Kevin McPhee and Lily Prep 12″s for Idle Hands; Preview Them Now

Bristol record store-turned-label Idle Hands has announced two imminent 12″s from the likes of burgeoning Canadian DJ/producer Kevin McPhee (pictured above) and mysterious artist Lily. Arriving on July 15, McPhee’s “Unwind” b/w “A Jam” will mark his second record for the UK outpost, following 2011’s “Sleep” b/w “House 44,” and finds him continuing to churn out jacking, dancefloor-specific tracks. Lily will release its first 12″ for Idle Hands, the smoothed-out house of “Trumpets at Dawn” b/w “Machine Dreams,” on July 29. But before either record is released next month, all four forthcoming tunes can be previewed below.

Hi, Doctor Nick! – Choosing Between Music and a Job and the Struggle to Build Something in a Place That’s Behind the Times

It’s Thursday morning, which means it’s time for Nick Hook to do his thing on XLR8R. At this point, the good doctor is quite possibly the world’s greatest street shaman, a jack-of-all-trades whose knowledge runs deep, whether he’s discussing music, production, DJing, travel, life, love, romance, or just his favorite synthesizer. We’re quite serious when we say that the man is an invaluable resource, which is why we highly encourage readers to take advantage and send questions to [email protected]. The good doctor is here to help.

Hi. I’m coming live and direct from NYC. To be exact, I’m in my studio, in my underpants—just like I like it. This week is incredibly special for me cuz the Run the Jewels record that El-P and Killer Mike did came out. It’s free on Fool’s Gold, the product of talented people making honest music and giving it away without a corporation or anything. So hopefully you dig it, or at least try it. I think it’s an amazing record and I had the best time being a part of it. Get it here.

I’m also going to Korea and Taipei next week. Does anyone there fuck with me? Let’s go eat that good food. Here are the dates:

July 5th – Cakeshop Seoul
July 6th – Havana pool party at GTK Country Club (daytime), M-Club Taipei (night)

Thanks for all the new questions. Keep them coming to [email protected]. Um… I don’t know. Go buy a plant for your room. And floss your teeth.

Hi Doctor Nick,
Just want to say I love your column and your words of wisdom. You are always well spoken and what you have to say feels honest. Much respect.

I’m in a bit of a pickle. I’ve been making music for three or four years now and I feel like I’ve reached a point where if I’m really going to make a go of it, I need to focus 100% of my time on music. I am confident in my ear and my abilities but to continue making huge strides like I did when I first started, I need to focus more time on music. My problem is money. I have a degree in architecture, which means massive student loans, so I spend most of my time working on projects that put dollars in the bank. Architecture is great, but I don’t get that feeling of being at peace with the world inside and out when I’m working on drawings or building digital models. I get that feeling when I’m sitting in front of Ableton with a stack of records searching for samples and then I find something really dope that I can turn into something unexpected.

My question for you is this: what would you do? Continue disproportionately splitting your time between music and architecture, or dive into music full-time and forget everything else and hope for the best?
Joe

Hi. Thanks man. I appreciate that. It nice to have a forum to run my mouth every week, but really, the foundation of this column is that I am that dude. I went to college and hit the wall in my town and went through all the things you read about in this column. To lead by example is really what it’s all about.

I think there’s something important here—very important—and that’s getting money. When I moved to New York, after two years I was holding like 15 G’s in debt on my American Express card. My girlfriend at the time helped hold me down, but it was pretty fucking stressful, and I felt pretty fucking pathetic. I don’t know about you, but for me, not having money blows. I’m not saying a ton of it, but I think if you are out with your friends, being that cheap fuck makes you look wack. I like buying my friends drinks. If I see a piece of gear I want, hopefully I’m going to get it. So I think if you do decide to go in full time on music, maybe you should come up with a plan to do architecture for a little while longer, live a little modest, and clear out your student debts as aggressively as possible, so when it’s time to go in on music, you can really go in. I really believe the state of mind you are in is important for being creative, so not waking up at 8 a.m. to go to work is obviously going to help that, but also having to stress on bills and being broke could be harmful.

Keep hustling too, whether you have a job or not. Ironically, my roommate is/was an architect, went to college, and literally had the exact same story as you, and he quit four years ago. He doesn’t do music, but since then he’s worked at a bar, started a running club, and is just living life the way he wants. He claims it’s the best decision he’s ever made. He says that no matter what happens, you can always go back to architecture, and he would definitely advise against staying in it.

Hi Doctor Nick,
I started DJing around 1995/96 or so and was pretty popular around this city (St. Louis) and the rest of the Midwest for quite a while. I really got disillusioned with the whole thing though somewhere in between the early and mid 2000s, so I hung it up for a while. I started getting back into things though about two years ago. The music that I was hearing was totally turning me on, and I felt the need to get back into the game. I used to be strictly a drum & bass DJ, but I’ve now started playing an eclectic mix of bass, garage, techno, and whatever else is awesome at the moment. So here’s basically the dilemma. The promoters here either seem to be stuck in the same time period I left and are in the same house-music loop they have always been in, or they totally do nothing but wub-wub screechy-screech stuff that only teens on molly can appreciate. Where does that leave me? I know that most DJs are fairly unappreciated in their hometown, but how do you get contacts outside of your own city? I know the internet is awash in people and ways to get your music out there, which was really overwhelming and exciting at first, but then there is the problem of it’s sooo freaking huge, how do you ever get noticed?
Jon

Haha word. I used to go to LO and drink two-dollar Newcastles and see Jim K all the time. Shout out to the Litterthugz crew in those times. All those fools really shaped me and were so fucking ahead of the curve. (Wut up Mike 2600, Doug Surreal, and Bitch Ass Darius?)

I mean, I’m from St. Louis. I had to leave. I conquered the maze. I love the place to death and I feel bad even saying anything, but I go back and I look so hard and I can’t find anything new. Everyone is doing the same things at the same places and it makes me so grateful that when i had the opportunity to go to NYC to do music, I said “Fuck it.” It was a dangerous move, and I wasn’t sure, but it all worked out.

We’ve touched on this a lot before, but as an artist, you are to a certain extent branding yourself and great music will travel. Look at a dude like Ryan Hemsworth. He’s from Canada, I don’t think even from a big city. Dude did a bunch of bootlegs and some original stuff that traded hands and he had an interesting persona online that made people want to book him. He took that chance and there he was. Take a look at Salva. He was working his balls off for-fucking-ever, playing a million shows for small money, and even doing RBMA, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was his remix of “Mercy” by Kanye West. You just never know what’s going to blow up, but when it does happen, it’s amazing because all the hard work and preparation you did in advance will make it so that you’re just ready for those moments. Good ideas ARE gonna find their way to where they should be. I am very convinced of that.

I think you should look at yourself and say, “WHY should people book me?” Cuz you have a few tracks on your SoundCloud? Cuz you did it back in the day? If you don’t go by foot, your internet persona is the thing that is your calling card. I say keep growing in your production. I’m listening to it now. It has absolute potential, but to be 100% honest with you, it’s right in the middle of the pack. So if you push that forward, along with maybe just getting a show or two in Chicago or Kansas City, putting a little record out, or doing some mixtapes, who knows what will happen? The mixes on your SoundCloud are nice. Keep rolling with it. I’ll tell you what. I’d love for someone to put on a party where a couple of hundred kids showed up in St. Louis, cuz I would come back and play that for free, just so I could hang out with my parents and eat some Red Hot Riplets. Let me know.

Hi, Doctor Nick! appears every Thursday on XLR8R. Do you have a question for Doctor Nick? Please submit your inquires to [email protected]. Nick Hook can help you.

Howes “Leazes”*Melodic*

This slow burner from 19-year-old producer John Howes—who has gracedXLR8R‘s pages before—shows a level of sophistication to detail that belies his age. “Leazes,” which comes from a forthcoming 12″ due on July 22 via Melodic, starts with a molasses-like synth that creaks over a tentative kick pattern. Distant, clicky rimshots and low-bit hi-hats make an entrance before the whole thing erupts into an energetic house beat, as if the groove was struggling to get out from under its own weight. The song displays an impressive amount of restraint and arrangement prowess, a sure sign that more quality sounds are likely to come from the young Howes.

Leazes

The Mole Caregiver

Back with only his second full-length album, despite having a slew of releases on respected labels like Wagon Repair, Ostgut Ton, Perlon, and New Kanada, The Mole (a.k.a. Colin de la Plante), has always been adept at honing in on a playful, yet effortlessly cohesive brand of techno. In truth, de la Pante doesn’t usually get as much attention as some of his fellow expat Canadian producers, such as Mathew Jonson, Mike Shannon, Deadbeat, Jeremy P. Caulfield, and Adam Marshall, but that should all change with Caregiver. The full-length is the first LP on Maybe Tomorrow, his new label with Kompakt’s Jon Berry, and it finds the young imprint coming strong out of the gate.

Currently based in Berlin, the Canadian-born producer marries influences that range from Montreal’s burgeoning techno scene of the 2000s to the endless late nights of his present hometown, with a few stops along the way. Built around a plucky bassline that unwinds into The Mole’s quirky sound design, “A Daily Affair” is stirring start to his sophomore album, suggesting that simplicity will be a deceptive tool used throughout Caregiver. In a similar vein, “Jamais Que Toi” rolls out with deeply embedded, tripped-out vocals that emerge out of the shadows and demonstrate how techno often thrives on almost indecipherable samples and otherworldly sounds. De la Plante shifts gears with “Slow Blame,” a hazy sidestep that rides a sullen melody and an uninspired 303. It’s a slight misfire, albeit not one that derails the album’s nuanced cocktail of hand-strung melodies, precise percussion, and muted basslines.

“The Time Has Come” has just the right amount of freakiness and relies on both a sense of nostalgia and familiarity to draw the listener in. “Interlude to Love” is a short, frisky blast, while “Carry On (We Must),” a song anchored by the building blocks of vintage house grooves, is a laid-back charmer whose slinky melody, timeless chorus, and carefree feeling offer some of the album’s best moments. Ratcheting up de la Plante’s quiet confidence, “(When) Monkey Punches Dog” works over a relentless afterhours techno vibe, employing sinful synths that lie somewhere between Canada’s West Coast, Montreal, and Berlin.

Check Out a New Mix from Al Tourettes’ Second Storey Project

Bristolian producer Alan Storey recently announced he would be setting aside his longstanding Al Tourettes moniker, going forward under the name Second Storey. This week saw his new project’s debut, the Margosa Heights EP, drop via Houndstooth, and he’s following that up with a brand-new mix. The 23-track, hour-long podcast showcases some of the new territories the DJ/producer is now exploring, with brittle, techno-leaning textures featuring prominently thanks to the inclusion of artists such as Drexciya, Laurel Halo, and Kowton, among others. Courtesy of URB, Second Storey’s mix can be streamed and downloaded via the player below, where its tracklist can also be found.

01. Daphne Oram – Ormaics Demonstration – Young Americans
02. Vector Lovers – Floating Point – Soma
03. Second Storey – Margosa Heights – Houndstooth
04. Baby Ford & Eon – Dead Eye – Plus 8
05. Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal – Domino
06. Inigo Kennedy – Accordion – Token
07. Kevin Gorman – 7am Stepper – Ost Gut Ton
08. Tod Dockstader – Apocalypse Part 2 – Starkland
09. Xhin – Teeth – Stroboscopic Artefacts
10. Sandrien – Haters (Marcel Fengler Remix) – Wolfskull
11. Drexciya – Bubble Metropolis – Underground Resistance
12. Raudive – Last (Al Tourettes & Appleblim Remix) – Halo Cyan
13. Laurel Halo – Noyfb – Hyperdub
14. Ruben A – Discotech – Djax
15. Second Storey – Arpy Garbles – Houndstooth
16. British Murder Boys – Be Like I Am – Counter Balance
17. Diamond Version – Operate at your Optimum – Liberation Technologies
18. Akkord – Navigate – Houndstooth
19. Second Storey – One Sound – Unreleased
20. Kowton – Shuffle Good (Andy Stott Remix) – Boomkat Editions
21. Stormfield – Rebuild – Combat
22. Dave Monolith – Taffynek – Rephlex
23. Daphne Oram – Speech Test – Young Americans

Mitewort “Changes”**

In a collaboration that crosses the Atlantic, Slovakian DJ/producer Mitewort has teamed up with Memphis-based label Voodoo Village to release his next offering. Before the release of the forthcoming Changes EP, however, Mitewort has opted to share the record’s namesake “Changes,” a futuristic track that heavily employs a vocal sample for percussive purposes. Similarly, the song’s vast drum kit, which includes a variety of colorful timbres, is ready to reward those who listen closely, as it makes subtle changes on a whim while occupying the whole stereo field. “Changes” also offers a bit of catchy synthwork and some sweeping pads that nicely complement Mitewort’s busy rhythms. The rest of the Changes EP—which features remixes from the likes of Floyd Campbel and Bad Mojo—can be previewed in full on Bandcamp.

Changes

Yosi Horikawa Vapor

Yosi Horikawa likes to take his time between releases, which seems fitting for an artist whose music is highly contemplative. Listening to his music, it’s easy to imagine Horikawa—who’s based in Chiba, Japan—ruminating over every painstaking detail on the 16 songs that comprise Vapor, his first LP and the fourth official release in his catalog. Tracks like “Kingdom of Frogs” are teeming with minutiae; croaking and chirping amphibians, humming bugs, trickling bubbles, delicately plucked keys, crisp claps, pulsing low end, and deep drums are all part of the mix. Somehow, Horikawa creates whole environments of sound that seem to be at once vibrantly alive and digitally artificial.

Field recordings are a key component of Horikawa’s work, and he often sculpts their many sonic elements into sturdy beats. For instance, on “Bump,” the sound of waves slapping creates the backbone of a lurching rhythm. “Wandering” finds the sound of birds tweeting intersecting with complex, jangling percussion, and on “Letter,” the scratches and tapping noises of a hand running a pencil across a page provide an infrastructure for hooting synth melodies and clattering drums. The various beats and song structures arise naturally and even though they’ve also been embellished with glittering synth melodies and wafts of pads and other audio effects, they evoke strong images—a boat being rowed through lapping waves, a highly animated forest, a concentrated scribe fervently composing a message.

Horikawa’s ability to conjure potent imagery with his productions lends a cinematic quality to the songs, which in turn acts as a common thread between the 16 tracks. Vapor travels through a host of different genres: “Wandering” brings to mind the more adventurous end of UK dubstep, namely the rattling beats of Untold’s rework of Ramadanman’s “Revenue,” while “Bump” toys with rocking trip-hop formats. Bubbling noises and pattering rainfall evolve into jittery footwork rhythms on “Splash” and “Starlings,” and on “Stars,” Horikawa ventures into downtempo jazz with galloping notes from an upright bass and melancholy piano chords. But regardless of what sounds Horikawa is mining, these explorations remain aesthetically linked by his highly visual, dramatic proclivities.

Vapor demonstrates not only Horikawa’s versatility as an artist, but also his ability to retain a unique voice and compelling perspective no matter what form his music takes. It’s a long album—one might be tempted to take a break around the halfway mark—but each track contains an intricate ecosystem of noises to marvel at.

Dam-Funk, Peanut Butter Wolf, and More to Tour West Coast

Following last week’s premiere of its Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton documentary, beat-focused LA label Stones Throw has just announced plans for a quick West Coast tour this August. Featuring the likes of label boss Peanut Butter Wolf, Dam-Funk, The Stepkids, and Myron & E, the Stones Throw Soul Tour will begin and end in California, making stops in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Washington, and Oregon along the way. The full list of upcoming tour dates can be found below.

Fri 8/16 – Pomona, CA – Glasshouse
Sat 8/17 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
Sun 8/18 – Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
Tues 8/20 – Denver, CO – Casselmans
Wed 8/21 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Sat 8/24 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
Sun 8/25 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
Tues 8/27 – Oakland, CA – The New Parish

Mister Saturday Night Readies Debut 12″ from Hank Jackson; Preview It Now

The NYC-based, vinyl-only record label and party series Mister Saturday Night has become something of a go-to source for up-and-coming or, just as frequently, completely unknown producers from the grittier side of the house and techno world. Its latest signee, Brooklyn transplant Hank Jackson, falls more into the “unknown” category, but if these clips from his upcoming Deposit EP are anything to go by, he probably won’t stay that way for long. The three-track record captures a raw-and-ready techno sound, one which is heavy on late-night warehouse party vibes and seemingly not all that concerned with fidelity. So far, there’s no release date other than “coming soon,” but in the meantime, clips from all three tracks can be streamed in the player below.

Ghosting Season “Apophenia (Face & Heel Edit)”*FIELDS*

Mancunian duo Ghosting Season (pictured above) recently released its Apophenia via the nascent FIELDS label. Apophenia, a condition where one sees patterns in randomness, seems like it could be a blessing and a curse, and is an apt title for the delicate balancing of lightness and darkness which Ghosting Season’s new title track holds. Featured here, Cardiff duo Face & Heel‘s edit of “Apophenia” plays up that balance, matching ghostly piano figures with deep kicks, shimmering background echoes, and haunting vocals and rimshots. When a barely there vocoder makes it appearance near the end of the production, it leaves us with a curious feeling, as if we weren’t entirely certain what it was that we just heard.

Apophenia (Face & Heel edit)

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