Fuck Buttons Announces North American Tour

Slow Focus, the new record by UK noise-wranglers Fuck Buttons, is officially out this week via ATP, and has been quickly followed by news of some upcoming North American tour dates. This October, the duo of Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung will play select dates across the US and Canada, as well as a stint at the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City. Fuck Buttons’ full list of performances can be found below.

10/09 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
10/10 Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar
10/11 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo – Culture Collide Festival
10/13 Mexico City – Corona Capital Festival
10/14 Chicago, IL – Subterranean
10/16 Toronto, ON – Wrong Bar
10/17 Washington, DC- U Street Music Hall
10/18 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
10/19 Philadelphia, PA – Voyuer – Making Time
10/20 Boston, MA – Sinclair

Podcast 305: Mike Simonetti

The XLR8R podcast series has featured a wide assortment of musical characters over the years, but few of them have had a musical history matching that of Mike Simonetti. These days, he’s known primarily as a house DJ and the driving force behind the Italians Do It Better imprint, but Simonetti’s backstory actually began in much different musical territory. Growing up in the New York and New Jersey hardcore scene during the late ’80s and early ’90s, he formed the Troubleman Unlimited label in 1993 and spent the next 15-plus years leading the expansive imprint through various strains of punk, post-punk, noise, and experimental sounds. It was through Troubleman that Simonetti linked up with Glass Candy and specifically Johnny Jewel, and as that band became more and more electronic and Italo-influenced, the two ultimately decided that a new label was needed, and Italians Do It Better was born.

Throughout this time, Simonetti increasingly found himself in the DJ booth, initially at some of New York’s more adventurous parties, but eventually at dance clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. As Italians Do It Better solidified into an Italo and electronic-pop outpost, Simonetti realized that his growing dancefloor inclinations were without a proper outlet of their own, so he launched yet another venture last year, the vinyl-only New Jersey label. Clearly, he’s a busy man—he also produces music of his own, both solo and in tandem with Monty Luke (as Billions & Billions) and Secret Circuit (as Shadow Kids)—which is why we were happy that he found the time to put together an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast. Despite his diverse history, Simonetti’s mix is actually rather straightforward, as it smoothly moves through groove-heavy house and pulsing techno over the course of an hour. His own production work doesn’t make an appearance in the tracklist, but Simonetti does employ a few of his own DJ edits, which demonstrate his keen eye for identifying unique sounds and making them work on the dancefloor. And although it has little to do with the podcast, it’s worth noting that Simonetti is currently putting the finishing touches on a debut full-length of his own; given his varied past, no one can be quite sure what it will sound like, but we’re happy to let this mix tide us over in the meantime.

01 Melba Moore “Promised Land (Kon Edit)”
02 Afefe Iku “Jungle Beats (Mike’s DJ Tool Extension)” (Yoruba)
03 Agoria “Singing feat. Scalde (Dixon Mix)” (Innervisions)
04 Unknown “Unknown”
05 Omar Souleyman “Shift Al Mani (Crackboy Acid Rework)” (Versatile)
06 Robert Hood “Detroit One Circle” (Metroplex)
07 Rinder and Lewis “Lust (Mike’s DJ Tool Edit)” (AVI)
08 Osunlade “Dionne”
09 Terre Thaemlitz “Midtown 120 Blues” (Mule Musiq)
10 Function “Psychic Warfare” (Ostgut Ton)
11 Goblin “Suspiria” (Cinevox)

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Hanami “Fruition”*Project: Mooncircle/Finest Ego*

Last month, Berlin outposts Project: Mooncircle and Finest Ego revealed clips from the fifth installment of their Faces series, which unites two or more artists or groups on one 12″. This time, the German labels scouted out UK talent Hanami (a.k.a. Ryan Newton) and Australian upstart Daixie to compose the b-side, while Greek duo Tendts took care of the a-side. Hanami has offered up “Fruition”—a dogged, downtempo rhythm with glittering loops of melody and gauzy, pitched-down vocals—as a taste of the forthcoming release before it drops on July 26.

Fruition

Nina Kraviz Best Friend (DVS1 Remixes)

More than a year after the release of Nina Kraviz‘s debut LP, Rekids continues to commission remixes that add further layers of disorientation to the already spacious tracks. Ostgut Ton stalwart DVS1 does double duty here, puncturing “Best Friend” with choked synthesizers and highlighting the spooky spoken come-ons while crafting two claustrophobic new versions of the track.

“Best Friend (DVS1 Forever Mix feat. Naughty Wood)” is far more horizontal and subtle than Kraviz’s original, quickly coating organ fillips in static and sending them hurtling at each other like bumper cars for the duration of the song. There are elements of drone and short vibraphone hits, both of which shift the emotion from lascivious to predatory as a lisping vocal sample begs, “I told you I’d need you forever/it’s now or never.”

“Best Friend (DVS1 Dub Test)” is dubbier than anything DVS1 has put out under his own name in a while, casually unfolding and chafing against the synthesizer curls. The vocals have a new bark and brightness that doesn’t appear elsewhere, while unpredictable lashes of echo focus the energy on the percussive clatter. A vocal croak briefly functions as a sibilant hi-hat pattern, expanding the track further at the same point where the “Forever Mix” inverted. It’s a reminder of the prismatic variations that can be still be wrung from Kraviz’s relatively minimalist source material.

Video: Ikonika “Mr. Cake”

With the arrival of her Aerotropolis LP for Hyperdub close on the horizon, Ikonika has shared a Grand Theft Auto-inpsired clip for album cut “Mr. Cake.” The funk-filled track itself seems more than a touch video-game-inspired, but the visuals help bring the idea full circle, following a character from inside the game as she drives in a convertible, dons some shades, and takes part in a little bit of deception in order to acquire the keys for Mr. Cake’s jet. After taking in Ikonika’s new music video, the rest of her forthcoming sophomore effort can be streamed in full here.

Mculo “Shake Yo Biscuit (Doffa Remix)”*Cool Kid Music *

Two budding London talents link up on this sharp version of Mculo‘s forthcoming “Shake Yo Biscuit” single (out on August 5) for Toyboy & Robin‘s label, Cool Kid Music. To kick off his remix, Doffa presents a squeaky clean array of skipping percussion and digital synths. But the rework quickly shows itself to be more than just a nice set of sounds, sneaking in an enticingly rounded bassline and pushing its chorded stabs to the forefront as the track delicately rolls along.

Shake Yo Biscuit (Doffa Remix)

Guy Andrews Annum EP

Somewhere between his “Shades” b/w “Textures” single for Hemlock and last year’s “Wait” b/w “Hands in Mine” effort for Hotflush, Guy Andrews scaled back the percussive focus of his earlier work in exchange for a new infusion of gaseous synth tones and grander musical activity. On his new Annum EP, Andrews continues to take steps in that direction while still managing not to completely bury his penchant for eclectic, heavy-handed rhythms; it’s just that now, they exist within the rich lattices of celestial synth work he has also become adept at crafting.

After having his past two releases grace the catalogs of Hemlock and Hotflush, an appearance on the FINA imprint—certainly not a bad label, but by no means a powerhouse—may be seen as an indication that Andrews has lost a bit of his step. Nothing could be further from the truth. Annum may not be as high-profile of a release as we’ve seen from Andrews before, but its four tracks are certainly of the same respectable quality, both in terms of their sonic makeup and musical reach.

Annum seems intended to be split into two halves, with its opening tracks “Divide” and “7AM” following Andrews down space-age, almost uplifting house workouts. The songs are somewhat reminiscent of artists like Applescal or even—to a lesser degree—Luke Abbott, but with a thicker build and a deeper reach. The record’s latter half makes a noticeable venture into darker regions, and in doing so, supplies the highlights. Both “Fixture” and “Tapes” utilize the same sort of lush and melodically rich synth passages displayed on the EPs earlier efforts, but instead of making them the focus of the tunes’ respective runs, the collections of chords and melodies are sparser and employed more to create atmosphere or signify a momentary change in pace. Still, both “Fixture” and “Tapes” find smart ways to play around with their elements before ever laying into their full rhythmic charge; Andrews’ combinations of thick kicks and snares with cleverly aligned pieces of real-world percussion consistently prove to be worth the wait, and largely drive another noteworthy outing from the Brighton producer.

Check Out a New Mix from Gerd

Fresh from releasing an edit of the classic NY’s Finest tune “Do You Feel Me,” Dutch DJ/producer and 4lux label head Gerd just dropped a brand-new mix online. Throughout the course of the hour-long set, the veteran artist spans a number of different styles—according to the man himself, he “wanted to make a selection with a lot of variation, maybe even use genres that are extreme compared to each other when put together into one mix.” As a result, the podcast starts off with a selection of disco and Italo classics, but heads into much darker territory by the second half, offering straight-up jackin’ house and techno. Gerd’s FACT mix can be listened to in the player below.

Watch Mike Huckaby’s Ableton Live 9 Masterclass

Though Live 9 and the Push controller have been around for a good portion of 2013 already (our review of the music-making tools can be found here), it’s unlikely that everyone has had enough time to dive deep into every feature and intricacy that Ableton‘s new units have to offer. Thankfully, Detroit house/techno icon and experienced music teacher Mike Huckaby has just shared a lengthy video giving would-be producers some keen insight into using Live 9, as well as some of his general production tips. “Production is really no more than a matter of interesting frequencies in different frequency ranges,” says Huckaby at the start of his 90-minute session, before launching into an in-depth tutorial which covers topics like streamlining workflow, converting audio to MIDI, optimizing remix work, and plenty of others. He even opens the floor to receive questions from the audience. The whole piece makes for an informative and inspiring masterclass that will likely prove useful for production newbies and veterans alike.

Listen to Ikonika’s New Album for Hyperdub

Next week, UK DJ/producer Ikonika (a.k.a. Sara Abdel-Hamid) will drop her second album, Aerotropolis, via Hyperdub, but has now made the LP available to stream in full before its release. Arriving three years after Ikonika’s acclaimed 2010 debut, Contact, Love, Want, Have, the 14-track Aerotropolis continues with the artist’s distinctive melding of post-dubstep tropes with a technicolor sound palette and clear pop sensibility. As Abdel-Hamid herself notes of the album, “I tried to engulf everything after dubstep, and made a decision to go for style—my style—and progress in that way.” While we wait for Aerotropolis to arrive on July 29, its music can be streamed via the widget below. (via The Guardian)

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