Khruangbin, the group of Laura Lee, Mark Speer, and Donald Johnson will release their fourth studio album in April.
A la Sala, which lands on Dead Oceans in partnership with Night Time Stories Ltd., is the “purest distillation” of the Houston trio’s sound, we’re told.
The building blocks for the album’s 12 songs were jigsaw pieces found in Khruangbin’s creative past. Having stockpiled ideas originally set down as off-the-cuff recordings (voice-memos made at sound-checks, for example) they began fitting those pieces together in the studio. Which parts were apt? Which could be massaged and stretched out? Which inspired new sections or rhythms or musical interactions?
Once again, Khruangbin’s DNA kicked in. Layer-by-layer, the intimate work, rework and re-rework bore new fruit. They also brought back a strategy once foundational to their records: seeding an album with field recordings.
If 2020’s Mordechai, the last studio album Khruangbin made without collaborators, was “a party record,” A La Sala is “the measured morning after,” we’re told.
Over recent years, Khruangbin have released a number of live and collaborative projects including Texas Moon, their second collaborative EP with Leon Bridges. Its predecessor, Texas Sun, came out in 2020.
Tracklisting
01. Fifteen Fifty-Three 02. May Ninth 03. Ada Jean 04. Farolim de Felgueiras 05. Pon Pón 06. Todavía Viva 07. Juegos y Nubes 08. Hold Me Up (Thank You) 09. Caja de la Sala 10. Three From Two 11. A Love International 12. Les Petits Gris
A la Sala LP is scheduled for April 5 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “A Love International” below and pre-order here.
As a fan of electronic music, the chances are high that you’ve experienced music touched by the hands of John Digweed, the head of Bedrock Records. Over a 40-plus-year career, Digweed, originating from Hastings, southern England, has put out more than 60 mix CDs, produced and remixed over 70 tracks, and played at the likes of Glastonbury and Coachella. He’s also shared more than one thousand episodes of his Transitions radio show, which is broadcast in over 80 countries worldwide to over 14 million people a week. But most recently he released Futuro, a collection of four eclectic mixes compiled of new and previously unreleased music coming from Marco Bailey, Nick Muir, Captain Musta, and more in celebration of 25 years of Bedrock.
For this week’s XLR8R podcast, Digweed has delivered a new mix, recorded before the turn of the year, and once again featuring music from his artist friends. To record it, he asked some of them to deliver one of their favorite tracks, then he mixed them together with his trademark unyielding precision. Press play for one hour of synth-heavy acid house from a master.
01. What have you been up to recently? Touring Japan, Bali, Greece, and Ibiza, as well as putting the final touches to the new Futuro album project.
02. What have you been listening to? Running a record label, most of my spare time is spent listening to demos sent in for consideration for being released on my Bedrock label.
03. Where and when did you record this mix? As I travel around the world in hotel rooms and also at home.
04. What setup did you use? I use Ableton live to put all my mix albums together
05. How did you choose the tracks that you’ve included? I reached out to some of my favorite producers as well as artists I admire and requested a track from them. Once I had all the tracks in I set about compiling and making the tracks work as a complete album.
06. Where do you imagine it being listened to? I would imagine this album would be listened to in cars, headphones, and at home. I have done over 60 mix albums now and have a loyal fanbase of fans who support these projects.
XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below.If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.
Tracklsting
01. Apaull “Dogma” (Abe Duque remix) (Furnace Room Records) 02. Radio Slave vs Audion “Mouth to Mouth” (Rekids) 03. 8kays “Lyra” (Watergate Records) 04. Oliver Huntemann “Paralleluniversum” (Senso Sounds) 05. d.digger “Mondrakete” (Lucid Flow) 06. Franky and Sandrino “Comportamento” (Sum Over Histories) 07. Rodriguez Jr. “Alraegadir” (Bedrock Records) 08. Solique “Lights” (Sum Over Histories) 09. Four Candles “Don’t Talk About” (Bedrock Records) 10. Madden “That Ending Track” (Bedrock Records)
Casier, a 33-year-old Danish singer, songwriter, and producer has built a cult following with her 2019 debut album, Essentials, and she built on that designation with 2021’s Sensational, her first for 4AD.
Still, her third album, is “classic de Casier,” we’re told, with her idiosyncratic mix of luxuriant electronica and moonlit R&B.
Her songwriting is as masterful and universal as ever, and her proficiency as a producer heightened as she produces other voices including They Hate Change, Shygirl, and Blood Orange for the first time.
She also invites new collaborators, working with live musicians in addition to samples.
N, co-producer of Essentials and Sensational, returns here, but added to the fold are Jonathan Jull Ludvigsen, Carl Emil Johansen, Niels Kirk, Christian Rhode Lindinger, Nick León, and more.
Tracklisting
01. Right This Way 02. Home Alone 03. Lucky 04. The Princess 05. Erika de Casier feat. They Hate Change 06. Test It 07. ooh 08. Believe It 09. Anxious 10. Ex-Girlfriend feat. Shygirl 11. Toxic 12. My Day Off 13. Erika de Casier feat. Blood Orange 14. Someone
Still LP is scheduled for February 21 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Lucky” below and pre-order here.
Will Long is an American artist who curates and manages the label Two Acorns. He has been producing music since 2005, in various forms under his own name for DJ Sprinkles’ Comatonse Recordings, and as Celer for his own label and many others.
He debuts on Scissor and Thread with Too Much.
The lead track is a lush, loose deep jam that combines wistful, warm pads with an insistent groove and choice samples.
“A midnight meditation of intentional simplicity, strained, and on that night train,” says Long.
Francis Harris steps up to provide one of his signature reforms, adding a little more percussion and drive to the track, while DJ Aakmael (a.k.a Greg Stewart) offers up another version that takes the track even deeper, adding some additional instrumentation and raw sounds.
For more information on Francis Harris, check out his XLR8R feature here and his podcast here.
Tracklisting
01. Too Much 02. Too Much (Francis Harris Reform) 03. Too Much (DJ Aakmael Remix)
Too Much EP is scheduled for January 26 digital release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream the lead cut below.
Australian-Icelandic producer Ben Frost will release a new album in March on Mute.
Scope Neglect is Frost’s sixth studio album and his first in seven years.
With Scope Neglect, Frost ventures into “new sonic territories,” we’re told. Across eight tracks, featuring collaborations with Greg Kubacki from Car Bomb and Liam Andrews of My Disco, Frost blends the intensity of metal with introspective, minimalist influences.
“It’s a journey of contrasts, where raw power meets ethereal delicacy,” Mute says, “narrated through Frost’s unique lens of cyclic themes, mathematical structures, and mythic storytelling.”
Frost’s artistic footprint extends beyond music to film, television, and opera. He released The Centre Cannot Hold, his last album, in 2017.
Tracklisting
01. Lamb Shift 02. Chimera 03. The River Of Light And Radiation 04. 1993 05. Turning The Prism 06. Load Up On Guns, Bring Your Friends 07. Tritium Bath 08. Unreal In The Eyes Of The Dead
Scope Neglect LP is scheduled for March 1 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “The River Of Light And Radiation” in full via the player below and pre-order here.
Four Tet has released the first single from his new album.
“Loved” lands on the UK producer’s own Text Records label after he teased the track on his social channels last week.
No other information on the album has been released yet, but it will be Four Tet’s 12th and his first since 2020, when he released Sixteen Oceans and Parallel. He also issued 871under his 00110100 01010100 alias the same year.
Towards the end of last year, AshTreJinkins—the Fresno, Los Angeles beat-maker, producer, and rapper—released IT’S TRASH NOW on the mighty Leaving Records. It’s an album of lo-fi, gritty jams but it’s also “a screed, a manifesto, a series of abstracted diary entries, and/or a catalog of feelings experienced in half-remembered dreams.” It’s the latest evolution of an artist who has gone through various iterations, though Low End Theory, where he cut his teeth as a DJ-producer, low-end hip-hop, techno, and experimental and left-field deep house. Whatever it is, it’s masterfully proceed—each release little known treasure in its genre. (That includes “Love Fast,” a track he contributed to XLR8R+) IT’S TRASH NOW is no different, and for this week’s podcast AshTreJinkins has stepped away from his usual house and techno DJ sets to spin us some of the records that lie behind it: Vladislav Delay, Space Afrika, Andreas Tilliander, and more. So, kick back for just under an hour of vaporous ambient and dub-wise rhythms.
01. What have you been up to recently? I was in Los Angeles recently catching up with family and friends. I had a show and decided to extend my trip to catch up with people before I vanish for a while.
02. What have you been listening to? Lately, I’ve been listening to Vladislav Delay’s Multila album, and the score for “Deep Red” by Goblin. I’m pretty obsessed with that score!
03. How was your 2023? It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. I’m very glad my IT’S TRASH NOW album is out, and I’m glad I made Dakim say “wtf was that track you played” after my set. Really the only two highlights of that year!
04. When and where did you record this mix? In my bedroom with FL Studio 21. I just faded the tracks in and out; it was a simple process.
05. What setup did you use? Just FL studio 21 and my mouse.
06. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included? I chose those tracks to show the many influences of the album I dropped so people can get an idea of where the inspiration came from. I have been listening to those artists for the last three years.
07. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live? It doesn’t compare honestly. I usually get booked for house or techno sets or “beats” sets. The only time I played a set similar to this mix is when I played Sustain Release in New York in 2021. Actually, I played a set similar to this when I played a show for the In Sheeps Clothings and Motion Ward showcase. So, only twice have I played a set similar to this mix.
08. What’s next on your horizon? More techno and house records from me that I’m releasing with a few solid record labels. I would love to say who but I don’t think I can leak that information just yet. I’m also starting my own record label called Buried Light. I have been slowly working on my next Apron Records release, too.
XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below.If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.
Ólafur Arnalds has launched a new label called OPIA with a new single from Sofi Paez, a pianist and composer born in San José, Costa Rica.
Paez experiments with piano, voice, and electronic elements in search for new ways of expression in her roots, using both the Spanish and English language. Her pieces are often inspired by daily life and the nature that surrounds her. In 2023 Paez garnered widespread interest upon releasing her debut EP, Circles.
On “Por qué,” the first taste of her new album, Silent Stories, Paez grapples with the profound loss of a loved one. The intersection of the delicate piano, dark synthesizers, and haunting vocals in her native Spanish creates a unique and emotionally charged sonic landscape.
On Silent Stories, Paez captures the simultaneous existence of happiness and sadness, love and fear, hopefulness and grief.
“Within each of us lies a unique story—a collection of inner struggles that we conceal, silent battles that can often go unnoticed,” Paez says. “These challenges subtly infiltrate our lives, yet they never deter us from pressing forward. Somehow, we discover the resilience to continue, repeatedly finding the strength to keep on going.”
“Over the past three years, I’ve dedicated myself to crafting this album,” Paez continues. “The stories within these songs unfolded slowly, witnessing the numerous changes I have faced and many different landscapes. Now, these songs are ready. These, dear listeners, are my silent stories.”
Born out of Arnalds’ desire to create an environment that encourages experiments and collaboration, OPIA was originally founded in 2019 as a one-day festival. Today it is focused on strengthening the scene where modern-classical music meets electronic.
DJ Lucky, real name Lashawn Riley, will release his debut album on Teklife.
Triple 7 follows on from “Rupees,” a single featuring PlainJames released in October. It features DJ Manny, Taso, and Weezy, and delivers “pure modern footwork tailor-made for the dancers,” we’re told, “but with tons of rave-friendly sonics in-between.”sonics
We’re also told that at times the vibe on the album is soulful, but other times it’s eerie. And that the synth work is “masterfully crafted” throughout the album, with lots of trance-inducing arpeggios.
DJ Lucky previously released “Welcome to the Party” on Teklife’s ON LIFE volume 3 compilation.
Tracklisting
01. War feat. DJ Manny 02. G.B.G.W feat. Taso 03. Your Emotions feat. Khodi.ell 04. Spazz Out 05. Hit Da Flo feat. WEEZY 06. Lost Without U 07. 1366 08. Gawd 09. Trance X 10. Demon Time
Triple7 LP is scheduled for January 12 release. We’ll add pre-order links as they become available.
Skee Mask has shared a new batch of archival tracks via his Bandcamp page.
C is the third batch of previously unreleased tracks that the Munich, Germany DJ-producer has shared since March 2022. B was released in December 2022 and A landed some months earlier.
All of these tracks were made between 2016 and 2020, and they’re all unmastered.
Tracklisting
01. MDP2 02. Bassline Dub 03. Keygruv 04. Aktif Garbon 05. FFB7 Dub 06. One For Vertigo 07. Minitx 08. 11616 09. Blok 10. Pitchacid 11. thnk u
C is available digitally now with a full stream below.
