Download it FREE @ kidlogic.bandcamp.com
“Lately Ive been thinking about trying to do a different take on the club night, something along the lines of a jazz club, where yeah, you can dance, but its as much about going to vibe out and listen to new directions musically as new directions physically; somewhere that’s a safe place for producers to try new things without having to worry about clearing the dancefloor…”
Hit up KidLogic’s fan page @ http://facebook.com/kidlogicmusic and show him some love!!
I had the opportunity to talk to Luke KidLogic about his new (FREE) album, ‘Off Road EP Vol. 1,’ (http://kidlogic.bandcamp.com) and not only is it a dope album, but this guy has got a lot of interesting and forward-thinking ideas about music in general.
First, some information about this electronic producer; he lives in Portland, he’s been DJ’ing since 1998 and making music since 2001, and he also hosts a radio show, Supernormous Sessions, every Friday on http://www.Dubstep.fm.
When I asked about his musical influences, I found out this cat takes it back to the Chemcial Brothers and Fatboy Slim era of the 1990s, but also includes some non-electronic music as well, stating, ‘I was influenced by a lot of 90s skate punk, early grunge and old hip hop. I found electronic music through the Chemical Brothers in 96, and that style – big beat electronica was a big influence too – Fatboy Slim, EBN, all that Astralwerks stuff… once I found house music and dnb after going to a few raves, I started DJing and a lot of tunes and artists who were big to me then definitely ended up influencing me musically in some way down the line; CZR, Paul Johnson, Danny the Wildchild, 3D, Phantom 45, Aprhodite, DJ Dara… so many things really, from the sprawling improv funk of Parliment or even Phish, to raw dirty hip hop, to raw dirty punk, to Skweee, to big room DnB, to deep house.”
(‘You Freek,’ a track he released earlier this year)
I checked out his ‘Off Road EP Vol. 1,’ album, and it’s really a fun listen! In a culture that expects you to super-meticulously over-define your music by sub-sub-genre, KidLogic throws a middle finger in the air (not literally, I would hope, because it’s hard to make music with just one hand) and he tears it up, with a barrage of styles all rolled into his signature groove. You really are going to want to check out his new one (plus he’s got older albums to check out too) and since it’s an EP, it’s not super-long, but you’re likely going to be listening to it more than once.
KidLogic Killin it on the Decks
His new album spans the scope of electronic and dance music, from his first track, ‘Beat Bouncin,’ a juke’d out menace of a track, to ‘Snuck Groove,’ which definitely shows his glitch-hopping prowess, with some nice dub echoes and exciting rhythm, to songs like ‘Luxx,’ and ‘Slughouse,’ where you can definitely feel the (s)paced-out “old-school” dubstep influence (I put the phrase “old-school” in quotations because… well, come on, dubstep isn’t even really at the age of puberty yet). But KidLogic definitely had some things to say about dubstep…
“I can see dubstep cementing itself as both the pop-mainstream monster that it’s become, and having a more underground return to the space-pace-bass mentality it had when I first found it, with the pop side of things taking that more aggressive electro side of every genre with it – electro house, breaks, dnb, etc – for better and worse. I think that we’re gonna see a lot more experimentation and cross-breeding of styles over the next year, and less emphasis on genre at least in the underground. Im excited to hear what comes next!”
(‘Side Street Slide’)
I asked him where he sees glitch hop music heading, as a genre or a style of music…
“…its tough for me to say… from what I have been paying attention to I think there are some branches of glitch hop that are sonically similar to (and close to becoming equivalent to) the more mainstream take on dubstep – whether that’s good or bad is perspective. That said, there are other branches of glitch hop that are pushing boundaries and redefining the term. If you mean this weird branch of experimental glitch / footwork / uk funky / wonky / dnb / breaks / moombah / step / post- / future- / etc mishmash of the last year or so, I think its going to continue to evolve. It feels like I’m pulled in a new direction sonically every few months lately, stumbling onto a track or a mix of some new obscure something from a far corner of the internet and I love it.”
As far as his equipment goes, he uses Ableton 5, and once in awhile he’ll break out his Trigger Finger or Oxygen 8, saying, “…almost everything I do is sample based, so most is done by chopping audio in Ableton or with the Simpler. Once in a while Ill break open Reason for some synths, but I usually end up resampling and tweaking it later.”
He wouldn’t mind seeing a change of pace for the electronica experience, though, and I would quite agree with him…
“I love going to the club, but a lot of the great music being made right now is lost in cyberspace because the scene so focused on being hype and making people lose it with the filthiest drop. Sometimes I wanna go out and listen to the kind of thing I would put on at home, but with friends and beer on a loud ass system.”
Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but when he started talking about the head-banging mosh-out/rave-out mentality of the dubstep-nights at clubs, and contrasting that to something of the ‘jazz club’ mentality of open-experimentation for producers, it kind of reminded me of the bop music by Charlie Parker, Dizzy, and Miles Davis – the rebels of their scene who took it upon themselves to go against the grain of the big-band atmosphere and create something bolder, MUCH more experimental, and, I would argue, more fun – and I don’t think I’m completely alone in that general feeling as far as the state of electronic music goes…
With the super-filthy, ‘down-some-more-e-and-jump-around,’ vibe going on, I wonder if a pullback movement is around the corner for 2012, when the experimenters organize and get something exciting and original going again…
Check out his episode of the podcast J’aime Le Dubstep no 85, at http://construct.wickedbad.net/archives/3060
Check out his cloudcasts, too:
http://www.Mixcloud.com/KidLogic
If you want to book KidLogic to DJ, hit up:
This Way Up Artist Agency.
Email: erica@twuagency.com
Web: http://www.twuagency.com/kidlogic.html
Twitter: @EricaTWUAgency
AIM: ericatwuagency
TEL: 619-916-7762
Soul Outsider 
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