Berlin-based singer/musician Perera Elsewhere recently signed with the reliable Friends of Friends label, and is preparing to release her debut LP, Everlast, on October 28. Before then, she dropped her Bizarre EP, a four-track record featuring rexmies from Hype Williams, Friends of Friends labelmate Kyson, and, featured here, Canadian DJ/producer Nautiluss. His version of “Bizarre” completely submerges the original song in a sterile veil, adorning the sounds in subtle low frequencies and cold, reverb-saturated rimshots. Perera Elsewhere’s low-register vocals are strewn out of place by Nautiluss, as his percolating synths and elongated bell tones give the track a subdued vibe. For those interested, the video for the original version of “Bizarre” can be seen after the jump.
After his recent announcement of North American and European tour dates, Amsterdam producer Tom Trago has shared a new video for the single “True Friends,” a collaborative tune with Breach from Trago’s forthcomingThe Light Fantastic LP (out on October 21 via Rush Hour). The video follows a circular and surreal narrative, tracking the movements of the sharply dressed Dutch artist as he encounters increasingly strange and threatening people while leaving an office building. Slow-motion edits and extensively meditative shots explicate Breach’s metallic vocals, as his words float over Trago’s gummy synth stabs and disco-house beats.
We’re certain that the demand for the finely honed production skills of Hudson Mohawke (pictured above) is nearing critical mass at this point, but that doesn’t mean we’re not happy to hear whatever new sounds the Glaswegian artist has cooked up. And we can do just that today, as he’s delivered a brand-new remix for fellow Warp signee Jackson and His Computerband. “Vista (Hudson Mohawke Remix)” is a starry-eyed, anthemic version of a track lifted from the recently released Glow, producer Jackson Fourgeaud’s second album for Warp. HudMo goes through a number of glowing, synth-driven stages on his rework, but fear not, his trademarked oversized beats do eventually make a couple of satisfying appearances. The track can be streamed in full below, before it drops as part of Jackson and His Computerband’s four-track G.I. Jane (Fill Me Up) EP on November 11.
Though his most recent release was a solid EP of “warehouse techno” for Tiga’s unstoppable Turbo imprint, London DJ/producer Randomer will once again return to Untold’s Hemlock label to drop a new 12″ at the end of this month. As Juno Plus describes it, the two-track “Bring” b/w “Curtains” record is said to exhibit “an icier, slightly deranged side to Randomer”; a press release calls the b-side track “a slo-mo steppers cut that’s darker and sparser than George Osborne’s mailbox on Valentines.” Hemlock will issue the 12″ on September 27.
The time has come again to wrap up all that’s happened this week in the world of production technology, including Ableton’s Live 9.1 beta upgrade, Akai’s new line of studio monitors, Reloop’s new keyboard controller, and why iOS music makers should wait to upgrade their iPhones and iPads to iOS 7.
Earlier this week, Ableton beta released the first major update to the Berlin company’s Live software. Live 9.1 is said to fix a number of bugs from the previous version and boasts new features, including the ability for dual-monitor support, improved audio rendering capabilities, and—for Push users—adds melodic step-sequencing capabilities to the controller. The videos above show off Push’s new feature and address the technology behind the update’s improved audio rendering. More details of the Live 9.1 upgrade can be found here, while those interested in joining the beta release of the program should head here.
Speaking of Ableton, London’s Point Blank Music School concluded its Nine Lives of Ableton video tutorial series this week. Launched back in July, the series was put together to provide beginning Ableton users with a comprehensive base knowledge in order to start producing with the program. The final episode—which focuses on finishing a mix and mastering—can be watched above, and the entire series can be found here.
This week, Akai announced the forthcoming release of two new models of studio reference monitors, the RPM500 and the RPM800. Both sets are self-powered and are said to “handle extremely busy modern mixes with ease, allowing you to mix tons of layers with clarity and precision.” The RPM500 boasts 90 watts of power at a price tag of $599.99 and the RPM800 comes in with 120 watts of power and a price tag of $799.99. The speakers will hit stores starting next month.
Another week, and another controller has hit the scene, with Reloop—the company behind the intriguing Tape mix recorder—introducing the Keyfadr (pictured above). The unit appears to be a compact MIDI controller which brings to the table its interpretation of the mini-keyboard-plus-basic-controls type controller, but also includes a few interesting additions, like an onboard arpeggiator with a variety of modes (which can sync to either an internal or external MIDI clock) and a chord feature which allows users to play chords using only one key. The ultimate pricing and release date for the Keyfadr is yet to be announced, but more details on the unit can be found here.
And lastly, as many iPhone and iPad users are likely well aware, Apple released an upgrade to its mobile operating system, iOS 7, this week, and with that upgrade, a slew of problems have plagued audio and music-making apps within the mobile devices. Fortunately, the good folks at Create Digital Music took some time to breakdown why things are not quite working yet, letting iOS music makers know that waiting to upgrade may be their best bet. The site’s full article can be read here.
Following our recent conversation with Brooklyn-based house experimentalist Anthony Naples, the rising artist’s fledgling Proibito label has announced its next release, a three-song EP by fellow Brooklyn up-and-comer Hank Jackson. And along with the details of that record, we’re also treated to a full stream of its music. Jackson’s Palee Hit EP follows a few months after his inaugural 12″ for Mister Saturday Night, and finds the DJ/producer continuing to explore a similar strain of those rough, analog dancefloor sounds. Though we’re not sure when it will be released, the Palee Hit EP can be heard in its entirety below. (via Juno Plus)
We’ve got a lot of reasons to be excited about this week’s edition of Press Play. Namely, artists such as The Knife, Dusky, Skream, Clark, Daphni, Bodhi, Salva, Fort Romeau, George FitzGerald, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Call Super dropped fresh remixes, records streams, music videos, free downloads, and more this week. It’s quite a bit to take in, so we suggest that everyone gets to clicking on those play buttons after the jump.
Frequent collaborator with The Knife, Planningtorock reworked the Swedish duo’s “Full of Fire” single from Shaking the Habitual, calling her new track “Let’s Talk About Gender Baby, Let’s Talk About You And Me.”
Here’s an unexpected—albeit excellent—remix of Nine Inch Nails’ “Find My Way” by Brooklyn sound experimentalist Oneohtrix Point Never.
Check out our premiere of “It’s Alright (Salva’s Synth Pop Remix)” from Matt & Kim’s forthcoming Lightning Remixes album (out on October 1).
Dusky’s Careless EP for Aus is set to arrive next week, but before then, we can stream all of three of its deep, club-ready house tracks.
We’ve heard the original version and we’ve seen the music video, and now we can listen to Jimmy Edgar’s remix of Skream’s disco-leaning “Rollercoaster” single.
This dense and gritty production arrives today from Bubblin’ Up Irish producer The Cyclist, who remixed George FitzGerald’s big-room house single “I Can Tell (By the Way You Move)” into a wonderfully smeared dancefloor tune of a whole other breed.
The same week he was featured in our Rewind series, longstanding Warp producer Clark shared a full stream of his 28-track, two-disc Feast/Beast remix collection.
We’ve all probably heard the song before, but now, “Ye Ye,” the lively single producer by Dan Snaith under his Daphni moniker, can now be downloaded for absolutely free.
The latest single to drop from Close’s recent Getting Closer LP, the sultry “Wallflower” tune recently got a remix from busy Swedish DJ/producer Deetron, and we’re happy to be premiering his work today.
Fort Romeau has been keeping fairly busy lately, and his latest bit of production work to surface is this smooth remix of “Head” by Gent Mason.
Before Bodhi releases its latest EP via Australian outpost Future Classic, the Cardiff duo shares a full stream of a-side cut “Impefection.”
Check out a patently slick and inventive music video from Glaswegian visual artist Konx-om-Pax, who crafted these strange sci-fi visuals for Alex Smoke’s new “Dust” single for R&S.
Up-and-coming producer Call Super just released his impressive Black Octagons EP via Houndstooth, and is now sharing a full stream of the three cuts of raw, immersive techno which comprise that record.
Released a few months ago via Mixpak, Murlo & Famous Eno’s “Ariel” single recently got the “VIP Mix” treatment, which can be heard in this new video created by Murlo himself.
Portland low-end specialist EPROM has announced his follow-up to last year’s Metahuman LP, an album called Halflife which is set to arrive via Dutch label Rwina. “Subroc,” a quick cut from the forthcoming release, finds EPROM spinning his warped, idiosyncratic beats into a slurring soundscape. Using vintage computing, African rhythms, southern rap, and electronic pioneers like Richard Devine and Curtis Roads as reference points, “Subroc” shows the producer’s insistence on mining the depths of the dark and heavy ends of the bass spectrum. Before Halflife‘s October 14 release, the album’s tracklist and artwork can be found after the jump.
01. Center of the Sun 02. Beasts of Babylon 03. Hurricane 04. Vogel 05. Super FX 06. Lost Levels 07. Screwface 08. Machine Skin 09. Pentatonic Dust 10. Moisture 11. Turtle Ride 12. Subroc 13. Cloud Leanmixx
Grecian duo Keep Shelly in Athens has received a lot of love over the past few years, largely thanks to the just-right combination of producer R??’s dream-swept synth atmospherics and vocalist Sarah P’s airy coo. Following EPs for Forest Family and UK powerhouse Planet Mu, and even a split cassette single with Disclosure, the dream-pop-obsessed pair is expanding its sonic palette on its first full-length album, At Home.
It’s evident across the LP’s 14 songs that R?? is aiming to push past the atmospheric boundaries that have largely defined the group to this point. “Time Exists Only To Betray Us,” which kicks off the album, immediately hints at the duo’s buried stadium ambitions, putting a quick-running arpeggio and barreling drumbeat behind a strong vocal melody that has the “wet” knob dialed back to five instead of its usual eight or nine. Elsewhere, “Higher” offers another welcome change, as R?? makes good use of a chopped-up vocal against a surprisingly rumpled rhythm. In the album’s second half, power ballad “Sails” finds Sarah P crafting an elegant vocal line against a swimming, evocative wall of sparkling pads, while penultimate track “Hover” shows that she can inject some attitude into her vocals when necessary.
However, such moments of excitement and newness are too few on At Home, as Keep Shelly in Athens relies too often on a combination of well-trodden drum patterns and stock sounds that occasionally scream “preset.” Several tracks on the album utilize a booming, ’80s snare drum that serves to distract from the more interesting sonic textures that lay waiting underneath. It’s an odd choice for a forward-thinking producer like R??, as though he settled on a sound that was to be eventually replaced and never got around to it. Dream pop is rarely celebrated for its attention to melody, as it usually places texture and atmosphere higher up on the totem poll, but At Home would have benefitted from a few more melodies that were capable of sticking with the listener past the album’s running time.
Anonymous producers are now as common as white earbuds, but while most of them prefer to be enigmatic and mysterious, the duo known as CTEPEO ’57 (which translates to STEREO ’57) is a goofy, cheeky pair that insists “the Cold War isn’t over, and Russian astronauts landed on Mars in the late ’90s to discover something truly amazing.” That kind of playfulness is exhibited in the group’s new track “Space Race,” taken from The Missouri Breaks EP due out on October 22 via Tartelet. Splashy hi-hat rhythms and analog kick drums immediately place the song squarely on the dancefloor, but as the arrangement unravels, an array of off-kilter details slowly trickle in. Reverberating pan percussion and mellow Rhodes chords are supplemented by quick, jazzy piano fills, keeping “Space Race” rhythmically engaging while it maintains its place on the lighter side of house music.
