LTJ Bukem

Drum and bass is back in a big way of late, but don't let that make you forget about the rich and multifaceted history of the genre.

Today, you'll catch a lot of higher-tempo, energetic vibes coming from the D&B scene. But I'd like to point everyone to my personal favourite drum and bass producer, one LTJ Bukem, from the UK.

I bring it up because he's DJing at the Guvernment on Friday, May 14th; a most excellent way to spend the evening if you can manage to scrape the Queen's Quay grime off yourself the next morning.

Producing music for over 20 years, LTJ's style draws inspiration from Jungle, which, along with a heavy Ambient influence, really pervades his music.

From my humble perspective, the best that D&B has churned out has been the more mellow, laid-back rhythms, much like what LTJ consistently produced. Here's a track from his Earth Volume 3 that I've been feeling for a long time.



Here's one of his best known (and talk about Jungle) tracks, Demon's Theme.



It's really chill stuff. I hear he DJs a good set too, so I'd suggest checking him out.

Post BRMC

Two incredible gigs in Toronto. High energy, great sets, and excellent versions of old tracks.

I love how they build upon their songs as they tour them, which has created an excellent, full-throttle version of "666 Conducer", and an extended version of the acoustic "Mercy".

Although I'm not a huge fan of the original bonus track "Annabel Lee" from Beat the Devil's Tattoo, the electrified version they play on tour, including the second night, was quite compelling. I offer it up here for those who were unable to see it. (Pardon the fan video version, but there's no studio recording of this version yet.

Post-Florence gig

In honour of the very impressive Florence and the Machine show I saw last Saturday, here's the b-side that she played that night. She makes for an incredible performance. The personal magnetism she gets from such a tiny stature is amazing, though not as amazing as the voice she gets from the same:



For good measure, here's a remix of my favourite track from the album, "Cosmic Love". It can't compare to the original, but makes a good twist when you've heard the album version a million times already.

Celestica-Crystal Castles

Seems homegrown Crystal Castles haven't managed to die from whatever it is that inspires them. They've got a new album dropping on June 7th, which will, probably unsurprisingly to most, also be eponymous.

They had pretty much slid off my radar; their first album was actually very interesting, and their take on synths, distortion, and 8-bit cacophony was actually quite compelling. It didn't take long for it to lose its magic on me though, and I've found it an album I'm seldom tempted to revisit.

However, I'm liking what I hear from this new track, Celestica. Seems to maintain their ambiance without being quite as noisy as some of their earlier stuff. That will make for a more compelling and longer-lasting package, if the rest of the album lives up to it.