Eww: It's the Ill Blu Hype Thread

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rtc feel free to direct your best zinging gif at me, I feel I have let you all down. ;(

Mr Andy M, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 21:07 (twelve years ago) link

It's not as good as the mistajam set from last year certainly.

I have some more thoughts on it that I'll try to set down later.

But for now can I just note that "Heisenberg" is majestic even in its unsurprisingly overdriven thuggishness.

Tim F, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 22:56 (twelve years ago) link

yeah i'm a bit meh about 'heisenberg' really, textbook blu that was already bettered on the mistajam set cuts imo. even in that textbook style i prefer 'turnpike'

they are so obv breaking bad fans btw, that just makes perfect sense to me

r|t|c, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:21 (twelve years ago) link

'bassage' is absolutely my shit on this despite the lamentable name

r|t|c, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:22 (twelve years ago) link

I think "Heisenberg" distinguishes itself from the textbook with the trumpet bit at the end.

"Bassage" is immense, yes.

Tim F, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:24 (twelve years ago) link

love their almost kinda campy vincent price-ish halloween horror melodies sometimes

r|t|c, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:24 (twelve years ago) link

(haha i'd written that musing on 'bassage' before i'd come to the great big and somewhat bizarre interlude there on 'alrite wave' just fwiw)

r|t|c, Wednesday, 11 April 2012 23:37 (twelve years ago) link

haven't got round to the mix yet but "clapper" underwhelmed me.

i'd rather hear ill blu remix pop and r&b songs than disappear down whatever rabbithole they're exploring atm.

liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Thursday, 12 April 2012 07:42 (twelve years ago) link

Pretty sure Ill Blu consciously boring up their sound for their Hyperdub releases actually.

That said the stretch from 'Heisenberg' to 'Alrite Wave' is a belter. The last leg of the mix is somewhat... sterner than we're used to from them? It's not really a direction I want them to go in ('PumpA' is the worst of all possible Ill Blus), I like them when they're gleefully dropping bombs all over the place like most of the Mistajam mix from last year.

i'd rather hear ill blu remix pop and r&b songs than disappear down whatever rabbithole they're exploring atm

These seem to have dried up a bit of late? They need to remix more pop-grime tracks as well.

Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Thursday, 12 April 2012 09:25 (twelve years ago) link

i guess it's more like right now they are this sort of amorphous creature of power looking to mould itself into and around something

My guess remains that in a couple of years everyone will be sounding like Ill Blu of varying quality and they'll be getting no credit for it whatsoever.

Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Thursday, 12 April 2012 09:26 (twelve years ago) link

I really love Clapper in that 'Pon the Floor' kind of way.

Josephine, Thursday, 12 April 2012 10:41 (twelve years ago) link

'pumpA' is probably the best rick ross track ever, certainly his finest lyrical achievement

'me x u (plastik cups)' is the one i least appreciate i think, not badly executed or anything but chasing fool's gold all the same

r|t|c, Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:09 (twelve years ago) link

less so than just remixing but i agree it's disappointing there've been no follow-ups to sneakbo's 'the wave', they really cracked it there in a way not many funky producers ever have

bless her little cotton socks for trying (and not that sneakbo is a high quality artist either) but princess nyah doesn't count

r|t|c, Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:15 (twelve years ago) link

http://soundcloud.com/urban-history-x/shystie-bad-gyal-original-dj

gonna put this here cos i'll forget otherwise but the new shystie is very good and very bluish imo (it is produced by p-jam). attn lex

r|t|c, Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:21 (twelve years ago) link

fuck i love 'bassage' so much, can't stop putting it on

i hereby rename it.... 'ZOMBIE GUS'

r|t|c, Thursday, 12 April 2012 11:39 (twelve years ago) link

Is it pronounced 'bass-idge' or like to rhyme with 'massage'. If it's the latter I'm not sure I approve.

Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Thursday, 12 April 2012 12:28 (twelve years ago) link

I can't help but read it as bassaaaage, and I'm sure I don't approve.

Pretty sure Ill Blu consciously boring up their sound for their Hyperdub releases actually.

Yeah. I like "Clapper" but it's pretty self-conscious, like they thought "Okie Dokie It's Ill Blu on Hyperdub".

Tim F, Thursday, 12 April 2012 12:31 (twelve years ago) link

"I like "Clapper" but it's pretty self-conscious"

Why, because its on Hyperdub. We've been here before with DVA Tim lol. Take it you're not a fan of the label then? I'm just happy someone is releasing Ill Blu and Funkystepz right now.

Josephine, Thursday, 12 April 2012 15:41 (twelve years ago) link

found the xlr8r mix rather dull i'm afraid

but that shystie tune is FUCKING INCREDIBLE OMG THIS IS WHAT I WANT FOREVER

liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Thursday, 12 April 2012 15:50 (twelve years ago) link

and yeah "the wave" def strikes me as a fruitful path not taken, sadly

liberté, égalité, beyoncé (lex pretend), Thursday, 12 April 2012 15:52 (twelve years ago) link

Why, because its on Hyperdub.

No, because it's a lot drier than most of their other tunes, and feels deliberately so. Mixing straight into "Dragon Pop" really underscores the point. Ill Blu going dry for a label release once may have been coincidence, but twice?

If they'd released the Meltdown EP on Hyperdub I wouldn't have been able to make the same comment. And Funkystepz's Hyperdub releases have been great (esp. the first). Believe it or not this is not actually about me and my prejudices.

Tim F, Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link

FWIW I feel like Clapper is less of a distance from what I would expect from IB than Dragon Pop was (although listening back to it here Dragon Pop actually sounds better than I remember it being). Anyway listening to the mix another time Legs and Turnpike actually sound the closest to standing out as choons to me, Legs has a nice bounce to it. Still feel overall it's a wee bit average though.

Mr Andy M, Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:56 (twelve years ago) link

Yeah, I like "Clapper" more than "Dragon Pop" (though the latter became better when they re-used it on that Suncycle/Mavado tune).

Tim F, Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:59 (twelve years ago) link

three months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxCw31W_fj4

r|t|c, Saturday, 21 July 2012 18:21 (twelve years ago) link

This is like an amazing "Flaunt It".

Tim F, Saturday, 21 July 2012 22:11 (twelve years ago) link

bloody addictive

r|t|c, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 11:29 (twelve years ago) link

Is no one else jumping on this? So good!

Tim F, Monday, 6 August 2012 12:28 (twelve years ago) link

Mixmag are giving away a track called 'Turnpike':
http://www.mixmag.net/music/mp3-blog/free-mp3-ill-blu

Mercer Finn, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 06:43 (twelve years ago) link

I'm loving that Sneakbo track, that's the kind of Ill Blu production I like, fun, ott, ravey, and full of those electro/dutch house-influenced synths. Ill Blu really should be doing more vocal collaborations. I do like "Turnpike" as well, much more than when I heard it on the XLR8R mix.

Astrochimp32, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 17:51 (twelve years ago) link

I see the appeal of the tracks in the XLR8R mix now, I guess I just don't like so many of those aggro-bassy tracks in one mix without something by Sneakbo, for example, lightening it up with his talk of pagan yats, riding jet skis, and daggering women with african backs.

Astrochimp32, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link

if by that you're suggesting sneakbo provides a counterpoint or contrast to the production then i disagree i think; he is the finer, literal point of what ill blu are already about and they have an really very unusually natural synergy

the appeal of 'zim zimma' is more in the thuggish ill blu/sneakbo mindmeld's unwitting creation of something like a muscle mary anthem

r|t|c, Thursday, 9 August 2012 08:38 (twelve years ago) link

I suspect that where people struggle with recent Ill Blu is that they associate it with other boshy mersh electro-house and etc. (this is not so much of a negative for me but) - if nothing else Sneakbo offers a more attractive frame.

"Zim Zimma" really is so so so good though, that strangely lethargic synth riff like a wrecking ball accidentally knocking over a building is just brilliant.

Tim F, Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:22 (twelve years ago) link

i feel more that people are just looking at it from the wrong and boring way round cos they have the "answer" already

like the story isn't oh the guys who did 'meltdown' make mersh electro-house, it's what is up with this weirdly tuff mersh electro-house that doesnt quite fit anywhere easily

r|t|c, Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:53 (twelve years ago) link

do you fancy the promo of this btw

hypothetically speaking of course

r|t|c, Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:56 (twelve years ago) link

Yes I agree - but I think you need to be at least neutral on the idea of "weirdly tuff mersh electro-house" in the abstract to approach it that way.

Tim F, Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:57 (twelve years ago) link

Um... hypothetically already found it.

Tim F, Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:57 (twelve years ago) link

cos they have the "answer" already

can I say this is particularly OTM

Tim F, Thursday, 9 August 2012 11:00 (twelve years ago) link

bloody addictive
YES

record-collection rave (Mr Andy M), Thursday, 9 August 2012 12:04 (twelve years ago) link

http://soundcloud.com/cahill/cahill-dj-q-play-1-xtra

YASSSS

r|t|c, Thursday, 9 August 2012 15:07 (twelve years ago) link

Woah.

http://images.techtree.com/ttimages/story/81817_overlord_tower_minions_final.JPG

Tim F, Thursday, 9 August 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link

I'm really digging these new IB tracks, and I don't think Sneakbo makes 'Zim Zimma' at all- the production on that one is massive on it's own, as an instrumental it would have fit in with the rest of the Mista Jam set of theirs just fine.

Astrochimp32, Thursday, 9 August 2012 20:13 (twelve years ago) link

two months pass...

Been a bit ambivalent about the lurch towards techno seriousness that Ill Blu seem to have taken on their own stuff most recently (e.g. their new single), so it's nice to discover that "419" on this radio set is a marvelous piece of bubbly vocal house:

http://soundcloud.com/madtechrecords/ill-blu-guest-mix-bbc-radio-1

Tim F, Monday, 15 October 2012 16:49 (twelve years ago) link

one year passes...

so ill blu have signed to island and have reworked a five year old uk funky track for the first single
http://soundcloud.com/illblu/blu-magic-ft-max-marshall

apparently the new stuff is influenced by “the musicality of Artful Dodger and Wookie, the bass weight of Shy FX, the sampler’s ear of people like DJ Premier, the soul of Teedra Moses and the future shock production of legendary US R&B producers like Rodney Jerkins and The Neptunes”

sounds promising...my fave recentish ill blu thing is still this though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQN_2TuK44Y

Benny B, Wednesday, 16 April 2014 18:27 (ten years ago) link

one month passes...

Loving these MixFresh Series DJ mixes - ploughing a really hyper furrow between DJ Q and deep tech, centred around their own current sound, oddly redolent of Tiefschwarz circa 2004:

https://soundcloud.com/illblu/illblumixfreshseries2

Tim F, Monday, 9 June 2014 12:26 (ten years ago) link

ha this is weirdly engrossing

i mean i kinda feel somewhat as if i'm listening more intently here than this really deserves, through the prism of past glories... but then all these relatively familiar tracks of the moment in this context make a convincing case that the world really has swung their particular, sparsely muscular way

like everyone plays shiba san 'okay' now but only ill blu were the ones deading the funky vibe with it in 2011 before it ever existed

and the tiefschwarz type thing finally works now too next to spinnin's tiptoe from edm to house n bass with tchami (whose remix of garrix 'wizard' eye-catchingly features here - everyone else will play every other tchami cut) and oliver heldens (one of the new ill blu productions here is p much a 'gecko' refix)

r|t|c, Monday, 9 June 2014 17:38 (ten years ago) link

https://soundcloud.com/maxmarshallmusic/your-love-is-like-ill-blu-1

well ok maybe a dash overstated but still, theory goes

r|t|c, Monday, 9 June 2014 17:42 (ten years ago) link

tchami (whose remix of garrix 'wizard' eye-catchingly features here

This one is great, yes.

Basically this mix is best when it goes all rifftacular.

Tim F, Monday, 9 June 2014 20:59 (ten years ago) link

new single sounds excellent

http://thump.vice.com/en_uk/words/uk-funky-duo-ill-blu-are-back-and-its-not-uk-funky

;_; at the disavowal of the uk funky scene tho

lex pretend, Friday, 13 June 2014 08:16 (ten years ago) link

Yeah the interviewer was on some bullshit there too.

Tim F, Friday, 13 June 2014 09:10 (ten years ago) link

She seems a bit hung up on UK Funky being "over." It's quite an uninspiring premise for an interview. I'd rather just hear about their new material tbh.

MikoMcha, Friday, 13 June 2014 12:14 (ten years ago) link


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