After he dropped a series of well-received singles and EPs in recent years, expectations are high for the debut album from German producer Martin Stimming. Reflections is certainly a finely produced record, one that tastefully blurs the lines between house and techno and seamlessly incorporates live instrumentation and field recordings. Yet no amount of technical prowess can alter the fact that Reflections is just a tad dull. Restraint is well and good, and one wouldn’t expect Stimming to deliver an album full of bangers, but only one track—“The Beauty”—could even be described as lively. While dubby offerings like “Song for Isabelle” and “Fruits of Life” hint at greatness, the album ultimately suffers from too much navel gazing.
With a resume as crazy as her spacey, electro-flavored beats, NYC’s Black Cracker is not your average hip-hop producer. The one-time army brat, art-school dropout, and published poet cut her teeth with sisterly avant-pop duo CocoRosie, for whom she produced tracks, DJed, and even provided a little beatboxing. Self-taught and operating out of a grimy basement studio, these days she’s assembling beats for Bunny Rabbit and the Cult of Miracles (with MC Bunny Rabbit), Single White Female (with MC K~Swift), and Light Asylum (with Shannon Funchess of !!!).
Listen: Rahhh – Bunny Rabbit and the Cult of Miracles
Three years ago, Bat for Lashes leading lady Natasha Khan entered the scene with the wide-eyed, mystic folk-pop of her debut full-length, Fur & Gold. On her sophomore album, Two Suns, she builds off the organic quality of her earlier work, smartly keeping the drum-circle percussion, cavernous echoes, and sense of mystery. But this time around, she infuses these elements with layers of playful synths and rich, atmospheric samples. Tracks like “Glass” and “Sleep Alone” explore the edge of Khan’s vocal range, her lyrics brimming with tension as she details imagined epic battles. “Daniel” is a bright, catchy, string-tinged pop ballad, while “Two Planets” finds Khan polyrhythmically exploring the cosmos, as she is wont to do.
Monika Enterprise founder Gudrun Gut kicked off 2009 by releasing the digital-only Apples, Pears & Deer in Poland EP, a sampler of electronic compositions that includes two brand-new tracks and one remix by Thomas Fehlmann. Here’s the moody, post-techno title track, of which we showcase a special edit here. If you ever wondered what winter in Berlin sounds like, take a listen.
DJs Craze and Klever are known pals, but they also maintain a friendly rivalry where turntable skills are concerned. Klever took the crown at the 2000 DMC USA DJ Championship, only to have Craze turn the tables a few months later at the 2000 DMC World DJ Championship and retain the title as the World DJ Champion. So there isn’t a better pair to show off Native Instruments’ new Traktor Scratch Duo software than these two.
A recent clip appeared on the company’s website, in which Craze and Klever go head-to-head, and though we’re supposed to be admiring the superior interface and top-notch sound quality of the new software, one can’t help but notice the competitive spirit resting in the eyes of the boys as they spin, scratch, and put us novice turntablists to shame.
Craze and Klever will take their friendly rivalry (and fancy new gear, presumably) on the road starting tomorrow. The duo will hit U.S. and Canadian cities, showing off its epic DJ battle in real time.
For music-tech heads and turntable lovers, Traktor Scratch Duo (MSRP: $399) is out now. An overview of the product’s features can be found here. Happy scratching.
Craze and Klever: 04/10 Dallas, TX – The Loft 04/11 Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel 04/16 Chicago, IL – Debonair Social Club 04/17 Indio, CA – Coachella 04/20 Seattle, WA – The War Room 04/21 Whistler, BC – Maxx Fish 04/23 Winnipeg, MB – HiFi 04/24 San Francisco, CA – 111 Minna 04/25 Calgary, AB – HiFi
In his home country of Mexico, Toy Selectah might be best known for heading up the hip-hop group Control Machete, but his musical resume stretches far beyond that. And for anyone reading this who’s been wanting to get their hands on a grip of tropical music, Toy’s latest project, Mex More, should suffice.
The album, which is available through the Mad Decent blog, is a collection of 12 remixes Toy made, including re-workings of Santigold (formerly Santogold), Chromeo, Boys Noize, Devendra Banhart, and Justice. He covers a rather wide range of musical styles here, turning tracks into reggaeton, cumbia, club, and rock numbers, thusly proving his musical chops. Mad Decent is giving the entire thing away as a free download, so get thee to the label’s site right now.
Mex More: 01 The Outfield “Your Love (Mex-More Remix)” 02 Café Tacvba “Volver A Comenzar (Mex-More Refix)” 03 Boys Noise & Feist “My Moon My Man (Raverton Refix)” 04 Devendra Banhart “Carmensita (Raverton Refix)” 05 David Ghetta “Love is Gone (Raverton Remix)” 06 Justice “One MInute Pal Cumbion!!!! (Raverton Refix)” 07 Santogold Feat. Spankrock “Shave It (Cumbia Refix)” 08 Lil Wayne “El Mili (MTY Mex-More Cumbia)” 09 Illya Kuriaki “Jaguar House (20.08 Remix)” 10 Air “Sexy Boy (Raverton Remix)” 11 Chromeo “Fancy Footwork (Raverton Remix)” 12 Human League & Kissy Sell Out “Things that Dreams are Made (Raverton Refix)” 13 Molotov “Bailen El Puto (20.08 Mex-More Refix)”
Bonus 14 Justice “One Minute Pal Puro Cumbion!!!!” 15 Chromeo & TItan “Gina Fancy Montes Footwork”
Nosaj Thing is a name often uttered in the same sentence as Flying Lotus, Daedelus, and Lazer Sword. The L.A.-based producer—who is a key member of his city’s hip-hop-via-IDM-noise scene—will soon release his debut full-length, Drift, on Alpha Pup (who seems to release all those guys’ work). Here he brings us the track “Coat of Arms,” in all its distorted handclap glory.
Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes (otherwise known as The Presets) are currently on North American soil, touring through the likes of Chicago, Atlanta, Vancouver, and Murray, Utah, and where these Australian lads go, the party, undoubtedly, will follow.
Such is the case with the latest installment of the XLR8R Podcast, which Moyes curated for us while reportedly on the tour bus. The sheer number of remixes on the tracklisting should indicate what this mix is about, namely, tearing up the dancefloor in the wee hours, to the sounds of hard-hitting electro, driving techno, and a little minimal thrown in for good measure.
This mix also coincides with the remaining dates in the duo’s afterparty series, in which a post-performance Moyes plays musical host to the late-night partygoers.
Hit the Dancefloor: 01 Dinamics – “Rocco Bis” 02 Moodyman – “Freaky Mother Fucker (Catz n Dogz Remake)” 03 The Golden Filter – “Solid Gold (Clouded Vision Remix)” 04 Actor One – “Popcorn” 05 Guy Gerber and Chaim – “MySpace” 06 Fever Ray – “When I Grow Up (Van River’s Dark Sails On The Horizon Mix)” 07 The Presets – “Anywhere (Still Going! Remix)” 08 Tiga – “Shoes (Green Velvet Remix)” 09 Lutzenkirchen – “All That Jazz (Popof Remix)” 10 Mr Oizo – “Erreur Jean (Arveene and Misk Remix)” 11 Daniele Papini – “Church of Nonsense” 12 Ramon Tapia – “Just Me” 13 Of Montreal – “Gronlandic Edit”
Saying you feel like Leonard Cohen if he owned a jet ski doesn’t exactly describe the sound of your music, so when it comes to Ciao!, the latest album from Tiga (who said such a thing—perhaps in jest, perhaps not—in a recent press letter), we’re left to guess at what the Montreal-based producer has in store for the follow-up to 2007’s Sexor. Fortunately, the folks at Last Gang unleashed this track, and the witty, snare-heavy electro number should provide a decent clue. Or you could just dance to it.
Ciao! is out May 19 in digital format and May 26 as a physical release.
While some of her early singles like “Random” and “Ch-Ching” could be labeled as grime, London’s Lady Sovereign never gained full acceptance from the scene that the media desperately wanted her to be a part of. On her sophomore album, Jigsaw, Sov ignores expectations, only sticking to one constant—making pop-friendly music. The LP is by no means flawless, especially with lazily delivered tracks like the club-targeted “Bang Bang” and “I Got the Goods.” Still, this feisty rhymer embraces her accessible brand of quirkiness on the bouncy, Cure-sampling “So Human” and the reflective hip-hop cut “Guitar.” Even without nailing every number, Lady Sovereign is arguably moving in the right direction.
