LA-based DJ and producer Dj Erok will release his sophomore EP, Reflection, on September 23 via Voidshift Music—the label EROK co-founded.
Following on from his debut EP, Beautiful Chaos, Reflection presents six beautifully produced cuts of sunshine-tinged beats that fit perfectly with the sound of the city the renowned beatsmith calls home. Also featured on the EP is Nick Pacoli, Steeps, wavegroove, Nikko Gray, and Soulection affliate Pheo, with the latter two joining EROK for “Summer Breeze,” the EP’s hazy closing cut.
Ahead of the release later this month, “Summer Breeze” can be streamed in full below.
Berlin based DJ, producer, and label owner Len Faki, is currently one of the most outstanding and in-demand artists in today’s techno scene. Being a resident at Berghain since its opening has kept him constantly transformative as both a dj and producer, and now with his brand new releaseStreet Dub marking Figure‘s 70th release, he is again leaving his musical footprint on the global techno community.
Packaged together in three different versions, Street Dub stylishly treads the borders between classic dub techno and modern club weaponry. As a bonus, an ‘Ambience’ mix is included, stripping away all the percussion and letting the beautiful subtleties of Faki’s production bubble to the surface. You can find out more about Len Faki’s lengthy label history on Juno Records, and you can see Len perform this weekend at the Monasterio night at the Space Moscow by clicking here.
Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never) is perhaps one of the most popular and influential contemporary experimental musicians to date. Lopatin is scheduled to release his newest album, Garden Of Delete (or g.o.d), via Warp Records this coming November.
The bizarrely compelling nature of Oneohtrix Point Never’s (OPN) erratic, sample-based material has continued to amass an extensive and loyal following since first releasing music as OPN in 2007. Lopatin’s career really took off after the release of his abstract and groundbreaking LP Replica, which he issued through his imprint, Software, in 2011. Having teamed up with the esteemed UK label Warp Records for the release of his last album, R Plus Seven, and his upcoming Garden of Delete LP, it is clear that OPN’s luring and exploratory sound maintains a great deal of clout in the electronic and experimental music genus.
You can stream LP cut “I Bite Through It” as well as a number of video teasers for Garden Of Delete in the video playlist below. Check out more from Oneohtrix Point Never (OPN XLR8R podcast) by visiting his Soundcloud page or website by going here.
Tracklisting: 01. Intro 02. Ezra 03. ECCOJAMC1 04. Sticky Drama 05. SDFK 06. Mutant Standard 07. Child of Rage 08. Animals 09. I Bite Through It 10. Freaky Eyes 11. Lift 12. No Good
Another year, another installment of Kompakt‘s Total compilations series, and by now we generally know what to expect—a beyond-solid collection of cuts from the label’s old guard and new jacks, brimming with a bevy of favorites from the label’s recent discography along with a smart selection of unreleased cuts. And while this yearly bounty doesn’t quite yeild the shock-of-the-new, holy-shit-how-good-is-this-label frisson that the first couple of Totals may have given some of us—after all, we all know how exceptional Kompakt is by now, and after hearing about a zillion label comps over the course of a lifetime, it takes a lot to truly wow listeners—it would be a huge mistake for house and techno lovers to take the series for granted. Sure, there may have been a few editions, during a period a few years back when the label seemed a bit unsure if itself, that could have been winnowed down from two CDs to a single disc. But this isn’t one of them—it’s a top-grade, wonderfully wide-ranging volume, with plenty to please those with a yearning for pop-tinged tunefulness, left-field eccentricity, a cascade of emotion, and plain old good music.
The comp grabs you right from the start with the infectious bass throb of Kölsch‘s “DerDieDas,” its earworm of a three-chord melody, staccato vocal sample, hand claps, Mellotron-esque strings and optimistic vibe serving as a setup piece of sorts. But it’s not setting us up for a happy-days experience, exactly—the very next track, Audion‘s “Dam Howl,” trades the sunny-day feel of “DerDieDas” for something considerably darker, with Troels Abrahamsen‘s plaintive, woe-is-me vocals sitting atop its burgeoning squall of minor-key synth work. And so it goes: Disc one is a roller-coaster of emotions riding over a four-four rhythm, as tracks like Patrice Bäumel‘s hard-charging, festival-friendly “The Vanishing”—kick-drum–free for its first four minutes, its drive is defined by a hyperactive, modulated wood block—alternate with weepies such as Terranova‘s “Skin & Bones,” which has vocalists Bon Homme (a.k.a. WhoMadeWho‘s Tomas Høffding) and Lydmor asking “could we be happy?” Judging from the song’s tone, perhaps not—but, oh, those orchestral strings! It’s a beautiful song, which is something that could be said about many of the cuts on this collection. But a few deserve special mention. The spare, bulky trance-tinged synths of Gui Boratto‘s “22” are reminiscent of early Get Physical fare, but the addition of a skippy breakbeat and plucked guitar work lends the tune a more amiable air than, say, Booka Shade’s prime-time material; the lush “Two 0 One,” from John Tejada, manages an immensely appealing aura of uplift while retaining a sense of melancholy; Dave DK’s equally sumptuous “Smukke Lyde” brims with a subltle, pure sort of grandeur.
If the first disc is the party—albeit an emotionally overwrought party at times (i.e, like a lot of the affairs that we’ve all actually been to)—then the second CD serves as the after-party, and a somewhat eccentric one at that. It kicks off innocently enough: Coma‘s supremely chilled “Lora,” with its languid rhythm and sunset melody, could be a long-lost cut from the first Café del Mar compilation; it’s a song that shows that Kompakt really does have its pop chops down. But things get a bit weirder from there. Saschienne‘s “Chambre Bleue” is a creeping, eerie oddity, feeling like a tribal incantation set atop an ceaseless sawtooth synth line; Dauwd‘s “Jupiter George” manages to combine a boogie-flecked bottom end to cosmic filigree, as if Pal Joey had stepped into the studio with Global Communication sometime in the early ’90s; and the aptly named “Sicko,” from Rex the Dog, boasts stuttering, sliced-and-diced vocals that come across as a phonics lesson for androids. The compilation ends with the Black Frame’s undulating, drugged-out, 60-bpm track “Sacrosanct”—a woozy groover that, as much as any song we’ve heard lately, signifies that the shindig has come to a close. It’s a fitting finish to one of the best editions of Total to come along in a while.
XLR8R download MVP MANIK will debut on Bpitch Control next month with his latest EP, NY2LA.
With a Bpitch Control Boiler Room appearance now under his belt, as well as taking the top two spots in our last two top 10 download features, 2015 seems to be MANIK’s year. Now, the New York-born DJ and producer keeps the ball rolling and drops four analog-driven house cuts for the German label.
NY2LA will be out digitally on October 19 and on vinyl October 30, and in the meantime, check out MANIK’s first three of four Janet Jackson summer edits here, here, and here.
London-based producer Mosca has given us a taste of his sleek, dub-inspired house sound with a Boiler Room debut of his track, “White Mice,” leading up to his forthcoming release, NSM004, available November 23. This will be the fourth release on Mosca’s label, Not So Much, which has concocted its own style—moody, grey, and minimal, while remaining packed with flavor and intensity. Established in 2013, Mosca wants his label to be “a vehicle for pushing things forward,” as he explained in an interview with Fabric London. “White Mice” is proof that Mosca’s sound has continued to gain more depth and character as his music career endures.
You can hear more from Mosca and his Not So Much label by visiting their Soundcloud page here.
When it comes to musical descriptors, the term Balearic is a bit timeworn, to say the least. As an aural adjective, it was originally used to denote musical the anything-goes, vaguely hippyish spirit that DJs like Alfredo would play on the island of Ibiza in the ’70s and ’80s, then exported to the rest of the world by the U.K.’s first generation of acid-house DJs. By now, of course, Balearic has been watered down to mean…well, whatever you want it too mean, really. But it’s nearly impossible to talk about DJ-producers Simon James and Dan Hastie—the pair known as Woolfy vs Projections—without using the word. For one thing, the duo takes its inspiration from the titular hero of Zazu‘s “Captain Starlight,” the 1979 tune that originally helped define the Balearic sound for the outside world. But more than that, it’s the vibe of Woolfy vs Projections’ music: The California-based partners have that hazy, summertime, swaying Balearic feel perfected.
The two have just released their third (and for now, we’re told, final) LP, Stations, on their longtime home of Permanent Vacation—and the release, like all their work, is a beauty. You could describe it as “lushly produced, chilled psyche-folk with a beat”—and that largely would be true, as far as it goes. But like all of Woolfy vs Projections output, Station’s‘ pleasures run much deeper than that: There’s the dubbed-out tropical groove of “Walkaway,” for instance, the horn-led sunshine-funk of “Set It Up,” the loping drum-machine disco of “Tangiers,” and even a gorgeous cover of Odyssey‘s revered Balearic tune from ’74, “Who.” The album occasionally nudges towards the dancefloor (“Who,” for instance, or the sparkling house cut “Combination,” which weds a Larry Levan-esque vibe to its percolating synth), but really, Stations is an album that oozes laid-back sensuality, perhaps better suited to a spliffy beach-house gathering that a full-bore shindig. (“The fish were soothed,” one of our XLR8R coworkers said, describing a set the pair played at an aquarium on Long Beach, CA.) But it’s not like James and Hastie are averse to getting down—so see below for Woolfy vs Projections’ custom-curated “essentials for your Afro-disco-reggae party.”
Chalice “Loosen Up” (Pipe Music) Paying heavy attention to new synths of the time, Chalice keeps this track super-roots, with a taste of New York City disco coming into play. Vocal melodies go from the dancehall to the Paradise Garage. Always love the way the energy of the chorus picks up to some flavors of ska. Serious dudes—just check the album cover.
Grace Jones “Nipple to the Bottle” (Island Records) what more can you say about this woman, the domineering queen of so many genres; put Sly and Robbie in the mix, and it’s the perfect storm. Killing it on every front, they let the vocals breathe at the right times, bringing that Jamaican feel to the dancefloor. Grace always bring some weight to her lyrics, which puts her above the obvious.
Gibson Brothers “Ooh, What a Life” (Island Records) Raw, driving, a full force of nature—this one’s been in the box for years and it works at the beach, in the morning, or prime time. The guitars have an eternity in them that pushes people to keep on, and there’s enough tension in the bridges to really give release to the hook. What a life.
Hugh Masekela “Don’t Go Lose It Baby” (Carrere) There are o many versions , extended dubs and covers of this amazing piece. It’s always a staple in our late night Los Angeles shindigs. At the end of the night , these lyrics can mean so many things to so many people and it always makes sense.
Third World “Lagos Jump” (Columbia) Right from the top when the vocal drops, there’s a deep feel that’s undeniable Everybody likes to raise their glass to this on . Heavy percussion takes over the track that gives way to the uplifting verse…summer for days.
This month, Romanian producer Egal 3 will return to Sound of Vast with Altfelnu, the follow up to 2014’s The Shades EP.
Egal 3, who has previously released on imprints such as Fear of Flying, Monique Musique, and Memoria Recordings, drops two more mezmorizing, groove-focused cuts for the label he inaugurated last year. Kicking things off is the hauntingly beautiful title track, “Altfelnu”; locking you into its intricate groove early, Egal 3 keeps things deep and club-ready, before an eerie piano melody slides in on top and provides the finishing touches. On the flip is the devilishly rolling “Sidebyside,” a tightly wound slice of Villalobos-like techno.
Ahead of the official release later this month, “Altfelnu” is streaming in full below.
Having previously featured his starry-eyed song “Pink Violet” as a free XLR8R download around this time last year, Maryland-based producer Lance Neptune has returned with a remix of Lone‘s track “Minor Suns.” Having approached Lone on his tour through the US, Neptune instantly impressed him with his demos, and in turn, receiving the opportunity to remix one of his tracks. The remix of “Minor Suns” is a quickened version of the original that offers a steady, luscious beat that bounces along until the tracks halfway marker. From there, the playful claps and vocal samples fade into an airy and sopping-wet sonic landscape that melts into the sound of waves colliding with the shore.
Last year, Lance Neptune released Synthesis, which can be listened to in full on soundcloud by going here, and the young, rising artist has also been signed to Lone’s Magic Wire label with an EP slated for arrival in November. You can download your copy of “Minor Suns (Lance Neptune Remix)” below for free.
The electronic and technology website Wired just released an article detailing the long awaited return of Technics by Panasonic. The announcement took place this morning in Berlin at the annual IFA conference in Berlin. The prototype of the new model of Technic turntable was debuted along with other high-end audio gear, such as the announcement of U-G30 Grand Class network audio amp and the EAH-T700 premium stereo headphones. There is no word yet as to how much the turntable will cost, or when it will be released, but director of Technics and executive officer at Panasonic, Michiko Ogawa, stated that it will be coming to the UK.
You can find more information about the relaunch of Technic in the full article on Wired.com
