The same week that a couple of his R&B-slanted productions dropped as part of Kelela’s Cut 4 Me mixtape for Fade to Mind, Night Slugs affiliate Girl Unit has shared a brand-new mix as a free download. The London DJ/producer’s installment of Safe House USA‘s Stay the Nightmix series hit the internet as a 40-minute, 17-track set which thoroughly explores a few strains of sultry pop music, with a handful of more forward-thinking cuts thrown in for good measure. Stay the Night #4: Girl Unit—which features the likes of Clams Casino, Ciara, Morri$, Jam City, JoJo, and Tweet, among others—can be streamed and downloaded for free below, where its tracklist can also be found.
1. Xscape – Tonight 2. JoJo – Demonstrate 3. Jam City – The Nite Life (Instrumental) 4. Soulja Boy – I Love My haters (Instrumental) 5. Girl Unit & Opus III – It’s a Fine Double Take (Buckmaster Blend) 6. Ty Dolla – Float ft. IAMSU & Terrace Martin 7. Morri$ – Ladyboy 8. Tweet – I’m Done 9. Clams Casino – She’s Hot 10. Patrice Rushen – To Each His Own 11. Ciara – Other Chicks 12. Dom Kennedy – My Type of Party (Instrumental) 13. Ryuchi Sakamoto – Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence 14. Shanell – On the One 15. Case ft. Foxy Brown – Touch Me, Tease Me (Instrumental) 16. Girls on Top – Romance V.3 17. Jhene Aiko – For My Brother
Another seven days have passed and there is plenty to catch up with in the world of music tech. Our latest round-up highlights Native Instruments’ newly announced Maschine Studio, the Aleph super-computer from the makers of the Monome, and a leaked first look at the new—and incredibly affordable—pedals from Moog. Also included is a look into UK bass wrangler Joker’s studio, an Ableton seminar from Ewan Pearson, a chance to win a Moog Sub Phatty, and a look at the characters lurking around the “Music Instr” section of Craigslist.
In case you missed it earlier in the week, London’s Point Blank Music School will be giving away a Sub Phatty analog synth from Moog to one of its YouTube subscribers. For those who aren’t currently subscribers to the channel, one simply needs to sign up before midnight, October 7, to be added to the draw. The winner will also recieve a Pro Producer Course of their choice from the London production school along with the sought-after monphonic synth.
Native Instruments unveiled the Maschine Studio this week, a reimagined and enhanced version of the company’s flagship Maschine production center. Along with the forthcoming new unit—which is expected to hit stores in November for a price tag of $999—NI also announced the Maschine 2.0 software update which will come standard with the Studio and be available to purchase by existing Maschine users come November.
A number of online hubs for synth and equipment nerds have been buzzing about the possible leak of a new series of pedals from Moog. The so-called “Minifooger series” of pedals seen in the image above appears to be a page leaked from an upcoming Sweetwater catalog which shows MF Ring, MF Delay, MF Tremolo, MF Boost, and MF Drive pedals all with a new “by Moog” tagged onto the end. Perhaps most importantly of all, all the pedals appear set to retail for under $200, which would make them the most affordable pieces of Moog-made gear ever. Create Digital Music does the best job of Minifooger fortune-telling here.
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As part of Kompakt‘s takeover of Ableton HQ, veteran producer Ewan Pearson was invited to give a symposium on using Ableton Live and Logic to remix and produce. The 90-minute discussion delves into great detail on subjects such as internal and external signal processing, manipulating stems for remixing, and just in general making elements fit in the scheme of a production. Even for those not super keen on Pearson’s own work, there is certainly much to learn from the man’s process.
As part of its ongoing studio video series, Future Music Magazine has visisted UK purple master Joker to take a look inside his production studio and to delve into the individual parts and processes that make up the man’s tracks. The 40-minute video is a little slow, but also rather extensive, and finds Joker himself asking “You know what I mean?” at least once a minute.
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From the makers of the Monome comes the Aleph, a “powerful audio processor, synthesizer, noise machine, rapidly modifiable instrument… a platform for experimental practice and organic discovery.” Essentially a computer whose dedicated function is to process and synthesize audio as well as serve a platform to power and program grid controllers, modular synths, and more, the Aleph appears to be as open-ended as the Monome, made for open-source tinkering, sharing, and experimentation. The unit is—quite frankly—a bit too complex for us to go into detail here, but further information about the Aleph can be found here, and it is expected to ship later this fall for a price of around $1400.
And lastly, like many of us, regular XLR8R scribe Leo Maymind has been through the ups-and-downs of buying gear on Craigslist. He’s bought MicroKORGs from confused hipsters and even gotten some steals from a mad girlfriend or two in his time. Now, Maymind has distilled the characters he’s met along the way into one snappy list entitled Oh, the People You’ll Meet (Buying Gear on Craigslist). His full list of recognizable and relatable Craigslist types can be read here.
Where to begin with our batch of Press Play goodies for this week? Well, we’ve got videos, DJ mixes, brand-new original productions, and plenty of quality remixes from the likes of Cooly G, Fort Romeau, Jonwayne, Axel Boman, Groundislava, Dauwd, T. Williams, and Flume, among others. The bounty of Press Play‘s audio and video can be consumed after the jump.
Produced by Jonwayne, Jeremiah Jae’s “Seventy 8” track from his recent Bad Jokes mixtape got a music video this week by LA director Justin Staple.
Korallreven recently dropped the first single from its as-yet-unannounced second LP, and followed it up with a remix of the sun-soaked tune by UK club queen Cooly G.
Before he heads out on tour with Mosca, UK garage patron T. Williams post a stream of “Smile (feat. Tendai)” from his recent Feelings Within EP for PMR.
Aussie synth-pop band Cut Copy just had the titular single from its Free Your Mind LP remixed by UK deep-house enthusiast Fort Romeau.
Axel Boman finally announced his debut album, Family Vacation, last month, and just shared the first taste of its tracklist this week, the breezy “Fantastic Piano.”
As it approaches complete cultural saturation, Drake’s brand-new “Hold On We’re Going Home” single got a trance-y and smile-inducing remix from Groundislava.
Applescal’s Atomnation label is set to release a new single from Olaf Stuut, and it comes with Dauwd’s excellent remix of “Siren.”
“Holdin On (feat. Freddie Gibbs)” is a brand-new version of a single from the upcoming deluxe edition of Flume’s self-titled debut LP.
With the stream of “Gateway” going online this week, we’ve now officially heard all three tracks from Tessela’s debut EP for R&S before it drops on October 8.
’80s R&B-obsessed Nashville duo Jensen Sportag is slowly leaking out tracks from its upcoming debut LP for Cascine, the latest of which is the moody and slow-grooving “Rain Code.”
Brooklyn up-and-comer Hank Jackson dropped a fresh mix this week for Dutch outpost Wichelroede.
George FitzGerald’s ManMakeMusic label is about to drop a 12″ from the producer known only as U, but before that record arrives next week, we can now hear two of its three shadowy, bass-laden cuts.
The unbelievably prolific DJ Q has another EP in the works, this time readying a brand-new collection of tracks for his the upcoming Sound Boy Connection EP. Pulled from that record is “Heaven,” an appropriately UKG-minded tune that utilizes the skipping drums and bouncing bass which the producer has built his name on. The track shifts a few lead elements in and out of its seven-minute runtime, first giving the spotlight to wordless vocal chops, then a set of synth-born piano chords, and dropping a set of bouncing organ hits in between. It’s basically DJ Q showing off what he does best, and serves as a tantalizing preview for the man’s upcoming EP for LA imprint Party Likes Us digital imprint.
The combination of Prefuse 73 and Teebs as Sons of the Morning marks a fusing together of two generations of beat production. Though their generation gap may not be particularly large, it would be hard to imagine the beat scene from which Teebs ultimately rose without Prefuse 73’s Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives or One Word Extinguisher LPs first helping carve a place for electronic experiments with instrumental hip-hop. In more recent years though, Prefuse’s efforts have faded a bit into the background, especially as artists like FlyLo and ?his Brainfeeder stable—of which Teebs is a member, of course—have increased their presence within electronic circles. That said, viewing this collaboration as an attempt by Prefuse 73 to inject new blood into his art would be a mistake, as Sons of the Morning is a project that works without gimmick, successfully using each member’s individual style to create something that stands on its own.
From the very beginning of Speak Soon Volume One, Teebs’ presence can be heard. The opening “The Way That Winter Passed Us” would not have felt out of place on the producer’s Ardour LP with its slightly shuffling kick pattern sidechaining a procession of blissful, noise-laced chords. This relationship between the kick drum and pads of noise is one that remains mostly unaltered throughout the EP, with the thud of low-end percussion used to stutter otherwise continuous sheets of fuzz on almost every track. While this is certainly not an underutilized production tool in present-day electronic music, Sons of the Morning employs the technique with a tasteful distance, using the rhythms created to give movement to what otherwise are actually mostly ambient compositions of densely stacked and processed samples. The tactic works particularly well on tracks like “A Dangerous Exploration of Bird Life”—an effort which sounds like it is in a constant state of changing its bit depth—and “The Way That Wind Moves Pt. 2,” a sparse cut which is initially reminiscent of Tri Angle acts such as Holy Other or Forest Swords, but eventually twists itself into slightly more psychedelic territory.
To those familiar with the sounds of both Teebs and Prefuse 73, the Sons of the Morning record doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises. The blissful, heady beats of the former producer meld with the more free-form, psychedelic whims of the latter to create music that meets somewhere in the middle. To the artists’ credit, the two styles suit each other nicely. However, those expecting the combination of Teebs and Prefuse 73 to be some sort of abstract, instrumental-beat dream team may find that Speak Soon Volume One does not live up to such lofty expectations. Taking the EP at face value seems to serve it best, as its delicate rhythms, understated textures, and immersive moods provide an interesting peek into Teebs’ maturing production abilities and prove to be the best thing veteran beatsmith Prefuse 73 has put his name to in quite some time.
Reading’s Allmostt is slowly amassing a decent following for his compacted, soulful bass music, and leading up to his next digital release, “B. Smith” (out soon via Bear Fresh, artwork above), we have the exclusive “Monsoon” track. Light bongos and a crackling, homesick keyboard falls into a slowly sidestepping beat, complete with taut whips of focused bass that grow in intensity. Allmostt’s intuitive rhythmic sense and restrained tempo guides this honed cut to an intriguing percussive groove.
Benoit & Sergio, the DC house duo of Benoit Simon and Benjamin Meyers, has proven itself particularly suited for its line of work. In short, Benoit & Sergio have a knack for churning out feel-good dance tracks that skirt the lines between house, techno, and pop, and the formula has garnered the act entries in the discographies of a respectable list of labels, including DFA, Hot Creations, Visionquest, Spectral Sound, and now, with the Adjustments EP, Droog’s Culprit imprint.
“Shake Shake” opens the record. There’s nothing moody or angular here, just the inflatable spring of a sunny house beat and the spiraling chant of “shake.” Leave it to these guys to sample an R&B diva like Mariah Carey and build a track around it that ultimately owes just as much to Nu Shooz or Tom Tom Club. Typically, sampling isn’t a trick so prominently deployed by Simon and Meyers, but here, it does the trick. “Shake Shake” eventually evolves from the lilting sway of the source material, gaining an assertive house thump only after the entry of an ’80s-infused synth bassline and spotless piano chords. The occasional interlude of heavily dubbed vocoder vocals and a second, less-identifiable sample tie up the mix, putting it somewhere between cheerful new wave and Jersey garage. The track may not have the lasting impact of Simon’s and Meyers’ more story-driven songwriting, but that doesn’t diminish its potential in a DJ set.
The EP’s title track is a more familiar Benoit & Sergio effort, at least on the surface. Lacing the intertwined pulse of a number of gossamer synth lines with the brush and tap of a bobbing drumbeat, “Adjustments” begins with the sort of elongated intro Simon and Meyers have used so many times before. Meyers’ breathy falsetto follows, taking up the duo’s preferred subject matter about club culture—”Sometimes I think the DJs don’t understand/We’ve been waiting around all week for this“—and love—”We just want to dance/And then walk home with the girl that we’ve met“—but instead of gaining a booming house heartbeat, “Adjustments” adds a few rich atmospheric flourishes and little else. Benoit & Sergio’s carefree take-drugs-and-dance attitude may not sit well with those who prefer a more intellectual bent to their electronic music, but it’s tough to deny the duo’s melodic sensibility and ability to navigate various sounds without losing its identity in the process.
French DJ/producer and Club Cheval co-founder Canblaster dropped his Infinite EP just last month via Parisian label Marble, and now, one of its synth-soaked cuts has been treated to a video courtesy of directors Eliza Struthers-Jobin and Thibaud Noyer. The visuals marry contemplative scenes of a lonesome girl strolling through forest scenery with grainy shots of someone playing the song’s plaintive piano melody. However, everything suddenly morphs into a series of non-sequitur, neon-charged figures. This quick juxtaposition works in tandem with Canblaster’s production, which switches from dreamy to heavy vibes at the same quick pace.
French producer Fulgeance has made it very clear over the years that he has little use for genre divisions or signifiers; instead, the man seems keen on constantly blurring as many lines as possible with his work. And just as album track “Stupido” indicates, it seems likely that Fulgeance’s forthcoming Cubes LP (out on October 14 via Musique Large) will follow along the same lines. The cut offered here incorporates bits of sharp beatwork, densely buzzing synths, and a funky bassline into one hard-to-categorize package.
Techno synthesist James Holden‘s latest full-length, The Inheritors, has been racking up acclaim from nearly every corner of the music world, certainly keeping the Border Community label-head busy these last few months. He’s currently in the midst of supporting Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace supergroup, after which he’ll be jetting off to Europe for a set of his own solo shows. Furthermore, Holden has just announced the release of a new 12″ that pulls a track from The Inheritors and supplements it with three alternate versions. With the titles “Tool,” “Dub,” and “Gibbersolo,” each variation of “Circle of Fifth” finds Holden slowly pulling the threads out of his single to discover which parts stand on their own. The record is due out via Border Community on November 11, but a stream of “Circle of Fifths (Tool),” as well as Holden’s upcoming tour dates, can be found below.
10/03: War Memorial Auditorium, Nashville, USA (Live – supporting Atoms For Peace) 10/04: Mutek, Mexico City, Mexico 10/05: Bar Americas, Guadalajara, Mexico 10/09: Pepsi Center, Mexico City, Mexico (Live – supporting Atoms For Peace) 10/10: Pepsi Center, Mexico City, Mexico (Live – supporting Atoms For Peace) 10/12: Norad, Denver, USA 10/13: Standard Hotel Rooftop, Los Angeles, USA 10/16: Hollywood Bowl, LA, USA (Live – supporting Atoms For Peace) 10/17: Santa Barbara Bowl, Santa Barbara, USA (Live – supporting Atoms For Peace) 10/26: Dhoem Dhaam Warehouse Party, Amsterdam, Netherlands 11/02: The Warehouse Project, Manchester, UK (DJ set) 11/07: Club to Club, Turin, Italy (Live) 11/08: Club to Club, Turin, Italy 11/10: Roundhouse Studio, London, UK 11/16: Kazimier, Liverpool, UK 11/23: Border Community x The Hydra, London, UK 11/30: Sonic City, Kortrijk, Belgium (Live) 11/30: Panorama Bar, Berlin, Germany 12/07: La Machine du Moulin Rouge, Paris, France (Live) 12/20: Kong, Munich, Germany 12/31: Abercombrie, Sydney, Australia 01/01: Let Them Eat Cake, Melbourne, Australia
