San Jaya Prime
I love the moment when a song really vibrates with a person. You can see it and feel it in their every movement! The sound brings them to life, touching something inside of that person, and with the possibility of impacting their entire life. Music is magic. People are magic. And you know what? Sometimes people just need to be reminded of that. A song has the power to change the world.
If you are limited on time, just scroll down to my most popular songs. My mashup "Teardrop on Roads" is known around the world, and it's just a little bit down the page. Then, just one song below that, you'll find my award-winning remix for Daft Punk's "The Grid". But if you've time to spare, I'd rather do this right 'n proper. So, as to give you a grasp of the full gamut of what I do, I've put my portfolio in a specific order. To tell you I am a musician tells you almost nothing. To open your ears and let you hear what I do? Well, now... that opens worlds. So come! Put on your headphones and stay a while.
If you are limited on time, just scroll down to my most popular songs. My mashup "Teardrop on Roads" is known around the world, and it's just a little bit down the page. Then, just one song below that, you'll find my award-winning remix for Daft Punk's "The Grid". But if you've time to spare, I'd rather do this right 'n proper. So, as to give you a grasp of the full gamut of what I do, I've put my portfolio in a specific order. To tell you I am a musician tells you almost nothing. To open your ears and let you hear what I do? Well, now... that opens worlds. So come! Put on your headphones and stay a while.
Unlimited: Beyond the definitions of genre. Instead of creating inside the box of a "category", unlimited is creating pieces at a time that work together as an artistic whole. "Underwater Grave" opens with a woman's solo, moving into IDM and glitch, then dropping into an instrumental-bass fusion, becoming chillstep, then closing on instrumental glitch. Many parts were created by whistling or recording myself beatboxing, then putting the elements together on top of my own recording one step at a time.
World: World music influences the majority of what I create. The sitar and mandolin of the East are long-time favorites that I return to time and again, just as with the strings and classical piano of the West... and there is nothing like the tribal percussion of Africa to make the heart race faster and faster! I work slowly on learning the pan pipes of South America, but I am (as always) a work in progress. My favorite instrument of all time--the music box--continues to elude me... but I remain undeterred.
Mashup: I started the year 2011 at #8 in the world on HypeMachine's Twitter Charts. This mashup is to blame. It quickly went viral and now appears all over the world, and was even played at Barcelona's SONAR Festival in 2011. This was only my third attempt EVER at making a mashup. My second attempt, "All the Warmth in this Memory", fused Glitch-Hop with Industrial, and it is right here on SoundCloud. My first mashup was a rock medley, taking my favorite parts of the SAME SONG from two different groups. A new version of "Hardly Wait" is under works for a full album of mashups in 2013.
Remix: Remixing is what got me into working on electronic music in 2001. Ten years later, in 2011, my remix of Daft Punk's "The Grid" placed as a runner-up in Disney and Indaba's "Tron: Remixed" competition, placing #11 in the world out of 891 remixes. I have made so many remixes that I often forget about some of them, but MOST of them are available here on SoundCloud. Some of my most popular remixes are "A Drowning" by How to Destroy Angels [SoundCloud], "Drive It Like You Stole It" by The Glitch Mob [SoundCloud], and "Discipline" by Nine Inch Nails [SoundCloud].
Mastering: My first re-master was "A Glorious Dawn (WUB Dubstep Remix)" from Symphony of Science. I remaster many songs for my own library. A few of these go public, or I send them directly to the artist. Another one I am trying to get into the hands of the original artist is the Egadz remix of "Solitaire" by The Notwist. You can hear his remix (sans my master) [Here on YouTube]. BMFD and I working together remixed an amazing mashup with Little Dragon's "Twice" and the PS22 Chorus, which got the attention of everyone involved. J Barber, who originally mashed the two songs, has made our re-master available for free download [Here on BandCamp]. More credit for these re-masters goes to BMFD, himself.
DJ: Most people recognize me by my DJ-side. I passed out my first DJ set on CDs in 2002, "Tears of Ra", and since then I have mixed so many different types of music. My most recent set--The Passions of Blood, Smoke, and Oil [SoundCloud]--explores the resurgent genre of future garage, a genre founded by the man called Burial. The Generation Bass audio source, reviewing my set, called it: "This is Burialesque in all its glory harking back to the great golden days when Dubstep was such an exciting proposition." I mix dubstep, downtempo, dance, and emotive IDM sets... and I can keep mixing for hours. I love the moment when one song becomes another song.... it is inbetween moments, a space where there is a hidden third song, a song that is transient and fading and completely magic. I love DJing, both live and in the studio, and I love the connection between the music, the dancers, and the DJ. There is nothing else like it!
There are too many different DJ sets to list here, but many of them are available to listen to on Mixcloud.
Genre (n): A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content *
Above, I went into detail about capabilities. I produce, I make mashups, I remix other songs, I engineer masters and do re-mastering, and I DJ the hell out of a party. Below, I detail specific genres where I specialize... most often in terms of composition and production. For those who are unfamiliar with the many genres of electronic music, consider this a short introduction.
* Definition from TheFreeDictionary dot Com
Trip-Hop, Downtempo: Deceptively slow, and often dark and moody, trip-hop was pushed into the mainstream by icons like Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Portishead, Bjork, and Sneaker Pimps. Although it's fallen out of the mainstream, fans and musicians who hold on to the genre hold on to it with a fervent passion. Trip-hop was my favorite genre until finally being dethrowned by future garage.
Chillout: When the party is winding down, chillout is the music that closes the doors. It glows. Most chillout songs have the feeling of a beach, or a sunset, or both... and slow enough to carry a soul to sleep.
IDM: This is my most popular song, second only to "Teardrop on Roads". If it didn't have a few seconds with a beat, it would be completely illbient instead of IDM. When there is a beat, but the beat changes or there are tempo changes or key changes, it is IDM. Most IDM creates a visual scene as if painting, and makes no effort at getting people on the dance floor. It's music for the mind's eye.
Broken Beat: Broken Beat is that crack in the sidewalk that you trip over while walking, then you start moving your head, and finally the rhythm grabs you... or just shocks you. Broken Beat is that niche between IDM and rhythm. For the more symphonic side of my productions, another broken beat song of mine to check out is "Party at Arizona Bay (Ouverture)".
Dubstep: You can love it or hate it, but dubstep straight up assaulted the world with a hammer and a whip. There is nothing passive about dubstep. The LFO "wobble" bass--or "bwomp"--has been both praised AND made the brunt of many jokes. The two-step whiplash kick-snare combo either has bodies dancing or it has people running as far as they can go. I love the aggressive contrasts and energy of dubstep, and it is as fun to produce as it is to dance to.
Chillstep: Also known as "liquid dubstep", chillstep places more focus on vocals and instrumentation, where dubstep places more focus on bass and percussion. Chillstep also slows down the tempo from dubstep's 140bpm to about 130bpm. Even those who declaim dubstep will often nod their head to a chillstep song.
Future Garage: A man called Burial took the beat from UK 2-Step, the sampling from hip-hop, then time-stretched vocals so that they were nearly unrecognizable, and set it all on top of a bed of deep, rich, rolling bass. It has been called future garage, a genre with very heavy emphasis on its emotive elements, and on a very personal and intimate connection with the "texture" of the music.
Leftstep: There was once a genre called "leftfield" that has now faded nearly to the point of non-existence. It was named so because of the group by the same name who founded the genre. I took the signature kick from the leftfield genre, as well as its transational influences and its tempo, and then applied them to dubstep production. I call the genre "Leftstep", and the few tracks I've produced in this genre have surprised me in how well others have responded to it. Expect more along these lines.
Dramatic Scoring: I love working on symphonic compositions, especially marches, dirges, and charges. I often add electronic elements, but the most important aspects are the energy, easily marked by instrumental crescendos and the visual scenes contained inside the songs.
Electro-House: When you break out a funk bass guitar and set it to a dance beat with power chords on the synths, you get electro-house. Daft Punk popularized the genre, and since then it has branched out into many other subgenres. My personal favorite is my collaboration "2TLXLI" with DJ Chad Is a DJ.
Bollywood Breakbeat: This song has been played on many radio stations and podcasts, and is easily my most popular song from the "IO Vapoura" album. The instrumentation of India set to high-speed breakbeat and quick changes in instrumentation. If I had access to a Bollywood vocalist, there would be chanting in here also, but don't count that out when a future remix comes about.
Drum & Bleep: Mixing Drum & Bass with the fringe-genre known as "chiptune" will land you in the arena of Drum & Bleep. It sounds like a Nintendo having a seizure. While it is NOT for many ears, the few people who DO get into the genre have gone crazy over every song I've released for them.
Anime: When you mix the genre of IDM with symphonic film scores, you have "anime" music. The genre is heralded by legends such as Yoko Kanno, Geino Yamashirnimeh, Shiro Sagisu, Michiru Oshima, and many others. It is highly visually evocative, with heavy electronic elements AND heavy symphonic elements, and draws influence from absolutely every other type of music.
