Nigel Sifantus » Progtronica

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!

100,000 views on YouTube

Nigel — Thu, 05 May 2011 04:20:06 +0000

The beginning of 2011 has been filled with brand new musical, business and creative opportunities. Most new projects are of the secretive nature but details will be revealed soon. In the meantime, the Progtronica videos have now reached a land mark of over 100,000 views on the NoServiceRequired YouTube Channel. Since developing the “DJ’ing from behind the drums” technique, I feel that the essence of the project has come closer to finally being realized. This one “All is Okay” is a slippery Dub-Step influenced glitchy one.

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.

DJ’ing From Behind the Drums Part 2 “Twilight of 2010″”

Nigel — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 01:31:29 +0000

After doing the last track/video “Taste of Blue” introducing my new technique of launching clips and scenes in Ableton live using the Novation Launchpad while playing the drum part live, it opened my mind of the many different types of sounds and styles I could tackle using the same basic setup. I had the idea for this song “Twilight of 2010” bubbling around in my head for weeks when I was sick but didn’t set to experimenting with the actual composition of the song until I had the whole form in focus, a complete departure for me. Normally my tracks evolve as I am producing them and working with the sounds, often coming out much different then I had in mind when I originally opened a blank set. I actually put this whole track/video together from top to bottom in a matter of about two hours. That is the beauty of Ableton live as a composition and performance platform, the musical feedback is immediate so projects can go as fast as your mind can if your approach is already figured out. This song is the most melodic and down-tempo of any of the Progtronica works which opened up a space for a lot of drums. One other thing that is unique for this song is there are no samples used whatsoever, I played all the parts myself using various software synths, and iPhone apps including the “pocket guitar” for the guitar part. Ableton’s new “Amp” simulator effect, just released in the latest update, provided an extra crunchy sound not only for the guitar but the drums and bass as well.

I have been amazed and gratified by the almost immediate internet response to this one after it was posted on Vimeo and YouTube. Syntopia.com made it their Sunday Synth Jam for last week, titling the post the “Futuristic One Man Drum Ninja Band” and saying “Nigel Sifantus delivers an energetic drum/DJ jam”. Then a Danish site called justastudio.net gave it the same title and said “This glitchy live session is nasty and incredible well performed by Nigel Sifantus. The music is called Twillight 2010 and is available as free download…” They also included the cover image from the “Live For No One” ep and included links to this site. Much appreciated! In the first 48 hours the video had been viewed over 800 times and the Progtronica fans on Facebook doubled in number.

The song itself is more powerful than anything I have done myself in the past and I think it is pointing me further in the musical direction I want to take this: Electronica not contained by sub-genres and retaining the deep primal human element of a non-machine generated beat while keeping a futuristic sonic aesthetic.

“After-Math”: a video dedicated to the internal and external volatility of the recent past

Nigel — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 05:41:25 +0000

Challenges and how we respond to them is large part of what makes us who we are. Of course everyone knows the cliché of “with crisis comes opportunity” but just what that opportunity is and how to execute it to its fullest potential is not always as clear cut. From an internal perspective the recent past has been filled with crises large and small that have resulted in improved situations, more complete understanding of those situations, creative inspiration and productivity. However, it was impossible without the cost of exhaustion, disappointment, and unpredictable levels of distress. This internal struggle has been reflected in the world at large with earthquakes, oil spills, economic and political upheaval, all of which have caused major shocks to the system for me personally as well as all else involved both directly and indirectly. All of these crises are at this moment determining what will happen with our lives and the world. Will we make the most of it? I feel like I have in my personal life but it took a lot of acceptance and action on things that were not ever easy. None of the world’s problems now are in any way easy either and I wonder if we humans as a collective have the guts to address them. I have seen too many individuals choose inaction over difficult choices with depressing results. When people work together they are capable of the most amazing as well as terrifyingly manipulative things. I hope that we can stand up to these challenges and restore a much needed combination of reason and fortitude to tackle what has occurred, and what has yet to come in 2011.

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 Theory is..” (mini club mix) featuring several iPhone synth apps in Ableton Live

Nigel — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:37:59 +0000

I’m working and reworking the last track for my debut album before sending it off the be mastered. In the process I got locked into this techno club vibe and went with it for this weeks video blog post. All the synthesizer sounds come from various iPhone apps and all drum parts were recorded live, then cut up and remixed in Ableton Live. All music is being mixed on the spot using a Novation Launchpad and ZeRO SL Mk II controllers and an iPhone. Filmed with a single Flip video camera and edited in iMovie.

130 Twisted Beats Live Mix

Nigel — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:17:21 +0000

I’ve been working on putting my newest tracks into my “Master Set” in Ableton Live so that they are performance ready. After an extremely long week (and long Saturday night to blow off some steam) I woke up ridiculously early and threw down this mix. It’s a bit raw but shows the new direction I’ve been headed with regards to tempo and sounds.

New Website, New Music, New Motivation

Nigel — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 17:55:30 +0000

The brand new nigelsifantus.com has now launched and my creative fire is burning and ready to blaze. For the past 9 months I’ve been working in solitude, producing solo live music videos in to comfort and isolation of my own studio and have been amazed at the reception I have received from all corners of the world. As of now, the Progtronica live video series has received 41,000 views on YouTube and plenty more on Vimeo as well. It’s kind of strange to make music for an audience that you can’t see though but I’ve enjoyed it nonetheless.

On Friday I found myself at a show in LA of all performers making live electronic music using the monome, basically an earlier version of my beloved Novation Launchpad. It was great to see others doing similar things to what I am doing and have people in the audience digging it. Better still is that none of the music they were actually playing sounded anything like what I am doing. In short, a lot of creative atmospheric music but none of the crazy drums that are my signature.

So the time has come. Progtronica will be hitting the stage soon. Stay tuned for dates. This is going to be raw, real, and rockin’. Word…

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