Bent Festival: Your Guide to Circuit Breaking

For your circuit breaking needs

LA says wassup to the Bent Festival, arriving today in Downtown before its stint in New York and Minneapolis. It's all about circuit bending and the festival presents workshops, lectures, music, and should appeal to anyone interested in making electronic music, especially in the DIY manner.

Their site says, "The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year we invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture."

Here's some info on the fest:

Bent Festival
April 17-19, 2008
Check out the schedule here.

Tickets

Each night is free with a suggested donation of $10.

A Festival Pass to all events is available for $25.

Locations

Grand Performances at California Plaza

350 S. Grand Ave (map)
Los Angeles, CA, 90017

Zero Point

1049 E 32nd St (map)
Los Angeles, CA,

OCELOT MTHRFCKRS!! Lo Sforzo 12" Dropping Soon

Kitty go "meow!"

Last November Franki Chan's blog, iheartcomix, announced a remix contest for Ocelot's new single, "Lo Sforzo". The winner will have their track featured on the B side (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). Regardless of who wins this track is going to be off the hook, so keep your eyes peeled and your paws ready; this one's sure to be at the top of everyone's record crate. The tune will be available on the 12th, if iheartcomix ever fixes their bloody online store.


In the mean time, enjoy one of Ocelot's remixes:

Dragonette - Competition (OCELOT MTHRFCKRS remix) (via zShare)


Ocelotspace

PS: Speaking of Franki Chan. He has a show in LA tonight called "Still Fucking Awesome" @ The Beauty Bar: 1638 N. Cahuenga Blvd. See you there!

Anamanaguchi...?

You'd like it if you had robot ears

If you've been influenced heavily by Nintendo games and the whole bit (pun intended) then you might enjoy a little band called Anamanaguchi (it's like a mix of onomatopoeia + Gucci in it's pronunciation). The NYC band made their debut in LA within the last couple of weeks and they've been a huge hit with us nerdy locals, but hey, I'm sure Dragonforce was up front and center. For once, fuck the SID chip; it's all about NES. Nintendocore fans rejoice.

Anamanaguchi - Airbase (via zShare)

AnamanaguchiSpace

We Are Terrorists

Often referred to as just WAT, We Are Terrorists is a French house group under the ever-so-ill iheartcomix label, home of Ocelot, The Toxic Avenger, and a lot of other prime house artists. Just don't search for them on Google.

Ironic Sexism (We Are Terrorists Remix) (via zShare)

Wanna see'm live? Go see them play at the Batofar in Paris on the 16th (and if you're actually considering going, fill out this form to get a free WAT pin with that sic ass graphic from above).

WATSpace

Justice Tours with Chromeo and Diplo

Following the link above brings you to an all familiar MySpace music page. However, this time they are promoting a music tour with bands that simply cannot be overlooked. While the headliners, Justice, can stand their own, New Yorkers can enjoy the taste of Justice AND Chromeo, while Los Angelinos get Justice served with a bit of Diplo. New Yorkers should jump on these tickets if they're Chromeo fans because four of their five of their tour dates coming up are SOLD OUT. You would be doing yourself a favor with this double treat.

Chromeo - Tenderoni (MSTRKRFT remix)

Do You Feel "Alive"

Motivational poster by Ishkur

So the Alive 2007 tour is now long over with Daft Punk's last US appearance being at Vegoose back at the tail end of October. Not to say that the robotic duo is dead and gone, though; the Alive cd was dropped early last month, and anyone lucky enough to get a copy can get an earful of this amazing live mix. Though the mix stands well on its own, I'm sure that those who've seen the "great pyramid" in person would get an especially hard nostalgic rush.

I've been aware of DP for awhile now, ever since I caught my older brother listening to "Around the World" in grade school. Who would've thought that they would become the fathers of electro house and a source of inspiration for great artists such as Justice (as well as the rest of the Ed Banger crew).

Sometime last year I made a short megamix of Daft Punk remixes as a birthday gift for my friend, Jorge.

Jorgegasm - Shimmy's Daft Megamix on musicv2.com (alt zShare link)

Has anyone copped this box set of Alive? Those Daft Punk Be@rbricks are sic!

Ishkur's Guide to the Galaxy... of Electronic Music

About a year and a half ago I came across this site that's apparently been around since late y2k. What looks like an e-tard's wank at a website is actually a handy reference guide to the world of electronic music. Ishkur, whether it's the name of the site or a moniker of the author's, has all the information you need to get you schooled on electronic tunes.

One of my favorite nugs is The Great Samples Database, which is a reader expanded list of songs and their respective source samples. Last I checked they were going three-thousand strong.

Another good one is Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, which is a comprehensive flash-based tour through the origins of electronic music and its many genres and sub-genres. Each stop has a description of the genre and even an audio loop so you can get an idea of what the genre sounds like. Real good stuff, whether you're electronically challenged or not.

Guess looks can be deceiving.

ishkur.com

Did I mention that he's taking donations?