He’d been hinting at it all day yesterday on Twitter, but last night, the next-level space-jazz-hip-hop-fusion producer Flying Lotus shared his third Lovers Melt mix. As the SoCal beatmaker states, Lovers Melt 3 features “some things you know [and] some things you may not.” Whether or not that includes bits and pieces of Steven Ellison’s forthcoming fourth LP, Until the Quiet Comes, we’re not sure, but you can find out for yourself by grabbing this free mix over on Brainfeeder‘s website, here.
One of the heavy hitters in the visual sound editing business, iZotope‘s spectrogram-based audio restoration suite RX has long been aimed at those looking to clean, polish, and otherwise restore audio files. With Iris, the developer has taken this fairly mundane concept and transformed it into a plugin that’s being called a “sampling resynthesizer,” aimed primarily at music makers.
The software visually maps out sounds in three dimensions: The X-axis represents time, the Y-axis represents frequency, and the third, amplitude, is indicated by brightness. Drag in a sample, and Iris automatically detects the pitch and maps it across the keyboard: lower is slower, higher is faster. Unlike standard waveform-style audio editors, however, the Spectral view lets you isolate specific parts of the sound spectrum that you want to hear, achieved with various graphical editing tools.
Though the interface can be somewhat intimidating at first—this is not exactly “pick-up-and-play” software—once you wrap your head around it, editing sounds is a fun, visually-assisted process. The Photoshop-equivalent “magic wand” selection tool can detect harmonic content that’s similar to the current selection, as well as related harmonic overtones with a second click. You can essentially “mask out” aspects of the sound that you don’t like, allowing for an incredible amount of fine-tuning. The potential for personalization and philosophical nuance is compelling: Want to make a drum sound out of a sample of your cat purring, or harmonics out of a sample of your grandfather’s rocking chair? Essentially any sound can be made musical, in any number of different ways.
And then there’s the ability to combine. You can mix four separate channels of your sampled and edited sounds, send the results through a filter, and then apply up to four effects (distortion, chorus, delay, and reverb) to the signal. Each of the sample slots has standard ADSR envelope and knobs that control tune, gain, and pan, and each sample also has its own LFO (with various waveforms to choose from). It’s a unique process, and once you get familiar with it, the sound sculpting possibilities are endless. Iris comes with a 4 GB sample and patch library, ranging from crazy experimental samples to layered acoustic instruments. iZotope has two additional libraries available as well (wood and glass), and you get those at a discount if you buy them bundled with the software.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Iris is the sort of deep dive that requires a bit of hands-on time to be understood. Though the interface is fairly intuitive and the built-in tutorial useful, it will still take plenty of experimentation (read: trial and error) in the spectrogram to fully come to terms with what it has to offer. If that sort of experimentation sounds appealing, it’s a fantastic way to explore the outer realms of sound design.
MSRP: $249 / $299 w/ glass and wood libraries
On August 13, Houston-based label Freshmore’s catalog will reach 10 offerings with the release of Cosmic Revenge‘s Crystal Skies. The record, which also features b-side “Here With Me,” boasts a slew of remixes by a list of up-and-comers that includes Texan producer Arms & Suites, who won us over with his 2010 track “Brainwash.” Now, following up his most recent offering for Freshmore alongside DJ Yayyay and Droplette, last year’s “Microchips” single, Arms & Suites is back to give “Here With Me” a treatment that encases its skittering rhythms in an even thicker shell of glacial synths than before. Once you get your fill of this version, you can preview the rest of Cosmic Revenge’s Crystal Skies, after the jump.
Flying Lotus once said that Brainfeeder is the sound of the seeker—the sound of someone trying to understand the universe through music, always on the hunt for something higher. That’s why there could be no other home for Raw Money Raps, the debut full-length from Jeremiah Jae and an effort in which he explores his own complex existence with the kind of honesty and mysticism common to all of the label’s signees.
The Chicago-born producer/MC/artist/healer is by no means a stranger to the Brainfeeder family; Jae’s orbited around the vibrant LA beat scene for ages. After meeting FlyLo online five years ago, he decamped to the West Coast for a good six months and soaked up the mind-expanding sounds emanating from the venerable imprint. Soon he got signed, and after exploring soundscapes around the globe with labelmate Teebs, Jae finally abandoned Chi-town to make weird art-rap in LA full time.
Floating somewhere between dreams and reality, Raw Money Raps is a journey through the vast expanses of Jae’s kaleidoscope mind. “In the waking life you are struggling trying to make money, or are pressured by gang activity, or a job,” Jae told Resident Advisor last year. “The dream you is living in an obscure zone, where fragments of reality are met with infinite possibility.”
There’s a lot going on in there—you’ll find the kind of abstract musings on freedom, motivation, and desire that ripped through Shabazz Palaces’ 2011 masterpiece Black Up. At times, Jae sounds remarkably similar to Ishmael Butler, mimicking his calm, cool, “I’ve seen it all” demeanor and channeling his sense of ease with the universe. Spaced-out beats drive lead single “Money,” a conscientious reflection on the material world. Jae mocks Top-40 rap with his most radio-friendly track to date, “Money and Food.” (“What y’all wanna do?/Wanna be rappers?/Put ’em in that mag, ’cause the only way to do it is to turn up the swagger/Then you get some haters and you ask ’em why they mad for.”) Jae’s compositions become increasingly dream-like, comfortably settling into the semi-conscious realm before eventually delving deeper into something of a nightmare. Warped vocal samples on “Wires” go from strange to creepy in mere seconds, while a suffocating paranoia fills “False Eyes.” Closer “Cable” recalls the unsettling happy horror of the Hausu soundtrack.
Raw Money Raps is fascinating and inventive, though not the game-changer many were hoping for. There are a handful of undeniably awkward moments. Jae’s not a seasoned rapper; he used to hate his own voice, and those old insecurities resurface on songs like “Hercules Versus the Commune,” where his vocals are masked by heavy distortion. Alternately, some of the more soulful, psychedelic elements on “Cat Fight” cut a little too close to Madlib’s storied back catalog. And with 19 tracks, the album starts to feel a little repetitive. But Jae’s so young, barely out of college—maybe his best is yet to come.
Strikingly similar to the video we posted from Russian producer 813 yesterday, this piece for Slackk‘s “Blue Sleet” presents a sleek, futuristic aircraft traversing all manners of CGI-rendered terrain as the synth-heavy tune plays on. Though, instead of looking like it’s flying through the inside of an Atari, the UFO takes over a number of mountains, cities, and bodies of water across the span of five minutes, a fine visual accompaniment for Slackk’s shimmering cut—taken from the Raw Missions EP for Local Action—by BAFTA-winning director Natalia Stuyk.
Disco Bloodbath, a monthly party known across London for its blend of disco, house, and techno, now has its own label, which released its inaugural record, Damon Martin’s housey “That Ain’t Right” single, earlier this month. Now, the label’s gearing up to drop the second record in its catalog, the Gone Ghost EP by the duo of Ben Pistor (one of the owners of Disco Bloodbath) and Sam Watts (a.k.a. Maxxi Soundsystem), who together form Hand Plant. Though the record won’t be out until August 8 on vinyl (fans who want the digital format will have to wait until August 21), you can whet your appetite by checking out one of the EP’s tunes. “Arpy” features none of the arpeggio-laden stylings its name might lead you to expect; instead, Hand Plant greets listeners with a stomping 4/4 beat and some downright sinister synth stabs.
Los Angeles producer Steve Huerta‘s Take Me Closer EP will be coming out on July 31 via Amadeus, and includes a remix of the title track by another SoCal producer, Urulu (pictured above). The tunesmith offers an ethereal version of the song, with layers of synths that drone on and build for measures. The tweaked, reverb-drenched lyric “closer baby” loops throughout, and is complemented by widescreen instrumentals that shape the song and imbue its catchy rhythm, a groove which is commandeered by the steady claps and drum patterns and topped off with a moody piano stab that stands out amidst Urulu’s production.
Take Me Closer (Urulus ‘Too Close’ Mix)
The bass-dedicated pair of UK tunesmiths Hot City has announced the imminent arrival of its second EP for the Moshi Moshi label, the Buggin’ Out EP. The four-track record is scheduled for release on August 6, and will feature two originals from the duo, a solo tune from DJ Haus, and a remix of lead cut and title track “Buggin’ Out” by DJ Haus’ Unknown to the Unknown moniker (named after his pretty excellent label, of course). You can check out the tracklist (below) and artwork (above) for Hot City’s new EP, as well as stream “Buggin’ Out” (also below), while you wait for it to drop.
1. Buggin’ Out
2. Hand Clap (feat. Jon-E)
3. You & Me 4 Eva (DJ Haus)
4. Buggin’ Out (Unknown To The Unknown Remix)
Preceding his set at We Love in Ibiza this Sunday, Canadian-German producer The Mole has some big news: He’s got a new single coming out soon, and he’ll be releasing it via his brand-new label, Maybe Tomorrow. The Mole, who released his single “Love Is the Way” earlier this year, says that the label came about as a result of a partnership with Kompakt’s Jon Berry, and that he hopes it will serve as a way to centralize his output. The inaugural release, a 12″ titled If I Had a Nickel, is slated for release on September 3, but for now, you can check out the title track as well the record’s cover art and tracklist below.
A1 “Stupid Famous”
A2 “If I Had A Nickel”
A3 “Waxman And The Sunchild”
B1 “Spaceballhaus1”
B2 “I Twist You Turn”
B3 “Shifter”
The best way to describe this strange clip from UK producer Ikonika is “silly,” and if the suppressed smirk that appears on her face is any indication, she’ll probably agree with you. “Take Pictures” is lifted from the bass-leaning artist’s recently released I Make Lists EP, and is paired here with some non-sensical visuals—like, say, plugging cables into vegetables, cooking cut up wires, and dancers clad in 16th century English garb—courtesy of director Clean Bandit. We’re not entirely sure what to make of it, but we suspect the video’s creators are likely in the same boat. (via Resident Advisor)
