Minimal techno pioneer Robert Hood has announced that he’ll soon release two new records via his own M-Plant imprint, with the Phobia EP arriving from his Floorplan moniker and the Eleven EP being issued under his own name. Over the summer, Hood released Floorplan’s debut album, the excellent Paradise, which saw him infusing a palette of organic and soulful vocals into his techno’s mechanical structures. From that record, “Higher” will be remixed on the Phobia EP by Ben Sims, pairing with two original productions when it drops on November 18. Hood’s two-track Eleven 12″ will drop shortly after on December 9. Before either of those dates, the tracklists for each record are available to persuse below. (via Resident Advisor)
19-year-old Bristol upstart Conducta is a producer who has clearly soaked up a good deal of his city’s sonic heritage. “Belong,” a one-off tune which serves as a preview to the man’s forthcoming material for London’s Bullet Train imprint, is fashioned with the kind of robust sound structure Bristol is known for—tough kicks, snares, and an unapologeticly growling bass serve as the foundation of the garage-indebted track. Sprinkled with a handful of choice melodies and some enticing vocal chops, Conducta’s “Belong” is just the latest piece of music that shows how remarkably deep Bristol’s talent pool goes.
After a few days of teasing the fact that a new synth was on its way, Arturia unveiled the details of its compact, 100% analog MicroBrute today. More information on the synth—along with updates on the Dam Drum 3, separate studio visits to workspaces of veteran duo Mouse and Mars and rising tunesmith BD1982, and a guide to building rough-around-the-edges house beats—can all be found in the latest This Week in Music Tech.
Today, French software and hardware developers Arturia introduced the MicroBrute, a smaller version of the company’s well-received MiniBrute synth, released earlier this year. The compact, monophonic synth looks like a promising unit, featuring a 100% analog audio path, high-quality filter section, a mini patch matrix, and a built-in sequencer/arpeggiator. It appears that these little guys will begin retailing for somewhere around $350 when they hit stores next month. More details on the MicroBrute can be found here.
Veteran German duo Mouse on Mars was the latest to take on FACT TV‘s Against the Clock challenge, building a beat in just 10 minutes with a number of soft-synths, outboard FX, a banjo (yes, that’s right, a banjo), and the pair’s own iOS app. While the two producers spend most of the time speaking to each other in German, it’s still easy to get the gist of what they’re doing as the track gets built. And watching Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner frantically manipulate and run around the giant analog mixing desk in their immaculate studio space makes it just the more fun to take in.
After appearing in the past in very limited quantities, a new version of the Dâm-Funk-inspired drum machine, the Dam Drum 3, became available to pre-order via Stones Throw this week. The third version of the unit comes complete with a MIDI input, which adds an extra layer of compatibility to the handheld drum machine and sequencer crafted by the Austin-based Bleep Labs company. The Dam Drum 3 will begin shipping on November 26 and can currently be pre-ordered for $110; more info can be found here.
After moving back to the States from Japan (and a long list of other locations), rising producer and Diskotopia label head BD1982 has given Music Radar a tour of his new home studio, now based in New Jersey. The producer’s modest space packs a lot of punch, with a small army of hardware (connected via a MIDI patchbay) and his MPC serving as the main machines in his arsenal. BD1982’s complete studio tour with Music Radar can be seen here.
And lastly, Attack Magazine has added another chapter to its ongoing Beat Dissected series of articles, this time guiding readers through the process of building so-called “Rough House” drum patterns. The site’s quick, step-by-step guide can be read/heard here.
It was over a year ago when London techno veteran Ben Sims delivered his podcast for XLR8R, and the DJ/producer has certainly kept busy releasing loads of 12″s and EPs in the meantime. For his next record, Sims has announced that he’ll issue his first installment of Fabric‘s ongoing series of mix albums. Fabric 73 is a massive, 44-track excursion through “advanced” and “spirited” techno which seems to touch on many disparate corners of the sound—including music from stalwarts such as Robert Hood, Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Surgeon, and Trevino, as well as younger artists like L-Vis 1990, Gingy & Bordello, Benjamin Damage, and Clouds, not to mention plenty of productions from Sims himself. According to its press release, “Fabric 73 was mixed live in sections, with Sims then poring over details, adding edits, and stitching the various parts together in Ableton to form a master mix,” and features “no less than 18 unreleased tracks,” some of which the mixmaster has refrained from playing out before the release of his mix album. Before that date arrives on December 2, the artwork and tracklist for Ben Sims’ Fabric 73 can be found below.
01 Joton - GS 01 [Mastertraxx] 02 Kryptic Minds & Paul Mac - Icon [Tactical] 03 Kirk Degiorgio - Dread [Machine] 04 Alden Tyrell - Wurk It [Clone Jack For Daze] 05 Ben Sims - The Little Jam (Edit) [Theory] 06 Floorplan - Higher (Ben Sims Remix) [MPlant] 07 Gingy & Bordello - All Day (Robert Hood Remix) [Turbo] 08 Dimi Angélis & Jeroen Search - Monopole (Sims JFF Edit) [A&S] 09 Tripeo Kienokki (Edit) [Theory] 10 Benjamin Damage - Recursion [50WEAPONS] 11 Ben Sims - Raise Your Hands (Mr G Remix) [Theory] 12 Mark Broom - 133 [Beard Man] 13 MDL vs JR - Belmont (Edit) [Theory] 14 Marcel Dettmann - Corebox (James Ruskin Blueprint Mix) [MDR] 15 Mark Ambrose - Shooting Stars (Fokus Group Remix Edit) [Theory] 16 Robert Hood - Moveable Parts (Untitled 1 Mark Broom Edit) [MPlant] 17 Ben Sims - Break Glass (Sims Remix Edit) [Theory] 18 L-Vis 1990 - SDS5000 [Clone Jack For Daze] 19 Sandrien - I Left My Girlfriend In A Club (Edit) [Theory] 20 J Tijn U U U [WNCL] 21 Nphonix - Tactix (Sims JFF Edit) [Audio Culture] 22 Mike Dehnert - Eigenzeit [Fachwerk] 23 Ben Sims - Break Glass (LVis 1990 Dance System Remix Edit) [Theory] 24 L-Vis 1990 - Wires [Clone Jack For Daze] 25 Donnie Tempo - Tazmanian Virus (Sims JFF Edit) [moreaboutmusic] 26 Chicago Skyway - Fall Down (Sims JFF Edit) [unreleased] 27 Chicago Skyway - Ride 3 (Sims JFF Edit) [unreleased] 28 Truncate - Room Mode [Truncate] 29 Truncate - Model 1 [Truncate] 30 Paul Mac - Grind Returns (Ritzi Lee Remix) [Stimulus] 31 Ben Sims - Samurai (Edit) [Theory] 32 Julien H Mulder - Symmetric Timeline (Sims JFF Edit) [Färden] 33 Rod - 90’s (Edit) [unreleased] 34 Ben Sims - Something (Sims Beats Mix Edit) [Theory] 35 Terrence Dixon - Minimalism A1 (Ben Klock Remix) [Sino / Technorient] 36 Ø [Phase] - Distracted [Token / N.E.W.S.] 37 Ben Sims - Dream State (Edit) [Theory] 38 Ben Sims - Raw Hide [Theory] 39 Pfirter - Ahora (Sims JFF Edit) [Mindtrip] 40 Ben Sims - Neurosis (Surgeon Remix Edit) [Theory] 41 Clouds - Chained To A Dead Camel [Overlee Assembly] 42 Fokus Group - Nut Nut [Pennyroyal] 43 Ben Sims - Joyrider (Trevino Remix Edit) [Theory] 44 Special Request - Broken Dreams [Houndstooth]
One of the few people who can be trusted to deftly take a spaced-out synth-pop song like Crimea X‘s “A Present” into even more interstellar territory is Legowelt. On his remix of the Italian duo’s track—both versions of which will appear on the b-side of Crimea X’s forthcoming 12″ for Hell Yeah—the Netherlands-based, hardware-obsessed producer proves worthy of such trust, folding the track into thick layers of dreamy synths while the pulse of a finely programmed drum machine and a revolving stream of analog tweaks peak through the surface. Crimea X’s “Haunted Love” b/w “A Present” 12″—which also features a remix from Phillip Lauer (of Tuff City Kids and Arto Mwambe)—will see an official release on November 20.
Belgium’s Cupp Cave (a.k.a. Franz Baker) is one of the most intriguing voices to emerge in what might be termed the post-Actress milieu, a generation of producers who subsist on dusted, off-kilter arrangements and sidechain-compression trickery. The artist just seems to have better groove awareness than most of his contemporaries, and as a result, one gets the sense that many of his tracks would stand up even without their experimental production values. NVMB, Baker’s latest EP, is certainly not a grand statement, but it’s no detriment to his reputation either.
Listeners wondering about the Actress correlation ought to hear it in immediately in the staccato, glowing synths that open “Everlastic,” or the frayed wires, reminiscent of that producer’s “Again the Addiction,” which pervade “Tomb Face.” On the former, though, Baker counters that influence with a woozy soul sample and a slow-motion bump, belying a hip-hop influence and adding warmth to a disquieting premise. NVMB‘s midsection contains its finest moments, as its tracks’ seams are not as visible. On the too-brief “Insight,” low bass stabs and staggered drums underpin shimmering, mesmeric synths and a captivating, if fleeting bell melody. “Through Tired Eyes,” meanwhile, feels as somnambulant as its title, as its bleary, squashed dreamscape makes the drums feel alternately slower and faster than they really are. Again, there is an entire movement of producers making disorienting music like this, but few have Baker’s chops.
It seems likely that Rory O’Connor’s experiences as a touring drummer for Ghostly artists Com Truise and Tycho have influenced his own solo project, Nitemoves. The natural push-and-pull of real drums adds to the inherent funkiness exhibited on “Veaquis,” a track from his upcoming full-length, Themes, which is set for release on November 12 via Moodgadget. Layers of calming synths swell from foreground to background and provide ample melodic accompaniment, but the biggest draw of “Veaquis” is in the interaction of a syncopated synth bass and O’Connor’s flowing drums. Though the arrangement takes a few quick psychedelic detours, it always finds its way back to a steady, lockstep groove.
Now operating out of Berlin, Oakland-born label Deepblak wasn’t on many people’s radars prior to the release of label head Aybee’s Worlds album in 2012. Combining Drexciyan Afro-futurism with combustible, early-era Autechre breaks and flashes of an out-jazz sensibility that’s comparable to Terrence Dixon’s, the LP offered a heady strain of homegrown Bay Area techno with an impressively fresh approach. The album made a strong argument for the Deepblak crew as a kind of West Coast equivalent to Levon Vincent’s Novel Sound stable, a collective organized around launching deep house into deep space. Oakland’s Eric Porter Douglass, operating as Afrikan Sciences, does just as much to further the label’s vision with his second LP, Theta Wave Brain Sync.
Afrikan Sciences’ experiments are more pointed than Aybee’s, courting disorder on a suite of songs early in the album. The carnivalesque “A Trove” starts off the run, and it goes even further with the pealing cellos and cracked rhythm of “As You Were Brother” and the sticky, fusion-era Miles Davis energy of “What Who What, the Bazooka Was Who.” Still, none of it goes too far down the rabbit hole, thanks to hobbled, murky drum patterns that break down and build back up every eight bars. There’s a potential for chaos, but Douglass only allows it to peek through his compositions; it never asserts itself at the listener’s expense. The title track consolidates the benefits and drawbacks of those experiments around the album’s halfway point, ultimately coalescing as a swaggering slice of blown-out boogie. Its dueling hi-hats and astral keys deserve more than the five-minute slot they’re given, but Douglass doesn’t like to stay in one place too long.
The album’s second half is all about tying up the various threads. Bulbous droplets of synth bleed into the pattern of the otherwise cosmic sound design of “New Morning,” eventually guiding an unwieldy conversation between instruments toward a satisfying destination. “Monseq Q” is the album’s most out-and-out house cut, an eight-minute sound stream of shuffling, off-beat claps, lumpy kicks, and still more bubbly Rhodes riffs whose m.o. is straightforward enough to seem somewhat out of place. The presence of acoustic samples in Afrikan Sciences’ music puts him, from a certain perspective, in league with John Roberts, another producer who sows those timbres in his jacking house cuts. But the approach here is descended from jazz, rather than a stately modern classical mode. And in terms of jazz influences, the results are often more overtly humane than the sometimes arid pace of like-minded music being turned out by acts like the Moritz von Oswald Trio. Afrikan Sciences often conveys a sheer sonic intensity that’s reminiscent of Seekers International’s meta-dub; it’s the sound of music technology and history being sold for scrap and subsequently melted into a chunky, hazardous amalgam. In truth, Theta Wave Brain Sync is at its best when it takes things a little too far. That sense of instinctual experimentation is what makes for Deepblak’s particular relevance.
Versatile UK DJ Oneman has been busy, as of late; the artist born Steve Bishop reworked Mount Kimbie’s “You Took Your Time” into a slow-burner featuring Jeremiah Jae, and recently gave away his eclectic Solitaire Vol. 2 mixtape, which found the mixmaster traversing through UK bass, grime, and hip-hop. Now, Oneman has offered his Mount Kimbie remix and a choice cut from Solitaire Vol. 2 (Brtsh Knights x Lofty 305’s “South of the River”) as free downloads to coincide with his impending US tour. The dates find Oneman travelling throughout the end of October and into November, with stops along the way in Miami, New York, LA, and Chicago. Both of the aforementioned downloads, as well as the full list of Bishop’s upcoming tour dates, can be found below.
26 Oct – Bardot, Miami 29 Oct – Boiler Room, NYC 01 Nov – 1015 Club, San Francisco 03 Nov – TBC, LA 06 Nov – Middle East, Boston 07 Nov – Output, NYC 08 Nov – The Mid, Chicago 09 Nov – The Roxy, Orlando
London DJ/producer Daniel Avery‘s debut LP, Drone Logic, saw the burgeoning artist stretching his legs, weaving together a string of emotional techno tracks that hearken back to a number of big name electronic artists from the ’90s. That album’s release on Erol Arkin’s Phantasy label has helped to keep Avery’s profile on the ascent, though as he attested to in our recent Hi-Five feature, much of his inspiration has come from tracks that have largely remained underground. Now, we’re treated to a sensual, black-and-white video to accompany Drone Logic cut “All I Need,” one which highlights the track’s intimacy. Directed by Lewis Kyle White, the visual piece blends images of male and female bodies in various states of contortion, begging the question of whether they are experiencing pleasure or pain. Courtesy of Nowness, Daniel Avery’s “All I Need” video can be seen below.
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