Hear a New Track from Bonobo

Bonobo has shared a new track through Ninja Tune.

On “Expander,” the British artist deftly weaves organic vocals and instrumentation with peak-time dancefloor sensibilities. The track is a staple at his OUTLIER sets, an event series he curates and DJs.

The track follows 2022 singles “Defender,” “ATK,” and the New York disco-inspired EP with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.

For more information on Bonobo, real name Simon Green, check out his Artist Tips feature here.

Tracklisting

01. Expander

Expander is available now with a stream below.

Podcast 864: Jenifa Mayanja

Ugandan born Jenifa Mayanja has been deeply entrenched in deep house music since the early ’90s, and in those 20-or-so years she has cemented her reputation as an innovative and fearless ambassador for the genre’s culture and a favorite of those who follow it. Her journey began in the midwest but flourished in New York where she worked as a buyer at the now defunct legendary record store Dance Tracks and held down residencies across the East Village’ thriving lounge scene. The majority of her releases, including two of her three albums, have come on Bumako Recordings—the label she started in 2007—but more recently she put out On The Edge Of The Horizon, an EP on Sole Aspect Records that fuses elegant harmonies and jazz melodies with pulsing rhythms. Her XLR8R podcast—in typical Mayanja fashion—is smoky, jazzy, and emotive. Across its 70-minute runtime, you’ll hear tracks from Roi Azulay, Larry Heard, and more, plus a few of Mayanja’s own. This is deep house for the mind, body, and soul.

01. What have you been up to recently?
I’ve been finishing up an English/creative writing degree, working on an album for my label Bumako Recordings, and designing courses for my coaching and mentoring program called The Music Life Mentor. Plus moving, DJing, and parenting. The list goes on.

02. What have you been listening to?
Some classical music, Sault, Georgia Anne Muldrow, a mish-mash of old house cuts, jazz, and soul.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded this in my living room on Saturday night.

04. What setup did you use?
Two turntables, mixer, headphones, small Behringer audio mixer, laptop, and Audacity.

05. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included in it?
They chose me once I established that I wanted an exciting reflective mix.

06. Where do you imagine it being listened to?
In your house, car, with friends in a park, walking by yourself, or even writing. It lends itself to many kinds of settings.

07. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live?
How it compares is that the eclecticism you hear in this mix is something that I also express creatively when playing live. however my playing live is connected to the energy that comes from a crowd which brings out a different side of me. My live playing is much more spirited and the expression more extroverted.
Making mixes is a solitary exercise so the connection comes from the inside hence the introspective aspect of myself is more prominent in the creative expression.

08. What’s next on your horizon?
I’m playing in Portland at the end of August for the first time so I’m looking forward to playing and meeting all the folks out there. Also I’m working on executive producing an ambient album by my son for release on Bumako, plus I’m hoping to finish some music and publishing my self-help manual for music creatives.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Alice Coltrane with Strings “Galaxy” (Impulse)
02. Deodato “First Cuckoo” (MCA Records)
03. Gil Scott-Heron “Secrets” (Arista)
04. Larry Heard “Sceneries Not Songs” (Black Market International)
05. Outside “Sarvesham” (Dorado)
06. Son Dexter “Precious Love” (Alleviated Records)
07. Jenifa Mayanja “Leaning Into It” (Hardmatter)
08. Salsoul Orchestra “Magic Journey” (Salsoul Records)
09. Cloud One “Atmosphere Strut” (P&P Records)
10. Aural “Desire” (Creative Label)
11. Jenifa Mayanja “Rise To The Top” (Sole Aspect Records)
12. Alison Marks “Bird” (Jenifa Mayanja Recreation) (Bu-Mako Recordings)
13. Julion D’Angelo “Maybe Hill” (Maybe Hill Music)
14. Roi Azulay “Reflections” (Ron Trent Remix) (Atypical Dopeness)
15. Jenifa Mayanja “Like A Dream” (Sole Aspect Records)

XL Recordings Welcomes Gyrofield

XL Recordings will release a new EP from Gyrofield, the Hong-Kong-born, Bristol-based producer born Kiana Li.

These Heavens is an exploration into the universe and the beauty of nature via a series of shapeshifting sonics that are just as well-suited for personal introspection as they are for sweaty underground dancefloors,” we’re told.

“I see a lot of value in creating danceable music that also touches base on atmospheric and spaced-out sounds, key use of instrumentation, and composition to provide a complement to the beats and energy of the music,” says Gyrofield.

The influence from the release just as much from drum & bass as it does electro and techno like I Hate Models and Djrum, plus experimental pop like Björk.

Aged nine, Gyrofield discovered electronic music via the internet, stumbling across the sounds of Skrillex and Noisia on YouTube. The otherworldly sounds intrigued her and so she began her self-made journey in music. It was only after visiting Bristol at 17 that gyrofield stepped foot into a club for the first time.

Tracklisting

01. Vega
02. Ocdam’s Razor
03. Lagrange
04. Cold Cases

These Heavens EP is scheduled for August 30 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Lagrange” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Guy Blakeslee Induces a “Trance-Like State” on Leaving Records Album

Experimental guitarist Guy Blakeslee will release his Extravision album on Leaving Records.

Blakeslee self-released Extravision in 2022. Since then, he has spoken about its genesis. On March 13, 2020, while walking across the street, he was struck by a car. Upon regaining consciousness, he found both the outer world and his inner world suddenly transformed.

As lockdowns took effect, it was immediately clear that the brain injuries Blakeslee sustained had not only affected his vision but altered his consciousness and would inevitably affect his music-making.

A majority of the album’s tracks notably do not feature any discernible guitar—”the songs functioning as emotive, drone-based exercises in texture and duration,” we’re told.

The goal of the album is to induce in the listener a “trance-like state,” to inaugurate the conditions under which time might function “differently.”

Tracklisting

01. CELESTIAL RADIANCE
02. BEFORE THERE WAS A MOON
03. FROM A MELTED PLACE
04. WOUNDED HEALER
05. POOLS OF MERCURY
06. ARCTURIAN WHISPERS
07. IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS
08. PISCES MOON
09. ARCTURIAN GAMELAN
10. SPIRALING DOWN
11. HALCYON REVELATIONS
12. SONG OF SATURN
13. EXTRAVISION
14. SOMEWHERE UNKNOWN (BONUS)

EXTRAVISION LP is scheduled for October 18 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “CELESTIAL RADIANCE” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Podcast 863: Assyouti

Juggling hypermodern bass mutations, warped dancefloor snaps, and percussive club experiments, Assyouti is among Egypt’s most distinct yet enigmatic DJs-producers. A year after arriving in Berlin from Cairo in 2021, he released his debut EP, Shakhrama, on High Digital. Noisy and at times aggressive, his productions meld snarling basslines with distorted vocal and drum samples, processed beyond recognition into buzzsaw post-punk sonics. In his DJ sets, he uses these sounds to create a sense of disorientation fueled by collective energy and emotion. (Nowhere is this more obvious than at his No_Stone event series.) His XLR8R podcast is no different. Recorded in December, shortly after the release of The Disintegration of Eric Omelette on Italian label Shepard Tone Recordings, it aims to capture the same energy: tune in for one hour of jungle and drum & bass that’s chaotic and frantic, just the way Assyouti likes it.

01. What have you been up to lately?
I’ve been working alot on music, mainly my debut album, but also another EP and some singles for compilations. I’ve been on a much needed holiday. Currently I’m with my family in the north of Egypt enjoying the Mediterranean sea and the laidback rhythm that comes with it.

02. What have you been listening to?
Well, since I’m near the sea I’v been naturally listening to a lot of beach-friendly music during the daytime. A lot of dub, trip-hop, jazz, etc. However at night I’m diving into more obscure territories digging for music to play out in my next shows.

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded it on a cold December day at my place in Berlin.

04. How did you go about choosing the tracks?
I was digging in my library for tracks that either inspired, influenced, or at least have a similar feeling to my EP The Disintegration of Eric Omelette which came out a month before I recorded this mix.

05. What can the listener expect?
Haunting jungle, drum & bass, and drumfunk with eerie atmospheres and rough amen chops.

06. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live?
I (almost) never go this hard with jungle, which is a shame because I really enjoy playing this sound, but it’s very rare that it would fit in the context I’m playing in. Of course I try to squeeze some of it in every now and again.

07. What’s next on your horizon?
First thing coming up is a b2b next week with my No_Stone co-curator Jehia for an event
we’re hosting in Cairo in collaboration with our friends from the MOSHTRQ crew. After that
I’m playing a DJ set at OHM with Berlin Atonal. Then I have some more shows lined up in Berlin, Portugal, and Poland, plus we’re throwing two more No_Stone events later on in Berlin and Barcelona.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Pixl + Bio-Kem “Shifting Sources” (Bio-Kem Remix) (Amen-tal)
02. Champa B “Eradicated” (Amen-tal)
03. Limewax “Face It Alone” (FREAK RECORDINGS)
04. Fanu “Garmonbozia” (Lightless Recordings)
05. Smyla “ZKITTLES” (Amen-tal)
06. Dr…um “The Drugs Began To Take Hold” (Amen-tal)
07. Equinox “Acid Rain VIP” (Breakage Final Chapter Mix) (Planet Mu)
08. Paradox “Curse of Coincidence” (Paradox Music)
09. dgoHn “Ninnyhammer” (Djrum Remix) (Love Love Records)
10. Nolige “Cold One” (Scientific Wax)
11. B-Key “Entity” (Scientific Wax)
12. Peshay “The Nocturnal” (Back On The Firm) (Metalheadz)
13. Christoph de Babalon “Trauerspiel” (Cross Fade Enter Tainment)
14. Double O “Number One Sound VIP” (Self-Released)
15. Phuture-T “A Staggering Amen” (Scientific Wax)

Koreless is Back with a New EP

Koreless will release a new EP later this month.

Deceltica marks the enigmatic producer’s first solo project in over two years.

After pouring everything into Agor, his debut album, he retreated from London to the tranquil countryside of his birthplace, Wales. This move sparked a “newfound sense of freedom and inspiration,” we’re told, and Koreless began experimenting with new chords, beats, and instruments, leading to the creation of Deceltica.

The EP lands on Young and includes a single of the same name, plus a glitchy two-step banger called “Seven.”

The EP also features a remix of “Seven” by Welsh producer Jorg Kuning, and an extended version of “Drumhell,” which appeared on HAAi‘s DJ-Kicks compilation.

Tracklisting

01. Deceltica
02. Drumhell (Extended)
03. Seven
04. Seven (Jorg Kuning Bicton Barns Mix)

Deceltica EP is scheduled for August 16 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Seven” and “Seven” (Jorg Kuning Bicton Barns Mix) in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Photo: Aliyah Otchere

Alessandro Cortini Next on Mute with Immersive New Release

Alessandro Cortini will release Nati Infiniti, a 40-minute piece of music based on an immersive audio installation that ran across four floors of the Museu de Lisboa’s Fábrica da Moagem, a disused flour mill in Lisbon.

Nati Infiniti, commissioned by Sónar Lisboa 2022, captures the ambience of the original piece, where each of the floors of the cavernous mill evoked a different state through Cortini’s sound design.

All five parts utilise the Strega instrument that Cortini co-designed with Make Noise.

Cortini debuted a live audio-visual performance of Nati Infiniti at Berlin’s Atonal Festival and, after a series of sold-out performances—each showcasing an improvised version of Nati Infiniti with no two concerts ever the same—Cortini will embark on a tour of North America and Europe throughout ’24 and into ‘25.

For more information on Cortini, check out his XLR8R studio feature here.

Tracklisting

Side A

01. I
02. II

Side B

03. III
04. IV
05. V

Nati Infiniti is scheduled for October 4 release on Mute. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here.

Robert Henke Reveals First Monolake Album Since 2020

Robert Henke, the artist better known as Monolake, will release a new album in September.

Studio is Henke’s first studio album as Monolake since 2020’s Archaeopteryx. It’s a “celebration of human-machine interaction,” were told, and an “all-killer-no-filler masterclass in the true potential of an electronic long-player.”

Across 11 new tracks, Henke reshapes deep abstract dance, sci-fi techno, Kraftwerk-ian melody, sleek IDM, and psych-kosmische into a “distinct, continuous composition.”

“The album’s intention is simple: presenting a beautiful personal musical journey.” Henke says.

It lands on Henke’s own his Imbalance Computer Music label.

Tracklisting

01. The Elders Disagree
02. Thru Stalactites
03. Signals
04. Cute Little Aliens
05. Intermezzo
06. Global Transport
07. Stasis Field
08. Prime Lundy
09. Red Alphonso
11. Eclipse

Studio LP is scheduled for September 6 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Global Transport” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Rrose and Polygonia Collaborate on Mini-Album

Eaux will release a collaborative mini-album from Rrose and Polygonia, the music project of Lindsey Wang from Munich, Germany

The story behind the release starts in 2022, when Rrose reached out to Wang after noticing that her tracks were appearing in their sets more frequently than any other artist. Never before had Rrose proposed a collaboration with someone they hadn’t met before, but there was such an obvious connection in their approach to sound that it felt necessary.

As it turns out, Wang had only become interested in techno after hearing Rrose perform at a festival in 2018. It all made sense, and they began sharing sketches and unfinished ideas with each other, trading them back and forth until they reached completion.

Dermatology contains six tracks and over 40 minutes of techno that focuses squarely on the dancefloor while infusing it with the kinds of “psychoactive drones, intricate polyrhythms, and relentless modulations” that have come to define both of their approaches to sound.

While several of the tracks hover in a flexible tempo range between 125 and 130 bpm, “Stretcher” reaches up to 142, and the closing track “Vena Cava” trades the kick drums for spectrally processed percussion and diverging high-frequency pulses.

For more information on Rrose, check out their XLR8R podcast here—a masterful psychedelic techno trip.

Tracklisting

01. Ellipses
02. Stretcher
03. Inhaler
04. Haima
05. Diastole
06. Vena Cava

Dermatology is scheduled for September 20 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Haima” in full via the player below and pre-order here.

Podcast 862: John Beltran

More than three decades have passed since John Beltran—an iconic American DJ-producer from Ann Arbor, Michigan—released “Aquatic” on Carl Craig’s Retroactive Records. With it, Beltran capsulized his musical interests and influences of the moment—Carl Craig, the futuristic jazz tracks of Larry Heard, and Logic—and earned the praise of the global house and techno community. Through the ’90s, he capitalized on this by releasing two albums, Earth & Nightfall on R&S Records and Ten Days of Blue on Peacefrog Records, on which he harnessed ambient electronica into a release that retains its legendary status. In the years since, Beltran has shared dozens of EPs and albums, under his own name but also as Placid Angles and Sol Set, a collection of composers, musicians, and vocalists, exploring stirring techno, jazz, stirring ambient, Balearic, and even Brazilian influences for labels including Blue Arts Music in Japan and Delsin, where he released Everything At Once, a collection of 17 tracks which fuse ’90s Detroit techno with post-rock and ambient with downtempo. Last year, Beltran debuted on Turkish label Oath with Serendipia, a collection of sun-drenched Balearic tracks, and a remix package featuring Danilo Plessow (a.k.a Motor City Drum Ensemble) and Session Victim will land next month. For this week’s XLR8R podcast, Beltran has provided a mix full of his own sultry Balearic originals.

01. What have you been up to recently?
I recently moved to downtown Detroit. So basically just spinning tunes and enjoying the summer with family and friends. I stepped away from a few projects that are in the works till autumn. One is a new Placid Angles as well as a new Sol Set record. I needed a break from production for a bit. I’ll get back into those projects with a fresh new energy soon!

02. What have you been listening to?
It’s been a Cortex kinda summer. Also chillin’ to the new Khruangbin LP. Arthur Verocai, Rare Silk, Gareth Donkin. ’70s soft rock is a nostalgic summer thing that I love to spin on patios as well. Goes right with the Balearic stuff I love to play!

03. Where and when did you record this mix?
I did it just for you in my studio!

04. What setup did you use?
My controller into Pro Tools.

05. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included in it?
It’s all my material and/or recent remixes I’ve done. I wanted to promote my new stuff which I’m usually terrible at. Promoting myself that is.

06. Where do you imagine it being listened to?
It’s classic Balearic stuff yeah? It’s kind of the space I’ve been musically in for a bit now. So beaches, patios, on the boat. Anywhere the sun is shining!

07. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out live?
Yeah this is pretty much a summer set from me! These songs are all me in one way or another as I play other artists in my sets. It’s actually a nice mix. I put it on in my home and I don’t generally just put the needle onto my records in my free time!

08. What’s next on your horizon?
Yeah. With summer approaching its end, I will be preparing to hunker down in my studio. Watching Michigan football with my 13-year-old boy and coaching his soccer team. The new Placid Angles album will be out on Oath in 2025 and we’ll hopefully be dropping the new Sol Set EP on All Good Music this fall. I’m also mapping out how I want to approach the next John Beltran full-length. So I have to get to work!

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. John Beltran” Just Beyond the Sun” (Motor City Wine)
02. John Beltran” Cachaça” (Oath)
03. John Beltran “As the Sunsets” (Motor City Wine)
04. Chris Coco & George Solar “Guaguancoco” (Beltran’s Mix) (Dust Down Records)
05. John Beltran “Aşk Anları” (Session Victim Remix) (Oath)
06. Gratts “Sun Circles” (Beltran Remix) (Be Strong Be Free)
07. John Beltran “Nuyorico” (People of Earth)
08. John Beltran “Suena Soleados” (Melodiesfonie Remix) (Oath)
09. John Beltran “Amemos” (Peacefrog)
10. Pahua “Flor De Jazmin” feat. Paz Court (John Beltran Remix) (Razor N Tape)

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