Bola Kroungrine

Darrell Fitton moves in mysterious ways-be it his little-known role as co-producer of Autechre’s Incunabula, his contribution to Warp’s seminal Artificial Intelligence series, or the constellation of releases as Bola, Fitton has been on the vanguard of experimental electronics since the mid-1990s. And while the horizons of that particular scene may have narrowed considerably in the decade since, Fitton’s vision is as broad as ever on Kroungrine, his fourth proper full-length. Amniotic software squelches meld with jazz-inflected bass riffs, detuned synth melodies, and roughshod breakbeats. Fitton is perhaps at his best when he is most contemplative, though: The album’s closer, “Diamortem,” is a 15-minute opus that’s one part Tangerine Dream, one part contemporary classical.

My Paris By Blek Le Rat

Parisian street art pioneer Blek Le Rat goes stenciling in the city.

1. Beggar in Paris
Rue Béranger is located behind Place de la République, and it’s where the headquarters of the daily French newspaper Libération are located. When I pasted up this poster of a beggar during the night, I was being insulted by a man right from his balcony.

2. Jesus Christ
Situated in Saint-Germain-des-Prés next to the café Les Deux Magots, where the surrealists used to go “to remake the world.” The church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés is opposite my Jesus Christ image and they’re perfectly integrated in this urban context.

3. Cosmonaute
This is at Quai Louis Blériot on the Seine River, where I lived during my childhood. Louis Blériot was the first aviator to cross the English Channel, and this image is a tribute to him.

4. Rue Desnoyers
This street, Rue Desnoyers, is in the cosmopolitan quarter called Belleville, where Chinese, Arabic, Jewish, and African people live peacefully together. This is the only wall in Paris where it’s legal to paint graffiti. The images on the wall change everyday.

5. Fortune Teller
There are very few spots in Paris where one can paste up posters and have this great view. This is why I won’t tell exactly where it is located. This is a self-portrait of me disguised as a Chinese fortune teller.

6. American Soldier
This image was taken on Blvd. St. Germain, one of the most famous boulevards in Paris, during a demonstration against the war in Iraq. While I was wheatpasting, the chief of the police came to ask me if I could give him a poster of the American soldier because he wanted to put it in his office. Strange, isn’t it?

7. Napoleon
People who live or pass through Rue Desnoyers are always a bit extravagant, like this man, who kindly posed for his photo next to my version of Napoleon.

Colette’s Favorite Things

Often imitated, never duplicated, Parisian store Colette has been serving up the sweetest limited-edition accessories, art books, and cutting-edge fashions since 1997. The emporium has collaborated with numerous fashion designers, illustrators, and icons since the start, and is known for–among other things–throwing dance classes in clubs and having a bar that serves 90 brands of designer mineral water (including Cloud Juice, which is composed of 7,800 drops of Tasmanian rainwater). Current employee obsessions include bicycles, the eco-friendly lifestyle, and boyfriends, says Sarah, who manages the store. We caught up with her as she was planning this month’s gallery show, From the Street to the Night, featuring party photos from around the world, and asked her to show us some of the store’s best products designed with Parisian collaborators.

Fafi screenprints €250
This is the first time Fafi has done silkscreened prints. They’re all signed, numbered, and limited to 50.

So-Me X Domestic Sticker Set
Part of a collection curated by Colette that also includes decals from KAWS, Jeremy Scott, +41, Nagi Noda, Fabien Baron, Greg Foley, André, Work in Progress, and Claude Closky.

Genevieve Gauckler Mugs by Medicom €25
Japanese toy makers Medicom have produced these mugs with illustrator Genevieve Gauckler, so her cool characters can join you while you drink tea.

Lancel Bag by Cecile €195
Cecile, DJette from Les Putafranges, collaborates with classic French bag maker Lancel for a small collection of perfect accessories for DJettes always on the road. This Colette exclusive (limited to 100) is the right size for either your headphones or your stilettos, and there’s also an iPod case and vinyl trunk in the collection.

Façade Magazine (price varies according to stock)
Published between 1976 and 1983, Façade was a cult French mag from the same era as the famed disco nightclub Le Palace; it was sort of like the French Interview of the ’80s. Only 13 issues of Façade came out, and they’re very collectible, so they made seven of these special cases exclusively for Colette with all original issues inside in perfect condition.

Kitsuné Boombox Compilation CD
Compiled by Kitsuné and Boombox resident DJ Jerry Bouthier, this Colette exclusive includes tracks from Chromeo, Feist, Big Face, Daft Punk, Simian Mobile Disco, Digitalism, and many more.

La Clique Tee by André €35
André designed this tee for La Clique, his friend’s crew who takes care of the best parties in Paris at Le Baron, Le Paris Paris, Showcase, and La Scala.

XLR8R Weekly Top Ten: Celebration, Twista, Claude VonStroke

Celebration “Hands Off My Gold (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)” Unreleased
Just when you thought that Simian Mobile Disco was getting a little played out, the dynamic duo decided to reinterpret a song from Baltimore-based mystic trio Celebration, who is by far Beggars’ stand-out troupe of the past few years. Low-octave transposed vocals and cosmic synth leads are the new recipe for club fire. Dancefloors may soon see the rise of the goth dance, and that rules. FM

Oh AstroChampions of WonderIllegal Art
In true Illegal Art fashion, Jane Dowe and Hank Hofler’s first full-length as Oh Astro is comprised almost solely of sampled material, but this is far from a Girl Talk record. Champions of Wonder is an experimental conglomeration of glitchy techno, ambient, and broken-beat, all layered with distorted vocals that offset the album’s poppier moments with ghostly eeriness. RH

His Name Is AliveXmmerSilver Mountain Media
HNIA’s latest LP is so understated that somehow tracks with synthesizers, horns, and distortion still sound like acoustic folk songs. Xmmer proves that Warren Defever and gang still have the chops to write some pretty damn sublime rock tracks. RH

Deadverse Productions “Remixes” MySpace
Jersey’s most realized hip-hop group Dälek has taken its appreciation for My Bloody Valentine one step further with its new Deadverse Productions project. Remixing artists from Faust to Enon to The Melvins, these dudes are on some sort of creative Benzedrine. Fusing spacious atmospherics and downtempo hip-hop percussion, this studio behemoth may soon give Carl Craig a run for his money as most in demand (and well-paid) remixer around. FM

Bim ShermanTribulations (Down in Jamdown 1974-1979)Pressure Sounds
London’s Pressure Sounds label has put together a long-overdue collection of the work of roots artist Bim Sherman. The results are fantastic. Showcasing most songs in both vocal and dub versions, Tribulations doesn’t hold a single week cut among its 23 tracks. This is a must have for dub heads. RH

Spankrock & Benny BlancoBangers & CashDowntown
We featured the single “Shake That” a few weeks ago on the Top Ten, but after hearing the album in its entirety, we had to give the whole record dap. As opposed to the chirpy electro B-More of Spankrock’s past, this hard (we’re talking “put Easy E to shame” hard) collection of tracks will have white kids, gang lords, and any club kid on his or her feet. Listen to “Bitch” and heed to the revelation. FM

Claude VonStrokeWho’s Afraid of Detroit Remixes dirty Bird
This three-track 12” from Mr. VonStroke finds the ubiquitous “Who’s Afraid of Detroit” getting the remix treatment by Detroit techno architect Kevin Saunderson, Jersey producer Tanner Ross, and techno poster-boy Matthew Dear, under his Audion moniker. Dear takes the cake. In true Audion fashion, his mix is long, minimal, twisted, and at times downright ghoulish. RH

Yea Big & Kid StaticS/TJib Door
This LP is worth listening to just for Deejay Yea Big’s production. Stuttering, glitchy, and just plain jaw-dropping, Yea Big’s beats are up there with the big guns of Prefuse 73 and Daedelus. With Kid Static’s humorous, yet angst-filled rhyming filling it out, this duo have put excitement and innovation back into hip-hop. RH

Six Organs of AdmittanceShelter From the AshDrag City
Ben Chasny as Six Organs of Admittance has finally taken the final mystic plunge. Shelter From the Ash is all psych-guitar solo, drones, magical Uriah Heep-esque vocals, and song titles that sound like books found in Barnes & Noble’s New Age section. Fans of Daniel Higgs, Rainbow, and Aquarius Records now have a reason to start a blog. FM

Twista Feat. Kanye West  “Well, It’s Time” Atlantic/WEA
Maybe Kanye and (to a lesser extent) Twista have been spending a majority of their time researching new “indie” rising stars on Pitchfork for samples, but whatever, this single kills it. Borrowing from Feist, “Well, It’s Time” will be the track that propels Twista’s forthcoming Adrenaline Rush 2007 into the limelight.

RH-Ross Holland
FM-Fred Miketa

Quio: Missunderstood

Don’t call her “hip-hop.” Don’t ask her what it’s like being a female MC. And search for evidence of her German-ness at your own risk. Ina Rotter (a.k.a. Quio) has little interest in the categories we use to make sense of the world. She prefers to be taken “unseriously.” That’s just as well, because her sophomore album, Phiu, is profoundly silly. Seriously.

“I’m really into things that stay open for other people to decide what they mean,” Quio (pronounced “key-oh”) says. “Misunderstandings can create something new, something surprising.” The misunderstandings come fast and furious, right from Phiu’s opening track, “Bratwurst,” which Quio overloads with cliché German cultural references to Kraftwerk and Hitler. “My cultural disconnection?/A permanent infection/My heritage?/My image?/Threw it in the sewage!” she raps, as African-American writer Darius James (author of That’s Blaxploitation!) struggles to shout out German words in his American accent.

“I just never found myself anywhere in typical German culture,” Quio says, explaining her distaste for rapping in her native language. Ever since she took her first handle, MC Looney Tunes, public in 1997, she has found language a touchy subject. “In Germany, the hip-hop scene is really happy to be independent from the American scene, and people can get really pissed off when you rap in English. But I never really considered myself as being from hip-hop in that way,” she adds. “Once you say you’re hip-hop, then you’re in the shits, because then there’s this armada of people coming to tell you what to do. And I don’t really like people telling me what to do. Therefore I try to deny the definitions that are being used to control us.”

Quio need not fear stereotyping. Not many MCs bring their children into the studio, as she does on “Chilaine,” a sunny dub with a warm acoustic guitar melody titled after her three-year-old son’s imaginary friend. What’s more, Quio’s abilities leap from fierce, like the rhymes she delivers over duo Audiotaxi’s tech-y beats and rushing string-orchestra samples on “Rising Tide,” to fragile–check the vocals she lays over “I Jump”‘s deep, atmospheric bass and spare rhythms, courtesy of producer Antye Greie (a.k.a AGF).

Known for her experimental albums, AGF distills the catchier, dancier elements of her style as Phiu’s executive producer, aiming, she says, “to accept repetition and things which are just pop but are still interesting and surprising.” Quio and AGF bonded in 2000 over a shared love of dancing to 2-step. They first collaborated on Quio’s boisterous debut LP, Like Oooh!, on which Quio compares herself to Mother Goose over glitchy hip-hop and drum & bass tracks.

By comparison, Phiu feels smoother, more intense, and–dare I say–more serious, an impression Quio is only too happy to seize upon. “That the album seems darker maybe proves finally that I am German, for the Germans were known in the old days for being deep and somehow dark.” Confusing? That’s just how Quio likes it.

Battles Prep New EP and Tour

Always a band to deliver more than expected, Battles–who have been having a very good year so far–gets set to drop their Tonto+ release, a new EP that includes a track of the same name, remixes, and a bonus DVD.

Folks will argue to the death about what genre the New York-based four-piece’s music belongs to, but, labels aside, most would agree that frantic experimentalism is the common denominator throughout Battles’ work. On “Tonto,” guitars warble around twisted melodies, tempos stop and start abruptly, and, as usual, vocals take a backseat to musical instruments. Remix duties for the eight-minute opus are performed by The Field, Four Tet, Joell Ortiz, and DJ EMZ. 

Rounding out the package is a bonus DVD that includes the video for “Tonto,” which was shot in a rock quarry in the middle of the night, and a “making of” segment for the video.

Tonto is out November 6, 2007 on Warp. 

Read more about Battles in Issue 106 of XLR8R. 

Tracklisting
1. Tonto
2. Tonto (The Field Remix)
3. Tonto (Four Tet Remix)
4. Tonto (Live at FRF 07)
5. Leyendecker (Live at FRF 07)
6. Leyendecker (DJ EMZ Remix feat. Joell Ortiz)

DVD Tracklisting
1. Tonto
2. The Making of Tonto
3. Atlas

Tour Dates
10/27 Las Vegas, NV: Vegoose Festival
10/29 San Diego, CA: Epicentre
10/30 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theater
11/01 San Francisco, CA: Great American Music Hall
11/02 Portland, OR: Hawthorne Theater
11/03 Seattle, WA: Neumos
11/04 Austin, TX: Fun Fun Fun Fest
11/07 Minneapolis, MN Fine Line Music Cafe
11/08 Chicago, IL: Metro
11/09 Ann Arbor, MI: The Blind Pig
11/10 Toronto, ON: Lee’s Palace
11/11 Montreal, QC: Le National
11/12 Boston, MA: Paradise
11/13 New York, NY: Webster Hall 

Photo By Grace Villamil.

Le Loup “we are gods! we are wolves!”

If narrative themes of impending disaster, individual struggle, death of the universe, and hopefulness in the face of all that is to your liking, take note of Sam Simkoff’s first album under his Le Loop moniker. The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly takes its inspiration from Dante’s Inferno and a pice of folk art by James Hampton, and juxtaposes its heavy subject matter with simple banjo plucks and steady keyboard melodies.

Le Loup – we are gods we are wolves

The Spirals Without Control

Nerds… so hot right now. If Nintendo cover band the Minibosses can soundtrack Mario and Luigi’s quirky quests, why can’t a group accompany the hijinks of Val Kilmer in Real Genius? This retro-contemporary impression wafts from Without Control, an 11-track production of Argentineans Fernando Pulichino and Julian Sanza (spiritual cousins to Daft Punk also operating as Silver City and Ciudad Felix). There are crystalline facets of Italo in the crisp synths, chunky, plunky Angloisms in the slow-building arrangements, and then some Francophile flushes in the rounded funk. Like Bootsy gone Balearic, this album balances arch and epic in a manner that would leave the Revenge of the Nerds Alpha Betas quivering in defeat.

Various Kitsuné Maison 4

Kitsuné’s fourth Maison comp offers up 13 samples of what the Paris fashionista label has to offer the indie-dance kids it not-so-slyly hooked with Klaxons. Techno purists are still going to loathe it, but Kitsuné Maison 4 veers nicely from indie- land; granted, Air spin-off Darkel’s take on Air’s “Be My Friend” is about as interesting as the flat, Air-covering-Air original. But beyond that, the comp’s a grand ride. The foaming-at-the-mouth club anthem “Tuning In,” from Leeds’ grime/”new rave” lovechildren Hadouken!, nearly overpowers everything, but sleeper gems like Crystal Castles’ 8-bit flood “Knights” and Midnight Juggernauts’ stuttering, glitch-fucked remix of Dragonette’s “I Get Around” shine through. Excellent overall–electronic dogmatists be damned.

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