Beatport describes Passarella Death Squad’s first album, Republic of Desire (released in 2010) as “electronica.” It is such an anemic word, especially for the music it is meant to
encompass.

Republic of Desire defies genre, blending elements of shoegaze and minimal-electronic. Vice magazine called it the soundtrack “for those S&M soirees you’re always thinking of hosting,” and everyone and their dog seems to love comparing vocalist Emilie Albisser to a dark Marlene Dietrich (and rightly so).

These conclusions are, as you will undoubtedly agree when you hear the songs, not particularly controversial. What makes PDS most interesting to me is that they are a group that does not stop as music, but rather, embraces a broad stylistic aesthetic and produces both music and clothing (my two great loves?).

The clothing line, unusually, is how I stumbled upon this group… I bought a couple shirts from Liberty, and when I went to order more online, found the aforementioned Beatport link. I had no choice but to e-mail them and see how deep this monochrome rabbithole led.

The idea of monochrome, I found out, seems to be the most pervasive stylistic element of all Mr. Boodle’s and Ms. Albisser’s imagination. Not only are all the t-shirts only available in either white or black, with the design in either white or black, but the music somehow sounds monochromatic.

How can something purely aural also be visual? Aside from simply evoking black and white images (again, listen to Ima and just tell me I’m wrong), music has an element of colour, also called timbre. It is a concept partly borrowed from visual perception, and it has to do a sensation of difference between two sounds, even though they might have the same loudness and pitch. The paucity of the instrumentation, the droning character of Ms. Albisser’s voice, and the almost flourescent buzzing in the background (see Blackout, around 1:30) generate an effect of a stark world without colour.

The exchange between the music and the design is not only one way — visual concepts also go back to influence aural elements. Here, the most important idea is that of chiaroscuro, which literally means “light dark,” and refers to an artistic technique involving high tonal contrasts to generate emphasis. The tonal contrast in the music is as extreme as the tonal contrast in the art — at any moment, there is either silence, or there is the eerie, nearly monotonous voice and the sparse drums. Every note is made that much more important by its setting against a sparse background. The obsession with focused light, both in the lyrical content and the design content, gives a restrained, yet slightly creepy, feeling to the overall aesthetic mission that is Passarella Death Squad.

Anyway, I want to conclude these thoughts with two pieces of PDS good news. First, there is a second album in the works, and the finishing touches are being put on it now, so keep your ear to the ground (and your browser on Salacious). Second, if you want to wear a proper head turning, PDS t-shirt, you no longer need to live in Europe — they will be launching a line called Kempes, which replicates the same sensibilities, this month.

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Popeska is a 19 year old Atlanta native by the name of Ralf who has a great take on dubstep, electro, and glitch music. For example, his track ‘Lololololol’ exhibits a very upbeat feel in the midst of its monstrous growling basslines. And then there’s ‘Oh!’ which, I must assume, has a top comment on youtube that reads something like “dirtier than shit stained underwear.”

And then there is Firefly, a song that combines very trancey elements with a glass-scratching glitch beat, and which sounds reminiscent of Figure. Popeska is definitely a producer with some talent!

Keep a look out for him, and comment on the article with how you think his name is pronounced; he didn’t respond to my email so maybe you guys can give it a shot.

Here is his stuff:

Popeska - Lololololol.mp3
Popeska - Back to the Streets.mp3
Popeska - Knives To A Gunfight.mp3
Popeska - Brace Yourself.mp3
Popeska - Firefly.mp3
Popeska - Meant to Beee.mp3
Popeska - Oh.mp3

And be sure to check out his Soundcloud, he has plenty more.

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So, I promised you last week that my new and improved weekly top ten charts weren’t going to be the ‘here r 10 kewl blog songz for free downloads guys LOLOLOL’ lists which, those of you who have been following the site for a while, would be used to. I broke you guys in easy, with something familiar. Something that you’re used to hearing on Salacious Sound, and something I’m used to writing about. Today’s installment breaks from that form, somewhat.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

This week I’m proud to present a format I explored briefly last year with the top ten – an artist feature style top ten chart – albeit with an artist much different than I am used to covering in my articles.

I’m also proud to present this installment because it’s about an artist that I think is doing something cool, whom is incredibly talented on the production front, and who puts me completely out of my comfort zone as a writer.

Ghostek’s music is beautiful, complex, and extremely well-produced; that’s easy enough to point out. I don’t, however, find it easy to assess, dissect, or put in a box. I like that.

One last thing, and I am truly sorry to belliger those of you who are already commenters

Leave me some feedback in the comments, or I’m going to murder my cute furry canine Hank, and turn his soft lifeless carcass in to a stylish and grotesque murse (or a budget ShamWow knock-off I’ll call ShamWoof, I haven’t decided).

I know you f*ckers like these articles, as you’re clocking literally tens of thousands of man-hours on this site a month. Let me know if you want more articles like this, and let Ghostek know what he needs to be producing more of.

Alright, lets dive in.

Ghostek has a ton of music on Bandcamp. I’ve only covered a fraction here. You can also follow his Soundcloud channel for the latest.

#10: Ghostek – Secrets

The loopy vocal sample in Secrets makes for a very confusing, manic composition. The dark, heavy, almost industrial + mechanistic percussion is accented by subtle and nearly-inaudible whispers and an airy pad that provides relief from what is otherwise a very sinister track, and lends space to the namesake vocal sample of the track at 3:24 “she had a secret”. This one is a free download.
Ghostek - Secrets.mp3

#9: Excision – Subsonic (Ghostek Remix)

I was a bit shocked to see an Excision remix in Ghostek’s discography, as it was one of the last tracks that I actually listened to. I like how Excisions hard, aggressive electro-dubstep style elements are transposed against and bent to Ghostek’s much more suppressed UKG style. Subsonic has a 1′ish minute intro fitting Ghostek’s aesthetic, and while the latter sections of the track are a definite precursor to the aforementioned aggressive style Excision has now taken on, Ghostek has appropriated and moulded the sounds to his needs. This one is a free download.
Excision - Subsonic (Ghostek Remix).mp3

#8: Ghostek – Kwality

This one has an undeniably island (Caribbean that is) feel, albeit somewhat darker than I’m used to hearing. And I’m not just referring to the vocalist! The characteristically dubby production style, from the ample tape delay applied to the vox, to the lazer fx, are an obvious throwback/nod to the influences of this track. This one is a free download.
Ghostek - Kwality.mp3

#7: Ghostek – Bystanders

No word yet on when or where this will become available for sale/download.

#6: Ghostek and Buck UK – Farsight

I think what I like about this track most is that, at any given point, your attention is focused exactly where the producers want you to focus. They shift that focus a lot, and do so expertly and artfully. Ghostek and Buck UK’s composition is mostly focuses on the upper-frequency percussion elements in the fore, relegating the suppressed + heavily filtered kick to the background. Their frequent empty, spacey, atmospheric bass-drop-out breaks leave you feeling weightless, often with only one percussion element like a muted tambourine and their soothing pads or distortion to keep your attention locked. And locked it stays. They also utilize vocal samples throughout which give the track an incredible energy. Look for the vox at 2:50 “drop” several elements of the track, strip the composition down, and refocus your attention. This one is a free download.
Ghostek and Buck UK - Farsight.mp3

#5: Ghostek – Saudade

No word yet on when or where this will become available for sale/download.

From Ghostek’s Soundcloud:

Saudade (singular) or saudades (plural) (pronounced [sɐ.uˈdadɨ] or [sawˈdadɨ] in Portuguese,[1]) is a Portuguese word that can be translated as “longing, yearning”, which describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one loves and which is apart. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return.
Saudade has been described as a “vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist … a turning towards the past or towards the future”.

#4 Ghosts of Paraguay – Needing You (Ghostek Remix)

No word yet on when or where this will become available for sale/download.

#3: Ghostek – Machinehead ft. CoMa

No word yet on when or where this will become available for download.

#2: Ghostek – Mutual Surrender

Definitely the most unique instrumentation of all Ghostek’s tracks – his use of the Pipa, a four string Chinese lute-type instrument, unique yet accessible. The track has a ton of movement, especially when he reverses the samples to play the lute-notes backwards. This one is a free download.
Ghostek - Mutual Surrender.mp3

#1: Ghostek – Distances & Coffee

Complex, shuffly percussion, incredibly lush sub-bass accented masterfully by expert use of space, and in the latter half of the track a harder + grittier mid-bass element. This song is an awesome example of the power of what you don’t include in a song – every time the enveloping sub-bass drops out, your attention snaps back to the eery atmospheric elements of the track, such as the echoey metallic striking noises. This song transposes lofi elements like vinyl-distortion against elements like the sub-bass, which have a high quality of production. This one is a free download.
Ghostek - Distances and Coffee.mp3

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To execute this monumental and frankly insane video, OK Go set up over 1000 instruments over two miles of desert outside Los Angeles. It took 4 months of preparation and 4 days of recording, and at no point did they use stand-ins. This version of Needing/Getting was recorded as they sang while playing the instrument array with the car.

Preparation included stunt driving lessons, fitting of the Chevy Sonic with retractable pneumatic arms designed to play the instruments, and tuning each piano’s lowest octaves to the same note so that they’d play the right note no matter where they were struck.

For more information and behind-the-scenes footage, see http://www.LetsDoThis.com and http://www.okgo.net.

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Our good friend Yale Fox recently took part in a TEDx conference, in which he spoke on his various research projects on nightclubs, music, and more.

My roommates and I watched the video last night and had some lengthy discussion afterwards – what do you guys think? Lets get some reactions in the comments section!

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Congrats to Varien for breaking the Beatport dubstep top 10 with his latest, Mirrors. Loving the tempo switchup from drum and bass to moombahton – big energy!

Buy your copy of Mirrors here.

Varien on Facebook

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Check out the sentimental new video for Above & Beyond’s “Love Is Not Enough” off of last year’s stupendous Group Therapy LP. In case you missed it, Click here to find out where Group Therapy ranked amongst my top 50 electronic albums of 2011. I’ll give you a hint: it’s in the top 10 (duh).

In addition to the new video, A&B have announced that they will release “Love Is Not Enough” as a single on March 19th. But wait that’s not all! The single will be released alongside a full remix package that will include a new Above & Beyond Club Mix and mixes from the likes of Kaskade, Mat Zo, Maor Levi, and Bluestone & Sykro. Take a deep breath Anjunabeats fanatics….it’s not much longer now.

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As I was the one who wrote the review for Skrillex’s Bangarang EP, I felt it was my duty to inform all of you that there is a remix of Breakn’ A Sweat that far outdoes the original, IMHO.

Zedd (one of Skrillex’s close friends/collaborators/protegés) has made a mindblowing banger that takes Skrillex’s original and honestly kicks its ass. He brings it back down to electro tempo and adds his signature throaty wobble, and his intricate and cohesive synthwork over the whole track goes above and beyond many of his other productions.

If this is the direction Zedd is going, then jump on the bandwagon now!

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I first became excited about ADWR in late 2010, when they came out of the gates strong with a wicked remix of Dada Life’s Unleash the F*cking Dada. The track, predictably, blew up as did their booking schedule, and ever since their productions have been ever increasing in quality.

It looks as though the pair have branched out somewhat from their hard electro-dubstep origins, and have a variety of upcoming productions spanning the major bass genres of the moment (moombahcore, electro-dubstep, & electro house). They successfully pair the raviest of elements against more melodic bits, and obviously have nailed down their complextro-style dubstep sound.

Hats off. Can’t wait to be delighted further by these gents in 2012.

At Dawn We Rage on Soundcloud

Tracklist

AT DAWN WE RAGE & DEATH TO THE THRONE – AWAY
AT DAWN WE RAGE – FLASHING LIGHTS
AT DAWN WE RAGE – JAH JUMP
AT DAWN WE RAGE – BEYOND THE BAY
AT DAWN WE RAGE – ?
AT DAWN WE RAGE – AT THE GATES

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For this week’s edition of the Mixcast, I’m proud to feature Ant Brook’s first podcast of the year. This one features a new track from the man himself, his usual top notch chart selections, and an unreal guest mix from 1605 label-boss Umek – a label we covered extensively in 2011, especially following the release of Pleasurekraft’s Satyr Song.

I can only think of (less than) a handful of artists regularly releasing high quality, regular podcasts – The Magician, Aeroplane, Designer Drugs, and of course Ant Brooks. So hats off to him, both for keeping it regular and just so good. Quality artists putting together regular charts is so much rarer than it should be – they’re in the position to do it best.

Though perhaps that’s the point. There are a still a LOT of artists out there that are old school acetate/white label dudes (read: DJs that won’t tell you what that song was). The Magician, for as good as his “Magictapes” are, don’t include a tracklist. For me, I have so much to listen to that I won’t even press play unless it has a tracklist. And it’s always been my policy that a mix doesn’t get published on Salacious unless I have one.

What do you guys think? Do you care if an artist provides a tracklist? Would you like to see mixes without tracklists on Salacious, if it meant I could publish mixes more frequently?

Tracklist

Opening Tracks

Ant Brooks – Sometimes [Suara]
Falko Niestolik, Roter, Lewis – That Sound [Factomania]

Club Chart
5 – Diavlo – SWAT [MAR186]

4 – Umek & Uto Karem – Crossing The Lines [1605]

3 – Belocca & Jorgensen – In My [Adapt]

2 – Jay Lumen – As One [Pure]
Tune Of The Month

1 – Jodeci – Freakin You (Ant Brooks Respect to MK Re Edit) [CDR]

Blast From The Past

Wookie – Battle [S2S]


30 Minute Mixdown 
This months guest mix comes courtesy of Umek (Live From La Vaca, Spain)

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