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Showing posts from March, 2014

About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

M-Phazes AKA Camden Arc 'I Don't Wanna Fall In Love'

REVIEW:  The New Beatmaker favourite M-Phazes excels yet again on this fantastic reworking of Jane Child's 1990 classic The M-Phazes catalogue includes work with Eminem, Jean Grae and Sean Price.  'I Don't Wanna Fall In Love' is the debut release from M-Phazes' new side project Camden Arc.  Camden Arc sees the producer experiment with new techniques and draw on inspiration from RnB titans including Jam & Lewis, Teddy Riley, DeVante Swing and Timbaland.  As one would expect given the influences, 'I Don't Wanna Fall In Love' successfully mixes the minimal with the epic and has a perfect balance of 'thump' and gloss.  Delicious.    Follow M-Phazes on Soundcloud for more and beatmakers, be sure to cop M-Phazes 'The Vault' and 'Dirty 30' drum kits .

Soundcloud Sessions 1

PODCAST:  An eclectic playlist of beats, hip hop, jazz and more! I have always wanted to bring readers a selection of my favourite tracks on a regular basis and, excited by several superb podcasts I have been enjoying recently, I decided now was the time to start a regular series of sessions celebrating some of the hottest artists out.   A particular focus is paid to artists who I consider to be friends of The New Beatmaker.  For a quick breakdown of each of the tracks read on.  Upright: 'Bear Fruit' Upright won the BeatTips battle Feb 2012 with this absolute heater of an instrumental and it’s easy to hear why.  That bass. Those drums.  That trademark Upright break in the middle.  The Californian was featured in our best tracks of 2012 for ‘V A S T’; and was one of our nine beatmakers to watch in 2013 and deservedly so.  Check out an indepth interview with Upright in light of his BeatTips battle victory with BeatTips here.     T-Funk, DistantStarr: 'Groove

Navi Retlav 'Dirty Transistor Bass'

NEWS:  Navi Retlav Studio release TB-303 synth sample pack with 100MB of free WAV samples New from Navi Retlav Studio : 'Dirty Transistor Bass', a collection of 280 loops and 150 one-shot WAV samples created using the iconic TB-303 synth, the backbone of many an acid house classic.  Download 100MB of samples from the pack free and buy the full sample pack here . From Navi himself: 'The Roland TB-303 was highly popular in the early 90’s and used on countless records up to this day.  This great synthesizer is responsible for the creation of acid house music genre and many great hip-hop and pop hits.  It slowly started to fade into deep underground, but now it is back.  Thanks to the Navi Retlav Studio, you can stand out with this iconic sound in your own music productions...the samples are ready to use in any software or hardware sampler, which turns them into fully playable instruments that can be used not only as bass sounds, but also as the higher pitched gri

LowTone Society 'Paralyzed'

NEWS:  The New Beatmaker favourite Frankie Leroux documents his Senior Recital at the world famous Berklee College of Music Part two  of a seven video series from The New Beatmaker favourite   Frankie Leroux  documenting his Senior Recital at the world famous  Berklee College of Music . Here, Frankie's joined by his  LowTone society  bandmates for an outing of one of my favourite tracks from the group - and one of my favourite songs in years - the beautiful   'Paralyzed' . Frankie is a Graduate of the world famous College whose alumni include Quincy Jones, Aimee Mann and Roy Hargrove, amongst others.  In addition he is a drummer, manager, producer and videographer. LowTone society combine jazz, reggae, funk, hip hop and more with class and virtuosity and I fell in love with their music as soon as I heard them.  They are one of my favourite new acts in years.  I honestly can't say enough good things about them.  Check them out here .        The band lin

Time Travelling Toaster 'Sinus Roris'

REVIEW:  Check out my guest post on Time Travelling Toater's genre-blending project on  B-Boy Tech Report Regular readers will know that I love  Time Travelling Toaster's  brand of genre-blending, star-trecking, head-nodding music.  So imagine my delight at being given the chance to hear his newest project weeks in advance AND write about it for  bboytechreport.com . Without giving too much away, the album is superb.  There, I have said to much already.  Without further ado, head over to BBoy Tech Report and reads the exclusive review and let me know what you think of both the preview and my guest post.

Jay Bishop 'Late Pass Mix #3'

PODCAST:  Delivering banger after soulful banger  The New Beatmaker favourite  Jay Bishop  has a talent for mixing future beats, neo soul, jazz, RnB, and underground and instrumental hip hop. I messed up and didn't get a chance to post episode 2 (which you can catch  here ), so I thought that I'd better come correct and not mess about when it came to posting this latest edition in what has fast become a must-listen-to series. Every cut on here is a banger, with acts as diverse as Elaquent, Amel Larrieux (pictured), Black Milk and Ryan Leslie getting some play. Late Pass #3 by Late Pass With Jay Bishop on Mixcloud Props as ever Jay, I can't wait for the next installment.  Check out the show, then head over to Jay's Bandcamp and website for more. For all posts on Jay Bishop click here . For all podcasts click here .

Point Blank Guide to Arrangement and Structure

HOW TO:  Ski Oakenfull applies techniques from three popular tracks to help students structure their music One of the most difficult things for the new musician / beatmaker to master is the arrangement or structure of a track. This episode of Point Blank Music School's Electronic Music Course series sees tutor Ski Oakenfull use three popular tracks (including a The New Beatmaker all-time favourite ) to demonstrate how songs are often structured.  He then shares his edits of several Point Blank student's work and shows how applying the techniques employed in the three well-known examples gives the student's tracks more structure and 'oomph'. Whilst the examples used are all from the dancier end of the music spectrum, these techniques can be applied on any contemporary popular music. Whatever style of music you create, check out this video, apply the techniques discussed, do a before-and-after comparison of your track, and let me know what you think. Poin

Introducing Pensado Awards

NEWS:  Pensados Place announces annual award for amateur and professional producers, engineers, songwriters, tech and audio enthusiasts Regular readers will know that I love me some  Pensado's Place  so I am very much looking forward to the inaugural Pensado's Place Awards.  From Herb: 'From day one, Pensado's Place has been about you.  Now, the first annual Pensado Awards will be by you. You are the producers, engineers, songwriters, tech and audio enthusiasts who give the world a voice. We know first-hand the work, dedication, commitment and sacrifice that your work requires and we want to recognize your outstanding achievements. Your valued contributions will help make the Pensado Awards a reality.  It will be a celebration of amateurs and pros all over globe, whose work enriches our lives and brings sound and art together.  We will do the show Pensado style -- high standards plus high jinks.  We feel honored by you every day.  We thank you