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Bong-Ra

Official : http://www.bong-ra.com/
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Bong-Ra
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/bongra
Electronic Explorations Mix : http://electronicexplorations.org/the-show/117-bong-ra/

Bong-Ra is available for live sets outside the Netherlands. Please email agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.

For those who aren’t acquainted with Bong-Ra’s sound will be in for a pleasant surprise. As one of the pioneers of the Breakcore genre, Bong-Ra has managed to mix all his musical influences into a furiously energetic style. No remorse and no concession. Where other artists stick to their musical blueprint, Bong-Ra never stops the pursuit of musical development, hoping to catch his listeners off guard every single time.

Bong-Ra, Jason Köhnen’s electronic alter ego saw life in 1996. Hailing from The Netherlands, Bong-Ra initially started out as a DJ, but quickly focussed his priority on producing his own music in 1997. Djax Records signed Bong-Ra in 1998, proceeding to release the debut album ‘New Millennium Dreadz’ and the 12-inch series ‘Darkbreaks’ Volumes 1 and 2. Bong-Ra at that time was accompanied by MC Guzman on vocals.

In 2001 Clash Records (a hardcore jungle orientated 7-inch label) was set up. In that same year on the 12th of February John Peel invited Bong-Ra to do a ‘Peel Session’ which was released on UK label Deathsucker Records. Several vinyl releases followed in the period between 2001 and 2003. From 2001 to 2004 the ‘Breakcore a Go-Go!’ parties were run and organised by FFF and Bong-Ra becoming one of the first (bi) monthly regular Breakcore nights in Europe. ‘Bikini Bandits, Kill! Kill! Kill!’ the second full length album was released in 2003 on Supertracks Records. This album saw an audiovisual co-operation with US based film company Gyromart. The track ‘666MPH’ was used on the Bikini Bandits DVD and the videoclip to ‘666MPH’ aired on MTV. The Bikini Bandits audiovisual project became an exposition in the Museum of Modern Arts in Arnhem, The Netherlands. That year Bong-Ra also appeared on some of Holland’s biggest Festivals : Lowlands, Metropolis and Eurosonic. Also a small UK tour with DJ Scud and Soundmurderer followed.

In 2004 Bong-Ra set up his second label Kriss Records, focussing on edgier breaks (mostly combining metal and breakbeats, releasing amongst others : Drumcorps, Scotch Egg and Venetian Snares). That same year the Center for Electronic Music (CEM) in Amsterdam asked Bong-Ra to produce a special 4 track EP solely using vintage equipment in the CEM studios, resulting in the ‘Colony of Electric Machines’ EP on the Vynalogica label. The ‘Monsters of Mash Up’ European Tour in 2005 with Shitmat (UK) and Enduser (USA) and a Japanese Tour with Parasite (UK) was followed by the third full length ‘I am the God of Hellfire’ released on Very Friendly and Ad Noiseam and the jungle/raggacore CD compilation ‘Warrior Sound’ on Supertracks (NL). In 2006 a special 4 track remix EP of Venetian Snares’ ‘Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett’ and the debut of Bong-Ra’s main side project The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble were released on Planet Mu (UK). The politically charged album ‘Soldaat van Oranje’ was released on Sublight Records (CAN). Bong-Ra returned for his second Lowlands Festival, becoming one of the highlights of the Festival (according to Dutch magazine OOR).

A second European tour and split 12-inch with Enduser ‘The Kill’ and a memorable muddy Glastonbury Festival highlighted 2007. In 2008 Bong-Ra released his 5th full album entitled ‘Full Metal Racket’ containing the 12” ‘Grindkrusher’ and ‘SickSickSick’ both released on Ad Noiseam, a 12” on Zhark Records followed entitled ‘Vitus Blister’. Bong-Ra continued his non-stop performances covering mostly all of Europe and establishing himself as one of the best performers in hardcore electronic territory. His tri-monthly events in Utrecht (Rebeltronics) and Arnhem (Megatronics) continue to flourish succesfully. A small production pause was taken during late 2008 and practically the whole of 2009 for his other important project ‘The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’. Focussing on the second full length album ‘Here Be Dragons’. Succesfully venturing into the darker side of jazz and electronica.

2010 saw a return of Bong-Ra 2.0. A new EP on Ad Noiseam entitled ‘Monster’, a 12” of the Peace Off dubstep sister label Ruff with two dubsmashers ; Megasaurus and Gargantuan! the adaptation of Hecq/Exilion’s Spheres of Fury. Also Clash Records saw light with Bong-Ra’s jungle alias Killahman Machine, releasing Clash 013. In a few months, the new 6th full length Bong-Ra album will be released on Ad Noiseam.

Raoul Sinier

Raoul Sinier is available for live sets. Please contract agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.

http://www.raoulsinier.com / http://www.discogs.com/artist/Raoul+Sinier

Live Recording:

New EP on Tigerbeat6:

meow174 Raoul Sinier – The Melting Man EP by Tigerbeat6

2011 Interview

Biography
Raoul Sinier is without doubt a unique artist. He juggles music, illustration and animation with a freewheeling talent. The race of fantastic creatures that escape from Raoul Sinier’s imagination seem to be characterised by the same wavering reason found in human beings. The artist breathes absurd and derisory life into whale-men, animals, robots and other creatures in a dark and twisted world.

His music captures emotions and nails then down somewhere, on a familiar door. This kidnapping curiously liberates the listener and enables their penetration into the very sophisticated musical universe of the musician.

The power of the inspiring alchemy is ever increasing with its captivating melodies and ultraviolent rhythms. Films, animation… the videos he conceives and directs invent a wild form of multiplexing into which are plunged atypical images and music which follow an improbable script.

But beyond the fury of monsters and the screaming music is the exacerbated sensitivity of a demanding individual, totally refractory to the intellectual arts world. For several years now the artistic activity of Raoul Sinier has been gently spreading its way across the borders of Europe…

Press Excerpts

Rockarolla
Radiohead may have made their own, angsty ter- ritorial pissings over the genre of existential glitch pop with Kid A, but Raoul Sinier presents a genuine challenge to their throne. The stereotype of the electronic musician meekly hunched over a laptop is squashed by a Pythonesque giant foot, so epic are some of these tracks.

The Wire
This blend of the whimsical and the disquieting characterises the album as a whole: fairground flourishes are knitted to brooding industrial shades by crisply sculpted breakbeats and vintage keyboards trace out imperiously ascending prog patterns. Sinier is based in Paris and his music belongs to same strange corner of the French imagination as the film Delicatessen.

XLR8R
Raoul Sinier, the Bo Jackson of the multimedia world, is the epitome of a hardworking man. In addition to producing intricate, gritty sound structures that fall somewhere at the meeting point of IDM, hip-hop, and breakcore, the Paris-based artist also happens to be damn good at illustration and animation as well. WTF!

Liability
Le succès critique est d’ores et déjà présent sur le net. Ailleurs, on peine à lui ouvrir les portes. Pourtant, Raoul Sinier est surement l’une des meilleures choses qui est arrivée à la musique électronique hexagonale. Tremens Industry en est la preuve vivante. Album complet et sans vraiment de faiblesses, il s’impose à nos oreilles comme une évidence. Encore faut-il que ce soit le cas pour tout le monde.

Goûte mes Disques
Raoul Sinier vient de frapper un très grand coup dans la fourmilière électronique, jusqu’à parier sur Tremens Industry comme le disque IDM/electronica de l’année. Absolument essentiel.

Inpress Magazine
The joy is that you never really know where Ra is going to take you next, at one moment drawing upon melancholic Boards of Canadaesque wisps with cute synth lines, the next fracturing the same tune up into digital chaos. Inspired and original, there is not one false step on Raoul Loves You.

BBC.co.uk
(…) and sound-masher Ra unleashes one of the most brilliantly heavy and strangely funky pieces of electronica we’ve heard in ages on the picture-disc-only Ev.Panic (Planet Mu).

Cuemix-magazine
“Huge Samurai Radish” is what I expected from Raoul Sinier, but don’t get me wrong I expected that he astonish me again and again. A brilliant album – that leaves with more appetite and a roaring stomach.

Raoul Sinier is an absolute breathtaking phenomenon. His music is made to loose words – and words aren’t made to describe his all-embracing art. I think the secret behind his genius is that he thinks about every move he make and while he thinks about his moves he acts.

PopMatters
Sublight managed to pull over a few names from Britain itself, including The Gasman and Somatic Responses. Ra, a visual artist and musician hailing from Paris, is not only one of the latest examples, but one of the more promising new arrivals.

Make no mistake, Brain Kitchen announces the presence of Raoul Sinier in the league of Miguel Depedro (kid606) and Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73, Savath + Savalas) as leaders of the circuit bending fusion of hip-hop bravado and broken electronics.

Gothtronic
What do you get when apparant opposites such as breakcore and downtempo are merged and topped with abit of glitch? Ra aka Raoul Siniers from France knows the answer and fully expands on this on his second album. What he shows here is truly phenomenal.

With this album Raoul earned himself a place between people like Kid606 or Venetian Snares for real. A masterpiece of modern electronics.

Excaim!
Ra has no regard for traditional song structures, a technique that’s rampant in underground electronic circles, but one that he’s definitely mastered the nonchalance of.

Trax
Un long maxi pour prouver – une nouvelle fois – combien Raoul Sinier est l’une des plus fines lames de l’electronica. L’ensemble est gavé d’imagination et le style immédiatement reconnaissable. Rarement chez ceux qui ont fait du flou musical un signe d’intelligence, on trouve la charge émotionnelle de ces fresques noircies à la chaux.

dMute
Toujours ambigu, Wxfdswxc2 fait donc passer les échafaudages de Raoul loves you en 3D et fascine par sa largesse de vue. Le visionnage et l’écoute achevée, on est comme revenu d’un voyage mythique, chargé de sensations mélangées, que seule une nouvelle séance permettra de resaisir.

PopNews
Plus de deux ans après, avec “Wxfdswxc2″, un disque plus réussi encore, il complète la démonstration. Raoul aime la noirceur, la rudesse et les aspérités, il ne se contentera jamais d’une mélodie lisse, d’une nappe immaculée, d’un fond méditatif. Avec lui, ça glitche et ça dérape, ça sautille et ça pare en vrille, ça rabote le cortex et ça ramone les oreilles, c’est plein de guitares sales et d’électronique mal élevée. Mais tout ce bruit n’est pas un cache-misère. Les sons sont vraiment bien, ils ont du sex-appeal.

Sutemos
I just love geniuses. This album is meant for those who are sick of everyday banality, boring melodies, fake art and artificial tenderness. Master Ra will take care of you.

Mowno
Un peu plus loin, caché derrière un amas de caillasses, Ra l’attend, couché, l’oeil dans le viseur, prêt à lancer quelques-unes des plus belles batailles d’une guerre contre le formatage et la facilité. Non pas que ce disque soit difficilement audible, loin de là, plutôt que son univers n’est pas aussi accueillant que sa musique est dangereusement addictive. (…)
Beaucoup croient avoir tout entendu du mélange musique électronique et hip hop. “Wxfdswxc2″, et son malin plaisir de faire sonner le moindre détail à la juste cause d’un univers si particulier, pourrait bien leur faire revoir leur jugement.

Ra n’est pas encore le nom que l’on donne à un petit Dieu. Mais cela pourrait bien venir. “Raoul Loves You” est un premier album époustouflant de créativité et de maturité. Parions que dans un futur proche, Sieur Sinier saura sans aucun doute poser son empreinte sur la scène électronique française. Pas de mal lorsqu’on manie le sampler comme le pinceau…

Somatic Responses

Somatic Responses are available for live & DJ sets. Please contract agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.

The brothers John and Paul Healy, collectively known throughout the world as Somatic Responses, are still native residents of a small industrial mining community snugly located in the southwest region of Wales. Somatic Responses are into complex dislocated & broken beats, distorted intelligent constructions, fascinating sonic structures, force and sweetness intertwined. They have released on labels such as Hymen, Sublight, Ad Noiseam, Acroplane, Zhark and Puzzling Records and have then their sound around the world to great acclaim.

Somatic Responses on Electronic Explorations:

Recent Live Set:

SOMATIC RESPONSES (live) in Gent, BE. 26/03/11 by SOMATIC RESPONSES

Enduser

Enduser is available for live sets. Please email agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.

http://www.myspace.com/enduser / http://www.discogs.com/artist/Enduser

With his new album “Even Weight” just out on the mighty Ad Noiseam, Enduser has been tearing up the label’s 10th anniversary party series across Europe and beyond. Now booking for 2012!

Lynn Standafer, also known as Enduser, undoubtedly counts as the better known, most active and highest praised break- core producers. Shooting his way through the 2000’s with salvoes of EPs and albums as well as constantly touring all over the world, Enduser has grown from being a driving force of this sound to one of its best embodiment and most recognized figure.

Synonymous for a music which marries carefully laid melodies with unrestrained aggression, Enduser has received praise from all sorts of horizons for the way he manages to entice a sense of beauty in the midst of broken and pummelling beats. If hard electronic music can ever be recognized as having a soul, it is throughout Enduser’s output that this gets best demonstrated.

Enduser has played too many high-profile shows and festivals to list, and has amassed an impressive discography, which features several highly successful records and tracks. His music has been recognized as heavily influential in many genres, ranging from drum’n’bass to metal.

Enduser has also collaborated with artists ranging from drum’n’bass heavyweights Dylan and DJ Hidden as with rock and metal legends Jarboe (of the Swans), Justin Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu) or Bill Laswell.

Roel Funcken (RFunck) DJ Set

Roel Funcken is available for DJ sets.

http://www.roelfuncken.com / Roel Funcken Discography

Recent DJ Set:

It’s been a long and diverse experience for Roel Funcken when it comes to music.

One constant throughout this journey has been his love for the decks and the people moving to them. As the youngest finalist of the DMC NL in the 80′s (age 13), he was pushing wax with some of the pioneers of the now global scene, feeding the floors back the enthusiasm he was feeling for the new music.

From the start of this life-long ambition Roel took his love for funk, jazz, hip hop etc and began applying his own unique take to the dj set, blending an eclectic love of sound with a cohesive form for the live venue. After years of production/live shows in the infamous Funckarma, a maze of other releases/projects, and drawing from his degree in Sonology, he forged a method for live dj work that is fiercely unique, impeccable in its sound quality, memorable and crowd energizing.

Roel has now moved to digital methods for mixing live, putting all his production/studio skill into creating versatile and dynamic sets that traverse genres and keep the sound fresh for today’s evolving dancefloor.

Having just released his first full length solo album "Vade" on Ad Noiseam records (home of Enduser, DJ Hidden etc) to critical acclaim he draws from a mix of his own work and the latest in Dubstep, Techno, Acid and DnB as the vectors for his sessions.

2010 forward is a fresh path for Roel, still maintaining his work with Funckarma but also taking his own vision to a new place. His recent sets at festivals and clubs across Europe attest to this new angle, and the packed floors resonate with his ability to move the crowds.

A microsite for the album Vade is up here, this url is soon becoming a full blown artist site, while a bio page at Funckarma serves up a production slant. Dig through the new funckarma.com for full release data.

To book Roel and discuss the logistics of having him come to your venue click here.

Funckarma / Cane

Funckarma are available for live and ‘RFunck’ DJ sets.

RFunck DJ Set Promo PDF Sheet

Recent Live Sets:

Funckarma live @ Off_Centre 2010 by Funckarma

Funckarma_Liveset_FAQ_festival by Funckarma

Discography: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Funckarma
Website: http://www.funckarma.com/

Funckarma is the long standing project of Don and Roel Funcken, Dutch brothers notorious for their bass heavy groove filled IDM and experimental approach to all forms of electronic music. Since 1995 their prolific output under various names has found them homes on labels around the world, from Warp to n5md, Skam to !K7 and many more . Always forging new sounds in their constant sonic evolution, they’re breaking into the dubstep and DnB scenes as well, bringing their own unique form to these ever shifting landscapes while staying true to what built their fanbase .

Funckarma live is a spontaneous fusion of material from their amazingly broad catalogue of production sources. They feed the audience their infamous intense ground shaking moments as well as something minimalist and stripped, all in one smooth transition. This gives a totally unique perspective on the work, and guarantees a fresh set every time by providing a tremendous amount of freedom to its creation.

With their DJ sets they integrate music from other artists with their own. Genres mainly flow through dubstep, techno, acid and dnb but are not limited to these forms. he DJ sets are renowned for their approach using digital mixing and controllers enabling them to alter tracks into a new blend.

No matter which set they play, it’s all about bringing innovation and new dimensions of sound to the system by blending their own production with the finest in the new wave of artists warping dance floors and minds around.

Chevron

Chevron is available for live sets.

http://chevvers.blogspot.com/

Chevron is electronic music producer Jonathan Valentine. After experimenting with synths and samplers at school in Blackpool, he moved to Brighton where he lived with Shitmat and Tim Exile, and naturally became involved with the infamous Wrong Music crew. He now resides at his studio in central London.

His music is a melting pot of a wide range of dance styles from acid and ambient to dubstep, garage and jungle, with a large dose of electro, rave and techno. Intricate rhythms, interesting time signatures and quirky poppy melodies are a characteristic of his sound. His debut album “Everything’s Exactly The Same” on Mike Paradinas’s Planet Mu label received praise in DJ Mag, I-DJ, Rock Sound and The Wire. Releasing original music over the years on 030303, Ad Noiseam, Acroplane, The Centrifuge, Planet Mu and many more led to great reviews at BBC.co.uk, Boomkat, and Vice Magazine. His music has been played on radio stations worldwide.

Recently Chevron has been honing his live performance, which involves live use of the genre-defining TB-303 bassline synthesizer, modular synthesis, live sampling and analogue drum machines. His long-awaited forthcoming album “Obstacles” is to be released late 2011 complete with remixes from Altern-8′s Mark Archer, DMX Krew, Luke Vibert and EOD.