Every90Minutes and Gravitas Recordings Want To Beat ALS With Music

Back in August, the ALS Ice Bucket challenge washed over every corner of the internet. Personal entries by everyone from Skrillex, to Kate Upton, the Bushes, Martha Stewert and yes, all of these wonderful people made it one of the most ubiquitous and strange phenomenon in recent memory. The initiative reportedly raised over $100 million dollars for ALS research. Wowza.

Jay Smith, founder of music technology company Livid Instruments, has started an organization called Every90Minutes in hopes to fight ALS with not ice-cold tap water, but red-hot grooves. A lifelong figure in the music tech industry, Smith was himself recently diagnosed with ALS earlier in the year, and along with Gravitas Recordings, has tirelessly helped curate a unique compilation of some of the best tracks from all along the electronic music spectrum.

"I was part of the Ice Bucket Challenge when it first took off, it was a complete game changer for ALS," he tells THUMP. "The most important thing it did was get people talking about it, without awareness it was hard to get people to pay attention, not to mention donating—our compilation was in the works before the IBC started so the timing could not be better," said Smith.

Jay Smith

With sixteen tracks ranging from the likes of Machinedrum, to Bassnectar, Richie Hawtin, BT and Tritonal, Beat ALS Vol.1 is looking to raise awareness and money through a carefully curated selection of tunes, many of which Smith tells us "have very personal and touching stories behind them, and are completely original for the compilation." According to Jay, acquring this much stellar music was easier that he thought and after emails to friends within the industry he had countless people who wanted to help. He also credited Gravitas label figures Jesse Brede and John Burcham (also known as bass producer Psymbionic) for "pouring their heart and soul into this project."

According to Smith, the World is still a long way off from a cure for ALS, let alone treatment. Proceeds from the compilation will go directly towards the search.

Not only does Jay Smith hope that the first edition of the release will bring in a good deal of donations for ALS research, but also he identified with the therapeutic healing power of music during times of pain and struggle. "Given that there is no treatment for ALS, not one single pill, I rely on a few non-medical things to keep me going; one is laughter and the other is music….Music can do so much for the mind, body and spirit. For ALS patients, if you live long enough the only thing you have left are your eyes and ears—listening becomes a very big part of your life," Jay told THUMP.

Beat ALS Vol.1 is released October 14th on Gravitas Recordings. You can grab the whole compilation for a mere $10, or you can choose to donate more. We recommend option #2! Purchase HERE. 

http://lividinstruments.com/
http://www.every90minutes.org/
http://gravitasrecordings.com/

While David would like to believe that Bassnectar's "Ephemeral" can cure ALS all on its own—he knows only money and awareness can….so donate kids!!! @DLGarber