Insert continues a stellar run from Volk, one that has seen him land on Cocoon, Token, Suburban Avenue, and Artclub Records in the last year. On DISTRICT 66 he follows a sprawling 16-track various artists compilation and an EP from label co-founder Clark Davis, who evidently remixes a track on Insert. Like much of Volk’s back catalog, the tracks on Insert are aimed squarely at the floor with a focus on evolving, modular-style grooves with punchy low-end weight.
In support of the release, DISTRICT 66 has offered up Davis’ remix as today’s XLR8R download. Like Volk’s originals, Davis’ remix is a solid dancefloor weapon that utilizes a rock-solid groove and tripped-out synths to deliver its message.
You can grab Davis’ remix via WeTransfer below, with the full release available here.
Bristol artist Joker will celebrate 10 years of his Kapsize label with a special series of 12” releases, the first of which is set to drop on April 20.
Since launching in 2008, Kapsize has been the home for Joker’s career-defining work, including 2009’s iconic “Purple City” (feat. Ginz)—a track widely recognized as ground zero for Joker’s purple dubstep aesthetic. The label has also housed standout albums from Joker, such as 2015’s The Mainframe, and early forward-thinking records from Benga, Asa & Sorrow, and L-Wiz.
The new commemorative 12″, Anamorphic / Forever, will be released on special-edition blue vinyl and digitally, and finds Joker delivering two intense and cinematic cuts. From the destructive bass of “Anamorphic” to the eight-minute haunting ambience of “Forever,” the new 12″ is a perfect summation of Joker’s creative brilliance and a fitting celebratory bow on his pioneering label.
You can pre-order the release here, with “Forever” streaming in full via the player below.
Konstantinos Soublis (a.k.a. Fluxion) released Ripple Effect, his latest full-length album, earlier this month. The nine-track album, shared via his own Vibrant Music, saw the revered dub producer combine dub techno and film scoring—creating “a malleable and expressive hybrid” of his two most cherished art forms: electronic music and score music. The label describes it as the “film score for a non-existing motion picture.”
Soublis should not require much of an introduction. His music was born in urban Greece but only really found its path during the mid-’90s in Berlin, a city that existed in a state of “flux” like no other in the 20th century. The German capital’s social, historical, and political factors all came to bear on the musicians experimenting in the city around the turn of the millennium and the freedom in the city’s creative spirit was very much a reflection of these wider factors. This, along with the naivety and liberalism of the time, mixed with punk-like rebellion against form gave birth to many of the strains of techno and electronic music that now dominate the sound of clubs the world over. Fluxion was swept along in this wave of creating for creativity’s sake during this period, with an organic, naturally fluid and playful attitude towards pushing artistic boundaries.
With numerous Fluxion albums and EPs, his work sprawls across two decades. He was at the start of the dub techno movement and is credited with numerous classic releases within these realms—including Vibrant Forms I and II. He has collaborated with various well-respected labels, such as Chain Reaction and Echocord, as well as Vibrant Music. He has also recently collaborated on a new project titled Transformations with Deepchord.
In support of his latest album, Soublis offered to compile a mix for the XLR8R podcast series. The submission builds upon the foundations of the album, once again exploring the connection between film music and more club-specific formats. The aim, he explains, was to “create a third perspective” by selecting some of his favorite music from these two realms and blending them into one smooth, flowing mix.
You just released Ripple Effect, described as “the film score for a non-existing motion picture.” Can you talk to me about the inspirations behind it?
With the Ripple Effect material, I worked differently than with other works. I started with a clear concept that I wanted to create a modern score combining electronic music with film music. I often write music that has nothing to do with the field of electronic music. But since an early age I’ve had a fascination with film music, as I always thought that being a genre in service of the motion picture, once experienced separately from the film medium, it defies the popular expected structure, found on most contemporary music. So when I started trying to create this dialogue between electronic and score, I suddenly started seeing a plot, imagining scenes of an imaginary story. Naturally, I followed this story to see where it led me, and this material came to life. I really enjoyed the process, as it is not very often that I see images so clearly in music.
Speaking broadly, what are the film scores that stand out for you?
Too many to mention, but some of the following were important to me.
Dead Ringers by Howard Shore. I grew up with his early scores for the Cronenberg films and really like this earlier age of his writing. Quite bold.
The Thing by Ennio Morricone. I could pick 20 scores by the maestro, as music was always purring out in large quantities from this amazing composer, but it was this film score, following the team of researchers trapped in an isolated base in Antarctica that was one of the most detached and full of despair and isolation scores I’ve ever listened. The Arrival by Johann Johansson successfully managed to create a similar mood.
The Belly of an Architect by Wim Mertens. An amazing score, full of ups and lows, and emotionally engaging moments, perfectly following the lead character’s ambitious persona, and in tune with the film’s surroundings and location.
Jacobs Lader by Maurice Jarre A beautifully uncomfortable score for a haunting film.
Koyaanisqatsi by Phillip Glass. An experience that set a new standard for music for moving images. One of the greatest and most copied composers of our time, with his signature motifs, coloration, and time stumbles.
When and where was this mix recorded?
It was recorded in my studio sometime in February. I see this approach as a really creative way of mixing, and it moves more towards the way I worked to conceive the album. Same as with production, I felt that mixing two such music styles can create a third perspective. At some point when I felt that I liked the flow, I started recording the mix.
What equipment did you record it on?
It was recorded it in my studio using Ableton Live.
Was there a particular idea or mood you were looking to convey?
Well maybe not on a conscious level, usually it’s a hit or miss process. You try endless combinations to see what fits. And then you start building a story. It’s quite a creative process, similar to some degree with writing.
How did you choose the records you included?
Music I like from both music worlds that I felt could coexist in terms of tonality, composition, structure (or the lack of an obvious one), with a purpose of creating a more ambiguous listening experience.
What have you got planned for 2018?
I just released the album, and I am happy with curating my label Vibrant Music. I sense that there are certain things I don’t hear in electronic, or electronically processed music or today’s releases, that I am trying to either discuss, suggest, or curate with others, towards the creation of a more experiential listening. I love listening experiences that are not defined by the environment they are listened to (i.e. the club, the home, the car…) but rather by the engagement in the experience they provide the listener.
Tracklisting
01. Howard Shore “Suicide” [Dead Ringers OST] 02. Mikkel Metal “Who Man” [Peaks & Thoughts] 03. Lisa Gerrard & Rieter Bourke “Broken” [Insider OST] 04. Pattern Repeat “001B” 05. Angelo Badalamenti “Fred’s World” [Lost Highway OST] 06. Ennio Morricone “Humanity (Part1)” [The Thing OST] 07. Mikkel Metal “Bodium” [Peaks & Thoughts] 08. Fluxion “Untitled” 09. Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto “Carrying Glass” [The Revenant OST] 10. Rhythm & Sound “Roll Off /S” [Rhythm & Sound] 11. Johann Johannsson “Escape” [And in the Endless Pause There Came the Sound of Bees OST] 12. Silver Ash “DMTC” [001] 13. Wa Wu We “Travellers” [Travellers EP] 14. Vangelis “Blade Runner Blues” [Blade Runner OST] 15. Sebastian Mullaert “Every Moment I Am” [All the Keys Are Here LP] 16. Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke “See The Sun” [Ali OST] 17. Transformations “Accumulate Part 2” [Accumulate EP] 18. Brian Eno “8M1” [The Lovely Bones OST]
Machinedrum (real name Travis Stewart) is back with a brand new standalone single for 2018, titled “Hype Up.”
The single follows a string of standout singles throughout 2017 and continues with Stewart’s signature chopped up, high energy sound as heard on his High Energy album.
“Hype Up” is out today via Ninja Tune, with a full stream above.
Lotic will release a debut album, Power, scheduled for July 13 release via Tri Angle Records.
Lotic was born in Houston and studied electronic music composition and saxophone at university. They moved to Berlin in 2012, where they helped form the Janus club collective. In 2015, they were commissioned to create two remixes for Björk’s Vulnicura, and were subsequently invited to be the opening act at her live show in Berlin.
We’re told that those familiar with Lotic’s two 2015 EPs—Heterocetera (Tri Angle) and Agitations (Janus)—will trace a “warm-blooded” evolution: “Power retains the Berlin musician’s inquisitive intensity while mining the depths of nuance like never before,” the label explains.
The album is grounded in Lotic’s love of Texan marching bands: “Beats and drumming are so integral to black culture,” they explain—and was in part inspired by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between The World And Me.” It is described as “an expansive exploration of the many ways in which power can be expressed and experienced.”
“It originally started as an empowerment album,” Lotic says. “I felt that I needed to offer something outside of myself, as sort of a healing moment. And then I lost my apartment. Mentally, I could only work on music once every three months or something. The question of what would be empowering—the answer to that changed so often over a two-year period. I had to figure out who I was all over again. With this record, I went back and incorporated all of my musical selves.”
As well as being available digitally, Power will be released on limited edition vinyl, housed in a die-cut sleeve designed by Marwan Kaabour, and will feature a vinyl-only exclusive track called “Burn A Print.”
The album artwork was shot by director and photographer Matt Lambert, styled by Rich Aybar and features Lotic wearing clothes designed by Iris Van Herpen.
Tracklisting
01. Love and Light 02. Hunted 03. Bulletproof 04. Distribution of Care 05. The Warp and the Weft 06. Resilience 07. Fragility 08. Nerve 09. Heart 10. Power 11. Solace Vinyl-only bonus track: Burn A Print.
Power LP will land on July 13 via Tri Angle Records, with “Hunted” streaming in full below.
Geneva’s Mapping Festival, the annual multidisciplinary event dedicated to audio-visual art and digital cultures, has announced plans for its 2018 edition, taking place from May 9 to 12. Scheduled to perform are the likes of Plaid and Felix’s Machines, Alessandro Cortini, Inga Mauer, Moritz Simon Geist, Tobias, Lanark Artefax, Tolouse Low Trax, N.M.O., NSDOS, and Patrick Russell.
This year, the festival will concentrate almost all its activities within the new urban campus of the Haute Ecole d’art et de design Genève (HEAD), in the Charmilles district of Geneva. There will be two 12-hour days of workshops and lectures (May 9 and 10) followed by and two 12-hour evenings specifically devoted to performances and live (May 11 and 12). This new format aims to decompartmentalize disciplines by making them coexist in a single space.
On Wednesday, May 9, the festival will host the second edition of its Paradigm_Shift international forum. Supported by the Federal Office of Culture, and curated by Carmen Salas, the forum features a series of talks, keynotes, and discussions on the theme “Human + Machines by Design, not by Default.” It invites artists, creatives, curators, philosophers, and scientists from Switzerland and around the globe, all of whom will address topics as diverse as technodiversity, contemporary utopias and dystopias, the future of money, Glitch Feminism, and the relationship between human and technology from artistic, philosophical, and scientific points of view. This opening night will welcome Plaid & Felix’s Machines, a performative installation project set to music by the duo Plaid of Warp Records.
Thursday, May 10 will be devoted to the festival’s traditional technological and creative workshops. There will be no fewer than 13 workshops, all curated this year by Alexander Scholz of the CreativeApplications.net platform. Throughout the day, work shoppers will learn about new creative coding and machine learning, how to draw a synthesizer, how to embody data, and how to work with augmented reality, all under the leadership of artists and specialized designers.
Then, May 11 and 12 will host audio-visual performances, live music and DJ sets, from the end of the day to the end of the night. The public will enjoy, among other things, a visual symphony that illuminates buildings next to the HEAD campus (Antoine Schmitt), a musical creation played by robots (Moritz Simon Geist), an invention that transforms and levitates water with the help of sound (Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand), and an installation that produces music thanks to tennis balls launched at a speed of more than 150 km/h (Philip Vermeulen).
In addition to this rich program located in the HEAD campus, the festival will run two events outside, both free to the public. More information, including full lineups and ticket packages, can be found here.
The four-track release will be the Berlin-based artist’s second appearance on Zip and Markus Nicolai‘s label, following his debut LP, Dancing Therapy, which landed in 2016. Since then, he’s released on Cabaret, his own Traveling Without Moving, and Melliflow, where he dropped his Ziusudra album in March.
Tracklisting
A1. Metroname A2. 23 B1. 13 B2. Truth Vibration
Metroname will land on April 30, with clips available here.
R&S Records will soon release a remix EP of Talaboman’s (a.k.a John Talabot and Axel Boman) The Night Land album, featuring reworks by Luke Slater (as L.B. Dub Corp), Superpitcher, Samo DJ, and Powder.
The Night Land landed in 2017 to much acclaim, seeing the pair deliver eight tracks of rich synth jams. The artists have now picked these four artists to create their own vision of the Talaboman sound.
Tracklisting
01. Dins El Llit (Superpitcher Remix) 02. The Ghosts Hood (Samo DJ Remix) 03. Brutal Chugga Chugga (L.B. Dub Corp Remix) 04. Loser’s Hymn (Powder Remix [Digital Only])
The Night Land Remixed will land on May 18 via R&S Records, with Superpitcher’s remix of “Dins El Llit” streaming in full below.
Afrodeutsche will release her debut album next month, titled Break Before Make.
Afrodeutsche is the project of Henrietta Smith-Rolla, a British-born Ghanaian/Russian/German composer, producer, singer, and DJ based in Manchester, United Kingdom. She’s previously produced works for Fallout, AlJazera, RNCM, and YesYesNoNo.
After playing her first live show warming up for Carl Craig in 2016, she has also featured on lineups alongside Dopplereffekt. She holds a monthly radio show on NTS, featuring many of her own productions, ranging from dark electro to breaks and jacking house.
Tracklisting
Side A
A1. Day Tuner A2. AND! A3. Guess What A4. Work It A5. Now What A6. Start Again Part Four A7. Blanket Ban
Side B
B1. FilanDank B2. WTWTWTF B3. You Heard Me The First Time B4. The Middle Middle B5. Hiaea B6. Od B7.The Beginning
Break Before Make LP will land on May 14 via Skam Records, with opener “Day Tuner’ streaming in full below.
Sossong is a DJ-producer based and born in Saarbruecken, Germany and a resident of Mauerpfeiffer club. Influenced by artists like Sven Väth and Adam Beyer, at the age of 17, Sossong was already a fixed component of the club scene in his hometown and started DJing at private parties and small clubs. In 2011 he became a resident of his former favorite club Unsichtbar, later also known as Uschi & Bärbel, and gained his first experience in producing his own tracks. Berlin’s Delude Recordings released one of his first tracks, titled “No Colors,” at the beginning of 2013, before realising his <i.Tanzdrang EP together with Felix Bernhardt. He’s since gone on to release two albums, Atropa via Analogue Audio, and 2016’s Recovery on Berlin’s Ragnarök, and several other EPs.
We’re told that this new album, landing May 4, delivers “a journey from quieter vibes to more breakbeat, hard, and melodic jewels.” Ahead of the release, you can download “Sandmann” in full below.
