DJ Donna Summer Panther Tracks

Wonderfully calculated to piss off your loved ones, neighbors, and pets, Panther Tracks bangs like few things I’ve heard this year. Yes, DJ Donna Summer (a.k.a. Jason Forrest) has gone back to breakbeat hardcore, splitting from the tame, calculated IDM/techno/”other” he released with Shamelessly Exciting. What kind of crack fiend can dance to this for longer than one track is a mystery–“Get Down” is well above 150 bpm, and most others follow suit. “Rock Rock Rock” is a gem, though, exploding from a nice-enough maximal rhythm into sample-splattered beats that feel like listening to a day’s worth of radio compacted into less than an hour. Actually, so does most of the album.

Dennis Ferrer My World As They Remixed It

Close your eyes: What names might appear on the reworkings of deep-house stalwart Dennis Ferrer’s album, The World as I See It? Sure, nothing’s wrong with getting Joe Claussell and Sunshine Jones on this–hell, Jones’ “Transitions” is one of My World’s finest tracks. But it’s not just that there are few surprises here; there are few moments when anything seems to happen at all. Milanese duo Dolls Combers’ electro take on “I Can’t Imagine” has dancer’s legs, and the gospel-tinged “Church Lady (MF Remix)” jumps out. But mostly, this neither subtracts from nor adds to Ferrer’s legacy.

Headman “Catch Me If U Can (Bag Raiders Remix)”

Berlin-based one-man act Headman has cut remixes for everyone from Franz Ferdinand and Chromeo to Annie and Mylo, not to mention a number of other disco groups that like to reference the word “punk.” For Catch Me, his third full-length on Gomma, Headman recorded his tunes at the Hansa studio, which just happens to be the same studio that David Bowie recorded the better part of his Berlin Trilogy. Jeremy Kerr of A Certain Ratio guests on Catch Me, and “Catch Me If U Can” features vocals from Tara and some riffage from David Gilmour Girls’ Jasper Uhl. Australia’s Bag Raiders are responsible for this club friendly remix, which comes from the album’s second 12″.

Headman – Catch Me If U Can (Bag Raiders Remix).wav 1

Various Strange Breaks & Mr. Thing

Champion turntablist and up-and-coming producer Mr. Thing keeps his scratching and beat-juggling skills at bay on this compilation of ’60s and ’70s breaks. Surely, it would have been nice if this U.K. native would have flipped these dusty tracks a bit, but as is, these songs are largely enjoyable. Classic funk (Blackbuster’s “Shack Up”) and tropical tunes (Original Tropicana Steel Band’s “Calypso Rock”) are just a few of the styles preferred by Mr. Thing. His most surprising selection, though, is the suspenseful soundtrack music heard on “Preludium Cis Moll.” Like many songs found here, this track has often been sampled, making this disc a virtual hip-hop blueprint that’s recommended for any crate digger.

Sidestepper The Buena Vibra Sound System

While this third release from Afro-Colombian soundsystem Sidestepper smells of contract fulfillment–a collection of remixes and unreleased cuts after just two studio albums–there is a bit of irony that it’s the group’s best offering yet. Credit founder Richard Blair for this mixture of Colombian, Jamaican, and Nigerian sounds, where he tweaks the homeland rhythms of Bogota with dub and Afrobeat elements. The previously unavailable “Que Sera,” with a stylish reggae backdrop amidst the scattering calls of male and female toasters, is probably Blair’s best sonic creation to date. The other 10 tracks, including a mercurial reworking of “Deja,” provide ample support.

Hercules & Love Affair Sign to Mute

Hercules & Love Affair, the DFA recording project of Brooklyn producer Andrew Butler which notably features Antony Hegarty of Antony and The Johnsons, will have its debut album released domestically by Mute Records on June 24. The album, co-produced by DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy, is a concoction of disco anthems and house music production that has already garnered enthusiastic admiration since it’s March 10 U.K. release.

Butler’s orgiastic dance numbers are treated with guest vocals from his New York art scene friends Nomi, Kim Ann, and the aforementioned Antony, who contributes vocals to half of the album’s 10 tracks. The lead single, “Blind,” which has already been treated with a bacchanalian music video, will be released May 27.

Eliot Lipp “The Area”

Eliot Lipp draws his tracks from the dusty era of analog synths, conjuring futuristic visions along with a dose of Ed Koch-era New York hip-hop. Lipp, who currently resides in Brooklyn, debuted in 2004, thanks to Scott Herren of Prefuse 73, who put out Lipp’s first record on Eastern Developments. Lipp’s releases since have further explored his abstract take on hip-hop and earned him a few fans around the XLR8R office. The Outside is his first record for Mush, and it pushes Lipp’s past-future compositions to a new level of forward-looking analog nostalgia. Wyatt Williams

The Area

Podcast 34: kranky

Fifteen years ago, a couple of co-workers in Chicago started a record label by contacting a band they had never met and offering to release a full-length album. The result, almost named “curmudgeon,” became kranky, a record label that routinely pushes the sonic limits of music. Out of appreciation and admiration, we invited the label to pick out some tracks to represent the history of their pioneering label.

The almost two-hour podcast, mixed by our rich-media guru Bryant, begins with a track from kranky’s first release in ’93 (“Labradford”) and follows the aural adventure that the label has been taking us on every year since. Included are the now-classic anarchist orchestrations of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the mormon indie-rock of Low, the oft-overlooked space disco of Out Hud, the blissed-out drones of Windy & Carl, and the newest artist, hallucinatory songstress Valet. Photo of Valet by Rhys Balmer.

Tracklisting
1. Labradford “Disremembering” From Prazision
2. Jessamine “Cellophane” From Jessamine
3. Bowery Electric “Long Way Down” From Bowery Electric
4. Magnog “Lost Landing” From Magnog
5. Stars of the Lid “Fucked Up (3:57 AM)” From The Ballasted Orchestra
6. Godspeed You! Black Emperor “The Dead Flag Blues” From F# A# (Infinity)
7. Low “Two-Step” From Secret Name
8. Pan American “K. Luminate” From 360 Business/360 Bypass
9. Windy & Carl “Resolution” From Consciousness
10. Out Hud “Hair Dude, You’re Stepping On My Mystique” From S.T.R.E.E.T. D.A.D.
11. Growing “Pavement Rich in Gold” From The Sky’s Run Into the Sea
12. loscil “Lucy Dub” From First Narrows
13. Nudge “Classic Mode” From Cached
14. Tim Hecker “Dungeoneering” From Harmony in Ultraviolet
15. Deerhunter “Like New” From Flourescent Grey
16. Valet “Kehaar” From Naked Acid

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Podcast_Mix_2008_04_10

David Ramos “Kings And Queens”

David Ramos’ extraordinary drum skills have led him to projects like making beats for Aceyalone and Busdriver and touring with the free-folk artist Little Wings. It didn’t hurt, of course, when Modern Drummer named him in “Top 10 Progressive Drummers of Today.” So Ramos’ solo debut, This Up Here, doesn’t even seem that odd if you know where he’s coming from. The psychedelic pop album is full of Casio synths, catchy hooks, tight beats, and Ramos’s surprisingly versatile rap vocals. Kyle Field, the Little Wings’ songwriter-turned-contemporary-artist, contributed some of his mind-blowing drawings for the album, which should be released next month. Wyatt Williams

Kings and Queens

Plants and Animals “Faerie Dance”

2008 has already been a momentous year for Montreal-based trio Plants and Animals, with the band joining The Whigs onstage, playing SXSW, and releasing Parc Avenue this past March on Secret City (The Go! Team, Miracle Fortress). With lead vocalist Warren Spicer’s recognizable voice leading the album’s musical trajectory, the band delves into soft, acoustic ballads, post-rock numbers, and intricately crafted tracks that call to mind ’70s rock songs.

03 Faerie Dance 1

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