Podcast 258: Shed

Although we’d like to think that every installment of XLR8R‘s weekly podcast series features an artist whose work is well worth listening to, we do recognize that not every mix we post will qualify for must-listen status with our entire audience. That being said, this week’s podcast comes from Shed (a.k.a. Rene Pawlowitz), and should be considered an exception to the rule. Fresh off the release of his new album, The Killer, the German producer has put together an exclusive mix, the consumption of which should be required for each and every XLR8R reader. Over the past decade, Shed has been fine tuning his dark and dubby sound, perfecting an aesthetic that’s rooted in techno, but also branches into bits of house, garage, and various other facets of the electronic spectrum. Much of this exploratory work has been done via Shed’s litany of pseudonyms, something he was kind enough to break down for us in detail just a few weeks back. It’s a good thing that he did, because while there aren’t any official Shed productions in the podcast tracklisting (save for a single remix), several of his other aliases do make an appearance. Weaving those contributions together with an interesting assortment of rare, early-’90s cuts and a handful of more current offerings, Shed has assembled a potent hour-long mix that largely consists of thundering warehouse techno. Full of sharp, metallic synths and blunt, cavernous beats, the podcast is surprisingly short on nuance and finely detailed minutiae. In truth, it’s a bit relentless, albeit in a way that’s undeniably immersive and hypnotic. It appears that Shed wants our attention, and he’s certainly got it.

01 Ether “Spiritool” (Phono)
02 Bandshell “Rise Em” (Hessle Audio)
03 The Traveller “A100” (Ostgut Ton)
04 Maurizio “Ploy (Strategic Mix)” (Maurizio)
05 Basic Soul Unit “Soulspeak (Shed Remix)” (Dolly)
06 True False “Do While” (If Else)
07 Resistor “#32500432” (Operation Amplified)
08 EQD “#005B” (Equalized)
09 Untold “Caslon” (Hemlock)
10 EQD “#005A” (Equalized)
11 Wax “30303B” (Wax)
12 War Easy Made “#1”
13 Futurhythm “Phuture2” (Tresor)
14 DJ Joost & Flux “Hydr(o)remix” (Phono)
15 Amanda Splitt “Bearing the Sun” (Pimped)

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Blizzardo “You Don’t Know Jack”

Pete Feigenbaum, a former member of Titus Andronicus and current guitarist in the Brooklyn-based “synth-punk” band Dinowalrus, has crafted a few tunes under the moniker Blizzardo, and put them together on a record that dropped today via OurLabel International. “You Don’t Know Jack” is our first taste of the freshly released Challenger EP, a six-minute jaunt of stomping and lighthearted acid house. Blizzardo’s synth cords and effects-laden diva vocals give his tune a retro sensibility, while the wiggling bassline and percussive beat imbue the production with a bubbly sense of fun.

You Don’t Know Jack

Om Unit Aeolian EP

Om Unit‘s first offering of original material to appear this year is—of course—a bit all over the place. Thankfully, his third EP for the Civil Music imprint finds the producer continuing to inject his tracks with a tasteful sense of melody, and despite having a pair of frivolous remixes and a questionable vocal contribution to its name, Aeolian still makes for another solid outing from the London resident.

Since he first began appearing on the production scene, Om Unit has not been an artist easily defined by a single genre, turning in pieces of space-age footwork, funkified beats, and bits of electro-infused bass along the way. Here, the London resident returns with a collection of dense boom-bap that lands somewhere between the G-funk side of the West Coast beat scene and the more dubstep-informed instrumental affairs often crafted by his fellow countrymen. Each song presented on the EP is a full-on production—the stereo field is opened wide and filled with melding layers of glistening synths, watery pads, massive bass, and booming drums. With “Ulysses,” the record begins amidst its deepest cut, burying a skittering beat underneath thick, glowing pads and arpeggiating melodies. In a similar fashion, the record’s other standouts—all instrumental affairs—intertwine vast arrays of synths (some sounding more distant than others) with weighted drum beats and heavy-handed, slightly swung basslines. This aesthetic combines with fellow Brit Kromestar for the buzzing “Lightworkers Call” and gets mixed in with the faintest touches of juke-indebted percussion (and even some echoes of IDM) on the EP’s last original number, “Slowfast Matrix.”

Even considering the aforementioned pair of remixes by Reso and Sweatson Klank (which are not really offensive, just superfluous), the only misstep—and its a pretty big one—on Aeolian is the EP’s sole vocal-adorned offering, “Dark Sunrise.” Enlisting London’s Tamara Blessa, the track’s vocal performance and lyrical content are entirely over-dramatic and the accompanying production follows suit, dipping way too far into lazer-wobble territory. Though it would be unfair to say that Om Unit hadn’t flirted with similarly treacherous sounds before, we would consider “Dark Sunrise” the first real blunder of this proportion to come of it. Still, considering the strength of the other productions Om Unit packs into Aeolian, the song results in no more than a minor blemish on a worthwhile outing that should serve to remind us how lucky we are to have a “skip” feature on all of our modern playback devices.

Owen Howells “The Seen”

The latest effort by Brixton resident and Shades of Grey collective member Owen Howells won’t see a release until August 20, but he has already offered up his original mix of “The Seen.” The title track is the sole original production on Howell’s upcoming record, which includes two remixes of the single by Dexter Kane and Rico Casazza. Clocking in at just over eight minutes in length, “The Seen” takes its time to build up: A full two minutes pass before a rumble of stormy bass enters the mix, and even at its peak, the song remains cooly indifferent, quiet, and altogether collected.

The Seen

Bwana Baby Let Me Finish EP

In some ways, now couldn’t be a better time for Baby Let Me Finish to be released, as the EP carries the tune that likely served as most people’s introduction to Canadian producer Bwana (a.k.a. Nathan Micay). When he first uploaded the title track to Soundcloud in the early summer of 2011, it swiftly generated a considerable amount of blogosphere hype, thanks in part to the then-insatiable thirst for twisted R&B vocal samples, bubbling plinky plonky percussion, and swelling synths in the wake of artists such as Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison. This raised a potential issue for Micay, in that his effort, no matter how moving it was at the time, could be forgotten amongst countless other efforts from his sonic peers as the dance-music zeitgeist trundled blindly along.

For the countless producers choosing to re-contextualise the voices of R&B starlets from not-too-distant memory, it’s often the approach which distinguishes the small number of real artists from the masses churning out derivative, straight-to-YouTube fodder. Without question, Bwana’s particular take on Ciara on “Baby Let Me Finish” is an irresistible cut that seems to indicate that the young producer belongs in the former category. Alongside playfully pitched percussion and rapid-fire rim shots, the chopped vocals comfortably complement the steady rise and fall of the synths in such a way that both the space and energy of the tune doesn’t go underappreciated. A year after its initial emergence, the song has managed not to lose any of its emotion or fun—a testament to Bwana’s songwriting capability. On “Nami Swan,” Micay draws from similar collection of drum samples and synths, but smothers them liberally with reverb and decay to elicit their headphone-friendly richness and depth. Sure, the motifs are essentially the same as the title track, but his spacious approach has created something equally pleasant for a more reclusive environment.

Following such an auspicious a-side, the remixers do well to hold their own. The members of rising London trio Black Orange Juice (which boasts Hyperdub’s Ossie alongside vocalists Paul Black and Tilz) add their own voices to a bouncy house rework of the lead track, infusing some untouched and sweet-sounding contemporary R&B into the mix. 14th, another group from England’s capital, slows “Baby Let Me Finish” to a bumping 111-bpm groove in what proves to be the EP’s biggest and most welcome surprise.

Impressive as the remixes certainly are, it’s ultimately the original which steals the show here. Like fellow Canadians Sibian & Faun achieved with “I’m Sorry,” Micay has confidently underlined the difference between a “track” and a “song” on “Baby Let Me Finish,” its lasting relevance anchored by Bwana’s artistry and craftsmanship.

Picture “Everything Time (Fort Romeau Midnight Dub)”

Picture, the solo project of Sail a Whale member and Swedish resident David Kyhlberg (pictured above), has turned over one of his productions to London’s sensuous analog wizard Fort Romeau (a.k.a. Mike Norris) for a remix. Norris shaped “Everything Time” into a tune that would have fit right into the tracklist on his recent album for the LA-based house outpost 100% Silk by draping it in layers of reverb and pumping a snappy, elastic beat into the mix. Under the thick cords, minuscule blips and bloops bubble up, exhibiting the kind of attention to detail that makes Fort Romeau’s tunes exceptional. Look for Picture’s original version of “Everything Time” on the True EP, which the multi-national Cascine label will release tomorrow.

Everything Time (Fort Romeau’s Midnight Dub)

Video: Reilly Steel “ICU”

San Francisco native Reilly Steel has hooked up with UK label Senseless for his upcoming ICU EP, and recently unveiled a video for the forthcoming record’s title track. The tune matches Sepalcure’s “Pencil Pimp” in pulsing bass, clattering rimshots, and a tempo held together by synth stabs, but the video takes more of an abstract turn. A CGI cityscape metastasizes from the folds of churning imagery and geometric patterns, and, at times, it’s hard to tell exactly what you’re looking at. The track will be made available, along with three other original cuts, when Reilly Steel’s ICU EP drops on August 13.

Orquesta “Joan’s Theme”

Counted among the many artists recently named as participants in this year’s Red Bull Music Academy, Dublin producer Orquesta has shared a new track in order to celebrate the occassion. Originally, “Joan’s Theme” was meant to appear on the album Orquesta is currently working on, but we’re pleased to be able take in the simple guitar plucks, spacious beat work, and subtle field recordings heard on this ode to his friend’s mother now.

Joan’s Theme

Joan’s Theme

Video Premiere: LOL Boys “Changes (feat. Heart Streets)”

LA/Montreal duo LOL Boys seems to take to heart the name of the label which released its solid new Changes EP on this video for the title track, as it features loads of friends of friends of friends (not to mention familiar faces) getting down via webcam to its bubbly and soulful groove. Look on as the likes of Salva, Samo Sound Boy, Groundislava, Kitty Pryde, Andrew Ryce, assorted WEDIDIT Collective heads, Friends of Friends label head Leeor Brown, and many other young and attractive folk have what amounts to a five-minute Google Hangout throughout the colorful and light-hearted clip directed LOL Boys’ own Jerome Potter.

High Five: Oneman

Earlier this month, Rinse FM mainstay Oneman dropped the excellent Fabriclive 64 mix CD, which is just the latest documentation of his widely celebrated skills as a DJ and selector. The London DJ’s eclectic taste has long been one of his biggest strengths, ensuring that his sets always contain a few surprises as he effortlessly moves between garage, grime, dubstep, house, hip-hop, R&B, and whatever other sounds happen to strike his fancy. With such a diverse musical palette to pull from, we knew Oneman would be an excellent candidate to participate in our High Five series, and gave him free reign to select a theme. He certainly didn’t disappoint, selecting five of his favorite “hood” videos. As one might expect, some gritty grime clips make the cut, but Oneman’s also savvy enough to know that the idea of “hood” can mean very different things in different places around the globe.

The Gories “There But for the Grace of God”

This is probably one of the only punk tracks I go back to often, and as much as I really love the track, it’s the video that brings me back. It’s filmed on some Michigan wasteland, the site of what could have been major factory in the motor industry or something. Just three punks playing their music—you can see the depression. Their car (or maybe they walked) obviously couldn’t fit a drum kit [along with] two guitars and three band members; as you can see, the drummer is using overturned cans and bottles as a kit for the video.

M16 Productions “Round Here (Da Estate)”

In about 2001-2003, Channel U on Sky was a new platform for young UK urban artists to get their music heard. This is Moss Side (Manchester) at its grittiest, captured on film. A big community video, it’s like the whole Estate has turned out to be in the clip. I actually think the track is pretty decent; there’s not much to be said for most of the MCs, but Tyler is good. Half the place looks boarded up, real grim. This is a lot grimier than a lot of videos from London [that were coming out] at the same time, and I think they knew that and what they were doing when they made “Round Here.”

Snoop Dogg “My Heat Goes Boom”

This is from 1999, when Snoop was signed to Master P’s No Limit Records, which was a big influence on me growing up—not as much as London pirate radio, but I still found something in it. The video is a ‘night on tour’-style clip shot in Japan, showing them doing everything they normally do, like smoke weed and pose with hoes, but IN JAPAN. It provides insight about what it was like for those guys going over to places like Tokyo in the mid-to-late ’90s. (Another great clip of rappers in Japan is Wu-Tang’s part in The Show, which features Ghostface Killah getting a massage.)

Esco “Practice Hours (Freestyle)”

This is the best piece of the darker side of grime MCing we will ever see or hear, in my opinion. He was a huge talent, part of East London’s Slew Dem Crew, where Tempa T also came from. It’s a great clip—so calm, but deadly. RIP Esco Big Barz.

Southside Allstars “Southside Riddim”

At the time this came out, every side of London had its own local grime track. This was the South’s one. There are loads of shout outs to the various neighbourhoods in the six or seven boroughs of South London; I actually went to school with one of the MCs on this tune (MC Kiss). The beat was by Alias, another South Londoner, who produced classic grime riddims “Warriors” and “Gladiator.” Pure energy!

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