When we spoke with Essex-based producer Stuart Howard (a.k.a. Lapalux) a few months back for our Bubblin’ Up feature, he told us he had an album in the works for Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. And while we’re sure he has every intention of releasing that record in due time, we’re having a hard time fathoming how exactly he’ll do that, as the artist has been churning out an evergrowing mass of remixes these days. This rework for UK synth-pop duo AlunaGeorge (pictured above) is one of the latest, and finds Lapalux turning the infectious “You Know You Like It” single into a patently disjointed, electronic soul jam. If it’s even just a hint of what to expect from his forthcoming original tunes, we’re sure they’ll be worth the wait.
While attending a portion of this year’s Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid, it would have been easy to only pay attention to the bigger artists that proliferated the ranks of the Academy’s parties, lectures, and even the participants. But only shining a light on the more well-known folks would be contrary to the spirit of the entire RBMA, which brings artists—many of them unknown—from all over the world for an exchange of ideas, cultures, and, of course, music. As such, we wanted wrap XLR8R‘s coverage of RBMA Madrid by getting to know a few of the participants whose names haven’t regularly appeared on XLR8R—at least not yet. Although profiling all 60 participants, or even just those attending the second term when XLR8R was in attendance, would have been just about impossible, here are three very different artists that definitely caught our attention.
Artist Name: Andrea Balency (also pictured in the main image at top) Real Name: Andrea Balency-Bearn Age: 23 Currently Residing: Mexico City, Mexico
XLR8R: You’re originally from France. Yes. I was born in Paris, and I lived there for 14 years, and then destiny took me to Mexico. I’ve been there for almost eight years.
You also lived in Buenos Aires for awhile. Yes, I lived in Buenos Aires for two years.
When did you start making music? When I was five, I started playing the piano. I played classical music. When I went to Argentina, I started listening to popular music, and some electronic music. I really liked it, so I stopped playing classical music. Actually, I still play it sometimes, but now I’m more into popular music and electronic music.
You won some kind of big music award in Mexico. Yeah, I did. It’s like the Grammys, but for independent music. It’s a big event in Mexico, and I won the prize for best new artist.
So are you, like, famous in Mexico? No, not at all. It’s starting, and some people do recognize me now on the street, but very rarely. It’s nothing yet, and I hope I’m never really famous. I don’t know if I would like that.
How did you first find out about Red Bull Music Academy? A friend of mine, his name is Juan Manuel Torreblanca, he lives in Mexico and he was actually at the Red Bull Music Academy in Toronto. He always told me it was the best two weeks of his life, so I was curious about it. I applied, but I never thought I would be accepted, because I knew it was more about DJs and DJing, and I’m not a DJ. I like electronic music though. I love it, but I’m not a DJ. So I thought I would try and see if I would get in, and I made it.
How has your RBMA experience been? Yesterday, I was writing an email to Juan, and I told him, “You were right. This has been the best week of my life.” It’s like a musician’s dream.
Do you feel like you’re still getting something valuable out of it, even though you don’t make electronic music for a club setting? Of course. I think I’ve maybe learned more than [the other participants], because of that. I’m really interested in every type of music. I’ve learned so much and I want to do so many new things. I want to be a DJ now! [laughs] I have friends here now who are going to teach me, so I can bring that to Mexico.
Once your Academy experience is over… I’m going to cry. [laughs]
But what do you plan to do once it’s over? It’s funny, because in January I’m going to New York to record a new album. It’s perfect, because I have so many new ideas. I’m going to put all of that into the album, so it’s going to be fresh. It’s perfect. I made friends [with one of the participants] here, his name is Nick Hook. He’s amazing. He DJs, but he also plays keyboards. We’re doing some songs together in New York—he lives in New York—it’s going to be amazing.
Artist Name: Cha Cha Real Name: Xin Ge Ye Hai Ya Han Age: 30 Currently Residing: Shanghai, China
XLR8R: How did you first hear about Red Bull Music Academy? One of my very close friends from Hong Kong, DJ Siesta, went to Red Bull Music Academy in 2008. She came back and told me loads of stories about it. I thought, “Wow, that sounds like a dreamland. I have to go.” Then I started to pay attention on the internet.
How long have you been making music? I first started a rock band in 1998, when I was 15 years old. I’ve been singing over ten years, and doing different stuff with music for a long time. I enjoy singing more because I can work with different producers and try to discover new musical directions. Also, I’m an event promoter in Shanghai, so I put on different kinds of parties, exhibitions, workshops, and movies.
Before this, you did some vocals on Kode9’s latest album. How did that come about? My husband, Gaz Williams, he’s from Manchester but lives in Shanghai. He runs The Shelter, the biggest underground club in Shanghai. The club is really focused on booking futuristic electronic music, underground stuff, and fresh, new, pioneering music. He’s a big fan of Kode9, we’ve booked him to come play in Shanghai twice. Both times, we went to the studio together and recorded some stuff. That’s how I got on his album.
Are you enjoying the Academy experience? I think it’s amazing. I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s mindblowing. There’s nothing like this in China. Before I came here, I tried to imagine how it was going to be, but I didn’t know where to start. So when I got here, to see the whole thing, and meet all the amazing musicians, and they all have beautiful personalities, it’s all just so cool.
What do you plan to do once the Academy is over? My original plan when I came here was to work with different producers and musicians. Another thing is that I really wanted to make good contacts with Red Bull Music Academy and the participants, because I want to see if it’s possible to bring those musicians to China to play and show young Chinese people music from Europe and the whole world. Basically, I want all my friends in China to feel what I feel now.
Artist Name: Nehuen Real Name: Nehuen McAllister Age: 25 Currently Residing: Barcelona, Spain
XLR8R: How long have you lived in Barcelona? Nehuen: Since 2005.
But you’re originally from Buenos Aires. What prompted you to move? I finished high school and I went to work, but I always wanted to make music and wanted to buy vinyl and I knew I couldn’t do it in Buenos Aires. I have Italian citizenship, so I had the chance to go [to Barcelona] and start from scratch. I came to Europe basically to study sound engineering.
So you started producing once you arrived in Barcelona? No, I was playing around before and playing instruments—real instruments.
How would you describe your musical style? I tend to not have a specific style. I tend to work more like a normal producer, making any style, because I would like to work with other people. I wouldn’t mind producing a hip-hop record and then a heavy metal record. I just do what I’m feeling in the moment. If there’s something I hear that I like, I try to play with that, and when I put in my input, maybe I come up with something new. I hope so.
What sounds are you feeling the most these days? I’m feeling all of this juke stuff quite a lot and this acid thing that’s coming back. Basically everything around drum machines and drum-machine sounds. I’m interested in that sort of simplicity and rhythm.
How did you hear about Red Bull Music Academy and what made you apply? I heard about it from a friend who is also a producer, Cardopusher. He’s from Venezuela, but he lives in Barcelona. We met and have been friends since day one. He applied and [was accepted] in 2008. I saw the concerts and the lectures, and heard what he was saying [about RBMA], so after that I kept on watching lectures and even listening to the radio because I found it very interesting. So, I applied for the London one and nothing happened, but then, this year, it did.
Are you enjoying the experience? Of course. I can’t complain about anything. It’s great. It’s a great opportunity.
What do you plan to do once the Academy is over? I’m going to have a little vacation. I’m going home [to Argentina] for a holiday. When I come back, I’m going to start working on post-production. I have a music production company with some friends, so we’re going to start slowly building that. I’m also going to be making music for myself, and I’m always trying to find vocalists and people to work with.
In all honesty, we’re not exactly sure how UK outfit Africa Hitech found the time to put together an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast series. Earlier this year, the duo of Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek released its debut album, 93 Million Miles, and now, the pair is about to wrap up a lengthy North American tour, which actually comes to an end this weekend with a string of West Coast dates. In the middle of all this intercontinental activity, Africa Hitech did manage to assemble this podcast, pulling heavily from two genres in particular: footwork and drum & bass. While those genres are rarely uttered in the same sentence, the similar tempos and shared reliance on frantic percussion actually allow these seemingly disparate styles to mesh together quite nicely, a phenomenon that Africa Hitech explores at length on this mix. As one might expect given the genres involved, the mix is a wildly upbeat and energetic listen, but, more importantly, it shows that even in a post-everything electronic-music landscape, there are still exciting new sound combinations to be discovered.
01 Traxman “Footworkin’ on Air” 02 DJ Tre “Ping Pong Trak” 03 Jlin “Erotic Heat” (Planet Mu) 04 Hudson Mohawke “Cbat” (Warp) 05 Cadenza “The Darkest Hype (Philip D. Kick Remix)” (Dummy) 06 Africa Hitech “Out in the Streets” (Warp) 07 Africa Hitech “Out in the Streets (VIP)” (Warp) 08 Krampfhaft “Perfect Gain Structure” (Saturate) 09 DJ Rashad “Welcome to the Chi” 10 DJ Earl “Dragged” (Booty Call) 11 DJ Rashad & DJ Rome “Dat Shit Huff” (Planet Mu) 12 Dillinja and Berti B “Lion Heart” (Bert 1) 13 LTJ Bukem “Horizons (Phillip D. Kick Remix)” 14 Ballistic Brothers “I’ll Fly Away” (Junior Boy’s Own) 15 Formula 7 “Soundboy” (Quayside) 16 Marvellous Cain “Roll Dat Shit” (R:IQ) 17 Ninjaman, Bounty Killer, Beenie Man, and Ninja Ford “Bad Boy Lick A New Shot (Jungle Bullet)” (Greensleeves) 18 Traxman “Lifeeeee Is For Ever” (Planet Mu) 19 Moondog “Viking 1” (Honest Jon’s)
Taken from the recently released Mysterious EP by Copenhagen’s ELOQ, “Why Don’t You? (Lazer Sword Remix)” is a typically disorienting production from the multinational duo of Low Limit and Lando Kal. While the punch-drunk synth melody wafts over a spastic bassline and broken drum pattern, atonal sound effects fire off in the distance alongside chilly iterations of the track’s title. It creates the kind of loosely robotic tension that we’ve come to love from Lazer Sword, which provides an ideal counterpart to the glowing neon of ELOQ’s original track. You can hear the rest of the Mysterious EP after the jump.
XLR8R Couldn't find the embed function for type: "soundcloud" and source: "<embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="225" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F1325935" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%">".
It’s been only two years since Roy Dank closed his venerable Wurst Edits imprint to make way for the Wurst Music Co. Yet, in that short span the label has managed to rise up and become one of New York’s most respected sources for underground (and cheeky) disco and house-flavored dance music. Now, the label has released The Wurst Music Ever, a manifesto of a compilation that features 10 brand-new songs from its core roster. With those 10 songs, the LP fleshes out a style that, while openly reverential of the past, still sounds fresh for present and future.
The compilation opens strongly with Midnight Magic‘s cover of Native Underground‘s “Push 4 Love” —the original being one of the label’s bigger records of 2010. The song stands as one of the best tracks Midnight Magic has done to date. It’s a deadpan take on ’70s disco that moves the original’s mid-’80s garage groove into uptempo territory (think War’s “Galaxy” mixed with Dinosaur’s “Kiss Me Again”). Far from sounding dated, the cover holds its own, with a beefy low end and a sharp production aesthetic. Along similar lines is Great Weekend‘s “That’s the Thing to Do,” which approaches the soulfulness of mid-’80s garage through the lens of contemporary, re-edit inspired, slo-mo disco production.
And perhaps that’s one of The Wurst Music Ever‘s most interesting features: many of the tracks seem to draw obvious cues from disco re-edit culture. For instance, Soho808‘s “Reach” blends house nostalgia (of indeterminate origin) with a loopy vocal hook that is entirely reminiscent of Tiger & Woods‘ “Gin Nation” to create a peak-hour burner of a track. On the same tip is “Soular Power” by Ulysses, which slows things down to a loopy, cosmic crawl—complete with shimmering sitar tones and ethereal synthesizers.
On the less openly nostalgic tip is Chicago Damn‘s “Romcom,” which accomplishes a futuristic deep house sound through a shambling rhythm, floating synth washes, and a drugged-out flute hook. It sounds like a natural progression from previous Chicago Damn efforts “Let’s Submerge” and “If I Could,” as it boasts a similar sense of atmospherics but with more dynamic instrumentation.
While the compilation features an undeniable majority of strong tracks, there are a few missteps. The Miracles Club‘s “I Can’t Help It” is a less-than-stellar take on mid-’90s house that merges dead-stock drum programming with overly saccharine vocals and weirdly parsed lyrics (“Do you know the air we breath comes from ancient realms?”). Similarly, “Ur Oskunni” by Name in Lights flies a little too close to the excesses of mid-’00s space-disco with its unnecessary washes of pink noise and a one-note, palm-muted guitar line. As a whole though, The Wurst Music Ever works excellently, and even the weaker offerings will undoubtedly find their way into certain kinds of DJ crates. If you’re a fan of disco or retro-flavored house, this one’s pretty much a no-brainer.
XLR8R Couldn't find the embed function for type: "vimeo" and source: "<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/31136255?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="530" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>".
This found-footage video for “El Diablo” from the brand-new free EP by Amsterdam’s Applescal (check out the whole thing here) features a load of grainy film chopped and edited into a miniature sci-fi flick by director Amos Mulder. The piece’s inherent vibe of nostalgia works perfectly with the retro sounds that help make up the accompanying track, and manages to register a notch or two above most music videos that are made solely of reappropriated old film, thanks in part to the extra visual effects added in by Mulder.
British producer Nightwave (who, you may remember, was once known as 8Bitch) just finished up her tour of this year’s Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid, and then promptly sent over this smooth cut from her forthcoming Night Heat EP for Unknown to the Unknown. The track is a remix of “Night Heat” by DJ Wilson, whose “Slow Mix” still manages to bounce and excite with its dreamy acid sound that’s both soft around the edges and razor sharp. Make sure to check out the rest of Nightwave’s EP, which features a few more originals and remixes (including one from Altered Natives), when it drops the day after Christmas. Thankfully, the release party at The Big Chill House in London is a lot earlier in the month, on Decemeber 2.
Atlanta-based beatmaker Distal isn’t one to shy away from pushing genre boundaries—his recent experimentations with club tunes traverse all manner of bass music, hip-hop, house, juke, and R&B. Still, we were a little surprised to see that his latest effort is a remix of “In Knots” by singer-songwriter Carter Tanton (shown above on left, Distal on right). Granted, almost nothing of the original indie-folk tune remains in the remix; Tanton’s typically tender vocals become chilling under Distal’s furious warping, while the self-styled “boss of the south” forgoes holding true to the original and instead builds an acid-house track around Tanton’s voice more or less from the ground up.
Arriving in early January, the latest mix album to come from London’s Fabric night club, Fabriclive 61, will be helmed by Bristol dubstep mainstay and Tectonic label head Pinch. The 22-track DJ set finds the busy artist using strictly vinyl, mixing together the likes of OM Unit, Roska, Distal, Addison Groove, DJ G, Boddika, Goth Trad, and his own recent collaborations with fellow bass monger Shackleton, among other choice selections. On Fabriclive 61, Pinch says, “I made the whole mix start to finish in the same spot—meaning that the entire DJ mix can work as a loop if you put it on repeat. I really like the idea of certain kinds of music existing in their own infinite context, and setting up the mix to loop like that was playing entirely into that idea.” You can check out the album’s full tracklist before it drops on January 16, below.
01. Distal – Venom (Part 2) [Tectonic] 02. F – Slow Down [7even] 03. EQD – Equalized #005B [Equalized] 04. Henry & Louis feat. Prince Green – Love Like (Pinch Remix) [2 Kings] 05. Pinch & Shackleton – Rooms Within A Room [Honest Jon’s] 06. Deleted Scenes – Natural Law [Deleted Scenes] 07. Pinch & Quest – In Dreams [Tectonic] 08. Boddika & Joy Orbison – Swims [Swamp81] 09. DJ G – Uncertain [Tectonic] 10. Roly Porter – Hessra [Subtext] 11. Photek & Pinch – Acid Reign (Pinch’s Dubplate Version) [Photek Productions] 12. Pinch & Loefah – Broken [Tectonic] 13. Emika – Double Edge (Pinch Remix) [Ninja Tune] 14. Roska – 480 BC [Tectonic] 15. Addison Groove – This Is It VIP [Tectonic] 16. Goth Trad – Mach [Tectonic] 17. Distance – Blue Meanie [Chestplate] 18. Jakes – Get Serious [H.E.N.C.H.] 19. Jakes – A Case Of The Bleeps [H.E.N.C.H.] 20. OM Unit – Pressure [Tectonic] 21. Illum Sphere – Promise A Secret [Tectonic] 22. Distal – Venom (Part 1) [Tectonic]
Canadian DJ/producer Hissy Fit dropped this in our inbox just before Thanksgiving: He’s giving away a two-song EP of “acid-influenced stuff” for absolutely free. “Sunshine” and “Factory Acid,” both of which are embedded below, have been floating around the web for some time now, but have only just been made available to download. You can grab the tunes right here. If that’s not enough Hissy Fit goodness for you, make sure to check out this mix he did for J’aime Le Dubstep at the beginning of this month.
“Sunshine”
XLR8R Couldn't find the embed function for type: "soundcloud" and source: "<embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F18350433" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%">".
“Factory Acid”
XLR8R Couldn't find the embed function for type: "soundcloud" and source: "<embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="https://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F27452241" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%">".
