With its heavy percussion and tropical rhythms, Aguacero is a reflection on a city in flux. It blends organic sounds with the digital tools of electronic music, and encapsulates the growing anxiety in a city threatened by the things that help make it beautiful—the ocean, the heat, and the cranes in the sky.
“If artists from Miami’s past have helped teach the world to dance to thumping bass until the early morning, Nick León’s latest project invites the world to dance through the impending storm of uncertainty ushered in by climate change,” the label explains. We’re told that there is a “slick defiance” in Aguacero’s composition, “a nod to the sense of nihilism we all feel as the world around us feels increasingly treacherous.”
León has produced for South Florida hip-hop heavyweights and UK artist Gaika, and now he’s expanding to the club setting.
David Koch (a.k.a. DeWalta) has announced a set of guest artists to join him for four upcoming group studio classes.
Earlier this year, as a response to the unfolding Covid-19 crisis, Koch launched a set of music production classes and studio services, including private sessions, group classes, and mixing and engineering services.
At the end of this month, Koch will kick off the Guest Series, a four-date set of group classes featuring Seth Troxler, Mike Shannon, Ryan Crosson, Shaun Reeves, and Afriqua, covering a range of topics. You can find the dates and details for each class below.
Príncipe will release Nídia’s new album, Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes, and the accompanying Badjuda Sukulbembe 7″ on May 22.
Nídia, real name Nídia Borges, is an African-portuguese producer formerly known as Nídia Minaj. She debuted on the Lisbon label in 2015 and returned with her Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida album two years later.
In typical Nídia fashion, the album begins with a moody, unsettling tone. It comprises 10 tracks tracks of her rich and emotive take on afro styles. The last song is titled “Emotions,” featuring an epic progression that makes it “hard to decide if it’s uplifting or profoundly melancholic,” the label explains. Meanwhile, the preceding 7″ features two tracks. Its title roughly means “spicy girl.”
Tracklistings
Badjuda Sukulbembe 7″
A. Tarraxoz Academy B. Cheirinho
Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes LP
A1. Intro A2. Popo A3. RAP Complet A4. Nik Com A5. Raps B1. Tarraxo Do Guetto ft Gamboa B2. Rap Tentativa B3. Capacidades B4. Royal B5. Emotions
Badjuda Sukulbembe 7″ and Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes LP are out on vinyl and digitally on May 22. Meanwhile, you can stream album cut “Capacidades” and pre-order here and here.
Marta, from Tijuana, Mexico, debuted on Infinite Machine with 121214, and he went on to open for Four Tet and Ben Ufo. On Ruinas, he presents an ethereal exploration in organic, celestial, and crystalline sounds. Expect five deeply melodic compositions that “incite cathartic sensations,” the label explains.
Infinite Machine continues: “The careful processing on the melodies, samples, and tonalities that Benfika meticulously assembled in Ruinas don’t follow an accurate musical structure but were rather conceived as a living sonic-ecosystems, dissolving in complex layers of aerial ambiences.”
Decapitation LP “9 Takes for Beheading” is the pair’s first collaborative album. They recorded it over two days’ of “intense and insane” sessions after both playing the closing of By The Creek festival in Holland last year. We’re told to expect nine takes of “experimental industrial hard techno for your beheading.”
Noneoftheabove is the work of Yoeri Van Eijk and Nigel Wildeboer, recognised for their work on TheAbove Records. This is the first time they’ve worked with Davide Carbone, the owner Cosmo Rhythmatic and Carbone Records, a platform for his own productions and collaborative projects.
Tracklisting
01. Take 1 02. Take 2 03. Take 3 04. Take 4 05. Take 5 06. Take 6 07. Take 7 08. Take 8 09. Take 9
Decapitation LP “9 Takes for Beheading” is out digitally on June 6. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here now and stream clips below.
Across the album, Rohrer, a Swiss multi-instrumentalist, acts as a creative director while the other members share synthesizer duties. Rohrer and Loderbauer draw on their experiences with Ambiq, and Westerhus also contributes guitar and vocals. It seems them drawing on the quick-thinking mechanics of free group improvisation and compositional strategies of contemplative electronic music.
The result is something that Rohrer describes as as “forest-like,” which means the music is confident in the “deep-rootedness” of its foundations and defined by a density and mystery easily confused with darkness.
Shrimpnose is back with Dome of Doom for the release of his new album, Before It’s Too Late.
Before It’s Too Late is the first work in Shrimpnose’s catalogue devoid of sampled elements, in that he performed all synths and guitars himself. The record arranges 18-tracks that lean on chopped up electric and acoustic guitar takes, original synth patch designs, field recordings, and an array of beat programming techniques. It features Daedelus, Bleep Bloop, and Somni.
Recording sessions for the album began right before Shrimpnose relocated from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, beginning with the heartbreak fueled piece, “Agony.” He ended up in Van Nuys with a family friend and the bulk of the LP was captured in a small, run down bedroom there, with mice scurrying on the ground, graffiti and writing all over.
“It was a house with lots of problems after being vandalized from a previous tenant, but it was cheap and we needed the help,” Shrimpnose recalls. ” Being there was my setting for the album—making songs all day in my bedroom, smoking blunts, surviving on chicken tenders and sandwiches.”
Shrimpnose has become one of Los Angeles’ rising producers. He last dropped solo work with Dome of Doom on 2018’s Sullen EP and released the cassette version of his K.Raydio collaborative LP, …And The World Weeps, with the label last year.
Tracklisting
01. Picture Perfect 02. Over The Mountains 03. Bottoms Up 04. Bleeding Out 05. A Song For The Helpless 06. My Cold, Dead Fingers 07. Seething 08. Minneapolis-St. Paul 09. Before It’s Too Late 10. Agony 11. Bon Voyage (feat. Bleep Bloop) 12. IStillMissYou 13. Dying In The Sun 14. Anguish 15. In Your Absence 16. Time Flies 17. Getting Through To You (feat. Somni & Daedelus) 18. Lost Interest
Before It’s Too Late LP arrives digitally on May 29, and there will be a limited run of 100 cassettes. Meanwhile, you can stream “Before It’s Too Late” below, and pre-order here.
Adlas is the alias of Adam Larsen. Those who follow Answer Code Request will have noticed the name popping on the label with two releases, 2018’s Arrival By Air and 2019’s Currents. (His “Spherical Wave” track also appeared in Answer Code Request’s XLR8R podcast.) The young producer’s work is influenced by the British isles—he’s never lost the love for the UK’s “rich electronic music heritage,” he says—and, with its shimmering melodies and non-formulaic structures, it’s easy to see why it caught the ear of Answer Code Request.
Larsen grew up on the outskirts of Frankfurt am Main but moved to Berlin with his parents when he was 12. He began messing around with Ableton in 2012, drawing on a love for hip-hop, both old school and contemporary, and he sent his first demos to Answer Code Request, real name Patrick Gräser, through a mutual friend. Gräser snapped up the music right away.
“Adlas has got this fresh style with complex drum patterns, and I really like that,” Gräser tells XLR8R. “His music sounds different to the other stuff that I hear at the moment. His productions are really always on point—first class sound design.”
Larsen is also recognized around Berlin for his work with now-defunct event series called Krach, which he ran with two friends from 2015 until 2018. Among the guests were The Exaltics, Stephen Brown, Laksa, Alienata, Privacy, and Ascion.
Having recently contributed a track to ‘XLR8R+021‘ with “Turn,” released alongside exclusive work from Answer Code Request (who also delivered a sample pack) and Ryan James Ford, Larsen turns in an XLR8R podcast, recorded during lockdown in his home studio. Expect just over an hour of hazy, breaks-driven techno—a snapshot of the music that makes Larsen tick, and another taste of an artist we’re likely to be hearing a lot more from.
Like most people, I’ve spent a lot of time at home recently due to the lockdown. But it seems that some restrictions are being eased now and I’m looking forward to being able to enjoy the things I’ve taken for granted with a new found appreciation.
How did you connect with Answer Code Request?
In 2017 I had spent a lot of time making music and by the end of the year/early 2018 I had finished a good handful of tracks, which I had never really managed to do before, or at least seldomly.
So I thought it was time to send around my first demo and luckily a friend of mine knew Patrick [Gräser] and he sent my music to him. We then met for lunch, got to know each other, and started planning for a release.
Working with Patrick has been great as he is not just a nice guy but he has given me complete artistic freedom and never imposed any ideas on me. I’m really glad we got connected.
Which artists and labels are really impressing you at the moment
The first label that comes to mind is Ilian Tape, they’ve been on a run for several years now and I don’t think there is an end in sight. Other producers or labels that come to mind right now are Yak, Pugilist, Circuit 900, Nullpunkt, Overmono and my buddies J.Manuel and Fadi Mohem.
Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded this mix at home in my bedroom on CDJs and a Xone92 two weeks ago.
How did you go about choosing the records that you’ve included in it?
I wanted to include a range of styles and moods but still keep the mix more or less coherent. I collected a bunch of tracks I thought would fit in a playlist and just started playing from that list to see what would work and what not. Then once I had figured out a tracklist I got to recording.
Where and how do you go about finding your music?
I find most music on the internet. Going down rabbit holes on Discogs and Youtube is actually one of my favorite past times. It can almost feel like going on an archeological expedition at times and no matter how much music you’ve already found there is alway another label or alias you didn’t know yet. I also check Hardwax and Soundcloud a lot for new releases and upcoming stuff. And if I’m lucky I get sent new music by friends. It’s been a while since I have actually gone physical record shopping but I really enjoy getting my hands dusty in a nice second hand shop as well.
What’s next on your agenda for the year?
The first ever remix I’ve done will be out later this month as part of Blue Hour’s Remixed series. Apart from that I’ll try to work on new music as much as possible and see where that venture takes me stylistically.
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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Tracklisting
01. Simo Cell “As Long as We Have Those Things” [Livity Sound] 02. Rhythm & Sound w/ Paul St. Hilaire “Why” (Burial Mix) 03. Clockwork “Second Floor” (Deadbeat Remix) [Parachute Records] 04. Second Woman “Instant II” [Tresor] 05. Hodge “Lanes” [Houndstooth] 06. Forest Drive West “Time” [Whities] 07. Otik “Gravel” [Intergraded] 08. Bruce “Meek” [Hessle Audio] 09. Adlas [Unreleased] 10. Wen “Glisten” [Big Dada Recordings] 11. Andrea “SKYLN” [Ilian Tape] 12. Traktor “Traktor Mood” [DIN] 13. Kode9 “Correction Dub” (Drum edit) [Kode9] 14. Kahn & Neek “Random Lab” [Sector 7 Sounds] 15. Circuit 900 “Sapientia” [Monstart] 16. Syn “Void” [Even The Strong] 17. Al Tourettes “Dodgem” [Apple Pips] 18. J.Manuel (Unreleased) 19. Ratsnake “deejays” [Ratsnake] 20. Tymotica “Unreleased” 21. Boxcutter “Bad You Do” (Halfstep) [Planet Mu]
Cinthie will release her debut album, Skylines—City Lights, on Aus Music in June.
Skylines—City Lights is the culmination of Cinthie’s career, which spans more than two decades. It pays tribute to all the things that have inspired her over the years, from Chicago house to New York garage and European rave.
Across the album, Cinthie also explores new territories, experimenting with a downtempo aesthetic on opening track “Skylines,” textural electronica on “Flashback,” and acid house nostalgia on “Calling” and “Horizon.”
Cinthie, real name, Cinthie Christl, has grown to become one of Europe’s most respected purveyors of house music, both as a DJ and producer. Her work is scattered across Aus and Beste Modus, a label she co-founded and now encompasses sub-labels Unison Wax, Beste Freunde, and Cinthie’s own Crystal Grooves.
You can read more about Cinthie in her XLR8R feature here.
Tracklisting
01. Skylines 02. Houze Muzik 03. Concentrate 04. 2k Garage 05. Horizon 06. Calling feat. Gill 07. Flashback 08. Citylights 09. Morning In Melbourne 10. Bassline feat. Gill 11. No One Can Take You From Me 12. 803 The Meme Queen
Skylines—City Lights LP is out digitally and on vinyl on June 15. Meanwhile, you can stream “Bassline” below.
Apollo and R&S will welcome back Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke as The Primitive Painter for a reissue of the pair’s 1994 classic self-titled album of sonorous IDM.
The Primitive Painter album originally came out in 1994, but its release was bungled by an R&S label mix up that attributed the album to the duo’s own Klang Elektronik label, confusing fans and distributors. For this reason, the album slipped out without much fanfare.
Since then, the album’s reputation has grown, with second-hand copies (only 500 vinyl were pressed) changing hands for exorbitant amounts on Discogs.
Growing up in Frankfurt, in the ’80s and ’90s, Flügel and Wuttke honed their inventive take on the Detroit techno blueprint as Acid Jesus.
The Primitive Painter album is a tribute to the euphonic IDM grandeur of Apollo Recordings’ self-titled compilation of 1993 which features artists like David Morley, Model 500, and Aphex Twin. Flügel and Wuttke turned out 10 tracks of gauzy, melodious electronica, and settled on the name The Primitive Painters, taking inspiration from the band Felt.
“This really brings us full circle,” Wuttke tells XLR8R. “Apollo / R&S meant and means so much to us as artists and so it was bittersweet to not have the official release, and to put that right all these years later feels really good.”
This new vinyl release comes in re-created original gatefold artwork and includes all original 10 tracks (“Stoned Soul Picnic” was previously on the CD only). It also contains an exclusive previously unheard track called “Testing” on the digital release.
