Created over three frenzied months, Let’s Turn It Into Sound manifests as Smith’s “most ambitious, intuitive, and inviting work to date,” we’re told. Determined to pursue new sonic experiments, Smith created a new vocal processing technique and gave herself permission to pursue a pacing that felt intuitive. The result is a batch of “unexpectedly non-linear pop structures.”
The album’s title reflects Smith’s pursuit of “more intuitive and physical responses” to the complex emotions brought on by the fraught moment we live in. “The album is a puzzle,” she says. “[It] is a symbol of receiving a compound of a ton of feelings from going out into a situation, and the song titles are instructions to breaking apart the feelings and understanding them.”
The announcement is accompanied by visuals for the album’s debut single, “Is it Me or is it You?,” a vibrant treatment Smith and director Sean Hellfritsch made using a motion capture suit recording her movements in real-time.
01. Have You Felt Lately? 02. Locate 03. Let it Fall 04. Is it Me or is it You? 05. Check Your Translation 06. Pivot Signal 07. Unbraid: The Merge 08. Then the Wind Came 09. There is Something 10. Give to the Water
Let’s Turn It Into Sound LP is scheduled for August 25 release. Meanwhile, can you listen to “Is it Me or is it You? in full below and pre-order here.
The latest Web3 Wrap includes the upcoming launch of Nina Protocol’s Hubs, which will feature Hubs from Regis, Surgeon, Bergonist, and more, NFT.NYC events with MODA DAO and Refraction, Friends With Benefits’ grants program FWB Garage, Water & Music’s music NFT contract template update, and more.
Check it all out below.
Regis, Surgeon, and Bergonist Help Launch Nina Protocol’s Hubs, a New Way to Publish, Share, and Discuss Music Online, Next Week
Self-publishing protocol Nina has announced the public launch date of Hubs, a new way to publish, share, and discuss music online.
Hubs is set to launch on June 21, with Hubs from Surgeon, Regis, Rrose, Torn Hawk, Bergonist, and Helm, among others. According the the press release, a Nina Hub will allow anyone to publish new releases directly to their page; repost releases from across Nina to their page; publish their own written material or the work of others, such as reviews of posted music or release notes; add collaborators to publish and repost with you as a way to build community; and host your Nina-powered page on a custom domain.
Hosting a Hub on a custom domain means that the user isn’t reliant on any servers Nina is using or running. Even if Nina ceases to exist, as long as the Solana and Arweave blockchains operate, you will be able to host your Hub and continue to publish content. These self-hosted Hubs will also support token-gating.
dreamcastmoe, Jimmy Edgar, Yu Su, and LATASHÁ Announced for Refraction NYC
Virtual music and arts festival Refraction has announced a multi-venue program for NFT.NYC.
Leading the program will be a Refraction takeover of Zero Space, a 50,000 square foot venue and metaverse studio in Brooklyn that will host an immersive set of IRL and URL concerts and spaces, including a gallery featuring work from Fingerprints DAO, MUSE0, and the Refraction Vault, and a live minting station for a special NFT drop from Nicolas Sassoon and Yu Su. The event will also feature performances from LATASHÁ, Aluna, JWords, and others.
The other venues set for Refraction events include The Lot Radio, which will host a live block party, Public Works Administration, which will feature an underground subway gallery with an exhibition from Sarah Friend, and Café Balearica, which will act as a private artist’s lounge.
Jimmy Edgar, Prefuse73, and dreamcastmoe are also noted as playing events for Refraction NYC.
MODA Announces Music3 Live Event at Brooklyn Mirage for NFT.NYC
MODA DAO has announced the details for NFT.NYC event OWN THE MUSIC.
Hosted at The Brooklyn Mirage on June 21, OWN THE MUSIC will feature performances by deadmau5, NERO, Noizu, Daniel Allan, and BRUX. On the night, MODA will launch its Music3 framework, with collectible “Audio Genesis” releases premiered by the headline artists, which, according to MODA, will be the first time new-and-back-catalog electronic releases have been made available in this “new collectible industry-ready digital format.” The collectibles will be streamable on emanate.live and tradable via the Orb marketplace, which is also an event sponsor.
Friends With Benefits (FWB) has opened up applications for FWB Garage, a grants program for members.
FWB Garage opens up a channel for FWB members to propose, fund, and produce creative projects that benefit the FWB community. Ideas and applications must fall under one of three categories: Friends, which includes any social exchange (digital or IRL) that allows members to hang out and get to know each other better; Benefits, which includes any product or initiative that only the FWB community can access or participate in; and Wildcard, which includes anything experimental, unexpected, or uncategorizable.
Up to $50,000 worth of $FWB has been allocated for this season, with up to $20,000 for each category and up to $10,000 per approved application and project. The program is open to both Local and Global members, meaning applicants must hold at least 5 $FWB tokens ($60 US at the time of writing) to be able to receive a grant.
Water & Music Drops a New Update to its Music NFT Contract Template
Water & Music has released a new update to its music NFT contract template.
The updated contract template adds legal protections for off-chain benefits such as merch, which includes physical and digital collectibles (art, clothes, other NFTs), and access utilities, which Water & Music defines as those that “provide IRL experiences upon redemption and, in their redemption, require the physical or digital presence of the redeemer.” This adds to v1 of the contract, which focused on a “single piece of artwork with music attached to it, all owned by a single creator.”
Water & Music’s template is modular, guiding the user through various questions based on their needs and use cases and outputting a custom PDF file that the user can attach to their NFT releases. There are also educational points along the way, providing creators with an invaluable resource in the NFT world.
You can read more about the contract updates here, with the template builder available here.
Flying Lotus has released a new double-single, The Room /You Don’t Know, featuring Los Angeles-based soul vocalist Devin Tracy.
After meeting during a session, we’re told that the kinship between Flying Lotus and Tracy was “immediate,” resulting in two new tracks. One of these is a rework of a track from Netflix’s Yasuke, which Flying Lotus soundtracked. Expect two jazzy tracks with luscious vibes, perfect for summer.
The most recent Flying Lotus studio album, Flamagra, came out in 2019. Since then, he’s shared Flamagra (Instrumentals) and unveiled his plans for a new sci-fi horror film called Ash.
Tracklisting
01. The Room 02. You Don’t Know
The Room /You Don’t Know is available now on Warp. You can order it here and stream it in full below.
Recorded over the past two years, the record delivers on the promise of her previous EPs and singles with 12 tracks of emotive electronic music with “hook-laden pop sensibilities.” It’s a statement of where she is right now as an artist and producer, but also a reflection of time she spent writing and recording the album, and the impact of global events, familial upheaval, and personal struggles during that period.
Lead single “Giving Up,” the most “peak-time” moment on the record, features TSHA’s partner Mafro, and was written during a period of strain between the couple.
Other tracks hold significance for particular points in TSHA’s life, such as “Sister,” written during lockdown after finding out she had an older half-sister via her estranged father, and “Water,” which picks up on TSHA’s love of the Malian Griot singing traditions and features Grammy-winning vocalist Oumou Sangaré.
The album follows her recent compilation for the revered fabric presents series.
Tracklisting
01. Galdem (Intro) 02. The Light 03. OnlyL feat. NIMMO 04. Water feat. Oumou Sangaré 05. Dancing In The Shadows feat. Clementine Douglas 06. Giving Up feat. Mafro 07. Anxious Mind feat. Clementine Douglas 08. Time 09. Power 10. Running 11. Sister 12. Nala (Outro)
Capricorn Sun LP is out on October 7. Meanwhile, you can stream cuts below and pre-order here.
XLR8R is offering XLR8R+ subscribers the chance to win Gene On Earth‘s latest LP on vinyl.
Time On The Vine was released on June 3 and features nine tracks of Gene Of Earth’s signature deep grooves, and dancefloor-ready sound. After being marooned in a small beach town in Brazil at the start of the pandemic, California-born Gene On Earth eventually made it home to Berlin, and, as the reality of the global situation sunk in, he set to work on his second album, working in the studio for five months of feverish work. The resulting nine tracks, released via his own imprint Limousine Dream, are delivered with immense skill by one of house music’s finest producers at the top of his game.
As a token of our appreciation for your support, we are offering current and new XLR8R+ subscribers the chance to win the record on vinyl.
All you need to do is SUBSCRIBE HERE and email your full name with “Gene On Earth” as the subject to [email protected] to claim your FREE vinyl. For current subscribers, simply email your full name and “Gene On Earth” as the email subject.
The winners will be picked at random and announced next Monday, June 20.
Check out the video for Gene On Earth’s “Chuggy Elements” below.
Levon Vincent has been producing records for nearly two decades, starting in Manhattan, New York. His music tastes were shaped by early ’90s house music and the energy that surrounded him in places like the Lower East side. The explosion of music sampling in the ’80s informed his processes and, influenced by the elder producers in his orbit, he began his own experiments.
Since then, Vincent’s releases have landed with regularity, from 2015’s self-titled album debut, which spanned atmospheric dub techno and deep house, to For Paris and World Order Music, and a string of EPs. All of them have refined his dark and psychedelic sound, that’s at once driving and meaningful. Few producers can say so much with so little. On his more recent album, though, Silent Cites, Vincent has shifted away from the dancefloor, with 11 tracks of ambient, Krautrock, shoe-gaze, hip-hop, and electro, conceived as he traveled to and from his Berlin studio.
On tour in Los Angeles, as he wound down ahead of Silent Cities’ release, Vincent recorded a podcast for XLR8R. As with most Vincent DJ sets, it’s exclusively his own material, much of it is unreleased, but in its sound it’s also more melodic and contemplative. “I think the weather played a big part in the approach to the mix,” Vincent told XLR8R, “which was very loose and casual in the same sense as a typical Los Angeles warm and sunny day.” Press play for 80 minutes of lush, all-original house music.
01. What have you been up to recently? I’m just maxin’ and relaxin’, celebrating the release of my new album, Silent Cities.
02. What have you been listening to? I’ve been listening to a lot of Aretha Franklin lately.
03. Silent Cities is different to your dancefloor stuff. How satisfying was it to produce? This was quite a process to go through, to work on music for listening purposes. It’s the first time in my career that I’ve done that. I’ve always made music for dancing purposes. I can say that it was a lot of ups and downs and it took a few years. There wasn’t the same direct approach as when I am making techno for a dancefloor; this was a lot of messing around and it felt like I was trying to solve a mystery. Like I knew there was something I wanted, but I had to figure out how to make it. With dance music I can envisage a song in my head before I ever sit down, because I know what I want to achieve, but with this album I just knew it would be for listening purposes, and I took it from there.
04. Where and when did you record this mix? This mix was recorded in Los Angeles in May 2022. I was in town for a gig and staying in a cottage in Silver Lake, a hip little neighbourhood in the hills. I played music every day, alternating between DJing and making music. I was there to DJ at the excellent intothewoods party, and I had five extra weekdays to do music and enjoy the weather.
05. What’s the idea behind it? I know that I never listen to rehearsed DJ sets, like pre-arranged podcasts. They’re just not for me. So what I tried to do here is something more like just improvising. I love hearing live recordings of DJ sets, especially when you can sort of feel the crowd’s response. So I did something that was more like that: throwing music at an audience. In the end I just liked how this was flowing without a beginning, middle, or an end. It’s like walking into a club and hearing a DJ.
05. Can you tell me about the tracks you’ve included? Well, I wrote all these tracks. When I DJ I play my own music, with a couple of classics here and there. I love how the CDJs have brought us back to a time like in 1980’s clubs when DJs could bring their own tracks on a reel-to-reel to test drive. So with these tracks, a lot of them are either my own records that I’ve already released or demos that I was able to play using the CDJs in the spirit of dub-plates. I do play a classic every once in a while, but for this mix all the tracks that made the cut happen to be my own. It’s special to do it this way because when I DJ in a club, you can only hear this music when I play, so it’s a way to bring something special to a crowd.
06. What’s next on your horizon? I’m just touring and gigging, releasing dance tracks on Novel Sound and also enjoying the rest that comes after releasing an album project. In the fall I will start a new project and do it all over again!
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.
Daniel Veiga, better known as DJ Danifox, has released a new solo EP on Príncipe.
Veiga, the son of Angolan parents, was born in Lisbon, Portugal but he moved to Leeds in the UK in 2014, around the time that he began making his first beats as a means of sheltering from family-related difficulties. As his aesthetic began to take shape, coming from tarraxo, kuduro, and Lisbon ghetto, he connected with the Príncipe crew through his friend Deejay Ary, whom he collaborated with on 2016’s Dorme Bem.
For years, Veiga has been touted as one of Príncipe’s rising names, acknowledged for his dancefloor cuts and playful vibes.
After releasing his debut solo EP, Long Way Talk, on Los Angeles’ Point Records, moving from kuduro to house and featuring his own vocals, he contributed “Dark Hope,” a closing track to Príncipe’s thrilling 32-track label compilation. Alongside Puto Márcio, Lycox, and BBoy, Veiga forms the Tia Maria Produções crew.
Now he’s back with his first solo EP for Príncipe, featuring six tracks that stay in “quasi-permanent flirt with the dancefloor” using organic textures, bass, and very lively drums. You can read more about Veiga’s work in his XLR8R podcast here.
Tracklisting
01. Criança 02. Long Way Talk (Reprise) 03. Sanidade 04. Lost 05. Solo 06. No Stage
Dia Não Mata Dia EP is available now. You can stream the album in full below and order it here.
Ayman Rostom, better known as The Maghreban, will release his second album in July.
Rostom, a native of Guildford, England with Egyptian and Saudi heritage, has been working on Connectionsince 01DEAS, his last album, came out in 2018. While he says he could have tried to come up with “some grand narrative to give it meaning,” it’s just some deeper tracks that he made that he thinks sit together well.
We’re also told that there are Middle Eastern, jazz, and techno influences in some of the songs, and that he was trying to make stuff that was “a little more emotive.”
The album is called Connection because Rostom was seeking to become more comfortable with connection whilst making it, rather than keeping himself to himself. But the flip-side of that was a deeper awareness of grief and sorrow, which is why some of the tracks have “an air of sadness,” he says.
It features collaborations with rapper Nah Eeto, plus Abdullah Miniawy, Idris Rahman, and Omar. Rostom worked with Matt Littler again for the artwork. “I told him ‘less grotesque, more serious,’ compared to the last LP,” Rostom says. “Maybe that’s also what I was going for with the music!”
Over a storied career that spans more than three decades and various different aliases, Rostom has tried his hand at his fair share of genres. Though he’s spent the majority of his journey in music releasing jungle 12″s under his own name or abrasive hip-hop beats as Doctor Zygote, he’s made the most noise as The Maghreban, an alias he launched in 2014 dedicated to his dancefloor-ready house and its various curious offshoots. You can read more about his work in his XLR8R podcast here.
Tracklisting
01. Moving 02. Got Your Number feat. Nah Eeto 03. Synanon 04. Anzilli feat. Abdullah Miniawy 05. Celebratory Relapse feat. Idris Rahman 06. Waiting feat. Omar 07. Baby 08. Without You 09. Black Seed Oil feat. Idris Rahman 10. Moving On
Connection LP is scheduled for July 15 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Got Your Number” feat. Nah Eeto in full below and pre-order here.
For our members, a new month means a package of previously unreleased music, and this time around it comes from three artists who’ve been on our radar for some time.
On opening duties is enigmatic Italian producer D:fferent Place who, for over just shy of a decade, has compiled a discography of quality EPs that stylishly blend house and stripped-back techno.“Shades of Time,” the track he’s offered up here follows in this style, with five-and-a-half minutes of feel-good melodies and chunky low-slung grooves.
Up next is Argentinian producer Ana Helder, part of the Cómeme family, with “Dribbling Con Espadas,” a slice of chugging funk-infused house music.
That’s before Quimbie, another mysterious artist who forms part of Janx Records, based in Germany, closes the package. With “Gloria Fake,” he delivers a broken-beat deep house cut perfect for the summer months ahead.
The art for this month comes from Rebecca Kettley, a freelance artist living in London, which, once again, is claimable as an NFT.
Track mastering comes from Kamran Sadeghi and Gabriele Carasco.
Thanks for your continued support.
The XLR8R team
The music, PDF zine, and wallpaper art can be downloaded once you SUBSCRIBE HERE. If you’re already a subscriber, you can download the package below.
Editor’s note: the subscriber NFT will be available next week and a note will be sent out to subscribers.
Jazz Codes is Ayewa’s second album for Anti-, and a companion to her 2021 release, Black Encyclopedia of the Air. As its name would suggest, it uses free jazz as a starting point.
The album sprung from a collection of poems of the same name, written in honor of jazz and blues icons Woody Shaw, Amina Claudine Myers, and Mary Lou Williams. During the lockdowns of early 2020, Ayewa connected with Swedish producer Olof Melander to see if he would send over a few jazz loops, with the intention of putting together a CD that would accompany the book’s release.
Well, Melander sent her about 100 tracks. The more Ayewa worked with them, the more the project spilled out from itself. Jazz Codes “took on its own life,” we’re told, “melodies sprouted around Ayewa’s poems.”
In a shift from the noise-inflected sound of her previous albums, Ayewa began writing songs with “R&B sweetness,” we’re also told—songs that asked for singers to accompany her raps and spoken word transmissions. So, she sought out a roster of collaborators.
Working virtually, Ayewa drew in instrumentalists, like flutist Nicole Mitchell and harpist Mary Lattimore, and vocalists, like Melanie Charles and AKAI SOLO. None of Ayewa’s collaborators heard each other’s takes before the songs were completed.
Ayewa spent years organizing and performing in Philadelphia’s underground music community before moving to Los Angeles to teach composition at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She released her debut album as Moor Mother, Fetish Bones, in 2016.
Tracklisting
01. Umzansi feat. Black Quantum Futurism and Mary Lattimore 02. April 7th feat. Keir Neuringer 03. Golden Lady feat. Melanie Charles 04. Joe McPhee Nation Time Intro feat. Keir Neuringer 05. Ode to Mary feat. Orion Sun and Jason Moran 06. Woody Shaw feat. Melanie Charles 07. Meditation Rag feat. Aquiles Navarro and Alya Al Sultani 08. So Sweet Amina feat. Justmadnice and Keir Neuringer 09. Dust Together feat. Wolf Weston and Aquiles Navarro 10. Rap Jasm feat. Akai Solo and Justmadnice 11. Blues Away feat. Fatboi Sharif 12. Blame feat. Justmadnice 13. Arms Save feat. Nicole Mitchell 14. Real Trill Hours feat. Yung Morpheus 15. Evening feat. Wolf Weston 16. Barely Woke feat. Wolf Weston 17. Noise Jism 18. Thomas Stanley Jazzcodes Outro feat. Irreversible Entanglements and Thomas Stanley
Jazz Codes LP is scheduled for July 1. Meanwhile, you can stream “Woody Shaw” feat. Melanie Charles in full below and pre-order here.
