Podcast 664: Sky Civilian

Maggie Thornton is an American musician located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her story begins in a small town in Mississippi, where she fostered an interest in classical music by playing horn. Stifled by a competitive urge to become one of the world’s best players, she sought solace in an electronic music community and began making her first beats using a pocket synthesizer that she bought with her first pay-check. With a focus on vocal sweetness, compositional simplicity, and rich, layered analog tones, she established a sonic template that eventually caught the attention of Pascal Terstappen, co-founder of Amsterdam’s Atomnation label.

Terstappen first heard from Thornton in 2018. Intent on creating a more complex and coherent body of work, Thornton became Sky Civilian and began working on some new sketches. She delivered five of these to Terstappen, who snapped them up for his label, releasing Open Door, Thornton’s debut label release, in 2019. With an air of softness and warmth, the record straddled techno and house, with a subtle pop tilt and Thornton’s vocals front and centre. With At the Seams, the album followup, Thornton gave her take on acid house.

Recorded in February, Thornton’s mix is filled with the same gentle, melodic, and vocal-heavy electronica of her production work. By capturing the hope and expectation of a positive 2020, all before the pandemic hit and lockdown began, it serves as a contrast to the tumultuous times of the present day.

01. What have you been up to recently?

Kicking it at home. My partner and I recently moved from a tiny studio in downtown Santa Fe to a more remote place, with awesome desert landscape views. I’m making new music—the change of scenery has subtly shifted my sound already.

02. How has lockdown been for you?

Every day feels kind of unprecedented and past-due, you know? Tensions are high. I am extraordinarily grateful for my health, family, community, and job. Trying to focus on the basics.

03. What have you been listening to?

The new Blue Hawaii mixtape Under 1 House is outstanding. And the new Maria Minerva album, Soft Power. She’s a dream. Tons of Galcher Lustwerk too.

04. What’s your route into electronic music?

My background is in classical music. I’ve always taken on new instruments and styles. I spent years on the dancefloor plotting the day I’d try my hand at producing. Big love to my friends at Mesa Recordings and Make Mistakes for all their encouragement once that day finally came. I’m hooked now.

05. How did you go about connecting to Atomnation?

I made a five-track demo including my tracks “If I Had,” “Let’s Be Easy,” and “Alone,” and sent them to Pascal, with no prior connection. I had sort of zeroed in on Atomnation and sent my demo in as a reach-goal. I had zero followers at the time and knew my sound was raw, so I had few expectations and nothing to lose. That initial demo became the basis for my first EP, Open Door, quickly followed up by my EP At the Seams, both on Atomnation. I am super lucky to work with them.

06. Where and when did you record this mix?

Back in February of this year, at home, before lockdown. I can hear all of the big misconceptions and hopes I had for 2020 buried within it. I love that about it.

07. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included?

I wanted to make something fairly lyrical, since vocals are a big part of my sound and are the core driver of my inspiration. So, many of these tracks have words, vocals, and/or melodies that excite me. The tracks without vocals or spoken word usually feature really expressive, almost vocalized synth work.

08. Where do you imagine it being listened to?

Probably at home, on a weekend afternoon. I think it’s a “feel-good” mix with an introspective edge.

09. What’s next on your horizon?

I have a few more releases coming up. It is a mixed bag but I think the exploration is valuable —a remix for the alt-rock band Motopony, another single with Atomnation, a feature on a track for Joris Voorn. And, not to jinx myself, but I am almost ready to get more serious about a debut album. Almost.

10. What are your long-term ambitions with music?

I am looking forward to releasing records that contain a larger statement of my sound. The most evolved version of this project will likely include a healthy mixture of collaborative and solo work. Alongside this, I want to improve as a selector and performer.

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast here.

Tracklisting

01. soldout “Just a Night” (Flatcat Recordings)
02. Cimmerii “ET Made Me” (Universe Language Records)
03. Andras “Harf Green” (Beats in Space Records)
04. Pale Blue “A Heart Whose Love Is Innocent” (2MR)
05. Yantar “Somerville & Wilson, Fango” (Fango Remix) (Hell Yeah Recordings)
06. Bella Boo “Is It Rude To Wear My Shades” (Studio Barnhus)
07. Pale Spring “Suffer Soft” (Doom Trip Records)
08. Sky Civilian “Let’s Be Easy” (Atomnation Records)
09. Nina Simone “Feeling Good” (UMG Recordings, Inc.)
10. Tin Man “Acid Distances” (Konstrukt) (NL)
11. Dirty Princess “Sucia for You” (Susurrando)
12. Maya Jane Coles, Nocturnal Sunshine, Peaches “Possessed” (feat. Peaches) (I/AM/ME)
13. Dew Town Mayor, The Micronauts “Ceremonie” (feat. Dew Town Mayor) (Popof Remix) (Micronautics)
14. Murat Tepeli, Prosumer “Give And Take” (Vinyl Version) (Ostgut Ton)
15. Andras “Poppy” (Beats in Space Records)
16. Kornél Kovács “Purple Skies (Studio Barnhaus)
17. Client “Price of Love” (Toast Hawaii)
18. Marlon Hoffstadt “Planet Love” (Marlon Hoffstadt)
19. Cherushii & Maria Minerva “Thin Line” (100% Silk)

Steve Rachmad’s New Record is Inspired by Ian Urbina’s Best-Selling Reporting

Photo | Niels de Vries

Steve Rachmad will release The Beauty and The Sea, a first-of-its-kind collaboration melding music and journalism.

The Beauty and The Sea features eight tracks inspired by reporting from “The Outlaw Ocean,” Ian Urbina’s New York Times best-selling book exploring a diversity of human rights, labor, and environmental abuses occurring at sea.

“Reading ‘The Outlaw Ocean’ gave me chills, and each story featured was shocking and touched my heart in a different way,” Rachmad says. “While Ian is the one to bring these horrors to light, it feels like I can also help raise awareness by communicating some of the pain and disbelief as well as hope experienced by those in the story.”

The release forms part of the Outlaw Ocean Music Project, a collection of records from 250 artists created using sound clips from Urbina’s audio library of field recordings from his reporting. The clips include a variety of textured and often rhythmic sounds, from machine gun fire on the coast of Somalia to chanting from captive deckhands on the South China Sea. The records span electronic, ambient, classical, and hip-hop, and they’ll be released every other month.

Similar to a soundtrack setting the scene for a movie, the Outlaw Ocean Music Project gives depth and meaning to the field recordings, we’re told. Each track embodies a backstory, spreading the same message about the ocean and the need to stop certain abuses.

Each participating artist also created artwork using photography Urbina’s team captured at sea, illustrating the reporting.

Tracklisting

01. In Peaceful Protest part I
02. Theme for The Outlaw Ocean
03. The Seas and the Worlds Oceans
04. The Beauty and the Sea
05. In Peaceful Protest part II
06. Hope and Optimism
07. In Peaceful Protest part III
08. More Hope and More Optimism

You can read more about the project here ahead of The Beauty and The Sea‘s digital release on Friday, October 9. Sound clips will be added as they become available.

Lawrence English’s Room40 Prepares Album by Geneva Skeen; Shares Video Single

Geneva Skeen is next on Lawrence English‘s Room40 label with Double Bind, a new LP dropping November 13.

The seven-track album is one of four upcoming releases on Room40, which will also see albums from Akio Suzuki, Mike Cooper, and candlesnuffer. Double Bind, which will be available digitally and on limited-edition CD, was written over the past year during “a bleak but transformative period of time,” Skeen explains. Across the LP, the Los Angeles-based artist and composer crafts “an extra-verbal expression” of her interior experience, employing processed field recordings, fractured rhythms, and her own voice to unpack the unruly chaos of the last year.

Alongside the announcement, Room40 has shared a video for the album’s first single and title track, a beautifully desolate slice of ambient that is paired with fittingly woozy landscapes.

Tracklisting

01. Mirror Glimpse
02. Leveled Ground, Bottomless Pit
03. For the Foreseeable Future
04. Urstromtal
05. The world has no visible order and all I have is the order of my breath.
06. There is a Universe Where Time Flows Backwards
07. The Double Bind

Double Bind LP drops November 13. You can watch the video in full via the player below, with the album available for pre-order here.

Overmono’s New Single Marks a New Beginning for the British Pair

Overmono have released “Everything U Need,” a new track on XL Recordings.

“Everything U Need” is the first track the pair of Truss and Tessela, brothers Tom and Ed Russell, have released since lockdown began, when they were able to fully commit their energy to their London studio. This allowed them to determine exactly what Overmono’s music should be, they say. “Our work together had so far been about exploring and defining what Overmono is… and we feel like we’ve got this now.”

The track is taken from a forthcoming EP of the same name. Somewhat serendipitously, an early version of the track was the last thing the duo were able to perform live, at London’s Printworks in March. The finished version along with the other tracks on the EP represent a marriage of everything Overmono have done previously, we’re told.

The EP comes topped off with artwork from Rollo Jackson.

Everything U Need single is available now on XL Recordings. You can pre-order the EP here and steam the single below. A tracklisting will be added as it comes available.

Elusive is Back with a New Dome of Doom Album

Photo: Wylie Cable

Elusive is back with Dome of Doom for the release of Horizons, a 12-track album scheduled to drop worldwide later this month.

Horizons follows Elusive’s 2019 albums, Ambient Void on Alpha Pup Records and Bonsai Tree on Dome of Doom.

And it arrives in a similar vein sonically, which is to say the Los Angeles producer continues his exploration of experimental electronic music, Los Angeles beat culture, and modern forms of jazz. Features across the record include longtime collaborator Josh Koslow on trumpet, as well as seasoned Los Angeles session artists Ian Roller (saxophone) and Josh Howard (bass).

The album, recorded in April of this year, stems from Elusive’s most prolific stretch of music making since his career started over 20 years ago. When lockdown began, he began spending between six and eight hours a day working on a multitude of music projects. This is the first record out of that batch.

Elusive has been releasing records for over two decades, through several eras of Los Angeles’ music communities. His initial releases predate the modern Los Angeles beat scene, self-releasing his first beat tape, The Blackhole Within, in 1997. His first label release, titled Elements Of A Prototype, was released on Mary Joy Recordings in 2000, and he signed to Dome of Doom in 2016 with French Toasted.

Earlier this week, Dome of Doom announced Kenny Segal’s Kenstrumentals Vol. 4: a lot on my plate.

Tracklisting

01. Vague Emotions (feat. Josh Howard & Ian Roller)
02. New Meaning
03. New Horizon
04. Mental Impression
05. Bright Horizons
06. Sentiments (feat. Josh Koslow)
07. Intuition (feat. Josh Koslow)
08. Broaden Your Horizons
09. Sick Sense
10. Computation
11. Impeccable Taste
12. Aura

Horizons LP is scheduled for October 9 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Vague Emotions” feat. Josh Howard and Ian Roller below, and pre-order the release here.

Nightmares On Wax Celebrates ‘Smokers Delight’ Anniversary with Film and 12″

Nightmares On Wax, real name George Evelyn, is celebrating 25 years of Smokers Delight with a short film directed by Jamie Whitby.

Available to stream below, the film is inspired by one of Evelyn’s dreams, and it follows Tiger, a friendly neighbourhood stoner happily stuck in a comfortable wake-and-bake routine. After he discovers that he may have unknowingly stepped through the doors of perception, he is forced to detective his way back to reality.

Warp has also released Sonic Buds, a 12″ of Evelyn’s new music inspired by the film. The release includes new tracks “Let’s Ascend” and “Aquaself” alongside an alternative funk mix of “Dreddoverboard” and the timeless “Nights Introlude,” recorded live at Concord Music Hall in Chicago in 2014.

Smokers Delight album was one of a handful of records to define a generation along with Massive Attack’s Blue Lines, Portishead’s Dummy, and Tricky’s Maxinquaye. It took Evelyn from his genre-blending debut, 1991’s A Word of Science, into releasing his downbeat blend of soul, hip-hop, and dub, for which he has become renowned.

Tracklisting, Sonic Buds

01. Aquaself
02. Let’s Ascend
03. Dreddoverboard (Funk Mix)
04. Nights Introlude (Live In Chicago)

Sonic Buds EP is available now on Warp Records, with order here.

Semibreve’s First Digital Edition Will Feature Laurel Halo, Nik Void, Oliver Coates, and More

Portugal’s Semibreve Festival will celebrate its 10th edition this month with a hybridized version of the festival, taking place at the 17th-century Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães and online via the festival’s website.

The re-imagined 2020 program will feature commissioned sound works by Jim O’Rourke, Tyondai Braxton, Beatriz Ferreyra, and Ana da Silva and Kara-Lis Coverdale, as well as pre-recorded performances by Laurel Halo, Gustavo Costa, and Klara Lewis and Oliver Coates. Laurel Halo, Klara Lewis, Nik Void, Oliver Coates, and Pedro Maia are all featured artists in residence.

The program will also include roundtables aimed at discussing music and sound art with David Toop, José Moura (Príncipe Discos/Holuzam), Nkisi (Axis Arkestra/ex-NON Worldwide), Nik Void, and Alain Mongeau (MUTEK).

Both the online and local program at the monastery are free of charge, although entry to the monastery will be subject to a €4 fee, which will go directly to support the renewal and maintenance of the building.

You can head to the Semibreve website for the full program details.

DJ Earl Shares New Single Ahead of Second Album

Photo | Janay Marie

Teklife‘s DJ Earl is back with Wrk Dat Body, a new single taken from his second album, Bass + Funk & Soul.

Bass + Funk & Soul will follow Open Your Eyes, DJ Earl’s debut album, released in 2016 as the first full-length of all new material to appear on the Teklife label. It’s scheduled for release this winter on Moveltraxx.

“Wrk Dat Body,” the first taste of the release, has already been heavily played by the likes of Kush Jones and Big Dope P. On the flip is “But We Still Got Love,” a second new track.

DJ Earl, real name Earl Smith, is an apprentice of the late DJ Rashad. He represents the new generation of Chicago’s sound, occupying a space between jazz and funk tunes, devilish synthesizers, unstructured hip-hop samples, heavy sub basses, and mesmerizing snares. He’s previously released on Hyperdub and Planet Mu.

Artwork is by Elisa Mazzuca.

Tracklisting

01. Wrk Dat Body
02. But We Still Got Love

Wrk Dat Body is scheduled for October 2 release. You can stream it in full below, and pre-order here.

Download 90 Minutes of Luke Vibert

Luke Vibert has shared a new DJ mix with XLR8R, recorded live in Cambridge, Massachusetts on January 17, 2019. It was his first time back in the Boston area in more than 15 years. He’s also given a rare interview discussing Recepticon, his first album as Wagon Christ in nearly a decade.

Vibert, a Cornwall, United Kingdom native, has been at the forefront of electronic music for the last 25 years, earning himself a cult-like following for his many recording aliases like Amen Andrews, Kerrier District, Plug, Spac Hand Luke, Ace of Clubs, and Luke Warm. He also releases music under his own name.

Launched in 1994, Vibert’s Wagon Christ moniker has been key in pioneering the trip-hop or downtempo genre of electronic music. It sees him creating, sampling, and using various instrumental hip-hop and funk riffs, found electronic sounds, rare breakbeats, outlandish spoken word samples, and carefully mined sound bites, all bound together with those thick Wagon Christ grooves. Vibert last adorned the alias with 2011’s Toomorrow on Ninja Tune.

We’re told that Recepticon follows the same combination of “mind-warping sampladelic electronic music.” It comes via People of Rhythm Records, packaged with new artwork and visuals by illustrator Celyn Brazier, who illustrated the previous Wagon Christ releases. It’s available on color double vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

In advance of the release, you can download an exclusive mix from Vibert, and read the interview below.

How has your lockdown period been, and how have you spent it?

Ah, strange of course, but I’ve kinda spent my life training for it. I’ve been making music as normal, and making DJ mixes because I miss playing out so much.

It’s been a long time since you last released as Wagon Christ. Why have you dusted off the project now?

I tried a few times with Ninja Tune, but they’re too scared of sampled music these days, after being stung a few times in the past.

How would you define the Wagon Christ project?

I’m not sure really, but it’s the freest of my aliases; almost any genre can be included, from the downtempo trip-hoppy shit through acid house, disco, drum & bass, and whatever. It just has to have a certain vibe.

When and where did you record the new album?

Over the last 10 years, in my bedroom, slowly. I didn’t know I was making an album.

Where did you go looking for samples this time?

I buy cheap old records from the ’50s to ’70s all the time, and take any nice sound or riff or whatever. I have a pretty vast database of samples.

What is it that drives you to make electronic music after so many years, and what role does it play in your life nowadays?

I have to make it; it’s not a choice. Ideally, I’ll be in my studio every day. The less time I have for music-making, the more stressed I become.

What sort of music are you listening to at the moment, and are there any particular artists that are impressing you?

I haven’t really listened to new music since 1998, when it all seemed to start going a bit wrong. At least hip-hop and drum & bass did! People also started using way too much compression, which I hate.

Editor note: The podcast is available for stream only. The download is available exclusively for XLR8R+ members, where you can also download a plethora of previously unreleased and exclusive tracks from the likes of Sebastian Mullaert, Vril, Jack Michael, Leif, and many more. SUBSCRIBE HERE and download the mix here.

Donato Dozzy Reignites Progetto Tribale on Adiel’s Danza Tribale

Up next on Adiel’s Danza Tribale label is the legendary Progetto Tribale project, this time featuring Donato Dozzy.

Progetto Tribale was born in 1992 under the mentorship of Giancarlino, and executed by a team that included Pietro Micioni, Paolo Micioni, D.RaD (a.k.a Stefano Facchielli), and Giancarlino himself. Based on a deep combination of African rhythms and soul music, Progetto Tribale gained great success, particularly with “Behaviour.” Volume 6, the project’s last release, came over 24 years ago.

In partnership with two of the original members, Pietro and Paolo Micioni, Dozzy has reignited Progetto Tribale. Volume 7 features three original productions with Dozzy, real name Donato Scaramuzzi, plus a modern interpretation of “Behaviour” by Dozzy and Pietro Micioni.

The release follows Adiel and Anthony Linell’s Raso on Danza Tribale.

Tracklisting

A1 / 1. Vu Rhythm (D. Scaramuzzi, P. Micioni, P. Micioni)
A2 / 2. Disco Strat (D. Scaramuzzi, P. Micioni, P. Micioni)
B1 / 3. Behaviour 2020 Remix (Donato Dozzy & Pietro Micioni remix)
B2 / 4. Variable Mu (D. Scaramuzzi, P. Micioni, P. Micioni)

Volume 7 EP is scheduled for October 30 release on vinyl and digitally. Meanwhile, you can stream opener “Vu Rhythm” in full below.

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