NYC house/disco hub Wurst is gearing up for its first release of the new year, a fresh slab o’ vinyl featuring the brand-new single by fellow New Yorkers Neurotic Drum Band. On Valentine’s Day, the production duo will drop the U Got Me Dancin’ 12″, which comes with three unique versions of the piano house track. You can check out the record’s art work and tracklist below.
1. “U Got Me Dancin’ (Piano Party Mix)”
2. “U Got Me Dancin’ (Original Mix)”
3. “U Got Me Dancin’ (Piano Free Mix)”
DC/Berlin duo Benoit & Sergio aren’t DJs. They don’t even have much of a catalog—to date, they’ve released exactly two records. That said, those two records contained some beautifully crafted slices of housey techno. The duo’s sensuous songs are rich in melody and emotion, and somehow manage to sound like Paul Simon and Talking Heads without resorting to nostalgic hackery or coming across as half-baked mash-ups. It’s mature, sexy music and there’s more on the way in 2011, including an upcoming EP for DFA and Where the Freaks Have No Name, the first single for the Visionquest label, a new imprint headed up by Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtiss, and Shaun Reeves. That three-song offering drops at the end of January, but in the meantime, Benoit & Sergio have put together this exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast series. Rather than simply showcasing as many brand-new dubplates as possible, the guys have constructed a journey that more effectively represents their musical palette, one that pairs classic dance cuts from Deee-Lite and Adonis with more indie fare like Ariel Pink and LCD Soundsystem. A few of their own choice tracks also appear in the mix, as do a couple of ambient, avant-garde selections, which close out the nearly hour-long affair. It’s a unique listen, albeit one that’s ultimately rather fitting for this up-and-coming pair.
01 Benoit & Sergio “Principles” (Unreleased)
02 Benoit & Sergio “Walk and Talk” (Visionquest)
03 Lee Foss “U Got Me” (Hot Creations)
04 Bobby Caldwell “You Belong To Me” (Polygram)
05 Talking Heads “Sugar On My Tongue” (Sire)
06 Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Round and Round” (4AD)
07 LCD Soundsystem “I Can Change” (DFA)
08 Midnight Magic “Beam Me Up (Jacques Renault Remix)” (Permanent Vacation)
09 Deee-Lite “What Is Love?” (Elektra)
10 Adonis “No Way Back” (Trax)
11 Benoit & Sergio “Midnight People” (Spectral)
12 Daft Punk “Make Love” (Virgin)
13 Atlas Sound “Farmland Fantasy” (4AD)
14 Banjo or Freakout “Archangel (Burial Cover)” (Hyperdub)
15 Belong “October Language” (Carpark)
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After stirring up the moombahton-crazed masses with their first Moombahton Massive EP and party back in October, Dave Nada and NYC-based Sabo are releasing another collection of moombahton offerings called Moombahton Massive EP II. Featuring edits of familiar songs like Benga and Coki’s “Night” and Roska’s “Wonderful Day,” the six-song EP also features a new track from Dutch prodigy Munchi and an appearance by newcomer Heartbreak. All four will be playing a party tomorrow night at Washington, DC’s U Street Music Hall to celebrate the release (see the flyer below for details), but before you hit the club—or if you don’t happen to live in the nation’s capital and want to enjoy the moombahton magic anyways—download the free EP here.
Remember tracking Italo-disco producers across cryptic initials on LP jackets? Or trying to figure out which Skam Records releases were by Autechre or Boards of Canada? The pre-Wikipedia era shrouded many new records in a gentle fog of mystery, and Japan’s Clive Tanaka is bringing a bit of that mystery back with Jet Set Siempre No. 1. Previously available only as a cassette that could be ordered directly from his website, the album is now available on vinyl and digitally, but there’s still precious little info here beyond Tanaka’s name, a beachy little cover graphic, and sides a and b designated “For Dance” and “For Romance,” respectively.
Even more mysterious: “Su Orquesta” sounds more like Tanaka’s vintage synthesizers, vocoder, and laptop (there’s no Latin band here), and both sides contain lush, inviting retro electro-pop tracks executed with such style that he’s the equal of any ’80s pop fetishist working today. “I Want You (So Bad)” is a master class in warm pop melody, passing the torch between synthesizer, understated guitar, and more, as it piles layers of sound into a delicious cake and uses its only lyrics—a vocodered recitation of the title—to create a catchy hook with a Daft Punk-like ease and efficiency.
The flip side of Jet Set drifts away into an easy fog, floating compressed strings over narcotic beats, conjuring a Mediterranean getaway soundtracked by bright township guitars and analog synthesizer washes recorded on an ancient reel-to-reel. More of all of this please, mysterious Mr. Tanaka!
In 2011, it’s a safe bet that much of what was trendy in 2010 will become solidified pieces of the musical landscape. Chicago juke ranks high on this list, as it’s already being overtly referenced by Leeds producer Jamie Grind, whose second EP, Footwork, is out this week on Fortified Audio. Due to its pointed reference to the Windy City-birthed dance style and sound, the EP’s name alone is enough to garner some additional interest, but the producer’s interpretation of the genre is refreshingly oblique nonetheless. “Remember Those Days,” a bonus cut that isn’t on the EP, is actually more closely related to house than footwork, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying its unstable, inebriated synths, rave-friendly keyboard stabs, and innocuous female chirps.
Dusk + Blackdown member, Rinse FM host, and Keysound label-head Martin Clark continues to speak volumes inside and outside of London’s UK bass underground, his Pitchfork column a sine qua non for exposing progressive sounds to the precious, hipster elite. But like a good neighbor, Clark always finds time to connect with the artists he favors as a friend, this time sitting down with Jamie xx (pictured above). Coming off his official remixing of Gil Scott-Heron’s entire 2010 album, I’m New Here, Jamie sat down with Clark to discuss how XL Recordings’ Richard Russell tapped him for such an extraordinary request, and some updates on his upcoming solo work in 2011. Read the interview here and check out the official video for Jamie’s remix of Scott-Heron’s song “New York Is Killing Me” below.
Taken from a forthcoming mystical sonic headtrip (a.k.a. Roberto Carlos Lange’s new full-length album, Sealess See), “Jellyfish” is a droney-yet-upbeat number by the Brooklyn-based audio experimentalist and Prefuse 73 collaborator, operating here under his Epstein moniker. The likes of Panda Bear and the rest of the Animal Collective brethren are brought to mind throughout the jangly psych-pop song, but with a stronger slant towards the kind of tunes favored by the vinyl-sampling, MPC-twiddling beatmakers who speckle Southern California. Asthmatic Kitty will release “Jellyfish,” along with Epstein’s 16 other productions that make up the aquatically themed Sealess See LP, on January 25. You can check out that album’s artwork and full tracklist below.
01 Jellyfish
02 Foam on Top
03 Seashells and Starfish
04 Current Stream
05 And Octopus Tongue
06 Cuttlefish
07 Crabs Walk
08 Bubble Vehicle
09 Reef
10 Floating Seaweed
11 Old Time Stars
12 Snail Strut
13 Glowfish
14 Nessy
15 Flying Fish Don’t Forget
16 Hairless Catfish
17 Orange in the Ocean
Just over five years have passed since January 9, 2006 when Mary Anne Hobbs showcased an epic run of dubstep pioneers. Featuring names like D1, Digital Mystikz, Skream, Kode 9 & The Spaceape, and Vex’d, the show left many of their tracks marked as “Untitled”—dubplates through and through. Uploaded yesterday to Hobbs’ Mixcloud in honor of the show’s fifth anniversary, the 48-song tracklist can now be streamed in its entirety below. MAH made a reflective statement about the show saying, “Dubstep Warz still sounds as vital, as primal, and as thrilling as the night we threw it down. It brings tears to my eyes. If, as a broadcaster, you can deliver one show with the cultural and historical impact of this one in a lifetime, it’s a miracle.” Nuff said.
French electro-pop chanteuse Yelle is set to follow up her eponymous band’s 2007 debut album, Pop-Up, with a fresh batch of club-ready singalongs to be released as its sophomore record, Safari Disco Club. On March 29, Downtown Music will drop the trio’s new LP, which features title track and lead single “Safari Disco Club” and is said to be Pop-Up‘s “sharper, wiser sibling.” You can check out an example of what that sounds like over on RCRDLBL, where the single premiered, and you’ll find Safari Disco Club‘s cover art below.
Riding the momentum of Matthew Dear‘s 2010 full-length, Black City, he and his live band continue to tour the United States (see below) and will be setting off for greater Europe come March as they open for Interpol. In a blistering sprint through Europe’s biggest cities, Dear and Interpol will hit almost two dozen cities by the end of March. We can only hope that Dear’s production aesthetic will rub off on the relatively stale New York City band, as the two actually have quite a lot in common. While you look at the rest of Dear & Co.’s tour below, stream a snapshot of Berlin producer Sascha Dive‘s 20-minute remix of Dear’s “Little People” from Ghostly’s Soundcloud, just above the list of dates.
01.12 New York, NY @ IRVING PLAZA (W/ TOM TOM CLUB)
01.16 New York, NY @ THE RIVINGTON HOTEL (DJ SET)
01.23 Philadelphia, PA @ KUNG FU NECKTIE
01.25 Washington, DC @ U STREET MUSIC HALL
01.26 Ann Arbor, MI @ THE BLIND PIG
01.28 Chicago, IL @ THE MID
01.29 St. Louis, MO @ KOKEN ART FACTORY
01.30 Indianapolis, IN @ TALBOTT STREET
03.02 Amsterdam, NL @ 5 DAYS OFF FESTIVAL
03.03 Hamburg, DE @ DOCKS (W/ INTERPOL)
03.06 Oslo, NO @ SENTRUM SCENE (W/ INTERPOL)
03.07 Stockholm, SE @ CIRKUS (W/ INTERPOL)
03.08 Copenhagen, DK @ KB HALL (W/ INTERPOL)
03.10 Leipzig, DE @ AUENSEE (W/ INTERPOL)
03.11 Luxembourg, LU @ ROCKHAL (W/ INTERPOL)
03.12 Munich, DE @ KESSELHAUS (W/ INTERPOL)
03.14 Zurich, CH @ KOMPLEX (W/ INTERPOL)
03.15 Paris, FR @ ZENITH (W/ INTERPOL)
03.16 Antwerp, NL @ LOTTO ARENA (W/ INTERPOL)
03.17 Birmingham, UK @ HARE AND HOUNDS
03.18 Bournemouth, UK @ O2 ACADEMY (W/ INTERPOL)
03.19 Bristol, UK @ COLSTON HALL (W/ INTERPOL)
03.20 Cambridge, UK @ CORN EXCHANGE (W/ INTERPOL)
03.22 Leeds, UK @ O2 ACADEMY (W/ INTERPOL)
03.23 London, UK @ SCALA
