Elusive UK dubstep demigod Burial just unveiled his latest work set to see the light of day, a collaborative 12″ with trip-hop veterans Massive Attack. The two-song record, “Four Walls” b/w “Paradise Circus,” is limited to only 1000 copies, and is available to pre-order now from The Vinyl Factory. While you wait for your record to arrive, you can catch the premiere of the whole thing tonight on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show, and also stream the 12-minute a-side cut below.
The music of Balam Acab has an undeniable bedroom quality, yet youthful producer Alec Koone is finally ready to take his thoughtful sounds to the live stage. Following the release of his debut album, Wander / Wonder, via the Tri Angle label, Balam Acab has announced his first run of live dates across the US. When we spoke with Koone earlier this year, he detailed some of the process of preparing his live show, which will involve re-vamped versions of his songs and a live vocalist. The complete list of tour dates is below.
11/4 Harrisburg, PA – Salem Church
11/5 Middletown, CT – Wesleyan University
11/11 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
11/12 Columbus, OH – The Summit
11/15 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
11/17 New York, NY – LPR
11/18 Washington, DC – Secret Location
12/10 Miami, FL – Bardot
12/15 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
12/16 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
12/17 San Francisco, CA – Public Works
This skittering footwork edit of old-school jungle tune “R.I.P.” by Remarc comes to us courtesy of Phillip D. Kick, the now-defunct pseudonym of UK tunesmith Om Unit. The project, which started as a secret “experiment” before uncontrollably rising to a place of notoriety (both good and bad) among jungle fans around the world (read the whole story here), has just been laid to rest after the release of Footwork Jungle Vol. 3, a four-track offering of breakneck rhythms and basslines. You can nab one of those here, and stream the whole thing after the jump.
With only two weeks to go until the start of this year’s Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid, and fresh off the announcement unveiling the first round of events, the folks at RBMA have decided to release the complete list of participants in this year’s academy. Selected from thousands of applicants, the 2011 class of participants is a varied mix of artists representing six continents, more than 30 countries, and a wide variety of styles and sounds. Some of the names are familiar—particularly to XLR8R readers—while others are essentially unknown. More information about the participants—along with more events in Madrid—will be posted in the days and weeks ahead, so keep an eye on the Red Bull Music Academy website. In the meantime, the entire list of participants is below.
Ana Helder – Rosario, Argentina
Andrea Balency – Mexico City, Mexico
Anenon – Los Angeles, United States
Behr – Cape Town, South Africa
Biblo – Istanbul, Turkey
Boogie Howser – Stony Plain, Canada
Boska – Stockholm, Sweden
Boy Crush – Auckland, New Zealand
Brenmar – Brooklyn, United States
Broke One – Valmadrera, Italy
Canblaster – Douai, France
Cha Cha – Shanghai, China
Chico Unicornio – Lima, Peru
Claude Speeed – Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Clip! – Barcelona, Spain
Disco Nutter – Sofia, Bulgaria
DJ Asma (of Nguzunguzu) – Los Angeles, United States
Doc Daneeka – Swansea, United Kingdom
Exeter – Toronto, Canada
Fabian Bruhn – Gothenberg, Sweden
Fiordmoss – Valašské Mezi?í?í, Czech Republic
Full Crate – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Ghosts on Tape – San Francisco, United States
Giganta – Athens, Greece
Gora Sou – Heidelberg, Germany
Grayson Gilmour – Wellington, New Zealand
Hugo Quezada (of Robota) – Mexico City, Mexico
Jesse Boykins III – Brooklyn, United States
Jivraj Singh – Kolkata, India
Jools Hunter – Berlin, Germany
Jorge Caiado – Lisbon, Portugal
Joystick Jay – Oslo, Norway
Julius Sylvest – Copenhagen, Denmark
Kackmusikk – Luzern, Switzerland
Kraftmatiks – Lagos, Nigeria
Krystal Klear – Manchester, united Kingdom
Lhasa – Busan, South Korea
Martin Riegelnegg – Vienna, Austria
Monki Valley – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Naphta – Wroclaw, Poland
Nehuen – Barcelona, Spain
Nick Hook – New York, United States
Nightwave – London, United Kingdom
Om Unit – London, United Kingdom
Palmbomen – Amsterdam, Netherlands
Pazes – Brasilia, Brazil
Phoebe Kiddo – Melbourne, Australia
Raisa Khan (of Micachu and the Shapes) – London, United Kingdom
Ronika – Nottingham, United Kingdom
Salva – Los Angeles, United States
Sander Mölder – Kuressaare, Estonia
Santiago Latorre – Taipei, Taiwan
Sara Sayed – Helsinki, Finland
Signor Mako – Saint Petersburg, Russia
Slide20xl – Augusta, United States
Space Zitar – Mumbai, India
Thomalla – Berlin, Germany
Xavier León (of Sibian & Faun) – Montreal, Canada
xxxy – London, United Kingdom
Yosi Horikawa – Chiba City, Japan
Austin, Texas resident Stefanie Franciotti is the sole remaining member of band-turned-solo project Sleep ? Over, a mystic and temperamental force in the realm of lo-fi pop music. Her tunes, like the enchanting “Romantic Streams” and heavenly “Casual Diamond,” often straddle the lines between smoky and sweet, noisy and serene, nostalgic and otherworldly, and have quickly captured the attention of listeners with a taste for the esoteric and an ear for haunted melodies.
We quickly became enamored with Franciotti’s debut LP for Hippos in Tanks, Forever, and found ourselves constantly returning to its dark, densely layered soundscapes and indelible ’80s essence. Even at first listen, it’s easy to tell that Sleep ? Over is a fan of the lush scores that Angelo Badalamenti wrote for David Lynch (word has it she’s quite obsessed with the films, as well), but we were curious to discover what other sounds went into the creation of the artist’s first full-length. Franciotti returned our query with these five tunes, and told us a little bit about why she loves each one.
Cocteau Twins “Crushed”
Liz Fraser’s vocal layering is very inspiring to me. It’s still very raw and wild, but overdubbing the vocal like that gives it a supernaturally thick waveform that a single vocal performance couldn’t achieve. OVERDUBBING. IS. AWESOME.
Oppenheimer Analysis “New Mexico”
My friend Eli Welbourne appropriately played this track when we were leaving White Sands, New Mexico, and it made an impression [on me]. I like how fluid and repetitive the progression is; the melody is like a bleak and somber railroad spike driving into my brain.
Games “Strawberry Skies (feat. Laurel Halo)”
Besides the fact that this jam is slammin’ and that I have music crushes on Laurel [Halo] and [Joel Ford and Daniel Lopatin] of Games [now called Ford & Lopatin], it was co-produced with the help of Al Carson, the man who co-produced Forever with me. My musical leanings are way dirtier and fuzzier than what ended up on the record, and I feel like Al Carson helped push me out of that into new territory. It was painful, and there was much give and take on both our parts. But in the aftermath, I’m extremely grateful for our differences and creative conflict.
Boards of Canada “Everything You Do is A Balloon”
That’s a warm synth tone. It reminds me of being a little kid, laying on a blanket and coloring my crayons down to soft little nubs in the sunlight.
The Happenings Four “Anata Ga Hoshii (I Want You)”
Is this a cover of “A Whiter Shade of Pale”? I dunno, but the intro on the Japanese version trumps Procol Harum’s by sheer virtue of its massiveness alone. I’m a sucker for walk-down basslines, organs, and repetitive drum fills. Everything about this song touches on the heaviness that is possible in a pop format when the classical cannon is knowingly appropriated and subtly articulated within that structure. I DIG IT.
Self-described as a “post-experimental lazer-funk party-music space ship,” Purple & Green (pictured above) is comprised of Portland’s Adam Forkner (a.k.a. White Rainbow) and Justin Leon Johnson, two dance music patrons of the highest order. This “club mix” by Emotion II Emotion pares down the spacey sounds and implements a straightforward piano-house sound that skips and bounces in all the right ways while the song’s soulful vocal performance is showcased front and center. You can check out all of Purple & Green’s “Right Here” 12″ here.
Glass Swords, the debut full-length from Glaswegian producer Rustie, is many things, but it’s not subtle. If certain albums are exercises in restraint, this LP is essentially the polar opposite of that. No matter how the album is ultimately viewed and judged, nobody will be saying that Rustie didn’t really go for it. It’s bombastic, it’s vibrant, it’s neon, it takes an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach, and it’s also stunningly good.
Hailing from Glasgow, Rustie (a.k.a. Russell Whyte) comes from the same music-making school as Hudson Mohawke and the Numbers crew, a lineage that rapidly becomes apparent when listening to Glass Swords. The music is nearly impossible to shoehorn into a single style or sound, as there are elements of warped hip-hop, skronky ’80s funk, epic trance, 16-bit nostalgia, proggy grandiosity, and so much more. Most of the album’s 13 tracks clock in around the three- or four-minute mark, yet so many ideas are crammed into each piece, setting up Rustie as the perfect poster boy producer for the ADD generation.
Nevertheless, this busied aproach, while potentially overwhelming, should not be mistaken for sloppiness or laziness. Glass Swords sounds amazing, particularly on “Ultra Thizz,” a clear standout that combines classic rave builds with punchy synth stabs and alien R&B to form a futuristic and delightfully over-the-top slice of hypercolor bass music. “Cry Flames” and “All Nite” flash a similar low-end swagger, the former an ostentatious dose of prog-hop and the latter a fuzzed-out take on chic ’80s electro-funk. One of the keys to Glass Swords‘ success is Rustie’s ability to effectively mine retro cheese, particularly on the album’s frequent nods to big-room trance. The swirling, cascading synth melodies on songs such as “Hover Traps,” “Death Mountain,” and “After Light” could only be described as tacky on their own, but when combined with Rustie’s growling bass, hyperactive beat work, and inventive song structure, the resulting tracks sound fresh and unique.
In truth, there aren’t much in the way of low points on Glass Swords. The beatless title track offers a dense blast of proggy exploration, and “Flash Back” sounds like the long-lost soundtrack to a great Sega Genesis side-scroller, only flipped for the club. “City Star” is a punishing hip-hop instrumental fueled by alternating synth squeal and blap, while album closer “Crystal Echo” is an oddly wisftul piece of videogame R&B. Rustie tries so many things on this record, and, somehow, just about all of them work. Yet the album never seems disjointed or slapped together; Glass Swords feels and sounds like a cohesive statement, and a strong one at that.
French sample flipper and futuristic boogie patron Onra has announced he will release the second installment of his Chinoiseries, promising another LP of instrumental beat compositions that utilizes strictly source material found in China and Vietnam. The 32-track Chinoiseries Pt. 2 will drop on November 15 via Irish imprint All City, but you can check out the tracklist below, along with a short video trailer that includes footage of Onra hunting for records in China.
1 The Arrival
2 A New Dynasty
3 It’s All Memories
4 Remember The Name
5 Open The Door
6 Gotta Go
7 Mai’s Theme
8 Words Of Encouragement
9 Trapped
10 One For The Wu
11 No Matter What
12 Meet The Queen
13 Stay With Me
14 Opium Delirium
15 Cold Blooded
16 Where I’m From
17 Still Broke
18 Snakes & Smoke
19 Mai’s Theme 2
20 Raw Shit
21 Ms. Ho
22 All Night
23 In My Mind
24 Hide And Seek
25 Play The Game
26 Warriors Pride
27 Like Father, Like Son
28 Fight Or Die
29 Through The Flesh
30 Tears Of Joy
31 They Got Breaks Two
32 The End
Anonymous UK tunesmith Patten just recently dropped the mystifying GLAQJO XAACSSO LP, effectively marking his place in the world of leftfield electronic music. Not long after that record’s release, we’re treated to a free EP of remixes, called JLAGQO CSOAAXS, from which this tune is taken. C Powers turns the original “Fire Dream,” a blown-out and bass-heavy jam, into a slice of dusty techno. You can listen to and download the rest of the free EP after the jump.
Barely two weeks after we heard that Canadian noisenik Tim Hecker was poised to follow up the breathtaking Ravedeath, 1972 album with an EP of audio “sketches,” we’re able to listen to that record. You can check out the nine-track Dropped Pianos EP in the player below, and look for it to drop on October 10 via Kranky. (via Altered Zones)
