Electronics Beats – SLICES new DVD issue which features electronic artists such as  Theo Parrish, Wolfgang Voigt, Solar Bears, Sun Glitters, Bodi Bill, and Jacob Korn, speaking of what makes them tick. Parrish talks about his views on music, technology, its evolution – whether for better or worst. Enlightening commentary as the viewer watches his Parrish‘s process in buying vinyl.

A few weeks ago we shared a track from Neneh Cherry‘s new project with jazz ensemble The Thing called, The Cherry Thing, with the cover of Suicide‘s “Dream, Baby Dream.” Now with the unleashing of their second single, a cover of Madlib and MF Doom‘s “Accordion,” is quite incredible. You hear extremely subtle elements of the original but The Thing‘s use of brass instruments turns this track into the blues. The video, directed by Ted Says, states that his treatment was, “to create an atmosphere that would sit well with the unpredictable music of The Thing, but also be playful yet creepy.” And yes, it most definitely is creepy – in a dark setting outside in the woods, laser lighting to alter vision, as Neneh spits MF Doom in song. “Accordion” strikes a cord. Check it out!

After releasing her self-produced EP Chameleon towards the end of  2009, Dezaray Dawn has been steadily building her catalogue. Last year she collaborated with UK producer Marc Mac (of 4Hero) on her second EP Deep. Now with “Over It,” the first single from her forthcoming album The Dawning, set to release in June, stays close to her musical sensibilities in funk soul, adding a little broken beat flare to it. It’s fresh. Check it out below and head over to her bandcamp for download.

You can stream the entire EP below or visit his website to download Seeing Her Naked. Also to learn more about Mar, read the Loop 21 interview where Muphoric Sounds‘ editorial director, Vanessa Warren talked with him about his work and creative process.

If you’re a late one, who still has not purchased Thundercat‘s The Golden Age of the Apocalypse, you can get it from any of the following links of your choice.

Digital: iTUNES | BLEEP | BOOMKAT | AMAZON

Vinyl: NINJASHOP | BOOMKAT | BLEEP

“Dream Baby Dream” is the first single from the album, and is a cover of 70s/80s punk rock band, Suicide‘s song of the same title. In its original construct, ”Dream Baby Dream“ has these church-like organs that hum along in the background, while Neneh Cherry & The Thing remove the keys altogether and add drums and wind instruments, as Cherry‘s words ‘dream baby dream,’ gently echo and massage to your temples. Great vibe and energy on this track. Check it out below.

The Cherry Thing is schedule to release June 19th on Smalltown Supersound. Looking forward to this!

Now with  Jessica Lauren Four, she blends her diverse musicals influences in blues, soul, Afro-Cuban rhythms, creating these incredibly relaxing tracks that soothe your soul but also make you want to dance. Using the help of bassist Andrew Kremer, percussionists David “Booie” Gallagher and  Paul Gunter, and power soul singer Jocelyn Brown on a couple of tracks, they all come together to create beauty.

Jessica Lauren Four is scheduled to release April 14 on Freestyle Records. Check out the snippets below!! It’s pure fire!

Shuggie Otis is an incredible multi-instrumentalist, who started playing at the young age of 12 in Los Angeles. Coming from a musical family, Shuggie started playing in his father’s band and began recording at the age of 16. He released three studio LPs on Epic Records, and played on several other artists’ albums such as Frank Zappa, Etta James, Billy Preston, BB King, Leon Haywood, and Bobby Blue Band – such a wide array of artists. A treasure in the hip hop community, his dreamy guitar riffs have been sampled by The Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, Madlib, and the legendary J Dilla. In 2009, it was mentioned on Jeff Duran‘s radio show (FM KLSX) that Shuggie Otis is still playing and is working on new music.

The chords on this song are so inviting; it feels like a welcome home engagement from a man to a woman. Romantic! The riffs and melodies are warm embraces on a cold rainy day. I love how the track is slow, steady, and momentous in the sense that it is very quiet and subtle, then all of a sudden blossoming and deliberate. It is said that Shuggie played all instruments on this LP; the direction and mood of the entire song is sure ’nuff funky. And the breakdown?! Whew! Can’t wait to hear what else this cat has in store for us.

Oftentimes the art world can be an expression of serious, referential art. So it’s refreshing to come across someone who is truly having fun with it, and using a subject matter close to my heart, Prince.

Troy Gua is a Seattle-based visual artist, has been working furiously over the past five years, creating art that explores pop culture and his fascination with the social medias. His most notable exhibits are his Pop Hybrids, where he combines two iconic figures and reduces the personality into logo, reducing their individuality into a collective, and reduces the photography to a design, creating interesting images that force you to create your own meaning and subversion. His Colorbandz, are portraits at the speed of technology, a concept at first glance seem like bands of colour but as you grasp the concept of the Colorbandz, it begins to come clear. (See Troy Gua‘s self Colorbandz portrait at the end of interview.)

But it wasn’t until Gua tackled the project of making his own Gerry Anderson inspired marionette of his musical idol Prince, the Le Petit Prince, that his name traveled beyond the West Coast. As you will see below, the marionette captures the essence of Prince, from his hypnotic stare, and his perfectly defined lips, to this pristine and unique sense of style. Gua’s symbolic tribute to the artist who has inspired him throughout his life has garnered much attention, and we are sure to see more of Le Petit Prince in the future.

Muphoric Sounds got the chance to talk to Gua about his work and what sparked him to pay homage to Prince in what he calls, “a loving tribute, that is meant to be a parody” of his idol. Le Petit Prince is quirky yet perfect, all at the same time.

To view more of Troy Gua’s work, visit his website at www.troygua.com. You can also “Like” his Facebook page to receive updates on Le Petit Prince.

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INTERVIEW WITH TROY GUA

Muphoric Sounds: Who is Troy Gua?

Troy Gua: I’m a dude who just grew up expecting that I was going to be an artist. That’s what I got a pat on the head for as a kid. And I’ve been chasing that pat on the head ever since.

MS: Has it always been in visual arts?

Gua: Yes, since I was little kid I just liked to draw, constantly. I was the youngest of four kids. The next one was 9 years older than me; so I was sort of like an only child, spent a lot of time by myself, and liked to draw musicians and pop stars. I made a series of poor decisions in my late teens and twenties, married my childhood sweetheart, and kind of left my dreams on the wayside. And I kind of gave up on who I was supposed to become and played house for a few years. Became an alcoholic and a drug addict actually. [Laughs] I always had a job. I was married and responsible but I was kind of a shell of my real self, and medicated and numbed myself to that fact for a long, long time. Eventually, that all caved in, and my whole life flushed and it was a reboot. And I met this woman online named Catherine and we fell in love and kind of hit the ground running. We decided to get sober together and make a happy life for ourselves. That was around 2005 when we met and since then I’ve been focusing on getting that dream in order.

MS: You’ve been working solidly since 2008, what has been the best experience for you so far?

Gua: To be completely honest, this [Le Petit Prince]. This has been the most attention I’ve had. I’m in Seattle, which is a pretty insulated community, this bubble in the corner of the country and I’ve been working my butt off for about five years, constantly showing work, feeling like a rubber ball bouncing around the room not being able to break out. And I’d been frustrated for a while with that.

MS: But it seems to be working.

Gua: The funny thing is, as soon as I was discouraged enough, to say, ‘screw it, I’m not going to make this kind of art, it’s bringing me down, I’m just going to start having fun …and make myself a little Prince doll.’ [Laughs] That’s when everybody started to pay attention, which is amazing. But of course, it’s Prince!

MS: What sparked you to make the doll?

Gua: I knew at some point I was going to make this little guy but I knew that when I did it, I was going to have to make it so perfect that it was kind of daunting to me. As a kid, I was really into Team America and Thunderbirds. When Team America came out, my buddy and I saw it six weeks in a row, every Friday. And we said, “We need to make our own marionettes.” So I did mine, and then I later did my wife. And then I made a Salvador Dali. Right after Michael Jackson died, I had a show opening two or three days later for the Do You See Me? exhibit, which is all about social media. It was different to what I had been showing around in Seattle, which was just the Pop Hybrids at that point. Nervous about the show and literally glued to the television – I couldn’t believe that Michael Jackson just died, my hands just couldn’t stop, and I made a Michael Jackson doll in a day. Then I was like, ‘I need to make Prince, but I’m going to let that one just sit for a while.’ Then last year was a real busy year for me. I did a lot of work and got a lot of recognition locally. It was going well, but I kept going through cycles of being discouraged, then getting pumped up, and started making this self-referential, cynical art, about the art world – art for artists, which was far away from what I wanted to do. I want to engage everybody. I want there to be multiple access points for as many different types of people and ideas as possible. I was very frustrated with myself, and my career. And then Prince came to town.

MS: The “Welcome 2 America” tour?

Gua: Yep, it blew my mind. It just reinvigorated passion, which happens every time he puts out a new album; I get back on fire with Prince. And I was like, now is the time to make this guy.

MS: The “Welcome 2 America” tour was in December 2010 and you had made the doll and clothes by February 2011?

Gua: The doll itself probably took a week. It really didn’t take long. It was more about the sourcing of the wig, the glass eyes. I think he was born on December 27th. I’ve gotten pretty good that I can bust out an outfit in like a day or so. It’s the sets that take up a lot of time. I’m working on the Sign O’ the Times album cover now and it’s pretty complex.

MS: The clothes are so tiny with such detail. Did you have any difficulties while making them?

Gua: It’s all been kind of trial and error basically. I was just trying to find somebody to make the clothes. I was scouring the web for someone to make me a little ruffle shirt from the Purple Rain era. He was going to have just the one outfit and that was it. I was emailing places in China, looking for people on Etsy and nobody wanted to do it. And then I found somebody in town who designs clothes for Chris Cornel and rock stars and she was asked, ‘What’s your budget?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t really want to spend more than a 100 bucks.’ And she was like, ‘Well that’s not going to get you very far.’ Then my wife was like, ‘Why don’t you just do it?’ I don’t sew! And she said, ‘Figure it out.’ And so I did.

MS: Has Prince seen the dolls yet?

Gua: I haven’t heard anything from Prince or his people. I’m assuming he has through Questlove. We’ve been back and forth on Twitter and he told me he sent out this mass email after he found Le Petit Prince, and he said it’s an email trail that keeps on giving. He sent me these five little quick quotes and said ‘I can’t tell you who they’re from, this is for your eyes only, but 5 of these people were in Purple Rain.’ So I guess, he has to have seen them at this point. As far a reproducing the dolls, he [Prince] could easily sue me but I wouldn’t reproduce the dolls without his consent. But as far as images of the doll, it would be his record label that could have issue. If I was to sell copies of the album covers reproductions, that’s where I could possibly have a problem. That bums me out because those are most fun pieces to make. I really want to make a book. Bust out a few more eras in [Prince’s] work and publish a book.

MS: What’s next for the doll? A remake of Purple Rain?

Gua: That was my first idea of wanting to do a remake of Purple Rain with these dolls, and make everybody. I wanted to hook up with Matt Stone [South Park]. Don’t know what the whole legality of what it would all entail. It’s another weird issue that I have to think about.

MS: You mentioned your Do You See Me? installation, where you bring in media, culture and society, where all these questions come up. Were you trying to find an answer to it all?

Gua: I think what I was trying to do was explore my own obsession with it [media]. At the time, Facebook wasn’t new, but it was pretty fresh for me and all fascinating, especially the “20 Random Things.” I was just blown away by some of the things people were putting out there. Some heavy shit, the kind of things you would never say to somebody’s face but it was just so easy to put it out there and the hit return button. It was just a cathartic kind of experience. So I started with my own “25 Random Things” which lead me to my friends. I chose a random thing from all these different lists and I did a piece with those random 25 things. There was a bunch of other things in that show too, but it stems from that and just this whole need to be seen. I got a desperate desire to be acknowledged.

MS: I was going to ask you about that – your quest for recognition and esteem. Why you do you feel you need it?

Gua: Why do I feel I need recognition? I’m not sure. I think it’s my stab at immortality. Planting my seed, so to speak. I’m not going to have any kids, so the art I make is my offspring. I want it to be recognized. It’s some kind of existential thing, I guess, of wanting to be acknowledged. Maybe it’s some kind of weird psychological thing that I have. I think the Internet and social media feeds that. Maybe it also has something to do with my wanting to be a pop star and this is the thing I do best. I’m never going to be an actual pop star, but I could be an art pop star. I think I’m still chasing that teenage dream in some way.

MS: What does art mean to you?

Gua: Art is my language. It’s part of my DNA. I hate labels, but I’m labeled as a pop artist, which can sometimes be looked down upon by other types of artists. There’s room for every kind of art as far as I’m concerned. Just the other day, I was on a lecture panel at this local academy about “Image Accessibility.” I showed slides about advertising and how there’s a psychology behind the reasoning with what is used as imagery, the colors, the shapes, and how it’s compiled and composed. I talked about how the Mona Lisa went from being a renaissance masterpiece to artists doing reproductions of peanut butter and jelly. It can be about art, product, and idea. This particular academy are taught Italia style art, like this is how you paint a figure, you use this type of brush, this type of paint, this is how you mix paint. It’s very structured. My art is like an antithesis. In the question/answer portion a woman said, “That’s not art; that’s just commercial.” And I was like, ‘Wow people are still having this discussion.’ Art is expression. If she feels the need to express herself by painting still life in the techniques of the masters, then that’s great. But if I want to express myself with weird portraits of pop icons and coat it in resin that should be fine too. We all have our own language.

MS: With your Pop Hybrids, what was the selection process with the two subjects used? They were used in a contrasting way, even as a form of ridicule.

Gua: They all have to have multiple meanings and connections in order for me to want to do it. A lot of the times, I’d start with a name. It’s like I have to have a punch line but then I also need it to have a deeper philosophical connection. With all my art, I like it to have multiple access points.

MS: What is the technique for the Pop Hybrids exactly? Is it digital?

Gua: They are now. But they started out on canvas and I would do layers of color until it reached the saturation point and then I would epoxy resin over the top to make it have a mirror finish. The whole concept was to make it look like it was silk-screened and printed or machine made, and it worked. Everybody thought that it was machine made. So I started designing them digitally and having them printed on this metallic photo paper, mounting them on a sintra board, and then still do the resin coating at the end.

MS: Do you prefer digital or the actual paint brush and canvas?

Gua: I enjoy it [digital] more. I can do it faster. I like the idea of virtual art; stuff I can do on my computer, such as my Colorbandz. I did so many of these digital studies of people in town of my friends and they only exist online. They’re portraits but they only exist as whatever those files are made of. It appears on the screen and they’re kind of intangible.

MS: Who would you say your biggest influences are?

Gua: Visually, artistically? Prince. He is my biggest influence, period. I include that as far visual art too. He’s an inspiration as far as his work ethic goes.

MS: What would you say is the biggest thing that influences and inspires you about Prince?

Gua: His ability to tackle any genre and just master it. Just the fact that he’s so prolific and it creates his own aesthetic. He borrows from all these other sources and mixes it into his own flavor and it becomes his. I just love the fact that he doesn’t stick himself in one box and he has no qualms about experimenting with any type of music he feels he wants to. That’s how I feel about art; I don’t want to be labeled as a pop artist, because I can paint a landscape too, I can do whatever I want to do, if I put my mind to it. That’s top of the list on what Prince does for me.

MS: As we’re a music site, I have to ask, what are you listening to right now?

Gua: Sign O’ the Times actually. I’m working on the album cover, the set. Ever since I started on this project it’s been non-stop Prince. I think my wife is going a little crazy.

Fresh Daily

No newcomer to the game, Fresh Daily has worked with producers such as Illmind, Oh No, and Exile to name a few.

Teaming up with Complex Magazine and Converse to present his latest offering The Brooklyn Good Guy, a free 12-track album featuring names like MURS, Black Spade, Melo-X, Mike Baker the Bike Maker and Om’mas Keith, among others.

Excellent sample based, synth heavy, and bouncy production provides the backdrop for his well crafted, precise, down to earth, cocky, and confident rhymes. Stand out tracks include the Sam Champ produced, “Don’t You Agree,” featuring Om’mas Keith; “Cool Thoughts” produced by Russian beatsmith, BMB Space Kid also featuring Om’mas Keith, and the bouncy, hard to keep still to “Laced Up” produced by fellow New Yorker, Jinesis.

On vocoder laced, “Cool Thoughts,” Fresh Daily gives advice on how to maintain “positive thoughts in a negative world….” On the chorus, Om’mas Keith lends his patent harmonies making this one of the album’s standout tracks.

“Laced Up” sees Fresh at his most braggadocios, reminding us on the DJ Screw-esque chorus, that we can find him “rolling through laced up, everything fitted…” . He sounds mature and self aware without sounded dated. Jinesis‘ production matches the rhymes perfectly making this either a zone out, lay back, chill track…or something one could put on to get their swag back.

Check out a couple of tunes below then head over to LiveMixtapes.com for this free download.

“Cool Thoughts”

“Laced Up”

Seeds, set to release next week, March 27 on SomeOthaship Connection features a difference – this is the first time GAM has worked with another producer outside of partner, Dudley Perkins. GAM has joined forces with hip-hop heavy weight producer, Madlib. The musical union between GAM and Madlib, is somewhat of an extension of previous works, with more grit and experimentation while still having her unique ability to create that rugged old soul we’ve grown to love over the years.

In an exclusive arrangement with Canadian music mag’s web Exclaim!, you can hear Seeds in it’s fully entirety before it’s release next week. Go check it out.

The first taste from the EP is “Our Attempt,” a sexy arrangement of bare drums, keys, and a haunting guitar that enters with a yearning that is ever-present in Mar‘s music. The accented break in the track adds a breathtaking silence; you can only imagine what can be done to this!!

Check it out below and stay tuned for link nearing release.