How JPOD the Beat Chef Became a Shambhala Favorite

JPOD aka JPOD the Beat Chef aka Jason is a fixture of the Western Canadian electronic music scene. This year from August 8-11 on the Salmo River Ranch in Salmo, British Columbia, Canada will be his fifteenth at Shambhala Music Festival. It’s only right that we end our “Shambhala Favorites” interview series by learning about the beat chef and how he first made his way to Shambhala.

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Sound of Solasta - Pathwey

Solasta Festival is leaving its original grounds in northeastern Tennessee for the misty, hill-bound Deerfields Retreat in southwestern North Carolina. The event is known for its niche curation, booking the cream of the contemporary crop in psychedelic broken beat music. Unlike their location, this ethos hasn’t changed. Our Sound of Solasta interview series investigates the back stories of artists on the lineup, and this year we’re focusing on the ascendant audio alchemist Pathwey from the nearby city of Asheville, NC.

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Get to Know the Shambhala Favorites Fort Knox Five & Qdup

If you trace back the career of the Fort Knox Five, you’ll also discover the evolution of the musical style commonly known as electro funk. Almost 15 years ago they found their way from Washington D.C. to British Columbia, Canada and Shambhala Music Festival, and they’ve made it their home ever since. More recently, Fort Knox Five began performing with fellow DC DJ Qdup, and soon the duo will funk Shambhala for the fifth year in a row.

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Get to Know the Shambhala Favorites Starting with Slynk

Hailed by some as “the funkiest DJ on the planet”, the Australian-born Vancouver-based DJ/producer Slynk has been performing at Shambhala Music Festival for nearly a decade and returns this summer as one of several acts labeled on the 2019 lineup as “Shambhala Favorites”. Shambhala has chosen to recognize this group of artists whose roots run especially deep with the festival, so we decided to see what the buzz is about, starting with the fun-loving and funky Slynk aka Evan Chandler.

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Sixis Embraces a Fierce New Direction

Is it challenging for an artist who has found a degree of success to consciously decide to switch up their style? If one earns recognition doing things a certain way, how will they fare once they begin doing things differently? The experimental producer Sixis has some insight on these questions. He made his name with a handful of EPs and singles marked by ambiance, attention to detail, slow progression, and tropes of transcendence. Now the producer is pursuing a “fierce new direction”. 

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Mike Wallis [Interview]

Although his name may sound unfamiliar, Mike Wallis has spent the better part of two decades subtly shaping the landscape of broken beat electronic music by releasing forward-thinking sounds under various aliases, collaborating with producers like Tipper and Kursa, and founding the London-based label Colony Productions. We had the opportunity to correspond with Wallis about his new Osmetic EP Lab Notes and the arch of his life-long musical journey.

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Universal Language - ANKO [Interview]

The same ingredients that construct music also construct linguistics in everyday speech; pitch, rhythm, and tempo. The column Universal Language was first inspired by a deep appreciation of music that speaks on emotional levels. The concept blossomed into a practice of collecting thoughts from musicians about how the music culture and scene in their country may impact their sound and artist persona. For the first installment, we spoke to French producer duo ANKO.

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Lo-Fi Sundays 052 - Axian [Interview]

To mark one year of Lo-Fi Sundays, we’re publishing a conversation with an eminent representative of beat music, Alexander Fjellerad Thomsen, better known as Axian of Aarhus, Denmark. In addition to covering who Axian is and how he makes his spacey, sample-cut music, we ended up discussing beats music generally, the “lo-fi community” at large.

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Solasta Festival - Vinja [Interview]

The venerable Vinja is a stalwart of turntablism and high-octane electronic grooves. This summer, Vinja performed in Tennessee at the upstart gathering Solasta Festival. We were able to steal Vince Santora (Vinja) from the revelry for candid conversation covering the development of his tunes, Solasta itself, and the ever-evolving music social phenomena and his place within it.

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Shambhala Music Festival - Chord Marauders [Interview]

Gaz Frost, one half of the producter/DJ duo Congi our of Nottingham, UK, agreed to sit down for an interview representing the Chord Marauders at Shambhala Music Festival 2018. The jazz-infused 140 bpm record label has been pushing one of the most original sounds in dubstep since forming in 2012. Shambhala, which rarely curates spotlights or showcases on its lineup, booked the Chord Marauders for a label showcase at The Grove stage on Sunday.

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Sound of Solasta - EasyJack

For the last installment in our Sound of Solasta series, we linked up with a vital individual within the infrastructure of Solasta Festival, the producer/DJ and sound system connoisseur Jack Whelan. Known on the stage as EasyJack, Whelan the co-owner and lead engineer for Soundsystem Cultures LLC, an audio production and Funktion One sound system rental company based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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Sound of Solasta - Saltus

Come mid-August Solasta Festival is slated to return to its pristine stomping grounds of Spirit Crossing in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. It's being presented by a plethora of industry players who explore their own artistic expression within music, as well as curate and operate various audio-focused companies of their own. Through the Sound of Solasta series we'll explore the inner machinations of these multifaceted individuals and their outlets.

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Fractalfest - Terraphorm [Profile]

Perched atop an old rock wall overlooking the field at Page Farm in Croydon, New Hampshire, I sat with a new acquaintance, Tovia Ben Shapiro aka Terraphorm at the Psychedelic Sleepover. Terraphorm spun an early afternoon dubstep set on Saturday at the Sleepover, but on Friday on the rocks in the shade it was another festival that dominated our conversation; Fractalfest 2018 <Art/ificial> coming up on July 12-15 in Stephentown, New York.

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Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival - DeeZ [Interview]

Despite dreary early afternoon rain Andy Widdecomb aka DeeZ did at Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival what he always does - throw down. For the second straight year Andy helped lead a thorough cast of bass musicians into Lakewood, Pennsylvania or BangOn! NYC's raucous camping festival. Elements Lakewood was the first in a string of festival performances for DeeZ. It caught him fresh off his second annual tour with Mickman, which saw the the pair of producers lug a Funktion One sound rig from city to city, into and out of basements and venues, to play their unique roughneck bass music. 

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