One of the brilliant musical minds behind the UK’s Instra:mental outfit (check out our recent feature on the duo here), Jon Convex, has just announced he will release a solo 12″ this summer via Martyn’s excellent 3024 label. The two-track record (a third track is available in the digital download) is said to take “a turn into harder and darker territory,” and will be released on June 13. Before then, you can check out the tracklist and previews of each tune on Convex’s forthcoming release, below.
“Convexations”
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“Falling Again”
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“Order Into Chaos”
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These days, if you just so much as create original visuals for a music video (no matter what they are actually depicting), you’ll easily grab our attention. But if you go ahead and create a miniature world based on video games, archaic clip art, VHS tapes, and cute animations, well, we’ll make sure to share your work with as many people as we can. Such is the case with this video for “Xerox” by London’s My Panda Shall Fly. The piece is a collaborative effort between artist Soju Tanaka and director Daniel Swan, who crafted an elaborately lo-fi short film about one little white cat’s plight to reach the sky, or something. You can hear more of My Panda Shall Fly’s music on his Sorry I Took So Long EP, which was recently released via Dam Mantle’s Growing label, here.
Our resident stylist Andrew Porter waxes casual on men’s and women’s must-haves.
T & C Classic Tee I live in New York, but I grew up in California. As a kid, skate and surf culture dominated fashion. Brands like Vision Street Wear, Powell, Jimmy-Z, Maui and Sons, Santa Cruz, and Vans were the brands we loved. At the age of eight, however, nothing was cooler than T & C shirts. (Alas, at the age of 10 nothing was cooler than stonewashed Guess overalls, but that’s another story for the New Jack Swing history books). To refresh your memories, T & C shirts looked something like this. Unfortunately, they no longer produce these shirts and, for what it’s worth, wearing one might make you look like an eight-year-old (I’m cool with that: My Saturn is in return). T & C does still make their classic logo shirts (pictured above). Good summer look. Wearing one of these says, “I’ve got a positive beach party attitude,” but not in an ironic vintage-Cabo Wabo-t-shirt type of way.
Linus Bicycles I am a bicycle lover. I raced BMX as a kid, rode trails all across the Southwest, did delivery work through a couple New York City winters, and even rode a century through the California wine country on a tandem bicycle with my dad. I built my first track bike about 12 years ago. At some point in my life, I’m sure I would have fed you some BS line about how track bikes make more sense in the city. I would have said “cadence” a lot, and fiercely defended my stance. The fact of the matter is that I was 22 years old and full of it. Track bikes are absurd. I love them, they’re a blast to ride, but they’re pretty impractical. Maybe I’m getting old, but at this point in my life, I feel like all you need is a bicycle that’s comfortable, gets you from point a to point b, you don’t have to worry about getting stolen, and, in Casual Friday’s fashion, looks nice. For those that feel the same and don’t want to build something from scratch, I recommend these Linus bicycles. I rode one around last week and it was tons of fun. Nothing fancy—just simple and easy. Good looking to boot! At $400, this is a great entry-level around-town bicycle. In other bicycle news, for those of you down to spend the cash and bike out, this Brooks saddle is pretty cool.
Florian Rope Necklace I work in “fashion,” but one thing I don’t think about too much is jewelry. That said, I always appreciate when I see an individual wearing unique accessories. I decided I would write about some jewelry this week, but after casually perusing the internet for women’s accessories I realized that all the pieces I liked were really expensive. I don’t know if this means that I have expensive taste, or if nice jewelry ain’t cheap (probably the latter). Anyways, I figured my casual perusing shouldn’t go to waste so here’s a piece I really liked: The Florian rope necklaces from Opening Ceremony. Again, it carries a pretty hefty price tag, but it’s really incredible—almost sculptural in form. It kind of reminds me of a Tauba Auerbach painting by way of necklace. Apparently, it’s unisex. Not really sure I’m ready to take it there, but who knows what this season has in store for me. So after writing this super-articulate piece on jewelry, in which I say “sculptural,” I think I’ll go back to sneakers and jackets. Happy Friday!
Ever found yourself scratching your head, dumbfounded and in awe of Soul Clap‘s production chops? Well, friend, we’re right there with you. But at least we can all take comfort in the knowledge that on May 9, a part of the magic behind the madness will be revealed. Renowned production school Dubspot will be hosting a special workshop with the boys from Boston that promises to touch on how they use Ableton Live, their production philosophy, their workflow, and more. Rounding out the workshop will be a live, interactive performance featuring Soul Clap and three other performers. The whole shindig will be broadcast live via Dubspot’s Ustream, which you can access through their blog. And stay tuned to their blog for the following week’s session with techno whiz Kate Simko.
White Horse is LA-based artist Ben Chisholm, a producer specifically interested in the power of shadowy electronic sounds who also makes music as part of Wild Eyes and as a member of dark-folk songstress Chelsea Wolfe‘s band. Under his solo moniker, Chisholm has spent time crafting a series of EPs called The Revenant Gospels, the third of which he’s just finished. While all of the music is completely original, the ghostly, pitch-shifted voices are samples taken from people who are no longer alive (i.e. Freddie Mercury, Nico, unknown singers from the ’20s, etc.). “Sewn Shut” comes from the most recent installment of those Gospels, and exhibits a particularly light and shimmering side to the White Horse sound. Well, at first anyway. The track’s initial plinking synth tones quickly give way to ominous bass frequencies, howling vocal melodies, and slow-grooving beats that fight to bust through the dense miasma of sound—a far more common soundscape heard in Chisholm’s productions. You can download the rest of the EP for free, here, and check out the two prior Gospelshere.
Black Strobe frontman and all-around Gallic bad ass Arnaud Rebotini (featured in our 100th XLR8R TV episode) has launched a new label, Black Strobe Records. In conjunction with the founding of his label, he will be releasing his second solo studio album, Someone Gave Me Religion. Expanding on the melancholic, black-metal-influenced, techno sound he’s known for, Someone Gave Me Religion exposes Rebotini’s reverence for the analog hardware of techno’s past. Someone Gave Me Religion doesn’t come out until May 24, but while you wait, you can get your Rebotini fix by checking out the video for his live show, as well as for the first single, “Personal Dictator,” out now on Black Strobe.
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Hot on the heels of last month’s rework of Bibio’s“Jealous of Roses,” the mysterious, Philadelphia-based CSLSX (who we previously covered here) has just dropped a nice and breezy tune that straddles the line between chillwave and Balearic. Go ahead and mark this one as track three on the soundtrack to your summer. Sounding like the aural equivalent of a fourth-grade finger painting, “Keep On Shining” floats along while still hitting hard for a song intended for a “it’s-6am-in-1989” Ibiza dancefloor. Filter-smeared toms glide like yachts driven by the breeze of an interlocked melody made from Nile Rogers guitars and Aeroplane synths, while the melody from “Strawberry Letter 23” fills out the top end along with a chopped female vocal hook that ties it all together with the feelgood refrain, “so good, so right.” Download the mp3 here and be sure to check out the video after the break.
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Nostalgia—will it ever go out of fashion? It seems as though we’ve been caught in a simulacrum of one decade or another since the ’90s ended. Yet, within the process of simulating is the power for restructuring the past into something fresh. Eclectically influenced Bristol-based producer Hyetal, for instance, takes more than a handful of nostalgic sources and blends them together to paradoxically invoke a past that never was. Take, for example, this video for his latest single, “Beach Scene,” off his just-released album, Broadcast, on Black Acre. Musically, the track takes cues from late-’80s Italo, complete with Jupiter-8 arpeggiations, a shuffling rhythm led by a gated snare, and shimmering LFO stabs. Visually, the song comes alive; it’s comprised of clips from a promo video for a now-abandoned, Portuguese amusement park, where a gaggle of phantom people enjoy phantom luxuries. Check out the video above, and be sure to pick up Broadcast.
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Well, today is just a day of long-awaited singles, isn’t it? Adding his own work into the mix is the elusive Zomby, who makes good on his recent signing to 4AD with a track from the forthcoming Dedication LP (which is apparently “a dedication to someone much loved and missed”) that features indie/electronic music mainstay Panda Bear handling the vocal duties. Truthfully, if you know what new Zomby tracks sound like, and you know what Panda Bear’s voice sounds like, you’ll know exactly what “Things Fall Apart” sounds like: Skittering garage rhythms, bleepy-bloopy synth sounds, over-sized bass tones, and cavernous croons abound. We’ll hear what else Zomby’s new full-length has to offer when it drops on July 11. (via FACT)
South London DJ/producer SBTRKT has finally announced that he will add a full-length album to his growing list of singles and EPs. The oft-reliable Young Turks imprint is slated to drop the artist’s self-titled LP (pictured above), which is said to be “bursting with fresh ideas, and yet [sounding] immediately familiar,” on June 28. Before then, we get a taste of that highly anticipated release with its inaugural single, “Wildfire.” The bubbling, soulful tune features the sultry voice of Little Dragon frontwoman Yukimi Nagano, who transforms this track from just a deep and funky dancefloor burner into a next-level pop song surpassing just about anything you’ll catch on the radio these days. Grab it here, and then check out the tracklist for SBTRKT, which also includes vocal contributions from Sampha, Jessie Ware, and others, after the jump.
1. Heatwave 2. Hold On 3. Wildfire 4. Santuary 5. Trials of the Past 6. Right Thing to Do 7. Something Goes Right 8. Pharaohs 9. Ready Set Loop 10. Never Never 11. Go Bang
