THE MELTING POT 1/11/11 Featured Artist - HIVES INQUIRY SQUAD

Well be touching base with Hives Inquiry Squad about their show on Friday night and have tickets to multiple events. Tune in 8-10pm(pst) for more of The Best Music youve Never Heard.

Win Tickets to...

Bass Science w/ B. Bravo, The Great Mundayne, Hives Inquiry Squad, Jesta, @Refuge 1.14.11

Xylem w/ Bil Bless, Russ Liquid, Kyrians World & Metazen @The Whiskey Bar 1.15.11

 HIVES INQUIRY SQUAD

Formed in Wisconsin in 2005, Hives Inquiry Squad emerged from a kinship between Gavin Theory and Lucas Dix and their mutual appreciation for funky innovate music and introspective lyricism. The duo progressed quickly by critically challenging each other to perfect and expand themselves as people, as well as hip hop artists. Hives Inquiry Squad began to garner attention with their energetic performances, abstract insight, and unique perspective of their genre. Gavin Theory's gritty electronic infused production, coupled with the pairs lyrical content often dealing with the dichotomy of the natural world in a technological age, has developed them a fanbase extending beyond the traditional hip hop audience.

Recent carpetbaggers to Portland, Hives Inquiry Squad has found a home in the eccentric local music scene, already gaining a diverse following from frequent shows in the area. With the release of Gavin Theory's solo endeavor, Escaping Stasis, due in March, as well as their album Edifice dropping shortly afterwards, Hives Inquiry Squad will undoubtedly continue to impress audiences and stretch the definition of hip hop music.

The Great Mundane- grew up in a southeastern Michigan home where TV was made of cardboard boxes, the tree in the backyard was his best friend and the words “I am bored” were household blasphemy.
Aside from occasional piano lessons, he passed time deep in his own imagination and on
spontaneous road trips, a.k.a his mother’s famous mystery van rides, that seem to have
provoked his current state of restlessness.
Itching to hit the road, The Great Mundane left his hip-hop roots in Michigan to delve into
Chicago’s house/techno scene before arriving in the Pacific Northwest. Now based in
Portland, Oregon he takes listeners on a journey exploring the complexities and
intricacies of his minimalist and innovative approach to beatmaking. He invents fractured,
heady instrumentals laced with lush synthesizer work that navigate the terrain of forward
thinking hip-hop and electro/house, all while exhibiting genuine emotion and talented
production skills. Each arrangement is collaged with friends, found sounds,
synthesizers, and samples meticulously programmed to convey what it might feel like to
fall in love with a tree, travel through a wormhole, or to never be bored again.
His debut LP “When Falls Arrive” (psymbolic) was released in 2007 exposing him as one
of the top underground electronic musicians to keep an ear out for. Since, he has
released “The Wires Remixes” EP (self-released, 2008), a remix of Deru’s “Peanut Butter
and Patience” (Mush, 2009) and his second full length entitled
“Humdrum” (RunRiotRecords, 2010). The Great Mundane’s music is featured on a long
list of compilation albums including Portland’s annual “PDX Pop Now” series. Expect
remixes for SPL, Lorn, KiloWatts & Bluetech as well as his next full length in May 2011 on
1320 Records.

http://twitter.com/thegreatmundane
http://www.myspace.com/thegreatmundane
http://thegreatmundane.bandcamp.com/
www.thegreatmundane.com

SUB SWARA - Sub Swara is a live electronic crew that represents the best in lo-frequency hi-vibration culture. From dubstep, dancehall, and jungle, to breakbeat, midtempo, and glitch hop, all mixed with a global sensibility in a live soundystem, the Sub Swara sound engages and unites across cultural and musical boundaries.

The crew runs one of the most celebrated monthly club night on the first Fridays of every month at New York's Club Love, home of one of the finest club soundsystems in the country. the crew has played such prestigious events and venues as All Points West, The Clandestino Festival, Shambhala Music Festival, Deep Space NY, Dub War, Wembley Stadium, VH1 New Years in Goa, and Club Cargo (UK), and has appeared as a featured act on Maryanne Hobbs acclaimed BBC Radio 1 show and has played with fellow artists like The Glitch Mob, Bassnectar, FreQ Nasty, Ghislain Poirier, The Bug, Stereotyp, Skream, and more.

About Coup d'Yah, the debut album from Sub Swara

Two years in the making, Coup d'Yah unleashes the devastating bass-weighted sound which has become the recognized trademark of the crew's acclaimed NYC club night and performances around the world. The album spans a broad spectrum, from the dub-wise depths to dancefloor crushing bangers.

SS has carved a unique global footprint, leading with heavy ragga inflection, thick beats, wide basslines, and live organic instrumentation ranging from the drums and wind instruments of India to the marching horns of New Orleans. The album also showcases the signature vocal talents of Zulu (Ghislain Poirier, Kush Arora, DJ C), MC Coppa (Al Haca, Stereotyp), Napoleon Solo (Goonda, Ming & FS), and Sub Swara's own rising star Juakali (Pinch, Badawi, D1 and more). more info @WWW.Subswara.com

ESKMO-Brendan Angelides is a San Francisco based electronic music producer who records and performs live as Eskmo. His multi-genre compositions have been featured on influential labels like Warp Records and Planet Mu (most recently having been signed to the mighty Ninja Tune). While Angelides’ tracks encompass a wide range of electronic styles, he avoids classifications. Bleep.com described his tracks as “Masterfully produced… sophisticated, post-Dilla hip-hop funk“. His last single of 2009 entitled “Let Them Sing” on Mu was met with equal praise and described by sites like Boomkat as “[Putting] Eskmo on his own electronic plateau.”

In the past five years he’s released over a dozen singles and EPs while touring throughout North America and Europe. He’s also remixed works by diverse artists such as Bibio, Spor, STS9, Bear In Heaven and Bar9, to name a few. Angelides also runs the Ancestor label, which issued his “Hypercolor” and “Angus Dei” singles in 2009 to positive reviews from numerous magazines, blogs and tastemakers. Ninja Tune recording artist and film composer Amon Tobin hailed his work as “some of the best production I’ve heard in recent times.”

Angelides’ performance moniker was inspired by San Francisco experimental music icons The Residents’ 1979 album “Eskimo”. Drawn to the album’s character-based stories and shamanistic themes, he dropped the title’s middle “I” and launched his Eskmo project in 1999 in his home state Connecticut. Prior to that, in the mid-90s, he was introduced to renegade funk combo Primus and UK breakbeat techno wizards The Prodigy. The music virus soon took hold. He learned to play bass and formed bands while absorbing ‘90s electronic music from Aphex Twin, Frankie Bones, 187, Dieselboy, The Chemical Brothers and Moby among others.

Angelides initially made music to share with friends using a primitive Miracle instructional keyboard, a four-track recorder and a bass guitar. He used a Roland keyboard to record his first formal work, a CD titled “Machines on Task“, for a school graduation project. After high school, between 1999 and 2005, he wrote two full-length albums that he gave away at small shows. During this time he spent two years working on music in a secluded lakeside house in Connecticut. It was there that he also wrote gentler, melodic material released later under his other production alias, Welder.

Delving into conspiracy theories and moved by the 9/11 attacks, his music took a darker turn. However, by 2005 he grew tired of his remote outpost and emerged to explore new environments and sounds. “The [conspiracies] were separating me from people,” he says of that period. “I wanted [people] to be motivated to come together and make change, but it had the opposite effect. I realized that music could be a tool to bring people together.”

Following a month-long backpacking trip to the UK where he heard emerging electronic sounds at London club Fabric, he began composing and releasing breakbeat tracks on labels like Vertical Sound, Downbeat and Cyberfunk. During this period he began working with other styles, developing his genre-less approach, music that DJ Mag described as “twisted, funky…quite magnificent.”

In early 2006 he was invited to play in San Francisco. He fell in love with the area’s culture, art, music and landscape and relocated to the city soon after. He was immediately embraced by SF’s frenetic electronic producer and label community.

One track that caught on big in 2009 was the self-released “Hypercolor”. “I wanted to write a tune at 140 bpm,” he says of the beaming, colorful song. “I made [the beat] a triplet pattern and added some Tom Waits-y sounds to it. I wanted it to be a really big sounding track without it being an aggro tune.” The track was featured on the Mary Anne Hobbs‘ BBC Radio1 show and was presented by Bleep as one of the top 100 tracks of 2009 in their catalog.

Soon after his remix of Warp’s Bibio was featured in Pitchfork, he was asked by Flying Lotus to perform at the Brainfeeder Sessions in LA alongside Nosaj Thing. Angelides has since joined forces with Amon Tobin in a collaborative music project called “Eskamon” that highlights their love of field recoding and unique take on sound manipulation. His first single on Warp entitled “Lands and Bones” featuring Swan is set for an early 2010 release on a split single with good friend EPROM.

Although club and radio DJs readily spin his music, Angelides always performs his Eskmo and Welder work live. His innovative, emotive on-stage performances utilize Ableton Live software with various MIDI controllers to manipulate keyboard work, effects, warping and cueing.

Eskmo’s music is stimulating without being overbearing. His tracks offer a vibrant rush of sound and quiet nuances often in the same track. XLR8R describes his work as “science-fiction like..spine tingling stuff.” It’s music that is both exciting and transformative. “I want to bring that out for people, and whatever that might activate for them. If someone is in a transitional phase, going through life difficulties or in a raw space, I want to direct [that energy] to a [more] productive space.”