Well at this point the Mini-Disk player is a technology of the past, my disks had been collecting dust for years, and my last working player  long been busted from carrying it in my stick bag where ever I went. Recently I opened this box and knew I had to dive in but first I had to get a hold of a player. Enter the wonders of eBay and the next thing I knew I had a great component player for around $40 and I was off and running.

This post is an initial collection of my findings. I’ve got some great vintage Grandfather Ridiculous performances, jazz sessions with some amazing students I was going to school with at the time including Marcus Strickland, John Lee, Richard Cruz, Reid Taylor, Joe Ashlar and others, and some live performances I have re-mixed that I had totally forgotten about.

Enjoy and check back later for more choice additions.

Nigel Sifantus – “The Vault” Recordings from 1999-2005 by Progtronica

Progtronica weekly Ableton DJ set part 2 – 2/4/10 by Progtronica

Here it is! Part 2 of the weekly Progtronica DJ series. This one is a little bit longer then the first one and incorporates a few new tunes. Featured in This week’s performance I  mixed the tunes “Drum n bass for a Rainy day”, “Lets Face the music”, “Rolling with Strings” “Progtronica 2″ and part of “Progtronica 1″. The video in this post contains highlights from the 16 minute performance because with the restrictions of YouTube, I can only post 10 minutes of material. To hear the entire set click on the sound cloud player directly below the video. You can also download the mix for free. To do this simply click on the downward pointing arrow on the right of the waveform! Enjoy

2010 is going to be an exciting year for Progtronica. I am nearing the compleation of compiling all the tracks for my debut solo release “Progtronica-Live from Nowhere” The raw version of all the performances have been featured an all my recent videos. The next step is mixing, mastering and arraigning them into album form. Recently I have added 2 brand new performances featured on this page: “Rolling with Strings” and “Drum n’ Bass for a Rainy Day” both featuring my new (awesome) piece of gear, the Novation ZeRO SL Mk II midi controller, which has tons of faders and knobs etc. Partnered with my beloved Novation Launchpad and Ableton Live Suite 8 things are getting really crazy here in my studio. 2010 is going to be the year of Progtronica!
Also check out the new “Progtronica Live for No One” channel on Vimeo.

In this post are 2 recent live home performances: ”Progtronica – Live Extended Outdoor Edition” recorded outside on my deck under the setting sun of Long Beach California on December 20th. The second video is “Progtronica 2” which features a mix of triggered drum samples and live drumming on Roland V-Drums in a shifting 5/4 time. Both were recorded and performed using Ableton Live 8 and Novation’s new “Launchpad” a dedicated Ableton controller. All the drums are played by me live at some point, either at the point of performance, or at the beginning of composition. The other sounds are usually created from scratch using Ableton’s software instriments, or my manipulating samples of found sounds, chopping, editing, and transposing them to make melodic and harmonic phrases and textures.

Stay tuned for more info about the upcoming release which will be available for download and traditional CD purchase online through this website and all the other places where one finds music to add to their collection now days. After the release I plan to take this show on the road so watch out!

This is a great old video I dug up playing my “Last of the Imaginative Executioners” drum ‘n bass drum solo that I used to play with Grandfather Ridiculous in the 2003 era. There are not a lot of good video’s at all of that band so this is kind of a cool time capsule. This was from a show at a club in downtown NYC called Tribeka and was probably one of that last times I performed this solo. the video kind of shows the infancy stage of the progtronica project I’m working on now. At this point I was using a Roland MC-909 sampler/sequencer with a electronic kick and Roland midi drum trigger along with my acoustic drums.

This is the first music video production from my new Long Beach studio, live drums and video by me, and featuring the Beatboxing skills of Taylor McFerrin as well as vocals from Philadelphia area vocalists Ryat, (as Human) and Shara Dae. The music was almost entirely written and produced on a quick coast to coast trip from California to Philadelphia for a old friend’s wedding, mostly on the many connecting flights and train rides. Following the slamming reception, extended after party, and impromptu late night hotel break-in pool party, I got these 3 artists to come back to my hotel room to lay down some of their stuff along to the semi abstract 7/8 Drum and bass piece I was working on. After getting home, I did a little mixing and editing, then re-recorded the drums live. The results are what you see here.

I have been working with Ableton Live as my main digital music platform for a few years, using several different controllers to trigger sounds, samples, drum breaks and affect different parameters in real time while mixing music. With this unit though, I’m bringing it to a whole different level. Here are two live home performances: “Progtronica” a live jungle mashup, and “American Dream Remix” a live performance of the music from my film of the same title. I am just getting started with this so stay tuned. I plan to keep working this technique so that I can play for hours continuously.

Originally inspired by the amazing racket my new washer/dryer unit was making. I set out to make a piece using samples from around my immediate surroundings. Featured here are: sink (with dirty dishes) coffee carafe, coffee cup, garage door opener, airplane advertising for the Long Beach Marathon, stairs, bottles, and the Be-Bot app on the iphone takes a solo. I also play the drums live on Roland V-drums, recorded all the film on a flip video camera, and edited it all using ableton live 8 and iMovie. Making music using ready made sounds is hardly an original idea but this is my own unique take, blazing live drum n. bass style.

A video tribute to Luke Vibert, JoJo Mayer, KJ Sakwa, and the health care reform debate insanity. This is a
live drum n’ bass performance video from Nigel Sifantus’ upcoming solo ep. Like a line of dominos, The sounds are set up and then knocked down using digital V-drums, nobs, sliders and effects. Prepare to be transfixed!