Page 277 – XLR8R

Shlohmo Returns with Apocalypse-Themed New Album, ‘The End’

Shlohmo will put out his latest album, The End, via Friends of Friends and Wedidit on March 22.

The 13-track album is the Los Angeles producer’s first full-length offering since 2015’s Dark Red. Focus since then has been on collaborating with artists like Post Malone, Joji, Chance The Rapper, Yung Lean, and Lil Yachty, as well as writing a score for A24 film Share.

We’re told to expect a “thunderous apocalyptic masterpiece” that sees Shlohmo, real name Henry Laufer, drawing inspiration from his interest in cults who view the end of days as an occasion to relish; “it is the sound of impending doom bringing calmness in its futility,” the labels explain. It’s made up of lo-fi compositions of the broken parts of daily life, all tied together by an overarching theme of aesthetic decay.

Tracklisting

01. Rock Music

02. The End

03. Hopeless

04. Eating Away

05. Headache Of The Year

06. Ungrateful

07. Staring At A Wall

08. We Sat In The Car

09. Panic Attack

10. Watching A Video

11. The Best Of Me

12. By Myself

13. Still Life

Friends Of Friends/Wedidit will release The End on March 22, with the title cut below.

Skee Mask Locks in New Ilian Tape EP

Skee Mask will release a new Ilian Tape EP next month, titled 808BB.

The three-track EP is Bryan Müller’s first new material since Compro, his latest album, and an inclusion on our Best of 2018 list. The Munich native has been a regular on the Zenker Brothers’ label since 2014.

Tracklisting

A. Trackheadz

B1. TH808

B2. 808AB

808BB lands February 18, with clips here.

Watch a New Video on Creative Songwriting in Ableton With Afrodeutsche

Last Year, in partnership with Ableton’s yearly Education Tour, Point Blank hosted UK-based producer and live performer Afrodeutsche for a masterclass in creative songwriting and performing in Ableton Live.

In the video, Afrodeutsche, real name Henrietta Smith-Rolla, delves deep into how she experiments with creative writing in Ableton, including her tips on processing sound and samples, and how she’s progressed from ambient piano works to deeper, more club-based electronic productions. She also discusses how she performs live using Ableton, going into detail on how to map sounds and effects to a controller while programming beats live. During the masterclass, Afrodeutsche opens and expands on a number of her Ableton projects, giving insight into her workflow and project structure, as well as a look at scoring films using Live’s inbuilt video display.

You can watch the video below, with more on Point Blank and its courses here.

Léonie Pernet “Auaati” (Acid Arab Remix)

Acid Arab have remixed “Auaati,” a cut from Léonie Pernet‘s album Crave.

Released on Infiné Music in September of last year, Crave features 12 cinematic tracks that pull from new wave, post-punk, synth pop, ambient, and Arabic influences. Earlier this year, Pernet released a video by French director Lesly Lynch for album cut “Auaati,” on which Pernet enlists Hanaa Ouassim to sing about the anxiety, difficulties, and questions faced by the Queer Muslim community in New York. The track now gets the remix treatment from collaborators Acid Arab, who twist the cinematic pop of the original into deep and haunting acid territory.

You can grab Acid Arab’s remix via WeTransfer below, along with the video for “Auaati,” with Crave available here.

Due to issues regarding the GDPR, EU readers can download the track here.

Premiere: Hear a Rolling, Groove-Led Remix by Priku

Romanian duo Livio & Roby will return to their new Tier imprint for its second release, Ondul.

The duo launched Tier last year with their Bala Un Ac EP, a 12″ featuring one original and remixes from Ion Ludwig and Direkt. The label’s second release presents two originals from the label heads and a remix from fellow Romanian Priku. Like much of their back catalog, Livio & Roby’s originals on Ondul favor analog grooves, from the heavy, intricate rhythms of the title track to the deep atmospheres of “Bartez.” On the remix front, Priku turns his hand to the title track, stipping it back for a rich, groove-led outing full of shimmering pads and glitchy synth chops.

Ondul can be pre-ordered here, with Priku’s remix streaming in full below.

Tracklisting:

A1. Livio & Roby “Ondul ”

A2. Livio & Roby “Ondul” (Priku Remix) 

B1. Livio & Roby “Bartez ”

Octo Octa EP Next on Ninja Tune’s Technicolour Imprint

Maya Bouldry-Morrison (a.k.a Octo Octa) is up next on Technicolour Recordings.

We’re told that the three-track EP represents some of Maya’s most vulnerable work to date. It follows her 2018 Eris Drew collaboration, Devotion, and will be her debut on the Ninja Tune affiliated imprint.

Opener “I Need You” is a bold declaration regarding her need for love during a delicate time of rapid change. Written on an extended tour spent alone, the “radiant breakbeat love letter” is the first vocal performance Maya has recorded in many years, and the first since her transition. It features the voice of a woman who has been through an intense personal struggle, and through that process come to a place of understanding that she is not alone.

The second track, “Bodies Meld Together,” is a sensuous house dub that evokes the mystical penetrating experience of a connection ritual that is at once obliterating and rejuvenating.

The EP’s closing track, “Loops For Healing,” was written during a studio session immediately after Octo Octa completed her second album, Where Are We Going? Not originally intended for release, it was, as the title suggests, composed as a personal tool for healing. It lay dormant for over a year until Maya found it on her hard-drive and fortuitously played it at a club a few months ago. Playing the tune to a packed floor grounded her and served as a reminder of why she is a musician in the first place: to heal herself and to heal others.

Tracklisting

01. I Need You

02. Bodies Meld Together

03. Loops For Healing

For Lovers EP will be released on 12” and digitally on March 1 via Technicolour, with “I Need You” streaming below.

R&S Records Welcomes London’s Ben Hayes

R&S Records has signed producer, composer, sound designer, and DJ Ben Hayes, and unveiled his new single, “Ready Yet,” which features new jazz queen Nubya Garcia.

Hayes’ formal musical training lies in jazz, but he has accumulated influences from the LA beat scene, techno, IDM/electronica, spiritual jazz, and 3D sound. Equipped with a broad range of studio skills—including making his own tools for software—and an ability to play keys plus electric/double bass, he’s been deep amidst the South London scene since it began, watching others rise whilst patiently honing his craft.

The London artist has previously produced for Puma Blue, Poppy Ajudha, Oscar Jerome, Maisha, and Carmody; and he has collaborated with Joe Armon-Jones, Maxwell Owin, and Nubya Garcia, whom he calls upon for this latest single.

As a solo artist, Hayes has self-released his We Must Cultivate and Hedonia EPs.

Ready Yet is out now with a stream available below.

R&S Records Welcomes London’s Ben Hayes

R&S Records has signed producer, composer, sound designer, and DJ Ben Hayes, and unveiled his new single, “Ready Yet,” which features new jazz queen Nubya Garcia.

As a solo artist, Hayes has self-released his We Must Cultivate and Hedonia EPs.

Ready Yet is out now with a stream available below.

Fennesz Details Stripped-Back ‘Agora’ LP on Touch

Christian Fennesz (a.k.a Fennesz) will release his first solo album in five years, Agora.

Agora was recorded at Kaiserstudios, Vienna in August and September of 2018, and presents four new ambient and electronic compositions that explore a wide range of textural depth and emotion. Katharina Caecilia Fennesz and Mira Waldmann feature on vocals and Manfred Neuwirth provides field recordings. The record, which is more stripped-back than the experimental artist’s six earlier albums, will launch with London-based Touch on March 29 across digital and CD formats, and a vinyl pressing will follow soon after.

“It’s a simple story,” adds Fennesz. “I had temporarily lost a proper studio workspace and had to move all my gear back to a small bedroom in my flat where I recorded this album. It was all done on headphones, which was rather a frustrating situation at first but later on it felt like back in the day when I produced my first records in the 1990s. In the end, it was inspiring. I used very minimal equipment; I didn’t even have the courage to plug in all the gear and instruments which were at my disposal. I just used what was to hand.”

Fennesz has released a preview piece that stitches together moments from the songs across Agora, with a stream here.

Tracklisting

01. In My Room

02. Rainfall

03. Agora

04. We Trigger the Sun

Agora LP arrives on March 29 via Touch.

Solkatt “Meridian”

Solkatt are an Irish duo made up of Leo Pearson and Peter Lawlor.

Following on from their two single releases last year—”Je Suis” and “Nocturne”—the duo are prepping a debut album, made over the course of a year in the Irish countryside and birthed from 90 minutes of original music produced for a 46-speaker geodesic dome. The dome, which premiered at Electric Picnic 2017 as part of the RedBull Soundome Stage, was the catalyst for the music, which has now been reworked and reformatted into a cohesive album of melancholic electronics. With a penchant for hardware synths and body-moving grooves, Solkatt have crafted a collection of music that is subtly affecting and utterly danceable.

To give a taste of what’s to come, the duo have offered up “Meridian,” a slice of deep melancholic techno, as today’s XLR8R download, available via WeTransfer below.

Due to issues regarding the GDPR, EU readers can download the track here.

Page 277 of 3781

« Previous 1 … 275 276 277 278 279 … 3,781 Next »

Support Independent Media