Dublin producer and Mister Saturday Night affiliate Lumigraph was enlisted to close out French producer Clement Meyer‘s forthcoming Modern Primitivism EP with a remix of the record’s lead tune “Chronomanic.” Accepting the challenge, Lumigraph has turned in this rough-edged, hardware-driven rework which jacks and bounces its way through seven minutes of alien atmospheres and unwieldy FX chains. Both the original “Chronomanic” and the remix offered here will be included on Modern Primitivism when it drops on October 15. Before then, a preview of the four-track effort can be heard after the jump.
At this point in his young career, it’s probably not worth trying to categorize New York City’s Gobby; after all, his output to date has exuded such an array of influences that this is a near-impossible challenge. His tracks seem to be carved out of pop-culture detritus, and the results are a deranged mulch. The only guarantee so far has been that Gobby will present something on a scale that ranges from beguiling to batshit crazy. File SETH, his project with vocalist James K (for clarity’s sake, we should not that James K is a female, Jamie Krasner, who has previously worked with Physical Therapy), under beguiling. Chick on the Moon, SETH’s debut mini-LP, is potentially Gobby’s most accessible moment, but that doesn’t exempt it from its producer’s manic tendencies.
Opener “Dont Open Your Make” is an almost carnivalesque trip-hop piece, and it makes the kind of uncannily ’90s impression that ADR’s Chunky Monkey album did earlier in the year. Thankfully, Chick on the Moon is nowhere near as steeped in pastiche as that album, nor is it as disparate. James K’s vocal drowse has a lot to do with this, as her calming presence works to cohere Gobby’s tangents. When she is not on a track, the producer’s fiendish aggressiveness comes to the fore, as on the Terminator chug of “Haha,” which feels inherently out of place. On other tracks, the pair does a kind of battle. “Precipii Oowee” is underlined with the kind of decaying, hauntological TV loop a producer like Nochexxx might use; meanwhile, James K’s soaring wail is redolent of some of Glasser’s more widescreen moments, but it’s intermittently distorted, as though she’s dissolving into the beat. On “Cat in the Limo,” uneven compression, midrange wobble, and halted drums sit in contrast to soft vocals, but again, there’s a lopsided sort of unity at play. These moments only accentuate the times when the two actually work in unison. “Fish Oil” is the record’s honestly beautiful centerpiece, its backwards-guitar-laden chipmunk folk coming across like the last warm days of autumn; it’s marked by totally pastoral, sun-dappled, Indian-summer sentimentality in frayed yellow and orange, with James K sounding sweetly resigned on top. The song is so good that it even pops up again in a kind of redux on the closing medley “Puunani Wreck.” Gobby’s psychotic beatmaking is plenty interesting on its own, but it turns out he actually improves when paired with a vocalist.
The veteran electronic experimentalists of Autechre, Sean Booth and Rob Brown are set to drop their latest EP, L-event, via Warp at the end of the month, but have elected to share a full stream of their new music before then. The four-track record follows the pair’s Exai double-LP from earlier this year, offering material taken from the same sessions which birthed that album. Ahead of its release on October 28, L-event can be heard in its entirety here.
Chicago music collective Them Flavors is launching its own imprint with the summery house sounds of local DJ/producer Equator Club. “Get a Hit”—taken from an EP of the same name—goes hyper with the production details, weaving expressive vocals of varying pitches through synth sprays and textural dapples of percussion. Equator Club doesn’t grow too complacent in house’s repetitive leanings, instead opting to wind through countless vocal and drum permutations without ever overloading the beat’s through line. The rest of the Get a Hit EP can be streamed in full after the jump.
Gunnar Wendel’s Ominira imprint doesn’t play it straight. From noisy, corroded experiments to dancefloor-ready tracks, the label run by the producer better known as Kassem Mosse reliably keeps its followers guessing. But even its most ardent of fans might not see its latest release coming. Throwing Shade’s debut 12″ is definitely some kind of R&B, and its lurid artwork seems more poised for, say, a Jimmy Edgar record than something on Ominira, given the label’s prior esoteric-artifact aesthetic.
It’s not as though the label has forgone polish outright, however. The smudgy vocal echoes and jagged stabs that open “Mystic Places” are definitely creepy, lending a sinister atmosphere to the plodding, boogie-ish drum patterns and pleading, wordless R&B vocals. “Lights” also cuts between shades (no pun intended), melding whispery vocal rushes with bright, plucky kalimbas and a repeating hi-hat pattern. These ethereal tracks are likely to please fans of the Tri Angle label, but don’t hold as much weight as past efforts on Ominira by Kowton, Juniper, or Wendel himself. They are more echo jams than anything else, focused on sustaining a hazy balance between moods; they’re pleasant, but not groundbreaking.
One of our favorite new artists of last year, burgeoning Canadian talent Nautiluss has tipped us off to the details of his next release, a four-track EP for Amsterdam’s Audio Culture label. Solstice will be DJ/producer Graham Bertie’s first record of the year—though he did deliver an excellent XLR8R podcast back in March—and is said to find the artist “exploring warmer, more euphoric territories” while maintaining the “boldness and toughness” of his past work. There’s yet to be a concrete release date for Nautiluss’ new EP, but while we wait to find out when it drops, a preview each track from Solstice can be found below.
For their quirky, animated video for “Nancy’s Pantry,” a track from UK producer Tessela (a.k.a. Ed Russell), directors Will Barras and Sean Martin have created a digital, futuristic underworld in which a half-man, half-cockroach protagonist must escape the clutches of pastries marked with the famed R&S logo. Intertwined with some stunning Matrix-esque imagery, the piece frames the pulsing, breaks-ridden backdrop of Tessela’s production as the perfect soundtrack to this alternate reality. Even if there is no hidden subtext to the “Nancy’s Pantry” video, it makes for an intriguing and immersive world crafted around a song that recontextualizes classic rave and jungle breaks into something more forward thinking.
With his debut full-length on the way later this month via Civil, London producer Om Unit has elected to share a few tracks that—for one reason or another—didn’t quite make it onto his forthcoming Threads LP. “Shine Your Light” is one such cut, a well-balanced and bass-loaded production which fills a half-time kick-and-snare pattern with an array of precise percussion loops and some truly gorgeous synth work. For its first half, “Shine Your Light” seems to be in the midst of a constant build-up, then Om Unit slyly relieves the tension, cooling off the rolling production with a new set of chords and some ornate melodies. Before Om Unit’s Threads LP officially drops on October 28, a preview of the album can be heard after the jump.
Back in July, we heard Berlin-based singer/producer Kyson‘s sweetly enveloping “Missing Things” from his just-released The Water’s Way album, and the track has now been treated to an entrancing, cinematic video that only deepens the sense of longing buried deep within. Following an unknown couple out into a dewy field, director Michael Williamson paints, quite literally, a forlorn look at the push and pull of human relationships, as the two alternate between lovingly and maliciously throwing an array of colors at each other. The visuals never explicitly state what—if anything—transpired between the couple, but as the last chords of Kyson’s song dissipate, we’re left with the sense of losing a memory that faded away too quickly.
Novation was one of the first manufacturers to produce an Ableton-specific controller back in 2009 when it unveiled the Launchpad, and the company has been slowly expanding its arsenal of MIDI controllers—continuing with the release of three new portable devices. The Launchkey Mini and Launchpad Mini are both smaller versions of their respective big brothers, while the Launch Control is a brand-new unit that is said to be a perfect complement to the rencently released Launchpad S. These products clearly aim to extend past their current Ableton user base by focusing on compatibility with Novation’s iPad apps and the ability to work effortlessly with both Macs and PCs.
How They Look
All three Novation controllers share a sleek, slate-grey finish and elegant rounded corners, and utilize orange no-slip rubber bottoms. The Launchkey Mini and Launch Control both hold a slim profile, but the Launchpad Mini seems particularly suited for being thrown into a bag on the go. Combined with the fact that there are no knobs protruding from its face, the Launchpad Mini’s ultra-small footprint and mere 16mm height make it extremely easy to transport. The pads on each unit also utilize Novation’s long-running red/yellow/green LEDs, a visual cue that has now been seen on stages across the world.
A minor gripe is the lateral positioning of the USB sockets, particularly on the Launch Control—keeping these on the rear would have given the rectangular controller a slightly slimmer width. Otherwise, each unit feels sturdily made and designed with a focus on keeping details to a minimum. The Launchpad Mini does away with Novation’s previous Ableton-centric branding on the Launchpad S, instead paring the labels down to a simple alphanumeric system.
How They Work
Though each unit has its own strengths, there is clearly a good deal of overlap in function amongst this trio. All are bus compliant, able to draw power from either a computer or an iPad. Similarly, there is a newfound focus on compatibility with FL Studio, as all of the units have FL Studio templates included. Each of the three controllers tout an ease of use that clearly shows Novation’s plug-and-play intentions, though the Launchpad Mini is the simplest to use, possibly because it has the exact same functionality as the larger Launchpad S.
The Launchkey Mini and Launchpad Mini each work perfectly in tandem with their respective iPad apps, though the former shines in particular when paired with Apple’s ubiquitous tablet. The Launchkey Mini’s track-left/right buttons can be used to alternate between the apps, and when both are running, they are kept perfectly in sync, allowing the user to trigger loops and play the arpeggiator at once. Furthermore, its functionality goes a little deeper with the introduction of Novation’s “InControl” feature, which seems to be a greatly slimmed-down version of the “Automap” ability from the company’s larger SL MkII series of controllers. “InControl” allows the user to alternate between sending standard MIDI messages and a customized template. For example, the pads can be used to trigger various percussion sounds in the MIDI mode, and then once “InControl” is turned on, they can be assigned to enabling or disabling selected effects, used as solo or mute buttons, or perform any other function.
It may not sway many potential customers, but all three units do come bundled with a host of software—including Ableton Live Lite, the aforementioned iPad apps, V-Station and Bass Station synth plug-ins, and a modest selection of samples to dive right into.
The Bottom Line
While not necessarily bringing anything fresh to the table, Novation’s new mini-controllers excel at fitting a wide range of functionality into portable, easy-to-use packages.
