From Middle to North is pop/dance producer Håkan Lidbo’s latest helping of house music in via a new 12″. Lidbo, who has managed labels like MNW Dance, Deck Deli, and Left < > Right, also now has over 50 records to his name across genres, ranging from the deepest underground to the cheesiest pop. In this case, his first single off the new record, Sandviken By Night, features electronic gurgling, dark quirks, and hits of high bell tones rooted in a satisfying 4/4 pulse. Let Lidbo bring you to his floor with this compelling tech-house track. Lulu McAllister
Game Over
“Game Over” is a real day in the life of a rapper, Doomtree-style. The video begins with a busy convenience store employee, Doomtree MC Mictlan, laying it all out while he goes about ringing up purchases, chilling with Vitamin Water in the cooler, stocking inventory, taking out the trash, and connecting with sympathizers around the store. “Welcome to the future! Rap won’t save you!,” he tells a dumbfounded customer while bagging his groceries. After following Mictlan on his trip home from work, we witness him cooking a Food Network-worthy meal for his honey and then rocking onstage at a packed show. Lulu McAllister
D. Gookin “Glad I Met You”
“Glad I Met You” is the first single off D. Gookin’s first EP, When You’re Lonely Everybody’s a Celebrity. This balmy neo-disco song rolls along seamlessly, with twinkles of chime and sweet flute, until some well-placed scratching reminds you that Mike Birnbaum (D. Gookin) is there making it all come together. A high-pitched electrified soloist fades in and out for the chorus, giving way to a shiny group chant on repeat. The retro synths and funky rhythms make this upbeat track one for the good times.
The talented drummer, vocalist, and DJ will be heading out on tour with label mates Worst Friends and Mux Mool on Oct. 2, beginning in New York, then heading west. Lulu McAllister
Daniel Menche: A Northwest Noise Master
Portland is a beautiful city; it contains one of the largest urban wilderness areas in the world (Forest Park). But even on days when you can see all three of the mountains that surround Portland, when its two rivers feel like actual forces of nature rather than landmarks, you can still get lost in the Portland scene and, well, miss the forest while chilling with the young creative trees.
Portland, like so many Northwest towns, has shaped itself in relation to its terrain. And it’s the local landscape that shapes the music of Daniel Menche, an enigmatic, masterful, and incredibly prolific drone craftsman who has been making music in the city for 15 years.
“If I put my body in a physical state in nature–that’s the gasoline that I rely [on],” Menche says. “Nothing against community and friends,” he adds.
Menche’s music, as documented on an untold number of physical and digital releases, is unified by both its density and its chaos. The strata and activity within each piece, mostly generated from contact-mic’d surfaces, is almost overwhelming; even at its most abrasive, it’s entrancing, while too dense to ever really feel sharp or painful. If this music has a creed, it’s Menche’s tagline: “What does blood sound like?” The motto is also beguilingly literal: A Menche performance sometimes consists of the extremelyfit musician contact-mic’ing his own arteries and heartbeat as source sounds for noise drones.
“Everything is always growing [in my music,]” says Menche. “It’s like watching a forest in time-lapse. Everything is coming and going so fast. It’s like seasons. It’s letting the sounds live on their own; letting them grow on their own.”
Several years back, Menche made an interesting transition into percussive composition; he was aiming to make music “as animalistic as possible–music that can outrun,” he explains. “If I listen to it while running, it would break me.”
This led to what would eventually become 2006’s Concussions on the now-defunct S.F. label Asphodel. “A few versions I was able to outrun, [and] I was like, ‘This isn’t good enough,’” he says. “After many attempts, many hours, I got this two-hour mix. I started running and got into this static state of intensity of spiritual violence. I came off the trail punching trees. I came out of Forest Park crawling, with all of these scratches and bruises. Other joggers were looking at me like I was insane.”
Favorite Portland artist:
Eric Stotik. Any time he shows his paintings in the gallery, it’s like Slayer comes to town.
Bomb the Bass Future Chaos
Twenty-one years since Tim Simenon’s seminal “Beat Dis” 12-inch, 13 years since his last album, Clear, and seven years since a low-key EP for Morr Music, the Bomb the Bass moniker has been resurrected for a new album of “electronic music with soul.” That limited editions of Future Chaos come packaged with re-versions from the likes of Gui Borrato and Michael Fakesch hints at a change in aesthetic. Though the album title reads like a crass Bobby Gillespie invective, Future Chaos is relatively understated and the best tracks revel in their lack of clutter or disarray. Gauche collaborations with Mark Lanegan and Jon Spencer weigh down the album, but Future Chaos is thankfully front-loaded with Simenon’s stronger work with Corker/Conboy’s Paul Conboy to produce an album that partially aligns him with the likes of Swayzak and Massive Attack.
Madlib WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip
An AM station strewn with Roc C’s or Frank N Dank’s unapologetic vulgarity is a bit of a longshot, but wouldn’t a weekly Madlib radio gig be sweet? Punctuated by enigmatic Beat Konducta instrumentals and blissful soul one-offs for Stacy Epps and Frezna, Madlib’s sizzling BBE Beat Generation contribution simmers with muted organ loops and hard, crackling beats. The Guilty Simpson pairups add considerable viciousness to an extensive King of the Wigflip. Guilty’s mopey “Blow the Horns on ‘Em” finds Madlib’s chopped brass in cheerful form, but alongside the grim synths that pad Guilty’s threats on “Go!” the “Blow” backdrop could work for Raffi. King is fierce and all over the map—the sleeve wouldn’t say Madlib if it weren’t.
Forbidden Love
Over blissful, Bladerunner-style chimes, UFO!’s video for the track “Forbidden Love” zooms in on a futuristic, industrialized San Francisco. The footage is like an old flickering black and white movie cut up with subtle animation and illuminated as though viewed through those glasses that throw rainbows everywhere. In time to a pulsing heartbeat rhythm, joyless humans march in lines and complete menial tasks with their computer co-workers. Amid signs reading “Emotion is malfunction,” racing clocks and intense video surveillance, one of these resigned male employees and his lonely computer co-worker have an exchange over an ink cartridge refill that blossoms rapidly into a “forbidden love” over dancefloor techno beats. As the song progresses, the two enjoy a private dinner and lie out on the grass together. Will their unlikely romance survive their hardened world? Lulu McAllister
Vivian Girls “Blind Spot (Daisy Chain Cover)”
Vivian Girls, that three-part-harmony-singing, loft-pop-making trio of ladies from Brooklyn causing a stir on the blogwaves of late, recently dropped a new 7″, the b-side of which is this, a cover of Daisy Chain’s “Blind Spot.” Supposedly. Debate has been brewing over the web since the track was leaked last week as to whether or not “Blind Spot” is in fact the name of the song, and apparently there was more than one band that went by the name Daisy Chain. Whatever. If lo-fi, shoegazey guitars and ghostly vocal harmonies suit your palate, this one’s worth a listen.
Portland Peeps: Honey Owens
Even full-time vibe warriors need part-time jobs, so we dedicated two episodes to that very subject. Last week, we tagged along with Adam Forkner (a.k.a. White Rainbow) on his wine-delivery route. This week, we visit Rad Summer, the vintage clothing store co-owned and helmed by Valet’s Honey Owens. Honey talks Jackie-O Motherfucker, scamming people, and finding a Valet of her own.
Maga Bo Archipelagoes
A Tribe Called Quest’s lyrics for “Award Tour” seem particularly suited for Maga Bo–“He’s on a world tour, with Mohammed his man, going each and every place with the mic in his hand, Cape Town, Zanzibar, Dakkar, Morocco…” Rio’s globetrotting sound recordist has used his day job to hip-hop and dance music’s benefit for a while now, collaborating with vocal artists completely off most westerners’ radars. When fiery delivery from MCs like Bigg, K-Libre, Xuman, Teba, and others get laced together with Bo’s deep understanding of global musical timbres and a keen appreciation for booty-shaking beat science, the result is the favela on blast Diplo strives for but doesn’t always achieve. Outta-national? Globalista? Sure, but Bo is speaker-bangin’ before all else.
