Many producers, like, say, Groundislava or Jonwayne, draw inspiration from video game consoles, but Coppice Halifax (a.k.a. Brian Grainger, Milieu, or the Analog Botanist, among other monikers) has taken it to the next level. The South Carolina native composed an EP made entirely from the original sounds of a Sega Dreamcast game console, which renders the tracks on Cedar Mast quiet, bubbling, delicate, and fluid. “Cedar Mast II,” for example, builds on a pretty, acquatic melody and a minimal, shuffling rhythm, which makes for an overall soft and burbling track. The Cedar Mast EP will be unleashed as a limited-edition CD on Grainger’s own label, Milieu, but you can grab the digital release for free via Spontaneous Rhythm, here.
NY garage icon MK has teamed up with London DJ/producer and Hot Creations label head Lee Foss on a four-track EP set to drop via Foss’ record hub. Electricity‘s “deep, slow” title track features a vocal performance from Los Angeles singer Anabel Englund, which is paired with another joint track from the producers, “Goodnight Moon,” to complete the a-side. Foss takes over the b-side of the EP with two solo productions called “Could Be” and “B5 the Drinks,” both of which are described as being “aimed straight for the dancefloor.” Look for MK’s and Foss’ Electricity EP when it’s released on November 19.
Glaswegian DJ/producer and Numbers co-owner Jackmaster has just released the third installment of his Tweak-a-holic mix series. According to his label’s SoundCloud, the mixtape is the “soundtrack to your girlfriend’s next house party,” featuring a slew of underrated disco- and pop-leaning throwback jams. You can stream the whole hour-plus session in the player below, and download it for the price of an email here. (via FACT)
After releasing records with labels like DFA and Exploited, elusive deep-house pair Jack Fell Down is back on Southern Fried with the Either Way EP. For such a casual title, the London outfit’s tunes are rather solid and serious, picking up right where the vibe of its first record for Southern Fried left off. Specifically, lead cut “Kings of Clubs” is a jacking, 808-driven tune that slowly matures throughout the duration of the song with its swelling synths, intoxicating vocal clips, and soft pads. If the music catches your ear, make sure to stream snippets of the rest of Jack Fell Down’s new record, after the jump.
DJ/producer Chesus has just unveiled the video for the title track off his new Goodfoot EP for Doc Daneeka’s Ten Thousand Yen label, a track which features labelmate Didz and Cardiff’s The Organ Grinder. Although this name may be unfamiliar to some, Chesus is far from an up-and-comer; he’s a diverse and prolific Welsh artist who may be best known as the “C” from garage-obsessed quartet C.R.S.T., among many other collaborative projects. But the producer’s forthcoming solo EP is actually rooted in the sounds of classic ’90s diva-house; his new video seems like a relic from the past, too, as it’s full of hoverboard scenes from Back to The Future II interspersed with cheap neon-graphics and designs. After checking out the vintage sights and sounds, make sure to preview more bits of Chesus’ Goodfoot EP before it drops on November 19, below.
After checking in with Mr. VonStroke on Wednesday, we spent the rest of this week keeping our eyes on a few iPad-oriented developments, a new cassette-inspired mix recorder, and—of course—the latest news from Moog.
First, we get nerdy with Dirtybird:
– On Wednesday, we shared the latest edition in our In the Studio series, featuring an intensive conversation with Dirtybird label head Claude VonStroke about his studio approach and production techniques alongside an array of photos taken inside his newly set up—and absolutely jaw-dropping—room in LA. Read the full article here.
Some official and unofficial Moog news:
– The synth specialists at Moog released a major firmware update for its Minitaur bass synthesizer (a unit we recently reviewed on XLR8R). REV 2, as the update is being called, allows for users to now store up to 100 presets directly within the synth, all of which are manageable and programmable via the Minitaur’s free editor/librarian computer software. Other new features include an option for users’ full control over the decay and release of the synth’s envelope and the ability to use the Minitaur as an intuitive CV-to-MIDI converter. You can grab a free download of the firmware update here, and get a better idea of all that is new with REV 2 via the video below.
– An unofficial—but pretty ingenious—controller for the Animoog iPad app made its way onto our radar this week. The Anicontrol from Synth-Project, the German makers of custom cases and controllers, is a fully functioning controller made in the likeness of the Moog Voyager or Model D, with a three-octave keyboard, 31 knobs, and five swtiches to control the “most important paramters of the Animoog app.” No word on if or when these will go into real production, but it’s imaginable that, if they get the price right, there could be quite a bit of demand for the unit. You can catch a glimpse of the Anicontrol below.
Speaking of apps:
– Developer Christopher Carlson unveiled a new iPad app earlier this week, Borderlands Granular, which allows users to control and explore sounds made from granular synthesis by interacting with the elements displayed on their iPad. From the looks of the demo and tutorial videos (both of which you can watch below), it seems safe to assume that there are a lot of unique and interesting sounds waiting to be unlocked from this $3.99 app.
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A new way (kind of) to record your mixes:
– Reloop shared the official specs of its forthcoming mix recorder, simply named Tape on account of its housing, which is designed to look like a cassette (clever, huh?). The unit has some cool features, like the ability to act as a pass through for your DJ mixer’s master output—meaning that if your mixer only has one output, you can record to the Tape and still pass the signal on to wherever else it needs to go—as well as having a ground to allow recording directly from a phono signal (a.k.a. turntable), among a few other handy aspects. Essentially, though, the Tape will serve as a soundcard, as users will need to attach a USB hard drive or stick to the device in order for the signal to be recorded to it. Still, it seems like this unit (which is estimated to retail for around $150) might provide some extra conveniences with a number of situations DJs find themselves in. You can peep the full details of the yet-to-be-released product here, and check out one of its fancy color options below.
We’re pretty excited about this week’s edition of Press Play, as its got all kinds of streams, downloads, and videos from remarkably talented artists across the spectrum of electronic music. After the jump, you’ll find remixes, full record previews, DJ sets, exclusive premieres, brand-new original productions, and more from the likes of Holy Other, LV, Giorgio Moroder, AlunaGeorge, Squarepusher, d’Eon, and South London Ordnance, among others. It’s a whole lot to take in, so we suggest you get to clicking those play buttons ASAP.
Guess what? Giorgio Moroder has a SoundCloud profile now (update: he ran out of space and started a second profile), and he’s using it to give away a shit ton of his awesome tunes, like this classic synth jam from 1975.
This grating, break-neck production is lifted off of Squarepusher‘s brand-new digital EP, KCRW Session, a five-track offering of live recordings just as schizoid as this.
We’re pretty sure we can’t think of an artist we’d rather have remixing Holy Other‘s delicate brand of slow-motion house music than Canadian noise auteur Tim Hecker, so here we are, living the dream.
A remix from The Hundred in the Hands’ new Come with Me EP for Warp, here’s the burly and cavernous version of the title track from burgeoning DJ/producer South London Ordnance.
And while you’re at it, why not check out the fresh mix SLO dropped during his appearance on Rinse FM earlier this week?
LV gets wild with the breakbeats on this remix of Débruit‘s “Ata” from the upcoming From the Horizon Remixed EP.
Brooklyn producer and Trouble & Bass mainstay Star Eyes shares this stream of her grimy new Lost Girls EP before it drops via the aforementioned New York label on October 30.
Check out this glitchy, computer-animated clip for the frenetic title track from Geiom’s upcoming Row2Land LP for Frijsfo.
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Seattle newcomer Kid Smpl delivers a one-two punch on XLR8R, hooking up a premiere of this ethereal remix of UK R&B upstarts AlunaGeorge right after he gave us the first leak from his debut LP, “But I Don’t.”
This two-part, 40-minute offering arrives as the third installment of Canadian synth guru d’Eon‘s Music for Keyboards series, which you can also download for free, here.
Berlin-via-Australia newcomer Kyson has helmed an EP for Moodgadget, and sent over a remix of one of those tunes by Italian beatmaker Indian Wells. “July, December, March (Indian Wells Remix)” is a jumble of minute, ambient noises—like plonks, blips, and quiet breaths—which push along the song’s barely there beat. Before Kyson’s Blackstone EP drops on October 29, you can check out its artwork and tracklist below.
1. Drains of the Red Sea 2. Remi 3. Soul Person 4. Dragon Years 5. I Never Knew 6. Thankyou For Everything 7. July, December, March 8. Ocean Tides 9. Remi (Sina Remix) 10. Remi (Essáy Remix) 11. July, December, March (Marco Vella Rework)
He’s come at it from a few different angles, but no matter where exactly Randomer ends up, it’s hard to argue that he’s ever been after anything other than powerful dancefloor music. With his latest outing, the North London resident returns to Hemlock on a familiar tip—with big drums and dirty synths in hand.
“We laugh, we scream, we fuck a lot, we dance a lot, we drink a lot,” are not just the vocal chops that Randomer peppers throughout the EP’s opening track, “We Laugh We Scream.” The words are also indicators of what likely inspires the producer to make tracks like this: he wants you to party. When the blistering acid sequence and breaking drums take hold, listeners are not supposed to be overwhelmed by “feelgood” vibes or seduced by silky tones, they are supposed to lose their shit. Given the potency of the undulating rhythms and filter-tweaked leads displayed here, unintentionally losing one’s ability to act moderately sane while this tune is playing (preferably through a big system) seems an entirely appropriate reaction.
Randomer’s other offerings on the EP are just a notch less balls out. “Nar”—which is somehow said to be a “timely response to the proliferation of industry yes men”—takes a laser-like focus on building patterns from gigantic rhythmic elements. A few sinister phrases from a computer-generated string section occasionally mark a new point within the revolving pattern, but the rest of tune’s energy is dedicated solely to intelligently placed percussive tones, held up by tuned and distorted 808s. The closing “Freak Dub” is about as close to “laid back” as Randomer is likely to ever get, filling the wide spaces left between the, again, tuned and distorted 808s with UK-style breaks, percussive stabs, and the occasional appearance of an atonal synthline (rendered to act more like a sequence of toms than any sort of melody). Although “Freak Dub” is without a doubt the least bombastic effort to heard on this EP, it may in the end prove its strongest, or at least further proves that with Randomer, aggressive—even slightly evil—dance music can come in a variety of worthwhile shapes and sizes.
Adelaide producer Strict Face is set to release his Vanilla Pattern EP—a record featuring two deep, warehouse-ready tracks and a few varied remixes—via Bass Machine Music. As “Untitled #2” exhibits, the music sits somewhere between Detroit and Berlin, leaning on early house and techno tendencies like rolling percussion and bright synth stabs. Though it may be the lighter of the two originals, “Untitled #2” is by no means a cheerful tune; Strict Face’s tune is a heavy techno production topped with airy female vocals that sound inspired by anything but South Australian sunshine. Before the Vanilla Pattern EP drops on October 29, you can preview the rest of its tunes in the player embedded after the jump.
