Crosstown Rebels founder Damian Lazarus might be one of the rulers of the underground dance world, but this track showcases a calmer side of the L.A.-based DJ/producer. The unreleased track should tide us over until Lazarus’ next full-length, Smoke the Monster Out, is released on May 4.
Edmonton, Canada might call to mind images of cold snowdrifts and remote northern mountains, but the music of Shout Out Out Out Out—who happen to hail from that place—sounds fit for the clubs in Miami. This track, off the bands forthcoming Reintegration Time release, is a warm, danceable number drenched in synths and heavy on the rhythm section.
Reintegration Time is out now.
Who:Kassem Mosse
Where: Leipzig, Germany
Claiming to live “in a nighttime world somewhere on the edge of time,” Kassem Mosse is no stranger to the nether regions of ambient techno. Through a series of celebrated singles on Mikrodisko and Workshop, Mosse has carved out a unique time-warped sound that many have tagged as too slow for traditional techno but too sparse for house. His solo work has drawn comparisons to everyone from Theo Parrish to Basic Channel, but Mosse explores the ambient portion of the musical spectrum with Chilling to Do, an improvised project with fellow Mikrodisko artist Mix Mup.
Listen: Untitled
Carrying slightly more brain cargo than his labelmates, Krazy Baldhead (né Pierre-Antoine Grison) subscribes to Ed Banger��s trademark ogre-stomp rhythms but underwrites the energy with fascinating sample tweaks and clean, bright folderol. As titles go, The B-Suite isn’t misleading as it nods to Mr. Baldhead’s formal training in jazz and the cultural gamut running between b-boys and b-movies. Though the dominant influence on Grison’s production style is hip-hop, the album falters when it sacrifices its fidgetiness to make room for MCs. Considering the fate that’s befallen some of his peers, it’s surprising that the only bona fide disaster here is the tweeker funk of “3rd Movement Part 3 (Sweet Night).”
Celebrating the fifth anniversary of Mule Electronic, Japanese promoter and Mule Musiq founder Toshiya Kawasaki has created a serene, weightless ambient compilation of mostly exclusive releases showcasing many of the label’s better-known artists and a few recent acquisitions, like Minilogue and DJ Sprinkles (a.k.a. Terre Thaemlitz). Minilogue’s “In Smoke We All Become Friends” wades through about six minutes of minimal, nature-inspired ambient noise before percussion akin to a dishwasher heard from the next room throbs mechanically to life. Simultaneously austere and quirky, DJ Koze’s “Lords of Panama Rendered” cushions distinct buzzes ranging in intensity from “bumblebee” to “passing moped” in pretty, electronic chimes and warm, warping atmospheric synths, then adds in a psychedelic handling of beeping supermarket checkout sounds.
Atlanta-based underground rap icon DOOM first emerged in 1997 as the mysterious metal-faced super-villain MF DOOM, after the death of his brother forced the dissolution of their hip-hop duo KMD. Taking his name and look from Marvel Comics arch villain Doctor Doom (featured in The Fantastic Four), the now-40-something Daniel Dumile has released a dozen indispensible albums (including collabs with everyone from Danger Mouse on DangerDoom, and folks like Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and Jake One (on March’s Born Like This). Here, he takes a time machine back to his childhood to talk about the comics that made him the cartoon hip-hop king he is today. David Downs
Alpha Flight (#1)
Marvel (1983)
The [comics] that I know are the old classic ones. The artwork had that style to it.. The graphic novels now have ill pages, but it’s just a different texture. I think my mind was more like a sponge then—I had less stuff to do and less stuff to do with it. Reading that kind of stuff marked that time, so when I go back to my good days, my childhood days—not to say that these days are any worse or nothin’—I can really get into it.
Spiderman
Marvel (1962-)
Spiderman feels like Manhattan, and I know Manhattan, so anytime I’m reading about Spiderman, and he’s swinging North on Second, I can really visualize it. It’s real descriptive of the area—even though they’re near the Hudson River and they’re throwing cars around and stuff like that, it’s all [drawn] so you can feel it. I’m into Spiderman.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (#1-15)
Marvel (1982-1984)
There’s a description of each character and where he came from, like a bio book of all the characters, whether they’re inactive or active. I think that whole series brought a realness to [comic-book characters], too—their individual status and their real names and when they were born… the whole story.
Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars (#1-12)
Marvel (1984-1985)
Secret Wars is when everybody had to kind of get together. All the good guys and the bad guys had to fight the Beyonder. They were going through all kinds of time warps and had things like multiple universes going on, so they were headed to the future and then they’d come back and it’d be before things had happened so it’d change what happened in the future ’cause the past changed. A lot of it was real scientific, jumping around a lot. There was future, there was past, it was hot—good reading at the age.
The Fantastic Four
Marvel (1961-)
The Fantastic Four, of course. Dr. Doom’s fatal flaw was his pride and perfectionism, and as a character, Doom the MC might have a similar fatal flaw: really striving for perfection. That’s going to be from cradle to the grave. If you had to say a flaw, that’s one of them, but my personal weak spot is children. They’re so innocent that, you know, all my guard is down when it comes to children.
Somewhere between the synth-tastic times of the ’80s and today’s contemporary dancefloor lies Hamburg-based duo Hey Today‘s Wonderman EP. The two get down to some serious knob-twiddling on this number, a bass-heavy bonus version of the release’s title track.
Wonderman is out May 13.
Photo by Sebastian Heise.
Cemeteries, skeletons, and cutesy indie-rock boys and girls reading highbrow novels in the same bed, all shot on super 8 film. Those are the essentials of this Pains of Being Pure at Heart music video. Since their Slumberland-issued debut album hit the market in February, this foursome’s noisy dream-pop has left listeners with a massive buzz. This new video for the single “Young Adult Friction” features the Pains doing what they do best.
Major Lazer—that’s Diplo and Switch—will be treading across American soil this June, as he gears up for a handful of club dates to support his debut album, out on June 19th, Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do. Expect dancefloors around the country to undergo some serious damage from some of the bangers these two will be busting out. Recorded at the legendary Tuff Gong Studios, the album combines the legendary sounds of dancehall with Diplo and Switch’s dancefloor killers. Clearly, Lazer is bringing the future of dance music into focus on this sucker.
Tour Dates:
06/13 New York, NY – SOBs
06/18 Boston, MA – House Of Blues
06/19 Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
06/20 Washington, DC – Rock And Roll Hotel
06/24 Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
06/25 Seattle, WA – Neumos
06/26 San Francisco, CA – The Grand Ballroom @ Regency
06/27 Los Angeles, CA – LA Memorial Coliseum & Expo
07/10 Austin, TX – Stubb’s
07/11 Dallas, TX – House Of Blues
08/07 Chicago, IL – Congress Theater
10/31 Inglewood, CA – The Forum
Toronto-based ambient/shoegaze outfit Nadja‘s new album, When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV is out today, and the duo has leaked this track in support/celebration of the release. When asked why the duo chose to perform a My Bloody Valentine song on the album, vocalist Aidan Baker merely says, “Everyone compares us to My Bloody Valentine, so we had to cover them.”
