this awesome set from Yonderboy.

Another fantastic Chillography come and gone. Music-wise, this may have been one of my favorites yet, with Eckoe opening with his perfect blend of psychill, followed by Kalpataru Tree’s siiiiiick dubby goodness, Manahan’s midtempo romp and finally Scott Sunn’s deeeeeep techno shplunking. Add that to Jenna and team’s beautiful makeover of the Church of Bass, Cupcake or Dies baked goodness, and the projected Entranced game, and we had all the right ingredients for a superb party.

The entire night was recorded and I’ll be posting the sets to the Chillography site, once I get around to processing the recording. I’m still working on the recordings from 201, but both shows will be available very soon. I promise!

My photos:

And check out this great little Chillography montage from Lara.

Good morning! For a good chuckle to help kick off this Friday proper, check out Psyreviews’ thoughts on Infected Mushroom’s “Legend Of The Black Shawarma“. I’m not trying to hate on I.F. here, just passing along a creatively hilarious review.

You can always count on reviews full of personality and honesty from Psyreviews. Definitely worthy of a few minutes of your time and a slot in your RSS reader.

The City & the City by China Miéville


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another fine tale by the master of urban fiction. I’m a huge fan of Miéville’s more fantasy type stories, but his boundless imagination still holds up in this modern-day/real world setting. Any of his books would make for a great movie, as his writing is so visual, but in this case, I’d especially love to see how a director of cinematography would handle the two cities in which this book takes place.

Kim and I got back late Monday night from an amazing few days at the Shambhala Music Fest in Canadia. I’m still working on uploading my photos, videos and field recordings in order to put together a proper review, but in short, that was seriously fucking awesome.

More soon….

 
Chillography 201 was fantastic! Beautiful beats and peeps groovin’ and chillin’ on the picturesque Seattle waterfront. Thanks to everyone that came out and enjoyed the day with us. I’m not sure how to appropriately sum up the positivity and community that I felt out there, but it was awesome. The only thing that could have made it any better would have been the porta potty that the city had promised us.

I hope you all will join us in the fall for Chillography 202.

The entire show was recorded, so I’ll have those sets up for download in a bit.

Here are a couple of great photo sets of the day:
by ECityBlues
by +Russ

Woo… another fun fun night at HOTwired. Nelia opened the night with a really great set of midtempo grooves. I really need to get her onto a future Chillography lineup. I’ve seen her play a few times now, and she has amazing taste in music. Then Eckoe and I played a set that started progressive and ended with full-on, hands-in-the-air psytrance. The dance floor grew and grew and was at its fullest when we were playing our hardest. Then Osiris and Amanita took over and showed us all why they are booked as much as they are. Playing a solid 2×4 set of groovy techno and electro house that had Noc Noc jumping until the lights flipped on at 1:30. Nicely done, boys, nicely done.

Here are some photos and videos snapped by Lara. I’ll update with my own once I get them up on the net.

Pardon me while I gush about a fantastic piece of music. I’ve been meaning to post about this for a bit now, but haven’t found the right words to do it adequate justice.

Sending Orbs, purveyors of the highest quality chilltronica, have released another stunning gem of an album, Yagya’s Rigning. “Rigning” is Icelandic for ”rain”, and as the name suggests, this 10-track masterpiece takes the rain theme and runs with it through its entirety. This album is drenched in rain samples around which all other elements are placed. Keeping close to the formula of dubby minimal techno, but certainly presenting a new vision of it, the basic recipe used here is a subtly mixed 4-on-the-floor kick drum to provide some structure as the heady, dub bass lines add just a touch of groove. Meanwhile, rain samples and beautiful pads provide space and atmosphere as gentle sprinkles of tinkling melodies really take you on a smooth emotional journey. There is nothing heavy handed about this release. Each track is delicate and mellow and yet so easily captures your mind and washes it clean of stress and worry.

I’ve listened to the album daily since I received it. Not many albums in my collection can make that same claim, but there is just something so lovely about Rigning that when it ends, starting it all over again is my instant reaction. You don’t have to just take my word for it, though. There are plenty of others that have had equal praise, and have said it all much more eloquently than I can. Or better yet, be your own judge. Listen to the clips found here and buy the album here to add this instant classic to your collection.