Maayan Nidam will release a new album as The Waves.
Nidam, a staple of the Perlon label and founder of Hellium, has previously released as The Waves once before, in 2014 as part of a collaborative EP on Wolf + Lamb with Markus Nikolaus and Louis McGuire. The sound is inspired by punk and psychedelic rock, and it places Nidam’s vocals front and centre.
māyā, taken from the Sanskrit word for “illusion” or “deceit,” comprises six tracks of pop, indie, and new wave. Nidam sings on five, and there’s one finishing instrumental jam.
The record launches Cool Mom Records, Nidam’s new label.
For more information on Nidam, read William Ralston‘s moving profile piece.
Tracklisting
A1. I’m Still Here A2. Keep Praying A3. Today B1. It Hurts Me B2. Drive B3. Into You
māyā LP is scheduled for December release. Meanwhile, you can stream clips below.
Son Lux have unveiled Tomorrows II, the second instalment in a far-reaching three-volume body of work.
This second volume, following August’s Tomorrows I, sees a more introspective, stripped-back facet to the Tomorrows world, a long-format album to be released in three volumes over the course of a year.
The three-part record sees the New York group, comprising Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang, training their sights on volatile principles: imbalance, disruption, and redefinition. It arrives at a time of uncertainty in the world and aims to remind us of the necessity of questioning assumptions, and of sitting with the tension.
Along with the announcement, the trio have shared the album’s lead single, “Live Another Life,” and an accompanying remix by Nappy Nina entitled “Live Another Life (Heal For Me).” The track, streaming below, deals with the tension of control and how identities can be bound together in relationships.
Son Lux began as a solo project for founder Ryan Lott but expanded in 2014 thanks to a kinship with Ian Chang and Rafiq Bhatia. The trio strengthened their chemistry and honed their collective intuition while creating, releasing, and touring five recordings, including albums Bones (2015) and Brighter Wounds (2018). The band remains audibly indebted to soul, hip-hop, and experimental improvisation.
Tracklisting
01. Warning 02. Molecules 03. Prophecy 04. Yellow Leaves 05. Out of Wind 06. Apart 07. Bodies 08. Weight of Your Air 09. Live Another Life 10. Borrowed Eyes
Tomorrows II LP is scheduled for December 4 digital release on City Slang. A vinyl edition will land in 2021, and you can pre-order it all here.
Last week, DJ Three‘s Hallucienda label dropped On The Brink Remixes Vol. 1.
The EP features reworks of tracks from FANATICO‘s Love & DancingOn The Brink LP, released in November last year, including interpretations by Man Power, Amir Alexander, and Indoor Man, who remix “Witchin’ Me,” and Warehouse Preservation Society, and Ulysses, who turn their hands to “Take It All.”
FANATICO is the collaborative project of singer-songwriter Jorge Socarrás and WARE Records’ Mathias Schaffhäuser. Love & DancingOn The Brink, the duo’s second full-length, was recorded in Barcelona and Köln and also features the work of Pawas Gupta and Bob Hoffnar, who contribute to “Radical Freedom” and “Witchin’ Me,” respectively.
Tracklisting
01. Witchin’ Me (Indoor Man Remix) 02. Witchin’ Me Amir (Alexander’s Witching Hour Dark Dub) 03. Witchin’ Me (Man Power Remix) 04. Take It All (Warehouse Preservation Society Remix) 05. Take It All (Ulysses Remix)
On The Brink Remixes Vol. 1 is out now and can be picked up over at Beatport, where you can also hear snippets.
Jaymie Silk, a fixture of Montreal’s ballroom scene, has released Brain Dead, a new single on Lavibe, the French label of Brice Coudert.
The single is Silk’s first new music since September’s FROM THE CLUB TO THE BEDROOM. album. It comes with a video directed, filmed, and edited by Adrien Cronet that “immerses us in the daily life and emotional intimacy of those who experience marginalization and silence on a daily basis,” Silk says.
Silk continues: “Because I make music, but it’s more than music to me. For all those who feel stuck in this world, who cry out in silence, who struggle to remain themselves, because you can’t follow the wind when your heart is heavy. Let them know. Listen and share.”
Tracklisting
01. Brain Dead
Brain Dead is available now, with the video streaming below.
Lol K is the work of Junior XL and CJ Calderwood, who is also a part of Good Sad Happy Bad with Mica Levi.
The Breeze is the London group’s first album, and it’s made of six tracks along with six instrumental versions, exploring UK drill, pop and 2-step. Conceptually, it explores ideas of escapism, belonging, and inner-city isolation, with sparing but shapeshifting production.
The record marks a concerted development from Lol K’s earlier work, especially Born Under a Bad One, released on Levi’s Curl in 2018. For one, it sees the group adding their vocals to the mix, switching between melodic hooks to a rave-punkish prang out. Guest vocals come from LA Timpa, who is also releasing an album on Halcyon Veil soon, and Coby Sey.
Tracklisting
01. Proud 02. Air Held Softly In A Fist 03. Oilseed Stone feat. Coby Sey 04. Twice 05. Completely Out Of Business feat. LA Timpa 06. Anechonic 07. Proud (Instrumental) 08. Air Held Softly In A Fist (Instrumental) 09. Oilseed Stone (Instrumental) 10. Twice (Instrumental) 11. Completely Out Of Business (Instrumental) 12. Anechonic (Instrumental)
The Breeze is available now, with a full stream below.
Ahead of the US election, Deadbeat, real name Scott Monteith, has shared a new digital single, available via Bandcamp now.
The lead track, which we’re offering for free download to full XLR8R+ members (instead of the pay-what-you-want download on Deadbeat’s Bandcamp), draws its name from the Huey, a helicopter that revolutionized the Vietnam war, and the late Senator John Lewis, whose voice, encouraging us to vote, appears over a Deadbeat dub groove.
“The vote is precious, it’s almost sacred,” Lewis says. “It’s the most powerful, non-violent instrumental tool we have in our democratic society. We should make it easy and simple for everybody to participate.”
In the first years of the Vietnam war, the United States military first weaponized the Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, popularly known as the Huey. It revolutionized every aspect of warfare at the time, saving the lives of countless American soldiers and ending the lives of their countless Vietnamese counterparts.
“Though we have thankfully not reached the point in the current conflict where our exchanges are via bayonets and bullets, in far too many cases the wounds cut just as deeply, and take just as long, if not longer, to heal,” Monteith tells XLR8R. “Words, and the knowledge they covey, are the weapons of the future.”
And though he has passed on, the late Senator John Lewis was one of the greatest weavers of words America has ever known, Monteith continues. “As such, it seems only fitting, in these crucial last days, dark though they may seem, to listen once again, and be empowered by his sage advice.”
The single comes accompanied with a “Move Your Feet” edit.
Full XLR8R+ Members can download the track in wav. format below.
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 mixesto 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.
The album, titled 1995, will be the renowned Austrian duo’s first in 22 years, and it will land on their own G-Stone Recordings. It came about after Kruder & Dorfmeister uncovered a box of DAT tapes that were recorded just before The K&D Sessions and their much-loved DJ-Kicks compilation and mix. Much like that earlier material, the tracks on 1995 are laid-back, with smokey grooves soaked with the feel of the ’90s.
The new single, “Swallowed The Moon,” is the third to drop from the forthcoming album, following the previously released singles “Johnson” and “King Size.” It will be the final single released before the album drops on November 13.
Composed of Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister, the Viennese duo started making music together in the early 1990s. Their roots draw influence from hip-hop, rare groove, dub, and new wave, and their sound finds company alongside Massive Attack, Tricky, and Thievery Corporation.
Tracklisting:
01. Johnson 02. Love Hope Change 03. Swallowed The Moon 04. Spring 05. Dope 06. King Size 07. Holmes 08. Don Gil Dub 09. Stop Sceaming (only available on physical copy) 10. Morning 11. White Widow 12. In Bed with K&D 13. Ambiente 14. One Break 15. Lovetalk
You can stream “Swallowed The Moon” in full below ahead of the album’s release, with preorder here.
Código de Barras is the second album that A.k.Adrix, a Portuguese artist of Angolan-descent, has released on the Lisbon label, following his commended debut, Album Desconhecido, in 2018. There are no present photos available of him, but we do know he’s based in Manchester, United Kingdom.
The record sees the mysterious producer developing his mutant batida grooves, and the slick and tone-rich tunes beg for careful listening, we understand.
“Any way you choose to categorize them, these are rough and ready shakers that dispense any conceptual exercises or excess of narrative,” Príncipe continues, and this is shown in closer “Desenhos Animados,” streaming below.
Artwork comes from Márcio Matos.
The record follows Blacksea Não Maya’s Máquina de Vénus on Príncipe.
The label will also release a vinyl version of Dj Lycox’ Kizas do Ly EP, originally released back in March on digital.
Photo: Will Cooper Mitchel, taken in 2010 for ‘Black Sands’
Simon Green, better known as Bonobo, has announced a special vinyl edition of Black Sands, marking a decade since the seminal album’s release.
Release on Ninja Tune, Black Sands first landed in 2010. Influenced by the divergent, bass-driven strands of the UK electronic music scene at that time, Green fitted those evolving sounds into his own wider vision. The record’s lasting importance stems from the depth that he found in those combinations, rattling two-step rhythms and heavy pressure sub-bass twinned with carefully crafted songwriting and lush instrumentation.
“Having fled the comforts of Brighton, I began a new life in London which was new and exciting to me. There had been huge personal changes with family, relationships, and cultural perspectives,” Green recalls. “Music was changing in the UK too. It felt at the time like the landscape of electronic music was constantly being reimagined in the basements of east London clubs. It felt fun again. It was inspiring. This new movement informed how I was making music.”
Green continues: “All my records feel like a diary of the time and headspace they were made in, and Black Sands documents this in real time for me.” He describes the record as “a transition of falling in love with beat-making again.”
The revamped vinyl features a new cover image, taken by Green himself when he passed through the Lake District last year and tried to recapture the shot originally taken by Ewan Robertson. Inside, it will come with offset printed paper inners and a 12″ quality print of the original artwork. There are also new liner notes, written by Green.
Black Sands 10th Anniversary is scheduled for December 4 release. Meanwhile, you can stream the record in full below and pre-order here.
Photo by Simon Green
Tracklisting
A1. Prelude A2. Kiara A3. Kong A4. Eyesdown (feat. Andreya Triana) B1. El Toro B2. We Could Forever B3. 1009 C1. All in Forms C2. The Keeper (feat. Andreya Triana) C3. Stay the Same (feat. Andreya Triana) D1. Animals D2. Black Sands
Rhye, the project of Los Angeles’ Michael Milosh, has announced his new album, Home, out on Loma Vista Recordings.
Written throughout 2019 and early 2020, Home was recorded at United Recording Studios, Revival at The Complex, as well as Milosh’s home studio. It’s mixed by Alan Moulder, who is known for his work with Nine Inch Nails, Interpol, and My Bloody Valentine.
The album follows 2018’s Blood, and is centered around the idea of home as the core of creativity and community. It’s familiar in its synthesis of propulsive beats, orchestral flourishes, piano ruminations, and sultry vocals, but “never have they sounded more cohesive or alive,” Milosh says.
Since the release of his 2013 debut, Woman, Milosh has mostly lived on the road, but some major life changes, including a new relationship with Genevieve Medow-Jenkins, made him yearn a more permanent space. The album is inspired by the Secular Sabbath events that Milosh and Medow-Jenkins have been producing, centered on consciousness-raising ambient music.
Alongside the announcement, Milosh has shared two singles: “Black Rain,” with its almost ballet-esque, Russian-sounding string arrangements; and “Helpless,” which relays love in its most intimate and romantic form over slinky R&B pulses.
The visual for “Black Rain” is directed Sam Taylor-Johnson and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson from “Tenet.”
Tracklisting
01. Intro 02. Come in Closer 03. Beautiful 04. Safeword 05. Hold You Down 06. I Need a Lover 07. Helpless 08. Black Rain 09. Sweetest Revenge 10. My Heart Bleeds 11. Fire 12. Holy 13. Outro
Home LP is out on January 22 on Loma Vista Recordings. Meanwhile, you can stream “Beautiful” and “Black Rain” below, and pre-order the record here.
