Visitor tease new EP "Coming Home // RNB" for August 6th

Remember Visitor, whom I interviewed about a year ago?  They've got a new EP "Coming Home // RNB" coming on August 6th, and judging by the preview video above, it sounds like it's going to be a really great set of tracks.  It's been a little while since they've released any new tracks, but it seems that the wait is really worth it, as the newer sound above is incredibly refined and poppy.  I smell a hit.

Watch out for remixes by Lifelike, Jacques Lu Cont, and Viceroy as well.

Patrick Baker Interview

Nashville, Tennessee is a town known for its music.  Johnny Cash comes to mind, and recent guest Ben Folds owns a fantastic studio in town as well.  But, rather bizarrely, some great 80s music is coming out of Nashville, too, courtesy of Patrick Baker, a new kid on the 80s block.  Patrick's style is  Prince-esque vocals on a TV-theme style arrangement of synths and drums, and his production levels make you question if he's behind very big music names and has snuck off to do his own solo record.  As soon as I heard his tracks, I knew I wanted him as a guest for the site.  And fortunately, he agreed.  It's exciting to have a fresh artist who's got a bright future ahead of him.

Below is my interview with Patrick Baker, where we talk about his studio, how he came to be in the style he is, and some of his tracks.  Read on...

The Drive Tour Review

All of you Ryan Gosling and Drive lovers are going to appreciate this post.  Last night the Drive tour came to the Union Transfer in Philadelphia.  The Tour takes its name from the Ryan Gosling film from last fall, which scored incredibly well on Rotten Tomatoes and introduced many new ears to the 80s revival.  Capitalizing on new fans, the tour was put together to cross the US with College and Electric Youth, who share a song on the record, and Anoraak, because he's of the same Valerie Collective.

Com Truise releases "In Decay", a collection of previously unreleased Tracks

Nothing like a little New Com Truise for a Wednesday.  These are all new tracks and demos that you haven't heard before.  I've been a big fan of CT ever since I heard "Cyanide Sisters" and Galactic Melt was a superb electronic LP, so these new sounds are welcome.

Madeon's "Finale" is almost here, and it's his most important track to date. Here's why

Ah, Madeon.  The French kid wonder has been releasing a few tracks here and there, but his newest track, "Finale", is the most important to date.  Bold claim, I know, but it marks the first time Madeon's really stepping forward for me.

I try to hold back most/all negative comments on this site, and the past few Madeon tracks weren't showing me anything new-- he's clearly got fantastic production and mixing, but his tracks were starting to sound the all the same.  He's got a specific signature sound he does (I'll call it his "jump" from here on out, because that's what it sounds like to me), and it's present on all his tracks-- and "Finale" is the first good one where he's skipped it.  In addition, he's broken out and added some vocals as well.  As for his "jump" sound, it's the type of thing you love at first, but it's become his crutch and his way to attract attention to the tracks, and it's a bit played out for me.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking-- how can I even begin to knock any part of Madeon when the kid obviously has more skills/fans/tracks/whatever than I do, at a younger age than I? But-- here's my sincerest compliment.  For the first time in a while, I think Madeon might bridge the gap to be something even bigger-- the next Deadmau5 perhaps?

Shook Interview

Shook is a fresh producer with an array of fantastic remixes and up and coming original tracks.  His remix of Ellie Goulding's "Lights" reenvisioned the track as a lounge piece that would make any jazz enthusiast's mouth water-- and the electronic world took notice, giving the track 300,000 plays on SoundCloud as of today.  More recently, he's released a collaboration with Ronika called "Distorted Love" and, one of my personal favorites, a track called "Love for You".

Shook is one of the blog's more mysterious guests, so it's exciting to be able to have a few questions with him and find out where his roots are.  Enjoy a short but sweet interview with Shook below, and be sure to check out his newest release, "Garota '92", released today.





The Synth Symp:  How did you get started in music? When did you start doing remixes?
Shook: I come from a musical family, so I guess you could say music is in my blood. My father is a jazz pianist. He used to play old Jazz standards while I was watching cartoons. Eventually the music rubs off on you. I started making electronic music when I was pretty young. My first DAW was a trial version of Fruityloops, a program I still use today. Once I got the hang of it, I found myself entranced, making it hard to stop. Most of the time, I went on all night. The music I produced at that time was really high energy. I think 99% of it is music nobody will ever hear. I was also part of a high energy electronic punk band for a while. It was a lot of fun at the time, experimenting with different moods and styles. But at a certain point, my yearning for creating my own music started to take over again. I had my first official release when I was 17. It was some dark electronic stuff. Looking back, it feels like a journey. I was searching for something more personal; more exciting. In my opinion, making music should be a natural process. Nothing should be forced. I started doing remixes after the release of my first EP ‘The Glow EP’. Right after I put it online, various people started to contact me, asking me if I would be down to do some remix work. I was.

MiniBrutes hit consumer's hands, Finally

After months of desperate questioning of Arturia and local music shops, synth heads are finally plugging in their new Arturia MiniBrutes this past week (at least, in the USA).  Various posts from around the web confirm the excitement, and people seem to be impressed.  There's also been a fair collection of new YouTube videos being uploaded.  A few are below.

Well, was it worth the wait?  Are people happy?  Early reports seem to be a resounding "yes".  Future Music recently ran a review claiming it was well worth the price.  The few complaints I've seen on the net seem to be the external power supply is shoddy, it has a few missing buttons for features (that can only be accessed by computers) and that there are slight issues with software, but nothing that seems to deal breaker for anyone.

Check out the videos below, and be on the lookout for more posts on the MiniBrute.