Wajatta—the musical duo of Reggie Watts and John Tejada—will return with their second album, Don’t Let Get You Down, to be released by Brainfeeder on February 28.
Don’t Let Get You Down is said to build on the duo’s debut album, Casual High Technology, which hinted at the broad stylistic possibilities inherent in the marriage of Watts’ elastic, soul-stirring vocals and Tejada’s layered, melodically-inventive productions.
Wajatta, pronounced wa-HA-ta, is a mash-up of the artists’ last names. Having grown up with similar musical influences, Austrian-born Tejada and German-born Watts draw from their love of electronic music, exploring the intersection between influences and innovation. They describe their music as “electronic dance music with its roots in Detroit techno, Chicago house, ’70s funk, and New York hip-hop.”
They build most tracks from scratch, bouncing ideas off one another from initial spark to finished product. It’s all done face-to-face: “We never just share files,” Tejada notes. They also try to keep their sessions as spontaneous as possible, in a never-ending quest to, as Watts puts it, “capture the freshness.” As a result, the 11 tracks on Don’t Let Get You Down “crackle with the energy of fresh ideas captured at the moment of inspiration,” the label explains.
Ahead of the release, the duo have shared the album’s title-track. With its brightly pulsing synths and whistling hook, it’s “the poppiest song we’ve ever done,” Watts says.
Tracklisting
01. Renegades 02. Little Man 03. Don’t Let Get You Down 04. Realize 05. Tonight 06. 138 07. January 08. Marmite 09. Depth Has a Focus 10. Another Sun 11. All I Need Is You
Don’t Let Get You Down is out February 28, with the title-track streaming below, and pre-order here.
Editor Note: All passes have now gone. Those who have been successful have been notified.
XLR8R is offering XLR8R+ subscribers free passes to the upcoming 10 Years of Half Baked party, taking place at Studio 9294 in London on Saturday, November 30, 2019.
After a decade in the game, one of London’s most loved parties is celebrating in style with one of the best lineups we’ve seen in London this end of 2019. Move D, Sonja Moonear, Praslea, Voigt.Mas (Voigtmann & John Dimas), The Ghost, Dan Andrei, Robin Ordell, Greg Brockmann, and Guilhem Monin all make up the bill taking place over three rooms. Tickets are on final release so this is an offer not to be missed.
Half Baked started 10 years ago with co-founder Bruno Cabral’s 25th birthday party. Cabral and his partner Remi Landaz wanted to start a new party together on Sundays because it was the only free day they had in the week. They were working behind a bar with now residents,Robin Ordell and Greg Brockmann, who had just started playing at the time. Once the summer started in 2010, they move to an open-air location that was found last minute and from there Half Baked really took off.
Since then, they’ve thrown parties all over the world, with showcases in Brazil, Peru, USA, most of Europe, over to Russia and down to Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, Vietnam, and Australia but their spiritual home has always been London. This is because, as Bruno mentions “I feel the spirit of the people here is super special and their never-back-down attitude really makes it unique. Also, the cost and the pace of living in a city like London forces us to want to escape this on the weekends; parties allow us all to let loose and forget all the stresses London can bring. It’s a very special place to throw parties.”
For the first part of their 10-year celebration, they have secured this special lineup. Each room has a slightly different variant of the “Half Baked sound” so there’s something for everyone. RSH audio is taking care of the sound system across the three spacesand bringing in additional sound to all spaces. All three rooms will be fully transformed to ensure a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Following on from this, there is an after-party at FOLD, not included in the free pass, for part two which will continue long into the Sunday; find more details here.
For those who haven’t yet, just SUBSCRIBE HERE and email your full name with “Half BakedTurns 10” as the subject to [email protected] to claim your FREE ticket. For those current subscribers, simply email your full name and “Half Baked Turns 10” as the email subject.
The 16th edition of XLR8R+ is here, featuring tracks by Alec Falconer, Jack Michael, and Leif. You can subscribe here and hear snippets of the tracks below.
Happa‘s next outing comes in the shape of a new split release with 96 Back, due for release on Thursday, November 21 via via his own label, PT5.
The two-tracker follows Happa’s recent heavyweight double-bill, Only Light / Only Darkness, and his contribution, “LS14 Battler,” sees him taking a more playful approach. We’re told that broken, pulsing beats and all manner of unorthodox sounds contribute to a delirious energy. “It’s the sound of Happa illuminating his style without compromising his experimental adventures,” the label explains.
In contrast, 96 Back’s “36th Chamberlain” has its roots in IDM, but doesn’t lose sight of the fact that music is meant to move you. It’s said to take the listener “from an ambient introduction to a darker denouement, detouring via a minimal breakdown.”
Sheffield-born and currently Manchester-based 96 Back, real name Evan Majumdar-Swift, is a DJ-producer who embodies the renegade spirit of his native Steel City. Majumdar-Swift began nurturing his Ableton skills at an early age, releasing his first EP in 2018, Provisional Electronics, on CPU Records at the age of 18. His 2019 debut album, Excitable, Girl saw him push the boundaries of experimental electro to include Italo-tinged euphoric arpeggios and bittersweet cascading piano melodies.
While Happa made his name with a series of industrial, bass-techno hybrid EPs, released on the likes of Church, Fnord Communications, Bleep, Boomkat, and his own label, PT5, Alikhanizadeh has lately been exploring a brighter, more colourful sound palette. In part influenced by his move to London from Leeds earlier this year, this evolution has also been shaped by recent work with the likes of David Byrne, FKA Twigs, Trim, and more.
Tracklisting
01. Happa “LS14 Battler” 02. 96 Back “36th Chamberlain”
Next on Bruno Schmidt‘s Domesticated label is an EP from SHKN.
SHKN is the alias of Marc Ashken and a name we’ve seen pop up here and there in recent years, most notably on Voigtmann’s Subsequent imprint.
Launched last year, Domesticated is known for its strictly quality releases showcasing music from Schmidt’s close friends and family. Domesticated003 is the label’s third release, following EPs from Foster and Asper Bothrops, Schmidt’s collaboration with Robin Ordell.
Varg, real name Jonas Rönnberg, launches the new alias after a metal band issued a cease and desist letter regarding his older one.
The release sees the Swedish artist at his most chaotic and ornate, streamlining a plethora of techniques and motifs into his inimitable and fearless style. “It’s an EP of restlessness, ruins, and ecstatic keyboard mashing because there’s not an emoji that’s demonic enough,” the label explains. It comes with a VTSS remix and a narrative text documenting the death of Varg with London-based magazine Emulsion, an annual publication celebrating multidisciplinary art in practice.
Fuck Varg follows Varg’s Sky City EPs, and two albums by E-Saggila and Anthony Linell on Northern Electronics earlier this year.
Also on December 12, Northern Electronics will put out a collaboration between Varg2™ and Ano Ton in the form of a 60-minute cassette release, plus a new EP by Northern Electronics head Anthony Linell, titled Core Field Horizon. You can hear “Crystal Storms here.
Tracklisting
A1 / 1. I’ve Spent €3000 On a New Laptop, And This is What it Sounds Like? A2 / 2. Thirst (Dressed in Nothing But UV Paint and Biodegradable Glitter) B1 / 3. This Room Has Many Faces, Many Gods and Many Faces (Dressed in Nothing But Cum and Bedazzled Angel Wings) B2 / 4. Parasites (Honest Music for Dishonest People) ft. G19 Digital only: Parasites (Honest Music for Dishonest People) ft. G19 (VTSS Remix)
Fuck Varg EP is out December 12, with “Thirst (Dressed in Nothing But UV Paint and Biodegradable Glitter)” streaming in full below.
HAAi has released her new EP on Mute, titled Systems Up, Windows Down.
Systems Up, Windows Down sees the Australian artist, real name Teneil Throssell, deliver a more mature, dancefloor-focused sound full of heavy basslines, breaks, and crisp percussive electronics. It follows two EPs on her own Coconut Beats.
The tracks lean heavily on her personal archive of field recordings, both from her own travels and scouring the internet.
The opening track includes the revving of her stepdad’s ‘60s Mustang engine. On “It’s Something We Can All Learn From,” she uses an artifact from a trip to Marrakech, and “CHONKIBOI” is grounded in an earwormy ritualistic vocal.
“6666,” the last addition to the EP, was initially composed for the Genesis stage at Glastonbury. The closing track, which names the EP, is a 10-minute burner which has been “garnering love over the summer festivals,” the label explains.
Throssell first came to Mute’s attention with a remix for Daniel Avery. She’ll follow the EP with an album that she says will have a more “modern and contemporary sound.”
Tracklisting
01. Don’t Flatter Yourself Love 02. Stop Looking At Me Swan 03. 6666 04. CHONKIBOI 05. It’s Something We Can All Learn From 06. Systems Up, Windows Down
Systems Up, Windows Down EP is available now, with “Don’t Flatter Yourself Love” streaming below.
XLR8R is offering XLR8R+ subscribers free passes to the upcoming New Year’s Day event at The Warehouse Project taking place in Manchester, United Kingdom on Sunday, December 1—this season’s closing party.
XLR8R has partnered with The Warehouse Project to offer a limited number of free passes which will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
The Warehouse Project has become one of the UK’s leading club event series, throwing parties each year from September to New Year’s Day, with bookings spanning the most established names in electronic music and hip-hop. Their new venue, a 10,000-capacity spot called Depot at Mayfield, opened this year, promising top-notch production.
The Warehouse Project’s New Year’s Day legendary parties are no secret, and this edition’s lineup is no different: Maceo Plex, Helena Hauff, Seth Troxler, Eris Drew, Joy Orbison, Peach, and many more are all billed.
Full Lineup:
Maceo Plex Helena Hauff George FitzGerald (DJ Set) Krysko Greg Lord
Concourse:
Seth Troxler Octo Octa Eris Drew Jasper James High Hoops
Archive:
Joy Orbison Folamour Peach Will Tramp Zutekh DJs
For those who haven’t yet, SUBSCRIBE HERE then email your full name and “WHP:NYD 2020” to [email protected] to claim your free event pass. For those current subscribers, simply email your full name and “WHP: NYD 2020” as the email subject.
Moses Sumney has announced græ, his forthcoming double album, and shared its lead single with an accompanying video.
Out via Jagjaguwar Records, the album, which is a conceptual patchwork about greyness, will be released in two parts—the first part due digitally in February of 2020, with the second part, as well as the physical album, due May 15. It’s said to expand upon the sonic universe built in Sumney’s debut LP, 2017’s Aromanticism, and its subsequent EP, Black In Deep Red, in 2018.
The songs on græ may seem “divergent,” as with “Virile,” out today, “but there’s always that voice, knowable and penetrating, threading the pieces together: a heavenly rasp, a whale call, Miles’ horn,” the label explains. The album includes collaborations with a diverse array of contributors, although these have not been named, and it’s Sumney’s first work written in his new home of Asheville, North Carolina.
Speaking to the “Virile” video, which marks Sumney’s directorial debut, he shares, “In a post-human world, the last remaining man is caught between Beauty and Brutality’s battle to dominate the earth and his body.”
Tracklistings
Part One:
01. Insula 02. Cut Me 03. In Bloom 04. Virile 05. Conveyor 06. boxes 07. Gagarin 08. Jill/jack 09. Colouour 10. also also also and and and 11. Neither/Nor 12. Polly
Part Two:
01. Two Dogs 02. Bystanders 03. Me in 20 Years 04. Keeps Me Alive 05. Lucky Me 06. and so I come to isolation 07. Bless Me 08. before you go
In advance of the album’s February release, you can pre-order here.
Anne Müller has established herself as an Erased Tapes staple without even contributing a full release to the label. A keen collaborator, the Berlin-based cellist features prominently throughout the UK label’s discography, including on Nils Frahm’s All Melody and the German multi-instrumentalist’s soundtrack for the film “Victoria.” Müller has also collaborated with Frahm on 7fingers and appeared on Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm’s Collaborative Works, released in 2015.
And Müller’s contributions do not end there. Beyond Frahm and Arnalds, she’s worked with Lubomyr Melnyk’s on Fallen Trees and submitted two bespoke solo pieces, “Walzer für Robert” and “Bel Tono,” to the Erased Tapes’ fifth and 10th anniversary box sets.
Outside of Erased Tapes, she’s also amassed a healthy body of work, most recently with multi-instrumentalist Markus Sieber (a.k.a Aukai) on his 2019 album, Reminiscence. In total, Müller has amassed credits on over 60 releases since she began recording in 2007, but, as her first substantial body of solo work, there’s no denying that Heliopause, out November 29 on Erased Tapes, marks a big milestone in her career.
Müller’s musical journey begins at Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts where she trained under renowned cellist and conductor Michael Sanderling. She moved on to perform as a cellist in many of Berlin’s symphonies but began seeking new paths for her music. She connected with Nils Frahm and Erased Tapes in the middle of the naughties, and around the time she also began an enduring partnership with singer-songwriter-composer Agnes Obel, with whom she toured for five years together and worked on two albums. It’s only over more recent years that she’s turned her focus towards a long-form solo effort.
Heliopause is exactly that: Müller wrote, recorded, and arranged it all, basing it all around her beloved violoncello—long for cello—but with broken down piano, drones, and drums. She named it after the boundary where the sun’s wind ceases to have influence. “‘Heliopause’ marks the end of a long journey but also the start of voyages to explore strange new worlds,” she explains, referring to her breaking of new ground away from the safety of collaboration. What better time to connect with Müller for a quick-fire 20 questions?
01. Where in the world are you right now?
I‘m at home and enjoying the autumn sun.
02. What’s been filling your time of recent?
I had a week off and did some work in my parents’ garden today.
03. What’s the last thing that made you laugh and why?
My guilty pleasure for the last couple of days has been watching the TwoSetViolin YouTube channel. It’s about two young classical violinists and they’re very nerdy. Even though they’re violinists and I’m a cellist, I experienced a lot of things they’re talking about. And it’s quite funny!
04. What’s your idea of the perfect day?
Today was a perfect day. My perfect day is a quiet day without stress and time to practice cello or to work on my music.
05. When did you first realise that you had a talent for cello?
Oh, this is a difficult question. I don’t remember exactly when. I had my first cello lessons when I was six years old and loved it from the beginning. My parents were always practicing with me when I was a child (I’m very thankful for this) and I had to do an exam every year at the music school. I got some good grades, maybe that was when I knew. But it’s not the talent one has for something that is important; hard work, perseverance, and a love of the work can make almost anything possible, I’ve since realised.
06. What is it about the violoncello that appeals to you as an instrument?
The violoncello sound is so rich and colourful. The range is huge, from deep, almost like a double bass, to very high. And it can sing like a voice. I think it’s the voice I can speak with through music.
07. What violoncello do you use and why?
I’m currently playing an italian violoncello, built in the last century. I love it.
08. What motivates you to make music?
I’m a musician who’s been making music almost all of my life. It’s beautiful and satisfying.
09. What do you believe to be your greatest musical accomplishment of your life?
I don’t know, actually. Life is exciting and I’ve already accomplished so many things. For now releasing my first solo album is the next big achievement.
10. Why has it taken you so long to release your own solo album?
Yes, now you’ve got me. I’m so slow and insecure, and I worried about whether my recordings were good enough. I recorded everything myself as well and it took some time to learn how to do this. It was a challenging experiment. I needed some extra encouragement of my friends; I was helped by the support of Erased Tapes label founder Robert Raths. Martyn Heyne gave my music the perfect sound with his profound knowledge, not so easy with up to 60 layers in one track. Without this support, this album would not have been released.
11. How would you describe the album in three words?
My musical journey.
12. You’ve worked Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds. What do you think makes a good composer?
I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. With the possibilities of home recording and using a computer to produce music, writing music is much more intuitive and possible for creative people. I like this development very much. When a composer is using different colours in music, working with varied interesting harmonics or sounds in their music, I find this interesting. For me, the structure and an idea behind a piece or a song is very important.
13. What was your first collaboration like with Nils Frahm?
I was introduced to Nils in 2006 at a Sinnbus—an independent Berlin label and band collective—Christmas party. I was in my mid-20s and Nils was in his early 20s. He was an interesting person from the first meeting and, of course, I checked his music. He was completely into electronic music at this time and I wanted to buy his record Streichelfisch. I visited him in his home studio as he was about to record a tour CD for the band where he played the piano for a while. The visit ended with us recording a lot of cello that day.
Nils’ recorded cello sound was a very special one—very fine, warm, soft yet powerful—and this day was very inspiring. He asked me if I could imagine myself contributing cello to another of his pieces which then evolved into the album 7fingers on which we worked together very intensively.
It felt like I was at Nils’ house almost every day. I had just finished my studies and wanted to try everything on the cello! Nils has a profound sense for what sounds good, plus skills and knowledge about recordings, interesting compositions, and lots of great musical ideas. I was impressed and enthusiastic about that. I think we were both really motivated, and you can hear that somehow on this album.
14. Name three records that have impressed you recently?
I recently listened to Ben Lukas Boysen’s upcoming album and it got me completely. I’m looking so looking forward to this release. One of my favourite recordings ever is Quatuors à Cordes, String Quartets from Debussy, Dutilleux, Ravel with the Arcanto Quartett. So beautiful, interesting, and amazingly played. The third one is a record from Owen Pallett. Even though I like all of his records, I was most impressed by his He Poos Clouds as Final Fantasy.
15. What are your long-term ambitions within music?
I‘d like to write more music.
16. You have $10,000 dollars to spend on the perfect holiday. Where would you go?
Oh, I can’t decide. I would like to travel through France, but also love the Baltic Sea and Rügen, an island in Germany. And if it wasn’t so bad for the climate, I would love to travel to Australia.
17. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?
It would be nice to play more instruments, maybe I should just learn them anyway. Or have more knowledge about mixing and technical things, but I’m working on it. I would also like to speak more languages without all the hard work of studying!
18. What was the last movie you watched that really impressed you?
“Arrival.” I like the art design very much but the movie also made me think a lot.
19. What are you reading right now?
Stephen Hawking’s “Brief Answers to the Big Questions.”
20. What’s the first thing you’ll do after finishing these questions?
Up next on Beeyou Records‘ Pollen is b0n with an EP of garage, breaks, and house flavours.
Launched earlier this year, Pollen is the digital-only sister-label of Beeyou Records, which itself launched in 2017 in Ibiza but has since been nurtured in London. At its helm sit DJs Laidlaw and Jamie Mannion. There have been three EPs to date, the latest coming in May from XHZ and Jake Flory.
Pollen#4 is the digital-only label’s fourth release.
b0n’s only previous release, Back To Petersburg, came last year through Russian label MixCult.
Tracklisting
A1. Inner Evolution A2. Moriarty B1. Mr. Poopybutthole B2. & Me 2
Pollen#4 EP is coming soon exclusively to Bandcamp. You can hear clips of the tracks below.
