We live in an age of finger drumming virtuosos, where drum pads are instruments. And so, while much of production is anything but real-time, here it makes perfect sense for three tracks to have accompanying live videos. The songs are each performances, something to be seen as well as heard.
Peppered with samples from Bollywood, the EP Sacred Sounds is due out December 23 from Detroit-based producer/rapper JUST Muziq aka Lion. The artist says it’s a “controllerism-inspired” EP release, with music videos for each track showing off the connection of fingers to composition.
Lion’s work is notable here, too, in that it uses some less obvious tools. While people eagerly point to something like Bitwig Studio, which looks promising but isn’t even publicly in beta yet, here the less-known Zynewave Podium performs all kinds of nice production tricks for US$50 – and it’s available now on Windows. Podium’s object-based, performance-friendly environment seems to work just fine for Lion. For sampling, he turns to the amazingly-deep, now completely-free Shortcircuit. So, let’s run up the costs here: one Windows PC, one Akai MPD24 controller (under $200 these days), one $50 host, one free sampler. Not too shabby.
More on Podium:
Podium is a modern production host that integrates audio recording, VST plugins and external MIDI and audio gear. An object based project structure allows for advanced media and device management.
Feature highlights: Hierarchic track layout, integrated sound editor, surround sound, spline curve automation, 64-bit mixing, multiprocessing and a stylish and customizable user interface.
But back to the music – proving that ultimately those tools can disappear:
“Different Game”:
“Ways Like Fire”
“INM (Incidental Nod Music)”
(Embedding not working for me at the moment, so head to the video directly.)
Nice stuff. Find more:
http://www.justmuziq.com
And yet again, put your hands up for Detroit.