Take a Look Inside Ikonika’s Studio

As part of its ongoing Machine Love series, Resident Advisor recently caught up with Hyperdub affiliate and Hum + Buzz co-head Ikonika to take a look at her West London studio and talk production. Although the post may be a little lacking in terms of images for our taste—sometimes we just want to nerd out to some gear pictures—the conversation between Ikonika and RA’s Ryan Keeling more than makes up for that, as they cover a wide range of topics including the evolution of Ikonika’s production techniques and why—after a very prolific 2010—she’s slowed her output to concentrate on experimenting more. You can read the whole interview and get a few glimpses into the London producer’s studio here.

The Black Dog to Release New EP; Preview it Now

The Sheffield-based IDM pioneers of The Black Dog are set to release a new four-track EP via their own Dust Science label this spring. Called The Return ov Bleep, the trio’s upcoming record exhibits a return to its darker techno roots. The Black Dog has also stressed the record’s strong link to Sheffield and the community of up-and-comers the outfit has been supporting with its Electronic Supper Club project. “Starting the Electronic Supper Club with friends came out of nothing more than a vibe for [Sheffield], to create a canvas for us all to paint on in equal measure,” wrote The Black Dog in a press release. “It’s from this work that this EP was born, it really connected us back into the city. It was and is our way to connect to past/present/future. While others may be dreaming of time travel and jet packs, we accept that the future is much darker and more brutal.” You can check out the artwork and tracklist for The Return ov Bleep below, and preview clips of its tunes before it drops on March 11, here.

A1. Bleep Four
A2. Bleep Two
B1. Bleep One
B2. Bleep Five

Umberto “Night Fantasy”

Judging by Kansas City producer Matt Hill’s collection of Halloween-themed EPs (such as 2010’s Prophecy of the Black Widow and 2012’s Night Has a Thousand Screams, among others), he seems to be somewhat of a nostalgic artist who strives for a year-round horror aesthetic, and his latest tune released as Umberto is no exception to the trend. While “Night Fantasy” opens calmly enough, it eventually dives into an ’80s-inspired escapade that brings to mind scenes from a vintage slasher flick. Heavily compressed drum machines and eerie synth notes bend over Hill’s driving doomsday theme, but the tune doesn’t end in a bloodbath, instead hinting at a narrow getaway as harmonic overtones resonate through the song’s conclusion. “Night Fantasy” is taken from Umberto’s forthcoming Confrontations LP, which the LA-based Not Not Fun label will release on February 5.

Night Fantasy

Midland Readies 12″ for Aus; Preview it Now

The man who was behind one of our favorite XLR8R podcasts of 2012, London DJ/producer Midland has announced that his next 12″ will arrive next month via Will Saul’s Aus label, and has also shared previews of both of its tracks. The Trace EP is set to arrive on February 15, marking both Midland’s and Aus’ first release of 2013. You can listen to clips of its big, drum-heavy techno hybrids in the player below.

Hi, Doctor Nick! – The Secrets of Getting Started and How to Put on a Concert

Nick Hook has the knowledge. XLR8R is just the place where it’s easiest to observe him dispensing it. He may not be an actual doctor, but he has more than enough wisdom to show up every Thursday morning and answer questions from our readers about music, gear, DJing, travel, production techniques, love, life, and more. Have a question of your own? Drop him a line at doctornick@xlr8r.com and let the good doctor work his magic.

Yooooo. I don’t got much to say except that I’ve been working… a lot. Follow my new assistant Leon on Twitter: @_leonkelly. He’s a G.

Hi Doctor Nick,
Four years ago, I realized that I had to create music, even though I had never played an instrument. After that, I didn’t practice, but I properly closed the chapter of my life where I was supposed to lead a regular life with a suit (I finished my studies). I’m 23 now, and I moved to a new country to do what feels right—I’m doing a job to pay my rent and making music with my computer. It’s the same story as many other people I think, but I was wondering, do you have any tips that could save me (and others like me) some time? You know, things that beginners do before realizing later that they were going in the wrong direction. I don’t wanna waste time anymore.
Ben

What up?

That’s dope. I back that all the way. I’m a late bloomer too. I didn’t do anything cool or substantial until i was 24, and I never left the country until like a year after that.

Is time really a concern? I think the thing I would say is just really work hard to learn and be in position for good things to happen. I’m 33 years old and I feel like every year my career is just starting. At the same time, I feel like a 12 year old. Focusing on learning to produce, mixing well, DJing well, having finished stuff, or whatever you see your path being is the most important thing. I think coupling that with going out a lot to find the right group of friends, being a fan of others, and studying who’s doing well and why—all that. You never know who might call you up and ask you to fill in for a DJ slot, or come to the studio and help. My work with Azealia Banks is a prime example. I just did a friend a favor one day. A friend called me up and said, “Hey, will you help out this girl I’m working with, she needs to record some vocals.” I said, “Sure man. Why not?” I never in my wildest dreams thought it would take me around the world, help her get a record deal and become some sort-of hit. I had no idea. I was just in position as “Oh yo, call Nick, he can help.”

When I was 23, I was just living in St. Louis and really had no plans to leave, but I was always out and about. Me and my man Hersh were DJing, digging for records, going out to shows, etc. I was making beats by then and was friends with this band Glassjaw. We loved some of the same shit and when they took a break, Todd—the dude that played guitar—asked me to come up to New York for a week and make some music for fun. It was Game Boy music, we broke up like three weeks later and they went back to their thing. Somehow, I ended up moving to New York four months after that, we signed to Warner Bros., and I’m still in New York. Yeah, I was definitely lucky, but I think being in a position for success is really how it starts. Also, be nice. Have fun. If you’re a dick and have an ego, you’re gonna fail. Fast.

Good luck my dude.

Hi Nick,
I live in a small-ish town in Connecticut. I want to put on concert at a local bar with a huge outdoor patio, one of the biggest in the state. I’ve been DJing for a few years, so I have experience getting myself booked at places, but I have no idea how to put on a full concert with multiple well-known performers. What’s the best way to get started in booking, convincing the venue, promoting, etc. It’s a huge topic, but just want to know how to get started.
Casey

Go talk to the bar. See if you can link up with any of their alcohol companies for a sponsor. Put a proposal together. Look who might be sponsoring other stuff in your city. It could be Vitaminwater, Scion, Red Bull, or someone else. Find the local marketting rep. Show them what you want to do.

Figure out how much you want tickets to be if you’re gonna charge, how much % you get of liquor sales (if you do that sorta deal with the bar), and estimate how much money all of that is gonna bring in. Then find out who books the artists you like—AM Only, Windish, Agency Group, etc. If you only think you’re gonna make 5k, then don’t try and book someone who might cost 20k. Also, you need insurance, security, and good sound. Think of EVERYTHING, cuz it all exists and if you don’t do everything right, the party might suck. Maybe this year you start small and succeed and next year you keep growing. Make sure you are professional in all this. Being organized, easy to deal with, and composing well-written emails will get you headed in the right direction. The booking agents are pros and they will know quick if you are serious or not. Get all that done and then we can work on promoting next.

Hi, Doctor Nick! appears every Thursday on XLR8R. Do you have a question for Doctor Nick? Please submit your inquires to doctornick@xlr8r.com. Nick Hook can help you.

Frikstailers “Murga del Guachin”

Argentinian production duo Frikstailers is set to drop its debut LP, En Son De Paz, via ZZK on February 25, but in the meantime, the pair has given us the genre meltingpot of “Murga del Guachin.” Combining elements of cumbia, dubstep, house, and pop, Frikstailers has created a tune bursting with bright, upbeat energy. It’s a complicated recipe, but with energetic Spanish vocals mixing in with glittering synths, metallic horns, bustling drums, and a slowly oscillating bassline, “Murga del Guachin” makes for a tune that’s nothing if not fun.

Murga del Guachin

Pazes “Draw Lines”

Berlin-via-Brazil producer Pazes sent over an outtake from his yet-to-be-announced album due later this year. Distant vocals swirl around in a twinkling, misty atmosphere on “Draw Lines,” while gentle guitar strums lead the first half of the song into a calm bassline surrounded by sputtering electronic sounds. Pazes’ track is a warm and comfortable tune that hopefully foreshadows what’s to come from his forthcoming record.

Draw Lines

Iron Curtis & Ultrademon Shift 002

Once famously described by sci-fi author William Gibson as “Disneyland with the death penalty,” Singapore isn’t the first place that comes to mind when one thinks about cutting-edge electronic dance music. Yet in spite of its strict reputation, the Southeast Asian city-state seems to have developed a healthy taste for the messy antics of techno-and-house-fueled late-night partying. A lot of this is due to the efforts of outfits like Midnight Shift, the now three-year-running party that just last year kicked off a new label arm with The First Shift, a split EP that teamed Basic Soul Unit with relatively unknown Singaporean producer Eddie Niguel. Shift 002, its latest, pulls off a similar trick by lining up cuts from German house heavyweight Iron Curtis (a.k.a. Johannes Paluka) alongside tunes from seapunk originator/Coral Records label head Ultrademon (a.k.a. Albert Redwine). If it seems like a bizarre pairing, that’s because it is.

On paper, there are quite a few differences between the two artists, and in practice, this mostly holds up. It’s not a bad thing though, as the two producers’ sounds complement each other in the context of this EP by providing balance through contrast. Iron Curtis starts his half of the release with the sheen and bounce of “Never Give Up,” a driving house cut made complex by deep layers of ambient washes that subtly shift and pull up against each other. There’s space here—enough of it to allow for a Mr. Fingers-style bassline, blips of microsample color, and a light rhythm that just keeps on going. The track clocks in at almost eight minutes, but it never lags; instead, the momentum is retained through a constant tweaking that keeps the energy up without resorting to cheap tricks. His second track is a variation on the first, dubbed “Never Give Up (The Chant).” It’s less of an overt club cut, drawing more from the blunted, Detroit-style side of his output—like “Interlude in the Park” off last year’s Thoughts On EP. Working in that vein, it’s all ghostly atmospherics, with the original song’s familiar layers pushed beneath a newly provided surface of echoed percussion and worming acid. Almost attaining a meditative state, it’s the most far-out piece on the EP and just might be the highlight because of it.

However, that’s not to discount the efforts of Ultrademon, who here abandons the aquatic and Tumbler-centric confines of his seapunk associations to turn in two tracks of straightforward dance music. His side of the EP begins with “Bend,” an exercise in sound design that loops a coiling battery of Tangerine Dream synthesizers over a prehistoric drum machine that hisses and plops like something off a Suicide record. However, it never strays from this idea, preferring to stick with a simple structure that doesn’t take it much farther than a well-executed sketch. Better is “Goonchie Blunch,” a short meditation on brutalist techno that grips its pneumatic rhythm with rippling undulations of distorted bass. It’s both more developed and more realized, though it doesn’t quite reach the complexity of the a-side. That’s okay though, as all four tracks combined create a strong sophomore release for a new label that’s just begun to find its niche.

Maurice Fulton Preps Second Syclops Album

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Syclops, the Maurice Fulton-led project which also claims to incorporate the talents of three Finnish jazz musicans into its work (the jury is still out on whether this is in fact just another Fulton solo project). Now, the UK producer has revived the Syclops name with the announcement that it will soon add a new full-length to its discography before the end of the month. Appearing on Fulton’s digital-only BubbleTease Communications label, the forthcoming A Blink of an Eye LP follows almost five years after Syclops’ debut full-length, I’ve Got My Eye on You, which appeared courtesy of DFA back in 2008. Before the upcoming 10-track album hits retailers on January 30, you can find its artwork and tracklist below. (via Resident Advisor)

01 Unmatched
02 Jump Bugs
03 Karo’s B
04 5 In
05 Got To Get Up For Monday
06 Sarah’s E With Extra P
07 Michele’s H With C
08 Raj & Claire
09 Back When Lynn (The Classic)
10 A Blink Of An Eye

214 “Rump Up”

When listening to “Rump Up,” a one-off freebie from Seattle producer Chris Roman’s 214 moniker, it’s easy to forget that an actual person was behind its creation. Machine-made sounds rule supreme throughout the tune’s run, and its rhythms are executed with exacting precision. Still, it seems true that only a human could have put this all together in such an inventive way, especially while keeping his sights trained on the dancefloor. And though “Rump Up” may not be exactly what we’re expecting to hear from Roman after his softer-edged J. Alvarez pseudonym scored a couple of spots on our Best of 2012 lists, this jam offers enough mechanical, techno-flecked electro to hold us over until more goodness arrives from the prolific artist.

Rump Up

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