Last month, San Antonio producer Ernest Gonzales impressed us with “The Scattered Thoughts of Raindrops,” a housey cut from his latest album, Natural Traits, which dropped via Friends of Friends. Today, the Mexicans with Guns creator has premiered a wildly colorful CGI clip for that track. The video, developed by production team The Great Nordic Sword Fights, portrays a humanoid figure exploring a world of giant pixels and mutant vectors, elements which he/she is also composed of. If your computer can handle it, crank this up to 1080p, watch, and repeat.
Tevo Howard Announces New EP; Stream it Now
Chicago producer Tevo Howard has announced his follow-up to last year’s The Age of Compassion, a three-song EP titled Monument. The forthcoming EP will be a touch darker than his last outing, but retains his old-school house vibes and knack for melody. The Monument EP will be available on March 19 through Buzzin’ Fly, but can be streamed in full after the jump, where you’ll also find the artwork and tracklist for the release.
The Golden Filter “Kill Me (John Talabot’s Killed in Room 161 Refix)”
Barcelona’s John Talabot, the artist responsible for the brilliant ƒin LP, has remixed “Kill Me,” a track by NYC synth-pop duo The Golden Filter, the original of which is taken from the group’s 2011 soundtrack album, Syndromes. The remix offers more of the same from the quasi-anonymous producer, and we mean that in the best way possible—this brilliant, mildly downtempo cut would have fit in perfectly on ƒin. For seven-and-a-half minutes, Talabot develops gorgeous, tastefully Balearic synth swirls over a simple house bassline and Golden Filter vocalist Penelope Trappes’ loose serenade. It all amounts to a pleasant and soothing track, but it’s packed with just enough emotional gravity to warrant repeated listens.
Evy Jane Evy Jane
Vancouver duo Evy Jane has no business being this good. After all, there’s nothing particularly innovative about the group’s music. The plodding, purple-tinged beats sound like a toned-down version of what producers like Guido were turning out a couple of years back. Singer Evelyn Mason has an oddly seductive little voice, but she’s not exactly a virtuoso and her vocals are literally all over these songs. At first glance, it would be easy to write off Evy Jane as a watered-down, pop-oriented take on what’s being bandied about as “bass music.” There’s only one problem: the songs are actually quite good.
Lead track “Sayso”—you may remember the video we posted a few weeks ago—is the undeniable star here, a track underpinned by a stuttering bassline and gently clacking percussion. Some mellow synths and lightly warbling melodies work their way into the mix, but the tune puts Mason’s vocals front and center. Harkening back to the soulful voices that haunted the best of ’90s trip-hop, Mason breathily coos her way through the song’s four-minute run time, anchoring the proceedings without ever getting too showy. Somehow, by holding back just a touch, Mason amplifies the weight of an already sexy song.
The record’s other original offering, “Ohso,” utilizes a similar formula, although Evy Jane layers a thick syrup of lurching synths over the track’s off-kilter, hip-hop-flavored beat. The song also finds Mason belting it out a little more on the vocal front, but still reigning herself in enough to prevent things from sounding over the top. “Ohso” also finds Mason and her production partner, Jeremiah Klein, throughly manipulating and layering her vocals. That said, while many artists operating in a similar sonic sphere automatically resort to furious chopping and mindless pitch-shifting, Evy Jane largely leaves Mason’s vocal tones intact, smartly realizing that the beauty of her vocals is one of the strongest elements at work in the duo’s music.
Evy Jane also includes a number of remixes. Vancouver mainstay Max Ulis tackles “Ohso,” interestingly layering Mason’s voice over a clacking techno 4/4 and folding in a thick, dubstep-indebted bassline. Taal Mala, another Vancouver artist, takes “Sayso” even further into the dark and murky atmospheres of classic dubstep, even utilizing some subtly wobbling bass sounds. The final two remixes, from Dutch producer Julien Mier and another Vancouver resident, Andy Dixon, are only available on the digital release. The former finds the Dutch producer slowly morphing “Sayso” into a spastic, juke-influenced workout, while the latter is a less effective, Auto-Tune-dominated effort that attempts to transform “Ohso” into a glossy pop track.
That small misstep notwithstanding, Evy Jane is an impressive first salvo from this Vancouver duo. At present, the outfit is nimbly walking a line that balances pop tendencies with some of the best elements of low-end-oriented electronic music. Only time will tell if Evy Jane can continue to move ahead without tumbling to one side or the other.
Melt! Festival Announces First Round of Acts for 2012
Germany’s Melt! festival has announced a first wave of acts, which includes a wide swath of artists of both the electronic and not-so-electronic variety. Deutschlanders Modeselektor and Ellen Alien will each be performing and curating an entire performance area, with Modeselektor choosing acts for two days at the cleverly titled Melt!Selektor stage. Detroit techno artist Richie Hawtin will also be presenting a stage of music on Sunday. Other confirmed acts for the event include Claude VonStroke, The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble, Switch, Maya Jane Coles, Laurent Garnier, Justice, Todd Terje, Buraka Som Sistema, M83, a live set by Benga, and many more. Melt! will be taking place on from July 13 to July 15 at the Ferropolis near Dessau, Germany.
Daniel Dexter “Who Knows Motor City”
This Saturday, February 25, German record hub Poker Flat will be hosting a showcase of producers at an underground location in London. (Find all the details here.) Label boss Steve Bug, Josh Wink, MANIK, Martin Landsky, and Burnski will be spinning records at the party, as will Berlin-based producer Daniel Dexter, the man responsible for serving up this cut, “Who Knows Motor City.” As part of the showcase in London, Poker Flat will be also be reveling in the forthcoming release of its ninth label compilation, Gunslingers and Greenhorns (artwork above), on which this track will appear. “Who Knows Motor City” is a floor-stomping house banger, with hooks and drops tailor made for getting a high-energy response from a late-night crowd. The synth patch used for the main melody sounds like a phased horn from another planet, which gives the tune an almost electro-swing feel.
Video: Blondes “Amber”
Brooklyn duo Blondes has released this video for the track “Amber,” one of two brand-new cuts from the pair’s debut self-titled album, which came out on RVNG earlier this month. The tune is mellow and ambient, even by Blondes’ laid-back standards, with quiet arpeggios, white noise, and sci-fi sounds dreamily humming about with no percussion or set rhythm holding it together. The sparse video matches the tune’s aesthetic, showing what we think is a twice-mirrored overhead shot of the famous fountains at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Krystal Klear “We’re Wrong” b/w “From the Start”
While many producers are eager to push sonic boundaries into unheard realms, exploring far into the reaches of future-this and future-that, Manchester-based Krystal Klear once again proves on his latest release for All City that there’s plenty of treasure to be found by digging through dance music’s past. On his return to the Irish imprint, he draws heavily from once-passé styles such as ’80s boogie, old-school electro, New Jack Swing, and ’90s house, but without sounding dated, retro, cliched, or nostalgic. On the contrary, his tunes sound fresh.
“We’re Wrong” charges out of the gate with a grooving piano riff similar to the one Hudson Mohawke employed in his remix of Krystal Klear’s boogie number from 2010, “Tried For Your Love.” Synths and a funky bassline work their way into the tune behind a cleverly chopped and rearranged female vocal sample that serves as the early centerpiece for the track. The first vocal snippet soon gives way, however, to another cut-and-pasted vocal hook, this one a male voice that gets filtered into the mix. The resulting production, with its steady four-on-the-flour and squarely house tempo (123 bpm), is less funky than Krystal Klear’s previous outings, instead entering the realm of straight-ahead house music.
“From the Start” begins with an expertly reassembled vocal sample filtering its way into the song over the top of smooth synth pads and a simple piano chord progression. The song continues with a mellow build-up until a swinging beat and bassline break through, and eventually climaxes with a dense piano rhythm before soft synth pads close out the proceedings. On both tracks, Krystal Klear relies heavily on the use of filter and phaser effects, which add emotion and depth to his relatively light production.
Even though Krystal Klear’s brand of house isn’t new territory, it does feel different from most producers’ work today, as it draws inspiration not only from the genre’s early roots, but also incorporates its last three decades of development of subdivision. Elements of disco, like the meaty piano chords, are in full effect, and old-school electro and boogie come through in the basslines and bounce of the tracks. The vocal samples, though rendered unintelligible through cutting and splicing, have a definite New Jack Swing feel to them. In their entirety, however, the tunes are most obviously similar to the wave of French house led by Daft Punk in the late ’90s and early ’00s. It’s doubtful, however, that Lennon went about directly trying to create retro sounds in his production; rather, his style seems to be the result of furious crate digging (likely for his sets as a Hoya:Hoya resident) and a deep knowledge of dance music’s eclectic past.
Hyperdub Plans New Releases from King Britt, Hype Williams
Kode9’s Hyperdub is looking to keep its long-running hot streak going deep into 2012, as the imprint is prepping releases from two more big names. First, Philadelphia veteran King Britt (pictured above) will release a single on March 17 under his new, analog-leaning moniker, Fhloston Paradigm. This is Britt’s first release with Hyperdub after a long career of dropping records on Ovum, Nervous, and more. One month later, London duo Hype Williams (now listed as Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland, the names of its members) will drop its fourth album, Black is Beautiful, on the London label. In the meantime, Blunt has released an enthralling, 30-minute mixtape, as well as a music video for labelmate DVA, which surfaced last week. Check out the tracklist and artwork for Black is Beautiful, which hits on April 17, below.
01. Venice Dreamway
02. 2
03. 3
04. 4
05. 5
06. 6
07. 7
08. 8
09. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12
13. 13
14. 14
15. 15
Video: Hot City x LOL Boys “Hot Boys”
Earlier this month, Hot City and LOL Boys joined forces on a new collaborative EP. Now, the all-star production team has rolled out a neon video for the record’s lead track, “Hot Boys.” Featuring brightly colored landscapes, nods to old-school racing videogames, bizarrely gender-neutral humanoid ravers, and a humorously menacing purple monster, the animated 3D clip is anything but dull. Furthermore, its clear nostalgia for ’90s internet aesthetics and open embrace of surrealism pairs nicely with the song’s upbeat vibes and acid-laden approach to the dancefloor. It’s definitely a clip worth watching—repeatedly.
