UK vocalist, poet, and frequent Kode9 collaborator The Spaceape has passed away. “We are devastated to announce that on Thursday, October 2, Stephen Samuel Gordon (a.k.a. The Spaceape), vocalist, poet, and live performer, passed away peacefully after a five-year struggle with a rare form of cancer,” read a solemn message on Hyperdub’s Facebook page. “Our sincere condolences go out to his family and friends, and all who have been touched by his writings and performances,” the post continues, “His Hyperdub family will always miss him.”
As The Spaceape, Gordon appeared on the very first Hyperdub release, Sine of the Dub, a collaboration with Kode9; the pair went on to deliver two LPs in the years that followed, Memories of the Future in 2006 and Black Sun in 2011. Announced in September, Kode9’s and The Spaceape’s collaborative The Killing Season EP is set to see a release later this month. Hyperdub’s full statement on Gordon’s passing can be read here.
Recorded live during a set at Naturel Beachclub in Scheveningen (a district of The Hague in The Netherlands), John Talabot has made a new four-hour DJ session available to stream and download. “I recorded this mix last week in Scheveningen,” Talabot explains on his SoundCloud, “It was a nice, covered beach-club tent on a rainy night, but the vibe couldn’t have been any better.” Appearing without a tracklist, the mix finds the Barcelona producer/DJ beginning in more Balearic and disco-touched territory before moving onto more house-minded fare later in the mix, using the extended set to stretch out and throw in some unexpected twist and turns along the way. Talabot’s full four-hour recording can be streamed and downloaded in full below.
With the release of Abaporu (his fourth full-length effort for Kompakt) earlier this week, Brazilian producer Gui Boratto has now opened the doors to his impressive home studio in São Paulo. Taking readers on a virtual tour for Attack Magazine’s My Studio feature series, Boratto highlights a few pieces that are essential to his set-up—the EMS VCS3, Sequential Circuits Six Trak, and a Koma Elektronik sync box among them. In addition, the longstanding producer also reveals that Logic 9 serves as the software cornerstone of his production process. Attack Magazine’s full My Studio feature with Boratto can be found here.
Following last year’s collaborative “Mirror Song” outing, Julio Bashmore and Kowton have again combined efforts, this time taking on the name Ekranoplan for an upcoming EP on Glasgow’s All Caps label. Apparently named after a Soviet aircraft, the Ekranoplan project’s Wing-In-Surface-Effect EP will offer four new productions from the pair of Bristol-based producers, including what appears to be two beatless compositions in “One Metre Up” and “Ground Effect Vehicle.”
Bashmore’s and Kowton’s first EP together as Ekranoplan is set to arrive on October 9 via All Caps; in the meantime, the record can be previewed below. (via Hyponik)
Los Angeles label Tipping Hand has put together a new label compilation, Volume 1: Memory Waves, in order to highlight the diverse range of electronic producers it keeps in its company. Pulled from the 10-track effort is “Love,” a synth-soaked outing from Canadian producer Jesse Somfay, who here operates under his Borealis alias (a handle under which he released the Kallionyma EP via Tipping Hand earlier this year). With “Love,” Somfay gradually expands and contracts—and occasionally modulates—a bouncing synth motif, allowing it to slowly unravel atop a series of dark, slow-brewing rhythms. The resulting track can be downloaded below or grabbed as part of the full Volume 1: Memory Waves collection, which is currently free to download via the Tipping Hand label’s Bandcamp page.
Following close behind the announcement that Gobstopper label head and Boxed club night co-founder Mr. Mitch would issue his Don’t Leave EP via Planet Mu, word has now surfaced that the London producer will also issue his debut long-player via the label later this year. As Juno Plus reports, the forthcoming effort is set to be entitled Parallel Memories in part because Mr. Mitch “sees the same vivid scenes in his head each time he replays the music, often repeated snapshots of his life in various impossible scenarios or distorted situations.” Parallel Memories is also set to include a single collaboration with Dark0, a fellow London producer who recently appeared with an EP on Mr. Mitch’s own Gobstopper label.
Composed of 11 instrumental grime tracks, the London artist’s debut album will land via Planet Mu on December 1. Ahead of its arrival, the artwork and full tracklist for Mr. Mitch’s Parallel Memories LP have been included below.
1. Afternoon After 2. The Night 3. Intense Faces 4. Don’t Leave 5. It Takes Hold Of You 5. Sweet Boy Code (ft Darko) 6. Wandering Glaciers 7. Feel (Don’t Ask) 8. Bullion 9. Denial 10. Fly Soup 11. Hot Air
Entering the final stretch of its six-part run, the fifth installment of Red Bull Music Academy‘s illuminating Diggin’ in the Carts series has arrived, with the latest clip focusing on Nobuo Uematsu, the composer behind the music of the Final Fantasy series. The 16-minute episode is dedicated almost entirely to telling Uematsu’s story and how he—somewhat improbably—became the composer of the music for the esteemed Final Fantasy series of video games, creating soundtracks that would eventually be performed by world-class orchestras.
“And the music though, the music was just…,” Flying Lotus trails off while singing the praises of Final Fantasy 7 early on in the episode; the fifth installment of RBMA’s Diggin’ in the Carts series is available to watch in full below.
Following the release of its Silent Ascent LP earlier this year, Barcelona-based pair Downliners Sekt (pictured above) have enlisted a number of similarly adventurous outfits to rework tracks from the album for a forthcoming remix package. Set to appear alongside remixes from patten, Chevel, and others, NYC duo Blondes‘ contribution to that effort is now streaming in full.
In its original form, Downliners Sekt’s “Hors Phase” is basically an interlude, albeit one packed with dense textures and marked by the pair’s penchant for detailed sound design. With its remix, Blondes smartly elect to extend “Hors Phase” far beyond its original run time, stretching the original production’s sonic elements across a bed of thick kicks, generously processed hats, and an engulfing array of pulsing synth tones. A stream of the full rework from Blondes (who were featured in an In the Studio piece around this time last year) is premiering below before the Silent Ascent – Remixed package lands on October 13 via InFiné.
Set to arrive next on the freshly launched Seven Villas label is Proximity, a five-track EP from Barcelona-based producer Pablo Sanchez. Leading the charge is “Broken Blues,” a patient and methodical expedition into the more sunburnt ends of house. Spanning over six minutes, the track lurches forward, its interlocked layers of shakers, hats, rolling snares, and light percussion pushing the track’s momentum ahead as rich synth patterns gradually fill out the proceedings. Sanchez’s Proximity EP is set to arrive on October 6; in the meantime, “Borken Bells” can be downloaded below while a video for the record’s title track can be viewed after the jump.
Writing about Flying Lotus for XLR8R‘s readership is like introducing the Pope to a Catholic church—everyone already knows just about anything that could be said on the guy’s behalf, and they would much rather see what he has to say, anyway. The Californian producer born Steven Ellison has appeared in our pages since his debut album, 1983, dropped in 2006, and even graced our cover two years later, when the seminal Los Angeles arrived via Warp. Then came the proliferation of the “beat scene,” followed by the game-changing Cosmogramma, the jazzy Until the Quiet Comes, and now the latest Flying Lotus opus, You’re Dead!, is imminent. Suffice it to say that we’ve all gotten to know Ellison very well over the years, but what’s another 20 questions among friends? We took some time to meet up and chat with the busy artist in Warp’s sunny Brooklyn office, and managed to uncover even more Flying Lotus facts and anecdotes. In our conversation, he told us about why he likes to make fun of people, the one time he got busted for weed while touring, what Herbie Hancock’s house is like, five movies he wants us all to see, and a whole lot more.
1. Where did you grow up? Canoga Park, California.
2. How were you first inspired to make music? I was first inspired to make music by my cousin Oran. He was making music on an old Mac II by himself in his little lab, and I just started taking up after him. He was the first person to put a machine in front of me to work on. He was like my big brother, someone who I looked up to. We’d play videogames together, and then one day he was all, “Nah, nah… Try this videogame.” [laughs]
3. Tell us what you remember about the earliest tracks you made. They were really inspired by Dr. Dre, like West Coast-sounding, dark hip-hop with minor chords and shit.
4. Have you ever been discouraged to a point that you wanted to give up music production? No.
5. How else do you think you could make a living if you weren’t an artist? Probably something illegal. [laughs]
6. Name two pieces of gear you couldn’t live without, and what makes them so important. I love my Fender Rhodes. It’s been a part of my family since that keyboard came out, and I’ve had it reworked so that it’s in the best condition it’s actually ever been in. That is my baby. Something else I couldn’t live without, though… Ableton?
7. Of all your past albums, which one do you return to the most? Why do you think that is? The one I return to the most is probably Los Angeles, because that’s the one I probably play out the least in shows and those are the tracks that remind me of when everyone first got into my stuff. It does have a sound to it that I feel was definitely unique at the time—it reminds me of things, kind of like a time capsule.
8. What’s the hardest part of starting a new record? Having a theme—knowing what to say, what needs to be said from you at that time and place and space and where the industry is at, music is at, my interests are at. Just getting your head wrapped around that, and then being able to say, “Okay, you know what, this is where I want to go.”
9. You’re Dead! is at least the second album you’ve written around the theme of death. What keeps you glued to that idea? People dying… [laughs] In my life. It’s weird because I think that a lot of the turning points in my life have happened after people passed away. Aside from Flying Lotus stuff, it always grounds me to my core, always brings me back to my connections, interactions, and feelings with other people. It gets me out of my head and reminds me of what’s really important in this world. I feel like it always makes me ask questions and gets something going in me so I have to express myself.
10. There are good number of featured artists on You’re Dead!. Do you think Flying Lotus is more of a collaborative project now, or is it solely your own vision? I do feel like it’s definitely my vision, but I enjoy collaborating with people. I still enjoy doing my own thing, too. I guess when it does come down to albums, there are a lot of different voices involved. It’s fun, but to say it’s just one thing wouldn’t be true.
11. Tell us the story of the first time you met Herbie Hancock. Yeah, I went to his house out in the Hollywood Hills. He was a really cool guy, really sweet. He took us to his studio, and to get there you have to walk down a stairway that has all these Grammys and awards and plaques on the walls. You just have no choice but to look at his accomplishments—there’s platinum, gold, shiny stuff everywhere. I’ll never forget that. [laughs] I thought that was so cool of a way to go into your own world.
He had me and Thundercat over, and he played us some stuff. We played him some stuff. He told us some stories. It was perfect, and just really cool to hear that he was so excited to be a part of what we were doing. It felt really good, especially because that was right at the beginning of the album, conceptually. Having his blessing kind of helped me have the confidence to see it through.
12. Who is another jazz artist (dead or alive) you would like to work with, and why? I really wish I could’ve worked with my aunt Alice [Coltrane]. But I guess her passing has made her influence a lot stronger, too, so who knows if I would’ve been inspired to pursue this kind of music had she still been making records. I actually would’ve loved to have her do some string arrangements for me. She was working on a string album, like an orchestral suite, before she passed away. I don’t know what’s going to happen with it, but it’d be really nice to see it come to life. It’s done, the music is written, so somebody would just have to record it.
13. What are the best and worst things about being a producer these days? The best thing is that everyone is open to collaborate with each other. This person and this person can get into a room together, or they can send files to each other—they can be all around the world and still collaborate. That’s cool.
I think the worst thing is that there are so many people doing the same shit. It seems like there’s no way around a certain sound. The sound is defined by the time because everyone is going for the same thing. Everyone wants the same kind of beat, or wants it to hit the same way in the club. It’s weird for producers right now. Everyone seems to be second guessing themselves, like, “Oh, I’m a trap producer now… I’m a pop producer now…” It’s kind of annoying to watch people scrambling. The whole industry is scrambling.
14. What is the best piece of advice that you’ve ever received? It’s okay to not be working all the time, and to be gentle on yourself when you’re not. When it feels like you’re losing that inspiration—or you’re in a rut, not making stuff, and your head gets all weird—be gentle on yourself. Just ease into things naturally. But you still have to ease into it, you still have to sit in the chair. You can’t just expect things to happen, but do it gently.
15. What are some of your methods for staying sane on tour? Making fun of people. Just like bad jokes when you’re people watching. [laughs] That helps, and also having a way to stay creative. If I could get into making music and stuff on the road, I could have a lot of fun doing it. When I’m [producing], I feel like everything is okay. It’d be cool to try to produce some stuff and make a record while on the road. I think the studio is a place that feels like home, that feels comfortable. There’s something about my home, where I work. Like, even at hotels I can’t do it, even if I bring speakers and the computer I work with. There’s something about the actual space itself that’s important to me. But I don’t know… I got a nice bus this time, so I’m gonna try to work on it.
16. Do you have any horror stories from your travels? Yeah, yeah… I almost got in some horrible shit over some weed. Before crossing the border into Canada, we got stopped in Michigan, and I thought we’d got rid of some shit. I thought we got rid of everything before we crossed over, but there was a little nug in my pants pocket in my suitcase. And the dog… The dog snitched on me. [laughs] It was a big ordeal over, like, nothing. Thankfully, it wasn’t that dramatic, but it was a three-hour ordeal and I had to pay a lot of money. It could’ve been a lot worse. That was one of those learning experiences. Keep the weed in a certain place all the time, and that’s it! The weed only exists in this drawer—never in a pocket, never anywhere else. And fucking dump that shit when it’s time to cross the border.
17. Name five films you think every fan of your music should see. – 2001: A Space Odyssey – I don’t know how it relates, but I really love this movie called Enemy that came out recently. There’s something about it that’s really unique—the pace of it, the vibe of it. – Solaris—I love both of them separate, they’re totally different vibes. I really like the [Steven] Soderbergh one. – I like The Fountain a lot. It’s crazy how it divides people. It’s also fucked up because if that movie was more of a success, [Darren Aronofsky] would probably be making weirder shit. I think he’d be a little bit more left, he’d take it even further. – Enter the Void—that one ties in really close to this album.
18. What’s a talent you admire that you wish you had? I wish I could write music notation. Even if I couldn’t play it, I wish I could just write it. I’d just sit around all day, like… [pretends to write on a piece of paper] Psshh… What?? WHAAA??? [laughs] Some people sit and draw in their sketchbooks, but if I could just sit and write music, that’d be so much fun. Just to go from your head straight to that? Yeah, sick.
19. Any new artists that you’re currently excited about? Yeah, this kid Louis Cole is really cool. Morgan Delt is really cool. I like Rae Sremmurd, those “No Flex Zone” kids. They’re crazy.
20. What’s the first thing you’ll do after answering these questions? Drink more water. [laughs] Cheers.
