Nigel Sifantus » Drum N’ Bass

Mad Live Beats, Drum n’ Bass style

Nigel — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:37:50 +0000

This Video is the last in the “Dj’ing from behind the drums” Progtronica series as I move on to 2 exciting new projects that build of the foundation built here on these videos. Here I’ve introduced a new key piece of the arsenal the Roland SPD-30 octopad to play the live drumming. With this small pad and a set of external triggers, I’m able to compress my whole performance rig bring all of the controls closer to my fingertips. Smaller size and bigger sound is a constant pursuit. Plus check the beats!

Progtronica presents: “Twisted Digits”

Nigel — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:13:41 +0000

I’ve never liked the modern emergence of “sub-genres”, the incessant need these days to boil down each kind of music into dozens of sub-categories. I have found that, although it provides a decent description of the sound of the music, rarely can music be so pigeonholed as to be put into a place that is so pre-defined. It also leads music fans to gravitate towards more music similar to what they already have heard rather than expanding their sonic horizons. I would never be the player I am today if I had this kind of mentality towards music “I like hard house but not deep house”. My approach through Progtronica is to take all of my influences and boil them into one succinct concept. Other than the basic forms of “electronic dance music” I have always has a secret love of progressive “math rock” and have played some form of that kind of music in many of my bands over the years. I had been looking for a way to do a tribute to this affinity in a Progtronica performance (mainly for my own self pleasure) since the beginning of the project. I can play a little guitar but mostly for making weird sonic feedback textures but then I found a secret weapon: the iPhone pocket guitar combined with Ableton Live 8’s new “Amp” and “Cabinet” effects. So I made this little ditty, switching from 7/8 to 6/8 with interweaving Don Caballero/King Crimson guitar lines all remixed live while playing the drums. This is a little bit different then my other recent videos but I like how it turned out and I’m sure you won’t find anyone using Ableton quite this way anywhere else.

Happy 2011 From Progtronica “Rumbling Sleep”

Nigel — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:00:04 +0000

2011 is upon us and I couldn’t be happier about it. Don’t get me wrong, 2010 was far from a bad year, but the challenges, distractions, and relentless work load has lead to a perfect time for a reboot. Despite this need, I am very proud of where things have gone for Progtronica in the past 12 months. Last January the concept was just beginning to take an initial form, but needed time and experimentation to find what shape the project would end up taking. I wish I had more time this past year but learned to make the absolute most of what I had and along with molding what has become the Progtronica project, I have also refined my theory of creativity through speedy production. All too often in my musical live I have found myself in great creative projects that ended up losing all their momentum by constant tinkering to the point where no one involved liked what they heard anymore and all perspective was lost. I have taken the opposite approach: focusing on bringing an idea to some sort of finished piece in as quick a time as I possibly can, almost like a game. This often leads to things being rough around the edges, but at least I have something to show for the original idea before it is lost in creative oblivion. Nearly all of the videos I produced this past year (around 20) have been done in a single day from tracking the individual sounds, to the final video editing. What I have found consistently is that I have much more perspective on the music after a couple of weeks have gone by, and I’m usually much happier with it than I was mid-process. The main lesson for me is that the first idea is usually best, and if it isn’t I won’t come up with a better one until some time has passed and I can look/listen back to it with fresh ears and eyes.

The other aspect of what I have been doing that has become more clear to me over this past year is exactly what kind of performance I am after. Sometimes I have been working towards full Ableton controlled laptop performance using just a computer and controllers to make all the music. There are lots of aspects to this approach I find appealing and challenging. For one thing, there is very little actual gear I need to bring with me to make an immense amount of live improvised sound. Also It brings me more into the realms of the digital DJ world opening my music up to a much different audience more interested in the dance floor than the performer. This gives me the opportunity to slip my own creative ideas into a setting that might not be used to it, but is ready to hear it nonetheless. After working hard at this for most of the year though, I started bringing the focus back to my main skill, playing the drums, and using Ableton to create something of a futuristic one man band. For live performance this would bring me into different sorts of venues being that much more equipment is necessary (I can’t really set up a kit in a DJ booth) but it also has proved to be one of the more unique musical statements I have made and has regularly been met with an “I’ve never seen anything quite like that before” response which I must say I like.

In the end what I have settled on is doing a little bit of both. My goal for 2011 is not only to bring the Progtronica show to a live stage/club but to be able to do a show that works in a House club, or a rock concert and anything in-between (I’m going to try to stay away from the state fair circuit). With the freshness of the new year passing, I hope that I will be doing just that in the near future.

Cheers and Happy New Year!

Dj’ing from behind the drums Part 1

Nigel — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 01:36:56 +0000

Although there was some live drumming on the recent Progtronica EP, for the most part I have focused my recording and performance techniques on live “re-mixing” of my own material. Drum wise my approach has been to record myself, often in several layers, playing live. Then take parts of the recording and slice, alter, and map out the different rhythms in Ableton in such a way so that I can be freed up to manipulate not only the drum parts, but all of the sonic textures to the fullest to create a constantly evolving sound. The beauty of performing with this technique is how much I can do live with a minimal amount of equipment. Having been a touring drummer for years, the idea of performing live with just a backpack of gear is truly an amazing prospect.

I haven’t forgotten about the drums though. The drum stool is the place where I feel most musically comfortable and my original Progtronica intention was to be more of a “drumming DJ” mixing the music while playing the rhythm parts mostly live giving a much needed human element to the machine dominated genre of electronica in all its forms. Production and performance wise it is all a give and take, more overall control of the sound or more rhythmic spontaneity.

The last couple of months have been dedicated to Progtronica as the digital live re-mix DJ, this is the re-introduction of Progtronica as the “Futuristic One Man Drum Ninja Band”.

The debut Progtronica EP “Live For No One” is out and available for free preview!

Nigel — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:01:49 +0000

The time has finally come. The long awaited Progronica debut Ep has been officially released. In the coming weeks it will be available for all to purchase on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, and a host of other sites. In the meantime, I’m offering to preview and download for free the entire album. Check it out, pass it along, and watch out for the live Progtronica show coming to a venue near you.

The Vault has been opened!

Nigel — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:05:11 +0000

During my days in NYC from when I arrived in1998 until around 2005, I used to constantly travel with my mini disc player and audio-technica stereo microphone to capture every bit of my musical life. I recorded everything from amazing class rehearsals at the New School University with some of the most amazing and diverse musicians I had the fortune to collaborate with, live performances with all my bands of the time (Spaceship, Sevenseventeen, Grandfather Ridiculous, L Maestro Presents), and other random concerts and jam sessions. I kept piling up a collection of these discs, some neatly labeled, some not at all, and usually used them to listen to once and analyze what I had just done for musical education purposes. Even though I generally cast them aside in a box, I knew that at some point I would have to revisit this material.

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 DJ series part 2!

Nigel — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:39:42 +0000

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

Progtronica latest news for January 2010

Nigel — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:37:07 +0000

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.

The Beat Repeater video and Tutorial from Progtronica

Nigel — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:55:19 +0000

Over the winter break I spent time experimenting with mapping different effects on the Novation Launchpad using Ableton Live and stumbled upon this great technique to alter audio (mostly drum) loops live using this effect in real time using only the launchpad. It inspired me to create the video “The Beat Repeater” which featured this effect as well as some live drumming and many of my other Progtronica techniques.
After posting it I got many twitter inquiries on how I was executing this so I just posted this tutorial on just my special Progtronica Novation Launchpad “beat repeat” technique which will allow you to freak the beatz in real time a la squarepusher. Here is both the original video and the tutorial.

The latest news from Progtronica, December ’09

Nigel — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:29:47 +0000

There are lots of exciting happenings in the world of Progtronica at the close of the decade, one that will be looked back on as the worst in recorded music history (but more on that later). I have been hard at work preparing material for the release of my first solo ep “Progtronica – Live From Nowhere” which will be released in early 2010. The concept of “Progtronica” is the blending of sounds in an electronic music context, which stretches the bounds of what is known to be “electronic dance music” through the use of live and re-sampled drums, odd time signatures, shifting beats, and a health dose of 20th century minimalist inspired rhythmic melodic textures. My aim is to compose the music so that it can be constantly re-mixed live with no limits on the detentions of time, sound and rhythm, while keeping the all important human element that is missing from almost all of today’s music (not just of the electronic dance variety).

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!

***UPDATE 9/18/2010*** as of now the “Progtronica Extended Outdoor” video has had over 12,000 views on YouTube thanks to a link on novation-launchpad.com which got picked up on a bunch of other blogs as well as lots of friends posting it on Facebook,