San Diego’s Blessure Grave (pictured above) is, essentially, a duo not much different from shadowy synth-toting acts like, say, Cold Cave, except its music sounds as if it was written and recorded in an actual cave. Hours of Worship is a production duo based in NY that makes music that sounds like it emanates from a different kind of hole—a K-hole, to be specific. (Cue rimshot.) The two entities paired up on this remix, and surprisingly, Hours of Worship’s rework of the barren darkwave song, “Stranger in the House,” is sort of pretty, albeit in an overtly “goth” way. Singer T. Grave’s baritone is set amongst hypnotically jangling samples, ominous synth tones, and a pulsing dance beat, and comes and goes as it pleases while the other elements churn out six-plus minutes of entrancing rhythms and melodies. And yet despite the efforts to remain sullen and reserved, the track has an underlying hopefulness to it, and could just as easily power dancefloors belonging to either of the artists involved. (via Chronic Youth)
In a completely unexpected turn of events, Belgium’s spacey, Balearic disco production duo Aeroplane has split just months before the release of its debut full-length, We Can’t Fly. Aeroplane’s record is still slated for release September 6 via Wall of Sound, but now the duo has become a solo affair, as Stephen Fasano left Vito De Luca to man the project alone. In a blog post, De Luca explained the split, saying, “Stephen and I have been working together for more than seven years now. Seven years of good and bad times. Seven years of creating different projects, exploring different directions. Today, we are more excited and passionate than ever about creating new music. Except that [in] the last months, Stephen’s vision and mine were going different ways. That is the reason why we decided that one of us should leave Aeroplane. Not to destroy it, but to make it last.” He also made sure to note, “There is no angriness here, no conflicts to come, just a mature decision to save what we’ve been building together, and [what] both of us do not want to see disappear.” New material is to be expected from Fasano under a new guise, and De Luca will be carrying out Aeroplane duties from here on out. (via Resident Advisor)
We’re hardly two weeks off the release of Before Today, XLR8Rcover starAriel Pink‘s latest full-length with his Haunted Graffiti band, and now we’ve already got another bunch of songs coming from the busy music maker. The wonderfully named Free Dope and Fucking in the Streets label will be releasing Pink’s new self-titled EP, which is actually a collaboration with another backing band, Added Pizzazz. Inconveniently, the five-song release will only be available on Pink’s upcoming summer tour, but you can download a free MP3 of lead track “In the Heat of the Night” here. Check out the EP artwork and tracklist, as well as the tour dates, below. (via Pitchfork)
01 In the Heat of the Night 02 Vapor Trailer 03 Hot Body Rub 04 19 05 IM NN7
05-04 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge * 06-10 Brighton, England – The Freebutt 06-11 Bristol, England – The Fleece 06-12 Nottingham, England – Spiky Van Dykes 06-13 Glasgow, Scotland – Captain’s Rest 06-14 Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club 06-15 London, England – Scala 07-09 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex # 07-10 San Francisco, CA – Bimbo’s # 07-12 Portland, OR – Doug Fir # 07-13 Seattle, WA – Neumo’s # 07-14 Vancouver, British Columbia – Biltmore # 07-16 Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge # 07-17 Denver, CO – Bluebird # 07-19 Minneapolis, MN – Entry # 07-20 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall # 07-21 Detroit, MI – Pike Room # 07-22 Toronto, Ontario – Mod Club # 07-23 Montreal, Quebec – La Sala Rosa # 07-24 New York, NY – The Fillmore at Irving Plaza # 07-25 Boston, MA – Middle East # 07-27 Philadelphia, PA – JB’s # 07-28 Washington, DC – Rock N Roll Hotel # 07-29 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506 # 07-30 Atlanta, GA – Earl # 07-31 Birmingham, AL – Bottle Tree # 08-02 Denton, TX – Hailey’s # 08-03 Austin, TX – Mohawk # 08-05 Tuscon, AZ – Plush # 08-06 San Diego, CA – Casbah # 08-07 Costa Mesa, CA – Detroit Bar #
* with R. Stevie Moore # with Pearl Harbor and Magic Kids
This latest number to drip off the long-awaited new album from NY sample aficionados The Books seems to be an exact counter response to the first taste from The Way Out, “Beautiful People.” That track is something like a soothing-but-upbeat love song written for mathematics, but “A Cold Freezin’ Night” is a bit more like a pre-pubescent reenactment of the intro to Wu-Tang’s “Method Man” set to an unheard Residents or Primus track. It’s a darkly playful song that simultaneously showcases The Books’ funky and humorous sides, and effectively proves the duo is anything but a one-trick pony. (via FADER)
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Earlier this month, we shared a download of “The One,” one of few tracks from Onra‘s Long Distance album to feature live vocal work. The French beat craftsman wrangled Slum Village‘s T3 to drop the vocal contribution over his boogie-minded production, and now he’s snagged Irish graphic designer and video maker Donal Thornton for the making of his single’s video. Appropriately enough, the video’s images are all rendered to have that fuzzy VHS glow we all know and love, and contain a pastiche of mid-’80s city-life nostalgia (i.e. answering machines, desperate strippers, bulky CD players). The aesthetic works well with Onra’s musical vibe, so much so that Thornton’s video looks almost like a moving album cover for Onra’s latest record.
Magnetic Man, the dubstep supergroup comprised of Skream, Benga, and Artwork, just announced the coming of its official debut single, “I Need Air.” The track will be the first taste of the trio’s as-yet-untitled, forthcoming full-length album, and features a vocal performance from former Alicia Keys collaborator Angela Hunte wrapped around the twistedly pop-minded dubstep tune. On his collaborative project moving into the future, Skream said, “With all three of us doing it, it’s going to get ultra-no-holds barred. This is Magnetic Man. It’s no longer three people: it’s a whole.” The “I Need Air” 12″, which contains remixes by Red Light, Breakage, and Shy FX, will be made available via Columbia on July 26, and the digital download is out the day before. Check out Magnetic Man’s tour dates below.
Sunday 27th June – Glastonbury Festival Saturday 3rd July – Wireless Festival Thursday 15th July – Benicassim, Spain Friday 30th July – Fuji Rock, Japan Friday 6th August – Big Chill Friday 20th August – Pukkelpop, Belgium Saturday 28th August – Leeds Festival Sunday 29th August – Reading Festival
Following the last remix we posted of Hanuman‘s “Bola,” hyperactive tunesmith Norrit (pictured above) shared the crack he took at the bass-loaded number. The club-minded producer drops all kinds of reverberated percussion, chopped vocal samples, and light-footed synth melodies on top of the wobbling bass rhythms before pairing it all with a straightforward house beat. We won’t try to pick favorites between Norrit’s version and the previous remix from Star Eyes; each version we’ve heard of Hanuman’s track is a beast equally choice in its own ways.
Production packages for reggae studio heads are few and far between, as companies instead focus their sets on popular genres such as hip-hop, electro, techno, or pop. Sonic Reality and Uberschall have a few reggae-themed offerings, but in general they sound like adaptations of their electronic and rock packages. Enter Atomic Reggae (MSRP: $79.95), a loops collection recorded by Canadian band Dubmatix using live vintage instruments. The set contains 1.5 GB of Acidized and AIFF loops, including live and synth bass, guitar, horns, melodica, and organ, plus one-drop and steppers drum loops. The sounds are processed with reggae-centric analog effects like tape delay, spring reverb, and phasers for a gritty Kingston studio feel. The loops are generally high quality and useful, but a lack of individual hits and mediocre FX was disappointing. New reggae producers or those needing a quick loops injection will be satisfied, but veteran dub scientists should invest in more gear or VSTs.
Whatever the case, some otherworldly force shone down on Toronto this past weekend and blessed it with heavenly weather—a good thing considering one of NXNE’s main stages, at Yonge and Dundas Square was an outdoor venue. The likes of X, The Stooges, The Raveonettes, De La Soul, and Mudhoney all kept the crowds for the free shows rapt, while Canadian heroes Sloan and rapper K-Os did the same for their hometown supporters. Our personal faves for this stage, though, were Vancouver’s Said the Whale, who do straight-up power pop, but do it really, really well. (Listen to “Camilo (The Magician)” for instant indie-pop love.)
Iggy & The Stooges @ Yonge-Dundas Square
Big Freedia @ Wrongbar
Friday night, however, was really owned by New Orleans bounce rapper Big Freedia, down across town at West Queen West’s Wrongbar. The room wasn’t packed to the gills, but for the hyper-fabulous MC it might as well have been Madison Square Garden at capacity. Along with her DJ Rusty Lazer, Freedia, flanked by two scantily clad ass-clappin’ dancers, had the straight-gay-white-black-hipster-rap crowd under her spell, rapping (mostly) about ass and relationships, and getting half the audience up on stage to bounce with her. When we spoke to her the next day and asked her what’s the one thing she needs for a performance to go off, she said simply “one mic.”
Avi Buffalo @ Lee’s Palace
Saturday night, we made the rounds on Bloor West, and ended up at the far-flung locale The Piston to check out Jeremy Glenn, a synth-boogie crooner who’s shared the stage with Dam-Funk and other nu-funk luminaries. Musically, his group showed some promise, but came off a little cheesy when it came to vocal stylings and songwriting. Unfortunately, his group failed to get over the hump of some technical issues, and so we headed back east to Lee’s Palace, where Long Beach rockers Avi Buffalo strung together a nice Wilco/Big Star-esque pastiche, worthy of their recent Sub Pop contract.
Cold Cave
However, little could prepare us for Cold Cave’s onslaught, a clear front-runner for the festival’s best performance. The sound was muddy as fuck, with a techno-club bass rumble that seemed like Wes Eisold and friends were attempting to rattle the building to its foundation (even the upstairs bathrooms felt as if they were going to crumble). Like the best parts of Fad Gadget and Depeche Mode combined with a supreme appreciation for heavy bass and noise, Cold Cave proved that night why they’re currently the best synth pop band in the world right now. An incredible end to our first NXNE visit, which you can read more about here. And then check back later in the week for our exclusive interview with Big Freedia.
When we asked Nite Jewel (pictured above) and fellow LA synth-maestro Dâm-Funk to get together and collaborate on a song, their pairing made perfect sense. However, Nite Jewel joining the twinkling synth tones and poignant melodies of her own style with HEALTH‘s barren noise-rock soundscapes seems less likely to flourish, and yet here we are. A surprisingly upbeat, though perfectly somber, instrumental was written by Ramona Gonzalez as the backdrop for HEALTH’s translucent vocal track. The two elements work together ideally, both in the quietly bubbling intro and the song’s more buoyant second half. Which leads us to ask, Nite Health, anyone? (via FADER)
