Leif, real name Leif Knowles, has spent the last decade refining his musical palette with a slew of releases including albums for Whities and UntilMyHeartStops. In 2017, he launched the TIO-Series label as a vehicle to showcase the more off-kilter rhythmical side of his own productions.
This new EP for Livity Sound continues in the exploratory TIO-series vein, finding Leif in percussion mode, combining nimble rhythms, deep bass, and hazy synths in his idiosyncratic style.
This 12” vinyl release comes with brand new art direction from Tess Redburn in a full colour artwork reverse board sleeve.
Livity Sound is a label set up by Peverelist in 2011 as a vehicle for a raw and exploratory strain of UK techno, rooted in the heritage of UK dance music and sound system culture.
Tracklisting
A1. Igam-Ogam B1. First Image B2. Seeker
Igam-Ogam EP is out November 8, with pre-order here.
The three-track EP is the Scottish producer’s first solo output since his breakout record on Whities in 2017, which included the ethereal Touch Absence. It arrives after last year’s remix of Björk and an extensive period touring his live A/V show.
Recorded sometime in the last year and a half, the three tracks combine lazer sharp digital synths and hyperspatial sound design with scaled up, spine-tingling choral melodies, time-refracted field recordings, and ethereal childlike vocal arrangements.
The EP’s title track, “Corra Linn,” takes its name from a waterfall in the Lanark area of Scotland, the water of which flows into one of the oldest hydro-electric power stations in the UK.
The artwork is a photomicrographic image of Lanarkite, a rare and precious mineral form. Almost all significant occurrences of Lanarkite were discovered deep within the Leadhills in South Lanarkshire, but it is said that an unknown, but large, quantity of it was once unearthed at the base of Corra Linn waterfall.
Pressed on black and clear transparent vinyl, Bandcamp sales of the limited edition 12” include a donation to the Scottish Wildlife Trust.
Visit the Lanark Artefax web portal l-a-n-a-r-k.net to explore the digital archive accompanying the release.
James Hoff has returned to PAN with a new audio-visual project titled HOBO UFO (v. Chernobyl), which utilizes a modified version of Google’s Street View to explore Chernobyl and its surrounding environs. The artist, with the aid of coder Reuben Son, has hot-wired Street View so that it is audio reactive, creating a first-person viewing experience dictated by music Hoff has created.
Originally commissioned by Unsound Festival, Hoff began working on this version of HOBO UFO in 2017, creating over an hour of music that had the hallmarks of his work on Blaster, his 2017 album for Pan: noisy, intense, and chaotic.
After spending dozens of hours on Street View while composing, Hoff decided to visit the zone of exclusion in 2018 and his experience there prompted him to start fresh. In particular, he focused on Pripyat, which, prior to the meltdown, was a grand city and a “triumph of Soviet urban planning.” Hoff sought to reflect this moment as well as that of the valor of the people affected by the accident and the tens of thousands of workers who fought to contain it.
The resulting 14-minute work employs woodwinds, brass, double bass, and synthesized GPS signals, which Hoff recorded on site. In it, we hear a melody that is both “uplifting and melancholic, punctured by lurking static and Geiger-counter like pulses,” the label explains.
All of this drives a visual component that takes the viewer through the empty streets of Pripyat and into its municipal buildings, schools, theaters, and athletic facilities; into the Cherynobyl nuclear facility and its control room; and eventually to the Duga Radar system and the landscape that surrounds it. The narrative unfolds with the music, creating an experience that is “unsettling in its unraveling, yet captivating in its particular form of digital voyeurism,” the label adds.
Hoff debuted HOBO UFO in London in 2016 and has since performed with it several times as a site-specific audio-visual work. The program runs in real-time as a backdrop to Hoff’s performance, beginning at the venue where the show is held.
HOBO UFO (v. Chernobyl) is out now, with a stream below.
Matthew Herbert will debut on Ben Freeney’s Foom label with The Recording, an EP written, produced, and recorded in one week in Berlin in front of, and with the participation of, a live audience.
Opener “Day Three” is one of Herbert’s most exuberant dancefloor tracks in a while, its rhythms awash with mischief and urgency. “Day Five” is all intricate, shuffling high-end, booming toms, reverb and piano, while the throbs, murmurs, and restless percussion of “Day Seven” bring the EP to a close.
Herbert created the EP from during a week-long residency at the Tischlerei Deutsche Oper.
Foom’s previous releases have come from Bruno Pronsato, Rhys Chatham, Peter Gordon, and more.
Tracklisting
01. Day Three 02. Day Five 03. Day Seven
The Recording EP is out November 22, with “Day Three” and pre-order over at Bandcamp.
Born in the European summer of 2018, Circle of Live is the work of Sebastian Mullaert, the beloved Swedish artist known for his cerebral techno soundscapes. Looking to take his sonic improvisations a little further, and recognising the untapped beauty in the sounds that artists create in the comfort of their own studios, he wished to transfer this to the live environment.
“We, as artists, can create our personal paradise to find a way to express ourselves, and then we go out on stage and it becomes separate to that. The idea came to create that also on stage,” Mullaert told Resident Advisor earlier this year. “I truly believe that if an artist feels comfortable on stage and they can relax into it, it helps the audience to do the same.”
Recruitment began soon thereafter. Calls were made to friends, and several—Âme (Live), Johanna Knutsson, Leafar Legov, etc.—signed up, and many more have joined. The Circle now comprises 19 artists, all identified and selected by Mullaert. The list, which now includes Peter Van Hoesen, Dorisburg, Steffi, and Neel, features artists from a diverse set of backgrounds and with different ways of expressing themselves, but what glues them together is an appreciation for spontaneity and improvisation.
On stage, Circle members jam in different constellations; Muallert curates a different lineup for each performance. Mullaert himself, the one constant, begins with some ambient soundscapes, before inviting the other artists to begin interacting as they wish; it’s an unhinged, freeform experience, unhindered by formal structure so as to allow both the performers and audience to explore the boundaries of electronic music improvisation in its raw beauty. These recordings, which can exceed eight hours, are then reviewed, and segments—those which best capture the essence of the project—are released through the record label of the same name, offering a snapshot into the weird and wonderful world of collaborative live performance.
Circle of Live club performances have quickly become a “must-see” in the electronic music community, and, to offer a glimpse behind the Circle, we’ve compiled a Live Essentials feature looking at the gear used by each artist at Movement Detroit 2019, where Vril made his debut appearance alongside Mathew Jonson, Amp Fiddler, and Mullaert.
Editor Note: A two-hour segment of the Circle of Live Movement jam is streaming below, and you can download it HERE as part of our XLR8R+ package alongside exclusive tracks from each artist.
“Mathew [Jonson] picked a tempo—90bpm, I picked a key (G minor, what a surprise!), Vril picked a badass gangster groove, and Amp [Fiddler] just smiled, spread his love, and started to spread the chords from his synths. How the next four hours took form no one knows, but it was an amazing journey to be part of, and listening to the first two hours, that we are sharing with you now, brings back many warm smiles to my face!”
—Sebastian Mullaert
Sebastian Mullaert (left) and Mathew Jonson (right)
Victoria, Canada was a gold mine for analog synthesizers in the mid-’90s. I found the 101 alongside a JX-3P, 909, 606, and an MC-202 from a guitar player that frequented the pawnshops while on tour. Back in those days, everyone was trading in their gear for software so it was the perfect time to shop analog. That equipment was used to produce all my early records.
The 101 has still been used on more of my tracks than any other synth, and it is the only synth I feel I have truly mastered. It’s great in the studio but on stage is where it really shines due to its ergonomic interface and simple step sequencer. If you get used to programming with triggers, it is the fastest mono synth out there. On stage, I spend my time bouncing from inside the headphones programming and then switching to performance mode where I can take the sequence I have written and manipulate it multiple ways rhythmically with the triggers and sonically via the instrument.
I actually had a small part in making this piece with Roland Japan. It started on a piece of A4 paper discussing the interface design. So, having a prototype sent to me months later for testing and preset writing is not the usual way I would acquire gear. Of course, these are small compared to the original but the sound and functionality is all there. It keeps its simplicity, which is important in this unit, but it also adds polyphony, unison mode, and chord memory (which I used a lot for the Detroit recording). Amp [Fiddler] and I were really bouncing off each other between melodies and basslines in the beginning of the set before we turned the tempo up!
“In terms of the products Roland has released in the last decade, the TR-8S is my favourite.”
I started working with Roland shortly after the TR-8 was released. The TR-8S follow-up fulfilled all my wishes in terms of what was possible in the same format drum machine. Individual outs, trigger outputs for sequencing step sequencers and modular synthesisers, user-defined sampling capabilities for your own one-shot drum sounds, high resolution faders for volume so you can cut sounds in and out quickly with next to no latency, dedicated effects for each sound, and programmable drum sets that allow for any configuration of instruments, and an assignable knob per voice so you can choose what parameters you can affect live.
It goes much deeper, too, with in-depth control of each sound via filters, envelopes, compression, etc., in the pages beneath the first layer of workflow so you can dial things in at the studio but still have the simplicity on stage.
With Circle of Live in Detroit, I had it sequencing the rhythms of both the SH-101 and SH-01A via trigger outs, and then I had five individual outputs left for the drums. In terms of the products Roland has released in the last decade, the TR-8S is my favourite.
The AKAi Force is a beast and works a lot like Ableton, which most of the others in the Circle of Live team use. It does everything, such as creating rhythms, beats, fast loops of keyboards, or sampling on the fly. What I don’t like is that it doesn’t have streaming of audio yet. This is my go-to piece and I could use it alone if needed without any other equipment. It has a synth engine and it’s standalone, so I never need the computer to run with it.
I got the Force from Guitar Center on Sunset in Los Angeles, and my man Andy Mac (AKAi UK), who gives me all the support I need, suggested it.
The JD-Xi is used for keyboard sounds and mostly vocoder for some space vocoder sounds. I have a Roland endorsement and received this from them direct. I’m not that fond of the small keys and I’ll soon trade it for a more portable unit like the Roland VP-03, which actually has even smaller keys unless I use a controller!
The Oberheim OB-6 is the analog beast for mashing sequences and arpeggiator shit and creating any kind of funky next-level sounds. I’m not a tech-head yet I do love electronics and synthesis, so I like keeping it simple and as live as possible with Circle of Live. I found the Oberheim here in Detroit for a great price from a local dealer, and there’s nothing I don’t like about it!
“Here are five things I’ve highlighted in my live rig. Please note that this is not my studio gear but things I’ve chosen to use on stage, both solo and when I have Circle of Live jams with other people.”
My live rig is built on both hardware and software, and you can probably say that half of what I do is coming from the computer and the other half from outboard gear. Ableton Push is the heart of all my MIDI looping, inside the box and my outboard gear. All my outboard instruments are connected to the computer via MIDI so I can choose to play any synths and plug-ins with the Push or the MIDI keyboard connected to it. I can build up specific drum patterns and sequences on a synth on the fly, and also with just one touch of the finger loop a sequence I’m playing freestyle on a synth. The combination of playing freestyle and then looping parts of that is a big part of how I play live.
I don’t really see anything I don’t like with the push; there are so many features with it that I don’t use, so the only negative thing I would have to say is that there are too many menus and possibilities, but so far this hasn’t really affected me much.
All my synths, both software and hardware, have their own channels on my three Model 1 mixers. From the headphone output, I can select which channel I want to send to my external audio looper, a Boss RC-505.
Looping things MIDI and audio is different and I find them useful at different times. The MIDI looping allows me to continue tweaking the parameters of the synth or drum machine while the audio looper captures a full tweak and repeats that. Another important function is that I can ”capture” a full soundscape or loop I’m playing, take down all the original faders, and bring up the RC-505 loop and let it play while I’m creating a new track.
When we play with Circle of Live, I’ve also routed every other artist’s signal in a way that I can loop them at any time. This often creates very interesting music situations and it helps improvisation to bloom.
I love Roland and I use so many of their things, but sometimes I must say they miss out on the design: the RC-505 is just not very nice looking and I feel it’s way too big. It also takes up a lot of room in my setup; it could easily be half the size!
The Roland SH-101 is the one thing that has followed me during all the different live sets I’ve built. It’s easy and so functional, and I know it by heart. I love to mix things I know well with things that are new to me; this adds two different aspects to an improvisational jam. The main problem with the 101 is that it’s a very expensive piece of plastic and absolutely not made for touring. I have trashed quite a few over the years, and when I ask a promoter to rent one they are often not fully working.
The first time I met Vril I had a little 101 disaster. We were playing at a festival in Colombia together and to make it to the festival we had to go in a small little jet plane. It was so tight and all my gear was pushed into the actual seats. When the pilot tried to fit everything, he dropped the 101 straight onto the asphalt!
On my tech rider, I have a list of over 10 poly synths and I ask the promoter to source one of them. Everything else in my setup I bring myself, and I know very well, so having something chosen by the promoter means something is kept random, and this throws up new opportunities and challenges. I don’t use the Korg Prologue in the studio, and have just used it the times I play on stage, but I must say I really like it as a live synth. It’s easy, and sounds really good.
Another thing that makes it so good for me is that it blends with other sounds and synths, which is good when you’re improvising with loads of different artists each weekend.
I’m using three Model 1 mixers from PLAYdifferently in my live sets. This gives me a total of 48 channels. To ask for a studio desk with 48 channels would take loads of space and also give me loads of knobs that I don’t need.
The Model 1 mixers have most of the things I need in a compact size, and they’re full of analogue sound power. Two aux, eight stereo channels, one EQ sweep on each channel, plus a super nice low and high cut on each channel, amazing master filter, master EQ, DSub in and outputs, and it also has headphone outputs so I can route sounds to the looper! Also, the distortion on each channel sounds really nice when not tweaked too hard.
I’ve started to love this mixer so much and, at times, when I for some reason can’t perform with it, I feel limited. One thing I would like to change, however, is the high and low pass filters, so that they to go all the way (now you need to tweak both of them to kill the sound completely). I would also love the EG sweep to gain more than 6db!
Swedish four-piece Little Dragon have shared a new single on Ninja Tune, titled Tongue Kissing. The track comes alongside news of a huge run of headline live-shows across Europe and North America in 2020.
Tongue Kissing is four minutes of glittering, off-kilter pop, which sees front-woman Yukimi Nagano muse on embracing life’s challenges head-on.
“The song is very much about taking brave steps,” explain the band. “Facing your own demons and tongue kissing with life, not holding back but going all in with all that it entails, every moment in your face”
The track follows last year’s Lover Chanting EP, and a career of forward-thinking albums, including breakout Ritual Union and the GRAMMY-nominated Nabuma Rubberband.
Artwork for the release comes from Mačka (a.k.a Lena Mačka).
Seb Wildblood is most widely associated with warm, hazy house. The UK producer, whose real name remains undisclosed, grew up in a small village on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, but connected with electronic music through visiting his brother at the nearby Manchester University. Towards the end of the ’00s, he moved to London to study and, alongside DJ Apes, began throwing their Church parties in the basement of St Giles Church in Camberwell. The duo initially told the church that they were hosting student art events “with a bit of music at the end,” but demand soon grew enough for them to earn a Thursday-night residency at Corsica Studios.
Becoming more engrained in club music, Wildblood began making his own. Early outings came in 2013, including one, Feel, on his own Church label, before his debut full-length in 2015, titled Foreign Parts, an eight-track release of dusty downtempo house. Out via SW, a self-release imprint on Church, it’s intended to be enjoyed while traveling, and it’s blessed with a bittersweet nostalgia that engulfs Wildblood’s catalog. “I’ve always been drawn to the feeling a track can create,” Wildblood explains. “Obviously the functionality of track is really important, however, what I’m looking for is a mood, or a moment.”
Earlier this year, Wildblood returned with Sketches Of Transition, his debut album proper, out via one of his other labels, all my thoughts. Spanning ambient, deep house, and broken beat, the release was recorded over a two-year period and compiles 10 tracks each written for a specific moment in time. “Amelia,” for example, was written on the day his first niece was born. “The idea of the track is to serve as a unique time capsule for her,” he explains. Wildblood supported the album with an ambitious world tour that covered the United States, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, Japan, and Korea. On November 5, the label will release a remix package featuring contributions from Suzanne Kraft, object blue, Jenifa Mayanja, and Ciel.
Wildblood’s podcast is a little harder than a lot the material he’s released recently—seen as “a chance step back into clubland.” It begins with some downtempo house, the sort you probably associate with Wildblood, but by the six-minute mark we’re introduced to more driving cuts, and it stays that way until he end, when Wildblood winds it down with some dusty house jams and chilled UK garage. As you’d expect from a head of three labels and a DJ, the curation is impeccable, so do check out the tracklisting below.
What have you been up to recently?
I finished my album tour not long ago. Since then, I’ve been trying to get back into some sort of routine. I’ve been working on a bunch of remixes and have just started to think about my follow-up EP. Along with all that, the labels take up a lot of my day. For the most part, it’s nice, as it elevates a lot of the pressure of solely being a musician/producer, whilst at the same time sometimes I only have so many hands; it’s a balance that I’m working on, but enjoying.
How did you find your way into music?
Music has always been an escape for me. My adolescent years were pretty turbulent, to say the least. I remember my first MP3 player that could fit maybe 30 songs. Whenever life felt like it was too much or I was feeling anxious, I’d put my headphones in and it would calm me. That’s when I started to develop a very personal relationship with music—it became a tool for me, it still is.
Do you think carefully and where you’re going artistically?
Now, for sure. I have a clear vision of where I see the project heading and what I want to express but this wasn’t always the case. I feel you have to learn your craft somewhat before you have the license to make these choices. I’m conscious of following my own path.
Something I value highly is that I’ve been doing this for three or four years, touring, releasing music, and releasing music I love by other artists. I value the longevity of all of this so I am in no rush. If something is not right, I won’t go for it. Saying all this, I wish my current self could tell the budding producer who signed the first track he ever made to a label with no second thoughts!
What’s your go-to music when you’re looking for inspiration?
It really depends on what I’m looking to make, if I’m writing my next club record, nothing will be more powerful than indulging in the culture. I’ve written some of my best club material following a string of DJ gigs. For example, I can still feel what I felt in Istanbul last summer. It was the day before I wrote “Grab the Wheel.” My memory is awful but things just seem to stick through music.
What records have you been enjoying recently?
Ebende & Matinda Logik K-LONE Missed Calls Young American Primitive Young American Primitive
Where and when was this mix recorded?
At home in my studio on September 24, 2019.
What’s the concept behind it?
I wanted to give snippets of what you’ll likely hear me playing in the club. I’ve released a lot of the downtempo side of my catalog recently so this was a chance step back into clubland.
How did you choose the tracks that you included?
A mixture. Some were found digging in second-hand stores, some trawling Bandcamp, etc. I was conscious that I wanted to incorporate a bunch of different genres, so I inevitably sourced the tracks in many different ways and formats.
Where do you envisage it being listened to?
Post YouTube rotation at the after-party.
What’s next, looking forward?
I have a remix EP coming out very soon with Suzanne Kraft, Object Blue, Jenifa Mayanja, Ciel plus a couple of bonus versions too. Other than that, I’m working on a live show which I’ll debut next year, plus many remixes.
XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to download the podcast you will need to subscribe to our Select channel. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.
Tracklisting
01. Young American Primitive “These Waves” (Zoe Magik) 02. Escape Artist “Silicone Valium” (Salt Mines) 03. Zvukbroda “KSE ZO” (Gilesku Slovenia) 04. El B “El Brand” (Part Three) (white label) 05. DJ Firmeza “Intenso” (Príncipe) 06. Kasper Marott “Metaxus” Carnival (Monkeytown Records) 07. Project Runaway “Met” ((Emotional) Especial) 08. Closet Yi “Untitled” (Honey Badger Records) 09. Adam Pits “Motion Sensor” (Holding Hands) 10. Sansibar “Liquid Programming” (FTP) 11. Ruffkut “NewCleus” (Deep Jungle) 12. Source Direct “Artificial Barriers” (Source Direct Recordings) 13. Herb LF “Supa Steppin” (Farside Germany) 14. Amma “Heartbeat” (IRIS Remix) (Inspirit Music)
Lapalux has unveiled new single “Limb to Limb” (feat. Lilia) ahead of the release of his fourth studio album, Amnioverse, on November 8 via Brainfeeder.
An unexpected marriage of club-informed beats and heavily textured modular synthesis, “Limb to Limb” features vocalist Lilia who sings: “It’s always the same…we hit the ground running…and we’ll let it begin…if we get lost…we’ll go home.”
Amnioverse revolves around notions of fluidity; the idea that birth, life, death, and rebirth is a never-ending continuum. Lapalux, real name Stuart Howard, channels these ethereal ideas through a new and ever-expanding modular synth set-up, injecting human emotion, and layering recordings of weather, wind, rain and fire, lending an elemental, celestial feel to the composition.
Amnioverse is released on deluxe vinyl, CD, and digital formats on November 8. You can read more about it here, and stream “Limb to Limb” below.
Digby has locked in the eigth release on his Flash as a Rat label.
FAAR008 is Digby’s third release of this year, following FAAR007,which came out in May. As usual, we can expect three slick minimal jams, straight from the UK producer’s Berlin studio.
Digby broke through with a series of self-releases with his brother Alex (together known as Alex & Digby), who tragically passed away in 2017. Digby then returned with his first solo outing in February, FAARAT006.
Read more about Digby in our moving XLR8R interview here.
Tracklisting
01. Zuper 02. Wanted to Say Goodnight 03. Marbles
FAAR008 is out later this month on vinyl, with streams below.
Fumiya Tanaka will release his new album, Right Moment, on Perlon in December.
Right Moment is the Japanese producer’s fifth album, following 2016’s You Find The Key, also via Perlon, where he released two EPs, AB and CD, last year. He earlier albums have come via Torema Records and his own Sundance.
The album follows Chris Korda’s debut outing on Perlon.
As with all Perlon releases, it’s on vinyl only, but you can hear clips here.
Tracklisting
A1 Right Moment B1 Live Like Music C1 Forever Friends D1 Breakthrough D2 I Want To Be A Human Being E1 Welcome To Chaos E2 The Reason Is Always Different F1 Birth Of The Perfect Club
