Podcast 674: Philipp Gorbachev

Philipp Gorbachev is one of Russia’s most celebrated dance music artists, and a resident of Mutabor, Moscow’s most iconic club venue. As a DJ and live performer, Gorbachev also plays regularly at ARMA17, and since moving to Berlin in 2011, he’s become an important figure in the German capital, releasing music on Matias Aguayo‘s hip Cómeme label, plus studio and remix collaborations with Barnt and Nina Kraviz. In 2019, he released KOLOKOL, his third album, documenting his life-altering experience of becoming a church bellringer by day.

While Gorbachev sits at the forefront of cutting-edge techno, his music is distilled with the jagged edges of post-punk. He grew up in Moscow and was introduced to music by his music-loving parents, who took him to see the likes of Nick Cave and Einsturzende Neubauten perform. His earliest experiences of making and performing music aligned with the birth of rave culture in Russia and this melting-pot of new sounds shaped him into a flamboyant sound artist, whose live sets are marked by a wide range of instruments, strutting grooves, and rich textures.

In 2011, Gorbachev began releasing music, and he shared his debut album in 2014. He followed this with Unlock The Box in 2016. Outside of his solo work, he also plays frontman in The Naked Man, an improvisational band project birthed as a response to the sterility of laptop DJ sets. His PG TUNE label serves as a platform for his own work, and Russian artists in his orbit.

Gorbachev’s XLR8R podcast lands in midst of what’s a surprisingly busy period for him. Unable to tour, he’s knuckled down in his Berlin studio to work on new material, some of which you’ll hear in this mix. If it’s not his own work, it’s that of his artist friends. Musically, its contrasts driving club cuts, which transport you into the Mutabor world, with more poignant, introspective moments, all before intertwining them with a “secret weapon” from Rizu X.

01. What have you been up to recently?

Despite the pandemic, this autumn was a fruitful period of time for me. I was honoured to release a beautiful double remix album called KOLOKOL Remixes on PG TUNE, a solo EP called Nichego Ne Ponyal, and a track called “Normalno” on System 108. I also did a remix for Decka, which you’ll hear in the mix.

02. Have have you been managing with lockdown?

As a bell-ringer, I have the luck to be constantly making a big sound on the belfry. This helps me to stay in touch with really loud vibrations in quiet and sad times. Since I’ve discovered this instrument, I’ve changed my attitude toward music and sound in general. I tend to experiment with how sound evolves in certain spaces and interacts with light, temperature, space, the people. When music deconstructs from its genres and its “studio sound” into something bigger. A common action, a performance, rather than the music itself has inspired me ever since.

03. What music have you been listening to?

I love listening to different recordings of Russian church bells, especially because I am involved in the production of a documentary about bell-ringers in Russia. As a film composer and sound engineer, I am editing a huge amount of field recordings that we have done with our film crew in over 50 different locations across Russia, including a remote prison in northern Ural.

04. Which labels and/or artists that have been impressing you?

This year, I have launched an experimental label for releasing complex bell-ringing compositions by my good friend, and legendary bell-ringer, Alexander Chayka. The label is called KOLOTONE, and every release features a long take of a live recording, made on the belfry in the town of Bolkhov. On the dance side of things, I am surrounded by the talented crew of the System 108 label, and I am particularly a fan of Kovyazin D.

05. What have you been working on recently?

I’ve been doing a lot of session in my studio in Berlin, and these are mostly serving as new parts for my future live shows, for clubs and raves.

06. Where and when did you record this mix?

This mix was recorded live in my Berlin studio, on December 7.

07. What can the listener expect with it?

There are two narratives in the mix. The first concept is something you might expect in my sets in clubs, and this is shaped by my experience as a Mutabor club resident. The second is a more complex, emotional story. I think Barnt’s remix of “I Am Saved” is really sad and beautiful and I especially like the track “Monsters” at the end of the mix, recorded by Ukranian artist Katarina Gryvul. The last track, “Rub It” by Rizu X, a secret weapon released by Cómeme, kind of unites these lines into one.

08. How did you go about choosing the music that you’ve included?

Most of the music played in this mix is created by people I have a personal relationship with. Also, I think this mix sounds like how I imagine a main room to sound like. I am really worried about our dear friends and communities around the world who have been working hard to maintain small events and venues with a strong spirit and love for independent music. The pandemic made things worse for everyone, but it will be really sad if big EDM festivals became the only survivors when the crisis is over.

09. What plans do you have for 2021?

Planning is so much overrated! I just hope we will find a way to be close again, for real!

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel to listen offline, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Philipp Gorbachev “Concentrate On House” (Acappella) (PG TUNE)
02. DJ JM “No Days Off” (Nervous Horizon)
03. Barnt “Local Fame” (Schalen)
04. Philipp Gorbachev “Kolokol” (Ushi333 Remix) (PG TUNE)
05. Ushi333 “Tribal8” (PG TUNE)
06. Robert Hood “Nothing Stops Detroit” (Rekids)
07. Philipp Gorbachev “Normalno” (System 108)
08. D-Leria “Divergences” (Avian)
09. Philipp Gorbachev “I Am Saved” (Barnt Remix) (PG TUNE)
10. Stanislav Tolkachev “There Is No Cure” (Token Records)
11. Decka “Elimination Techniques”(Philipp Gorbachev VDNH Mix) (Unterwegs)
12. Philipp Gorbachev “I Am Saved” (Decka Remix) (PG TUNE)
13. Roma Zuckerman meets Carlota “Trues” (System 108)
14. Katarina Gryvul “Monsters” (Self-Released)
15. Rizu X “Rub It” (Cómeme)

Ghanaian-American Vocalist Moses Sumney Collaborates with Little Dragon for Ninja Tune

Ghanaian-American vocalist Moses Sumney has teamed up with Little Dragon for The Other Lover, a new digital single.

The Other Lover showcases Sumney’s unmistakable voice alongside the equally inimitable Yukimi Nagano, as the two vocalists intertwine over a gently unfolding swirl of synthesisers, horns, and stripped-back percussion.

The track draws its lyrics from Little Dragon’s “Another Lover,” taken from their latest album, New Me, Same Us, released earlier this year on Ninja Tune. Entirely self-produced and recorded at the Swedish band’s studio, New Me, Same Us saw the band go back to basics, falling back in love with their instruments: drums, bass, keyboards, harp, guitar, and voice. Read more about it here.

“When we reached out to Moses, we didn’t know what to expect. What we received was very stripped down, with his beautiful voice,” Little Dragon say. “We jammed along and sent it back. It bounced back from his end with added horns and sounded beautiful to our ears.”

In May, Sumney released græ, his latest album.

Tracklisting

01. The Other Lover

The Other Lover is available now on Ninja Tune. You can stream it via the player below and purchase the digital file here.

Brian Eno Announces Hard Cover of ‘A Year of Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno’s Diary’

Faber will publish a special hard cover edition of Brian Eno’s A Year with Swollen Appendices in honor of the landmark title’s 25th anniversary.

A Year with Swollen Appendices is filled with Eno’s ruminations on his collaborative work with artists like David Bowie, U2, and James. These are interspersed with essays on topics like the ambient music he pioneered to what he believes the role of an artist and their art to be. There’s also commentary on his day-to-day tribulations and happenings around the world. It was originally published in 1996, and was intended as a diary.

This anniversary hardcover edition has been redesigned in the same size as the diary that eventually became this book. It features two ribbons, pink paper delineating the appendices, and a two-tone paper-over-board cover, which pays homage to the original design. There’s a new introduction from the author.

Expect a “fascinating, candid and intimate insight into one of the most influential creative artists of our time.”

A Year with Swollen Appendices is scheduled for February 9 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here.

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Download: G Flame “Thoughts”

Cisco Ferreira, better known as G Flame, has released I Want You, a new album on No.19 Music.

Ferreira is the solo artist behind The Advent, which originally included former production partner Mr. G. He has long been a pivotal player in the development of house and techno, as producer but also as an engineer working with greats like Larry Heard. The G Flame moniker was originally used for Ferreira’s more house-infused, techno sound, which he developed in the early ’90s.

“Back then, there were very few tech house tracks being released,” Ferreira recalls. “At the time I called it ‘house techno,’ as my main vibe was always house music first, with added techno spice and faster BPMS for DJs.”

The album features work written records between 1992 and 1999, described as “previously unreleased gems” by the British label. One of these is “Thoughts,” which overlays trippy melodic motifs over a pulsing bassline, and it’s available as a free download to XLR8R+ subscribers below. Meanwhile, you can buy I Want You here.

Tracklisting

01. I Want You
02. Freetown
03. Broken
04. Thoughts
05. Up All Night
06. Lynn Grooves
07. Stringer
08. Turnmills
09. 6am

For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, you will get at least three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by a wealth of amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as access to the member’s area where you can submit tracks and DJ mixes to be showcased in this feature series and to the XLR8R+ community, as well as exclusive editorial content, mixes, FREE passes to music festivals and events, playlists, weekly downloads such as these, and more. You can find out more here.

Georgia’s Gacha Bakradze Unveils New Album of Luscious IDM

Gacha Bakradze will release Obscure Languages, his new album.

Hailing from Tbilisi, Bakradze is one of Georgia’s leading electronic music exponents. He has become something of a mainstay of Belgian label Apollo, a sub-label of R&S Records, and he runs Transfigured Time. In 2018, he released Word Color, his exceptional debut album.

Obscure Languages is described by Lapsus, the Barcelona label behind the release, as a “sound continuation” of Word Color, with a “powerful narrative at its core.” It delves into the world of cinematic soundscapes, replete with microscopic details and fragments that showcase Bakradze’s luscious IDM style audio palette, laced with ambient, avant-techno, and bass.

Tracklisting

A1. Indivisible
A2. Thank You For This Upload
A3. Driver
A4. Frame
B1. Impression
B2. Lift
B3. Lead
B4. Endless Tool
B5. Slow Heart

Obscure Languages LP is scheduled for January 22 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “Indivisible” and “Endless Tool” below.

Black and white vinyl sleeve on gray background. Vintage concept. Mock up, 3D Rendering

Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dakim Remix Salami Rose Joe Louis for Brainfeeder

Photo | Fabrice Bourgelle

Salami Rose Joe Louis, real name Lindsay Olsen, has released a new album, available now on Brainfeeder.

Chapters of Zdenka is an offshoot collection of music from Olsen’s 2019 Brainfeeder debut, Zdenka 2080.

The 21-track album, which includes remixes by Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dakim, compiles originals Olsen recorded during the sessions for Zdenka 2080. It’s a “highly personal” suite of tracks, we’re told, containing songs that the Californian musician and planetary scientist wrote “as a form of therapy,” she explains. They talk about the “fear of losing one’s mind” and the “confusion of having an overactive imagination.”

Alongside the announcement, Brainfeeder has shared Dakim’s remix of “Kinda Cold,” a revamp of Zdenka 2080’s “Sitting with Thoughts,” which features visuals by Tessa Shimizu and Soen Settanni. You can stream the track and video via the player below.

Zdenka 2080, a complex record touching on dream pop and cosmic jazz, described a future dystopian earth in the year 2080 that has been mis-managed by unethical governments and corporations. For this, Olsen drew inspiration from a series of apocalyptic sci-fi novels in addition to movies such as Tekkonkinkreet and Embrace of the Serpent. Musically her influences included musical giants Shuggie Otis and Herbie Hancock, plus Raymond Scott, Stereolab, Flying Lotus.

Tracklisting

01. We’re Dumb
02. Do You Care?
03. Fantasy
04. Permanently Shattered
05. Fuck “Eager to Please”
06. Pity Yourself
07. Don’t Do Anything Stupid
08. I Need You
09. I Stay in Bed These Days Too Much
10. Triumphant Buttress
11. Stranger by the Day
12. A Thermogenic Interlude
13. Cosmic Love
14. Wonders
15. Zeeanori’s Childhood
16. Soup for Zee
17. Cuddles
18. When You Smile
19. Peculiar Machine (Georgia Anne Muldrow Remix)
20. Kinda Cold (Dakim Remix)
21. Cosmic Dawn (Dakim Remix)

Chapters of Zdenka LP is available now digitally and as a limited edition cassette release.

Artwork: Cinque Mubarak; Layout by Corey Watson

Eluize Shares Dreamlike Video for XLR8R+ Track; Watch it Now

Eluize has shared a new video for her recent XLR8R+ track, “EMDR.”

Released back in August on XLR8R+024 alongside tracks from AIDA and Slumber (Öona Dahl and Amber Cox), “EMDR” revolves around a poem Eluize wrote for EMDR, a therapy she had for PTSD. Across the track, Eluize’s vocal lines rise and fall, creating a hallucinogenic atmosphere supported by winding acid lines and a heavy and distorted kick. It’s a cathartic experience custom-built for dancefloors and soundsystems.

Following up its initial release, Eluize enlisted Italian video artists Riccardo Franco-Loiri (a.k.a. Akasha) and Davide Fauro (a.k.a. Misphit Circuitry) to create the track’s visual component.

“The idea behind the video,” the duo explain, “comes from some experiences with EMDR that Akasha did.”

Using a mixture of digital and analog techniques based on “feedback and recursive displacement,” the duo aimed to visualize the “stream of memories that come into your head with this kind of therapeutic approach.” The result is an engrossing, dreamlike multi-sensory experience.

You can stream the video in full via the player below, with the track available on the 24th edition of XLR8R+.

Burial, Four Tet, and Thom Yorke Release Two New Tracks; Listen Now

Thom Yorke has teamed up with Burial and Four Tet for two new tracks, “Her Revolution” and “His Rope.”

It’s been over nine years since the trio first release together, with the double A-side of “Ego” and “Mirror.” “Her Revolution” and “His Rope” prove a more subdued release.

“As you’d expect from three of the last decade’s most vital voices in alternative music,” XL Records, the label, explains, both tracks have “moved on” and “reflect the precarious wider world around then.”

The record landed last week on double A-side vinyl in a limited run to a small group of record stores, and both tracks are now available to stream below. Both Sounds of the Universe and Phonica in London are selling limited runs of the project to in-store buyers only.

Tracklisitng

01. Hips Rope
02. Her Revolution

Chicago House Pioneer Boo Williams Unveils New EP

Boo Williams will release a new EP on NICEPEOPLE.

The three-track release showcases the signature vibe that has established Williams as a Chicago house pioneer. It meanders through house and techno with real depth, the Italian label tells XLR8R.

The title track, “LOL,” chugs along with twisting beeps and bleeps, and Williams uses trippy samples of laughter that flash in and out. Next is “Backwards Run,” before “Bangin Out,” which takes up the whole of the B-side. It’s a real abrupt track, and the kind that leaves the crowd in a trance.

“This is Boo Williams at his finest once more,” the NICEPEOPLE says. “A real nod to sounds of the past, no egos in sight, just plain and simple effective dancefloor sounds.”

Williams​ ​has​ ​been​ ​a​ ​part​ ​of​ ​Chicago’s ​house​ ​music​ ​entourage​ ​since​ he first​ ​stepped​ ​up​ ​to​ ​the​ ​turntables​ ​in 1981. Born Willie Griffin in 1967, he grew up listening to blues,​ ​jazz, and​ ​disco,​ ​all before he began spinning records under the watchful eyes of the city’s legendary house music originators, among them Frankie Knuckles, Gene Hunt, and Ron Hardy.

For more information on Boo Williams, check out his XLR8R podcast, recorded in September 2019, here.

Tracklisting

A1. LOL
A2. Backwards Run
B1. Bangin Out

LOL EP is scheduled for January 4 release. Meanwhile, you can ore-order here and stream and preview below.

박혜진 Park Hye Jin Teams Up with Nosaj Thing for Ninja Tune Single

Photo by The1Point8, Shot in Los Angeles, California

박혜진 Park Hye Jin has teamed up with Nosaj Thing for “CLOUDS,” a new digital single on Ninja Tune.

“CLOUDS” features Park rapping in Korean over woozy beats made with Nosaj Thing, a Los Angeles native of Korean descent.

It’s the latest addition to a standout year for the young rapper, singer, DJ and producer. Just recently, she released her “Can you” video and remix of that same track by Galcher Lustwerk, plus a collaboration with Blood Orange. In June, she shared How can I, a popular EP completed over the course of 2019, and her latest full release.

박 Park (surname) 혜진 Hye Jin (first name) originates from Seoul, but is now based in Los Angeles, having spent time living in Melbourne and London. She has gained a reputation for dreamlike minimal house and techno productions, debuting with 2018’s IF U WANT IT.

Tracklisting

01. CLOUDS

CLOUDS is available digitally now on Bandcamp, with a stream below.

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