Don Shtone Beware of the Cat

German artist Sven Dohse has recorded a full-length under his Don Shtone moniker before, but it’s on this sophomore full-length that the project comes untethered–in the best of ways. Assembling spare techno beats with snippets of retro jazz, Dohse has made a funny little album, idiosyncratic and whimsical but not twee. He’s willing to follow an idea wherever it goes, in some cases more successfully (“Am I Blue”) than others (“Miracles”). The album sometimes tries for a grandiosity it never achieves, but the pops and crackles fizzing beneath meandering jazz samples give it energy nonetheless. When Sonny Rollins gets the urge for techno, he might reach for something like this.

Connie Price and the Keystones Tell Me Something

With its sophomore effort, L.A.’s Connie Price and the Keystones have become the latest funk/soul act to enlist MCs to compliment its sound. And on almost all accounts, the cast of top-notch, mostly West Coast guests thrives, rhyming atop the rich, cinematic productions of CPK’s Dan Ubick and Co. No doubt, these beats can be enjoyed vocal-free on the accompanying instrumental version of this album. But it’s hard to pass up Project Blowed’s Mykah 9 unleashing his melodious flow on the uptempo soul track “Highlife,” or Blood of Abraham getting globally conscious on the chill dub track “Pirates.” Tell Me Something is the rare live hip-hop project where neither the MCs nor the band gets outshone. Max Herman

Dntel, Panda Bear, Spank Rock Participate in Visionaire Issue 53

When I tried explaining the ultra-fancy art and culture magazine Visionaire to my boyfriend, his response was “Does it come with a blowjob and a French press and a gift certificate to a fine haberdashery?” Well… almost.

The hip Visonaire, based in New York, has come out three times a year since 1991, with each issue focusing on an esoteric theme. (Past themes have included Faces, Private, and Heaven). The limited-edition tome is delivered in everything from traditional book format to GAP travel bags and Tiffany boxes, and has featured guest editors and contributors including David Bowie, Kehinde Wiley, and Spike Jonze. In short, Visionaire ain’t playin’.

For the 53rd issue, called SOUND, Visionaire takes concept further than ever before. Teaming up with car company MINI Cooper, they’ve created a five-tiered tower of 12-inch vinyl records, each of which can be played by placing a special toy MINI car on the surface. The records contain over 100 original sound pieces from the likes of Dntel, Miranda July, Spank Rock, Fischerspooner, Miss Kittin and Panda Bear–essentially, a high-design mixtape. To up the ante even more, artists like Cindy Sherman and Ryan McGinley lend images to the records’ facades.

At $250 a pop, SOUND is not for the weak of wallet, but if you dig the pomp and circumstance, flick your plastic at visionaireworld.com.

KIM’s “Fistogram” Out Today

KIM (otherwise known as Aussie producer/programmer Kimberley Issac Moyes) has taken some time away from The Presets to prep a few singles, the second of which hits stores today. “Fistogram” is best described in the words of those who wrote its press kit, “a lurching, German-flavored bomb of devastating techno tailor-made for dancefloor fury.” Hard to beat that. On the flip side, the German master of dark disco, D.I.M., provides a sharp-as-nails remix.

The physical and digital releases of the single are available today, but if you want to save some pennies and test how your luck runs in 2008, enter to win a vinyl copy here.

Keep your eyes out for news on a new full-length from The Presets, scheduled for release in May.

“Fistogram” Tracklisting
A1. K.I.M “Fistogram”
B1. K.I.M “Fistogram (D.I.M Remix)”

Are you ready for Planningtorock?

Berlin-based Brit Janine Rostron is the one-woman performer and video artist behind Planningtorock. She has toured extensively with LCD Soundsystem, The Knife, and Peaches, and is known for her baroque live performances. Janine’s aesthetic–elaborate helmets, Elizabethan collars and white jeans–and her complex compositions are compelling, to say the least. She’s currently in San Francisco working on her second album and is poised to take over America in 2008.

Coming Soon
XLR8R TV catches up with the ever-touring White Williams.

Floriana vs. Màcro Heleylah Sunset

Joerg Schuster’s 2007-launched Dalaki label looks to elevate deep electronic and electro-acoustic sounds with visual elements, beyond MP3 files and humdrum jewel cases. For its first release, Heleylah Sunset, Floriana (Schuster) and Màcro (credited only as a “very nice guy from Madrid”) team up for a downtempo offering that comes with stickers, stencils, and elegant extraneous packaging. Luckily the tunes measure up to its design elements. Like with most respectable ambient work, here, several genre components are processed almost seamlessly into one gentle hum. Most notably, Schuster uses softened deep techno and glitchy electro alongside dub to create organic, pleasant soundscapes. With track titles like “Stream,” “Sunset,” and “Easy,” what you see is what you get.

Dub Trio Another Sound Is Dying

With each new release, Dub Trio squelches dub closer to the vanishing point. Their 2004 live debut showcased the band’s ability to meld dub elements into hardcore punk and nu-metal; last year’s studio disc, New Heavy, saw them charging away from King Tubby, reaching obliquely for Bad Brains’ and Killing Joke’s power chords. Although Another Sound Is Dying continues to head largely in the same direction, the trio’s ability to chop and paste various musical forms see a resultant hybrid ultimately transcending category. Indeed, they manage to reference Black Flag and the Butthole Surfers whilst injecting the proceedings with healthy doses of moody bass and the occasional echoing skank interlude, making the album equally challenging and tantalizing.

Hot Chip “Made in the Dark”

After the success of 2004’s Coming on Strong and 2006’s The Warming, the five members of Hot Chip gear up for the release of their third full-length, Made in the Dark. The album’s title track finds the band–previously known for its jumpy, soul-infused electro-pop–pushing emotional lyrics and chilling harmonies over minor chords and mournful pianos. Gorgeous.

Hot Chip – Made In The Dark

Mike Ladd Nostalgialator

This Boston-bred, Parisian-based rapper has an intellectual streak that can only be matched by DJ Spooky, but his buckshot approach is more like Public Enemy–where scathing critiques take out all suckers and provide the proverbial time-check. While Nostalgialator made its European debut in 2004, its U.S. release proves it’s got staying power. “Trouble Shot” offers a hook that’s as catchy as Diddy’s “Bad Boy for Life,” but without succumbing to ego and narcissism. And “Housewife at Play” reveals that the MC can still have fun, rocking out like Hendrix and the Beasties.

What Is It? Jumpstyle

Dutch gabber’s nosebleed drum blur was never supposed to be subtle, but the genre’s latest offshoot, jumpstyle, sure makes it seem that way. Taking cues from the cheesiest moments of rave’s 15-plus years, jumpstyle mixes Euro-trance’s marching melodies with gabber’s bouncy kick drums, then adds liberal doses of stolen rave hooks and time-honored dancefloor gimmickry. At best, this ecstatic clobber is a guilty pleasure; at worst, it’s a barely updated soundtrack for the rushing pill head.

“Otto Von Schirach played jumpstyle for me, and I thought it was some of the shittiest techno I’ve ever heard,” says Dan Doormouse, owner of Addict Records and self-proclaimed “godfather” of Midwest hardcore. His short version of the sound? “Imagine a million racquet balls bouncing in sync, running through a distortion pedal. Add some cheap electronic claps and snare drums, the worst-possible synth from an ’80s song, and a European dude talking about drug use in second-rate English.”

Doormouse’s reaction is typical of American post-ravers introduced to jumpstyle via YouTube, which boasts a growing collection of Dutch “jumping” videos. Resembling the classic Russian Cossack squat-and-kick dance, jumping’s one-legged twist is an integral part of the scene’s identity; crews such as Jumpforce are even advertised on party flyers, and many have adopted the “jump is not a crime” mantra to combat jumpstyle bans at dancehalls.

“Some people say the jumpstyle dance moves come from the Melbourne Shuffle, or from France,” says DJ Coone (a.k.a. Koen Bauweraerts), one of the scene’s leading producers and DJs. “But most people believe the origin lies in Belgium, where the music first caught hold. [With YouTube], people watch each other’s moves and try to improve or invent their own, a bit like breakdancing.”

Although the music and dancing might seem ridiculous to American eyes, jumpstyle is still a quick-growing European phenomenon. The yearly Reverze party in Antwerp draws in upwards of 18,000 people, with a lineup that represents jumpstyle’s biggest acts: Dark-E, DJ Coone, Greg C, and Ruthless, to name a few. Then there’s the club night at Complex, just outside Antwerp, which packs in 2,000 people every Saturday night.

“Jumpstyle has become a lifestyle, like hip-hop or techno,” says DJ Coone. “For me, it’s the best party music around. There’s no other style that makes you go so crazy and forget about all your worries.”

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