Teebs "Ardour" + Interview

Ardour is music to fly to. Music to ride the bus home late night with. It's music that has depth and feeling, doesn't overwhelm with power and intensity. Sometimes you need loud and in your face, but sometimes subtle is better. Take a track like "Lakeshore Ave." where all you got is a repeating loop, but it's beautiful and you don't mind listening to it fade in and out for a minute and fourty five seconds.

Teebs lived with Flying Lotus and Samiyam for a period of time. I can't even imagine what kind of devastating sounds you would hear on the daily being around those two. Teebs seems to have taken it his own way crafting distinct pieces of music that scream bright colors, kinda like much of the artwork I've seen by him.

Instrumental music is tricky to capture people with, some people have to have words. Some can hear words in the colors of sound. Teebs paints with a brush and he paints with his music. Ardour is epic and cool. Unlike anything I've heard all year. His crew stays elevating, why should he be any different.

Teebs will be rocking Neumos with GLK and Daedelus Wednesday the 20th. It's bound to be a night to remember. I recently chatted with Teebs via email, trying to get to know the man behind the art. Take what you will.

Who is Teebs? How long have you done what you do? What is that? Do you have a musical history or background?

Teebs would be me. I've been living for roughly 23 years now. Living. Besides listening to it, nope.

How old are you? Where did you grow up?

Few seconds older then before. Grew up in a number of places but I've been in Chino Hills for the longest now.

Do you create tunes expecting them to be used strictly as instrumentals? Do you want to work with vocalists? Emcees?

Yeah for the most part it's instrumental stuff. I'm always open to work with people if I find something I like in a voice or person.

Break down your history with Brainfeeder and Low End Theory?

Used to frequent Low End and then played it a few times. Kev is a great person and the whole Low End Family.

I joined brainfeeder in late 08 I think. Still happy and here today :)

Who were you listening to growing up? First record bought? Latest record bought?

Lots of people... My mother for one. First record wasss.... hmm some crappy indie band. I bought it for the cover and it was terrible. Last record wasss... Shuggie Otis maybe. I'm not too sure.

The first time I listened to Ardour it was on a late night bus ride home, it was pretty haunting and fit my mood perfectly. Do you make your tunes at any particular time of day or for a particular setting?

I usually start making my music in the morning when the sun comes up... Usually between 8am-12noon. And its rare that i start out with a mood in mind. Whatever comes out comes out.

I recently interviewed Kendrick Lamar who is a young emcee out of Compton. I asked him if he had heard of FlyLo, Low End Theory, etc, etc and he hadn't . Have you heard of him? I listen to much of the stuff from your camp in the same vein as hip hop, it seems like what emcees should be rapping on, to me. Is their an interest their for more collaboration or is it more self contained by choice?

Never heard of him but I think with every producer its different. If I happen to meet a great rapper to my ears and he likes my stuff I'll instantly work with him. I'm just not looking for it... to me its not a necessity.

What do you try to do with your live set to make it captivating for an audience?

Jump through hoops of fire.

Favorite book?

Don't have a favorite but I do enjoy this short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called Light is Like Water.

Can you talk about Dublab? What is your roll within the collective?

Dublab is amazing. A creative hub that streams so much good music its scary. I DJ for them, help with events, make art when they need it. It's a nonprofit so it's a very special thing we have here.

Are you rocking any music coming out of the northwest today?

At this very second no but there's a lot of great producers coming outta there. I've had moments hooked on things.

TEEBS

Teebs, Gaslamp Killer & Daedelus at Neumos October 20th. Ardour is out on the 18th. Cop it at the show!

Red Bull... In Amsterdam?

When you are speaking in beats, it doesn't matter where you are at we can all relate.

Seattle has a history with the Red Bull Big Tune beat battle. Having been set up and founded by some of our town's legends like Vitamin D, Jake One & the mayor himself, J Moore it's something anyone from here reps for. And why shouldn't we, it's a competition that has traveled the country and featured performances from so many different levels of producers you can't even begin to fathom the talent Big Tune holds.

Perhaps I'm way late to the party on this but I was unaware that, just how here in America Big Tune travels around hitting different cities and regions, it also does something similar in Europe! Come to find out in September of 2009 some of the Netherlands best beat makers came out and went head to head with some of the countries up and coming talent. The result was Hayzee taking the crown with StatikMusic at number 2 and J'83 going home with the Bronze.

You are probably wondering who these cats are? Well I don't really know but the organizers of this Big Tune are some forward thinking cats. They took the time to compile tracks from all the competitors and dropped it as a free download on their websites.

Filled with some crazy beat soundscapes, if you are fucking with Flying Lotus and the Brainfeeder collective, Hyperdub, Lucky Me (Hudson Mohawke and the rest of his Glasgow beat homies) or any number of other Electro tinged, Dilla inspired/infused modern Hip Hop production, this collection is certainly worth a listen. Not only will you hear some funky and crazy beats but you are gonna be listening to an entire album of cats nobody is working with.

Some of them are flipping samples, some are getting heavy with the bass and static sounds. FS Green samples the He-Man theme and keeps you nodding to his hypnotic strings. While this is a compilation inspired by a beat battle, I think that some of the producers decided to let their work speak for itself rather than trying to come over the top for a CD and that was a good call. Battle beats are dope but don't always demonstrate what a producer can really do.

It plays for less than a half hour, download it and see where some cats are taking the future of this culture we call Hip Hop. What do the emcees out there think of these tracks?

Dibiase Carries a Torch

Sitting here relaxing I let my mind flow listening to Dibiase rock out for this "Return of The Sludge" mix he dropped for BTS Radio. I'm vaguely familiar with the show, it's always been a presence in the LA beat scene and Mr. Meza regularly seems to drop features with a number of the cats at the forefront while keeping his ears to the street.

From what I can gather Dibiase is a long time beat maker and student of the art. His passion appears to be a pure driving factor to pushing his music. And listening to this mix it's clear that he should have been getting the support to release his music long ago. It's happening today and for that we have to rejoice!

And we also have "Return to the Sludge." Free. A mix of mostly what appears to be random cuts from CDR's in Dibiase's archieve. Knowing how some artists put in work I wouldn't be surised if we could get "Back to The Sludge" Vol. 10 at some point and stil not be scratching the surface of dudes hard drive.


The beats here border on the dubby electro bent that much of the Brainfeeder collective (of which he isn't an offical part) demonstrates, yet definetly stays in a decidedly Hip Hop lane. There is no doubt left when hearing the drums here that Dibiase grew up on anyone but Pete Rock, Marly Marl, DJ Premeir, et. al.

Sometimes he lets the fuzz get heavy and wrap around your mind kinda like the haze hanging in the room. He grabs vocal samples, chops shit to pieces. Fully embraces the glitch and puts on a few fellow travlers in beats.

Some tracks feature emcees. Selfish appears on "Chameleon" and it's awesome like some vintage LA, post gangsta, kicking it in the sun vibe. This is a relaxing type beat. That's what Dibiase does, he makes some shit for you to vibe with. Any head is gonna knod their head in appriciation when this comes on. The dusty grimey goodness will only provide them with the perfect backdrop to imagine their favorite emcee rocking on.

Put this on while in between dimensions of sleep and let it sink into your cerebellum. This shit is heavy. Even when it's not. Houseshoes let's Curtis sing in chops on one of the best songs of 2010 and Dibiase closes the mix with said jam - "The Makings" - these are the makings of a future with powerful Hip Hop once again. Producers are leading the new generation of talent and borders are no more. Let the sounds speak to you.

Get the mix here!