Pretty Lights-Passing by Behind Your Eyes

[anachroschism]

This just might be my favorite album of the year, go get it for free from

http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/#/downloads


Dubby downtempo sampled hotness, the melodies are incredible and every listen brings out new intricate things i missed before. Just get it....seriously.

[skullNbones]

yo, thanks for the heads up. i love his other records. this one sounds badass! and you can't beat free. i wonder what his live sets are like?

[anachroschism]

Played monday in Ocean Beach, of course i couldnt make it. All my homies said it was ridiculous, ill try and dig up the pics and shit.

never heard em before. Mind=blown.

[snakedogman]

cooool. I loved his Filling Up The City Skies album. And still free....amazing.
Nice new site too btw.

[beats me]

yo, thanks for the heads up. i love his other records. this one sounds badass! and you can't beat free. i wonder what his live sets are like?

I saw them live last year and while I was impressed with the LED curtain, I was largely unimpressed with the performance based on the standards set on these forums. The sound was too much like a DJ set playing his own songs and while he had controllers o' plenty I really had to question what he was doing with them if anything at all. He did the "hey look at me pushing buttons on my monome" move and it appeared to have zero effect on the music. Things like that.

[john doe by choice]

yo, thanks for the heads up. i love his other records. this one sounds badass! and you can't beat free. i wonder what his live sets are like?

I saw them live last year and while I was impressed with the LED curtain, I was largely unimpressed with the performance based on the standards set on these forums. The sound was too much like a DJ set playing his own songs and while he had controllers o' plenty I really had to question what he was doing with them if anything at all. He did the "hey look at me pushing buttons on my monome" move and it appeared to have zero effect on the music. Things like that.

I've seen vids of that, pretty lights = pretty boring re: stage presence. I prefer the Daedelus approach - he props up the monome so that people can see what he's doing, and then he beats the shit out of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnhc649JNg

at about 30 secs. in. Also, the music is more interesting, but unfortunately, interesting doesn't always sell records.

[beats me]

I still think the music is amazing, especially for being free because I would pay for it. I just think the performance was lacking, almost in a Justice type way, no remixes or reedits from what I recall, just the original tracks beat matched.

I've seen Justice a couple times and it looks like they took note of all the haters the last time I saw them and put some effort into doing remixes and mashups of their songs which made for a better live show. Maybe Pretty Lights will do the same.

I guess the one added bonus to the Pretty Lights show is that he uses a live drummer, although I'd say mostly stacked on top of the drums that are already there, but still good effort.

[anachroschism]

I still think the music is amazing, especially for being free because I would pay for it. I just think the performance was lacking, almost in a Justice type way, no remixes or reedits from what I recall, just the original tracks beat matched.

I've seen Justice a couple times and it looks like they took note of all the haters the last time I saw them and put some effort into doing remixes and mashups of their songs which made for a better live show. Maybe Pretty Lights will do the same.

I guess the one added bonus to the Pretty Lights show is that he uses a live drummer, although I'd say mostly stacked on top of the drums that are already there, but still good effort.

I have to say some of the early Justice live sets i downloaded were horrible, trainwrecks of missed beatmatching and everything. theyve gotten better but it just baffles me sometimes how big names can be so bad.

[outershpongolia]

Pretty Lights is sick, I got tickets for the Chicago show on the 23rd.

I see him switching loops with the monome, and doing some occasional effects, but for the most part it looks like he is pressing and holding down pads on a MPD, which seems to have no effect on the music.. But it's a nasty party at every show from what I've heard..

[najrock]

i think its funny that people on the ableton forum are saying that pretty lights isnt doing enough onstage... first of all... the production of his sets is amazing... whoever is running the lights for that dude is on point 100%... shit blew me away...

as for his stage presence... the dude is like 6'4 and towers over his shit... his drummer has midi triggers and his monome is most definatly doing something... from what i saw it seemed like it was running synced filters and delays as well as sending out cc messages to trigger what i figured was beat repeat effects racks and such... it looked like his mpd 32 was set up to play certian samples/bass oneshots and he had the faders set to either effects sends or busses but i couldnt tell...

from the photos i saw while i was stalking it looks like he sets up his performance by breaking out stems of the drums bass samples and vox so that he can "jam" the effects or whatever... owning a monome is why i stalked his set to this extent... hes the only person rocking one live as his main controller on that level really... the guy from soundtribe uses one but it seems he just has the 40h set up to trigger follow actions and whatever...

my best guess is that pretty lights is running mlrv unless he has multiple instances of molar... it didnt seem like he was using seven up and the filters and delays he ran sounded to me like the ones in mlr...

this kid is on some next shit for real... he plays almost everynight and has for pretty much the entire year... hes using a monome and an mpd flipping samples live in addition to his live drummer... if you go to a show and hear his sets his sound is HUGE... bass is just killer... totally not the normal shit you hear from monome people... i think people get confused as to what he is doing because they dont understand it... but just setting up a set of that magnitude in ableton and syncing it all to a monome AND flipping the interesting samples live is a task in itself... nevermind having to live up to the hype everynight...


pretty lights is probably one of the best producers out there right now playing sold out shows with nothing but pads ableton and a monome... this should be a positive thing for our community to know that the public can embrace "laptop" performers and thier hardware without fully understanding it on a level that really is not achieved all that often...

go to his vimeo and peep his old videos of him in his bedroom flipping his songs with mlr... shit is pretty tech... hes a ableton nerd im sure and his sound is definatly power production...

i mean seriously all dj shadow ever did was press play on mpc's and you guys are knocking a kid who is taking downtempo glitchy hiphop to a new level with opensource software and limited edition hardware... shit is pretty dope that it has gotten so big if you ask me... kinda shows that people are taking laptop performances more seriously

[anachroschism]

i think its funny that people on the ableton forum are saying that pretty lights isnt doing enough onstage... first of all... the production of his sets is amazing... whoever is running the lights for that dude is on point 100%... shit blew me away...

as for his stage presence... the dude is like 6'4 and towers over his shit... his drummer has midi triggers and his monome is most definatly doing something... from what i saw it seemed like it was running synced filters and delays as well as sending out cc messages to trigger what i figured was beat repeat effects racks and such... it looked like his mpd 32 was set up to play certian samples/bass oneshots and he had the faders set to either effects sends or busses but i couldnt tell...

from the photos i saw while i was stalking it looks like he sets up his performance by breaking out stems of the drums bass samples and vox so that he can "jam" the effects or whatever... owning a monome is why i stalked his set to this extent... hes the only person rocking one live as his main controller on that level really... the guy from soundtribe uses one but it seems he just has the 40h set up to trigger follow actions and whatever...

my best guess is that pretty lights is running mlrv unless he has multiple instances of molar... it didnt seem like he was using seven up and the filters and delays he ran sounded to me like the ones in mlr...

this kid is on some next shit for real... he plays almost everynight and has for pretty much the entire year... hes using a monome and an mpd flipping samples live in addition to his live drummer... if you go to a show and hear his sets his sound is HUGE... bass is just killer... totally not the normal shit you hear from monome people... i think people get confused as to what he is doing because they dont understand it... but just setting up a set of that magnitude in ableton and syncing it all to a monome AND flipping the interesting samples live is a task in itself... nevermind having to live up to the hype everynight...


pretty lights is probably one of the best producers out there right now playing sold out shows with nothing but pads ableton and a monome... this should be a positive thing for our community to know that the public can embrace "laptop" performers and thier hardware without fully understanding it on a level that really is not achieved all that often...

go to his vimeo and peep his old videos of him in his bedroom flipping his songs with mlr... shit is pretty tech... hes a ableton nerd im sure and his sound is definatly power production...

i mean seriously all dj shadow ever did was press play on mpc's and you guys are knocking a kid who is taking downtempo glitchy hiphop to a new level with opensource software and limited edition hardware... shit is pretty dope that it has gotten so big if you ask me... kinda shows that people are taking laptop performances more seriously

word.

[najrock]

dug around a bit and found this...

http://www.roxwel.com/news/exclusive-pr ... ance-.html

looks like hes using molar

[starving student]

love pretty lights dude is talented but what's he doing that prefuse wasn't doing on his first album with just an mpc?

[starving student]

thing about pL is that you won't remember any of the songs next year but you'll still be able to remember old dj shadow songs the year after next but I guess people define great music in many different ways so it's all valid


do you notice how his beats are very strong like they are great drumbeats but they have no groove whatsoever to see what I mean play a pretty lights track and then play a Dabrye track.

[najrock]

I wasn't saying the guy was reinventing the wheel nor was debating his replay value... I made the comparison to emphasize the point that at it's core live production appears simple upon first glance, however there is tech in the dudes set that I felt the need to point out... Tech that goes beyond other acts in his genre. The producers you mentioned happen to be two of my personal favorites... Prefuse especially... Shadow too for that matter...

The goal of my post was simply to point out that he is doing something live and well. Not to crown him king of the laptop performers