Pretty Lights
Making Up a Changing Mind
Pretty Lights Music
Rating: 5
In the massive move toward computer-based sound, it is easy for soul to escape most electronic music. Yet there is something incredibly raw, affecting and organic about Pretty Lights.
Pretty Lights is producer Derek Vincent Smith, and his new EP continues and furthers his use of complex sampling but includes a more defined, funky edge. Whereas musicians like Girl Talk and the Hood Internet make mash ups out of just a few songs, Smith layers many different individual music samples and voice clips to create a whole new sound.
The result is a fusion of hip-hop production, dubstep and electronic beats and excerpts of old school jams and horn solos that deliver true soul. It’s not quite trip-hop, and it’s not a mere mix of moog synth and beats. It’s the funk that hooks you and the obvious planning and intelligence behind each five-minute song that commands awe.
Did I mention Smith hands out his tunes for free on PrettyLightsMusic.com? Oh yeah.
Give these tracks a listen: “I Can See It In Your Face,” “Future Blind”
For fans of: The Glitch Mob, Sound Tribe Sector 9
– Janelle Bitker
