This Remix by Pretty Lights of Five Knives ‘Savages’ was made for a Red Bull remix contest. It’s fair to say Pretty Lights was the one artist that got me into the Ghetto Funk, Glitch Hop sound many moons ago.

In my personal opinion, this is one of the best remixes i’ve heard among his many many releases with trademark PL Beats, Bassline and tech remix wizardry not to mention phenomenal sounding strings as ever… it has it all.

Give or take a few, pretty much the entire Pretty Lights discography can be obtained for free at http://prettylightsmusic.com. If you’re not familiar with this artist or his label & or his label mates I strongly suggest you check it out.

Vancouver’s THE FUNK HUNTERS should need little introduction if you’re remotely tapped into the mid-tempo breaks scene. As djs, producers and more recently, label owners, Nick Middleton and Duncan Smith have stamped out a wobbly place in western Canada’s funky bass community. The pair are a staple in British Columbia’s mountainous party scene, touring the area extensively with their many funky friends, with many repeated appearances at the exclamation point of festivals, Shambhala.

The Funk Hunters are wrapping up a massive tour and we’re lucky enough to catch the funk in Winnipeg before they do. We caught up with the duo to find out a bit of what makes The Funk Hunters so funky. Read on to get an idea and cop some of the tracks and mix below.

Thursday, April 2, 2015
The Park Theatre
Tix: $20 adv / $25 at the door
Facebook event details Local support by JR and Saratonin

Your DJ sets are always pretty diverse which likely means you like a tonne of different kinds of music. What was the musical primer to start The Funk Hunters?
We started DJing together at house parties on a small island in BC. There was usually around 20-50 people and everyone seemed to like different music so we really had to appeal to everyone for it to be a good dance party. We would play lots of hiphop, classic rock, electronic, and even some country music but whatever we played, half the room was stoked and the other half would be waiting for us to mix it up again. It was a lot of fun. Sometime during that period we really got into funk music and breakbeats which seemed to be the catalyst that lead us onto this mission of funk hunting.

Free download

How does it feel looking back at the start of The Funk Hunters and seeing where you are now?
It feels pretty amazing. It’s been an incredible journey these past few year but its also been a lot of hard work and dedication. We’ve also had an amazing community supporting us from where we live in Vancouver and now that spread into a world wide funk family. If you asked me in 2007 if something like this would be in our future, I probably would have laughed but know we can just use our story as motivation and inspiration to go even further, for us and hopefully for others too.

Seems like you tour practically non-stop. Do you ever get tired? How do you keep fresh, both personally and with your sets?
Tour life can definitely take its toll but there are so many rewards and incredible experiences that come with it so while it can run you down, its also what give us the energy to keep going. Just being in front huge crowds who are there to support you and your art makes is what drives us on a daily basis.

Free download

How is this tour going? It’s almost done – what are the highlights?
2015 has been a whirlwind so far. We’ve already played over 30 shows in 6 countries and even a few in international waters. Touring with Chali 2na has easily been pretty incredible. We’ve been listening to Jurassic 5 & Ozomatli since the late 90’s and he’s such a talented artist and really just a great guy to be on the road with. We played the Commodore Ballroom here in Vancouver with him and our band last month and it was easily the most rewarding and positive show we’ve ever done. Having our city there in full form and selling the venue out a month in advance and sharing the stage with someone like Chali will forever be a highlight.

What have you learned from touring?
Take care of yourself and respect the people who are supporting you. Tour life can be a lot of work and a lot of fun but its important to eat healthy, sleep and party responsibly. Also, when the road gets you down sometimes it can be hard to find the time and energy to take a minute and talk to your fans, take a quick photo, or even answer some interview questions. Its really just about showing love and appreciation to every single person who is supporting you and really allowing us to have the opportunities that are in front of us right now.

What’s happening next? Do you have releases coming out soon?
The last few months have been crazy on the road but we so have a bunch of project in the works at the moment including some funky mid-tempo bootlegs, a couple remixes for Chali 2na, and a remix for our friends Fort Knox Five. We have also been busy in the studio with our band recording some new original music, some of which we are just putting the final touches on. You can definitely expect to see some new releases from us before the summer.

What’s it like balancing a busy tour schedule and a label?
Westwood is a label project that Nick started last year and I know its defiantly been an insane amount of work. I help with some some small day to day stuff but its really something he’s taken on himself. I know its a labour of love and he’s a bit of a work horse when it comes to having way to many things on the go. One thing I will say is he’s got a really great ear for curating the releases and the label is really helping to support other talented artists and get much needed and deserved exposure.

How much planning goes into your DJ sets? Do you just wing it or do you map out the entire set?
It totally varies for different shows. For any big show we usually have a setlist, but it will often change during the show and depending if we are playing with musicians or MC’s, that could easily cause things to change as well. Every crowd has a different vibe, and every venue different set times. On top of that, we are always making and discovering new music so I think our sets are really just constantly evolving.

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The Funk Hunters on Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | thefunkhunters.com

Ahead of this weekends bank holiday Sunday party in London at Brixton Jamm, Mafia Kiss has put together a storming Bass fuelled promo mix! It’s a perfect taster of what’s gonna go down this weekend, filthy bass coupled with some foot shufflin’ beats. Mafia Kiss will be playing as part of the Stanton Warriors ‘ Rebel Bass ‘ tour, presented by HotCakes. Along side those guys will be Jurassik, Deekline and Evil Nine with room 2 hosted by, Imprint. It’s all set to be one of the hottest parties of the weekend so if you can make it click the links below!

This mix fell foul to Soundclouds copyright rules so click HERE to get the mix in it’s entirety.

Links to the event :

Facebook event page / Tickets

A choice new selection of chilled out tracks to add to the giant repertoire of amazing free music from Gramatik in the form of ‘The Coffee Shop Selection’

Just as the title may suggest it’s laced with the trademark ghetto funky grooves, lo-fi beats & keys, glitch, plenty of guitar licks n picks, squeaks and bleeps and horns as we’ve come to expect! It’s soulful to the max.

You can find more from Gramatik’s musical catalogue here, also check out Pretty Lights Music for more free ghetto stuff.

Now grab a coffee (or beverage of choice…) and give this a whirl!

This tasty free download from Brass Monkeys is pretty damn sweet!!! Funky and infectious grime influenced house, to quote Homer J Simpson ‘MMmmmmmm…….Choooooocolaaaaaatte’

Brass Monkeys- Chocolate Spoon (Free Download)

The boys behind GO FREEK have been on my radar since I first heard their remix of Yolanda Be Cool’s reinterpretation of “All That She Wants.” The “Way You Dance” EP released last summer and their follow up on Sweat It Out, “We Can Ride,” cemented my appreciation for their production and their brand of gutter tech.

With the Sydney duo’s latest EP on the Australian imprint, I only see good things coming their way in the future. Filling out those round and bubbling basslines with buoyant kicks, supple vocals, and pleasing chords no longer need to fight for my attention. Here’s a track that satisfies all of the low slung, heavy house cravings.

The remix packages are worth noting too. AARON SNAPES, LO’99, BOOT ACTION, and AC SLATER deliver the goods on all accounts.

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Sweat It Out! on SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter | sweatitoutmusic.com
Go Freek on SoundCloud | Facebook | Twitter

Blogging is made so much more pleasurable when you come across gems like this! Based in Amsterdam, this dude is clearly influenced by the chilled vibes which shines through in this remix of ‘ On & On ‘ by Erykah Badu. An absolute stunner!

Links ot Beat Fatigue :

Soundcloud / Facebook / Website / Beatport / Bandcamp / Twitter

Father Funks had a rough time of it lately. He hit a goal of 4000 followers, 1/2 the amount his moustache has on Twitter, but still a sizeable amount. Then just after getting over his furry lips victory in fans… Facebook deleted inactive accounts, taking him down to 3999.

Rising from the ashes like a shaggy Phoenix, he’s back at 4000. Time to celebrate with another freebie! This time with a remix of  The Soul Circle Gang’s “Umbrella of life.”

I’ll give it a few weeks and delete another one of those accounts I set up to trick him into giving freebies away. You can thank me later…

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Swift little number from X-Ray Ted​. He uses it as a secret weapon to hypnotise portly gentleman into pulling their T shirts over their faces whilst drunk in night clubs. They shake their jelly roll’s to an imaginary python. Meanwhile, his missus runs around collecting change off the floor discarded from their pockets mid trance. It’s one method to combat the undercutting DJ’s out there. Match their price and drop this! Clever boy….

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We’re back with another huge, ROYALTY FREE,  sample pack for your production arsenal. This time we turn our attention to the mid tempo, bass heavy sounds of glitch hop.

Weighing in at just over half a gigabyte, this pack is a cutting edge collection of royalty free glitched out beats, breaks, bass and synths which includes 500 ready to use samples.

All samples are provided in the industry standard 24bit 44.1KHz WAV format which is compatible with all DAW’s and DJ software including Ableton, Cubase, Logic and Reason etc and are all bpm labelled and key labelled where necessary.

A similar sized pack from other well known sample boutiques will look to cost you around £20 – £30 but we here at Free Breaks Blog are providing this sample pack at an insanely good value for money price of £12.00.

Glitch Hop has taken the electronic music scene by storm over the last few years and has become a worldwide phenomenon. This sample pack will help you become a part of the ever growing scene with enough loops, one shots and heavyweight samples for seasoned producers and newcomers alike.

Check out the demo track below along with a very small preview of what is available on the pack. More previews can be found on our Bandcamp page.

BUY HERE You can also get your mits on a very special freebie from the mighty Skeewiff who creates a monster track from our new Glitch Hop sample pack which we’re giving away as a free download to celebrate the launch.

Making full use of the heavyweight bass, crunchy drums and unique lead sounds, Skeewiff throw down a squelchy, mid tempo jam thats worthy of the Glitch Hop top ten and its yours for free.

Check out all things Skeewiff at the following links
Facebook – www.facebook.com/skeewiff.music
Twitter – twitter.com/skeewiff
Website – www.skeewiff.com/

 HIT READ MORE FOR THE REST

These samples have been endorsed by world renowned producers and the cream of the glitch hop and breaks and beats scene including Deekline, Freestylers, JFB, Tim Healey, Featurecast, Point Blank, Funkanomics, Spinforth, Mafia Kiss, K Lab, Eat Rave, Skeewiff, DJ Woody, Atomic Hooligan, Mooqee, Beatslappaz and many more. Check out their comments below.

Don’t forget you can still pick up our first two sample packs BEAT JUICE VOL1 and 808’S, BASS & BREAKS over on our Bandcamp page. We have more sample packs coming soon along with Massive Patches and much more. Keep ‘em peeled.

Glitch Hop Vol 1 Sample Pack