Taken from a forthcoming 12″ on London imprint BLBX (out on September 25), “Yogyakarta” is a starry-eyed cut of heavy, beat-driven music from Leeds producer Jermaine Soul. The style of the tune floats somewhere between a frantic kind of hip-hop and a strain of UK bass music that isn’t quite so worried about the size of its low end. Sounds strange, we know, but something else about “Yogyakarta” also feels just as familiar.
According to 23-year-old artist Alan Palomo (a.k.a. Neon Indian), the title of his sophomore LP, Era Extraña, can be translated to mean a few different things. Apparently, extraña is both the Spanish word for “strange” and “to miss something.” Whether a coincidence or not, the dichotomy makes perfect sense; Palomo’s kind of electronic pop music is utterly soaked in nostalgia, and crafted with an off-kilter essence at its core. The genre-defining Psychic Chasms LP effectively married those ideas together in each of its 12 tracks, with a distinct focus on evoking AM radio pastiche and post-high school slackerisms. Now, just a couple of years later, the unwitting king of chillwave seems to have grown up in a sense. Neon Indian’s second album is a collection of more serious and straightforward pop tunes that separate his penchants for the past and its oddities, and shed nearly all trademarks of the dubious genre he haphazardly pioneered.
If Psychic Chasms was an homage to synth pop and broken radios, Era Extraña culls its inspiration from shoegaze and new-wave records. Palomo’s trademarks—woozy synth melodies, filtered drum beats, and slyly infectious vocal hooks—are still fully intact, but they’ve been amended with crunchy guitar fuzz, thick analog synth tones, and a heavy wash of reverb. And that’s not to mention his new-found clarity in production style (thanks in part to producer Dave Fridmann, who has previously polished acts such as Black Moth Super Rainbow, MGMT, and Flaming Lips), an increasingly apparent trend that has left some people wishing these chillwave artists (e.g. Toro Y Moi, Memory Tapes) would’ve stayed in the bedroom.
However, Neon Indian wears his studio time well. It’s obvious he’s no longer aiming solely for the blog-gobbling music fan; tracks like the hook-laden “Hex Girlfriend,” album standout “Halogen (I Could Be a Shadow),” and slow-burning “Suns Irrupt” have a distinct ‘made-for-MTV2’ vibe crammed neatly between each four-chord guitar riff and backing vocal melody. Those kinds of songs are occasionally broken up by brief instrumentals that allow Neon Indian’s gearhead side a chance to play around with some analog toys, the results of which merely serve the purpose of denoting the beginning, middle, and end of Era Extraña.
That’s just about where Palomo the producer is on his new album, but where is the singer/songwriter Palomo in the midst of all this change? Well, he’s no longer “the wizard behind the curtain,” to be sure. The artist has stepped into the spotlight, albeit somewhat sheepishly—allowing emotions a bit deeper than the regret of not taking drugs with a friend into his enigmatic lyrics, and delivering them with a more upfront, patently breathy singing voice. It’s there that Era Extraña‘s main fault lies: Palomo is a better puppetmaster than a frontman. His effect-addled vocals exude just about the same confidence and allure of one of the stoned teenagers he so often referenced on Psychic Chasms. It’s a challenging role that Palomo bestowed upon himself, one he’ll hopefully grow into the next time around.
Altered Zones points our attention to a bit of news on The Quietus pertaining to a new series of compilations coming from London label Finders Keepers, called Make Do & Mend, which was apparently started in hopes of helping out the imprint after the PIAS fire that happened during the recent London riots destroyed much of its stock. The series is meant to explore the wealth of “obscure and obsolete” music in Finders Keepers’ back catalog, so who better to contribute an album of selections that the two outspoken audiophiles and collectors of sonic oddities in Demdike Stare. The duo’s installment of Make Do & Mend is out now on limited-edition CD and digital formats. You can check out the artwork and patently esoteric tracklist, along with a few sound clips, below.
Billy Green – Toadtrip (Demdike Stare’s Double Drop Crash Edit)
Vangelis – The Dragon
Horrific Child – L’Etrange Mr Whinster (Demdike Stare’s Les Vampires Emeutes Mash Up)
Fusioon – Contraste
Billy Green – Death Trip
Bappi Lahiri – Disco Title Music From Dahshat
Gong – Rational Anthem
Acanthus – Violent Library
Bruno Spoerri – Background Rhythm 4
Selda – Utan Utan
Visitors – Visitors
Stanley Myers – Main Theme From Sitting Target
Philippe D’Aram – Des Ecuries
Before Polish tunesmith Deam drops his glowing Square Love EP on October 3 via his native country’s Concrete Cut label, we’re treated to “Riot,” one of the six vibrant, garage-infused cuts featured therein. The Warsaw-based artist certainly holds his own in the realm of UK bass music, exhibiting a deft use of swinging dancefloor rhythms, deep synth pads, treated vocal samples, and a few sonic bells & whistles.
The good folks behind the now-legendary UK radio station known as Rinse FM are set to celebrate their 17th birthday with yet another crazy party (remember the gnarly line-up from last year?), this time descending on London’s Brixton Academy for an unparalleled night of bass. And why not? 17 years of constantly pushing the UK’s forward-thinking sounds, and launching a number of musical movements over its nearly two decades of broadcasting (of both the pirate and legitimate natures) is more than enough reason for celebration. And if that celebration is set to include the likes of Oneman, Jackmaster, Elijah & Skilliam, Bok Bok, Floating Points, Horsepower Productions, Ms. Dynamite, Scratcha, Skream, and many more, well, hats off to Rinse. The full details, line-up, and a chance to grab tickets to the event—which is going down in just a few weeks, on October 8—can be found here.
The Beatport sales charts are often dominated by the latest international club smashes, but its vault of music runs deep and covers a wide variety of artists and sounds, which is why XLR8R has been asked to curate a special two-week series of Beatport charts by some of our favorite DJs and producers. Bok Bok not only heads up the white-hot Night Slugs label, but he also turns out upfront, grime-flavored tunes of his own and is widely regarded as one of the best DJs in the UK bass scene. His chart lists of 10 of his favorite tunes of the moment.
1. Jam City “Countess” (Night Slugs)
2. Bok Bok “Silo Pass” (Night Slugs)
3. Big Strick “Old E 800 (Omar S. Remix)” (FXHE Records)
4. Paul Du Lac “Blowback” (Clone Jack For Daze Serie)
5. Boddika “Warehouse” (Hotflush Recordings)
6. Lunice “I See U (Girl Unit Remix)” (LuckyMe)
7. Mz Bratt “Selecta (Bok Bok Night Sluggin’ Remix)” (Hardrive)
8. Mauser “Dancin” (Synapsis Records)
9. Gosub “Lost In Our Ways” (Frustrated Funk)
10. Pierre’s Pfantasy Club “Mystery Girl (Set Me Free)” (Numbers)
Listen to each individual track by clicking the song titles above, or go here to check out the entire chart. To see the rest of the charts in the XLR8R x Beatport series, click here.
It’s absolutely no secret that XLR8R has a particular affinity for Four Tet and pretty much all the work done by DJ/producer Kieran Hebden, so you can imagine how we jumped at the chance to premiere this video interview with the multi-talented artist. Jules Hallam of Minimum Wastage sat down with Hebden at this year’s Field Day festival to talk in depth about his brand-new mix album, Fabriclive 59, and his work with fellow figureheads Burial and Thom Yorke. We think you’ll enjoy this illuminating piece as much as we do.
Kouta‘s Orinda EP (artwork above) popped up out of seemingly nowhere about halfway though 2011, bestowing its four tracks of tender, detailed electronics on our ears. Now, the Bay Area producer has announced plans for a rerelease of sorts (set to drop sometime this November), gathering remixes of the EP’s songs from the likes of WeDidIt cohort D33J, Trifonic, and, featured here, So Cal producer Lotide, who some may recognize as one of the newer names to show up on Svetlana Industries‘ artist roster. Much in the vein of the original “Branches,” the first half of Lotide’s rework is mostly an electro-acoustic effort, pairing rich, percussive textures with ghostly, reversed drones. But, of course, Lotide wouldn’t just leave us hanging with some aimless rework, so right after the two minute mark, everything comes together when an absolutely gorgeous beat takes shape. The textures and drones remain in the mix, and are rendered into an understandable form as they swirl around a set of glass-like drums that tell us exactly when to nod our heads. We’re more than happy to do as they say.
A weird, brooding music video from Salem? You don’t say. This more or less eventless clip from director Theo Wenner comes to us coupled with “King Night,” the blown-out title track from Salem’s debut LP. At least we can say the controversialMidwestern trio knows how to keep with an aesthetic.
Always one to come out of left field, August Darnell’s (a.k.a. Kid Creole) I Wake Up Screaming is his first album in six years, and easily one of his best since the early ’80s. Full of references to his long musical career and a complete revival of the sound that made early Kid Creole & The Coconuts records so appealing, I Wake Up Screaming contains the kind of fun, Caribbean-influenced madness that only Darnell can deliver.
Still, a large part of why the record works is because it isn’t just a retread of the past, but instead a reworking of it through a contemporary lens. Joining Darnell on this album and sharing production duties are Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler and Chinatown label head Brennan Green. The resulting music brings to mind Dancing For the Cabana Crowd in the Land of Boo Hoo, the album released last year by one-time Darnell collaborator Coati Mundi. Nu-disco aesthetics mingle with faux-big band tropical disco to create an endearing record that’s out-and-out fun from beginning to end.
Kid Creole’s record starts with the appropriate “Stony and Cory,” a song that references Darnell’s time in seminal ’70s disco group Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. The song creatively repurposes the aesthetic of that band’s most well known song, “Cerchez La Femme/Se Si Bon,” to tell the story of the doomed relationship between lead vocalist Cory Daye and guitarist Stony Browder. It’s a fitting intro as the collapse of that band is entirely responsible for the creation of Kid Creole & The Coconuts. It also sets the stage for the kinds of theatrics that run through all of Darnell’s work, and are in no short supply here.
I Wake Up Screaming is at its best when it updates Kid Creole’s more dancefloor-oriented material. “Verily, Verily, Verily”‘s mad calypso rhythm, slide guitar, and chanted vocals bring to mind both “Annie I’m Not Your Daddy” and Coati Mundi’s “Que Pasa/Mi No Pop I.” Similarly, “Attitude” combines a more straightforward disco aesthetic (complete with Niles Rogers-esque guitar stabs), with wacky marimbas and Afro-Caribbean percussion.
Also worth mentioning is lead single “I Do Believe,” which exhibits Darnell taking a crack at a more conventional disco cut, albeit with an unconventional vocal. Darnell intones a supernatural narrative about aliens, conspiracy theories, and other strange phenomena over a bouncing disco bassline and four-on-the-floor drums. In less capable hands, it would likely come off as cheesy, but the song instead takes a sarcastic tack similar to “Disco Clone” by Darnell’s one time Ze label mate Christina.
The only stumbling point for I Wake Up Screaming is when Kid Creole’s occasionally over-the-top theatricality goes a little further than it should. One such moment is the ridiculous “Long Live The King,” which sounds like Darnell parodying the fantasy posturing of Yes. That said, Darnell is entirely aware of his own bravado, and it’s that bravado, along his willingness to keep tongue in cheek, that makes I Wake Up Screaming such a worthwhile listen.
