Rejoicer LP Next on Stones Throw

Rejoicer (a.k.a. Yuvi Havkin) is up next on Stones Throw. 

Rejoicer (a.k.a. Yuvi Havkin) is a musician and producer who splices together funk, hip-hop, breakbeats, and jazz rhythms. He’s known for helping cultivate Israel’s modern beat movement, and for fostering a community of international artists who contribute to his Tel-Aviv based label Raw Tapes. 

The radical potential of jazz informs both Yuvi’s philosophy on life and his music, which shares a nonconformist take on the genre with the likes of Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, Badbadnotgood or Flying Lotus. Havkin has more than 20 releases to his name under several aliases; he also plays in the band Buttering Trio, and has collaborated with the likes of Mndsgn, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Oh No, among others. 

His Energy Dreams LP and Stones Throw debut is said to explore the idea of what it means to be awake, and questions the more surreal aspects of human consciousness. It’s name, track titles, and visuals—created by Yuvi’s Raw Tapes co-founder Guy Glikshtein (a.k.a. Jengo)—draw on the psychedelia of spiritual jazz, and are inspired by visions Yuvi saw in a series of lucid dreams shortly after recording the album. 

Says Glikshtein about the first video he created for “Double Astral Move”: “This is the first part in a series of videos that visually render the bigger narratives found in Rejoicer’s new album. It is inspired by the significance of dreams and the fluidity of awareness.“

Describing Energy Dreams’ exploration of the liminal spaces between unconsciousness and waking, Yuvi says: “I wanted to create an atmosphere of freedom; of walking in unfamiliar territories while still feeling at home and at ease. There’s a huge music world in my head that I hadn’t expressed or explained, and I decided to try tap into that world of sounds.”

‘Energy Dreams’ will land on August 31, with an animated video for “Double Astral Move” streaming below—or here for EU readers due to temporary GDPR restrictions. 

Destino “Louis”

Last week, Yuksek debuted his new side project, Destino, with a stellar three-track EP on La Belle Records. 

With two originals and a remix from Alek Lee, the new release was a result of spontaneous live jams “looking for textures and not worrying about genres, tempo, or length of the track,” says the artist. The two originals on the EP play out in slow motion, rocking back and forth in hypnotic waves perfectly fit for summer. From “Louis,” a five-and-a-half minute ride through swaying grooves, warped dubby vocals, and intoxicating synth flourishes, to the laid-back rhythm and cosmic guitar work of “Isla Granda” and Alex Lee’s more driving, floor-focused interpretation, the EP is a prominent edition to Yuksek’s already beaming catalog.  

The release is out now and can be grabbed here, with “Louis” available as a free download via WeTransfer below.

Due to temporary issues regarding the GDPR, EU readers can download the track here.

Ethiopian Records Debuts on Warp’s Arcola Offshoot

Ethiopian Records (a.k.a Endeguena Mulu) has released a new EP on Warp Records‘ offshoot label Arcola.

Ethiopian Records is one of the leading lights of Ethiopia’s burgeoning electronic music scene. Sometimes using nothing more than a PC, Ableton software, and a mouse, he makes his own eclectic brew of unique sonic textures which he named Ethiopiyawi Electronic, using electronic music tools and Ethiopian traditional music as the foundation of his music. He first started making music while in high school, experimenting with a wide spectrum of sound palettes, and has since shared a three-record run for 1432 R between 2015 and ’16.

We’re told that the Ye Feqer Edaye / የፍቅር እዳዬ 12″ features three tracks of “fully frontal psychedelic electronic body music.” It will be the label’s eighth release. 

Tracklisting

A1. Megbiya (Do You Believe In Things You Don’t See)

A2. Ye Feqer Edaye / የፍቅር እዳዬ 

B. Makeda

Ye Feqer Edaye / የፍቅር እዳዬ EP is available now, with an Ethiopian Records mix streaming in full below.  

Premiere: Hear a Gorgeous Jazz Cut From Ishmael Ensemble

Ishmael Ensemble‘s latest release, The Chapel, drops today via Severn Songs.

The Chapel marks the first 7″ in a series for Severn Songs that will eventually be compiled into a full-length album. The series looks to pay tribute to Bristol and its surrounding regions, playing out like a beautiful ode to the group’s lynchpin Pete Cunningham’s hometown, whilst also expanding on the rich and diverse sonic palette laid out on previous releases by the group. 

The record opens with the affecting cut “The Chapel,” which unfolds like a shimmering stone skipping across a lake, before the broken-beat grooves of “Full Circle” arrive, accompanied by an engrossing array of instrumentation and textural flurries that put a stamp on a standout release.

The release lands today alongside a transfixing video by Amie Nowlan for “Full Circle,” which can be streamed in full via the player below. Each 7″ vinyl also includes a linocut print poster insert of the original artwork by Pete’s dad Andy Cunningham.

You can pick up The Chapel here. 

20 Questions: Bambounou

Jéremy Guindo-Zegiestowski’s (a.k.a Bambounou) music first surfaced with 2010s seven-track release on French electro label YounGunZ Entertainment. Material on Sound Pellegrino and ClekClekBoom Recordings followed soon thereafter, before the rising French talent debuted on Modeselektor’s 50Weapons. “They contacted me ’cause they kept playing my track ‘Alpha,'”he recalls. No sooner had he become a mainstay on the label; his catalog therein includes a string of 12″s—one alongside Margaret Dygas—and two full-lengths, namely 2012’s Orbiting and 2015’s Centrum. Since then, he’s been rather quiet on a release front, returning recently with Parametr Perkusja, a three-track EP on Don’t DJ’s DISK imprint that “melds rhythmic instability with Bambounou’s tribal touch. What better time to pop over some quick-fire questions?

1. Describe your surroundings right now.

I’m on a plane from Shangai to Melbourne, I can’t sleep anymore cause I already slept nine hours from Paris to Shangai. I was reading and since I still have four more hours to go, I said to myself that I’d better do this interview.

2. What kind of music were you exposed to as a child?

My Mom isn’t a very musical person. She didn’t make me listen to a certain genre of music but I remember listening to the radio a lot, so from hip-hop to speed metal, I was just absorbing everything.

3. What was the first record you purchased?

One of the first records I bought with my own money was probably a Pokemon CD followed with a Slayer or Slipknot CD (I was confused at the time, and still am).

4. Do you remember the moment when you fell in love with DJing?

I don’t remember exactly when it was but it’s an ongoing feeling of happiness by seeing people dancing to tracks you made and or chose carefully for this very moment. 

5. What made you decide to pursue a career in DJing? 

I think it’s when I decided to stop law school, haha. But more seriously I just realized I couldn’t do a life without music so I took best of both worlds: DJing so I can satisfy my musical curiosity and as a job as well. 

6. You have a pretty busy tour schedule, playing usually two gigs per week or more. How do you keep yourself on top of your game while touring?

You have to work every day; I never take days off and I force myself to have a good sleeping pattern. Even when I’m tired, I realized that if I wake up every morning at the same time I tend to be less tired. I do a lot of sport as well, it cleanses my mind and I can start being creative again, or else I find the music I make immediately boring. When you’re actually touring you have two modes: the party mode and the yoga mode. Let’s say that I am in between.

7. Are there any funny rituals or routines you do before getting behind the decks at a gig?

I have to pee two times before I play.

8. Do you prepare your sets or tend to go with the flow?

I prepare some tracks that I like in advance but I go with the flow once performing.

9. What is your favorite thing about Paris? Favorite restaurant or place to hang?

Paris is my favorite thing about Paris, it’s my favorite city and I don’t see myself living anywhere else. My favorite restaurant is a secret but I can tell you a bar where I hang a lot: Au Dixieme. 

10. What about Paris inspires you as an artist?

The whole city is very inspiring, there’s a great energy right now.

11. When did you start to explore the Parisian nightlight? Did you have someone take you under their wing? What was your first club experience, can you describe it?

I was pretty young but somehow managed to enter clubs and concerts. I remember when I was 14 just walking around Paris and discovering every neighborhood. I don’t remember my first club experience but I must have been pretty impressed since I’m still going back to it aha!

12. You began your career at a rather young age, starting to release frequently on 50Weapons. How did you connect with Modeselektor? 

They contacted me ’cause they kept playing my track “Alpha” and they were loving it and when they discovered I was French it was somehow a surprise for them and they signed me directly.

13. What was it like touring and releasing with them for so many years?

It was amazing to have such a wide and musically different people in the crew, I was loving every moment.

14. How did you feel when the label closed its doors?

Well, I was obviously a little bit sad, but I was thankful and happy to have been part of this adventure and looking back at everything that they did it’s amazing to see the evolution. I was growing with them and I realized it at the end. I will be forever grateful.

15. You’ve collaborated with Margaret Dygas, releasing a split EP on 50Weapons and playing back-to-back at festivals. How did you meet her and what kind of connection did you have in the studio?

I met her through music she was releasing and I saw her play one time and I was totally amazed. Eventually, I learned that she was Polish (like me) and my interest widened. For the split, we were exchanging ideas by emails and we called each other. I like sending text messages to her ’cause she puts in a LOT of smileys which I find is a sign of kindness.

16. Studio-wise you’ve been pretty quiet in the past three years, what have you been up to?

I was quiet in term of releases but not in the studio 🙂 I was working very hard on my own sound and how I wanted to define it more, so I learned synthesis and I decide to not sample a thing; now I’m adding samples again but I had to come to this period of a pure (theory) sonic research.

17. Can you tell us a little bit about your EP coming out on Don’t DJ’s DISK Imprint? How did you get in touch with Don’t DJ?

I’ve been loving his music for a long time and I invited him to play at my residency in Bordeaux for l-Boat, we got on very well and we exchanged some music, my (future) EP was in those tracks, I’m happy with this EP and I love playing it out, it’s everything that I like— polyrhythmic percussions sounding like metallic structures falling down but symmetrically building themselves up (or down) in the ground.

18. What influences your more tribal side? You have some beautiful abstract rhythms in many of your tracks.

I listen to a lot of traditional percussive music but as I don’t have any instruments, nor can I play them, I use my club sensitivity to try and create rhythms with electronic instruments.

19. If you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday where would it be and why?

On my couch, for two weeks ’cause I’m traveling too much and sometimes I wanna do one with my couch and play video games or read random books—but hey I can do that everywhere I go.

20. What’s coming up over the next few weeks? 

I just released my new EP, Parametr Perkusja, on Don’t DJ’s DISK. It’s available on every streaming platforms and in good record shops. I’m also about to launch the exclusive Parameter tees on Bandcamp. Besides that, I have some cool gigs lined up within the upcoming few weeks, like Wildeburg 2018, iBoat for my residency where I’m inviting Whities’ boss Nic Tasker and the amazing Saoirse, Phonox with Pearson Sound, Circoloco, De School, DGTL Barcelona. I can’t wait!

Photos: Yulya Shradrinsky

Influences 10: Superpitcher

Superpitcher is Paris-based Aksel Schaufler, a German producer commonly affiliated with Kompakt. The Paris-based artist’s production career dates back to the late ’90s before he made his appearance on the Cologne label with “Shadows,” a deeply melodic downtempo house affair featured on the Total 2 compilation—and his contributions thereafter, including a plethora of later EPs and two long-players, have established him as one of Kompakt’s central artists. His range of work encompasses techno, microhouse, and the dreamy emotive pop for which he is most widely acknowledged. 

Much of Schaufler’s work has landed on Hippie Dance, the independent label he co-founded alongside Rebolledo in 2011. Schaufler and Rebolledo are also Pachanga Boys, a production and performance duo founded in 2009. But Superpitcher’s roots go deep. His pre-Kompakt days saw him produce dub and reggae as Sir Positive in the late ’90s. In 2015 he also released the Disco In The Sky album as King So So, an album that marked an evolution in his sound and laid the foundations of his later projects. Within his catalog of more recent material is The Golden Ravedays, Schaufler’s third and latest long-player offering, and his most expansive work to date. The album arrived over the course of 2017, with one 12″ “chapter” vinyl record released at the end of each month, before being made available as one complete box set later that year. And Schaufler’s XLR8R Influences podcast is similarly autobiographical in that it represents some of the genres that have inspired him along the way. The Cure, Brian Eno, and Arthur Russell all feature, combined with some lesser-known but similarly influential records from Schaufler’s youth.    

“Inspiration is abstract 

Inspiration is everywhere

Inspiration cannot be faked

It is in books, arts, films, nature, people, music, and in all the things in between that we can’t even see or hear. To me, music has been my magical life companion and my main source of inspiration. But there are so many different styles and genres, much of it one can’t even define! Our planet is wrapped in music and is the gravitational force to so many people. That is why it is, to me, an almost impossible task to talk about it or to select music for a mixtape about inspiration. I realized that if I had to choose out of all there is that inspired me, there will always be something missing along the way, so instead, I have decided to create a mixtape that features a representative collection of songs and tracks that influenced my own sound. This is not a mix of all time favorites and you’ll see there are some important musical genres missing, such as folk, hip-hop, minimal music, soul, etc. (that also inspires me, but I had to draw the line somewhere!) These are simply some of my favorite songs and people at work, and probably some of them inspired The Golden Ravedays—who knows?”—Superpitcher 

EU readers can download here due to temporary GDPR restrictions. 

Tracklisting

01. Moondog “Moondog Monologue”

02. Haile M. Ghiorgis “Man Biye?”

03. Holger Czukay “Persian Love”

04. Tony Brevett “My Love Song (Java Girl)”

05. Slow Smoke “Sensuous Lover”

06. Glen Adams “A Beat For You”

07. The Cure “Lullaby (Extended Mix)” 

08. Fela Kuti “Water No Get Enemy”

09. Arthur Russell “Treehouse”

10. Brigitte Fontaine “Comme À La Radio”

11. The Slights “Man Next Door (Version)”

12. Horace Andy “Quiet Place”

13. Brian Eno / David Byrne “The Jezebel Spirit”

14. Vinyl Countdown “Ride” 

Borusiade Debuts on Unterton

Borusiade, real name Miruna Boruzescu, will release a new EP on Berghain-affiliated Unterton, titled Their Specters. 

We’re told that the release sees the Romanian producer deliver four different takes on atmospheric, industrial electronics, and chopped rhythms, composed around the themes of ecological and human self-destruction.

Boruzescu released her debut album, A Body, through Cómeme earlier this year. She’s previously shared her work through labels including Correspondant, Cititrax, and Dark Entries. 

It will be Unterton’s 13th release, following EPs from Kobosil, Nitam, Somewhen, and others. 

Tracklisting

A1. Forewarned Is Forearmed 

A2. Common Ancestor 

B1. Doublethink 

B2. Atlas 

Their Specters will land on August 10, with “Forewarned Is Forearmed” streaming in full via the player below.  

Nick Höppner Launches New Record Label, Touch From A Distance

Nick Höppner is set to launch a new record label, Touch From A Distance. 

It has been over five years since Höppner left his position as A&R and label manager of Ostgut Ton, the Berghain in-house label that he had not only founded but also steered through its most creative and influential years. In the meantime, he has honed his skills both as a DJ and a producer touring the world and releasing two albums and a row of 12“s. We’re told that “at the back of his mind,” however, “he always felt an itch which he can now finally scratch” with the launch of Touch From A Distance. 

For the label debut, Höppner has enlisted Desert Sound Colony from London, whose first two records on his own label Holding Hands, Höppner already “loved and played out.” We’re told that the Fast Life EP evidences Desert Sound Colony’s “outstanding skill at sound design, composition, and arrangement,” and that the four-tracker presents him at his “most focused and versatile, constantly shapeshifting between the rich, bass-heavy UK heritage and Continental-European traditions of dancefloor minimalism.” 

Tracklisting  

01. Fast Life 

02. Somehow I Talk 

03. Finger Flies 

04. Glixen feat. Baby Rollen 

Fast Life will land on August 31, with clips streaming below. 

XLR8R’s Top 10 Downloads of May

Over the years, XLR8R‘s download section has acted as a rich and diverse pool of discovery and musical exploration. It’s a vehicle used by young developing artists to release their debut offerings, as well as established artists looking to test the waters with edits, alternate mixes, and new styles. Tracks are released every day of the week barring weekends and at the end of the month, we then tabulate the download numbers and announce the 10 most popular tracks from the month prior. Now that we are nearing the end of June, we present you May’s top 10 downloads. 

Taking the top spot this time was Traumer’s reduced mix of “Essence,” his collaborative track with Delano Smith. French house artist Djebali’s groove-laced cut “May” landed in second, followed by Romanian minimal master Ada Kaleh’s “Morgana Avidoma.” Massive’s breakbeat remix of Breek’s “Oiwa” landed in number four, with Okain’s “Monday My Day” rounding out the top five. 

May’s 10 most popular XLR8R downloads have been assembled into a list below and can be grabbed for free by following their respective links. In addition, all 10 tracks have been compiled into one convenient file, which can be downloaded via WeTransfer below.

Due to temporary issues regarding the GDPR, EU readers can download the top 10 here.

1. Delano Smith & Traumer “Essence” (Traumer Reduced Mix)

2. Djebali “May” (OAM05)

3. Ada Kaleh “Morgana Avidoma” 

4. Breek “Oiwa” (Massive Remix)

5. Okain “Monday My Day”

6. Daisybelle & Rob Savage “Always On” (Joss Moog Smooth Remix)

7. Sophia Saze “Silent”

8. Ground Tactics “Shattering Illusions”

9. Adeline “Beyond You”

10. LUCES “Revelations”

Premiere: Hear a Haunting Track From Ricoshëi

LA-based duo Ricoshëi will drop their latest EP, After Geography, on July 6 via their own What’s That? imprint.

The new EP follows two 2017 singles (“If Ever” and “Bruce Lee”), both of which picked up support from industry titans Pete Tong and Lele Sacchi, with four new originals that have already seen heavy play from the likes of Horse Meat Disco, Carl Craig, Applescal, and Richie Hawtin, among others—the EP also precedes a self-titled full-length album scheduled for later this year.

In support of the EP, the duo have offered up a full stream of “Rabbit Hole,” a haunting dub house track that unfolds with a low-slung groove and floating, melancholic vocals. 

“Rabbit Hole” can be streamed via the player below, with the EP available for pre-order here.

Ricoshëi will also be performing a live hybrid set tonight at the sprawling Brooklyn Mirage for Morgana, alongside Droog, Lauren Ritter, and Dory. You can find details about the event here.

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