To complement Los Angeles synth-pop outfit Mirror Talk‘s just-released Infatuation EP, Chicago duo The-Drum (a.k.a. Brandon Boom and Jeremiah Chrome, pictured above) have offered up a sensual rework of the band’s “Don’t” single. Warping the singer’s moans and exhalations into a layered collage that recalls the cartoony pleasure of Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker,” Boom and Chrome keep a straight face with their production, building on a seductive R&B rhythm with abundant vocal texture, skittering finger snaps and hi-hats, and honeyed synth flourishes.
With a handful of legitimately big singles already in his pocket this year, UK DJ/producer Breach (a.k.a. Ben Westbeech) will cap off 2013 with an anticipated installment of !K7‘s ongoing DJ-Kicks mix series. That offering is set to drop next week, but before then, the multi-talented artist has unveiled a new video in which he shares some of his thoughts on his mix. Interspersed with music from Breach’s DJ-Kicks and clips of live footage and more abstract imagery, Westbeech talks about his excitement for being included in the mix album series, the difference between his Breach project and his more vocal-oriented work, and where his new mix fits in with his current rise in world of big-room house. The whole thing can be watched below, before Breach’s DJ-Kicks drops on November 26.
In the wake of his critically lauded R Plus 7 LP for Warp (not to mention a stellarXLR8R podcast, Brooklyn electronic experimentalist Oneohtrix Point Never has announced that he’ll extend his European and North American tour into 2014. The artist born Daniel Lopatin will now hop through Paris, the UK, Finland, The Netherlands, and Spain before hitting the States in January and February, with one performance scheduled in Canada. Those dates are listed below, where a video of Oneohtrix Point Never’s recent live performance with video artist Nate Boyce at MoMA PS1 can also be found.
11/21: Paris, France @ IRCAM 11/23: East Sussex, UK @ ATP Weekender @ Pontins Holiday Centre 11/25: Helsinki, Finland @ Korjaamo 11/28: Utrecht, The Netherlands @ Le Guess Who? 11/29: Barcelona, Spain @ Caixaforum 1/16: Chicago, IL @ Tomorrow Never Knows – Lincolin Hall 1/17: Columbus, OH @ Wexner Center 1/19: Washington, DC @ Atlas Performing Arts Center 2/3: Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club 2/4: Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile 2/5: Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge 2/6: San Francisco, CA @ 1015 Folsom 2/7: Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex 2/8: San Diego, CA @ The Irenic
Over the past few years, Berlin-based composer/pianist Nils Frahm has gained a very much deserved repuatiation as a compelling live performer. In the process, he has helped to rekindle what for many in the electronic-music community was a somewhat dimly lit flame for modern classical compositions. Offering recordings from a variety of Frahm’s live performances captured over the past two years, Spaces accurately reveals him to be not only an extremely talented pianist, but also a performer who’s able to adapt to his surroundings with grace and purpose. Still, hearing Frahm’s performances after the fact does not prove to be quite as spellbinding of an experience as watching the man live, making Spaces a record that will no doubt appeal to the musician’s existing fans, but may not necessarily be the best place to start for those new to his sound.
It’s hard to put this any other way: Nils Frahm makes powerfully beautiful music. Whether utilizing a piano (sometimes prepared and usually manipulated with the use of electronics), synthesizers, or (as on Spaces‘ closing track) a harmonium, Frahm has an effortless command of the keyboard, which he uses to build endlessly immersive compositions that blend his virtuosic ability with a balanced approach to tonal color and melodic space. “Says,” the album’s second cut and first full effort, is one of the best examples of the Berliner’s abilities. Referred to in the liner notes by Frahm as a “a meditation over a repeating pattern on my synthesizer,” “Says” places sparse piano trickles over a continuously flowing synth arpeggio. After simmering for its first five minutes, the track beings to push its limits, adding a slight singe to the main arp as the rest of the track’s elements come together to create a smoky, melodic blur that is simply intoxicating.
To his credit, Frahm rarely repeats himself on Spaces—”Said And Done” piles layers of rhythmic piano together in a Reich-like piece; “Familiar” sinks into a gloomy piano performance which gracefully revolves around a single repeating theme; “Hammers” finds Frahm utilizing his control of the piano to briskly execute an impossibly fast and brooding piece; and the closing “Ross’s Harmonium” shows that Frahm is truly able to adapt to most any situation, as the album’s liner notes explain that this piece was performed at an “intimate house concert” where there was an “amazing harmonium” for him to use. Individually, each recording selected for Spaces is undeniably immersive, but when brought together, the album struggles to be a cohesive listen. Considering all these recordings were taken from a live situation, it may have been impossible to remove the applause that wraps up songs like “Says,” “Hammers,” and others, but the presence of a recorded audience does account for a bit of a jarring experience in the course of listening to the album. Frahm’s pieces here are so intimate and solitary in their tone that it’s easy for the listener to feel like they’re alone with the pianist himself, but the abrupt presence of a clapping audience ultimately disrupts that rewarding headspace far too often on Spaces.
In the end, Spaces is still a wonderful document of the powerful force that Nils Frahm is as a performer. At the same time, the album in some ways seems like a missed opportunity—no one has questioned the man’s ability as a live act (quite the opposite, actually), so the record can’t help coming off like a bit of a “gimme.” In a few short years, Frahm has garnered an audience that truly trusts his vision, but they will have to continue to wait to see that vision expand and evolve—in recorded form at least—until Frahm is ready to deliver another studio album.
No matter how much one knows about James T. Cotton, it’s a safe bet that they only know a fraction of the story. Born Tadd Mullinix and also known as Dabrye, the Michigan-based artist has been subdividing himself into some of the coolest, most distinctive projects on the planet since the late 1990s. This week, he’s releasing a new, three-track EP as JTC, Valley Road (We Are 1), via Spectral Sound, so it feels like the perfect time to recall the work and play of this unique and versatile talent. After all, discerning heads have been raving about (and raving to) Mullinix’s music for well over a decade, but somehow, he’s remained quietly productive while happily flying underneath the mainstream radar.
Before there was James T. Cotton, there was Tadd Mullinix. A suburban Detroit kid, Mullinix used to head to Ann Arbor and an influential record store and hangout spot called Dub Plate Pressure, where owner Todd Osborn and Carlos Souffront, a DJ then associated with electro/space-disco pioneers Ectomorph, held court in the late 1990s. As the story goes, this was also where Tadd met Ghostly International founder Sam Valenti IV, who started the label in the university town in 1999.
Dub Plate Pressure provided an entry point to all sorts of electronic sounds. Yes, the small shop sold local techno and house releases, much like Detroit’s larger Record Time (where Mike Huckaby, Claude Young, and other Motor City producers and DJs worked), but it also veered into more experimental territory—its shelves included abstract German records on the Mille Plateaux and Force Inc. imprints, along with ragga, jungle, drum & bass, and breakbeat from the UK. This content clearly made an impact on Mullinix and the Ghostly/Spectral Sound ouvre to come.
In 1998, Mullinix collaborated with Osborn on a jungle/ragga/hardcore project called Soundmurderer & SK-1. The duo recorded on Osborn’s own Rewind label, and later released material on Richard D. James’ Rephlex imprint and Mike Paradinas’ Planet Mu. Tracks from TNT, another collab with Osborn, are also worth tracking down, particularly if titles like Analog Acid Project and Analog Acid Project 2 sound enticing.
Mullinix always had a number of different projects happening simultaneously. In 2001, Mullinix—operating under his own name—released Ghostly’s first full-length LP, the somewhat glitchy, IDM-ish Winking Makes a Face. But the same year, he also introduced two other projects on the label: Dabrye and James T. Cotton. As Dabrye, his One/Three LP began to hint at the leftfield hip-hop that would eventually become fully realized on 2006’s Two/Three, which notably featured Detroit producer Jay Dee (a.k.a. J. Dilla a.k.a. James Yancey), who sadly died that same year. The JTC release was an EP called Mind Manners, which presented a feverish recombination of Detroit electro, Chicago house, and the squelchy acid accents that married the two scenes.
Mullinix continued branching out in 2002. That year, Dabrye released Instrmntl on Eastern Developments, a label run by Scott Herren (a.k.a. Prefuse 73). A few months later, his last production effort as Tadd Mullinix, a mysterious, limited, CD-only ambient release called Panes, was released via Ghostly. Both records are well worth digging for. That same year, Mullinix released another Ghostly EP under the name Charles Manier, with the a-side, “Bang Bang Lover,” remixed by James T. Cotton. The scorching track is now a strangely forgotten gem in the Mullinix/JTC body of work.
Mullinix also brought his music to the club. Also in 2002, Tadd Mullinix and other Ghostly artists began to show off their DJ skills at a weekly party at downtown Detroit’s famed Shelter, a club in the basement of St. Andrew’s Hall, which normally functioned as a rock venue. The event was called Untitled and featured Matthew Dear, Derek Plaslaiko, Mike Servito, Mullinix, and others in rotation with special out-of-town guests.
Things didn’t slow down as the 2000s continued. Momentum for JTC accelerated during the next two years with the release of the Buck! and Press Your Body EPs, not to mention the project’s excellent debut LP, The Dancing Box, all of which were issued via Spectral Sound. At the same time, Dabrye was gaining definition as a hip-hop beatmaker, releasing Payback in 2003 and Game Over, which featured Phat Kat and Jay Dee, in 2004. That was followed by Additional Productions Vol. 1, a 2005 release on Ghostly that featured Dabrye’s remixes for T. Raumschmiere, Trans Am, Bus, and other artists working similar margins of techno, acid house, electro, and hip-hop. Original Dabrye output tapered off following the release of Two/Three, but a smattering of remixes did continue to surface over the next few years, including reworks of Modeselektor, King Midas Sound, and Zero 7.
As Dabrye wound down, James T. Cotton heated up. In 2006, JTC released two hammering 12″s on Holland’s Crème Organization label, Psychedelic Mindtrip and Pump the Planet; these were followed by a single-side jak called “Take ’em Off,” which dropped in 2007, and 2009’s King of the Box, a split release from JTC vs. 2 AM/FM (another Mullinix collaboration, this one with D’Marc Cantu). In the years that followed, JTC records appeared via a variety of European labels, including Killekill, MinimalRome, Shaddock, and Hoya:Hoya. In 2011, he offered up Creep Acid, which featured additional instrumentation and vocals by Cantu, on the Chicago-based Nation imprint, a label headed up by Melvin Oliphant (a.k.a. Traxx).
Mullinix’s creativity isn’t limited to the music world. Unbeknownst to most JTC fans, and in customary understated fashion, Tadd Mullinix has been painting and exhibiting his art works at Detroit galleries during the past year. (His recent paintings can be viewed here.) This month, Mullinix is showing his visual work at the Red Bull House of Art in Detroit’s Eastern Market.
The new James T. Cotton EP is a bit of a throwback. Valley Road (We Are 1) recalls some of the early JTC recordings on Spectral, mainly because of the pure joy, real sweat, and general sexiness contained within its three tracks. In a way, the record contains the best of what Mullinix brings to the project—rolling bass rhythms, a steady bounce, bass-drum thumps, and a smattering of handclaps for the kids surrounding the DJ booth. A savvy producer like JTC knows his history, and the title track manages to bring Chicago, New York, and Detroit together under a universal flag of US-based acid house. As expected, DJ Qu’s remix is solid, and the third track, “Alpha Helix,” brings to mind some of the best of JTC’s earlier productions, like the aforementioned Press Your Body EP and 2006’s Oochie Coo EP, another effort for Spectral. Though Mullinix hasn’t really gone anywhere—in truth, he’s been working steadily and releasing music for the past 15 years—the new EP feels oddly like a homecoming.
British producer Suffix (a.k.a. Simon Bryant), a young artist from the riverside city of Canterbury, creates radiant house cuts that pull light inspiration from hip-hop and R&B. “I Need You”—the title track from Bryant’s new self-released EP—blasts commanding, warbling synthlines over an insistent rhythm, as pitched-down vocal echos declare the vulnerable words of the song’s title. The entire I Need You EP can be streamed and downloaded for free after the jump.
Luke Slater‘s music has probably been described, at more than one party, as “techno that girls could like.” That’s a problematic statement in some ways, but let’s put it aside since it’s for reasons that have nothing to do with Slater. The techno veteran’s latest album—as L.B. Dub Corp, for Ostgut Ton—is almost incapable of alienating or offending any listener. It’s not a genre-bound statement, which is well enough for someone whose discography runs so deep that making a statement is beside the point. Unknown Origin‘s accessibility is an organic one, and it doesn’t come from him trying to be polite or “reach an audience.” A lot of listeners simply agree with his ideas about what makes for good music, ideas he might not even be able to articulate. He’s just on a positive vibe—there’s nothing smarmy about his work, and we’re certainly not suggesting that he’s sitting behind a mixing console, rubbing his hands together and hissing “girlssssss.” Techno is sometimes a too-serious world, and there’s a lightness to this album that’s as energizing as its machine rhythms.
We’re used to the idea that techno needs to burn a little bit. That listening approach can yield some rewards, or at least allow the music to get its hooks in our minds more than Unknown Origin is really capable of doing. This is not to impugn its quality: Unknown Origin is a uniformly excellent record. It’s also one without a whole lot of talk value, from a consistent and well-regarded producer. If Unknown Origin strikes some soft notes of ambivalence, that’s because it feels kind of effortless. The closest the album comes to the generic is the aquatic dub workout “LB’s Dub,” which is still twistily constructed. On the other end of the spectrum, the doe-eyed, buzzy melodies of “No Trouble in Paradise” suggest that, as Ostgut Ton continues to venture into the album game, it’s not above a few blissful, anachronistic Kompakt moments. The instrumental cuts show Slater slathering the hardcore techno of his Planetary Assault Systems guise with warm house vibes, but the real innovative moments here are his collaborations with the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, particularly the arch oratory of “I Have a Dream.” L.B. Dub Corp’s Unknown Origin doesn’t distinguish itself to the same degree as an album like labelmate Marcel Fengler’s Fokus from earlier this year, although its experiments with the album format are just as relevant to the territory Ostgut Ton is heading into. But on songs like “I Have a Dream,” Slater is experimenting with an affect the label hasn’t approached before, and it pays off handsomely, even if it doesn’t stick in your craw.
Exotic Club, a French duo now residing in Portland, Orgeon, released its No Dance tape via the prolific Crash Symbols label earlier this week, closing out the darkwave-indebted record with this remix from DKA labelhead Matt Weiner (an Atlanta-based producer who more commonly works under the name Twins). On his rework, Weiner refits “Freaks” into a more house-minded template, letting the gurgle of acid-tweaked synths and a ghostly mass of looped vocals ride atop the machine-made shuffle pulsing underneath. The rest of Exotic Club’s entire No Dance cassette can be heard over on Crash Symbols’ Bandcamp.
Joeri Woudstra (a.k.a. Torus) is a young Dutch producer with clear intent behind his lilting, organic beats. With Feeel—which is being delivered both as an eight-song digital release (that includes two remixes) and a truncated 7″ single—he limits the sonic palette to only a few options, mostly relying on homemade percussion and field-recorded ambience to set the mood for his sedate instrumentals. In doing so, Woudstra’s restrained EP winds up sounding like the stony offspring of LA beatmaker Samiyam and Bad Vibes-era Shlohmo, though he makes less of an effort to delineate between cuts than those hazy producers. What instead emerges is a series of similarly captured moments, in the form of tracks, that often seem to successfully slow down time by virtue of their placid, unflappable direction. Without question, Woudstra’s work is intriguing; however, when the EP is viewed as a whole, the isolated moments or feelings he expresses appear somewhat less significant, mainly because of his self-imposed sonic rules.
Feeel‘s title track—the vinyl version’s a-side and a thesis statement for the digital EP, as it contains tones that are found on nearly every cut—employs home-recorded snaps, claps, and what sound like keychain jingles, all of which lazily shimmer and pop as an organ-like melody pings the main refrain alongside some synth-pad ambience. Sidechaining is also prevalent throughout the EP, and here, it’s used sparingly to add detail to the subtle bassline that resonates softly in the mix. On tracks like “Elsewhere,” “Tribes,” and “Untitled,” however, the effect is far more forceful; all three share a jarringly low bassline that buzzes at a remarkable frequency and—thanks to the sidechaining—ducks sharply for each kick-drum hit. Additionally, field recordings of birds and other natural ambience peek into Feeel on multiple occasions, starting with the rainforest intro of opener “Backyard” and continuing on with “Untitled”‘s faint bedroom feedback. As far as the remixes go, Kid Simpl takes “Untitled” in a bleaker direction, one that sounds like the entire mix is trapped at one end of an underground tunnel—the main synth line sounds especially distant and hopeless. Rawdee, on the other hand, covers “Chopsticks” in glittery synths that recall the candy-fed work of Hudson Mohawke or Lone, upping the original’s brightness and clarity while retaining its Asian-sourced tapping rhythm.
Torus’ narcotic hip-hop instrumentals are commendable for their confident poise and aesthetic consistency; in dogged pursuit of an iconic sound, though, Woudstra may have restricted his choices with an unnecessarily strong grip. As a result, Feeel presents the listener with one compelling idea from a variety of vantage points, rather than a variety of compelling ideas from one vantage point.
With its upcomingSatisfy EP ready to drop next week, the Bicep boys have cooked up a new DJ set for free download, offering an hour’s worth of bubbling jams on its Hot Tub Slamz mix. Coming with tags like “Sleaze,” “Slamz,” and “Miami Vice,” the mix moves fluidly through soul-dipped house, funk-washed disco, and a few odds and ends in between as it keeps its eye on fun dancefloor fare. Bicep’s complete Hot Tub Slamz mix can be streamed and downloaded for free via the player below.
