The 23rd edition of XLR8R+ is available now.
For this month, we’ve handed the reigns to Deadbeat, the Canadian artist and dub archivist born Scott Monteith. As lockdown measures begin to lighten throughout the world, Monteith has used this opportunity to reflect on this period of uncertainty and present music from friends who play a central role in his life as a professional musician in Berlin. Though he’s worked with many of these featured artists closely for two decades, the most recent collaborations and exclusive conversations, published in the accompanying zine and as a long-form feature, reflect his continuing desire for new perspectives. As such, this collection is a celebration of community spirit in the truest sense, and testament to the power of close-knit collective action.
Although it comes from various artists, this collection of music has been sequenced so as to be listened to in one complete sitting, playing out like a concept album.
We begin with “Nature,” from Mentrix, the Iranian artist born Samar Rad, which paves the way for Deadbeat’s dub treatment, which maintains the ritualistic nature while looping Rad’s vocals in a soup of delay. Deadbeat also delivers a long out-of-print remix of Monolake (a.k.a. Robert Henke) which, like much of Deadbeat’s catalog, is anchored by fierce bass pressure, with this particular cut leaning heavy on mid-frequency melody—and it’s all the more alluring as a result. Next, T.Raumschmiere, Monteith’s friend and studio mate, cools things down with “Klaus.” That’s about halfway.
Deadbeat continues with a dub version of “Exobase_Scarlotti,” from PC Nackt, the founder of Berlin’s Studio Chez Cherie. Incidentally, that’s where Deadbeat recorded Sueños de la Joya, a full album collaboration with Chilean sound poet Martin Bakero Carrá that closes this edition. Here, for the first time, the album is available as a 58-minute continuous mix. Dense and psychedelic, each cut melts seamlessly into the next, almost inconceivably, creating a spellbinding piece of music that is engulfing, heady, and ultimately healing.
The penultimate track is a Deadbeat collaboration with Paul St. Hilaire (a.k.a. Tikiman). Running for over 12 minutes, “Yesterday’s Dreams” encapsulates everything we love about dub techno: deep basslines, desolate sound design, fractured chords, and Hilaire’s now-infamous affecting vocals. It underlines the quality of a package dominated by dub business of the highest order from one of the game’s finest.
All this music and the sprawling 40-page PDF zine with artist profiles and design, and wallpaper artwork, is downloadable 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. (The continuous album mix and PC Nackt audio interview are only streamable to subscribers.)
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.
