Around the time we met Laberge in 2008, we also stumbled onto an awesome single called Your Lover by Meroz. Coincidentally when we started discussing doing a EP for Laberge, we were thrilled that he mentioned having Meroz act as remixer for the lead single. As fate would have it this has turned into a long term affair and in 2010 Solid Bump will be releasing at least two EPs from this man of mystery. To get a little insight on who he is, we sat down with Meroz. Check out this interview for a taste of what is to come…
Solid Bump: Age & Location?
Meroz: Old as shit & Midwestern United States.
SB: How did you connect with Solid Bump?
M: Did a Remix For Laberge, heard positive feedback about Solid Bump on the dealings and professionalism, Seems to be pretty rare this to happen between artists and labels these days. I continued contact sent a demo and skiggity skat music & ideas are born!!
SB: Previous Releases/ Projects?
M: As Meroz, With Respect EP, Your Lover single, Your Lover Remixes, as well as various remixes released and yet to be released. As Automatic & Silk, The Gospel According to Chicago (Bumpin City Records), Jackwars EP ( Bumpin City Records). Hystereo with Automatic & Silk, Gonna Love You (Soma Records). Driver of the Year (Future Appletree) Some Girls Would Say, Statik, Will Destroy You LPs (Indy Rock Goodness)
San Francisco promoter/ DJ Corey Sleazemore took the initiative a few weeks ago to round up a “who’s who” of Bay Area electronic music talent to sponsor a fund raiser for Haiti. Mezzanine was generous to supply the venue and ample promotional support. The talent pool was absolutely second to none including Trackademicks, WallPaper, Hot Tub, and a slew of some of the best local DJs.
Solid Bump was thrilled to have White Girl Lust involved in this event. The music was amazing all night and THE EVENT RAISED NEARLY $4000 for the Red Cross! Thanks to anyone who supported this event!
Flabby drums suck – especially for dance music. Of course your choice of drum sounds is the start to a hitting track but what else can you do? While this trick has to be used in combination with other good practices like smart EQing, sidechain compression, etc. – it can be a tool to help give a extra push in your drum track.
Parallel Compression (also known as New York Compression) is basically two parallel drum busses. One has no compression at all, the second is highly compressed – almost to the point of absurdity. The idea is that you can then blend the busses together to keep the natural transients of the drum track while getting the “umpff” of the compression. If you only compress your drums they might get “louder” but they will lose the dynamics that makes a drum hit. Watch this video for a basic idea…
A great alternative to setting up two busses is that most software compressors have a wet/dry knob. This way you only need one buss and you can simply blend the compression to taste using a knob. Easy – just don’t over do it!
As part of our introducing the next wave of Solid Bump, we will be dropping little gems from the contributing artist in the coming weeks as well as interviews, scandalous back stories, incriminating pictures, and choons.
The first comes in the form of a simple but funkin’ edit from Alona & Qzen. If you checked out the song clips in the last post, the sassy french voice on Ouicomes from Alona. Not being content to just be a pretty voice talking naughty, she also is a reigning disco queen DJ in the bay and has been known to turn out a edit or two herself.
For this one she joined up with another SF diva, Qzen. You may know her work with the 40 Thieves collective including last year’s nu-disco hit Don’t Turn It Off as well as collaborations with Claude Von Stroke, John Tejada, etc.
In their words the inspiration for this edit was deep rooted in a vision…”Hey let’s make cookies and work on an edit, you know, chick stuff.”
Click the arrow to the right hand side of the player to download.
iPad? Who cares about an oversized iPod? Here is a real announcement! Finally after months of A&R, discussing strategy, etc. we are ready to give you a taste of what we have brewing in the Solid Bump kitchen. In my biased opinion – it is delicious.
Le Principle & OCD Automatic
Hailing from the home of house music – Chicago, this young collective hit the scene fast and furious last summer with a slew of disco house stormers, as well as, tons of bootleg remixes. Right off the bat they developed an instantly recognizable sound of hard hitting drums, unique filter work, and a niche for developing hooks. The debut single will be a collaboration with OCD Automatic ther Chi-town talent) entitled “Paper Cat” which is the perfect balance of driving disco and electro. The single will be supported by remixes from Sammy Bananas (of Fools Gold/ Telephoned fame), Phantom’s Revenge, and Bit Funk.
Paper Cat
Your Magic
Meroz
Meroz is no stranger to Solid Bump, having done a stellar remix for Laberge’s debut EP. He is also no stranger to the music world, with multiple releases on Beatism, a side project called Automatic and Silk, as well as drumming for his band Driver of the Year. 2010 will see Meroz deliver two EPs to Solid Bump with an amazingly diverse range of sounds from hard hitting electro funk bangers to feel good summer jams.
The Sinner
Trump
Mykill
Mykill has been a staple in the bay area party scene for a hot minute. Appearing everywhere from bottle service venues you can’t afford, to Sunday morning mimosa parties in the Castro. While as a DJ he hops genres faster than you can request Lady Gaga, his production is focused and tailored for the Solid Bump champagne sound.
Love Story
Laberge
Laberge is now an OG of Solid Bump crew having dropped multiple tracks last year including his debut EP, This Feeling. Who could resist his trademark style that graces every release? Imagine what 3 unicorns making love on the beach could sound like and you are not that far off.
You Won’t Regret
White Girl Lust
The blood of these boys is spilt all throughout the label. They wear every hat from A&R, Creative Direction, Marketing, etc. How they find the time to turn out music still is a question drenched in espresso. They plan to kick the year off with a bang of a single entitled Oui in early March. When the duo unveiled a rough demo version live at last summer’s showcase it was a instant hit with the crowd mostly thanks to the playful stage presence of the song’s vocalist, Alona. Here is a taste of the more floor banging 1am mix. A multi-mix single will drop in early April.
As I go through the questionnaires I asked all the new additions to Solid Bump to fill out, I realized one thing… we are all gear sluts. Everyone is on everything from MPCs, Moogs, Macs, PC, guitars, agogo bells and so on. The same holds true with DAWs (digital audio workstation for non-nerds) as we run everything from Logic to ProTools around here but without fail, we do love Ableton Live. Sure it isn’t perfect but what in life is?
A few weeks ago I stumbled onto a blog that touted it would be posting a new Ableton hint daily, each day, for 365 days. Even the most proficient user can use a refresh sometimes while some noobs need a good primer. Although a lot of the tips are geared (no pun) towards live performances which is not super helpful for me however I must admit I learned a few bits. If you strive to impress your music nerd pals on a (reoccurring) dateless Friday night, pop on over to the below link.
Laberge never ceases to come correct. Yesterday we were informed his edit of Daft Punk’s “Something About You” had been floating in the Hype Machine Top 10 for the last few days. He was keeping very good company with the likes of The Smiths, MIA, DFA, Kid Cudi, and such. That was exciting and all but what really made my day was he alerted SBR HQ that he was letting out another free track to the interweb.
We all know Laberge for his attention to detail, second to none sample chops, and funky filtered basslines. Less displayed on his Solid Bump releases is his immaculate synth-work which is on prominent display in “Out There”. Although I hate the term to describe music there is definitely a “space” vibe about this new track – if space were funky. And maybe it is… I just have no proof.
No story is needed as to why this event is happening. Sleazemore was awesome enough to take the initiative to gather a huge collective of San Francisco’s electronic scene. Mezzanine has donated the venue (one of my favorites) for the evening and everyone is playing for free. That means the event has no overhead and all proceeds go directly to Red Cross.
Here is another one from the infamous EZE SKANKIN mixtape archive. This time we feature Roy Davis Jr live from the home of Solid Bump HQ – Haight Street. The tape is from the late 90s and I can only assume it may be from the annual Haight Street fair? If anyone knows hit us up.
Regardless of where it was recorded, it is a funk filled affair and features many tracks that you could say influence some of the label sound.
Although Solid Bump Records thrives by supporting up and coming artists, we are very selective in who we really throw ourselves behind. While this release is not on SBR, we would have happily signed it! Lucky for you, Ghost of Venice opted to release their first single for free.
Although the entire package is quality, for the taste of the SBR editorial staff, the original mix of “I Learned From The Best” can’t be beat – I guess that is what happens when you learn from the best though. The beat is jackin’, the sample is accented by a following synth line, and a smoothed out repetitive vocal stab sets it off. Add in some Ed Banger-esque start/ stops and you have a winner. Recommended.
My goodness - I had no idea this ole twitter was being neglected. Well, lets get this kicked off with a new free Laberge http://www.solidbump.com1 week ago
