East London producer Night Owl has a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks, with a release set to drop on October 8 courtesy of Parisian imprint Overcooked and an enviable slot at this week’s Outlook Festival. But ahead of these two events, the tunesmith has sent over the percussive and haunting “Glove Box.” The track’s intense and fast-paced rhythms are helmed by layers of loud kicks, random ticks, and barrages of hi-hats. Although the soundscape is dominated by the percussion, the bursts of eerie synths and the ominous bassline do more than their part to ready Night Owl’s cut for a sweaty dancefloor.
San Francisco-based sound sculptor Christopher Willits has launched a new video series to give listeners a glance at the creative processes behind the multi-instrumentalist’s music and art. With CREATE’s first episode, Willits shares some of the technical and philosophical aspects that went into “Completion,” a track off his recent collaborative LP with the renowned pianist Ryuchi Sakamoto, Ancient Futures. In this seven-minute video, we’re able to see a breakdown of the production’s Ableton session all while the longstanding Ghostly artist discusses the different roles each musician played and the many decisions that go into an ocean-crossing collaboration of this nature.
Tales from the Darkside is a forthcoming 12-track compilation that features an array of producers from across the ever-widening UK bass spectrum and will arrive this Halloween via Unknown to the Unknown. The collection is said to offer some of “the most demented darkside bangers you can shake your wand at” from the likes of bassline stalwart DJ Q, garage veteran DJ Narrows, and label head DJ Haus (also of Hot City), as well as newcomers like Lokiboi, Logos, and Mista Men, among many others. Today, we have a clip of DJ Q’s contribution to Tales from the Darkside, “More Than You,” and more snippets from the forthcoming record are said to be on their way in the weeks ahead. You can check out that tune, along with the compilation’s full tracklist, below.
1. Logos – Devils 2. Detboi & DJ Haus – Nightbreed 3. South Yorks Militia – Short Back & Sides 4. DJ Narrows – Android 5. TOYC – Levy 6. Lokiboi – Pump It 7. DJ Q – More Than You 8. Mista Men – Relentless 9. Checan – Killer Bee 10. Logos – Devils [Palace Remix] 11. DJ Haus & Matrixxman – Tales From The Darkside 12. Digital Bonus DJ Narrows – UFO
Glasgow-based electronic outpost Phuturelabs has announced that it will soon unleash its next record, an EP from Glasgow-via-Troon transplant Cruffy. The imprint has sent over “The Gimlet”—a song that revels in bright-eyed production, rounded and flickering chords, and muffled diva vocals—ahead of the Flying High EP’s September 23 street date. After a minute-long introduction populated by shimmering synth stabs, the beat finally drops, but only in increments of descending bass tones that seem to shimmy down into the deeper recesses of Cruffy’s tune. And if “The Gimlet” does the trick for you, make sure to check out the rest of the tunesmith’s Flying High EP, after the jump.
Rising UK producer Rob McAndrews (a.k.a Airhead) is a musician of unquestionable ambition. His R&S debut—the doubleheader of “Wait” b/w “South Congress,” released back in March—saw McAndrews assimilating a brain-achingly broad spectrum of influences, blending scattershot post-dubstep beats, fey indie guitar lines, post-rock builds and an erratically sliced Karen O vocal to ends that were unique, ambitious and, ultimately, opinion dividing. This follow-up 12″ however, largely ditches those ties to indie rock, dragging things back in the direction of the dancefloor, albeit in an equally eclectic and sprawling manner.
A-side cut “Pyramid Lake” instantly finds McAndrews in more straightforward rhythmic territory; where past releases have often shown a penchant for ambient breaks filled with little more than long tails of reverb, here the track hangs on to a juddering shaker and hi-hat backbone. The acoustic guitar chords of “Wait” are replaced by dub-like drum breaks, pitchy synth jabs, and vocal syllables vaguely reminiscent of “Pembroke,” his underrated collaboration with a then barely known James Blake. The whole thing builds towards a surprisingly aggressive percussive crescendo that could be snatched out of some classic grime instrumental—it’s still hardly a conventional song structure, but the rise in energy is enough to do away with the feeling of aimlessness that some disliked about “Wait.”
It’s “Black Ink,” however, that proves to be the choice cut here. It’s a rolling, off-kilter percussive number, aligned to the kind of forward-looking dance music that Hessle Audio trades in; the track is fixed around heavily swung rhythmic noises, an addictive descending bassline, and occasional blasts of synth noise, before eventually unfolding into a wash of melodic pads. It’s a culmination of all the promise McAndrews has shown to date, a production that’s at once intricate and hard hitting (as the artist himself demonstrated to devastating effect with its use in his excellent Resident Advisor mix earlier this year), staying true to his love of all-over-the-place eclecticism while remaining repetitive enough to be remarkably catchy.
Charting Airhead’s musical output in 2012 can occasionally feel like mentoring an extremely gifted, yet intermittently troublesome teenager; there’s no doubt that McAndrews is one of the most technically skilled, idea-laden producers emerging from the UK right now, and when he’s on the money—as he is here—he can produce remarkably good, and unique, results. But his work occasionally verges into the realm of being difficult, showy, and eclectic for the sake of it. This release points towards a higher level of compositional maturity though. It looks like McAndrews is beginning to focus his plethora of influences into a more clearly defined identity, and it’s one that suits him nicely.
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Emotion II Emotion released a new video for the single “Night & Day,” featuring Ryann who plays two parts: a slick diva of the night and a light, wild-haired songstress of the day. With its high-contrast black-and-white aesthetic and dramatic personalities, the clip reminds us of Madonna’s iconic “Vogue” video. To be sure, Ryann enjoys a slice of cake in “Night & Day,” after which the two opposing starlets swap lipstick colors and worlds. The song is taken from the recent compilation released via Ecstasy, the label spurred by Portland house revivalists The Miracles Club. Emotion II Emotion will release its first 12″ next month through French house label Wax Classic (hear clips of that record here).
“I want it to just be over,” says Holy Other. The shadowy UK artist is referring the mystery surrounding his true identity, which he has somehow managed to keep secret. It hasn’t been an easy task, especially once last year’s With U EP was met with resounding acclaim. (For those keeping score at home, XLR8R tabbed it as the Best Release of 2011.) This week, he’s followed it up with another impressive effort for the Tri Angle imprint, Held, his debut full-length. Once again showcasing his ability to combine dark, lurching melodies with affecting pitched vocal snippets and hip-hop-flavored percussion, the record is already garnering its share of accolades. This flash of attention will only intensify as he embarks on heavy touring schedule in the months ahead, all but ensuring that Holy Other’s days as an anonymous beatmaker are numbered… and he knows it.
“It’s kind of a distraction now,” he says of the constant questions surrounding his identity. “It’s also pretty untenable for the future. It’s really difficult to take something on the road and be touring, and be this anonymous, elusive person when you’re present.” In fairness, although Holy Other’s efforts to separate his identity from his art may seem like some kind of postmodern gimmick, his decision to do so actually stems from a much simpler fact: he’s shy. “I really didn’t want people to see a panicking expression,” he says. “It’s kind of off-putting for people to see someone sweating over their equipment and looking really frightened.” As such, he’s always performed with a black hood, in an effort to create a live-performance scenario for himself that feels safe. He explains, “Right now, it’s kind of like performing in my bedroom, with a little bit of crowd noise.”
Interestingly enough, it seems that the best way for Holy Other to deflate the interest in his identity is to simply reveal himself. “It’s about time to give up on the anonymity aspect of things,” he laments. “[It’s] sad, but it’s just become too difficult.” That said, he’s not looking to build anticipation for some kind of highly publicized unveiling. “I just don’t want to make an event out of it,” he says emphatically. Instead, Holy Other simply plans to start performing without the hood, a relatively small change he plans to enact with little fanfare. “I just feel like I have to do it,” he says. “I just have to get it out of the way and get used to it.” He adds, “Hopefully, if I just stop doing it now, then there won’t be that much of an issue.”
Clearly, Holy Other isn’t an artist who seeks the limelight. When asked to describe his ideal relationship with his audience, he says, “The least hands on possible. I want the music to be read and interpreted, rather than there being some sort of overarching artist figure.” And even when his music is interpreted, he doesn’t necessarily want to look over what people have to say about it. He explains, “I rarely [read reviews or online comments], only because whenever I stumble across something that’s in any way negative, I freak out.”
With U EP
Luckily for him, negative comments surrounding the music of Holy Other are generally hard to come by. The success of With U was unexpected, even for him. “I had zero expectations with the EP,” he explains. “I just wanted to create a collection of tracks that I was happy with, that I thought flowed well.” Recorded over a long period of time in a variety of different locales, Holy Other had the freedom to truly fine tune With U, not to mention the luxury of creating it in a pressure-free environment. When it came time to make Held, things were different, and Holy Other faced some concrete expectations—including a few of his own—as he began work on his first album. Nevertheless, following what he describes as an initial struggle, he speaks of the LP’s creation process in relatively painless terms, stating that it eventually came together rather quickly. “It wasn’t like I had a massive backlog of demos that I was reworking,” he says. “It was all fresh stuff that I tried to make around the same time.”
A big part of what smoothed the album’s formation was that Holy Other crafted an entire narrative ahead of time. Although he doesn’t want to explicitly spell out what the album is trying to say, he does admit that the Holy Other project has so far been focused on creating what he calls “relationship music,” and that Held is a further exploration of that theme. “The EP is explicitly a breakup record,” he reveals. “It isn’t about the lighter sides of a relationship. The album, on the other hand, is [about] the lighter and the dark sides of a relationship. It’s supposed to be confined, claustrophobic at times, peaceful at times as well.” Granted, plenty of artists are making music about love and relationships, but Holy Other’s planning and preparation for Held sets him apart. “I wasn’t really starting to write the songs with the rhythm in mind, but with the ideas behind the songs in mind,” he says. “I have more of a focus on the track titles, before I start really writing the melodies, which is a reverse way of writing.” In short, the track titles were all decided upon ahead of time and all of them have a definite meaning.
Perhaps it was this intense planning that allowed Holy Other to create what he refers to as an “emotional spread” on Held. Acknowledging that the With U EP was “constantly crushing,” he says that the album, “is mostly about restraint. It does burst over the top at times… but this is a lot more sparse.” Make no mistake, Held is not some kind of radical departure for Holy Other, particularly in terms of its sound palette. That said, it’s peppered with warm tones and tender moments that didn’t appear on With U, and also includes fewer nods to house music. The disappearance of house tropes is especially interesting; when Holy Other spoke with XLR8R last fall, he expressed an interest in exploring clubbier sounds. That desire was genuine, but, as he says, “what in fact happened was kind of the reverse. It became more about how enclosed I felt at the time. I didn’t feel like putting too much house into it and having a dance structure.”
What Held does have, on the other hand, is a more human element, most notably via its vocals. While there may not be anything resembling a traditional pop vocal, Holy Other does assemble a pastiche of pitched voices—both recorded bits of his own and samples of other artists—and occasionally arrange them into meaningful phrases. For instance, “U Now” says “I will only love you,” and “In Difference” is littered with an emotive refrain of “Be my heart.” These lines aren’t coincidental. “When there’s a lyric that I’ve left clear, it is intentional,” he says. “It’s not just a purely aesthetic thing. I feel like it has an importance if I’ve left in a phrase or if I’ve chopped it up to make a phrase.”
Held
Without question, Holy Other is an incredibly thoughtful artist, and so far, his methods have worked out spendidly. Nonetheless, they’re about to be put the the test in a major way. After wrapping up a UK tour this week, he’ll be heading across the Atlantic for his first-ever dates in the US, with the intention of performing them hoodless. For most artists, that alone would be daunting, but Holy Other has compounded the situation by accepting a slot opening for Amon Tobin, who will be trotting out the latest iteration of his ISAM Live show for huge audiences around North America. Holy Other admits that the prospect of performing in front of these large crowds is “terrifying,” but intends to go through with it anyways. Smartly, he’s decided that trying to compete with the absolute spectacle of Amon Tobin’s show would be the wrong way to go. “Obviously, I can’t compete with what’s going on on stage,” he says with a laugh. “That would be totally the wrong approach. I’ve tried to create a restrained show that’s more accessible as well.” After all, he doesn’t want to be the cliché opening act who overstays his welcome. “I’ve been to plenty of shows where I really wanted to see the headliner, and the support I just didn’t want to see,” he says. “I don’t want to make people suffer through my sadness.”
He’s quick to joke about how dark and dire his music is, but Holy Other is honestly rather affable and forthcoming in conversation. He knows that his choice to linger in the background has led to a certain perception about his personality, and it’s not a characterization that he relishes. “I don’t want to [just] be the person on stage, wearing a hood,” he says. “When people say [that I’m] creepy, it’s missing the point of what I intended by it.” He elaborates, “People associate the anonymity with the music, but the music isn’t really about the anonymity. The music is the music. It’s supposed to not be tainted by the fact that there is an artist involved. Ideally, I just don’t want to be there.”
Earlier this summer, London’s Low Line Relay (a.k.a. Leo O’Callaghan) released his In The Gutter EP via 4Lux, and now he has returned with a new track lifted off of his new Fingerprints 12″ for Cambrian Line. Although he’s a London resident, Callaghan’s woozy track “Near” resonates with the elements of the work from certain LA locals—for instance, Teebs and Shlohmo could easily use the florid guitar riff for their own productions. From there, the song breezes into a heavily jazz-influenced, dowtempo medley peppered with a gibberish vocal sample and a walking bassline. The creeping synth melody that hovers in the mix recalls the blissed-out work of artists like Thundercat, perhaps at a slower pace. You can watch a video for “Happiness,” another cut from Low Line Relay’s new EP, after the jump.
Any listener who has seriously followed the morphing spectrum of UK bass over the past several years has likely noticed that LV is one of the scene’s most dependable outfits. True, the London trio’s name may not spread as far and wide as some of its internationally renowned contemporaries, but LV has always been associated with productions of the highest quality, balancing a proclivity for funky-inspired club cuts with a taste for South African house and a continued dedication to vocal collaborations. Last year’s Routes, the group’s debut full-length, was an accomplished gathering of LV’s unique aesthetic alongside vocalist Joshua Idehen, and while Sebenza takes a similar route—tapping a number of South African MCs to add their talents to the effort—the collaborations here largely leave something to be desired. Fortunately, the strengths of LV’s productions buoy Sebenza; even when the vocals fall short, the sonic constructions are still worth being marvelled at.
Between its debut and sophomore albums, LV seems to have shifted its focus slightly when it comes to incorporating vocalists. On Routes, Joshua Idehen‘s voice was treated as another texture—something to be mangled, twisted, and chopped to serve the productions as a whole, while being allowed to take the lead in appropriate pockets. On Sebenza, it seems the opposite is true; a more traditional producer-MC partnership is struck, leaving the rappers consistently at the forefront and being left to run largely untouched through their various hooks and verses. At times, this yields some exemplary results. Early on, Okmalumkoolkat (who first collaborated with the trio on 2010’s “Boomslang” single) strikes gold with “Animal Prints,” a playfully clever lyrical look at both sides of modern excess. Later, Okmalumkoolkat again hits the mark with a rapid-fire flow on “Safe and Sound,” which is preceeded by Capetown pair Ruffest‘s contribution to the similarly strong “Nothing Like.” The duo’s lyrics, while mostly incomprehensible as they alternate between languages, find a way to imbue the tune’s stuttering kicks and bouncing melodies with an enticing glide. Still, there are far more examples where the vocals really add nothing more than an unnecessary layer, and although LV’s continued emphasis on collaboration is admirable, one can’t help but feel that the proliferation of vocals on Sebenza is getting in the way of something greater.
Nevertheless, setting the role of these guest rappers aside for a moment, the underlying tracks on this LP are top notch. The aforementioned “Animal Skins” and “Safe and Sound” show LV at its best, crafting dizzyingly efficient jacks marked by dry percussion and flashes of thick, yet precise, chords and basslines. Even when LV stretches into sparser or slower territory, the trio’s talent still shines through, particularly on the lush, almost syrupy “Spitting Cobra,” the dark and heavy “Work” (which, it should be said, features the record’s most appropriate vocal contribution in the form of one repeated Spoek Mathambo line), and the half-time, G-funk-indebted closer, “Ultando Lwaka.” Through it all, a consistent level of quality is maintained—the drum tones are sharp, the basslines are perfectly weighted, and the chords and melodies are infectious. Furthermore, LV executes it all with the kind of shine and exactness that only veterans can.
Sebeza is definitely not a blemish on LV’s discography, but it also isn’t a high point. While it presents many tracks worth praise, it lacks the masterful touch that made Routes such an instant standout. In the end, the concept of pulling exclusively from South African rappers may have not proven to yield the best results, but with production chops this well honed, it would be hard for LV to create anything that wasn’t at least worth a spin or two.
Following his June release of Work, Live & Sleep in Collapsing Space EP via Planet Mu (check our review, here), Berlin-based producer Kuedo is preparing to hit North America for the first time. The mini-tour starts September 13 at Vancouver’s New Forms Festival, where he’ll play a set alongside bass-music heavyweights Kode9 and Canblaster. Kuedo will go on to play a short series of shows, hitting a few key cities along the way—Calgary, Los Angeles, San Francsico, and Denver—before stopping at Seattle’s Decibel Festival on September 29 and wrapping it all up at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn. You can see the full list of shows below. (via Resident Advisor)
9/13 – New Forms Festival – Vancouver, BC 9/19 – HiFi Club – Calgary, AB 9/20 – Los Globos – Los Angeles, CA 9/21 – 1015 Folsom – San Francsico, CA 9/25 – Cervantes’ Other Side – Denver, CO 9/27 – Decibel Festival – Seattle, WA 9/28 – Glasslands Gallery – Brooklyn, NY
