Oliver Johnson, better known as Dorian Concept, will release his new album on Brainfeeder next month.
What We Do For Others is the Austrian producer’s third album of singular, beautifully detailed sonic tapestries. In contrast to his previous work, it’s more relaxed and quietly confident, founded on delightfully loose arrangements and his own cryptic vocals that are presented more as additional instrumentation rather than lyrical phrases.
All the elements and layers were recorded without interruptions and deliberately not edited. “I think that’s why this record has something of a ‘band sound,'” Johnson tells XLR8R. “It’s me playing all kinds of different key-instruments, singing, and using fx-units to create these freeform compositions.”
As a musician, Johnson has always been striving for perfection, eager to “do things properly,” he says, but this is an album about him letting go of that urge—about understanding that “there’s something magical that happens in these first takes we often call drafts… a spirit is captured.” It’s really about seeing how little control he could exert on the music whilst recording it.
Based in Vienna, Johnson released his debut album, Joined Ends, on Ninja Tune in 2014, before landing on Brainfeeder in 2018 to share The Nature of Imitation. He has since contributed production to Thundercat’s The Golden Age of Apocalypse and played keys on Flying Lotus Cosmogramma. More recently, he collaborated with Kenny Beats on his debut album, Louie.
The album artwork is by the Austrian artist Kurt Neuhofer.
Tracklisting
01. Out 02. Let It All Go 03. Friends 04. Survival Instinct 05. You’re Untouchable 06. The Other 07. Fever 08. Birds 09. Not You Anymore 10. That Place 11. Turn Away 12. Tools 13. In
What We Do For Others LP is released scheduled for October 28 release. Meanwhile, you can stream a video for “Let It All Go” in full below and pre-order here.
The Work lands six years after Good Luck And Do Your Best, a warming reaffirmation of self and sound, rooted in his Essex home and his sometimes adopted home of Japan. It’s the result of an artist who has taken time and care to reflect, adapt, and improve themselves and their musical practise, mostly driven by fatherhood. While it evokes the emotive qualities that have defined Dicker’s career to date, it also feels “more bold and playful,” we’re told.
“I get more comfortable with the music I make as Gold Panda now,” Dicker says. “I always wanted to do the ‘cool’ music, but I can only make the music I make, I suppose. I think that’s why I find making club music hard; I don’t spend enough time in them.”
The title of the album is both a literal statement of the record he took six years to make and, on a deeper level, a reflection of just how he arrived in this place now. Dicker spent the last few years working on himself, undergoing therapy to better understand where he’s been going wrong and why he might be depressed.
He can pinpoint a specific moment when he realised that he needed to change both his outlook on life.
“I was in Japan, in a really horrible hotel, it only had one window, and the window was in the bathroom. When I came out of the hotel room I was basically in a massive tower block 24 floors up; there’s all this mesh netting so people don’t jump off. It was so depressing and I thought ‘fuck it, I could still jump.'”
After 2010’s Lucky Shiner, a reflection of his late 20s, free, unanchored, and giddy, Dicker shared Half of Where You Live, which saw him push his musical boundaries while questioning what it meant to be an artist with a growing reputation and a life moving between cities.
Tracklisting
01. Swimmer 02. The Dream 03. The Corner 04. The Want 05. I’ve Felt Better (Than I Do Now) 06. Plastic Future 07. New Days 08. The Spiral 09. Arima 10. Chrome 11. Joni’s Room
The Work LP is scheduled for November 11 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “The Corner” and “I’ve Felt Better (Than I Do Now) in full below and pre-order here.
Portland producer Paul Dickow will release a new album as Strategy.
Unexplained Sky Burners spans one hour of “dubby, swinging, bass-driven bangers,” we’re told. It comprises stabs and breaks sourced across the legacy of dance music, then wrung through the Portland artist’s chain of hand-built gear.
The effect is both familiar and foreign, “like big room tunes distilled to their core DNA then set loose to churn eternally, equal parts heady rave purism and scientific rhythm experiment.”
This is Dickow’s third outing for the Los Angeles label Peak Oil, following 2012’s self-titled LP and 2014’s Pressure Wassure. It also follows releases on 100% Silk, Kranky, Idle Hands, and his own Community Library.
Conceptually, Dickow describes the album as a love letter to the myriad strains of breakbeat house.
The title refers to an underreported aerial incident above the Willamette Valley, when a mysterious fireball soared through the atmosphere and disappeared into the light of the rising sun.
Tracklisting
01. Frontiera 02. Unexplained Sky Burners 03. Blue Situation 04. Bassmaker 05. Bug Bongo 06. Santur 07. Inside the Pyramid 08. Koto Novo 09. Super Moon
Unexplained Sky Burners LP is scheduled for September 20 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Frontiera” and “Unexplained Sky Burners” in full below, and pre-order here.
Strawberry Season responds “tenderly” to the fraught concept of Spring, a season where crops are ripening prematurely, all at once, into a burst of rot. The album conveys that there remains an “abundance of sweetness amidst our increasing unease,” we’re told.
Sonically, we’re told that the album “offers unique solace,” providing an occasion for the kind of deep listening that our overstimulated spirits require. Across its eight tracks, it spans wistful folk and sweeping textural bleeps, plus twinkling IDM-tinged electronics and processed vocals.
Maurice’s work examines themes of gender, identity, and perception, and it includes releases for Orange Milk, Lillerne Tapes, and OOH Sounds
Tracklisting
01. Gentle Pets 02. Suped 03. Blank Check 04. Known 05. Cold 06. Your Call 07. Low Resolution at Santikos 08. Goodnight
Strawberry Season LP is scheduled for November 9 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Cold” in full below and pre-order it here.
060, the pair’s first collaborative EP, features four tracks of melodic club music, made together while in London and on tour. It is Emerson’s first release since December 2020, but it comes off the back of her DJ Kicks compilation. She first released on AD93 back in March 2016, when the label was known as Whities.
Anunaku, real name Guglielmo Barzacchini, has released a number of records in recent years, including a collaboration with Loraine James for AD93 earlier this year.
The release is the start of a project based around making “beautiful, potent dance music.” It’ll signal the start of a run of shows that the duo will play together under the A+A name.
Tracklisting
01. Eternal September 02. Felice 03. North Star 04. Rite at the End
060 EP is scheduled for September 30 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Eternal September” in full below and pre-order here.
This new collection of songs showcase of the duo’s individual tastes and production practices.
The opening two tracks, “in your eyes” (feat. slowthai and Danny Brown) and “a deities encore” (feat. Liv.e), are created by Dom Maker, while “Q” and “Quartz” are the work of Kai Campos.
Across “Q” and “Quartz,” you can hear a range of influences, from industrial materials and sculpture to Campos’ exploration of the avant-garde club and electronic music scene. The tracks feature sleek beats and stuttering arpeggios with earthy textures.
After 2010’s breakout Crooks & Lovers, Mount Kimbie signed to Warp, but over the past half decade they’ve taken different paths. Campos has dived deep into avant-garde club and electronic music, while Maker has collaborated with vocalists in Los Angeles. Now they’re coming together for this latest chapter, offering new insight into the two sides of their sound.
Tracklisting
01. Mount Kimbie & slowthai & Danny Brown “in your eyes” 02. Mount Kimbie & Liv.e “a deities encore” 03. Q 02:02 04. Quartz
MK 3.5: In Your Eyes & A Deities Encore | Q & Quartz LP is available now. You can stream it in full below and order here.
With September here, we’re back with a roundup of the latest submissions to our portal. There’s plenty of experimental techno in this month’s edition, but what resonated with us were the less club-focused tracks. If that’s what you’re looking for, head to “Coastal Ride,” a slice of futuristic electronica from Werner Niedermeier, or “Floatation,” an immersive production from Synkro, whose name might be familiar from R&S’ Apollo imprint. On “Cruisin’,” by HART, jazz and hip-hop collide with superb results, while Cod3 QR, the Parisian label founded by Laurent Garnier, has delivered an epic piece of synth-wave. If, on the other hand, techno is what you want, then look no further than Julien Bracht, whose submission is sure to place you under a hypnotic spell. In that same vein of pure escapism, we’d highly recommend the mix by Pin, which features the music of Loraine James and Djrum, spanning ambient, experimental, and bass. As always, there’s a lot more, so please dig in! To those of you who have sent us your music, thank you for your continued support.
For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks, and sometimes more, by a wealth of amazing artists that XLR8R has supported over the years, as well as access to the member’s area where you can submit tracks and DJ mixesto be showcased in this feature series and to the XLR8R+ community. There’s also exclusive editorial content, mixes, FREE passes to music festivals and events, playlists, and more.You can find out more here.
As a DJ, beginning in 1991, London’s Oliver Way has held residencies at Drum in Long Island, New York and the JDP nights at The Kitchen in Dublin. He’s been producing and releasing under his own name since 1998, beginning with an outing on Substance Records, before joining the electro outfit Detroit Grand Pubahs in 2002, adopting the pseudonym (The Mysterious) Mr O. Now, though, he’s back with two outings under his own name on the Chicago Connex EP, available now through his own EPM Music. “Shuffle Rush,” featured here, is the standout, but we suggest you go listen to the full EP.
The productions of HART are influenced by jazz, trip-hop, hip-hop, and future garage. “Cruisin’,” one of the London-born, Sheffield-raised producer’s latest tracks, explores melodic and ambient wavelengths, with nostalgic samples for laid-back listening. It’s one of the standout tracks on Moon Jazz, HART’s debut album.
As one half of Lea Porcelain alongside Mark Nikolaus, Julien Bracht put out Hymns to the Night, an album that was picked up by tastemakers including Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, and Zane Lowe. Today, though, he focuses on his own solo productions and last year released his debut album, Now Forever One. “Don’t Chase Your Enemies,” his latest track, is another stunning slice of emotive techno—sure to place you under a hypnotic spell with its crunching acid bassline, punchy techno groove, and whirling layers of of emotive synths. It features on his Rave Flower EP, landing soon on System Records.
With his percussion-led productions, Rene Wise—real name Andrew Shobeiri—taps into primal human instinct, devising atmospheric soundscapes with a raw but modern touch. You’ll find them sprinkled on influential labels like Luke Slater‘s Mote Evolver and Beard Man. With his latest EP, Knock Motion, available through James Ruskin’s Blueprint Records, he’s delivered four more hip-shaking techno rhythms, and we’re streaming the standout, “Shaman Whistle,” here.
Born and raised in Derbyshire, England, Synkro, real name Joe McBride, discovered music through his guitar, but soon established himself as an electronic music producer during the heights of the UK bass scene, leading him to join R&S’ Apollo imprint. More recently, he’s shared “Floatation,” a deeply immersive production wrapped in an abundance of warm frequencies. It’s taken from the Cosmic Vibrations Vol.3 compilation via Deep Heads, compiled by Zeb Samuels.
Well, there’s very little to say about this track other than it’s by Lyric, a mysterious artist, and it’s available on ASID, based in Portland, Oregon. Expect a heavy bass track that’s strangely catchy.
The Ex.Hale project was born in Milan, Italy in 2021 with releases on brokntoys, Sonic Groove, and Diffuse Reality. We featured his work in our October 2021 submissions roundup, and now he’s back with “Always,” a hard-hitting experimental tune spanning techno, jungle, and dub. It’s taken from the Romantic Death EP, forthcoming on Berlin’s Voidance label.
Werner Niedermeier has been releasing music for nearly three decades, sharing it across labels like Rue De Plaisance, Phonica, and Get Physical. “Coastal Ride,” a melodic slice of futuristic electronica, is the standout from his second album, Days Ahead, available on Bulletdodge Records.
Cod3 QR, the Parisian label of Laurent Garnier and Scan X, is aimed at discovering hidden gems and long sought-after oddities. In order to avoid prejudices and expectations when it comes to its artists, the label releases all its music under generic names, or codes. “Midnight Run,” an outing of epic synth-wave, is by 564F4C. It comes from the compilation simply known as 012.
Jigsaw Radio, an online radio founded by Taiwanese DJ Pinkunchiu, has teamed up with local venue Double Check for a weekly show delivering unexpected listening experiences through the different paths of each DJ they choose. The aim is to immerse the listener in the “beautiful atmosphere brought by music.” First up is Pin, a local DJ, who has delivered a stunning two-hour mix featuring the music of Tristan Arp, Loraine James, Lee Gamble, and Djrum, spanning ambient, experimental, and bass. We can’t wait for the next episode!
Robin Flux is a German DJ-producer based in Denmark. Influenced by queer club culture in the US, he has developed a style that sits between house and techno but dips into garage, tribal, breakbeat, ballroom, and disco. For his recent mix for queer collective XOXA NYC, he’s delivered a collage of memories from his recent tour through New York and Chicago, between states of high energy and sleep deprivation. Expect just over an hour of soulful house, disco, and electro, as he pays tribute to the club culture that first inspired him, and to all the people active in these scenes who are driven to create genuine safe spaces of spiritual and bodily connection.
Pet Projects Radio (August 2022) Guest Mix by Tima Fei
DI.FM and NORdjs showcasing exclusive recording from Pet Projects Radio with hosts Shea Delany and Dan Snow featuring Tima Fei of the NORdjs
Vladislav Delay will release a new album as Ripatti Deluxe, a new alias.
Speed Demon, a 13-track album, was conceived after Delay, real name Sasu Ripatti, stumbled upon some happy hardcore and other early rave stuff that he’d never heard before. Through that, he started applying effects to these tracks, twisting them with effects and loops, and the results sounded inspiring. After that, things just started “rolling naturally,” he says.
Conceptually, the album is about time and our awareness of it. Observing the world from a remote farmer’s village in Finland, where he lives, he couldn’t help but notice the rush and speed, the push and the grind, that was evident in the world he was experiencing through the news or when he was travelling.
“Personally I’ve gravitated towards the opposite direction which emphasizes further the sometimes exhilarating and sometimes extremely exhausting effect of speed,” he says. “The theme has been on my mind quite a bit during the past years, the value of time and how to use it.”
The album will land on Rajaton, a new label conceived during “the deep end” of the pandemic, Ripatti says, when he “hit the rock bottom with a loss of work and no real good overview of the future.” Out of this difficult situation, he felt their urge to take more responsibility and control over his music going forward. His goal with the label is to create a body of work that “stands the test of time.” Two series of EPs will follow Speed Demon next year.
A key figure in electronic music, from glitch and techno to ambient to footwork, since late ’90s, Ripatti has released over 20 albums as Vladislav Delay, Uusitalo, Luomo, Conoco, and Sistol. His music is renowned for sophisticated textural qualities. For more information on his work, check out his in depth XLR8R studio feature here.
Tracklisting
01. The New Beast Is Coming 02. Always Calm You Say 03. Tambourine Love Hat 04. Sick But Not Rotten 05. Radio King 06. Ultraviolet Blues 07. Speed Breathe 08. What Time Is Happiness 09. Once I Was Fine But Slow 10. The Bunker Project 11. Juice Bar Memoirs 12. Speed Demon Lap Dance 13. My Best Friend
Speed Demon LP is scheduled for October 28 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Tambourine Love Hat” in full below and pre-order here.
Joachim Spieth has been delivering deep, melancholic techno and ethereal ambient sounds with unrelenting quality for over two decades. Instead of soaking up the limelight or pursuing trends, Spieth pursues his music style with an uncompromising focus, whether that’s through his DJ sets, productions, or Affin, his own label that is currently in the midst of its 15th anniversary celebrations.
Growing up in Germany, Spieth played in bands and listened to instrumental hip-hop before he became infatuated with the timeless electronic sounds of Warp and the hypnotic ambient of Basic Channel. He began making his own interpretations of these works in the ’90s, later debuting on Wolfgang Voigt’s and Michael Mayer’s Kompakt label with Abi 99, a bundle of wonky minimal tunes. He launched Affin in 2008, and, since then, it has racked up over 100 releases, rooted in minimal techno and ambient. In 2017, Spieth released Irradiance, his debut album, comprising eight immersive soundscapes sequenced into a cinematic, ephemeral journey, and another one is on the way.
In celebration of the label’s anniversary, Spieth has compiled an XLR8R podcast showcasing some of the label’s musical highlights, coming from Markus Guentner, Reggy Van Oers, Toki Fuko, Arnaud Le Texier, and more. Yes, there’s some unreleased gems, but broadly speaking you can expect a cohesive collection of atmospheric soundscapes, oscillating between techno and ambient.
01. What have you been up to recently? The last few months have been busy working on Affin. I have finished a new album, Terrain, which is coming in October, and compiled a remix album for my recent works, with remixes coming from Alva Noto, ASC, and bvdub. I’ve also launched a sound library series.
02. What have you been listening to? There is little time to listen to music. However, this year I found an album by ASC on A Strangely Isolated Place extremely cool. Otherwise I spare my ears, which have been under strain for months.
03. You’re celebrating the 15th anniversary of Affin. Did you expect this sort of success when you launched the label? Running a label for such a long time is a success in itself. The conditions in the outside world have not become easier over the years, but the label has established itself after a few years of finding its way, in terms of personnel and style. The goal from the beginning was not to submit to short-lived trends, rather to build something with substance. I think we’ve succeeded.
04. Where and when did you record this mix? I recorded this mix at home some weeks ago, but I’d been compiling it for a while.
05. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included? I didn’t consider adding everything we have ever released to the mix. Some of the projects we’ve worked on were used more to find out why we do things differently today than we originally intended. Consequently, I have concentrated on the state of the label roughly from 2014 onwards, because it was around this time that a transformation began that has resulted in a congruent, sustainable system. There are also a few previously unreleased tracks included on it. So it’s a good overview of my personal view of the status of the label at the moment.
06. What’s next on your horizon? I am currently working on bringing the products we have made to the public. In addition, I am trying to keep a musical balance as well as a mental balance, without being disturbed by short-term developments.
XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to hear the podcast offline you will need to subscribe to our Select channel to listen offline, or subscribe to XLR8R+ to download the file. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.
Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below.If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.
Tracklisting
01. Głós “Swords of Revealing” (Affin) 02. Markus Guentner “Crystal Castle” (Affin) 03. Joachim Spieth “Akasha (ASC Reshape) (Unreleased) 04. Toki Fuko “Sapadilla Bay” (Affin) 05. Joachim Spieth “Decelerate” (Affin) 06. Vâyu “Ambrosia” (Affin) 07. Reggy Van Oers “Pristine” (Affin) 08. Joachim Spieth “Never Mind” (The Plant Worker Remix) (Affin) 09. Joachim Spieth & Cauê “Alpha” (Affin) 10. Joachim Spieth “Luciferin” (Affin) 11. Toki Fuko “Astatine” (Affin) 12. Claudio PRC “Limnic” (Affin) 13. Reggy Van Oers “Sinuosity” (Ness Remix) (Affin) 14. Arnaud Le Texier “Continuum” (Affin) 15. Toki Fuko “The Signal” (Affin) 16. Hierarchy “Hiatus” (Affin) 17. Reggy Van Oers “Reciprocity” (Affin) 18. Reggy Van Oers “Shunned” (Affin) 19. Svarog “Settling” (Affin) 20. The Alchemical Theory “Wet Ground” (Affin)
We’re told to expect another expansive record that underlines the Swedish producer’s “boundless attitude” to genre, from the super-speed jungle influence of “Goofy” with Costa Rican singer-songwriter MishCatt on vocals, to the experimental frenzy of “Szakad.”
Whereas Kovács’ previous records are “deeply introspective,” he says, with Hotel Koko he has shifted the focus away from himself and created some of his most accessible and most experimental compositions to date, further blurring the line between pop and dance music.
Each individual track on the record represents a door within the fictional Hotel Koko and the myriad things that could happen behind them.
“I wanted this album to centre around a fictional, dreamlike place,” Kovács says. “I’ve often had friends staying at my flat in Stockholm while I’ve been away touring or recording. At one point I wrote down some basic information and silly ‘house rules’ on a paper, making it look like stationery for a ‘Hotel Koko.’ I found that piece of paper while cleaning my flat a while back, that’s when the idea and the album title fell into place. I think all hotels, from the shabbiest to the most luxurious, have a sense of fantasy and mystique about them, they’re these ‘liminal spaces’ if you will, where anything could happen behind the locked hotel room doors.”
Kovács hasagain teamed up with his studio engineer Matt Karmil, but he’s also enlisted jazz musician Niclas Skagstedt across some of the tracks. Guest collaborators also include Aluna and fellow Studio Barnhus affiliate Kamohelo.
To celebrate the announcement, Kovács has shared the album’s bittersweet pop track, “Follow You,” in collaboration with Aluna.
Tracklisting
01. Molly 02. Castles feat. Kamohelo 03. Szakad 04. Szörp 05. Usch 06. Goofy feat. MishCatt 07. Vår Dub 08. Follow You (with Aluna) 09. Paris Piano
Hotel Koko LP is scheduled for October 14 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Follow You” with Aluna in full below and pre-order here.
