DJ/producer Sascha Ring (a.k.a. Apparat) released his own installment of !K7’s ongoing DJ-Kicks series at the end of last month, an interesting and personal mix album featuring a few new tunes from both Ring himself and his friends. “Lengthening Shadows” is one such track made by Telefon Tel Aviv for the Apparat mix, and it has some serious weight to it. As Ring puts it, “[Telefon Tel Aviv] make such beautiful music. Sadly, Charlie Cooper died at the beginning of last year. This is the first track that Joshua Eustis (pictured above) has made since then. I think he was wondering whether he would carry on the Telefon Tel Aviv name. I asked him if there was anything he could give me for the album. He made me this track and said he’d like it to be as Telefon Tel Aviv. It’s very poignant.” And it’s true. Knowing the headiness of the song’s origins bolsters its stirring mood into emotional realms we’re sure only Eustis and the friends and family of Cooper could understand, but hearing the song is equally moving; “Shadows” is a haunting bass music gem on par with some of the genre’s most provocative productions.
South Africa’s premiere leftfield electro-pop export Spoek Mathambo—who we featured in our pages just earlier this year—is headed for the US and Canada this week, bringing along with him a full live band to help perform cuts from his debut album, Mshini Wam. The brief stint across North America kicks off this Friday in NYC at the American Museum of Natural History for FADER’s One Step Beyond party, and goes on to make stops in San Francisco for Tormenta Tropical, LA for School Night, and a few more. You can check out the full list of tour dates for Spoek Mathambo & Mshini Wam below.
Nov 12 – NYC, NY @ American Museum of Natural History Nov 13 – SF, CA @ Elbo Room Nov 15 – LA, CA @ Bardot Nov 17 – Vancouver, Canada @ Fortune Sound Club Nov 18 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes Nov 19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ W Lounge
Apparently, not even the fizzled-out dud of a record that is M.I.A.’s ///Y/ can keep her and her producer buddies from working together again. On January 25 of next year, the man behind tunes like M.I.A.’s “XXXO” and “It Iz What It Iz,” Charles Smith (a.k.a. Blaqstarr), will drop a brand-new solo EP on Maya Arulpragasam’s own N.E.E.T. imprint. While we have no idea what songs are on the record or what the artwork looks like, we do know that the six-song release is called The Divine EP, of which DJ/producer Blaqstarr says, “There are no bounds for my music, so expect to experience every one of your best feelings when you listen to it.” Until that drops, you can check out this nifty website full of Blaqstarr goodies, and this video for the artist’s “Oh My Darling” track, below.
Everyone in Ibiza would be humming their tunes at poolside bars, their whimsical name the toast of the town. But that would be too easy, and untrue to the chemistry of the project. The duo‘s psychedelic, highly nuanced dynamic, palpable in everything they release, makes for some of the most personal, original, and exhilarating sounds around right now.
When I speak with the duo of Nick Weiss and Logan Takahashi over the phone, they’re back at Oberlin College, about 40 miles outside of Cleveland, Ohio, where they’re in their final year as undergraduates. They had recently returned for their first week back at school after the summer holiday, having just played to their largest crowd yet opening for Panda Bear on Governors Island in New York the weekend before.
Considering how much touring they’ve already done (they played in Eastern Asia and China earlier in the year, and have gigged across Europe and the USA), it’s remarkable that their studies haven’t been derailed at some point in the last three years. “In some ways, [school] has been frustrating, but in some ways, it’s cool to have something grounding us rather than just playing shows,” explains Weiss. Takahashi studies in a program called TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts), so all of this could, one hopes, be considered fieldwork.
Takahashi and Weiss met three years ago, on their second day of college. Within a week they were jamming together. “We were writing our first song so we could play this party at our school,” explains Weiss, “and we put the songs on MySpace just to show people. We only had two friends on there.” One of their those early friends was 20 Jazz Funk Greats, the esteemed music blog of Tri Angle Records head Robin Carolan, where one of their songs got posted and earned them attention from well beyond their immediate peers.
“Cheaters”
While incorporating tropes from danceable, bygone eras in pop, R&B, and club sounds, the Teengirl sound rarely coalesces into straight-up club tracks—their narcotic, mercurial jams, tinged with Krautrock and 4AD pop sensibilities, are usually better suited to the home-listening realm. Their sound seems as influenced by Manuel Göttsching as it is by, say, Mariah Carey, whose “Touch My Body” they deconstructed into delirious abstraction.
These styles that they’re reimagining and recontextualizing have been coursing through their veins from a very young age. “My mom used to take hip-hop dance class at Gold’s Gym in LA,” explains Weiss, “and she met this woman who was looking for an R&B DJ, and I produced some tracks for her… I was 11, I think, and had just started making tracks on ACID Pro and other programs. I got a keyboard and started composing with its internal sequencer. She had some songs written and we worked together to do some ballads as well as uptempo stuff.”
The two profess a love for the dark, overlooked corners of the R&B genre. “TLC was one of my favorite bands,” explains Weiss, “and I got really into Blaque, one of their protégé bands that didn’t really end up panning out.” The fan site he created for them (sadly now offline) had much the same sparkly, animated-GIF aesthetic of Teengirl’s Angelfire website, the dated look of which is mirrored in the artwork of their previous EP releases and 7AM, the duo’s debut LP.
The process of writing and recording 7AM began in Takahashi’s parents’ basement in New Jersey back in 2009. “We write most of the songs by jamming, and shape them by playing them out live,” says Takahashi, who explains that both of them are generally writing and performing with synths, including a MicroKORG and a Korg Poly-800, as well as drum pads and a 404 sampler. In the studio, they keep overdubs to a minimum—there is “polishing” on the computer but, as Weiss points out, “there are a lot of unedited live takes in there.”
In rather clever fashion, they were able to use a four-month study abroad trip to Amsterdam for both academic and music-making endeavors. Working in a studio at their Amsterdam school, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, they mixed a large chunk of their record. Their overseas presence also afforded them opportunities to play all around the UK and Europe, including a Bucharest gig with Andrew Weatherall and an unbelievably stacked UK bill with Joy Orbison, The Bug, Cooly G, and Gold Panda.
Along with the obvious steps up in production and mixing quality, 7AM provides a sustained and ecstatic high, as different as the individual tracks turn out to be. It’s unrepentantly eccentric, and mostly instrumental, its hooks gradually sinking in and holding on with an affectionate yet firm grip, especially on the vocal tracks.
“We wanted there to be one or two tracks that had a really direct influence, that weren’t as abstract,” explains Takahashi of the record’s more immediately accessible tunes. “We wanted the vocal tracks to have a real sensibility, no matter how weird the instrumentation is.” Of these tracks, they seem especially excited about their collaboration with singer Shannon Funchess of Light Asylum, who features on “Dancing in Slow Motion.” Produced during the final recording push earlier this year, this track marked Weiss and Takahashi’s first time collaborating with someone else in the studio. The sound was influenced largely, they say, by The-Dream, whose productions they both deeply admire.
“We wrote it then and there with a bunch of really amazing synths that belong to our friend Tom Arsenault, and wrote the vocal part collaboratively,” recounts Weiss. “We would throw stuff out at her, and she would kind of sing it back to us in her voice, in her range.” The result is a slow-burning R&B ballad as genuinely moving as the songs that have inspired them.
“Dancing in Slow Motion
Their use of vocals is equally deft on “Cheaters,” 7AM‘s lead single, which samples Love Committee’s “Cheaters Never Win” to create the truest club single on the record. An ecstatic vocal house throwback, it is all the more powerful among its cerebral surroundings. Even at their tightest, Teengirl’s songs still have a loose, incidental quality to them, making the moments of ecstatic release all the more thrilling. When the synths and drums reach their melodic peak a minute and a half into “In an Area,” the second track on 7AM, the Teengirl sensibility, which may at first seem scattershot, really begins to click.
Their versatility is clear, not only from the range of their own material, but also in Weiss’ non-Teengirl collaborations with two stellar San Francisco-based singers. The handful of tracks he’s done for H.U.N.X. (a.k.a. Seth Bogart of pop groups Hunx & His Punx and Gravy Train!!!!) are poppy, homoerotic house jams. Unlike Teengirl, says Weiss, this collaboration is “not as much about the instrumentation as about having the pop diva/singer right in front.” Just as compelling are the tracks Weiss has produced for singer Alexis Penney, who operates in a more moody, Arthur Russell-esque mode, heartbreaking and wholly infectious.
Teengirl Fantasy’s future activities aren’t set in stone by any means, but it’s clear that Weiss and Takahashi want to keep jamming and expanding their palette. Alluding to a remix they had just completed for Delorean, Weiss says, “It has a freestyle vibe to it… kind of an ’80s freestyle ballad, a So So Def Bass All-Stars sound.” Whether or not that’s the direction that the duo is headed in, the Teengirl party bus is one it would be wise to score tickets for.
A part of the amorphous Deep Teknologi crew/label, J.Bevin (pictured above) steps up to the plate here on his remix of T.Williams‘ latest soulful bubbler with singer Terri Walker, “Heartbeat.” Bevin leaves Walker’s sultry vocal delivery more or less untouched, focusing instead on creating a completely fresh instrumental underneath her poignant croon. The vibe on Williams’ tune is kicked up into more energetic territories by the fast-paced bounce of Bevin’s kick-and-snare rhythms, enormous bass swells, and the warmth of his multi-layered synth melodies. Still, much like the original—which we recently previewed along with the Mosca Remix—this version is even-keeled, as Bevin retains the song’s lovelorn energy by never overshadowing it with baroque production work.
Just yesterday, London magazine and online TV station SpineTV talked with grime producer and all-around badman Terror Danjah as part of its newly launched SpineTV Podcast series. The interview, which follows the recent release of Danjah’s Undeniable album via Hyperdub, touches on a load of topics relating to his rise as a DJ, the process of becoming an iconic music producer, starting his Aftershock label, working with friend/collaborator D Double E, and more. Head over here to stream or download SpineTV Podcast Episode 3 – Terror Danjah.
This issue, we dig in deep with the icons of electronic music, and gather intel on how they make their sounds so uniquely original. From Four Tet to Squarepusher to Moby to Mala, there’s no shortage of tips, tricks, and musical philosophies to inspire budding producers. We also look at some of our favorite producers of the year—with Oriol, Teengirl Fantasy, oOoOO, and plenty more icons-to-be filling these pages. Read all about them here, or view the entire issue online at Issuu.
Canadian producer Mike Silver (a.k.a. CFCF) joins the likes of John Talabot, Anoraak, and In Flagranti on the The Golden League remix album for Spanish combo We Are Standard, offering a remix of “Other Lips, Other Kisses” as his contribution. At first, the slow-grooving beat and subtle bass tones that start off Silver’s track might have you thinking he has a new-found penchant for the UK and its continuum of bass-related genres, but soon, catchy vocals drop in with some instrumentation more in line with what we’ve come to expect from the producer. Once the housey piano loops and the wash of string melodies swell into the mix, it’s apparent that even on his remixes, CFCF waves the Balearic flag high. You can see how the other eight remixes match up when The Golden League drops on December 6 via Mushroom Pillow.
Another patron of the fine art of bass, Bristol’s October, will be taking part in the forthcoming takeover of Fabric’s Room Three next Friday. Along with others from the Apple Pips label, including Appleblim and Komonazmuk, October will deliver tasteful selections of beats and bass through the illustrious club’s top-of-the-line soundsystem. To pique our interest in the impending jump-off, the DJ/producer sent over a brand-new mix he’s crafted for the auspicious occasion, which features lively and brooding tunes from the likes of Mr. Fingers, Black Jazz Consortium, Conforce, and A Number of Names. Below, you can check out October’s Apple Pips x Fabriclive Promo Mix, along with the tracklist and a flier for his upcoming party at Fabric.
Tracklist: 1. Conforce – “Shade” (Delsin) 2. Patrice Scott – “Eclipse” (Sistrum) 3. Mr. Fingers – “Waterfall” (Alleviated) 4. John Heckle – “Life On Titan” (Mathematics) 5. TAZZ – “Lost” (Underground Quality) 6. M+M – “M&M Theme” (Let’s Pet Puppies) 7. Raza – “Gonna Make You Work” (Millions Of Moments) 8. Black Jazz Consortium – “Build It” (Soul People) 9. TJ & DJ Raybone – “Gone” (Rush Hour) 10. Cultural Vibe – “Ma Foom Bey” (Easy Street) 11. MCMLXXXVII – “Risque Business” (Unknown Label) 12. Murphy Jax feat. Mike Dunn – “It’s The Music” (Clone Jack For Daze) 13. A Number of Names – “Shari Vari (Eddie Fowlkes Techno Soul Mix)” (Puzzlebox) 14. Unknown Artist – “Untitled” (Serious Grooves) 15. Roy Davies Jr – “All I Do” (FXHE)
Jamie Woon‘s Burial-graced “Night Air” tune is certainly threatening to climb to the top of a lot of folk’s year-end charts, but we might even be more enamored with the crop of remixes it has given way to. The version by percussion-loving bass-case Ramadanman first caught our ears, and now comes this stellar treatment from newcomer Becoming Real (pictured above). While the young tunesmith can be found working in the realms of post-dubstep, grime, and deconstructed juke, to name a few, his remix of “Night Air” is a production more inspired by bubbling future-house and reliant on delicate melodic elements—an atypical audio palette for Becoming Real. Certainly, the expertly crafted source material is responsible for some of the song’s lighter elements, but still, the remixer makes the wise choice to work within that vibe instead of forcing it to fit his past repertoire.
