Nigel Sifantus » Taylor McFerrin

Ableton Live House From Scratch (Total Electronica Improv)

Nigel — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:29:02 +0000

The release of the “Live For No One” ep is eminent so I have been spending most of my time getting my full length live set together to perform, but I got a little break from that intention when my old friend and musical collaborator Taylor McFerrin came through town on tour. He asked me to sit in and play the show in Santa Monica duo which was a great combination of nostalgic techniques and brand new ones that both of us have developed in the last 2 years since we’ve been on opposite coasts. Both of us learned the basics of Ableton Live together years ago and have gone on to develop our own techniques to use it for live performances. While rehearsing for the show, he opened my eyes to a little trick he uses to make loops on the spot which was an idea I had been toying with but hadn’t found just the right way to do it. Like most things with computers and software, sometimes the littlest trick opens huge doors.
For this video I created a whole house track from scratch with no preset loops. Each part is played then looped using the Akai MPD 24, then arraigned using the Novation Launchpad. This one is COMPLETELY live!

Live duo performance with Taylor McFerrin at Zanzibar

Nigel — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:53:07 +0000

My old friend and musical collaborator Taylor McFerrin called me a few weeks ago and said he was rolling through LA on tour supporting his soon to be released album “Early Riser” and invited me to sit in with him at his show at Zanzibar in Santa Monica. Naturally I was totally excited to revive our old chemistry and eager to see what we would actually do. The show was put on by KCRW Dj Aaron Byrd and featured the bands Master Blaster and Electric Wire Hustle. It ended up being an amazing evening and we played a mix of Beat-box, Rhodes, Drums, iPhone, and dueling Ableton Live systems at times building beats from scratch on the spot using the Akai APC 40 and the Novation Launchpad. The whole show ended up being a total free form improv and it went places we didn’t even know we would go. One of the other DJ’s from the night, Anthony Valadez also posted this video recap of the night which has some great footage from the whole experience.

Progtronica Weekly Ableton DJ Series week 3. This Week with Live Drums.

Nigel — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:46:09 +0000

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!

"The Imaginative Executioner solo" Live w/ Grandfather Ridiculous 5/03

Nigel — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:15:48 +0000

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.

"Dreaming" feat. Taylor McFerrin, Shara Dae, and Ryat (Update!) New Launchpad Remix added

Nigel — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:30:54 +0000

Just added to this post is the last of my 4 part video series of Novation Launchpad live remixes of the music from some of my films produced in the last few months. Now you can see my live performance of “Dreaming” using the Novation Launchpad to arrange all the parts live, and the original film.

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.

The Cell Theory live in Cleveland Oh (L Maestro Out-takes) 8/09

Nigel — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:25:51 +0000

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 Presents live at the Grog Shop Cleveland

Nigel — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:47:46 +0000

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!

The Cell Theory @the Blue Note "Altered States"

Nigel — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:57:35 +0000

In the midst of moving, I haven’t been able to post any of the new stuff I have been working on, but I did come across this gem from a Cell Theory Show with Taylor McFerrin and Jason Fraticelli at the Blue Note a couple of years ago. This song, at the time called “Altered States” later was rearranged and became the title track to our EP which came out last year “Memory is Energy” (and is available on iTunes). About 3 minutes into this song we get into this deep Pink Floyd/DJ Shadow thing which was a classic performance.
Now that the move is nearly over, I have some new stuff that will really blow your mind. But for now enjoy!

Cell Theory at Prospect Park

Nigel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:25:17 +0000

This is a video of the highlights of a show we did last summer at the Prospect park Band Shell opening for Medeski Martin and Wood. Mark Ribot was also on the bill. What a killin’ event!

The Cell Theory live at the Blue Note

Nigel — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 04:46:17 +0000