Los Angeles-based artist, Master Blazter contributor, and hardware designer Jason Taylor (a.k.a. Computer Jay) welds modern electro-funk from his DIY synth gear, with one foot in the current LA beat scene and the other in G-funk’s past. Portland producer Eprom‘s (pictured above) acid-leaning take on “Binary Fix” strips away the original sounds until only a skeletal slab of warbling analog techno remains. In addition, a Tron-inspired music video for “Binary Fix”—directed and co-produced by Computer Jay himself—can be viewed after the jump.
With a few weeks left before the release of his Wave 1 EP via Ghostly, East Coast synth alchemist Com Truise has posted one of that record’s brand-new productions to SoundCloud as a full stream. “Subsonic” finds the burgeoning producer working with quick-footed melodic sequences, halftime drum patterns, and growling bass tones to make his latest excursion into galactic, ’80s-referencing dance music.
Below, Com Truise’s new song can be heard in its entirety before Wave 1 is released on February 18, around the same time that he’ll embark on an extensive tour of North America. The full list of those dates are also available below.
2.11.14 Montreal, QC @ Le Belmont 02.12.14 Toronto, ON @ Wrong Bar 02.13.14 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick 02.14.14 Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 02.15.14 Madison, WI @ The Sett 02.16.14 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry 02.18.14 St. Louis, MO @ Firebird 02.19.14 Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar 02.20.14 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge 02.21.14 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 02.22.14 Boise, ID @ Neurolux 02.24.14 Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club 02.25.14 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey 02.26.14 Portland, OR @ Rotture 02.27.14 San Francisco, CA @ Mezzanine 02.28.14 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex 03.01.14 San Diego, CA @ Casbah 03.02.14 Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom 03.04.14 Dallas, TX @ Club Dada 03.05.14 Austin, TX @ Red 7 03.06.14 Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s 03.07.14 New Orleans, LA @ Hi Ho Lounge 03.08.14 Atlanta, GA @ The Earl 03.09.14 Nashville, TN @ Exit In 03.10.14 Asheville, NC @ The Mill Room 03.12.14 Washington, DC @ DC9 03.13.14 Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle 03.14.14 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs 03.15.14 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
It has been quite a while since we’ve heard a proper solo record from London DJ/producer Tom Demac, as his most recent releases have been collaborative 12″s and EPs with the likes of Glimpse and Will Samson. Thankfully, Demac is now gearing up to drop an offering of his own via Will Saul’s Aus label. The forthcoming Linda’s Theme EP is said to have “roots in the deep, sub-focused textures of modern day house music,” and boasts three tracks “brimming with bass-bin bungling energy.” Demac’s latest record is scheduled to hit retailers on February 24, but before then, its artwork and tracklist can be found below.
A1. Linda’s Theme B1. Vocoder’s Revenge B2. Days with Poly
The first thing most people heard from Holly Herndon was her 2012 album Movement, an LP that evenly balanced granular studies on human breath with more kinetic, techno-derived sensibilities. Judging by Chorus, her new 12″, this dichotomy is still central to Herndon’s sound. The producer has an imposing pedigree—she’s a Mills College graduate—but even her most experimental moments, on Movement and Chorus at least, have hooks.
Chorus‘ fractured title track hints at Oneohtrix Point Never’s R Plus Seven, or, once it gets going, a hookup between Meredith Monk and Autechre. Vocal clips at all different pitches and lengths (sampled from the artist’s routine daily online browsing experience—YouTube, Skype, etc.) fly around its stepping architecture in rounds, gelling around a wrought-iron funk bassline. “Solo Voice” retains a similar sort of stammering polyphonic flurry, but it does so without the title track’s pop accoutrements. Without beats to center them, the artist’s vocal clips morph into quasi-rhythmic patterns of their own.
Herndon will reportedly offer a “web-based tool allowing users to compose their own version of ‘Chorus’ around a browser based experience.” This initiative helps parse the artist’s approach, which seems generally optimistic. Chorus synthesizes the widespread experience of using the internet, but it doesn’t go far beyond a reflection—constructional similarities aside, the record contains little of R Plus Seven‘s surreal technological unease. Chorus is not quite clinical, but it’s getting there. This is fine, though. Experiments shouldn’t necessarily have to reflect anything. Even if it doesn’t land any emotional blows, the record still has its dynamism to fall back upon.
Following last year’s release of its polished and slinky You in the Future EP for London imprint MadTech, Glasgow production duo Mia Dora has sent over a dub-inflected bass cut culled from the outfit’s live improvisations. “Button” dabs warehouse-sized reverb on its skittering percussion, remaining a rhythm-focused, functional piece with sporadic synth blasts for ambience. Additionally, Mia Dora will perform in the second annual MadTech showcase on February 1 at London’s Lightbox club, alongside label mainstays No Artificial Colours, Applebottom, and special guest Waifs & Strays; advance tickets are available to purchase here.
Welsh visual artist and producer SnowSkull has launched All Great Thoughts are Conceived by Walking, an “enriched arts project comprising of a website and a music compilation” intended to highlight emerging talent from Wales’ electronic music scene. The five-track compilation consists of new work from rising production duo Bodhi (with each member operating under their solo aliases, Dubs and Owls), Blured, and burgeoning producer Jauge, who collaborates with SnowSkull on “DreamLess.” Featured here in its instrumental form, the collaborative tune’s title is somewhat misleading, as no part of it lessens its dreamy aesthetic. Between the droning organs, washy melodies, and steady sway, “DreamLess” renders itself a calming expedition into a dense electronic soundscape. The full All Great Thoughts Are Conceived By Walking compilation can be streamed after the jump, and SnowSkull’s tastefully color-streaked interactive website for the project can be checked out here.
Though we here at XLR8R HQ were elated to have Werkdiscs label boss and resident Ninja Tune experimentalist Actress helm this week’s exclusive podcast, the mix was noticeably devoid of the DJ/producer born Darren Cunningham’s own productions. The London artist didn’t tease a single clip from his upcomingGhettoville album throughout the tracklist, but he’s since made up for that lack of new material, allowing one of the record’s dense and mesmerizing cuts to be streamed in full. “Rap,” Cunningham’s “strangely haunting and utterly transfixing” new track, hit NPR‘s website today as part of its latest All Songs Considered feature, here. The song can also be heard in its entirety below, before Ghettoville drops on January 27 via Ninja Tune.
It’s easy to overuse tags like icon or legend, but when talking about veteran British reggae DJ and broadcaster David ‘Ram Jam’ Rodigan, both terms seem appropriate. Since beginning his career as a host on Radio London in the early ’70s, Rodigan has gradually garnered a reputation as one of the most popular and respected names in reggae and dancehall. Over the years, he’s fronted shows on influential radio stations including Kiss, Capital, and the BBC’s 1Xtra and Radio 2, had his voice sampled in tracks by the likes of Breakage and Caspa, and even had his own station in one of the Grand Theft Auto games. Rodigan is also one of the genre’s most prolific DJs, having played to thousands and clashed with some of the biggest soundsystems in the game. Next week, Ministry of Sound will be releasing its latest Masterpiece mix, with Rodigan at the helm. To mark the occasion, we’ve asked the storied selector to take part in our Trainwreck series, and he’s met the request by recounting a couple of the most awkward moments from his DJ career, one involving a misguided jockey outfit and the other a crowd that couldn’t believe its eyes.
The are a couple of nights that stand out for me. My first ever gig in London, in 1979, at the London Apollo Club in Wilsden is one of the most memorable nights of my career. I’d been on Radio London for some time, and I was given my first London booking in a club. I walked on to the stage and the club was full to capacity; I’d been on Radio London for just over a year, so people knew who I was as a broadcaster and knew about my love of reggae music. The MC made the announcement, “Ladies and gentlemen, making his first public appearance, in Wilsden, from BBC Radio London—David Rodigan,” and there was a huge cheer and roar from the crowd. But as soon as I walked to the front of the stage, there was a deafening silence. It descended across the hall in a second—people simply couldn’t believe I was white.
The MC said to me, “You better do something quick.” So I started to speak, and I remember seeing people closing their eyes as I was speaking, trying to picture the voice from the radio. I was quickly ushered over to the DJ box, where I cued up a jingle from my show, which people recognized, and then I played my first song. It was a baptism of fire. Everyone cheered and I got on with the night.
That was one of the most daunting nights of my career as a DJ. There’s another that didn’t end so well, but it’s a little more obscure for people who don’t understand clash culture. In short, clash culture is like a battle of the bands, only it’s the battle of the DJs. The DJs can only play acetates or dubplates that have their name in it, and that have been supplied for them by the recording artist who made the original song.
So I was doing a clash in New York back in the early ’90s, and in those days I would sometimes enter the arena dressed as a character. On this occasion, I entered the soundclash arena dressed as a jockey. The reasoning behind this horse-racing character was because my key card was a dubplate, customized, of [The Pioneers’] “Long Shot Kick De Bucket,” which was a massive British pop chart hit around 1969 or ’70. To put that in context, Long Shot was a horse in Jamaica who was very famous for winning races, who kicked the bucket—died on the racetrack.
So in the one-for-one, which is where you go head-to-head with your opponent, which in this case was Bodyguard Sound System, I cued up and pressed play on this customized dubplate and there was absolutely no response. The audience didn’t know the record; they weren’t aware of it at all and I didn’t get any kind of response at all. So I died a very lonely death in the space of about 90 seconds, dressed as a jockey.
Long Shot was famous in Jamaica, and there are thousands of Jamaicans living in New York, but clearly this was too old a song for them and they were too young to appreciate it—because obviously I’m much older than the average audience. So the metaphorical trap door opened and my fate was sealed: I lost the clash. The jockey character was never to rise again.
After a long devlopment period which has seen the program only available as a beta release, the cross-platform Bitwig Studio production software has at last set a date for its full release. Designed by a team in Berlin (which is said to include some of Ableton Live’s original developers), Bitwig Studio is a DAW that in many ways mirrors Ableton’s program by “combining traditional arrangement sequencing with modern, performance-oriented clip launching workflows.” Still, the software has surely made an effort to set itself apart from other existing products, as illustrated by the full list of Bitwig Studio’s unique features—such as an integrated “unified modulation system,” layered editing, and hybrid tracks—that can be read here.
Set to officially show off its full feature set at NAMM this weekend, Bitwig Studio will see a full release on March 26 with a price tag of $399/€299.
Berlin trio Brandt Brauer Frick‘s forthcoming DJ-Kicks mix album will feature eight exclusive cuts, including one from Romanian-born tunesmith Cosmin Nicolae (a.k.a. Cosmin TRG), whose latest effects-laden techno offering is now available to stream in full. Built on a rough-hewn, burly rhythm, “Echolab Disaster” employs analog synth gurgles and filtered percussion with swells of delay, pushing a handmade vibe in spite of the chilly sound palette.
Recorded in one day at Berlin’s iconic Watergate club, the Brandt Brauer Frick mix (out February 25 via !K7) was assembled solely using vinyl and dubplates, resulting in an imperfect, personable set of the trio’s favorite cuts. Until the mix’s official release, “Echolab Disaster” can be heard in its entirety below.
