Calling an album “mature” is often a death knell for creativity and excitement, but in the case of To Realize, it’s good thing. Clipd Beaks have never been tied to traditional songwriting—their 2006 Preyers EP and 2007 full-length, Hoarse Lords, were both cacophonous collections of spastic yelps and unruly bursts of noise—but To Realize is downright epic. Crafting spacious soundscapes, taking droney vision quests into ’70s psychedelia, and offering pleasantly subdued vocals, the Oakland trio appears to have found solid footing as a band of new-school doom-rock warriors. Liars’ last few records are an easy reference point, yet Clipd Beaks prefer hazy dirge to nightmarish sonic assaults—the world may be coming to an end, but these guys aren’t here to bum you out.
Taking a cue from the space jazz of his aunt, Alice Coltrane, the upcoming record from Flying Lotus promises to be one of the more mind-melting releases of 2010. Cosmogramma expands on the lauded sounds featured on FlyLo’s Los Angeles, bursting further into psychedelic realms of soul, evidenced by collaborations with harpist Rebekah Raff, bass virtuoso Thundercat, and a host of vocalists ranging from Thom Yorke to Laura Darlington. With Mary Anne Hobbs calling Flying Lotus the “Hendrix of his generation,” there is little doubt that Cosmogramma will only propel listeners deeper into the realms of aural consciousness.
01. Clock Catcher 02. Pickled! 03. Nose Art 04. Intro//A Cosmic Drama 05. Zodiac Shit 06. Computer Face//Pure Being 07. ..And the World Laughs With You ft. Thom Yorke 08. Arkestry 09. Mmmhmm ft.Thundercat 10. Do the Astral Plane 11. Satelllliiiiiteee 12. German Haircut 13. Recoiled 14. Dance of the Pseudo Nymph 15. Drips//Auntie’s Harp 16. Table Tennis ft. Laura Darlington 17. Galaxy in Janaki
It’s a strange thing that after releasing two well-received and widely loved albums, not to mention having a member whose name and voice is immediately recognizable, The Whitest Boy Alive has never toured the United States. Thankfully, that will change come this April. The Berlin-based indie-pop quartet will be doing four dates on both coasts, one of which will take place at the Coachella festival. Though there is no particular new release or single they’ll be promoting, one could reasonably think that the band might play new material since their last record, Rules, was released about a year ago. Let’s hope writing the latest Kings of Convenience album didn’t keep Erlend Øye from his pale-faced pop songs. The brief tour’s dates are below.
April 14 – Slim’s – San Francisco, CA April 16 – Coachella – Indio, CA April 20 – Bowery Ballroom – New York, NY April 21 – Music Hall of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY
One of the many notable names in the Rinse crew, Geeneus just made a new mix available for free download here. His mix blends choice cuts of house, UK funky, and other future dance musics we’ve come to expect from the DJ/producer, and also includes some exclusive verses from Katy B, whose forthcoming album was produced by Geeneus & Zinc. The free DJ mix precedes Geeneus’ follow up to the mix CD Volumes: One, appropriately titled Volumes: Two.
Twenty-three-year-old Londoner Sam Shepherd is all over the map. Literally. When I contacted the busy producer, DJ, and bandleader who records as Floating Points, he was gigging in Greece and his MySpace page listed bookings across Europe several months deep. It’s been a quick ascent for Shepherd, who, until recently, had only three official EP releases and a few songs on compilations. But it’s easy to hear why tastemakers—from BBC’s Gilles Peterson and Mary Anne Hobbs to Ubiquity A&R man Andrew Jervis—have been touting his work for the past year.
Shepherd’s evocative music drifts in a spacey, synth-drenched world, bouncing between boogie-house, glitch-hop, and jazzy dubstep beats. His proficiency in multiple genres can be chalked up to early years spent studying classical composition and jazz piano at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester. At 18 he moved to London, where he’s currently working on a Ph.D. in pharmacology.
“Love Me Like This
Not unlike his academic pursuits, the music Shepherd makes is also quite a heady concoction. Songs like “K & G Beat” blend Vangelis-like ambient synths with 2-step beats, while “Love Me Like This” is a soul-saturated, ’80s-inspired electro-house track. “Vacuum Boogie,” released on Shepherd’s and Rinse FM DJ Alexander Nut’s Eglo imprint, features filtered synths and an undulating underwater groove. Shepherd’s varied output has garnered attention in the dubstep, hip-hop beatmaker, and house communities, even as he’s expanded to the live setting. Like fellow classical- and jazz-grounded Brit amalgams Cinematic Orchestra or Two Banks of Four, Shepherd has put together a stage ensemble.
In May 2009, Shepherd conducted the 13-piece Floating Points Ensemble at Camden’s Roundhouse. The group included collaborator and singer Fatima along with brass, strings, guitar, bass, drums, and vibraphone, with Shepherd on synths and Rhodes piano. The show was a big success, but tight schedules have hindered doing more dates. “With the musicians being professionals and myself consumed with studies, it’s quite hard to get 13 people in a room at the same time,” he quips. “I’ve had some new ideas for tunes for the ensemble with some more interesting scales and altered harmonies. But I’m trying to not take on too much, both to give me a chance to write original stuff and to get some science done.”
“Vacuum Boogie”
The cliché is that electronic producers are often called mad scientists, but in the case of Floating Points, maybe there’s something to it. “[The Ph.D. work] is really interesting stuff and gets me out of bed in the morning. Science does help with music making, especially with sound design,” he explains. “It helps to be rational when creating sounds that have been imagined. But then it’s also quite fun to turn buttons randomly!”
New York is no stranger to disco-influenced electro-pop, what with The Golden Filter and the stable of DFA artists, but there’s always room for another addition to the party. Elizabeth Harper and Mark Richardson are Class Actress, a Brooklyn outfit born from a mutual love for vintage synths and classic pop. The title-track from their Journal of Ardency EP is just that; cool and collected vocal hooks from Harper’s sultry croon floating atop a straightforward dance beat rife with shimmering synths and bouncing basslines.
Whenever M.A.N.D.Y. and Booka Shade collaborate, the result is sure to be some floor-filling, ass-shakingly elegant tech-house. Here, the quartet’s single, which originally appeared on the 2007 5 Years Get Physical 5 compilation, has been remixed by Gui Boratto, who uses a dub techno stem from the original to form his version’s heart, propelling the track towards an early peak that practically oozes arpeggiation. Though most of the stems remain unchanged sonically, Boratto’s rearrangement is decidedly more punchy and effective than the original. The single also includes remixes from Boy 8 Bit, James Talk, Ben Hoo, and Logistics, and Booka Shade will also be doing their own version of “Donut” on their new album, slated for release later this year.
If being called Little Girls wasn’t creepy enough for you, how about turning “10 Mile Stereo” by Beach House (a favorite of many little girls to be sure) into something that sounds like Ian Curtis reuniting Joy Division from beyond the grave. Producer Josh McIntyre removed Victoria Legrand’s original vocal from his version, and inserted a particularly large amount of lo-fi doom and gloom in its stead—leaving the rest of the music more or less intact.
Despite not having dropped a group album in almost a decade, Souls of Mischief still have enough gusto to keep hip-hop heads listening. No, SOM’s latest effort, Montezuma’s Revenge, is not as consistently surprising as their classic debut, 93 ‘Til Infinity, but just because they don’t outdo themselves doesn’t mean members Opio, Phesto, Tajai, and A-Plus don’t sound noticeably reinvigorated here. With guidance from veteran producer Prince Paul, this mid-tempo opus reminds us what a well thought-out group album should sound like—goofy skits and all. The durable drums, claps, and melodic loops from Paul provide the foundation for these MCs to reflect on hip-hop life (“Tour Stories”) and juggle multiple topics (“You Got It”) without showing signs of age.
London resident Fatima will finally see her first solo EP released early this spring. The soulful songstress, whose collaborations with Shafiq Husayn, Floating Points, and Slum Village have made her one of the most talked-about singers on the scene, will be dropping some leftfield nu-soul on fans’ ears with the Mindtravelin EP. Featuring production from Dam-Funk and Funkineven, the four-track slice showcases Fatima’s silky vocals, stuttering beats, and a vibe that is very much in tune with what is happening today on the nu-soul scene, as led by LA’s Stones Throw Records.
