QED Records

Email interview with Demolee. September 10, 2008.

Where do you find the next generation of downtempo music producers in the Philippines? In I.T. companies apparently. One of them just happens to be Franco Madrid, also known as Demolee, a product specialist who sweats and breathes chillout music.  Though he won’t tell us what product he masters, we do know that in his free time, he’s mastering tracks for his solo project Demolee and his live group Flavours and Caffeine (FNC). The best part is, even before he learned how to make electronic music, he was already downloading from QED Records. Which is a nice way of showing that web 2.0 is making producers out of all consumers — though not all of us are as talented as this guy.

Demolee playing live at the Fashion Art Gallery opening. Photo by JC.

Read the entire interview after the jump.

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October 3rd, 2008 | Tags: demolee, interview | Category: QED News | Leave a comment

qd-4251 Switchboard of Souls -Mad with Me

[qd-4251] SWITCHBOARD OF SOULS : Mad With Me

Another synthtronic release from the understated master of retro electric new wave moods. Switchboard of Souls unleashes a three-song EP that could very well have been a Depeche Mode underground release. The title track features vocals by the artist, the next two tracks are brooding instrumentals.

Keywords: more Depeche than Mode, synthesizer pop melancholia.

Three mp3s encoded at 192 kbps stereo.

Total Running Time: 10:49

FILES:

1. Mad With Me [MP3] (5.0 MB)
2. Prophecy [MP3] (6.5 MB )
3. Elemental part 1  [MP3] (4.1 MB )
4. —FRONT COVER jpeg (186 KB )
5. —BACK COVER jpeg (127 KB )

DOWNLOAD ALL FILES IN ONE 18 MB ZIP FILE: VBR ZIP

Creative Commons License:

Stream release here:

September 12th, 2008 | Tags: new wave, switchboard of souls, synthpop | Category: EP, QED Releases | Leave a comment

The Unit - The Love I Have

Welcome to a fine 6-minute urban exploration using drum ‘n’ bass and suave textures. The Unit delivers nothing short of musical poetry.

One MP3 encoded at 360 kbps, VBR, stereo.

Artist: The Unit
Keywords:drum & bass, two-step

Creative Commons license:

FILES:

01. The Unit - The Love I Have [14 MB]
02. Cover Artwork [10 KB ]

FUN STUFF:
The Unit is actually a side project of another existing QED Records artist.  Can you guess who it is? Download the track, and compare with the rest of the output already on the site. Make a guess and tell us why you think it’s that artist, right here in the comments section. In a week’s time, we’ll tell you who it is.

Stream release here:

September 6th, 2008 | Tags: drum & bass, the unit | Category: QED Releases, Single | Leave a comment

Email interview with Silverfilter . September 4, 2008.

Cyril Sorongon creates music for a living. When he isn’t finishing a musical score for an advertising jingle, he’s rushing off to play at a live gig somewhere in the city as Silverfilter, or as member of one of many bands. When he’s free, he’s online, moderating the Electronica Manila (EM) mailing list which sprouted sometime around 2001 in answer to a direct need for fellow electronic music lovers in the Philippines (and around the world) to figure out how to turn a love for this music into an active creation of this music.

Silverfilter in action at a live gig. Photo by Edgar.

Your last release on QED was a track for the EM general midi project and your EP, The Lab , what have you been up to since then?

I’m currently bringing back my live set and finishing an ambient, chillout electronic album which will be released sometime November or December 2008.  Other than that, I have like 2-3 full albums just waiting to be mixed down and released. I’m pretty busy with work as well that’s why it’s taking time… it sucks. Oh yeah, and I’m also finishing the follow-up to Interpreter, my first remix album. Interpreter vol. 2 will contain my remixes of indie Philippine rock /pop artists like Kala, Narda, and Reklamo.

The Lab was an experimental album, not your usual sound. What directions have your music taken since then?

The Lab is an important release because you’ll hear me not in playing my usual style (of house and techno) and trying to go into new directions I’m still doing my usual dance tracks but I’m in the process of cooking up a full vocal-based electro-pop-new-wavish album.

What music are you listening to these days?

These days i’m listening to a lot of minimal tech/house material… and blues!

What’s the single most memorable live gig you ever had ?

First thing that comes to mind is a gig I did in iloilo. I was afraid to play harder stuff there like my usual techno sets so I brought out my typical, funky, “swing your hips” type of house music, but it didn’t do much on the dancefloor. I was floored when I shifted my set to my techno live set (which I really enjoy) and found that everybody wanted that. I played for I think 2 hours and it was great. It’s nice when people dig your stuff and your set.

What new gear are you having fun using in the studio or live?

Nice question!  I’m having fun with my recently acquired Novation remote SL 25 key and Ableton Live 7. I bought both so I can do an all software live set. Since I’m always using hardware, I figured it’s about time I tried something different and stretched myself while doing it. Something that can work in a live setting. I’m having fun with it — preparing and setting up all the controls and stuff. I’m making everything controllable so that I don’t have to use the mouse at any point in the set and simply leave the laptop on, just for processing the set.

Finally, excluding your own EP, what’s your favorite QED release so far and why?

I definitely enjoyed the one by Bleedingboy |Soundtrack . Very nice tunes there.

September 4th, 2008 | Tags: interview, silverfilter | Category: QED News | Comments (1)

QED Records loves you. Because you’re downloading from us.

Well, after a long long hiatus, and a complete rethink about where we want this netlabel to go, we’ve decided that the only way to maintain the site without headaches and design problems is to migrate the data to a Content Management System. In this case, we moved the data manually from large collections of HTML pages and onto the Wordpress platform which will make updating and posting much easier for us. It also allows comments, and tags, and search, and a zillion more neat things that we wanted the site to do years ago. Well, here it is finally.

Also, note that I’m using plural pronouns like “we,” and “our.” This is because I’ve asked assistance from others in the Electronica Manila community to help maintain QED Records.  As of September 2008, we now have Mark Redito (Spazzkid/Cocolulu) as community evangelizer for streaming media and social networks, and PJ Ramos (Ixiz) as community evangelizer for email and webfora.  QED Records is a community effort now. And if you want to volunteer to help us, you are more than welcome to email us at qedrecords[at]gmail.com to raise your hand.

We’d love to hear your comments.Tell us if we’re on the right track.

Peace.

September 3rd, 2008 | Tags: QED | Category: QED News | Comments (1)

[QD-4249]: Various Artists: Basics: The ElectronicaManila General MIDI Project ElectronicaManila is a collective of active musicians and producers of Philippine descent, who were brought together by a mailing list of the same name in 2001, and have since gone on to produce shows, albums, projects and this compilation. BASICS is a project that spawned from the idea: come up with one song using only the general MIDI set of instruments, and pool together the results for a compilation. What you have here is a collection of idiosyncratic grooves ranging from techno to ambient that capture the distinct flavor of ElectronicaManila. Eight MP3s at 256-320 kbps.44.1kHz stereo.. Total Running Time: 32:53. Released: April 20, 2008. Stream the release here:

April 20th, 2008 | Tags: ambient, blue ray itch, breakbeat, chroma, demolee, downtempo, electronicamanila, house, names are for tombstones, object 404, silverfilter, spintech, the aden | Category: Album, QED Releases | Comments (1)