New Band, New Album! (Electronic/Funk/Rock/etc)

boomstick

boomstick

Silver Member
Hey drummer friends, I would like to introduce you to my band and our new album:

http://www.binarycontrollers.com/listen/

We are a live electronic band that draws on classic funk, rock, hip hop, and soul influences. Note on the playlist, you can play the songs individually, or if you have the time or inclination, play the whole album as one track (track 1 on the playlist). The full album track includes some nice transitions between the songs, so it really flows along nicely (to my ears anyway). If you like what you hear, you can download our songs for free.

(Fyi, tracks 12 & 13 are not part of the album. They are demos that our guitarist did to show some live looping and guitar synth stuff.)

Drumming-wise, there is nothing really earth shattering here. I kept things pretty basic as my aim was to drive the songs with a simple, groovy beat. I played a hybrid kit consisting of Roland pads (my first time playing on an e-kit) and real cymbals, but there are also some programmed percussion layers in some of the songs.

Any feedback would be appreciated, and I'm happy to answer any questions. I would also like to hear what you all think of the website since I built it. Thanks!

**Added 03/30/11

Got some video up now. This is from our first gig. The guys that put it together pieced together random shots from throughout the show, so you will notice that the visuals often don't match the audio (especially with regards to my playing). Also, the live audio that was recorded was not very good, so I overlayed the studio track onto the video. Since the song was played to a click, this was easy to do. Anyway, it's really more of a look at the band rather than a straight up live performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO3UqMCdSRE
 
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Damn, it's late so I can't listen to all the tracks. My first impression - excellent.

It's arguably not a style to attract the hordes of gung ho adrenaline-junkie tub thumpers on this site but there fine sounds, feel and note choices on the album. I love the synth FX colours and your grooving on the kit is classy and infectious. The gung ho adrenaline-junkie tub thumper in me would have liked you to have mixed things up a bit and taken some risks but I can criticise when I can play as tightly as you do.

... now I see the sensibility behind those full-on mixes you did in the SNA challenge ;)
 
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I like Loopy Lu the most and find all of it fresh. Keep up the good work.
 
Yeah, HIT! I like the synth colours too. Your drumming drives the songs perfectly from a groove pov, but I think the dynamics of an acoustic kit would have provided more light & shade, especially as a juxtaposition to the percussive sequences. Hey, this is a great piece of work, it's just the old school in me likes a bit of grit & drama in the mix. Liking the site too. The music player loads really fast, & that's a very good thing.
 
Thank for the comments!

Thanks for your review, Polly. Very glad you liked it. Yes, this is definitely not one that's going to impress the "tub thumpers," but we were going for repetitive/club/dance type beats that tend to work with electronic music. Also, we recorded the drums for all 10 tracks in a single day, so I intentionally kept it simple to avoid too many multiple takes. But yeah, upon hearing the tunes, I wished I had done a bit more here and there, but I can always take some more liberties when we perform these songs live.

KIS regarding kit choice, I would have preferred an acoustic kit too, but our guitarist/producer had a vision for the overall sound for the album, and he was very adamant about the e-kit. He wanted more "electronic" sounding beats. He also wanted to have the ability to program many different drum sounds with the click of a button, and in the end, each song does have a "unique" kit. I probably would have stuck to my guns if I really felt strongly about it, but it was something new that I hadn't done before, so I figured I'd give it a try. By the way, your avatar is very encouraging, so thanks for that.

G-Dad, "Loopy Lu" contains the only sample on the album, and it's from an old ZZ-Top song called "It's Only Love" (from 1976). The song title was inspired by our guitarist's dog Lulu, which we call the "studio rat." We recorded this whole album in his garage and Lulu was almost always underfoot as we worked.

Just as an aside, it's been interesting as people have been picking out their favorite tracks. Seems every person cites a different one, and there has been no clear winner that has stood out as the "best one." Same goes for our band photos.
 
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keep it simple said:
Liking the site too. The music player loads really fast, & that's a very good thing.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's an embedded player from Soundcloud. I really like that site, and I think they really have the right formula for music hosting (although it seems to be dominated by electronic music, for some reason).
 
boomstick said:
Just as an aside, it's been interesting as people have been picking out their favorite tracks. Seems every person cites a different one, and there has been no clear winner that has stood out as the "best one." Same goes for our band photos.
Click to expand...

For me, Here We Are is the standout track - quite a trip. It seems most individual to the group and the one where you expressed yourself most on the kit. Agree with GD about Loopy Lu. Enjoyed the uber funky Prince feel in Slide. Share the Love was a nice bit of groove lounge.
 
Boomstick, sounds good you guys. I could blast this in my car and bob my head to it all day.
I'm over the EB hills in Dublin and I'm looking for a similar type of band to get with, probably with a little more of a Rock meets R&B though.
PM me if you know anyone looking and I'll give you more details then. If not, its all good. I'll still be searchin.

Keep groovin.
 
Pollyanna said:
For me, Here We Are is the standout track - quite a trip. It seems most individual to the group and the one where you expressed yourself most on the kit. Agree with GD about Loopy Lu. Enjoyed the uber funky Prince feel in Slide. Share the Love was a nice bit of groove lounge.
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Thanks for that, Polly. I don't know why it didn't occur to me before, but you are right; Slide does have a Prince-ish feel to it. Not surprising since we are all pretty big Prince fans. Interesting that most of his songs have very basic drum parts too. Same can be said about other influences, like Parliament, Sly, etc. The beat I played on "Thank You" is pretty much straight-up Clyde Stubblefield.

Glad you liked Here We Are since it's the opening track. Hopefully, it will draw the listener in to hear more.
 
Homeularis said:
Boomstick, sounds good you guys. I could blast this in my car and bob my head to it all day.
I'm over the EB hills in Dublin and I'm looking for a similar type of band to get with, probably with a little more of a Rock meets R&B though.
PM me if you know anyone looking and I'll give you more details then. If not, its all good. I'll still be searchin.

Keep groovin.
Click to expand...
Right on. Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear it's resonating with a local. We think (we hope) that this music will appeal to Bay Area listeners, so that we can grow a fan base here that will spread to other areas.

I don't know of any bands looking at the moment, but I'll keep my ears open. Keep looking though. It was years of searching before I found these cats.
 
I can't think of anything better than having people pick a song different from the others. The wider your audience the better.
 
MikeM, ahector,

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment. Really appreciate it, and glad you like it!
 
I dig Boomstick, can't wait to drop this in my 5,000w system and see what shakes loose!

Excellent work bro.
 
Hey, Polly. We got some airplay on a college radio station in Seattle (listened via their live stream), then again on two local independent stations. On the most recent one, we actually went in studio and did a quick interview and promoted our first gig. The gig happened on Thursday, and it went quite well. We had some people there shooting video, so I should have a clip to share in the near future. So yeah, starting to get it out there. :)
 
Good to see that the music is getting out there, Boom. It deserves to be. I still give Here We Are regular spins.

I tried it out on my 18yo nephew. He says the album is a bit too chilled, but he's listening to a lot of hardstyle techno these days (thankfully not too much gabber) but he at least listened and took it seriously, which is a a better response than to my music which he says just sounds old (little bastard lol)

Amazing how mature the songs are without going through "the curing process" via gigs. I'll be keen to see you guys in action live.
 
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