PAN Welcomes Montreal Duo Pelada for Album Debut

Pelada will release their debut album, Movimiento Para Cambio, on Pan in October. 

Vocalist Chris Vargas and producer Tobias Rochman, the Montreal-based duo behind Pelada, have gained international attention through the city’s underground warehouse rave scene. Their only previous release came in 2016, titled No Hay, via Mind Records. 

Movimiento Para Cambio (meaning “movement for change”) uses music to deliver ideas central to the group’s moral and political ethos, and explores themes of power, identity, surveillance, and environmental justice. 

While at times unpredictable, the album said to be “unified in its fast and loose approach.” 

“A Mí Me Juzgan Por Ser Mujer” (meaning “I Am Judged Because I’m a Woman”) is an anti-machista anthem, stylistically nodding to NY house. Though Vargas doesn’t identify as a woman themselves, they “understand their experience as a woman in an imbalanced patriarchal society that excludes women, femmes, and non-binary people,” the label explains. “Habla Tu Verdad” (meaning “Speak Your Truth”) emphasizes the need to overcome the stigma around discussing sexual harassment, while “Asegura” (meaning “Secure”) deals with the unprecedented power of big data. 

These themes are set atop Rochman’s raw mix of rave synths, acid basslines, breakbeats, and dembow rhythms. 

The album is mastered by Jeremy Cox, and features artwork by Johannes Schnatmann and Bill Kouligas. Ahead of its October 4 release, you can stream “Ajetreo” below. 

Tracklisting

01. A Mí Me Juzgan Por Ser Mujer

02. Ajetreo 

03. Habla Tu Verdad

04. Asegura

05. Granadilla

06. Caderona

07. Desatado

08. Perra

09. Aquí

Mathew Jonson Signs to Dekmantel with New Album as Freedom Engine

Mathew Jonson will debut on Dekmantel with A Box Full Of Magic, a new album under his Freedom Engine alias. 

The 11-track album is Jonson’s first solo full-length since 2013’s Her Blurry Pictures for Crosstown Rebels, but he did release a collaborative album as part of Sebastian Mullaert’s Circle Of Live project last year. 

We’re told to expect “a record of mainframe-melting electro, beatless drift, and romping throwbacks to bass innovators like LFO and Dynamix II.” The Dutch label adds that it “attempts to capture dream-like tonalities that can reach poetic heights.”

A Box Full Of Magic LP lands October 7, with clips below. 

Tracklisting

01. Worlds Above

02. The Very Strange

03. The Very Strange Pt. 2

04. Oriental Dragon (w/ Magda)

05. Shinkansen

06. Space Time Continuum

07. Attack Of The Omnibots

08. An Evil Charm (Where Is The Forest)

09. A Box Full Of Magic

10. Computerized

11. A Sunrise On The Front

RVNG Intl.’s Freedom To Spend to Repress Ernest Hood’s 1975 ‘Neighborhoods’ LP

Up next on RVNG Intl.‘s Freedom To Spend sub-label is a repress of Ernest Hood’s Neighborhoods. 

Sprawling through a haze of zither, synthesizer melodies, and foraged pedestrian sound, Neighborhoods is both a score and documentary composed by Hood to offer, in his words, “joy in reminiscence.” It was privately pressed by the physically impaired audio cartographer in Portland, Oregon in 1975.

Born into a musical lineage, Hood’s promising career as a guitarist in a globe-trotting jazz outfit was cut short when he contracted polio in his late 20s. After moving from guitar to less physically-demanding stringed instruments in the late 1940s, he began implementing field recordings in his jazz ensemble collaborations as early as 1956. In 1961, when collaborating with trumpeter Jim Smith on a local Portland television program, Hood incorporated his own field-recorded sounds of birds.

Similar techniques are used on Neighborhoods. Across the album, Hood broadcasts melodies and sounds from his beloved Portland surroundings to transport listeners to the story’s scene, and augments them with a blend of melodies reminiscent of golden age cinema soundtracks.

RVNG Intl. worked with Hood’s surviving family to locate the original album reels and recount the story behind this singular recording. The new edition reproduces Hood’s celebratory liner notes in full, alongside new liner notes by Michael Klausman. It’s described as “a beautiful document of a time and place made for and from another time and place.”

Freedom To Spend is the brainchild of former Yellow Swans member turned experimental producer Pete Swanson and Jed Bindeman of Portland’s Little Axe record shop. It focuses on reissues, and is “concerned with autonomous anomalies produced by musicians working within and outside the limits of technology to create intimate art.” After a brief run in the late ’00s, it resurfaced in 2017 with reissues of Michele Mercure and Marc Barreca.

Neighborhoods LP is out October 11, with first single “Night Games,” set to archival ’70s footage of Portland during Hood’s time there, streaming below.

Tracklisting

01. Saturday Morning Doze

02. At The Store

03. August Haze

04. The Secret Place

05. After School

06. Gloaming

07. From The Bluff

08. Night Games

Japanese Ambient Maestro Chihei Hatakeyama Returns to Room 40 for New Album

Next on Lawrence English‘s Room 40 is Tokyo ambient maestro Chihei Hatakeyama with Forgotten Hill, a record about the “melting of time.” 

Over nine tracks, Hatakeyama creates an impressionist meditation on his journey through the Asuka region of Japan, which hosted the nation’s capital from the sixth to seventh centuries. Today, it is an unpopular rice-drenched rural area, and, although there are few tourists compared to Kyoto and the northern part of Nara, the region still draws people because of its burial mounds, known as “Kofun,” epic Buddhist monuments, and quietly poetic landscapes. “This album draws all of its inspiration from this trip,” he explains. “The experiences I had on this journey were used as compositional guides to compile the sonic impressions I experienced during this time.” 

Hatakeyama, born in 1978, has performed for years under his given name and also as one half of the electro-acoustic duo Opitope, along with Tomoyoshi Date. He became involved in playing music through strumming a guitar in a few rock-oriented bands in his teenage years, but his laptop soon superseded his bands as his main platform. His first album, Minima Moralia, was commissioned for release by Kranky in early 2006, and he’s since released long-players on White Paddy Mountain and Room 40, where he put out Mirage in 2017. 

“This is a record about time, about losing direction in time and wondering where it is exactly the past, the present and the future might meet, and under what circumstances this might happen.” — Chihei Hatakeyama 

Forgotten Hill LP lands September 20. 

Tracklisting

01. Forgotten hill 4:01 

02. Cherry blossom petals fall like heavy snow 5:22 

03. Falling star 4:07 

04. Sleeping queen 4:53 

05. The constellation space 4:18 

06. Staring at the mountain 2:24 

07. Buddha statue without roof 3:41 

08. The big stone tomb 3:39 

09. Fugitive from wisteria filed

Podcast 605: FD

Freddie Dixon—or FD, as he’s more commonly known—began making music in the late ’90s alongside Nick Douwma, better known as Sub Focus. “He did all the work and I shouted ideas at him,” he recalls.

This was enough to ignite a fire inside, and, after buying his own setup in 2005, he invested all his time in refining his methods. Upon returning to London from Surrey University in 2006, he started a night called Medium with friends Sigha and Tasha at Shoreditch’s legendary Plastic People. “We were some of the first people to ever put on drum & bass there,” Dixon recalls. Among the headliners were Ostgut Ton’s Martyn, Ben UFO, and Marcus Intalex before be became Trevino, plus Dixon’s drum & bass favorites, including D Bridge and Danny Breaks.

It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that Dixon dared to actually release his own music, connecting with Critical Recordings for 2010’s Canopy/Remorse. He’s since put out crisp tracks on labels like Soul:R, Spearhead, Sun and Bass, and Metalheadz, establishing himself as a flag-bearer for the so-called “liquid” sound but keeping himself away from the spotlight. “I’ve just always been much more drawn to the underground and the music that that kind of environment seems to be conducive to drawing out of its creators,” he explains.

Then, earlier this year, after joining Lenzman’s The North Quarter with 2017’s Alone With Everybody, he returned to the label with Better Days, his highly-sought-after debut album. Drawing on the nostalgia of his London youth, the UK producer, now based in Switzerland, delivered 16 tracks of jungle, techno, 2-step, techno-influenced breakbeat, and soulful drum & bass in his inimitable style.

His XLR8R podcast, which has been in the works for some time, continues with this nostalgic tone, and aims to capture the full range of drum & bass, both classic and contemporary. It opens with tracks from Lee Gamble, Shed, and Joe, techno inspired by drum & bass, before venturing into the latter around the 10-minute mark. “I really felt like I wanted to show the XLR8R readers some of the incredible music and the range that drum & bass has to offer,” he says. “For me, this is one of the main reasons why I think I’ve stayed so in love with the music for so long; it has an amazing ability to include so many different influences and encompass such a broad range of emotions.”

What have you been up to recently? 

I’ve just finished and released my debut album actually, Better Days. It was something I’ve been waiting for, and wanting to do for quite a while, but I was waiting for what really felt like the right time and place.

How did you find your way into music? 

To take it right back to the start, through my parents; music has always played a very important role in their lives and so that rubbed off on me. I was then always very passionate about music from an early age, and when I found drum & bass and jungle when I was 16, I very quickly decided I wanted to DJ it, which then morphed into promoting it and producing it. Since then, it’s been what I spend almost all of time doing and working on.

What are your wider goals with music?

I guess I want to be able to make a valuable and valued contribution to something that has always been so important to me and bought me so much joy and happiness. I also want to be a part of something that I feel is so important to me and help that not only survive but flourish—both for myself and also for the community as a whole, as I know what this can give a person, as I myself have felt it for such a huge part of my life.

Where was this particular mix recorded?

This was recorded at my studio in Zürich.

How did you choose the tracks that you included?

When I started to think about this mix, I really felt like I wanted to show the XLR8R readers some of the incredible music and the range that drum & bass has to offer. For me, this is one of the main reasons why I think I’ve stayed so in love with the music for so long; it has an amazing ability to include so many different influences and encompass such a broad range of emotions. I decided that I wanted to pick a wide range of tracks in terms of where they come from and also the vibes they have; so the tracks are a mix of some of my favorite older cuts, along with some from the more “modern” era. I also wanted to open the mix with some tracks that really borrow their aesthetic from drum & bass, as I thought this could be a nice way to introduce the styles that would follow and show how many people are often influenced by drum & bass.

Where do you envisage it being listened to?

I always like the idea of people checking mixes in their car, windows open or top down, blasting it out as they’re enjoying it so much and want to “share” it too! Otherwise, anywhere where they have a good system with proper speakers: a full range with good bottom end is essential.

How does the podcast compare to one of your club sets?

This is quite representative of how I play a club set overall in terms of vibe and feel. However, usually in a club set, I would play a much higher percentage of new and unreleased music as I feel it’s often the job of a DJ to show the crowd music they might not know and wouldn’t have had the chance to hear before. I love to play older tracks too though as drum & bass has quite an amazing history by now, with a huge raft of old tunes that people might not have heard. But in terms of vibe, I love to mix it up in my sets, touch quite a few different bases, but try and keep a thread and narrative between it all.

What’s next on the horizon, looking forward?

I’m back in the studio working on new music. I’ve had a little while since the album was finished and so I’m looking forward to composing more. I’ve been looking at a few different avenues of how I could change up my workflow for the next batch of tracks in case this could help me bring a bit of a different approach to the table; however, I also want to balance this with my existing methods and find a kind of hybrid between the two. I’m also reading a lot in terms of production techniques and workflow approaches; I want to keep developing my skills and see what new ideas and methods I can bring into my music, and how this might affect it.

XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to download the podcast you will need to subscribe to our Select channel. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.

Tracklisting

01. FD “Wrapped Together” (Interlude) (The North Quarter)

02. Joe “MPH” (Hessle Audio)

03. Lee Gamble “Rufige” (PAN)

04. Shed “Ostrich-Mountain-Square” (Ostgut Ton)

05. Special Request “Capsules” (Lee Gamble Full Length Remix) (Houndstooth)

06. FD “Left You Once Before” (The North Quarter)

07. FD “Left You Once Before” (Prelude) (The North Quarter)

08. Rezzett “Worst Ever Contender” (The Trilogy Tapes)

09. Source Direct “Secret Liaisons” (Good Looking Records)

10. Chameleon “Links” (Good Looking Records)

11. DJ Crystl “Warp Drive” (Dee Jay Recordings)

12. Da Intalex “I Like It” (Remix) (Intalex)

13. Moresounds x Fracture “Dead & Bury” (Astrophonica)

14. Chimpo “Frontline”ft. Fox (Calibre Remix) (Soul:R)

15. Cybotron feat. Dillinja “Threshold” (Prototype Recordings)

16. Photek “The Lightning” (Digital Remix) (Science)

17. FD “Deadly Styles” (The North Quarter)

18. Jonny L vs. Instra:Mental “Output 1-2” (Darkestral)

19. Forest Drive West “Never For Tomorrow” (Rupture London)

20. Matrix “Mute” (Prototype Recordings)

21. Unknown “Stoneface” (Stereocilia)

22. Boymerang “Still” (Prototype Recordings)

23. FD “Timberline” (Dub)

24. Digital “Spacefunk” (Timeless Recordings)

25. Marcus Intalex & ST Files “Lose Control” (Metalheadz)

26. London Elektricity vs. Robert Owens “My Dreams” (Total Science Remix) (Hospital Records)

27. Redeyes “The Rhythm” (The North Quarter)

28. Calibre “Smother” ft. Marcus Intalex & Bricktop (Soul:R)

29. Total Science “Not Again” (CIA Records)

30. Calibre “Train Version” (Creative Source)

31. Break “Overdub” (Symmetry Recordings)

32. DJ Die “Play It For Me” (V Recordings)

33. FD “Top2Bottom (Roller)” (The North Quarter)

Nils Frahm Combines Three EPs into New Album

Nils Frahm will release his new album, All Encores, via Erased Tapes, made up of three EPs: Encores 1, Encores 2, and Encores 3. 

On the heels of his 2018 All Melody LP, Frahm released two EPs featuring tracks that didn’t quite make the album cut. Encores 1 focused on an acoustic pallet of sounds with solo piano and harmonium at the core, and Encores 2 explored more ambient landscapes. He’s now announced the third instalment, Encores 3, featuring the song “All Armed.” The EP will be available on September 20. 

Erased Tapes will then release a collection of all three of the Encores EPs on one comprehensive album entitled All Encores, which will be out October 18. 

Frahm explains: “The idea behind All Encores is one we had from before All Melody; to separate releases each with their own distinct musical style and theme, perhaps even as a triple album. But All Melody became larger than itself and took over any initial concepts. I think the idea of All Encores is like musical islands that compliment All Melody.”

Encores 3 EP lands September 20, with All Encores LP following on October 18. Meanwhile, you can stream “All Armed” from the new EP below. 

Album Tracklisting

01. The Roughest Trade

02. Ringing

03. To Thomas

04. The Dane

05. Harmonium In The Wall

06. Sweet Little Lies

07. A Walking Embrace

08. Talisman

09. Spells

10. Artificially Intelligent

11. All Armed

12. Amirador

Will Saul Returns with First Album in 13 Years

Will Saul will return to the production fold with his new album, Open Too Close, out next month via Aus Music. 

Open Too Close is the UK artist’s first full-length in 13 years, and is described as a condensed trip through the influences, discovery, and sense of history that have helped shape his career. It’s said to eschew the expectations for a dance artist to create an album “that sounds good at home, as well as in the club,” and instead draws on the timeless futurism at the heart of the music that first drew Saul into electronic music culture. 

“Simply put, futuristic, melancholic sci-fi soundscapes meets stripped-back raw sample driven house music, all executed with the precision and panache of an artist who truly understands how to move a dancefloor,” the label explains. Saul adds: “It represents what I play in a club if an eight-hour set was condensed into 10 tracks.” 

The physical release will be split across two EPs and available on CD on September 27. Meanwhile, you can stream “Visions” in full below. 

Tracklistings

AUS142 

A1: Openings

A2: Pingalatu

B1. Moorings 

B2. Visions 

AUS144 

A1.Submerge  

A2. Room 9  

B1.One For Rex 

B2. My Left Sock 

AUSCD011 (CD + Digital version)

01. Freya’s Theme

02. Room 9

03. Visions

04. Openings

05. Moorings

06. Pingalatu 

07. My Left Sock

08. Submerge

09. One For Rex

10. Get Back Up 

German Composer Carl Oesterhelt Next on Mexico City’s Umor Rex

Up next on Umor Rex is Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer, a collection of synth instrumentals by German composer Carl Oesterhelt. 

Oesterhelt has been recording a mixture of kosmische and classical traditions for years, overdubbing stacks of analogue gear to create a compelling body of work that includes tenures with Neue Deutsche Welle legends FSK, intellectual disco outfit Merricks, and German legends The Notwist. His solo work has travelled even wider, taking in contemporary classical and chamber music, music for exhibitions and radio plays, plus notable collaborations with saxophonist Johannes Enders and founding member of Faust, Hans Joachim Irmler.

On this album, Oesterhelt augments his own analogue arsenal with synthesizers borrowed from musician friends, resulting in almost 15 different synthesizers, some in fruitful states of disrepair. 

We’re told that the sound touches upon similar ground to the likes of Musik von Harmonia in its pulsations, Klaus Schulze’s sonically adventurous Cyborg, and Tangerine Dream at their earliest and most primitive.  The hypnotic ritualism of early African field recordings and the spiritual regality of European organ music are also key references. 

“Oesterhelt’s compositions here have taken the musically primitive and the emotionally raw, and woven them into a rich synthetic soundworld all of his own,” the Mexican label explains. “Tensions build and emotions stir throughout each piece with a proficiency perfected through his work for the stage.”

Eleven Pieces for Synthesizer is available on blue vinyl LP, digital formats, and streaming services on September 6. Ahead of the release, the label has shared “Venedig” and “Simple Theme,” described as a “good example of the spectre of this album.”

Tracklisting

01.  La chapelle de Francis Lai

02.  Petrolio

03.  Simple Theme

04.  Makonde Pattern

05.  Herbstspaziergang

06.  Venedig

07.  Trinidad Pattern

08.  Poro Secret Society

09.  Überlagerung

10.  Verblassende Erinnerung 

11.  Synchronisation

Manchester Hip-Hop Artist Abnormal Sleepz LP Next on Lenzman’s The North Quarter

Abnormal Sleepz ​will release his debut album, Kaleidoscope​, next month on Lenzman‘s The North Quarter​ label. 

The 15-track release is described as an “honest, introspective” collection of tracks, ​strung together by downbeat, jazz-inflicted beats that allow ​Sleepz’ vocals to take centre stage. He produced 13 of the tracks on the LP, with drum & bass producer and ​The North Quarter ​regular Redeyes producing ​”Gino,”​ and ​Manchester artist Litek producing “Lean.” 

Meanwhile, “Textures​,” a catchy slice of soul-infused hip-hop featuring long-term collaborator ​HMD​, has already been released as the lead single from the album. The track comes with a retro-style official video portraying the two artists as old-school gangsters, fit with sharp suit and vintage car.

“This project was created at a time where there was a lot of things happening around me,” Sleepz explains. “This affected my feelings and moods over a period of time which changed a lot. This is what the project essentially reflects down to the sound and music I’d produced during this period. As people we have lots of layers where our emotions are concerned so it was important that this project reflected my energy and how I felt through the constant changes.”

Sleepz has been a fixture of Manchester’s underground scene for some time now. Real name ​Reece Samuels​, he began spitting bars on the playground and recording practice sets at home before releasing a flurry of mixtapes produced by​ Mac Real​. He has since spent time on tour, including performances at the ​Roundhouse in London and a sold-out homecoming show at Manchester’s ​Band on the Wall​. 

The album follows FD’s Better Days on the Amsterdam label. 

Kaleidoscope LP lands September 6, with “Textures” streaming below. 

Tracklisting

01. P.Y.E.

02. Textures (feat. HMD) 03:51

03. What You See

04. Coming Home

05. Lean

06. Live And Learn (feat. DRS)

07. Norf Freestyle

08. Say You Don’t

09. No Love (feat. Fox)

10. Girls

11. Origami

12. Like I Do (Excursions)

13. Gino

14.L8 Nights In Barbados

15. All I Need (feat. Misha B)

Yilan Debuts on Mexico’s Infinite Machine

Next on Infinite Machine is an EP from Leeds, UK producer Yilan with Regression.  

The four-track EP is made up of two club-ready originals plus two remixes, one Los Angeles’ Amazondotcom, the other from Brazilian producer Superfície. It follows  Keru Not Ever’s The Wind Of ? on the Mexican label. 

Earlier this year, Yilan released five tracks of UK bass-driven techno on Jelly Bean Farm. 

Artwork is by Tomás Urquieta.

Regression EP is out September 13, with the title track streaming below. 

Tracklisting

01. Regression 05:57

02. Ark feat. Ren 

03. Regression (Amazondotcom Remix)

04. Regression (Superfície Remix)

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