Veteran French DJ/producer Laurent Garnier has been popping up on our radar a bit more frequently than usual as of late, reviving his Garnier moniker to release an EP via Chicago label Still Music and announcing just today that he’ll soon drop another record under that name, this time with Modeselektor’s 50Weapons imprint. The forthcoming AF 4302 EP is said to be “distinguished by an organic, raw, acid-flavored techno sound,” and will offer three brand-new, “razor sharp” productions when it drops on April 4. In the meantime, the tracklist and artwork for Garnier’s new record can be found below.
After a solid 2013 that saw him dropping a handful of 12″s and a self-released, limited-edition collection of exclusive tracks, oddball UK house DJ/producer Gerry Read has announced his first release of 2014, a four-track EP for Will Saul’s Aus label. Alongside the two original productions from Gerry Read—namely, title track “Shrubby” and “Zig Zag”—will be a pair of remixes from masked Berlin technoist Redshape, who delivers a “Not So Serious Mix” and a “Disco Mix” of the EP’s titular cut. Said to offer “unpolished beats and unaffected production,” the Shrubby EP is set to arrive on March 24.
The music of Lucy (a.k.a. Luca Mortellaro) is perhaps most closely related to techno, but attempting to neatly file the Italian-born, Berlin-based producer’s work into any particular genre is essentially a fruitless endeavor. His 2011 debut LP, Wordplay for Working Bees, hinted at IDM while experimenting with foreboding sheets of atmospheric noise and abstract beat patterns, and garnered Lucy plenty of admirers in the process. The output of his Stroboscopic Artefacts label has been more straightforward, albeit no less impressive, as the imprint has become a reliable home for dark, driving techno sounds. In the midst of all this activity, Lucy has somehow also found the time to link up with other artists in the studio, turning out collaborative work with the likes of Speedy J (as Zeitgeber) and Silent Servant, amongst others. Later this month, however, he’ll be heading back into the solo spotlight with the release of his sophomore full-length, Churches Schools and Guns, an occasion we’ve elected to celebrate by inviting Lucy to put together the latest installment of the XLR8R podcast series.
The mix finds Lucy veering away from his more experimental tendencies, and instead keeping his focus squarely on the dancefloor. The podcast does have its introspective moments, but there’s a lot of crunchy, foreboding techno on offer over the course of its 65 minutes. More importantly though, the way it has been expertly pieced together clearly demonstrates that Lucy is someone with a clear understanding of the dynamics of late-night, Berlin-style nightlife. The beats boom, the transitions are long and almost impossibly precise, and the whole podcast contains a subtly entrancing narrative that only draws the listener in deeper with each passing minute. It’s not exactly a primer for the thrillingly unclassifiable collection of sounds that Lucy has put together on the forthcoming Churches Schools and Guns, but it’s a highly compelling ride that we’re more than happy to take.
01 Lucy “The Horror” (Stroboscopic Artefacts) 02 Donato Dozzy “Untitled” (Further) 03 Recondite “Dim” (Dystopian) 04 Cassegrain & Tin Man “High and Low” (Killekill) 05 Exercise One “Wandering (Peter Van Hoesen Remix)” (Exone) 06 Dustin Zahn “Lost in Rapture” (Enemy) 07 Surgeon “As You Breath Here Now” (Semantica) 08 Echologist “77” (Prologue) 09 Ventress “Typhon (Abdulla Rashim Remix)” (Edit-Select) 10 Minor Science “Hapless” (Trilogy Tapes) 11 Conforce “Embrace” (Delsin) 12 Rrose “The Stare” (Stroboscopic Artefacts) 13 Sigha “My Blood Is My Gold” (Our Circula Sound) 14 Positive Center “Swell of Graviton” (Our Circula Sound) 15 Lucy “Krishnamurti Acappella Extended” (Stroboscopic Artefacts) 16 Shifted “Wash Over Me” (Bed of Nails) 17 Dadub and Grün “Ergot Kernel” (Stroboscopic Artefacts)
London sound designer and multi-instrumentalist The Haxan Cloak (pictured above) has joined forces with Portland doom metal band The Body for a forthcoming LP on RVNG. Arriving as the fourth full-length album from the Pacific Northwest duo, the six-track I Shall Die Here LP credits The Haxan Cloak as the album’s producer and as being responsible for “additional synths, programming, re-recording, and arrangement.” In addition, the label has clarified via email that, as the album’s producer, The Haxan Cloak “was also central in the compositional make up the album.”
The Body’s I Shall Die Here is set to drop on April 1 via RVNG. In the meantime, its artwork and tracklist are included below, along with a full stream of harrowing album track “Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain.”
01 To Carry The Seeds Of Death Within Me 02 Alone All The Way 03 The Night Knows No Dawn 04 Hail To Thee, Everlasting Pain 05 Our Souls Were Clean 06 Darkness Surrounds Us
The duo of LA-based producers Kevin Ross and Enrique Martinez, Velcro is set to release its first record for Plant, a five-track EP called Runaway, exclusively through Beatport on February 18. In the meantime, we’re treated to the smooth house grooves of closing cut “City of Angels.” The beat-driven production operates on a buoyant rhythm suitable for late-night cruising through the streets of its titular metropolis. Along with the club-ready instrumentation, Velcro weaves snippets of police radio chatter into its mix, evoking the gritty underbelly of Los Angeles after dark.
The release of the debut LP by UK producer Ryan Hunn (a.k.a. Illum Sphere) is still a week away, but for the remainder of that time, we can now listen to the entirety of Ghosts of Then And Now. Described as “an album in the traditional sense, full of music that couldn’t be more modern, whilst nodding to Hunn’s various influences,” the 13-track album features a handful of vocal appearances from Mai Nestor and Shadowbox along with nine of Illum Sphere’s intricately produced instrumental tracks. Ghosts of Then And Now is available to stream in full before it drops on February 10 via Ninja Tune, courtesy of Pitchfork Advance.
Kicking off today’s release of his Springtime EP via DJ Haus‘ Unknown To The Unknown label, London-based producer Mumdance sent over a surreal music video for the record’s synthy title track. Created by Magma and Paul Outlet, the visuals for “Springtime” are filled with luminous charm, planetary textures, and projections that transform a blank mannequin head into a canvas for an eye-catching array of lively imagery. Things grow increasingly bizarre while Mumdance’s starry production develops into an outright galactic adventure of a tune, as the mirrored projections distort and transform into something which closer resembles a graphic pattern than a discernable object or person.
Berlin-based DJ/producer and Ultra Majic label head Jimmy Edgar has dropped a brand-new mix which hints at the elements of his consistently evolving style. Elaborating on his process for creating the latest podcast for Resident Advisor, Edgar explained, “This mix was a long time coming, and went through seven or more revisions… I recorded the mix in my home studio in Berlin. I had the idea to try something new with the recording of it, and I decided I wanted to try and cut the entire mix on vinyl. This is exactly what we did with my friend Tim Xavier. We cut the recording onto about six dub plates and remastered it. The sound now is very subtle but unique, especially knowing some of the tracks I used were low quality mp3s and unmastered, unreleased music.” The multi-talented artist went on to say that he was trying to reflect his DJ sets in a more “sit down” way, combining Detroit’s “ghetto vibe and soul” with the “dub and techno” sounds of his current home in Berlin.
Jimmy Edgar’s new mix can be streamed and downloaded here, where an interview in which he talks about his recently established label and his plans to delve further into visual arts is also available.
Almost a year since Wen dropped his Commotion EP via Keysound, the rising UK producer has announced plans to issue his debut LP for the label next month. Entitled Signals, the 12-track effort is said to find Wen continuing to explore his established “bass-heavy sound built on a pulsing rhythmic backbone, a nuanced sense of environmental texture, and coded vocal samples that interject like pulses.” Before Signals sees an official release on March 17, the record’s tracklist is included, along with a full stream of LP opener “Intro (Family),” below.
01 Intro (Family) 02 Galactic 03 Lunar ft. Blackdown 04 You Know 05 Persian 06 Swingin’ (LDN mix) 07 Vampin’ 08 Time ft. Parris 09 In 10 Signal 11 Nightcrawler (devils mix) 12 Play Your Corner ft. Riko
Wave 1, the forthcoming EP from East Coast producer Seth Haley (a.k.a. Com Truise), will be the first record of completely brand-new material to surface from the artist since his 2011 debut LP when it drops on February 18 via Ghostly. But before that release appears, we’ve been treated to a full stream of its seven synth-addled productions. Com Truise’s EP premiered over on Dazed today, along with a quick Q&A that finds Haley elaborating on the sci-fi concepts and literary influences of his new record. That interview can be read here, and Wave 1 can be heard in its entirety below.
