Albums : Pretty Lights : A Color Map of the Sun
Albums : Pretty Lights : A Color Map of the Sun
Listen To Pretty Lights : A Color Map of the Sun
Who is Pretty Lights?
Derek Vincent Smith (born November 25, 1981), better known as Pretty Lights, is an electronic music artist, and also the owner of the label Pretty Lights Music which has under it artists of similar genre.
Smith wrote and produced hip hop music while attending high school in Fort Collins, Colorado. After graduating from high school, he attended University of Colorado at Boulder, but dropped out during his freshman year to focus on his music instead. In 2007 and 2008, Smith began playing late nights for large acts such as STS9, The Disco Biscuits & Widespread Panic. In the summer of 2009, under the moniker Pretty Lights, Smith played at several major American music festivals, such as Bonnaroo, Rothbury, the Electric Daisy Carnival, Wakarusa, Camp Bisco, and the 10KLF. The following autumn, he went on a multi-city tour of the United States.
In 2010, Pretty Lights played at the 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, the 2010 Marchone Music Productions Illumination Show in Nashville, the 2010 Evolve Festival in Nova Scotia, Movement 2010 (the Detroit Electronic Music Festival), the 2010 Starscape Festival, Camp Bisco 9, Nocturnal Festival at Apache Pass, Texas, the 2010 Electric Zoo at Randall's Island in New York City, New York, the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois, and the Outsidelands Festival in San Francisco, California. More recently, they headlined the Snow Ball in Avon Colorado along with Bassnectar and the Flaming Lips. In June 2011 Pretty Lights had a late-night set at Bonnaroo, where he debuted the hit song "I know the Truth." Smith also debuted his state of the art light show in early 2011 involving LED towers made to look like a cityscape. Most recently in July 2011, he headlined at the Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan, at Camp Bisco's 10th anniversary in Mariaville, NY, and at All Good 2011 in Masontown, WV. At All Good 2011 Pretty Lights released what Smith described onstage as a special "one in a lifetime" track, a remix of John Denver's "Take me Home Country Roads".
Smith toured with drummer Cory Eberhard from August 2007 to June 2011. In 2010, Smith replaced Eberhard with Adam Deitch as drummer, debuting at Red Rocks on August 7, 2010. Smith stopped touring with a live drummer in 2011.
On January 25, 2011, Smith released two albums on his newly formed record label, Pretty Lights Music. The record label offers free downloads for any of Pretty Lights' albums plus Michal Menert, Paper Diamond and Break Science, Gramatik, Paul Basic, Eliot Lipp, SuperVision; current and past artists under his PLM record label. A donation option is available. Pretty Lights continues to distribute music for free, and frequently appears at festivals across the world.
In 2012, Pretty Lights was featured in the musical documentary Re:GENERATION Music Project producing the track Wayfaring Stranger, featuring Country music stars LeAnn Rimes and Ralph Stanley for a collaborative effort mixing two genres, namely electronic and country.
Pretty Lights released a new full-length album titled A Color Map of the Sun on July 2, 2013. This is the first Pretty Lights album that does not rely on borrowed samples. Smith conducted and composed all music for the record himself and with musicians in studios in Brooklyn, New Orleans and Denver. He then pressed those recording to vinyl to create his own catalog of music to sample from. The album is being released as a free download via prettylightsmusic.com as well as on vinyl, CD and on iTunes.
Smith's music relies heavily on digital sampling and crosses many genres, forming a combination of "glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples." Pretty Lights' sound is generated by synthesizing samples and organic beats using the Novation X-Station, monome and the Akai MPD32. Smith uses these digital controllers to program the music production software Ableton Live 8. When performing live, Smith uses two Macbook Pros running Ableton Live 8 and two Akai MPD32s. Smith usually considers his music as "Electro Hip-Hop Soul", a mix between elements of electronic based music, and beats from hip-hop and soul music.
A Color Map Of The Sun Review
On Soundcloud, Pretty Lights' Derek Vincent Smith calls his latest album a "multimedium map of my mind and self." It's a description that makes "A Color Map of the Sun" sound like some kind of dream therapy rather than an album. And a dream is really the closest analogy — a collage of sounds that create an overall experience without articulating any specific information or purpose.
Intentions aside, each of these tracks showcases Smith's prowess as a technician. He layers samples, vintage-sounding vocals and live instrumentation to create a sometimes-frenzied and sometimes-relaxing atmosphere with consistently hazy textures.
He's at his best when he focuses on the softer side of the electronic spectrum on meditations such as "Yellow Bird" and "Press Pause." On these tracks, he veers closer to the experimental-electronic jams of Flying Lotus, but without the rhythmic or harmonic complexity. It's the harsher, more macho sounds akin to traditional dubstep where he loses his auditory depth. The worst case is on "Let's Get Busy," a song that abandons the light and fleeting for some of the more obvious dubstep crunch. Matt Miller
Evoking the soul of Americana, folk, alt-country, indie rock, and other currently ubiquitous genres seems to be the Holy Grail of many freshly minted bands, as if making a definitive musical statement somehow also involves sampling everything and pretending it adds up to something more than a cheap buffet.
In that sense, every young, guitar- or banjo-toting pop/rock band should take some notes from Mark Mulcahy. His new album "Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You" is effortlessly genre-spanning without sounding schizophrenic, doling out its emotions in pinpricks and splinters, tight and snappy, rollicking and sardonic, but always with economy in mind.
That's not to say Mulcahy isn't having a good time. "Everybody Hustles Leo" is a barn-burner with more than a hint of jangly soul, and "Let the Fireflies Fly Away" (the album's rock-solid core) is both funny and menacing. Mulcahy's got his themes — drugs and emotional loss pop up frequently — but never lingers too long on a sentiment, preferring to shuffle us past them like a carnival barker who knows others are waiting in line.
The breezy, waltz-like "Badly Madly" simmers with an intensity that would make the polyglot balladeers of DeVotchKa jealous, while album-closer "Where's the Indifference Now" is a chilling, stream-of-consciousness tale of suicide (or is it?) that unfolds like a horror movie, dark and voyeuristic but thrillingly cathartic.
It's easy to see why Mulcahy's a musician's musician (he enjoyed a 2009 tribute album featuring covers of his songs by R.E.M., Thom Yorke, The National, Frank Black, and more). His music is straightforward and layered, unpretentious in melody but lyrically fussed over and able to withstand scrutiny. If it sometimes comes off as dry, it's because Mulcahy has no use for condiments or filler. This is the meat itself, barbecued and sizzling on your plate. John Wenzel
Contact Pretty Lights
Website | Twitter | Facebook | MySpace | Pinterest | YouTube | GM | Press | Booking
Contact The Denver Post
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Google+ | Pinterest | Email
Sources : Pretty Lights Photo | Listen To A Color Map Of The Sun | Pretty Lights Biography | A Color Map Of The Sun Review
Purchase : iTunes | iTunes (Deluxe Version) | Amazon | Amazon (Deluxe Version) | Walmart
Listen To Pretty Lights : A Color Map of the Sun
Who is Pretty Lights?
Derek Vincent Smith (born November 25, 1981), better known as Pretty Lights, is an electronic music artist, and also the owner of the label Pretty Lights Music which has under it artists of similar genre.
Smith wrote and produced hip hop music while attending high school in Fort Collins, Colorado. After graduating from high school, he attended University of Colorado at Boulder, but dropped out during his freshman year to focus on his music instead. In 2007 and 2008, Smith began playing late nights for large acts such as STS9, The Disco Biscuits & Widespread Panic. In the summer of 2009, under the moniker Pretty Lights, Smith played at several major American music festivals, such as Bonnaroo, Rothbury, the Electric Daisy Carnival, Wakarusa, Camp Bisco, and the 10KLF. The following autumn, he went on a multi-city tour of the United States.
In 2010, Pretty Lights played at the 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, the 2010 Marchone Music Productions Illumination Show in Nashville, the 2010 Evolve Festival in Nova Scotia, Movement 2010 (the Detroit Electronic Music Festival), the 2010 Starscape Festival, Camp Bisco 9, Nocturnal Festival at Apache Pass, Texas, the 2010 Electric Zoo at Randall's Island in New York City, New York, the North Coast Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois, and the Outsidelands Festival in San Francisco, California. More recently, they headlined the Snow Ball in Avon Colorado along with Bassnectar and the Flaming Lips. In June 2011 Pretty Lights had a late-night set at Bonnaroo, where he debuted the hit song "I know the Truth." Smith also debuted his state of the art light show in early 2011 involving LED towers made to look like a cityscape. Most recently in July 2011, he headlined at the Electric Forest in Rothbury, Michigan, at Camp Bisco's 10th anniversary in Mariaville, NY, and at All Good 2011 in Masontown, WV. At All Good 2011 Pretty Lights released what Smith described onstage as a special "one in a lifetime" track, a remix of John Denver's "Take me Home Country Roads".
Smith toured with drummer Cory Eberhard from August 2007 to June 2011. In 2010, Smith replaced Eberhard with Adam Deitch as drummer, debuting at Red Rocks on August 7, 2010. Smith stopped touring with a live drummer in 2011.
On January 25, 2011, Smith released two albums on his newly formed record label, Pretty Lights Music. The record label offers free downloads for any of Pretty Lights' albums plus Michal Menert, Paper Diamond and Break Science, Gramatik, Paul Basic, Eliot Lipp, SuperVision; current and past artists under his PLM record label. A donation option is available. Pretty Lights continues to distribute music for free, and frequently appears at festivals across the world.
In 2012, Pretty Lights was featured in the musical documentary Re:GENERATION Music Project producing the track Wayfaring Stranger, featuring Country music stars LeAnn Rimes and Ralph Stanley for a collaborative effort mixing two genres, namely electronic and country.
Pretty Lights released a new full-length album titled A Color Map of the Sun on July 2, 2013. This is the first Pretty Lights album that does not rely on borrowed samples. Smith conducted and composed all music for the record himself and with musicians in studios in Brooklyn, New Orleans and Denver. He then pressed those recording to vinyl to create his own catalog of music to sample from. The album is being released as a free download via prettylightsmusic.com as well as on vinyl, CD and on iTunes.
Smith's music relies heavily on digital sampling and crosses many genres, forming a combination of "glitchy hip-hop beats, buzzing synth lines, and vintage funk and soul samples." Pretty Lights' sound is generated by synthesizing samples and organic beats using the Novation X-Station, monome and the Akai MPD32. Smith uses these digital controllers to program the music production software Ableton Live 8. When performing live, Smith uses two Macbook Pros running Ableton Live 8 and two Akai MPD32s. Smith usually considers his music as "Electro Hip-Hop Soul", a mix between elements of electronic based music, and beats from hip-hop and soul music.
A Color Map Of The Sun Review
On Soundcloud, Pretty Lights' Derek Vincent Smith calls his latest album a "multimedium map of my mind and self." It's a description that makes "A Color Map of the Sun" sound like some kind of dream therapy rather than an album. And a dream is really the closest analogy — a collage of sounds that create an overall experience without articulating any specific information or purpose.
Intentions aside, each of these tracks showcases Smith's prowess as a technician. He layers samples, vintage-sounding vocals and live instrumentation to create a sometimes-frenzied and sometimes-relaxing atmosphere with consistently hazy textures.
He's at his best when he focuses on the softer side of the electronic spectrum on meditations such as "Yellow Bird" and "Press Pause." On these tracks, he veers closer to the experimental-electronic jams of Flying Lotus, but without the rhythmic or harmonic complexity. It's the harsher, more macho sounds akin to traditional dubstep where he loses his auditory depth. The worst case is on "Let's Get Busy," a song that abandons the light and fleeting for some of the more obvious dubstep crunch. Matt Miller
Evoking the soul of Americana, folk, alt-country, indie rock, and other currently ubiquitous genres seems to be the Holy Grail of many freshly minted bands, as if making a definitive musical statement somehow also involves sampling everything and pretending it adds up to something more than a cheap buffet.
In that sense, every young, guitar- or banjo-toting pop/rock band should take some notes from Mark Mulcahy. His new album "Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You" is effortlessly genre-spanning without sounding schizophrenic, doling out its emotions in pinpricks and splinters, tight and snappy, rollicking and sardonic, but always with economy in mind.
That's not to say Mulcahy isn't having a good time. "Everybody Hustles Leo" is a barn-burner with more than a hint of jangly soul, and "Let the Fireflies Fly Away" (the album's rock-solid core) is both funny and menacing. Mulcahy's got his themes — drugs and emotional loss pop up frequently — but never lingers too long on a sentiment, preferring to shuffle us past them like a carnival barker who knows others are waiting in line.
The breezy, waltz-like "Badly Madly" simmers with an intensity that would make the polyglot balladeers of DeVotchKa jealous, while album-closer "Where's the Indifference Now" is a chilling, stream-of-consciousness tale of suicide (or is it?) that unfolds like a horror movie, dark and voyeuristic but thrillingly cathartic.
It's easy to see why Mulcahy's a musician's musician (he enjoyed a 2009 tribute album featuring covers of his songs by R.E.M., Thom Yorke, The National, Frank Black, and more). His music is straightforward and layered, unpretentious in melody but lyrically fussed over and able to withstand scrutiny. If it sometimes comes off as dry, it's because Mulcahy has no use for condiments or filler. This is the meat itself, barbecued and sizzling on your plate. John Wenzel
Contact Pretty Lights
Website | Twitter | Facebook | MySpace | Pinterest | YouTube | GM | Press | Booking
Contact The Denver Post
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Google+ | Pinterest | Email
Sources : Pretty Lights Photo | Listen To A Color Map Of The Sun | Pretty Lights Biography | A Color Map Of The Sun Review
Purchase : iTunes | iTunes (Deluxe Version) | Amazon | Amazon (Deluxe Version) | Walmart
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