Sub Swara Releases New Album
New York-based, South Asian electronic innovators Sub Swara will drop their new album, Coup D’Yah, June 10 on Low Motion records. Sub Swara crew members Dhruva, Sunder, Haj, and Sharmaji, with MC Juakali, have been running their successful monthly club night in New York since 2005, showcasing dubstep, breaks, grime, and South Asian electronic sounds with live musicians, vocalists, and singers.
At their own nights and elsewhere, the group performs original music using electronic gear and computers, as well as DJs. Sub Swara’s hybrid gatherings have drawn international attention that has lead to U.S. and European tours, and after a U.K. radio appearance, BBC Radio hostess Mary Anne Hobbs commented, “Sub Swara deals with the most fascinating melt of sound–beats [and] bass laced with the elemental voice of Juakali, pure heaven! The Sub Swara mix was devastating–contender for mix of the year on the BBC Radio 1 show, for real.”
Two years in the making, the new album promises to make a splash with its heavy Asian, Latin, and African percussion sounds, wood and string instruments, and weighty bass drops. The album also showcases the signature vocal talents of Zulu (Ghislain Poirier, DJ C), MC Coppa (Al Haca, Stereotyp), Napoleon Solo (Ming & FS), and Sub Swara’s own rising star, Juakali (Sub Swara, Kush Arora, Pinch). Like an amphetamine-fed Punjabi MC at a dubstep rave, Sub Swara’s music bursts with cracking beats, but is tempered with echoed reggae-dub elements.
Catch Sub Swara live Friday June 6 at their monthly residency at Love, 179 MacDougal in New York.
Coup D’Yah Tracklisting
1. Hi Fidelity (Shambhala Riddim)
2.Infiltrate (Sub Step Refix)
3. Alabaster Dub
4. Belgrade Riddim
5. Banga
6. Backwater Dub
7. The Balance
8. Insh’allah
9. Constructing the Absence
10. Yeah (Ina Dravidian Bombstep)
11. TKM
12. Koli Stance
Douglas Armour The Lights of a Golden Day, The Arms of the Night
If you like to strain for satisfaction, Douglas Armour might be the dude for you. His sweet but barely audible voice has a hard time rising above the house music of “Trembling, on the Verge” or “Towards the Light.” His descending melodies in “Not An(Other) Love Song” are ambitious, but they lack the volume to stick in your chest. Even when his programmed dance music steps aside for his vocals, as on the winsome closer, “The Mystery It Never Lasts,” Armour keeps it too hushed to sway you. And that’s what dance music is supposed to do. An able debut, but one hopes his sophomore effort doesn’t slump as noticeably.
Nortec Collective Presents Bostich + Fussible “Brown Bike”
Bostich + Fussible are well known as members of the Latin electronic band Nortec Collective. Working as a duo, these two blend acoustics and electronics, though they relied more heavily on the former for their latest album, Tijuana Sound Machine. Tracks on the album span a two-year period of making music, and many of them were written while the two were on the road promoting Nortec Collective’s last album. “Brown Bike” features subtle electronics that sit beneath a latin-meets-rock mix of guitars, accordions, vocal hooks, and horns.
Experimental Dental School Jane Doe Loves Me
One can only wonder what’s in Oakland’s water system. But whatever it is, Deerhoof, Da Hawnay Troof, and Experimental Dental School are all guzzling the same stuff, and it’s twisting their musical minds in similarly demented ways. Experimental Dental School is an exercise in fractured discord, with a spectacularly blatant disregard for tempo or melody. The band is beholden to no musical convention, abusing their guitars, organs, and drum kits into a sound that veers between noise-, math-, and art rock. As their name implies, experimentalism rules supreme, with ragged chord progressions and clamorous drum sequences reining themselves in just as they begin to blow minds–and thankfully before they blow eardrums.
Radioactive Man “State Of That (Starkey Remix)”
Philadelphia-based grime/electro/hip-hop DJ and all around bass pioneer Starkey got his hands on this track from Keith Tenniswood, a.k.a. Radioactive Man, whose new full-length, Growl was released earlier this month. Here, Starkey adds some heavy bass and grimey, two-step rhythms to the mix, for a bouncin’ track fit for the darkest of dancefloors. Those in the U.K. can catch Starkey tonight (Friday, May 30) at London’s Fabric nightclub, where he’ll play alongside Toddla T, Ghislain Poierier, and Patchwork Pirates.
Rafter Announces EP Release Date
Asthmatic Kitty fans will recall that not so long ago, San Diego-based producer Rafter premiered a new, original MP3 everyday for 22 days, each with a corresponding piece of artwork by photographer Lizeth Santos.
Rafter has now gathered a select handful of these tracks together for the Sweaty Magic EP, due out September 9. According to the man himself, the new release is “all about the overwhelming rad feeling of going out dancing with my hot fiancee–techno, Prince, electro, hip-hop–sweating and smiling on the dancefloor.” Presumably, it’s also about the manic intensity of producing a track everyday for over three weeks straight, which would drive any sane producer (except Madlib, maybe) a little crazy.
Rafter will meanwhile play a couple of shows at the beginning of June. Dates listed below.
Sweaty Magic Tracklisting
1. Salt
2. Noise
3. Magic
4. Juicy
5. Sassy
6. Sweat
7. Heat
Show Dates
06/07 Chicago, IL: Ribfest!
06/11 San Diego, CA: Whistlestop Bar
Photo by Lizeth Santos.
Ninja Tune To Release Triple Disc Set
Pioneering U.K. label Ninja Tune has never rested on its laurels, despite introducing to the world name-brand dance acts like Mr. Scruff, Kid Koala, Cinematic Orchestra, and Roots Manuva. Those acts, plus some 30 others, comprise the forthcoming 50-track three-disc collection, You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts, available on our shores June 10.
The fifth Ninja Cuts collection in the label’s illustrious 18-year history, the collection features nine unreleased tunes by Coldcut, the aforementioned Mr. Scruff, alongside new names on the roster, such as Baltimore’s The Death Set, Montreal’s Ghislain Porier, and London’s The Bug. Styles from hip-hop and turntablism to downtempo and experimental indie-rock showcase a label known for its consistency and reliable output. And the name is fitting. After all, most know Ninja for artists like Amon Tobin or Bonobo. But Wiley, Durrty Goodz, and The Long Lost? That’s just Ninja being Ninja–hard to categorize, but dope.
Tracklisting
01 Ghislain Poirier “Blazin’ (Modeselektor Remix)”
02 Roots Manuva “Seat Yourself feat. Ricky Rankin”
03 Bonobo “Nightlite”
04 Daedelus “Fair Weather Friends”
05 Mr Scruff “Donkey Ride”
06 Pop Levi “Dita Dimoné”
07 The Herbaliser “Gadget Funk”
08 Cadence Weapon “Getting Dumb”
09 Spank Rock “Bump (Switch Remix)”
10 The Heavy “Coleen”
11 Diplo “Epistemology Suite 1: Don’t Fall”
12 King Geedorah “Next Levels”
13 Fink “Pretty Little Thing”
14 The Cinematic Orchestra “To Build A Home”
15 Amon Tobin “Bloodstone”
16 John Matthias “Evermore”
17 Roots Manuva “Chin High (Manuvadelics Version)”
18 Wiley “No Qualms feat. Chipmunk, J.M.E and Skepta”
19 Hexstatic “Distorted Minds feat. Juice Aleem”
20 The Qemists “Drop Audio feat. MC I.D”
21 NMS “Brave New World”
22 Mike Ladd “Blah Blah”
23 Keepintime “Bring Madlib Up” (produced by DJ Shadow)
24 The Cinematic Orchestra “Rites Of Spring (Live at Barbican)”
25 Max & Harvey “Thieves”
26 cLOUDDEAD “Physics of a Unicycle”
27 The Bug “Poison Dart (Radio Version)”
28 Coldcut “Just For The Kick feat. Annette Peacock”
29 Coldcut “Walk A Mile In My Shoes feat. Robert Owens”
30 Pest “Pat Pong”
31 TTC “Travailler”
32 The Death Set “Around the World”
33 Yppah “Again With The Subtitles”
34 Coldcut “Atomic Moog”
35 RJD2 “True Confessions”
36 Kid Koala “Slew Test 2”
37 Two Fingers “Have It Like That feat. Durrty Goodz”
38 DJ Kentaro “Free feat. MC Spank Rock”
39 Ty “Wait A Minute”
40 Homelife “Seedpod”
41 One Self “Fear The Labour”
42 The Cinematic Orchestra “Breathe”
43 Loka “Beginningless”
44 Bonobo “Hatoa feat. Andreya Triana”
45 Ammoncontact “Infinity of Rhythm”
46 The Long Lost “The Art Of Kissing”
47 Fog “Melted Crayons”
48 Blockhead “Sunday Seance”
49 Jaga Jazzist “Swedenborgske Rom”
50 Bigg Jus “Say Goodbye”
Pictured: The Death Set. Photo by Tod Seelie.
DJ Chef Preps U.S. Tour Dates
One of U.K. pirate radio’s biggest dubstep DJs will tour the U.S. and Canada in June. Croydon, U.K.-based Chefal, or DJ Chef, will make his way to the West Coast, appearing Friday, May 30 at Shift in Seattle, Saturday, May 31 at Smog in L.A., and Thursday, June 5 in San Francisco. Along with fellow Croydon producers Skream and Benga, Chef has helped popularize dubstep around the world via his 11 p.m. GMT Tuesday night Rinse FM radio show, residencies at London parties DMZ and FWD, Slam It in Helsinki, Finland, and various events in Denmark, Austria, Israel, Czech Republic, and Germany.
In addition, Chef keeps the dubs flowing–literally–cutting plates at Transition Mastering Studios, dubstep’s most renowned acetate-cutting studio.
Chef is known for his infectious laugh and DJ sets that span dubstep’s varied styles, from ragga to tech. On radio, he’s been among the first to break new artists to the public, including Tes La Rok and Cotti. Somehow he manages to run a label too, Ringo, which has produced some very big tunes in the last two years. What you get from a Chef set: vibrancy. The man has a ton of energy and good vibes.
In San Francisco, Chef will be joined by Ottawa, Canada’s DZ, a rising production talent who has released tracks on Lo Dub, Scuba, and Blackacre.
06/05 San Francisco, CA: Brap Dem One Year Anniversary @ Holy Grail*
06/06 Chicago, IL: Lava
06/07 Vancouver, BC: Lighta!
06/14 Montreal, QC: There Will Be Dubs
06/21 New York, NY: Love
* w/ DZ, Ripple, SamSupa!, Emcee Child
Paul Woolford on Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92 is simply one of my favorite albums of all time. Released in 1993, Selected Ambient Works emerged from a period of hybrids and rampant experimentalism, as techno had split off into hardcore and the advent of drum & bass was just around the corner. A master of hybrids himself, Aphex Twin (a.k.a. Richard D. James) used breakbeats in new and innovative ways, a quality Selected AmbientPart 1 shares with Innerzone Orchestra’s “Bug in the Bassbin” and Doc Scott’s N.H.S. EP–all key records that vastly shaped the landscape and marked this epoch of dance music as being one of frenzied research and development.
When Aphex Twin first came on the scene, a flurry of press activity followed. Many attempts were made to find out more about the completely fresh sounds coming from his equipment. He had pricked-up various scenesters’ ears with the Analogue Bubblebath EP, which eventually found its way to the A&R side of trail-blazing Belgian techno label R&S.
When James sent them more material their jaws must’ve dropped. Not only did he produce absolutely insane, killer, frantic breakbeat- and acid-driven techno of various hues, but he also made the most beautiful, fragile, lush, naïve, and truly visionary ambient-inspired pieces. The latter, which make up Selected Ambient Works 85-92, are a snapshot of an artist creating for the purest of reasons; James had not been signed to any label when that material was recorded, so his techniques were untainted by commerce, DJ-friendliness, or indeed any other concession. Just raw creativity. His methods of programming, particularly with regard to percussion, were so innovative, and his sounds were awe-inspiring.
It’s difficult to explain what the opening track “Xtal” does to me. As with most of the tracks on the album, it is drenched in a waterfall of reverb, and the multitude of emotions it stirs makes me think of being in the womb, cushioned from harm, coupled with a naïve child-like innocence. Yet it has this narcotic, strung-out undercurrent that gives it such an edge. And remember that some of these tracks were mastered from cassette. Yes, cassette tapes. In our age of obsession with loudness and audio clarity, it’s important to keep in mind that without amazing ideas, any art form is utterly vacant. In the coming weeks, the new incarnation of R&S will be reissuing Selected Ambient Works 85-92, so there’s no good reason that anyone with ears shouldn’t own a copy–or two.
