Sunken Foal “Cutty’s Advice”

Helmed by Duncan Murphy, Dublin outfit Sunken Foal has shared a fresh tune called “Cutty’s Advice.” It’s a tapestry of emotions woven together with scattered percussion and symphonic crescendos, over which a voice advises “watch our footwork.” Glacial pianos slide around the stereo field, counterbalancing the influences of footwork and IDM with hallucinatory touches. The decadent genre experiments seem wholly indebted to Mike Paradinas’ past and present work, which makes sense considering that Sunken Foal’s debut LP was released by Planet Mu. The accompanying video for “Cutty’s Advice” can be viewed after the jump.

Cutty’s Advice

Sequence Report Secromance

Tevo Howard is a welcoming producer. Listeners don’t have to have much of a background listening to the Detroit-infused Chicago house he makes to get what he’s up to. As with his last LP, Pandora’s Box, his new electro offshoot Sequence Report just rains down pleasure, irrespective of the genre or lineage he’s working within or making reference to. A musicologist could probably make short work of describing why his music hits so effectively—perhaps it’s some kind of chordal anomaly. But that explanation would fail to take account of the way he unfailingly makes space for the listener in a genre that is generally known for its deference to history and its insider references.

The elements making up Howard’s debut LP as Sequence Report, Secromance, are immediately recognizable. The flighty sounds here are close relatives to the ones that make up his unique take on house, although they’re a bit more sonically liberated, fluttering against windows that open up onto the wider world. The biggest distinction apart from the boom-bap underpinnings are the robotized, Mac OS voices, whose rigid exhortations run a tight but meaningful gamut between the alienated and the unexpectedly poetic. Nowhere is the distinction clearer than between album opener “Emotion Number 8,” which helpfully categorizes its heartbreak, and “Been Steppin’ to Your Love,” which speaks quite ominously of stepping into “the shadow of your beautiful mind.” These are only the most successful examples of Howard’s ability to humanize these unlikely, abrupt blurts of human-emulating data. Without intending it, Howard’s way with these voices comes across as a brisk slap to coldwave’s fetish for anhedonic female voices. There’s less deliberate inflection in the “singing” here, such as it is, than even the most unflappable bedroom synth enthusiast could muster. Counterintuitively, it’s extremely emotionally resonant.

In addition to the busy drum patterns and those android voices, a big part of Secromance is its organ tones, which bonelessly merge into an ecstatic, boundless fog above the individual hits. Even listeners with a cursory familiarity with Howard’s other music might recognize these quasi-drones, as they provide a pulsing, human messiness that ties everything together. Even Howard’s best-laid arpeggios—and he’s a master in that particular realm—get turned inside out into a keening, piping mess of purple tones. On “Possession,” it’s as if Howard is casting hooks into the sky, with every upstart gurgle of organ bouncing back down to the foundation. There are even occult indications of a secret 4AD fetish; the watery, guitar-like tones on “Beauty to Body Count” drive the song as though it were some lost Clan of Xymox experiment. Without straying very far from a basic electro template, Howard injects an unusual—well, unusual for anyone other than him—amount of energy and relatability into a bare-bones concept. In the process, he traverses a huge amount of stylistic and emotional terrain without straying very far from home.

The Lowdown – This Week’s XLR8R Top 10 with Machinedrum, Four Tet, Oneohtrix Point Never, and More

Throughout the week, a whole lot of material gets posted here on XLR8R. And while we know—and love—that some hardcore readers will eagerly pour over every single news story, interview, podcast, video, and MP3 download that appears on the site, we also realize that for most people, it’s impossible to see everything, which means that some quality XLR8R content is likely to get missed in the hustle and bustle of everyone’s daily lives. In the interest of making it easier for everyone to catch up, every Friday we present The Lowdown, a weekly wrap-up of the top 10 tidbits from our site.

1. This week’s most popular item—and it wasn’t even close—was the latest XLR8R podcast, an expansive, two-hour mix from Brooklyn experimentalist Oneohtrix Point Never.

2. Our readers have been loving our weekly contests as of late, especially this week’s chance for someone to win a set of ROKIT studio monitors. Enter now before it’s too late.

3. Apparently, the folks at Point Blank Music School also want to hook people up with free stuff, as they announced a contest offering the chance to win a Moog Sub Phatty.

4. Four Tet has been tempting fans with talk of a new LP for the past few months, and had previously released streams of a couple of new songs in the process. This week though, he decided to let loose with the entire album, and posted a stream of the complete Beautiful Rewind online.

5. Last week, XLR8R headed up to Seattle for the annual Decibel Festival, and our subsequent review detailed 13 reasons why we thought this year’s edition was a success.

6. Following months of intense anticipation, Machinedrum finally released his new album, Vapor City, this week, and we sang its praises in our official review.

7. In a move designed to push its flagship Maschine production center into new territory, Native Instruments announced the forthcoming release of a reimagined Maschine Studio and enhanced 2.0 software.

8. In terms of spelling, the most popular track from our Downloads section this week is perhaps the most complicated tune we’ve ever hosted. It’s a remix of Polish duo XXANAXX’s “Broken Hope” by London producer xxxy.

9. The debut EP from Prefuse 73’s and Teebs’ collaborative Sons of the Morning project dropped this week, and the duo followed it up by putting together a joint DJ mix.

10. As we do at the beginning of every month, we compiled a list of the top 20 downloads of September so that our readers could grab all of last month’s hottest tunes in a single place.

An expanded version of the The Lowdown is also available via a weekly email newsletter. Those interested in an even more in-depth round-up of XLR8R content, including a complete listing of all the free downloads we’ve offered in the past seven days, should sign up by entering their email address below.

Subscribe to the XLR8R Lowdown

Ital Tek Announces “Mini-Album” for Planet Mu; Preview It Now

Brighton’s Ital Tek has announced that he’ll soon release an eight-track “mini-album” via veteran UK outpost Planet Mu. Called Control, the forthcoming record will follow about a year after the producer’s solid Nebula Dance LP when it’s released on November 11. A press release says of the mini-album that “the 160bpm cross-pollination of footwork and drum & bass is [its] jump off point, but Control is sophisticated and dense sci-fi music that flexes your senses.” Before Ital Tek’s latest record drops next month, its tracklist and artwork can be found below; a preview of each of Control‘s eight songs can be found here.

01 Fireflies
02 Control
03 Zero
04 Violet
05 Challenger Deep
06 Ultra
07 Jupiter Ascent
08 Doom/Dream

Force/Emerge “Lumi (Inland Dub)”

With the third record for his fledgling Counterchange imprint set to drop on both vinyl and digital formats next week, Ed Davenport (operating here as Inland) has turned in a ghostly rework of the a-side from anonymous producer Force/Emerge’s forthcoming “Lumi” b/w “Valo” 12″. Inland’s dub version of “Lumi” focuses on the original track’s haunting textures and slow-brewing rhythms, making for a production that is in itself calm, yet still full of brooding, sinister tones. The record is set to drop next Monday, October 7, but before then, a preview of Force/Emerge’s record (which includes another version of “Lumi” pieced together by Davenport) can be heard after the jump.

Lumi (Inland Dub)

Download Max Cooper’s New Remix of Nils Frahm

Following their performances at last weekend’s Decibel Festival in Seattle—our full recap of which can be read here—cinematic techno producer Max Cooper has turned in a remix of experimental composer/pianist Nils Frahm (pictured above), offering the production for free download as a thank you to those who attended the Northwest festival and a sort of consolation for those who didn’t. For the occasion, Cooper has turned in a characteristically spacious and melodic remix of “For,” a cut pulled from Frahm’s Juno 7″, originally released in 2011 via the Erased Tapes label. Now, the resulting rework can be streamed and downloaded for free using the player below.

Tri Angle Readies New EP from Fis, Shares Lead Single

Hitherto unfamiliar New Zealand producer Fis will join the roster of the venerable Tri Angle label next month with the Preparations EP. The four-track record will find Fis presenting his “complex and alien-sounding” work for the first time via Tri Angle, though the budding producer has issued a handful of obscure, hard-to-find 12″s in the past two years. Before Preparations sees an official release on November 18, EP track “DMT Usher”—a song which originally appeared on a limited 12” last year—can be streamed below, where we’ve also included the forthcoming effort’s complete tracklist.

01 Magister Nunns
02 DMT Usher
03 Mildew Swoosh
04 CE Visions

Check Out a New Mix from Fantastic Mr Fox

It has been well over a year since DJ/producer Fantastic Mr Fox dropped his excellent XLR8R podcast, but we still find time to revisit that mix every once in a while. And now, just under two months after he gave us an illuminating Hi-Five feature, the now Berlin-based artist has shared another quality session online. Called Feral, the mix first appeared over on Oki-Ni, complete with “obscure and unheard” tracks from the likes of Forest Swords, Zomby, Randomer, Leon Vynehall, and Clams Casino. Fantastic Mr Fox’s new DJ set can be streamed via the player below, where its full tracklist can also be perused.

Paul Raffaele “Isabelle”

It’s always exciting to hear tracks from fresh producers, but there’s a certain fulfillment that comes with hearing a veteran DJ dip into the production world with solid results. One such case is Paul Raffaele, who has spent a considerable amount of time behind the decks in rooms around New York City as co-founder and resident DJ of the now-defunct (but highly revered) Dog & Pony Show party, and is now creating his own tracks. Resting in the narrow middle ground between retro and modern, “Isabelle”—a cut from an upcoming 12” for local label Plant—proves that Raffaele already has the personality and special touch necessary to move a crowd.

Isabelle

Boys Noize Readies Mix Album for Fabric

As any regular reader of XLR8R would say, we don’t spend much time tracking every move of bombastic German producer Boys Noize—in fact, the last thing we wrote that was even vaguely related to him was about a slick cut of hard-edged techno that an artist from his label handed over. That said, it’s entirely worth noting that the Berlin-based artist is next in line to drop a mix album as part of Fabric‘s longstanding Fabriclive series. The 31-track offering is set to appear in its various forms throughout the second half of November, and as should be expected, it will feature a ton of over-the-top club tunes from the likes of Dog Blood, Feadz, Gesaffelstein, Spank Rock, The Chemical Brothers, and Worthy & Eats Everything. But what’s maybe a bit surprising is that music from Four Tet, Kowton, Anthony Naples, Jimmy Edgar, Randomer, Kingdom, and Gingy & Bordello will also appear on Fabriclive 72. Speaking on his upcoming mix album, Boys Noize said, “My sets usually include many styles and at some points I mix pretty fast, too. I play some jackin’ house and techno with crazy energy stuff, and then go back to reduced dub or even classic electro or breaks. My goal was to combine all of the styles I play but also make it listenable. All in all I think this DJ mix is pretty timeless, colourful and happy.” Before its available on November 18 (US CD release is on November 26), Fabriclive 72‘s artwork and tracklist can be found below; clips from the mix album can be heard here.

01 Mr Oizo feat. Marilyn Manson – Solid [Ed Banger]
02 Boys Noize – Starwin [Boysnoize]
03 Costello – Pegasus [BNR Trax]
04 Jimmy Edgar – Shout [Ultramajic]
05 Surkin – Warehouse [Marble]
06 Feadz – Go On Girl [Boysnoize]
07 Pilo – Ghettocoder [Boysnoize]
08 Kingdom – Femme Litre [Fade to Mind]
09 Gingy & Bordello – All Day (Robert Hood Remix) [Turbo]
10 Four Tet – For These Times [Nonplus]
11 Randomer – Meat & Dancing [white]
12 Kowton – TFB [All Caps]
13 Boys Noize – Anoid (Demo Version) [Boysnoize]
14 Craze – Selekta (Valentino Khan Remix) [Slow Roast]
15 Dog Blood – Chella Ride [Boysnoize / OWSLA]
16 Worthy & Eats Everything – Tric Trac [dirtybird]
17 Djedjotronic – Kaik? [Boysnoize]
18 Gesaffelstein – Aufstand [Turbo]
19 Aden – Luft [Ultramajic]
20 Special Request – Wall To Wall [Houndstooth]
21 Anthony Naples – P O T [Proibito]
22 DJ Deeon – Work This MF [Dance Mania]
23 Tracques – Motor [Boysnoize]
24 Dave Clarke – The Compass [Skint]
25 Tom Rowlands – Nothing But Pleasure (Boys Noize Pressure Fix) [Phantasy]
26 Alesia – Andrea [OWSLA]
27 The Chain – Maje [R&S]
28 Boys Noize – XTC (The Chemical Brothers Remix) [Boysnoize] + Spank Rock – DTF DADT (Acapella) [Boysnoize]
29 I-F – Space Invaders Are Smoking Grass [Disko B]
30 Kölsch – Goldfisch [Kompakt] + Boys Noize – XTC (Acapella) [Boysnoize]
31 Apparat – Arcadia (Boys Noize Reprise) [Shitkatapult]

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