Romy to Release Debut Album on Young

Romy, singer in The xx, will release her debut solo album via Young.

Mid Air is an album about celebration, sanctuary, and salvation on the dancefloor. It’s an album that deals with love, grief, relationships, identity and sexuality. It’s also a “love letter” to the queer clubs where Romy found community and connection.

Sonically, Mid Air is the “perfect encapsulation” of a sound Romy describes as “emotional music to dance to,” we’re told.

It’s a sound that distills Romy’s love of club classics and classic song writing and finding the sweet spot, like much of Romy’s favourite music, between euphoria, escapism, sadness and melancholy.

The album sees Romy working alongside producers Fred again.. and Stuart Price, as well as her bandmate Jamie xx on recent single “Enjoy Your Life.” The album also features “Strong,” which was previously shared.

To celebrate news of the album, Romy has released the Fred again..-produced “Loveher,” a pivotal track for Romy and acts as both the album opener and the first song to be written for the record.

Romy and Fred were first paired together to write songs for other people, but their fast friendship and musical connection proved to be a spark for something new. After writing “Loveher,” a declarative pop song about the intimacy of falling in love with a woman, “Fred asked me, who could this be for?” explains Romy, “and I tentatively said… ‘maybe me?.” This was the beginning of Mid Air.

Tracklisting

01. Loveher
02. Weightless
03. The Sea
04. One Last Try
05. DMC
06. Strong feat. Fred Again..
07. Twice
08. Did I
09. Mid Air feat. Beverly Glenn-Copeland
10. Enjoy Your Life
11. She’s on My Mind

Mid Air LP is scheduled for September 8 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Loveher” in full below and pre-order here.

Photo: Vic Lentaign

Podcast 804: Croatian Amor

Croatian Amor is the project of Loke Rahbek, a Danish artist who grew up in Copenhagen, listening to his father’s record collection: Brian Eno, Massive Attack, David Bowie, and Talking Heads. For years, he made synth pop as Lust For Youth and ear-bleeding noise as part of Damien Dubrovnik with Christian Stadsgaard. It’s with Stadsgaard that Rahbek heads up Posh Isolation, an incubator-cum-label for many artists from across Scandinavian ambient, experimental, and techno music, including Varg²™, whom he has collaborated with on several albums.

As Croatian Amor, a project for his more introspective leanings, Rahbek has released all his albums there, beginning with 2013’s The World (a reissue) right through to last month’s A Part of You in Everything, which features 12 tracks of shadowy, dreamy dub and synth pop. A companion to Remember Rainbow Bridge, which he released in 2022, the album also serves as a tribute to his younger brother who died at birth before they’d had a chance to meet. “I think it’s music which is best listened to at night out under the stars,” Rahbek said of the album. For this week’s XLR8R podcast, Rahbek has recorded a mix from the road, featuring a bunch of unreleased tracks from his collection. Like all of his work, it’s both eerily beautiful and unsettling; expect a haunting mix of otherworldly ambience.

01. What have you been up to recently?
I’ve been in Sydney the last week. We did a showcase at the Opera House playing with some of my favorite Australian bands and it was really a wonderful experience. Yesterday we went to the Blue mountains.

02. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded it sitting on a bed in an Airbnb flat in Sydney this morning.

03. What can the listener expect?
Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

04. What’s next on your horizon?
I go to Melbourne on Thursday.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Untitled “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
02. Croatian Amor “Vigil” (Posh Isolation)
03. Untitled “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
04. Untitled “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
05. Vanessa Amara “25-04-2016” (Posh Isolation)
06. Der Mohn “Unreleased” (Posh Isolation)
07. Franciska og Emilie “Tryggest Alene” (Posh Isolation)
08. Soho Rezanejad “Northstar” (Janis) (Posh Isolation)
09. Croatian Amor & Vanessa Amara “Still Possible” (Posh Isolation)
10. Sophus Dræby “Choir” (Posh Isolation)
11. Sakamoto & Fennesz “Unreleased” (Touch)
12. Croatian Amor & Perko “Tulip Coupon” (Posh Isolation)
13. Croatian Amor & Scandinavian Star “Spring Snow” (Posh Isolation)
14. Vanessa Amara “I like it, I do” (Posh Isolation)

Gaika Signs to Big Dada for New Album

Gaika (born Gaika Tavares) will release a new album on Big Dada Recordings.

Across 14 new tracks, Drift is piece of shape-shifting body of work with hip-hop and club music at its core. It has a psychedelic feel that is formed by incorporating ’90s grunge, dark wave, post-punk, and alt-rock into its tapestry.

We’re told that the album is a representation of the Brixton, London artist’s heritage and environment, in that it features calypso steel pans, gospel vocals, reverberating dub, frenetic rap, and elements of sound design. It’s influenced by Prince, Wu Tang Clan, Massive Attack, John Coltrane, and A$AP Rocky to land on a “gritty, distorted sound pulsating with an unwavering, formidable energy.”

Drift became the term used to describe the collective of people who made this record. Gaika is the central writer and composer but he worked closely with Kidä, also known as Ava Leoncavallo, plus there are contributions from Azekel, Charlie Stacey, Brbko, and The Narrator.

GAIKA’s sound spans from grime, dancehall, R&B, electronic, and beyond, and he often weaves in vital commentary through his lyricism. He first gained attention in 2015 with his debut mixtape, Machine, and has since released a string of projects including BASIC VOLUME on Warp and Seguridad on Mexico’s N.A.A.F.I.

Tracklisting

01. Drift On
02. Piñata
03. Gunz
04. First Among Misfits feat. The Narrator
05. La Vacanza feat. Kidä
06. Sublime
07. Exit to Cisco
08. Lady feat. bbymutha
09. O Vampiro
10. Bonehead Behaviour
11. Vicious Chambers
12. Ultra Scuro
13. And There Goes Another Challenger
14. Less Burners Bigger Hearts feat The Narrator & Azekel

Drift LP is scheduled for September 8 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Lady” feat. Kida in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Photo: Emanuel Shogbolu

Podcast 803: Rrose

Rrose is the elusive incarnation of Seth Horvitz, an artist from California, currently based in London. After several years producing glitch-heavy experiments as Sutekh, Horvitz launched Rrose in 2011 with a mysterious EP on Function and Regis’ now decommissioned Sandwell District, which they followed with a string of vinyl releases on their own own Eaux label. (That includes this stunner.) They’ve also put out influential records on Lucy‘s Stroboscopic Artefacts and Noise Manifesto, demonstrating a breed of techno that channels the spirit of genre’s roots while injecting influences from the avant-garde.

In 2019, Rrose released their debut solo album, Hymn to Moisture, and their second one, Please Touch, is incoming on June 23, featuring 10 deftly-engineered psychedelic techno tracks that are densely textured yet at home on the dancefloor. (You can hear some of these in this studio mix). For this week’s much-anticipated XLR8R podcast, Horvitz has delivered a segment of a DJ set from Budapest in March. As a performer, Rrose’s DJ sets are crafted like finely woven sonic tapestries, and this one is no different: expect two hours of alluring psychedelic techno featuring tracks from Rødhåd, SHXCXCHCXSH, Tommy Four Seven, Peter Van Hoesen, and more.

01. What have you been up to recently?
Doing my best to stay healthy, sane, and inspired amongst all the fear, destruction, and abuse of power that surrounds us. Sorry, that was very dramatic!

02. What have you been listening to?
These days I find myself spending more time listening to the world around me than recorded music, but I’ve recently been intrigued by releases from Kali Malone, The Bug, and Kyle Gann, and older music by Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Vicente Lucitano, and Bach.

03. You have a new album coming out later this month. What can you tell us about it?
It’s called Please Touch and it’s a follow up/companion to the 2019 album, Hymn to Moisture. I think of it as a further refinement of the work I’ve developed over the last decade, which integrates elements of microtonal/psychoacoustic composition, sound art, and psychedelia with raw, body-moving electronic rhythms.

04. Where and when did you record this mix?
March 25, 2023 at Technokunst in Budapest, Hungary.

05. It’s a live recording. Tell us what made this set so memorable?
I don’t often allow my DJ sets to be recorded, but this was an exception. After the event, the organizer sent me the file and said “you should release this somewhere, anywhere!” For me, this is a fairly accessible dancefloor-focused set, but apparently they considered it quite experimental compared to what is usually play at the venue, and they were surprised that I could get the whole room locked in and moving to music like this!

06. What setup did you use?
I use Ableton Live and MIDI controllers to control filters and effects, and I also make use of five channels on the DJ mixer for EQ and independent FX control, so my DJ sets always have a hybrid element to them.

07. What can the listener expect?
This event took place a short time after I released a meticulously crafted studio mix, so this recording will give listeners a chance to compare my studio versus live approach. There is some overlap of material, but the mixes are different.

08. What’s next on your horizon?
I’ve been in heavy collaboration mode lately, working on a few releases for my own label and others, and a bunch of remixes. Along with the recently released EP and upcoming album, this will be a big release year for me!

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Phill Niblock “Unmentionable Piece for Trombone and Sousaphone” (Touch)
02. Nik Colk Void “Interruption Is Good” (Editions Mego)
03. Aleksi Perälä “FI3AC2031050” (Self-Released)
04. Deathday “Sister” (Rrose remix) (Eaux)
05. Minilogue “Clouds and Water” (Rrose remix) (Enemy)
06. Israel Vines “Nosedive” (Interdimensional Transmissions)
07. Rrose “Spines” (Eaux)
08. Decoder “Krodha” (Self-Released)
09. Luigi Tozzi “Spiral” (Non Series)
10. Aleksi Perälä “FI3AC2030010” (Self-Released)
11. Luigi Tozzi “Sorcery” (Psyk Remix) (Non Series)
12. Decoder “Kurukshetra” (Self-Released)
13. Decoder “Kalpa” (Self-Released)
14. Terrence Dixon “Digital Ladder” (Dasha Rush remix) (30drop)
15. Rødhåd “Thoughtcrime” (Dystopian)
16. errorsmith “No Ice” (Errorsmith)
17. WTCHCRFT “SHAKE IT” (Nikki Nair’s Shook Mix) (SR50)
18. Truncate “Work Ya Ass” (Manao & Elektor Remix) (WKRTRX)
19. Peter Van Hoesen “Dream Implosion” (Time 2 Express)
20. Truncate “The Drill” (Truncate)
21. Peter Van Hoesen “Purity Death Spiral” (Time 2 Express)
22. Konduku “Zifir” (Bitta)
23. Bidoben “Soft Milieu” (Truncate)
24. Clay Wilson “Moving Centre” (Bunker)
25. Rrose “Vellum” (Eaux)
26. Rrose vs. Tujurikkuja “Omerta” (version) (Eaux)
27. Polygonia “Vipera Berus” (ara)
28. JSPR “Cyborg Salsa” (Truncate)
29. Decoder “Kashyapa’s War” (Inguma)
30. Kali Malone “Arched in Hysteria” (Hallow Ground)
31. Phase Fatale “Desecrating Vows” (Rrose remix) (Bite)
32. Anthony Rother “Vox Clamantis In Spatio” (Psi49net)
33. Rrose “A Row of Cylinders” (Eaux)
34. Vel “Era L” (XX Lab)
35. Desroi “If Your Teeth Fall Out You Can Have Mine” (desroi)
36. Agency666 “Not To Be Re-Produced” (Unknown)
37. Eomac “Spoook” (Killekill)
38. Rrose “Shepard’s Brine” (Eaux / Sandwell District)
39. Matrixxman “Mother’s Return” (The Grid)
40. Tommy Four Seven “Track 5” (CLR)
41. SHXCXCHCXSH “VVOV” (Mord)
42. Duane Pitre “Varolii Pattern 10-1” (Important)

Darkside to Release New Live Album

Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington‘s collaboration, Darkside, will release a new album called Live at Spiral House.

Live at Spiral House is a loose and playful collection of jams taken from weeks of rehearsals in Los Angeles last summer. Joined for the first time by drummer Tlacael Esparza, the band took residence rehearsing and jamming after an eight-year hiatus.

“When we decided to get the band back together with Tlac, we knew we needed a space where we could explore what that meant. After a couple of months of rehearsals, we started inviting friends and family to the space and many of these recordings share the fun and cozy spirit of that time,” Jaar says.

Jed DeMoss, the artist and photographer behind both Darkside album covers, documented the summer spent at Spiral House, making the sound recordings on this collection, alongside artist and videographer Will Carrà. They’ve teamed up on a video, which shows the band setting up Spiral House and rehearsing, streaming below.

Darkside’s last album was 2021’s Spiral. In January 2022, they shared the song “Ecdysis!,” which was originally recorded during the sessions for Spiral. They’re currently in Europe on their first tour since 2014.

Tracklisting

01. Liberty Bell
02. Golden Arrow / The Limit
03. Freak, Go Home
04. Dream (Interlude)
05. Heart Jam
06. Question Is to See It All
07. Lero

Live at Spiral House will land on June 9. You can pre-order the album here and stream the mini-documentary about the record’s creation below.

Deena Abdelwahed Details Second Album

Deena Abdelwahed will release her new album on InFiné Music.

Jbal Rrsas is the Tunisian DJ-producer’s second album, following 2018’s Khonnar. It spans seven tracks of bass, techno, and experimental music, which were produced as part of Consortium Commissions, an initiative set up to showcase emerging artists from the Arab world, run by Brussels-based NGO Mophradat.

Infiné will not release any of the tracks before the album’s release in September because they want to present the record as one whole project. But it will be debuted during special listening parties over the course of June in Berlin, Barcelona (during Primavera Sound) and Milan (during Terraforma).

Tracklisting

01. The Key To The Exit مفتاح الفرج
02. Each Day كل يوم
03. Six As Oil ستة زيت
04. Complain نغنغة
05. Violence For Free عنف مجاني
06 .Naive ساذج
07. Pre Island يا شبه جزيرة

Jbal Rrsas LP is scheduled for September 8 release. Meanwhile, you can stream a teaser below and pre-order the album via Bandcamp here.

Ninja Tune to Release Barry Can’t Swim’s Debut Album

Ninja Tune will release the debut album of Barry Can’t Swim, real name Joshua Mannie.

Mannie, an Edinburgh-born, London based producer, has been making a name for himself for making his own unique brand of jazz-inflicted electronic music. He signed to Ninja Tune imprint Technicolour for his 2022 EP, More Content.

When Will We Land? is his “broadest and most diverse project yet,” we’re told, moving from deep house to jazz, from ambience to the percussive charge of afrobeat.

It’s led by new single “Woman,” a blend of digital production and organic musicianship with vocals from Låpsley.

“I sent it out,” he recalls, “Lapsley came back immediately with this unreal vocal. I chopped it up, re-arranged it… it’s one of those things that fell into place.”

“Woman” follows trecent single “Sunsleeper,” which landed in the opening weeks of 2023.

“For me, I want it to have musicality to it,” Mannie says of his debut album. “I wanted it to have the energy of electronic music but also with a more organic live element. I feel like I’m more of a musician than anything else. I’m a producer but I like writing music on instruments.”

Tracklisting

01. When Will We Land?
02. Some Deadbeat Gospel
03. Sonder
04. How It Feels
05. Sunsleeper
06. Woman
07. I Won’t Let You Down
08. Always Get Through To You
09. Tell Me What You Need
10. Dance of the Crab
11. Define Dancing

When Will We Land? LP will land on October 20. Meanwhile you can stream “Women” below and pre-order the album here.

Photo: Rory Dewar

Lee Gamble’s UIQ Reveals New CORIN Album

Lee Gamble’s UIQ label will release the sophomore album from Corin Ileto (a.k.a CORIN).

On Lux Aeterna, Ileto explores the idea of sound as a sentient being. Meaning “eternal light” in Latin, the album title is named after a choral work by 20th century composer György Ligeti which appears in the movie “2001:Space Odyssey.”

Ileto is inspired by Ligeti’s use of micropolyphony, a tool whereby clusters of sound slowly merge creating amorphous cloud-like formations.

“Using granular synthesis, samples are warped beyond obscurity into alien-like textures that bend and mutate,” we’re told, “clusters of string and vocal harmonies detuning and reemerging into swarms.”

Broadly speaking, Ileto’s productions are an assemblage of IDM, grime, EBM, and trance. Her releases include Manifest (Bedouin Records, 2019) and Enantiodromia, released on UIQ in 2021.

For more information on Lee Gamble, check out his XLR8R Influences podcast here.

Tracklisting

01. lumen naturae
02. sunta
03. miserēre
04. vīsiōnem
05. arx
06. extasis
07. illumina
08. lux aeterna
09. trānsīre

Lux Aeterna LP is scheduled for July 14 release. Meanwhile, you can stream a trailer for “Sunta” illustrating the album’s visual 3D world by Tristan Jalleh below. Pre-order is available here.

Podcast 802: Kareem Ali

Growing up, Kareem Ali—a native of New York who now lives in Tucson, Arizona—wanted to be a rocket scientist and his first musical love was jazz. He found an early hero in Miles Davis, whose seminal Kind of Blue LP prompted Ali to pick up the trumpet back in middle school. More than a decade later, he’s still playing, though now he operates in the electronic music realm. Over the past five years, he’s released around 50 albums, and EPs, and remixes through his own Bandcamp page, including the recent GODSON OF HOUSE: RISE OF A BLACK PLANET. (Before that, there was Future Black Music, We Are Stardust, and Black Science.) Although late-night gems like “Night Echoes” have garnered the most attention, his discography includes forays into techno, ambient, hip-hop, R&B, garage and even drum & bass, each of them mapping out a utopian future in which humanity, and Black people in particular, can finally carve out an existence that’s “free of injustice and oppression,” he says. For his XLR8R podcast, Ali has delivered one hour of free-wheeling, vocal-laden house coming from some of the artists who have inspired him to make it: Frankie Knuckles, Byron The Aquarius, and Baba Ali.

01. What have you been up to recently?
I’ve been doing the usual. Making music, riding my bike, playing shows, and just living life.

02. What have you been listening to?
I’ve been obsessed with The Director’s Cut Collection by Frankie Knuckles and Eric Kupper. That album is arguably the greatest house record ever released.

03. You’ve just released your new album. What can you tell us about it?
It’s the second part to my Godson of House album trilogy. Each one I want to be better than the last and I challenge myself to take the music to different heights. This new album has a more modern mainstream house feel and it’s vocal-heavy. With heavy messages of motivation and inspiration. The album title, Rise of a Black Planet, is a call for Black People all over the planet to rise up and unite to help create a better world.

04. Where and when did you record this mix?
In my apartment in Tucson, Arizona, with the windows wide open, clear blue skies, and a light breeze blowing.

05. What setup did you use?
I have a Pioneer XDJ-RR. It’s a two-channel standalone all-in-one DJ system, so you don’t need a computer to operate it. Just hook up your audio, power cable and USB, and you’re set!

06. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included?
These tracks are just some of my favorite tracks ever. I just let the music guide me on where to go next.

07. What can the listener expect?
A soul-filled deep house journey.

08. What’s next on your horizon?
I’m currently working on my next album. The final part of the trilogy. This one will be the best one. I’ve already dialed in the feel of the record and have a bunch of great musicians and vocalists for this one. I’m aiming for a late October release date. Stay tuned!

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Frankie Knuckles “Welcome To The Real World” feat. Adeva (Virgin)
02. Frankie Knuckles “Love Can Change It” feat Adeva (Virgin)
03. In The Beginning (There Was Jack) feat. Monique Bingham [Ultra]
04. Donna Summer “Hot Stuff” (Frankie Knuckles & Eric Kupper As Director’s Cut Signature Mix)” (Verve Pop)
05. Earth People “Dance” (Club Mix) (Pal Joey Music)
06. Byron The Aquarius “I Love Yo” (Kush Jones Remix) (Heist Recordings)
07. Artmann “Memories” (Self Released)
08. Baba Ali “Cog In The Wheel” (Unknown Artist Edit)” (Self Released)
09. Frankie Feliciano X Kenny Bobien “Miracles” (Ricanstruction Vocal Mix) (Ricanstruction Brand Music)
10. Javonntte “These Words” (NDATL Muzik)
11. AG Thomas “The 1, 2” (Reelsoul Mix) (Vocal) (ABB Soul)
12. Cheryl Lynn “Got To Be Real” (Robbie Doherty’s 129 Time Edit) (Self Released)
13. Javonntte “Chaka’s Revenge” (NDATL Muzik)
14. Joe Smooth “We Got To Love” featuring Paris Brightledge (Director’s Cut Signature Mix” (Jack-It)

Neo-Soul Singer Ari LaShell Releases Debut EP

Ari LaShell (born Arianna Calloway), a neo-soul songwriter from Atlanta, has released her debut EP.

LaShell, who has been singing since the age of three, moved from Detroit to Atlanta after eight grade and became infatuated with music during high school. Over the past few years, she’s been releasing singles through her Soundcloud page, spanning neo-soul, alternative r&b, jazz, and even disco. These includes “Pillow (Safe With Me)” and the more recent “Top of the World.”

Ari, What Are You Doing Here?, spanning six new tracks, is her first full EP. It serves as both an introduction of LaShell’s work while also expanding on her sound palette.

“AWH will take its listeners on a transformative journey and still allow space for them to feel all the feels and still reflect the positive energy that is Ari LaShell,” we’re told.

The release lands on FWM, the dance music label based out of Atlanta started in 2018 by Stefan Ringer.

Tracklisting

01. Favorite
02. Get Down
03. Bankrupt feat. Marquinn Mason
04. To the $
05.Do Nane 03:18
06. Deny feat. Stefan Ringer

Ari, What Are You Doing Here? EP is available now. You can stream it below and order it here.

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