Slick Shoota “Bruk (Deft Remix)”

Norwegian juke maestro Slick Shoota will soon release a massive nine-track EP via Hyperboloid. The record includes four original productions and five remixes from the likes of Clicks & Whistles, Samename, Fellepus, Ovrkl, and Deft. The tunes are best described as “peak” tracks, songs that would be best played for a packed warehouse at 2 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday morning. While the individual elements used in these tunes may seem somewhat hackneyed, the rhythms and polished mixes help set this EP apart, not the least of which is Deft’s remix of “Bruk.” The Croydon tunesmith’s version is a slightly darker take on Slick Shoota’s original, one which effortlessly moves between half-time and double-time tempos and features reggae vocals clips, thick toms, sultry moans, and swelling synth melodies. Before the rest of Slick Shoota’s Draw EP drops on September 14, you can preview all of its tunes after the jump.

Bruk (Deft Remix)

Demdike Stare and Andy Stott Ready North American Tours

Two of our favorite Modern Love-associated artists, Demdike Stare (pictured above) and Andy Stott, have announced they will soon hit the US and Mexico for a string of performances this fall. The DJs and producers will play a handful of gigs together and a few solo across the month they’ll spend stateside. Demdike Stare’s first stop is in New York to play Pier 26 on September 23, but Andy Stott won’t join them until September 27, when they’ll both play the Modern Love showcase at Seattle’s Decibel Festival. Both acts will also appear at VIA Festival in Pittsburgh and Adventures in Modern Music in Chicago, ending the stint of performances at Asheville’s Moogfest on October 26, three days before Stott will release his Luxury Problems LP. You can check out the full list of dates below. (via Resident Advisor)

Sep 23 – Demdike Stare @ Pier 36 – New York
Sep 26 – Demdike Stare @ Decibel Festival – Seattle
Sep 27 – Demdike Stare, Andy Stott @ Decibel Festival – Seattle
Sep 28 – Demdike Stare, Andy Stott @ Public Works – San Francisco
Sep 29 – Demdike Stare, Andy Stott @ Mount Analog – Los Angeles
Oct 01 – Demdike Stare, Andy Stott @ VIA Festival 2012 – Pittsburgh
Oct 04 – Demdike Stare, Andy Stott @ Adventures in Modern Music – Chicago
Oct 05 – Demdike Stare, Andy Stott @ The Bunker, Public Assembly – Brooklyn
Oct 06 – Demdike Stare @ Mutek – Mexico City
Oct 06 – Andy Stott @ Inciting Hq- Philadelphia
Oct 07 – Demdike Stare @ Mutek – Mexico City
Oct 26 – Andy Stott @ Moogfest – Asheville

Video: Lorn “Weigh Me Down”

Milwaukee-based producer Lorn just released his new video for “Weigh Me Down,” a cut from his recent Ask the Dust LP for Ninja Tune. The video is a fitting backdrop for Lorn’s tense and angry tune, as it features simple graphics akin to indie game Sword & Sworcery, minotaurs from hell, and tastefully disturbing sequences of mass murder. While both the clip and the song are clearly dark, there are undercurrents of more soulful vibes evoked by Lorn’s vocals, which are discretely illuminated by more low-bit creatures mouthing the lyrics.

Video: Rone “Parade”

It must have been a painstaking process to film and edit the video for Rone‘s “Parade,” but all the hard work certainly paid off. The whole clip, which was directed by Filip Piskorzynski and hosted by The Creators Project and the InFiné label, was shot in stop-motion, and executed in such a way that it looks like a woman is floating in mid-aid the whole time. Her feet never touch the sandy Southwestern-looking landscape or the pool she hovers above, and the camera even follows her when she dives into the sea and swims to the bottom. Rone’s warm, bouncing beat—which will be out on November 5 along with the rest of the French beatmaker’s upcoming album, Tohu Bohu—adds to the whimsy and charm of the overall experience.

Black Jazz Consortium Announces EP Trilogy, Shares First Installment

New York’s Fred P (a.k.a. Black Jazz Consortium) is set to release his first installment of an EP trilogy he’s calling Codes And Metaphors. Part 1 is said to be a silky-smooth combination of jazz fusion and deep house that features Japanese vocalist Minako (who is debuting her own album for in the near future) and Fred P’s piano skills across its three original tracks. The b-side of that record also holds a more club-ready, synth-laden remix from London producer Simbad. Before Black Jazz Consortium’s Codes and Metaphors Part 1 drops via his own Soul People label on October 3, you can stream snippets of each of its tunes below.

dOP “Your Feelin’ (Soul Button Remix)”

Berlin-based producer Soul Button has just released its remix of “Your Feelin'” by dOP (pictured above). Although Soul Button is a relatively new name on the scene, the tunesmith is far from a beginner. As explained on his Soundcloud, Soul Button is a new side project of an already established producer, which may go to explain the effortlessly smooth sounds of the remix. “Your Feelin’ (Soul Button Remix)” features the doubled vocals of Pillow Talk, breathy synths, light guitar licks, conga-based percussion, and a funky bassline to help work out its slick deep-house groove.

Your Feelin’ (Soul Button Remix)

Your Feelin’ (Soul Button Remix)

This Week in Music Tech: MiniBrute, Native Instruments, Ableton Pro Tips, and Vocal Recording Masterclass

What with the internet and all, a lot can happen in seven days—especially in the rapidly evolving field of music technology—so we’re launching a new weekly feature to keep up on the constant onslaught of information and catalog the highlights of gear and production-related news and videos into one condensed place. Here, we have our inaugural congregation of juicy tidbits, a roundup which we’ve cleverly titled This Week in Music Tech.

This past Wednesday saw XLR8R unveil yet another edition of our In the Studio features, this time chronicling the Berlin sound lab of Magda (pictured above), who joins the likes of Machinedrum and Tycho in our ongoing series of pictures and interviews.

Some hardware news came down the pipeline this week:

– Arturia’s highly anticipated MiniBrute analog synthesizer had encountered a bumpy launch due to a variety of issues which caused a complete release of the product to be delayed. However, this week, the company issued a statement noting that the move to a new factory had been succesful and that a complete release of the synth is now in full force across the US and Europe. Arturia also added that it is confident in the fact that it “will be able to deliver units to the stores on a regular basis” from here on out. Below, you can watch a clip of Portishead’s Adrian Utley talking about the synth. (You can also tour the artist’s entire amazing synth collection here.)

– Native Instruments teased a new Traktor-ready hardware mixer with a “sneak preview” video. The preview’s title, “2+2 Control Mixer,” gives a few clues as to what can be expected from the hybrid mixer/controller, but further details have not been revealed. The video below shows the unit in action at the hands of one Eric Goldstein, who throws an Addison Groove track in there for good measure.

A bit of software-related happenings popped into our email:

– Brainworx added another powerful M/S-based mastering tool to its arsenal with the BX Stereomaker, a plug-in based on widening and tightening stereo mixes as well as converting signals from mono to stereo.

– iZoptope (who recently impressed us with its fantastic Alloy 2 plug-in) announced the release of a new sound library, Toy Sounds, consisting of over 200 high-quality samples with names such as “Unicorn Tears,” “Peanut Butter Nap,” and “Candy from Strangers,” among others.

And lastly, a pair of helpful videos caught our eyes over the past few days:

– Chicago legend Robert Owens and UK producer Raffertie shared some in-depth points on recording the human voice with the Point Blank online production school in this 40-plus-minute Vocal Recording Masterclass.

– Ableton guru and Dubspot instructor Thavius Beck posted the fourteenth episode of his Ableton Live Tips: Did You Know? series of YouTube videos, this time around revealing the hidden depths of Live’s MIDI- and key-mapping capabilites.

Press Play: Theo Parrish, Zed Bias, Oneohtrix Point Never, Tyondai Braxton, and More

Where to begin with our batch of Press Play goodies for this week? Well, we’ve got some classic Detroit magic courtesy of Theo Parrish, a never-before-heard proper choon from UK garage stalwart Zed Bias, the bubblin’ first single to drop via Bicep’s new label, a bit of spacey synth-funk from B. Bravo & Teeko, Tyondai Braxton’s wild reworking of Philip Glass, the new EP from Nicolas Jaar collaborator Dave Aju… You get the picture. Dive into the bounty of Press Play’s streams and downloads after the jump.

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Legendary Detroit DJ/producer Theo Parrish shares his 15-minute reworking of The Invisible’s “Generational” tune before it drops on October 15 via Ninja Tune.

Today, we’re premiering the b-side of Zed Bias‘ forthcoming two-track 12″, the deeply grooving “Hurting Me.”

Experimental electronic composer Oneohtrix Point Never unveiled a stream of his new split LP with fellow noisenick Rene Fell, Music for Reliquary House / In 1980 I Was a Blue Square.

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Ex-Battles frontman and New York-based composer Tyondai Braxton conquers the unenviable task of reworking a composition by the inimitable Phillip Glass on “Rubric,” a lively track lifted from Rework: Philip Glass Remixed.

Here’s the first single set to drop via UK house duo Bicep‘s soon-to-be-inaugurated new label, Feel My Bicep, the pair’s so-called “cheeky ’90s piano houser” “Vision of Love.”

Check out the second galactic G-funk cut to leak from B. Bravo & ‘s forthcoming The Starship Connection EP for Frite Nite.

Bristol’s resident dark-techno experimentalist Vessel unleashes another of his unearthly concoctions from his debut LP for Tri Angle, Order of Noise.

Here’s the first installment of Mix Pak‘s ongoing riddim compilation series, Pressure, featuring tunes from Sam Tiba, Melé, Matt Shadetek, and many others.

After we premiered Lemonade‘s “Softkiss (Anthony Naples Remix)”, John Talabot collaborator Pional dropped his own version of the emotive tune to stream and download.

Nicolas Jaar collaborator and San Francisco musician Dave Aju gives the world a chance to listen to the entirety of his debut EP for Matthew Herbert’s Accidental label, the Listen to Your Heartbeat EP.

Lamin Fofana “Africans Are Real (feat. Matt Shadetek)”

The elusive producer known as Lamin Fofana is set to release his latest EP, Africans Are Real, via Brooklyn-based label Dutty Artz. The record’s title track boasts a sub-driven, half-time grime beat flanked by a wealth of eclectic percussion, trancey synths, and a mysterious piano outro, and features Dutty Artz co-founder Matt Shadetek. “Africans Are Real” will be paired with remixes from South Africa’s Spoek Mathambo, DJ /rupture, and Chief Boima, as well as another original production from Fofana, when the tunesmith’s new EP drops on October 2.

Africans Are Real (feat. Matt Shadetek)

Kid Koala 12 Bit Blues

Owning an E-mu SP-1200 sampler/drum machine was Canadian turntablist Kid Koala‘s teenage dream. Released in 1987, just a year before Koala (a.k.a. Eric San) started DJing, the SP-1200 pretty much defined the sound of hip-hop’s golden age. Everyone from Public Enemy to Gang Starr to the Beastie Boys expertly deployed beats crafted on the machine, making the SP-1200 San’s ideal sonic weapon. But at around $5,000, San was totally priced out of owning one himself, and he was forced to shelve his dream of working with it for many years to come. 12 Bit Blues, his fourth solo LP, is the sound of that dream becoming a reality.

Only recently, more than two decades after he got into DJing, was Kid Koala finally able to obtain the mythical machine. Still thrilled by its gritty, 12-bit sound, San decided to create his new album around the SP-1200, working with its limitations—such as only having slightly more than 10 seconds of sampling time—to produce something of a tribute to the famed device, an aptly titled patchwork of stripped-down vintage blues samples and classic Koala scratching.

Split between heartbreaking slow burners and funky, uptempo party tunes, it’s an odd mix of beats and tones. San doesn’t dwell on any one sound for too long; as soon as you think you catch a few lines from a B.B. King song, they’re gone, and it’s on to the next cameo from a blues master. The sheer technical skill behind 12 Bit Blues is impressive, too. No sequencer was used—the entire thing was recorded in real time with pads and a multi-track, leaving San to juggle a huge amount of source material with his own added beats and cuts. He does so with great sensitivity to the music he’s drawing from—it’s almost exclusively slices of old blues giants, though there are old airplane announcements and other odd clips throughout—but still manages to make new sounds that are distinctly his own, marked by tasteful scratching and clever juxtapositions. Even more impressive, the whole record was in the can after only three days.

That said, the album has a couple of issues. The vocal stutter and echoes on “7 Bit Blues” are irritating, with little to no payoff for sitting through the song. “10 Bit Blues,” a hodgepodge of awkward conversation clips, isn’t in itself problematic, but it’s a bit out of place sandwiched between warbling instrumental “9 Bit Blues” and dizzying piano piece “11 Bit Blues.” On the whole though, 12 Bit Blues is an enjoyable record and an exciting addition to Kid Koala’s catalog.

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