Hackman and Bluto “What Matters”

We’re now just about halfway through 2012 and there is still no sign of Hackman‘s debut LP (a release we were told was “forthcoming” as early as September of last year). Fortunately, the UK tunesmith has not vanished, issuing his second collaborative work of the past three months with a single for the newly minted Deadplate imprint, an effort featuring production assistance from London newcomer Bluto.

“What Matters” is clearly a tune made for summer. Laced with cool, calm marimba chords and a rounded bassline that moves along in perfect synchronization, the track patiently rolls along—it’s one of the mellowest 130-plus bpm house songs you’re likely to hear this season. The chord progression is classic Hackman—part UK-house, part Jamie xx, incredibly anthemic, and somehow almost uplifting. As to be expected, every kick, snare, and piece of percussion is in its right place, occasionally skittering or rolling to move to the next section or gradually notch up the energy level. And yes, there’s a vocal, but it’s completely superfluous, merely there to signify a certain place in the song or occasionally pop through the sweet mass of chords. If it was just for the aforementioned elements, this track would feel a little too calculated. Sure, the progression is nice and “What Matters” moves with a familiar flow, but really there’s nothing particularly jaw-dropping about it. Still, Hackman and Bluto do manage to lace the track with one unexpected element—a tribal flute sample that is pitched, warped, and layered to add just the right touch of unexpected movement. The breathy sample floats atop the progression without really being at the forefront, but because of its unexpected nature and the catchy melodies the producers weave with it, the flute serves as the most distinct characteristic of “What Matters” and helps prevent the song from simply fading away into the ever-growing pool of summer-minded UK house tracks.

Rising Londoner James Fox is tapped for the remix on the flipside, infusing the song with considerably more shuffle and peeling back its warm, summer vibes for somehing more oriented towards indoor, nightime clubbing. Hackman and Bluto’s chords are cut short in this rework, rendered more as stabs that blast around the beat, with occasional traces of the original’s marimbas affected and delayed in the background. Together, these two tracks make for a pretty versatile 12″, and although neither are likely to make the dancefloor bubble over, they sure aren’t going to scare anyone away either. As far as Hackman’s output goes, we’re happy to keep gobbling up these few singles and EPs as they come up, but we’ve still got our fingers crossed that the man’s debut LP is not too far off.

Lianne La Havas “Is Your Love Big Enough? (Ganggaddy Remix)”

UK singer Lianne La Havas (pictured above) will release her debut LP, Is Your Love Big Enough?, later this summer, and with its imminent arrival, we’ve been treated to a string of high-quality remixes from the likes of Shlohmo and Maya Jane Coles (you can check those out here and here, respectively). The most recent of these offerings comes from the elusive producer Ganggaddy, who reworks the title track of La Havas’ album into a blistering-yet-classy house tune that relies heavily on a vintage Chicago aesthetic to deliver its peak-time adrenaline rush. “Is Your Love Big Enough? (Ganggaddy Remix)” slices up the original’s soulful vocals and repurposes them into a crowd-moving framework, complete with bass-heavy synth stabs and skipping hi-hat patterns—making for another solid showcasing of the UK folk-pop star’s vocal talents.

Is Your Love Big Enough (Ganggaddy r

Review: Traktor Kontrol F1

The line between DJing and live electronic performance has been an increasingly blurry one over the past decade. Native Instruments‘ latest piece of gear expands the company’s highly regarded Traktor DJ system to include a dedicated hardware clip-triggering device, not entirely unlike Ableton Live controllers, such as Novation’s popular Launchpad or the endlessly versatile and ground-breaking Monome grid controller. Fortunately, the F1 differentiates itself in a host of ways.

The first of these ways, as is plain to see from the get-go, is color. The bottom half of the 5″ by 11.5″ F1 houses a grid of 16 MPC-style square sample cue pads, essentially broken into four channels. Every translucent button houses an assignable 16-color (!) LED light, which will almost certainly impress even the most discerning trainspotter. But it’s a functional addition, as well, helping the user classify sample types according to color (i.e. blue for bass, red for drums, etc). The pads also serve as a means of scrolling between sample pages, while four pairs of filter knobs and volume sliders sit atop the box, offering individual control of each column.

Perhaps the best thing about the Kontrol F1 is its smooth integration into the existing Native Instruments ecosystem. If you’re already comfortable with your Traktor S4 or S2 setup (or any of the third-party compatible options), bringing in the F1 is essentially a plug-and-play affair. It’s not quite dead-easy—learning how to integrate all these extra sounds into a DJ set does require a fair amount of practice—but it comes with some 1.4 GB of loops, and incorporating them (or any other samples you have on deck) into your set is as easy as dragging and dropping them into place. In many ways, the F1 helps to bridge the gap between Native Instruments’ own Maschine and Traktor suites, in much the same way as The Bridge brought together Ableton Live and Serato Scratch.

As is the case with Ableton controllers, the F1 pads do indeed launch clips, as well as everything from full tracks to loops and one-shot samples. These triggers act as shortcuts, too, however, with settings like Punch mode, effects assignment, and sample muting. You can also trigger functions like sample size, sync, quantize, and reverse. It can be used like an MPC with more conventional samples, or like Ableton Live’s Session View.

If you’re already invested in Native Instruments’ Traktor ecosystem, the flexibility (and colorful, blinking lights) of the Kontrol F1 will be tough to resist. If you’re a producer or DJ looking to bring more of your own material into your live sets, or just looking for an impressive controller with which to perform live, it’s yet another inspired option in the live electronic music controller universe.

MSRP: $279, Native Instruments

Teengirl Fantasy Announces International Tour

With a forthcoming sophomore LP for True Panther/R&S due later this summer, experimental house duo Teengirl Fantasy is embarking on a tour from Barcelona to Portland, OR throughout July and August. The producers born Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi will take to the road in Europe and North America, hitting such events as T in the Park, Exit Festival, and an R&S showcase with James Blake, Space Dimension Controller, and Lone at Belgium’s Dour Festival. You can check out the full list of dates below.

7/6 Barcelona, ES – Razzmatazz – Sala Lolita #
7/7 Balado, SF – Tea in The Park Festival – Slam Tent ^^
7/13 Dour, BE – Dour Festival – R&S Stage $
7/14 Novi Sad, RS – Exit Festival – R&S Showcase +
7/16 Dublin, IE – Workman’s Club ^
7/19 Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso – Noodlanding
7/20 Berlin, DE – Naherholung Steunchecn – Shameless Limitless
7/28 London, GB – Corsica Studios – Club Motherf*cker Summer Special
8/10 San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge *
8/11 Los Angeles, CA – Los Globos *
8/12 San Diego, CA – The Casbah *
8/17 Vancouver, BC – Waldorf Hotel *
8/18 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios *

# w/ Lemonade
^^ w/ Jack Beats, Crookers
$ w/ Lone, James Blake, SDC
+ w/ Pariah, SDC, The Chain
^ w/ Reid
* w/ Gatekeeper and Thunder Horse

Blänk “Do This Thing (Dubbel Dutch Remix)”

Earlier this week, Sweedish pop outfit Blänk unvieled its latest single, “Do This Thing,” through their own Grind imprint. The song was recorded in Atlanta, and while there, the trio enlisted a couple of Southern producers to help out with remix duties. This one is from Texan bass lover Dubbel Dutch, who alters the sugary single into something more stripped-down and percussive. The original song liberally samples from the chorus of Peter Bjorn & John’s “Nothing to Worry About,” and while Dubbel Dutch leaves much of that intact, he creates an eerie vibe out of the child choir. Missouri’s Norrit also contributed a remix, featuring masterfully chopped vocals and fresh warbling synth tones, which you can stream and download for free, along with the rest of the single, after the jump.

Do This Thing (Dubbel Dutch Remix)

Keith Fullerton Whitman Occlusions

There’s an overarching concept or a carefully prescribed set of parameters for just about everything Keith Fullerton Whitman releases. On Occlusions, the framework turns out to be quite loose—he is to play a digital-analog modular synthesizer for 10 to 30 minutes with no pre-written or pre-recorded parts. Working boisterously within this precarious framework, Occlusions presents a particularly temperamental permutation of Whitman’s shifting, disorienting, and consistently fascinating mode of avant electronics.

Affable academic that he is, Whitman provides an illuminating bit of background for these two pieces in a statement accompanying the record. What we have are two different live “realizations” of “Occlusion,” approximately equal in length at about 18 minutes each. They were self-recorded at two European performances exactly one week apart in early 2012. For these two appearances, he was apparently in two drastically different moods, which viscerally manifest themselves in each performance. “Occlusion (Rue de Bitche),” recorded in Nantes, France, catches him in what he claims was a “mildly inebriated bliss.” His state of consciousness is reflected in the performance’s whimsical air. Beginning with the background sound of audibly French crowd chatter, the music takes off, traversing several nonlinear but continuously engaging minutes of jubilant fits, starts, and brief passages of free jazz-like pandemonium. It builds to a winding, relatively straightforward tick-tock rhythm, which is greeted with whoops from the audience but gets quickly suppressed by a cacophony of colliding synths.

Whitman claims that he meant to avoid any and all “divisible rhythms” in these performances, but he certainly wasn’t ardent about it. There are rhythmic moments that are borderline infectious, but these parts last no more than 10 to 20 seconds before Whitman appears to correct himself. Every time that it feels like matters are about to be resolved, or that a lasting quiet or a structured passage of some kind is about to set in, razor-sharp synthesizers cut through whatever was happening and ensure further disarray.

Disorder is the prevailing tone of the second recording herein, “Occlusion (Weteringschans),” a piece recorded in Amsterdam in the midst of what Whitman describes as an “arbitrarily triggered blind rage.” Beginning with the buzzing intensity of a wind-up alarm clock, this track operates in as freewheeling a mindset as the first track, but takes on a more disquieting, gnarly shape. Other than the instrumentation being used, there is no resemblance to the other performance. This one has more in the way of empty spaces and stark contrasts—the moments of quiet that punctuate the piece make the more severe moments all the more striking.

Occlusions is a companion piece of sorts to Generators, which was released earlier this year through Editions Mego. Occlusions draws from a similar sonic palette, and is driven by the same array of analog and digital synthesizers. However, where Generators was on a more cosmic synth trip in the vein of Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air, this is a more damaged and haphazard set throughout, something fascinating and deeply relistenable.

Anyone who enjoys the comparatively serene and minimal Generators will want to hear the more careening, gritty Occlusions, and vice versa. For those who have never heard Whitman’s music, Occlusions provides a fabulous representation of both his performance instincts and how engaging and fun his music can be.

Gemmy Preps EP for Roska Kicks and Snares

A one-time member of dubstep’s “Purple Trinity” along with Joker and Guido, Bristol native Gemmy is set to drop the Lakota EP via Roska Kicks and Snares next month. Arguably the kingpin of the once-dominant funky house scene in London, Roska’s label has lately dropped material from more unexpected sources, working with grime producer Champion in 2011 and now the colorful, dub-influenced machinations of Gemmel Phillips, whose releases for Planet Mu and the Multiverse stable of imprints helped set off the wave “purple wow” back in 2009. “Lakota,” which was featured on Roska’s Essential Mix a few years ago, is a bright and playful tune with a new twist on the Gemmy sound that boasts a hip-hop/electro-style beat in place of his usual 140 bpm percussion, and is joined by two other original productions and a remix from AC Slater on the EP. Look for that record to drop on July 30, but before then, you can check out its artwork and tracklist, as well as listen to a preview of the title track, below.

1. Lakota

2. Badman Ting
3. We watch the sun rise
4. Lakota (AC Slater Remix)

Brim Liski “Supermassive (CacheFlowe Remix)”

After three years without a release, the elusive multi-continental trio Brim Liski is now set to drop its sophomore EP, The Repetitions (artwork above). The record is said to describe vast intergalactic travel, distant astronomical events, and the universal connection to the human spirit, or, put another way, the cinematic electro-pop sounds something akin to M83 after drinking too much cough syrup. In addition to five original songs, the EP also contains two remixes, including this version of “Supermassive” from Brim Liski’s resident beat designer, CacheFlowe. The remix is club-ready, with a heavy-hitting bass and resonating synthesizer that smoothly glides between notes. The original vocals have been edited to great effect, providing harmonies and texture behind the leading synth tones. The Repetitions comes out on July 23 through Denver-based labels Plastic Sound Supply and Latenight Weeknight.

Supermassive (CacheFlowe remix)

Cosmin TRG “Vertigo” b/w “Sommer”

Over the past five years, Romanian-born, Berlin-based producer Cosmin TRG has been dependingly crafting solid, forward-thinking club music, releasing nothing but quality across a myriad of A-list labels (Hessle, Rush Hour, Hyperdub, Hemlock, Tempa, and more). Despite this, his streak has seemed a little understated; Twitter doesn’t explode when a new Cosmin TRG track gets dropped on Boiler Room or Rinse FM, and the bass-music faithful don’t exactly sing his praises as loud as they do for Blawan and Joy Orbison. In that sense, TRG is something of a producer’s producer, as his loudest praise often comes from his contemporaries—artists who know how prolific and consistent the man has been over the years and how potent his productions can be on the dancefloor. Now, almost a year after his debut LP, Simulat, gave us a wider picture of Cosmin TRG’s talents, he returns to the 50 Weapons label with another solid single.

When TRG was getting started (delivering Hessle Audio’s first release with “Put You Down” b/w “Broken Heart”), bass music wasn’t yet a widely used term and the scene was just coming into its own, putting together pieces of dubstep, house, garage, techno, and more in an exciting new way. Cosmin TRG was at the forefront of that evolution. Recently though, his productions have really only been loosely tied to bass music, moving more and more towards pumping techno and every so often offering a slice of heavy-handed house. Both “Vertigo” and “Sommer” continue in this vein, removing all traces of shuffle or skitter and focusing on crisp, robust drum-machine tones.

The a-side begins with a detailed, textured sequence of alien bells and the granulated sound of some door creaking or a switch being flipped. As kicks and toms begin to build up, a sequence of buzzing, filtered chords trickle in while a number of FX and strange noises float from side to side. From there, TRG essentially lets the machines take over, guiding them to continually more propulsive places and fitting an impressive amount of rich sonic elements into the mix as things move along. It takes a talented producer to make sense of all these pieces, and Cosmin TRG does so with a veteran’s hand, fitting all the rolling snares, frantic claps, bulging bass notes, sequenced chords, and countless other auditory caveats into one massive cohesion of pumping and breathing techno. “Sommer” works in much the same way, but relies on just one sequence, making a rhythmic pattern out of a synth tone that sounds halfway between a sampled chorus of vocals and a space-age organ. Where “Vertigo” moves with the ebbs and flows of a composition, “Sommer” seems a little more raw—as if it was tracked live (especially the drums, which sound like their overall volume is controlled by hand). In that sense, it is a bit more of a tool than it is a full-on track, leaving plenty of space to be combined with other similarly non-key-oriented tunes.

Although Cosmin TRG’s 2011 record had plenty to hold us over, it is certainly nice to have him back, and, as always, showing up in top form. And just to drive home the point that he is one of the hardest-working producers around today, this single also comes with the announcement that the man is currently working on another LP, set to drop sometime next year.

Video: Baio “Sunburn Modern”

Greco-Roman, Joe Goddard‘s underground dance imprint based out of Berlin and London, has been causing a stir recently with a new release from quickly rising duo Disclosure, as well as an EP last month from Vampire Weekend bass player and Bubblin’ Up producer Chris Baio. “Sunburn Modern” is lifted off of Baio’s first solo release, and the accompanying video—directed by Aramique—is a fascinatingly peculiar look at Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood as viewed through the eyes of a walking mannequin. Baio himself makes an appearance as an interested passerby, stopping to lay out with the mannequin as it tries to catch some rays, but ends up with an angular, radioactive sunburn. The driving, smoothly constructed house track nicely encapsulates the vibes of summertime in a tropical location, but as the video shows, is a sweet homage to heat-streaked city living as well.

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