Son Lux At War With Walls and Mazes

This is Ryan Lott’s debut album, but the not-quite-30-year-old has plenty of composing experience under his belt. At War With Walls and Mazes
collects fuzzy beats, whispery, processed vocals, and abstract soundscapes that occasionally come together into powerfully complex moments, as on “Break,” with its piano-backed anguish, the chamber-like strings on “Stay,” and the flutes lacing “Betray.” Unfortunately for the classically trained Lott, much of the work bears the same sonic stamp, and his vocals are too limited to break out of that sameness. Still, the thoughtful textures and carefully constructed compositions here make clear his potential, even if he hasn’t reached it yet.

Morcheeba Dive Deep

Lots of bands implode after the loss of a lead vocalist, but trip-hop’s blissiest bunch always seemed more about brothers Paul and Ross Godfrey than singer Skye Edwards. When she and the brothers parted ways after their 2002 Charango album, Morcheeba looked ready to soldier on. But their next vocalist, Daisy Martey, is already gone. The Godfreys bring in a slew of guest vocalists here, an approach that gives them some range (Cool Calm Pete lays down a winding, tripped-out flow on “One Love Karma,” and “Au-Dela,” with Mandy, is their first track in French). But there’s not much here that comes to life; it’s largely sleepy and forgettable. Maybe Edwards was more important than the Godfreys realized.

Foxhole We the Wintering Tree

Like their Kentucky brethren The Shipping News and Slint before them, Foxhole gravitates toward the crystalline and the thunderous, building crescendos and extended codas with each epic near-instrumental. And they’re as equally into the math and lit, going so far to quote St. Augustine of Hippo’s horny Christian Confessions on their MySpace Page. Sweeping, dynamic epics like “Lamentation” and “A Lion in Winter/Love Live the King” are pious exhortations of intertwining riffage, while even upbeat bangers like “The End of Dying” feel like they are trying to recruit with righteous anthems. The secularists should be comforted by the near total lack of vocals, but everyone who digs a hallowed, multi-part rock musical should feel that Foxhole’s sonic Jesus is just all right with them.

Bisc1 Releases Debut Full-Length

Bisc1 continues his mission of spelling out urban life on his first full-length, When Electric Night Falls, out today on indie hip-hop imprint Embedded. The album picks up where his Basics EP and The Stay Up Project mixtape left off, with the Queens-based MC rapping about the grit and grime of urban living while electro-infused hip-hop beats play in the background.

Since Bisc keeps busy during the day designing album art for the likes of Aesop Rock, EL-P, and Murs, the bulk of WENF was recorded in the evening. It follows then, that its lyrical themes concern things like late-night trips on the subway, graffiti, vice, and all those other wonderful activities that occur when the sun goes down.

Download “Turbulence”

Tracklisting
1. Night Fall
2. Turbulence
3. Parallels
4. Pandemonium
5. Paranoid feat. Esen & Grimace
6. Sidelines
7. Fire N’ Ice feat. Mariella
8. Unconditional
9. Strange Love feat. MeresTD4
10. Another Day
11. Inner-Mood
12. Great Escape

Switch-ed On

Rising star Switch, a.k.a. Dave Taylor, is having quite a ride. He heads up house music labels Dubsided and Counterfeet, shaped M.I.A.’s last album, has remixed everyone from Busta Rhymes to Lily Allen, and plays a key role in the fidget house scene (or hoax, depending on who you ask). For our 50th episode, XLR8R‘s Tomas Palermo raises a glass with the overworked man and talks to him about his move to L.A., working with Tricky, and who we should have our eyes on as exciting, up-and-coming artists.

Coming Soon
Lyrics Born goes shopping for some new sneaks.

Rhythm Nation Part 3: Caspa & Rusko

Deep, dubby, cheeky, metallic. For the next several weeks, XLR8R will profile eight young DJ/producers exploring different facets of dubstep, the low-end sound of the London underground. This week, Jah bagels and Jamaican bass inform this London duo’s party-friendly sound.

Gary McCann’s and Chris Mercer’s favorite movies are The Football Factory and Gangster No. 1, respectively.

The first is a film about British soccer hooligans, the second a British gangster flick starring Malcolm McDowell as a seedy, suited badman who spends his time killing people and burying them under swimming pools. This is not surprising given one listen to their new Fabriclive CD as Caspa & Rusko. The DJ mix is just over one hour of in-your-face low-end, peppered with samples of cockney thugs and MC Hammer, and designed to appeal to fans of jump-up jungle, knock-out fights, and square bass waves that make you do mad squiggly dances.

“Each to their own, but our music is completely dancefloor,” says 22-year-old Mercer, who was making traditional dub and hip-hop in Leeds before Caspa tempted him down to London two years ago. “It’s got to be uptempo,” agrees 25-year-old McCann, who has been making dubstep and dark 4×4 garage since 2001, along with running the Dub Police, Storming Productions, and Sub Soldiers labels. “The main thing for us is humor. Not like in a jolly way, but we like to throw in a few swear words or cheeky samples.”

Tracks like Rusko’s massive, stepping “Jahova” and Caspa’s nasty, electro-and-dancehall-inspired “Big Headed Slags” perfectly meld their influences, going down like just the right combination of weed and alcohol. But lately they’ve been exploring mellower moods, too, as on Caspa’s plaintive “Cockney Violin” and the uplifting, nearly New Age-y “Rock Bottom.”

“We’ve only actually sat down in the studio together seven or eight times, but each time we do we come out with one of my favorite tunes,” says McCann. “I usually hate collaborating with someone in the studio; with [Gary] it’s cool ’cos [he] will just say, ‘Rusk, that is so shit,’ and vice versa,” Mercer chimes in quickly. Though the two are very different–Mercer, a self-professed Squarepusher fan and “proper geek,” is scruffier and more chilled out, while the lager-and-Timbaland-loving McCann is wiry with an aggressive London energy–they obviously get along well, completing each others thoughts so quickly that the net effect is of one unit talking.

While other dubstep producers brood over the music’s subtleties, Caspa & Rusko pull no punches–these two are on some what-you-see-is-what-you-get, out-to-have-a-good-time vibe, one that’s even reflected in their favorite foods. While McCann goes for typical London meals of pie and mash or Caribbean rice ‘n’ peas, Mercer recommends you get down to the Shepherds Bush Bagel Bite for the “Jah Bagel,” which is stacked high with jerk chicken, BBQ sauce, mayo, coleslaw, and melted cheese. Perfect for your next beer ‘n’ bass hangover.

Download “Ohh R Ya?” by Caspa.

Rhythm Nation
Part 1: Skream
Part 2: Benga
Part 4: Pinch & Distance
Part 5: Cluekid & Cotti

Caspa “Ohh R Ya?”

You’ll know London-based dubstep producer Caspa from his work as one half of Caspa & Rusko, as well as his solo releases for labels like Tempa, Argon, Pitch Black, and others. Unlike the brooding, pensive beats so frequently found in dubstep, Caspa makes high-energy tracks that could easily be the soundtrack to an upbeat house party, lacing them with electro and dancehall flavors. “Ohh R Ya?” is off the License to Thrill Volume 1 EP, out now on his Dub Police imprint.

Caspa – Ohh R Ya

Loading… iPhone Gets Games, R.I.P. Gary Gygax

iPhone Gets Games
At their annual software development meeting earlier this week, Apple not only announced plans to make the iPhone a viable gaming platform, something that had been rumored since the thing came out, but to also make developing those games relatively cheap and easy (if you know what the hell you are doing, that is).

So far, games that have been announced for the iPhone include EA’s heavily anticipated evolution simulator, Spore, Sega’s crazy fun Super Monkey ball, and a handful of casual games like bowling, soccer, and racing from developer Freeverse.

As mentioned, developing for the platform will be relatively inexpensive. In fact, the software needed to make the games is free and available for download on Apple’s website as we speak. Once you have created your genius million-seller iPhone game (or games), you can then upload as many of them as you want to iTunes for a fee of $99 a year. If you choose to set a price for your game other than free, Apple then takes 30% of your profits, which doesn’t sound like such a bad deal since Apple has also set up $100 million fund specifically to aid would-be designers who meet their criteria, which has yet to be specified.

There are no details on any sort of rating or quality assurance for said software either but, as Microsoft did with its user-generated XNA software development initiative last year, it seems that with Apple’s help, portable gaming could soon go all YouTube on us very very soon.

Gary Gygax R.I.P.
We could make all sorts of quips about Dungeons and Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, who died in his Wisconsin home last week at age 69 from an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm, running out of hit points or failing a successful saving throw, but we have too much love for what the man created to demean his memory like that.

Okay, so we kind of made them anyway, but we still love D&D (I still have the old-school Monster Manual, Monstrous Compendium, and Deities & Demigods books floating around my room–for real).

Many of our younger days were spent pouring over the various books and manuals as we would create characters and dungeon maps that would never get used because a brawl would ensue over who would be the Dungeon Master before my friends and I ever started playing (we never really knew all the rules anyway). Nonetheless, our memories are richer because of Mr. Gygax and his commitment to fantasy culture, even if our parents thought we were devil-worshipers at the time.

Were it not for Gygax and Dave Arneson toiling away at their first adventure back in 1973, the gaming industry may not have ever known huge phenomenon like Final Fantasy or Oblivion, not to mention the countless Dungeons & Dragons titles that were spawned out over the last 30 years.

So Gary, we roll our 20 sided die in your honor and may the big DM in the sky see you to ultimate victory.

Jay Haze “90 Deep”

Jay Haze‘s forthcoming Love & Beyond album should both confuse and excite fans. The Berlin-based, American expat has prepped a two-CD version of the album, as well as a two-LP version, both with entirely different tracks. “90 Deep” comes from the CD version of the release. Its trippy, start-and-stop rhythms and disparate melodies should be a taste for what’s in store when the full album drops in April.

Jay Haze – 90 Deep

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