Astronautica is back with a new album, Death Valley, scheduled for August 24 release via Alpha Pup Records on digital and physical formats.
Death Valley is the singer-songwriter’s follow-up to her Gemini LP and the recent Gemini Remixes EP. It was written and recorded over the last three years and, like her past works, captures the eclectic nature of LA’s experimental electronic scene.
Conceptually, Astronautica reimagined herself in various places of travel through the song-writing process, recreating the original vibes of each setting. This approach aims to take the listener through their own journeys while giving latitude to provide a window into the essence of her own pathway. “A lot of the inspiration for my music stems from travelling to places that I’ve never been to before or places I continually go back to, and the feelings they evoke in me upon going there,” states Astronautica. “I think with Death Valley, it truly is both an inward reflection as well as an extroverted sentiment. The vastness of the desert has always given me this feeling of awe, and Death Valley is my effort to capture that.”
Astronautica has released music with Alpha Pup Records for five years, dropping her debut-full length Replay Last Night in 2013, and following up with the 2014’s Waikiki EP and 2015’s Gemini LP.
“The desert is a recurring theme in a lot of my music and art. Something about it–the contrast of what looks like desolation to the naked eye to the vibrancy that one sees upon looking closer, the silence that allows you to hear the faint sounds in the air, the formations that are colors you’ve never even heard of before, and night sky that serves as a backdrop for every star in our galaxy – are all elements that I wanted to echo in Death Valley. I wanted to create an album that people could listen to while they cruise through their desert, wherever or whatever that may be for them.“—Astronautica
Tracklisting
01. Sunrise Intro
02. Reasons
03. Racetracks
04. I’ve Never Been
05. Sand + Fog
06. Can’t Remember
07. Interlude
08. California Roll
09. Mahogany
10. You Should
11. Palms
12. Sunset Outro
Death Valley is scheduled for August 24 release via Alpha Pup Records, with “Can’t Remember” streaming in full via the player below.
Innovative software manufacturer Imaginando has released season two of its popular sound design tutorial series.
The series uses Imaginando’s flagship soft-synth DRC, a powerful yet easy-to-use polyphonic synthesizer, to recreate sound design elements from classic electronic tracks. The series was inspired by DRC’s genetic makeup, which looks to reproduce the loved characteristics of some of the most cherished analog synthesizers on the planet. Rather than wasting time and CPU power on front-end visual recreation, Imaginando has refitted the elements of what made those synths so loved—their sounds—into an intuitive set of parameters and user interface.
Launched last year, season one of the tutorial series looked to classic elements from tracks such as Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place,” Daft Punk’s “Da Funk,” Moderat’s “A New Error,” Portishead’s “Roads,” and even the theme from Blade Runner. Season two, released earlier this year, follows suit with staggering recreations of Trentemøller, Äme’s Frank Weidmann, Muse, Stephen Bodzin, and many more.
You can check out a range of the tutorials below, with the full set here.
Taku’s 823 will release Portland producer quickly, quickly‘s album Over Skies on August 3.
823 is a new creative project from Taku that, as its name infers—823 is the numerical representation of the phrase ‘Thinking Of You’—”represents the appreciation for the people/ideas/places that inspire us and push us forward.”
Over Skies follows on from the inaugural release from Australian producer Kuzich with five tracks that fuse elements of elements of jazz, hip-hop, and R&B into emotive and nostalgic productions that stay with you long after you finished listening. quickly, quickly first caught the attention of Taku with his film photography, and like his photography, his music, although simplistic, is full of entrancing nuances that evoke strong emotions.
Following the first taste of the album, “Ghost,” which you can hear via the Bandcamp page, quickly, quickly has shared a moody animated video for “If You Only Knew,” the album’s closing track.
You can watch the video below, with the album available for pre-order here.
Bonasforsa—the new moniker of Italian-Polish production duo Rico Casazza and Krzysztof Kozber—has offered up their remix of Scotland rapper Papillon as today’s XLR8R download.
The remix, a three-and-a-half minute funk-filled interpretation that gives a nod to the West Coast rap of old, was the result of a hook up with Skoop Records. The duo have stated that this project looks to follow their respective solo projects with “the beginning of something new,” and with this new remix, they signal their intent with a head-nodding slice of modern beats.
You can download the remix below, with more on Bonaforsa here.
Due to temporary issues regarding the GDPR, EU readers can download the track here.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1991, Jerónimo Turek Trosman (a.k.a Momo / Momo Trosman) started performing as a professional DJ in 2011. Despite a young age, the young Argentinian has amassed a great amount of experience by playing in clubs all over the world, including four European tours, and has come to know the field of electronic music very deeply after studying its sub-genres with devotion and rigour. His natural inclinations lie in dub and jazz, but he plays “what moves him,” he says, and has built himself a vinyl collection that archives the past, present and future of his favourite genres. Elsewhere, Momo also heads up Cure Music alongside Felipe Valenzuela; their first release—Zendid’s Fortu—sold out in just three days. The label has since released material from Afriqua, Omni AM, DeWalta & Shanon, Spacetravel, and Federico Molinari. Ahead of his performance at this year’s Moonland Festival, taking place from August 3 to 5 in Rumm, Estonia, Momo revealed some of his favourite records, dancefloor and otherwise.
01. Larry Heard “Night Images” (Swayzak Late Mid-Afternoon Mix) [Mecca Recordings)
I got to know Swayzak through my Mom. I remember I was 12 years old and at that time Creamfields in Argentina was super popular and one of the most interesting festivals in South America. Swayzak played at Creamfields, I was really young and stayed home listening to the radio and they were broadcasting his live set. This is one of the earliest memories I have of electronic music; this the reason why Swayzak is very special to me.
What can I say about this Aphex Twin record? I’ve listened to it and loved it. Craig Richards and Ricardo Villalobos played it in Berlin and I went nuts. I especially like this remix, it gets a bit freaky the second part but I like it a lot. It’s all about Warp Records.
I was digging some UK stuff and came across this beauty. This is what I call a track. I used to listen to it in my car all the way down from La Barra to Jose Ignacio in Punta del Este every day. Uruguay is a very special country, and when you combine holidays with work you don’t forget that time. Every year I have a different playlist in my car and this track was the highlight of my last summer. Goosebumps!
04. Frank Zappa “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up” [Zappa Records]
I am a big fan of Frank Zappa because of my father. I used to collect CDs when I was young and bought more than 35 albums from him. If you travel with me on a long trip, it’s Impossible not to listen to Frank Zappa in my car. I really feel this track, it’s flawless!
This is one of my favourite tracks from Cabaret Voltaire. I don’t play it all the time as could be too intense sometimes but it’s a masterpiece. You can destroy the club with this one if you find the right time to play it.
It’s a song you can listen to it in your car on the way to the club while everyone is screaming and super drunk. I got the album, it’s pretty expensive on Discogs nowadays.
This year’s debut edition of Moonland Festival takes place from August 3 to 5 in the historical prison walls of Rummu, Estonia, with tickets available here.
For over a decade now, Tom Wilson (a.k.a. Sweatson Klank) has been a leading fixture in LA’s oft-celebrated beat scene—Wilson’s Sketchbook night, for example, laid the groundwork for the city’s lauded Low End Theory party. His music glows with personality, evoking scenes of LA’s neon-lit skyline via shimmering synth work, moody samples, and rapid-fire beats.
Wilson grew up just outside of the city limits in Topanga Canyon to parents active in the arts and entertainment industry, spending his formative years surrounded by creativity and music. Psychedelic rock, jazz, and the work of artists such as Nas, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called Quest accompanied his growth as a teenager, leading to the wide-reaching cinematic sound he now delivers as Sweatson Klank. His entry into DJing and production followed years of frustration in bands and was inspired by an encounter witnessing a DJ at a party control a 400-strong crowd like he “had always wanted to with a band,” which lead to a realization that Wilson could do it all himself.
Wilson’s first musical output landed in 1999 on legendary punk rock label K Records and continued in the early ’00s on Buttermilk Records under the TAKE moniker. Further releases landed on Alpha Pup, Eat Concrete, All City, Poo-Bah Records, and Inner City, before debuting the Sweatson Klank alias with The Brain Stays Fed Mixtape on Brainfeeder in 2009. Wilson retired TAKE in 2010 with Only Mountain, an LP for Alpha Pup—Only Mountain Remixes landed on Alpha Pup the following year, closing the project proper. In the years following, Wilson pushed out a slew of remixes, an EP, and an album as Sweatson Klank on Project: Mooncircle. His latest release, the Fine Lines LP, just dropped on Friends of Friends in May this year.
Since its launch in 2015, Wilson has operated as a lead instructor for Point Blank Music School Los Angeles, mentoring students with knowledge across the entire production and mixing spectrum. As he explains below, Wilson passes on his expertise in sound design, processing, analog and software gear, and much more. For our latest studio essentials, XLR8R asked Wilson to detail some of his current favorite studio tools.
My studio is constantly evolving and I think any producer would say the same thing. As music makers, our music is constantly evolving as well, so as we grow, we are constantly adding, subtracting, and re-arranging—it’s a constant work in progress.
I’m an instructor at Point Blank Music Academy in Los Angeles and I teach music production and mixing courses there. It’s a unique position to be in because most of my students come into the program with nothing but a laptop and, maybe, a MIDI controller. Throughout the course, they look to me for advice on what gear and plugins to buy. I try to give them a broad understanding of what is out there and how to use these tools to make music. We discuss hardware and software, signal routing, MIDI implementation, and sound design, amongst many other topics. It’s a great community environment there and many of my students end up becoming friends of mine and people who I mentor and help with their music.
When it comes to my own studio, I am a big believer in the fact that you can make just about anything sound good if you know how to. Old or new, analog or digital, it all has its place in one song or another. You don’t necessarily need all the latest and most expensive gear to make great music. It’s all in the ideas and how you implement them. Most importantly, you want to be comfortable and inspired when you sit down to be creative. Your studio is similar to your house—it’s that sacred place where you feel most at home. My production setup is a combination of analog synths, guitars, basses, percussion instruments, records, and, of course, a computer at the center of it all as the master control. I use Ableton as my main DAW, a handful of outboard gear for mixing, and Adam A8x monitors.
1. Fender Rhodes
I’m sure everyone is pretty familiar with this one. It is in my humble opinion one of the greatest musical instruments ever made! A warm and rich electric piano that graces some part of pretty much every song I ever make. Unlike most synths, this thing has one sound and one sound only, but don’t let that fool you.
You can record it directly or mic it through an amp. Not to mention run it through any number of pedals to achieve a vast array of sounds. There is a certain tone to a Rhodes that just warms up any song and injects it with soul.
2. Korg Poly 800
This little guy from the ’80’s is often referred to as the poor man’s Juno. It is, however, not that at all. While it’s not the most fun synth to program because it has no knobs and all tweaking must be done through entering numbers, it does have a rich sound very characteristic of the ’80s—you’ve heard this thing on countless ’80s R&B records, no doubt. It has no effects, which I also love. These days I find myself gravitating towards dry sounds and shaping the effects of a sound during the mixing stage. I find that so many VST synths and new analog synths just come drenched in reverbs and delays, and while that might sound good on its own, it usually doesn’t work out in the mixing stage. I run this thing in mono, add some analog compression and BOOM! Great for pads, brass, and even some great ’80s sounding bass.
3. Pedals
These days guitar pedals have become as popular with music producers as they are with guitar players. The reason is they are so fun—and, at times, cheap! Pick a synth or instrument, create a pedal chain, and start creating completely new sounds. I run cheap 8-bit Casio keyboards from the ’80s through pedals all the time and they sound incredible. I am by no means a huge pedal collector but I do have a few that are my go-to pedals for certain things.
I also like to set up pedals on a send/return scenario and blend in some of their flavors into a mix. This is one way to add some nice analog warmth to a song created in a DAW that sounds too digital or clean. For instance, I use the Roland SP404 on a send for its compressor, which I run in parallel. The same goes for the Revolution Tube Drive pedal, put it on a send/return and tick it lightly for some nice saturation, distortion, and grit. There are so many incredible pedals coming out lately, its hard to keep up. Anytime you have an extra couple hundred bucks to burn on gear, think about the sound you are after, do some research, and grab a pedal.
4. Stam Audio SA4000+ with Carnhill Transformers
This is new to my studio but it’s getting a lot of use. It’s a clone of the legendary SSL Stereo Bus Compressor. Being that the real one costs nearly $5000, I had always relied heavily on the plugin versions for years. Stam Audio is a company out of Chile that makes these by hand and part-for-part identical to the originals. They are true quality and at a fraction of the price—however, be aware they do have a long waiting list but are well worth it. This thing magically glues a mix together so nicely. The SSL sound is not for everybody but if you know it and like it, it’s an amazing tool. It’s also great to run in parallel on a drum bus.
Sampling plays a big role in my production. It’s an art form of its own. Taking small pieces of things and processing them into completely new sounds out of context is like musical collaging. It’s just timeless. I’m a big vinyl collector, so I keep the Technics 1210 in the studio at all times. I can reach for a piece of vinyl, record some sounds directly into Ableton, and quickly start chopping them up and processing them. There is so much to learn from the music of the past. So many records have never been made available digitally and I just love to discover old music constantly, and they provide great lessons on both about production and songwriting.
The same goes for the cassette deck. Tape has a certain sound to it and I think most people would agree it’s quite pleasing if used correctly. I love to collect rare and weird private press cassettes made by groups or musicians who just wanted to get their music out there and recorded an album on their four-track recorders. ’80s new age music on cassette is my favorite. I run the cassette deck into the DJ mixer and then into my Korg Kaos Pad and mess with the effects in real time as I’m sampling the cassette. I have the very first Kaos Pad, which I got over 10 years ago and it still works. It has a certain sound to it that I just love on certain things. Lastly, sometimes I will record a section of a mix to tape to give it that warm hiss and saturation and then bring that back into the mix at a low level just to add some warmth and grit.
6. Ableton Push 2
Ableton’s Push 2 has so many fun and useful features—it’s a controller, sequencer, and instrument. We also have these at all the student desks at Point Blank. It’s easy to use and works seamlessly with Ableton.
I love using Push to create huge chords that I normally won’t be able to play on a regular keyboard. It’s also a great tool for jamming out ideas in the studio. Really looking forward to the next development of Push to see where it goes.
Slovenian producer and DJ Ian F. has recorded a mix in support of his upcoming performance at Sonus Festival.
Ian F. is set to play the popular Croatian festival, which runs from August 19 to 23 on Zrce Beach, alongside some of the best names in minimally inclined styles, including Craig Richards, Digby, Cezar, Nicolas Lutz, Binh, Praslesh (Raresh and Praslea), Ricardo Villalobos, and D’Julz, and Rhadoo. For fans of more big-room house and techno, Sonus will also host Jackmaster, Peggy Gou, Seth Troxler, Charlotte de Witte, Maceo Plex, Tale Of Us, Jamie Jones, and Amelie Lens.
The mix, an hour-long trip through bumping minimal house, melodic deepness, warped electro, and unconventional techno, is available as a stream and download below.
Terrible Records will release ginla‘s album debut in September, titled Codex. In tandem with today’s announcement, the two have shared the second single off of the LP, “Infinite”—available for streaming below.
The duo met in 2012 while recording with Nick Hakim for his first two EPs. After cutting their teeth as sidemen for Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) and Lorely Rodriguez (Empress Of) the boys set out to start a new project distinctly their own. Their self-titled debut EP was released less than a year ago on Terrible Records and featured original artwork by John Baldassari. Their intimate, homespun synth-pop reflected disparate influences and emotions: dream-pop, drumnbass, elation, and isolation.
Codex is said to show the duo “dipping deeper and streamlining their sound.” We’re told to that “echoes of Brian Eno’s resplendent ambience curl up against flickering drum & bass breaks, and the wide-open release of Four Tet’s garage house.”
Tracklisting
1. Codex
2. Infinite
3. Between
4. Iridescent
5. Know Yourself
6. Interlude
7. Cub
8. Forward Thinking
9. Making Time
10. Crown !
11. LOMO
12. June
13. Reprise (Limitations)
14. Crown II (ft. Naima)
Infinite by ginla is available via Terrible Records today, with Codex LP landing on September 7.
Ableton has announced the first round of artists for this year’s Loop summit for music-makers in Los Angeles.
Taking place over three days across a range of venues in Hollywood from November 9 to 11, including confirmed locations EastWest Studios and the Montalbán Theatre, this year’s Loop will feature production and sound design insights from Jamaican production crew Equiknoxx and Japanese producer Foodman; Dutch producer-percussionist Binkbeats and pop experimentalist Lafawndah, who will run through their compelling live performances; a foley recording and polyrhythm masterclass from Woodstock-born artist Photay; and New Zealand-based rapper and writer Coco Solid, who will reveal the approach to creative collaboration behind her prolific back catalogue.
Registration for Loop is still open via the Loop website. Further guests and program information for 2018 will be released in the coming weeks.
Ancient Methods will release his debut album in October, titled The Jericho Records.
Ancient Method’s roots can be traced back to 2007 when it was formed by Michael Wollenhaupt and his then-partner Conrad Prutzmann, conceived a rebellion again the minimal sounds that were then so prominent.
The project is now headed up by Wollenhaupt and has carved itself a name for its dark, industrial, and blackened take on techno—a raw, intense breed that’s uncompromisingly powerful and driving. And despite retaining an inherent functionality, Wollenhaupt’s work distances itself somewhat from much of the generic, four-to-the-floor techno. Check out one of his many productions (“My Ice Baby” being perhaps the best example), and you’ll notice underlying tones of minimal wave, post-punk, and ’80s EBM—a sound signature that sits at the core of his artistic identity.
Labelled as a prequel to his previous seven releases, The Jericho Records materializes an idea that has been in its creator’s head since the beginning of this project: to transform the biblical story and the accompanying picture, that can be found on almost all previous Ancient Methods releases, into sonic images. We’re told that the album is an “attempt to create the pictures by the music itself.” Throughout the three chapters of the album (“The City Of Jericho,” “The Battle,” and “The Aftermath,” each represented on one vinyl) “these pictures appear sometimes as a rather abstract scoring of a mood,” the label explains.
The 14-track release features contributions from Regis, Orphx, Prurient, and Cindytalk.
Tracklisting
A1 / 1. Walls
A2 / 2. Twelve Stones To Divide Jordan’s Sand
A3 / 3. The City Awakes
B1 / 4. Treason Creeps In
B2 / 5. The House Of Rahab
C1 / 6. Array The Troops (feat. Regis)
C2 / 7. The Seven Shofars (feat. Orphx)
D1 / 8. Crack And Collapse In The Storm Of Lights
D2 / 9. Swordplay
E1 / 10. Omen’s Duty
E2 / 11. I Am Your New King (feat. King Dude)
F1 / 12. Moonset (feat. Cindytalk)
F2 / 13. Walking On Cursed Soil (feat. Prurient)
F3 / 14. In Silence
The Jericho Records will be released on October 1 on Ancient Methods (AM-00) as a 3×12“, with the artwork of Trine + Kim Design Studio, Oslo. Meanwhile, you can stream an excerpt of “Array The Troops” (feat. Regis) via the player below.
