Skrux – If You (Original Mix) [Bonus: Free Download Pack]

When considering the music industry, it’s kind of funny how fame and fortune can come to people so quickly. In my opinion, this is generally an unfortunate circumstance for the parties involved. Setting aside any obvious clichéd premonitions about the folks we watch or read about in Hollywood, becoming famous for one’s own “artistic endeavors” will eventually (IN MANY CIRCUMSTANCES) modulate a particular fashion of complacency within the individual who’s experiencing fame’s fallouts.

Call it “selling out,” call it what you want. I don’t care really. It blows anyway you label it.

From the day I acquired my first compact disc, until the day I die, I will forever be haunted with the wasted potentials of musicians I had once loved. This inevitable senescence in the quality of a musician’s work is ironic really. The very same craft that launched them into the limelight can duplicitously be the cause of their own demise.

Well, maybe its not exactly “self-inflicted,” as I imagine the big-wig record labels are quite capable of applying plenty of pressure upon an emerging artist and their musical methods. I would also guess that said talents are not nearly well enough equipped to consider the entire spectrum of outlets available to display the fruits of their labors. Considering the accessibility of information these days via the internet, I would hope more new artists are pursuing the right options for themselves.

However, this is the artist’s own work we are discussing here. If someone does something that well, they should have no problem finding a place where they can accomplish their own vision, while simultaneously maintaining complete artistic control and possibly even making a little bit of cash in the process.

…and that is exactly where this next Arlington, Texas-based 19 year-old comes in. Well, maybe not the cash part. I have no idea what he makes. Either way, he needs to give some of it to me…just kidding, or am I?

You’ll never know.

(Unless you’re here right now. Silently leering at me from your hidden refuge as I type out this very sentence )

 

REVEAL YOURSELF TRESPASSER!

 

Okay, I think they’re gone now. Anywho…

 

Kaylan C. Brown, who goes by the moniker Skrux, has been making waves for the past couple years doing what he does best, producing electronic dance music. However, what interests me so much about young Kaylan is that he knowingly decides to garner attention in a place very few musicians decide to look after achieving a particular level of success in the music industry.

Where you ask? Well, it’s actually in the most obvious place – his fanbase.

Skrux does NOT even want a label to release his music. He has absolutely no problem releasing absolutely any and every solo project he’s created for free download on his various social media outlets. It’s easy to be a fan when the man in pumping out some of the highest quality, most innovative EDM jams I have heard in the last couple of years. Not only does Skrux leave his fans satiated with these past few examples, but he actively reaches out to the people that love him for only one thing, his music. Using several different platforms, Kaylan is always posting questions directed towards those who love his tunes (and he actually answers in a rather timely fashion).

He wants real feedback from the real individuals who have given him his success.

With no signs of stopping anytime soon, Skrux is shaking up the EDM game and setting an unprecedented example in the meantime. High quality work only comes from vast amounts of hard work, sweat and tears. It most certainly does not come from already being a success to begin with.

Thank you Skrux.

I urge you to check out Mr. Brown’s most recent composition below, an original jam titled “If You.”

If you like this one don’t fret, below I’ve also included an entirely free collection of my favorite tracks from Skrux.

You can download them HERE.

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Follow Skrux:

SoundCloud | https://soundcloud.com/skrux

Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/skruxmusic

Twitter | https://twitter.com/Skrux

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BONUS – FREE DOWNLOAD PACK: Skrux’s Greatest Jams Vol. 1

Two More EDM Songs (Minus The ‘D’) [Free Download]

If the title left you scratching your beautiful little head, we’re sorry.

 

 

Please let me explain.

After stumbling upon both of these tracks in the very same day, I thought it proper to share them with you. The particular quality or motif that both of these songs share is a very simple concept to understand, however its role may be vitally important to the music industry as a whole. As stated in the title, both of these jams are EDM (Electronic Dance Music) without the ‘D’ or, more simply, Electronic Music.

Yeah, I get it. “EM,” as it shall be called, is most assuredly not a new concept in popular music. Hipsters have been doing it since they started making corduroy pants and fixed gear velocipedes (quintessentially indie way of saying “bicycles”)…and that’s a long time.

Trust me.

However, both of these tracks by artists AFK and Matchbox Orchestra incorporate particular qualities of Electronic Music that are more closely related to those heard in Electronic Dance Music. More often these days we are beginning to witness these electronic sounds pop up in any and every other genre of already established popular music. Instead of boring you with the details of what I mean exactly, I figured it might be more fun if you just listened. Try and tease out these concepts yourself. See if you can understand exactly what we are talking about.

Both “I forget” by Matchbox Orchestra featuring CubeKin and AFK’s remix of “Bride Side” by Protohype and Ras feature a more minimalistic “electronic” approach than most EDM productions. I say this because both artists are EDM producers by trade.

If anything, the two songs sound more like regular old rock jams than anything. In my opinion, this method serves to make the individual breakdowns all the more dulcet and indicative of the emotion the vocalist is trying to convey in their lyrics. Instead of being stagnantly satiated with overwhelming electronic arrangements, they are saved for a time when the song truly NEEDS it.

Good luck getting either of these tunes out of your heads.

1. Protohype – Bright Side ft. Ras (AFK Remix ft. DKS)

2. Matchbox Orchestra – I Forget ft. CubeKin

Monstercat 017 – Ascension Ascends the Label Even Further

Over the past two years, I have watched this next label transform from the likes of a promising, transgenre EDM collective (with loads of potential) into the fierce jungle feline you see before you today.

Monstercat is most certainly where it’s at when discussing labels that have set the tone for the next few years of electronic dance music releases.

How, you ask?

Well, that next part is a bit tricky.

To begin, this Vancouver-based music label has elucidated talents from some of the most unheard of, eclectic groups of musicians in all of dance music. Not only have they championed said undiscovered artists onto the scene, but these new talents have proceeded to swell their fair share of waves in this vastly expanding ocean we affectionately refer to as the “EDM-o-sphere.” A quick glance at the “current roster” on the official Monstercat web page will reveal a staggering number of widely popular producers you may not have necessarily associated with MCat.

7 Minutes Dead, Astronaut, Au5, Braken, Case & Point, Direct, DotEXE, Dzeko & Torres, Droptek, Falcon Funk, Favright, Fractal, Haywyre, Hellburg, Insan3lik3, Krewella, Lets Be Friends, Mr Fijiwiji, Noisestorm, PIXL, Pegboard Nerds, Project 46, Rameses B, Razihel, Rogue, Soulero, Splitbreed, Stephen Walking, Throttle, Tristam, Tut Tut Child, Varien and Vicetone.

(Just to name a few of my favorites.)

However, words will only get me so far. You need to HEAR what I mean.

Without hesitation, the fat cats over at MC have released their 17th compilation LP to date. So far, “Monstercat 017 – Ascension” has garnered attention from every corner of the EDM world, making this their most supported album to date! With a four-hour laundry list of tracks, fantastic production quality throughout, and loads of prodigal EDM producers on top of it all, Monstercat presents to you a release that will only serve to exacerbate their stranglehold on the EDM industry.

Keep it up boys and girls.

Who The Hell Is JVMES? [Artist Spotlight]

Music has a funny way of growing on you; It’s an unspoken and innate process defining the thin line between what sounds good and what doesn’t.

Over the past eighteen days, this next release by JVMES or James or JAMESSSSS (I have no idea, the dude spells it differently EVERYWHERE) has been slowly creeping up on me. Unfortunately for this brand new, LA-based producer, his meager following of only three-hundred and eighty-nine SoundCloud followers simply does not carry the proper weight needed to stir the proverbial pot, in hopes of creating waves in the Electronic Dance Music scene.

Furthermore, 389? Are you f*@#ing kidding me??? This dude has got way too much talent for that.

Let’s help a brotha out.

https://soundcloud.com/jvmesmusic

However, this is where we are supposed to come in. 

“Koi Pond” by JVMES is a work of art. Anytime the song falls upon fresh ears (my friends), they enthusiastically inquire as to who the track was by and where they could find it on SC. I assume they are interested in listening to it again. Or probably so they can introduce it to others and claim that they “discovered” the artist themselves.

Posers.

I digress.

Anywho, with no real information on any of his various social media accounts beside two hilariously vague quotes, I don’t really have a lot to go on here. Well, besides the fact that “Koi Pond” sounds the way an orgasm feels.

Yeah, it’s that good.

As for genre, I don’t know…how does “Downtempo Existential Future Ratchet Melodic Bass Chillout” sound?

Good. Who even cares anymore?

Artist Spotlight | KASBO [Future Beauty]

Coming from one of the biggest dubstep (and overall heavy, bass driven music) fanatics – it was rather difficult to make the transition to a more downtempo, hip-hop influenced type of production method. With friends who just wouldn’t stop playing artists like Flume, Cashmere Cat and 123mrk – I was prepped to groove straight into a style of music that I was previously too closed-minded to ever give a chance.

Today, a smattering of electronic dance music producers possess their own unique approach when it comes to creating a downtempo, hip-hop or trap-influenced track. And, based on their own individual idiosyncratic takes on the genre, the method will garner a name. Productions such as these and the ones that follow from this next producer, Kasbo, have been labeled as: Future Bass, Garage, Love-Trap, 2-step, Chill-Trap, Chillout, Crunkwave, Flume-Step (ironically), Midtempo, Trap-Step, Moombahtrap, Future Garage, Deep House, Future, Ambient, IDM and way too many others.

For the sake of my own sanity, I will usually refer to it as Future Bass…unless I’m trying to keep ya’ on your toes. Stagnation can be so, well boring really.

If you don’t like it, sue me (please don’t, I have no money).

Kasbo, an 18 year-old EDM producer based out of Gothenburg, Sweden (go figure), has certainly caught the attention of the bold, beautiful, bulbed-brethren here at FTWubz HQ (I’m so modest). Filling out the frequencies with heavily melodic and lush productions, this young up-and-comer looks to have a bright future in this game we call the EDM industry.

I am sure you’ll agree after listening to the four elegantly composed pieces below.

LINKZ:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kasbo/219160718225442

https://twitter.com/Kasbomusic

https://www.youtube.com/user/KasboOfficial