Donato Dozzy Unites with Vocalist Eva Geist for Italian Synth-Pop Album

Donato Scaramuzzi (a.k.a Donato Dozzy) has teamed up with Italy’s Andrea Noce (a.k.a Eva Geist) on Il Quadro di Troisi, a new album.

The record is a colorful ode of an Italian scented vision, “overflowing of details, and profound intensity,” we’re told. Noce takes the lead on the vocals, with Scaramuzzi carving the dreamlike soundscapes. They’re joined by a handful of guest musicians playing guitar, bass, flute, drums, and various other acoustic instruments.

Il Quadro di Troisi translates to the picture of Troisi, and it stemmed from a correspondence between the two artists about the late actor and director Massimo Troisi. It also serves as a tribute to Italian musical history more generally, taking its cue from Italo-disco and synth-pop tradition. It includes contributions from legendary Italian DJ Pietro Micioni.

With Il Quadro di Troisi, Noce and Scaramuzzi “prove their eclecticism, and passion for their home country,” we’re told.

Germany’s Raster will release the album in collaboration with Italian festival Terraforma, hoping to mark the special relationship between the label and Italy.

Tracklisting

A1 / 1. Il Giudizio
A2 / 2. Beata
A3 / 3. Sfere di Qi
A4 / 4. Non Ricordi
A5 / 5. Intenzioni
B1 / 6. Raggio Verde
B2 / 7. Real
B3 / 8. Se ne va
B4 / 9. On the site (vinyl / CD exclusive, no digital)
B5 / 10. L’Ipotesi

Il Quadro di Troisi LP is scheduled for October 16 release, with the vinyl and CD edition coming on November 13. Meanwhile, you can stream “Beata,” “Non Ricordi,” “Intenzioni,” and “Raggio Verde” below, and pre-order the record here.

Cover Picture by Guido Gazzilli, June 2020, Rome, Italy

Podcast 659: Darktwaine

Bradford Caudle is an American record producer from Richmond, Virginia, widely known as Ohbliv and for his Yellow Gold and Yellow Gold 2 mixtapes with rapper Nickelus F. Since 2009, Caudle, 38, has self-released more than 30 digital beat tapes through Bandcamp, moving from Rugged Tranquility, his first outing, to LewseJoints Number 8, available now. A handful of his tapes have landed on cassette and/or vinyl through labels Thrash Flow and Fat Beats, and sometimes Caudle will shake things up with a new alias like Darktwaine, reserved for his darker, edgier sounds.

Caudle’s musical journey began when he inherited his father’s vast record collection, leading him to abandon his classical background. He’d played trumpet in high school, and had vocal training, but he immersed himself in beats, realizing that his favorite records of today sampled his favorite records of the past. He began creating his own organic, soulful jams, harnessing an improvisational spirit, and offering them out to friends. This led him to his earliest release in 2009, which demonstrated a penchant for ’70s and ’80s soul and funk.

Caudle’s XLR8R podcast is a little different from his other mixtapes. He’s recorded it as Darktwaine and it leans away from his soulful, upbeat sounds towards darker avenues. It’s intended as a reflection of “the plight of humanity at this time,” Caudle says, wading through jazz, trip-hop, funk, and soul, and it includes a handful of unreleased, brooding Darktwaine cuts. But beyond that, it possesses the same on-the-fly spirit, woven together one evening in Caudle’s Richmond studio, comprised of his favorite tracks of the moment.

01. What have you been up to recently?

A lot of exercise, reading, listening, spending time with family. The usual actually.

02. How has lockdown been for you?

I’ve taken it all in stride. If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.

03. What music have you been listening to while locked down?

Diggin’ in my own crates, stuff like James Blood Ulmer, Sonny Sharrock, Jean Carne, Mary Watkins, Funkadelic.

04. What do you miss most about life on the road?

Aside from meeting people, nothing.

05. Where did you record this mix?

In my studio.

06. What setup did you use?

Laptop, SP404, and turntable.

07. How did you select the tracks that you’ve included?

The tracks in this mix are songs I’ve been feeling, and works I wanted to share.

08. How does it compare to what we’d hear you play in a club?

I’ve done a few rare Darktwaine sets so it’s pretty comparable to those cases. But typically I play soulful vibey groove stuff so it is a departure.

09. What’s next on your agenda?

More growth, expansion, change. More music, connections, and love.

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.

Editor’s note: there is no tracklisting for this mix.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Guitarist John Frusciante Drops Trickfinger Alias for Jungle Album

John Frusciante will release his first instrumental electronic album under his own name on Aaron Funk’s Timesig label.

Frusciante is known for his work as the guitarist in Red Hot Chili Peppers. But after discovering early UK rave music, he started dancing at drum & bass club nights in Los Angeles, California. He then got into Venetian Snares‘ music in 2003, and eventually became friends with Aaron Funk, of Venetian Snares, resulting in the Speed Dealer Moms collaboration with Funk and Chris McDonald. He’s previously used the name Trickfinger for his solo outings.

Maya is dedicated to his cat who recently passed away. It’s inspired by Frusciante’s favorite music: ’91 to’96 UK breakbeat hardcore and jungle. We can expect a “varied and personal take” balanced against Frusciante’s acute sense of melody.

For a full year before Frusciante started the record, he worked within self-imposed limitations that made the music-making process as difficult as possible, he tells XLR8R. So he decided to make things easier, to the degree that he could regularly finish tracks he enjoyed listening to. Throughout the recording, he would prepare to make each track slowly, but would finish tracks very quickly.

“I’d spend weeks making breakbeats, souping up a drum machine, making DX7 patches, and so on,” he recalls. “By the time an idea came up that seemed like the beginning of a tune, I had a lot of fresh elements ready to go.”

Tracklisting

01. Brand E
02. Usbrup Pensul
03. Flying
04. Pleasure Explanation
05. Blind Aim
06. Reach Out
07. Amethblowl
08. Zillion
09. Anja Motherless

Maya LP is scheduled for October 23 release on vinyl, CD, and digitally. Meanwhile, you can stream “Amethblowl” in full below and pre-order here.

Daniel Avery Pays Tribute to the Late Andrew Weatherall with Contemplative New Track

Photo | Vincent Arbele

Daniel Avery has paid tribute to the late Andrew Weatherall with “Lone Swordsman,” a contemplative, considered new track.

Andrew Weatherall, widely known for his production work on Primal Scream’s Screamadelica, passed away on February 17 having suffered a pulmonary embolism.

“I was in my studio the morning I heard about Andrew Weatherall’s passing,” Avery explains. “The track “Lone Swordsman” is what formed that day. Andrew was a hero, a friend, and someone who regularly reminded us all how it should be done, not to mention the funniest fucker around.”

“Lone Swordsman” forms part of a single release alongside “Dusting For Smoke,” taken from Avery’s third studio album, Love + Light, plus an Avery edit. All three cuts are available digitally now.

You can watch the video for “Lone Swordsman,” created by Australian visual artist Greg Hodgson, below, and purchase “Lone Swordsman” on Bandcamp. All proceeds from track sales will be donated to Amnesty International in Weatherall’s memory.

Love + Light is out now on digital platforms via Mute/Phantasy in the United States and Canada and via Phantasy worldwide. Read more about it here.

Tracklisting

01. Dusting For Smoke
02. Dusting For Smoke (Edit)
03. Lone Swordsman

Peter Broderick Releases ‘Blackberry,’ his First Vocal Record in Five Years

Peter Broderick has released Blackberry, his first vocal record in five years.

Hailing from Oregon, United States, and currently based in Ireland, Broderick is a multi-instrumentalist and singer. In recent years, he’s been working on the archives of Arthur Russell, hired to perform audio restoration, editing, and mixing for the latest posthumous release by the cult icon. He released his Two Balloons LP on Erased Tapes in 2018.

Broderick recorded Blackberry, an eight-track album, in his London bedroom. He plays all the instruments on the record, and the closing song features additional vocals from his wife, Brigid Mae Power, and his stepson Seán Power.

The album subject matter is wide-ranging. Broderick touches on family and on the connection we all need as social animals. He also writes about technology and whether it will save or doom us. And he also focuses on nature, about foraging and the importance of engaging with the outside world in cities and in the country.

“In a time when us humans are coming face to face with the impact of our actions on the environment at large, I strongly advocate for engaging with our local landscapes,” Broderick tells XLR8R.

As you’d expect, this is connected to the album title. Broderick continues: “When I first became obsessed with foraging edible wild plants a few years back, I wasn’t particularly excited about the humble blackberry, but I would soon return with great passion to this familiar fruit of my youth. Even in our most urban environments, the gnarled and resilient blackberry vines continue to weave themselves throughout, as if to keep reminding us where we come from.”

Blackberry is available digitally now, and a physical release will come on October 30. You can stream it in full below and order via Bandcamp here.

Tracklisting

01. Stop and Listen
02. But
03. What Happened To Your Heart
04. The Niece
05. Ode To Blackberry
06. Let It Go
07. What’s Wrong With A Straight Up Love Song
08. Wild Food

‘XLR8R+024’ Features Three Female-Led Artist Projects: Eluize, AIDA, and Slumber

The 24th edition of XLR8R+ showcases three female-led electronic music projects that we’ve been listening to through lockdown.

With nightclubs closed, we’ve lost the traditional forum for much of the music we’re supporting, and this has engendered an evolution in our listening habits; instead of digging for club-ready EPs, we’ve turned to thoughtful, experiential electronics. The downtime has also given us an opportunity to listen to many of the records that slipped us by when we first became aware of them. These include Eluize‘s Confide and Slumber‘s Body Clock, and so we invited both artists to contribute a track to this edition. The final submission comes from AIDA, a rising artist we’ve appreciated for a long time.

The collection begins with Eluize’s “EMDR,” a dusty house track that captures the intensity of EMDR, a therapy she had for PTSD. It revolves around her voice, an acid line, and a distorted kick topped off with some spacious pads. Next is AIDA’s “Yek o Do,” a “modern love song” that AIDA produced several years ago in her studio in Vancouver, overlooking the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. It’s a transportive deep house track with a low-slung groove at its core. (Fans of AIDA might recall it from her breathtaking set at Bass Coast 2019.)

We close the edition with “Extracelestial” by Slumber, the collaboration of Öona Dahl and Amber Cox, friends for many years. The cut they’ve delivered is an eight-minute trance-inducing piece of dance music, expertly crafted with the Moog Grandmother Semi-Modular synth.

As an extra to this edition, Eluize has shared her Ableton Live Project and a track breakdown, so you can see the intricate workings behind “EMDR.”

The artwork comes from Teresa Ferreiro, a multi-disciplinary artist living in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, with mastering by Kamran Sadeghi.

This edition follows Deadbeat’s takeover, which featured exclusive tracks from Monolake, Mentrix, Paul St. Hilaire, T.Raumschmiere, and more. Check it out here.

The music, PDF zine with artist profiles and design, and wallpaper artwork, can be downloaded once you SUBSCRIBE HERE. If you’re already a subscriber, head to the member’s area to download the package.

You can stream the tracks on the release below, along with a preview of this month’s zine.

For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated subscription service. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as access to the member’s area where you can submit tracks and DJ mixes to be showcased across XLR8R’s channels and to the XLR8R+ community, as well as exclusive editorial content, mixes, FREE passes to music festivals and events, playlists, and more. You can find out more here.

Griffit Vigo’s New Album is a Taste of Gqom’s Future

Griffit Vigo will release I Am Gqom, a new album, in October.

Griffit Vigo, from Durban, South Africa, has attained legendary status as a pioneer of Gqom, a style of music that originated from his hometown around 2010, growing out of house music, kwaito, and techno. Earlier this year, he released GQOM WILL NEVER DIE, available on his own Griffit Vigo Records.

I Am Gqom comprises nine club tracks that journey through Griffit Vigo’s vision for the future of Gqom. It features several new originals and some reissues, including his Gqom anthem “Ree’s Vibe.” With it, Vigo hopes to propel himself back to the forefront of Gqom and contemporary club music more generally.

The album’s visual concept by Mikael Calandra Achode draws inspiration from early Zulu culture, when compounds known as Kraals would act as a site for ritual worship. Griffit Vigo aims to create a “metaphoric Kraal through music, for himself, the listener, and the new generation of Gqom,” we’re told.

Tracklisting

01. I am Gqom feat. Ree
02. Ancestral Vibe
03. Ups and Downs
04. Activated Gqom 2
05. Run
06. Ree’s vibe (2020 Remastered)
07. Drumm Hand (Griffit Vigo’s Ancestral mix)
08. Shanga Dedi (Original Mix)
09. Yasizwa Les’gubhu (Vigo Music Original Mix)

I Am Gqom LP is out on October 20. Meanwhile, you can stream an album teaser and clips below. (Editor’s note: Pre-order links will be added when they’re made available.)

Sandunes Shares New Track from Collaboration with London Drummer Richard Spaven

Sanaya Ardeshir (a.k.a Sandunes) and Richard Spaven have shared “Evelyn,” taken from their upcoming Spaven x Sandunes EP.

Available via !K7 Records, Spaven x Sandunes is a collaboration of musical worlds, where Ardeshir, from Bombay, India, meets London drummer Richard Spaven, renowned for his work with Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder, Ninja Tune’s Jordan Rakei, and Goldie.

Ardeshir first met Spaven at an early morning soundcheck in a festival field in Pune. When she returned to India in February 2019, the pair’s shared inspirations spawned an intense week of recording sessions, which they followed with months of long-distance file sharing.

“Evelyn” was one of the first tunes they worked on remotely, sharing files before they’d even met in person.

“What I’ve loved about working with Richard is watching his deep commitment to the integrity of an idea,” says Ardeshir. “A lot of the initial themes were built around the idea of sharing a stage and including the audience in our collaboration. Eventually, however, the music we were building revealed a sound-map of sorts between our worlds of influence, inspired from the neighbourhoods where the music was started and finished.”

After months of back-and-forth, the record was completed over four days in Bristol, United Kingdom. The resulting work sees a mix of forward-thinking drum language and intricate synth-work weave together in a moody, free-flowing sonic tapestry that feels airy, fresh, and intoxicating.

Tracklisting

01. In Readiness
02. Tree of Life
03. Evelyn
04. Can’t Say That To You
05. Little Ships
06. Sustain
07. 1759 (Outro)

Spaven x Sandunes EP will be released on September 11. Meanwhile, you can stream “Evelyn” and “Tree of Life” in full below and pre-order the record here.

Glenn Astro’s New Album Captures Five Years of Studio Experimentation

Glenn Astro will put out Homespun, a new album on Tartelet Records.

Homespun arrives five years after Astro’s debut album, Throwback, also on Tartelet. It’s made of 10 tracks spanning 45 minutes, and it twists and turns between electronic meditations, soulful vocals by Ajnascent, and futuristic electro, “carving out a world of spacey eclecticism that is as nostalgic as it is experimental,” the Copenhagen, Denmark label explains.

“This album is in all facets different from the first one, which was a deliberate decision. No vintage sounds and references, no sampling, combined with futuristic sound design and song structures. Less obvious references, more everything else. I tried to keep it as current and intuitive as possible,” Astro says.

Known for his chunky beats and fuzzy textures, Astro was a key figure in the wave of MPC-heavy house music that spread between 2013 and 2015. He has released on labels such as Ninja Tune and Apollo, but he’s also been morphing into his dark alter ego and experimenting with artist collaborations. The sound of Homespun is a culmination of this artistic development, albeit made in three months.

Tracklisting

01. Homespun (w. Anjascent)
02. The Yancey
03. Elysia (w. Ajnascent)
04. Mezzanine (w. Mirek)
05. Moreira
06. Slow Poke Flange
07. Look At You (w. Ajnascent & Eyal Lovett)
08. Taking Care of Business
09. MoStLy GhOsTlY
10. Viktor’s Meditation
11. Naturals (Transcendental Mix) (digital exclusive)

Homespun LP will be available on vinyl and digital platforms on October 23. Meanwhile, you can hear clips below and pre-order here.

Hudson Mohawke Shares Another New Mixtape-Style Compilation

Photo | Jesse Lirola

Hudson Mohawke has released Poom Gems, a new mixtape-style compilation.

With the release of Poom Gems, Mohawke, real name Ross Birchard, continues a hot streak of releases dating back to his Heart of the Night EP, made of sought-after vocal edits. Most recently, he shared B.B.H.E., a similar mixtape-style compilation.

With quarantine compelling everyone to rethink their lives and choices, Mohawke has been questioning why he’s been hoarding this stuff. “I feel like it was weighing me down to not actually have this stuff be available officially anywhere,” he says.

The record is one of multitudes: opener “All I Need,” a hyperactive sugar rush burst, overlaps with the signature Mohawke sounds of “Solstice Izo.” As with B.B.H.E., there are surprises: closing track “things you do” sounds like a lost happy-hardcore track, while “Sweet Silverskin” is imbued with a sense of glitchy experimentation.

Tracklisting

01. All I Need
02. Solstice Izo
03. Solesaft
04. Need U Here
05. Hands of Time
06. Schmurgen
07. Sweet Silverskin
08. Vitalize
09. Behind A Frozen Waterfall
10. Hoiarp
11. Foam Finger
12. Sequon
13. Things You Do

Poom Gems is available now on Warp. You can buy it here, with a full stream below.

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