Watch a Video for Oneohtrix Point Never’s New Single for Warp

Even when considering the detailed description that this clip for an excerpt of Oneohtrix Point Never‘s new “Still Life” track was sent over with, we can’t pretend to make any actual sense out of Nate Boyce‘s visual work. As the press release explains, we’re apparently watching, “Cryptic ads for obscure objects, fragments of sculptural forms, and remnants of material surfaces… with bulging semi-solids, unctuous quasi-liquids that are agitated into an animated flow.” But maybe it’s better that way, because the new sounds from experimental Brooklyn artist Daniel Lopatin are as equally fragmented, mind boggling, and engrossingly cryptic. The whole thing can be seen and heard in the player below, before Oneohtrix Point Never’s R Plus Seven LP—the details of which can be found here—drops on October 1 via Warp.

Delorean Details New Album, Shares First Single

Last week, we learned in rather ambiguous terms that Spanish outfit Delorean had something up its sleeve. Now, we’ve received confirmation of the group’s long-awaited follow-up to 2010’s excellent Subiza. Word of the 10-track Apar LP—the title of which is a Basque term referring to froth—arrives today with a stream of its lead track and first single “Spirit,” a bright and patient effort which finds the Barcelona residents continuing to craft the kind of club-informed pop songs that we all found so inviting in the first place—albeit with a little extra touch of ’80s influence. Delorean’s forthcoming record is said to be its “big production album,” and is set for release on September 10 via True Panther. Before then, the artwork and tracklist for Apar can be found below, along with the streaming player for “Spirit.”

1. Spirit
2. Destitute Time
3. Dominion
4. Unhold featuring Caroline Polachek
5. You Know It’s Right
6. Keep Up
7. Walk High
8. Your Face
9. Inspire
10. Still You

El Mahdy Jr. “Coins & Diamonds”*Boomarm Nation*

The beats housed on Istanbul-based producer El Mahdy Jr.‘s debut effort, The Spirit of Fucked Up Places, is described as a “melting of his native Algerian music, Turkish folk, the furious polyrhythms of West Africa, and his love of slow, low-slung rap beats.” It’s hard to think of a tune that better fits that description than “Coins & Diamonds.” The eerie production wraps long-sustaining chords around a congregation of micro-samples which blend the strums of a grainy guitar with the refracted murmur of a city center. But beneath these interwoven textures are sharp, churning rhythms, making “Coins & Diamonds” a deceivingly propulsive effort and a production that proves especially immersive inside a pair of headphones. The Spirit of Fucked Up Places is out today on vinyl and digital formats.

Coins & Diamonds

Podcast 301: The Mole

The Mole (a.k.a. Colin de la Plante) certainly isn’t the only Canadian producer who’s set up shop in the dancefloor-friendly confines of Berlin, but he’s surely one of the most accomplished. Though the veteran producer maintains a relatively low profile, his resume is impressive by just about any standard. A longtime member of the Wagon Repair stable and an occasional contributor to the Cobblestone Jazz project, de la Plante has also released music for labels like Kompakt, Ostgut Ton, and New Kanada, amongst others. While many artists with more than a decade of experience under their belts would be content to simply rest on their laurels and coast along, de la Plante continues to push in new directions—last year, he co-founded the Maybe Tomorrow imprint, and after releasing a pair of 12″s on the young label, he’s just issued Caregiver, his sophomore LP and first full-length since 2008. Given that the new album is surfacing this week, we thought now would be an excellent time for The Mole to put together an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast series. Composed in the midst of a nearly unbearable heat wave in Berlin last week, the podcast finds him doing some serious digging into his vinyl collection, as he fills out the mix with numerous slices of vintage house, disco, and funk. In accordance with the music’s organic nature, de la Plante’s DJing is at times a bit rough around the edges, but that only contributes the the overall vibe of the the 90-plus-minute session. Berlin might be known for its dark clubs and late nights, but The Mole has put together something that’s perfectly suitable for a sunny afternoon on a rooftop.

01 Donny Hathaway “Love, Love, Love” (Atco)
02 Syclops “Unmatched” (Running Back)
03 Eddie C. and Dane pres. The Torpoons “Cosmic Muskrat” (Common Edit)
04 Mark E “Scared” (Jisco)
05 Kid Sublime “JW 005 B2” (Jahwell)
06 Taxi C.A.B. “Chunk-A-Nova (Red Dog Mix)” (House Jam)
07 Ron Trent “Pop, Dip, Spin” (Prescription)
08 Jichael Mackson “Grass Is Always Greener” (Musique Risquée)
09 César Merveille “Melancholy” (Cadenza)
10 Recloose “Electric Sunshine (Andres Remix)” (Rush Hour)
11 Try to Find Me “Get to My Baby (TBD Extension)” (Golf Channel)
12 The Mole “A Daily Affair” (Maybe Tomorrow)
13 Facts of Life “Sometimes” (Kayvette)
14 Gentlemen and Their Ladies “Party Strut” (Jean)
15 Seawind “Free” (BBE)
16 Idris Muhammad “Could Heaven Be Like This” (Kudu)
17 Zezé Motta “Pensamento Ioruba” (Atlantic)
18 Cerrone “Generique” (Malligator)
19 Cerrone “Make Up” (Malligator)
20 Patrick Cowley “Primitive World” (Megatone)
21 Jamie Principle “Bad Boy” (Trax/Rush Hour)

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XLR8R_Podcast_The_Mole_2013_06_25

Korg Volca Grooveboxes Detailed in New Videos

Back in April, Korg unveiled its Volca series of mini-grooveboxes. Now, with the release of the Volca Beats, Bass, and Keys on the way next month, a new video series has surfaced in which hardware designer and chief engineer Tatsuya Takahashi highlights the features of Korg’s newest sound toys. As the videos show, Takahashi has really managed to fit a surprising amount of useful and creative controls, as well as intriguing sonic options, into the compact, mostly analog-driven Volca units. Three videos detailing the functions of each $150 piece of hardware can be watched below.

Free the Robots “Adore”**

Free the Robots, the project of Santa Ana native Chris Alfaro, has shared the first taste of his upcoming third album, The Balance, in the form of “Adore.” Alfaro’s past as a beatmaker and DJ is evident in his crunchy, MPC-heavy production—lilting vocals float over a skipping, sidechained beat that never draws too much attention to any single element. Flutes and organ sounds collide in the dense midrange, before the whole thing abruptly cuts out. It’s a crate digger’s approach to melody for sure, and while this has been seen before in the likes of Bibio or Lapalux, Alfaro brings his own touch to the collage by letting melodies develop in favor of quick chops. The Balance, Alfaro’s first full-length since 2010‘s Control Alt Delete, is planned for a self-release on August 19, but the tracklist and artwork for the SoCal beatmaker’s upcoming LP can be perused before then, after the jump.

01. Ophic (feat. Jessie Jones)
02. Reflect and Reform
03. Visitors
04. Parallaxis
05. Adore
06. Innervision
07. Blindfold
08. The Balance
09. Carnival (feat. Jessie Jones)
10. Last Night
11. 2040 (feat. Jonwayne)
12. The Unexplainable
13. Let Go
14. The Rain

Adore

Redshape Red Pack II

Redshape‘s music is at its best when it balances obviousness and subtlety. The German musician’s last album, Square, felt like an exercise in the latter, a detour away from the floor-friendliness of his debut, The Dance Paradox. Pulling back to accommodate a more open-ended approach, Square‘s heavy atmospheres laid over the rhythms like a thick fog, and only the album version of previously released tune “The Playground” had the first album’s visceral traction. Red Pack II applies the energy of those earlier tracks to a more stripped-back set of sounds, with hints of Square‘s alienation.

Unlike the insular Square, Red Pack II could be mistaken for someone else’s work at a few points, although these situations don’t last long. “Path (Dub)” channels Chain Reaction–style dub techno, though it subtly alters the formula: the expected metallic, bouncing chord setup is enlivened by a harsh, jazzy cymbal and a prismatic, faintly audible run of marimba notes. With its staggering-colossus kick drum, Redshape joins the industrial-techno fray on “Daft Mode”—though some sampled dialogue from Tron keeps it from taking itself too seriously. “Bulp Head”‘s prickly, slightly off-time MIDI loop is a burst of tonal color on the record, which on the whole is monochrome by Redshape standards. “Bulp Head” and the closing “Path (Original)” would be strong enough to carry the EP on their own, but the restraint of the previous four tracks have set them up to have a awesome impact. Where Square felt like a soundtrack where each song served a specific scenic purpose, Red Pack II‘s tracks contain multitudes.

Video: The Black Madonna “A Jealous Heart Never Rests”

Maybe it was the intention of director James Murray to draw a stark contrast in his video for Black Madonna‘s “A Jealous Heart Never Rests,” as one is left to wonder just why there is so little actual movement in this clip for such a dancefloor-beckoning house tune. Pulled from the recent Lady of Sorrows EP for the fledging Argot imprint, the tune’s simple skip and effervescent synth melodies are paired with slow-motion images of two men submerged in seperate tubs of bath water, emerging only to be choked by a barrage of arms from off-camera assailants. Sure, it’s pretty damn “arty,” but sometimes you have to go out on a limb to keep people intrigued for eight-plus minutes, and Murray has certainly accomplished that.

Ganz “Can’t Stop”*Saturate *

Judging by “Can’t Stop”—the lead cut from Ganz‘s Kraftschleim EP—the influence of maximalism has surely not skipped over the Netherlands. On this particular effort, though, the Dutch producer is not merely content to rehash the stylings of Rustie or Hudson Mohawke, but rather takes the aesthetic philosophy forged by hyperactive beatsmiths and infuses it with an extra dose of soulful glow. In doing so, Ganz’s “Can’t Stop” is rendered into a warm, hook-laden tune, one that opens the man’s new record with a promise of slick sound design and next-level beats. The Kraftschleim EP—which comes packed with remixes from G Jones, Koloah, and others—can be grabbed as a name-your-price download over on Bandcamp.

Can’t Stop

Clouds Ghost Systems Rave

Clouds (a.k.a. Calum Macleod and Liam Robertson) has been cranking out pounding techno records at an astonishing rate this year. The Scottish duo’s first full-length effort, an album for Turbo titled Ghost Systems Rave, will be its fourth release of 2013, and the LP delivers a fresh heaping of straightforward warehouse beats—14 more tracks of dark, metallic bangers, to be precise. However, while the duo’s work rate is impressive, it’s hard to deny that its output is starting to feel a bit ham-fisted. Though the tracks are solid and effective, the record as a whole is monochromatic and rarely wavers from the heavy “new jack techno” style Clouds has explored on its last three EPs.

“Modular Scarf” and “Khevsurian” are Ghost Systems Rave‘s strongest efforts, and both roll out rigid rhythms, deep bass tones, and crisp percussion; like many of the tracks on the LP, they’re DJ tools with a strong Sandwell District influence. “Modular Scarf” opens with the sound of gravel crunching under heavy boots, but it abruptly drops into a head-nodding, visceral beat decorated with hooting synth notes. “Khevsurian” takes a more brutal and distorted approach, with a rumbling kick and sharp stabs of metallic sound that build upon each other to create a dissonant cacophony anchored to a 4/4 rhythm. The track belies Clouds’ tendency to add layers of noise atop crunchy beats, and by straying from that formula, the track ultimately becomes more engaging.

“Future 1” is another standout. It channels old-school rave with a curt “Yeah” vocal sample squeezed between thundering beats and a skyscraping trance melody, but the duo makes up for the derivative qualities by virtue of the song’s conviction and catchiness. “Skeleton Island,” on the other hand, is the weirdest and most experimental track on the album, as it finds Clouds exploring its noise-leaning influences. Here, prickly keys rise out of a murky fog of rustling sound, and the track travels through wavering, indistinguishable vocal samples and cavernous vacuums of sound before a beat drops. Eventually, the track develops into a grimey burner with a rumbling acid bassline that sounds more raw than the other cuts on the album.

Without question, Ghost Systems Rave features a few outstanding numbers, but at a certain point, they start to run together. “Roche Lobe (System),” a brief cut with wavering keys that ring like bells, is the only respite from the forceful kick drums included on relentless techno cuts like “Gothic” and “Uiqwenmokdan.” These tracks—and the numerous others like them—are effective and showcase the duo’s skill as producers, but cut-and-dry warehouse beats don’t necessarily lend themselves to the album format. Simply put, it gets tiresome to listen to 14 bangers in a row. Had the duo distilled the finest cuts from its massive tracklist into something a bit sleeker, Ghost Systems Rave could have been an absolutely smashing release.

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