Highlighted as a label on the rise during our recent Labels We Love series, the young Lobster Theremin imprint will issue its first full-length effort later this week. Ahead of its release, the forthcoming double-LP from Chicago Jim can now be streamed in full.

A native of Chicago (and a current resident of the city), Chicago Jim—who has also operated under the name Space Jim—actually recorded his 11-track album while living in Vancouver, where he is said to have been studying and working in Forestry while also rubbing elbows with other like-minded dance music DJs and producers in the city’s burgeoning house scene. Recorded just before Chicago Jim relocated to his hometown, the 11-track LP is said to have been laid down directly to cassette tape using an arsenal of hardware that included an 808, 707, 202, Juno 106, MPC 2000, and MicroKorg. “It sounds a little busted,” the artist himself explains in a press release, “but I like it that way.”

Originally released as a limited cassette via Pretty All Right, the record has been remastered and pressed onto a 2×12″ vinyl package in order to serve as Lobster Theremin’s inaugural long-player. Oozing with gritty synth lines, crunchy percussion, and boundless hardware textures, the Chicago Jim LP can be streamed in its entirety below before the record sees an official release on October 30.

Throughout the week, a whole lot of material gets posted here on XLR8R. And while we know—and love—that some hardcore readers will eagerly pour over every single news story, interview, podcast, video, and MP3 download that appears on the site, we also realize that for most people, it’s impossible to see everything, which means that some quality XLR8R content is likely to get missed in the hustle and bustle of everyone’s daily lives. In the interest of making it easier for everyone to catch up, every Friday we present The Lowdown, a weekly wrap-up of the top 10 tidbits from our site.

1. This week’s XLR8R podcast was assembled by Running Back boss Gerd Janson, who served up a slow-burning mix of melodic house cuts.

2. Caribou (pictured above) stepped up for the latest edition of BBC Radio 1’s venerable Essential Mix series, and his two-hour session is currently streaming online.

3. UK producer Om Unit has a new EP on the way for Goldie’s Metalheadz label, and this week he shared a stream of “The War,” one of the forthcoming record’s eight cuts.

4. The newest installment of our Real Talk series found Chicago producer Hieroglyphic Being penning an essay addressing the recent controversy around his unorthodox DJ style.

5. Norwegian oddball Todd Terje unveiled a new video for “Delorean Dynamite” that doubles as an ad looking to sell an actual Delorean.

6. Veteran Scottish duo Slam has a new LP dropping next week, but XLR8R posted an exclusive stream of the full album ahead of its release.

7. Last week, XLR8R headed to The Netherlands for the 2014 edition of the Amsterdam Dance Event. Following five days and nights of partying, our official review rounded up the festival’s highs and lows.

8. Longstanding German outfit Booka Shade shared news of a forthcoming new EP, and posted a stream of one of its tracks online.

9. Ahead of his new LP for Warp, Clark offered up a brand-new mix.

10. Flatland, the highly anticipated debut LP from Objekt, arrived this week via the PAN label, and our review named the record an XLR8R Pick.

An expanded version of the The Lowdown is also available via a weekly email newsletter. Those interested in an even more in-depth round-up of XLR8R content should sign up by entering their email address below.

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The forthcoming eight-track Ruins LP from Liz Harris (a.k.a. Grouper) is now available to stream in full. Said to have been recorded during Harris’ time living in Aljezur, Portugal (circa 2011), Ruins is described as one of Grouper’s more song-based albums, with most all of the record’s compositions built from muffled piano chords and layers of the artist’s airy voice, which can appear to be both haunting and calming in the same breath.

Set to be released on October 31 via Kranky, Grouper’s forthcoming Ruins album can be heard in its entirety here via NPR.

Luke Wyatt (a.k.a. Torn Hawk) and Sheela Rahman (a.k.a. Xosar, pictured above) are two artists who certainly know how to keep themselves busy; Wyatt’s forthcomingLet’?s Cry and Do Pushups at the Same Time? LP is currently set to drop via Mexican Summer next month, which is also when Rahman’s Immured EP is slated to arrive via Wyatt’s own Valcrond Video label (to be followed by an eight-track Xosar record for Opal Tapes’ vinyl series in the months to come). Somewhere amidst all this activity, Torn Hawk and Xosar found time to embark on an experimental collaborative project together they are calling Body Tools.

So far, what’s surfaced from the pair’s collaboration is a 36-minute jam entitled Facebook Divorce. Originally shared in late September (we’re not exactly sure how we missed this one at first), the session deals in brooding electronic abstraction, with bubbling and distorted synths, sparse rhythms, ominous textures, and even a good deal of whispered voices sprinkled throughout the endeavor. At this point, it’s hard to say whether Facebook Divorce is a live jam of some nature or simply a collection of demos, and the pair has also not indicated when an official Body Tools release may be on the way. As we await more concrete details, the session from Wyatt’s and Rahman’s Body Tools collaboration can be streamed in full below.

With the first volume of his Halloween 12″ series set to land next week—October 27, to be exact—Luke Vibert (pictured above) has revealed details of a second Halloween EP which will feature remixes from both FaltyDL and Tom Demac.

Leading off the effort will be a new Vibert original, “iStrain,” a piece of “deadly mechanical funk” which finds the seasoned producer utilizing “Eastern melodic flavors [that] float over a bending and bouncing 303 bassline, serving up a heady concoction of analog goodness.” Following behind “iStrain” is Tom Demac’s “heavyweight battering ram of a remix” for Vibert’s “Halloween” tune (which appears in its original form on the upcoming Halloween (Part 1) 12″) and FaltyDL’s “complex and compelling” remix of “Stabs of Regret,” a track which first appeared on Vibert’s Ridmik LP for UK label Hypercolour earlier this year.

The three-track Halloween (Part 2) EP will not see an official release until December 1, but before then, the forthcoming record’s artwork and tracklist have been included below.

A1. iStrain
B1. Halloween (Tom Demac Remix)
B2. Stabs of Regret (FaltyDL Remix)

As we reported in September, Golden Pudel resident Helena Hauff will issue a new EP via Zurich label Lux next month. Ahead of its release, Hauff’s Shatter Cone EP has now been made available to stream in its entirety.

The upcoming four-track effort finds the Hamburg artist turning in a clutch of squiggly and meaty analog-synth jams, as well as one track (“Hiemal Quietus”) that heads off into more glinting, meditative territory. Hauff’s latest EP can be streamed in full using the player below before Shatter Cone is set to see its official release on November 10.

Turkish producer and RBMA alumnus Pinar Üzeltüzenci (a.k.a. Biblo) will release her fourth album, Absence, in late November. The Istanbul-based artist—whose subtle, clicky soundscapes have made regularappearances in XLR8R‘s Downloads section over the years—is said to take a period of upheaval in both her personal life and the life of the Turkish nation as inspiration for her forthcoming album, which will find Üzeltüzenci continuing to explore the emotional, haunting moods that are her trademark.

The Absence LP will see its official release on November 24 via the c.sides imprint. In the meantime, a teaser video for the LP can be watched below, where we’ve also included the upcoming record’s artwork and full tracklist.

1 What
2 Ex Cathedra
3 Immune
4 Lateral
5 Watching
6 Rot
7 Risk
8 Doom Machine
9 Our Sin
10 Forest in an Ocean
11 Hell Sent
12 Wall of Fear
13 Hyperstasis

Amsterdam duo Juju & Jordash—whose live set at last week’s Amsterdam Dance Event was one of the festival’s highlights—will soon be issuing a new LP via the Dekmantel label, and a small bit of new material has surfaced online. The full album announcement is forthcoming, so there aren’t many further details available, but the duo is currently offering up a one-sided sampler 12″, which is available for sale at places like Rough Trade and Hard Wax. (The latter shop has posted a stream of new music, describing it as a “fine spaced out house track.”) Included with the 12″ is what looks like a hand-typed letter from Juju & Jordash stating that the new album is called Clean-cut and will be released this autumn. A copy of the letter, which jokingly describes the new material as a “hit track” designed to “rock your next dancefloor,” has been posted below, and we’ll share more details about the album as they become available.