XLR8R has partnered with SHAPE, a European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art, for two weeks of online collaborations, running from November 11 through November 25.
Central to the collaboration will be a string of exclusive live streams and audio mixes from a selection of SHAPE artists in something of an online festival. We’ll be presenting either a live video stream or exclusive audio material from a different artist each day, and these will be accessible via Facebook and will be archived on YouTube and XLR8R afterward.
The collaboration highlights a path that the majority of SHAPE member festivals have chosen to take during the tumultuous times of the Coronavirus pandemic: a (hopefully) temporary switch to online activities to continue engaging their audience and supporting artists.
The lineup consists of 16 acts, with each member festival presenting an artist they initially nominated to the platform.
The full list of participants can be found below:
Aquarian (DE), presented by CTM (Berlin) Farida Amadou (BE)/Steve Noble (UK), presented by Skaņu Mežs (Riga) Elvin Brandhi (UK), presented by MeetFactory (Prague) Dorota (HU), presented by UH Fest (Budapest) Hugo Esquinca (MX/DE), presented by depart.one Oli XL (SE), presented by Insomnia (Tromsø) Borokov Borokov (ES), presented by Maintenant (Rennes) Rojin Sharafi (AT/IR), presented by musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst / ORF (Graz) LYZZA (NL), presented by Rokolectiv (Bucharest) Sacrifice Seul (FR), presented by Les Siestes Électroniques (Toulouse) Piezo (IT), presented by Terraforma (Milan) Kӣr (RS), presented by SONICA (Ljubljana) Ben Betrand (BE), presented by schiev (Brussels) c/a, presented by TodaysArt (The Hague) FOQL, presented by Unsound (Kraków)
You can follow XLR8R‘s Facebook page here and SHAPE’s here.
Additionally, to highlight the XLR8R+ subscription platform, a handful of artists have provided new tracks and commissioned works, including Jay Glass Dubs, Rian Treanor, and Poly Chain. XLR8R+ subscribers can also exclusively download all the audio content in advance of its streaming.
For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, you will get 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, and more. You can find out more here.
Each year, the 16 associations involved in SHAPE cllectively choose 48 creatively strong artists and musicians to participate in a mix of live performances, residencies, workshops, and talks across festivals and special events. The platform is supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.
Cantus, Descant is an 80-minute meditation on impermanence, comprising 17 tracks framed by careful harmonic layering and even the vocals of their creator, Sarah Davachi. The record, available now, is the latest in a growing collection of delicately beautiful works that employ extended durations and simple harmonic structures to emphasize subtle variations in texture, overtone complexity, and intonation.
Davachi sparked her musical curiosity as a child, when she sought employment at an instrument museum in Calgary, Canada. With piano the gateway, a young Davachi found herself experimenting with an array of vintage synthesizers and acoustic organs, driven by the sheer joy of learning. She went on to study at the local university, where she fostered an appreciation for the minimalist tenets of the 1960s and 1970s, in particular slow-moving chordal suspensions, and then continued her education at Mills College in Oakland, California.
It was with Barons Court, released in 2015, that Davachi realised her style, a novel approach to drone music that marries an academic approach to synthesis and live instrumentation with a preternatural understanding of timbre, pacing, and atmosphere. She’s since composed some of the most important electroacoustic minimalism and drone records of the past decade, including Cantus, Descant.
Davachi is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at UCLA, where she works on the aesthetic phenomenology of musical instruments and timbre in popular, experimental, and early music. She balances this with life as a sought-after recording and touring artist, driven by the same curiosity that kickstarted her career over two decades ago.
In celebration of Cantus, Descant, Davachi has compiled an XLR8R Influences mix in which she looks back at some of the records that have shaped her work. As with her production style, it intertwines the old and the new, featuring music from Charlemagne Palestine, Terry Riley, and Roedelius, while standing alone as a distinctive, patient, and beautiful piece of musical work.
“This mix is a fairly accurate landscape of my influences, both recent and more distant. It’s a compilation of mostly long-form experimental works that explore held and repeated tones in acoustic and electronic contexts, as well as sympathetic works from within the domains of medieval and Renaissance music, kosmische music, and polyphonic choral music.” — Sarah Davachi
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. Thomas Tomkins “In Nomine (performed by the Rose Consort) (Naxos) 02. Roedelius “Geradewohl” (Sky Records) 03. Charlemagne Palestine and Robert Feldman “Electronic and Flute” (Alga Marghen) 04. Popol Vuh “Why Do I Still Sleep” (Uniton Records) 05. Terry Riley “Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band I” (Columbia Masterworks) 06. Ernstalbrecht Stiebler “Mitteltöne” (M=Minimal) 07. JD Emmanuel “Attaining Peace” (North Star Productions) 08. The Rustavi Choir “Kebadi” (Sacred Chorale) (Nonesuch) 09. Barbara Strozzi “Lagrime mie” (Naxos) 10. Deuter “Gotic Velvet” (history—church atmosphere) (Kuckuck) 11. Kraftwerk “Heimatklänge” (Philips) 12. Marc Sabat “Claudius Ptolemy” (Another Timbre) 13. James Tenney “For Percussion Perhaps, Or (night)” (New World Records) 14. Guillaume le Heurteur “Chanson” (Hellas! Amour) (performed by the Early Music Consort of London) (His Master’s Voice) 15. Alvin Lucier “Still Lives V. Two Floor Tiles” (Lovely Music) 16. Anonymous “Plus bele que flors/Quant revient/L’autrier jouer/FLOS” (Unknown) 17. FILIUS EIUS (performed by Gothic Voices) (Hyperion) 18. Éliane Radigue “Transamorem-Transmortem” (excerpt) (Important Records)
Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington have released an archival live album from their Darkside collaboration, recorded at Belgium’s Dour Festival in 2014. It was one of the last shows the pair played together.
Darkside was formed in 2011 and released only one studio album, Psychic in 2013. Jaar and Harrington disbanded in August 2014, and since then they’ve both pursued various other projects.
In 2020, Jaar released three albums: 2017-2019 as Against All Logic, and Cenizas and Telas. Harrington’s newest record, Tura Lura, is a collaboration with Jeremy Gustin and Spencer Zahn. It’s set in the New York experimental underground where his career began in the late ’00s.
In 2013, Darkside released Live In Paris from Pitchfork Music Festival.
The record has been mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker.
Tracklisting
01. Freak, Go Home 02. The Only Shrine I’ve Seeen 03. Heart 04. Metatron 05. Paper Trails 06. Golden Arrow
PSYCHIC LIVE JULY 17 2014 is out now, with a full stream here.
UK music magazine Jockey Slut is set to publish a book in tribute to the late Andrew Weatherall.
Andrew Weatherall, who died in February, was one of the acid house generation’s most inspiring DJ-producers, renowned for his work on Primal Scream’s epoch-defining Screamadelica and his own bands Sabres Of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen. As a DJ, he was peerless and unpredictable, helming club nights that played techno, rockabilly, or music that “never knowingly exceeded 122 bpm.”
Weatherall featured in Jockey Slut several times during its lifetime. This tribute includes all his interviews with the publication, and further articles cover the tenure of his professional life from the mid-’80s.
The book also includes a new 10,000-word oral history of Weatherall’s early years, featuring interviews with Bobby Gillespie, Ed Simons, Danny Rampling, Justin Robertson, Andrew Innes, David Holmes, Keith Tenniswood, Anna Haigh, Terry Farley, and more.
Jockey Slut magazine ran from 1993 through 2004. The publication was started by John Burgess and Paul Benney as a self-published Manchester-based fanzine. It became a monthly when it moved to London in 1999.
All proceeds from the book will go to the charities that were important to Andrew Weatherall, namely Amnesty International, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Thrombosis UK, and Crisis.
Andrew Weatherall: A Jockey Slut Tribute is scheduled for December 10 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here.
Thank U 4 Letting Me Live My Life (B.G.F.D.F.R) explores the full remit of the Norwegian artist’s artistic styles. We can expect a “deep personal trip” into the different sounds that have been defining his productions and output. Fett Burger describes the record as deep, personal, and wonky, and with a psychedelic and emotional touch.
Fett Burger, real name Peter Mitterer, hails from Moss, Norway, and he’s one half of the duo behind the Norwegian labels Sex Tags Mania and Sex Tags Amfibia. His music broadly spans house and disco, and he has released more than 10 EPs via his Digitalized Planet B Bandcamp page this year. You will also find him working under other monikers including DJ Fett Birger, DJFB, PE, DJ Dog, and DJ Dogg.
Fett Burger has released various collaborative albums, including 2019’s Red Scorpions with DJ Speckgürtel.
Tracklisting
A1. Intro B2. This Game. The World B1. 411 Esperanza (Vocal Dreem Mix) B2. In The Moment B3. XTC T.W.Y.H.T.S C1. Breathing Ground D1. When Oh Yeah! Intro D2. Atmospheree 2 Emo-tion (Subtle Future Mix) D3. Disco Fem
Thank U 4 Letting Me Live My Life (B.G.F.D.F.R) LP is scheduled for November 20 release. Meanwhile, you can stream an album teaser below.
Based in North Carolina, United States, Khan first drew attention via Open Interior, a cassette release on Where To Now? Records in 2015. She later signed to Scissor and Thread with In Gleam. We’re told that the 2018 release sets the tone for Port Ana‘s five tracks of meditative music.
The title track opens the journey with a gentle, droning soundscape filled with bewitching glints of melody. “Conversation” follows, drawing on loops and textures to create the background for a deep, pulsing kick drum. Next up is “Objects In Form,” which presents a fragile chord progression surrounded by shifting pads and swathes of reverb.
“Rain Again” is presented in two versions. The original combines ethereal sounds, weightless and adrift, while the Lawrence remix grounds the track with a hypnotic, deep groove.
The Dial boss provides another remix for the digital release that further plays with the textures of the original to create something that works both for an open-minded dancefloor and as a home-listening experience.
Tracklisting
A1. Port Ana A2. Conversation A3. Objects In Form B1. Rain Again B2. Rain Again (Lawrence Remix 1) Digital exclusive: Rain Again (Lawrence Remix 2)
Port Ana is scheduled for November 27 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream it in full below.
Today, Gidge—the Swedish duo consisting of Ludvig Stolterman and Jonatan Nilsson—will stream an audio-visual premiere of their new album, New Light.
New Light is the duo’s second LP proper, following 2014’s Autumn Bells, although they also released album-length efforts in 2016 (Lulin) and 2017 (LNLNN), all of which dropped via Atomnation. New Light will also land on the Dutch label tomorrow, November 6, on vinyl and digitally.
The album features nine new tracks, and it’s inspired by the massive landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, United States. This environment, a place where great mountains, ancient forests, and never-ending oceans meet, helped shape an album that is signature for people that are familiar with the pair’s music.
Ahead of the release, the duo are hosting an audio-visual premiere to give fans the chance to experience the album in its entirety first, to the backdrop of dedicated, soothing visuals.
You can watch the stream via the player below, or over at YouTube, with the LP available for pre-order here.
Tracklisting:
01. Quasar 02. New Light 03. Stone|Shell 04. Perimeter 05. The Cascades 06. Rotate Into Form 07. Over 08. Always Unfolding 09. Seems To Be Getting Closer
Brownswood Recordings will release the fourth edition of the Future Bubblers compilation.
An expansion of Gilles Peterson‘s network and supported by Arts Council England, the Future Bubblers talent discovery and artist development scheme focuses on developing unsigned talent and building audiences for new left-field music. The compilation acts as a springboard for the musicians’ careers and provides them with direct revenue through a share of the profits. Previous Future Bubblers include Yazmin Lacey, Skinny Pelembe, MC Snowy, and Kayla Painter.
Spanning just over 30 minutes, Future Bubblers4.0 is a musically diverse collection of tracks, fusing electronic, alt-R&B, alt-hip-hop, spoken word, neo-soul, and jazz.
It opens with Forest Law, who recently released his debut EP on Brownswood Recordings, and features tracks from Quko, HMD, Kiddus, and Manchester MC KinKai, who delivers “Scatty Brain Dump.” The track is followed by Iman Houssein’s distorted vocals and delicate keys on “Slow Things Down.” Rounding out the compilation is Lazy H’s “When The Horn Comes In,” streaming below.
Each year, future bubblers are paired with an industry mentor who is tailored to their individual needs. The venture even offers one-to-one production workshops from music software company Ableton, performances at live Future Bubblers showcases, recording sessions from the Brownswood basement, and professional press shots.
01. Forest Law “Slow One” 02. Quko “My Darling Spaceship” 03. HMD “If I” 04. Kiddus “Slow” 05. An Alien Called Harmony “N.H.H” (Needlessly Heedlessly Headless) 06. KinKai “Scatty Brain Dump” 07. Iman Houssein “Slow Things Down” 08. Lazy H “When The Horn Comes In”
Future Bubblers 4.0 is scheduled for November 20 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream Kiddus’ “Slow” and Lazy H’s “When The Horn Comes In” below.
Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu have shared a cinematic video for “Back to Rock.”
Taken from the pair’s new album, “Back To Rock” was not only one of the first tracks they recorded under the newly formed trio of Marie Davidson & L’Œil Nu, formed of three old-time friends and long-term collaborators—Davidson, Pierre Guerineau, and Asaël R. Robitaille—but it was also a defining in that it acted as a blueprint for the way in which they would each distil their various influences into new forms.
The resulting album, Renegade Breakdown, released in September on Ninja Tune, is a bold reimagining of Davidson’s sound. It’s a reaction to the touring that followed Davidson’s breakout 2018 album, Working Class Woman, navigating the club and festival lifestyle, often alone, always with her case of instruments and cables in tow.
The cinematic short film finds Davidson in an empty nightclub having just played her last live club set.
“‘Back To Rock’ is the song from our new album that is the closest to my heart, and this is because it’s my most sincere lyrics to date,” says Davidson. “The song’s story, beautifully illustrated by Loïc Darses in the music video, is about my personal struggles to change. It’s about letting die some elements within oneself to allow new things to be born.”
Renegade Breakdown LP is available now, and you can stream the video below. Read more about the album here.
Tracklisting
01. Renegade Breakdown 02. Back To Rock 03. Worst Comes To Worst 04. Center Of The World (Kotti Blues) 05. La Ronde 06. C’est parce que j’m’en fous 07. Just In My Head 08. Lead Sister 09. My Love 10. Sentiment
Of Romanian and Italian descent, Orli, real name Orlando Stefano Tosi, produces and DJs a slick and reduced style of music that pulls from both sides of his heritage—which is to say hypnotizing Italian techno and sleek Romanian minimal. He blends these sounds with those from the ’90s and early 2000s.
Tosi landed on XLR8R‘s radar after submitting a selection of tracks via the XLR8R+ submissions portal, but it soon became apparent that his music had been with us for much longer. And this is the case for anyone who follows the stream of videos that pop up after each edition of Sunwaves Festival in Romania. Listen carefully, and you can hear Tosi’s music across the sets of the scene’s kingpins, including Rhadoo, Vlad Caia, and Cristi Cons. If you’re a fan of minimally-inclined dance music, you’ve almost certainly danced to Orli’s music.
Last year, Tosi launched his own LORI Records with LORI001, a vinyl-only release which included “Ynmwnbnct,” a sought-after track that has been popping up in sets from Petre Inspirescu. A nameless artist EP followed on LORI sub-label IROL, before this year’s TRASMISSIONE DIGITALE, a digital album touching on everything from ’80s horror-like broken beat to dark trip-hop.
Earlier this month, Tosi released “Rexxar” via XLR8R+, showcasing his knack for crafting body-moving grooves, alongside exclusive works from Dan Andrei, Priku, Amorf, Sublee, and Cosmjn. As part of that package, Tosi compiled a mix for XLR8R and we’re now releasing it to the wider public as this week’s podcast.
Recorded last month, Orli’s XLR8R mix is characterized by a deep and surreal groove, and it follows the same trajectory as a club set. That is to say, it starts slowly and picks up pace around the midway mark. It’s lean and sophisticated, with slick transitions and a raw energy that pulls you in from the first minute. Expect 80 minutes of driving minimal that’ll transport you right back to the better times of the dancefloor.
01. What have you been up to recently?
Since our world stopped because of the pandemic, the time I’ve been spending with music hasn’t reduced. Despite being hard to find motivation, I keep trying to carry on with my musical projects. I have certainly spent more time studying and learning the spectrum of mixing and mastering. Also, thanks to the proposal of a friend of mine, I have created a trip-hop downtempo live set which I had the chance to perform in his club. It was stimulating to try something new. I am sure that live set will be something that I will propose in the near future.
02. How did you find your way into music?
My addiction to music started from an early age when I used to spend whole days watching and listening to MTV. I was really young and I can say my hunger to discover new music has never left me since. I can also say that one of my greatest fortunes has been one of my older cousins who introduced me to the world of electronic music around the early 2000s. He said to me: “What the f***! Are you still listening to this? Forget that and have a go at this!” It was a collection of micro-house tracks that were played at the first Sunwaves!
03. This pandemic has been hard on DJs. How have you been coping?
Unfortunately, my earnings with music have decreased drastically. Clubs shutting down have killed artists like me all over the world. It is needless to say that most of our income comes from there; music sales play a really small part. I currently have another source of income which came as a surprise but it is now giving me new motivations. Anyway, fear not, I am not giving up; this is just the beginning of my journey! I can’t wait for all this to come to an end and to start playing once again, and to show you my new projects.
04. What’s the focus of your label, and how do you go about finding music for it?
LORI is the heart of my work. With it, I give space to my ideas and my style but I am also always open to anyone who creates something interesting and has the same vision I have. My aim is always to create something unusual with its own character that you don’t hear every day. The second release is on the way. It was scheduled to be out last May but I decided to postpone it because of the virus. It will be available soon, and shortly after that I am planning to get release number three ready.
05. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recored the mix in September at my studio. I wanted to show my style by selecting new records that I’ve discovered recently along with pieces that I’ve been playing for some time, moving from early warmup tracks to more uplifting ones, before closing by trying to capture that feeling of the last memory you have from a set. It has this defined path that I try to capture each time I perform.
06. Can you talk about the artists and labels behind the music you’ve chosen?
For the majority of my mixes and sets, I like to make a mix of old and new tracks that come from different styles and genres. From electro to break-beat to minimal, every piece I select has a similar groove and emotion, and this creates a connection between them all. My intent is to give the listener a dark, cool, and surreal feeling and I like to do this by selecting music from the past decades to the latest releases everyone can get. I’m not into this ”I must play only the rarest thing”; I try not to be limit myself to this way of thinking. In this podcast you will find artists like Ectomorph, Mesak, DBX (Daniel Bell), O-Wells, and more, including some unreleased tracks of mine.
07. How do you spend your time out of music?
When I am not working on music, which usually takes half of my day, I like to spend my time on some other hobbies. I do sport four or five times a week because it gives me the right mental boost and balance because I am constantly in front of the computer. I read a lot too, from novels to comics.
08. What’s up next on your agenda?
My next step is the next LORI release. It will contain some tracks from myself plus a special remix. I am not going to say anything more.
Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below.If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.
Editor’s note: there is no tracklisting for this mix.
