Home > Music > Reviews > The Breakdown 030: The Slag’s Big Beat Manifesto released!

The Breakdown 030: The Slag’s Big Beat Manifesto released!

July 4, 2012

 

I’m quite excited about the content in today’s edition of The Breakdown! I’ve got the honor and privilege of bringing to you … from our very own Basscast, The Slag in his second appearance on The Breakdown with his newest release, The Big Beat Manifesto! This EP is stuuupid huge and has something in there for everyone … as long as heavy bass isn’t a problem for you. LET’S GO! 

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For those of you who frequent our site, you are more than likely familiar with The Slag. If you’re not, I highly recommend you take the extra five minutes to read over his debut feature, where I go into a lot more detail on the biography of Lance Zeus Lasheras. 

To quickly sum up The Slag … he heads up the DJ MAG Canada Bass(Pod)cast, where every third Friday of the month you’re treated to an hour long mix that is stuffed to the brim with bass. The Basscast includes an intro mix from Lance himself, followed by his monthly Top five and wraps up with a half hour guest mix from top international talent. Lance is an insanely busy dude; producing one chart topping record after another, co-managing his label Royal Fetish Recordings, heading up two different radio shows (he also runs his own The ‘Slag Show’, which airs on www.di.fm/electro every third Thursday of the month,) and travelling all over the world slaying dance floors with his DJ sets. On top of all this, he was just made his debut on The Breakdown during the first week of June and here we are in the first week of July with more goodies from The Slag.

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To start things off, let’s get the blood flowing with the official teaser trailer for The Big Beat Manifesto, released by the prestigious Play Me Too Records. Get a taste for this thumping EP while you’re thrown down memory lane with a montage of classic movie clips. Pure nostalgia.

The project first gained notoriety by catching the ear of Tim Smith, better known to the world as the manager of superstar Skrillex. He quickly became a fan of the album, and called it a “solid” production. While their record label OWSLA had a full release scheduled, it eventually got in the hands of Reid Speed of Play Me Records. Considered one of the largest dubstep labels in the world, and voted by Beatport as the best dubstep label of 2010 and 2011. It also licenses its music out to Ministry of Sound and MTV.

For Vancouver native The Slag, this was a enormous accomplishment. In the industry very few full length albums are released, and even rarer are those who produce bass oriented music (electro, dubstep, etc). The project is also unique in it’s varied corporate partners who are helping promote and release it for free.

“I’m a big fan of accessible art, and had always envisioned being able to give away my debut album for free. I’m ecstatic that I’ve been able to find so many interested parties that are helping me do just that,” said The Slag.

Play Me Too records has graciously agreed to release the entire album for free, after initially releasing an EP of singles for sale online a few months before the entire album is set release. Other partners include Dubstep.net, the leading authority on bass-oriented music. IGN.com, the world’s largest entertainment web page, are partnering with Ubisoft to use the music in a teaser trailer for their upcoming game, Watch Dogs. As well as us, DJ Mag Canada, the country’s newest and largest dance related publication, who are featuring and aiding in the distribution of the album for free.

The album itself consists of 10 tracks in varied genres. While electro house seems to be a dominant selection, there is also dubstep and even drum ‘n bass tracks to add variety to the mix. He’s already garnered the support of Hirshee, The Frederik (mau5trap) and Drop The Lime to name a few. The initial singles were released on July 2, with the entire album due at the end of August.

Crescendo opens to a very long spacey intro with some added violins, claps and haunting synth lines to get you through to the drop.  High pitched synth work paired with a buzzing bass line and a light touch of modern talking make up much of the first drop. He gives us a small taste of the second drop in this preview, where we get an extra boost of energy, with the high pitched synths taking a slight shift to more of dutch feel.
90′s Kid is a funky breaks tune guaranteed to get you shaking about. The vocals on this one are purely perfect, hyped up and quick; referencing everything from Nintendo to Blow Pops and Captain Planet. This one is so much fun to listen to! The Slag does a great job at keeping the vocals the main focus of this track, while his synths, bass lines and drum patterns compliment them perfectly.  This one is gonna be on repeat for a while.
Meteor Shower is our time to slow things down. Another fairly spaced out opening with some light drum work in behind is quickly met by a super synth oriented build leading us to the drop of beautiful top lines over top of a heavy bass drop. Lance doesn’t give us much time to slow down and catch out breath as he kicks up the speed mid-phrase, following a sweet little drum riff.
Diminuendo sticks to the theme of spacey openings … comprised of ominous piano work, intrusive bass thumps, light drum patterns and synth stabs until all of a sudden you’re smacked right in the face with fat bass! This tune runs at 100 bpm and is labeled as glitch hop on Beatport, with a definite moombahcore feel, in my opinion. Diminuendo brings to mind artists like The Glitch Mob.

Check out the previews below and then head over to Beatport and pick up your copy!

As an added bonus … check out the Watch Dogs trailer featuring The Slag!

Follow The Slag on Facebook and SoundCloud!

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HAVE FUN THIS WEEKEND AND STAY SAFE!

KEEP THOSE SUBMISSIONS COMING IN … if you know some Canadian talent that you think deserves to be featured on The Breakdown, LET US KNOW by contacting thebreakdown(at)djmag(dot)ca! Tell your friends! We love to hear from you guys!

You can also contact me on Twitter and Facebook! Feel free to use my Dropbox on SoundCloud!

See you next week!
– MAKE SMILES