Hello everyone and welcome back to the Electronic Music Alliance July 2020 Newsletter - your monthly update on the latest goings on from the EMAlien Mothership!
We send our well wishes to everyone in regard to the Coronavirus pandemic and want to say thank you to everyone caring for the sick and the more vulnerable - you are all legends! As for EMA, we want to say a big thank you for the continued support and sharing all the good vibes on Twitter! This month has been one of our most EMAzing ones yet with two huge compilations and brilliant storytelling releases from the EMAliens on the community run Electronic Alliance Records label. On top of that, we have more mixes with the EMA DJ Mix Series and we take an in depth look at this month's Featured Artist, DZM! So with the newsletter bursting at the seams already, let's open it up and see what's going on under the hood of the Mothership! EMA Community
Welcome to all the new followers and thanks to everyone who continues to follow our EMA and EAR Twitter! The EMAlien community continues to grow and we've been steadily adding to the playlists and release catalog in July! Here's a full run down of how things have shaped up this past month:
As always a big thanks to our EMAliens on the Mothership, keeping everyone's spirits up and making it a fun place to be! Regular Playlists
We have our regular weekly EMA curated playlists going across various streaming platforms featuring tracks no older than 3 months from our members, keeping things as new as possible! We've also added the Apple Music and Hearthis platforms to our rotation, which are regularly updated so there's no shortage of places where you can find our music. Here's a little reminder of our schedule:
Featured Playlist
Skaarl is back at the playlists once again with his "EMAliens At The Rave" reaching it's 4th installment of floor filling, rave tunes from members of EMA! This features electronic music in the style of House and Techno for you to enjoy!
EMA DJ Mixes
We have continued the cool vibes from the EMA DJ Mix Series each week thanks to Radio Dark Tunnel. Our 1 hour slot is on Friday evenings from 19:00-20:00 UTC for the time being, where our EMAliens showcase their mixing talents along with a host of electronic music ranging from downtempo to house to drum and bass. Feel free to stream the latest mixes from our Mixcloud page below:
Electronic Alliance Records
Our community run label Electronic Alliance Records continues to grow with some huge releases this month from our EMAliens who have been beaming their beats down from the Mothership! Make sure you follow us on our Beatport page for the latest releases. Wrap your EARs around these:
Future Sounds Anthology Vol. 3 - July 3rd
The 3rd volume of our quarterly compilation called "Future Sounds Anthology" saw 17 tracks from 19 EMAliens come together in an assortment of vibes from chill to "thrill" as genres range from downtempo to Drum & Bass! There's something for everyone in this release and the theme was a little more on the "summery" side with each track bringing sounds from Summer and on the more melodic side!
We Initially launched Vol. 1 on the 1 year anniversary of EMA as a special compilation but decided to keep that tradition going every quarter. Nicky Havey wrote a full rundown of FSA Vol.3 on his website which you can find here but the Spotify playlist is below for your streaming pleasure and it's available to download on our Beatport page!
11:11 Invasion - July 11th
11 EMAliens, 11 MCs and rappers came together to bring this pile driver of a release which was the brain child of Trip Jacker. We went in to more depth to find out all about this epic project and how it came to be with many challenges having to be overcome with the coronavirus pandemic affecting play. However, in true EMA style, everyone came together and supported the completion of this compilation and give you the 11:11 Invasion!
Once again, Nicky Havey wrote a blog which followed some of the EMAliens featured around on their journey with this release and you can read all about it on our EMA website here. The full epic compilation is available to download here and you can stream below:
Featured Artist - DZM
Each month the "Featured Artist" section of our newsletter gives us a chance to find out more about one of our EMAliens and this time round, we're going to be shining the spotlight on Discord "High Flyer" - DZM! We digitally sent Nicky Havey over to find out more about this dude from 'Dam and here's what happened!
Hey hey it's the bee keeper "Bee ZM"! Congratulations on making your way in to DJ Overlord's "High Flyer" rank in our Discord - I know we're all looking forward to finding out more about you! So, who is the buzzing "Bee ZM" aka DZM? Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got involved with music?
Hey Nicky Beezy! I have been doing for a long time, starting out when I was like 13 years old or something, starting on some very basic software (Techno Maker and Fasttracker 2) and eventually ended up using Reason. As this was mostly pre-internet it was simply me messing around on my computer in my bedroom, and I did not really have the access to any fancy stuff so it was very basic what I was doing. I continued doing stuff here and there but it was about two years ago that I felt I wanted to give things another chance and so I bought a “lite” version of Reason and things started to click somehow. I have been going at it ever since!
I like a wide range of musical styles - I grew up on gabber / hardcore and I really loved the raw and emotional style of PCP from Frankfurt, which are getting in vogue again at the moment, being played by Helena Hauff and Nina Kraviz for example. After that I had a bit of a hiphop phase, starting with Eminem but really falling in love with the beats that RZA did for the early Wu-Tang stuff, I love MF Doom and when Kanye West came through. oh man… Later I started to enjoy rock as well, Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys, for example.
Musically my two biggest idols are Kanye West and Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Kanye is obviously widely regarded as an a$$hole but his music is simply on a different level. Also you gotta respect someone who simply does not care what people think and, every bedroom producer should simply adore him for how he got himself to the top (tip: listen to the second season of Dissect to get a bit of a flavour how tough that was). And Alex Turner, two things - first of all Arctic Monkeys make amazing music, almost every on of their songs has an amazing melodic left turn (usually on the bridge) that gives you goosebumps. And secondly, to see how he has developed himself from a shy kid to this rock star persona, I think its very cool.
Awesome man! It's great to see that you've got such a wide range of influences and to be able to pick two biggest idols isn't easy to do with the plethora of musical talents out there! So how have all these influences come across in your music? Do you have a particular style you go for?
I’d like to say emotional music. It can be anything, its mostly in the techno realm but even in there I’ll swing from harsh electro to melodic techno. And recently started working on hip hop which I like a lot, but the key is that it needs to have some emotional intensity to it.
Definitely agree with you about bringing emotions in to music, feels like we can express the inexpressible through our sounds hey? With these different techno vibes and hip hop sounds you're going for, have you managed to incorporate them in to your latest releases like "Space Age" or your track on 11:11 Invasion?
So Space Age was my latest original release and meant to be one of a series of more melodic techno stuff I have been doing. I think in my discography that is a relatively light and fun track, but I love nostalgic feeling of the chords and the JFK sample really amplifies this sense of “safety” that I felt in my childhood that seems to be gone from the world now.
11:11 invasion was so cool, I spoke a bit of how the beat came about for the release (involving a trip to Poland and a lot of alcohol), so I will leave that out, but when I got the vocals from Helstrip… man… My son goes to chess classes on Tuesday evening and usually I take my laptop with me and have a beer and work on some music while waiting for him to be ready, and I remember getting the vocals and just sitting there one and a half hour smiling like a maniac listening to Helstrip just absolutely killing it. Better Place is one of my favourite tracks out of my own releases, even though I feel the mix should have been better.
Still, I loved that experience so much, so I started working on a bunch of hiphop beats that I will either try to market or get some of the 11:11 rappers to rap on for a new release. Still thinking on that but I am really enjoying working with samples and creating those beats.
Next to that, I have three techno tracks that are 90% finished and that I’d like to finish and release. So maybe I will finally get to that and get them out there as an EP.
Yeah I get exactly what you mean by that "safety" feeling, the world is a different place now hey? The 11:11 project is an incredible feat and can just imagine you sitting there trying to contain yourself while everyone else in the chess room was trying to concentrate haha! Sounds like you've been a really busy boy of late, this is how Bee ZM rolls, buzzing around with the beats! Looking forward to seeing your latest Techno treats! Where can people find you online?
I am EVERY WHERE! Somehow Twitter is my favourite, so you can find me at @DoezMr, though I am also at Instagram and (yuk) Facebook. Honestly, I really hate the social media game as its so fake - yes there is some meaningful communication but mostly its just people selling stuff and I don’t think thats pretty.
Great stuff man! And I guess the final question, like always is, how did you get involved with or hear about EMA/EAR?
Because you guys are legendary! LOL. One of my early tracks got selected by Ms EfemBee, and this is really not that long ago. And she was involved with EMA, and initially I was a bit intimidated by you guys but one crazy nights I decided to drop you a message and the rest is history!
Haha! Well, we're only a sum of our parts and everyone is a legend in their own right at EMA, including you! We're really happy to have you with us and that you decided to drop a message - look at all the awesome collabs you've got involved with!
So there you have it folks! The legendary BeeZM - make sure you follow him on the social links above and check his music out out! Here's a glimpse in to his tunes on Spotify:
We hope you have enjoyed this month’s newsletter, let us know in the comments below and catch you soon for the next one!
Yours EMA (Bufinjer, DaveyHub & Nicky Havey)
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