Ghostly Announces Next ‘SMM’ Compilation

Ann Arbor’s Ghostly label is set to release a follow-up to 2011’s SMM: Context compilation, a collection of ambient, minimalist, and drone-focused work that introduced a handful of artists from outside the label’s usual roster. SMM: Opiate is the second in the series, will feature contributions from artists such as Simon Scott (pictured above), Jim Haynes, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, and Fieldhead, among others, and is said to be “evocative of the opiated sensation evoked by the record’s title.” Before SMM: Opiate is released on October 28 in CD, vinyl, and digital formats, its artwork and tracklist can be viewed below. (via Resident Advisor)

01. Simon Scott – Water Shadow
02. A Winged Victory for the Sullen – Ti Prego Memory Man
03. Celer – Nothing So Mystical
04. Black Swan – Passings, Heartbreak
05. Jim Haynes – This is Radio Sweden
06. EN – White
07. Pjusk – Dorsk
08. Fieldhead – 37th
09. Noveller – Bright Clouds Bloom

Mayster “The Story of Us”*Sci-Fi & Fantasy*

NYC DJ/producer and resident of Brooklyn’s TURRBOTAX® party, Mayster is due to follow up previous work for Dutty Artz and Ghostly with a proper debut, the Premise EP. The three-track release finds the artist exploring equal parts chugging, industrial techno and classic Chicago warehouse vibes. Record closer “The Story of Us” is a stripped-down psychosexual tale of love and lust, with a distinctly old-school production aesthetic which boasts a thumping 4/4, simple analog-synth atmospherics, and a bit of tongue-in-cheek dialog. Premise will drop on August 20 via Brooklyn label Sci-Fi & Fantasy, but before then, a preview of its three cuts can be streamed after the jump.

The Story of Us

Check Out Disclosure’s ‘Essential Mix’

Over the weekend, Disclosure became the latest act to contribute to BBC Radio 1’s venerable Essential Mix series, turning in a two-hour mix of the UK duo’s eclectic selections. Describing the set as comprised mainly of influences, Disclosure’s Essential Mix opens with a section dedicated to J Dilla and Detroit hip-hop, before heading into more familiar house and garage territory with selections from the likes of Moodymann, Mike Huckaby, George Fitzgerald, T. Williams, and Paul Woolford. The DJ set also includes new music from Breach, Dusky, and New York Transit Authority, and can be streamed in the player below. Alternately, Disclosure’s Essential Mix can be heard over on the BBC Radio 1 website, here, where its full tracklist can also be found.

Download a New Mix from Oneman

Top-tier London DJ, Rinse FM regular, and all-around grime specialistOneman is the latest artist to helm a podcast for Resident Advisor. His RA.376 mix is a diverse one, ranging from the work of veterans like Todd Edwards, Zed Bias, and MJ Cole to younger, genre-bending producers like Sophie, Lil Silva, and Redinho. Oneman’s selections are all on-point regardless, even though he describes the whole thing as being “pretty off the cuff” in his interview with Resident Advisor. That Q&A and the nearly hour-long DJ set can be found here.

In the Studio: Blondes

With the release of its second full-length album, Swisher, earlier this month via RVNG, New York duo Blondes (a.k.a. Sam Haar and Zach Steinman) has further boosted its reputation as an outfit capable of crafting uniquely dense and enveloping house tracks. With an army of hardware at its disposal, the pair has built up a signature sound that pulls together an almost incalculable number of wandering synth tones alongside lush layers of FX processing, resulting in productions that are engrossingly vast and almost limitless in their sonic width. Given that, XLR8R was curious to see how exactly Blondes puts its tunes together, so we visited the duo’s modest Williamsburg studio to chat about turning knobs, signal flow, and recording live jams: of course, we also took a peek at the pair’s keenly picked synth collection.

XLR8R: How long have you guys had your studio in this space?

Zach Steinman: About a year and a half.

Sam Haar: We used to have a spot in what was basically an art studio, which didn’t sound as good, but was nicer in a way—there was a window. But then other artists would also be in the studio, and there was no sound separation.

ZS: We’d get a little self-conscious, and we weren’t allowed to make as much sound as we wanted. You could hear someone in the other room painting or coughing, while we’d just be listening to a loop forever. [Laughs]

SH: It’s so hard to find a place to in New York where you can play loud at any time of day, so we moved to one of these little shitty cave rooms in this complex now, but we have 24-hour access and license to make noise.

A lot of your studio is built around hardware. Did you guys start producing on hardware, or did you move in that direction after having produced for a while?

SH: I started making electronic music on hardware a long time ago, probably around 1998. So, some of the pieces of hardware I have are actually leftover from collecting over the years, and then some were bought at moments where I had some money and just felt I needed some more gear. But I was also a laptop musician for a little while, so I’ve gone back and forth.

ZS: I came to hardware after playing instruments for a while. I had steadily gotten more into electronic music, and after college I started slowly building my collection of hardware pieces.

And how do you guys usually end up acquiring those pieces? Do you have any shops you go to, or are you more eBay/Craigslist people?

SH: Some of it is from eBay, some of it is from Sweetwater—we do buy stuff new. Getting nice vintage stuff is great too, but there’s a really nice assurance in having new gear. And a lot of our stuff is MIDI’d up too, so that’s usually easier with newer gear.

Is most of your gear MIDI-synced together, or are there pieces like, say, the Juno-6 that you don’t use MIDI with?

SH: Yeah, you actually have to use a CV converter with that.

ZS: But we really don’t sync the Juno. It’s definitely more fun to let [that keyboard] run free. [Laughs]

But for the most part, all of the pieces that can be MIDI synced together are?

SH: Yeah, definitely. And it’s the same when we play live. There isn’t that much of a difference between our studio set-up and our live set-up actually.

Are you ever worried that you’re going to damage some of your studio pieces by touring with it?

SH: All the time. [Laughs]

ZS: Luckily we don’t bring our mixers with us on tour, because aside from being really hard to lug around, they are also really easy to break.

Are there any particular pieces of hardware that are the staples of the sound on your new record, or did you find yourselves jumping around a lot?

SH: We pretty much used all the synths all the time.

ZS: Yeah, the Juno was used for a lot of the arpeggiations, and just to generate noise. I’d run the Juno into the Doepfer Dark Energy [synthesizer] a lot, and use that as a filter. I’d usually run the MFB Drum Computer through the Doepfer as well, so there’s a lot of that on the record. The MFB bass drum is all over the album; it has a nice 808-style bass drum.

SH: I used the Prophet-8 and this old digital Novation synth a lot on the album, usually synced up together for arpeggiators, chords, and stuff. When they are synced up, you can get three different layers playing the same line at once.

ZS: We ended up sampling the [Korg] M1 a lot on the record. We’d sample into the [Elektron] Octarack and the MPC even. On [the album track] “Elise,” the sitar sound is the M1, and the organ bassline sound.

SH: The M1 has those classic, early-’90s sounds on it.

And is that a synth leftover from your early days of producing?

SH: Randomly, my dad’s friend had it and said, “Hey, I’d think you’d like this.” Of course, I was like, “Yeah, totally!” I’ve heard some of those classic Depeche Mode choir sounds came from the M1, but—honestly—when I play around on it, all I can think of is the X-Files soundtrack—it all sounds like it was made on the M1. [Laughs]

How does your signal flow work then? Do all the synths hit the mixer and then the mixer feeds the audio into the computer to get recorded?

SH: When we record, we play [the songs] live, and everything goes through the mixers—we each have our own mixer that we use. The mixers are kind of the centerpoint of our set-up. Both of us have all the synths coming into the mixer, and the FXs and pedals on FX sends, and I’ll also have the MPC broken out into lots of different channels and going directly to the mixer. It’s kind of the same way that dub producers used to do it in a way, using the mixer to route the signals live and really doing a lot of the performance on the mixer. So when we track, we just take direct out from channel and just multitrack [record] that way.

And all of the songs on Swisher are live performances that were then recorded?

SH: Yeah, all of them are. We’d track live takes—something like 20 channels at a time. On this record, we definitely went back and mixed and edited a lot too.

ZS: We also took some live takes and then chopped those back up and put them into our samplers to then make something new out of that; kind of different iterations of those jams.

SH: Yeah, exactly. That’s how we usually work—we play with all our channels running, multitrack that, and then work from there.

It sounds like you each have your own stations and instruments that you control in the songs?

SH: Definitely, we each have our side of the table. Mine is on the right, mainly the MPC and the Prophet-8, and Zach is the left, with the Juno and the Octatrack.

Where do most of your drum sounds come from? You had mentioned the MFB Drum Computer earlier, but are the MPC and the Octatrack also contributing drum sounds as well?

ZS: It’s all three really. There are a lot of samples in the Octatrack and MPC, and then the MFB is used with those as well.

So are you guys just always recording your jams and filling up hard drives until you get something you like?

ZS: Not as much as we should probably. We should be tracking more, but we kind of have to get into the mindset of doing that sometimes.

SH: Usually, we’ll start out just generating loops that we like and layers that we can use, and then we start jamming with those. First, you have to get together the building blocks and the seed of the idea, and then you can start jamming off of that.

ZS: A lot of times, each of us will work on our own to start the ideas, and then we’ll bring them together and build them together.

During these jams, how much of what you’re doing is triggering samples and such as opposed to you actually playing a keyboard line or tapping out a drum part on the fly?

SH: There are samples, but there are actually more sequences that we bring in and out as well as keyboard playing and a lot of knob turning, filtering, and manipulating the FX sends.

And where do the return of the FXs go? Back into the board on a return channel?

SH: They usually come back on a normal channel on the mixer. That’s part of the fun of it—you can create more complex FX routing depending on what you want to do.

ZS: Yeah, you can send something to the delay, and then from the mixer put that delay back through something else—it makes it really easy to make a chain.

How long did it take you two to become comfortable with a set-up like that? Had you used professional recording equipment before or had any training?

ZS: It’s definitely taken a while.

SH: Yeah, when we first started playing, it was much more simple. Then we slowly started adding more gear, and as we got more comfortable, we continued expanding. There was a learning curve, but it’s something we’ve gotten better at by playing over the past five years.

ZS: One of the harder parts of playing that way is getting a good mix and not letting levels rise too high, just because there are so many things to think about.

SH: It can definitely be a sort of acrobatic balancing act at times. [Laughs]

But that’s part of the fun too, right?

SH: Absolutely. And the sort of flexibility it allows for is really part of the fun because when you are playing live, you’ll often come up with an entirely new thing that you’ve never done before. Even a whole new network of routing, like, “Oh, I never ran that thing through that pedal.” It can be really dynamic and open to improvisation.

Are those tricks things you remember just from doing it so often, or do you guys ever write down notes or anything like that?

SH: Definitely the latter. When you do it enough, you sort of build up a repertoire of tricks in your bag.

ZS: Usually, you remember what worked. If you’re playing live, you especially need to remember.

How many of these jams would you say get recorded but then don’t end up on a record?

ZS: Making this LP, we had a few. But that kind of playing is really generative in a different way than usual. So when you’re tracking, it’s because you realize you’ve got something.

SH: And you have more predetermined sequences that you’re working with as well.

So you kind of have a sketch in your head before you start recording?

SH: Not exactly. We’ll maybe have a sketch of what we’re using, but not where we will end up going with it.

Is there ever a discussion before you start recording where you lay out guidelines, or is it more just left to improvisation?

SH: Sometimes we do, but mostly it comes from working on the track before recording it.

ZS: But tracks like “Eon” were totally improvised, totally in the moment. It definitely varies. There are times when we’ll have ran something and one of us will say, “Oh, I liked when you did that after I did this,” and then we’ll try to do that again.

In the interview that accompanied your recent Resident Advisor mix, you said, “We worked on all tracks simultaneously and then the album slowly revealed itself.”

SH: Well, we had ideas for a bunch of different tracks, and we were working on them all at the same time.

ZS: Yeah, we finished them all on the same day, actually. But we’d come to a new place with a certain track, and then move on to a different track until we got that to a new place, and that’s how the album slowly revealed itself.

SH: We worked on all the sequences, loops, and content for all of the tracks first, then we tracked everything, and then we started editing everything. We’d sort of be bouncing back and forth between every track, but they’d all be in the same part of the process.

ZS: We even had a color-coding system for the tracks as we were working—red status was “not very far along,” blue status was “getting there and ready to be mixed” and then green status was “good to go.” [Laughs]

And when you say you “finished” all the songs in the same day, do you mean that each track came to a conclusion on the same day, not that you recorded, edited, and mixed the album all in one day?

SH: No, no. We were editing and mixing them all at the same time, so the day we started saying, “Oh this track was done,” we were able to do that with all of the album. We were actually working on deadline, so it kind of had to be that way.

How does your mixdown process work? Is there a lot of EQing and compression that you are doing in the computer?

SH: Well, we track into Logic, and then we did a combination of mixing in the box and then sending stuff to outboard gear. It was fun to do that, summing some tracks using outboard gear, and then deciding to sum the other elements in the computer. I think summing tracks in the box or in outboard gear sounds really different, so we could play with that. You can level things out really well in the gear, but keep it more three-dimensional in Logic. The EQs and compression we did on the computer is pretty transparent; definitely more scientific, getting rid of specific frequencies and such. When we use the EQs on the mixers, it’s much more for general shaping, like we want the highs to come out a bit to add a little bit more mid-range. On tracks like “Andrew,” which got pretty dense, there was a lot more scientific, in-the-box EQ going on.

And when you say you were summing stuff to outboard gear, you mean that you were sending stems out to hardware compressors and such?

SH: Yeah, we’d maybe make a group of synths, like eight channels or something, and sum it down to two tracks and have fun with it, like run it through this crappy little mixer box we had and some parallel compression and then bring it all back in.

ZS: Just grouping sounds and running them through the same FX channel or process really colors the sound in a new way.

SH: It sort of solidifies them into a new texture.

And were you guys tweaking knobs and stuff on these FXs while you were recording them back in, similarly to when you were playing the tracks live?

ZS: Yeah, we sometimes would get really performative with that sort of stuff, almost like it was an overdub.

SH: We might think a clap was a little static or something and decide to play with a flanger effect or something while we were mixing it.

But you don’t do a lot of automation within Logic?

SH: Not really. Sometimes we’ll automate levels, but for the most part, if it’s not part of the scientific or transparent stuff that we want, we usually won’t automate on the computer.

And how long does it usually take you to mix a song?

SH: A few days, but we’d sort of go back and forth between editing and mixing as we were going. Those processes kind of inform each other. But once we’re in the computer, we really only try to use content that we tracked in, because once you’re in there, you can work on it forever. It’s nice to give yourself limitations like that, it helps just get the job done.

Do you guys make any attempt to build an atmosphere in your studio? You have some plants and pictures and such, but is having the room “right” something that affects how you work?

ZS: Well, I think we could make most anyplace work, but it is just nice to have plants around, to feel comfortable.

SH: There aren’t any windows in here, so the plants are just there to help make it not feel like you are in a box or a cave, and they improve the air quality a lot too.

ZS: Also, we have a grow light that is set to a timer, so you know whether it’s nighttime or daytime.

SH: It just helps us not feel crazy. [Laughs]

Purple Velvet “She Took Your Love”**

Chris James and Lee Dearn make up UK duo Purple Velvet, and the two appear to have a penchant for the kind of lush, deeper side of house that seems to always be welcome on a dancefloor somewhere. On their track “She Took Your Love,” James and Dearn introduce a nice, overdriven kick into a spritely disco groove before carving out space for a sensual, minimal chord progression. And the devil lurks in the details here: white noise creeps into the chords cautiously while the synthesizer’s release is continuously shortened, adding some nice subtle variance. Percussion embellishments help move the track along, too, and though it’s not particularly dynamic or adventurous, Purple Velvet’s tune displays a style of classic house that could easily fill a room.

She Took Your Love

Moderat II

Together as Moderat, Modeselektor (a.k.a. Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian “Charlie” Szary) and Apparat (a.k.a. Sascha Ring) are a modern-day electronic-music supergroup, one with a legion of loyal fans and a deserved reputation for quality productions. As such, the trio’s sophomore album was likely to be a success no matter what exact form it ended up taking. With II though, Moderat does anything but rest on its laurels, delivering an LP that is not only as rewarding as the group’s first album, but also the best record either Modeselektor or Apparat have put their efforts towards in recent years.

There are a lot of similarities in approach between Moderat—the group’s self-titled debut LP—and II. On its new record, the trio is still very much interested in crafting emotive electronic music with a streak of pop appeal, but those aims have been updated with a more rich and contemporary aesthetic. Long-winded, side-chained chords and shuffling, rough-around-the-edges beats here replace the more tech-minded backbone of Moderat’s first album. But perhaps the most striking difference between the two records comes from the evolution in Apparat’s vocal abilities, which shine on II, making the album’s handful of vocal efforts some of its most memorable moments. True, Ring’s singing was not simply a background player before, but from its first appearance on “Bad Kingdom”—II‘s first single and second track—Ring sounds incredibly confident and rightfully out in front of the production, hitting a few notes in the higher registers while never losing his robust delivery or buttery tone. Even when Ring’s vocals are generously manipulated, as they are on the sneakily summer-tinged “Let in the Light,” or when piled to form layered chords on the kaleidoscoping “Gita,” the melodies his voice draw are pleasant to follow; catchy, but not overly ornate, they fit within the context of each track with a natural ease.

Though often driven by club-ready rhythms and sturdy low end, the record’s instrumental efforts are decidedly somber affairs, ones marked by the consistent presence of dense chords and an airy atmosphere. On songs like the 10-minute “Milk” and closing “This Time,” Apparat’s production style seems to be the driving force, with both songs fixated on the sorts of swirling, breathy textures and sparse melodic touches Ring has made his calling card over the years. Album standout “Versions” comes with more of a Modeselektor stamp, bringing a slightly darker twist to the album’s pop-flecked production scope, while later on, the slow-crawling “Therapy” similarly falls into Modeselektor territory with its slightly lopsided beat and gliding lead synth work. In the end, one of the album’s many strengths proves to be this ability of the trio to create a spectrum within which all their different ideas can exist. From vocal-led electronic pop to elongated efforts into heavenly techno, II is a varied, yet completely congruent musical statement.

While Moderat’s sophomore LP may offer some of the partnership’s best tracks to date—the R&B-leaning “Let in the Light,” the patient “Milk,” and the intriguingly unique “Gita” among them—it will be difficult for its impact to match that of the outfit’s debut album, simply because the project is no longer a novelty. But for those who missed Moderat‘s arrival in 2009, II is just as good of a place to start to fall in love with the far too irregular collaborative efforts of these electronic powerhouses. And, even better, for those who have followed the trio from the start, II may actually prove itself to be the group’s most accomplished record, and one Moderat fans will come back to more often down the line.

Astro Zu “Ma Body Sayin'”**

Astro Zu is a new London-based producer who specializes in the kind of downtempo soundscapes that demonstrate a heavy Flying Lotus influence. His music is a little bit looser than that of the Brainfeeder don though, and the producer’s new track, “Ma Body Sayin’,” combines a naggingly familiar ’90s R&B vocal hook with a bed of tropical percussion. Astro Zu’s resulting production makes for a tune with its fair share of whimsical beauty.

Ma Body Sayin’

Various Artists Mutazione: Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980-1988

Mutazione has its strengths and weaknesses, but there’s little question that the compilation is focused on what is essentially an undocumented patch of musical history. Compiled by Alessio Natalizia, one half of the London-based Kompakt duo WALLS, the two-disc set runs a genre-bending, 26-track gamut of DIY music that rose out of the end of a 15-year period of social upheaval, student protest, and terrorism. Beginning in 1968 and lasting through the early ’80s, Italy was plagued by divides between its new and old blood and conflicts between extreme factions on the left and right of the political spectrum. Amidst the chaos, Italians also sought to advance the country’s art, and that struggle is at the center of Mutazione. The period, now known as the Years of Lead, sparked a vital era of Italy’s musical underground, one that’s largely been forgotten (and is likely to become less and less known as Italo disco cements its place in historical ubiquity). Given that backdrop, Mutiazone undoubtedly treads some fascinating ground and uncovers some real gems; the letdown is that despite all the effort and knowledge behind it, the compilation ultimately falls short.

Almost all of the music on Mutazione was inspired by the North American punk movement of 1977. The result is a record that culls from a plentiful sampling of genres; there are bits of post-punk, industrial, Krautrock, degraded disco, and raw electronic experiments, all of which are delivered with amateur sound quality. Very few of the artists on the compilation had access to professional equipment and traditional means of distribution, forcing the outfits to make do with what they had. A lot of music was also recorded in squat houses and underground meeting places, so there’s an unmistakable hurry and lack of polish to the recordings. Most of these cuts had all but disappeared, having been distributed only through zines, propaganda, and limited-run, self-released cassettes.

Politics and paranoia fuel most of Mutazione. The Years of Lead were a costly time in Italy’s history, most especially in terms of human life. More than 2000 deaths, the causes of which ranged from guerilla warfare between rival militia, bombings, and assassination attempts, were totalled by the time 1980 hit. The mood is set early on with an abrasive—and addictive—couplet from Die Form and Neons, both of which are heavily indebted to Joy Division and Cabaret Voltaire, particularly in terms of the music’s aggressive momentum. Mutazione‘s most haunting—and enduring—moment is Laxative Souls’ “Niccolai,” which beds a clashing slab of brooding ambience and white noise with the phone call made by the terrorist group Red Bridges to the authorities, telling them where they can find the body of Aldo Moro, a crucial figure whose abduction and assassination upended the already chaotic distribution of power in Italy.

Most of the vocals on Mutazione are performed in English, both reflecting the influence of the American punk scene and many artists’ desire to not conform to Italian pop music and the establishment of the time. Still, the compilation is not consistently oppressive, and it’s no small irony that for a collection inspired by violent history, most of the best tunes here are the ones least reflective of it. These gems include the lo-fi funk of 2+2=5’s “Jacho’s Story,” the anthemic industrial of Rats’ “Please,” and Victrola’s buoyant, motorized “Maritime Tatami.” Mutazione‘s best stretch is in the middle of the second disc, particularly the rolling synth aerobics of Dortis Norton’s “Norton Apple Software,” which first appeared on an ambient LP sponsored by Apple in 1984. Similarly, the most traditional new-wave cut is the infectious and precious “Edges,” courtesy of Kirlian Camera, the only band here that eventually made it out of the underground and onto a major label.

At the same time, even with a good disc’s worth of material, Mutazione ultimately struggles under its own weight. As a historical artifact, it should be essential. But its focus is too broad and distracted by itself, which critically wounds what should be an eye-opening document. At first glance, the length of the tracklist seems impressive. However, with the exception of the aforementioned highlights, far too many of the tunes are founded upon There’s A Riot Goin’ On-lifted drum machines, harsh feedback, labored monotones, and store-bought synth work. What may have wound up being pointed political commentary in its time winds up being diluted by there simply being too much of it. Many punk and electronic-music enthusiasts will simply hear copycats and cheap replicas in the swath of tunes here, as opposed to a significant cultural movement.

This might be the fault of the liner notes, too: they’re equally baffling as the haphazard tracklist, as they’ve been overloaded with superfluous and personal information and don’t include enough political context. Whatever narrative the music of Mutazione is trying to plot, the liner notes get lost by describing its tracks geographically, out of order from how they’re sequenced. While this approach is understandable, this makes both learning and listening far more cumbersome than it should be, especially when one considers that most listeners will be newcomers to both the tunes and the history. Even though one can’t fault the compilation for its completeness, Mutazione could’ve easily been slimmed down into one disc, making for a more focused listen while sharpening its potential political and musical edge.

Video Premiere: Fred P “Moving Systems”

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After this year’s steady string of releases, prolific NYC producer Fred Peterkin has just served up a video for “Moving Systems,” a cut which recently appeared on a compilation from Berlin label Studio R. Peterkin, who spoke to us about his Black Jazz Consortium project earlier this year, acts as his video’s main focus, donning a pair of headphones and appearing to listen intently to his hypnotic grooves around various spots in Germany. Most notably, Fred P cruises around in the back of a convertible, smoothly navigating traffic through the desolate city streets of Berlin at night.

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