Today is September 9—no big deal, right? Well, leave it to some generous DJ/producers to make it into a date of note. Via ElSubtracto.com, music makers JPLS, Skoozbot, Dustin Zahn, and Drumcell are giving away a package of DJ tools made entirely on a Roland TR-909 (Get it? 9/09?!). You can download the package for free here, and you can preview the tracks they made below. (via Resident Advisor)
XLR8R Couldn't find the embed function for type: "soundcloud" and source: "<embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="165" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F310818%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-YTK6F&secret_url=false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%">".
Indie rock’s most talked-about band of the last couple years, Salem, starts off this issue we’re dubbing The Chi-Light Saga, in which we dig into all areas of Chicago’s past and present. Windy City writer Dave Quam goes deep into the juke and footwork scenes, and former Midwesterners Brenmar and AIDS-3D are also profiled. But that’s not all: Across the pond, we check in with El Guincho, Shed, Altered Natives, and Mr. G on the occasions of their new albums. Where next? Read all about it here, or view the entire issue online at Issuu.
After seven years of remaining relatively off the radar, veteran trip-hop group Massive Attack dropped its fifth full-length studio album, Heligoland, earlier this year. Now back in the swing of things, producers Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall have their follow-up already scheduled for release this November. The forthcoming Atlas Air EP will feature the title track (also the final song on Heligoland), a remix of the song by DFA alum Tim Goldsworthy, a new Massive Attack jam featuring vocals from Elbow’s Guy Garvey, called “Redlight,” and a remix of that new song by Warp’s Clark. The EP’s cover artwork will be a painting by Del Naja, and the digital version of the release will feature a short film for “Atlas Air” by Edouard Salier. Here’s the kicker: All proceeds from the new EP will go directly to the War Child charity to benefit the children living in war-torn countries around the world. Learn more about Massive Attack’s new EP and the charity here. (via FACT)
There are two distinctly different sides to New York-based producer/DJ Matthew Dear: his lengthy excursions into DJ-friendly techno (most commonly heard under his Audion guise) and his eponymous pop-oriented side, with which he’s explored playing as a live three-piece with his Big Hands band, and has crafted two critically acclaimed full-lengths. If there’s one major element that sets these sides apart, though, it’s singing. Dear uses more of his voice than ever before on the just-released Black City, so who better than the illustrious Ghostly/Spectral co-founder to give us the lowdown on how to get the most out of vocal recordings? Here are a few tips from the techno-pop singer-songwriter himself.
1. Consider your location I’ve recorded vocals with a microphone in an oven, in the corner of brick walls, shower stalls, and on the street. When you change the environmental factors and wave patterns coming into the mic, you’re rewarded with all sorts of uncontrollable benefits.
2. Make some physical changes Stretch your neck back and sing upside down into the mic. Record the same verse in the morning and at night and notice the difference a day of living will have on your voice. Sing a couple of takes through clenched teeth, or after you drink a cup of tea. Take a shot of whiskey and sing while sitting on your hands. All of this will change the result of what ends up in your song.
3. Layer your vocals Now blend all of those various takes and positions onto one verse. You’ll get an immense amount of depth. Play with the volume levels and panning. Sometimes I’ll put a very guttural and almost inaudible groan under the regular vocals and get a strange result.
“Soil to Seed”
4. Use effects Treat your voice. Chorus is always helpful, whether thick or thin. I like to use an AMS-DMX clone preset in the Eventide H8000 Ultra-Harmonizer, which slightly delays a panned pitch-shift on my voice. Subtle delays on the last word in a verse or only on certain frequencies can also add a lot of dimension.
5. Pen your lyrics creatively Write cryptic lines that you can’t even figure out. Draw from the depths of your soul and write from the core. Confuse yourself. Listen to your own music for the answers you want to find. Give people something they’ll have to listen to again and again. Find your own methods that work for your voice and singing style. Everyone has their own pocket. Find it, and you’ll be happy with the results. Others will be as well.
As pointed out in last week’s write up for Gold Panda‘s “Snow & Taxis” track (there’s a video for it now, here), we showed up a tad late to the Essex-based producer’s party due in part to a moniker that evoked certain indie genres we’d just as soon leave be. Thankfully, we were totally wrong about that, as evidenced on the new music we’ve been catching off his forthcoming debut full-length, Lucky Shiner. The latest number to help bolster our opinion of Gold Panda is “Same Dream China,” a song that holds tight to flitting micro-samples and dense layers of melody that float high over a bouncing rhythm. It reminds us of some of Nobukazu Takemura’s more playful, plinking compositions, if they were re-imagined by, say, The Field. As it turns out, that makes perfect sense, as The Field had Gold Panda rework his “I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet” track last year, and with excellent results. We should have known.
You can stream Lucky Shiner in full before it’s released on October 12, here.
The folks at Bristol imprint Punch Drunk may not be a wordy bunch—the press release for Superisk‘s Find Your Way EP barely cracks a few lines—but the Peverelist-fronted label can always be counted upon to deliver some high quality bass music. The Find Your Way EP drops next week, and includes the wonky original along with a remix from fellow Bristolian Mensah, but you can check it out now, along with the vinyl artwork, after the jump.
The XLR8R Music Player requires Adobe Flash Player version 9 or later. Click here to install.
This fuzzy, funky piece of vintage disco comes to us courtesy of The Fatback Band’s 1976 chart-topping hit “(Do the) Spanish Hustle)” and the man who saw fit to rework it to his liking, NYC’s master editor Danny Krivit (pictured above). This number is part of Krivit’s forthcoming second volume of upbeat soul, funk, and disco edits for Strut, which will see the light of day come September 14. Along with this lengthy version of “Spanish Hustle,” the renowned veteran and proclaimed King of Edits includes his own takes on Chairmen of the Board’s “Life & Death,” Patrice Rushen’s “Music of the Earth,” and Black Blood’s “Chicano,” among others, on Edits by Mr. K Vol. 2. You can check out more about the forthcoming compilation and watch Krivit tell the story of his DJ/production career here.
This could be the biggest electronic music festival we’ve ever heard of. Starting Tuesday, September 23, the massive, 13-week event known as The Warehouse Project will present its fifth annual festival—monopolizing Manchester nightlife every weekend leading up to New Year’s Day. We couldn’t possibly list off every DJ, producer, band, or other types of artists coming from far and wide to perform, but suffice it to say, everyone from Joy Orbison to Jimmy Edgar to Luke Vibert to Simian Mobile Disco to DOOM to Pete Tong to Carl Craig to Vitalic to Booka Shade to just about every other name XLR8R would consider mentioning in our pages will be there. You can check out the full lineup for The Warehouse Project here, and buy tickets here
We’ve got a pretty sizable weak spot over here at XLR8R for pitch-shifted vocals. Whether you’re tweaking them up or down, and especially if they’ve got some obvious flavor to them, it’ll score you a few points in our book. So, for NastyNasty‘s new track, “Bleeding,” the well-sampled and soulful vocal clips that litter its three minutes are more of an icing on the cake. The San Francisco producer closes his forthcoming Puke Paint EP (that’s the cover up top) with this relatively stripped-down dubstep beat—making sure to precisely color in its edges with bits of space noise, a handful of wobbly bass tones, and, of course, those infectiously warped croons. It’s no new idea, but dammit if NastyNasty doesn’t work it with aplomb.
The Puke Paint EP is out on September 14 via Frite Nite.
Funky dance-tune producer Munk (a.k.a. Gomma label head Mathias Modica) has a brand-new EP coming down the pipeline, following the release of the La Musica 12″ in June. The new record, Mondo Vagabondo, is said to be five tracks of “sunny, romantic” house music flavored with bits of psychedelic rock, disco, electro, and other culturally rich genres. Modica performs a whole mess of instruments on his upcoming EP, which includes pianos, synths, bass, guitar, drums, xylophones, and drum machines, and it will be released on October 18. You can check out the cover art and tracklist below.
1. Violent Love 2. La Musica 3. Ay Ga Cha 4. We Don’t Care 5. El Capitano
