Top 10: The Faint, Tobacco, Amplive

Pit Er Pat
High Time
Thrill Jockey
Release Date: October 21

A rather hypnotic affair from this Chicago trio, perhaps because the group employed enough musical instruments to fill a small shop, and everything from guitars, bells, and drums to horns, gongs, and kalimbas looping over one another in off-kilter patterns. As on other releases, the tracks are scattershot genre-wise, though the trio does appear to have a certain fascination with snare drums on this one.

Keep Away From Heat/K.A.F.H.
Helium Bliss
Ammonite
Release Date: August 25

But Pit Er Pat’s new one isn’t as hypnotic as this, the latest output from producer Predrag Nedic, who delivers nine tracks of ambient post-rock that are achingly pretty. Deeply layered, with weepy string arrangements and minor chords scattered over every inch, this album floats and hovers with as much serenity as its title suggests.

XLR8R Podcast Featuring 3 Is a Crowd
Download

Though we love all the podcasts we post here at XLR8R.com, this one had the staff turning up the volume full-blast for the better part of yesterday, nodding in time to the electro, hip-hop, grime, crunk, and hard house sounds from the likes of Modeselektor, Benga, Crookers, Dizzee Rascal, and more. Perhaps the best part, though, is the fact that 3IAC ran with the concept of hosting the mix on the mic, adding hilarious commentary and shout-outs throughout.

The Faint
Fasciinatiion
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Release Date: August 5

Taking a break from their longtime home at Saddle Creek appears to have done the five members of The Faint some good. Fasciinatiion is their first album ever to be made and released in-house, and the result is a record that’s musically more on-point than anything we’ve seen from these guys in a while.

Tobacco
Fucked Up Friends
anticon.
Release Date: October 14

There’s some dissonance between the XLR8R.com staff over this album, with some factions saying it’s a bizarre trip through a sinister musical land and some saying it’s more uplifting than Tobacco’s work with Black Moth Super Rainbow. Whatever. Dark or dreamy, it’s an undeniably grandiose album made of careful work with analog synths and tape machines, and a very satisfying listen.

The Ready Aim Fire!
Strong Enough
Self-Released
Release Date: Out Now

Since Bright Eyes turned vaguely alt-country and The Postal Service will probably never make that new album, we’ve had to search elsewhere for indie pop that speaks of lost love, excessive drinking, and the poetic beauty of self-abuse. Found it here, with the work of Dave Trautz and Co., whose singing and laptop pop mixed with acoustics is just good, honest songwriting that’s musically interesting and emotionally captivating.

Hybrid
Soundsystem_01
Hope

Longtime dance music producers, the members of Hybrid have always worked with a trademark sound that’s big, cinematic, and, at certain instances, makes the hair on one’s neck stand up. They employed a similar tactic when compiling and mixing this double-disc, with a mix that begins in minimal electronics and very, very slowly climbs to the maximal, with Trentemøller, DJ Spooky, Quivver, and others appearing along the way.

Bomb the Bass
Future Chaos
!K7
Release Date: Fall 2008

Tim Simenon began his Bomb the Bass project all the way back in the ’80s with acid-house and sample-heavy numbers, but he swears up and down this isn’t a comeback album. True or not, this synth-heavy set of tracks finds him playing with rhythms and tempos, pushing both dancefloor bangers and quieter, more emotional numbers better suited to the headphones. Guest vocals include Jon Spencer and Fujiya & Miyagi’s David Best.

Tokyo Police Club feat. Aesop Rock and Yak Ballz
“The Baskervilles (Amplive Remix)”
Download

I love screaming rock boys and sharp-spitting MCs equally. Amplive does too, apparently, because when Tokyo Police Club handed him a bunch of Pro Tools files from their track for a remix, he called up his boys Aesop Rock and Yak Ballz to come through and add some rhymes to the band’s track. A nice juxtaposition when the driving power chords melt into an MPC beat, and Amp made this video to show us how the magic happened.

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Aerial
Tectonic
Release Date: Out Now

Aerial. Sounds suspiciously like Burial, but this isn’t just another straightforward dubstep album. Belgian producer Dave Huismans, who makes many different styles of music under many different monikers, married the sounds of the genre with techno, so the resulting sound contains both the driving basslines of Croyden with the 4/4 beats and handclaps found on the Continent.

Image of The Faint by Scott Dobry.

Adultnapper Makes a Few U.S. Appearances

Audiomatique artists don’t often travel to the U.S. (ridiculous Visa requirements make this an understandable fact), so it’s always a treat when one of the label’s makers of modern techno and house announce Stateside dates. Okay, so maybe Brooklyn-based Adultnapper is one of the few on the roster who actually lives on the U.S., but the ex-PHD student and punk rocker has a few shows planned throughout the month of August before he heads over to Europe. He recently compiled and mixed the Audiomatique 2.0 compilation, so check it to hear his skills on the mixer before heading to one of these dates:

08/08 Monterrey, Mexico: Aura
08/15 Boston, MA: Estate Club
08/16 Denver, CO: TBA
08/31 New York, NY: Paddlewheel Queen
09/08 New York, NY: Minitek Festival
09/20: Antwerp, Belgium: Café d’Anvers

Dan Friel Ghost Town

Dan Friel’s accomplished Ghost Town comes as an unexpected surprise. We knew Friel from his day job as co-frontman for Brooklyn thrashers Parts & Labor, but this, a solo keyboard noise-pop project, offers a refreshing level of nuance. Just under 30 minutes long, the record’s eight tracks–equal parts noise and melody–are cobbled together using lo-fi and 8-bit electronics; seven of them are incredible. Highlights include “Buzzards,” a Cars song made from spent Nintendo cartridges, the celebratory “Ghost Town (Parts 1 & 2),” and “Horse Heaven,” a breezy Wild West outro. Overly abrasive “Singing Sand” is the only weak spot, but Ghost Town remains a true sleeper hit nonetheless.

Her Space Holiday “Just Another Day”

Just another day, just another release for indietronic maestro Marc Bianchi (a.k.a. Her Space Holiday). The California-born producer has, over the last several years, unleashed a hefty number of full-lengths, EPs, and singles, and he just dropped another one, Sleepy Tigers, this past week over at Mush. The four-track EP’s title track is the lead single off Bianchi’s forthcoming new full-length, and is accompanied by three brand-new compositions, including this upbeat number full of bells, claps, and accordions.

Her Space Holiday – Just Another Day

Podcast 46: 3 Is A Crowd

Italy’s most fun-loving trio, 3 Is A Crowd (3IAC), recently described its sound to XLR8R as “Hiphopglitchyuptempogroovy house for party harders.” (Our interpretation: pounding, beat-driven music made with a bombastic house party in mind.) So when we asked Albi, Froz, and Giga to create a DJ mix for the next installment of the podcast series, it’s hardly surprising that they turned over a bundle of tracks that starts with fast-paced, hard-hitting kicks and snares and rarely lets up. This 50-minute-plus podcast has more energy than the entire Nike Run series combined, with a cast that includes Crookers, Modeselektor, Dizzee Rascal, Benga, Tommie Sunshine, and even Aphex Twin. Naturally, it wouldn’t be complete without a few tunes from the trio itself, and they generously weave several of their own tracks and remixes throughout.

Tracklisting
1. Bassnectar “Kick It Complex (Bassnectar Remix)” (Om)
2. Modeselektor feat. Puppetmastaz “The Dark Side Of The Sun” (Bpitch Control)
3. The Chemical Brothers feat. Spankrock “Keep My Composure” (Unreleased)
4. Benga & Dargen D’amico “E Trips Sul Carro” (3IAC Bootleg)
5. Grand Puba “All Night (Jim Sharp Remix)” (Unknown)
6. Sammy Bananas “Summer Bounce” (Fools Gold)
7. Clark Able “Lemonhead (Crookers Remix)” (ESP)
8. Warboy “London’s Gettin’ Dirty (Kelevre Deep & Dirty Remix)” (A New Hope)
9. Kelevra feat. Bryant Cox “Leanin ‘n’ Swervin’ (3 Is A Crowd Remix)” (Crux)
10. Oliver $ “Mesh Mallow” (Grand Petrol)
11. 3 Is A Crowd “Wild Boys (Flip Mix)”
12. The Subs “Papillon (Yuksek and Brodinski Remix)” (Lektro Luv)
13. En Masse “Crush” (Hypnotron)
14. Duke Dumont “Hoy” (Dubsided)
15. Bugo “Love Boat (3 Is A Crowd Push It! Remix)” (CDR)
16. Dizzee Rascal “Danve Wiv Me (Niteryders Remix)” (Dirtee Stank)
17. 3 Is A Crowd “What Is A DJ?” (CDR)
18. Don Rimini “Rave On” (Mental Groove)
19. Crookers “Mad Kidz” (Sothern Fried)
20. Dargen D’amico “La Banana Frullata” (Talkin Cat)
21. Tommie Sunshine “Limit Of Your Mind (Nic Sarno Remix)” (Alphabet City)
22. Par-T-One “I’m So Crazy (3IAC I’m So Lazy Remix)” (Unreleased)
23. 3 Is A Crowd “Take It Back” (A New Hope)
24. Douster “This Shit” (A New Hope)
25. N.E.R.D. “Everybody Nose” (Interscope)
26. 3 Is A Crowd “Can’t Breathe” (CDR)
27. N.E.R.D. “Anti Matter (Destroy Disco Edit)” (CDR)
28. Affie Yusuf “Ebony Acid Dash (DJ Mayhem Remix)” (CDR)
29. Larry Tee “Louis Vuitton (3 Is A Crowd Sexy Remix)” (Unreleased)
30. Benga & Madeline Puckett “Crunked Up Someday” (3IAC Bootleg)
31. Aphew Twin “Film” (Warp)

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Podcast_Mix_2008_07_31

eLZhi and Black Milk Team Up for Album

Black Milk is making beats again, this time steering the production helm for Slum Village memeber and Detroit colleague eLZhi‘s debut solo album.

The latter will drop The Preface August 12 through Fat beats, and since he’s a self-proclaimed perfectionist when it comes to making rhymes, he’s found a kindred spirit in Black Milk, whose signature beats have a certain meticulousness to them. Additionally, a whole gang of guest artists from Motor City came through for the album, including Royce Da 5’9″, T3 of Slum Village, Guilty Simpson, and Phat Kat.

Photo by Jeremy Deputat.

Third Congotronics Disc Planned

Following Democratic Republic of Congo group Konono No. 1’s success and critical acclaim for its follow-up compilation, Congotronics 2, Belgian label Crammed again returns to Kinshasa, DRC for the series’ next release.

The latest Afro-electric concoction comes from Kasai Allstars, whose debut, In the 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of His Enemy By Magic, drops September 23. Like their predecessors, Kasai Allstars combine traditional Central-African music with amplified instruments and wildly inventive percussion.

The Kasai Allstars includes some 25 musicians from the Kasai region, but who originated from five different ethnic groups: the Luba, the Songye, the Lulua, the Tetela, and the Luntu. Although these groups have had conflicts in the past and each has a different language and culture, the band has been able to bridge differences and adapt different music traditions into one amazing super-group.

Like Konono, rattling metal and wood-percussion instruments create a backdrop for electric thumb piano, and chiming guitars, with single and multi-part vocals flowing through each mesmerizing song (see video). They draw their arrangements from festive and ritual music that was played in the bush before being banned by the Europeans. Sadly, many of the traditional instruments used to play Congo music have been looted or have disappeared.

As Kasai Allstars spokesman Mi-Amor points out, “Nowadays, it is far easier to find a variety of slit drums, thumb pianos, and marimbas in the museums of the northern hemisphere than in the Congolese cities or countryside.”

In the 7th Moon…
01 Quick as White
02 Mukuba
03 Kafuulu Balu
04 Beyond the 7th Moon
05 Mbua-A-Matumba
06 Mpombo Yetu
07 Tshitua Fuila Mbuloba
08 Analengo
09 Drowning Goat (Mbuji-Mayi)

Bronx River Parkway “La Valla”

Latin soul’s back, and it’s courtesy of New York-based collective Bronx River Parkway. The multi-member group that boasts no less than four vocalists is set to release San Sebastian 152 through Truth & Soul, and the album marks the band’s first release since a lone single in 2005. “La Valla” opens with a bubbling bassline that’s joined by pianos, horns, raps, and more, all of which slink and groove through three-plus minutes and beckon the listener to get up and dance.

Bronx River Parkway – La Valla

Ghostly Signs School of Seven Bells

Ghostly loves any music that’s slightly futuristic and hard to pin down, so the label’s latest signee, School of Seven Bells, is a noteworthy addition to the roster.

Formed just last year, the Brooklyn-based trio of Benjamin Curtis and twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza got straight to work releasing 7″s and tracks full of off-kilter rhythms, fractured guitars, and scattered electronics. One can’t really label this band as dance music or rock music, but it’s fine music for the headphones at any rate. The group now prepares to release its full-length, Alpinisms, October 28, on the aforementioned home of the ghost logo.

No word yet on the album’s tracklisting, but stifle your disappointment over that fact by checking out the forthcoming 7″/digial single, “Half Asleep/Caldo,” out on September 16.

In November, SSB will hit the road with M83.

10/18 Kalamazoo, MI: State Theater*
11/13 Washington, DC: Black Cat
11/14 New York, NY: Webster Hall
11/15 Philadelphia, PA: Starlite
11/16 Northampton, MA: Pearl Street
11/18 Boston, MA: Middle East Downstairs
11/19 Montreal, QC: Studio
11/20 Toronto, ON: Opera House
11/21 Chicago, IL: Bottom Lounge
11/22 Minneapolis, MN: Triple Rock
11/25 Seattle, WA: Neumo’s
11/26 Vancouver, BC: Richard’s on Richards
11/27 Portland, OR: Doug Fir
11/28 San Francisco, CA: The Fillmore
11/29 Los Angeles, CA: Fonda Theater

* = solo show
Photo by Guillermo Herren.

The Glitch Mob: Slaying the Laptop Game

A giant bus was blasting dubstep outside, a line of New Era cap-clad hipsters, dreadlocked kids, hip-hop enthusiasts, and slightly regular-looking people wrapped around the building, and the über-stressed bouncers were turning people away from the guest list. But that was nothing compared to what was happening inside Mighty, the S.F. venue playing host to The Glitch Mob show one windy night this past May. By 11 p.m., Mighty’s bar is typically five deep, but not tonight: The four guys standing on stage, behind a row of laptops, would prove to have a more intoxicating effect.

Hard as that sounds to believe, the reason several hundred people were sending whoops, hollers, and high-pitched shrieks in the direction of the stage was largely in part due to the fact that Josh “Ooah” Mayer, Justin Boreta, Matthew “Kraddy” Kratz, and Edward “edIT” Ma were whooping and hollering right back, more wrestling with their computers than playing them, and sending distorted but highly danceable music through the speakers. In short, they appeared to be enjoying themselves on stage, a sight so rare in this age of electronic music it’s a little awing when it actually happens.

“We Slay Crowds” is a phrase unabashedly posted on The Glitch Mob’s MySpace page, and immodest as it might sound, the four-man outfit currently tearing up dancefloors and confusing the hell out of anyone trying to put a label on their music is well suited to claim that slogan as their own. With a trademark style that’s influenced by everything from dubstep to heavy metal, endless amounts of energy, and a technical rider that states they have to be as physically close to the audience as possible when playing, these four producers and friends seem poised and ready to reinvent the laptop game.

“The way you bring [the music] live is what matters,” says Ma, over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. “The whole purpose of why we’re doing this is that we’re basically out there writing music to wow ourselves and wow other people. So the connection with the audience is huge for us.”

“When you have a laptop up there, it can create this wall between the performer and the audience, because you don’t really know what the hell the person is doing up there,” Boreta, the lone member of the group who resides in San Francisco, adds. “We’re trying to approach what we do not from necessarily the traditional DJ angle, but more of a live band angle.”

Not that any one of them is penning set lists on sheets of notebook paper before each show (in fact, the group only knows the first and last songs of each set and freestyles the rest), but the spirit of a traditional four-piece band jamming off one another is definitely a large part of a Glitch Mob show. Rather than falling into the trap of staying pinned behind a laptop screen, the four members opt instead to step away from the computers at intervals, add MIDI controllers, cut and paste tracks on the fly– which can result in anything from an extended acapella to a full-on synth assault– and constantly interact with one another and the audience. It’s a sight that’s rare in electronic music these days, when an artist could as easily be editing his MySpace profile as pressing buttons in Ableton, and a refreshing change to club-going audiences. Head to a Glitch Mob show and one will inevitably find the room packed wall-to-wall with everyone from decked-out ladies swaying and crooning near the stage to geeked-out guys in glasses, analyzing the aural surroundings in the back. The point, however, is that across the board, the audience is captivated by what is happening onstage. “The fact that we’re having fun up there and that we come up with stuff on the fly we’d never initially planned, people see that,” says Kratz. “It becomes like watching a band throw it together and jam live, which is novel for the whole laptop situation.”

Mayer, Boreta, Kratz, and Ma are no strangers to such improvisation. The Glitch Mob formed roughly two years ago, but members of the group have been performing together for years, darting up and down the West Coast, sharing gigs, and inviting one another onstage to tag-team at the decks. The formation of an actual unit wasn’t so much a carefully planned endeavor as it was a natural next step for the four. “We were all doing the same thing,” says Boreta. “We were playing similar types of music, making music on our laptops, and decided to try it together.” Though the group is often associated with the whole L.A. IDM-via-hip-hop scene that’s led by Flying Lotus, Daedelus, Samiyam, and others, (perhaps with good reason, seeing as the whole lot tends to name-drop one another’s acts in every other interview they give), he’s quick to point out that the Glitch Mob name was initially a joke. “We just threw it out there and it stuck,” he says, adding that it was actually meant as a friendly-but-firm jab driven towards the whole scene. “A lot of times people call what we do glitch-hop or glitch music and we reject that.”

It’s not the only label they reject, and if breaking down boundaries is the credo of this band, then nowhere is that more evident than when it comes to classifying their music. It’s not dubstep. It’s not hip-hop or glitch-hop, and don’t even think about calling it lazer bass. Though tracks like their remixes of Nalpa’s “Monday” and Matty G’s “West Coast Rocks” bear certain common denominators (heavy synth layers, loads of feedback, earth-shattering basslines), all four members are steadfastly against trying to wrestle what they do into a specific genre. Rather, they would like their music to be seen as a catch-all genre that could appeal to multiple audiences. “Our music speaks to a lot of different people and we don’t want to forget any of them,” says Mayer. “We don’t want to get stuck in some world where we only make a certain kind of thing. We want to be playing next to the hottest emo band and next to the biggest hip-hop acts.”

Kratz has, perhaps, the loosest definition of what The Glitch Mob’s sound is: “We want a new name every time. If someone asks us what the name is, I want to be like, ‘Well, what would you call it?’ And then I’d be like, ‘Okay, well that’s what we’re calling it.’”

It’s this sort of attitude that also propels the group when working in their studio (endearingly referred to as The Mob Compound). Because each member produces music as a solo artist as well, different sounds are brought to the table by different people. The pretty melodies usually belong to Mayer, while the expansive synth layers are often Boreta’s. Kratz, in his own words, “brings the booty,” and Ma is the undisputed drum master of the crew. Currently at work on a full-length album, the group is bringing all of these elements into play, but also exploring new territory that’s right in keeping with their mission of eschewing any and all constraints. “It would be very easy for us to come up with 10 bangers and put that out as a record,” says Ma. “That would be a no-brainer, but what we really want to do is put down a document of where we were as artists at this point in time, and we want it to stand the test of time.”

Which is to say, fans can expect not just the bass-heavy dancefloor numbers as seen in their remix work, but also mellower, more experimental cuts that might not necessarily be suited to a club. Essentially, the group is taking the same carefree, anything-goes approach that works so well in the live setting to the studio, along with a willingness to take risks and a fierce determination to steer clear of classification. “We’re not constricting ourselves to anything, which is why I don’t know what to call this thing we’ve got going on,” asserts Ma. “To us, this is just the music we write. I don’t know what to call it. I guess just call it Glitch Mob.”

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