Dark Arps

Die­sen Monat ist “EDs World Of Music” voll­stän­dig einem Live-Set von Dark Arps gewid­met. Der bri­ti­sche Drum‘n‘Bass und Trip Hop in den 1990er Jah­ren waren die Start­punkte für die musi­ka­li­sche Ent­wick­lung des Pro­du­zen­ten aus Van­cou­ver, Kanada. Wei­tere Inspi­ra­ti­ons­quel­len von Dark Arps sind Techno und NuSkool. Das erste Jahr­zehnt des neuen Jahr­tau­sends ver­brachte er auf Tour mit einer D’n’B-Live-Band namens Kei­retsu. Seit 15 Jah­ren pro­du­ziert er elek­tro­ni­sche Tanz­mu­sik, die sich schwer einer Kate­go­rie zuord­nen läßt. Dies­mal gibt’s eine ganze Stunde sei­ner aktu­el­len Arbeit exklu­siv bei ED2000. Stay tuned and enjoy! (Die Show ist in Englisch)

In English please: This months „Eds World Of Music” is given over ent­i­rely to a live set by Van­cou­ver based Dark Arps. Initia­ted in the boom years of the 90s British Drum and Bass and Trip Hop waves, fur­ther inspi­red by incor­po­ra­ting Techno and NuSkool into his big sonic pic­ture, he spent the first decade of the new Mill­en­nium tou­ring one of the UKs first truly live Drum And Bass acts, Kei­retsu. Fast for­ward to the pre­sent via varied and diverse essen­tial influ­en­ces and expe­ri­en­ces, and this 15 years in the game as a pro­fes­sio­nal pro­du­cer and per­for­mer of all things cut­ting edge in Elec­tro­nic Dance, has pre­pa­red for us, an hour long show­case of his own cur­rent and upco­m­ing mate­rial. Your in the zone, keep it locked, stay tuned and enjoy ! - BLN FM

Die­sen Monat ist “EDs World Of Music” voll­stän­dig einem Live-Set von Dark Arps gewid­met. Der bri­ti­sche Drum‘n‘Bass und Trip Hop in den 1990er Jah­ren waren die Start­punkte für die musi­ka­li­sche Ent­wick­lung des Pro­du­zen­ten aus Van­cou­ver, Kanada. Wei­tere Inspi­ra­ti­ons­quel­len von Dark Arps sind Techno und NuSkool. Das erste Jahr­zehnt des neuen Jahr­tau­sends ver­brachte er auf Tour mit einer D’n’B-Live-Band namens Kei­retsu. Seit 15 Jah­ren pro­du­ziert er elek­tro­ni­sche Tanz­mu­sik, die sich schwer einer Kate­go­rie zuord­nen läßt. Dies­mal gibt’s eine ganze Stunde sei­ner aktu­el­len Arbeit exklu­siv bei ED2000. Stay tuned and enjoy! (Die Show ist in Englisch)

In English please: This months „Eds World Of Music” is given over ent­i­rely to a live set by Van­cou­ver based Dark Arps. Initia­ted in the boom years of the 90s British Drum and Bass and Trip Hop waves, fur­ther inspi­red by incor­po­ra­ting Techno and NuSkool into his big sonic pic­ture, he spent the first decade of the new Mill­en­nium tou­ring one of the UKs first truly live Drum And Bass acts, Kei­retsu. Fast for­ward to the pre­sent via varied and diverse essen­tial influ­en­ces and expe­ri­en­ces, and this 15 years in the game as a pro­fes­sio­nal pro­du­cer and per­for­mer of all things cut­ting edge in Elec­tro­nic Dance, has pre­pa­red for us, an hour long show­case of his own cur­rent and upco­m­ing mate­rial. Your in the zone, keep it locked, stay tuned and enjoy ! - BLN FM

Righty, listen up! Canadian ‘Jon Bierman’ aka Dark Arps properly grabbed the attention of the LSM crew with his recent single ‘B-52' out now on Beatport. He’s sent us a mixtape he’s done and we’re loving it! Its an evolution of the kind of nerdy NuSkool ‘bloke-beat’ that started to give the genre an ‘iffy’ rep, a few years back. But done properly.
Dark and twisted, sparse and minimal, funky and musical… Without trying to sound too sentimental, its the kind of the breaks that got us into breaks in the first place. And guess what, even the missus will like it! Take THAT, ‘bloke-beat’. Whatever your disposition towards breakbeat, you gotta give this a go! It gets the complete No Hands thumbs up.
Oh, and one more thing… It is 100% his own work… - Life Support Machine

Righty, listen up! Canadian ‘Jon Bierman’ aka Dark Arps properly grabbed the attention of the LSM crew with his recent single ‘B-52' out now on Beatport. He’s sent us a mixtape he’s done and we’re loving it! Its an evolution of the kind of nerdy NuSkool ‘bloke-beat’ that started to give the genre an ‘iffy’ rep, a few years back. But done properly.
Dark and twisted, sparse and minimal, funky and musical… Without trying to sound too sentimental, its the kind of the breaks that got us into breaks in the first place. And guess what, even the missus will like it! Take THAT, ‘bloke-beat’. Whatever your disposition towards breakbeat, you gotta give this a go! It gets the complete No Hands thumbs up.
Oh, and one more thing… It is 100% his own work… - Life Support Machine

Attention all DJs, music lovers, techno, breaks and even hip-hop heads! Dark Arps’ latest release on Steamtown Records, Real Age EP, has something for everyone and aims to quench your musical thirst with four diverse, cinematic productions.

We kick off with ‘Kingdom’, a thumping, downtempo amalgamation of techno and hip-hop, with plenty of heart and soul. An arpeggiated melodic theme runs throughout as pounding beats and grime-heavy basslines provide support on this deep, introspective journey. Feel those summertime vibes as ‘Real Age’ teleports you back to youthful days on the playground. It’s a funky, light-hearted romp through house and techno with cheeky, surreal vocal samples and warm and squelchy LFO bass lines, heavy on the triplets. Guaranteed, smiling faces all round when this track is played. Next up is ‘Choices’, a stomping, bass-heavy progressive house and techno banger that gives the dance floor something to rave about. Chunky progressive bass lines alternate between a verse and chorus motif, punctuated with bubbling, underwater blips and bells. And last but not least is the melodic progressive breaks and techno track, ‘In Flux’. Lush, evolving pads are supported by infectious techno-breaks drums, with the bassline playing call-and-response between punchy subs and growling overtones. The energy is constant, brooding and understated.

Click here to listen to a preview of the release: Real Age EP Preview

Who is this Dark Arps you ask? A regular performer in the Vancouver scene, Dark Arps is a veteran British/Canadian electronic artist, producer, and engineer, also known as Jon Bierman. Exposure to the electronic music scene during the 90s, led him to be inspired by many of the ground-breaking acts that emerged from the U.K., with the most notable influences being Hybrid, Underworld, and Orbital. Perhaps best described as a ‘producer’s producer’, he’s worked and collaborated with numerous musicians, artists and bands over a broad range of genres both acoustically and electronically during the last 15 years. A veteran performer and no stranger to the stage, he also toured and performed in the U.K. with the live DnB/breakbeat act, Keiretsu, during the 2000s. Now based in Vancouver since 2009, he draws upon his years of experience, technical skills and inspirations to produce tracks that adhere to his standards of musicality, variety and of course, dance-ability. - Examiner.com

Attention all DJs, music lovers, techno, breaks and even hip-hop heads! Dark Arps’ latest release on Steamtown Records, Real Age EP, has something for everyone and aims to quench your musical thirst with four diverse, cinematic productions.

We kick off with ‘Kingdom’, a thumping, downtempo amalgamation of techno and hip-hop, with plenty of heart and soul. An arpeggiated melodic theme runs throughout as pounding beats and grime-heavy basslines provide support on this deep, introspective journey. Feel those summertime vibes as ‘Real Age’ teleports you back to youthful days on the playground. It’s a funky, light-hearted romp through house and techno with cheeky, surreal vocal samples and warm and squelchy LFO bass lines, heavy on the triplets. Guaranteed, smiling faces all round when this track is played. Next up is ‘Choices’, a stomping, bass-heavy progressive house and techno banger that gives the dance floor something to rave about. Chunky progressive bass lines alternate between a verse and chorus motif, punctuated with bubbling, underwater blips and bells. And last but not least is the melodic progressive breaks and techno track, ‘In Flux’. Lush, evolving pads are supported by infectious techno-breaks drums, with the bassline playing call-and-response between punchy subs and growling overtones. The energy is constant, brooding and understated.

Click here to listen to a preview of the release: Real Age EP Preview

Who is this Dark Arps you ask? A regular performer in the Vancouver scene, Dark Arps is a veteran British/Canadian electronic artist, producer, and engineer, also known as Jon Bierman. Exposure to the electronic music scene during the 90s, led him to be inspired by many of the ground-breaking acts that emerged from the U.K., with the most notable influences being Hybrid, Underworld, and Orbital. Perhaps best described as a ‘producer’s producer’, he’s worked and collaborated with numerous musicians, artists and bands over a broad range of genres both acoustically and electronically during the last 15 years. A veteran performer and no stranger to the stage, he also toured and performed in the U.K. with the live DnB/breakbeat act, Keiretsu, during the 2000s. Now based in Vancouver since 2009, he draws upon his years of experience, technical skills and inspirations to produce tracks that adhere to his standards of musicality, variety and of course, dance-ability. - Examiner.com

Originally raised on British drum and bass, Dark Arps now rocks packed venues around Vancouver with his special brand of booty-shaking beats that get every dancefloor moving, and is a staple of both the SHAHdjs and the Soundproof crew.

“I was producing a track and was labeling my sounds. I named one part ‘dark arp’, an abbreviation for an arpeggiated melody—that means a melody that runs up and down a scale,” he says in an accent that is two thirds British, one third Canadian, and entirely sexy. And so the name Dark Arps was born.

The man behind the moniker is Jonathan Bierman. “I was inspired by the early emergence of electronic pop music, especially in the U.K., there was a lot of dance pop like ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’; all [that] cheesy electronic pop music, and I loved that stuff. I was 13 years old.” But it wasn’t until he was 16, as a teenager in the U.K., that he had the opportunity to use computers at school to create his own electronic music. He was totally hooked, and spent the next ten years immersed in Britain’s thriving drum and bass scene. In addition to touring the UK as a founding member of Keiretsu – the first truly live 10-piece live breakbeat band – he expanded his musical education by collaborating with the classically trained composer Rich Meehan, in the duo Beamer Grande. “Listen to ‘Your Wife Hates Me’”, Bierman recommends with a mischievous smirk.

“I’ve always been making breaks, techno and house. I make music that is effectively 130 b.p.m., sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower, and it’s either got a broken beat or a four-to-floor kick, like techno and house – or sometimes, both.” On his newest EP, Real Age (releasing on March 13th via Steamtown Records), Bierman shows that he’s not afraid to combine the two, and proves that this is an entirely delicious mix especially in “In Flux”, where progressive breaks collide with techno to create a subtly hypnotic dance track. Arpeggiated melody shapes a dreamscape constructed with downtempo techno and hip hop in “Kingdom”, and the EP’s title track, “Real Age”, is an upbeat and fun exploration of funky techno that teleports you back to summertime playgrounds. Needless to say, Real Age is definitely worth a good listen or three, with tons of mixing potential.
- BeatRoute (BC)

Originally raised on British drum and bass, Dark Arps now rocks packed venues around Vancouver with his special brand of booty-shaking beats that get every dancefloor moving, and is a staple of both the SHAHdjs and the Soundproof crew.

“I was producing a track and was labeling my sounds. I named one part ‘dark arp’, an abbreviation for an arpeggiated melody—that means a melody that runs up and down a scale,” he says in an accent that is two thirds British, one third Canadian, and entirely sexy. And so the name Dark Arps was born.

The man behind the moniker is Jonathan Bierman. “I was inspired by the early emergence of electronic pop music, especially in the U.K., there was a lot of dance pop like ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’; all [that] cheesy electronic pop music, and I loved that stuff. I was 13 years old.” But it wasn’t until he was 16, as a teenager in the U.K., that he had the opportunity to use computers at school to create his own electronic music. He was totally hooked, and spent the next ten years immersed in Britain’s thriving drum and bass scene. In addition to touring the UK as a founding member of Keiretsu – the first truly live 10-piece live breakbeat band – he expanded his musical education by collaborating with the classically trained composer Rich Meehan, in the duo Beamer Grande. “Listen to ‘Your Wife Hates Me’”, Bierman recommends with a mischievous smirk.

“I’ve always been making breaks, techno and house. I make music that is effectively 130 b.p.m., sometimes a little faster, sometimes a little slower, and it’s either got a broken beat or a four-to-floor kick, like techno and house – or sometimes, both.” On his newest EP, Real Age (releasing on March 13th via Steamtown Records), Bierman shows that he’s not afraid to combine the two, and proves that this is an entirely delicious mix especially in “In Flux”, where progressive breaks collide with techno to create a subtly hypnotic dance track. Arpeggiated melody shapes a dreamscape constructed with downtempo techno and hip hop in “Kingdom”, and the EP’s title track, “Real Age”, is an upbeat and fun exploration of funky techno that teleports you back to summertime playgrounds. Needless to say, Real Age is definitely worth a good listen or three, with tons of mixing potential.
- BeatRoute (BC)