?dmin “Hustle Me”

With a dominant 4/4 beat taking breaks for free-flow rhythm experimentations, “Hustle Me” by Bristol-based DJ/producer Adam Wickens (a.k.a. ?dmin) offers quite a bit of interesting structural variance. The song certainly borders on hypnotic territory, yet weightless synth melodies, electronic embellishments (i.e. piano chords, laser sounds, and a pair of chopped vocal samples), and, of course, the ever-shifting beats manage to remain eclectically captivating through the end. Look for the rest of ?dmin’s Whatever You Want EP when it drops on December 15 via Glasgow Underground.

Hustle Me

Hustle Me

Stones Throw and Leaving Records Join Forces on Cassette Compilation

Beat-friendly Los Angeles imprints Stones Throw and Leaving Records have come together to curate a sizable double-casette compilation called Dual Form. From the looks of it, it would appear that Leaving Records boss Matthewdavid (who, incidentally, offered up a remix of Stones Throw’s Chrome Canyon in our Downloads section earlier today) was the dominant curatorial force in putting this comp together, seeing as how many names already associated with his cassette imprint appear on the tracklist—including Sun Araw, Knx. (a.k.a. Knxwledge), Julia Holter, yuk., Ssaliva, and Dak—and he’ll be contributing three original productions of his own exclusively to the physical release. You can check out Dual Form‘s tracklist—sans Matthewdavid’s offerings—and stream The Cyclist‘s contribution before it’s all made available on November 6, below.

01 Untitled
02 The Cyclist – Visions
03 Davis – Into The Night
04 dak – Lions Dream
05 Oscar McClure – Labelle Gross
06 Julia Holter – You & Me Both (Live Arthur Russell Tribute)
07 Odd Nosdam – Sisters (Edit)
08 Sun Araw – Right Off
09 Dem Hunger – Glue Suit
10 Run Dmt – Bardo States Dream Walker Version
11 Trance Farmers – Purple Hay
12 yuk. – Atimo
13 SoundWizard BZB & MC Set – Beacon
14 Knx – Sadnis
15 Ssaliva – Conga Dawn
16 Dream Love – Cooked Love, Lady Bomb (Radio Edit)
17 Dntel – Windy Windy
18 Lapti – Peace
19 Semya – Hawk Wind

Chrome Canyon “Memories of a Scientist (Matthewdavid Remix)”

So, we passed into the new millenium nearly 13 years ago, and we still don’t have any hovercrafts. But this doesn’t mean that today’s music can’t reminisce over our retro-futuristic daydreams. Brooklyn-based producer Morgan Z (a.k.a. Chrome Canyon) captures that forward-looking, vintage sound on his debut album for Stones Throw, the commendable Elemental Themes, a cut from which has just received the remix treatment courtesy of LA artist and Leaving Records boss Matthewdavid. “Memories of a Scientist (Matthewdavid Remix)” is a slower, sub-heavy take on the original production, boasting an array of cinematic pulsations, bright and swelling synths, pitched-down vocals, and plenty of bouncing beat work.

Memories of a Scientist (Matthewdavid Remix)

Memories of a Scientist (Matthewdavid Remix)

Darkstar Announces New Album for Warp

Most of us probably saw this one coming after Darkstar shared a new single early last month, and now today, we have the official word on the UK outfit’s forthcoming sophomore LP, News from Nowhere. The former Hyperdub affiliates say that its latest effort is “totally different” from North, the group’s debut full-length which appeared on Kode 9’s imprint back in 2010, saying further, “It’s somewhat brighter in mood, but deeper in feeling and intention… It’s much more rhythmic and fluid. It moves quicker.” We’ll have to wait to hear exactly what that means until News from Nowhere drops on February 5 of next year. In the meantime, Darkstar will be dropping a 12″ for the “Timeaway” single (arriving with 10 locked grooves as well, all of which you can listen to here), and has gone ahead and provided the artwork and tracklist for its forthcoming LP, which you can take a look at below.

01 Light Body Clock Starter
02 Timeaway
03 Armonica
04. –
05 A Day’s Pay For A Day’s Work
06 Young Heart’s
07 Amplified Ease
08 You Don’t Need A Weatherman
09 Bed Music – North View
10 Hold Me Down

Clone Readies Third Drexciya Reissue, Previews Tracks

Iconic Detroit techno outfit Drexciya will soon see the third installment of its reissue series, Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller, released via Rotterdam’s Clone label. If you missed our coverage of the excellent first and second installments, or if you’re just unfamiliar with the group in general, then this third edition is sure to catch your attention. Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller III features 14 remastered cuts of raw techno-electro hybrids culled from the duo’s highly influential mid-’90s output. Ahead of the compilation’s December 3 release, you can check out its tracklist and preview the refurbished sounds below.

01. Smokey’s Illegitimate Report
02. The Countdown Has Begun
03. Aquabahn
04. Intensified Magnetron
05. Sea Snake
06. Flying Fish
07. The Mutant Gillmen
08. Unknown Journey IV
09. Nautilus
10. Vampire Island
11. Aqua Worm Hole
12. Bubble Chamber
13. You Don’t Know
14. Red Hills Of Lardosa

Vanilla Hammer “The Big Fight Live”

Well, this is a weird one, but what else should we expect from a casette label helmed by the elusive London producer Patten? In truth, the track which Vanilla Hammer has shared here isn’t so strange—a crunchy piece of hardware techno full of clattering drum and percussion samples and floating layers of hiss—however, the concept behind it all is rather unique. The complete Retreat cassette from which this song stems marks the third release in Kaleidoscope’s Limited Dubs series—in which artists perform songs live to tape, yielding five cassettes with unique performances and one “master version” available digitally. “The Big Fight Live” caps off that “master version” and will be available with six other similarly untamable pieces of audio for free from Kaleidoscope on November 5. For an idea of what else to expect from Vanilla Hammer’s debut release, you can check a video for another track off Retreat after the jump.

The Big Fight Live

Donky Pitch Celebrates Second Birthday with Free Download

Brighton club night-turned-record label Donky Pitch is celebrating its second year as a label today, giving away a massive bundle of tracks for free download. So far, the relatively young imprint has released seven solid records from respectable artists, including London’s hip-hop mutant Slugabed and power duo Fluro Black (a.k.a. ARP 101 and Elliott Yorke). Over the years, both the club night and label have effectively championed the sound of skweee, which is represented in full on this gratis offering of the label’s first five records. Until 12 p.m. GMT tomorrow, you can cop tunes from Slugabed, Niño, V.C., 813, and Keyboard Kid—not to mention remixes from the likes of Kelpe, Offshore, and Mweslee—at Donky Pitch’s Bandcamp for a “name your price” donation, which includes a $0.00 option.

Hi, Doctor Nick! – The Trouble with Aliases and How to Dig Yourself Out of a Music-Making Rut

There are plenty of guys who like to playfully refer to themselves as “Renaissance Men,” but it’s hard to imagine someone whose qualifications for the title stack up to those of Nick Hook. (For the record, Nick would NEVER refer to himself as a “Renaissance Man.”) Seriously, the guy travels the world, makes tunes, collaborates with artists from across the musical spectrum, and flat-out lives life. That’s why we started calling him Doctor Nick and asked him to start sharing his knowledge with the world via a weekly advice column here on XLR8R. He may not be a real doctor, but he’s more than capable of helping people, which is why folks should feel free to send him questions at doctornick@xlr8r.com. This week, Doctor Nick tackles the wisdom of musical aliases and advises a young producer about how to deal with a tough case of writer’s block.

Hi Doctor Nick,
What are your thoughts on having many aliases? I thought this might be a solution for me since the music I make ranges from abstract, indie-electronica space-outs to 4×4 funky electro. On the one hand, I think people listening to my stuff might be way too confused, and on the other, I am reading some hipster bloggers labeling artists who go through such wild stylistic swings as “tryhards.” For me, the issue is that I get excited about a lot of things I come across and they influence me personally and artistically. I know “thou shalt develop thy sound,” but maybe I’m not interested in having a sound after all. Maybe I’ll have several sounds.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Jack-of-all-genres

As far as I’m concerned, the allure of having aliases is that it’s fun. The internet is making it harder and harder, but it’s fun to not know exactly who is making a track and then to find out. I really miss that in music. I love the Daphni-Caribou connection and I was stoked when I found out Les Sins was Toro Y Moi. When Prefuse 73 had five billion names, I would try to find all of them. So I say go for it. Maybe you have 10 names and if one takes off, roll with that.

For me though, I tend not to worry about this stuff. The greatest strength an artist can have is to actually be known for being diverse and doing whatever the fuck they want. My three greatest influences as far as building a career are Mike Patton, Brian Eno, and David Bryne. They’ve shown year after year that they can do their own projects however they want. They can go into a giant project with Coldplay or U2, and then go into the strangest collaboration with dudes in Africa or something, plus everything in between. I respect them for being bold enough to not have many aliases.

When I made my record, which was my first under my own name, it was all over the place stylistically, but I felt like doing that first would leave me with an open palette for the future. I can side with you about not having a sound—it’s 2012, and we all grew up on so much stuff that really inspires us, so why should we be forced by some dudes that write for a blog to pick a genre?

Hi Doctor Nick,
I’ve been producing music for about two years now, DJing for about three. When I first started the whole producing thing, I was so headstrong and arrogant about it that I wound up on a few blogs after my first few dick-around remixes within my first month of making my own tunes. It was awesome, I was able to make whatever, whenever, without “the game” or “bandwagoning” effecting my level of output. Fast forward to now, I’m stuck. I know what I want to represent as far as a sound , but it’s been eight months since i’ve actually finished something. Listening back to all my crap tunes from two years back, I realized I was good at trying to sound like whatever was buzzing at the time, with my own twist. I don’t want that anymore. I want to be able to make what feels right with all that I’ve learned. What do I do? I’m not ready to give up on myself.
Jonny

Well, at least you realized that you had a big head about it. It’s just music, it’s not rocket science. There’s no reason to feel special just because you were on a blog. I wanna be in National Geographic, then I’ll feel cool.

Do even you even know what you really like? Maybe you need to take some time and just absorb everything: museums, record stores, books, girls, travel. What makes you feel? With today’s climate, it’s so easy to hop on a wave and ride it, but then the next wave comes in so fast that you are either forced to jump on that one, or feel empty like you do.

For me, my ideals are to make music that I hope I can always stick by forever. I can’t say I go back and listen to past stuff I’ve done very often, but I still feel like I’ve stuck to that. I can also say it’s made me grow WAY slower than most artists, but as I’ve gotten older, I have seen a lot of people completely fall out of music, where I’m finally feeling like this is actually going to be my career forever.

When I get to the studio and go into a rut, here are the things I do: clean my studio and listen to music, practice my instruments along to songs, and fuck with my synthesizers to try and expand my sound palette. Sometimes one sound will trigger a whole idea, and if I’m not even trying to write, there’s a different level of patience that comes with experimenting.

What is actually missing from your songs? Is it lack of x, y, or z in the actual music? Sonics? Your work ethic? Your patience? Something else? If you can zero in on that, maybe you can fix it.

Anyways, at the end of the day, have fun with this. That’s why we started in the first place, right?

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.

Cardopusher “So What U Want Me to Do”

Earlier this year, fellow Barcelonan producers Cardopusher and Nehuen launched their own imprint, calling it Classicworks. While its debut release dropped back in July in the form of a split EP from the two label heads (a free tune from which you can still grab here), the imprint’s sophomore release, Cardopusher’s So What U Want Me to Do EP, is set to drop later this month. Here, we have the title track—a pumping, classic house-inspired number—to appropriately whet our palettes before the five-song record sees a release on November 12. And if you can’t wait until then for a full dose of heavy-handed Cardopusher fare, we suggest you revisit the man’s excellent XLR8Rpodcast from just a few months back in the meantime. You can also stream clips of each track from So What U Want Me to Do after the jump.

So What U Want Me To Do

Various Artists Only 4 U: The Sound of Cajmere & Cajual Records 1992 – 2012

One of house music’s great unspoken strengths is that, at a base level, it is the easiest ever music to dance to. Its particular recipe of beat (four on the floor), tempo, and message means that over the years it has welcomed not just all races and sexual orientations, but also the club-footed, the pigeon-toed, and the lead-hipped. The second wave of Chicago house music, defined largely by Cajual Records and kindred spirits such as Derrick Carter and DJ Sneak, exemplified this, achieving a kind of pure dance alchemy by refining both the methods and the message of Chicago’s first-wave pioneers. Strut’s Only 4 U: The Sound of Cajmere & Cajual Records 1992 – 2012 is a cohesive and generous look into the brash sound of Chicago House 2.0.

By the time Curtis Alan Jones (a.k.a. Cajmere a.k.a. Green Velvet) began producing in the early 1990s, house music was a global pop concern but had been scattered to the fringes in his hometown of Chicago. Rave music, imported from the UK and just beginning to incorporate classic Midwestern electronic sounds, had roped in a suburban audience that was younger and whiter. Still, there remained a small community of worshipers who had had their lives changed by DJs like Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, and Farley “Jackmaster” Funk. Only 4 U crystallizes this moment, and while there’s no denying the instant, raw appeal of Cajmere’s breakthrough single, “Percolator,” it’s the bolder, vocal-oriented tracks that define Cajual Records.

It’s easy to read into what might have happened: a generation of young producers, eager to share the community and transcendance they found in early clubs, take the religious overtones implicit in those experiences and make them explicit. The result is quicksilver gospel music, tracks whose emotions are still raw as hell but whose execution is more polished. Frequent collaborator Dajae, a converted session singer who possesses a torrential, piercing voice, is unafraid to whip Cajmere’s lithe funk into proper devotionals. “Brighter Days” remains the enduring classic (presented here via a seminal Masters at Work remix), though “U Got Me Up” and Dajae’s own “Day by Day” are just as dynamic, if not as anthemic.

These are giant, mantra-ridden tracks, so relentless that when presented back-to-back-to-back on the first disc it feels a little like Jock Jams: Jackin’, a set of music in which subtlety is jettisoned in the name of inclusionary zest. (An imperfect comparison, perhaps, considering house music was eventually co-opted in the name of crowd-baiting and marketing.)

There are surprises, though. The little-known Adam—who released just one single for the label—offers a brilliant, spaced-out synth exploration, “Moments in Time,” while G.U. turns in 10 minutes of motorik celebration. During mid-aughts offerings, Jones, ever the chameleon, alternates between smoove partystarter on “Midnight” and punky charlatan on “Lalalala (Nside My Mind),” the latter created under the guise of his silly and righteous Green Velvet persona.

These tracks are often long and, minus a DJ’s context, can be overbearing over the course of two discs. Cajmere’s XLR8R podcast from last week provided a wonderful map to help navigate; near the end of the mix, when the strained vocal exultations of “Feelin’ Kinda High” (“high-yeeee!”) poke through a fog of vocoders and drum machines, their ballast is justified. Jones—mostly as Green Velvet—has made hay as a star international DJ; Cajual releases have slowed but not stopped in recent years. Only 4 U—especially the primary-colors saturation of its first disc—helps recall a time when house music’s apostles were preaching to an increasingly large audience. Like any good sermonizer, Jones knew he had to give the people something they could believe in.

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