Here’s a quick piece from Arp‘s forthcoming second album, The Soft Wave. The two-and-a-half-minute “White Light” is an experience of fuzzy static and other variously manipulated noises, all wrapped around a constant loop of soft guitar strums. Occasionally, a semblance of melody outside of the hypnotic guitar work bubbles to the surface, but those flute puffs and electronic hums are short blips in the timeline. “White Light” is a small, temporary place, most likely created by Arp as a doorway to a larger room. (via Pitchfork)
The translation of “Saanko Jäädä Yöksi?,” the first single from Finnish electronic twee-pop trio Regina‘s new album, Puutarhatrilogia, into English is “Can I Stay the Night?”. But if you’re listening to Ghosts on Tape‘s (pictured above) remix of the song, it comes across much more like “I’m Not Going Anywhere, So Let’s Fucking Dance.” The drastic shift in vibe and genre (from lighthearted pop tune to late-night club heater) might lead one to wonder what—outside of the etheral vocal samples that waft in and out of earshot—exactly did producer Ryan Merry use from the original song to color in the thick rhythms of his version. Really though, it doesn’t matter; the tune crafted by Ghosts on Tape is full of enough of his own style (crunchy tropical percussion, floating melodic elements, massive wallops of bass, and hypnotic rave tendencies) to allow his production to stand confidently with or without the “remix” tag.
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Trouble & Bass beat don Drop the Lime has a new single, and whaddaya know, there’s a video too. As the title “Sex Sax” infers, the track features an incessant saxophone melody, and following in suit, the video shows equal amounts of brass. A trenchcoat-clad, bespectacled man wanders the streets of New York, playing his bone and inciting the folks he encounters, such as Star Eyes and Drop the Lime himself, to dance along to his playful tune. Eventually, the Sax Man comes across a long-legged bombshell, whom he lovingly serenades with his sweet song atop a Brooklyn roof in the video’s final moments. You can get ahold of the Sex Sax EP here.
Yes, we did post up the Le Chev Remix of this song just yesterday, but XLR8R is never worried about overkill when it comes to Brooklyn trio Lemonade. Ever since they left San Francisco to set up shop on the (L)East Coast, we’ve been missing their unique blend of tropical rhythms, vintage dance-pop, and psychedelic weirdness. But if the new remix package for “Lifted” is any indication, the boys’ taste in electronic music hasn’t diminished one bit. Here they’ve enlisted UK producer Hackman, who stretches the song’s vocals and steel-drum melodies over a mellow house beat that pops and shuffles its way through a relaxing five-plus minutes. (Warning: bad joke ahead.) If Lemonade is the audio equivalent of a cool beverage on a hot day, then perhaps this Hackman remix is the audio equivalent of an Arnold Palmer. Get it? Lemonade? Arnold Palmer? Eh? Get it? (via FACT)
Truthfully, we’re a little surprised Ann Arbor, Michigan’s long-standing electronic label, Ghostly International, hasn’t already broken the 100 mark in its discography. Throughout its decade-plus time as an artful, forward-thinking music hub, Ghostly has released a huge amount of great records with amazing packaging tailor-made to fit each eclectic release. But this limited-edition 100th release absolutely takes the cake. Called Manzoku: The Ghostly Bento (pictured above), GI-100 is a hand-crafted wooden box modeled after Japanese traditions of quality and design, and contains a triptych of goodies: a special edition of the Horizon Line / Ghostly By Night compilation, a Ghostly silk tie, and a pair of Ghostly-branded chopsticks, all adorned with a special design from Dosa. XLR8R decided we’d like to help one of our favorite labels celebrate, and are offering one lucky winner a chance to get their hands on this exclusive piece. Shoot us an email at contest@xlr8r.com with “Ghostly Bento Box” in the subject line, and a little blurb about your favorite Ghostly release. Make sure to get your entry in before Friday, July 2 at 9 a.m. PST to be considered.
After tossing over that email, make sure to check out these two epic events Ghostly is hosting in SF (July 9 at Mezzanine) and LA (July 10 at The Stone Bar). Each audio/visual extravaganza will feature live performances from Tycho, Shigeto, The Sight Below, and Mux Mool, with Solvent making a special appearance at the SF party. Check out the details for the LA jump-off here, and the info for the SF show here.
After sharing a snippet from his older Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixx CD, El-P was kind enough to let us have a taste of his forthcoming third installment for the series. “Meanstreak (In 3 Parts)” is an old-school-futuristic beat triptych that could soundtrack some sort of gangsta version of Blade Runner—we’d call the movie Blunt Runner. Dome-thumping MPC beats are paired with grimy bass synths, buzzing insect-inspired melodies, and El-P’s uncanny ability to make shifting between three seemingly disparate productions sound seamless and wholly necessary.
Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 is out August 3.
Following last year’s Flashed EP, Detroit techno enthusiast and Berlin-based producer Jon Gaiser (or just Gaiser) released a new single yesterday on Minus. The two-song digital EP contains the slow-building techno soundscape of “Static Level” and the dubby excursion “Zebra Talk,” both produced with the pristine sound quality and eclectic micro-sampling expected from Gaiser’s growing list of work. You can snag the Static Level EP through Beatport or the Minus website, and check out the art work below.
UK grime MC Jammer is set to release his debut full-length album, Jahmanji, July 5 via Big Dada. Before that day comes, treat yourself to the first video to surface from the album for the single “10 Man Roll (feat. Boy Better Know).” Jammer’s video is pretty funny, as it features kids waiting in a queue to get into a outdoor birthday party, but with a huge, darkly dressed bouncer checking names off a clipboard like it’s a club guestlist. After the tots rush the man at the gate and overtake the dancefloor (and bouncy castle), all sorts of childish pandemonium breaks out while Jammer and his Boy Better Know crew deliver Chinese-instrument-sampling grime beats and wax poetic about how much money they have.
You’ve really got to hand it to the women populating our world’s clubs. Whether it’s MCs spouting off their stream-of-conscious nonsense or DJs dropping one booty jam after the other, females are constantly being corralled onto the dancefloor with demands of what to do with their various body parts. Some such requests go unrequited, to be sure, but if you’re a girl and you’re on the dancefloor when MaddJazz‘s “Pop Dat Pussay” drops, you’re going to have a hard time refusing the track’s suggestions of how to treat your nether regions. Though not on his forthcoming Mind of a MaddMan EP, the Ghetto Division cohort (who helped hook us up with their Chicago-centric podcast for XLR8R a few months back) delivers booming bass thumps, pristine synth stabs, and simple percussive elements on this track, which work perfectly alongside the hyperactive, traffic-directing vocal sample—effectively coercing the ladies of the world to ‘shake what they mamma’s gave ’em’ with some of Chicago’s finest ghetto-house.
London-based DJ/producer Ramadanman just contributed his own mix of soulful, forward-thinking bass music to the Sunday Best-curated Bestimix series. Sonic Router tipped us off to the Hessle Audio cohort’s club-friendly DJ set, and we got so into it, we just had to share. The 21-track set includes tracks from Martyn, Benga, Joe, Blawan, and Ramadanman himself. You can stream Bestimix 23: Ramadanmanhere, and download it here. The tracklist is below.
01. Kim English – Nite Life (Remix) [Nervous] 02. Altered Natives – Crop Duster [3024] 03. Ramadanman – Grab Somebody 04. Unknown – Untitled 05. Martyn – Miniluv [Osgut Ton] 06. Distance – Feel Me [Chestplate] 07. Ramadanman – Mir 08. Menta – Snake Charmer [Road] 09. Ramadanman – Fall Short [Swamp 81] 10. Distal – Apple Bottom 11. Unknown – Untitled 12. Loefah – Goat Stare [DMZ] 13. Peverelist – Better Ways of Living [Punch Drunk] 14. Blawan – Potchla Vee 15. Instramental – Rift Zone 16. Ludacris vs Joe – How Low Claptrap (DJ Orgasmic Bootleg) 17. SX – Wooo Remix 18. Addison Groove – This Girl 19. Benga – One on One [Big Apple] 20. Pariah – Crossed Out [forthcoming R&S] 21. Sigha – Light Swells (In a Distant Space) [Hotflush]
