We’ve already gone ahead and posted the two tracks (“Carnival” and “I Love…That You Know”) found on Transparent‘s recently released 7″ from the young London duo of brothers Disclosure, so why not a remix as well? It doesn’t hurt that this particular rework comes courtesy of another up-and-coming UK duo, Colo (pictured above), which effectively massages the super-smooth skitterings of the original tune into a mellow, beat-friendly slice of moderate bliss complete with hissy samples and dusty percussion. Fortunately, the pair also have the common sense to keep the deliciously chopped-up R&B hooks from Discloure’s song basically intact, as it would be hard to imagine how any version of “I Love…That You Know” could be complete without them.
The story of James Blake is a considerably fabled one given how relatively short his career has been so far. And with a string of heralded releases for some of the most forward-thinking labels today to his name, Blake is set to return with two new tracks which appear to move away from the work of his polarizing debut LP and find him once again mining heavy, bass-laden productions. Slated for release on Untold‘s Hemlock imprint (which already totes a Blake 12″ in its discography), “Order” and “Pain” are the two new gems the London producer has in store for the world, with an apparent release date of July 11. You can stream snippets of both tracks over at HMV Digital now. (via The Kort)
Last week during a quick trip to Toronto for the city’s 17th annual NXNE Festival, we managed to wrangle a few of our favorite artists to get their take on the city and chat about what they’ve been busy with musically. Here we catch a few minutes in West Queen West with Montreal synth-pop singer-producer Grimes (a.k.a. Claire Boucher) as she talks about Enya, George Michael, her upcoming LP, and her favorite haunts around town.
XLR8R: Being from Montreal, do you end up playing in Toronto a lot? Grimes: Yeah, I think I actually play here quite a bit, because it’s nearby.
When you’re here, are there other Toronto artists that you play with a lot? Is there much of a Toronto-Montreal alliance? Yeah, probably like Doldrums… we’re pretty good friends with him and his brother, Daniel, who organizes a lot of shows that we do here, so I feel like we definitely are good friends with them. There’s not really any other bands we know really well from here, but everyone’s really nice.
What are your favorite things to do in Toronto? Do you know Super Joy? It’s our friends’ really cool loft, and i just like to hang out there cuz there’s just really beautiful art everywhere. I tend to go to a lot of parks because I don’t really know what else to do. I don’t know the city, and I get lost every time I come here. I like the park in Kensington Market that’s like kind of sketchy.
How would you characterize Montreal’s indie scene? Montreal’s scene is really local and geographically based. And there are sort of aesthetic links between people, but I do think, to a degree, people are doing their own thing. Which I really like, that there’s a lot of different music coming out of Montreal. And it’s very mutually supportive, and there’s a real dialog between everybody.
So who are your favorites in Montreal then, music-wise? I really like Mozart’s Sister. I really like Flow Child, who is from the band Pop Winds. Actually, Majical Cloudz and Flow Child, who are both former Pop Winds members. I like everybody on Arbutus.
What’s the relationship between you and d’Eon, in terms of doing the split LP on Hippos in Tanks? We met cuz we just had so many mutual friends. But I really liked that he was into R&B at a time when not so many other people were, so we just had a lot of musical similarities between us. I didn’t think it was gonna be a big deal, doing the split. Like, I thought we’d make a tape and make like 30 copies. [laughs]
What’s been the response? It seems like a catapulting kind of record for you guys. Yeah, it seems like it got quite a good response. I’m happy with how it went, because I really didn’t think anything would become of it. I think I had the most fun doing it because I really like making music videos and I also really like how—Chris [d ‘Eon] is like the closest thing [I’ve got] to a band, and even though we didn’t make any music together, just being associated with another person feels kinda nice.
So there’s a full-length planned for sometime soon? Yeah, hopefully it’ll be out on January 17 [next year]. I want to finish it really soon. I think it’ll be much better than Darkbloom. I think it’s the best thing I’ve done. It’s clean and hi-fi and really vocally oriented, and it’s like a dark take on New Edition or something. There’s definitely sort of like an R&B-hip-hoppy thing going on, but also kind of detuned bass and noisy stuff, but all in a very spacial, spacey way; not a lot of held-down chords and reverb. There’s a lot more empty space than on my other albums, but it’s also a lot more fast-paced. It’s more dance-oriented than I wanted it to be, but I think I’m just too hyperactive to make slow music.
What are, say, three ’80s R&B touchstones for you? I have no idea, because I don’t know anything in terms of years. I just listen to what my friends give me. [laughs] I’m like really musically uneducated. I dunno, I’m really into Mariah Carey. The major influences for the album, even though they’re not necessary R&B, are like Dungeon Family and like Black Dice, Mariah Carey, and Enya maybe, but with less reverb.
Enya seems to be having a resurgence among young hip people lately. She’s really good. She does make a lot of boring music, too, and a lot of distasteful music, but I think the idea is really cool.
Do you produce your records yourself? Yep. [I use] an interface and a keyboard; it’s very simple. I use GarageBand. I want Mac to give me a computer one day.
Did you learn the whole process just by messing around with it? Yeah, [Sebastian Cowan of Arbutus Records] taught me a lot of stuff. The Darkbloom thing, we sat down in his studio for a long time and went through everything and cleaned it up, and that definitely helped me.
What’s next for you? I wanna work on the new record a lot, I want it to have a really strong visual aspect—I just want it to be really artistically cohesive, and like really powerful. And then when I’m done with that, I want to work on my live set more.
What’s the live set like now? It’s just very short. If I played every song, I could probably play for 45 minutes, but a lot of it would be kinda crappy [laughs].
Is it just you? Yeah, I use a vocal processor and a sampler and my keyboard. It’s very simple, but I want it to be more sonically full; I think I probably need to enlist more people, even though I don’t want to. It’s always right on the edge—I’m always like, ahhh!, jumping around, trying to do things really fast. And I think there’s definitely an excitement to that that people find interesting. Like, I was playing this huge show in Montreal at Metropolis, and I accidentally deleted a sample because I hit the wrong button, in front of like thousands of people, so sometimes it’s a bit risky, but it’s a live show—it should be. But I’d like back-up singers.
So you say that the new record is dance-music influenced. Are you at all into house and techno? Maybe. I just don’t really know much about music, which is like really embarrassing.
No, it’s actually a really cool response, to not know every single thing by every single artist out there. It’s a fresher take on things. I like that the way your music suits a scene, somehow, but isn’t trained in all sorts of predictable ways. Do you know Debussy very well?
Yeah, sure. I feel like I sort of approach music like he does. He went to this World’s Fair one time and saw a gamelan orchestra, and it blew his mind, and he spent the rest of his career trying to take that impression and use that, and I feel like for me, I don’t know a lot of music really well, but I’ll hear something in a car driving by and be like, “whoa!” I remember at SXSW, we walked past this show and the music was just really cool, and I heard it for about half a minute, but it influenced me so much. I feel like I just do that a lot; I don’t necessary really even love a band. Like, there’s this George Michael song, and for the longest time it really influenced me, and I didn’t even know who made it, and I hadn’t heard it in like 10 years, but I was obsessed with it.
What song was it? I don’t know. Song number 5 on Halfaxa is like a huge rip-off of it, but I just don’t remember it.
One of the original indie hip-hoppers from the early days of Anticon, Alias, has announced the release of a new LP entitled Fever Dream, his first album since 2008’s Resurgam. It sure sounds like Alias has spent the time since soaking up some new musical influences, as “Wanna Let It Go” seems to signify a stylistic shift of sorts from his already established catalog. There are traces of LA’s beat scene nestled in the wobbly synths and side-chained pads, and even echoes of the current UK bass style in the chopped and pitched vocals, but this is no direct derivative of any particular artist or scene, just a seasoned producer evolving with the times—and tastefully at that. The artwork and tracklist for Fever Dream, which sees its release August 30, can be found after the jump.
Tracklist: 1. Goinswimmin 2. Wanna Let It Go 3. Revi Is Divad 4. No Choice 5. Dahorses 6. Lady Lambin’ 7. Talk In Technicolor 8. Feverdreamin 9. Boom Boom Boom 10. Tagine 11. Sugarpeeeee 12. Wrap
For the most part, subtlety isn’t exactly among the top 10 things to love about hip-hop. Productions are often patently bombastic, if not downright outrageous, and even at their most creative, many MCs aim straight for your lower regions before considering your more contemplative parts. And that’s all well and good for hip-hop lovers around the world, but the lack of emotional diversity in the genre has left a noticeable void, one which appears to have been effortlessly filled by New Jersey-based producer Michael Volpe (a.k.a. Clams Casino).
Although Volpe’s Rainforest EP follows a widely praised free mixtape of instrumentals that were originally made as beats for use by the likes of MCs Lil B, Main Attrakionz, and Soulja Boy, it’s considered to be his full-fledged artist debut, as the five tracks were apparently always intended to be heard only as instrumentals. The fact alone that the record was released by the increasingly impressive Tri Angle imprint should give you an idea of what to expect from these five cuts of downtrodden beat work (though Volpe openly admits he’d never heard of the label before owner Robin Carolan approached him). But while Balam Acab, Holy Other, and the rest of Tri Angle’s small roster will cite hip-hop merely as an influence, Clams Casino is there in the thick of it, offering its patrons an alternate reality opposite Swizz Beatz’s Top 40 studio productions and Kanye West’s rampant ostentation.
From the start, the Rainforest EP is a world unto itself, and “Natural”—quite possibly the loveliest production on the record—is a welcoming gateway. Distorted, low-bit-rate harp sounds and tectonic rumbles usher us into Clams Casino’s lush landscape, a place where disembodied voices call out with moans from unknown locations, broken drum samples lurk behind tangled messes of audio fragments before leaping into view, and filtered synths swell up and float in the air like a morning mist or midnight fog. “Waterfalls,” “Drowning,” and “Gorilla” all follow that formula almost to a tee, effectively skirting any semblance of monotony thanks to Volpe’s attention to sonic detail and versatility with conveying the many subtleties of heartache and desperation. It’s on “Treetop” when the producer tries something altogether different, crafting a synth-driven beatscape completely void of vocal samples, with shoddily recorded nature sounds used in their stead. Clams Casino succeeds yet again in this stylistic sidestep; the song’s touching psychedelia could rightly soundtrack the most impressive aerial shots the BBC Nature crew has in its repertoire. “Treetop” isn’t a soaring tune, but—like the rest of the excellent Rainforest EP—it’s that attachment to the Earth that makes Clams Casino’s otherworldly hip-hop familiar enough to reach any true lover of beats.
With three 12″s to his name already this year (two of which coming from the 50 Weapons imprint), it could be considered a feat in itself that Cosmin TRG has any material left for release, no less a whole album’s worth. But that’s exactly what the recent Berlin transplant has in store with the announcement of his debut LP, Simulat, slated for an August 26 release via the Modeselektor-run 50 Weapons label. Said to not be solely comprised of dancefloor-oriented tracks, TRG’s debut full-length is sure to find him exploring the futuristic sides of house, garage, and bass that have characterized his prolific output over the past few years for a stellar list of labels such as Hessle, Hotflush, Tempa, and Rush Hour. No samples of what to expect have surfaced from the forthcoming full-length yet, but we’re told the first single, “Fizic,” features “areas of warm analogue ambiance and abstract alien sounds” along with “traces of everything that has gotten Cosmin to this point so far.” Yep, we’re excited too. You can check the artwork and tracklist for Simulat below.
Tracklist: 01 Amor Y Otros 02 Ritmat 03 Infinite Helsinki 04 Want You To Be 05 Interstellar Inflight Entertainment 06 Fizic (CD Only) 07 Star Motel 08 Less Of Me, More Of You 09 Osu Xen 10 Lillasyster 11 Samiska 12 Form Over Function
It was late last year when the then-new Voltaire imprint dropped its inaugural release Keep It Off the Record—a bubbling analog-electronics-meets-Krautrock 12″ from Trans Am drummer Sebastian Thomson’s solo project Publicist. Now the SF label has returned with its second release, a 12″ compilation entitled Affairs Online (artwork above). Amongst the five futuristic pieces of analog funk is this cut from a young Swede operating under the somewhat brash pseudonym Le Pimp. Undeniably indebted to the legacy of Detroit, “BTTB” seems to look back on the early heyday of Midwestern house and techno with a knowledgeable hindsight, even incorporating memories of some of its contemporaries, such as the Revolution-era Prince synth riffs placed at the edges of the song’s space-aged, Motor City-electro core.
As bass music has risen to prominence in dance-music circles over the past couple of years, the focus of the scene has undoubtedly been centered on London, largely thanks to pioneering labels such as Night Slugs, Hyperdub, Hessle Audio, and others too numerous to list. While the sound is also being explored on the American side of the Atlantic, a prominent US imprint has yet to emerge. That might all be about to change, as Kingdom has officially announced the birth of his own Fade to Mind label. Said to be “a record label and a movement, a series of club nights and cooperative projects in music, visual art, video, and apparel,” Fade to Mind is an effort led by Kingdom but done in conjunction with like-minded artists Nguzunguzu, Total Freedom, and Dallas-based DJ Prince William. Also in the mix is the aforementioned Night Slugs camp, for whom Kingdom has released music in the past. Night Slugs and Fade to Mind will apparently be operating as sister labels.
Apart from the principals involved in running the label, the Fade to Mind roster already includes artists such as MikeQ, Gremino, Cedaa, Clicks & Whistles, Rizzla, Fatima Al Qadiri, and others. In terms of releases, only the imprint’s first EP has been announced, the Timesup EP from Nguzunguzu, scheduled for digital release on July 5 with a vinyl version to follow later in the summer. The EP tracklist and artwork are below. Keen eyes will undoubtedly notice the aesthetic similarity to Night Slugs, although only the Fade to Mind logo and cover format were designed by Bok Bok. The artwork itself was done by Kingdom and the rest of the Fade to Mind crew.
Those of you in New York on Thursday can help celebrate Fade to Mind at the label’s first official party, a free event which doubles as an afterparty for a unique performance happening at New York’s New Museum called The Table, a five-hour session where Kingdom, Total Freedom, and Nguzunguzu are placed at four opposing sides of a table in the middle of the floor. The afterparty flyer is also posted below.
1. Timesup 2. Water Bass Power 3. Wake Sleep 4. Timesup (Kingdom Remix) 5. Wake Sleep (Total Freedom Winter Park Homicide Edition)
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As most of our readers should already know, Carl Craig‘s seminal Planet E imprint is in the midst of celebrating 20 years of existence, and it seems like just about everyone is getting in on the action (such as our feature from back in April). Now Ibiza’s own site/radio show/weekly summer club night We Love Music has shared this video of interviews and performances from the Planet E crew filmed while Craig and company were in town for their 20 Years of Planet E all-vinyl night. Expect words to be spoken, records to be spun, and knowledge to be dropped.
And now for your monthly Gold Panda update: UK producer and micro-techno lover Derwin has a brand-new track to share with the world, called “MPB,” before he continues on with another tour of the world. The crunchy, lighthearted production brings to mind the airy bell sounds and flitting electronics that made up a large part of the artist’s lovely Lucky Shiner album, with a decent helping of bouncing beat work and wonky percussive sounds to freshen his sound up a bit. While you bob your head along with this one, check out Gold Panda’s forthcoming tour dates, below.
06.22 Cologne, DE @ C/O POP FESTIVAL 06.25 Glastonbury, UK @ GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL @ CUBE HENGE 06.30 Tromoya, NO @ HOVE FESTIVAL 07.02 Winchester, UK @ BLISSFIELDS FESTIVAL 07.03 Roskilde, DK @ ROSKILDE FESTIVAL 07.09 Oeiras, PT @ OPTIMUS ALIVE FESTIVAL 07.14 Dour, BE @ DOUR FESTIVAL 07.15 Berlin, DE @ MELT FESTIVAL 07.17 Suffolk, UK @ LATITUDE FESTIVAL 07.22 Split, HR @ ATLANTIS FESTIVAL 07.23 Rome, IT @ MIT FESTIVAL 08.05 Bungalowdorf Olganitz, DE @ NACHT DIGITAL FESTIVAL 08.13 Cannes, FR @ PANTIERO FESTIVAL 08.14 Hamburg, DE @ DOCKVILLE FESTIVAL 08.27 Katowice, PL @ TAURON NOWA MUZYKA FESTIVAL 10.05 Bristol, UK @ THEKLA 10.06 London, UK @ KOKO 10.07 Leeds, UK @ BRUDENELL SOCIAL CLUB 10.08 Glasgow, UK @ KING TUTS 10.24 Los Angeles, CA @ ECHOPLEX 10.25 San Francisco, CA @ THE INDEPENDENT 10.26 Seattle, WA @ THE CROCODILE 10.27 Ann Arbor, MI @ BLIND PIG 10.28 Chicago, IL @ THE EMPTY BOTTLE 10.29 New York, NY @ GOOD UNITS 10.30 Asheville, NC @ MOOG FESTIVAL
