Bevvy Swift, photo by Thom Hamilton

Today, our good friend Bevvy Swift‘s remix project from his debut LP, Monochrome, sees its release via California-based record label, Muti Music.  It contains remixes from label owner Dov, Humboldt-based & Muti-affiliated Hypha, as well as mixes from fellow BC-based artists HxdB & the Philthkids.  The EP is available for purchase here on Beatport, or here on JunoDownload, previews immediately below.

I think my favorite of the bunch is Hypha’s future bass/garage influenced remix of Bevvy’s collab with Vancouver’s Frank Grimes, “Auntie Swag.”  The rest of the pack is only a step or two behind, in my opinion – HxdB offering up a smooth 4/4 reworking of “The Tide,” Philthkids twerkin’ my favorite tune of the original album into a juke/footwork experience while Dov comes in with a tidy, stripped-down jungle remix of the album’s title track.

Bevan’s 3-part Feelings mix series has been receiving lots of love lately, along with a feature & in-depth interview published recently by Seattle-based blog, Ganjaology - read it here.

Keep up with Bevvy on his soundcloud, fan page & Muti Music profile page.  Watch for a new full-length album on Muti by the end of the year, and another free LP release is in the pipeline as well.

The first full length album from Vancouver’s Self Evident is set to drop March 22nd on South Fork Sound, a label curated out of Long Island by producer & DJ Blind Prophet.  The album is a sprawling 12-track affair, drawing from a myriad of influences &  sounds including footwork, garage, dubstep, dancehall, house & everything in between.  Off the top, my favorites are the first track “Go Down Low,” and  ”Birth Of Light” - the juxtaposition of ragga samples & stripped-down footwork really makes it stand out.

Self Evident also dropped an exclusive mix for American blog The Dankles last week, packed with tunes from the forthcoming album & other exclusives including a collaborative remix with Bevvy Swift, collabs with HxdB, Dan Solo & more.

This album is South Fork Sound’s first full-length release, though they’ve released a few singles that have been popping up in my sets quite often, including tunes by label owner Blind Prophet, UK-based newcomer Wen & the Archie Pelago remix of Aoim & Muveo‘s “The BDA.”

Self Evident can be seen at The Astoria on April 6th for a special B2B vs. set with fellow Lighta! Sound crew member, Taal Mala – click the poster for full info..

The second album cut we’ve heard, “Insatiable,” was unveiled to the world via BC-native B.Traits‘ BBC Radio1 show just yesterday, a track that features UK-based singer Ayah Marar.  You can listen back to her show here for the next week, Kastle’s guest mix starts at the 1h 10m mark, and you can here the tune in question at 1h 18m – I’m really loving the drum fills in this track!

He’s also shared a non-album track as a free download last month, the K-Ci & Jojo sampling “Baby, Keep It Real” – head over to his fanpage to download the track in exchange for a Like.  Kastle is also known for crafting excellent mixtapes, including his most recent throwback “Classic Garage & 2-Step Mix,” and he promises that Vol. 4 of his popular “Coffee Shop at the End of the Universe” is set to be dropped any moment.

Kastle is about to embark on a mini tour of BC, including dates this Wednesday January 30th at Lucky Bar in Victoria, Thursday January 31st at Fortune Sound Club in Vancouver, and Friday February 1st at Sapphire in Kelowna.

I’ll be opening up the Vancouver show alongside Max Ulis (check out his fresh Slowcast above), 8prn & Okibi, and we’ve got a pair of tickets up for grabs – just shoot me an email here at dailydreadbass@gmail.com & tell me which city Kastle calls his homebase these days.  Entries will be accepted until 8pm on Wednesday January 30th, & the winner will be notified Thursday morning – good luck!  Either way, don’t miss this show – ticket sales are available directly from me, online here, or at High Life Records, Red Cat Records & DIPT.

UPDATE:  Kastle just uploaded his remix of Miguel’s “..All” to his soundcloud and has made it available as free download!  Listen below, and click thru to download.

Hard to say what which track will be given the video treatment next, my personal favorite on the riddim is Tifa‘s “Champion Bubbler.”  Popcaan & Mavado are also rumored to be collaborating with Snoop Dogg (aka Snoop Lion), as several photos of them all together have been circulating.

Love & Light live at Lightning In A Bottle, photo by Grounded.TV

Love & Light are now in the midst of a sprawling western Canadian tour, including stops here in Vancouver at Fortune Sound Club this Thursday January 10th (event), in Victoria at Hush on the following Friday January 11th (event) & at the Spiritbar in Nelson on Saturday January 19th (event).  Their new album Level Up was released a couple months ago & is packed full of that high-energy, midtempo glitchy funk that they’ve become known so well for – check out the preview below.

On this tour, they will be running a special contest in conjunction with Envision Festival in Costa Rica – at each tour stop there will be a registration ballot, and at the end of the tour two lucky winners will receive a full 5-day pass to Envision – flights not included.  There, Love & Light will perform alongside an impressive roster of talent, including BC’s own The Librarian, Adham Shaikh, JPOD, & ill-Esha.

Love & Light make their Vancouver debut at Fortune this Thursday, where they will be supported by locals dj Dubconscious, Syductive the Crowd Conductor, & Victoria’s Neon Steve.  We are giving away two single guestlist spots for this show, to enter shoot me an email here at dailydreadbass@gmail.com by 8pm on Wednesday January 9th & tell me where Love & Light are from – at which point I’ll randomly select two correct answers as winners.  I’ll finish off with mixes from each supporting act, & below that you can check out the entire, updated tour itinerary.

JANUARY 4 – FERNIE @ THE CENTRAL

JANUARY 5 – CALGARY @ HIFI

JANUARY 9 – REVELSTOKE @ THE REGENT

JANUARY 10 – VANCOUVER @ FORTUNE

JANUARY 11 – VICTORIA @ HUSH

JANUARY 12 – CUMBERLAND @ THE WAVERLEY

JANUARY 13 – SALT SPRING @ ?

JANUARY 14 – WHISTLER @ MAXX FISH

JANUARY 16 – BANFF @ DANCING SASQUATCH

JANUARY 17 – CANMORE @ THE DRAKE

JANUARY 18 – KIMBERLEY @ THE EDGE

JANUARY 19 – NELSON @ SPIRITBAR

Last month, Philadelphia-based producer, DJ & music theory professor at the University Of Philadelphia - Starkey - dropped his third album, Orbits, via Civil Music.  It’s a bit of a concept album, highly inspired by science fiction films – incorporating cinematic influences as much as musical influences, which is a quality that has always been present in much of Starkey’s output.

In comparison to his previous full-length efforts that came out on Planet Mu, Pitchfork‘s review states that with Orbits, Starkey “manages to draw all his influences together into something more consistent, an actual streamlined signature sound that makes perfect sense given the records that preceded it.”  Mixmag also featured it as album of the month for January, & gave it a 9/10.

The single “Command” included remixes from UK-dubstep king Plastician & rising young producer Pedro123, and is a great example of the sci-fi inspired, synth’d out stutter funk sound that he’s perfected with this release.  Other favorites from the album include “Lzr,” “Thugs,” & “G V Star (Pt 2)” – his sound design really has reached a sublime level, each track bending your mind distinctively, transporting you to different dimensions of outer space.

Starkey returns to Canada this week for two shows, Thursday January 10th at TEN Nightclub in Calgary alongside Megalodon (event page) & the following Friday January 11th at The Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver with Max Ulis, Michael Red & dj Dubconscious (event page).  We’ve got two pairs of guestlist spots for both Vancouver & Calgary shows up for grabs – all you have to do is email me at dailydreadbass@gmail.com & tell me the name of one of Starkey’s previous two albums that came out on Planet Mu – also please specify which city you are in.  For the Calgary show, the contest will be open until Wednesday January 9th at 8pm, at which point I will randomly select two correct answers as the winners & notify them by email.  For the Vancouver show, the contest will be open one day longer, entries accepted until Thursday January 10th, at 8pm.

As part of W2′s Lights New Year’s Eve celebration, Colombian-born & Toronto-based singer/songwriter Lido Pimienta will make her Vancouver debut alongside a star-studded cast of the finest artists in the city, & beyond.  Though she defies all labels by a mile, ‘Colombian psychedelic pop’ seems to be a term that works – sometimes referred to as a ‘Colombian darling,’ she makes a point of letting you know that her music hits on a much deeper & more intense level than a label like that might suggest.

Lido Pimienta – “La Rata” shot in Bogota, Colombia

Her first record, Color, saw a full vinyl release via LA-based label KU DE TA in 2010 to high praise across the board – from indie blogs to ABC News.  Cleverly combining afro-Latin percussion & songwriting with contemporary & experimental production styles she’s clearly defined a sound that is singularly her own.

She has a wealth of new material in the works for her next album with different producers from across the globe, including Atropolis & Thornato from NYC & Vancouver’s own WEPA! crew members, Self Evident & Gameboy, both of whom will be performing at the W2 Lights NYE party as well.  Keep up with her on her fan page, band camp, soundcloud & twitter.  This last track is my personal favorite so far, a collaboration with Javier Alerta.

Back in November, they did a 2-show run of an ‘animated & illustrated’ live preview of the new album at the Sydney Opera House – they’ve offered up a bit of a video recap including interview clips and live footage, check it out here inna hi-fi, or via YouTube below.  Keeping things current, here is an interview with Fat Freddy’s saxophonist Scott Towers that dropped earlier today via Stuff.co.nz, discussing the new album & other random things.

The band also recently released a set of remixes done by DJ Vadim featuring the vocalists from his band The Electric – Pugz Atomz & Sabira Jade.  They’re all available for free download on their soundcloud, you might recognize the “Flashback” remix from my 2011 Shambhala promo mix, Fractured Sentiments.  Check for them after the drop.

I’m never huge on Christmas cheer, but this ska reworking of a classic festive tune made famous by 1982′s The Snowman hit my inbox last week & has just been made available for a free download so I figured I’d share it to my blog.  Watch the full animation, including David Bowie’s introduction here.

The original composition was by Howard Blake and this cover was recorded by Bristol-based funk band, Smerins Antisocial Club.  The track was recorded at BBC studios for Nemone‘s BBC6 show back in 2010, which is the footage that makes up the music video.  You can download the track for free via their bandcamp here.  The Smerins clan is also known for their collaboration with Tenor Fly, on “Dr. Who,” where they re-imagine the melodies from the TV show’s theme song, in a reggae stylee.  This track came out on Brighton-based label Tru Thoughts.

JETS live in Barcelona, Spain

They also turned in a mix for FACT Magazine recently, entitled JETS Elements Radio Vol. 1 - packed full of exclusives from each producer, also including a mock advertising segment halfway through – proving that their sense of humor is as strong as their sense of rhythm.  Click here or on the mix’s artwork below to read FACT’s write-up, listen to the mix & check out the full tracklisting.  Further down, you’ll also find footage of their Boiler Room London set from late last year, also check this video interview & write-up from Dazed Digital for even more insight on their project.

Machinedrum himself has been very busy with solo projects, and also has an ongoing collaboration with Praveen Sharma aka Braille, together known as Sepalcure.  They performed at Basscoast this past summer, receiving rave reviews for both solo & collaborative performances.  Travis’ remix of Eprom’s “Regis Chillbin” was re-appropriated by Azealia Banks for her “Aquababe” track, leading to her recent Machinedrum-produced “Luxury” single, the music video for which has seen over a million views on YouTube.  Our good friend Amy over at Dub Selekta dropped a great interview with Machinedrum leading up to the festival, which you can read here.

Machinedrum will be joined on this upcoming gig at Shine on Friday December 21st by Sinjin Hawke – a Montreal native that has been operating out of Barcelona, Spain for years now & has recently made a name for himself mainly with the release of his Lights EP on Pelican Fly.  He treated us with a live PA set back in September for New Forms Festival, & will be performing a DJ set this time around.  Check out the aforementioned EP, and his live set from Boiler Room LA below.

Now then, if you’ve made it this far, you must be looking for the contest info.  We have two single tickets up for grabs – all you have to do is email me here at dailydreadbass@gmail.com & tell me which city Machinedrum now calls home.  Entries will be accepted through ’til 6pm PST on Thursday December 20th, at which point two correctly-answering winners will be chosen at random & notified by email.  With a star-studded cast of local support including HxdB, Resident Advisor‘s Andrew Ryce, and Eames, this is most definitely the place to spend your last night on Earth, if the Mayan Calendar prophecy holds any truth…