Vava Voom!

Sometimes you just gotta say, "what the bleep" and choose something kinda surfacey, indulgent, and mainstream for a listen. Last we I had Madonna, this week I have selected Bassnectar's Vava Voom. Perhaps I am fixated on my upcoming mini-vacation, but I want to hear some tunes that evoke fun, feeling carefree, and evocative of warmer weather. I found nothing terribly gripping this week to review, but the new Bassnectar is out and I say, "Hail to Bassheads!!"

Bassnectar is the stage name used by DJ, producer, and remixer Lorin Ashton, one of the more popular and influential figures in California's electronic music community. Bassnectar's music is known for its eclecticism, embracing elements of extreme bass, dubstep, breakbeat, and other IDM styles, as well as shifting tempos, contrasting moods, and dynamics that go from gentle to bruising and back during the course of a set. A significant amount of Bassnectar's music also has a strong activist streak, and Ashton uses his work to promote social and political causes and to foster a sense of community.

In 1996, Ashton started learning how to DJ, and coupled with his earlier experience in percussion, he recorded four-track demos with his band and studied electronic music at the University of California in Santa Cruz, soon mastering the basics of spinning and producing dance music. He started producing recordings for other acts in his spare time, and in 2001 he was invited to remix a track by Michael Franti & Spearhead for a single. Later that same year, the first Bassnectar album was released, Freakbeat for the Beatfreaks, which Ashton produced and released on his own label, Amorphous Music. While his first few albums earned him a buzz on the indie electronic scene, the fourth Bassnectar album, 2004's Diverse Systems of Throb, expanded his audience and influence, and since then, Bassnectar has issued a steady stream of albums, singles, and podcasts on which he has collaborated with artists including KRS-One, Ellie Goulding, Perry Farrell, Buckethead, and Gogol Bordello, as well as producers Diplo, BT, DJ Vadim, and Rjd2. Bassnectar also became a popular live attraction, with Ashton spinning up to 150 nights at year at venues ranging from clubs and warehouses to festivals such as Coachella, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza. In 2010, he got into the festival game himself, staging his first Bass Center Festival in Broomfield, Colorado, featuring sets by Dan Deacon, That 1 Guy, Brother Ali, and many more, as well as Bassnectar.

Compared to his other albums, Vava Voom seems like the most thrown together just for the fun of it--not a clear directional flow, many guest spots, and offering the producer at his most commercial (the club hit, title track with Lupe Fiasco), his most headphone-oriented (the otherworldly "Laughter Crescendo" sounds like a '70s sci-fi soundtrack outtake), and surprisingly, his most sexy (thousands of little dubstep babies are going to their own "drop" to "Nothing Has Been Broken" and Tina Malia's breathy vocals). Sometimes you just gotta fuggedabouttit. Besides, this is the music that's right on the pulse of the most popular electronic dance festivals and the cross-genre guest spots assure the greatest possible audience and I like that.

Ya might as well watch the video while listening to the first single, with Lupe Fiasco.
Kinda ridiculous, but it even had moms bopping in the shop yesterday! Cheers!



Buy your copy of Vava Voom here.

PS--he is coming to Rochester's Armory on Record Store Day, April 21!!

PPS--We will be opening on 9am on Record Store Day! Come early, get the first picks!!