If Yay Area native D-Lo hadn’t proved he knew how to get dumb with his smash hit “No Hoe,” he’ll definitely prove it with this new joint. With DJ Fresh’s nasty, non-traditional rhythmic structures providing the track’s backbone, D-Lo spits about hoes, guns, and fucking your girlfriend behind your back. Mr. Tower provides the strongest verse on the track, but generally, this is some dope hyphy business that’ll definitely be blasting in your ‘hood in the coming months.
The first sounds heard on the debut full-length from Montreal-based producer Michael Silver (musically known as CFCF) are a slow, bouncing beat matched by a handful of poignant synth tones that could have swirled straight from the hands of a lovesick android. Continent‘s opening track, “Raining Patterns,” is more future-R&B than disco dance party, and sets the mood for an album more about the upper half of your body than the lower. That’s not to say CFCF offers no get-down tunes, as Continent is loaded with disco, boogie, Italo, and house influences that drive the heavy groove of “Half Dreaming” and the fractured Timbaland-meets-Junior Boys-meets-The Knife pop sound of “Come Closer.”
Following 2007’s strange and heartfelt Made in the Dark, the UK’s geeky, R&B-loving electro-pop outfit, Hot Chip, has another album to share. On February 9 the group will bring us the cleverly titled One Life Stand, a new full-length that’s purported to be more “cohesive,” “soulful,” and “ambitious” than their three previous albums. One Life Stand hits retailers next year via Astralwerks, but fans can pre-order the record here starting this week, with exclusive streaming content and webisodes to come in the near future.
The acclaimed mix series from Offenbach’s Robert Johnson club soldiers on, this time with a mix from Thomas Hamman and Gerd Janson, the duo behind Robert Johnson’s infamous Liquid party. With an ear for deeper, more funkily melodic house tracks, the two have crafted a mix that is sure to garner the same success as past mixes, despite the fact that they are not as well-known as past DJs. And with a tracklisting like the one below, it’s hard to imagine the duo failing to keep a dancefloor packed all night!
Live at Robert Johnson Vol. 4 comes out January 25 on Live at Robert Johnson Records.
Tracklisting
01 Juicy Fruit – Liferaft (Original Mix)
02 DJ Du Jour – A Fish Scene
03 Lontano – Lovebass
04 Fresh Tunes#2 – W.B.W.U.
05 Dr. Nobody – The Big Bang Theory (Stephan G & The Persuader Remix)
06 Azymuth – Jazz Carnival (Global Communication’s Space Jazz Mix)
07 Chez Damier – Take It Away A (KMS 049)
08 Chez Damier – Take It Away B2 (KMS 049)
09 John Nick Presents Red Hook Dreams – Your Love (Kenny Dope’s Remix)
10 Soundstream – Makin’ Love
11 DJ Duke – Can You Feel It
12 Radio Slave – Tantakatan
13 DNTEL – (This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan (Superpitcher Kompakt Remix)
L-Vis 1990, one of UK bass music’s most versatile new DJs and producers, is finally coming stateside to spin some sets with collaborator and fellow Night Slugs resident Bok Bok. Both producers straddle the lines between dubstep, bassline, and deep funky vibes, and given that L-Vis 1990 was one of our Artists to Watch a few issues back, XLR8R is sure that the duo will blow US partygoers’ minds.
Tour Dates:
Fri, Nov 13 – Bar Smith in Phoenix, AZ
Sat, Nov 14 – Tormenta Tropical, Elbo Room, San Francisco, CA
Tue, Nov 17 – Dim Mak Tuesdays, Cinespace, Los Angeles, CA
Fri, Nov 20 – Mad Decent Mausoleum with Joker, Nomad, Kingdom, DJ Sega, and more, Philadelphia, PA
Sat, Nov 21 – Trouble & Bass with Joker and Nomad, Santos Party House, New York City, NY
Four of our favorite musicians in four of our favorite cities show off their local watering holes.
In the first of our City Guide episodes, we sent cameras to four different musicians in four different cities to get an idea of what it is that keeps them rooted in their hometowns. Turns out, it’s mostly the food. Kim Ann Foxman from Hercules and Love Affair, Ryan Merry (a.k.a. Ghosts on Tape), Rainbow Arabia, and Traxx represent food-wise for New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago, respectively.
Since 2002, XLR8R has produced in-depth city guides by talking to the people who know cities best: the musicians and artists responsible for creating vibrant, local scenes. This episode also introduces XLR8R‘s City Guide iPhone application. To download the City Guide app, go to xlr8r.com/cityguide or type in “XLR8R Scion City Guide” in the iTunes app store.
San Serac, Baltimore native and established disco revivalist, has announced the release of his new EP, Music Never Ends, due to hit the streets November 10 on Environ Records. The digital download also includes a quirky remix by labelmate—and label head—Morgan Geist. This short-but-sweet four-song EP continues San Serac’s tendency of using trancey synth lines coupled with faux-horn and bass, resulting in a throwback to some good ol’-fashioned electrofunk. That’s not to say Music Never Ends is time-stamped, though, as San Serac’s unabashedly soulful voice revitalizes the music with a refined spunk. The end result is a pleasant time warp to an ’80s-era Brooklyn from a Spike Lee joint—kickin’ it with your homies on the stoop while lamenting racial subjugation and celebrating an oddly unfounded youthful optimism. Peep the tracklist:
1. “Music Never Ends”
2. “Night Work”
3. “Style”
4. “Music Never Ends” (Morgan Geist Remix)
The epic opener of Etienne Jaumet‘s Night Music is cut in half by Jaumet himself. The looped, occasionally acidy arpeggiations of the original are kept in place, as are the synthesized saxophone melody and the track’s pastoral ending. Really, all that’s changed is the length. Whether the edit is a nod to the dancefloor or those listeners with short attention spans, it is a welcome bit of editing from the French loop-master. For more on Jaumet and his influences, check this feature out.
What starts out dark, ominous, and sounding like ESG’s “UFO” re-imagined by The Knife slowly evolves into a lonely ballad on “Blinking Pigs,” a poignant piece of electro-pop from Swedish outfit Little Dragon. The song, taken from their recently released Machine Dreams album, features the band’s trademark bass squelches, pattering drum beat, and swirling synth work all coalesced under singer Yukimi Nagano’s subtly soulful vocal delivery.
From two of today’s most uniquely fascinating producers, Solar Life Raft arrives as less a mix than a statement of purpose: a repositioning of experimental bass music into the context of contemporary avant-garde artwork, as worthy of a gallery as the club. DJ /rupture has a storied history of meshing poets and sound artists with skull-crushing bass, but when joined with Dutty Artz compatriot Shadetek, Solar Life Raft relegates boundaries to irrelevance with surprising accessibility. Here experimental composers old (Luc Ferrari) and new (Nico Muhly) can meet dubstep’s finest (Shackleton, Stagga) while avant-poet Caroline Bergvall sits happily beside Gang Gang Dance. The result is strikingly exciting—something equally triumphant for dancer, smoker, or Tate Modern chin-stroker.
