Soundcloud: five favourite flavours for May

Every month, we pick out our five favourite flavours from the artists followed by rUbba nEck on Soundcloud; tunes we reckon will inspire, you to produce great music. Here are the favourite five flavours for May:

Del Valle: Mono-family

A few months ago, I wrote about the Korg Monotron competition: Monomania. Why? Back in the day I owned an MS20 – and I still have an MS2000. I’m a big fan of the Korg analogue sound. So it was great to see one of our favourites, Del Valle, uploading a tunes that feature Monotrons (which share the same filter circuits as their MS ancestors).

Del Valle dives straight in with 303-style acid bass and a beat cut on an 808. You could be back in 1990. Until the weirdness starts. Backward, stretched and tempo-shifted vocal samples… an eerie analogue pad (with a sawtooth pitch modulating on the quarter notes)… some subtle percussion panned right to the edges of the mix… and you’re back in 2012 – and back in Ableton. It’s elegant, simple and as minimal as the 303 bass will let it. Hombre. Nos gusta.

Soundcloud: five favourite flavours for April

Every month, we pick out our five favourite flavours from the artists followed by rUbba nEck on Soundcloud; songs we think have something that makes them ear-bendingly brilliant. Here are the favourite five flavours for April:

Rise and Fail: Lowbob

This is a freebie from the guys from Hamburg. Opens with a double time bass drum and blippy percussion. There’s a really nice rush of pads that take us into more blips and something that sounds like someone playing their teeth.

Throughout, there’s a beautiful clarity of sound, even squashed by Soundcloud’s vicious compressors. And there’s never a dull moment. Enjoy the trip through short cut vocal samples and Commodore 64 game sounds. I was wondering about the name: could it be a play on ‘blow job’?

Soundcloud: five favourite flavours for March

Every month, we pick out our five favourite flavours from the artists followed by rUbba nEck on Soundcloud – songs we think have something that makes them ear-bendingly brilliant. Here are the five favourite flavours for March:

Hoax Maker: Minimal Heaven
When you die you can hope to go to Hoax Maker’s Minimal Heaven, because then you’re in for one hell of a party. For eternity. This track has a killer drop down section. Maybe because it has such intricate and beautifully crafted percussion. In the drop down, the beats fall out and the percussion takes over, transitioning with elegance into new elements. Then, just when you’re expecting the bass to crash in, it drops down all over again.

And, you know what? It works. When the beats kick back in, the ceiling comes down! And you go to minimal heaven.