redvoid's musings

musical projects: superfiends

Over the years, I have created a bunch of different musical aliases I work under. Usually what happens, is I reserve the moniker “redvoid” for work I do by myself, and whenever I work with someone else collaboratively, I create a new alias for that, or sometimes, whether working collaboratively, or solo, I will create another alias when I work in a musical style that is divergent from what “redvoid” is known for. In any case, the Superfiends moniker was created to describe the electronic experimentation work I do with Steve Rush aka funky49, who is more known for his nerdcore hiphop, while I am more known for the breakbeat and electro-house electronica work. Steve & I also have another alias called “2 Def Mice”. Over time, I will write up many of my other projects to clarify what is meant by Defcon6, Window Seat, Beyond & Back & Static Grooves.

the superfiends logo

We did our first Superfiends album called Divebombing in response to the RPM Challenge which is based on the NanoWriMo challenge of writing an entire novel in a month, as its musical equivalent, writing an entire album in a month. Our RPM page desribes Superfiends like this:

“Superfiends is a creative collective consisting of Redvoid (John Sexton) & Funky49 (Steve Rush). Over the years under various project names Redvoid and Funky49 have released breakbeat, drum and bass and nerdcore hiphop records on various indie labels. The Superfiends moniker is all about removing the traditional limits of genre orthodoxy and freely blending elements from anywhere while still acheiving a cohesive sound. This sound’s distinction comes from the Superfiends’ rhythm scientist process. the Superfiends’ sound has evolved into a complex mix of ambient, trip hop, illbient, chillout, over hip hop, dub, trance and electro beats with a human focal point and a subliminal message of humaneness. Allow the music of the Superfiends to invade your mind with their message of meditative self awareness, universal compassion and peace.”

The following year, we did another album for the RPM Challenge called “Prestidigichillitation”, and our liner notes describe each track and the concept for the overall concept album. The sound of Superfiends is more evolved in the Prestidigichillitation album, and in terms of musical influence is closest to some zone between the illbient music of DJ Shadow, the minimalist, dub, triphop hybrids of DJ Spooky, and the idm music of The Orb.

A lot of work goes into planning, writing, producing and mixing down a complete concept album like this, and we were deadly serious about our storyboarding and execution and still managed to knock both albums out in less than one month each as the RPM Challenge requires. The album names in this post are linked to the free downloads of those albums, so it would be great to get some additional feedback. A very brief discussion occurred on launch on rhyme torrents when the 2nd album was released, and I have heard from my personal friends on what they thought, but if you have anything to say, positive or negative about any of the Superfiends music, we’d love to hear about it in the comments section.

Tags: chillout, Electronica, house, RPM Challenge, Superfiends