Kiasmos/Rival Consoles 65/Milo

Three prodigies from the tech-house world surface to the top of this shiny gem from the Erased Tapes crew. First up are two tracks of sheer bass and pulsating stomp from the boys in Kiasmos—the new side-project from Ólafur Arnalds and Janus Rasmussen—that find the two traveling deep into minimal techno. “65” thuds with a hard kick not felt since Daft Punk first brought the house down with their Homework album, while “Walled” is dressed with a tropical garnish of trance-y steel drums. On the flip is Ryan Lee West’s Rival Consoles, whose three tracks sound like prehistoric Nintendo with its dubbed-out bump and 8-bit trills.

TU M’ Monochromes Vol. 1

Italian multimedia duo TU M’ issues the first volume of their Monochromes series and it comes off as quite a lengthy, yet celestial journey, stretching across miles upon miles of bone-chilling Arctic tundra as the haze of the golden sun dissolves into thick gray clouds. Composed of four mammoth tracks, the album mirrors the gauzy, droning placidity of William Basinski’s works on The Disintegration Loops, arcing serene tones of ambient blur over a dusky mist and warping it ever so slightly into a loop. Every few measures, a faint ping will ricochet through the fog, like a rock skipping down the belly of a canyon—but prepare for mostly dim scenery.

Antoni Maiovvi “The Chase Part 1”

Italo-disco has always matched well with horror and sci-fi from the late ’70s and early ’80s, so it’s only fitting that contemporary producer Antoni Maiovvi would write his new album, Shadow of the Bloodstained Kiss, as the soundtrack to a nonexistent 1983 Italian Giallo film. “The Chase Part 1” sounds like something straight out of a George Romero flick, with the same driving tension that puts moviegoers at the edge of their seats.

The Chase Part 1

Inbox: Mungolian Jet Set

Mungolian Jet Set fellows Pål Nyhus & Knut Sævik take a moment to visit with XLR8R’s Inbox en route to Shangri-La. The Norwegian jet setters remember the King of Pop, discuss the delicacy of “promiscuous self-service,” share Bee Gees trickery, and design plans to grow fat on Italian food. Their forthcoming album, We Gave It All Away…Now We Are Taking It Back , will be out August 18 on Smalltown Supersound.

XLR8R: What are you listening to right now?

Knut Sævik: On top of my turntable is an ’81 album from KANO called New York Gang, and I’m getting into Reinhold Glière’s “No. 2” and “No. 3” symphonies. The last few days I’ve been listening to Alf Cranner, a Norwegian singer and composer.

Pål Nyhus: As this is written hours after hearing about the death of MJ, it’s a kind of weird, spacey medley of his voice in my head. I guess he is kinda trespassing all our souls now.

What’s the weirdest story you ever heard about yourself?

KS: I don’t really listen to those stories.

PN: Well, the weirdest thing I have told others about myself was to make my daughter believe I am Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. It started with her looking at the “Staying Alive” video and asking, “Dad, is that you?” I simply could not resist saying, “Yesss, sure…It’s me.” The story doesn’t work anymore ‘cuz I cut my hair.

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

KS: I really didn’t want to be in a band at all. I was more into simple three-voice computer music and different composers. I didn’t listen too much to bands at that time, although I kind of thought 808 State and New Order were quite cool.

PN: I kinda wanted to be in a band called Mungolian Jet Set, but I believe it was called Cottage Cheese at the time.

Worst live show experience?

KS: One of these two: 1) Falling off a (too-narrow) stage, bringing all the mixers and laptop equipment with me, killing all sound, light, and everything. 2) The power going off four times in a 20-minute set with a three-minute re-booting sequence on my laptop each time. After the third, I just left.

PN: Well, the most embarrassing “live show” I have participated in is the one I did on the floor of my folks’ bathroom. I was like 13 or 14, so was really into the joys of promiscuous self-service, but not good about locking the door promptly. It all resulted in my ol’ man opening the door suddenly and saying, with the surprise face of the year, something like, “Uu-ooh—You lying there??” Needless to say, we never spoke of it again.

Favorite city to play in?

KS: That’s difficult to answer. I like them all, but I always enjoy Paris. Last time in Bucharest was great, and New York is also superb.

PN: I like the best clubs in Oslo. Tokyo.

If you could jet anywhere in the world this very second, where would it be?

KS: The International Space Station … or Ulan Bator.

PN: Shangri-La.

What is your favorite thing you own?

KS: I really, really like my set of Chario Hiper loudspeakers.

PN: I am not very good at owning things, and, in an ideal [world], nobody should own anything. But, I get pretty distressed without my phone—it’s more accurate to say it owns me.

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

KS: That will have to be my hats. Oslo can get cold.

PN: I can’t live without my skin.

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

KS: Fantasy.

PN: Schlong.

What did you always get in trouble for when you were little?

KS: Not being where I was supposed to be.

PN: I used to get in trouble for my honesty. I did not learn to lie until my 20s.

What other artist would you most like to work with?

KS: Hmm… Maybe Alarm Will Sound, Melody Gardot, and Artis the Spoonman.

PN: David Bowie.

What’s the last thing you read?

KS: A biography on Alexander Borodin, the brilliant Russian composer and chemist.

PN: A Mo Hayder novel.

Complete this sentence: In the future…

KS: Mankind will stop the Earth from rotating, and everybody will eventually go crazy, living in a narrow line of constant daylight. Humans will be extinct.

PN: Love will conquer all, and Hate will be reduced to a laughing gas.

Stupidest thing you’ve done in the last 12 months?

KS: I do stupid things all the time, and I try to forget them. If you exclude all the famous last beers and the not checking twice for my $600 plane tickets and all that, I really don’t know.

PN: Haha, those I don’t remember. [Those moments] are gone in a haze of beer-, tequila-, smoke of THC-, and rum-induced nonsense.

What’s next?

KS: The Dancity Festival in Foligno this coming weekend. Gaining five pounds on Italian pizza and pasta dishes, and lots of red wine.

PN: Off on a plane to Shangri-La.

Juan Atkins, Wighnomy Bros Play L.A. Fest

Looks like the U.S. is ramping up its efforts to bring some top-notch electronic-music festivals to its coasts, with both the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival and L.A.’s Convention Festival announcing their 2009 installments’ plans. Convention will take place over September 18 – 20 at multiple L.A. venues, and with folks like Juan Atkins, Wighnomy Brothers, and Echospace set to entertain the crowds, it promises to be quite an inaugural event. Further line-up additions are expected in the weeks to come. But check out the first announcements in the meanwhile:

Juan Atkins
Paco Osuna
Wighnomy Brothers
Stacey Pullen
Misstress Barbara
Deepchord Presents Echospace
Joel Mull
Egyptian Lover
Detroit Grand Pubahs
A[p]endics.Shuffle
Jamie Jupiter
Drumcell
Robtronik
Andre Ezer
Developer
Matt Xavier
Steve Prior
Sean Palm
Acid Circus

pictured Wighnomy Brothers

Brooklyn Electronic Music Fest Announced

Get ready for BEMF 2, this year’s follow-up installment of New York’s celebration of electronic music. Just announced today, the line-up features everyone from The Juan MacLean to Free Blood, and a very special headlining guest (who’ll be named here in the weeks to come). The Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival takes place August 8 at the Old American Can Factory (232 3rd Street in Brooklyn) from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m., and tickets are available for $25 here.

Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival Line-up:

The Juan MacLean
Young Love
33hz
Shy Child
Designer Drugs
Jupiter One
BELL
Free Blood
The Cloud Room
Home Video
Adventure
Codebreaker
Kap10kurt
Awesome New Republic
The American Dream Team
JDH & DAVE P (FIXED/ RVNG)
Roxy Cottontail
Larry Tee
DJ Ayres
Finger on the Pulse DJs
Viking
Flashmen
Jubilee
Udachi
Purple Crush
NROTB
Tayisha Busay
LEIF
Rude Crew (w/ Rude Bear!)
VDRK
Subdrive
Galbis
Free Magic
Chaz & Jason Pants (Palms Out Sounds)
Terror Dactel
Charlie Tippie
Gavin Royce
Kids With Snakes

pictured Kap10kurt

Artist Tips: WhoMadeWho

The Plot (Gomma), the latest long-player from Copenhagen, Denmark-based three-piece WhoMadeWho, finds the group churning out the sort of sweat-stained, mutant techno-pop that might even ruffle some of Philip Oakey’s feathers on a good day—with a few Zeppelin riffs and falsetto vocals à la Josh Homme tossed in for added measure. Hell, the Queens of the Stone Ager is even a fan, and recently covered “Space For Rent” at one of his shows. We recently spoke with bassist/vocalist Tomas Hoefding about some of The Plot’s essential ingredients.

The Creative Process
To start, we usually program a beat, plug in the bass and guitar, and jam for about 10 minutes. Then we go get a coffee and listen to what we did. If we like it, we make a rough edit, picking out the most interesting parts, and then we loop them. Perhaps we’ll plug in a synth and then jam on top of the edit. Our studio sessions are rarely more than three hours long. After recording, we bring home the edit, and maybe Jeppe [Kjellberg] or I do some vocals on top, and Tomas [Barfod] may do some funky programming. It’s a very anarchistic/organic process. I guess part of the WhoMadeWho sound is all the outtakes that you would normally not use—we use them everywhere.

Bass
In WhoMadeWho, the bass is always quite loud in the mix. I have been a bass player for many years in mainly rock bands, and I always use a digital interface and a mic on some cool old bass rig. Barfod, in whose studio we recorded the first album, is a very lazy man, so of course he just has a jack cord and a pre-amp. And for this kind of music, my ’77 Fender P-Bass never sounded better! Since then, I have always recorded without an amp, EQ, or computer. You play better this way, and you get a more “in your face” sound.

Guitar
Technology in software amps (even the one that comes with the cheap version of Logic) is getting so good that the advantage you get from recording a cool amp through expensive mics in big wooden rooms has a hard time competing with the creative freedom and intuitiveness of digital processing. It could be fun to let gear nerds do a blind test on which guitars on our new album are recorded through amps and which are just internally processed. Using Logic’s internal guitar rig, you don’t need to decide if the guitar riff is going to have a dirty rock sound or tight disco picking. You also have the ability to go straight to the musical idea without spending a lot of time getting the perfect amp sound and losing the momentum.

Drums
We sometimes record a full kit to get the live feel, but for our kind of music it’s so hard to make this sound right. Therefore, we mostly put up two mics, a hi-hat, and a snare, and play on top of a programmed kick. I am kind of a gear nerd, so I bought AD/DA converters and Neve pre-amps and all that kind of stuff. But I must admit that sometimes stuff recorded through Barfod’s cheap shit sounds even better than expensive studio recordings.

Vocals
Jeppe and I have very different voices. I bought a Shure SM7A mic because I heard that Michael Jackson used it a lot, and because it was cheap. I use it for all my vocals, but it doesn’t suit Jeppe’s voice, so he either uses a big condenser mic or the mic in his MacBook. I almost always overdub my vocals; it makes it easier to listen to myself, and gives me the feeling that it’s not me but “singer” Tomas coming out of the speakers.

Karotte “All She Wants Is (Microdinamic Remix)”

Proud label owner Gregor Tresher sent XLR8R the latest release from his techno imprint, and it’s a driving exercise in classic techno from hardworking German DJ Karotte. Here, Italian duo Microdinamic tweaks the elements into an even more minimal affair with an eight-minute jam that’s all head nod and bounce.

Karotte – All She Wants Is (Microdinamic Remix) (Break New Soil)

James Pants All the Hits

While any entrepreneur will tell you that all you need to start a successful business is a good idea, the same can’t be said in the music world. Stones Throw wunderkind James Pants has put together a 25-track album of what sounds like unfinished song ideas. The music itself is produced in the same “late at night and high in my bedroom” style as Pants’ debut album, Welcome, but with less satisfying results. Marketed as a genreless collection of “library music,” elements of ’80s boogie and old-school hip-hop are still the main components of Pants’ arsenal. Most songs are small explorations of big beats and squelching basslines that rarely hit the two-minute mark. Unfortunately, right when a track starts to go somewhere, the music ends abruptly, leaving us wanting more. All the Hits is chock-full of possibilities, but Pants’ music is stronger when he can fully flesh out his ideas.

Dirt Crew Blow

With a strong background of early Chicago Warehouse tracks and mid-’90s NYC-inspired house, along with their penchant for U.K. dub-house, Berlin’s Dirt Crew has made a sprawling tech-house album with their Moodmusic debut, Blow. The energy and tempo of the record remains constant throughout, but it’s the many layers of each composition that help the songs rise and fall as they should. On tracks like “Parade,” their ode to classic house, delayed synths skitter around the bouncing basslines as backing vocals float in and out of the song’s heavy groove. Dirt Crew has painstakingly produced each element to work in clean, upbeat tandem, and their output glimmers even more brightly around the edges for it.

Page 2682 of 3781
1 … 2,680 2,681 2,682 2,683 2,684 … 3,781