Photo Credit: Damien Hockey
Greetings and salutations to all readers.
I hope you are all sufficiently warm and cosy in the long nights to come.
This edition, we look at lots of new music and some wild Bristol news.
We also have the usual:
Free VST - Review
Sample Pack - Review (Our first ever paid sample pack)
New Music - Review
Kingdom + Rush Davis – XMSN DS
Kingdom has arguably never reinvented the wheel – Kingdom has always implemented existing wheels in exciting new ways.
Four wheels, for example, makes a car. Or maybe two bicycles.
You better believe those cars and bicycles are Kingdom brand custom racing models, too.
Let’s look at ‘Audacity’, for example:
A rolling sub bassline that transports you to smoked out London clubs in the early 00s, drums that tip a hat towards the ‘crazy legs’ magic of early Baltimore Club, blissful RnB leanings in the vocal offerings from House of Xtravaganza’s own powerhouse - Rush Davis (who brings the goods on every damn track), and finally, a top tier, state of the art mixdown brings the whole package together into one luxury offering that just feels amazing to sit down and listen to.
I won’t bore you by breaking down the rest of the EP, but it’s great, and you should buy it immediately.
PCB Rhythm Select – Even The Strong
Steve Poindexter esq computerized techno mania meets Hard Drum mechanics for a big ol’ hoedown.
It’s how you always wanted the presets on that old Yamaha keyboard in your loft to sound.
Jake, pls send promo.
Preorder link:
VRGF – Not A Real Girl:
Did anyone order a superfast terabyte connection to the VRGF universe?
Hyperpop for the club kids and bliss seekers.
Sound system music for movie montage scenes.
Reminds me a bit of early Pendulum – ‘Spiral’, from ‘Hold Your Colour’, in parts (The good album, before they went electro rock and a bit rubbish), which is obviously a pretty cool thing to sound like.
Hi to Doug and Beans.
Dropping 9th of December.
Preorder Link: https://vrgf.ampl.ink/AL4Gy
Jurango ft Jamaica Mnanda – Junglizer  (Shouts 2022 Compilation - RS International)
Releasing December 2nd as part of Rhythm Section International’s ‘Shouts2022’ compilation – PTS good bloke, and all-round local favourite, Jurango submits a collaborative single with Dar Es Salaam based Jamaica Mnanda and it’s reet good. Driven percussive Techno with plenty of low end kisses, and vocal elements that give me a bit of nostalgia for turn of the centuries 00’s tracks like ‘Hype The Funk’.
Rest of the compilation is decent too. Lots of heavy hitters on there, such as: Martyn Bootyspoon, James Bangura, Fiyahdred, Ma Sha, Yak, DJ Pitch and Bristol legends Daisy Moon and Manami.
Fav track on the compilation: Fiyahdred – Got 2 (Let It Go). Â
A number that is somehow completely authentic to the golden age of UKFunky, but also modern and leftfield in production, at the same time. Super melodic, tightly mixed, little notes of OG House and Techno peppered around (the bassline and strings mainly) and just good fun overall. Would sit happily on Hyperdub.
Sounds like the sort of jam Azaelia Banks would pick up and run with (when not killing chickens).
Preorder: Here
Stanlaey – the_everything_inbetween
Proper Bristolian Cosmic Jazz for I, and for U.
Bubblegum sweet vocals and otherworldly choppy Jazz fashioning’s from Stanlaey AKA Bethany Stenning.
If Bjorke, Dorian Concept, Robohands, and Bonobo had a fight, then created a bizarre 4-person hybrid child, it would probably end up making music that sounds like this.
Super fantastic stuff and I hope it gets all the attention it rightfully deserves.
Album release: 01/12/22 with 06/12/22 as the album launch gig date at Strange Brew: Featuring special guest musicians from some of the nowadays Bristol contemporary Jazz champions: Snazzback, Alex Veitch and Waldo’s Gift.
Tickets found here
To Illustrate (Wisdom Teeth)
A collaborative album centred around the 100bpm movement in all its shapes and flavours.
Slow it down and have plenty more space to move around and explore – this album showcases just how far you can take that.
Bristol based handsome lads Glances contribute the opening track: Sun Dapple.
If you like Equiknoxx, Boards of Canada and 90s Bleep Techno, then I’ve got good news for you.
The adventure continues throughout the album:
Yushh and Facta’s ‘Fairy Liquor’ sounds like Dancehall made for/by Angels and my fav track on the compilation from Iglew: ‘Rockpool Pool Party’ is the most cheerful and interesting bit of FM synth magic I’ve maybe ever heard. It’s sweet, kind and fucking clever.
Out now.
Bristol News
Psychotherapy Sessions 02/12/22 – Strange Brew
Mental
Mental
Mental
Mental
Mental
It’s going to be a pretty mental gig.
Chelsea Manning DJ Set @ Strange Brew
The US military whistle-blower to DJ pipeline
Chelsea Manning, orchestrator of one of the largest military leaks in history, and grand champion defender of democracy, recently revealed in an interview with Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop) that she would regularly get the train down to Bristol to attend free parties, and knew her way round a set of decks too.
The legends at SNOG scrambled to reach out and managed to bag Chelsea for a very special DJ set happening tonight at Strange Brew.
All advance tickets sold out - possibly some on the door if you get down very, very early.
Create, Define, Release - Surgeons Girl + Yushh
CDR return to Bristol, for another round of track submissions, community love in’s, weighty sound systems and a producer talk from one of the UK’s most exciting prospects and Livity Sound hall of famer: Surgeons Girl.
If that wasn’t enough - the event is hosted by Bristol’s own bleep bloop queen and Pressure Dome head honcho: Yushh, AKA Jenn Hartley.
Sign up here for a free ticket - there are limited spaces, so you can’t just rock up on the night with a USB stick, ya goof.
Free VST - Review
Vital VST – As Good as Serum and FREE.
Sounds like clickbait, right?
Well, I’m not misleading you.
It’s truly an incredible bit of kit and has some fantastic capabilities as a spectral wavetable synthesizer.
Let’s do a quick side by side dive into the tech specs, against Serum, the premier paid wavetable synth on the market currently:
Oscillators
Vital: x3 oscillators + x1 sampler
Serum: x2 oscillators + no sampler (you can drop in samples, but these convert to wavetables and sound rubbish).
Filters
Vital: x2 independent filters
Serum: x1 filter (there are dual filter options but can’t be modulated independently)
Vital – Cool Features
Transpose Lock: The opportunity to play scales relative to the note being played via a simple user interface – this can be modulated with LFO’s for example, giving the opportunity for excellent melodic content. You can also turn ‘Global Lock’ on, that allows you to play back notes highlighted via the interface to play, regardless of scale, ignoring correct scale weightings.
Stereo Modulation: You can set differing levels of modulation for both the left and right channels, giving lots of opportunity for shaping sound in a very 3d manner.
Text to Wavetable: You can enter text, select what language you want playback, then you can play this back across keys, both single note and poly (you can play back chords!) alongside being able to modulate the vocoder, choose what part of the text you want playback to start, and you are even able to play back the text in reverse too!
MPE Support: The ability to link your midi polyphonic expressions to differing parts of the synth’s functionality – be this LFO’s, slide functions, pitchbends, all sorts.
FM Synthesis: The FM function in Vital sets an oscillator to be modulated by another oscillator, so you can use a wavetable to modulate another wavetable, rather than an LFO.
Verdict
This synth really does stand up to the big boys.
It’s genuinely one of the best synths out there and costs absolutely nothing.
If you do enjoy it, and want to support the creator Matt Tytel, then think about subscribing or buying the ‘pro’ version.
PS. Serum is obviously still a very great synth.
The below is a great tutorial for Vital.
Sample Pack - Review
BB SOUNDSOURCE: Volume 1
Night Slugs/AP Life head honcho and all-round UK musical trend setter Bok/Bok Bok, releases BB Sample pack.
I haven’t yet bothered reviewing a paid pack, but this one ticks all of the boxes for me. The pack contains lots of the component sounds for not only Bok’s Night Slug era anthems, but also some historically important sounds (in great quality too) from early Grime and beyond.
Alongside this, you have some great quality Baltimore kicks and stomps that you won’t really find in the more known free packs kicking around online, and the paid packs for this genre are often producers just ‘borrowing’ the aesthetic and mixing down drum samples in ‘whacky’ ways to make them sound unique – not the case here for BB, at all.
Well worth the 20 quid.
The end.
See you next time.
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