Wild Highways is the project of Toronto’s Cody Dyck, a guitarist who began crafting beats after relocating from the “Canadian prairies” to his current, more urban surroundings. At the moment, Wild Highways appears to be in its beginning stages, with only a handful of tracks on SoundCloud (all of which come accompanied by self-made videos) to its credit so far. One such effort is “Enter the Neu!,” a synth-streaked production which places swimming chords, lopsided arpeggios, and an array of angelic R&B vocal chops atop its active rhythmic base. A restless electronic hybrid, “Enter the Neu!” serves as a welcome first peek into what the budding Toronto talent may have up his sleeve as he continues to hone his craft.
The flurry of activity leading up to the release of SBTRKT‘s sophomore LP next month continues with a new video for album cut “New Dorp. New York.” Featuring Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, the track’s accompanying clip follows a slinking creature—the same one featured on Wonder Where We Land‘s artwork—as it roams around an “imagined American metropolis.” Directed by Fons Schiedon, the full video for SBTRKT’s “New Dorp. New York” single can be watched below. Furthermore, SBTRKT also shared a stream of LP cut “The Light” over the weekend, which can be heard here; the London producer’s sophomore LP is set to land on October 7 via Young Turks.
Bavarian producer Recondite has announced plans to issue his third full-length effort, Iffy, via the Innervisions label (helmed by Dixon and Âme) later this fall. Following last year’s Hinterland LP for Ghostly and his recent 12″ for Hotflush, Iffy is said to find Recondite attempting to “introduce a wider audience to his basic interest: the feelings and emotions that are hidden in the dark.” Furthermore, the record is said to be “driven by conflicting mood” while “a certain indecisiveness” lingers at the LP’s core.
Our first taste of Recondite’s upcoming effort comes in the form of “Duolo,” a sprawling, dark-tinted techno excursion which, along with the LP’s artwork (seen below featuring a dog mid-bark), seems to hint that the currently Berlin-based artist’s next outing will be a particularly brooding affair. Ahead of its release on November 10, “Duolo” can be streamed in full below where Iffy‘s complete tracklist has also been included.
Earlier this month, Italian producer Cristiano Crisci (a.k.a. Digi G’Alessio) dropped his debut LP as Clap! Clap! via the Black Acre imprint. Entitled Tayi Bebba, the record was conceptualized as a tour of an imagined island, with each track said to represent a place, event, or ritual (the LP even came accompanied by a full story, explaining what each production represented in G’Alessio’s imagined world). Now, the remixes have begun to roll in with UK producer—and fellow Black Acre affiliate—Lurka being enlisted to take on the tribal vibes of LP cut “Ashiko.” Stretching the track out past the five-minute mark, Lurka reimagines “Ashiko” as a more industrial-minded production, trading in the drum machine tones of G’Alessio’s track for more machine-made bits of percussion and textured drones. Lurka’s remix can be downloaded below while the video for Clap Clap!’s original track can be viewed here.
Leading up to a projected debut full-length in 2015, Fantastic Mr Fox will deliver a new single for longtime label home Black Acre next month. The forthcoming 12″, entitled “You-Turn,” finds the Berlin-based producer teaming up with songwriter Kid A and features “frosted heartbreak chords, with a grime lilt on the drums and low-end.” The release will also include a low-slung rework from grime deconstructionist and former XLR8R podcast contributor Visionist when it drops on October 20. Until then, Fantastic Mr. Fox’s “You-Turn” can be heard in full below.
For once, maybe the blimp, the promotional graffiti, and the Deep Web browser links were justified: Syro is Richard D. James doing his best work of the last two decades. But like most things related to Aphex Twin, that’s a bit of a half-truth: both as The Tuss and via his Analord series, James has been quietly producing insular acid weirdness since the release of his last full-length, 2001’s Drukqs, and he’s been getting better at it all along. Syro feels more like a culmination than a sudden flurry of activity; it’s an effort that suggests James’ purported retreat into reclusivity was actually a case of good timing and a certain degree of calculation.
Early reviewers have remarked that there are no moments of jaw-dropping innovation on this album, but one could argue that Syro‘s refinements offer a different kind of future shock. The elastic pitch bends of James’ vocals set against hyper-compressed snares on “minipops 67 [120.2][source field mix]” references a similar trick culled from the now-ancient “Windowlicker,” but it’s a trick no one else has really bested since then. Similarly, “s950tx16wasr10 [163.97][earth portal mix]” offers an improvement on the drill & bass template by somehow un-dating it, combining the roll of early jungle, FM bass, and a grab bag of now-familiar rave tropes into a permutation that seems obvious only after hearing it.
Gear talk tends to be a snoozer for the uninitiated, but the album cover of Syro alludes to James’ hardware obsession, pointing out which pieces of gear were used on what and offering a presumably honest peak into his process. For instance, both “CIRCLONT6A [141.98][syrobonkus mix]” and “CIRCLONT14 [152.97][shrymoming mix]” were likely made using the Cirklon sequencer—a niche item that forgoes the computer in favor of a tiny LCD screen. These “old fashioned” gear choices are essential to the sound of Syro, as James’ mishmash of modern and retro techniques is as close to atemporal as electronic music gets.
Frequently, James’ mutant futurism renders certain sounds—cut-up breakbeats, fake hoovers, baroque basslines—as so deeply uncool that they somehow come back full circle. “produk 29 [101]” opens with playfully cornball lounge vibes, quickly shifting into a second movement of spoken-word cut-ups and an expanded melody that would sound perfectly natural backing Leonard Nimoy. “180db_ [130],” a stomping, hoover-led headfuck, is the soundtrack to a 43-year-old rave dad dropping some E’s and fackin’ ‘avin it after the kids have gone to bed. None of this is a grand departure from what we’ve come to expect from James, but he’s gotten so good at balancing his indulgences against his playfulness that Syro is ultimately as challenging as it is fun.
Admittedly, Syro will probably not win over a new generation of fans like the Richard D. James album once did, but as a continuation of everything that has made Aphex Twin compelling, it’s a triumph. Nobody else can fabricate music as impossibly dense, funky, and nuanced as this without losing sight of the big picture. If it’s true that James has been kicked back into gear after making this album, then Syro marks a fantastic new-ish beginning.
Modern Love fixture Andy Stott is preparing to release his third album for the label in November, following 2012’s celebrated full-length Luxury Problems. The UK producer’s forthcoming Faith in Strangers has reportedly been in the works since January of last year, and is described as “a largely analog variant of hi-tech production styles, arcing from the dissonant to the sublime.” Throughout the album, Stott makes use of an array of instruments, field recordings, found sounds, and vocal treatments, with guest appearances from Euphonium player Kim Holly Thorpe and returning vocalist Alison Skidmore.
Modern Love will deliver Faith in Strangers on November 18 and its tracklist is on view below, where album cut “Violence” can also be heard in full.
1. Time Away 2. Violence 3. On Oath 4. Science & Industry 5. No Surrender 6. How It Was 7. Damage 8. Faith in Strangers 9. Missing
Since we revived the ‘Artist Tips’ series last year, a wide variety of producers and DJs have volunteered to share a little bit of their expertise with our readers, and the advice that they’ve given has been similarly varied. Some have elected to get uber-technical and specific, while others simply passed along the philosophical keys to their approach. And still, despite this range that’s been covered, it’s safe to say that XLR8R hasn’t yet published an ‘Artist Tips’ column quite like this one from Peter Van Hoesen. The Berlin-based Belgian has been turning out finely crafted pieces of techno under his own name for nearly a decade—the most recent being the ‘Call & Response’ EP on his own Time to Express label—and all of that experience has apparently taught him that there’s more to making music than gear and technical know-how. For Van Hoesen, the art of listening plays a major role in the creative process, so he’s put together some tips on how to listen to music in a way that’s rewarding and maximizes enjoyment.
Travel in space. Step outside the comfort zone. Open up your ears to music which is entirely unrelated to your favorite genres or artists. Step outside the boundaries of Western music. The world is a treasure trove of neverending musical goodness—why stay within the confined boundaries of the music you are familiar with? A couple of suggestions based on things I’ve been listening to recently: Balinese gamelan music (calms me down), traditional Turkish wedding songs (lifts me up), and West African djembe rhythms (achieves both).
Travel in time. A very long musical past stretches out behind us. Even in a relatively young field like electronic music, one can experience entire journeys by traveling back into the past. The early synth pioneers are a great starting point. It’s humbling to hear what they produced (and how they produced it) right at the start of this genre. There were no rules, just the experiment. But not only electronic music is worth a history trip. Knowing the foundations of where music comes from enables us to face our musical future with better knowledge and understanding. It seems to me that through knowing the past, the present becomes sharper somehow, like something has enhanced the overall resolution of things. Understanding is deepened, and therefore the listening experience becomes a richer sensation.
Be respectful of musical context. There are many contexts and situations in which we listen to music. We might focus all of our attention on it, or we might be doing the dishes at the same time. We might be on a dancefloor in a packed sweaty club. Every situation calls for a specific sound, and not all sounds are right for every situation. Also, when experiencing music in a shared environment, I think it is crucial to be aware of others. There is nothing as annoying as people talking during a concert. When I’m part of an audience, I feel it is logical to respect the people around me and will not start a loud conversation. It’s also a matter of respect towards the artist. If you don’t like what you’re hearing, you still have the option to leave. (Or you can try out the next tip.)
Prepare to be annoyed. Sometimes you might encounter a piece of music that makes you uncomfortable. Embrace this, analyze it. Ask yourself why this happens—there is something there for you to pick up. By hearing something you don’t like, you might end up refining the definition of what it is that you do like. Tastes change continuously, partially because we are experiencing opposing stimuli. We like one thing but don’t like the other. This can happen to you as an attentive listener or as a producer. Be prepared to experience the fact that, given a certain amount of time, you might even start enjoying what sounded like total sonic insanity earlier on.
Strive for quality sound. If you really want to experience music in the fullest way possible, you should ditch those little white earbuds now. Someone who’s serious about music should in my opinion be serious about his or her listening situation. It does not mean splashing out tons of cash on the latest 10,000 EUR speakers (although it will most certainly help). You can go a long way on a limited budget. There is a lot of info out there, and many decent second-hand deals can be done with the click of a mouse. Focus attention on the listening environment as well. I recently moved house, and I noticed that the new living room has a very short reverb tail. It’s my number-one priority to sort this out, as it really stands in the way of an optimal listening experience. A couple of well-chosen acoustic panels should take care of this. They will sonically balance out the space. As a result, they will balance out my musical enjoyment, which is one of the most important things in my current reality.
A new mini-documentary with Jeff Mills has been made available to stream, which takes an in-depth look at the Detroit techno icon’s Time Tunnel residency at Paris club La Machine du Moulin Rouge. As Mills discusses in the video, his Time Tunnel shows are conceptualized around a time/space spiral, which transports listeners from the music of the past —from Kraftwerk in the early ’70s to the raves and acid of the following decade—into the sounds of a possible future in the year 4067. The series was inaugurated in 2012 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his Axis label, and will reportedly go on tour starting in November, with dates planned for France, London, and Berlin. The 18-minute video was published by French magazine Trax in collaboration with the La Fumée collective, and can be watched in full below.
Moscow-based analog enthusiast Chizh will issue a new 12″ via the Chicago-based Glenview imprint later this month. A four track effort, the record will host two original cuts alongside a pair of remixes from The Mole and AntonZap. Serving as a preview is “Don’t Turn,” the second of Chizh’s original efforts which shows off the Russian beatmaker’s taste for classic techno tones. Built around a clap-heavy four-on-the-floor, the six-minute outing weaves a series of adventurous synth lines around its steady rhythms, sneaking acid-tweaked sequences and pulsing strings behind a bevy of restless leads. Expected to land later this month, Chizh’s upcoming Foux Control/Don’t Turn 12″ can be previewed after the jump.
