Page 115 – XLR8R

XLR8R & SHAPE Wrap Up: Watch a Set of Acoustic Rave Tracks by Dorota

XLR8R continues its partnership with SHAPE, presenting a live acoustic set by Dorota.

The 35-minute video, which is presented by UH Fest, features the Hungarian experimental-Sufi-punk trio (made up of Dániel Makkai, Áron Porteleki, and Dávid Somló) performing a set of inspired acoustic rearrangements of their rave tracks. The band’s inspiration comes from North-African and Middle-and-Far-Eastern traditional music and they look to connect “the rural and the urban, the east and the west, into something that is relevant now,” the band says.

You can watch the video in full via the player below, with more on the band here.

Dorota is a 2020 artist of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. This online premiere is presented by XLR8R in collaboration with UH Fest.

XLR8R is also featuring a package of exclusive music and content from a selection of SHAPE artists for the latest edition of XLR8R+, including tracks and a sample pack from Jay Glass Dubs, Poly Chain, and Rian Treanor. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/XLR8Rplus_SHAPE

Podcast 671: Exael

There’s little information out there on Exael, wherever you look. What we do know is that they’re originally from Wichita, Kansas, which is where they became aligned with a crew of friends making and shaping electronic textures and rhythms into various breeds of modern ambient and downtempo. Between 2013 and 2019, the group shared their work and organized events through Terry Radio, an internet radio station.

Exael’s gateway in was Ulla Straus (a.k.a Ulla), a friend from childhood, but they’ve become an integral member of what’s a highly elusive community alongside Pontiac Streator, whom we featured in September; Brian Leeds, better known as Huerco S. or Pendant; Mister Water Wet; and Special Guest DJ (a.k.a uon), Exael’s partner. The couple live in Berlin, having relocated from Chicago, and the collective has broadened to include Ben Bondy, among others.

Incidentally, Leeds’ West Mineral Ltd. has become a frequent meeting point for this community, and it welcomed Exael with 2018’s Collex, an album of otherworldly sounds and clattering, murky ambiance. In April, Exael returned to the label, this time with Bondy, which resulted in Aphelion Lash, an eight-track album of unheard solo material and collaborations. It’s intensely beautiful, and possesses the same gaseous quality of the ambient genre’s pioneers.

Recorded earlier this month, Exael’s XLR8R podcast is rich in tracks from those around them. There’s a gorgeous unreleased cut from Huerco S., plus music from Mister Water Wet and Monkey Twenty, an alias of Pontiac Streator. But it also looks beyond, opening with music from Japan’s Hironori Nagatsuma and moving through Lurka, from Bristol, and Horla’s sublime “Jumbo Score,” released in August. To wind down the mix, Exael turns to Bondy, whose “Lith” production delivers a standout moment of the mix.

01. What have you been up to recently?

I’ve been working on music mostly, and trying to get back into reading books. Right now I’m reading “Parable of the Sower,” watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer off-and-on, and also lots of TikTok. I watched “Southland Tales” a couple of times recently because it feels both prescient and relevant right now.

02. How has the lockdown period been for you?

It’s been relatively okay. I have a lot more time to make things, which is great, but figuring out how to sustain myself has gotten more challenging over the course of the year. The isolation of lockdown can get pretty draining, but I’m trying to make the best of it. The general state of the world amplifies any stress, for sure. Some funny things have come out of it though too: my friends and I started making a ghost-hunting show and that’s motivated me to get back into making videos.

03. What have you been listening to?

For most of lockdown, I’ve listening to a lot of shoegaze and rock music. But lately, I’ve been more in the gay anthem pop orbit and a lot of mid-2000s scene kid shit, and also like Soundcloud pop-trap stuff.

04. When and where did you record this mix?

Last week, on my couch.

05. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included?

I selected tracks that I feel like are in a really big space, and like they are alive in the way that they are continually evolving or expanding. It’s what I would want to hear in a loud music environment when or if that comes back. A lot of the tracks are things that I found on Bandcamp this year, and there are some tracks from my friends.

06. You’re part of a whole crew of artists surrounding the West Mineral label. How did you connect?

Most of all of us have been friends since we met in Kansas, and Ulla [Straus] and I have been besties since high school. We met Pontiac Streator through some mutual friends when we were in high school. I started hanging out with him a lot when Ulla moved away for a bit after graduating, and we’d make music and eventually started throwing parties and shows together with our friends in Wichita, maybe 10 or 11 years ago now. That led to me being friends with Brian (Leeds; a.k.a Pendant and Huerco S.) and Mister Water Wet. Eventually we were all living in Kansas City at the same, and Ulla ended up moving there as well. That led to the formation of Terry Radio, which is a semi-operating internet radio station we all help run with a big group of friends and how we sometimes organize events. Shy (a.k.a Special Guest DJ) and I met on Tumblr about six years ago, and I moved to Chicago to be with him shortly after. He and I would help organize shows and parties with our friends there as well, and now we all kind of link up over time in different places.

07. What’s next on your agenda?

I have an album coming out on Soda Gong early next year called Flowered Knife Shadows that I’m excited about. It’s focused a bit more on club-oriented sounds again. Besides that, I’m just trying to find a stable way to make money, and trying to plan out how I can better redistribute that money when I have access to it. Also, there was supposed to be a West Mineral European tour over the summer, which hopefully will happen when it’s safe to do that again.

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. Hironori Nagatsuma “Osynlig struktur” [The Collection Artaud]
02. Tropical Interface “ncestry scl” [BLCR Laboratories]
03. Bop “Untitled Pattern 69” [Med School]
04. Pent “3” [Self-Released]
05. Huerco S. “Jaunt” (Demo) [Unreleased]
06. Lurka “Powder” [Damage]
07. Slacker “Mists Lift” [Room II Records]
08. Es.Tereo “Ultimas Breath” [Cosmic Bridge]
09. DÆMON “faceValuue” [Intelligent Models]
10. Downpour “In Memory of Mary and the Atom” [Dropbeat]
11. JAK3 “Nuh Uh” (feat. Yvncc) [Origin Peoples]
12. Ivy “Oni” [Self-Released]
13. Torus “Arrival” [Queeste]
14. Horla “Jumbo Score” [Le Cabanon Records]
15. Mister Water Wet & Monkey Twenty “Platinum Rose in House” (Dub Edit) [Self-Released]
16. The Neighbourhood Character “Unacceptable Model” (4 A Dance Track) [Self-Released]
17. Ben Bondy “Lith” [Experiences Ltd.]
18. IOSS “MAMA, Study of a Human Tongue” [Midas Tapes]
19. xphresh “xephon” [Unreleased]

Rival Consoles Bundles ‘Night Melody’ and ‘Articulation’ into New Full-Length

Rival Consoles, better known as Ryan Lee West, has released Night Melody / Articulation, compiling his 2016 mini-LP and this year’s album into one complete long-player. The digital release comes with a remix crafted by Berlin-based Japanese pianist and producer Midori Hirano, streaming below.

Night Melody, West’s six-track mini-album, was shaped by long hours working into the night. It’s nocturnal in sound, and mysterious in the way that the early hours so often are.

Articulation, released in July, has an equal running time of 34 minutes. It was conceived with a visual way of thinking, unusual for the London musician and producer. During the writing process, West drew structures, shapes, and patterns by hand to try and find new ways of thinking about music, giving himself a way to problem-solve away from the computer.

Night Melody / Articulation is the second time that West has bundled two releases together, having released Odyssey / Sonne in 2015.

For more information on West, check out his XLR8R feature here.

Tracklisting

01. Pattern of the North
02. Johannesburg
03. Slow Song
04. Lone
05. Night Melody
06. What Sorrow
07. Vibrations on a String
08. Forwardism
09. Melodica
10. Articulation
11. Still Here
12. Sudden Awareness of Now

Night Melody / Articulation is available now on Erased Tapes. You can order here and stream the Midori Hirano remix of “Articulation” in full below.

Daniel Avery’s New Single Includes Two Previously Unheard Tracks

Daniel Avery has released Into The Arms Of Stillness, a new single taken from his surprise third studio album, Love + Light. The single is backed with new cuts “Petrol Blue” and “Into The Voice Of Stillness.”

Released on all digital platforms today via Phantasy worldwide and Phantasy/Mute in the United States and Canada, Into The Arms Of Stillness follows Avery’s contemplative Andrew Weatherall tribute, Lone Swordsman, which saw a digital release in early September.

Avery wrote “Petrol Blue” in a studio “at the very edge of the country,” he says. “The views across the water without a single sight on the horizon always create a certain atmosphere in my mind, some kind of unknowing warmth. Real life seems pretty distant in those moments.”

The track came about in the space of a few hours, and filled the room immediately. It’s named after Avery’s own little space down by the water that continues to be its own escape and a constant source of creativity. s

The track see vinyl release in January on the flip of a limited edition 12” vinyl run of Lone Swordsman, and all proceeds will be going to Amnesty International in memory of Weatherall.

Making up the single is an alternative version of “Into The Arms Of Stillness.

Love + Light will be available on vinyl from this Friday, November 27, and then a batch of extra tracks, “Darlinnn,” “Dream Distortion,” and “Katana,” will to follow in early 2021 on a new 10” titled More Light.

“To make a long story short: I got carried away and put too many tracks on the fucking thing,” Avery explains.

The album follows Avery’s recent collaborations with Alessandro Cortini on Illusion of Time LP and alongside Roman Flügel under the alias of Noun. Avery’s previous solo album, Song For Alpha, was released in 2018.

Tracklisting:

01. Into The Arms Of Stillness
02. Into The Voice Of Stillness
03. Petrol Blue

Into The Arms Of Stillness is available digitally now. You can stream the full release below and order here.

XLR8R & SHAPE Wrap Up: Watch a 360-Degree Video by Kӣr

XLR8R‘s partnership with SHAPE platform continues with an audio-visual piece by Kӣr.

The piece, titled “Bescenje,” is a live performance by Serbian artist Bane Jovančević under his Kӣr alias, recorded with 360-degree video technology and featuring regenerative textural ambient and engulfing drones performed on an expansive modular setup.

You can watch the video in full via the player below, with more on Kӣr here.

Kӣr is a 2020 artist of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. This online premiere is presented by XLR8R in collaboration with SONICA.

Palestinian Electronic Duo Zenobia Cover ’60s Jordanian Hit

Palestinian electronic music duet Zenobia have shared “Sobo El Gahwa,” a cover of a Jordanian hit of the same name from the ’60s.

Combining Arabic pop melodies, Palestinian and Syrian dabke rhythms, and powerful beats, Zenobia are positioned at the forefront of the new, vibrant Palestinian electronic music movement. They released Halak Halak, their debut album, on Crammed Discs in June.

“Sobo El Gahwa,” their new song, talks about the Bedouin’s welcoming tradition, symbolized by ceremoniously prepared coffee, which is offered to brave riders and desert travelers as they reach the encampment and are invited into the tents. Zenobia’s version of the song features vocalist Faten Shafeq Kabaha, the daughter of iconic, late Palestinian singer Shafeq Kabaha.

Zenobia consists of Nasser Halahlih and Isam Elias. Nasser was a pioneer in the local scene, and was arguably the first Palestinian electronic music producer, back in the late ’90s. Young, fleet-fingered keyboardist Isam’s background is in European classical music.

The band draw their inspiration from pop and folk music from all over the region, including Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. They refine their songs by taking them back and forth between their studio and the stage, where they improvise a lot, and feed off the audience reactions.

Tracklisting

01. Sobo El Gahwa

Sobo El Gahwa is available now on Acid Arab Records and Crammed Discs. Meanwhile, you can stream the single in full below, and order it here.

XLR8R & SHAPE Wrap Up: Watch a Live Set of Free-Flowing Funk by Borokov Borokov

Borokov Borokov continue our wrap up of the XLR8R & SHAPE platform partnership.

Recorded live to cassette tape and presented by Maintenant Festival, the live set by Belgian ensemble Borokov Borokov pairs free-wheeling machine funk and gritty drum-machine rhythms with fittingly out-there interpretive dance scenes and staged art-piece theatrics. It’s an engrossing watch to say the least.

You can watch the video in full via the player below, with more on the band here.

Borokov Borokov are 2020 artists of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. This online premiere is presented by XLR8R in collaboration with Maintenant Festival.

Kiasmos, José González, Sebastian Mullaert, and More Raise Funds for Médecins Sans Frontières with Compilation

The artists of the German booking agency Von der Haardt have prepared a digital compilation album to raise funds for Médecins Sans Frontières.

We’re all aware of the impact this pandemic has been having on the music and live events industry. With tours postponed and concerts cancelled, artists, agents, managers, promoters, and dozens of other employees have seen their incomes reduced instantly. Yet, despite the challenging scenario this industry and others are currently navigating, it is important to remember the far more difficult fight happening at the frontlines of this pandemic, the Von der Haardt agency says.

“With the tendency of our societies going back to a nationalistic mode and closing borders, we are unfortunately forgetting many who are not living in privileged western states,” says Ralf Diemert, founder of Von der Haardt.

All proceeds will be donated to Médecins Sans Frontières, meaning “Doctors Without Borders,” an independent humanitarian organization that is providing medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare.

The release features previously unheard material, with each artist encouraged to share music that reflects on the idea of collaboration. 18 international artists took part, from Pantha Du Prince, to in-vogue Polish pianist Hania Rani, indie folk singer-songwriter José González, and Sebastian Mullaert.

Each artist has contributed a new track or a rework of a fellow musician, and the release even includes several first-of-its-kind collaborations between artists, such as the one between Hania Rani and producer Fejká for the tender yet enthusiastic track “No Goodbye.” British cellist Peter Gregson and pianist Lambert joined forces for the emotionally stirring “The Dive.”

Tracklisting

01. Kiasmos “Blurred” (Sven Helbig Rework)
02. Sophie Hutchings “Here I Am”
03. Lambert “Porcelain” (Aparde Remix)
04. Masayoshi Fujita “Sadness” (Carlos Cipa Rework)
05. Pantha du Prince “Pius in Tacet” (Grandbrothers Remix)
06. Mario Batkovic “Restrictus” (Annelie Rework)
07. Sophie Hutchings “Blind Dance” (Sebastian Mullaert Remix)
08. Hania Rani, Fejká “No Goodbye”
09. Janus Rasmussen “Ting”
10. José González “Let It Carry You” (Brandt Brauer Frick Remix)
11. Tara Nome Doyle, Malakoff Kowalski “Bad Dreams”
12. Peter Gregson, Lambert “The Dive”
13. Poppy Ackroyd “Parallel” (feat. Manu Delago)
14. Christian Löffler “The Great Wide Open” (Federico Albanese Rework)

Haingeraide is scheduled for December 25 release. Meanwhile, you can stream Brandt Brauer Frick’s rework of José González below, and pre-order the release here.

XLR8R & SHAPE Wrap Up: Watch an Inspired Audio-Visual Set by C/A

C / A continue our wrap up of the XLR8R & SHAPE platform livestreams with an inspired audio-visual set.

The video, titled BLEEDING EDGE2020: THE B҉R҉O҉A҉D҉C҉A҉S҉T҉, is presented by TodaysArt and features a mix of classical, searing ambient, metal, and rhythmically dense drone, all cut to visuals by the duo. The video performance also preempts a debut five-track EP, which is on the way on Eco Futurism Corp.

You can watch the video in full via the player below.

C / A are 2020 artists of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. This online premiere is presented by XLR8R in collaboration with TodaysArt.

XLR8R is also featuring a package of exclusive music and content from a selection of SHAPE artists for the latest edition of XLR8R+, including tracks and a sample pack from Jay Glass Dubs, Poly Chain, and Rian Treanor, and art by C / A. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/XLR8Rplus_SHAPE

XLR8R & SHAPE: Listen to a New Live Set by Jay Glass Dubs

Jay Glass Dubs, real name Dimitris Papadatos, has delivered a new live set for the 2020 partnership of XLR8R & SHAPE, a European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art.

The 54-minute live set was recorded at Papadatos’ partner’s studio in Nicosia, Cyprus a couple of weeks ago and encapsulates the mood of his “latest live performances where I mostly play material from my two latest albums, Epitaph and Soma, alongside some improvisations,” Papadatos explains. Recorded live with Ableton, the mix features an array of dub sonics, from ethereal, dreamy outings to in-your-face speaker-rattling bass cuts.

You can stream the mix in full via the player below. XLR8R+ subscribers can download the mix below.

Jay Glass Dubs is a 2020 artist of the SHAPE platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. This online premiere is presented by XLR8R in collaboration with Riam Festival.

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