With groups like Black Devil Disco Club, Justice, Sunn 0))), and Matthew Dear scheduled, the 2007 edition of Barcelona’s Sonar Festival, to be held June 14 – 16, looks to be the most diverse in years. Festival organizers have even brought a few mainstream acts into the mix, throwing The Beastie Boys and Devo on the bill alongside Richie Hawtin and Miss Kitten.

June 14 holds China’s experimentalists FM3 performing an all Buddha Machine Set (a small device the band invented that has garnered extreme praise from ambient producers and drone masters), alongside special guest, Einsturzende Neubauten member Blixa Bargeld, and a separate performance from James Holden. By night, the Beastie Boys will provide an all-instrumental engagement with support from Narod Niki–not exactly a typical line-up, even for Sonar.

June 15 by day sees Sunn 0))) bumming people out with its doomy wall of noise, while Clark keeps things banging, and melodic minimalists Tristano & Murcof prep the crowd for ensuing nighttime performances from Digitalism, Dizzee Rascal, Simian Mobile Disco, Richie Hawtin, Modeselektor, and BBC’s dubstep team Skream, Mary Anne Hobbes, and Kode 9. Half the Ed Banger roster (do we really have to name those kids at this point?) will also be present.

June 16 will witness a North American takeover by day with the Junior Boys, Hey Will Power, and Wolf Eyes ripping it up, while Devo, Mogwai, Jeff Mills, and Radio Slave invade the evening festivities.

By the end of this hedonistic celebration of the arts, hangovers will become exhaustion and dancing may not be the same–at least until next year.

Fred Miketa

Justice, Digitalism, and Sunn 0))), slated for appearances.

In recent years the landscape for “singles” has changed dramatically–frequently, listeners are forced to scour a half-dozen niche online- or brick-and-mortar shops to find that one hot beat. But the amount of choice and variety in contemporary electronic club tracks is unparalleled. As such, XLR8R is proud to present occasional round-ups of what we think will be bangin’ the box in the coming months. Here are just a few picks.

Techno and IDM
Gudrun Gut “In Pieces Remixes” Monika
Taken from her album, In Pieces, this diverse EP features remixes from Kompakt’s Jörg Burger & Wolfgang Voigt (sensual, ambient techno), Pole (sparse, abstract IDM), and Dntel (electro-pop).

Selway & Vincenzo “Dream Stealer” CSM
This is the first collaboration between internationally established artists and long-time friends John Selway and Vincenzo Ragone. The two collaborate for a round of pulsing, sepia-toned techno that will appeal to minimalists and bangin’ heads alike. Joel Mull offers a weighty remix.

D-Pulse “Euphoria” Pro-Tez
D-Pulse is a unique live-house quartet from Izhevsk, Russia. Formerly a closed city full of secret military plants, Izhevsk suddenly developed a deep and full-featured underground music scene. The three-track Euphoria EP is all about melodic fusion, with elements of Tchaikovsky, Metro Area, and Âme that reflects the mood of the region’s techno. Standout track “New Poetry” will please shuffle- and jazz-techno fans alike.

Nu-jazz and Broken Beat
Arthur Verocai “BIS” Far Out
This fine 7” single features a ‘70s Brazilian bossa vocal track with an Eddy Meets Yannah broken-ish remix on the flip. Also Far Out’s new project Zeep, featuring Chris Franck and Nina Miranda, both integral members of Smoke City and Da Lata, is making much noise!

Arision Re-editsArision
Rare 1970s Brazilian and electro-funk rhythms are given first rate re-edits by Yosaku and Yam Who?. Yosaku, whose first release, “Future Paradise,” was praised by Gilles Peterson, Spiritual South, and Michael Ruetten, assumes remix duties for “Brasilia.” Yam Who? has turned the track “Night Travel” into a Carl Craig-esque beast, with hidden references to Lil Louis’ “French Kiss.”

Orgone “I Get Lifted” Ubiquity
The North Hollywood funk band covers George McCrae’s 1974 classic in a modern funk style, featuring handclaps and fantastic live horns. If you thought disco–real soulful disco–could never come back, think again.

DJ Sun “Ten (feat. Jessica Zweback)” Alternate Take
DJ Sun was born in Holland and spent half his childhood in Suriname before settling in Houston’s eclectic art center Montrose. A prolific DJ and radio show host since 1995 (Soular Grooves, KPFT 90.1 FM), Sun debuts as a recording artist with three deep, downtempo cuts on the Monday Drive EP, which sees him blend Akai MPC2000 beats, a ’71 Wurlitzer, and the Korg Trinity into dreamy sound travels.

House
Move D “Your Rolling Hills” Compost Black Label
If you like your house choppy and unpredictable, but with a strong melodic base, long-time German producer Move D brings you his best work in years. Like a collaboration between Akufen and Mark Pritchard, the beats and textures on this interesting earful evolve while keeping its dancefloor-minded groove going.

Pawel Kobak “Give It Up” Deeplay Music
In the style of ambient tribal tracks of the early ‘90s. “Euphoria” is somewhere between refined progressive house and tasteful, Kompakt-style nu-trance, but definitely understated.

Pressure Drop “You’re Mine” Great Stuff
It’s Volume 3 in Great Stuff’s Roots Edition series, where contemporary producers remix classic dub-influenced dancefloor tracks. Pressure Drop’s original house version of “You’re Mine” was released in 1992, with Johanna Law on vocals. Big-room stalwarts Tim Deluxe and Dirk Dreyer give their best efforts on some quality, peak-time electro-house remakes. 

As one of the most honest rappers in the indie-rap game, Minnesota-based Islamic MC Brother Ali revels in introspective verses that range in topic from political outrage to parental strife. Rarely can MCs make boom-bap this compelling or energetic as Ali, but just listen to the fist verse of “Uncle Sam Goddamn” for further proof of his genius.

Download this song as an MP3, or preview a week’s worth of tracks at the XLR8R Podcast. Subscribe using iTunes, or with an RSS reader of your choice.

It takes a pretty extreme dude to truly appreciate the sound of a manipulated trombone or recordings of a butterfly’s wings fluttering, but said extreme dude should be thrilled to hear the Expo Festival is ready for another round, this year’s edition to be held in Plymouth, England, on June 22-24, 2007.

Now in its tenth year, the fest compiles and showcases any type of sound art that hasn’t been rehashed by its sonic predecessors. Past installments and performers include Berlin-based art collective Staalplaat Soundsystem, creating “the ultrasound of therapy,” Dreams of Tall Buildings, who performed the first graphic score in 40 years, and the all-female electro-experimentalists Spunk. While most music enthusiasts may not have a clue as to who the hell these weirdos are, it suffices to say Expo is the Burning Man of sound art.

For the Plymouth edition, the fest has already confirmed 60 robotic birds (WTF?), a sonic ferry tour with laptop duo The Splice Girls, a voice-manipulating hot dog cart, and a pirate mini-opera. These are just the highlights. There are also late night performances by noise-punks Semiconductor, Grewtronic, and Monstrous Little Women, a six-turntable freakout, and a sonic jigsaw puzzle to get the art-folks nice and riled up.

For extensive details go to Sonic Arts Network.

Many know German imprint Gomma for its humanized disco, but the label’s über-experimental Box Codax is on an entirely different plane. Ariel Pink and John Maus had better watch out, because Codax’s estranged-pop is as outlandish as it gets–though it somehow maintains the signature Gomma sound that’s got clubs and parties pledging allegiance to the label. “I Swam With an Otter” is an audiovisual experience that’ll have the ladies impressed that artists can actually reach this level of strangeness.

Watch “I Swam With the Otter” and hundreds of other music videos at XLR8R’s Video Section.

Some bands never stop moving, and psychtronica foursome Animal Collective–who has already released a four-track EP, “People,” and has a full-length slated for September–seems to be one of those in 2007. The boys will perpetuate their status as movers and shakers with a quick tour this May, where they will engage crowds with their live performance that’s too freak-folk for pop and too pop for freak-folk. And since the tour dates on the band’s MySpace page require a magnifying glass to read, we were kind enough to list showtimes for you here.

“People” is out now on FatCat.

Tour Dates
05/14 Columbus, OH: Wexner Center
05/15 Newport, KY: Southgate House
05/16 Lexingon, VA: The Dame
05/17 Chicago, IL: Metro
05/18 Iowa City, IA: The Picador
05/19 Omaha, NE: Sokol Underground
05/20 Lawrence, KS: The Granada Theatre
05/21 Denver, CO: Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
05/22 Salt Lake City, UT: In the Venue
05/24 Albuquerque, NM: Launchpad
05/25 Marfa, TX: Marfa Ballroom
05/26 Dallas, TX: Granada Theatre
05/27 Austin, TX: Antones
05/28 Birmingham, AL: Bottletree
05/29 Knoxville, TN: Bijoi Theatre
05/30 Charlottesville, VA: Satellite Ballroom
06/01 New York, NY: Seaport Music Festival

Mute records is enjoying a very good year thus far, having already announced The Knife’s Silent Shout Deluxe CD/DVD, Motor’s metal-meets-electronic Unhuman, and now the debut full-length from British wunderkind Maps. The one-man act also known as James Chapman may not fall in the household-name category yet, but NME already featured his “Lost My Soul” in its top 50 singles of 2006, and, well, he just signed to the same label responsible for releasing the new Throbbing Gristle record.

We Can Create fits right in to the Mute catalog, given Chapman’s passion for atmospheric electro-rock akin to M83 shaking hands with Spacemen 3. Eschewing the false comforts of high-tech software, he prefers to construct his music with a beaten 16-track recorder, which just makes him that much more likable.

Chapman has already released the Start Something EP, now available through his own imprint, Last Space Recordings, and he’s set to release the It Will Find You EP (also on Mute) prior to launching We Can Create.

It Will Find You is out digitally on May 22, 2007, and and We Can Create is out June 19, 2007, on Mute.

Tracklisting
1. So Low, So High
2. You Don’t Know Her name
3. Elouise
4. It Will Find You
5. Glory Verse
6. Liquid Sugar
7. To the Sky
8. Back + Forth
9. Lost My Soul
10. Don’t Fear
11. When You Leave