Veteran Bristol-based producer Al Tourettes (a.k.a. Alan Storey) has decided to shelve his Tourettes moniker and continue onwards as Second Storey, with the new handle’s debut EP set to drop next month via Fabric sub-label Houndstooth. Al Tourettes had originally made his name with dancefloor-ready, Metalheadz-indebted techno, but his new project promises to be quite different. According to the press release, the new EP sees “[Storey] experiment with the very inertia of the music that inspired him in the first place.” Second Storey promises to be a more fiercely experimental endeavor than the producer has previously attempted, beginning with the release of the Margosa Heights EP on vinyl June 24, followed by a digital release on July 1. A preview stream and tracklist for the forthcoming EP can be found below.
01 Arpy Garbles 02 Still Seas / Just Mortal 03 Margosa Heights 04 Hebridean Mind Tours
Most people experience the Red Bull Music Academy as a month-long series of sponsored events, bold advertisements plastered onto tall buildings and subway walls, and copies of the Daily Note newspaper. But those are only the most visible aspects of the Academy’s 2013 edition, which kicked off its second term in New York City this week. In fact, most of RBMA takes place in a single building in Chelsea, where a carefully selected group of 30 musicians from around the world have been set loose in artistically designed, state-of-the-art studios and a contingent of writers, PR agents, and assorted music industry folks labor over various other projects upstairs. When the Academy is in session, RBMA headquarters houses an entire music-business ecosystem that produces not only fresh tunes and an extensive lineup of events, but daily newspapers, art installations, and lengthy lectures from seasoned artists. Since most of RBMA isn’t open to the public, it largely remains a mystery to those not directly involved. As such, XLR8R spent two days scurrying around the epicenter of the behemoth culture machine that is RBMA, taking an inside look at the daily life of its participants.
RBMA Bedroom Studio Photo: Dan Wilton
It’s kind of like summer camp for musicians.
On the first day of the Academy, each participant was equipped with a colossal backpack stamped with the RBMA logo, which totally makes them look like students at a DJ sleepaway camp—especially when they’re all waiting in line to get a plate of food in the cafeteria. Every morning, Let’s Play House label owner Nik Mercer rouses the 30 artists from their rooms at the Ace Hotel and shepherds them onto a shuttle bus that transports them to RBMA headquarters. The group generally cruises in around 11 a.m. for breakfast, which usually includes lumpy eggs, stiff hashbrowns, muffins, and—for vegans/vegetarians/tofu-lovers—a tofu scramble. They group together at tables and chat before scattering to their respective studios upstairs to jam or work on beats, after which they file into the main floor auditorium for afternoon lectures. The lectures are the only events that the participants are required to attend; after dinner, they can choose whether or not they’d like to climb back onto the bus and attend the various nightly events.
It was a tight schedule for the group—too tight to explore the city. “I’ve just been to and from [the headquarters and events] every day. I haven’t seen anything else,” RBMA participant and Rinse FM DJ T. Williams told us Tuesday afternoon. Likewise, Austrian songwriter Squalloscope (a.k.a. Anna Kohlweis) and Italian musician Mr. Selfish (a.k.a. Alberto Spezzaferro) said their time in New York has been completely absorbed by RBMA, which, they agreed, was “like the best camp ever.” The cafeteria food, friendly getting-to-know-you conversations, enlightening lectures, and shuttle buses reminded them of school trips—except a lot more fun, and with cooler people who share similar interests.
Torsten Schmidt of RBMA, Trancemicsoul, and Todd Burns of RBMA Photo: Dan Wilton
The students are excited to collaborate on new tunes.
On Monday afternoon, each producer sat down with RBMA lecture hosts Todd Burns and Torsten Schmidt to introduce themselves and play a bit of their music for the rest of the crew. Each one was asked a few basic questions about their lives and then grilled on what they hoped to take away from their time at the Academy. The standard answer was, “I’m excited to collaborate with other musicians,” and they all genuinely seemed to be.
A few of the artists have already linked up on creative endeavors. After introductions, T. Williams had his eye on two promising musicians: South African house producer Trancemicsoul (pronounced “transmic soul”) and New Zealand-bred singer/songwriter Louis Baker, who both made promising impressions on the group when they presented. Although Trancemicsoul is virtually unknown to the world outside of the South African house scene, the brief clip of the tune he shared bore the influence of European and US deep house sounds. Baker also managed to pleasantly surprise the auditorium. When he took a seat between Schmidt and Burns, one host remarked that he looked stronger than in his press photos, which hadn’t done justice to his stocky, rugby player’s frame. It came as a bit of a surprise, then, when he played one of his tracks, and revealed a soft, sultry, and heartfelt croon.
Torsten Schmidt and Evian Christ Photo: Dan Wilton
Something is up with Evian Christ.
When UK beatmaker Evian Christ stepped up to the front during the introductions, Schmidt started to hint that he heard through his insider network that some of the producer’s ethereal tracks “are being used.” But Christ swept the comment aside. “Let’s not talk about that yet,” he told Schmidt, shaking his head. “How did you hear about that?”
Giorgio Moroder at Output Photo: Christelle de Castro
Giorgio Moroder is making EDM bangers, too.
Monday’s lecture featured legendary Italian record producer and label owner Giorgio Moroder, who came ready to share a detailed history of his lengthy career in electronic music. He started by telling Schmidt that his “mommy” was the last person to call him by his birth name, Hansjörg, and went on to explain the recording process behind some of his biggest hits and the tumultuous relationships between the eclectic artists on the roster at Casablanca Records. “There were three main acts. One was Donna [Summer], one was Kiss, and one was the Village People,” Moroder explained. “Each one was pissed at the other.” When Schmidt pulled up a photo of the stalwart producer from the 1970s, Moroder swelled with pride. “Nobody had a mustache like me,” he boasted.
A few short hours after the lecture, RBMA participant Benjamin Damage was behind the booth at Output in Brooklyn, warming up the club for T. Williams, François K, and Moroder himself. “Because it was Giorgio Moroder, I didn’t play really deep techno,” he explained from the studios the next day. “I played most of my synthy [tracks] to ease into it. But I always play stuff that I like and that’s me.” For his part, Williams scaled back on his love for 2-step, although he did let a Bassment Jaxx tune fly toward the end of the set. “I was very aware of how much 2-step and that broken-beat stuff I can play,” he said. “A lot of the stuff that is cool in the UK and especially in London, it doesn’t translate the same [in other countries].”
Benjamin Damage at Output Photo: Christelle de Castro
Moroder, on the other hand, dove deep into the sounds that have defined his career. He greeted the audience members, who were standing on tip-toes and hanging from the balconies to get a look at him when he appeared, with a vocoder mic. “My name is Giorgio Moroder,” he said to wild applause. “And this is my musical director,” he said, gesturing to his assistant. Although Moroder seemed to be doing most of the DJing himself, his director stayed by his side to guide him and provide the occasional suggestion during the set, which included classics like “Love to Love You” and “Hot Stuff,” as well as new material from the producer. The unreleased track was a massive European electro banger, complete with sky-high synths and Moroder’s own vocoder singing over the top.
If François K was an aspiring producer/DJ today, he would just give up already.
François K’s Tuesday lecture was full of inspiring and/or sage kernels of information, although it ended on an oddly discouraging note. For two hours, he described how he made a successful career in a “hardcore, intense, relentless” city like New York. He advised the participants not to sign contracts that limited them to a certain record label, and to define clear boundaries between their creative process and the business folks monetizing and enabling its existence. “It’s always control of your own destiny that’s important,” he said. “Don’t expect business folks to have the creative vision that’s inside of you. Stick to what you believe—follow that which is in you and tells you what’s really great. That’s what you should be doing. The payoff is worth the determination to see it through.”
François K on the RBMA lecture couch Photo: Christelle de Castro
But right at the end of the lecture, François K revealed his inner despair. He started DJing because there was less competition in the field at the time, but the crowded landscape of aspiring DJs and producers that exists today would discourage him from even trying. “For DJing, it’s hard to make something that different and that much better than everything else because the market is inundated with free music. It’s harder to impose yourself on the market,” he explained. “Anyone who’s thinking about [becoming a DJ] should think about going into developing software for music making.”
Benji B and Just Blaze love “Go Bang.”
BBC Radio 1 host Benji B and Just Blaze spent the first few days of term two floating around the RBMA headquarters, attending lectures, meeting with RBMA employees, and eating the free cafeteria cuisine. (On Monday night, Just Blaze was sitting alone at a cafeteria table, eating his pasta, until RBMA participants started to group around and ask him questions.) At the end of François K’s lecture, Benji B took the mic to request that the DJ play a bit of his remix of Dinosaur L’s “Go Bang.” When the mic came around to Just Blaze, the hip-hop producer admitted that he, too, wanted to hear “Go Bang,” but his question “got jacked” before he could ask it. When the track started to play over the auditorium’s sound system, Just Blaze wiggled his fingers as if noodling away on the strings of a guitar.
De La Montagne at Tammany Hall Photo: Dan Wilton
Staying late at the RBMA showcases pays off.
Even after a long day in the studio and lecture hall, the participants aren’t really given the chance to mellow out. Instead, most of them pile onto the shuttle bus and make their way down to the nightly showcase. The breakneck schedule is exhausting, but it’s worth it to power through the pain and hang around the showcases til the wee hours of the morning. On Tuesday night, this meant that the hardcore few who stuck around the Technicolor Coding party at Tammany Hall until 3 a.m. had been out at RBMA events for 16 or 17 hours straight—and they were rewarded handsomely for their stamina. 10 minutes after XLR8R advice columnist Nick Hook took over the booth around 3 a.m., he was joined by TNGHT co-producer Hudson Mohawke and rapper Zebra Katz. Hudson Mohawke needed no introduction, but to herald his arrival, the UK producer opened his guest set with his own “Goooo” track, which was a sufficient hello.
The participants might become a tight-knit group.
Since the artists travel together, work together, eat together, and party together, it’s only natural that they’d get friendly with each other. A handful of the students performed at Tuesday night’s Technicolor Coding showcase, and most of the crew showed up to support their fellow participants. If something went awry onstage, the others jumped in to help; when a cord came unplugged right before French synth-pop producer De La Montagne was plunging into another song, Mr. Selfish jumped to the rescue to sort it out even before the sound crew. “He’s not selfish at all,” she crowed in a strong accent as Mr. Selfish ducked back into the crowd. And during each performance, Austin-based producer Anna Love snuck up to the stage to deposit a rose at her cohorts’ feet.
RBMA participant Kid Smpl in a Bedroom Studio Photo: Dan Wilton
The RBMA HQ is almost too good to be true.
Red Bull’s creative utopia seems like a dream come true for any of the music industry types involved, whether they’re participants or PR agents or journalists. The four floors commandeered by RBMA are constantly humming with energy and camaraderie—it sounds cheesy, but it’s true. Employees are eager to introduce themselves in the elevators and get to know the others in the building, and everyone always seems hard at work scheduling lectures, organizing showcases, putting together the Daily Note, manning RBMA’s very active social media presence, doing interviews, or working on whatever other projects help keep the machine running.
The 7th floor in particular is a hub of artistic fervor. It’s a veritable maze of studios, each of them boxed in by glass walls that allow passers-by to glimpse a group of artists as they work on new tunes. Each studio is equipped with a variety of hardware for the students to jam with, and were individually designed and decorated by different artists. On Tuesday morning, Benjamin Damage made his way into the studio conceived by Gang Gang Dance, which had been outfitted with a giant blow-up rat wearing fake boobs. The whole aesthetic of the place is eclectic, artistic, and fiercely modern, and its halls echo with the muffled sound of winding guitars and programmed beats emanating from inside the vestibules of creative energy. But at the end of RBMA’s second and final term in NYC, the whole floor will be demolished so that Red Bull can use it as an office space.
As on-fire UK duo Disclosure continues to ramp up to the June 3 release of its debut LP, Settle, another popular production duo, Bicep, has shared its remix of one of that record’s early singles. Steeped in analog sounds and a swinging dancefloor groove, “You & Me (Bicep Remix)” is classic fare from the London-based outfit, but also features some uncharacteristically trance-indebted synths and a sizable amount of spacey reverb on Eliza Doolittle’s soulful vocals. The track can be streamed below, courtesy of Mixmag.
Nick Hook is a talented dude. The guy can make beats, play instruments, record rappers, and that’s just a partial list. But he’s also smart enough to know that no matter how talented someone is, they’re going to need some help along the way. That’s probably why he’s agreed to sit down and answer our readers’ questions each and every Thursday morning. He’s got knowledge to share—people simply have to have ask. Hit him up at [email protected].
Yo. Hi. I think I’m dying. I’ve been up till 10 a.m. the last few days, and now its 4 a.m. and I gotta finish this column before I’m back at it again.
Big up to HudMo and Zebra Katz for coming and playing with me on Tuesday night at my show for RBMA. Exxxxxxtra big up for my roommate not throwing me out of the house cuz I brought 30 people over. Oh yeah, I also saw Richie Hawtin‘s lecture. Let’s answer some questions.
Hi Doctor Nick, I don’t want you to get fired either so I thought I’d send some thoughts your way. After reading your plea for strangers to stop jamming your inbox with demos, it got me thinking about my own issues along those lines. My least favorite part about making music is self-promotion. In my own fantasyland, I’d be able to make some great tunes at home, throw a track onto SoundCloud, and then the “right” people would hear it and decide whether they dig it or not. I’d feel like a tool putting my music on Facebook with all the typical pleading, “please like this,” “please share this with your friends,” “free download if you like my page,” etc. I also occasionally meet DJs/producers in the city who I think would probably vibe with my music, but I never ask them to listen to it because I think it would turn a good conversation between two people into a guise for my own self-promotion. So, how can I make you listen to my music without asking you to listen to my music? Advise away! George
Thanks man. No one wants to get fired. I’m earning these doctor dollars one week at a time.
Yo. I feel you. It sucks for sure. The worst is when someone finds out you make music and asks you to play it for them—in front of them. I have no problem giving people my music or sending it to them, but I rarely ever follow up cuz I feel the same way as you about it. If they dig it they will hit you back.
Some strong advice is to just give it to them. Get over it. When I worked at a restaurant, I hated taking out the trash and smelling like disgusting food when I got home. In music, I hate having to “promote” myself and miss people I love cuz we live in different cities, but every job has the parts that suck. Just get over it.
Really though, I think that your fantasy isn’t that far off. Good music will find its way into the right hands. Look at Jai Paul—dude pretty much dropped one demo and all of a sudden he was all over the place.
You also really need to ask yourself: Is the music on the level? Are you ready to share it with people yet? Right now, with music so easy to make/release/consume, something does need to stand out, right? So I think that is something to account for as well. Being the illest should always be goal number one, and that’s something you don’t need to rush. I didn’t put my first piece of music out till I was like 24. I love doing this because it’s really endless. There’s no time limit.
Good luck and don’t worry about things. Like I’ve said before, getting unsolicited shit from people you don’t know is pretty much the most annoying thing in the world, but if we have a friendship then I love listening to tunes and giving constructive feedback.
Hi Doctor Nick, I really like listening to and trying to produce all kinds of hip-hop, but it’s hard to hear a tight beat and use things that I’ve learned in my own productions. How can I start putting the pieces of music that are stuck in my head all of the time to good use, especially if it’s not easy to fully flesh out a song with no MC to work with? Thanks dog. Alex
This one is super simple. Put acapellas in. It will automatically make you think of songs. Pay a small fee and join some hip-hop record pools to get mad acapellas. And if you look close, there are sites out there where you can download them. Clams Casino lectured us at RBMA in 2011 and basically his whole story is that he was sending a bunch of rappers beats on MySpace. Slowly dudes started taking them and now he’s killing it.
Okay, I’m going to bed. xxxx
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.
Los Angeles-based label Daylight Curfew has slowly gained traction as a promising imprint for leftfield hip-hop and downtempo productions, often served cold with a decidedly dub-wise aesthetic. One of the label’s most interesting producers is L.A. dweller Dfalt, who has boned up on more than a few pages from the Tri Angle playbook while also possessing a healthy set of toys and a fascination for “plugins, magic, and weed.” Still, that doesn’t mean that “The Beggars”—the opening tune off the man’s forthcoming Helsinki Beat Tape (Part One) record—is either a brooding or a show-offy tune, but rather somewhere in the middle. Dfalt makes his individual case from the top: the drums land with hard thuds, pushing a tasteful chipmunked vocal before slowly slicing in a ponderous, noir synth that gradually slides the tune forward. Helsinki Beat Tape (Part One) is due out on June 11.
It’s hard to tell whether or not there’s a method to the madness that is the new EP by Manuel Gonzales (a.k.a. MGUN). Given the DJ/producer’s comparably frazzled releases for Trilogy Tapes and Wild Oats, it’s easy to assume that he knows exactly what he’s doing. In terms of unabashed discord, however, Gonzales’ prior efforts don’t touch the material on If You’re Reading This. Sure, elements of this sound can be traced through like-minded Detroit analog gods (Terrence Dixon in particular), but MGUN’s new record ventures even further into the realms of experimental techno.
If only because of sheer track length, “Proxy” and “Tritan” serve as the EP’s biggest moments. Both are teased over a seven-minute runtime and feature their fair share of mazy passages and treacherous turns. Centered around a mangled 303 belch, “Proxy” sputters along as the drum ticks and cavernous low end dictate its momentum. It comes off sounding something like the inverse of Pépé Bradock’s “Mujeres Nerviosas”—instead of feeding into the frills, Gonzales violently crams them back down the hole they came from. Standout b-side “Tritan” pushes a hoarse bassline through a pasture of dexterous claps and a gathering of ramshackle synths, its patterns gradually disintegrating only to reappear further down the line, never the same as when they left. Gonzales himself would likely have a tough time mapping the trajectory of his tunes.
The other four tracks bear some fully fleshed-out themes despite their relatively short durations. On “Funnel Vision,” overhead dissonance is offset by a brutalist thump that eventually disolves into the aether. It’s both aggressive and spry, an unforgiving effort with only a glimmer of reprieve. “Jijijijij$ijijijiji” is just about as absurd as its name would suggest, with blender-propelled turntable scratches diced into an aloof beat. Bookending If You’re Reading This are “Hand Over Fifth” and “Bean Chirp,” respectively, each serving a distinct purpose on their polar ends. The opener exists gleefully ignorant of the strange sounds that follow, while the final cut is more or less the sound of smoke clearing. Offering the most traditional rhythm on MGUN’s record, “Bean Chirp” sounds as if its paying for its simplicity while it hacks through a shroud of noxious distortion. It might’ve been more satisfying if the EP’s shorter tunes had more time to fold and contort around themselves, but seeing as how Gonzales has quickly forged this sound, it’s more likely that these idiosyncrasies are a necessary part of what makes his music so unique.
Released in 2011, but made of productions completed between 2006 and 2008, fLako‘s part-beat-tape, part-proper-album The Mesektet will see a reissue as a double-LP next month via Project:Mooncircle, the label which originally issued the 30-track effort. In its forthcoming refurbished form, The Mesektet will come with a grab bag of previously unreleased tunes, including “What’s That Calling Me,” a track which shows off the London producer’s ability to mash together disparate sonic worlds; in this case the loose, percussive swing of samba-esque loops and the spinning atmosphere of warbly, space-age synths. The Mesektet Extnd reissue is set to drop June 7; its full tracklist can be found after the jump.
01 Moonchild (Reissue Exclusive) 02 YeahYeahYeah 03 Eluma Horns 04 Sun Ba 05 Crying On the In 06 Elsewhere (Reissue Exclusive) 07 Pupil Suck (Reissue Exclusive) 08 Finger On The Pony (Reissue Exclusive) 09 Mirror Box 10 Voodoo (Reissue Exclusive) 11 Welcome 12 Moving Molecules 13 Dwarf Dance 14 Transition (Reissue Exclusive) 15 Soosh (Reissue Exclusive) 16 One Quarter 17 Psico (Reissue Exclusive) 18 Hotsh 19 Lords Of Chaos 20 Humming 21 SP 405 22 Casita 23 The Sorcerer (Reissue Exclusive) 24 Whats That Calling Me (Reissue Exclusive) 25 Lullaby 26 Chapter 4 27 Peter And The Whale 28 The Wrong Guy 29 Colors Of Love
Seattle-based producer and Hush Hush‘s flagship artist Kid Smpl (pictured above)—who we featured as a Bubblin’ Up producer at the start of the year—is set to release a 20-track, two-part remix collection in anticipation of his forthcoming Armour EP, due to drop in July. Featuring a diverse array of remixers—including Jerome LOL, Deebs, Devonwho, Ceeda, and Dream Koala—the collection is entitled Skylight Remixes after Kid Smpl’s debut LP from last year, Skylight. The two volumes will be separately made available for free download on the Hush Hush Bandcamp page on May 28 and June 4 respectively; check out the tracklists and artwork for both volumes below.
Volume 1 01 But I Don’t (Dream Koala Remix) 02 Left There (Domokos Remix) 03 Guardian (Tay Sean ‘Light Bender’ Remix) 04 Star Ocean (FmSea Remix) 05 Cura (IG88 Remix) 06 Promise (Placeholder Edit) 07 Static (WD4D Remix) 08 I Think It’s Gone (devonwho Remix) 09 Star Ocean (Jerome LOL Remix) 10 It Changed (Fades Remix)
Volume 2 01 I Think It’s Gone (DJAO Cover) 02 Escape Pod (Different Sleep Remix) 03 Left There (Keyboard Kid ‘Water God’ Remix) 04 Guardian (Benito Remix) 05 Static (Futurewife ‘Light’ Remix) 06 Cura (Deebs Remix) 07 Promise (j.Faraday Remix) 08 Star Ocean (Cedaa Remix) 09 But I Don’t (Torus Remix) 10 Guardian (Suttikeeree Remix)
Bristol-based filmmaker Alexander Macdonald has put together a short film on music obsessives’ ongoing infatuation with vinyl records—a subject we explored earlier today with the aid of Kyle Hall, Gerd Janson, and others in our Wax Estatic feature. Compiling interviews with Donga of Well Rounded, Henry Bainbridge of Dub Studio, and Chris Farrel of Idle Hands, the mini-documentary offers insight into the people who have dedicated their lives and careers to those spinning discs. Also discussed is the financial precarity of the record-selling/making business, as well as the undeniable appeal of analog over digital. The full 13-minute White Label mini-doc can be watched below. (via The Daily Street).
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A few years ago, Scuba began steering his Hotflush label away from the dubstep-oriented structures it was known for, and allowed his roster to evolve into a team of artists who explore a variety of sounds, including brightly colored house and smooth techno. ManMakeMusic head honcho George FitzGerald has played a notable role in that development, and his latest 12″ for Hotflush delves deeper into moody warehouse vibes than any of his previous records to date.
A-side “Thinking of You” pushes a bone-deep beat that drives a carefully manicured, menacing energy through its flickering rave breakdowns and hypnotic, soulful vocal hooks. It’s a catchy track, albeit one that’s a few shades darker than the artist’s previous work, which used more colorful chords and diva samples on songs like “Every Inch” and “Feels Like.” While those cuts were marked by snappy rhythms and pulsing piano stabs, FitzGerald appears to crib a few notes from Scuba’s recent club anthem “Talk Torque” here, employing rigid synths, hulking basslines, and powerful builds.
“Nighttide Lover” operates with less grandeur, although it too flirts with dark, serious instrumentation. The tune is generally more low-key than the stormy a-side; its breakdowns aren’t as big or arresting, and the main melody is more severely pared down. Fresh-faced Londoner Trikk also takes a stab at “Nighttide Lover,” but his remix isn’t all that different from the original. He equips the gurgling low end with a snappier broken beat and layers of airy noise, but his effort generally keeps in line with the austere restraint flexed by George FitzGerald the first time around.
