2004 – DOPEVECTOR

Tag: 2004

Ego Programme

February 3, 2010 / admin / Comments Off

Ego Programme is an experimental track from ’04. It combines IDM and Drum n’ Bass elements into a complex and trippy arrangement which stands alone in the Montaz/Biotic catalog.

Inspired by the sound of Squarepusher and Funckarma/Quench, the track features a variety of mangled beat chunks and even some orchestral elements, played using a (since forgotten) software application. Non-sampled beats were arranged using Native Instruments’ Battery, while the played synths were mostly played on the Access Virus B.

I’m not exactly sure why this genre wasn’t pursued more since but its something to keep in mind since I do dig it. Hope you will as well.

Triage

December 29, 2009 / admin / Comments Off

Triage is a techno track from ’04. If my memory serves me right, the bass line was played using the sweet Imposcar synth. And since I’m a little short on time today, I’m going to leave it at that. Wave download is included. Enjoy.

Download: Triage (mp3)Download: Triage (wav)

Michael Hedges – Point B (Montaz remix)

December 2, 2009 / admin / Comments Off

Michael Hedges died on December 2nd,12 years ago. I only learned this recently and was completely unaware at the time I did this remix of Point B, Michael’s track released on his album Taproot in 1990. Like many of Michael’s works, Point B (as well as Point A) are solo guitar pieces performed using a Steinberger guitar. (I really like the original Steinbergers and have a few of my own. Btw, the photo on the left shows Michael with a custom Steinberger Klein guitar, which was a result of a collaboration between Steve Klein and Ned Steinberger.) Micheal did some cool stuff with Steinberger’s TramsTrem which caught my attention.

While the Point B is a very focused effort, my version features lots of instrumentation and beats with the goal of creating a very different aural experience. I purposely didn’t stay true to the source material but instead wanted to go in the quite opposite direction. Enjoy. And check out the Michael Hedges store on Amazon.com for all of his releases.

Download: Point B [Montaz Remix] (mp3)

Exclusive: Upstanding Citizens present Funkadelic Sexy

August 28, 2009 / admin / Comments Off

Unless you’re really in-the-know, it may come as a surprise that Upstanding Citizens is a project of old buddies Rus Deep (Mr. Preverted Groove himself) and Alek Biotic. But even if you were familiar with the duo and their track Cannibal Carnival featured on Rus and David Sambor’s 2003 CD Sounds Under New York, the only way you could have heard the follow up Funkadelic Sexy would have been during a Rus Deep or Alek Biotic live set. But even then you wouldn’t have known it.

Well, here it is now, to set things straight.

Recorded in Alek’s Brooklyn studio in late 2003 and mastered shortly after, the track features the vintage Rus Deep tear-down and re-build, with the classic NYC Progressive House vibe. Once again, original Wav file is included.

Eat it up. Yum, yum.

Download: Funkadelic Sexy (mp3)Download: Funkadelic Sexy (wav)

Tori Amos – Iieee (Montaz remix)

August 21, 2009 / admin / Comments Off

Tori Amos rules. There’s absolutely no need to mess with her work but I decided to do it anyway as an exercise and the result is this remix of her song (a favorite) Iieee, released on her 1998 album From the Choirgirl Hotel. Working with only the original track and wanting to keep her voice present as much as possible I had to apply pretty heavy filtering to drown out the rest of the original track and make room for my own music tracks. A fun challenge.

The remix ended up having a weird IDM/Drum’n’Bass vibe and includes an improv break about 2.5 minutes into it before returning to the chorus.

Around this time (year 2004) I stepped away from the dance productions and experimented with a different sound under the handle Montaz, the Serbian word for “montage”. This remix is the second Montaz effort, preceded by a track called Ego Programme, also featured on this blog.

Enjoy.

Download: Iieee [Montaz Remix] (mp3)

Madness

August 8, 2009 / admin / Comments Off

This track was my submission for a CLR (Chris Liebing’s awesome label) remix competition. Chris had released his Evolution LP around this time (2004) and the challenge was to remix the track American Madness. My remix didn’t make the cut but since its completely different from the original I dropped the first word from the title and it was officially a track of its own.

Aside from it being produced for a specific (though, unmet) purpose, the track’s beat always stood out from the bunch and it was one of the rare tracks that featured the FM7 synth (the legato stab in the breaks). I meant to use this synth more since I really liked the sound, but it never ended up anywhere else.

Once again, the original, mastered .wav file is available for your listening (and mixing!) pleasure.

Its Madness.

Download: Madness (mp3)Download: Madness (wav)

DOPEVECTOR