SB is Gramatik’s more instrumental side, trading his borderline-aggressive electro wubs from his previous 2016 Epigram album release for more traditional musical stylings. These include the introduction of an electric guitar to James Brown’s ‘Down and Out in New York City’ and Nat King Cole’s ‘Straighten Up & Fly Right,’ which became ‘No Place Like NYC’ and ‘What’s the Use of Jivin’ respectively. The other big instrumental standout that was prevalent on a majority of the songs on the album were the drums he used, as they are extremely rich, full-bodied, and accentuate the beats and vocals in between.

Adam Deitch, the drummer for Lettuce and Break Science, makes an appearance on the album in ‘Just Imagine,’ adding his instrumental flare to one of the more downtempo tracks on the album. The Geek x Vrv and Anomalie are also featured, with the Geek x Vrv being a part of the silky smooth ‘What She Said,’ and Anomalie playing the keys during the first ever live performance of ‘Muy Tranquilo.’ Gramatik’s exquisite mixing of vocal samples into the fold is apparent in ‘Still Doin’ It,’ “I Know It,” and ‘Let Me Know the Way,’ using the short length of the vocals as a tool to keep listeners grooving between his drums instead of just layering them over the top of his beats.

Street Bangerz 5 is an eclectic masterpiece, bringing together many different sounds and genres into a product that flat-out works. With a welcome return to his roots, Gramatik shines.

Word by Alex Bell.

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The venue was nice and spacious, especially as it became flooded with people throughout the night. The bass was really heavy, as was to be expected for a beat/dubstep-centric artist such as Gramatik. On the one hand, feeling it reverberate throughout your entire body all night was very nice, like a sort of musical massage. However, it felt like it overtook the melodies of some songs at various times.

The opener, Balkan Bump, didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with this though, since his signature trumpet cut right through the bass, as he played it live over his tracks. He also made a shoutout to Gramatik at one point, thanking him for discovering/bringing him on such a musical journey, approx. 6 months ago. French sensation Møme, who performed after Balkan, whipped out an electric guitar and started jamming out a few times throughout his set, between dropping some heavy & funky tunes – a prime example being when he had the room shaking to ‘Let’s Go‘. 

Although the Facebook event page billed Gramatik from 9:00pm-11:00pm, giving us an anticipatory 2 hour-set to look forward to, it didn’t start until 9:18 (after some necessary set-up between his and Møme’s sets). He had a guitarist, Adam, performing alongside him for his set, and had some drop-ins from Balkan, at one point donning a Guy Fawkes mask as he played the trumpet. The whole set ran until 10:40, likely to stay ahead of the venue’s strict 11:00 curfew. The EP/tour was inspired by Nikola Tesla (who Gramatik is a strong advocate of), and throughout his set, there were projections of Nikola’s head rotating on the LED screens behind him.

Gramatik played every song from Re:Coil, except for ‘Recovery‘ featuring Eric Krasno. He opened with the first two songs from the EP – ‘Future Crypto‘, going right into ‘Goldilocks Enigma‘, which helped solidify the tone of what was to be heard throughout the night. He even played a few other tunes from his label, Lowtemp Music, including Branx‘s hit, ‘Sauce‘, which felt like a glorious explosion of low frequencies in every measure.

The long-time diehards didn’t get to hear any of his ol’ school material as we were hoping for (I’m talking Street Bangerz era, circa late 2000’s/early 10’s). He did deliver all 3 Grizmatik tunes though – ‘Digital Liberation is Mad Freedom‘, ‘My People’, & ‘As We Proceed‘ – and each one caused a heavy uproar throughout the venue.

There were a couple of tracks throughout the night which had a Gramatik-like vibe to them (imagine hip-hop beats mixed with a glitch-hop/dubstep-influenced bassline, and mid-range synths). This could end up being an outlandish speculation, yet these (potentially) never-before-heard songs may be tracks off his upcoming Re:Coil Part II, which hasn’t been announced as of yet.

Around 10:25, he played ‘Aymo‘, the EP’s collaborative track with Talib Kweli and Balkan. The latter returned to the stage, and dropped a fire trumpet solo to close out the tune, before Gramatik made the announcement that he was going to enter his encore from that point on. The encore took the vibe to a much harder level, bringing in some pure dubstep to start a mosh pit and get people to throw some elbows. Following the heavy hype, Gramatik carried right into his collab with Galactic Marvl, ‘Voyager Twins’, to close out the night.

The evening was filled with such a wide variety of dance-ready tunes, that time itself seemed to have slowed down throughout the set’s duration, as we all danced, grooved and blasted off to the music. It’s not all too often that Gramatik touches down in the city, yet when he does, it’s always guaranteed to be a hell of a time for all those involved.

All images courtesy of Melissa Sorokolit – check out her website, as well as her Facebook & Insta plugs!

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He’s got with him some pretty heavy talent for support: Haywyre is going to accompany Gramatik in February and March, with Møme taking over for April. One of Pt. 1’s collaborators, Balkan Bump, will be alongside Gramatik throughout the entire tour. All the while, California is blessed to have all 3 support artists playing at all 3 shows in mid-February.

Seeing as how the artwork for the EU tour turned out to be the artwork for the first part of the EP, it’s safe to presume that the artwork for the US tour may have something to do with the upcoming Part 2. There’s also a month-long gap between dates (March-April), so there’s a chance we may have more news on the future EP around then – these are but speculations, though.

Check out all the dates below, and don’t miss out on your chance to grab tickets for this grand tour!

The post Gramatik Takes the Re:Coil Tour Across The US appeared first on FUXWITHIT.

He will be travelling all across America for the 35-date tour, with a few Canadian stops along the way. It all starts when the year ends; he will be performing at Terminal 5 to celebrate New Year’s Eve, and won’t continue again until February – hopefully the hiatus is in relation to Pt. 2 of the two-part EP. The NYE celebration in NYC will see Big Wild accompanying him to usher in 2018.

From February through to April, he will have keyboard maestro Haywyre support him during the first half, and French sensation Møme will be support for the second half of the tour. Tickets for the Re:Coil Tour are available on Gramatik’s website – grab yours and secure a spot before it sells out near you!

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Re:Coil Part I follows the themes of science and technology – two of Gramatik’s favourite topics to “share with the class” on his social media pages. The EP features collabs on most of its tracks, starting off with his Brooklyn homie Branx. Their song, ‘Future Crypto’, pays homage to Gramatik’s upcoming launch of his own cryptocurrency, GRMTK. This will make him the first artist in history to become ‘tokenised’, and those who purchase tokens will share in his intellectual property, earning a portion of his rights and royalties.

The next new song features the likes of keyboard maestro Anomalie, for ‘Goldilocks Enigma’ – a laid-back, angelic beat that’ll leave you enjoying these beautiful sweater-weather days we’ve been blessed with. After that comes the three already-teased tracks: ‘Aymo’, the world music-inspired banger with Balkan Bump and Talib Kweli; ‘Voyager Twins’ with Galactic Marvl, which starts off as a smooth cruise, but then blasts off almost immediately; and ‘Recovery’, which sees the return of repeat collaborator Eric Krasno, and serves as a cool-down from the massive dubstep track preceding it.

He saves the solitary spotlight for himself at the end with his only non-collab track ‘Halcyon’, which has a Street Bangerz beat-making vibe to it, and is likely to heavily resonate with long-time Gramatik fans.

Re:Coil Part I is released by Gramatik’s own label Lowtemp Music, and you can access the EP for your favourite music platform here; his cryptocurrency will launch in Zurich on 9 November. Part II is said to be released sometime in early 2018, so we won’t have to wait too long to see how he follows through on this masterpiece.

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http://soundcloud.com/officialmedasin/gramatik-native-son-feat-raekwon-orlando-napier-medasin-remix

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