Ohno? Oh Yes! Hip Hop Instrumentals & Samples From Angers

Hello! Tell us about yourself, where are you from and who is Ohno? 

Hey guys, I’m Louis, soon to be 21, currently living in Angers, France doing my studies in graphic design but I’m originally from Cholet (not too far away). Ohno is my musical alter-ego, a secret passion that caused me to start producing sounds about a year ago. Then I started meeting people in the Angers music scene, like Spectateur who pushed me to continue improving with his help, I also developed connections to the hip-hop collective Label Collection, and with Pepso Stavinsky, Remington group, Jay Bentham and another electro beat maker from Angers: Wander. 

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Whyd Paris: Coming Soon (OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY APRIL 24th)

Paris has long been one of the world’s cultural centers. From the Pagans who flogged witches on the marshy banks of the Seine to the philosophers and impressionists of the Left Bank to the music collectives of 2014, Paris has never followed. 

It is appropriate, then, that Paris, our sweet home, leads the Whyd community with our innovative approach of promoting our community to mainstream audiences. Whyd’s Parisien selectors are sharing some of the best music, no matter where it is coming from in the world. 

So, on April 24th, we will celebrate the launch of the Official Whyd Paris page, a place uniquely suited to give you the pulse of the music scene here, putting forward our trendiest music lovers and giving everyone a window of access into this whirlwind of sounds rotating around the Eiffel Tower. 

If you’re here in Paris, you’re invited to the official Launch Party at Le Dandy, organized in collaboration with our buddies at Bathroom, Thursday, April 24th. Tony will be cooking all day to bring you some delicious bites to eat, and of course, we have much to toast, so bring your drinking hats, and never stop jamming! 

Up On The Rooftops Horizon: Emerging Music From Around The World

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Hello guys! Tell us about yourselves? Why did you decide to create a record label? 

Hello Whyd! I’m Yassine-Elie, the co-founder of Rooftops Horizon. I’m a 21 year old law student from Paris. I’m an old producer, always fascinated by music. 

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Hey! I’m Louis, 22, co-founder of Rootfops Horizon. I’m currently learning at Louis Vuitton to go into a career in communications. I’m also fascinated by music, I wrote for different music blogs and I’m currently part of the growing blog FraisFrais. So music is definitely my daily shit! 

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We wanted to start a music label to bring something new to the French electronic scene. We’re focusing on promoting some hidden, talented artists from around the world who deserve more followers. We can’t say we are getting caught by trends, as a lot of people we obviously love trending artists like Shlohmo, Druid Cloak, or Arnold MOD but we listen to everything, and we think that is the great way to build a music label. 

We’re trying to create a strong structure, a music label with strong partners to promote the artists we sign in the best way. 

We would also like to thank the Paris-based law firm Avocat Saint-Georges that help us with our contracts!

What is the purpose? What can we expect for this year? 

2014 is probably the year for Rooftops Horizon. We’re in touch with some great renowned artists like salute, Noï, or Clu, and some other cool guys that we would prefer to keep secret at the moment. We are really focusing on promoting some hidden artists, and we put out a “release pack” including 4-5 tracks we are not sure for the moment. And, we’re in touch with some great collectives to launch our first party. 

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Who are your artists? 

We currently have four: DJYEN, YYOIY, TIGERZ, and ADRIEN DE VALENTIN. As you can see they are not from the same country, DJ Yen is from Japan, YYIOY from Spain and the last two from France. You can also see that we are not getting caught by a kind of music, we just want to release what we love. 

We think that it’s not a great thing to only see the artists where you come from. We spotted DJ Yen a long time ago when we were at the very beginning and we were hesitant to launch the first release from a country like Japan. Will French listeners give a listen to this? There were so many questions. But today we are really proud of how diverse our releases are. 

DJ Yen: Sapporo-based producer who loves the Jersey Club and becoming increasingly famous day after day: 

YYIOY: A talented producer from Spain who has his own brand called “Shoop Clothing,” and has done some great collaborations like Pixelord and was already spotted by Earmilk. 

TIGERZ is the revelation for 2014. This unknown French dude is definitely the kind of guy we want to promote. He’s reaching a lot of followers daily and is currently our most-played artist. 

ADRIEN DE VALENTIN is someone who we’ve followed since about a year ago, and we were really surprised by the skill in his tracks, so it was natural that we had to propose to work with him! 

Did you already have any events? 

For the moment, we’re still organizing our base. We have some great proposals and we will definitely take advantage of them. As we said, we have some parties planned which we will do in partnership but we prefer to keep the details secret for the moment and not ruin the surprise! 

We wouldn’t want that! Subscribe to Rooftops Horizon on Whyd to keep up with their latest discoveries. 

Ivan Zuber From 22D Music Group Talks Music Publishing plus Bands Buzzing In Berlin

Hello Ivan! How are you? Where are you from and what do you do? 

Hi everyone! I’m fine thank you. I am from France by I have worked in Berlin for the past year and a half now. 

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How long have you worked at 22D, and what do you do there? 

I’ve worked with 22D Music since I moved to Berlin. I came here specifically to work with this music publishing group. I work on two fronts, as a Copyright Manager for our catalogue of films, that is to say that I make sure that musicians from all the films that we represent are correctly registered with each country’s organization for collections (here it’s GEMA, in France it’s SACEM). I make sure that once films are distributed they will become a source of revenue for artists, publishing houses, and all the copyright holders. 

The second part of my work is Creative Manager/Music Supervisor. I am in relation with artists from our label (we are also a label) and with our different partners: press, graphic design, production, other labels, etc. And for the Music Supervisor part, I try to discover new talents that have a “synchro” potential (which means that we can put their music in films, TV series, ads, etc) to propose publishing deals to them, and also to propose our artists to audiovisual productions and other projects when they are searching for music.

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What are the biggest challenges to managing copyrights on the web today? 

Web-based copyrights are not really our thing, we are oriented towards film and TV, which are really the media that bring the most money for artists today. But the web also has its importance! I would say that one of the biggest challenges is to target illegitimate uses of music on the web. It is much more difficult to know if a website is using music without having asked for the rights than a TV channel which is much more regulated! 

Additionally, the big challenge of copyrights on the web is that the internet is like the “6th continent” borders are fluid, uses are too. There is still so much to study around that but it’s exciting! The web is no longer the future, it’s here now! 

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Tell us about the music scene in Berlin, are there groups that are buzzing right now that you follow? 

The music scene in Berlin is incredible. It’s in part what drew me to this city, there is a real artistic energy, a freedom of expression and music. Definitely in the world of electronic music but not only that, for me Berlin is the new New Orleans where you discover awesome stuff every night if you want! 

But, that makes for some fierce competition for the groups: of course everyone wants to have their word, but to get out of the pack you have to have something more! 

Recently I had a truly interesting experience: an evening at the Berlin Philharmonic with the opening act “L’Ensemble de Berlin” who interpreted two concertos during their casual concert, followed by an experimental concert/DJ set in the lounge of the Philharmonic. That is Berlin: you go to a classical music concert and get electronic in the same night! People love all sorts of music here, I am definitely in the right place!

I discovered a fabulous artist thanks to that: Broken Twin, a Danish minimalist duo led by a singer with a magnetic sensibility and nostalgia. 

A group that’s buzzing here? No need for an introduction but Apparat’s last concert “Krieg und Frieden” is one of the best live experiences that I’ve experienced. It is very intimate but I hope that it will keep going that way! I have a lot of other names but I invite you come here to discover them :) 

Definitely check out 22D, like them on Facebook and subscribe to them on Whyd

The Editor of DumDum.fr Talks Music Journalism, Garage Rock, and Taking Music Head On

The DumDum.fr team, that’s Anthony top left

Hello Anthony! Can you tell us about when you realized the importance of music in your life? 

It came rather late, as a teenager, I was really obsessed with soccer and girls among other things. Like all kids I liked music, but I developed a few different obsessions towards the end of my adolescence. When you grow up in the suburbs, far from concert venues and hype, you can’t fall into the scene out of luck. For me, it was garage rock, most notably the Black Lips, that I discovered thanks to their cover of a Dutronc track “Hippie Hippie Hourra.” An absolute headbanger. So I started to be interested in garage rock, the “Nuggets” compilations, those types of things. It was from that moment, more or less, that music would assume a capital importance for me. 

You are the Editor of DumDum. What is the objective of DumDum, and who are your readers?

We never really know too much about who are readers are. We get a good response from Facebook, Twitter, but I tend to think that the majority are always silent. These are questions that I prefer to not ask myself. As for the objective of DumDum, it’s to show music from a different angle, to try to go further. The project has matured greatly since we launched it. We made some novice mistakes, most notably editorial. Today, with our daily articles, we try to take music head on. And with out annexes, we try to take a step back, to tell stories, and talk about people. Because music, in the end, lets us say a lot about life and the world we live in. 

Why did you become a music journalist? Are you passionate about music or writing? Or the two? 

Well, as I said before, it’s kind of crazy in my head. I studied at a journalism school, initially to become a sports journalist, I love soccer. But I quickly realized that I was heading straight into a wall: I picture myself at stadiums with my microphone trying to grab the stupid comments of football players. Therefore I directed myself rather naturally towards music and culture magazines. I started at Technikart, then the excellent magazine VoxPop that doesn’t exist anymore. Afterwards, it became a job, even if I don’t write exclusively about music. And fortunately elsewhere. 

You also contribute to other publications, like Snatch and Rolling Stone, is music journalism different from the web to print? 

Online music journalism and print aren’t very different along the lines of supports. On one hand, it’s a shame, I think that print magazines will stop doing news updates and talking about top singles. That makes sense: people don’t get their doses of discoveries from a paper magazine. They pay 5 euros to read long-form subjects, and deep interviews, things that we don’t find as much online. Looking back, that which I’ve written for DumDum or Rolling Stone I create in the same way. We have a tendency to think that an online magazine takes less work, that everything must be short, but in the end, I think that’s short-sighted: long-form has existed online for a long time, and it’s taking a more and more important place there. Looking at the stats from DumDum shows this, some of our long articles get a lot more clicks than the short little updates. 

Subscribe to DumDum on Whyd to stay up to date with their latest discoveries! 

Let Process Take You Into The Depths Of Your Mind

Yo! Can you fill us in a little bit about your backstory? Who are you and where are you from? 

Yo! I am Remy (Auymer is my artist name) from the south of France, Marseille, and I have been based in London for four years now. I was working in shops and started to produce and play music there in my hometown and it’s here, in one of the most interesting cities in the world that I met Alice, half French and half Brazilian and also our graphic designer Federico. This city was for all of us a way to expand our interest for electronic music. 

London is a city that is world famous for its music, the standard is really high. What are you bringing to the scene today? 

Process is a new project that we launched in May 2013. After exploring London’s clubs, bars, and private parties, we got amazed and inspired a lot, but we realized that the average entry price was quite high and that the spirit was often quite business oriented. Although we went to so many great venues, with brilliant atmosphere and proper sound systems, we always felt there were quite a lot of standards, and the first one was the high price. We soon realized there was one type of party you couldn’t really find and that was free (or cheap) entry, good vibes, intimate venue, just for the love of music. The normal story in London if you want to put up an event and get to have a “name” in the scene, you need to book a pretty famous DJ to attract people and it helps to have a big venue, already quite known. However, we didn’t want to think this way. 

Instead, we wanted something where people discover new music and new talent. From the beginning we thought that with minimized funds and some contacts, you could organize a party that would make people happy and create the right vibe, without necessarily having an already settled DJ. We thought of having more of a party for everyone, that people wouldn’t need to pay much to have a great night and that everyone could contribute, by telling their friends, playing, proposing ideas, etc… 

We got exactly what we wanted at our first event when we gathered around 100 deep vibe lovers in our intimate venue in East London and hell yeah it was such a great night! So I guess Process is just adding some fresh air to the scene, with no pressure to be successful or competitive in the industry; more of an alternative night with fresh and deep beats in a warm atmosphere… Just a night for fun, about music and great people! 

Tell us about your obsession with deep music. Who should come to your events? 

We are really into all those kinds of post apocalyptic, dark, cerebral, acid, minimalist, and deep electronic music so it goes from deep house to dub to techno. And we keep on expanding our knowledge of it and musical culture here in the UK. It’s a type of music that could not be understood at first if you are not really into this. It might seem harsh and scary but it takes some interest to actually catch the little thing that makes you understand why artists such as Lucy, Tom Dicciccio, Rrose, or Polar Inertia (to name a few) are making this type of music; to understand what they are trying to say and get across. You will then understand the spirits that they put behind their machines. 

What we love the most is to see every time where they are driving us to another dimension that was unknown for us. I am pretty sure that the range of frequencies they use in their productions, which can be really love or really high, creates something in our body and brain. And this is what we want to do with Process, make people aware that this type of music can be really festive, energetic. I try to do a kind of step by step when I play at Process, going from different types of electronic music to drive the crowd to this dark, cerebral, and post apocalyptic dimension. 

It’s taking the crowd through a journey, and what is great about Process is that it is a diverse crowd; people there like many different types of electronic music, and the challenge is to get all of them to follow. And until now, all of them did! Indeed you don’t need to know everything about techno to go crazy on some deep beats, it’s all about explaining where I am trying to get you, and having you follow me! 

When is the next event and what else can we look forward to in 2014? 

The next will be in early 2014, still in one of our intimate venues with the same atmosphere! Then we have a couple of projects in mind, like a series of “open podcasts” in which everyone is invited to be a part of by sending his mix. Also, we have some collaboration in mind, with some like-minded friends to create always a better party and bring quality music. 2014 will be an inspiring year for us, no doubt about that! 

Subscribe to Process London on Whyd, and make sure to check out both Process London's and Auymer Music's Facebook pages! 

From The GroundSounds Up: Culture From LA And Beyond

GroundSounds is rapidly emerging as a popular destination for culture heads: what’s the average reader/viewer/listener of GroundSounds like?

The average reader/viewer/listener of GroundSounds varies, however most are avid music listeners who love to discover new musicians, bands, and artists. Our readers come to GroundSounds to read about emerging trends, watch exclusive video interviews, and musical performances. If you’re a creative mind looking for inspiration, come to GroundSounds. 

Jon, how did your background in entertainment media lead you to where you are today, and what are you doing differently than everyone else? 

If it wasn’t for my media background I wouldn’t know how to run and operate GroundSounds efficiently and effectively. I have gained a lot of skills working for various media outlets, as well as many industry contacts that have helped my journey along the way. GroundSounds video content definitely helps to separate us from the bunch, not many music blogs are on red carpets getting exclusive info, and the ones that are tend to focus on talking to already established acts, while we are focusing on the “little guys,” the musicians or bands that everyone tends to skip over. I feel that our attention to up-and-coming musicians as well as emerging artists is definitely giving us an edge. GroundSounds is also operated out of pure passion, this is not a job - I think this aspect has a profound impact on what we are becoming, it is coming from a very pure and genuine state of being. 

Tell us about the team: who is the best at chess, who knows about the most obscure bands, and who do your readers like the most? 

The team is amazing, GroundSounds would not be possible without the team! As far as chess is concerned I’m not certain, however when it comes to finding diamonds in the rough (amazing obscure bands) Brendon Goldwasser definitely gives the team a run for their money. However, I should add that Jake Craney isn’t too bad either! Big shout outs to the rest of the team Danielle Turner, Tahsan Scott, Tim Gadient, Ryan Cornelius, Emily Vargas, Bigg A.D., Tessie Navarro, Jolie Doggett - each and everyone of them bring so much to the table. 

LA is famous for two motifs in music: sun and angst. Which one will rule in 2014? Are musicians feeling positive or jaded? 

While it is extremely easy to become jaded in LA, we don’t have time for that! We keep things moving with positivity and a bright outlook, as do many musicians and bands, we hope they keep it that way! 

Playlist Contest: Who Will Buzz in 2014?

The New Year is upon us, and what a year 2014 promises to be. If 2013 was any indication, we will have an excellent year of jamming in store for us. But the question we would like to pose to our community of excellent music lovers: who will be the bands and artists that break onto the world scene this year? 

So here’s the deal: starting on January 6th, give us 7 tracks from 7 different new artists that you think will make a push across the world in 2014. Then, share your playlists. After two weeks (so until January 20th) the three most-shared playlists on Facebook and Twitter will be the finalists, from whom our jury will select the best playlist. The winner will receive a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the New Year. 

And, since the internet is notorious for never looking back, at the end of 2014 we will go back and see whose playlist was the most accurate (even if it wasn’t one of the finalists). If you turn out to be the clairvoyant, we will treat you to a huge dinner with champagne and cocktails to your heart’s content in December 2014. So start thinking about it now, the playlist contest goes live on January 6th. 

Interview with Mawimbi: Afro-Electro Waves

1. Where did the inspiration to create this collective come from?

Clément, who produces music under the moniker Pouvoir Magique, has been developing this kind of ethnic/tribal vibe for about a year now, and since we’re all friends and appreciate this blend of contemporary and traditional trends, it felt pretty natural to pursue this esthetic within a DJ collective of our own. All of us listen to a lot of afrobeat, footwork as well as house and techno, but we had yet to find our identity. When Romare’s latest EP “Love Songs: Part One” came out, its underlying speech about afrocentrism, how certain modern genres of electronic music relate to African music, by way of the African diaspora, really spoke to us. We found it fascinating and yet rather unexplored. This provided the idea for our DJ collective and this is when we decided to start doing something in this direction. Mawimbi allows us to have this strong musical identity that sets us apart from other crews in Paris. Don’t get us wrong: we love Paris’s vibrant techno and house scene. We’re not bored of hearing techno and house - yet. But we thought “if there’s room for us as another DJ crew, we gotta find something truly original, something that speaks to us and sets us apart.” So yeah, we all had the same idea and the same kind of revelation, it seemed quite logical and natural to create Mawimbi. 

2. What is unique about these African styles that gets people dancing so much?

First and foremost, there is a strong emphasis on rhythm. It is always there, driving the whole thing, it is definitely something you want to dance to. Also, black populations influenced the major part of the musical creation of the last 50-60 years, so part of what we play rings a bell in a collective subconscious. There’s plenty more reasons, we could go on for hours! We’re trying to wrap it up here in a few lines. African music sounds unusual, because it is often really raw, almost “over the top” and uses sophisticated rhythmic and melodic patterns that go beyond the boundaries of what our western ears are used to hearing. And at the same time, it sounds familiar and pretty “catchy” because it sometimes feels “primitive” and closer to your body that anything you’ve heard before. You lose yourself into it, like you’re in a trance. That lower level of consciousness is what we are trying to reach when we play as Mawimbi DJs. Mawimbi is about finding sounds that have this “ritual” dimension, that make everyone want to gather in a circle and let their bodies speak for them. Mawimbi actually means “vibes” in Swahili. That’s what we’re about: real vibes from the black continent. 

3. Tell us about yourselves, how did you come to work together?

All of us have been friends for a few years now and we are all either producers or DJs. We chill together, party together, go on holidays together, sometimes DJ together, and yet we had never created something together. So it was kind of natural to think that we were always doing things together but not playing together as much as we would like. Mawimbi is the first thing we started that matters to all of us. It is somewhat the first realization of our friendship. I think you already understood: Mawimbi’s motto is “Together” - and we’re all fans of the Thomas Bangalter & DJ Falcon track, yeah!

4. What are your plans for the near future and do you have some upcoming shows?

Keep having fun organizing one monthly party in Paris, championing that very special blend of electronic and African music that we love so much, see people having fun, getting Mawimbi crazy and spread the word about what we do as a collective. Beside our parties, we want to keep building our community, write articles on our tumblr, and set up a series of mixtapes/podcats by musicians and DJs we think fit our concept. Adrien (SSCK) and Clément (Pouvoir Magique) are both working on a forthcoming EP. And we’re also thinking about releasing a free sampler of original tracks and club edits. 

Out next shows are September 6th at La Petite Taverne, rue Pigalle, a brand new bar/club opening this month. On September 12, we’re playing a free show at Le Batofar on the terrace, starting at 6pm, then we’re playing the opening set of the “Dirty Safari” party in the club. 

Join Mawimbi on Facebook and subscribe to them on Whyd! Come and see them spin tonight at the #AperoMusicTech at Point Éphémère, we’ll be there all night!