The Tres stable has been owning the hip-hop landscape as of late and this exclusive, never-heard-before instrumental joint from the Blu & Mainframe alliance is no joke. A hash of old-school hip-hop, funk, and bass amplitude, let’s just say that Johnson & Jonson are about to blow this party up.
The rock aesthetes in Sian Alice Group have a fetish for tones and textures, from electronic pulses and Velvets-like riffs to scratched guitar strings, which they tweak, layer, and slowly fade throughout their songs. Much of the London group’s sparse music floats by effortlessly without much rhythmic variation, yet it still leaves a strong sonic imprint. On Troubled, the band’s hip eclecticism results in more hybrids, like the spy-thriller techno pulse of “Vanishing,” the slow-burning minimalism of “Love That Moves the Sun,” and the cold, expansive title track. Singer Sian Ahern is still hard to read, switching between pastoral softness and bluesy outbursts but never fully emoting. A similar sheen coats this album, cool and detached yet slightly smoldering.
Back in October of 2006, Nike kicked off their Original Run series, a set of exclusive albums meant for play during your daily run. Featuring artists like The Crystal Method, Aesop Rock, and Skream, one of the series’ most popular commissions came from LCD Soundsystem, with a piece of music that James Murphy titled 45:33. The piece was only available through iTunes for the first year, but DFA went on to release the music in physical format in ’07, and now, a couple years later, the piece is being treated by a better-late-than-never remix. On board for the project are producers Prins Thomas, Theo Parrish, and Riley Reinhold (a.k.a. Triple R), to name a few, each taking a running stab at a different section of the album’s six parts. To check out a track from the release before DFA and Parlophone make it available September 14, run over to Reinhold’s MySpace page for his dubby, spaced-out interpretation of 45:33‘s “Section 6.”
pictured Reinhold with Traum partner Jacqueline Klein
Originally crafted by Austrailan trio Digital Manges, this buzzing, Greek-language bass tune has been assaulting eardrums courtesy of globetrotting DJs like Diplo, Sinden, Laidback Luke, and Drop the Lime. Now Sharkslayer of Helsinki DJ crew Top Billin’ (who recently showedXLR8R around their hometown) has passed along his hyperactive take on the track for exclusive download. Proceed with caution—this one sounds like Sharkslayer turned up the insanity knob all the way up.
Berlin-via-The Bay’s Kid606 has never been short on work. Miguel Depedro’s long-lasting production moniker is constantly remixing friends, releasing albums, and reinventing itself, so it’s no surprise that on his latest work, a mixtape he’s called On a Ragga-Dubstep-Techno-Rave-Soca Tip DJ Mix, we find the Kid once again refocusing his energy on all things bass. A recent live mix featuring Tigerbeat6 and Tigerbass regulars, among other assorted favorites, the mixtape is an awesome, energetic experience in exactly what its title spells out for us. You can stream and download the whole thing for free here. The tracklist is below.
1. Dolby Anol – Sandy Bitches Intro
2. aXXo – Thugg Stepp Empress
3. Stagga – Lopside
4. Kid606 – Monsters (Cardopusher Remix)
5. AGT – U Shop We Drop
6. Tribe of Issachar – Junglist
7. Stagga feat Stamma – Sick as Sin
8. Magnum38 – Suffer
9. Keri Hilson ft. Lil Wayne – Turnin Me On (Instrumental)
10. DJ Technics – Ho’s Stomp Your Feet
11. Bombaman – Rearend
12. Bruce Stallion – Black Rims (Ebola RMX)
13. Trevor Loveys & Shab Ruffcut – Love & Change (Raffertie Remix)
14. Little Jinder – Polyhedron (Supra1 RMX / DTL Edit)
15. Cutty Ranks – Limb by Limb (DJ SS remix)
16. Drop the Lime – Rocker Party
17. Ghislain Poirier ft. Mr. Slaughter – Get Crazy
18. Silverlink ft. Jammer & Badness – The Message is Love
19. Drop the Lime – Bad Girlz
20. Soundmurderer – Big Time
21. Starski and Clutch – Drive Through Jit
22. Mike Ink – Unsweet Sixteen
23. Knifehandchop – Tizzy Tixbown Riddim
24. Indigo Mews – Drone
25. Petey Pablo/Rusko/ClaudeVonStroke – Tell Em It’s On (The 6M$KID Edit)
26. King of the Jungle (DJ Dextrous & MC Rude Boy Keith) – Salute the King
27. Aphex Twin – Come to Daddy
28. Ini Kamoze – Here Comes the Hotstepper (Booyaka Remix)
photo Micke Lund
Every budding musicologist has to overcome the same tremendous obstacle: pockets, and how there’s never enough of them! You can’t always lug around your messenger bag full of 1-bit DSD/PCM recorders, as well as mics, cables, etc. But sometimes sound just happens, and you need a highly portable way to be prepared. Perhaps Japan-based Logitec (nope, not thatLogitech) had this in mind when it designed the LIC-iREC03P microphone attachment for iPhone/iPod. If there’s one thing few field recordists and producers leave home without it’s their cellphone, with dedicated MP3 player a close second, so this lil’ XY stereo microphone module offers added value to Apple’s hot convergence device of the now. Tapping into the opened-up SDK for the iPhone/iPod’s proprietary dock connector and built-in voice memo recording in the 3.0 software (required for iPhone/iPod Touch), Logitec’s LIC-iREC03P (love the name) requires no batteries and instantly turns your DAP into a DAT, so to speak. The two microphones (which come with sponge wind shields) are set up cross-eyed to offer stereo separation with minimized phase issues. Specs are being reported as 20 Hz-16 kHz response, and recordings are saved in lossless/WAV format transferable to computer later. Additionally, there’s mini-USB and 3.5mm line-in plus up to -20 dB attenuation toggles on the LIC-iREC03P, allowing it to be an archival interface for various mics/sources if you happen to have that gear bag. Right now the word, parsed as it is from Google-translated Japanese documents, is that the LIC-iREC03P will come out somewhere between August and January somewhere in the world and for under $100. So some time this holiday season you might be able to make your iPhone look like a mischievous audio satyr and love every minute you capture with it.
DFA crew member Marcus Lambkin (a.k.a. Shit Robot) eludes the mid-summer sun for a hot second to let XLR8R’s Inbox in on his goings-on. When not braving the treacherous parking lot of his local swimming pool in Germany, the Dublin-born DJ is rocking his Sabres of Paradise T-shirt behind the decks anywhere between Tokyo and Sao Paolo or running new techno-tickled material through unidentifiable electronic equipment in a pimped-out home studio. Shit Robot’s Simple Things (Work It Out) EP is out now on DFA. If you’re still hungry for more “shit,” then sink your ears into this XLR8R exclusive podcast.
XLR8R: What are you listening to right now?
Marcus Lambkin: Black Meteoric Star. I’m loving Gavin’s new stuff. He rules.
What’s the weirdest story you’ve ever heard about yourself?
I’m not sure I’ve heard any weird stories about myself. My own story is pretty weird, though. I grew up in Dublin. I won a Green Card in the lottery and moved to New York, where I made a living DJing. I met and married a German countess, and now I live in a castle in the German countryside. You couldn’t make that up.
What band did you want to be in when you were 15?
Killing Joke.
Worst live show experience?
I don’t play live—I’m a DJ—but I’ve had to play after some pretty shitty bands over the years. It’s not always that the band is particularly bad, though, just playing at the wrong place. I played a gig in London last year that was very Nu Rave-y. In the middle of it all they stopped the DJs and put on this hardcore noise band. The kids were pissed. The lead singer even got in a punch-up with someone from the crowd who was shouting abuse at them. That sucked, but it wasn’t the band’s fault; they just shouldn’t have been booked for that night.
Favorite city in which to play?
Hmmm… That’s a tough one—so many good places. Tokyo, Paris, Rio, Sao Paolo, Glasgow, Dublin… Take your pick. All great places to play.
What is your favorite feature of the studio you built yourself?
That would have to be my DFA monitors. Designed by James Murphy and built by myself, they’re pretty sweet.
What is the weirdest thing you own?
Probably a little box that I bought on eBay for 11 euros. I have no idea what it is. It’s broken—it doesn’t do whatever it was intended for—but it has four inputs, and when you run stuff through it, it distorts it beautifully—that was a result. It was used on the bass sound for “Chasm.”
Name one item of clothing you can’t live without.
I have an old Sabres of Paradise t-shirt that I can’t even fit into anymore, but there’s no way I’m getting rid of it.
If you could reduce your music to a single word, what would it be?
Retarded.
Which Hollywood robot would you pick for your team: R2D2 (Star Wars), Rosie (The Jetsons), Pris (Blade Runner), or Robbie (Forbidden Planet)?
Lame, but it would have to be R2D2. I still have a soft spot for Star Wars.
What other artist would you most like to work with?
Dr. Dre. That would be fun.
What’s the last thing you read?
The Canon: The Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier. I wish I had paid more attention to science at school. I hated it at school, but I’d give my right arm to be studying physics right now.
Complete this sentence: In the future…
My daughter will become a teenager and bring home young boys.
Stupidest thing you’ve done in the last 12 months?
I was at our local swimming pool with my daughter yesterday. It has a ridiculous parking lot; it’s all grass and it’s on a really steep incline. I couldn’t back out of my parking space. I was just sliding about on the grass, so I gunned it and backed out into someone driving past. I’m an idiot. Luckily nobody was hurt and they were very cool about it.
What’s next?
Finish my album, and hopefully it will be out early next year.
Kudos to Jay Haze and the Contexterrior base for issuing this winning debut from the lovely Marjorie Migliaccio (a.k.a. Bloody Mary). Through 11 tracks, Migliaccio winds through the darkened perimeters of the techno world and uncovers the hidden beauty lurking within the shadows. Her ability to work the dancefloor has never been in doubt, but Black Pearl finds Migliaccio spreading her experimental wings a bit, unveiling a real gift for spawning opaque, smog-rich tones. Tracks such as “Spleen” and “Semper Eaden” thump with African percussion and a stiff, glitchy punch as she furbishes their surroundings with a brume of ambient murk, while “Elevation” soars off into an astral plane with its dainty strings and ghostly nuances.
More of that off-the-hook tropical-street bass-dubstep action is on the way from the Dutty Artz pack this fall with the release of Solar Life Raft, the latest project to emerge from the DJ /rupture-Matt Shadetek laboratory. Launching a scad of bass and beats into a vortex of tropic winds, the album leaves no street corner unturned as it explores the duo’s love of urban dance music in various forms. If that ain’t enough, get ready for some special appearances in the remix chair from fellow Brooklynites in Gang Gang Dance, Jahdan Blakkamoore, and Telepathe, as well as appearances from poets Elizabeth Alexander and Caroline Bergvall, avant-garde lion Luc Ferrari, and grime producer Mizz Beats. Solar Life Raft drops November 11th on The Agriculture imprint.
pictured DJ /rupture
Take Junior Boys’ arpeggiating synths, The Rapture’s disco-funk basslines, and Daft Punk’s vocoded guitar from “Robot Rock” and you’ve got “Daddy Long Legs,” one of two new singles from Brooklyn’s Sensual Harassment. The propulsive track builds slowly before introducing a reverberated vocal chant and distorted synth that ushers back in the song’s initial groove. The dancefloor has just found a new hero.
