Progtronica Ableton Live Weekly DJ set Week 3, 2/11/10 by Progtronica

Performed on February 11th 2010, this is the 3rd installment of My “Progtronica Weekly Dj Performance Series”. All music created using Ableton live, mixed, re-sampled, edited, and mixed live using Novation’s Launchpad dedicated Ableton controller. This mix features the songs “The Beat Repeater” “Dreaming (feat beatboxing by Taylor McFerrin, Ryat and Shara Dae on vocals)”, “Progtronica 1 (with a small Cinematic Orchestra sample)”, and “Rolling with Strings” all from the upcoming album: “Progtronica – Live From Nowhere” due out later this spring. All the drum parts are recorded live me, then sampled, edited, and re-mixed. However, for this weeks broadcast there is some “real” live drumming mixed in to a couple of the tunes. All Live, all solo, all Raw! Progtronia weekly DJ Series 2010!

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.

At a reunion gig of their abstract hip-hip group “L Maestro Presents”, backing band “The Cell Theory” which features Taylor McFerrin on beat box and keyboards, Jason Fraticelli on upright bass, and Nigel Sifantus on drums were in top form. These are out-takes from the video “L Maestro Presents live at the Grog Shop” which also features mc’s Jubei and K.B. When the video was shot by a willing audience member, it turned out a lot of what he captured was not really the whole L Maestro Presents band but instead was a bunch of the instrumental jams by “the Cell Theory.” this video might as well be entitled “Jason and Nigel go bananas” because we go pretty much off the hook.

L Maestro descended to the surface of the earth once again in Cleveland Ohio on Sunday, August 16th to rock the Grog Shop. Although Taylor, Jason and I have been performing as “The Cell Theory” in the mean time, this group hadn’t played together since late 2004. We were scattered around the country in proportion for the gig and were only all in the same place in time to make a sound check. The previous week had been spent emailing around to each other tracks we had of recordings from old shows so that we could all re-learn the material while adding new twists. With the aid of L Maestro himself, the gig came off flawless. Here are some highlights!