Octo Octa has published a free guide on setting up both DAW-less and DAW-centric home studios.
Octo Octa, real name Maya Bouldry-Morrison, has labelled the document “A Journey of Mistakes” because she “fumbled for years” while discovering what she could use to make an actual studio versus owning a bunch of random gear.
The guide is divided into three parts, the first of which discusses the hardware that Octo Octa uses and why, specifically in creating a “DAW-less” studio, meaning a studio without a computer. The second part is about using a computer and a DAW as the centrepiece of the studio, and includes advice on setting it up so that you can expand it to add outboard gear. The third section provides two examples of different studio setups, comparing Octo Octa’s with Eris Drew‘s, and discussing how all the gear is routed.
The guide, 30 pages in length, and is available now. You can download a PDF version of the guide here, and a Google docs version here. Octo Octa is also inviting questions, and can be contacted at [email protected].
Khruangbin and Leon Bridges have shared “C-Side,” a new single from Texas Sun, their upcoming collaborative EP, out February 7 via Dead Oceans in partnership with Columbia Records and Night Time Stories Ltd.
“C-Side” is a shimmering track comprised of wah-wah guitar lines, burbling Latin polyrhythms, and soft vibraphone. It follows the EP’s title track, a slow rolling song about the pull of the Texas landscape.
Texas Sun is Khruangbin’s first time writing with a vocalist. The EP started on the road and wrapped up in the studio. Both Bridges and Khruangbin had been touring behind their sophomore LPs when their paths converged for a joint North American tour in 2018, a run of shows stretching from Los Angeles to New York. When a Khruangbin session yielded a song that seemed like it might pair well with Bridges’ voice, the band sent it over. Bridges returned the track with his vocals the next day. They all soon decamped to the studio with engineer Steve Christensen, hoping to make it into a B-side, but everything flowed so naturally, and it became obvious that it was going to be something bigger, and this led to Texas Sun.
Tracklisting
01. Texas Sun 02. Midnight 03. C-Side 04. Conversion
Texas Sun EP is out on February 7. Meanwhile, you can stream “C-Side” below, and pre-order the EP here.
Colin de la Plante (a.k.a The Mole) is one of the most accomplished yet low-key musical Canucks and the architect of one of electronic music’s most kaleidoscopic live sets—the master of percussive surprises and timeless sampling. After a solid decade in Montréal that saw him perform legendary shows and hold down a seven-year residency at the mythical Main staple Laïka, de la Plante set up shop in Berlin, where he’s been settled ever since. While there, he’s released countless soulful edits and infectiously perky patchworks on labels such as Kompakt and Ostgut Ton, and also put out three albums, beginning with 2008’s As High as the Sky, all via his own label, Maybe Tomorrow.
Towards the back end of 2019, de la Plante returned home for the latest chapter in his long and storied history with MUTEK Montréal—his 2004 set is the stuff of legend—in celebration of the annual event’s 20-year anniversary. It was the sixth night of the event, August 26 around 01:30 am, and de la Plante set off with his fired-up, oddball disc cuts, a hometown hero in front of the hometown crowd. Now, de la Plante hasn’t shared too many a live set in the past but he wanted to put this one out into the public domain. Expect just over an hour of eclectic and psychedelic beats with left-of-center electronic loops, flavored with The Mole’s singularly funky flair.
What have you been up to recently?
Woodshedding. Questioning my methods, trying things I would normally avoid or have been putting off. Stirring things up so the mud doesn’t stick. I’ve also recently discovered the internet, which has been fascinating. I bought my first records online. It may seem absurd but it really blew my mind when they arrived. Same with Bandcamp. And internet radio. Global village man. Satellites, man. [Marshall] McLuhan was right!
You’ve shared with us a set from MUTEK Montréal. What do you remember from the set?
It was their 20th anniversary. The biggest memory for me has to be the people. It was the last night of the festival, and returning home after too many years, the emotions were high. I cried that night.
What can we expect with this particular recording?
There is a lot of unreleased music here, with some reworkings or reference to some of the familiar ones. There is some improvising. And chance. I like it when I am also surprised. In my head, I imagined it like a DJ set, going from song to song, with improvisations in between, but the results are not always so easily separated.Time gets mixed up, parts resurface. And some times the change is drastic. The mix is live, you can hear it. Things will jump. And there’s a love song at the end!
Can you talk us through your setup for the live set—what exactly are you using?
I’ve got a computer, running loops I’ve recorded or broken out of songs. I mix the box in a basic style, volume, and EQ with a UC-33 MIDI controller. Old tank. My third. There’s an MPC1000 that is the real boss. It’s loaded with drums and samples. In addition to its own sounds, it also sequences an MFB-522, and a Moog Minitaur. Thick.
I also use an SL1200 and a DJ mixer in conjunction with a Red Sound SoundBITE Pro. This all gets mixed in a line mixer with some effects. For this set it was a Time Factor, a Space, and a BugBrand PTDelay.
A Mu-Tron Phasor III Silver, and thanks to a generous sponsorship from Moog Audio, for this show, there was a row of Eurorack modular in the effects chain acting as a beefed filter box, plus modulations.
What’s the value of the turntable in your live set?
The turntable and SoundBITE are the heart of the improvisations and chance operations. The SoundBITE can record and playback six independent loops at the same time. Ample territory for collage building and surprises. No set of mine is the same, every night is unique.
Quietly, and more importantly, they are the music’s feet in the ground. The music I choose to sample, it’s all microphone-based recordings. I’m a big believer in the rarefied air of the studio, and being able to add this “air,” these airs. I think it gives the music a horizon. Defines the up from the down. I also have this theory that the phono cartridge, acting like a feedback pickup or microphone, connects the room and the people in it directly into the music playing back. Feedback! Subtle to be sure, but that’s where beauty lives don’t it? In the subtlety.
Lastly, there’s the longer bits of music, sometimes up front, like Donny Hathaway and Gloria Ann Taylor in this set, sometimes in the background, off to the side (can you spot the Sun Ra?). These are the eyes and ears on the grooves.
What else are you working on at the moment?
Recording an album of covers for children. Reverse engineering some mix-tapes I bought and loved in the ’90s. Plotting my first 7″ since we stopped 7 Inches of Love. Continuing my desperate search for the perfect beat. Trying to be cool. Plan B.
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.
Recorded live during the 20th edition of MUTEK Montréal (August 2019) – Mastered by Pheek (audioservices.studio).
Guffond developed the album over a two-year period as part of her ongoing research into online surveillance and sound as a method of investigation.
The album’s source material comes from various projects Guffond has been working on, including a commission to sonify the data of the city of Melbourne, a dance performance about the future sounds of an extinct forest, and an installation that sonifies Twitter metadata in real time.
We’re told that the results are a “stark, brooding, disorientating journey into a paranoid musical field” that sits somewhere between ambient club music and a dystopian soundtrack.
Across four tracks, Guffond questions the nature of invasive, algorithmic, and computational listening practices. For example, “Microphone Permission” refers to the consent we routinely give when installing various applications onto our smart devices, inspired by a 2018 scandal in which fans of Spain’s most popular soccer team were effectively turned into unwitting spies by granting the La Liga application microphone permission.
Guffond is a Berlin-based artist and composer working at the interface of social, political, and technical infrastructures through live performance, recording, installation, and the sonification of data. She will deliver her album premiere at this year’s CTM Festival in Berlin, taking place from January 24 to February 2, 2020.
Next on Leaving Records is Temporary Music, the debut album from Asa Tone, the collaboration of Jakarta-born Melati Malay and New York-based Tristan Arp and Kaazi.
Leaving Records introduced the project towards the end of 2018, offering “Visit From Tokay,” the album’s lead single. The Los Angeles, California label has now shared two more singles ahead of the album’s January 31 release, namely “Perpetual Motion via Jungle Transport” and “To Tell A Picture.”
The album dates back to January, 2018, when the trio travelled to Indonesia during Melati’s annual return home, set up a temporary studio in a house nestled in the jungle’s canopy, and recorded a series of improvisational pieces together.
The music incorporates both digital and analogue processing and largely draws upon the group’s collective voice, a small selection of instrumentation, and their immediate environment. They aimed to record a kind of music together that “doesn’t seem to come from one specific place, but instead, from everywhere,” the label explains.
Tracklisting
01. To Tell A Picture 02. Perpetual Motion Via Jungle Transport 03. Visit From Tokay 04. Inexplicable Notion (Location Specific) 05. In Everyone Repeating 06. River At Work 07. No One Holding Their Tongue 08. Ogoh Ogoh 09. Vanda Tricolor 10. Each Pool A Lifetime
Temporary Music LP is out January 31. Meanwhile, you can stream “To Tell a Picture” below and pre-order the album here, where you can also stream “Perpetual Motion via Jungle Transport.”
Svetnik is back with his new EP, In Bloom, available January 24.
Written in 2019, In Bloom marks a change in sound and aesthetic for the Berlin-based producer. In contrast to his debut, Youth, which was full of experimentation, showcasing an intimate and cheeky side of his productions, In Bloom offers a broader, yet “more refined” sound palette.
The record oscillates between elements of broken beat, R&B, ambient, and electro, tied together during 24 minutes of playtime. As the title suggests, the production came along with a personal catharsis: “Writing In Bloom has been a liberating experience. It made me take a step back, re-evaluate and come to terms with a few personal demons, which I have been carrying along for a while,” Svetnik says.
We’re told to expect a “soothing, yet captivating listening experience.”
The release comes with a limited run of handprinted artworks, which are available via Bandcamp and feature a print of the cover photography.
Svetnik is a Bulgarian-born producer and DJ living in Berlin, Germany. He cites his main influences as Jimmy Edgar, Leon Vynehall, Sampha, and Roza Terenzi, and he has a few projects in line for 2020, “which will keep dancefloors busy and living rooms cosy,” he says.
Tracklisting
01. Undone 02. Only You 03. Come With 04. Disappear
In Bloom EP is out January 24 digitally, with “Undone” streaming below.
XLR8R+018 looks to Portugal’s thriving community of electronic music producers.
In this month’s edition, we’ve decided to focus on Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, to deliver a collection of unreleased music from four artists who excite us with their musical expressions.
First up is DJ Nigga Fox, who arrives on XLR8R+ after Cartas Na Manga, his much-anticipated debut album, with “Naruto,” a powerful and stripped-back stepping techno cut. DJ Nigga Fox’s contribution is followed by “Saudades,” a deep and moody track from DJ Narciso as RS Produções, recorded as a dedication to an ex-girlfriend.
Completing this edition are BLEID and Serpente, two of Lisbon’s most exciting experimental artists, with the former delivering a melancholic and dreamlike dancefloor weapon, and the latter a confounding exercise in drum programming.
Tracks one, two, and three have been mastered by Kamran Sadeghi, with track four mastered by Carlos Nascimento.
The package, including the tracks, zine, and wallpaper artwork, is downloadable via Bandcamp once you SUBSCRIBE HERE.
You can stream snippets of the release below, along with a preview of this month’s zine, which will also be printed in a limited-edition run.
For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and subscription service. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks—sometimes more—by amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as exclusive editorial content, exclusive mixes, FREE passes to music festivals and events, curated music playlists and more.You can find out more and check out the music here.
Next on Maple Death Records is an album from Fera, the alias of Andrea De Franco, an electronic composer from southern Italy now residing in Bologna, where he’s risen up in the same electronic scene as Caterina Barbieri and Lorenzo Senni.
Stupidamutaforma is De Franco’s debut for Maple Death, a Canadian label now based in London, United Kingdom. The album dates back to 2008, resulting from over a decade of work into synthesis. During this time, De Franco compiled an expansive body of work, collecting tracks, audio snippets, and beautifully layered soundscapes “that escape any definition of contemporary electronic form,” the label explains.
Across 11 tracks, we can expect a “deep journey into synthesis and metamorphose through psychedelic shape-shifting electronic songs dumbed down to incapsulate grime, errors, terrestrial bleeps and pulsating techno.”
Earlier this year, Maple Death announced the debut album of noise-punk band Hallelujah!, titled Wanna Dance, out February 21.
Tracklisting
01. Stupida 02. Compress Depress 03. Caliber Harp 04. Yung Leaf 05. Muta 06. Decline Harvest 07. Carefucker 08. Circadian Harp 09. Cura 10. Funeral Flute 11. Forma
Stupidamutaforma LP is out February 14, with “Stupida” streaming below, pre-order here.
Skygaze has self-released Bloom, his fourth studio album, earlier today.
Bloom follows Freedom, self-released in 2018, and covers the same style, a mix of jazz, funk, and electronics. Four of the 12 tracks feature the Spanish producer’s own vocals, opening up his palette to pop, soul, and folk music.
Skygaze is the musical project of Jaime Tellado. An architect by profession, he found of music from an early age and launched Skygaze in 2013.
Tracklisting
01. First heartbeats after coma 02. Bloom 03. Flying with u 04. Far away from here 05. Flesh 06. Start Over 07. And life goes on 08. Bachatta Button 09. Mermaid 10. Seriously 11. Out of context (feat.Helios Amor) 12. No better place to hide myself
Bloom LP is out now on Bandcamp, with clips available below.
L.Twills will release her debut album, [Freedom/Fiction], on February 20 on Hanseplatte.
[Freedom/Fiction] is a beguiling collection of rough-edged experimental pop that, although shaped by the artist’s formative upbringing in Hamburg, Germany and its arts scene, is rich with the influence of Los Angeles, where it was largely recorded.
Ahead of the album’s release, L.Twills has shared a new video inspired by the sounds of Grace Jones, Missy Elliot, Chicks on Speed, M.E.S.H, and Cabaret Voltaire. She shot it during a two-day trip into the wilderness, with just a basic Nikon camera and a few pals along for the ride.
L Twills was born in Alice Springs, Australia before her mother sought the refuge of her German family to help with the new-born baby and moved north. Twills describes her mother as an “exiled hippie” and remembers reading their futures out via tarot card readings.[Freedom/Fiction] is here first release.
A lot of Twills’ time spent in Los Angeles was spent at CALArts where she got a stipend for the summer semester there, while she also immersed herself in local music communities and the arts scene. The record itself was recorded in the artist’s room in EagleRock. “It was a cellar-like situation, that you could enter through a wooden closet, and could become a temporary studio.”
Ahead of the album’s February release, you can read more about it here and stream the video for “Antigone’s Dream” below.
