Page 132 – XLR8R

Johannesburg Afro-Jazz Collective SPAZA to Release New Soundtrack Album

Johannesburg afro-jazz collective SPAZA will release UPRIZE!, a new album on Mushroom Hour Half Hour.

Conceived in the Mushroom Hour Half Hour lab, SPAZA is a band with no permanent personnel; each lineup is assembled for the express purpose of recording one-off improvised or workshopped material. In 2019, the band, comprising a group of musicians with links to Johannesburg’s jazz, afro funk, and experimental electro scenes, released a self-titled debut album.

UPRIZE! soundtracks a documentary film of the same name about the 1976 Soweto uprising, a turning point in the fight against apartheid. It was recorded in Yeoville, Johannesburg, during a three-day scoring workshop in 2016. While the rhythm section of bassist Ariel Zamonsky and percussionist Gontse Makhene remained intact, Malcolm Jiyane (piano/trombone/vocals) and Nonku Phiri (vocals) stepped in for the first time here.

Sonically, the record continues the magic of the debut album, but with a more mournful sound that honors those who lost their lives fighting against apartheid. The sonic palette consists of interview clips and other sounds from the film, interweaving with the sounds from the recording process.

We’re told that the adventure of scoring a film that was still being put together—meaning only snatches of footage and audio were available to the musicians via a projection on the wall—had a “direct bearing” on the outcome of the recording.

Since its foundation in 2012 as a pirate radio show, Mushroom Hour Half Hour has evolved into a unique independent recording imprint based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The label focuses on artists and musicians who are not in the mainstream, catching avant-garde sounds as and where they come into being.

The album cover design comes from Graeme Arendse.

Tracklisting

01. Bantu Education
02. Sizwile
03. Mangaliso Sobukwe
04. Solomon, Tsietsi & Khotso
05. The Black Consciousness Movement
06. Banna Ba Batsumi
07. Bayasiphazamisa
08. Xolile Mosi
09. We Got a Lot a Work to Do

UPRIZE! LP is scheduled for October 16 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Sizwile” in full below, and pre-order here.

***Album Artwork | Photo courtesy of African News Agency | Photographer unknown***

Win Tickets to Bicep’s One-Off Live Performance

XLR8R is offering up two free tickets to Bicep‘s upcoming live performance on September 11.

In this one-off performance, audiences will have the chance to watch Bicep, real names Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar, perform unreleased music as well as reworked versions of songs from their catalog. The event will be backed up with visuals by Bicep Live visual collaborator Black Box Echo.

The show will be streamed across multiple time zones, and it will not be available to view again online following the event.

This competition is open exclusively to XLR8R+ members. To enter, members should email in to [email protected] with “Bicep Live” in the subject. Two winners will be chosen at random and notified on Thursday, September 10. They’ll each receive a code to access the stream.

Streaming Times

United Kingdom and Europe: 9:30pm BST / 10:30pm CEST
North and South America: 9:30pm PDT / 9:30pm EDT
Australia, New Zealand, and Asia: 9:30pm AEST

Samuel Rohrer Reflects on our Established System’s Failure with Live Performance

Samuel Rohrer has shared “Hungry Ghosts,” a live performance work that reflects on our established system’s failure. He recorded it at Sonic Jazz at the fifth edition of Wonderment Festival, 2020.

“Within our routines, we still fall for old habits and keep nurturing and repeating them,” the Swiss jazz drummer tells XLR8R. “We walk on territory which is built on old beliefs, like old ghosts sitting on our shoulders, making us repeatedly feed their needs.”

“Hungry Ghosts” showcases Rohrer’s skill in turning the drum kit into a lead instrument, which is to say that everything else within the audible environment exists to complement the character of the percussive playing rather than to stand apart from it. Its tonal palette is expectedly rich for those familiar with Rohrer’s work, and its pensive tone hearkens back to the “wide open” state of electronic music in the mid-late 1990s.

In 2020, Rohrer released Continual Decentering, his last solo album. You can read more about his work in his XLR8R podcast here.

PAN Welcomes Kamixlo for Bass-Driven Debut Album

Kamixlo will release Cicatriz, a debut album on PAN.

Only just past his mid-20s, Kamixlo, of British-Chilean descent, has been making a name for himself with his dembow and bass-influenced dance deconstructions, releasing three EPs since 2015. He’s also been running the recently defunct Bala Club party and label, named after Japanese pro wrestling group Bullet Club. The night established its own unique style of cross-genre post club music for the margins, while allowing Kamixlo the space to develop his sound—one that was imbued with its own pop immediacy, as well as smatterings of emo, electro, and hardcore.

Cicatriz is named after the Spanish word for “scar,” and we’re told that it takes an energetic tone from the tough times in the Brixton, London-based producer’s life. We can expect a personal album that pitches soft and hard sonics against each other to create an urgent and exciting tension.

The album is mastered by Beau Thomas, and it features artwork by Daniel Swan.

Next month, PAN will release Phoenix: Flames Are Dew Upon My Skin from Eartheater.

Tracklisting

01. The Coldest Hello (Live From The Russian Spiral)
02. Sick
03. The Burning Hammer Bop
04. DKD Lethal
05. Cicatriz
06. Cicatriz X
07. Poison
08. Demonic Y (feat. Felix Lee)
09. Destruction
10. Untitled
11. Azucar (feat. Woesum)

Cicatriz LP is scheduled for October 30 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Sick” in full below and pre-order here.

Grand River Indulges Experimental Side for Editions Mego

Grand River has released her second album, Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes, on Editions Mego.

Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes lands two years after Grand River’s debut album, Pineapple, on Donato Dozzy and Neel’s Spazio Disponibile. She recorded it at her home in Berlin, indulging her more experimental whims. The title indicates a desire to explore what is new and see what is around us from different perspectives.

The eight tracks aim to show how acoustic instruments can merge with electronic and analog synthesizers to become one new organic whole. They also see her experimenting with her voice for the first time.

Alongside the announcement, Grand River, real name Aimée Portioli, has shared “Side Lengths,” a complex and dreamy sequence made with one of her favorite synthesizers, the Yamaha DX-7.

Grand River is influenced by classical minimal music. After starting her One Instrument imprint back in 2016 and debuting the following year on Spazio Disponibile, she’s released music on Ghostly International and Longform Editions. Check out her XLR8R Artist Tips feature here, where she walks us through her production techniques.

Tracklisting

A1. Side Lengths
A2. Mr. Speaker
A3. Canopies
A4. Equations For A Falling Body
B1. Gold
B2. Coordinate Redirects Here
B3. Second Half
B4. All There Now

Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes LP is available now. You an stream opener “Side Lengths” in full below and order here.

Zenker Brothers to Release Second Album, ‘Cosmic Transmission’

*Dario and Marco Zenker in Los Angeles, California*

Dario and Marco Zenker—the Zenker Brothers—will release Cosmic Transmission, their second album, next month.

Cosmic Transmission follows the brothers’ breakthrough Immersion album, released in 2015 on their Ilian Tape label. They’ve revealed very little about the new album, but they have released an ambiguous statement.

“In another time it felt like only an unpredictable extreme event could change the way we choose to live together. Now it feels so crazy, it can be overwhelming, but always remember we are just a tiny micro-spaceship traveling through a gigantic universe. When nothing is safe, all is possible. We are one. One love.”

Dario and Marco began working together in the early ’00s. Dario, the elder, received his first set of turntables as a gift from his parents at the age of 15. Marco became involved in electronic music a little later, and they launched Ilian Tape in 2007 as a platform for their own productions. They began DJing together a year later, fusing Detroit techno, house, dub, rap, and breakbeat into a sound of their own. Since Immersion, they’ve built up the label with records from Stenny, Skee Mask, Surgeon, Walton, Pessimist, Galaxian, and more.

Tracklisting

01. When Nothing Is Safe
02. Who’s In Control
03. Intense Incense
04. Natural Connection
05. Sphere Force
06. Divided Society
07. Transforming Well
08. One For All
09. Reset
10. Let Loose
11. Transcending

Cosmic Transmission LP is scheduled for October 15 release. You can pre-order the record here, and hear clips below.

Kenya’s Slikback Delivers 30-Track Debut Album

Slikback has self-released ///, his debut album.

/// is a “reflection of different vibes and emotions that make me,” says Slikback, real name Freddy Njau. It combines some of his newer works with sketches, early stuff, and materials cut from previous releases. Features include Uganda’s Swordman Kitala, Germany’s STSK, and Poland’s Morgiana Hz.

Slikback, from Kenya, began producing house and trap before Nyege Nyege founders Derek Debru and Arlen Dilsizian introduced him to “more experimental, left-field, bassy kind of music that I didn’t know existed.”

He joined the Boutiq Studios in Kampala, Uganda in mid-2017, and soon began to find his sound, fusing a diverse sonic palette borrowing from footwork, trap, grime, and a variety of contemporary underground African club styles. He first appeared with Lasakaneku on Hakuna Kulala, the club-focused offshoot of Nyege Nyege Tapes. /// is his second release of 2019, following his split EP with Soda Plains on PAN in April.

Tracklisting

01. FAITH
02. FIO
03. FAZA
04. LEI
05. WA1023
06. DESCEND
07. WAXFIGURE
08. WEINASSETS
09. HEARTFIELD feat. Morgiana Hz
10. RAPIDFIRE
11. BLACK
12. NOBORU
13. REMNANT
14. GENGAR
15. HERO
16. MANTIS
17. MOB
18. SAHARA
19. LEGION feat. STSK
20. SMOKE
21. SCARA
22. ESION
23. KILLMONGER
24. XTERNAL
25. PULLUP
26. TINRO
27. TRAK4
28. MISERY
29. CARDIBLACK feat. Swordman
30. TESHIKA

/// LP is available now. You can stream in full below and order it via Bandcamp here.

Rødhåd and Vril Explore the Concept of “Out of Place Artefacts” on New Concept Album

Rødhåd and Vril have collaborated on a new concept album.

Out Of Place Artefacts grew out of a spontaneous jam session in 2017. The duo became inspired by the concept of “out of place artefacts,” things that could not possibly belong to the time period or place in which they were found.

The two producers reunited in the studio with the idea to subvert the expectations of their previous work, experimenting over two sessions in 2018 and 2019. The result is a record that showcases a different palette of sounds and tempo to their respective solo records. We’re told that the album is suited for deep listening, and that a mystic tone is set from the start, gripping the listener throughout the whole run time.

The album arrives on WSNWG, Rødhåd’s own platform. His most recent release was MOOD, an ambient album put out as a free download.

To learn more about Vril, check out is intoxicating XLR8R podcast here. You can read more about Rødhåd’s studio processes in his XLR8R feature here.

Artwork is Daniel Martin Diaz.

Tracklisting

A1 / 1. ENNOCH
A2 / 2. APOPHENIA
A3 / 3. DEMENTOR
B1 / 4. ORELA
B2 / 5. GEOMANTIC
B3 / 6. MOSCOVIUM
C1 / 7. ATAKAMA
C2 / 8. NAZCA
D1 / 9. PROCYON
D2 / 10. KYBALION
D3 / 11. DOGON

Out of Place Artefacts LP is scheduled for October 20 release on WSNWG. Meanwhile, you can stream a video for “APOPHENIA” below and pre-order the album here.

Autechre to Release First New Studio Album Since 2013

Autechre will release SIGN, a new studio album on Warp.

SIGN, featuring 11 newly produced tracks, is the first standard length Autechre album since 2013’s Exai. In typical Autechre fashion, the duo of Rob Brown and Sean Booth have shared no information other than the release artwork and tracklisting. We also know the runtime: one hour, five minutes, and 33 seconds.

In the years since Exai, Brown and Booth have shared many hours of music and content. In April 2018, they put out NTS Sessions 1-4, containing eight hours of original music, and they added to that in November with 13 hours of video and zip folders containing performance data and samples for their live sets. Last year, they put out two hours of cuts recorded between 1989 and 1993, downloading here, and they’ve put out an assortment of live recordings.

Autechre first released on Warp with 1993’s Incunabula.

Tracklisting

01. M4 Lema
02. F7
03. si00
04. esc desc
05. au14
06. Metaz form8
07. sch.mefd 2
08. gr4
09. th red a
10. psin AM
11. r cazt

SIGN LP is scheduled for October 16 release on CD, vinyl, and digitally. Pre-order is available now. (Editor’s note: public streams will be added as they’re made available.)

Actress’ New Album Features Sampha, Zsela, Aura T-09, and More

Actress will release Karma & Desire, a new album on Ninja Tune.

Actress, real name Darren Cunningham, describes the 17-track release as “a romantic tragedy set between the heavens and the underworld.” It covers “the same sort of things that I like to talk about—love, death, technology, the questioning one one’s being,” he continues.

Featuring across the album are Sampha, Zsela, Aura T-09, Vanessa Benelli Mosell, and Christel Well. Kara-Lis Coverdale performs on the lead single, “Walking Flames” featuring Sampha.

In 2017, Cunningham released AZD, his sixth record, which he followed with another project called Young Paint, developed through an AI interface that translated his drawings into musical notation. He’s been teasing this latest album for several months. In July, he released his 88 mixtape, a precursor of sorts that accompanied a PDF. outlining Karma & Desire.

Tracklisting

01. Fire And Light
02. Angels Pharmacy feat. Zsela
03. Remembrance feat. Zsela
04. Reverend
05. Leaves Against The Sky
06. Save
07. VVY feat. Sampha
08. XRAY
09. Gliding Squares
10. Many Seas, Many Rivers feat. Sampha
11. Loveless feat. Aura T-09
12. Public Life feat. Vanessa Benelli Mosell
13. Fret
14. Loose feat. Christel Well
15. Turin feat. Aura T-09
16. Diamond X
17. Walking Flames feat. Sampha

Karma & Desire LP is scheduled for October 23 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “Walking Flames” feat. Sampha below.

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