In advance of his first full-length effort I interviewed Alex Syse, aka Basic Physics, so that you guys might get a taste of the man behind some of 2011′s biggest and baddest blogosphere bootlegs. That’s often a dirty word – bootleg – in this industry. It usually connotes a lack of originality, and almost invariably a lack of production quality.

But Alex is breaking that mould, and constantly pushing the talent behind his very popular work forward. In just a year, he’s come from receiving over a hundred thousand plays on his Ghost on a G6 mashup to releasing a 16-track album loaded with both originals – a big step – and the quality bootlegs we’ve grown used to. I’m taking my first listen now, and I’m impressed. There was obviously a ton of care and attention to detail that went in to this album.

Download the full album for free at the bottom of the interview, and support Basic Physics on Facebook.

Cal: A/S/L?

Alex: Alex Syse, The Northwoods aka Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cal: What is your background in music? How were you trained?

Alex: From an early age, I was interested in how music was made. I had a brief stint with the piano, guitar, and drums in middle school but the simplicity of being limited to one instrument was always a turnoff to me. However, this helped lay a foundation to know what was in key, how to play certain notes, and how composition worked. After middle school, music took me on a journey from hip hop to jam bands (I saw Umphrey’s Mcgee nearly 100 times) to indie rock and finally electro. As college began in 2007, MSTRKRFT, Daft Punk, Justice, and Pretty Lights were in constant rotation on my iPod. After listening to countless electronic artists, it gave me the itch to dive into creating my own music. After acquiring Ableton Live, I began sifting through the manual and the whole trial and error process. It was during this time that Girl Talk was blowing up. I had the opportunity to see him at Summercamp in 2008 and that sparked my interest to not only listen to more mashup music, but create music of my own.

Cal: How would you describe the genre of music you make/perform?

Alex: The genre of music I create would be categorized as Electro / Hip Hop / Pop Mashup, but I don’t want people to be afraid of that word (“mashup”). Like all genres, the mashup game is saturated with lots of artists and various styles. When I’m producing a mashup, I want it to be big, memorable, worthy to be considered one of the best, and in most cases, should make you want to dance your ass off. Some people like to do it for fun. I want to do it for more than that.

Cal: In your opinion, which is the manliest instrument? (physical/virtual/corporeal)

Alex: The “Magic Pipe” that That 1 Guy uses during his live sets. (If you don’t know, get familiar!)

Cal: I noticed that there is a bunch of rocketship / space / blastoff type imagery and language surrounding the album launch – any particular reason?

Alex: The first album I released was “Nightlife in the Northwoods” in April of 2011. The goal with that project was to get my name out there. With the album titled “Lift Off”, I’m hoping it will do just that, lift off my career. I would like to think I’m one of the best in this genre and I hope that this album gets the attention of many. Besides taking my career up to different level, I thought it would be fun to run with the “Lift Off” concept. Apollo 13 was one of my favorite movies as a kid and once I found soundclips from the film, I had to use them! The album art, created by the great Joshua Bull, was his interpretation of “Lift Off” and I thought he did a phenomenal job.

Cal: How many tracks have you made which haven’t made their way on to the internet?

Alex: Roughly 20, including 3 original productions. Patience is critical when transitioning from mashups to originals.

Cal: So your name is Basic Physics – which of Newton’s laws is the best? Why?

Alex: Newton’s Third Law: To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I think this one is the easiest to understand so it is my favorite. Anything with an equation (Newton’s Second Law) is in a league of it’s own.

Cal: The genre-space you are making music in is competitive, wouldn’t you say? What do you think Basic Physics brings to the table that gives you a leg up on the competition?

Alex: Absolutely. The amount of mashup / DJs that have sprung up in the past year to year and a half is staggering. The emergence of a DJ being a “rockstar” has turned a lot of people on to EDM and producing in general. Since I started in the Spring of 2010, I have learned so much from a musical standpoint and a marketing standpoint (graduated with a Marketing degree this past December). At the end of the day though, my drive and passion to succeed in music will be my greatest attribute. I have so much more planned then just mashups and I can’t wait to release it to everyone.

Cal: Any goals for your production career that you’ve set? (short or long-term)

Alex: Transitioning to more remixes and originals is in the short term goals. I’m ready. As far as longer term goals, I would love to collaborate with some of my favorite producers down the road, get official support from some of those artists, climb the Beatport charts, meet Pete Tong, play at the likes of EDC, Ultra.

You’ve got to have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how are you going to make it come true.

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ColeCo have been racking up the accolades in the last several months, taking care of all live programming for The Weeknd’s upcoming tour as well as remixing for them, Torro Torro, Bedouin Soundclash, and Young Empires.

They’ve supported The Magician, Com Truise, Fake Blood, and they played CMJ in NYC at the end of 2011. Finally, they just released a new single on Nervous, and have another upcoming on Kitsune in March.

So I’m proud to announce that I’ll be rocking a party with ColeCo on Friday February 10th in Toronto, at Riva Supper Lounge. Expect sexy, groovy, disco rhythms.

Get full event details here.

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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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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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Jeuce’s As We Move remixes EP was released just five days ago with contributions from Kastle and Dirty Disco Youth. The Killabits also rack up a remix credit, and have seen their contribution rise through the Beatport Glitch Hop chart quickly. At the time of publication it’s currently sitting at #12, and sure to raise higher, so a big congrats to the Toronto natives is in order.

You can purchase the track here.

The Killabits on Soundcloud

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2012 is going to be just as big – certainly, the bookings are rolling in for these artists now, and there is a very good chance that we will see the sound they’ve been crafting and pushing forward cross over in to the fore of global dance music.

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