Friske will release his debut album on Metalheadz, titled A Different Perspective.
Friske, real name Sam Oliver, has been part of the Metalheadz family for seven years, since 2013’s Covert / Venture EP. He’s been working on A Different Perspective for three years, and it comprises 16 typically Friske tracks full of dark and broody atmospherics and razor sharp breaks, all with taste of hip-hop.
A Different Perspective is the third album Metalheadz, the British drum & bass label founded by Goldie, has released this year, following an outing from Bristolian Stephen Redmore as Mako.
Tracklisting
01. A Different Perspective 02. Destination 03. Introspect 04. Untitled Piano 05. Starship 06. The Love We Had 07. SkylinePurple 08. Sky 09. Beacon 10. Urban Decay 11. Sabotage 12. Control (Remix) 13. Crime In The City 14. Gangway 15. Resistance 16. Rebel Force
A Different Perspective LP is out digitally on June 26. You can pre-order over at Bandcamp, and stream the title-track below.
Proof arrives less than a year out from Information, the Cleveland-raised, New York-based producer’s debut on Ghostly. It features a handful of new tracks, recorded in a similar midwest mindset, alongside an uptempo take on “Another Story.”
We’re told that “I Had To Slow It Down” acts almost as a sequel to Information’s “Been A Long Night,” and there’s also a spin on “Speed” by AceMoMA, the rising production duo of AceMo and MoMA Ready. “I think they are definitely carrying the torch in terms of POC in NY dance music, so I wanted to put them on and give their NY style an avenue on here,” Lustwerk says.
In April, Lustwerk released a new EP called 420 as 420. Each of the 16 tracks are four minutes and 20 seconds long, and the EP costs $69 on Bandcamp.
The digital version of Proof includes bonus track “Leave.”
Tracklisting
01. Proof 02. I Had To Slow It Down 03. Graham 04. Another Story (Another Version) 05. Speed (AceMoMa Remix) 06. Leave (Digital Bonus)
Proof EP is scheduled for July 10 release on vinyl and digitally. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream the AceMoMa remix of “Speed” below.
We’re publishing this mix a week later than our usual Tuesday slot, in observance of “Blackout Tuesday.” It comes from The Orb, or more accurately Alex Paterson, who has been the music group’s only constant since its ’80s formation. In the decades since, Paterson has been joined by various collaborative cohorts, most recently Michael Rendall, who brings a refreshed and ebullient morale to Abolition of the Royal Familia, The Orb’s 17th album, available now via Cooking Vinyl.
The Orb pioneered the ambient house genre. They got their start when Paterson began DJing with Jimmy Cauty, launching a residency in the chill-out room of London club night “The Land of Oz.” Their style, a sonic-tapestry encompassing slowed down Chicago house and an esoteric range of sounds, appealed to early morning London ravers, who sought the soulful rhythms as nearby clubs began closing their doors.
It’s a style that Paterson has carried over into The Orb’s production, which took flight with 1991. Multiple successful albums (their second, U.F. Orb, topped the UK albums chart), affiliations with Island Records and Kompakt, and collaborations with the likes of David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) and Lee “Scratch” Perry have established The Orb as one of electronic music’s most enduring and defining musical acts.
Abolition of the Royal Familia forms the second part of No Sounds Are Out Of Bounds, released in 2018. In part inspired by and in retrospective protest of the royal family’s historical endorsement of the East India Company’s opium trade, it’s once again rooted in deep ambiance and cerebral, throbbing dub, but this time with a distinctly pop element.
In the album’s celebration, Paterson has compiled one of his special ambient sets. Spanning two hours in length, it incorporates a wide array of samples and sound effects, mixed under the music of some of his favorite musicians past and present. He recorded it one afternoon during a busy lockdown period, completely on the fly.
01. How has lockdown been for you?
Surprisingly busy. I’ve had to deal with people passing away, but we’ve had births in the family, too. My cousin who lives in Turkey had a little baby boy in April, and just before lockdown my partner became a grandma and I became a step-grandad, to a beautiful baby girl called Aria. It would be great to see them all again soon. My mother’s old house flooded recently, but luckily we had house insurance. Phew. How was your lockdown?
02. What music have you been listening to during this period?
With WNBC London, we have a radio station on which I’ve been playing 24- and 12-hour sets. From ambient to AM-bience and reggae to dub, with house and techno as a backbone. At home, I listen to other people’s shows on WNBC. The station has no news, no time checks no adverts—just good old fashioned soul (and no heavy metal allowed).
03. Where and when did you record this mix?
At the truly amazing book and record bar in West Norwood, South London. It was sometime in April, but the shop closed to the public. I was socially distanced. This a safe mix mate!
04. What equipment did you use to record it?
Pioneer 800 mixer, two pioneer CDJs, and a couple of Technics 1210s.
05. How did you choose the records that you’ve included?
Pot luck! The more stoned I am, the better choices I make.
06. What’s on your horizon this year?
A new label featuring new artists from New York, Los Angeles, and Munich, and new remixes of the recent Orb album, Abolition Of The Royal Familia. I have four more albums nearly ready too and hopefully we’ll tour next year. Be safe, and never forget black lives matter. There’s no plan b, and we have the power to change now. Be cool. Don’t be no fool.
XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to download the podcast you will need to subscribe to our Select channel. 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.
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Editor note: there is no tracklisting for this mix.
Across nine tracks, the Cincinnati, Ohio native explores themes of love and triumph. Produced in collaboration with Taylor Dexter, real name Taydex, the album marks a period of change that led Alexandria from Atlanta to her new home, Los Angeles. She explains that it’s “unlike anything I’ve ever done before.”
“I was starting a new life, and in a new relationship,” she told Bandcamp. “There was a lot of excitement, and a lot of new experiences and opportunities. Working towards what you want in life is truly a journey in itself, and being in a new relationship definitely inspired songs like ‘Trust’ and ‘Off Guard.'”
It’s her first release on the San Francisco’s Text Me, having released her last album, 2017’s Cut Of Cloth, on Awful Records.
Alexandria has been singing from an early age, training at Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts. She released her debut album, Rebirth, in 2014, drawing on a toxic relationship while studying at Georgia’s Clark Atlanta University.
Tracklisting
01. Guide Me 02. Trust 03. Off Guard 04. Everything’s Alright 05 Ain’t Polite 06. I Found In You 07. My Love 08. If You Want To 09. La Da Da
Journey LP is available digitally now. You can order over at Bandcamp now, where you can also stream the record.
Toada will release Poema Colectivo, his new EP, on August 14.
Toada, real name Valdir da Silva, wrote Poema Colectivo as a cathartic artistic expression during the pandemic, reflecting on social inequalities. The calming, hopeful, and sometimes agitated tracks “emphasise the need for an honest collective response towards a better world,” he tells XLR8R. It explores downtempo and ambient, and follows his release on XLR8R+20 alongside Rob Garza from Thievery Corporation and Mike Shannon as Blue Fields.
Da Silva grew up around Sintra, a charming Portuguese town. In 2015, he conceived Toada, an amalgamation of several other musical projects that matured in Berlin, Germany.
Toada’s releases began in 2018, all of them through Plūma, his own label set up for his own work. Peso Pluma came first, capturing Toada’s downtempo electronic pop sound, and there’s since been another EP, a single, and his debut album, Cambiante, which served as a reflection of human diversity— “a statement against oversimplified categories and stereotypes,” Toada says. “It’s an ode to the variety of colours, shapes, and characteristics imprinted in each individual.”
Tracklisting
01. Ampla 02. Mexe Contigo 03. A Movida 04. Água E Menta 05. Nissi
Poema Colectivo EP is out digitally on August 14 via Plūma. Clips will be added as soon as they become available, but you can listen to Toada’s work over here.
Birthed from a small loop of harmonics, Aire was composed in 2016, in a friend’s apartment in Monterrey, México not long after Fratti had moved there from Guatemala. Fratti was trying to conjure up something new for her live set up and she conceived this track, which has continued to evolve ever since, becoming more aggressive and destructive. Although never being officially recorded until now, this is a track that Fratti has continued to play live for years.
Mabe Fratti is a cellist now based in Mexico City. After various low-profile live performances across Guatemala and Mexico, she signed to Hole Records for her debut album, Pies Sobre La Tierra, meaning “Feet on the Ground.” Available now, the eight-track long-player, only her second label outing, is a chillingly beautiful showcase in the delicate and deeply intimate soundscapes Fratti creates using only synthesiser, vocals, and her cello. You can read more about her story and her work in her XLR8R interview here.
Tracklisting
01. Aire (ft. Gibrana Cervantes)
Aire is scheduled for June 10 digital release via Unheard of Hope. Meanwhile, you can stream it below.
Boy Jugo is the alias of Jordan Reed, from Dallas, Texas. He found music through his brother, an artist named Capshun, and has put out a series of series of single-track releases, including “Shout It” to Bonsai Collective‘s first roster compilation, Hayashi. His music touches on neo soul and jazz.
Reed’s love for jazz shines through across the six tracks of JUICED!. It features Maxwell Taylor, Evan Barners, and Stephen Douglas on guitar. Kyle Ohm plays trumpet on “Roofus” and Alexander King contributes flugelhorn on “Yezzir!”
All profits go towards the Breonna Taylor justice fund.
We included this release in our list of black artists and labels to support on Bandcamp, which you can read here.
Tracklisting
01. Packed (feat. Stillwater Max) 02. Truffles (feat. Stephen Douglas) 03. Channel 04. Roofus (feat. KileWithAnI & Bvrnes) 05. Yezzir! (feat. Alexander King) 06. The Quiet Loud
JUICED! EP is available digitally via Bandcamp. Check it out here, where you can also stream the music.
Terrace Martin has released the politically charged piece “Pig Feet,” featuring Denzel Curry, Kamasi Washington, G Perico, and and battle rapper Daylyt.
The self-released song is accompanied by a music video from Brendan Walter and Jasper Graham, collecting recent video from protests across the United States occuring in response to the death of George Floyd in the hands of Minnesota police. The ending segment of the video lists the names of the countless African-American’s slain by law enforcement.
Martin, a Los Angeles multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer, released the following statement in conjunction with the new song and music video:
“Someone asked, how do I feel? I told them hurt, fearless, angry, aware and fully ready to protect me, my family and my people at all cost. I got together with Black men that felt the same way and created a work of truth. ‘PIG FEET.'”
Prior to the release of “PIG FEET,” Martin released the Impedance EP and the Ric Wilson collaborative record They Call Me Disco earlier this year. You can stream the new Terrace Martin music video “PIG FEET” below.
We feel strongly that we must use our voice as a vehicle for meaningful action. You can read more about what we’re doing here, and see a list of resources here.
We feel strongly that we must use our voice as a vehicle for meaningful action.
We took yesterday to reflect, understand, and strategize what we can do. As an editorial platform and enterprise founded on electronic music, XLR8R wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for Black and queer Americans. It’s imperative that we do all we can to amplify their voices, and mobilize the electronic music community in this cause. We’ve been reviewing our structures to better achieve this.
In doing so, we’ve been looking backward as well as forward. At times, our journalistic standards have failed the Black communities, whether directly or indirectly, and for this we apologize. Equality is a core component of a balanced music ecosystem and we pledge to implement a diversity structure for XLR8R+, our editorial, and employment. We have been working with members of the Black community, and we will be rolling this out soon.
This will be an ongoing and expanding process for years to come, and we will seek unique ways to fight for all marginalized and oppressed people.
We are also planning an initiative and a special release for XLR8R+, and all proceeds will go towards supporting racial equality.
We welcome your feedback, so if you have any questions or would just like to make a point, please email us at [email protected]. We endeavor to respond within 48 hours.
Sincerely,
The XLR8R Staff
We compiled a comprehensive resource list for how you can help, donate, learn, and advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement and the fight for racial equality. You can check that out here.
As protests continue in response to the recent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Tayler, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade, and the centuries of murder, oppression, and police brutality directed at the Black community, we’ve compiled a resource list to use in this fight for justice and equality.
It’s not up to the Black community to continually teach the world—they are rightfully exhausted for doing so for hundreds of years. The onus is on everyone to educate themselves and support the Black community—to be resourceful and reliable allies—so we can dismantle the systems of oppression, injustice, violence, and systemic racism they have been facing for centuries.
We all must use what resources we have to aid in this fight. If you can’t attend a protest, donate; if you can’t donate, educate yourself and your family and friends, and share vital information with your communities.
Here you’ll find a resource list, which includes links to funds, petitions, films, books, and activists to watch, read, or follow on social media.
If there is anything you think should be added here, or if you have any thoughts you want to share, please email us at [email protected]
A helpful and exhaustive document linking and providing resources, including lawyers donating/offering their service, bail funds, tips if you attend a protest, action items for people who cannot donate or protest in person, and much more.
A movement and global organization fighting for freedom, justice, liberation, and to eradicate white supremacy. BLM also works to build local power and movements to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes, and to create a safe space for Black imagination, innovation, and joy.
A fund set up by George Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd to cover funeral and burial expenses, counseling, lodging and travel for court proceedings, and family assistance in the seek for justice. Some of the funds will also go to the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit, care, and education of his children.
A gofundme raising funds to assist Ahmaud Arbery’s mother and immediate family with financial support and to aid in their struggle for justice for the murder of Ahmaud Marquez Arbery.
A resource to aid in the fight for justice for EMT and first responder Breonna Taylor, who was murdered by Louisville Metro Police, who shot Breonna’s home with 20 bullets, hitting her eight times, and killing her in her bed. The killing took place looking for a suspect the police already had in custody and who didn’t even live in the complex Breonna lived in. No explanation was given to any of Breonna’s family.
Black to the Future is a city-supported, community-driven call to action for Black empowerment in San Francisco. The collaborative strengthens the city in areas of family support and advocacy, health and well-being, education, workforce development, and violence prevention.
This page will split a donation to all the bail funds, mutual aid funds, and activist organizations listed on this page, or allocate specific amounts to individual groups.
Color Of Change is the largest online racial justice organization in the US. Color Of Change designs campaigns that will challenge the corporations and politicians who need to be challenged.
Through art, culture, and media, Sankofa educates, motivates, and activates artists and allies in service of grassroots movements and equitable change. The organization fights injustice that disproportionately affects the disenfranchised, the oppressed, and the underserved.
Reform Alliance aims to dramatically reduce the number of people who are unjustly under the control of the criminal justice system, starting with probation and parole.
Black Visions Collective is a Black LGBTQ+ led Minnesota organization and grounds-up movement that aims to develop Minnesota’s emerging Black leadership to lead powerful campaigns, while working in healing and transformative justice principles.
An intersectional social justice organization made up of organizers, lawyers, artists, and survivors of injustice that address systemic and racial injustice. Until Freedom focuses on investing in those most affected by poverty, inequality, and state violence.
America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. The LDF works to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
Through camps and initiatives, Know Your Rights Camp advances the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization, and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders. The organization also has a legal arm, The Colin Kaepernick Know Your Rights Camp Legal Defense Initiative, that has teamed up with top US defense lawyers to provide legal services for those in need.
Loveland Foundation, through therapy, fellowships, residency programs, and listening tours, provides opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls.
Racial Equity Tools is a platform that supports individuals and groups working to achieve racial equity via tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas. This applies to systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.
Black Lives Matter has put together an easy-to-navigate resource on ways you can educate yourself and be an ally to the Black community, including documents on anti-racism, talking to your parents, Black history, prison abolition, and many other vital lessons and resources. We implore our readers to use this as a daily and vital knowledge base.
Patia’s Fantasy World’s list, which is updated daily, is a comprehensive list of links and resources including anti-racism podcasts, fund links, mental health resources for Black people, resources for teachers, Trans resources, White to White conversation topics, Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander links and resources, Canadian anti-racist groups and Black organizations, and much more. Another vital knowledge base with more than enough information to help dismantle racist structures.
Through the lens of being a person of color in Britain today, Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book provides a framework for how to see, acknowledge, and counter racism. It explores issues such as eradicated black history, the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism, and the link between class and race.
“Me and White Supremacy” is essentially a guide that takes readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy, so that they can stop inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color
Consisting of two essays written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, “The Fire Next Time” is a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice
In “How To Be An Anti-Racist,” Ibram X Kendi uses ethics, history, law, and science to point the reader towards liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other and to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
An eye-opening and startling film by Ava DuVernay that gives an in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality. The film shows how through law and amendments, the US continued slavery as a punishment for a conviction of a crime.
“The Black Power Mixtape” gathers 16mm material shot by Swedish journalists who came to America to document the civil unrest and revolution. The journalists gained unprecedented access to leaders of the Black Power Movement, capturing them in intimate moments and interviews.
Another heartwrenching film by Ava DuVernay depicting the true story of five Black teens from Harlem who are falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park, New York.
Aside from the funds and organizations found at the top of this page—most of which have active pages on social media—below is a list of activists, academics, and teachers to follow on social media for daily updates, knowledge, and protest information.
An education, research, and policy organization dedicated to parenting and education through a critical race lens. This organization is especially important for parents and includes resources, books, and relief for families.
