EP Review: Steve Starks - Git Em

Some album covers prove the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words." The cover art of the Git Em EP by DC DJ/producer extraordinaire Steve Starks is one such picture. Evocative of the blood-soaked cover of Andrew WK's I Get Wet, the photo says more than any review ever could, but I'll give it a try anyway.

Steve Starks - Git Em EP by T and A Records

Released today on T&A Records, Git Em is Steve Starks' second effort for the label, following the TRO/Lydia EP with collaborator Nacey. It contains a couple originals and a host of remixes by like-minded knob twisters. We've written at length about the title track, but it bears repeating: this is a brutal track. Building from a nearly minimal beat into crashing waves of snares and bass, "Git Em" is a mutated ghettotech assault.

The remixes of "Git Em" provide new flavors while keeping the core of the original. Portuguese duo Zombies for Money give it a twisted tribal feel, as if the track came from the darkest depths of a tropical jungle. Dillon Francis adds a four on the floor electro beat, while Munchi dabbles in kuduro. Each remix is a strong tribute to the evolving sounds of EDM.

Starks' "Witness" is a similar audio attack, flipping Eddie Amador's "Rise" into a late night tech house banger. The airy synths and preacher vocals of the bridge give you a chance to catch your breath, but the track is soon back to obliterate your remaining senses. T&A label head DJ Ayres amps up the house influences on his spaced out remix of the track.

Steve Starks - and the rest of the Nouveau Riche crew - continues to push the DC music scene forward. On the Git Em EP, he provides another couple of anthems for the subterranean bassheads that reside at U Hall, while sharing the spotlight with similarly-minded producers on the rise.
Four out of five stars. Buy it today on Turntable Lab, Juno or Beatport.

TGRIOnline x DJ Melo present... Culipandeo: Volumen Tres

Sadly, the Summer of Moombahton is coming to an end. Labor Day is just around the corner, the weather is almost bearable, and the kiddies are heading back to school. Luckily, there is still time to enjoy your favorite twisted tropical tunes. Continuing the TGRI-exclusive series of moombahton mixes is Culipandeo Volumen Tres, brought to you by Phoenix's DJ Melo.



DJ Melo, with a background of spinning reggaeton, house and Latin music, has the perfect pedigree for moombahton. Melo's moombahton edits have been showing up all over the place and for good reason. His mix features tracks by friends-of-the-site Munchi, David Heartbreak, and Cam Jus (including Cam's brand new joint "Even the Gringos"). Melo seamlessly mixes moombahton with more traditional reggaeton into a non-stop party mix for fans of either style.

The Summer of Moombahton may be ending, but the genre keeps moving forward thanks to innovative musicians like DJ Melo. Don't sleep on this mix.

Tracklist after the jump.

Tracklist for Culipandeo Volumen Tres:

1. Dactyl Dactyl - Enter The Ninja
2. Herve - Dibby DJ (Doc Adam)
3. Jadiel - Fashion Girl (DJ Santarosa)
4. Contents Hot - Boombahton
5. DJ Mingo - El Kulikitra
6. Gtronic - Sucker Punch (Prince Klassen Nihonmahton Edit)
7. DJ Naldo - Playero 2010
8. Munchi - Metele Bellaco
9. Jon Kwest - Nice Dreams
10. Kissed With A Noise ft Young Buck - Get Bucked (Skeet Skeet's Moombuckton Remix)
11. DJ Manik - Noise (Geo Geo)
12. Cam Jus - Even The Gringos
13. Ying Yang Twins - Saltshaker (David Heartbreak)
14. Hatiras - The New Jam (DJ Melo)
15. Pickster & Melo - Mas Poderoso (DJ Tranzo Remix)
16. DJ Santarosa - Choloton Ride With Us
17. Jon Kwest vs Don Omar - Get Loose Salio El Sol (Melo Blend)
18. Speedy - Sientelo (DJ Melo)
19. Kid Kaio - Hey (David Heartbreak)
20. Munchi - Pepe Volvio
21. Munchi - Fizzdom
22. SLVRSNKS - And Rock (Tripett)
23. Taio Cruz - Dynamite (Groovematic)
24. DJ Apt One vs Samir - Samir's Island
25. Marcus Rice & Carli - Bira Weed Sax (Heartbreak & Melo)
26. Pickster & Melo - Mas Poderoso (Jon Kwest Remix)

Future Grooves: Kavsrave

All across the UK, groundbreaking DJs and producers are moving dance music forward. And while dubstep and UK funky in London and Bristol get most of the headlines, the sounds of Glasgow are not far behind. Home to artists like Hudson Mohawke and Rustie, Glasgow is the nexus of a style called wonky or aquacrunk. Numbers, a long-running Glasgow dance party, recently became a record label, merging imprints Wireblock, Dress 2 Sweat and Stuff Records.

Numbers signee Kavsrave may not be from Glasgow (he's from Croydon, like Skream), but his sound certainly owes much to the Scottish scene. Kavsrave (aka Jamie Kavanagh) grew up making music and throwing parties with contemporaries Julio Bashmore and A1 Bassline. His debut "Quotes EP" showcases an exciting new sound, with the downtempo grooves of R&B, the midrange synths of wonky, and the wobbly bass of dubstep. Think a smoother Joker.

"PClart" is the Kavsrave track that you may have heard; the Luvstep guys played it at the Mad Decent Block Party. "PClart" weaves hypnotic female vocal samples with morphing synths and a stuttering (but danceable) beat. "Tightly Closed" and "Baggage Handler" follow the same formula, to great success.

For a taste of Kavsrave sound, check out the podcast he did for Numbers to mark the release of his EP. Blasting off with the classic bass groove of Ginuwine's "Pony," Kavsrave mixes his originals with hip-hop (Lil Wayne and Ludacris) and contemporary sounds (Hudson Mohawke and Terror Danjah).

Download Kavsrave - Quotes Mix

Kavsrave also received the ultimate UK co-sign, spinning on Mary Anne Hobbs' experimental radio show. The mix is brief, but at this point, any material from Kavsrave is welcome.

Munchi steps up his kuduro game

Kuduro is to Angola what baile funk is to Brazil: energetic dance music born in the melting pot of local and international influences. Sidestepping a discussion of the pros and cons of globalization, it's fair to say that these amalgamated styles are benefits of cultural exchanges. Kuduro, thanks to the influence of Portuguese musicians, is blessed with both African and Latin rhythms, along with the distinct sounds of mainstream EDM. The genre had an underground hit in 2008 when MIA teamed up with leading purveyors Buraka Som Sistema.

In the spirit of global musical exchange, Munchi, the moombahton king of the Netherlands, is trying his hand at kuduro with his Kuduro Promo.

Download Munchi - Kuduro Promo

Munchi continues to select the perfect tracks for his genre-bending endeavours. His take on "Milkshake" samples bits and pieces of the Kelis hit into something entirely new, and in what he calls a Kuduro-more bootleg remix, Munchi corrupts the French electro of Sebastian's "H.A.L." into a bass-thumping, gun-cocking adventure.



Munchi originals "Minigame 2000" and "Ta Maluco" are stripped down and raw: squealing chiptune melodies, non-stop beats and Angolan chants. The same can be said of the two bonus tracks, leftovers from an earlier version of the EP. However, the highlight of the promo is his remix of Steve Starks' "Git Em." While the original is a Miami-meets-Baltimore percussion grenade, Munchi's version is more of a laser-tag battle. But like the original, it does just what the title says.



Throughout history, musical genres have been created by forces much larger than the musicians themselves, be it slavery, imperialism or globalization. Adding the Internet into the mix accelerates the process without the oppression, letting a kid from Rotterdam make a name for himself with sounds that originated a world away.

The Verge: Sky Ferreira

Meet LA's dirty little secret, singer-songwriter Sky Ferreira. On her resume? Her singing made Michael Jackson tear up, she's worked with Linda Perry and Dallas Austin, and she corresponds with ch-ch-ch-cherrybomb / ex-Runaway Cherie Currie. Oh, and she turned 18 last month.

The Los Angeles lolita has been making Internet waves for a few years now, and it looks like she's finally catching up with the hype. Her grandmother was a hair dresser for the King of Pop, who encouraged her to develop her voice; she sang gospel and opera from an early age. At 15, she reached out to the producers behind Miike Snow (and Britney Spears' "Toxic"), Swedish duo Bloodshy & Avant. With no money but a promise of being "better than Britney," the producers agreed to work with her. One of their first collaborations is her single "One," a slice of futurist, robotic pop. (The song was given the luvstep treatment by BAR9.)

Her closest comparison is to Lily Allen, as she precociously mixes innocent pop melodies with dark and dirty lyrics. Unlike her frenemy Katy Perry, though, this isn't focus-group tested, "good girl gone bad" bullshit. There is an honesty and maturity absent from most of her stateside peers, with a better sense of pop and celebrity than UK counterparts like Ellie Goulding and Marina and the Diamonds.

Speaking of Marina, Ferreira's "17" hits the mark better than Ms. Diamandis' "Seventeen;" the video does Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" better and more realistically, as well. The chorus is very glam, and the verses reveal her lyrical talent, painting an accurate picture of teen girls living beyond their years: "We don't know what to do with her / shes from a different world / and its apparent now this girl is hiding / something in the way she gives a confident excuse."

While she was born in 1992 (!), she has a reverence for musical icons of the past. She names David Bowie, the Runaways, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot among her influences, and her cover of "Happiness is a Warm Gun" is superb (especially when mixed with "Still DRE" by Skeet Skeet).

For American pop stars, it seems as if the dialectic is between Ke$has and non-Ke$has, Gagas and non-Gagas. Sky Ferreira is proof that you can do both.

Mixtape Monday: Mad Decent Monday Edition

If record labels were elementary school students, Mad Decent would have the most interesting "what I did on my summer vacation" presentation. Between quadrupling their annual Block Party and releasing mixtapes weekly, Diplo and family are doing big things before they pack it up and move to Los Angeles. Here are two recent mixtapes from up-and-coming talents on the label.


Like MIA and Santigold before her, Maluca's Mad Decent mixtape serves as her entree onto the underground scene. While those two found Wes Gully behind the boards, Maluca's China Food is expertly mixed by Paul "The Other Pauly D" Devro with a "past, present and future" theme in mind.

China Food fills the void left after we heard the fiery merengue of last year's "Tigeraso" but not much else from the Dominican chanteuse. Between samples of "Fire" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" are house-inflected tropical tunes like "Jungle Violento" and "Loca." Devro curates one helluva tape, letting Maluca flex her Kelis muscles on the moody "Hector" and "Flourescent Beige." Definitely cop this one, for the low, low price of your email address.


Along with moombahton, this summer has been defined by the resurgence of noise pop, especially the sun-soaked and weed smoke variety. Bands like Wavves, Best Coast, and Surfer Blood have led the way with fuzzed-out pop songs that hint at nostalgia and beach vibes. Po Po (brothers Zeb and Shoaib) mine similar territory for Mad Decent.

This summer mixtape, originally recorded for their tour with Sleigh Bells, showcases the experimental garage rock the duo is known for. While most of the tape is noisier and less complete than first single "Bummer Summer," it's still a good placeholder until their fall debut drops.

Future Grooves: Rob Threezy

This column practically writes itself every time the Trouble and Bass residency stops at the U Street Music Hall. Be it B. Rich or Deathface, the preeminent label for bass freaks consistently brings top talent to town. Tonight is no different, as Chicagoans Willy Joy and Rob Threezy and LA's Samo Sound Boy join the T&B crew at 1115 U Street.

You might already be familiar with Willy Joy, rising selector and Kid Sister tour DJ, but what about Rob Threezy?


Threezy, government name Roberto Herrera and formerly known as DJ Rob3 (get it?), is a member of Chicago's Ghetto Division crew. He burst onto the EDM scene with his contribution to The Brick Bandits EP, "The Chase." The Chicago club anthem mixed Bmore beats, rave synths and enough "Woo! Yeah!" samples to raise James Brown from the dead.

He followed up "The Chase" with releases on Fool's Gold, Nightshifters, and T&A, including the uplifting jam "Love to the World" on the Ghetto Pass EP. With a classic soul sample, Baltimore breaks, and Chicago house feel, Threezy weaves three dance styles into a real crowd pleaser.



These days, Threezy's sound is being influenced by the preponderance of ominous dubstep in the scene. Still, his Let's Go Ravers EP for T&A has plenty of his distinct Chicago-meets-Baltimore club feel. The title track is a hand clap and siren filled banger, while "Round House" has a minimal feel reminiscent of Nadastrom's "Ghetto."

On the recently released Heavy Bass Champions of the World, Volume 10, Threezy and Joy go dutch on three tracks. The first, "Run Up," features a melodic breakdown and squealing synths that beg for the Moombahton treatment. Plus, the two manned the tables for the latest T&B smashcast.

Rob Threezy proves that Chicago house and Baltimore club, like peanut butter and chocolate, are just better together. Don't miss him tonight at U Hall.