We’ve been running a rare series here on The Recommender named ‘Remix Specials‘, where we shine a light on those DJs and producers who are doing stellar work with other people’s tracks. To give you an idea of how good you’ve got to be to earn yourself a post, we haven’t done one of these specials for six months – not because of a lack of remixes, but because we’re proudly picky. The last one was the mighty Yuksek, on the back of a trail of specials over the years, which included the likes of The Knocks, Soulwax, Discotech, among other talented studio masters.
This time around our blog’s torch wants to shine a light on a relatively new 23 year old from Wilmington, North Carolina, who’s been firing bolts of buzz around the blogs with an increasingly rapid regularity over the last few months. He’s reached the heady heights of the Hype Machine, steaming up their charts with each new work he produces. He actually works on mashups, rather than straight up remixes, often tipping several artists into one blender, from a multitude of genres. If we’re honest, we share the popular opinion that mashups are often tacky, or a little generic, never really producing anything nearly as fresh as a proper remix does. Well, D.Veloped rips that notion up.
He’s been working on the skill for several years, which you can chart through his Soundcloud history, where he once fell into the usual pitfalls, with obvious samples from the tunes such as Billy Jean and Stayin Alive, but more recently he’s showing a broader knowledge, using a faster mix that feels more chopped than mashed. He no longer simply lays one tune over another and instead breaks the sounds, riffs, hooks and vocals down before building them back up, producing a more palatable result as a consequence.
He’s just handed us the exclusive first play of latest production, which is another quality example of his signature move – to fuse genres, often utilising hip hop over indie or pop. Just like his other work it’s a rapidly chopped game of ‘spot the tune’. It’s usually three minutes of “Did you just hear a snippet of No Rain, by Blind Melon?“. Yes you did. Yes you did.
There’s a wealth of tracks currently available to dig through on his Soundcloud, plus he’s real chatty on his Twitter and Facebook pages, so head to those spaces for more information. He’s currently arranging bookings to take his productions to a live show, so look out for his billing on the East Coast this Autumn. We can’t imagine how he will manage it in a set, plus there may be legal issues with the release of any full album, but he tells us that he’s confident that both things are possible. In the mean time you can find a selection of his mashups below, from a DJ who’s super-glued his fun button down, but is still really putting some thought and skill into a style of production that needs a champion. (MB)
D.VELOPED – WHERE’S THE BASS (A Recommender Exclusive!)
D.VELOPED – THUNDERSTURUCK INTRO
D.VELOPED – BRING EM HOME (GOLD JACKET REMIX)
D.VELOPED – THROWS SOME DS ON THAT BLINK
D.VELOPED – SON OF A NUN FT NELLY
D.VELOPED – SWING 90s ANTHEM
D.VELOPED – SHAKE YOUR DOMINOES
D.VELOPED – TWISTADDICTION
D.VELOPED – START WITH STRAIGHT SHOTS THEN SMASH PUMPKINS
D.VELOPED – THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE CUDI
D.VELOPED - WILD BLENDS
