Appropriately enough, Cologne-based producers HADE + DWFL and the duo’s collaborative tune “The Healthiest Man in Chicago” would not be out of place at a Westside Chicago house party. The pair frankly stitch juke’s influence on their sleeves, with their latest track owing more than just a passing glance to the recent work of Planet Mu’s RP Boo, as it boasts rotating Chicago house and hip-hop samples battling it out for bass supremacy. HADE + DWFL’s new clip is delightfully minimal and just fun to watch; the lyrics and the various chords and phases of the tune flash dangerously fast in white and blue typefaces set against a jittery black background. Often, the best juke/footwork clips have been deliberately scaled back affairs, and to great effect. This piece for “The Healthiest Man in Chicago” is no exception.
Scarper “Surfing the Cosmic Belt”*Plexus*
With the release of his next EP just a few weeks away, Plexus label head Scarper is giving away the opening track from his forthcoming record. “Surfing the Cosmic Belt” sees the British producer balancing warm textures and thick pads in a style initially similar to vintage Boards of Canada. However, after that style becomes established, Scarper changes gears and makes a playful run for the dancefloor in the vein of 808 State’s lush productions (not to mention another contemporary student of that sound, Lone). The lighthearted groove and plethora of crafty effects throughout “Surfing the Cosmic Belt” makes for an excellent introduction to Scarper’s Unfurl EP, which can be previewed after the jump before it drops on June 24 via Plexus.
Holden The Inheritors
The Inheritors is not the kind of Border Community release one might expect. At first, there’s hardly a nostalgic melody, much less a steady beat on label boss James Holden‘s psychedelic sophomore LP, which punctuates the long silence that followed his 2006 debut, The Idiots Are Winning. Compared to the first album, it’s tough to get oriented in The Inheritors‘ swirling, mid-fi stew. It takes him until “Renata”‘s fuzzy synth riff to evoke the idealized prettiness most associated with the label—and even the beauty here is of a wilder, murkier kind. But it’s worth being patient while listening to the LP. There were hints of something weirder and freer lurking beneath Idiots tracks like “Lumpette” and “Quiet Drumming”—but The Inheritors mostly sounds vast, like the kind of album it would take seven years to make.
Holden counts the KLF’s Chill Out, Scottish céilidh music, and ancient pagan rituals among the album’s inspirations. His intention might be to create a synthetic pan-British mythology of his own, but listeners are likely to hear more contemporary reference points. The album opens with the churning “Rannoch Dawn,” whose relentless forward motion feels like Krautrock, even though its sawing strings and multi-tracked live drums have none of Neu!’s motorik steadiness. The flutes and tribal chanting of “||: A Circle Inside a Circle Inside :||” puts a finer point on things, calling to mind the early-2000s neo-psychedelia of the Boredoms and Black Dice circa Beaches and Canyons, a blown-speaker alliance of rough-and-ready noise tactics and de-bullshitted new-age mysticism. Things gradually move toward a more familiar idiom as the album continues—by the end we’re swaddled in recognizably melodic surroundings and the occasional drum machine, although a destabilizing open-endedness persists. This is only very tangentially dance music, but its weirdness seems organic, not an attempt at a statement.
Mostly, Holden seems to be following the lead of whatever junky equipment is at hand, and shaping the results on the fly. This leads to considerable stylistic shifts; there’s a taste of full-tilt Soft Machine in the blaring “The Caterpillar’s Intervention,” but such overtly musical gestures fade into the background of tracks like “Sky Burial” and “The Illuminations,” which burrow experimentally into the sticky cone of a dusty solid-state amp. Its press release makes The Inheritors sound like something that belongs on Ghost Box, evoking the dusky, domestic glory of olde Albion. But in the end, Holden’s new album is strikingly original; its innovation is a sound that’s sweepingly dramatic, convoluted, and uncanny at once.
The album’s best moments are the ones where that sonic impurity reinforces something genuinely moving, like the chaotic synth curlicues of “Gone Feral,” which are half submerged by psychotic revving bass. The Inheritors is too sprawling to make an easily conveyed impression, but it all feels like part of a deliberate strategy of regression. The music here is bristly, primitive, and saturated—it’s Border Community on the paleo diet, if the aural paleo diet consisted of flea-market equipment. Listeners won’t walk away with a clear narrative about The Inheritors, which is designed for nonlinear exploration. It doesn’t pay off all its risks—at times it gets too blurry to follow—but this album sounds like little else. That’s a coup for a label that could easily be bound by its own aesthetics, and a challenge to producers content to be bound by others’ expectations.
Black Noi$e “Hold On”*Potholes Music*
The humble start of Black Noi$e‘s latest offering is misleading. Opening delicately with a gently distorted guitar and a distant vocal sample, the Detroit native builds anticipation by shifting practically the entire mix into the background, before kicking “Hold On” into full gear around the 30-second mark. After that, there’s no looking back, as the beatmaker born Rob Mansel leaves his innocent intro in the wake of a hybrid of a groove that draws inspiration from footwork, hip-hop, and beyond. It might not be proper to describe Mansel’s sound as nostalgic, but after just a few listens, “Hold On” feels like a solid summer tune that recalls a handful of the tunes we grew up with. Black Noi$e’s latest tune will be paired with a b-side track later this month, courtesy of Potholes Music.
Natasha Kmeto Crisis
While there are plenty of producers who sing and singers who produce music, Natasha Kmeto is rare in that she owns both credits equally. From 2009’s 9 onwards, the Portland-based musician has put both her voice and beats on equal footing, presenting herself as a singular package of studio talent and vocal prowess. Crisis, Kmeto’s latest full-length, is the most clearly distilled presentation of her talents yet, serving as a slick vehicle for her varied songwriting. Over the LP’s ten tracks, Kmeto moves from skittering beats to soul-saturated R&B while managing to maintain a relatively cohesive vision. The result is an album that’s both structurally diverse and strangely unified in its aesthetic.
As one might expect from an album with such a title, Crisis is not a happy record. The record’s smoldering closer, “Prideless,” sees Kmeto draw on soul balladry for inspiration as she explores feelings of loss and disillusionment. Lyrically, the track is an emotional gut punch that sheds light on a failed relationship: “I tried to fight this/but now I’m prideless,” Kmeto sings. Elsewhere, the artist manages to throw in small bits of levity, but they rarely stick. The woozy, crystalline “Morning Sex” is romantic, but wracked with desperation; “Deeply” has a anhedonic undercurrent to its love-song facade. Even when her music lacks discernable lyrics, Kmeto is capable of creating an emotion. “Brushstrokes” is a claustrophobic, techno-tinged track, while “Vodka Diet” whirls entropically like Kmeto has the spins. Though she has left behind the chopped production of her recent Dirty Mind Melt EP, Kmeto still has a knack for ratcheting up tension by editing herself down to nearly nothing.
That Crisis continues Natasha Kmeto’s relationship with Pacific Northwest label Dropping Gems makes sense. While some of her newest tracks wouldn’t be out of place alongside alt-pop artists like Jessie Ware or Charli XCX, Kmeto sounds most comfortable when she’s embracing progressive electronic music closer to her label’s sensibilities. The jazzy arrangements of her oldest work and the hip-hop influences found on last year’s The Ache are mostly gone. Throughout the new LP, Kmeto often uses her voice as a tool right along with her array of analog synths and drum machines. For instance, the album’s opener/title track sees Kmeto carefully manipulating her singing amidst spare percussion. Though she never allows more than a groan to escape over the arpeggiated synths, “Crisis” is saturated with feelings of foreboding and eroticism. The track serves as both an introduction to Kmeto’s chosen palette and a good primer for the rest of the record.
At the other end of the spectrum, LP standout “Idiot Proof” is an outlier that recasts Kmeto as a full-on disco queen. With its Italo synths and housey vocals, it’s a huge-sounding song that feels almost too big for the record. Much like The Ache‘s title track, “Idiot Proof” shows Kmeto can be as brash as she wants to be. While the record’s other pop-oriented songs (“Morning Sex,” “Deeply,” “Prideless”) present a mellower side of her vocals (though “Last Time,” a stuttering bass-and-snare affair, is also a nice display), it’s fun hearing her let loose.
Though Kmeto continues to mix genres and bring in new influences, Crisis has narrowed her focus. Given her steadily rising profile, the album will likely be the first time many people hear Kmeto’s music—something she probably knows. This being the case, she has managed to do a fine job refining the things that made her first albums successful—complex production, emotive lyrics, soulful vocals—while creating a more coherent sound. It would be easy to imagine Kmeto producing more mainstream artists in the near future (she’s already an accomplished remixer) or, perhaps, gravitating toward more overt pop herself. Crisis, though, still finds her polishing the things she finds most interesting, even though it’s resulted in some of her most thematically dark material to date.
The Lowdown – This Week’s XLR8R Top 10 with Todd Terje, Boards of Canada, Addison Groove, Gold Panda, and More
Throughout the week, a whole lot of material gets posted here on XLR8R. And while we know—and love—that some hardcore readers will eagerly pour over every single news story, interview, podcast, video, and MP3 download that appears on the site, we also realize that for most people, it’s impossible to see everything, which means that some quality XLR8R content is likely to get missed in the hustle and bustle of everyone’s daily lives. In the interest of making it easier for everyone to catch up, every Friday we present The Lowdown, a weekly wrap-up of the top 10 tidbits from our site.
1. Todd Terje’s new single “Strandbar (Disko)” hit the internet this week, and everyone basically went bonkers for it.
2. Addison Groove showed off his beat-making skills in a quick video produced by FACT TV.
3. Brooklyn vintage house connoisseur Octo Octa delivered our 299th podcast, which saw him mixing classic dance records with a handful of fresher sounds.
4. A new mix form James Holden appeared on Resident Advisor this week, and the DJ/producer noted that it was a “companion” to his latest LP, The Inheritors.
5. Native Instruments unveiled its Kontrol Z1 for Traktor, which was pretty great news for anyone using the company’s software.
6. We went Deep Inside the astounding fourth LP by Scottish duo Boards of Canada, Tomorrow’s Harvest, revealing many of its themes, influences, and other subtleties.
7. V-Moda is hooking up three pairs of its new Crossfade M-100 over-ear headphones to three lucky XLR8R readers this week, and thankfully, there’s still time to enter.
8. Japanse producer Metome gave away his “Water Cycle” tune from the recently released Phreatic Surface EP for King Deluxe.
9. We reviewed the new iteration of Akai’s legendary MPC production unit, the MPC Studio, and found quite a bit to like about the slim device.
10. This week, UK producer Gold Panda issued his excellent sophomore LP, Half of Where You Live, and enjoyed it so much that we deemed it an XLR8R Pick in our review.
An expanded version of the The Lowdown is also available via a weekly email newsletter. Those interested in an even more in-depth round-up of XLR8R content, including a complete listing of all the free downloads we’ve offered in the past seven days, should sign up by entering their email address below.
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Ikebana “Ends (Matthewdavid Remix)”**
In Japanese, “Ikebana” is a kind of flower arrangement which places less emphasis on the buds and blooms, and more on the roots, stems, and the arrangement and growth thereof. signed to Signed to Japanese imprint flau, the drone-indebted shoegaze outfit Ikebana has a sound that seems to decidedly draw inspiration from its moniker—one which is considerably restrained and sparse, relying on the repetition of delicately embellished chords. It’s also a good fit for Leaving Records boss and lo-fi alchemist Matthewdavid. His remix of “Ends,” taken from Ikebana’s debut When You Arrive There (out on July 8, artwork above), sees the LA artist tossing and turning atop a waterbed of degraded guitar chords that swell, dissolve back into static, and rise again. What really helps “Ends (Matthewdavid Remix)” along is its focus: The tune features zero percussion and is devoid of the sub-bass tangents known to frequently mark his work. Instead, Matthewdavid entrances us with gorgeous chords, gauzy vocals, pools of tape fuzz, and little else.
Listen to Breach Remix Maya Jane Coles’ New Single
When Maya Jane Coles first spread news of her forthcoming debut LP last month, the breakout London DJ/producer shared a stream of its lead single, “Everything.” Now, that tune has recieved a handful of remix treatments—including one from the “Jack”-man himself, Breach, which can now be heard in full. Coles first full-length is set to drop on June 28, and will be preceded by a remix EP for “Everything” that includes this sleek, bass-injected version by the producer born Ben Westbeech. Along with Monday’s release of the Everything Remixes EP, more Maya Jane Coles-related goods are set to land on XLR8R next week, so we advise that her fans stay tuned to these pages. For now, “Everything (Breach Remix)” can be streamed below.
Fort Romeau Readies New Single for Ghostly, Streams A-Side
Following close behind his “SW9” 12″ for Ghostly, UK up-and-comer Fort Romeau has announced the forthcoming “Jetée” b/w “Desire” single (artwork), set to appear later this month. The two tracks are said to find the producer continuing down his path of “dancefloor elegance,” with a pair of tunes “fit for both large soundsystems and epic summer travels.” Fortunately, Ghostly has decided to not keep us in too much suspense, making “Jetée” available to stream in full before the digital single drops on June 24. The a-side of the upcoming record can be heard in the player below.
Watch a Mini-Doc About the LA Beat Scene
While there have been plenty of these types of pieces made, this short documentary about the LA beat scene is one of the better executed ones. Featuring appearances from Daedelus, Free The Robots, Juj, and MNDSGN, among others, the video tells the story behind one of the most influential music scenes in recent memory. The artists describe the humble origins of their musical movement, discuss the birth and rise to notoriety of the genre-defining Low End Theory party, and talk about their own inspirations and production processes throughout the 10-minute clip. The aptly titled Not a Beat, Not a Scene can be watched below.
