Ossie, real name Ossie Aneke, is a London-based artist, with releases on Hyperdub, Madhouse, Exploited, Wolf Music, and Brownswood Recordings. “Wires,” his 2018 track, was shortlisted for for Track of the Year by Gilles Peterson.
Aneke launched SuperCali in 2016 with his In A House EP, and he returned to the label last year with To Make You Smile, with its hypnotic percussion and steel-pan laced melodies.
The label’s fourth release comes from Ki Pharaoh, an outsider to the label, with Steak & Eggs. The three-tracker closes with a thumping Ossie remix. We can expect more from Ki Pharaoh on the label soon.
Tracklisting
01. Steak 02. Eggs 03. Steak (Ossie Remix)
Steak & Eggs EP is available digitally now, with a stream below.
Lil’Dave has released Play It Safe, a collection of beats, chops, and flips, available now on Bandcamp.
Lil’Dave is a beat-maker from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with roots in in hip-hop but most widely known for his electronic escapades through house, broken beat, brazilia, acid jazz, funk, UK-inspired soul, and rare groove. Earlier this year, he released OhMyGoodness, with its bubbling bass lines, broken drums, and neo soul vibes, and Re-Fixes, comprising three soulful dancefloor-ready edits with a little extra thump. Included is a classy rework of AndersonPaak’s “Reachin’ 2 Much.”
Play It Safe has been mastered by DJ Phillip Lee.
Tracklisting
01. Bus Driver’s Theme (intro) 02. Willing To Lose 03. Eye For An I 04. Car Ride 05. My Fire Is Lit 06. Uhuru Slap 07. Distanced 08. So Involved 09. In The Park 10. Chess Game 11. Me Yay Yay 12. Run The Boom 13. Ending Credits
Play It Safe is available digitally now, with a stream below.
Inglewood producer and saxophonist Devin Daniels has dropped Colors, his debut album as Kara, today on Leaving Records.
Over the last decade, Daniels has focused his work around the saxophone and is currently attending Jazzcampus in Basel, Switzerland, where he studies and performs in the Focusyear program. In his downtime, he has been diving into electronic music and beat-making as Kara, with Colors the first taste of his work in that realm.
Colors, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered in Daniels’ bedroom, comprises 20 groove-focused cuts that feature Daniels’ saxophone work throughout and tip a hat to the beat scene of his home city, Los Angeles.
Alongside Colors, Leaving Records dropped an EP by Devonwho, titled Offworld, which was recorded between 2017 and 2020, recorded entirely with the Elektron Digitakt and Sequential Prophet Rev2/08, Novation Bass Station II, and Roland Gaia SH-01 synthesizers.
01. NGC 224 02. Smash Lobby Music 03. Kale 04. Neutral Air 05. Fountains 06. Jade 07. Mikado 08. Lavender 09. Ditto 10.9 am 11. Over U feat. Jenna Noelle 12. Scramble 13. Acajou 14. Bunch a Snow 15. Basecamp 16. Sing 17. Bistre 18. Ogbeture 19. Ol Man River feat. Quran 20. Agua
Voices is Richter’s ninth studio album, following on from Memoryhouse (2002), The Blue Notebooks (2004), Infra (2010), and, most recently, Sleep (2015). He describes it as a “place to think and reflect.”
In a time of dramatic global change, Voices offers a message of hope. Richter invited people around the world to be part of the piece, crowd-sourcing readings of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be interwoven into the work. He received hundreds of submissions in over 70 languages, and these readings form the aural landscape that the music flows through; they are the Voices of the title.
Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted by a group of philosophers, artists, and thinkers convened by Eleanor Roosevelt to address the great questions of the time.
Roosevelt’s voice can actually be heard at the start of Voices, as Richter incorporates the 1949 recording of the preamble to the Declaration into his piece.
Alongside Roosevelt and the crowd-sourced voices, there is also narration by US actor Kiki Layne (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), whose distinctive tones complement a choral, orchestral, and electronic soundscape.
“The opening words of the declaration, drafted in 1948, are ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.’ These inspiring words are a guiding principle for the whole declaration but, looking around at the world we have made in the decades since they were written, it is clear that we have forgotten them,” Richter explains. “The recent brutal events in the US, leading to the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as countless other abuses around the world, are proof of that.”
Richter continues: “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is something that offers us a way forward. Although it isn’t a perfect document, the declaration does represent an inspiring vision for the possibility of better and kinder world.” He describes the album as “a musical space to reconnect with these inspiring principles.”
The album had its premiere in London in February, and it involves a radical reimagining of the traditional orchestra formation. “It came out of this idea of the world being turned upside down, our sense of what’s normal being subverted, so I have turned the orchestra upside down in terms of the proportion of instruments,” says Richter.
12 double basses, 24 cellos, six violas, eight violins, and a harp are joined by a wordless 12-piece choir plus Richter on keyboards, violin soloist Mari Samuelsen, soprano Grace Davidson, and conductor Robert Ziegler. The visuals are by Richter’s creative partner, artist, and film-maker Yulia Mahr.
Tracklisting
01. All Human Beings—Part.1 02. All Human Beings—Part. 2 03. All Human Beings—Part. 3 04. All Human Beings—Part. 4 05. Origins—Part. 1 06. Origins—Part. 2 07. Journey Piece—Part. 1 08. Journey Piece—Part. 2 09. Chorale—Part. 1 10. Chorale—Part. 2 11. Chorale—Part. 3 12. Chorale—Part. 4 13. Hypocognition 14. Prelude—Part. 1 15. Prelude—Part. 2 16. Murmuration—Part.1 17. Murmuration—Part. 2 18. Murmuration—Part. 3 19. Cartography—Part. 1 20. Cartography—Part. 2 21. Cartography—Part. 3 22. Little Requiems—Part. 1 23. Little Requiems—Part. 2 24. Little Requiems—Part. 3 25. Mercy
Voices LP will be released on July 31. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here, and stream “All Human Beings,”the first single, below.
For more information on Max Richter, check out his XLR8R interview here.
HAAi will release Put Your Head Above The Parakeets, a new EP, on Mute.
The Australian musician, born Teneil Throssell, released her first EP as a Mute artist, Systems Up, Windows Down, towards the end of 2019. Prior to that, she released her BBC Essential Mix, which won mix of the year, and spent several years in punk/psych-rock bands.
Ahead of the EP’s release, Throssell has shared two tracks: “Head Above The Parakeets,” for which there’s a video below, and “Rotating In Unison.”
“Head Above The Parakeets” is a play on words to “signify the feeling of risk, apprehension, and being exposed in what you create,” Throssell says.
The video was made from footage from some of Throssell’s favorite shows over the past year, and it includes her own visuals. “It’s a nostalgic, psychedelic nod to the job and people I love so much and a reaction to the whirlwind that was my life for the past couple of years,” she says.
“Rotating In Unison” was made to “highlight beauty and coexistence as we all rotate around the sun,” Throssell continues, “to try and remember beauty and calm in a time of uncertainty and unrest, even for just a few minutes.”
During lockdown, Throssell has released an hour-long show alongside Mute label boss Daniel Miller, and a show from her London flat for Boiler Room’s Streaming from Isolation series.
Tracklisting
01. Head Above The Parakeets 02. Rotating In Unison 03. Bon Viveur 04. Bass Is The Place
Put Your Head Above The Parakeets EP is out on September 11 via Mute. Meanwhile, you can stream the tracks below.
French producer Darius and Nigerian-born future soul artist Wayne Snow have released Equilibrium, a new single, on Roche Musique.
Equilibrium is the first time the pair have worked together in three years, and it serves as a powerful message about transcending differences and connecting through the shared experience of music. The beat takes on a warm and arresting atmospheric tone, with Snow’s emotive lyricism infusing a feeling of love and euphoria.
“Spending plenty of time together in the studio, during breaks from our musical discovery, we often find ourselves drawn into long in-depth conversations about the transference energy and questions of spirituality,” Snow, real name Kesiena Ukochovbara, explains. “During one of these breaks, the topic of equilibrium was born. What do you do when you discover extreme joy manifesting while everything else seems to be escaping us? Then suddenly this feeling of equilibrium falls upon you bringing balance within the chaos.”
The duo first joined forces in 2015 on their minimal slice of R&B, “Helios,” followed by “Lost in the Moment.” In 2017, after an all-night jam session, they teamed up with multi-instrumentalist FKJ and producer Crayon to form their improv project, The Nightbirds.
The single precedes the official “Equilibrium” music video from Parisian director Alice Kong, out July 23.
Tracklisting
01. Equilibrium
Equilibrium is available now, with a full stream here.
Lattimore, a Los Angeles-based harpist, met Halstead through a mutual friend at a festival, and she asked him if he’d be interested in producing her next next record. He was, and his touch leaves a “profound trace,” Ghostly, the label behind the release, explains.
The pair recorded the album over nine days at Halstead’s studio stationed in Cornwall, on the south coast of England. It finds Lattimore’s sprawling layers of harp accented by flourishes of low-end synth and Halstead’s guitar.
The material is colored by specific memories for Lattimore: “Neil has this poster of a surfer in his studio and I’d look at it each day, looking at the sunlight glinting on the dark wave,” she recalls. “In these songs I like the contrast between the dark lows and the glittering highs. The gloom and the glimmer, the opposites, a lively surfing town in the winter turned kinda rainy and empty and quiet.”
Three of the seven songs are existing demos and the others are improvised. Among the batch Lattimore brought with her, the title track recalls a trip she took to Stari Grad, Croatia on the island of Hvar.
“I spent some days there just swimming in the bay, silver ladders right into the sea,” she says. The image stuck with her when she found herself performing at a cliffside wedding overlooking the Pacific. Before anyone showed up, she had time to set up and the song came to her. This sketch expanded, and now a delicately glittering harp melody comes over the horizon, swelling towards the shore on ebbs of synth and refractory delay.
Inspired by a story that Halstead shared with Lattimore, “Don’t Look” is the score to a beach-side tragedy of four adults who died rescuing some teenagers who had been surfing and found themselves in trouble.
Since 2018, when she released Hundreds of Days, Lattimore has toured internationally, released collaborative albums with artists such as Meg Baird and Mac McCaughan, and shared a friends-based remix album featuring artists such as Jónsi and Julianna Barwick.
Tracklisting
01. Pine Trees 02. Silver Ladders 03. Til A Mermaid Drags You Under 04. Sometimes He’s In My Dreams 05. Chop On The Climbout 06. Don’t Look 07. Thirty Tulips
Silver Ladders LP is scheduled for October 9 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here, and stream “Sometimes He’s In My Dreams” below.
XLR8R has launched a subscription paywall, adding to our member-supported community, XLR8R+.
Two years ago, XLR8R took a forward-thinking position and created an ad-free experience with the launch of XLR8R+.
XLR8R is extremely grateful to have been supported by our growing membership community, which has allowed us to produce ad-free and uncompromised editorial (news, podcasts, and features), exclusive music, in-depth features, sample packs, wallpaper art, and more for only $5/month. We also built a submissions portal, allowing artists to submit their music and mixes directly to XLR8R to be featured across all of our channels. (You can read more about this here.)
We’re now creating a second subscription tier for just USD$1 per month, or $10 a year, that will give unlimited access to content across the site. This includes all new and archived material—more than 650 podcasts, features, reviews, and news. We solely depend on our members, rather than advertisers or corporations, for us to continue what we’ve done for 27 years: finding, curating, and serving the best electronic music out there, without paid influence.
This extra tier will help us with our organic expansion. As we expand our subscriber base and monthly revenue, we can bring on more employees and journalists, both freelance and in-house, thereby directly supporting the community and industry that supports us.
Here’s what you get for $1/month or $10/year:
4 x XLR8R podcasts each month, including an artist profile and interview on each featured artist, plus full tracklisting with labels, where applicable;
1 x Music Submissions Selections feature, giving an inside look at emerging artists, both producers, and DJs, from the XLR8R+ community;
1 x full-length in-depth feature—an Opinion piece, Artist Tips, Studio Essentials, Interview, In The Studio, Bubblin’ Up, etc.;
Unlimited news;
Access to the full XLR8R archives.
You can find more information and subscribe to one of the tiers here.
Nicolas Jaar has launched an interactive website for his third album of 2020, Telas.
Announced via Jaar’s Instagram, Telas, meaning “fabrics,” is Jaar’s sixth album, dating back to 2011’s Space Is Only Noise. It follows Jaar’s album as Against All Logic, titled 2017-2019, and Cenizas, meaning “ashes,” his first album under his own name since 2016’s Sirens. “Cenizas was the ashes of a destruction. Telas is the fabrics of a construction,” Jaar says.
The album features contributions from Milena Punzi on cello, Susanna Gonzo (voice), Anna Ippolito & Marzio Zorio (instrument makers), and Heba Kadry on mastering.
The first taste of the album, its “liquid state,” can be listened to via an interactive website created by Abeera Kamran in collaboration with Jaar and Somnath Bhatt.
After the website launch, Telas will be released digitally on July 17 via Jaar’s own Other People, and the vinyl will come in October on Mana Records.
You can check out the website and listen to the album’s “liquid state” here. Note that the Chrome browser is recommended.
Los Angeles label The Black Lodge has released its fourth vinyl release, alongside two benefit compilations.
Italian outfit EXPERIMENT ZERO delivers the label’s newest 12″, The Non Assay Sound of the Underground, which features six typically razor-edged cuts of hard-hitting acid, wave, and jacking beats. Preceding the release, the Italian duo featured on Unknown to Unknown, Ilian Tape, Gravitational Waves, and Crème Organization.
Additionally, the label is focusing its attention on current events with a series of compilations, on digital and cassette, used to raise funds for various non-profit social justice and relief organizations.
The second, THE AWAKENING: PESTILENT EXPRESSIONS 2, features 17 tracks from label associates such as AshTreJinkins, L/F/D/M, and Kosmik. PESTILENT EXPRESSIONS 2 will raise money for Carecen, an immigrant rights/relief organization. A third compilation will be announced soon.
You can find all three releases on The Black Lodge Bandcamp page, and stream The Non Assay Sound of the Underground in full via the player below.
Tracklisting
A1. The Non Assay Sound of the Underground A2. It’s Not Our Nation A3. Jak Reaction B1. Black Money B2. Napalm B3. Fake Production
