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Amsterdam production duo Juju & Jordash just dropped this video in our inbox the other day, a 12-minute clip of the house-loving pair working out a live jam session with German DJ/producer Move D. Using only physical machines, such as Roland’s TR-707, TR-909, Juno-6, and SH-101, the impromptu outfit performed last year at the end of November for the Het Kabinet Festival at Studio K in Amsterdam, and now those who missed it can watch it online. Check out part of that performance up top, and catch more of the live dance music performance over here.
Poland’s premiere forward-thinking electronic/experimental music festival Unsound will make the trip overseas again this year for its second installment of Unsound Festival New York. Along with support from the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Goethe-Institut New York, the Unsound Festival planning team will unleash a barrage of live performances by excellent musicians, DJs, producers, and bands between April 1 and April 10. Included in this year’s list of performances are Lone (pictured above), Dorian Concept, Emeralds, Raime, Chancha Via Circuito, Kink, Demdike Stare, and a massive piece called “Music For Solaris”—which was composed for 29 string players, two percussionists, prepared piano, guitars, and electronics, and will feature film manipulations from Brian Eno and Nick Robertson—by Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason. Many more artists will perform, there will be seminars and panel discussions, and other music- and culture-related goings on will soon be announced. Keep an eye on this website for further developments. You can check out some footage of performances from last year’s festivities below.
The Montreal DJ/producer who calls himself Jacques Greene (yep, it’s an alias) has a knack for making house grooves that toy with emotions, often dancing between euphoria and melancholia in the same breath. “If you’re trying to make music with a feeling, it’s more interesting to show something nuanced, like something in real life, such as a relationship,” he says about his yin-yang ethic. On his breakout single, “(Baby I Don’t Know) What You Want,” which appeared on the Night Slugs Allstars Volume 1 compilation, such a clash breaks out, where sung and looped phrases ping-pong between a baritone male vocal and a chipmunk-speed female one. A shy, acid synth riff trickles into the argument while an upbeat, pulsating house rhythm keeps the drama alive.
These reflections come naturally from the 21-year-old’s imagination, which is heavily informed by Warp’s golden years. “When I first heard Boards of Canada, I realized that I didn’t need to start a band—I could make very emotional and very human electronic music,” he recalls. The flash and drama of R&B pop also left its fingerprint on him. “It’s funny because there’s the dichotomy of listening to Aphex Twin, but I can always fall back on a Rihanna single,” he says.
“(Baby I Don’t Know) What You Want”
Greene’s musical roots took hold with the mysterious machines that surrounded him at an early age. He witnessed his uncle record music for advertisements in his home studio. “It was all way over my head, but it was a mysterious world that was pulling me in,” he remembers. Greene never left that world. His father’s Roland drum machine lessons that began for him at age eight also kept him there. Greene’s studio arsenal later expanded to vintage analog synths and the Les Paul of acid, the Roland TB-303, on loan from a pal. “I just borrow it off of him all the time,” Greene says, laughing. But it’s his zest for hacking up R&B diva vocals into bare consonants that seems like his best secret weapon. Consider “The Look,” where bare bits of one unnamed diva’s voice shout for attention and boost the funk. “You keep the spirit of the track when you have the melody between the words,”he explains. “It’s really cool to capture that because it’s even more accurate than what the lyrics are saying about the emotion.”
Last year, those emotional vibes caught the attention of Glaswegian abstract-beat label LuckyMe, which released his The Look EP. A debut album that disregards BPM counts and genre rules may come soon. “I’d like to take it out of the club entirely,” Greene says. Like back home, in the bohemian borough of Plateau Mont-Royal? “Everyone [there] is on their own wavelength, which is better,” he argues. “Everybody is very, very different from one another and I think that’s a really healthy thing for a city to have musically.”
It’s easy to think of the whole post-dubstep scene as a UK-centric phenomenon, but new artists continue to pop up all over the globe. Just yesterday, we posted a tune from Lithuania’s Brokenchord, and now New Zealand is getting into the act, courtesy of Johnny Sable. The young producer isn’t reinventing the wheel, as “Made in Taiwan” relies on skittering garage beats, emotive pitch-shifted vocal snippets, and subdued rave synths. Yet despite the familiarity of the song’s building blocks, Sable’s construction work is the key here, as he effectively fills the track with negative space, which keeps things light and restrained, even as the tune picks up steam over the course of its five minutes. It’s an impressive offering, and one that makes on wonder what else the Kiwis have been brewing up on the club front.
Chicago house icon and Classic label co-owner Derrick Carter is next in line to contribute to the illustrious Fabric mix series. On March 14, the veteran DJ/producer will drop Fabric 56: Derrick Carter, which will feature 17 tracks (though some sections boast multiple songs within their timeframes) of timeless house music, fresh originals, and some unheard club-ready goodness. Carter deftly mixes together artists like Green Velvet, DJ Sneak, Dennis Ferrer, Iz & Diz, Cajmere, and Roger Sanchez, along with his own production work and others’, to make up his hour-plus DJ set. Carter describes his aim when crafting Fabric 56, saying, “I was trying to get as close to a set as I could. One that spans time and goes from maybe 10 years ago, to some stuff that’s not released, to some stuff that won’t be released other than on this album. That’s how a real set is for me; I have some new stuff, some old stuff, some special stuff. I tried to give it that kind of treatment so it’s authentic, and real and valid and present. It’s Derrick. All day.” You can check out the mix album’s artwork and tracklist below.
01 Jody ‘Fingers’ Finch – Jack Your Big Booty (Derrick’s BHQ Acid Vocal / BHQ Bonus Of Beats) [Let’s Pet Puppies] 02 Almost September – Love (Derrick’s BHQ Remix) [unreleased] 03 DJ Sneak – Respect Bonito (Justin Long Remix) [Magnetic] 04 Nick Garcia – Playin’ Tricks (Hector Moralez Remix) [The Bomb Digital] 05 Scope – 8 Track [Large] 06 Cricco Castelli – First Love [NRK] 07 Osunlade pres. Nadirah Shakoor – Pride (Johnny D Remix) [Strictly Rhythm] 08 Iz & Diz – Cosmid [Vizual] 09 Roger Sanchez – My Organ [TNT] 10 Scrubfish – Testify To The Soul Provider [Flapjack] 11 Olene Kadar feat. D-Low – Baby Keep It Up [Defected] 12 Cajmere – Percolator (Derrick Carter Bonus Mix) [Cajual] 13 1200 Warriors – HardDrum (B-Boy Mix) [1200 Traxx] 14 Tripmastaz – Back on My BS [Magnetic] 15 Piek meets Stan Garac – La Gondola [Clarisse] 16 Légo – Bang Bang [Poontin Muzik] 17 Abraham Inc. – Moskowitz Remix (D’s BHQ Re-edit) [Table Pounding]
Also featured throughout the mix: Green Velvet – La La Land (Derrick Carter ‘D’s BHQ Business’ Remix) [Cajual] Dennis Ferrer – Church Lady (Tommy Davis & DJ Spen Bom Bom Bom Tool) [Defected] Warren Fellow & Michel Steinbach feat. Todd Terry – Got A Soul [EC]
We’re just going to come out and say it: we’re not exactly big fans of Tahiti 80 (pictured above). No offense to the French pop band—their tunes are perfectly fine, they’re just not very XLR8R. That said, there’s no denying that the group has impeccable taste when it comes to remixers. Back in November, we posted a stellar “Darlin” re-work by Barcelona’s John Talabot, and now Tahiti 80 has extended their recruiting arm to our side of the Atlantic and enlisted Jimmy Edgar to have a go at the track. As those familiar with Edgar might expect, he’s sexed up the proceedings with some throbbing electro beats, crunchy synths, and a seriously sleazy vibe. If Tahiti 80 keeps this up, perhaps we’ll be more inclined to check out the Darlin EP when it drops next week, or the band’s upcoming full-length, which is scheduled for later in the year.
We’ve been jamming-out on the debut single by Brooklyn-based dark-pop duo Creep since we first heard it back in early December. Now, “Days,” which also features Romy Madley-Croft of The xx doing her sultry vocal thing, has a flashy music video paired to its brooding soundscapes, courtesy of producer-cum-director Warren Fischer of Fischerspooner. As one might expect, the imagery in Creep’s music video focuses primarily on the occult and other goth-y milieus, but not without adding in some spectral splendor and glittery bits just so things don’t get too, um, creepy. You can check out the video up top, and grab the picture-disc 12″ single here.
This warbling, beat-heavy track from Lithuanian (yes, “Lithuanian,” we double checked) producer Brokenchord may seem a bit all over the place at first. “Dribble Drift” starts out with crisp synth tones swelling into the forefront, sounding like it’s about to drop into a poignant club number or maybe even a bit of synth-pop à la M83, but instead, the touching melodies give way to a somber soundscape made of woozy guitar plucks and subtle rhythmic sounds that twist and turn in their environment. Brokenchord continues to inundate his track with ominous bass frequencies, head-knocking beats, and a plethora of other adventurous sonic elements—further proving him to be a strong musical force worthy of keeping a watchful eye on. So it should go without saying that we’re also digging on his just-released “A Girl of 13 Summers”/”Orion” single for the Black Acre label, which you can preview here.
Remember early last year when Diplo and his Mad Decent crew hooked up the internet with a compilation of fresh Gucci Mane remixes for free? Well, just over a year later, the sequel to Free Gucci is about to drop, but this new offering flexes a much different style. Across the pond, Grizzly label head and DJ/producer extraordinaire Sinden (pictured above) has corralled many of the UK’s best tunesmiths to remix the Atlanta rap star’s jams. The likes of Hudson Mohawke, Scratcha DVA, Toddla T, Rustie, Terror Danjah, The Blessings, Mosca, and the compilation curator himself, among others, all share a fresh version of classic Gucci tracks on Free Gucci 2: The Great Burrrtish Edition, and you can download the whole thing for free this Friday, January 28, over on Sinden.tv. Until then, you can check out the artwork and tracklist, below.
Gucci Time (Feat. Swizz Beats) (Sinden Remix Feat. Tinchy Stryder) Brand New (Rustie Remix) Party Animal (Hudson Mohawke Remix) It’s Alive (Feat. Swizz Beats) (FunkinEven Remix) Remember When (Feat. Ray J) (Terror Danjah Remix Feat. Wiley & Dream Mclean) O Dog (Feat. Wyclef) (Mosca Remix Feat. Trigga Nom) Weirdo (Swerve Remix Feat. Ghetts) Trap Talk (Toddla T Remix Feat. Slick Don) Dollar Sign (Duke Dumont Remix) Missing (Melé Remix) What It’s Gonna Be (Scratcha DVA Remix) (Dub) Grown Man (Feat. Estelle) (Rude Kid Remix) It’s Alive (Feat. Swizz Beats) (The Blessings Remix) Dollar Sign (These New Puritans Remix) Haterade (Feat. Nicki Minaj & Pharrell) (Mista Men Remix)
If you read our recent cover story on burgeoning UK DJ/producer Ramadanman (a.k.a. Pearson Sound, David Kennedy), then you’re privy to knowledge of the musician’s forthcoming live mix for the FABRICLIVE series. And now, we have the full scoop on that exciting release. On March 21, Fabric will drop FABRICLIVE 56: Ramadanman/Pearson Sound, a 30-track mix that boasts tracks from illustrious producers like Burial, Joy Orbison, Mala, Addison Groove, Carl Craig, and MJ Cole, along with obscure African productions, tunes from Kennedy’s different monikers, and other tasteful audio treats. On his DJ set, the mixmaster says, “It’s all very much live mixing—no time stretching or auto beat matching. It’s a bit of a retrospective of some of my favourite music from 2010, and is representative of a set I would play in a club.” You can check out the artwork and full tracklist for FABRICLIVE 56 below.
01. Pearson Sound – Hawker 02. Levon Vincent – Late Night Jam 03. Elgato – Music (Body Mix) 04. Marcello Napoletano – Everyday Madness 05. Tiyiselani Vomaseve – Vanghoma 06. Pearson Sound – Wad (fabric Edit) 07. Julio Bashmore – Battle for Middle You 08. Ramadanman – Grab Somebody 09. Ramadanman & Appleblim – Void23 (Carl Craig Re-edit) 10. Pearson Sound – Project 11. Joy Orbison – GR Etiquette (Pearson Sound symphonic refix) 12. J Kenzo – Ruckus (Martin Kemp Remix) 13. Fugative – Bad Girl (Lil Silva Dub) 14. A Made Up Sound – Demons 15. Jam City – Night Mode 16. Mr Mageeka – Different Lekstrix 17. Pangaea – Inna Daze 18. Pearson Sound – Stifle 19. MJ Cole feat. Wiley – From the Drop 20. Pinch – Qawwali 21. Joy Orbison vs. Ramadanman – J. Doe Them 22. Pearson Sound – Picon 23. Burial – Pirates 24. Die Barbie Musik Kollektive – Face (Junk) 25. GIRL Unit – IRL (Original / Bok Bok Remix) 26. D1 – Subzero 27. S-X – Woo Riddim / Ramadanman – Glut 28. Addison Groove – Fuck the 101 29. Mala – City Cycle / Joe – Claptrap (Tease) 30. Sigha – Light Swells (In A Distant space)
