“I am a Car” was previously available for download at the Audion site for the low price of your email address, but for those who hold fast to their anonymity, the man also known as Matthew Dear is giving the track away at XLR8R too. It’s typical Audion far, with minimal beats, whispering synths, and gentle helpings of static.
Argentina-based DJ collective Zizek Urban Beats Club wowed North American audiences last month when the crew traveled North and delivered an aural education on the finer details of the cumbia sound.
Further lessons on the group’s trademark musical style are soon to follow, namely, in the form of Zizek’s second release, ZZK Sound Vol. 2.
Nacional will release the record on June 23, and if Vol. 1, which dropped in 2008, was all about showcasing cumbia outside Argentina’s borders, Vol. 2 brings the music home and focuses on what’s happening within that country, with tracks from both natives and relocated ex-pats. Remixes by the likes of Ghislain Poirier, El Remolon, and Douster complete the release.
ZZK Sound Vol. 2:
01 Uproot Andy – Brooklyn Cumbia
02 8GB – Piolaboy Feat. Fauna
03 Zonora Point – Huachita Rica (Douster Remix)
04 Sonido Del Principe – Cartagena
05 Fauna – Guachito Gil (Ghislain Poirier Remix)
06 Frikstailers – Cumbia Kamisama
07 Chancha Via Circuito – Prima
08 Lalucruza – Soloina (Pasternak Remix)
09 Quio – So Loud (El Remolon Remix)
10 Daleduro – La Poli
11 Arcade – Rastrishop
12 Meneo – La Licuadora
13 Intima – Fatbot Es Lim (Tremor Remix)
14 Axel Krygier – Cumbia Tucumana
15 Petrona Martinez – Un Nino Que Llora En Los Montes De Maria + El Hueso (King Coya Remix)
16 El Trip Selector – Cumbiancherita
17 The Peronists – Lluvia Hatiana Con Cumbia
18 ORO11 – Macumbiabass
House, hip-hop, and funk converge on this track from Brooklyn DJ/producer Nickodemus, whose year will include both the release of a second solo album, Sun People, and the 10th anniversary of his famed Turntables on the Hudson party. So the man has cause for celebration, and does so with this track, an uplifting, horn-drenched number featuring the vocals of seven-member jazz-funk outfit The Real Live Show.
Sun People is out June 16 (digital) and August 18 (CD).
Thunderheistsigned to Big Dada in December of 2008. Grahm.Zilla and MC Isis have stayed busy since then, releasing a self-titled debut album via the label, playing shows around the world, and, as of today, planning additional dates for a headlining U.S. tour.
The Canadian duo will return to the U.S. in mid-June, accompanied by a live drummer, the first in Thunderheist’s touring history. Find them in one of these cities soon:
06/18 Boston, MA – House of Blues
06/19 Brooklyn, NY – Studio B
06/20 Philadelphia, PA – The Barbary
06/21 Baltimore, MD – The Ottobar
06/22 Washington, DC – Black Cat
06/25 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop
06/26 Detroit, MI – Magic Stick
06/27 Chicago, IL – Schuba’s
In earlier days, a MUTEK showcase commonly involved a room of pasty guys standing still while endless bleeps and blips filled the air. And while we’d never contest the importance of that particular breed of electronic music (which remains the foundation of most MUTEK events), the festival has seen a considerable amount of growth and variety over the last decade, perhaps most evident in the lineup for this year’s annual Montreal festival.
So we figured we’d celebrate the fact that Appleblim can play alongside Moderat and Ghislain Poirier will share a stage with Nortec Collective with a special MUTEK mix. Montreal-based DJ, producer, and classically trained musician Michel Pontbriand stepped up to assume the task of curating a podcast in support of the upcoming MUTEK 10th Anniversary event, set to kick off next week on May 27. The Musique Risquée signee and longtime friend of the MUTEK crew took a long, hard look at this year’s roster, and his mix accordingly reflects its diversity, traversing house, techno, dubstep, downtempo, and more, all in just over an hour.
MUTEK_10 with Michael Pontbriand
01 UNKLE – Trouble in Paradise Variation on a Theme (Car Craig C2 Remix)
02 Moderat – Rusty Nails
03 Jahcoozi – BLN
04 Modern Deep Left Quartet – Straight Whiskey
05 Beat Pharmacy – Club Dread Feat. Mikey Dread
06 Sideshow – If Alone Feat. Paul St.-Hilaire
07 Digital Mystikz – Neverland
08 Deadbeat – Roots and Wires
09 Thomas Fehlmann – Bienenkonigin
10 Mathew Jonson – Folding Spaces
11 John Shananigan – Bounce the Blue Feat. Skat Man Doo
12 G and The CD – They Only Come Out at Night (Horror Inc Remix)
13 Trus’ Me – Tony Does What Tony Wants
14 The Mole – Again the B
15 Gas – Gas 1
16 NSI. – 4
17 The Fun Years – Auto Show Day of the Dead
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Norwegian disco dons Lindstrom & Prins Thomas already announced the release of their second collaborative album, and here is the first single off the release. With all the musical textures, sweeping melodies, and intricate rhythms on this track (and, presumably, the others on the album), it’s little wonder the boys didn’t linger over the title and instead chose to simply dub the new record as II. Bag it on May 26.
Their contribution to the DJ-Kicks series instantly added “DJ heroes” to the long CV collected by U.K. electro-geek pop band Hot Chip. While most DJs delineate themselves along partisan micro-genre lines, these boys spin like actual music fans—something that fits perfectly into Bugged Out’s double-disc format. There’s plenty of minimalist techno and blurpy house centered around the kinds of randomized nerdy affectations Hot Chip adores, like Dominik Eulberg’s textured flak and the bad-dream 808 drive of “Cosmic Sandwich.” But it’s the second disc that truly shines, finding common ground between steel-drum bands, Luther Vandross, Gang Gang Dance, and the Andrews Sisters. That it works is a testament to good taste—and a decent sense of humor.
Running up that hill with Vancouver’s love-song mountain man.
On a smoke break outside his East Vancouver practice space, Stephen McBean is waxing poetic about his latest Pink Mountaintops album, Outside Love. The album, a collection of tobacco-stained psych pop, blends the ambience of Spacemen 3 with Lou Reed-style songwriting and hints of timeless country. Its influences are more conceptual, owing a debt to Norwegian black metal forefathers Darkthrone. “When you listen to [Darkthrone],” he says, “it really engulfs your spirit and takes you to a different world.”
Outside Love’s vintage production makes for a fitting entry into McBean’s growing oeuvre, which also includes the thunderous neoclassic rock of Black Mountain. “Both bands are becoming further and further apart in their intent and direction,” McBean explains between puffs. “Still, certain things that are intended for one end up being with the other. They cheat on each other every once in a while.”
The fact that McBean uses the language of relationships is no coincidence, as his work as Pink Mountaintops focuses on broken love. The first self-titled record from the project was highly sexual (where songs like “I (Fuck) Mountains” took a slow-groove approach and “Sweet ’69” dripped with garage-rock sweat), while 2006’s freedom-obsessed Axis of Evol played with metaphors of love and war. Outside Love takes a simpler route: straight-up love songs. “It’s a bit more of a romance-novel vibe,” McBean says. “There are some love songs, some break-up songs, and some celebrations of friends.” Hazy, two-chord drone anthems like “Axis: Thrones of Love” and the vaguely digital pre-punk of “The Gayest of Sunbeams” find McBean achieving new levels of sonic diversity while he wrestles with similar themes.
Perhaps this album’s romantic tone owes something to how it was conceived. McBean was the best man at a friend’s wedding in Montreal when he met A Silver Mt. Zion violinist Sophie Trudeau, who played on the majority of the album. “We didn’t even know each other at the time, but they made us play a song at the wedding,” he recalls. “They did their vows, and then we played ‘Closer to Heaven,’ the last song on the record. We played around in Sophie’s kitchen [afterward], and we were like, ‘We should make a record together—this is fun!’”
Besides love, McBean is also fixated on nurturing the perfectly scorched textures that are born during the recording process. “I obsess forever over reverbs, or finding the right fuzz pedal to make sure the space echoes perfectly,” he says of his recording hang-ups. “I probably could have spent another year trying to mix things until it was right in my head, but you have to let go at a certain point.”
Letting go is a key step—McBean doesn’t want to lose the special essence of Pink Mountaintops in the technical hustle ‘n’ bustle. “There’s the threat of becoming jaded by music and not being able to enjoy just listening to it,” he admits. “It’s that balance of trying to stay sane and staying true to your heart.”
As a producer, Sunspot Jonz’s beats are always on point. As an MC, he’s a hype man at best. On this double release, The Darkside ov Heaven and Fight-Destroy-Rock, Sunspot has some ill things to say and an ear for dope beats, but it’s nothing we haven’t heard before. On Darkside, he crafts some heaters—“Hug Bacardi,” “Sunspeezy,” and the title track will surely have heads nodding. With Fight, Sunspot stays true to his “independent as fuck” mantra, taking it back to the classic, raw Living Legends sound, dusty four-track flavor and all. Fans of old-school Legends will dig it, but if you’re not accustomed to Sunspot’s quirky style, you likely won’t get into it.
HEALTH must be hitting the boochey hard these days, as the band has completed its sophomore album, Get Color, and is ready to unleash the synth-punk beast come September 8, via Lovepump United.
“Die Slow,” the first single off the new album, recently dropped and is streaming via the web right now. Suffice to say, the new release should be packed with plenty of antics and energetic tracks, which is the exact combination we’ve come to expect from this crew.
Get Color:
01 In Heat
02 Die Slow
03 Nice Girls
04 Death+
05 Before Tiger
06 Severin
07 Eat Flesh
08 We Are Water
09 In Violet
Photo by HEALTH.
