Marcos Cabral is more likely known for his soulful house grooves and as half of the Runaway duo (alongside Jacques Renault), but on his new double-LP for L.I.E.S., the Brooklyn producer shows off the more experimental sides of his talent. Now, we can offer an exclusive stream of Cabral’s False Memories, a record made of tracks culled from the longstanding artist’s production archives. The album features 14 of Cabral’s earliest efforts as a producer between 1998 and 2000, tracks which have been saved from their original cassette recordings and were made mostly with the now-vintage Acid Loops software and a “crappy Roland MC-303.” The complete False Memories double-LP can be heard in its entirety via the player below.
The Asphodells (pictured above), Andrew Weatherall‘s and Timothy J. Fairplay‘s dub-, disco-, and house-focused collaboration, released its debut album, Ruled by Passion, Destroyed by Lust, back in February. Today, the project has announced details of a follow-up remix album, which sees 10 different producers take on tracks from the original release. The remixers largely revolve around “The Axis,” a group of producers who spend time in Weatherall’s Shoreditch studio, as the compilation includes remixes from Group Rhoda, Daniel Avery, DJ Rocca, Ivan Smagghe, and more. Remixed will see a release on September 2 via Weatherall’s own Rotters Golf Club imprint, but before then, the artwork tracklist can be found below. (via Resident Advisor)
01. Another Lonely City (Group Rhoda Remix) 02. Late Flowering Lust (Phil Kieran Remix) 03. Beglammered (Justin Robertson’s Deadstock 33s Remix) 04. Skwatch (Black Merlin’s Reel to Reel Remix) 05. Never There (Hardway Bros Remix) 06. We Are The Axis (Daniel Avery Remix) 07. Another Lonely City (Daniele Baldelli & DJ Rocca Remix) 08. Beglammered (Richard Sen Remix) 09. We Are The Axis (Scott Fraser Remix) 10. One Minute’s Silence (Ivan Smagghe Remix)
Tech-house DJ/producer Eric Estornel (a.k.a. Maceo Plex, pictured above) has managed to maintain a consistent output over the years, under both his Maceo Plex and Maetrik monikers. He’s been known as much for his DJ mixes and exclusive edits as for his original productions, so we’re understandably excited to be offering an exclusive download of his remix of Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians.” Having first appeared in Maceo Plex’s Essential Mix back in February 2012, the tune has since been one of his most requested tracks, yet it has remained officially unreleased until now. Estornel takes veteran English outfit Coldcut‘s remix of the track and picks up where the duo left off—bolstering Reich’s overlapping, hypnotic patterns with a deep house groove that pushes forward the surge of instrumentation even more. A trance-like synth pattern sweeps over the delicate marimba and xylophone arpeggios before a piece of warped vocals appears out of the abyss. It all makes for an entrancing piece that uses the power of a modern classic for use on the dancefloor.
We’d like to think that the majority of XLR8R readers will remember who Deltron 3030 is, even if it has been 13 years since the hip-hop supergroup released its seminal, self-titled debut. Regardless, the trio of Del the Funky Homosapien, Kid Koala, and Dan the Automator has come out of obscurity to announce its return with Deltron 3030: Event II, the outfit’s second studio LP. Featuring an oddball cast of high-profile collaborators—including comedian David Cross, SNL-affiliated joke band The Lonely Island, Bay Area vocalist extraordinaire Mike Patton, Rage Against the Machine’s Zach De La Rocha, and, strangely enough, A-list actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, among others—Deltron 3030’s 16-track album is scheduled to arrive on October 1 via Dan the Automator’s own Bulk Recordings.
In speaking on the themes of his new music, Del says, “The Deltron world has gone too far with technology. Everything’s destroyed, and you just see the remnants of our technology. The streets are run by criminals, the police are outnumbered and outgunned, and we’re like pirates, running rogue, doing what we do to survive. That’s the scene of it. We’re trying to be as literary as possible while dealing with a musical format. I don’t know if you could even categorize this as a hip hop album—it’s more like a rock opera, but using rap.” He goes on to explain that Deltron 3030: Event II is “beyond a regular album,” and will surprise fans and critics alike. The trio’s new LP will be preceded by the City Rising from the Ashes EP on August 13, the lead single from which can be streamed below, where the tracklist, artwork, and trailer for Event II can also be found.
1. Stardate (ft. Joseph Gordon-Levitt) 2. The Return 3. Pay the Price 4. Nobody Can (ft. Aaron Bruno of AWOL Nation) 5. Lawnchair Quarterback Pt. 1 (ft. David Cross and Amber Tamblyn) 6. Melding of the Minds (ft. Zach De La Rocha) 7. The Agony (ft. Mary Elizabeth Winstead) 8. Back in the Day (ft. The Lonely Island) 9. Talent Supersedes (ft. Black Rob) 10. Look Across the Sky (ft. Mary Elizabeth Winstead) 11. The Future of Food (ft. David Chang) 12. My Only Love (ft. Emily Wells) 13. What Is This Loneliness (ft. Damon Albarn and Casual) 14. Lawnchair Quarterback Pt. 2 (ft. David Cross and Amber Tamblyn) 15. City Rising From the Ashes (background vocals by Mike Patton)
With less than two weeks left until its third LP drops, UK experimental electronic duo Fuck Buttons has offered a full stream of its adventerous Slow Focus album. The seven-track record—which the pair has described as exploring a new, “very alien” landscape for the project—will see its official release through ATP on July 23, but can now be listened to from beginning to end over on Pitchfork Advance.
Hamburg-based deep house producer Lawrence has shared the details of his forthcoming album, Films & Windows, before it releases via his own Dial imprint. The record is the producer’s first release for Dial in over 10 years, and follows an impressive amount of records issued over the years by labels like Pampa, Ghostly International, Kompakt, and Mule Musiq. Films & Windows looks set to see a continuation of Lawrence’s melancholic and cinematic style of dance music, with the press release stating that the music is “inspired by an endless number of screened movies and real-life films.” Before the LP drops on September 17, its artwork and tracklist can be found below.
01. The Opening Scene 02. Marlen 03. In Patagonia 04. Films & Windows 05. Etoile du midi 06. Lucifer 07. Kurama 08. Angels at Night 09. Har Sinai 10. Creator (Final Call) 11. Teenage Barb
Max McFerren‘s debut for New York label Sci-Fi & Fantasy was a strong slice of classic house that came out swinging. Now, the DJ/producer has announced his next release, a four-song EP entitled Put It Up With That (out on July 16). The title track gets things going right away: McFerren takes the fairly common house tropes of diva vocals and insistent hi-hats and wrangles them into something uniquely fresh and, more importantly, his own. There’s an urgency in how the arrangement builds with a crunchy, warped arpeggio and a backwards, reverb-drenched cymbal splash, before it subtly unfolds with some sensual chords that could have been cut from a lost Whitney Houston b-side. McFerren manages to take us to a few magical heights while keeping our feet glued to the dancefloor, and more of that can be heard in the preview of his upcoming EP, after the jump.
It’s not exactly a question that has kept us up at night, but from time to time, we have certainly wondered when we would be hearing from Hampshire native Jami Welch (a.k.a. Seams) again. Following a string of intriguing releases in 2010 and 2011, the man has been considerably quiet on the production front, but that silence is set to end this September, when Seams’ debut LP sees a release via the Full Time Hobby label. Welch will add nine tracks to his short but nonetheless impressive discography—which includes the introductoryTourist EP and the “Focus Energy” b/w “Motive Order” single for Pictures—with Quarters, an album said to have been recorded across four different locations around Berlin. No audio has yet surfaced from the forthcoming record, but its artwork and tracklist can be perused before Quarters drops on September 16, below. (via Juno Plus)
Due to rapid ticket sales for the originally two-day Dekmantel Festival, a third day of performances has been added to the fast-approaching Amsterdam event, with artists like Warp originator LFO, Martyn (pictured above), Levon Vincent, and the debut live performance of Blawan’s and Surgeon’s TRADE collaboration slated to take to the newly added Sunday stage. With its program now taking place from Friday, August 23 to Sunday, August 25, Dekmantel has also enlisted the talents of techno luminary Carl Craig, German-house eccentric DJ Koze, Future Times affiliates Beautiful Swimmers, and Juan Atkins’ and Moritz von Oswald’s Borderland project, among others, to fill out an impressive closing-day lineup. More details on the festival and the newly added third day can be found here.
One of the most intuitive, effective iOS DJ apps on the market is Native Instruments‘ Traktor. It ditches the turntable metaphor in favor of loopable, flickable, choppable waveforms, and in doing so, offers a fresh approach to touchscreen DJing. Now, NI has released a hardware mixer that pairs nicely with both the iOS and Mac/PC Traktor apps, providing a more responsive, physical interface for vital functionality.
How It Looks
The Kontrol Z1 is housed in typical Native Instruments stylings: all-black everything, orange, white and blue LED-lit buttons, and a small footprint that makes the device portable enough to throw in a small backpack along with an iPad. The EQ and filter knobs, along with the volume and cross-fader sliders, feel sturdy and smooth, and the buttons depress with a satisfying click. The inclusion of two internal audio cards means you can output discrete audio to your speakers and headphones for proper cueing, a function which is achieved with a pair of RCA outputs in the back and an ?” headphone output in front. The unit ships with a 30-pin cable for connecting to an iOS device (a lightning adapter would have been nice too), along with a standard USB cable for connecting to your laptop. While it will handily charge an iOS device when connected, the Z1 also needs to be plugged into the wall via the included AC adapter, thereby somewhat limiting its portability—the option to run on battery power would have been especially convenient. Also, the glossy faceplate picks up fingerprints like a forensics specialist.
How It Sounds
The interface for mixing songs with Traktor is significantly improved with the addition of the Kontrol Z1. It’s a genuinely plug-and-play affair, and having real knobs for EQing goes a long way, as do the faders—the physical controls make DJing feel both more substantial and secure than simply having to rely on a touchscreen for such precise, essential maneuvers. The ability to control the mix and volume in headphones while cueing up the next track is immediately valuable, and in general, things feel very intuitive, even with the mix of physical and touchscreen controls across separate devices. The Z1 doesn’t add functionality to Traktor, but rather improves and physicalizes the app’s functionality.
The Bottom Line
On iPad (and somewhat less so on iPhone/iPod), Traktor on its own makes for a surprisingly capable, fantastically portable way to mix songs. But by adding a bit more bulk and spending some cash, the addition of a physical mixer (with dual audio outputs) makes things even better. The Z1 doesn’t have jog wheels, and thereby doesn’t change the game; instead, it relies on Traktor’s (albeit excellent) auto-detection functionality for beat- and key-matching songs. If conceding that level of manual control to the machine is no problem, then the Z1 makes an effective, reliable DJ partner for the iPad.
