Trainwreck: Baths

Los Angeles-based artist Baths (a.k.a. Will Wiesenfeld) trades in wistful, vocal-led electronic pop, and has often been lumped in with the chillwave movement as a result. This isn’t inherently wrong, but it does a disservice to both his wonky, beat-scene-informed production and to the range of emotions he’s capable of conveying. Obsidian, his new album for Anticon, finds him exploring darker and more nuanced territory than ever before, all of which lands pretty far from chillwave’s Endless Summer vibes. Even so, Wiesenfeld’s music does have an accessibility that endears him to all sorts of scenes. In this edition of Trainwreck, the producer recounts playing an absurdly druggy festival in a Northwestern forest, and the crazed “fan” (or undead tormentor, possibly) it allowed him to meet.

After my first Baths tour, I started doing some minor festival dates, one of which was this festival up in Oregon, Emrg+N+See, in 2010. It was one of those weird sort of can-only-happen-in-that-area-of-America festivals—where it’s in the woods, everybody’s wearing sheepskin vests, and everybody is high on everything. And it was so not my scene, and I was like, “What the fuck is going on?” We got there at like eight or nine [in the evening], but my set time was at four in the morning, so that’s already a giveaway for how nuts this festival was. I [came] with my brother and my friend, and I rolled in with all my shit, went to the stage, dropped everything off, and then explored for a while, trying not to get eaten by all the high people everywhere.

I was on the same stage and line-up as Devonwho and Shlohmo that night, and we were all playing around the same time. So onstage we kind of had all of our stuff set up, just sitting on the table waiting for our sets to [start]. I’m probably going to remember this a little incorrectly, so I’m trying my best to put together how it actually happened. But I was doing my set and was performing, and the way I perform [is], when I have the mic, I’m just facing the audience, so I’m not really that locked in to what’s around me. I start to see out of my peripheral vision [that] there’s somebody on stage, so I turn around. It’s this girl dressed head-to-toe like a pilgrim, for whatever reason. And [her outfit] was like bright green and white. We’re in the woods, so I guess that’s how it goes. She had this fucking smile on her face that was just so dark, so Joker. Like the kind of smile that everything about it is wrong. It’s not joy—at least not for anybody seeing it. It instills pure fear. And so she’s just zombie-smiling at me from across the stage—standing on the stage—and it’s just me and this girl very far away from me. And so I’m immediately thrown off, but I’m still trying to sing, play, and be normal.

She starts to move towards me, and is basically shaking water out of a bottle onto some of the equipment that’s on a table on the stage. And so, immediately, it’s like a full nightmare, like “Holy fuck!”—and I’m still singing, still doing my thing. I was sure, of course, that there would be somebody around to pull her off the stage, like security somewhere, but that wasn’t happening. So she had all the time in the world to walk slowly all the way across the stage to me. Not running, not dramatic—just weaving her way towards me, meandering and pouring water all over everybody’s equipment. She comes up to me and starts hitting the buttons on my MPD, slapping it in the middle of me playing. I was so completely astounded by fact that she was even there. And I turned to her and there wasn’t even any vocal exchange. I just put my hand directly on her face and pushed her away by her face. I saw her as a threat! I saw her as a person that could definitely have a knife or something. I had never experienced anything like that before in my life. I’ve never had someone that high come that close to me, so I was really tripped out and scared.

I managed to get her far enough away so that I could keep going, but she would slowly appear again, so I did the same thing again. I don’t think I actually said anything to her, I was just pushing. Some guy finally appeared, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her off the stage, and I just could not believe what was going on. I remember all of that happening and—in the midst of it happening and her pouring water—I don’t actually know if other people’s shit was broken with all that water. But I know that some of us, myself included, were yelling at her. After she left I was just looking for people who [could] realize how fucking crazy that was.

I kept playing and moving through my set, and it must have been like 4:30 a.m. And she appeared again at the side of the stage, still very much in the [restricted] security area, and she’s just there, like a fucking demon. She’s offstage, but that Joker smile is still there, and she’s still dressed like a pilgrim—just haunting that set, just would not leave. I never heard her say a single word ever, about anything. She’s just like a monster who always appears in my dreams now. I don’t think I could have a set go as bad as that just because, not necessarily because of glitches or anything like that, but there was like a fear in me. I was genuinely afraid that something was gonna happen, that she had some secret knife, or that she was just going to slap a tab of acid on me somewhere that I wouldn’t see.

Video: Simian Mobile Disco & Bicep “Sacrifice”

“Sacrifice,” the still forthcoming collaborative effort from Simian Mobile Disco and Bicep, gets a black-and-white, pattern-based video treatment. Turning the side-scroll video game idea about 90 degrees, the analog-minded tune unfurls as its accompanying video falls down a bottomless pit of geometrical shapes and interwoven patterns. The two groups’ Sacrifice EP is slated to drop on June 10 via Simian Mobile Disco’s Delicacies imprint.

Move D “Wanna Do” b/w “Nautique”

This is somewhat unexpected; as it turns out, there’s a sliver of overlap between the name Move D (a.k.a. David Moufang) and the concept of a “DJ tool.” The “Wanna Do” b/w “Nautique” 12″ resides in that microscopic terrain, the vanishingly small field of activity where Move D subsumes some of his quirks in service of mixability. These two cuts are very good candidates for a long warm-up or cool-down, but they don’t offer their charms easily to the immobile home listener. The trade-off is that they come across as somewhat underdeveloped, lacking the earworm qualities of the DJ/producer’s almost simultaneously released “To the Disco ’77.” These two tracks are sedate and unflashy in comparison—they are contemplative, reflective tracks that aren’t headed anywhere in particular and evoke the kind of off-kilter, early morning malaise of the body giving out while the mind urges it to keep dancing.

Both tracks are built around slightly queasy loops that still offer some homesick comfort. “Nautique” in particular is almost seasick, sloshing drunkenly in controlled circles while Moufang’s crisp drum programming fans it with fresh air. “Wanna Do,” on the other hand, sound like deep house from the bottom of a cistern. There’s a weariness to it that communicates a sort of relief at having left the party, at appreciating it from a comfortable, non-participatory distance. Taken this way, the 12″ quite nicely fills an underrepresented niche, music for coming down while you remain in the building. Both sides feel like they’re a couple of details away from being standalone songs, coming across like base ideas in search of something headier and more directed. It’s enough to earn this disc a spot in the bags of canny and agile DJs. Move D’s latest cuts are uniquely well suited to outdoor soundsystems where they can waft over audiences in a low-pressure environment and nuance is prized.

Pioneer Unveils XDJ-R1

Pioneer has unveiled the XDJ-R1, a new wireless DJ system with comprehensive iOS control capabilities. The new system is built around the hardware-based controls and FX found on Pioneer’s CD-Js and mixers, but comes enhanced by the use of the company’s own remotebox iOS app which allows for much deeper control of the unit and the audio which passes through it using an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. Furthermore, each XDJ-R1 deck includes a CD drive, and can also support audio from a USB stick or laptop. The XDJ-R1 will hit stores in June with an MSRP of $1,099; a complete walk-through of the new unit can be watched below.

Listen to Kingdom’s ‘Vertical XL’ EP

LA-via-NYC producer Kingdom dropped his Vertical XL EP earlier this week, presenting a diverse range of productions—led by the sultry, Kelela-featuring “Bankhead”—that marked the man’s first official release since 2011. Now the seven-track effort is available to stream in full. Appearing on Kingdom’s own Fade to Mind label, which he co-runs alongside Nguzunguzu, Vertical XL begins in somewhat R&B-friendly territory before diving deep into more sinister efforts full of booming machine rhythms and ghostly melodies. The EP can be streamed in its entirety via the player below.

Micro Panda Shall Burst “A Violet V-Forever”*Cleaning Tapes*

Using their emails to trade loops and sessions back and forth, budding artists My Panda Shall Fly and Microburst have crafted a collaborative EP of densely textured productions together under the clever name Micro Panda Shall Burst. The moderately up-tempo but intricately interwoven “A Violet V-Forever” stems from the pair’s resulting Earth and Air and Rain EP. With a bed of bubbling percussive tones and airy chords at its base, the tune shows how well the two producers’ styles fit together, with each diving deep into sonic details while never losing site of the pulsating rhythm which holds the track together. The four-track Earth and Air and Rain EP is out now in both cassette and digital form, or—for those feeling adventurous—can be experienced via a series of immersive interactive videos which can be watched/played with here, here, here, and here.

A Violet V-Forever

Five Minutes with Dabrye at Movement 2013

As XLR8R was getting ready to head to Detroit for this year’s Movement festival—which we wrote about and photographed extensively—there were many acts we couldn’t wait to see, and Ann Arbor native Dabrye was very high on that list. Maybe it’s because we’ve been seriously missing his kind of leftfield hip-hop beats since his last solo album dropped in 2006, or perhaps it’s because he was one of the few producers of that genre to play Movement, but we quickly went after a chance to interview the artist born Tadd Mullinix while we had the chance. During our quick chat, Dabrye recalled some of his early memories of the first Movement festival, shared his thoughts on the so-called “beat scene,” and gave us an update on the third installment of his LP trilogy.

XLR8R: That was a good set you just played. How did it feel?

Dabrye: It felt good. The rain was coming down a bit, so I had to fight that, but it was good.

When you play, do you normally do DJ sets, or do you also do a live PA?

I used to do a live PA, but I’m transitioning to new software right now. I’m in the middle of moving from All Sound Tracker to Renoise, which is also a tracker. It’s really great and up-to-date—meaning it supports VST and all that kind of stuff.

Being from the Detroit area, do you remember when Movement started?

I actually played the first Movement festival [then called Detroit Electronic Music Festival, or DEMF] in 2000.

Was that as Dabrye?

I played as Tadd Mullinix, my birth name. At that time, I had an album out on Ghostly under my birth name, so they wanted to book me under that name. So when I played back then, I played all different kinds of music from my various aliases.

Having been at the first Movement festival, have you noticed much that has changed since then?

Well, the crowd is younger. Being in my mid-30s, I’m now seeing the difference between myself and young people. Especially because now they’re going out, throwing shows, and all that kind of stuff. So, that stands out, because you see the new styles and new attitudes. The other thing is that the [sound] rigs seem to be bigger. And, of course, back then it was free.

Was it about the same size, same number of stages?

There might’ve been fewer stages, but not that many, if there were. I’m not sure. It was a similar set-up. I played the Underground stage, and there were a lot of people there. I was a really young artist at the time, but the thing about festivals is that there are tons of people everywhere. So, if there is good music happening, they just kind of gravitate to it. Of course, more gravitate toward well-known artists, but the cool thing about festivals is that if they book a young, up-and-coming talent, people are there to hear it. It’s a different environment that way.

There was a bit of a lull for a while with Dabrye, but recently your name has been around a lot more. Is this at all leading up to new music?

Well, there’s new music coming, but if there’s any campaign or hyping for it, I have nothing to do with it. Like, Ghostly released these t-shirts and tweets and stuff that said “Free Dabrye.” I think Michael Cina had something to do with it. He was kind of like, “It seems [Dabyre] is locked up somewhere. There’s no new music coming out.” But all the while I was doing remixes and stuff like that, but there was no new album yet.

And you were doing a lot of James T. Cotton stuff, as well.

Yeah. There was like a blast of three EPs of all very different styles for a bunch of different labels: Shaddock did Beats in Space, Killekill did Sonic Criminal, and HoyaHoya did the Park Days EP.

You’ve been keeping busy, just not releasing original Dabrye stuff.

Right.

Does this mean that the third part of your trilogy is on its way?

It is on its way, just a lot slower than the other ones, obviously. I’m building beats, but we’re yet to really get MCs on the beats.

So you are looking for MCs?

Yes. I really want to. We’ll see what the label wants to do, but my ideal situation would be that I can release an album, rather than like an instrumental EP or something.

Are you trying to move away from that “instrumental hip-hop” scene?

The way I feel is, like, I’m doing my thing. The LA beat scene, you know… Although I’ve done shows with a lot of those guys, like Ras G and Kutmah, they’ve totally, like, gone on stage with a microphone and told the audience, “Hey, Dabrye was doing this [kind of] stuff a while ago. You guys have to listen to him.” So, in a way, I feel like an outsider. I feel like I had something to do with that scene, but I’m not really connected with it.

Any final thoughts about Movement 2013?

It’s fantastic, young people coming out and discovering music. It’s great. To me, it’s important that, especially in our American capitalist culture, people embrace art and identify with it as a sort of cultural experience. It’s something that I think needs a lot of reinforcement in our society.

Tensnake Previews New Single

Hamburg producer Tensnake has announced he will drop a new 12″ next week via his own True Romance label for the slow-motion, vocal-led tune “58bpm.” The track is being touted as the first taste of Tensnake’s forthcoming LP, though no exact details have been shared in regards to the man’s eventual full-length effort. While we patiently wait for more information to arrive, the “58bpm” single will drop on Monday, June 3, backed by a remix from Mano Le Tough. A teaser video for the single can be watched below.

Breach Announces Upcoming Single for Dirtybird

After originally being slated to appear on a three-track EP for Dirtybird back in April (an EP which appears to no longer be available in digital stores), Breach‘s sleek and stripped dancefloor hit, “Jack,” will now see an official release on July 14 backed with remixes from Calibre and Mak & Pasteman. The bass-focused tune appears well on its way to becoming one of 2013’s summer anthems after being a staple in clubs for the past few months and a favorite of both attendees and selectors throughout last weekend’s Movement festival in Detroit. The “Jack” single will drop right as summer begins to kick into full swing, and will see a release as a joint venture between Claude VonStroke’s Dirtybird imprint and major label Atlantic. The forthcoming single’s tracklist is included below along with a full stream of its lead tune.

01 Jack
02 Jack (Calibre remix)
03 Jack (Mak & Pasteman remix)
04 Jack (Jackapella)

Qoso “Hard on the Boulevard “*In Paradisum *

Following his split 12″ with Low Jack from earlier this year, French producer Qoso appears set to go even deeper on his upcoming EP. The effort’s lead track, “Hard on the Boulevard,” is a piece uncompromising industrial techno full of jacking rhythms that slice through the tune’s brittle textures, becoming rawer and more chaotic as they push on. Qoso’s Monica EP—which features a remix from burgeoning London producer Perc—is set to drop June 10 via the In Paradisum label and can be pre-ordered and previewed here.

Hard On The Boulevard

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