The highly conceptual Brooklyn electronic duo Gatekeeper has released a new music video for “Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven,” the opening track from its recently Piratebay-releasedYoung Chronos EP. In collaboration with Alex Gvojic and Dazed Digital, Gatekeeper unveiled this dizzyingly baroque exploration of Biblical art and imagery with a sly Hollywood slant. Matching the track’s heady and ominous title, harrowingly epic choral vocals, and hi-def electronic FX, Gvojic’s piece displays a rotating view of an animated painting steeped in bloodshed and apocalyptic destruction.
Watch a Heartwarming Video for a New Rustie Track
It’s kind of perfect that hyperactive Glaswegian beatmaker Rustie liberally sampled a children’s choir for his contribution to Transgressive North‘s double-disc BOATS compilation, a release which will raise money for the Everything is New outreach organization for children in Southeast India. And not just because the Light of Love Children’s Choir appears in every track featured on the upcoming comp, but also because the producer’s music already seems to glow with the ebullience of youth.
Rustie’s brand-new “Boatsss” track now has a music video which features a number of youngsters—presumably from the Light of Love children’s home—smiling and looking adorably awkward in front of a colorful backdrop. The clip can be seen below before the 29-track Boats compilation drops on January 20 with music from Four Tet, Matthewdavid, El Guincho, Gang Gang Dance, Dan Deacon, YACHT, and many more. (via FACT)
Optimo Announces ‘Dark Was the Night’ Mix Album
Coming only eight months after its The Underground Sound of Glasgow mix, venerable Scottish DJ duo Optimo has announced the forthcoming Dark Was The Night mix album for Mule Musiq. Named after the song “Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground” by singer/songwriter Blind Willie Johnson (who died penniless, though his song was later one of 27 other pieces of music sent into space in 1977), Optimo’s 21-track mix features an eclectic selection of tunes by artists like Grouper, Terrence Dixon, Carter Tutti, Hecker, Silent Servant, Nurse With Wound, and Hieroglyphic Being, among others. Optimo states that its set is an “attempt to invoke the sounds of a dark winter’s night,” and goes on to say that “the music is far from being cold and soulless, and is full of atmosphere and feeling.” Dark Was The Night will be released on January 13; until then, its tracklist can be viewed below. (via Resident Advisor)
01. Grouper – Vanishing Point
02. Jeff & Jayne Hudson – Mystery Chant
03. Terrence Dixon – Lost At Sea (Untitled 3)
04. Jared Wilson – This Love
05. Qx-1 – I Won’t Hurt You
06. Roberto Auser – Eclipse
07. Recondite – Cleric
08. Byetone – Plastic Star
09. Kode9 & Space Ape – Sine Of The Dub
10. Hieroglyphic Being – Imaginary Soundscapes 9
11. Silent Servant – Invocation
12. Inigo Kennedy – Cathedral
13. Hecker – Bsf°Tyk 5
14. Nurse With Wound – Ketamineaphonia
15. Carter Tutti – Coolicon
16. Voigt & Voigt – Intro Koenig
17. Holy Ghost Inc. – Mad Monks On Zinc
18. Deadboy – Black Reign
19. Like A Tim – Hurt You One More Time
20. The Freeze – Psychodalek Nightmares
21. Angel Corpus Christi – Dream Baby Dream
Kline “Heartless”
It was only a few weeks ago that we offered the warped and sinewy “Blacklight” from Victoria producer okpk, so its fitting that we’ve now been treated to a similarly immersive track from his Low Indigo labelmate Kline. The sluggish tempo of “Heartless,” taken from the Vancouver producer’s Mirror EP, highlights the low-end girth of the tune’s submerged synth pads and heartbeat-like pulse, and draws the listener in close. And once our interest is piqued, Kline goes for broke, introducing a sweeping white noise transition and a squealing, resonant synthline that brings the tension of “Heartless” to soaring heights.
Watch a Live Session from Livity Sound
Bristol label/crew Livity Sound (a.k.a. Kowton, Peverelist, and Asusu, also one of the 10 up-and-coming labels we recently highlighted) has been tapped to perform in the latest installment of Resident Advisor‘s RA Sessions live-music video series. Following last month’s release of its excellent self-titled debut LP, the trio performs a 12-minute jam session of hollowed-out, bass-infused sounds drawn from their budding catalog, before ending with a rendition of Pev & Kowton’s “End Point.” The whole Livity Sound session can be seen below, courtesy of Resident Advisor.
This Week in Music Tech: In the Studio with Jonwayne and Moderat, Ableton 9.1 Released, Yocto’s DIY 808 Clone Kit, and More
We offer views inside the studios of Jonwayne and Moderat, take a look at Pioneer’s CDJ-900NXS, check out Yocto’s 808 clone kit, get a first look at Roger Linn’s LinnStrument and the DSI Prophet 12 module, and much more in the latest This Week in Music Tech. Oh yeah, and Ableton Live 9.1 is finally here.
A full release of Live 9.1 has arrived, and all Ableton users have rejoiced. Offering dual-monitor support and a whole bunch of other bug fixes and upgrades, existing Ableton users can upgrade now by heading here.
In the latest edition of our In the Studio series, we visited Stones Throw rapper/producer Jonwayne to take a look around his impressive bedroom studio and chat about recording his latest LP, Rap Album One. Our complete interview and picture set with the young, prolific talent can be found here.
Following a few months after the release of II, the aptly titled second studio album from Moderat, Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian “Charlie” Szary (a.k.a. Modeselektor) discussed the making of the record in a detailed video produced by the Future Music website/magazine. The extremely informative—albeit a little slow—30-minute video can be watched above.
Pioneer unveiled the CDJ-900NXS this week, essentially molding together the company’s existing CDJ-900 media players with its top-of-the-line CDJ-2000 Nexus units. Set to hit US stores in January, the 900NXS offers a slew of new features including a considerably recharged looping section. The demo video above demonstrates many of these new features, and more info on the CDJ-900NXS can be found here.
The internet was abuzz this week with talk of Yocto’s 808 clone kit, which offers DIY gear builders a chance to make their own 808 drum machine (or at least something very, very close) for a price point that is much lower than what the fabled rhythm boxes currently go for. Those interested in getting more information and ordering a kit of their own should head here.
A Kickstarter campaign is underway for Palette—a new modular/lego-type approach to building one’s own controller. The USB powered devices can be added together to create multi-purpose controllers for any software and provide a variety of dials, sliders, and buttons, allowing one to create their own device. To get more details and contribute to Palette’s recently launched Kickstarter, head here.
Cubase has released a free plug-in to use with the program and the Leap Motion controller (or any “depth cameras developed using the Intel perceptual technology SDK 2013”), and it allows users to control aspects of Cubase using only their hand gestures. Deemed the Cubase iC Air, the plug-in—when used with Cubase 7—can adjust and control a host of parameters using only one’s hands in the air. For more information on how the plug-in works and to download it for free, head here.
New York production duo Prism House has release a new sample pack of high-quality sounds. The pack is said to consist “largely of industrial-sounding percussion hits and unique found sounds” recorded in a Brooklyn loft and is available to download for free here.
And lastly, famed gear designer Roger Linn is currently working on something called the LinnStrument, and Dave Smith is working to make a module version of his Prophet 12 synth. Both are featured above in what is an almost unfairly brief teaser of the two projects, which we are hoping to find out more about (specifically when they might be available) someday soon.
Physical Therapy Non-Drowsy EP
Alongside producers such as Hound Scales, Divvorce, and Max McFerren, the now partially Berlin-based DJ/producer Physical Therapy (a.k.a. Daniel Fisher) has spent the past couple of years pushing a new wave of techno in NYC. Granted, he offers a particular strain of the genre that tends to be more playful and unorthodox than the more purist variants one generally associates with the sound, but his work is not without its charms. Physical Therapy has always been a particularly wide-ranging DJ and producer, but only got his official start last year with the release of an EP of melodic breakbeat hardcore on Hippos in Tanks. His latest effort, the Non-Drowsy EP, is coming via Fisher’s own, newly minted Allergy Season imprint, and marks his third EP release in as many months. Although his DJ sets and mixes have taken on a decidedly techno-leaning bent as of late, little on the Non-Drowsy EP actually comes close to qualifying as techno. It’s a delightfully impure grab bag, with seven referent-heavy tracks that allude to a number of dance-music styles both past and present, seemingly simultaneously. More importantly, and perhaps more than any other Physical Therapy release to date, the songs feel uniquely like the product of a single restless mind.
Opening track “4_21” begins with a muted, filter-heavy vocal sample, around which a clattering beat gradually crystallizes. The track has a vaguely underwater sensibility that is exacerbated by the lurching kick that enters around the halfway mark, along with a hazy, non-specific synth line—it’s neither here nor there, and oddly enough, that only makes it more compelling. “Huff” offers tribal-sounding rhythms, which are eventually obliterated by an ominous bridge and the track’s sweeping, trance-influenced latter half. “Leonia” and “Huminbeen” draw on piano-house samples, but see Fisher twisting their trajectories—which easily could have been somewhat predictable—through his own oblique sensibility. “d.T.” is perhaps the EP’s most satisfying cut, as it offers six-and-a-half minutes of blissful, 909-heavy house that demonstrates how Physical Therapy is also capable of playing it relatively straight. It is exactly this multi-faceted approach, constantly veering between straightforward and oddball, that makes Non-Drowsy a compelling listen. Throughout the EP, Fisher takes standard genre signifiers and renders them slightly strange, a little bit off. This makes him sometimes difficult to read and impossible to place, but on Non-Drowsy, Fisher’s elusiveness proves to be an advantage.
Press Play: Disclosure, Breach, Om Unit, Boys Noize, and More
Seeing as how we’ve got some fresh record streams, music videos, unexpected remixes, DJ sets, and more from artists like Disclosure, Deetron, Boys Noize, Breach, Prins Thomas, Fatima, Visionist, and Sei A, among others, the latest edition of Press Play is simply an offering of music that can’t be missed.
Disclosure “Voices (Wookie Remix)”
Breach DJ-Kicks Mini Mix
Deetron “Rhythm (feat. Ben Westbeech)”
Om Unit “The Road (feat. Charlie Dark)”
Boys Noize Fabriclive 72 Mini Mix
Mark McGuire “The Instict (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)”
Sei A Make It Work EP
Visionist “M”
Fatima “Family (prod. Flako)”
John Heckle’s podcast for Juno Plus
Previews of Avalon Emerson’s “Pressure” b/w “Quoi!” for Icee Hot
Kenneth James Gibson “Something In The Way ([a]pendics.shuffle’s Extended Mix In 3 Passages Later Edit)”
El Remolón “Flashback”
Mista Men “Screw Ball”
It wasn’t long ago that we shared the bright, garage-inspired Ousheremix of “Things Don’t Change,” a track from London producer Mella Dee‘s EP of the same name. In the interim, the UK tunesmith has returned to his partnership with Woozee, called Mista Men, and the two artists have kindly shared “Screw Ball,” a track taken from their recently released Hot Haus EP. Unlike Mella Dee’s more garage-inspired workouts, “Screw Ball” finds the pair working with more traditional house tropes, weaving a high-energy chord progression around a thumping beat that anchors the track’s clean sonics. Mista Men work in a few nuanced details, too, like the sporadic appearance of a crisp vibraslap that adds an unusual flavor to “Screw Ball”‘s dancefloor-centric sonic palette. The entirety of the pair’s Hot Haus EP can be streamed below.
Jimmy Edgar Mercurio
Jimmy Edgar is in a pretty enviable position. The Detroit-born, Berlin-based producer has released recordings on Warp, !K7, and Hotflush, experimenting with everything from hard-edged techno to sexually charged electro and rambunctious house, but has managed to stay relevant over the years by constantly refining his sound. Following this year’s more DJ-friendly Hot Inside EP, Edgar’s latest release is Mercurio, a new three-song EP for his own Ultramajic imprint that finds him continuing to churn out high-energy tracks that reference classic dancefloor tropes while emphasizing crisp, pristine sonics.
Lead track “Ultraviolet” launches right in, using a straightforward drum pattern and a squelchy synth riff as a vehicle for a stomping, relentless groove that feels perfectly manicured before dissolving in a haze of reverb. Edgar stretches out even further on “Qlinda,” layering a clipped vocal sample and one of his quintessential diva wails over a martial drum rhythm that swings between funky and robotic. On the flipside, Mercurio‘s title track finds Edgar mining a similar palette of drum sounds, one filled with rolling snares and long-decaying pads that sneakily work in the arrangement’s crevices. The EP may not find Edgar breaking tons of new ground, but it does prove once again that he’s fully capable of producing club tracks that can do some damage.
