Bernard Fevre (a.k.a. Black Devil Disco Club) “Mestophiles (XLR8R Exclusive)”

It may take a leap of faith on your part, but believe us when we say that this track, recorded as a precursor to Black Devil Disco Club, was made nearly 35 years ago by the band’s main man, Bernard Fevre. An unreleased track from the upcoming Lo Recordings LP The Strange World of Bernard Fevre, “Mestophiles” is an almost-psychedelic trip into Fevre’s young mind, guided by analog synths and plinks and plunks panned all over the place. An incredible rarity and a hot find for any disco and kosmische diggers looking to get beyond the usual suspects.

BERNARD FEVRE -MESTOPHILES

Daniel Wang “Like Some Dream”

Before James Murphy “lost his edge” and The Rapture discovered the cowbell, NYC’s Daniel Wang started the independent label Balihu to put out music that would end up shaping much of modern disco, house, and techno. Here, “Like Some Dream,” the first track from forthcoming Balihu compilation that spans 15 years of releases, could’ve easily been written yesterday instead of 1993. The funky bassline, filtered synths, metallic percussion, and diva vocal loop sound even more classic for the song’s history.

1-01 Like Some Dream

Mika Vainio Black Telephone of Matter

If we are to believe Lucia Dlugoszewski’s maxim that the “first concern of all music… is to shatter the indifference of hearing,” then Finnish sound-sculptor Vainio’s fourth solo album can be considered as exemplary. Throughout his latest effort, Vainio shocks and surprises, juxtaposing near-silences with gauzy walls of noise, almost ultrasonic frequencies with disorienting phase attacks. Lightning-fast cuts between different recorded materials combine with dramatic builds, as is most evident on the album’s longest (and most beautiful) piece, “Bury a Horse’s Head,” and the overall effect is one that forces the listener out of passive hearing and into deep listening. Though Vainio’s Pan Sonic minimal techno collaboration is infinitely more accessible than his solo releases, the focus of both remains the same: jarring the aural senses into action through unexpected sonic wizardry.

Inbox: Phenomenal Handclap Band

Daniel Collas, co-founder of the funky New York-based Phenomenal Handclap Band collective, chinwags with XLR8R in this week’s Inbox. Collas sets the record straight about his living circumstances, rags on a lame band, laments a rookie dating move, and flashes some very sexy vocabulary. The Phenomenal Handclap Band’s self-titled debut album is out now on Friendly Fire.

XLR8R: What are you listening to right now?
Daniel Collas: “The Night” by Frankie Valli.

What’s the weirdest story you have ever heard about yourself?
There was this rumor that I had been living the rough life: staying up nights, wearing scuffed Nikes.

What band did you want to be in when you were 15?
The Selecter.

Worst live show experience?
I went to see Dungen and Life on Earth last fall, and the local opening band was absolutely terrible. I’m more open-minded than most when I go see bands, but this was horrendous. It still occasionally comes up in conversation with my friends who had come to the show.

Favorite city in which to play?
Other than our own [New York], it would have to be Bilbao, Spain.

You are stranded on an island. Which of the following sounds do you take with you: a handclap, a referee whistle, the Road Runner’s salutary double “meep,” a tickled wind chime, James Brown’s soul wail, or white noise?
You’re probably expecting us to say “handclap,” but really, that’s the best of these limited options. As much as we love James Brown, I think it would be creepy to have his disembodied wail following us around an island.

What is your favorite thing you own?
My Vestax portable record player.

Name one item of clothing you can’t live without.
The bandana.

If you could reduce your music to a single word, what would it be?
Pulchritudinous.

For what did you always get in trouble when you were little?
Fiddling with stuff.

What other artist would you most like to work with?
We just saw Bat for Lashes at Latitude, and it blew our minds. So I’m gonna have to go with that.

What’s the last thing you read?
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.

Complete this sentence: In the future…
There will be dinner.

Stupidest thing you’ve done in the last 12 months?
I was dating this girl for like two months and I had been calling her by the wrong—albeit similar—name.

What’s next?
We’re playing an NPR Showcase at Joe’s Pub with Lee Fields in an hour and a half.

Friday Blog Fun: Tim & Barry TV

London-based photographers Tim and Barry have been providing the U.K.’s underground with some of its finest images for some time now. They recently launched Tim and Barry TV, where every Friday at 4:20 PM GMT (funny, right?) the pair turns its attention to moving pictures, and airs its live, on-the-spot videos of some of our favorite new singers and MCs. Check back each Friday for more one-of-a-kind vids, and hit up Tempz’ and JME’s ParTV while you’re there.

Egypt’s “In the Morning”

Tempa T at the Acropolis

Radioclit photo by Tim and Barry

Brainfeeder Features New Martyn Mix

Martyn, both Holland’s and Washington, DC’s purveyor of all things blappable, released his most recent contribution to dubstep a few months back, a XLR8R staff pick called Great Lengths. Just yesterday on Flying LotusBrainfeeder website, the L.A.-based label posted up a new mix from the versatile producer and DJ. Martyn’s podcast, named “The Count’s Secret Planet,” features plenty of classic hip-hop tracks from the likes of J Dilla and MF Doom, and also one from XLR8R pal Bryant Rutledge (a.k.a. Low Limit, one half of Lazer Sword). You can cop the head-nodding mix over here.

Experimental Dental School “Royal Fantasy Snow”

The duo of Experimental Dental School sounds more like a quartet, what with a specially rigged guitar-bass, live drums, and synthesizers. Though the Deerhoof comparisons are inescapable, XDS manages to make some highly accessible experimental pop music, and the track below should explain the group’s popularity to the uninitiated: it is a gorgeous, spacy, intensely weird piece of songwriting.

03 Royal Fantasy Snow

The Depreciation Guild Tours U.S.

Brooklyn’s The Depreciation Guild is bringing its shoegaze pop to the masses this fall with a cross-country tour. Using a modified Nintendo soundcard as a percussionist, the dreamy group’s efforts have garnered 90,000 downloads of their album, In Her Gentle Jaws. With a second album in the works and a new single out on Kanine Records, the trio is poised to become the best band of the shoegaze movement’s second wave.

The Depreciation Guild U.S. Tour Dates with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Cymbals Eat Guitars

9/5 – THE MIDDLE EAST – Boston MA
9/6 – LA SALSA ROSSA – Montreal
9/7 – HORSESHOE TAVERN – Toronto
9/8 – LOGAN SQUARE AUDITORIUM – Chicago IL
9/9 – ORPHEUM STAGE DOOR – Madison WI
9/10 – SLOWDOWN – Omaha NE
9/12 – MONOLITH MUSIC FESTIVAL @ RED ROCKS – Morrison CO
9/13 – KILBY COURT – Salt Lake City UT
9/14 – NEUROLUX – Boise ID
9/15 – NEUMO’S – Seattle WA
9/17 – DOUG FIR LOUNGE – Portland OR
9/18 – GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL – San Francisco CA
9/19 – THE TROUBADOR – Los Angeles CA
9/21 – CASBAH – San Diego CA
9/22 – CLUB CONGRESS – Tuscon AZ
9/24 – LOLA’S SALOON – Fort Worth TX
9/25 – MOHAWK – Austin TX
9/26 – ONE EYED JACKS – New Orleans LA
9/27 – CLUB DOWN UNDER Tallahassee FL
9/28 – THE EARL Atlanta GA
9/29 – LOCAL 506 – Chapel Hill NC
9/30 – THE BLACK CAT – Washington DC
10/1 – OTTOBAR – Baltimore MD
10/3 – WEBSTER HALL – New York NY
10/5 – FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH – Philadelphia PA

Luigi Archetti/Bo Wiget Low Tide Digitals III

On their third installment for the Low Tide Digitals saga, Luigi Archetti and Bo Wiget make their rounds again through the heart of the industrial plant, passing by assembly lines of ungreased machinery and scorched steam engines while draping a sheet of fine-tuned, acoustic instrumentation over its foundation. Throughout its 14 movements, fried electronics on the brink of combustion fume and spark in a nebula of distortion and feedback while a wave of creaking cello and snarling bass creeps in during its quieter moments. As the album sinks further into darkened quarters, the overall climate gets a bit chilly, as the eerie hush of silence is met with the occasional blast of cello or a pluck of a mandolin.

2020Soundsystem “Satellite”

Somewhere between the melancholic pop sensibilities of The Cure and the lush soundscapes of The Field you can find 2020Soundsystem playing the first single from their second album, Falling. The slow burning number, “Satellite,” floats in an atmospheric swirl of mystery and longing propelled by the song’s steady rhythm section and somber vocal track.

Satellite

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