Add yet another track to the growing list of remixes for Jamie Woon‘s Burial-co-produced song, “Night Air.” UK 2-stepper Deadboy puts his shuffling version next to interpretations from the likes of Ramadanman and newcomer Becoming Real, which collectively create a trifecta that trumps the original, at least to our ears. This remix lets Woon’s voice do its thing while a rolling bassline grooves with Deadboy’s go-to riddim and a handful of assorted synth melodies waft about the proceedings. Further into “Night Air (Deadboy Remix),” the producer starts toying with the singer’s croon, whimsically pitch-shifting it as the synth stabs grow in intensity.
Bay Area house and techno hub Dirtybird is keeping quite busy throughout the winter seasons. More specifically, the imprint has a couple releases coming out this month, with an excellent holiday party on the way, as well. The forthcoming releases are a remix EP (pictured above) for Justin Martin’s “Get Low,” which comes complete with interpretations from J.Phlip and S.E.C.T., and a compilation that features classic and unheard tunes from the likes of Julio Bashmore, The Martin Brothers, B-Ju, and label head Claude VonStroke, which is simply titled Bass. Around that same time—this Saturday, December 18, to be exact—XLR8R is joining forces with the low-end-loving label for a raucous holiday party in San Francisco, CA, which includes performances from Bashmore, VonStroke, and XLR8R‘s own Disco Shawn, Rem Koolhaus, and Contakt. You can find more details for that not-to-be-missed, free-with-RSVP event here, and check out the full tracklist for Dirtybird’s forthcoming records below.
Get Low Remixes tracklist 1: Justin Martin – Get Low (J. Phlip Remix) 2: Justin Martin – Get Low (S.E.C.T. Remix)
Bass tracklist 1 J.Phlip & Julio Bashmore – Aquarium 2 Claude VonStroke – Aundy – James Zabiela Mashup (DJ Marky & Spy) 3 Claude VonStroke – Deep Throat (Justin Martin Remix) 4 Julio Bashmore – Um Bongo’s Revenge 5 B-Ju – My Sneakers 6 Claude VonStroke – Monster Island (Christian Martin Remix) 7 The Martin Brothers – Duck Face 8 Claude VonStroke – Chimps (Re-Edit) 9 The Martin Brothers – Dum (Hookers and Blow Remix) 10 J.Phlip – Exclusive Bass Mix
We all know the well-worn adage: Less is more. Here, that philosophy is put to good use by Brighton-based producer Greymatter on his remix of the forthcoming single from Randomer & Adverse, “Alizé.” It’s not that Greymatter is making minimalist bass music or any such thing, but when juxtaposed with Randomer & Adverse’s bubbling originals and HomePark’s own deep remix of the title track, it’s easily the most pared down of the bunch. A lone tambourine and kick-drum rhythm make up the spine of “Alizé (Greymatter Remix),” on which the producer employs a chopped-up vocal loop, monotone organ stabs, a massive bass drop every so often, and a couple more percussion sounds. There are certainly more than, say, 10 sounds in this shuffling tune, but Greymatter gives each one of them enough room to breathe that you could probably pick out the noises individually at any given time, though you’re likely to be too busy moving to the jam’s thick groove to even bother giving that a try. You can check out the EP’s other three tracks when Alizé drops on January 10 via Super.
As the legend goes, in 1980, a West German punk named Blixa Bargeld set out to make an “ethnic” record. He wondered about his “authentic” background while listening to an Ethiopian folk record, and his attention turned to the debris that littered his own hometown’s streets. Along with the then-15-year-old Alexander Hacke, Bargeld’s group, Einstürzende Neubauten (German for “Collapsing New Buildings”), began crafting literal industrial music, with rhythms bashed out of scrap metal, pipes, power tools, shopping carts, and other West Berlin detritus. Thirty years later, the band is noisier than ever, having just released Strategies Against Architecture IV. Here, Hacke tells us more about the group’s DIY weapons of choice.
Unusual recording spots One place we recorded was a motorway overpass, and there was a hollow air-conditioning shaft or a vent inside the [pillar]. There were some homeless people living there and a few clothes lying around… It had a very unique sound—you could stomp your feet and actually drum on the walls. There was great reverb… We also did some recordings in a water tower. It was a metal room in the shape of a ball. That was acoustically very interesting… your own voice was totally dry. If somebody was talking to you just a few feet away, you’d have a lot of echo and reverb that was completely dry, like you were in a completely dead room or a vacuum.
Contact microphones So much of our work is researching materials and how to mic or pick up the sounds. With a contact mic, you can dive into the depth of these objects. It’s what you hear when you hold a resonating object to your ear; it’s a completely different way of recording than with a regular microphone. The contact mic really started our business.
Junk metal We liked to do these nighttime excursions and look into building sites, and we were able to find wonderful objects. Air-conditioning parts were very useful as drums. The ribs on a shopping cart are like strings on a harp—you can play it if you pick it up properly with a contact mic. You can also put all of your shit in it for transportation!
“The Thirsty Animal”
The Thirsty Animal What’s typical for Neubauten instruments is that they have far-reaching associations with their names. A lot of the times, the names of things don’t really describe what they are, but they are an image associated with a sound or the looks of them. For example, there was a brass instrument I used to play in the very early days, which was called the Thirsty Animal. It just had this very melancholic, wailing sound that we called “The Thirsty Animal.” It was just tubing that you find in any home-improvement shop. You could not only blow into it to make noise—you could also smoke with it.
Power Tools We still use drills, mostly without the actual drill parts. We like the ones that go at different speeds, and it was the invention of the AccuDrill that was actually very helpful for our purposes. We’ve also been using power tools for installations, like attaching a wire to the rotating part of the power tool and then plucking or hitting other objects with that wire. It’s also an energetic thing; there is so much force and power in a little tool like that. It’s great to put these things to use just for the threat they bear. It’s like taming wildcats and snakes.
Tape loops We would sometimes have tape running around the studio like, say, a 20-meter-long tape loop that was suspended all the way around the studio over microphones and cymbal stands. We would also experiment with cutting holes into tape, burning it, or piecing it together in weird ways. Not just quarter-inch but the multi-track, two-inch tape. We would cut the tapes and physically destroy them and see what we could come up with. Studio owners were not very happy with that.
“Haus der Lüge”
The Bass Spring We still use it—it’s almost organically attached to Andrew [Chudy (a.k.a. N.U. Unruh)]. We use it as a bass drum. You can hit the actual spring, but you can also hit the frame and use the spring as a resonator. I think it came from an automotive shock absorber. There are different kinds of springs; some are meant to be squeezed and others are meant to be pulled. This one is meant to be pulled, like a counter-weight.
The Noodle The Noodle is actually a noodle, like pasta. It’s called The Noodle because one version was like a drill but it is derived from an African instrument where you have a string held up by two rods and the rods are connected to a sort of drum, and you use the drum as a resonator. If you hit the two rods together, the pitch of the string would get lower. That was the inspiration for it—it was a cover version of this African instrument, except on a much larger scale.
Strategies Against Architecture IV is out now on Mute.
Man, Dublin’s All-City label is pretty lucky there’s an almost inexhaustible amount of beat music coming out of Southern California; their LA Series 10″ releases could potentially continue on until Armageddon hits and wipes us all out. Closing out the series’ first year, the imprint has enlisted Brainfeeder’s resident lady producer, Tokimonsta, and fresh face Mike Gao to come together on a slab of wax called LA Series 8 (out now), from which “Park Walks” is taken. On the track, Tokimonsta interplays a lumbering beat and an obtuse bassline with a few ethereal vocal samples to make up some sort of punch-drunk alien groove. More and more sounds are heaped onto the bulbous rhythm as the song progresses, giving “Park Walks” the sort of frenzy we’re sure very few walks in the park have.
Between running his own record label, Brownswood, hosting his own radio show on BBC 1, and constantly searching for the “perfect beat,” Gilles Peterson has to be one insanely busy guy. Though he’s not one to let that get in the way of sharing fresh sounds with the world. Though he’s not one to let that get in the way of sharing fresh sounds with the world. For his label’s next release, the inaugural edition of a brand-new compilation series called World Family, Peterson is relinquishing his curatorial duties to friends and fellow DJs Lefto and Simbad in lieu of his own selections. What the two have compiled is a pair of discs holding 27 tracks (many of which are brand-new and unreleased) from the likes of Onra (pictured above), Tokimonsta, Greymatter, Seiji, Zed Bias, and Cooly G, among many other tunesmiths both renowned and obscure. World Family Vol. 1 won’t be available until January 3, but before then, you can check out the artwork and snippets of each track below.
CD 1 – Lefto
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CD 2 – Simbad
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Although Brooklyn duo Games and Scottish beat wizard Hudson Mohawke (pictured above) both dabble in sounds that could be described as retro, or even future-retro, they don’t exactly share the same sonic palette. Yet on this remix of “Strawberry Skies,” the original of which appears on Games’ That People Play EP, the marriage of the two seems perfectly natural. That’s largely because HudMo has put his schizophrenic hip-hop sensibilities aside and simply tweaked the original song’s ’80s radio-pop vibes with some additional synths and fuzz. He’s also played a bit with the wondrous vocals of Laurel Halo, but his chops and slices aren’t terribly severe. To be honest, the whole thing sounds more like an alternate take than a complete re-imagining. It certainly works though, so we’re not complaining. Give it a listen and also peep the new “Strawberry Skies” video, which is posted after the jump. (via FACT)
When they aren’t busy compiling obscure bands and producers into questionably titled “guides”, the folks over at NYC culture hub Mishka also corral artists for their ongoing Keep Watch mix series. The latest artist to offer a DJ set as a Mishka podcast is Denver, CO, producer Pictureplane. Not long after dropping his Happy Slow Core “dimensional rip” last month, Travis Edegy crafted this 12-track mix, which contains jams from folks such as Girl Unit, Oneohtrix Point Never, Brenmar, Drake covering TLC, and the DJ/producer himself reworking a Zomby track, among many more. You can check out the artwork and full tracklist for Keep Watch Vol. XXII: Pictureplane below, and download the whole thing here.
1. Martyn – Brilliant Orange 2. Chris & Cosey – Send the Magick Down 3. Munchi – Hope (feat. Mr. Lexxx) 4. Girl Unit – Wut 5. Brenmar – You Make Me Say (Ikonika and Optimum Remix) 6. Venom & Damage – Deeper (Damage’s Deeper Forever Mix) 7. Chilly Gonzales – I Am Europe (Djedjotronic Remix) 8. Daniel Maloso – Ritmo Especial 9. Ancient Methods vs. Adam X – Mitral Regurgitation (Ancient Methods Mix) 10. Drake – I Get Lonely (TLC Cover) 11. Zomby – Strange Fruit (Pictureplane FTW Edit) 12. Oneohtrix Point Never – Ouroboros
Never mind Diplo Presents Dubstep. Now the DJ/producer known as Wes Pentz is staking his claim in the field of reggae classics with Riddimentary: Diplo Selects Greensleeves, a forthcoming mix album in which the Mad Decent head honcho reinvigorates the Greensleeves vaults for your listening pleasure. The mixmaster has his way with Gregory Isaacs’ “Night Nurse,” Eek-A-Mouse’s “Anarexol,” Trison Palma’s “Joker Smoker,” and 12 other tracks, all of which drop on February 8 via VP Records. While you wait for its release, you can check out the artwork and tracklist for Riddimentary below.
1. Alpha & Omega Mocking Bird “Who Is The Ruler” 2. Hugh Mundell “Jaqueline” 3. Triston Palma “Joker Smoker” 4. John Holt “Police In Helicopter” 5. Barrington Levy & General Echo “Eventide Fire A Disaster” 6. Joe Gibbs “Satta Amassa Gana Version” 7. Rankin Dread “Fattie Boom Boom” 8. Eek-A-Mouse “Anarexol” 9. Lone Ranger “Gunshot Mek Daughter Drop” 10. Clint Eastwood & General Saint” Sweet Sweet Matilda” 11. Prince Jammy “Interface” 12. Gregory Isaacs “Night Nurse” 13. J.C. Lodge “Telephone Love” 14. Johnny Osbourne “Water Pumping” 15. Prince Far I “Survival”
On Monday, XLR8Rposted a link to download a free compilation from the Friends of Friends label entitled Pop Massacre that featured 13 pop memorables fully re-worked by beat-centric artists like DNTEL, Strangeloop, and Mexicans With Guns. Among re-interpretations of Prince, Mariah Carey, and Abba is San Francisco/L.A. hopper Shlohmo‘s version of Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag.” The track is a great candidate for exploring new territory—the cavernous, graveyard-deep original is a nice fit for Shlohmo’s cacophonous soundscapes. However, unlike his tightly wound version of Khia’s “My Neck My Back” from earlier this year, here Shlohmo opts for a wounded vocal sample that pares down Pretty Boy’s swaggiest moments to something resembling modesty.
