Innovations in Transformative Music & Media
Kelly Beckett of G4′s Attack of the Show features the Beat Thang and a few other great products at NAMM 2012 in Anaheim, California. As she mentions, Beat Thang won DJzone DJ Magazine’s Crystal Disc Award for Best DJ Innovation of 2011-2012. Congrats, guys!!
“The stage is my sanctuary,” says Ebony Neco Washington, also known as Neco Redd. “I turn into a completely different monster on stage. I’ve been blessed with the gift to work backstage as well, and I don’t have a problem with it. But if you’re gonna put me out front, expect Neco to act a damn fool!”
A native of Detroit’s west side, Redd seized the solo spotlight for the first time in 2010 with “No Discipline,” an eight-song EP of raw, bluesy soul. A year later, rather than watch a collection of songwriting demos languish in the dustbin, she offered an exciting and diverse 15-track mixtape as a free download through NecoRedd.bandcamp.com. October 2011′s “The Full Disclosure” shows off Redd’s powerful pipes, her versatility and her funky attitude.
Still, Redd promises that the real heat will arrive this spring with the release of her first full-length album, “Still Trippin.” She describes it as a “bass heavy, guitar heavy,” horn-driven album with live instrumentation provided by Tony Ozier’s West Coast band The Doo-Doo Funk All-Stars.
Supernova will.i.am comes HARD with this monster track produced by Dallas Austin on the Beat Thang. Superstars J-Lo and the immortal Mick Jagger get in on the fun in this action-packed video. “This BEAT is so HARD!”
For two decades, pioneering Detroit techno label Underground Resistance (UR) has led an international electronic music revolution. For its latest assault, UR deploys a new squad of young musical guerrillas called Timeline, named after the UR dance floor classic. Armed with the label’s patented Hi-Tech Jazz style, the group Timeline aims to rewrite the future of dance music and jazz for the 21st Century with The Graystone Ballroom EP.
The EP jumps and jits with four phenomenal tracks including “Lottie The Body” and “Black Bottom Stomp”, both mixed by EAPro’s J. Nadir Omowale.
“Underground Resistance is like Harriet Tubman escaping from the South.” So says rebel leader “Mad” Mike Banks, of his label, musical collective and revolutionary electronica movement Underground Resistance. “She always had to reinvent herself. I’m sure they had to take a million different angles to get out of there,” Banks explains.
Founded in the late 80s by Banks and his former partner, Jeff Mills, UR charted a critical path through the history of music by packaging hard-hitting electro, house and techno with stark imagery, militant rhetoric, and a post-apocalyptic, futuristic vision of life in the streets of Detroit. Originally inspired by the activist hip hop of Public Enemy, the computer-generated funk of Kraftwerk, and the political philosophy of the centuries-old tradition of resistance movements across the planet, UR’s cadre of artists, producers, DJs and musicians continues to plant sonic landmines in dance and hip hop clubs on six continents.
Like Tubman, UR’s underground railroad moves largely under cover of darkness, in their quest to invent the cutting edge of music, and to combat what they see as the oppressive grip of mainstream media programmers. Banks rarely appears in public without a mask, and on stage, the groups perform in the shadows so the audience can concentrate on the music.
Timeline (feat. Jon Dixon & De’Sean Jones): Lottie The Body by nomowale
Timeline (feat. Jon Dixon & De’Sean Jones): Black Bottom Stomp by nomowale
“I’m a firm believer that music is greater than the men who create it,” says Banks. “If you ever needed any form of spiritual assurance, it is music. Certainly music is more powerful than man, because the man fades and goes, but the music – the spirit, and the work – lives on. Beethoven’s been dead hundreds of years, but somebody is playing Beethoven tonight.”
It was the notion of reinvention and evolution that prompted accomplished musicians Banks and Mills to experiment with a melding of techno and jazz music. “I felt like jazz had kind of topped out,” Banks reveals. “Of course, you have to be a great musician to play it, but a lot of times [jazz musicians] are copying [music] innovated in the 40s and 50s, and they’re innovating nothing.”
Influenced by artists like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock who combined funk and rock with jazz, and employed synthesizers to create jazz-fusion, Mills and Banks applied a similar concept to create the song “Nation 2 Nation” in 1990. After Mills left UR to go solo in 1992, Banks produced the EP “Galaxy 2 Galaxy” which included a song called “Hi-Tech Jazz”, and the style took off internationally.
Banks later shared the concept with Detroit jazz and gospel musicians like “The Deacon” Gerald Mitchell, Derwin Hall, and the late Derrick Jamerson, son of Motown bassist James Jamerson. In 2001, Banks and Jamerson wrote a song called “Timeline” that exploded onto dance floors in the US and around the world. Dancers in Detroit still hustle, ballroom and jit to the tune today.
Then in 2007, Banks recruited keyboardist Jon Dixon, and saxophonist De’Sean Jones, two recent Wayne State University grads, to perform with him as part of Galaxy 2 Galaxy at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
“I know a lot of people who play jazz who have never played the Montreux Jazz Fest,” Dixon marvels, “so here I am 22 or 23 years old, and I’m playing one of the most popular jazz festivals in the world, and I didn’t even know who Underground Resistance was.” When he and Jones heard the song “Hi-Tech Jazz” on the radio in a cafe in Switzerland Dixon was asked by a customer if he was “Mad” Mike. At that point Dixon researched and learned about the rich heritage of electronica of which he was now a part.
After Montreux, Banks, Dixon and Jones added DJ, turntablist, producer and community leader Sicari Ware to the fold forming Timeline. The collective’s mission is to take Hi-Tech Jazz to the next level. Their critically acclaimed first performance was at an opening event for Detroit’s Movement Festival in May of 2010, and the group released its first EP in October 2011.
“The one thing I like about Hi-Tech Jazz more than anything else is that it really embodies what I think music should, which is complete freedom, creativity, flexibility and improvisation while having structure, but also giving the people a good time,” Jones says. He believes Hi-Tech Jazz invokes the spirit of Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, men who are remembered as great composers, and bandleaders, but who, back in the 1940s, played the dance and party music of the day.
At the same time, Dixon appreciates the complexity of the music. “[Musicians] are looking for something different that they can challenge themselves on,” Dixon says. “Like with any new genre, this is a whole different approach. Everything you know, put that [to the side]. I feel like a little kid again. I can take everything I’ve learned and combine it and it’s just… fun!”
But Jones also stresses the importance of the message and what UR represents. “Music is do or die. It’s that serious,” Jones says. “It’s a gift, but it’s also a responsibility. If you take music seriously, you understand that you’re an ambassador to the world as a musician. It’s more than just the notes. The notes are just a medium for something much greater.”
For Banks Timeline is about continuing to innovate. “We never get stuck in one sound too long,” Banks says. “If an artist can’t grow, you can’t keep up with UR. Like I said, it’s like being a runaway slave. For us it’s a matter of survival.”
An earlier version of this article appeared in BLAC Detroit Magazine.
Efforts to promote Saxappeal’s 2009 debut album “Stay Saxy” were often rebuffed by smooth jazz radio programmers who judged it “too urban” for their stations. That was good news.
That first album by Saxappeal, also known as LaDarrel Johnson, blends hip hop and new soul sensitivities with a sultry contemporary sax sound that is meatier and more adventurous than typical smooth jazz fare. The prominence of the horn, however, ensures that Saxappeal’s music won’t be played on most R&B, urban contemporary or hip hop stations, where all songs must feature singing or rapping.
He could have bowed to the pressure and churned out a second album that conformed to the dictates of the almighty programmers. Instead, he stayed true to his art, titled his new disc “Unmarketable” and set about creating an album of music that he describes as “delicious jambalaya.”
The Beat Thang Mobile Music Production Studio comes with everything you need to make your own original Hip Hop, Dance, Pop, Dubstep, Industrial or Electronic music productions.
Loaded with over 3,000 original, professionally mastered sounds, a sampler with waveform editing, built-in effects, chromatic keypads, and a fully portable rugged design, the Beat Thang simplifies professional music production down to its core by providing you with all the tools you need to make high-quality, radio-ready, club-friendly music right out of the box.
Developed by musicians for musicians, the Beat Thang reimagines the production experience in a way that lets any music enthusiast – beginner or pro – make music the way its meant to be made – in the moment. Everything about the Beat Thang interface has been streamlined, saving you valuable time while never compromising on features or functionality.
Create original songs in a matter of minutes with access to the sounds that the world’s top producers have been using and keeping secret for years. Use the Beat Thang’s sampler to record your own sounds, or import your own sample library to increase the size of your musical toolbox. Integrate the Beat Thang into your professional studio setup or digital audio workstation with Beat Thang Virtual companion software. Use the hardware as a controller for Beat Thang Virtual, as a standalone device, or unplug and take your fully portable Beat Thang into the streets where inspiration really happens.
Never before have musicians been offered so many ways to produce professional music with one device. If you’re a veteran, the Beat Thang has the versatility and uncompromising quality you demand. If you’re new to the game, the Beat Thang offers unprecedented ease of use and portability.
The playing field is officially leveled. The Beat Thang is here.
To Learn More About The Beat Thang by Dallas Austin visit BeatThang.com
For the Latest Beat Thang News visit The Beat Thang Blog
For Product Tutorials, Production Tips and Songwriting Workshops, visit LearnBeatThang.com
David Allie Strauss, otherwise known as D’Allie, grew up in a household where music was a family affair. He inherited a love for many types of music from his guitar-playing, Jewish father, Gary Strauss—who is featured extensively on his son’s albums—and his mother, Komeh Allie Strauss, who is from Sierra Leone.
“When I was maybe 6 or 7, my dad was playing at bars late night, and then waking up early to go teach,” D’Allie, now 28, remembers. “Occasionally he would bring me out for the first set, around 10 or so.”
Papa Strauss built a small, short-scale guitar for little David, but the instrument fell by the wayside when some older cousins introduced the youngster to “Yo! MTV Raps.” D’Allie began writing rhymes at age 7.
Fast forward about two decades, his hip hop duo Progress Report released the full-length album, “Eddie Logix and D’Allie Are Progress Report,” last month.
My name is Nadir, and I’m an addict. I’ve been addicted to playing music for a very long time. And being addicted to music is like being addicted to crack.
Okay. I’ll confess. I’ve never smoked crack.
But the rush of being onstage… When I’ve got the mic in my hand, and the band is killing it, I am high. At that very moment I am completely myself. Not acting or posing for the crowd, but telling my story, singing from the depths of my soul. There’s nothing like it except…
…The high of creating in the studio. When the song is strong, and the rhythm track is hot, I catch a buzz. All of a sudden I start dancing uncontrollably in the middle of the control room. I feel like I’m stoned.
I’ve had some success with the work I’ve produced for myself and other artists – awards, radio play, international tours, licensing for movies and advertising, scoring indie films and more. Each accomplishment brings new validation.
But if you’re really passionate about your music as I am, you don’t do it for the money or the acclaim. You do it because you’re addicted to the rhythm.
In his bestselling book, This is Your Brain On Music, music producer/neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explains that the neurotransmitter dopamine is released into the pleasure centers of the brain when we listen to music we enjoy. Dopamine is most famous for its role in the brain’s pleasure and reward system. It is involved in mood regulation and coordination of movement.
According to Levitin, “When drug addicts get their drug of choice, or when compulsive gamblers win a bet – even when chocoholics get cocoa – this is the neurotransmitter that is released.”
On top of that hit of “dope”, when I’m playing music that I like, on an instrument I enjoy, with a tone that is pleasing, I begin to care, and I pay more attention. Levitin’s studies show that dopamine is released again, enhancing emotions, alertness and mood. My brain creates a neurochemical tag for every aspect of the experience to make sure I remember what this buzz feels like.
So if I’m really excited about this 16 bar verse I’m spitting, and the hook is hot, and the beat is knocking, my brain could be infused with enough dopamine to pack a Phillie blunt. If I’m truly passionate about my music, if I’m feeding on the energy of a crowded club or a packed arena, and I’m on, the high can be like taking a hit of freebase cocaine.
Okay, the science isn’t perfect, but I do know that the more I get that feeling of playing great music, the more I want to feel it. I’ve gotta have it… every day, all day, all night, if possible. I keep chasing that high, hoping for the same feeling or a better, more intense high.
And that’s why I will never quit. It’s not because the pay is great, that’s for sure. Even major label artists struggle to make ends meet. The rest of us make due with day jobs or odd jobs or, if we’re lucky, jobs playing music for a living.
Those artists who are most successful are driven like crack heads. The difference is they know how to balance the business with the buzz. They create a lifestyle that allows them to get high by playing as much music as possible, while keeping the bills paid, and (puff, puff) passing the feeling on to others who get a dopamine infusion when they hear music they enjoy.
So yes, I’m a professional musician and producer. I’m in control. But the first step to control is admitting that I’m an addict, and music is a drug that I will never quit.
Are you an addict? Do you have your high under control? Hit me up and tell me your story…
More good reviews for IAYAALIS!
“After listening to the debut release of this singer, writer, poet, visual artist, and emcee… I was drawn to appreciate her stand in the creative spectrum. She delivers a diverse collection of her world through music which appeases the listener who’s curious about her total package.” – Lady Tha Producer, StudioNoize.com
For decades, Detroit has maintained arguably the most influential music scene in the country. Yes, awesome musicians, incomparable vocalists and mesmerizing performers learned everything they knew here. But this city’s influence on music is attributable not only to the iconic singers whose names we all know.
The D is also musically influential because of the people you don’t see. Detroit has contributed some of the most innovative and gifted music producers on the planet.
From early Motown staff producers like Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield, to funk maestro transplant George Clinton, to techno pioneers Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, to rock legend Don Was, to hip hop genius J Dilla—these and other local producers have set the global standard for quality, creativity, musicality and innovation.
Whether or not lovers of soul, gospel, R&B, hip hop, jazz or electronica know it, producers from Detroit consistently reshape and reinvent music. Year after year, they are leaders in the development of new sounds that resonate with music fans around the world.
Because the nature of record production is behind the scenes, producers tend to be unsung heroes. They are often more responsible for the sound of a hit song than the artist whose voice is on the record, but their contributions may go unrecognized by the general public.
