D.VELOPED – REMIX SPECIAL – PART 11

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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

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POLEN

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With a blog that exists to bring new bands to your computer’s virtual doorstep on a weekly basis, we understandably find the service a little harder to uphold over the Christmas period. Most artists are awaiting the beginning of 2011 before launching their assault on the public, venues are more focused on New Years Eve than gigs, and almost everyone else in the industry takes a break.

But we weren’t going to let a little festive celebration get in the way of yet another new discovery. We could have held them back for a post in the new year, but this band have approached us from half way around the world, over in Argentina, so the least we could do was to let you know about them.

This four (and sometimes five-) piece band call Buenos Aires home and have been pumping out their music to some of the area’s hottest parties since 2008/2009. Polen‘s sound has a variety of influences, from 2007′s electro, to more traditional rock and pop influences. In all fairness a band that skips from genre to genre this wildly often suggests they don’t yet know their own best sound, but thankfully they do it rather brilliantly so the confusing schizophrenia is forgiven in this case.

With the track ‘Drop The Line‘, we get a straight up banging electro slam, which feels horribly dated when placed in a European context, but all is forgiven when the vocals kick in after one minute. Suddenly the pop reveals itself with a refrain that could make any party peak. If it doesn’t remind you of Lipps Inc‘s ‘Funkytown‘ then you’ve simply forgotten the 1980 hit (correct that here). Although the influence is rather heavy it’s definitely a good thing, as that’s something of a classic, but with Polen they keep their fingers properly jammed in the sockets all the way through.

They move the drums to the front of the stage with ‘Dos.40‘, which pounds it’s opening few bars, before an acoustic riff lightens it as the pop vocals arrive. It perfectly shows off their ability to thump and jump, whilst never losing sight of important elements, such as melody and a tidy chorus. Their softness continues with the excellent ‘I Wonder‘ and ‘Bed Times‘, which, in our opinion, clearly marks out the path that they should continue taking.

They’ve received comparisons to Soulwax and Digitalism, which is evidenced in part on their rock/dance hybrid tracks such as ‘KO‘, ‘IPO‘ and the rather tasty ‘Triste‘, but we think the suggestion is a little obvious, as it seems most of their music shares more elements with the likes of Barcelona’s Mendetz.

Elsewhere, they rock out more directly with ‘MedusaX‘ or ‘Alto Valle‘, using a darker bassline, which we suspect the South Americans may particularly hook onto, but it never disappears down a metal hole, giving us just enough funk and sampling to keep it suitable for a European club. However, its worth noting that they’re definitely at their best when they include a better balance of vocals and pop, in place of the rock or electro.

To date they’ve released four EPs, ‘Metamorphy‘, ‘Compressor‘, ‘EP10‘ and the new promo EP, ‘White Light‘, (you can hear selections from them all here). They plan to tour Europe between May and July next year, including stints at The Secret Garden Party and the Camden Crawl. We think their variety could work, with them being capable of switching up their sets – hit the electro hard in Germany, whilst focusing on the dance and pop in the UK etc. We hope to be there to catch the live show, so lets see which Polen turns up. (MB)

POLEN – DROP THE LINE

POLEN – I WONDER

POLEN – DOS.40

POLEN – BED TIME

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