XLR8R is offering current and new XLR8R+ subscribers a free pair of tickets to each of the locations listed below on Squarepusher‘s upcoming USA tour.
All you have to do is SUBSCRIBE HERE, pick a location, then email [email protected] with both attending names and “Squarepusher: the location” as the subject. The winners will then be selected using a random number generator and notified on April 1. Please note: entries will close on March 31 and there will separate winners for each event. You must be a current XLR8R+ subscriber to win and attend the event. You can find out more about XLR8R+here.
Squarepusher hardly needs an introduction to XLR8R‘s audience being one of the most beloved artists to feature on our pages. Over the last three decades, he has established himself as one of the most forward-thinking artists working in electronic music, with an almost unfathomably diverse and forward-thinking catalog. Once again landing on his label home Warp Records, one of the most iconic labels in the game, Squarepusher’s latest album, Be Up A Hello—his 15th in total—follows a 5-year hiatus and his lauded Damogen Furies LP with a refreshed creative outlook and collection of head-swirling grooves. Now, he is set to embark on a USA tour that will be a mind-altering journey into one of the finest musical brains in the industry.
You can purchase Be Up A Hellohere, with the US tour dates below.
Read our recent in-depth profile on Squarepusher here.
April 4 – Royale, Boston
April 11 – Brooklyn Steel, NYC
April 16 – St. Andrews, Detroit
April 17 – Metro, Chicago
April 22 – Neumos, Seattle
April 23 – Wonder Ballroom, Portland
April 24 – The Midway, San Francisco
April 25 – 1720, Los Angeles
The latest edition of XLR8R+ explores Portugal’s thriving dance scene with tracks and content from DJ Nigga Fox, RS Produções, BLEID, and Serpente, plus artwork by Márcio Matos. Listen to the tracks here.
The mix celebrates the series’ 15-year anniversary, and in doing so, Ostgut Ton has skipped ahead a few numbers from Vatican Shadow’s Berghain 09 mix, which came out last year.
Slater, a regular at the Ostgut-affiliated Berghain, has gone through the complete Ostgut Ton discography, starting at the beginning in 2005, to create new compositions from previous releases, chopping, looping, tweaking, and deploying sounds into a 130-minute mix that is both a “playful retrospective” of the label and a “future-facing vision for mixing and dance music,” we’re told.
“From micro-sampled noise and hi-hats to longer basslines, breaks, and vocals snippets, the 15-year arc of the label history can be found in Berghain Fünfzehn,” Ostgut Ton says.
Slater describes the technique as “rip the cut.” He worked chronologically through the catalogue, creating new individual tracks from multiple batches of 10 releases. While mixing these together, however, Slater departs from the linear timeline to intertwine the sonic strands of Ostgut Ton’s history.
Following the mix, seven of the exclusive tracks will be released on two 12”s for streaming and digital download.
Berghain Fünfzehn is out on April 3 as a free download. The tracklisting is still to be announced.
The 10-track album follows 2018’s A Louder Silence, also on Night Time Stories, and showcases a more experimental side to the London producer’s production. We’re told that it explores themes of love and loss through a blend of harmonic vocals from James himself, nuanced electronic soundscapes, and vibrant percussion.
The first taste of the album comes with the driving, melancholic electronica of “Wise Old Man,” the album’s lead single, traversing through musicality, progressive synths, and introspection.
In support of the album, James has announced a string of tour dates kicking off in May 2020 in Copenhagen, before heading to Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and London. You can read more over at Bandcamp.
Tracklisting
01. Circles 02. Black Lens 03. I Ran With You 04. Wise Old Man 05. Angel In Disguise 06. Ritual 07. Alien (feat. Coby Sey) 08. Strange With You 09. AAID 10. Rebel
Angel in Disguise LPis out on April 24 via Night Time Stories, and is available for pre-order now. Meanwhile, you can stream “Wise Old Man” in full below.
Yves Tumor has announced his new album, Heaven to a Tortured Mind, out April 3 via Warp.
Heaven to a Tortured Mind follows 2018’s exceptional Safe In The Hands Of Love, and is co-produced by Justin Raisen, who has previously worked with Charli XCX and Sky Ferreira, among others.
Alongside the announcement, Yves Tumor, real name Sean Bowie, has shared a video for opener “Gospel for a New Century,” directed by Isamaya Ffrench.
On the video, Ffrench said: “Nobody has ever inspired or moved me like Yves Tumor. It’s hard to do justice and communicate the devotional feeling of adoration and love I feel for him and what he represents as an artist. In short, he’s the shit and I’m so honoured to have made my directorial debut with him as my muse.”
Ahead of the album’s release, Yves Tumor will tour with his band across North America, beginning in March. You can see full tour dates here.
Tracklisting
01. Gospel for a New Century 02. Medicine Burn 03. Identity Trade 04. Kerosene! 05. Hasdallen Lights 06. Romanticist 07. Dream Palette 08. Super Stars 09. Folie Imposée 10. Strawberry Privilege 11. Asteroid Blues 12. A Greater Love
Heaven to a Tortured Mind LP is out April 3 across all formats, via Warp. Meanwhile, you can stream “Gospel for a New Century” below, and pre-order the album here.
Three years in the making, Varispeed Hydra was recorded utilizing a variety of electroacoustic processes and honed in live performances. While it thematically follows Toxic City Music, it moves past that album’s emphasis on the proverbial rat race to turn an ear towards more rural environs.
Across 10 tracks, Caminiti focuses on some of the sounds we stand to lose if we continue on our current trajectory of ecological destruction—birds, insects, and water nestle among the glowing synthesizers and warped electric guitar that comprise the album’s core.
Connecting a thread between musique concrète and dub, these sounds are atomized and diffused, before being “woven together with a sense of urgency, a colorful and restless haze,” the label explains. “Living in the wrong timeline, dreaming of possible utopias; Varispeed Hydra beams in like a collection of broken transmissions, terrestrial sounds melting into the abstract and rising again as vaporous specters.”
Tracklisting
01. Hand In Flame 02. Plume 03. Radio Rome 04. Holo Dove 05. Morphogenesis 06. For Mika 07. Airlock 08. Russian Palm 09. Babylonians 10. Carnation
Varispeed Hydra LP is out April 3 via Dust Editions, with pre-order here. Meanwhile, you can stream “Hand in Flame” below.
Erika Sherman‘s XLR8R podcast is her first recorded live set in over five years, and it’s comprised entirely of her own music, stretched and morphed into just over one hour of dark and twisted Detroit techno. It’s a complex operation, founded upon four synths, three effects units, a drum machine, and a hardware sequencer, and it’s a side of her that’s seen only a handful of times a year, as her focus has moved towards DJing.
“It’s riskier, and it’s more work than a DJ set, so many things can go wrong, and I have to do a setup, soundcheck, and tear down,” she said. “But it’s more special than a DJ set. Chances are, nobody has heard the majority of what I’m playing, because I’m always writing new material.”
Sherman’s is one of the Motor City’s lesser-sung names, a behind-the-scenes operator most widely known as co-founder of Interdimensional Transmissions, one of Detroit’s essential all-time labels and a long-standing pillar of quality within the local music community. Founded over 25 years ago, the label has released work from I-f, Justin Cudmore, and, most recently, Eris Drew, among so many more—including Sherman herself, who has released two EPs and her only album, Hexagon Cloud, there as a solo artist. Sherman’s work as Ectomorph with Brendan M. Gillen, Interdimensional Transmissions’ co-founder, is also scattered across the label, after she replaced Drexciya creator Gerald Donald in the much-celebrated project in 1997.
Elsewhere, Sherman is also recognized for her work on No Way Back, the Detroit party institution celebrating the “lost art” of Midwest raving, first held in a crumbling building over a decade ago. Up until 2016, she also ran her freeform streaming radio station, erika.net, which became one of the first iTunes presets, running 24/7 for 17 years—but she’s since moved on, moving herself towards the spotlight to earn the recognition she’s so long deserved. Besides touring more frequently across North America, she’s also releasing her own music, establishing the Erika name in the process.
At times sparse and unsettled, Sherman’s XLR8R podcast is a demonstration of her expertise in analog synthesis. It sees her leaning on dark ambient drones and deep hardware beats to create rich soundscapes, subtle, slick, and at all times deeply psychedelic.
What have you been up to recently?
My life is a balancing act between administrative work—record labels and parties—making music, and traveling, and I’ve been active on all fronts lately. For Interdimensional Transmissions and Eye Teeth, we’ve been preparing a string of releases, including Eris Drew’s debut EP, out last week, a series of trippy techno records from Israel Vines and, a bit further out, more records in the Acid Series and a second album from myself. We are also quite deep in organizing the Return to the Source weekend in May, where we produce four parties—No Way Back, Tresor 313, The Bunker, and Lot Mass.
Musically, I’ve been in the studio here in Detroit with BMG (a.k.a Brendan M. Gillen) working on some remixes and new music for Ectomorph. I’ve also been developing a new, more improvisational theorem around my solo live set, and getting into more collaborations. On the performance side of things, I just joined Circle of Live, and there are two new studio projects as well, one based in Berlin with Jay Ahern, and the other with Noncompliant called Nachthexen.
How was 2019 for you?
Like all years, full of ups and downs. It was a bit lighter on gigs, so I had more time in the studio to finish music. I readied a solo EP for Eerie Records, and spent a lot of time in Berlin developing the collaboration with Jay. I had a series of really fun DJ gigs playing with Antenes, who is basically my trippy techno sister; we both have really enjoyed playing together. On the downside, I tripped on a stair and severely injured my ankle the night before a month of traveling, which made gigging difficult and painful as I could not really walk properly, drive, or carry anything heavy. However, every promoter and club was super kind (especially C12!), making sure everything was as good as it could be; things like providing a stool in the booth, and extra help moving gear cases.
You haven’t released a live set since 2014. What’s made you come back to it now?
Well, I just figured it’s time. My set constantly evolves, and it’s been through several different lives since then. None of this music has ever been heard outside of the club, and I think it’s cool to put something out that is so different from my DJ sets, which people do get to hear periodically.
Where and when did you record this set?
I recorded this live in one take in my home studio in Detroit just last week, with the cats and plants as an audience. I did it the same exact way I would do a live set in the wild, using only the portable gear I bring to shows.
What sort of setup are you using?
The most important piece of gear in my setup is the MIDI sequencer, Genoqs Octopus. This is where I do all of the sequencing and programming, so while I am doing things like modulating synth sounds, adjusting effects, and riding the mixer during a set, the sequencer really is the main instrument I am playing, and the one thing I couldn’t do without. I use an Elektron Analog RYTM for drums, where I’ve loaded a bunch of samples recorded around my studio of my 808, 909, and drum sounds I’ve synthesized on other gear. For strings and pads, I use a Waldorf Blofeld, for bass a Moog Minitaur, and there’s also a Waldorf Pulse 2 and Make Noise 0-Coast. I add a Moog MF Delay pedal for echo and feedback, and a Strymon Bluesky for reverb, and I run everything through a line mixer.
How much of the set is pre-prepared and how much is improvised?
I have a bunch of sequences stored in my Octopus, and a pretty good idea of where I have them saved. For a set, I improvise the mix and arrangement, playing through stored sequences in an order that feels right, layering them to create songs, and shifting through them to flow through a set. Even if I am doing a few shows in a row on tour, each set comes out sounding very differently, as there is not any pre-determined timing, and every room and audience is different.
Can we expect to hear a lot of unreleased and new music from you?
Everything in this set is unreleased, and pulls from the many different projects I’ve been working on lately. In addition to new solo tracks, there are elements of Nachthexen, the collaboration with Jay, a remix of Altstadt Echo, and my record for Eerie. Versions of many of these songs will be released in one form or another over the next year, but some of them will only ever be heard in this format.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Pretty much everything I’ve mentioned so far—furthering musical collaborations, releasing records, and Return to the Source. Everything but doing my taxes!
XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to download the podcast you will need to subscribe to our Select channel. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.
Max Graef and Julius Conrad, of Acoustic Funk, will release their new album as Ratgrave, titled Rock.
Rock is the duo’s second LP, following their 2018 debut on Funkineven’s Apron. The duo’s sound palette draws inspiration from ’80s funk, soul, rock, and electronic but through a contemporary lens.
Rock is described by the duo as “the essence of energy and vibration we felt in different styles of music, almost like a parallel component connecting all things we like.” In the process of recording the album, they kept coming back to this essence no matter what style the original idea was. They were influenced by the brutal energy of jazz-rock, video games, and quieter pop and psychedelic passages.
Among other things, they also absorbed a lot of heavy music during the time of the recording, like Blue Cheer, Black Sabbath, Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix, and they realized while writing their own music how much impact they had even on quieter songs.
“This is why Rock felt like the perfect title although the music ranges from P-Funk and spiritual jazz to various styles of pop and beyond,” they explain.
Both artists have previously released on Tartelet and this marks the fourth official LP on Black Focus, a London label founded by Kamaal Williams.
Tracklisting
01. Escobar 02. Theme From Metronome 03. World Aid 04. Instant Toothpaste 05. Eternal Breeze 06. Yurok 07. 4 Benz 08. Dibidai 09. Rock 10. Bleeding To Death 11. Sturf 12. Alright 13. Mutti Hat Gekocht
Rock LP is out March 20 on Black Focus with pre-order here. Meanwhile, you can stream “Instant Toothpaste” and “Theme From Metronome” in full below.
German label Kontrapunkt will release a various artist compilation featuring tracks from Jacktone co-founder Doc Sleep, Carmel & Nikita, Adel Akram, and more.
The five-track outing reaches from ambient to clean and straightforward techno, touching on rough and distorted sounds on the way. It opens with the majestic Humanoid before Doc Sleep closes the A-Side with “MJF.”
The B-side brings a more gentle yet spacey approach. It starts with “Deeper Call” by Hedon The Cat, followed by a trip back to earth for Carmel & Nikita’s summer-sounding “Nebenan,” all before the atmospheric Last “Interstellar Transmission” by Berlin’s Adel Akram.
London label Undersound has put out a new release from Leite Dos Santos, whose identity remains undisclosed.
Undersound Recordings was born in 2015 as an offshoot of its namesake event series. The label follows the party’s ethos by showcasing a mix of young and upcoming artists as well as more established figures. Nicola Kazimir and Etienne are among the more experienced names to have released there.
For the label’s 14th release, the elusive Leite Dos Santos presents four tracks fusing old and new school electro sounds, all tied together by emotional melodies and undertones. All club-ready, and with a wicked groove throughout.
Tracklisting
A1. Codex Alexandrinus A2. Texto Sagrado B1. Tanakh B2. A Cidade Santa
Esoteric EP is out now on vinyl. Meanwhile, you can stream clips below.
Thundercat has released“Dragonball Durag,” the second single from his fourth studio album, It Is What It Is LP, out April 3 on Brainfeeder.
The new track, produced alongside Flying Lotus, encapsulates Thundercat’s love of humour in music and his passion for the cult Japanese animé Dragon Ball Z.
“I have a Dragon Ball tattoo….it runs everything. There is a saying that Dragon Ball is life,” he explains.
As for the durag: “There are two types of people in the world, the guy with the durag and the guy who doesn’t know what a durag is. The durag is a superpower, to turn your swag on… it does something, it changes you. If you have one in the wardrobe, think about wearing it tonight, and it may pop off because you never know what’s going to happen.”
“Dragonball Durag” follows previous single “Black Qualls,” which featured Steve Lacy and Funk icon Steve Arrington. The forthcoming album, It Is What It Is, is co-produced with Flying Lotus and also features musical contributions from Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Louis Cole, and Zack Fox. You can read more about it here, with pre-order available here.
