Demonic d'n'b
Steve Lalla
slalla@hour.ca
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Scotty P wants a peace
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Forgotten, unpaid, left to hail a cab in the cold sleet toting a laptop, a record bag and a head full of shattered dreams, the struggling artist's life certainly seems wretched. What many fail to understand is that most artists actually derive pleasure from creating, composing and performing their works, no matter the cost or reward. While a minority of producers will go on to fame and recognition in their field, the vast majority will toil away in obscurity. As I've always said, if you're looking to make money, this is the wrong scene to be in. That said, Lalla Land continues with Tome 3 of Off the Beaten Path CD reviews. Fm_man: An alter ego formed to aid a trance producer in his exploration of new genres, the Fm_man CD contains six tracks, of superlative sound quality, that float effortlessly in the limbo between the funk of house and the looping automation of techno. Preserving some of the influence of conventional trance programming with near-epic breakdowns, often emphasizing new plateaus with scintillating crash cymbals, Fm_man remains nonetheless stripped down and minimal; the slow, trundling pace retains a focus on deep undulating bass lines. After logging over 10,000 listens on mp3.com, charting in five different genres' Top 10 lists in the process, Scotty P, a.k.a. Fm_man, abandoned the site due to "annoying pop-ups." His own www.scottyp-music.com now houses links to over 20 of his tracks, including a demonic drum'n'bass
remix of the Stones' Paint It Black.DJ Rue: Apparently she's from Chicago, apparently she took home In Da Jungle's Montreal up-and-comers crown, and apparently she's playing at The Next Level tonight (July 8). After repeated exposure to her demo CD, I can see why. Do You Know What It Feels Like to Get Rued? has anthems (from Dom & Roland to Klute or Technical Itch), dreamy vocal tracks (Tali or The Militia), and enough organic funk to keep it appealing without being cheesy. Spam her at marsupialove@aol.com, or find her tonight and harass her for a copy, at Saphir with Corey K and Davis.
Tonight (July 8): Unity II's weekly gets a makeover, as DJ Frigid takes his gaudy Kink! weekly upstairs, while Eloi Brunelle and François LeBaron bring their lush tech-house sounds together for Eden in the main room, the perfect combination of crass and class for the club's Village denizens. Blizzarts' Broken weekly sees the return of integral contributor Poontz, bearing joy for the masses after a month spent combing the moist soils of Chile for psychotropic toad bile. Jose Garcia's usually on location with some dope visuals also. Two of the legends of the local rave scene, Philgood and Pfreud, are reunited again at Stereobar's Pitch ($5). Jazz Fest highlights include The Roots ($39.50, at Métropolis, 9 p.m.) and at midnight, minimal tech-house duo Egg, oddly paired with Jaga Jazzist, a Norwegian 10-piece band, a decade wise, who finally caught the idea of North American audiences earlier this millennium and have since gone on to record two full-lengths, The Stix and A Livingroom Hush, for label gods Ninja Tune, a virtual seal of excellence as far as I'm concerned ($16.50, at Club Soda).
Friday, July 9: Chopstick Dubplatists Rcola and Jacky Murda, carrying on the ragga jungle dubplate movement from reinforced MTL and NYC bunkers respectively, line 'em up at Blue Dog's Junglist Friday this week. And expertly straddling the line between commercial and underground, between house and trance, and between progressive and repetitive for the better part of three decades, the U.K.'s Sasha has staked a niche for himself in the upper echelons of international DJ superstardom since taking his baby steps at Manchester's famed Hacienda. He returns to Aria.
"If I wanted reality, I would take the screen out of my TV and just look through the wooden box." - Jerry Seinfeld
