The Lowdown – This Week’s XLR8R Top 10 with Nina Kraviz, Jon Hopkins, Actress, and More
Throughout the week, a whole lot of material gets posted here on XLR8R. And while […]
Throughout the week, a whole lot of material gets posted here on XLR8R. And while we know—and love—that some hardcore readers will eagerly pour over every single news story, interview, podcast, video, and MP3 download that appears on the site, we also realize that for most people, it’s impossible to see everything, which means that some quality XLR8R content is likely to get missed in the hustle and bustle of everyone’s daily lives. In the interest of making it easier for everyone to catch up, every Friday we present The Lowdown, a weekly wrap-up of the top 10 tidbits from our site.
1. Russian DJ/producer Nina Kraviz (pictured above) tapped into the electronic music world’s collective celebration of all things Dance Mania by putting together an all-vinyl mix that consists of nothing but tunes from the storied Chicago label.
2. Red Bull Music Academy released What Difference Does It Make? A Film About Making Music, a new feature-length documentary that features interviews from notable artists and legendary icons such as Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Giorgio Moroder, Lee “Scratch” Perry, James Murphy, Flying Lotus, Richie Hawtin, and others. The film is available to stream and download for free.
3. 4. The latest chapter of our Hi-Five series found New Jersey garage legend Kerri Chandler sharing the five tracks that influenced him the most as an artist.
4. Next week, Jon Hopkins will be releasing an all-star remix package for his song “Collider,” which will include reworks from Pangaea, Objekt, and UK duo Karenn. In the meantime, we hosted an exclusive stream of the latter here on XLR8R.
5. As he tends to do from time to time, shadowy UK producer Actress gave away an unreleased new tune online via Twitter.
6. Our Deep Inside series found us speaking to Dance Mania founder Ray Barney and taking an in-depth look at Hardcore Traxx, the new double-disc compilation surveying more than a decade of the label’s classic releases.
7. This week’s XLR8R podcast was assembled by LA-based house/disco/garage producer Magic Touch.
8. Four Tet has been extremely active as of late, and this week saw him sharing streams of the two tracks from his upcoming collaborative 12″ with Terror Danjah.
9. Boiler Room launched a new series called Beats Unraveled, in which Dutch producer Binkbeats impressively reconstructs well-known electronic tracks, live. His latest outing finds him tackling “Bowls” from Caribou.
10. Portland’s Philip Grass provided the site’s most popular free download this week, the intimate and soothing “All I Need” from his new EP on Dropping Gems.
An expanded version of the The Lowdown is also available via a weekly email newsletter. Those interested in an even more in-depth round-up of XLR8R content, including a complete listing of all the free downloads we’ve offered in the past seven days, should sign up by entering their email address below.
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