Download a Free EP from Nick Hook

In our weekly Press Play feature on Friday of last week, we tipped you off to a collaboration between XLR8R‘s resident advice columnist, Nick Hook, and prolific Berlin producer Machinedrum, which was the first leak lifted from Hook’s EP for Scion A/V. Now, the entirety of Without You is available to stream and download for absolutely free. In addition to the tune we shared last week, Hook also collaborates with the likes of El-P, Computer Jay, and The Gaslamp Killer across his nine-track offering. You can check out the whole thing over on Scion A/V’s website, here, and don’t forget to submit any questions you have for the good Dr. Nick (note: he is not a real doctor) by emailing doctornick@xlr8r.com.

Video: Disclosure “Latch (feat. Sam Smith)”

The latest body-moving single to arrive from brotherly production outfit Disclosure now has an equally flashy and sensual video to go along with it. Filmmakers Ross McDowell and Ben Murray of London’s Bullion Collective directed this clip, which essentially profiles a number of attractive folks experiencing young love in its many forms. There may not be a whole lot in the way of narrative, but the visuals and the music certainly help make up for any lack of blatant storytelling.

Podcast 268: Kim Ann Foxman

New York’s Kim Ann Foxman might be best known for her previous work with Hercules & Love Affair, but over the past few years, she’s also been gradually building a solid discography of her own as a solo artist, dropping a number of remixes, a collaboration with Kink and Neville Watson, and her own excellent single, “Creature.” On October 22, she’ll be releasing her next salvo, “Return It,” via London’s Needwant imprint. Ahead of that, she’ll also be spinning as part of an absolutely stacked line-up on October 21 at Fabric’s 13th Birthday. Clearly, Foxman is taking some major steps toward establishing her own artistic voice, which is why we figured now would be a good time to get a closer look at her musical vision by inviting her to put together an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast series. The tracklist doesn’t include any major surprises, but that doesn’t mean her podcast isn’t enjoyable. On the contrary, Foxman glides through one feelgood cut after another, many of them borrowing heavily from the swinging rhythms of ’90s New York house and garage. That said, while Foxman has clearly studied up on her city’s dance-music history and cribbed a few notes, her mix provides a nice contrast to the overly dark and/or serious explorations being undertaken by many of her peers. Here, the melodies are bright, the beats bounce, and the vocal bits are soulful without getting too deep. Sure, it’s a bit retro, but not oppressively so. It’s fun, and it’s hard to ask for much more than that from a DJ mix.

01 Kim Ann Foxman “Return It (Steffi’s ND Likes Acid Vox Mix)” (Needwant)
02 Stereogamous feat. Shaun J. Wright “Face Love Anew (Kim Ann Foxman Remix)” (HNYTRX/Cocktail D’ Amore)
03 Bicep “Getcha Boi” (Feel My Bicep)
04 Project 4007 “It’s Our Turn” (Emotive)
05 Kenny Dope presents House Syndicate “Jam the Mace” (Dope Wax)
06 Snuff Crew “That’s the House”
07 Veron Ray feat. Dogma “First Day (MK Deep Remix)” (Starwork)
08 Cosmic Boogie “Feel It” (Boogie Originals)
09 Trackman La Fonte & Bonquiui “Pacific House” (L.I.E.S)
10 Kim Ann Foxman “Hypnotic Dance” (Needwant)

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Lobot’s Head x Kuno “Huuf (Druid Cloak Remix)”

Today, Daniel Klauser‘s Chile-based Diamante label released its latest record, a collaborative effort by French producer Lobot’s Head and London’s Kuno, as a free download. One of that offering’s choice cuts is a remix of “Huuf” by US tunesmith Druid Cloak, who premiered one of his tracks for Kastle’s Symbols label with us just last week. “Huuf (Druid Cloak Remix)” is certainly an interesting tune; it scales back to near silence several times, only to surge back into action with its metallic, flickering beats. You can stream the rest of the For the Ladies EP after the jump.

Huuf (Druid Cloak Remix)

Various Artists I Love Grime

Anyone who’s up for listening to over two hours of grime obviously loves it, and for those people, I Love Grime won’t disappoint. The latest salvo from the Rinse camp contains over 50 of the genre’s biggest tunes scattered over two discs mixed by Rinse DJs Spyro and Sian Anderson, respectively. Unusual for this sort of compilation, things aren’t organized into past and present: Pay As U Go’s foundational “Know We” from 2001 jams up against Royal-T’s “Inside the Ride,” a bashy hit from earlier this year; More Fire Crew’s 2002 mega-hit “Oi” (recently resurrected by the likes of Pearson Sound and Oneman) abuts D Double E’s videogame-obsessed “Streetfighter” from summer 2010.

This isn’t a bad thing—grime doesn’t have to be a history lesson to be enjoyed. It’s better taken as energy music, with MCs harnessing the force over beats too intense for most traditional rappers (especially American ones) to tame. Starting in the early ’00s as a tougher, streetwise answer to the overly fake and fancy UK garage scene, it remains a reactionary genre, even as artists like Dizzee Rascal, Skepta, Jammer, and Chipmunk have gone pop. I Love Grime sticks to the rougher side of things; even the bubblier 2-step numbers—from So Solid Crew’s infamous “Oh No!” to P-Money and Blacks’ recent Butterz hit “Boo You”—are nothing sweet.

Spyro’s mix wins the stone-cold classics competition, containing essential riddims like Youngstar’s “Pulse X,” Bok Bok’s “Silo Pass,” and Low Deep’s violin-driven masterpiece “Str8 Flush,” plus huge vocal hits perfect for punching walls: Lethal Bizzle’s “Pow,” D Double E’s “Bluku Bluku,” and posse cut “Lord of the Mics.” Spyro’s been DJing since he was 11, but the mixing and sequencing feels lazy at times. The first blend has a full 20 seconds of crashing vocals and some tracks come in and fade out off-phrase. Given, it’s not easy to mix full-vocal grime tracks, but other Spyro blends (from the same CD) are pitch perfect. What the transitions may lack in punch, the track selection makes up for in raw power—tracks like Skream & Trim’s dubstep smasher “Tweedle Dee, Twiddle Dub!” and D Double and Dizzee’s “Bluku! Bluku!” are sheer mind-erasers.

Sian Anderson, one of Rinse’s new guard of grime young’uns, turns in a smooth ride of mostly MC-driven tracks featuring all the big names plus recent talents like P Money, Kozzie, and C4. Highlights include D Double E’s distinctive lisp and machine-gun lyrics over S-X’s haunting, underwater-sounding “Woo Riddim,” Rival’s crisp rhyming over delectably loopy banger “They Said,” and the chewy bump ‘n’ flex of the aforementioned “Boo You.” Anderson’s mix sounds a lot cleaner (like it was made on Ableton) whereas Spyro’s sounds like it’s coming live from the Rinse studio. Both styles sound good, it’s really just a matter of personal preference.

I Love Grime is a great primer on the scene that goes way deeper than the Vice compilations of a few years back. For those without access to hard-to-find mixtapes or out-of-print vinyl, or people simply in need of more fodder to piss off the neighbors, I Love Grime has plenty to offer.

Pále “Orchidea”

Manchester producer Pále (a.k.a. Leo Marcus) has been hard at work recently. Just last month, he released a single via Four40 (we posted one of its remixes here), and now, he has announced a forthcoming record for the London-based Fat! label. “Orchidea” is the first leak from the three-track Catacombs EP, and its downtempo, melancholy piano chords and sticky, plodding beat hit pretty deep. The dub-influenced tune will see an official release on October 22, but you can stream the record in its entirety before then, after the jump.

Orchidea

Basic Soul Unit & Eddie Niguel The First Shift

Singaporean outfit Midnight Shift has been running after-hours parties in the Southeast Asian city-state for years. For the most part, the crew has followed the tested pattern of keeping its performers and locations clandestine, but exceptions have been made for such high-profile international guests as Jerome Sydenham and Green Velvet. Midnight Shift’s new imprint seems to have been founded on similar principles. The First Shift, its debut release, pairs an established foreigner—Toronto’s Stuart Li (a.k.a. Basic Soul Unit)—with Eddie Niguel (a.k.a. Edel), a producer largely unknown outside the city-state.

Li’s career is nowhere near as storied as those of the aforementioned guests, but he has lately become a darling of the techno cognoscenti—Steffi released his Soulspeak EP on her Dolly label last year (with a relatively rare Shed remix, to boot), and he recently contributed an EP for the notoriously selective Nonplus as well. There’s good reason for this, as his productions have rapidly matured into a signature of complex, punchy rhythms and expansive, exuberant synthesizers. His two tracks here build on that formula. “Late Nite Shift” tightly slots a sturdy, looping melody into a restless framework. The track picks up a considerable amount of momentum as Li drops organ stabs and an array of jacking patterns on top, until it reaches a breaking point and practically everything drops out. When the stabs re-emerge alongside a newly spacious rhythm, it’s less a regrouping than an aftershock, as the track tails off without consequence. His second offering, “Black Ice,” initially sounds like Li has gone a bit IDM, as he spends its first half occupied with plush padwork and a bleepy, optimistic melody. This all changes midway through, when an arpeggiated synthline explodes out of the unassuming arrangement, the kicks newly thunderous below and primed for the floor.

Eddie Niguel’s side is comparatively polite. On “Paths,” he lays stern, metallic stabs alongside gridlocked drums, and while it progresses with a reasonable amount of momentum, it’s ultimately rather staid. A bright spot, however, is Niguel’s inclusion of high-pitched, tinkling keys, which lends the piece a welcome eeriness. The producer introduces a similar motif on “Absolute,” a track that shows him breaking out of his shell a bit more. Niguel stretches the classicist main melody like a rubberband and drops in a series of piercing tones in accompaniment; together, they reach a dizzy, jittery climax above a galloping rhythm. With one side pristine and logical and the other raw and reckless, The First Shift is an open-ended first statement. It’ll be interesting to hear what other local talents Midnight Shift has in its ranks, and if the format continues, how they compare with their foreign counterparts.

Roska to Deliver New 12″ via Tectonic

Largely known as the don of UK funky, DJ/producer Roska seems to be trying out different sounds on his next solo outing, which will appear later this month via Pinch‘s dubstep-centric Tectonic label. The two-track 12″ will feature the tunes “Blurry” and “Spearhead,” and will mark Roska’s second appearance in the Tectonic discography (his first being a collaborative one-off with the label head). Before the record drops on October 22, you can check out its artwork and preview each track below.

Watch Marc Kinchen Produce an MK Dub

Pioneering DJ/producer Marc Kinchen (better known simply as MK) has been one of house music’s (pardon the pun) household names since leading the NY garage scene of the ’90s with a slew of noteworthy tunes, remixes, and—of course—MK dubs. Recently, the good folks at FACT managed to catch Kinchen in action, documenting the man in the midst of reworking DJ Haus‘ “Needin’ U” with his patented formula. Broken up into two parts, the videos show MK’s technique to approaching dub mixes, as he chops vocals, searches for melodies and basslines, and occasionally answers questions from DJ Haus himself. You can watch both episodes of the series below, followed by the video for Haus’ original “Needin’ U” track.

S.E.F. “Boiling Point”

London-based videographer, label owner, DJ, and producer S.E.F. is poised to drop his debut record, the Autonomy EP, on November 5 via his own Switched On imprint. While it may sound like S.E.F. is kind of a newcomer, he has actually been involved in the London house scene for about 10 years, working closely with the likes of T. Williams and his Deep Teknologi label. And the experience shows on this cut from the artist’s upcoming EP, “Boiling Point,” as it represents the sounds of someone who, although new at producing, has the ear of a seasoned club veteran. Beginning with clips of a passionate speaker reminiscent of early Chicago house, the tune immediately distinguishes itself as something serious with a point to make. As the piece progresses, classic-house elements are introduced—including Rhodes stabs, 808 rim shots, and shuffling hi-hats—while the heated orator continues his provocative and motivational speech. You can preview the other two tracks set to drop on S.E.F’s first record after the jump.

Boiling Point

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