Music: DJ Excision’s dubstep + picture farmin’ tunes

So been in Portland, just now wrapping up this commercial job, and as usual I’m crashing with my good friend, Benjamin. He and I have been geeking on a few things, one being dubstep, which seems to be the electronic hype right now.  We went to a Pendelum show and this canuck, DJ Excision opened up w/ a gut shaking dubstep set.   Rocked my mind…jams you’d never usually hear outside of the hippest sort of party in London or Paris, deep, dark, dirty, apocalyptic, universe-ending beats, and I mean deep and dirty.

You can check his FB page and tour dates, here, or download one of his mixes, here.

Turn this up:

[audio:dj_excision_shambhala_mix.mp3]
mix: “Shambhala 2008” by DJ Excision

What does this have to do w/ photography…well, sort of a lot, b/c music is SO key on the set.  Some traditional favs of mine are Sigor Ros and the Stones for portraits; for fashion it depends entirely on the vibe, but when a shoot goes to that hard electronica place, for me that means things are going right.  And I almost never shoot street stuff sans headphones unless batteries run out, and there it is usually one of two extremes: something like Chopin/Schubert/Verdi or some crackin Breakbeats.

Schubert:

Breakbeats, (Plump DJs):

What do you listen to to set your work off?

Comments
6 Responses to “Music: DJ Excision’s dubstep + picture farmin’ tunes”
  1. RB says:

    Hey Graeme,

    Glad to hear you’ve stumbled across the dubstep genre. Deep & dirty… what more could a bass loving beat addict want? I love it. But if you’re interested in how the genre has been shaped and pushed into other areas, I highly recommend you check out an artist by the name of BURIAL. His stuff is amazing.

    Many thanks for your blog. I came across your post about Mark Steinmetz the other day and promptly ordered one of his books. Absolutely STUNNING photographs; i was blown away.

    You’ve been bookmarked!

    RB

  2. Gary Stenny says:

    DJ Shadow (Private Press) is my current music of choice while working late night – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg9CcKpMTv4&feature=related

  3. Marrz says:

    I find that “ambient” works for me while shooting as it usually contains no lyrics, I think lyrics can get in the way. Where as blank soundspaces provide the mood for on set or for late night photoshop sessions. So I’d recommend anything by “Arovane” “Plaid” “Boards Of Canada” “Jon Hopkins” “Ulrich Schnauss” “Vector Lovers”.
    Been following your Blog for a while now, Keep up the great work Graeme, I need my fix of NY Imagery!

  4. admin says:

    RB, listened to Burial. Fantastic. Really unique sound. Thanks for the tip.

  5. I just wrote about this last week and made an iMix on iTunes with some recent tracks I’ve been playing at shoots.

    http://www.terencepatrick.org/2009/03/04/music-for-photo-shoots/

    Link to the iMix:
    http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=307284383&s=143441

  6. admin says:

    Terence, glad you’re thinking of it too! This topic came to me when I was shooting recently and a stylist brought an ipod that absolutely rocked all day, for like 9 hrs! It seems like it would be a pretty trivial thing, but the tunes made a difference. A good environment is very important.