Luca Cazzoni “Un Chat Dans Mon Jardin”

With his song “Un Chat Dans Mon Jardin” (which translates directly to “A Cat in My Garden”), fresh-faced French DJ/producer Luca Cazzoni is given the first release slot of Slant’s 2010 catalog. A newcomer to the label, Cazzoni’s track is equal parts energy and atmosphere—the churning bass and cowbell percussion evened out by reverberated synths and lilting melodies. It’s an understated piece of minimal tech-house made even more desirable by the fact that the entire EP is available for free download. Consider it a free sample, as Slant has Cazzoni’s even tastier Tourniquet Time EP, featuring remixes from Pezzner and Let’s Go Outside, on tap for early February.

01 Un Chat Dans Mon Jardin

Various Artists Tumbélé! Biguine, Afro & Latin Sounds From the French Caribbean, 1963-74

In the landscape of re-released indigenous pop, the Caribbean sticks up like Mount McKinley—the briefest trend from the tiniest island can quickly be deemed box-set-worthy. Yet throughout all those calypso/ska/soca/reggae/etc. compilations, Soundway Records has managed to come up with something not only original, but exciting to chin-stroker and rump-shaker alike. Tumbélé! collects music from Francophonic islands such as Guadeloupe and Martinique that slinks Paris-café style while still shaking with Afro-Latin rhythms. Highlights include Raphael Zachille’s “Manzè Mona,” with languid horns gliding over a driving beat, and Lola Martin’s “Edamise Oh!,” which, like so many tracks on Tumbélé!, is as ready for the floor today as it was four decades ago.

Autechre Announces New Album for Warp

The wonderfully confounding music of UK-based veteran production duo Sean Booth and Rob Brown, known best as Autechre, will soon be taking another leap in, well, some strange direction, to be sure. The outfit’s long-term label, Warp, announced yesterday the coming of a new full-length by Autechre which they’ve called Oversteps. Released about two years after their well-received double-album Quaristice, Oversteps currently has little information attached to it other than it will be available March 22 in the UK and March 23 in the US, and features artwork from The Designers Republic. You can pre-order your copy here and check out the album cover and tracklist below.

1. r ess
2. ilanders
3. known(1)
4. pt2ph8
5. qplay
6. see on see
7. Treale
8. os veix3
9. O=0
10. d-sho qub
11. st epreo
12. redfall
13. krYlon
14. Yuop

Mi Ami “Cut Men”

The most recent release from San Francisco’s Mi Ami, a 12″ record containing the two songs “Cut Men” and “Out at Night,” finds the band in a far more frantic state than it was on their debut full-length, Watersports. Through copious amounts of jangly guitar riffs, syncopated basslines matched with propulsive drumming, grating vocal yelps, and sparse electronics, “Cut Men” sounds as if Mi Ami are channeling the incendiary post-punk of their former entity, Black Eyes. It’s a uniformly energetic piece of contemporary no-wave which is hopefully a foreshadowing of sounds to come on their upcoming second album, Steal Your Face.

01 Cut Men

The Numero Group to Release Al Jarnow Documentary

Chicago’s Numero Group is delving into the world of film for the first time with Celestial Navigations, a collection of films and articles documenting and celebrating the work of filmmaker Al Jarnow. Perhaps best known for his work doing short animations for public television shows such as Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact! from the late 1960s onward, Jarnow was also heavily involved in the experimental film world of New York City, working alongside Harry Smith and Stan Brakhage on numerous works. Along with the compilation of 45 of Jarnow’s short works, a book of essays, and a documentary come as part of the Numero Group’s package. For more information about the films, screenings, and Jarnow himself, visit the Numero Group’s site.

Podcast 119: Motor City Drum Ensemble

As his Motor City Drum Ensemble moniker implies, Stuttgart’s Danilo Plessow is a fan of classic Detroit techno, but, as this exclusive mix shows, the man also has an affinity for old-school Chicago house, not to mention vintage soul and disco. Through his Raw Cuts series and releases on the Four Roses label, Plessow has developed a hypnotic deep house sound that simultaneously reveres the past while remaining clearly focused on the future. After grooving to his productions for a couple years, here in the present we’re absolutely thrilled to add him to the XLR8R podcast stable.

01 Latecomer “Cosmic Part” (Faces/MCDE)
02 Jacob Korn “Selene” (Running Back)
03 Code 6 “Beyond the Bassline” (Nu Groove)
04 This Ain’t Chicago “Ride the Rhythm” (Parisonic)
05 Mijan “Alright (SG Dub)” (Slip n’ Slide)
06 Peak Hour Rhythms “Disco Diva” (Nervous)
07 Ursula Rucker “Electric Santeria (King Britt Mix)” (Five Six)
08 Ron Trent “Altered States” (Warehouse)
09 Ben Klock “Viscoplastic” (Deeply Rooted)

Download MP3
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XLR8R_Podcast_Motor_City_Drum_Ensemble_2010_01_14

Download Bleep’s 100 Top Tracks From ’09

Seems like the think-tank over at online music retailer Bleep has one-upped the plethora of year-end lists from 2009. The music store already put together their 100 favorite songs from last year, but now they’ve also compiled every one of those tracks into a single download of pure contemporary classics. The songs are all DRM-free, high-quality mp3s, and include music from such luminaries as Animal Collective, Hudson Mohawke, DOOM, Bok Bok, Dam-Funk, FaltyDL, and so many more. You can grab all the tracks within the next two weeks for a total of $50. That’s 50 cents a song! Check it all out here.

Ben Rymer “La Trinciarice (Main Mix)”

Once a part of The Fat Truckers and Gucci Soundsystem, and now in cahoots with the Disco Bloodbath crew, Ben Rymer has stepped out from behind his monikers to release a solo production entitled “La Trinciarice.” The UK producer’s new track is a bit softer around the edges than his earlier work, but still just as epic and chock-full of analog synthlines and energetic dance beats as his tracks for DFA and International DeeJay Gigolo.

La Trinciarice (Main Mix)

Little Dragon Machine Dreams

Machine Dreams, the second album by Sweden’s Little Dragon, treads similar territory as The Knife’s Deep Cuts. Sure there are some differences—Little Dragon’s instrumentation is largely influenced by Prince-styled sex jams and Tom Tom Club’s percussive R&B—but songs like “Feather” and “Looking Glass” are direct descendants of The Knife’s contemporary classic “Heartbeats.” Things do get a bit more interesting when singer Yukimi Nagano and the rest of band allow their compositions to breathe. “A New” starts the album off with a slow-burning pace and enough atmosphere to make TV on the Radio jealous, and “Blinking Pigs,” possibly Machine Dreams‘ best song, somehow transforms from an ominous synth workout to a strangely upbeat and poignant ballad.

Wax Trax! Co-Founder Passes Away

Dannie Flesher, co-founder of Chicago’s legendary Wax Trax! Records, passed away of AIDS-related pneumonia on Sunday in Hope, Arkansas. With Jim Nash, Flesher helped foster the burgeoning industrial music scene, putting out countless records from the likes of the Revolting Cocks, Front Line Assembly, Meat Beat Manifesto, Coil, and many others. Though the label was bought by TVT in 1992, and was further stymied by Nash’s death in 1995, it is still considered by many to be one of the most original labels to ever come out of the United States.

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