Here, France’s Douster takes a dancehall-tinged house track and emphasizes the dancehall elements to such an extent that it is essentially un-housed. But while Malente & Dex‘s original definitely sizzles, the remix scorches, throbbing with deep bass, epic drops, and a real pushing of the melodic line. The vocals from New Kidz only serve to make “Lions” one of the more versatile remixes around, appropriate for dancefloors where cumbia, funky, and dancehall are spun.
Dark is the word thrown around most often to describe King Cannibal, and it’s probably the single best word to encapsulate the full aesthetic, sound, and ethos of the artist formerly known as Zilla. Let the Night Roar is a surprisingly cohesive album, representing pan-genrism at its best. “Aragami Style” kicks in the tight breakcore vein of a London Squat, the funky Jahcoozi collab “Murder Us” gets as dark and slinky as any track by The Bug, “Dirt” is a fantastic dancehall number that finds Daddy Freddy sounding better than he has in ages, and even the borderline ambience of “Onward Vultures” has its place. A fine debut, especially if you’re feeling a little evil.
The boys at the Lower End Spasm blog (for which Alex Bok Bok is a contributor) just put up a killer ‘sinogrime’ mix from 2005 by musicologist/bass assassin Kode9. A must-have for any fan of grime and its abstract mini-splinters. No tracklist is available, but Kode9 assured Lower End Spasm that “all the tracks are Jammer/Wiley/Wookie/Wonder/Geeneus.” Hot!
Who:CFCF
Where: Montreal, Canada
Somewhere between the Balearic, slo-mo stylings of Meanderthals and the synthetic gloss of Jan Hammer sits CFCF (a.k.a. Michael Silver). The celebrated DJ and remixer’s first full-length, Continent, explores many different electronic terrains with skill and aplomb, with everything from a disco version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Big Love” to a track that samples Double Fantasy’s “Children of the Universe” to a song that would fit right in with Hammer’s work on Miami Vice. With the new record as well as a host of remixes for Sally Shapiro, The Presets, and Crystal Castles behind him, CFCF seems prepared to become one of the new stars of the cosmic disco-pop bacchanal that luckily shows no signs of ceasing.
Listen: “Monolith”
Listen: “Big Love” (Fleetwood Mac cover)
Watch: “Crystal Mines”
From the minds that brought you the one-stop radio spot for the best in dubstep, UK funky, grime, and many more club-ready genres, Rinse FM, comes FWD>> +Rinse, an epic club night at London’s Matter venue, which premieres the taste-making crew and their friends dropping hot new beats, classic tracks, and beloved jams all through the evening. Among the choice performers of this Friday’s soiree, ticket-holders can look forward to sets from Cooly G, Skream and Benga (doing a two-hour stint), Wiley, and Ramadanman, to name a few. Leading up to the night of the party, Fabric and Rinse FM have made live mixes from the 15th anniversary party back in July available for free download here. Get more details on the party here.
What begins as a slow-motion disco track becomes a different monster when guest vocalist Jacob Bellens pipes in with his rich, resigned baritone. Suddenly, the piece carries a palpable emotional weight, with lovelorn lyrics that track ecstasy, jealousy, and agony. Copenhagen’s Kasper Bjørke certainly knows how to produce an interesting track, but it is really the guests that make “Young Again” work: other than Bellens, famed strings arranger Davide Rossi has provided some melancholy swells here and there, and Dennis Young of Liquid Liquid fame has leant his hand with some secondary percussive elements. In fact, Bjørke doesn’t really own this track at all, but with its autumnal sense of loss and searing lyrical content, who really cares?
We here at XLR8R were ecstatic upon hearing the recent announcement that multifaceted producer Four Tet was readying his fifth LP, an album four years in the making entitled There is Love In You, for release in January. Assuming we’re not the only ones excited about the news, we felt it necessary to share more updates from the ‘Tet camp. Kieran Hebden will be making the rounds throughout US and Canada in February along with Nathan Fake in support of his new release. He also shared the cover image for the CD version of Love in You, noting that there will be different artwork for each of the vinyl, CD, and download formats. Check out the dates and the design below.
TOUR DATES
02.17 New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge
02.18 Cambridge, MA – Middle East Downstairs
02.19 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
02.20 Austin, TX – The Mohawk
02.23 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey
02.24 Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret
02.25 Portland, OR – Doug Fir
02.26 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
02.27 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
*All dates with Nathan Fake
The Netherlands Transplant Settles Into the US and Takes Dubstep on the Ride of Its Life
Could there be an alternate universe of rhythm and sound? One set free from genre and style constraints, where dance music is smart, intuitive, and fun again? Count Martyn as a believer. Maybe this inclusive, universal approach to making music has to do with his backstory: Martijn Deykers’ roots are in Eindhoven, a 900-year-old city in the south of the Netherlands, urban at its core but part of a sprawling and culturally diverse metropolitan area called Brabant Stad, home to over two million people. The Eindhoven Design Academy is known for its industrial and interior innovations and has been dubbed “the school of cool.” The region is populated with young, educated cultural explorers willing to try almost anything.
“I started raving when I was a kid, maybe in 1992,” says Deykers by phone from his present home in Northern Virginia, where he moved over a year ago to be with his American wife. “At first it was all Chicago and Detroit: Derrick May, Carl Craig, Stacey Pullen played some of the first parties I went to. It definitely inspired me, but when I started DJing a few years later I turned to drum & bass.”
Deykers helped launch a nationwide D&B club night called Red Zone, first in his hometown and then in Rotterdam, where he lived for five years. When it came time to choose his professional name, he took a conscious but tricky step by simply calling himself Martyn.
“If I call myself by own name, with no alias, I have nothing to hide behind,” he says. “Quality control is a part of everything I do. I think hard before I commit myself to something.”
Evolving from DJ and promoter to producer in the early to mid-’00s, Martyn first began making D&B tracks, not surprisingly, until they started to morph into something else quite different. His “Broken” b/w “Shadowcasting” 12″ in 2007 was a companion piece to other trailblazing works that began to alter dubstep culture from both inside and outside regional power centers in London and Bristol. Its playful-soulful-funky rhythm patterns looked backward to jungle, pushed the refresh button on house, and sounded like the future of techno—all at once.
“I was not a dubstep artist, but I was listening to what Burial and Kode9 were doing,” Martyn says. Other inspirations appear to be Detroit mega-talents Theo Parrish and Kenny Dixon Jr. with a twist of the late J Dilla on the 3/4 periphery. Fellow Dutchman Dave Huismans (a.k.a. 2562 and A Made Up Sound) trended in similar directions, as did Leeds-based Hessle Audio’s Pangaea, Ramadanman, and Untold; Appleblim, Pinch, and Peverelist in Bristol; and the undisputed champion and nerve center of UK dance music innovation, Kode9’s South London Hyperdub imprint.
Martyn’s star has continued to rise with dubstep’s incremental growth around the world. But still he stands apart. His solo dance twelves (“Velvet” b/w “Twenty Four” and “Natural Selection” b/w “Vancouver”) on his own 3024 label, on Applepips (“All I have is Memories” b/w “Suburbia”), and a split release with 2562 on Tectonic (“Yet” b/w “Control”) turn heads on massive systems in super-clubs or on personal iTunes playlists. His other collabs and remix product—including work with Flying Lotus, Efdemin, Scuba, Ramadanman, TRG, and Fever Ray—reveal him to be an impressive team player. He can put his foot to the floor or take the backseat; whatever he has to do to make the track stronger.
Martyn’s life has shifted to the high-speed lane, moving his 3024 label business to the Washington, DC area, flying to Europe for club dates and festivals, and building a career in North America, now as a newly naturalized US citizen. His first full-length, Great Lengths, was released in April to widespread praise by critics, he has a track (“Megadrive Generation”) that recombines his multiple influences into a near-perfect mid-tempo raw funk jam on 5, the fifth-anniversary compilation of Hyperdub, and has just completed a new mix CD—Fabric 50, no less—set to drop in January. The mix includes tracks or remixes (some of them exclusives) by Actress, Ben Klock, Redshape, 2562, Kode9, Roska, and Joy Orbison alongside several Martyn originals.
“I really like working with kindred spirits, people who set their standards high,” Martyn says. “You can get something great, something that didn’t exist before, when you bring elements together in the right way. It’s what I wanted to do on this mix. It’s what I try to do on all my projects.”
What started as an exclusive track produced by NYC’s Drop the Lime for Bacardi’s B-Live campaign has been handed over to remixers Classixx, Kanji, and, now, Philly’s don of decent club tunes, Diplo. The huge, stuttering snare roll that kicks off his rendition is perfect foreshadowing for the rest of Diplo’s hard-hitting and blown-out party jam. In celebration of the track’s release, XLR8R is offering one lucky listener the chance to have Drop the Lime play in their town and cop VIP tickets to the party to boot. Check out the contest details here.
Philly’s Pink Skull has just come out with a second full-length, titled Endless Bummer. Featuring an admirable array of different sounds and textures, the album is perhaps best represented by “Oh, Monorail.” A slow-motion disco beat, horizon-seeking guitar lines, and some synth swells mark the piece, but it is really Julian S Process’ multi-layered vocal harmonies that make it special, as they’re not only gorgeous, but complex and original—there are no simple chord progressions here. “Oh, Monorail” simply shimmers with a weirdness and beauty that only Pink Skull can pull off.
