The Field, Ada, Popnoname, and several other electronic producers have banded together under the Cologne Tape moniker to create trippy, electronic-influenced Krautrock. The group’s first EP, Render, will see release on the new Kompakt-distributed Magazine label, with a full length coming sometime next year. Check out the EP’s track list after the jump.
Berlin techno and fashion maven Ellen Allien has released a new video in anticipation of her upcoming album, Dust, which comes out May 25 on BPitch Control. Similar in feel to mid-’90s Dutch rave sequences, the video for “Our Utopie” features disembodied lips, hands, and a t-shirt-bedecked Allien making strange hand gestures in front of trippy images of space, oceans, and other natural phenomena. Though it is short, the video should whet fans’ appetites for the new album, as well as a whirlwind summer tour. Check out those dates after the jump!
ELLEN ALLIEN DUST TOUR:
15.05.2010 / IT / Rome / Brancaleone Season Closing 16.05.2010 / ES / Madrid / Goa / BPC Showcase 21.05.2010 / IT / Milan / Magazzini Generali 22.05.2010 / DE / Pouch / Sputnik Festival 22.05.2010 / DE / Berlin / Panorama Bar (Album Release Party) 26.05.2010 / US / Chicago / Smart Bar 28.05.2010 / US / Detroit / Majestic Theatre 29.05.2010 / US / New York / Santos Party House 04.06.2010 / SG / Singapore / Zouk 05.06.2010 / MY / Kuala Lumpur / Ohrwurm presents Ellen Allien @ Mist Club 11.06.2010 / AU / Perth / TBA 12.06.2010 / AU / Sydney / We Love Sounds Festival @ Hordern Pavillon 13.06.2010 / AR / Melbourne / We Love Sounds Festival @ Melbourne Park 14.06.2010 / AU / Adelaide / Wayville Showgrounds 18.06.2010 / ES / Barcelona / SONAR / BPC Beach Party 19.06.2010 / ES / Barcelona / SONAR / BPC exklusive Boat Party 19.06.2010 / ES / Barcelona / SONAR / Nitsa (BPC Showcase) 02.07.2010 / DE / Offenbach / Robert Johnson 03.07.2010 / IT / Riccione / Cocorico 04.07.2010 / NL / Venlo / Stereo Sunday 09.07.2010 / BE / Liege / Les Ardentes 10.07.2010 / IT / Mestre / Electrovenice Festival 10.07.2010 / IT / Castellaneta / Clorophilla 13.07.2010 / FR / Lyon / Ninkasi Kao 15.07.2010 / SE / Arvika / Arvika Festival 17.07.2010 / DE / Ludwigshafen / Loft 18.07.2010 / DE / Freiburg / Sea Of Love Festival 18.07.2010 / DE / Gäfenhainichen / MELT Festival 21.07.2010 / ES / Ibiza / Kehakuma @ Space 23.07.2010 / AT / Vienna / BPC Showcase @ Pratersauna 24.07.2010 / IT / Jesolo / Muretto 31.07.2010 / IT / Florence / Tenax (Summer Location TBA) 03.08.2010 / IT / Alassio / Le Vele 06.08.2010 / PL / Plock / Audioriver Festival 07.08.2010 / DE / Saalburg / SonneMondSterne Festival 08.08.2010 / DE / Moers / Luft & Liebe Festival 12.08.2010 / PT / Viana do Castelo / Neo Pop Festival 14.08.2010 / ES / Barcelona / Nitsa 21.08.2010 / DE / Berlin / Berghain + Panorama Bar (BPC Showcase) 08.09.2010 / ES / Ibiza / Kehakuma @ Space 18.09.2010 / FR / Lille / NAME Festival
DIY indie blog Some Kind of Awesome hooked up the internet today with the lastest latest track to leak from HEALTH‘s forthcoming second remix album, DISCO2. Go here to listen to the Crystal Castles remix of “Eat Flesh.” The noisy electro duo warped the the song’s many elements into a dark, brooding bit of atmospheric electronics and reverberated vocals that is eventually taken over by spastic drumming and atonal bleeps, bloops, and other assorted noises. It’s a nice addition—alongside treatments from CFCF, Javelin, Blondes, Tobacco, Gold Panda, and many others—to what’s turning out to be an extremely interesting and eclectic release.
Darkwave and house enthusiast Pictureplane is kicking off a new residency at local Denver, CO club Meadowlark Bar this Sunday, and he’s calling it Real Is a Feeling. To get people stoked on the kind of “house/bass/rave/synth/goth/queer” music Mr. Travis Edegy will be playing at his club, the DJ/producer has put together a free mix of his favorite jams as of late. Among the hefty bunch in his playlist are tweaked versions of Crystal Castles, Trans-X, and Big Tuck tunes, among more esoteric numbers. Are we feeling real yet? (via Pitchfork)
Donky Pitch, Brighton’s premiere skweee-blaring club night, will turn one year old come May 20, and its promoters have got a few celebratory party favors to share with everyone. Last week, they handed over a free mix of next-level beat music by French DJ/producer Fulgeance via Rhythm Incursions, and just yesterday, Sonic Router premiered a mix from LA blap-aholic Kid Logic made solely of Randy Barracuda tunes. You can check out that whole thing here, along with some more details about the mix, info on Donky Pitch’s forthcoming birthday celebration, and a brief interview with the club’s promoter.
We’re always going on and on about all the great DJs and producers in the UK who are mucking about with dubstep, garage, funky, and house in new and exciting ways, but New York’s Kingdom has been not so quietly holding things down on this side of the Atlantic. He recently returned from a tour of Australia, and in between smashing up clubs down under, he also made a stop at Triple J radio and cooked up this mix. Download the mix here and check the tracklist after the jump.
01. Kingdom – Mind Reader ft. Shyvonne (Bok Bok Remix) 02. Brackles & Shortstuff – Pipey D 03. EMZ – Basssss 04. DJ Bigga – Boeke Anthem 05. Soha – Izabelle 06. Egyptrixx – Everybody Bleeding (Kingdom Remix) 07. Vjuan Allure – Intensified 08. Mike Q – Kunt Remix 09. DJ Small – Limp By Limp 10. DJ Parra – El Tribal Rapido y Furioso 11. Roska – I Need Love (ft. Anesha) 12. Mikix The Cat – The Key (Kingdom Remix) 13. Girl Unit – I.R.L. 14. Ikonika – Idiot 15. Davinche – Phaze 16. OMG Michelle – You Don’t Know Michelle (Prod. Kingdom) 17. 8 Ball & MJG – Dont Make (Prod. Bangladesh) 18. Bitch Ass Darius – Ride 18. Kill Frenzy – Finna Get On Da Flo 19. TOK – Good Like Gold 20. DJ Rashad – Juke It From Behind (ft. Gant-Man)
Berlin-based Canadian techno fiend Sheldon Thompson (a.k.a. Pan/Tone, Gringo Grinder, etc.) is getting ready to drop his latest record as Sid LeRock, Tout Va Bien or “Everything is Fine.” Tout is the first album from LeRock in the four years since he released Keep it Simple, Stupid, and will be released June 25 on Shitkatapult. Check out the first single from Tout Va Bien, “Still Life,” here, and the album cover and tracklist below.
01. Chaos for the Aftermath 02. Swollen Member 03. Pow Wow 04. Still Life 05. La Guidoune 06. Applebottom 07. Walk Alone 08. Incliner 09. Slainte Mhor 10. Durch Dick Und Duenn 11. Made For You
When running down the short list of labels pushing dubstep forward into the future, Scuba‘s Hotflush imprint surely makes the cut. On May 24, another high-quality release will be added to the Hotflush stable, this time courtesy of London producer Sigha. True to form—both his and the label’s—the Shake EP offers three tracks that might not be bangers, but offer something for both the mind and body. Listen for yourself on the player below.
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For this May/June issue, nearly every feature found within takes the shape of an interview. Whether it’s our scribes getting the scoop from the likes of Trailer Trash Tracys and DaVinci or Warpaint sitting down with cover star Ariel Pink, the Q+A Issue gets up close and personal with a slew of the summer’s most talked-about artists. The Juan MacLean quizzes Chicago house legends Virgo, Flying Lotus talks drugs and drums with new London dubstep queen Ikonika Berliner Deadbeat meets Scuba, and even the boys of Blunted Robots go head to head. So get curious and read it all here, or view online at Issuu. And don’t forget to check out our extras with Flying Lotus, DaVinci, and more.
Last summer, Soundscreen Design debuted The Artist Music Journal, a limited-run book series. For each edition, a visual artist or musician puts together a 24-page book drawing inspiration from their connection to music. The two latest entries were made by Baltimore’s Post Typography (a.k.a. Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen, also of the band Double Dagger [pictured below]) and Bjorn Copeland, founding member of experimental noise outfit Black Dice. Here, Post Typography quizzes Copeland on his involvement in the series, his process, and the effect of his small-town roots.
Post Typography: What were you trying to create with your AMJ volume? Bjorn Copeland: I was basically trying to paint a picture of the way I see my relationship to art and music. Black Dice has a lot to do with that. It’s been a 12-year project that has been the outlet for all of our ideas. I tried to make as much new imagery for it as possible. There are a few older pieces that seemed to fit, so that’s why they’re there.
Collage has been a part of punk and independent music since the beginning. Has this history had an influence on your own work, either in the choice to use collage as a medium or in the content? As soon as I got into music, I loved album artwork. That hasn’t really stopped. Collage always appealed to me, especially all the Vermiform [Records] shit. I love the way their releases look. They all seemed to be snapshots of some bizzaro parallel world. It really colored the way I thought of the music. That seems like an opportunity that a lot of people shy away from.
Do you see a connection in the way you approach your music and visual art? It’s really the same to me. Even when I work independently from [my brother] Eric and Aaron [Warren, also in Black Dice], the things that we talk about when doing band shit resonates in my head, and is a huge influence. I’ve really tried to keep a cohesion between the two.
Which books have been your favorites in the AMJ series so far? I really liked yours. It’s fun to read. I kept searching for the poster you did for us, Melt Banana, and Heroin Sheiks at the Auto Bar. Remember that one? Maybe that was pre-Double Dagger. Still got that one. Black Dice has been talking about doing a flyer book with comment on each show. Not sure what I remember about a lot of them, but it seems like it would be entertaining to flip through. Though our visual output is really different, both of our work references or borrows from low-rent pop culture. We all grew up in small towns where that was about the only kind of culture that was offered.
What draws you to mundane objects/imagery as sources for your work? I really like using things that are so familiar that you are almost numb to them. I also treat that type of source material a lot less preciously. Since I make everything by hand, it’s easy to fuck up in a way where you can’t fix it. You know, you can’t erase it, or unglue what you stuck together. I rarely go out and look for source material, I just sort of acquire shit over time. I love having a huge mess to work in. Wherever you look, you see something you glossed over before. The small-town culture you’re talking about happens to be the stuff we all were exposed to the most growing up, so it seems like an honest starting point.
Post Typography’s and Bjorn Copeland’s Artist Music Journals, #07 and #08, are out now on Soundscreen Design.