This latest cut to leak from the prolific London-based tunesmith known as Slugabed comes from a brand-new EP that just dropped via the producer’s new label home, Ninja Tune. “Heck Flex” is the second track on the Moonbeam Rider EP, and sounds quite a bit like that record’s title; the production’s opening synth has a kind of wavering glow reminiscent of a full moon, and once Slugabed’s slow-grooving beat drops, you certainly get the feeling you’re riding his futuristic G-funk vibes into space. We expect the other five tunes that make up Slugabed’s EP will complete the soundtrack for that intergalactic journey in similar fashion.
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Formerly residing in Paris and now based in Berlin, producer/DJ Rone has turned in this enthralling video for the title track of his recently released EP, So So So. Beautifully animated thanks to Studio Fünf, the video begins as a Harvey Pekar-esque story of desolation before turning into an astounding explosion of cartoon fireworks and swirling psychedelic shapes and colors. Only matched in its mesmerizing powers by Rone’s heavenly, contemplative track, the pairing is awesome in the truest sense of the word. So So So and Rone’s forthcoming sophomore full-length can be found on Paris’ In Finé imprint.
Producer Ben Thomas likes to be cut off from the outside world, making music when no one is around, or even awake. “I like to shut off outside influences as much as possible, and always work at night when everyone else is asleep,” says the producer, known in our world as BNJMN. “I try to think as little as possible when making tracks, and let feeling take over.” In this private, quiet world, BNJMN makes sublime, introspective house music, full of emotive synths, tender ambiance, and grounding low-end. A guitar player from the age of six, Thomas began using music software when a friend introduced him to it in his later teens, and electronic music has been his main focus ever since.
Plastic World, Thomas’ debut LP on Rush Hour, is a memorable meditation on soaring, synth-driven house, notable for its tangibly coastal sounds. Perhaps inspired by Thomas’ native port city of Bournemouth, the dismally sunny harmonies, sandy atmospherics, and high-and-low-tide arpeggios all lend a breathing, swelling feel to the otherwise mechanically timed cuts. Even the cover—a fish-eyed, psychedelic skewing of an otherwise flat checkerboard—speaks to the record’s tidal-grid perspective. Rush Hour, known for its reissues of classic Detroit techno and deep house, makes a perfect home for this record, simultaneously grounding it in tradition while showcasing its forward sound.
“Blocks”
The easy-jacking 4/4 jams on Plastic World recall infectious references—Drexciyan funk slime, the textures of Actress, and meaty, exuberant synth production not too far from that of Lone’s Emerald Fantasy Tracks. Standout tracks include the straight-cruisin’ “Blocks,” the oddball synth escapade “See Thru Stars,” and the perfectly printed, computer-funk jam “Ocean Spray.”
Thomas expresses a wide range of influences, making no claims of direct nostalgia. “I’m not massively knowledgeable about the early ’90s scene,” he admits. “But things like Aphex Twin, Theo Parrish, and Efdemin were a pretty big inspiration.” Thomas also cites folk musician John Martyn and writer/director Charlie Kaufman as influential, which perhaps explains Plastic World‘s graceful, introverted sound.
“See Thru Stars”
At 23, Thomas has already released music under two other aliases—Jackhigh and Singing Statues. Creating Brainfeeder-esque hip-hop as Jackhigh, Thomas co-released the Tropics EP with Teebs for Svetlana Industries last May. As Singing Statues, he’s put out a collection of dreamy, shoegaze synth tracks, the Outtakes EP, which currently remains as a free download on his MySpace page.
Upcoming plans for the young producer include another EP on Svetlana Industries this year, which he claims will be “quite different from the Plastic World material.” It’s clear that Thomas aims to avoid genre pigeonholing. “If people ask me what kind of music I make, I always just say ‘electronic,'” he intones. “If I tried to start creating house music, I’m sure it would be awful.” After repeatedly enjoying the reticent ecosystems of Plastic World, we can confidently say that won’t be the case.
Adventurous Russian producer Bop has just released The Amazing Adventures of One Curious Pixel (artwork above), his sophomore album which features “Inercontinental Meltdown” along with eight other originals and one remix. Bop’s production style is perhaps too easily described as “hybrid,” seeing as he can be found pulling from a wide-range of sound sources and genres, which for this MP3, culminates into a microhouse-meets-minimal-dubstep-meets-chiptune endeavor. Juxtaposing 8-bit percussion with dense low-end rumblings, the St. Petersburg-based producer twists and turns a distant vocal and string sample which eventually reveals itself to be pulled from a decades-old Indian-sounding tune. Despite all the disparate elements, Bop deftly manages to fit the pieces together into one intriguingly cohesive unit. The Amazing Adventures of One Curious Pixel is out now in digital and 12″ vinyl fomat.
The UK-based production duo of Gavin Miller and Thomas Ragsdale might be best known as Worriedaboutsatan, but the pair have since created Ghosting Season, a new musical outlet focused on the fusion of classical instrumentation, cinematic post-rock sounds, and UK bass music. Like on “Exercise Us,” taken from the duo’s forthcoming Far End of the Graveyard EP, Miller and Ragsdale lay the groundwork of their tunes with haunting string sections—often sounding like they were ripped straight from an understated indie thriller—before heaping flitty percussive sounds, throbbing basslines, dense aural atmospheres, and other ghostly sound effects over the moody tones. It conjures something akin to what Demdike Stare might sound like if they weren’t glued to their dollar-bin discoveries. You can hear more of Ghosting Season’s EP when the outfit releases it themselves later this month.
Jeremy Greenspan and Matthew Didemus, the bi-continental pair behind Junior Boys, offer a fascinating new permutation of their melancholic electro-pop vision with It’s All True, the duo’s fourth full-length album. They manage to further refine what’s made them great to date—sublime pop songwriting and spotless production—while pursuing as many directions as there are songs on the album, exploding their sensibilities into several new shapes that, while incredibly varied, are both inspired and infectious, whether taken together or as individual tracks.
Much of It’s All True was created in Shanghai, where Greenspan, the duo’s vocalist and main songwriter, made a lengthy trip to begin writing and recording, later returning home to the duo’s studio in Hamilton, Ontario, where Berlin-based Didemus helped polish everything off. Other than the album’s cover photo of the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, the recording locale does not have a particularly obvious effect on the record, but Greenspan did recruit local musicians to provide instrumentation, including the striking, stringed-instrument-inflected bridge of album opener “Itchy Fingers,” a busy laptop-pop song that kicks off the record with speedy insistence.
The album sounds immediately more buoyant than any of their previous, more brooding releases. It turns out to be more multifarious too, and this variety is initially a bit confounding—the shift from “Itchy Fingers” into the considerably slower, contemplative second track, “Playtime,” for instance, is pretty jarring at first, and the radical transitions only continue from there—but the album’s internal logic gradually reveals itself on repeat listens. What turns out to tie it all together is not only the quality of the songs, but Greenspan’s expressive vocals and the duo’s fundamental production instincts, molding what are, at face value, outmoded-sounding synth and drum patterns into endlessly listenable pop.
Greenspan has, in the past, championed the work of late, revered soft-rock session drummer Jeff Porcaro, citing him as inspiration for much of 2009’s Begone Dull Care, the comparatively inconsistent predecessor to It’s All True. The influence of Porcaro and his milieu sounds like it has carried over to Junior Boys’ craft here, where their forays into ’80s R&B-style production beget songs that turn out to be real treasures. This sensibility clicks particularly well on “A Truly Happy Ending,” which blends synths, piano, and mesmeric drum programming into an arresting groove. “Second Chance,” perhaps the album’s finest track, is a terrifically forlorn pop song, turning up incredible new hooks as late as five minutes into the six-minute tune. The record takes a turn into micro-house with “Kick the Can,” an effort reminiscent of earlier Junior Boys productions, while the record’s two most club-oriented tracks, “ep” and lead-off single “Banana Ripple,” are placed at the end of the album. The latter is a meandering, nine-minute house track that, while erratic, has enough stellar moments to constitute a most jubilant coda. It’s the record’s only shaky moment, really, and an enjoyable one at that.
After eight-plus years of releasing music, Junior Boys demonstrate handily with It’s All True that they remain fresh, luminous, and highly relevant. The album may not be as aesthetically cohesive as, say, 2004’s Last Exit or 2006’s So This Is Goodbye, but aesthetic uniformity appears not to have been the point with this record to begin with—its array of styles, disparate as they may seem, dovetail into a record of depth and lasting impact.
As we draw closer to the July 12 release of Washed Out‘s new LP, Within and Without, the first-generation chillwaver has tapped a few like-minded producers to give the album’s lead single the remix treatment for a forthcoming 12″. Alongside reworks from Starslinger and Lovelock is this icy take on “Eyes Be Closed” from Montreal’s resident dream-pop enchantress Grimes (pictured above), who buries the original song beneath layers of her own snowy vocal whisperings. Exercising a generous amount of remix prowess, Grimes does not allow the tune to approach any sort of tangible beat for a good while, choosing instead to pile distant soundscapes together, effectively drawing Washed Out further into the depths of stark ambiance than he’s previously ventured. Of course, a beat eventually makes its way through the fog, and, of course, it’s a glistening slice of blissful electro, and, of course, it all culminates in another solid production, adding more fuel to the fire that is our growing affinity for Grimes’ work. (via FACT)
One of the more warm and tender producers to grace Planet Mu‘s extensive roster, England’s Chris Ward (a.k.a. Tropics), will soon release a new EP via the UK label, preceding a full-length album scheduled to drop this fall. Ward’s Mouves EP features two original tunes, along with two remixes of the title track by blog darlings Keep Shelly in Athens and Brooklyn house fiend FaltyDL, and will be available on July 18. Before then, you can stream the lead cut from Tropics’ Mouves EP, below.
“Mouves”
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Our resident stylist Andrew Porter waxes casual on men’s and women’s must-haves.
Quality Peoples Body Surf tee Ride’s cover for Nowhere is one of the best covers ever made. About seven years ago, I spent a good chunk of time talking about how I wanted to make all-over oceanic print tees inspired by Nowhere. Since I ran a screen-printing business, I could have made them in a matter of hours. Alas, I like to talk about how “I had that idea years ago” as opposed to making said idea materialize. Heck, if I was making those shirts, who would have been sitting on the couch watching Law & Order and eating Cheetos? So yeah, here you have it, an outstanding-looking all-over oceanic print t-shirt. Kudos to Quality Peoples for getting this idea into the world. Also, hats off for using an image taken from a lens with water drops on it. Am I the only one seeing that? Trippy…
Vintage short-sleeve button-downs I buy the majority of my clothes second hand. If you buy new clothes, you wind up spending a lot of money and owning something 1000 other people are walking down the street wearing. Thus, I buy vintage in the interest of my bank account and uniqueness. Rolling into summer, I spent the spring collecting ’80s and ’90s short-sleeve button-down shirts. I think the SSBD looks great, and the prints from the ’80s and ’90s really deliver. Furthermore, during this period, a lot of clothing was still made in America, so not only are you getting a deal buying vintage, you’re also getting higher quality. Above are some of my favorite finds from the past few months—I didn’t spend more than $13 on any of these. That’s what’s up! Don’t buy clothes from H&M that will disintegrate within a matter of months. Go out and find something one-of-a-kind.
Zone-7 Style Speaking of vintage, these days there are a lot of blogs selling really crazy vintage gear. This blog, Zone 7 Style, has some really amazing stuff. I don’t know anything about this guy’s deal—maybe he’s a stylist, a consultant, or something of that nature—all I know is that he’s on the level. This gentleman comes into a lot of vintage Polo, Moschino Jeans, rare sunglasses, Versace, and just all-around fresh stuff. The site is consistently updated, and he posts a lot of both men’s and women’s clothing. Even if you’re not into buying vintage, I recommend a spin through Zone 7 because there is a lot of neat stuff to look at. To boot, it’s 2011 here, people! Let’s go green, save the planet, and get into recycled clothing.
Mortal Kombat Warner Bros.; Xbox 360, PS3 Get over here! No seriously, come here. Does this look infected to you? Infected with awesome?! It is our professional medical opinion that the latest Mortal Kombat is indeed rife with awesome, as nearly 30 blood-thirsty combatants of the Mortal Kombat universe return to the timeline of the original three games from the ’90s (the three best) in an effort to change events in the present—which apparently is not going so swimmingly. While the game will retain the 3D environments of the recent installments, gameplay itself will revert to an old-school 2D plane with a much deeper fighting system than the series has employed to date. Mortal Kombat will also introduce two- and four-player tag-team matches along with plenty of online action and even a new Challenge Tower mode that includes hundreds of various trials and tribulations that will certainly test your might—and unlock valuable secrets should you succeed. Of course, this wouldn’t be Mortal Kombat without gore and fatalities, both which have been majorly upgraded to gruesome new levels of gross.
Brink Bethesda; Xbox 360, PS3 Several years after the world’s attempt to finally go green, a self-sufficient “ark” floating off the coast of San Francisco has become the last, overcrowded bastion of civilization in a now flooded world as two well-armed factions vie for control in Brink. After choosing to violently overrun the city or to bring peace (violently), you can then choose from one of four unique classes, including soldiers and engineers, who must then all work together as a cohesive unit to successfully complete objectives towards your goal of ultimate dominion. With nearly endless character-customization options—ranging from the size of your gun to the prison-osity of your tattoos—Brink’s exaggerated art style creates a distinct atmosphere in which your team can run, leap, and destroy in any which way both online against other teams and off. As your team gets through missions, experience is gained and you are able to unlock even more ways to enhance your weapons, increase your health, or even steal your opponent’s identity as you wage war towards the center of the dystopian capitol. See what happens when you don’t recycle?!
LA Noire Rockstar; Xbox 360, PS3 The free-for-all that was the post-war 1940s United States is one of the more interesting times in this country’s history, yet it has fewer games made about it than the five years prior. What gives? Oh, right— fewer slimy Nazis. However, classic-point-and-click-game déjà vu notwithstanding, even fewer games have been able to capture the somewhat less slimy underworld that was Los Angeles during this period (which may or may not have ended—we’re still fact-checking that one) until this month’s LA Noire. This serious take on cinematic murder mysteries puts you in the gumshoes of a war vet turned cop, played by Mad Men’s Aaron Staton, as you use interrogation, instinct, and a whole lot of good old-fashioned police work to solve a grisly string of La La Land slayings. Read a perp’s reactions to your line of questioning the wrong way and they could get off scott-free. Don’t do your homework and you could nail the wrong guy. Luckily, everyone has a tale, and LA Noire has gone to great lengths to create the most elaborate facial animations ever seen in a game, so at least you have something to work with before getting busted down from detective to meter maid. With plenty of sex, drugs, and soothing jazz, LA Noire is a unique slice of pulpy pleasure for those looking to get their Mike Hammer on.
Infamous 2 Sony; PS3 When I was 12, some friends and I found a gaudy piece of costume jewelry that we decided should grant elemental powers specific to its wearer. Mine was to harness the power of lightning. We called ourselves the “Power Group” and went around blasting things at school with our ring. For this, we were made fun of quite regularly until we ourselves decided that it was indeed mock-worthy. However, if I did have the ability to shoot lightning, they would certainly rue the day! Rue the shit out of that day! Such is the allure of Infamous 2. Imbued with the ability to control electricity, you play as Cole MacGrath, a one-time courier duped into becoming an unwilling pawn in a super-powered game as you traverse a New Orleans-inspired city that is also highly destructible. To that end, morality plays a big part of Infamous 2, as being pretty good or pretty bad with your gifts leads you down various paths—most importantly, more awesome powers! User-generated feedback and content will also come into play, as the most popular missions created by fans will get implemented into the actual game.
Duke Nukem Forever 2K; Xbox 360, PS3 Better late than never, they always say. But is 14 years well beyond the statute of limitations on that old chestnut? If we are talking about Duke Nukem Forever, then the answer is “Hell to the naw!” Originally slated for release in 1997, Duke Nukem Forever went through more versions and more unfulfilled release dates than any other game EVER until finally being ditched by its original developer a couple of years ago. Thankfully, it was picked up by dudes who had the balls to finish what was started back when Bubba was in charge, known as Gearbox Software, whose last effort, Borderlands, was a pretty unfuckwithable RPG/shooter hybrid. While fixing up what is essentially an ancient game to compete with the likes of today’s shooters may seem foolhardy, Duke Nukem Forever does just that, albeit in a very tongue-in-cheek manner, rife with dick jokes, strippers, and all manner of toilet-humor-infused gore. In other words, everything fans have come to expect from Duke… and them some. Hail to the king, baby!
Portal 2 EA; Xbox 360, PS3 By now, we are all aware that there is, in fact, no cake to be had at the end of 2007’s sleeper hit, Portal. But perhaps even better is that now we get the sweet, sweet taste of Portal 2 to sink our dimension-bending teeth into. As she stated so clearly in song at the end of the first game, hilariously evil super-computer GLaDOS is in fact still alive and ready to torture your brain once again since you’ve been revived from stasis hundreds of years after the first adventure. Equipped with a gun that shoots only entrance and exit portals, you must outthink the traps laid for you in the once great halls of Aperture Science, now overrun with flora and the aforementioned still-active devices of death. Co-op multiplayer also figures in this time around, as you take on the role of one of two unnervingly adorable robots to unravel puzzles totally different than the single-player campaign. While it certainly is no cakewalk, with clever design and priceless dialogue from the likes of Stephen Merchant and JK Simmons, it’s certainly one of the more charming games you’ll ever have the pleasure of being perplexed by.
Shift 2: Unleashed EA; Xbox 360, PS3 If you’ve somehow managed to avoid the Need for Speed franchise over the past decade, then now would be the time to just cut it out, because the series’ latest, Shift 2: Unleashed, will have you cruising in a daze of thunder (or whatever 200 mph does to you)! While still a Need for Speed title, Shift 2 aims for simulated realism a la Gran Turismo instead of the usual balls-out arcade action of previous entries. The result is perhaps the most realistic racing title to date, with realistic physics affecting the nearly 150 real-life cars featured from 36 manufacturers. As you tear around dozens of tracks all over the globe you earn experience and upgrades that help pit you against worthy competition both on and offline. Precision and style are rewarded as you avoid smart AI drivers, battle road deterioration, and even take on the darkness while weaving through tracks in the dead of night. The amazing sense of speed and realism makes this a shift in right direction.
SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALs Sony; PS3 As if the US Military doesn’t have enough to keep them busy these days, here comes SOCOM 4: US Navy SEALs . As the leader of an elite squad of America’s finest, you must team up with a couple of South Korean operatives as you take on some Southeast Asian nasties known as the Naga. Playing Cesar Millan to your team of highly trained attack dogs, you command them to sit, stay, or perforate accordingly through 14 nail-biting missions that involve stealth infiltration, air strikes, and straight-up firefights. Helping to ramp up the realism, SOCOM 4 is compatible with 3D televisions as well as Sony’s Move motion controller, which can be attached to the recent Sharp Shooter peripheral for even more gun-slinging action. With nearly 40 weapons and online matches with up to 32 players, SOCOM 4 will satisfy your patriotic bloodlust.
Yoostar 2 Yoostar Entertainment; Xbox 360, PS3 Let’s be real: From Inigo Montaya’s tale of the six-fingered man to Mr. Miyagi’s cryptic car-detailing instructions, your rote memorization—and subsequent regurgitation—of cinema’s finest scribblings has not won you as many kudos in life as you may feel you so deserve. Despite the Academy’s blatant snub of your obvious De Niro-esque talents, Yoostar 2 now offers you the opportunity to get your demo reel out into the world so it can finally sample the genius of your masterful Norbit impression. Ranging from beloved classics like Casablanca and The Wizard of Oz to more recent hits like Tropic Thunder and Shaun of the Dead, Yoostar 2 uses the Kinect or PlayStation Eye camera to place you in any of dozens of famous movie scenes as it grades you on accuracy and movement, sort of like movie karaoke, and then allows you to upload it on the likes of Facebook and YouTube for the rest of the world to pass judgment on. No matter if you’re an Olivier or an Olivia Newton-John, one thing is for certain—it’s not a toomaahh!
