Reflecting on his early years in Vienna, Austria, it is no surprise that LA-based producer/DJ/remixer/label owner John Tejada has grown to become one of the leading electronic musicians of his generation. His musical roots can be traced right back to his childhood, a time when he was encouraged to learn the drums and the piano by his parents, both of whom were professional classical musicians. Ever since he purchased his first pair of decks and began DJing at local school dances, Tejada has worked tirelessly to refine both his DJ and production skills, moving seamlessly from a more hip hop sound to one firmly based within the realms of techno and house.
Tejada’s production work, an endeavour for which he is highly acclaimed due to the sheer variety of his works, has seen him release, as both a solo-artist and as a collaboration, under a plethora of different monikers [Mr Hazeltine; Lucid Dream; Autodidact] and on a number of highly-respected labels, including Steve Bug’s Pokerflat Recordings, Kompakt and his own Palette Recordings. Similarly, his talents behind the decks have taken him all over the globe, ranging from smaller club shows such as Fabric in London to the world’s largest festivals, including Movement and, of course, Decibel.
Fortunately for all of us, his mix for XLR8R captures both sides of his musical repertoire, packed full with unreleased and exclusive material all mixed together to form a stunning podcast for us all to enjoy.
Later this week, German DJ, producer, writer, and label boss DJ T. will release The Growing, his debut EP for Matthias Tanzmann’s Moon Harbour Recordings. The two-track EP features Nick Maurer and arrives backed by a remix from Get Physical live act and DJ Emanuel Satie.
Opening proceedings is the EP’s title track, “The Growing,” a chunky slice of tech-house with rattling percussion and a big, freeform bassline that is sure to set dancefloors alight. Next up is the deep and groovy “Times We Had,” a propulsive cut driven along by a thumping kick and bouncy bassline; with hypnotic synth stabs and spoken word snippets filling things out. Rounding out the EP is Emanuel Satie’s remix of the title track, a stripped back rework with an infectious beat at the forefront.
The Growing will be released on June 10 on Moon Harbour Recordings, with “Times We Had” streaming in full below.
Towards the end of the month, Mistry—the label set up and run by PAN affiliate Beneath—will release London-based producer Laksa’s debut EP. The EP will be the labels fourth release with early support on the EP from Ben UFO, Pearson Sound, Bill Kouligas, Lee Gamble, and Zenker Brothers.
You can stream EP cut “Baded” in full below, along with a tracklisting, with the full EP arriving on June 18.
Bubblin’ Up alum Lockah is having another banner year, with April’s excellent And Blue Brindle Too EP to be followed up with his sophomore album in July. It Gets More Cloudy… is said to find the Scottish producer “reaching for pop driven melodies, delivering joyous moments of funked-out basslines, earworm synth lines and beats drawing from a rich palette of electronic music from the past and present, creating original music with a unique personality.”
The album’s intoxicatingly melodious opener “Heate Legend” can be streamed on the player below ahead of the full release of It Gets More Cloudy… via Donky Pitch (pre-order available here) on July 6.
Last month we reported that Jeff Mills was planning a sequel to 2004’s legendary mix CD and DVD release Exhibitionist. As FACT reports, further details of Exhibitionist 2 have now emerged, along with a video trailer for the CD and two-disc DVD package.
In FACT’s report, Mills is quoted as saying: “The Exhibitionist 2 DVD is designed to go even deeper into the art form to display, not only how a DJ uses the latest technology, but how he thinks in real time to create and work spontaneously like a musician playing an acoustic instrument or a soloist thinking of rhythms on-the-spot. This is a rare opportunity to see how the technology of today is allowing DJs to be more free and thus, more creative.”
Three 12″s are also scheduled for release around Exhibitionist 2, with Exhibitionist 2 Part 1 kicking off the series later in June. A trailer for Exhibitionist 2 can be viewed below ahead of the release of Exhibitionist 2 via Mills’ own Axis imprint in September.
XLR8R Couldn't find the embed function for type: "vimeo" and source: "<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/129771647" width="650" height="365" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>".
June 12 will see German techno mainstay Stephan Bodzin unleash his next full-length musical vision on the world. Entitled Powers of Ten, the 10-track LP is named after a book that has been with Bodzin all his life, its confusing truth becoming his only real faith.
The album, an utterly captivating showcase in harmonies, melodies and rhythms, is a homage to Bob Moog.
“It is a journey, a philosophy of life, a view of the world, a vague perception. It is my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my passion, my enemy, my greatest fulfilment, my fear, my deepest peace, my power, all my love,” says Bodzin. As such, this album is hugely personal and is filled with cerebral messages and well thought out concepts. All this shines through and makes it an incredibly engaging listen from start to finish.
Unfolding coherently and in soothing fashion, this album once again proves that few producers in the modern world have a knack for melody and an ear for sonic ingenuity quite like Stephan Bodzin.
Tracklisting:
1. Singularity 2. Ix 3. Birth 4. Sputnik 5. Blue Giant 6. Zulu 7. Powers Of Ten 8. Lila 9. Odyssee 10. Wir
Ahead of its release on June 12 via Bodzin’s own Herzblut Recordings, Powers of Ten can be pre-ordered from here and is exclusively available to stream in full below.
Krake Festival has announced plans initial plans for the event. KRAKE is a Berlin based festival for challenging electronic music, organised by Killekill, a small label and promotion agency run by Nico Deuster (a.k.a. “DJ Flush.” Krake means octopus and the festival is organised in a comparable way: reaching out to selected locations during one week presenting the best in electronic music, whatever style it is.
Due to take place August 3-8 at various locations around the city (including, Urban Spree, Suicide Circus and the Berghain Kantine), the over-all set up will be the same as last year: A week starting with an arty night on Monday, the classic Wednesday night at Berghain Kantine, a bomb night of modern techno on Friday at Suicide Circus, and the peak of the festival on the last day where they combine the areal of Urban Spree with that of Suicide Circus to offer a massive festival place, to wander around between six floors full with music and arts.
As a perk to ticket buyers, a KRAKE compilation will be available for free download when tickets are purchased from the Killekill webshop. The compilation will include tracks from Cassegrain & TIn Man (Killekill), Eomac (Killekill), Kondaktor (Modal Analysis), Umwelt (Shelter), Bintus (Power Vacuum), Electric Indigo, Inner8, & Ken Karter.
More information on the festival can be found here and via the below documentary made as a recap of last year’s festival.
Ahead of the festival, XLR8R spoke with Nico Deuster, Killekill label and Krake founder, to hear his thoughts on the festival’s continued success.
So this is your 6th season hosting the Krake Festival. How have you been able to improve/modify the festival over the years?
We started really small with the Wednesday at Berghain Kantine and the weekend at Suicide Circus, but now the festival has grown into a full week of music, arts, workshops etc. and become one of Berlin’s major festivals for quality electronic music.
The inclusion of Urban Spree last year was probably the biggest modification as this enabled us to build a six-floor festival right in the center of Berlin. Also this place added the art and DIY flavour to the festival which we always wanted. A lot of improvements have also been made on all other levels, I would say. The line ups get better and better, we have more and more nice people involved, the over-all management gets better and better and so on.
What was your initial goal when deciding to host a festival? Has this goal changed?
Our initial goal was the same that we had when we started Killekill as a weekly residency at Berghain Kantine.We wanted to give something to Berlin which we felt was missing. At that time I found the music scene here in Berlin really boring. There was tech house everywhere and it all sounded the same to me. Of course there were exceptions, but that was the general impression which I and also others had. With the weekly Killekill nights which crossed over literally everything from Ambient and Drone to Breakcore, Electro, Techno, IDM and whatsoever we built up such a great network that I felt it was time to give our ambition a bit more impact. So we started the Krake Festival then.
The music scene in Berlin has improved a lot now I would say, the diversity has grown, and there are a lot of events where music is the major ingredient again and not just some background noise. But with the growth of the scene here in Berlin and also internationally there has come up a totally new bunch of professionals who are threatening the scene from a totally different angle. Everybody has an agent, the essence of a scene, which is a personal relation between artists, promoters and crowd, is becoming more and more difficult to create. Also a lot of the bigger artists are asking for very high fees nowadays, plus there is a booking fee on top, plus a 5-star hotel of course, and the pick-up has to be done by a profesional driver in a limousine in the worst case etc. And then they come and play weak, standard music, which every other DJ in Berlin can do. This sucks.
Of course I see the need for some artists to have agents involved, and also I understand why they need this and that if they travel a lot. But everything needs to be handled with a sense of proportion. And sometimes I don’t have the impression that this is the case. So one of our main goals now is to keep these people out of our festival and support the ones who are still pushing the envelope musicwise and who are grateful to play out to a great crowd and respectful to our work as well. There are many, many great artists hidden underneath the mainstream who are much better than what you find overground and who are happy to play and nice to work with. This very personal approach is what we are now putting more and more forward I would say.
How does Krake differ from other music festivals in Berlin?
There are a lot of bigger events here in Berlin which are being called festivals by their promoters, just because they go on for longer than a night or because they are outdoor. To me a festival needs more than this, and considering this there are only a few to be taken serious. CTM and Atonal are the most interesting ones, the rest is more or less mainstream or not festivals at all.
Atonal has a very specific approach with a lot of industrial or post-industrial artists of a certain kind. CTM has a very good programming, but it is quite intellectual, which can be a bit boring sometimes. Krake is musically more open than Atonal and more party-oriented than CTM I would say. It’s a try to bring the focus back onto music without over-emphasizing the intellectual part in it. it’s more sensual than intellectual, more fun-oriented than concept-driven one could say.
What are some of your expectations you are hoping to exceed artistically speaking for Krake 2015?
With our art exhibition, which will be shown every day at Urban Spree during the Krake week, we are stepping into new fields. The laser installation by Robert Henke in particular is something we are looking forward to. We are trying hard to exceed our expectations there.
The body performances, which we are planning with Bodies for the wednesday night, are something we are very much looking forward to as well. This will be challenging. But the biggest challenge will be the Saturday night with six floors between Suicide Circus and Urban Spree. Last year this exceeded our expectations by far, and we are very, very much looking forward to making this happen again this year.
South London electronic music trio Dems released its brilliant debut album ‘Muscle Memory’ last November on Sew In Love Records. Now, moody album cut “Wake” gets the remix treatment from Brighton duo Evil Nine.
Beautifully spacious and floaty in its original form, Evil Nine refit “Wake” with warehouse-ready beats and rave-tinged synth work. Rolling breakbeats flow into the crooning vocals of the original, with a deep and dark bassline growling underneath. This will be the second time the Brighton duo has collaborated with the London band, having previously remixed their debut release, ‘House’.
You can hear the Evil Nine remix of “Wake” in full below.
Following on from an anti-gay Facebook post Marijus Adomaitis (a.k.a. Ten Walls) made from his personal account on June 3, at least five festivals have cancelled upcoming performances by the Lithuanian artist including Creamfields, Pukkelpop, Urban Art Forms Festival, PITCH, and Sónar—as reported by Resident Advisor. UK house artist Fort Romeau has also pulled out from an upcoming slot supporting Ten Walls at London’s Koko club and in a Facebook post stated: “While cancelling one gig is hardly going to change the world, it does stand as a personal rejection of bigotry, fear and intolerance.”
The post by Ten Walls—which was picked up and shared socially by Gay Star News—made a number of derogatory comments towards homosexuals, including calling them a different “breed” and that in “the good 90s… these people of different breed where fixed.” The post was removed shortly after and followed by an apology on his Facebook page claiming that he “needs a break” from music and that he cancelled his upcoming shows. “Last week I wrote a Facebook post that was wrong and completely out of character and the result was a badly written post that was unacceptable,” he wrote. “It was never my intention to offend anyone. I’m really saddened by everything that has happened and I would like to apologise to everyone I’ve let down, especially to my friends in the gay community, and my fans. I now need to take a break and have cancelled my upcoming shows.”
Phonica Records has also cancelled pre-orders of his upcoming record Sparta, stating “We wont be stocking this record anymore due to Mario Basanov aka Ten Walls’ homophobic comments over the weekend”, says the store. “If you have pre-ordered it, your pre-order has been cancelled and money refunded.” Adomaitis’ former bookers, Coda Music Agency, announced they would also be dropping him explaining “Coda Music Agency condemns all forms of discrimination based on race, religion or sexual orientation. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and to represent a hugely diverse roster of artists. We no longer represent Ten Walls.”
Electronic music producer Jesse Siminski (a.k.a. Heartthrob) has been producing music for over a decade with releases on labels such as M-nus, Hot Creations, Minibus, Get Physical, and his own ISNISNT imprint. ISNISNT’s third release will arrive at the end of this month courtesy of the label head himself with the Haus Arrest EP, a four-track outing showcasing his cutting edge and propulsive techno grooves. Pulled from the EP is “Does Your Car Know (The Acid Reprise),” a rolling drum-led cut with a twisted funk-infused acid line and stuttering vocal chops. “Does Your Car Know (The Acid Reprise)” is available for free below, with the full EP arriving on June 21.
