Chronic Sonata is the sonic experiment of Canadian producers/songwriters Eric Ratz, Domenic Macri and John Gilbert. Not entirely satisfied with the prospects of strictly catering to a genre-driven market, Chronic Sonata endeavored to create and explore unheard soundscapes of organic and synthetic waveforms woven into an aural canvas.
With inspirations spanning the gamut from punk to funk, reggae to rock, and everything in between, the one element that takes precedence in the production style of Chronic Sonata is reggae’s sub-genre dub.
Look for more of Chronic Sonata in 2007, with new tracks, remixes and vinyl already in the works.
Long Dist. 12″ will be available from Turntable Lab soon.
Long Dist. is a collaborative effort involving three zip codes, two artists, and one vision. MARI and R’s first offering Midway Connect, a 5 song ep, culminates a bi-coastal creation one year in the making. Long Dist. aims at engaging listeners with a sound that interleaves the warmth of R’s west coast voice and Marihoto’s Brooklyn basement backings. As Long Dist.’s first project, Midway Connect serves as a promising introduction to the world offering introspection, soulfulness, and attitude. Midway Connect showcases Long Dist.’s forward movements with style and substance that only a Oakland-Brooklyn pairing could manifest.
Chimp Beams are an electronic dub trio formed in 2001 by 3 Japanese men, Marihito, K-Go Mizutani and Yusuke Yamamoto who all live in Brooklyn, NY. Their concept is chill out dance music using break beats, vibraphones, guitar and many other live instruments played on top. Having been influenced by Massive Attack and My Bloody Valentine, they mix dub, jazz, rock, techno, rare groove, soul, funk and ethnic music by their own interpretation. Their sound is very hypnotic and psychedelic. The 3 members bring together disparate backgrounds to create a unique Chimp Beams sound.
Improvisation is a key element to the live show, as the Chimps twist the songs little more freely, adding some aggressive edge. The debut album “Vibrato” was released from Concent in 2004~2005. The media and club music giants such as Audio Active and Force of Nature in Japan praised it. The first single, “Calm” was a minor hit in club scene and released on a few compilation CD’s. Chimp Beams have released two full-length CD’s, one 7″ Single, three EP & one Vinyl LP.
Member’s Profile: MARIHITO | President of the Concent Productions, a track maker of Chimp Beams, and a dub mixer of Dub Nomads. He has done many remixes for other artists and has released a mix CD as a DJ Marihito.
K-GO MIZUTANI | Guitarist for Chimp Beams and the electronic dance rock band Lution, which just released a CD “Simpletalk”. He has done many songs and jingles as a composer.
YUSUKE YAMAMOTO | A Multi-instrumentalist, he plays vibraphones, flute, melodica, percussion and more for Chimp Beams. He has released a solo CD “Ape-man Talking” as channel U and plays support roles for many other artists.
Chimp Beams are releasing the US version of their ambitious second album, Menina, having already released it to critical acclaim in Japan earlier this year. The title track, Menina, is a club hit, with the 12″ EP quickly selling out and causing a ruckus in the record stores. Filled with melodic, harmonic songs, the new full length also has two hip-hop tracks.
It’s been 2 years since NY’s Japanese group Chimp Beams released a milestone album “Vibrato”into the world dub scene in 2004~2005. This electronic dub band will release its second album in Feb. of 2007. As you can hear on the title track “Menina”, they push the melodious and emotional side to the limit rather than their first album’s dark chill out sound. Soft and warm harmonies meet deep underground beats on this historic masterpiece. Though you can definitely call this the world of “Chimp Beams DUB”, they’ll prove you wrong if you think this is just a dub band. Recommended for fans of Electronica, Break Beats, Jazz, Hip Hop and House music as well.
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