It’s been four years since Kieran Hebden (better known to most as Four Tet) released Everything Ecstatic, his fourth album of his everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style of music production. While he’s managed to keep listeners happy with his Ringer EP, a remix album, and his fittingly mysterious collaborative effort with Burial, it’s safe to assume that There is Love in You, Four Tet’s forthcoming fifth full-length, is a long time coming for his fans wanting a proper release. The album will hit retailers via Domino January 26, preceded by the single “Love Cry,” backed with the exclusive “Our Bells” track. A “Love Cry” remix 12″, featuring versions by Roska and Joy Orbison, is also in the works. Check out Love in You‘s tracklist after the jump.
Tracklist: 1 – Angel Echoes 2 – Love Cry 3 – Circling 4 – Pablo’s Heart 5 – Sing 6 – This Unfolds 7 – Reversing 8 – Plastic People 9 – She Just Likes to Fight
If you thought the original of “Baby Can’t Stop” was massive, then the Aeroplane remix will seem earth-shattering. The early-’80s disco-funk sound of Lindstrøm & Christabelle‘s original is transformed into a stomping disco-house number, filled with cosmic synth flourishes, acoustic guitar strums, chunky handclaps, and high-frequency washes accompanied by some out-there arpeggiations. While it may be hard to imagine another artist sounding more Lindstrøm than Lindstrøm, Aeroplane succeeds in the best way possible, giving us one of the best remixes of 2009.
Lindstrøm & Christabelle’s Real Life Is No Cool comes out on January 19, 2010.
This remix is simply down ‘n’ dirty. Aptly, too, as it features Australia’s own Bertie Blackman, with a voice seductive enough to woo even the most celibate of Vatican priests. Here, the UK’s Marco Del Horno—who you may recognize from his stints on pirate radio powerhouse Rinse FM—oversees a splendid transformation of the original’s electronic pop sensibility into a bass-heavy dubstep tune. Stamping the song with characteristically grimy stabs and stringy synths while Blackman’s silky voice floats atop the mix, Del Horno keeps the track from becoming a faceless wobble-bass workout.
As half of Black Devil Disco Club, Bernard Fevre decades ago invented his own stream of Italo-disco, only to vanish until a few years back. Now Fevre has rescued his own Strange New World from the mists of time, and we find that he long ago dialed up a psychedelic, sci-fi spin on library music, conjuring bodily thrills and spinal chills, decades before Boards of Canada mined similar terrain. Whether today’s modern technology polished these tracks hardly matters, as the ace melodies, alluringly unreliable tunings, and arpeggiated bass of tracks like “Stars on Grey” stand ready to beam us to times unknown.
With her new album, Don’t Stop, getting ready for release November 17 on Smalltown Supersound, Norwegian pop star Annie has added a bonus EP to her forthcoming sophomore album. The five-track affair, entitled All Night, features music produced by long-time collaborator Richard X and Paul Epworth who’s known for his work with Bloc Party, The Rapture, and Primal Scream, to name a few. Annie is also bringing her DJ skills to the US for a three-day stint in New York and California, playing new tracks and unheard remixes from her upcoming releases. More info after the jump.
All Night Tracklist: 1. All Night (produced by Paul Epworth) 2. I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me (produced by Richard X) 3. Anthonio (produced by Richard X) 4. I Can’t Let Go (with Fredrik Saroea from Datarock on guest vocals) 5. Sweet (produced by Brian Higgins/Xenomania)
Tour Dates: Thu. Nov. 12 — San Francisco, CA @ Popscene Tue. Nov. 17 — Los Angeles, CA @ Cinespace Thu. Nov. 19 — Brooklyn, NY @ N8 Space
Back in 1999, while much of the world was just getting to know Britney Spears and some of us were slowly wrapping our minds around the future funk of “Windowlicker,” a crack team of software developers (including Robert Henke, a.k.a. Monolake) joined together in Berlin to pool their collective resources in aims to hatch a new “instrument” that would forever change not only music production but live performance as well. The computer program they envisioned would come to be known as Ableton Live, and this month marks its tenth birthday. In celebration of this milestone, the Ableton crew is offering their legions a load of exclusive offers and free downloads—items which include 20% off Live 8 and Suite 8, a new “for beginners” version of Ableton called Intro, a free upgrade to Intro for LE users, and free Live Packs from Ableton artists the likes of Múm, Apparat, and Swayzak, among other great deals. Ableton has also taken the opportunity to announce that the much-anticipated release of Max for Live, a toolkit which harnesses the power of Max/MSP within Live and whose abilities XLR8Rexplored back in August, goes down November 23. A full rundown of all the celebratory goods can be found here.
October was one crazy month when it came to downloads on XLR8R.com. Whether it was Matias Aguayo’s killer “Rollerskate,” Lusine & Pezzner’s exclusive “Station to Station” Tune in an Afternoon, or Lazer Sword’s 8-bit-influenced “Koopa Boss Mode,” everything you guys downloaded just oozed hotness. So, without further ado, here are XLR8R.com’s top 25 tracks from October, chosen by you, the readers of this fine website.
Phillin’ It: For years, Philadelphia has been shrugged off as New York’s little brother—a place where displaced Brooklynites went in search of cheaper rents, bigger spaces, and a touch less ‘tude. But what’s emerged over the years is far more than simply a sixth borough. So for this year’s special City Issue, we dug around the Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Chinatown, and every other little enclave we could find to bring you the best that Brotherly Love has to offer. Check back every few days for a new feature from the east coast’s newest hotbed.
For Ben Daniels, the frontman of noise-pop outfit A Sunny Day in Glasgow, “there’s no escaping Philadelphia.” Even after attending art school for a year in Glasgow, Scotland, and dropping out to stretch his legs in London for a while, he still gratefully returned home to Philly to record his shimmering sophomore album.
It’s clear that he’s happy to be back, but Daniels would still classify his relationship with the City of Brotherly Love as one of love and hate. While Philly has, in his words, the “worst transportation ever, possibly in the world,” it’s also home to his “favorite place, possibly in the world,” the Van Pelt Library at the University of Pennsylvania, and a music scene that he describes as being “on the up and up.” (He and bandmate Josh Meakim regularly take in the many “punk rock-underground-basement-sort of shows” that are currently unfolding in old Victorian homes around Daniels’ West Philly stomping grounds whenever they aren’t checking out favorite bands like Kurt Vile and Cold Cave at The Trocadero.)
Three years ago, Daniels formed A Sunny Day in Glasgow as a bedroom project, and since then the band has featured an ever-changing lineup of musicians, including Daniels’ vocally talented younger twin sisters, Robin and Lauren. “It’s always in the family, always friends,” says Meakim, Daniels’ friend-of-a-friend since high school who later joined the band as a drummer.
Daniels and Meakim initially intended to ditch their guitars for Ashes Grammar, the band’s follow-up to 2007’s Scribble Mural Comic Journal, and make an electronic album with a “big-room sound to it,” says Daniels of the pair’s pre-production discussions. Instead, they ended up keeping the guitars and renting an actual big room—a dance studio—in which to tinker around for hours every weekend with a mix of guitars, auxiliary percussion, a notably expensive collection of microphones, and newcomer Annie Fredrickson’s luminous vocals. As Robin and Lauren Daniels became increasingly busy with school and relationships, Fredrickson took on more of the vocal work. “She would just come hang out, and I would loop parts of songs for an hour and have her sing whatever she was hearing, whatever would come out,” Daniels says. “A lot of melodies got hammered out that way.”
After recording their individual samples, Daniels and Meakim sent their ideas for complete tracks back and forth across Philly, not via IM or FTP but rather a communal hard drive. “In a way, I think the city infiltrates our sound,” says Daniels, “because I went to Montreal to go to school, lived in Glasgow and London, and I didn’t make any music in any of those cities. There’s just some comfort zone I can’t really get into when I’m not in Philly. Philly is the only place where I get music done.” And, he notes, “the weather is definitely better here than in Glasgow.” ???
If Jan Hammer and Danny Wang got together and embarked on a drug- and sex-fueled drive from Key West to Tijuana, Worst Friends‘ “I Wish I Don’t Drop Dead” would make for the perfect soundtrack. Lush, delayed synth loops ride above a slo-motion disco beat, and eventually, sentimental piano harmonies emerge, making the track too resonant for Miami but just right for motoring through the greenery and dust of the American south. Taken from the new Ghostly Presents Moodgadget: The Nocturnal Suite compilation—for another sampling, check out the Mux Mool track we posted earlier in the week.
For the first recorded peep out of Jim O’Rourke in years, we’re treated to The Visitor, an ornate, 38-minute mini-orchestral piece played entirely by O’Rourke himself. A former member of Gastr del Sol and Sonic Youth, O’Rourke has assumed a number of musical guises in the past, and this time out he crafts a pastoral instrumental glide through his own musical past. Beginning with fingerpicked guitar, it gradually incorporates banjo, piano, pedal-steel guitar, and clarinet in gently shapeshifting, increasingly somber motions. It’s occasionally evocative of 1997’s acoustic guitar-centric Bad Timing, but it all feels fresh, sprightly, and timeless. Available on CD and LP but not as an MP3 download, and he politely requests that you “listen on speakers, loud.”
