Samuel Coates, better known as Setaoc Mass, will release his debut album later this month.
On Horror Vacui, the Manchester-born, Berlin-based DJ-producer crystallises the expansive, left-field vision that’s been brewing in his techno-focused discography. But now, downtempo, drum & bass, and electro-influenced soundscapes come through strong.
We’re also told that the album transcends dance music with “rhythmic and tonal adventure.”
While the urgency of Coates’ techno records remains, his sound is now “suspended in an unbound space that switches between unpredictable body music and eyes closed moments of escape.” We can expect timeless melodies that recall the golden era of UK electronica, while ultra-modern production drives the record’s microscopic details home.
Coates has been mixing records since the age of 16, growing up in Manchester, and began making music around the same time. His music encompasses deep, dark, and percussive techno and atmospheric ambient. For more information on his work, check out his XLR8R podcast here.
Tracklisting
01. Fall Within 02. Before You Go, Let Me Say One Thing 03. Midnight Wolf 04. Here We stand and Laugh 05. Marching in March 06. The Uncontrollable Mind 07. Beyond The Moon 08. T Minusminus 09. Bears Eating Salmon 10. It_s never too late, or is it? 11. TT_123ghdh 12. Blue Blood 13. Witness 14. Pain
Horror Vacui LP is scheduled for May 23 release on SK_eleven. Meanwhile, you can stream “Before You Go, Let Me say One Thing” in full below and pre-order here.
Brijean the collaboration of singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist Doug Stuart, will release Angelo, a new EP on Ghostly International.
Angelo, named after Murphy’s 1981 Toyota Celica, is a record Brijean have crafted through a period of profound change, loss, and relocation. Across nine tracks, the California pair explore new moods and styles, “reaching for effervescent dance tempos, technicolor backdrops, and vibrant hues” in contrast to the more somber human experience of Feelings, their full-length Ghostly debut in 2021.
Following the sudden passing of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents, the duo left the Bay Area to be near family, resetting in four cities in under two years. Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and these tracks, along with Angelo, became their few constants.
Whereas Feelings formed over collaborative jams with friends, Angelo’s sessions presented Murphy and Stuart a chance to record at their most intimate, “to get us out of our grief and into our bodies,” says Murphy.
In support of Angelo, Brijean will play their first headline shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Brooklyn. Check out the dates here.
Tracklisting
01. Which Way To The Club? 02. Take A Trip 03. Shy Guy 04. Angelo 05. Ooo La La 06. Colors 07. Where Do We Go? 08. Caldwell’s Way 09. Nostalgia
Angelo EP is scheduled for August 5 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Shy Guy” in full below and pre-order here.
Frank & Tony—the deep house project of Francis Harris and Anthony Collins—will release Dream Vibration, their first EP since 2017’s much-celebrated Odes EP.
Upon founding the Scissor & Thread label in 2011, the pair began releasing a series of Frank & Tony EPs. At that point, Harris was known for his detail-orientated house music as Adultnapper, while Collins was producing floor-focused sounds under his own name. In 2014, the pair released their debut album, You Go Girl.
Since they concluded the project in 2017, with Collins moving to Marseille to open a restaurant, each artist has been releasing solo albums: Harris, earlier this year, shared Thresholds; Collins, meanwhile, has released three albums as Grant: Cranks (2016), Fantasy Blues (2019), and Perception (2020).
Having teased the full release with “Time Out Of Mind,” the pair have shared the tracklisting and details of the full package, a five-track outing in slow, reflective house music.
For more information on Collins, check out his XLR8R podcast as Grant here. You can check out Harris’ XLR8R podcast here and an interview here.
Tracklisting
01. Dream Vibration 02. Stretch Out Like The World feat. Eliana Glass 03. Stretch Out Like The World (Timmy Regisford Vocal Mix) 04. Stretch Out Like The World (Timmy Regisford Instrumental Mix) 05. Time Out Of Mind
Dream Vibration EP is scheduled for June 10 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Time Out Of Mind” in full below and pre-order here.
This week’s Web3 Wrap includes the fifth XLR8R+ NFT package, featuring music, art, and editorial from Nairobi, Kenya, an 80 artist “headless band” called Chaos, Decentralized Audio Workstation Floppy’s beta launch, Tamago’s NEAR wallet integration, IMS Ibiza’s Web3 and metaverse day, and more.
Check it all out below.
XLR8R Releases the Fourth NFT Edition of XLR8R+
Last week, XLR8R released the latest edition of XLR8R+ (XLR8R+037), the fifth XLR8R+ edition to be minted and available as an NFT.
The art for this month’s edition, a beautifully realized package of music, art, and editorial from Nairobi, Kenya, featuring Jinku, Nv Funk, and RVMP, was created by Jebet Naava, a self-taught visual artist based in Nairobi. The artwork draws influence from her Nairobi home and the music presented in the package, which are vibrant and transcendental beatscapes full of immersive atmospheres.
As is the case every month, the NFT includes a locked download of the edition’s exclusive content, which includes six previously unreleased tracks, an Ableton project file of the package’s lead track, and a bespoke PDF zine with art, design, artist profiles, and a track breakdown interview to go along with the Ableton project.
The NFT is claimable exclusively by XLR8R+ subscribers.
You can find more information on the edition and package here, or subscribe here to claim the NFT.
80 Artists Converge to Create Chaos, a “Headless Band”
Camp Chaos, a group of 80 artists from around the world, have announced the release plans and structure for the music NFTs created by the group.
Announced back in March, Camp Chaos is the third camp out of the Songcamp ecosystem, and is an “8-week experiment in collective creation amongst 80 artists — a rambunctious group of musicians, designers, storytellers, engineers and operatives.” There are 45 musicians, nine visual artists, six engineers, five radio producers, three economists, two lore masters, and seven operatives helping realize the project.
Over the eight-week duration of the camp, the 45 musicians will create 45 songs. The eight weeks will be split into two-week blocks called Acts, during which a new band of musicians will be formed from the 45, starting and finishing a song from scratch before forming a new band of three for the next two weeks (Act). The bands fall under one of three Houses and each house also includes what the group is referring to as Alchemists.
In the last Act, the 50 records will be “mastered, paired with cover artwork, and encased into NFTs.” 5000 NFT packs will be made available, with each pack containing four music NFTs. This is where it gets interesting (in case your mind wasn’t already spinning). Pack collectors have two choices: open the pack, which burns the pack token and mints four individual song tokens; or keep your pack closed and therefore in “mint condition.” Collectors of unopened packs will be unable to hear the songs enclosed in the packs, as the songs are only “chosen” at the time of opening. Some songs will be rarer to mint than others, too.
Each cover artwork will be generative, meaning each artwork will be unique to every edition minted.
The Chaos NFT project will be deployed to Ethereum Mainnet in May, with more details arriving in May, too.
You can read more about the project here in a fascinating essay.
Tamago Launches In-App NEAR Wallet
Decentralized audio streaming platform Tamago has added a native NEAR wallet to its app.
The in-app wallet will allow artist’s to sell downloadable content, setting their own price for exclusive offerings such as songs, limited edition edits, samples, and more. Artists will also be able to send funds to other artist wallets, opening up community exchange possibilities.
Since its launch in March, Tamago has on-boarded over 500 artists and 700 tracks, which have amassed streams of over 40,000 minutes. Artists have also received over $20,000 in payouts, which have been realized from event fees and “Top of the Chart” liquidity pools.
Tamago was founded by electronic producer, artist, and developer Clarian and currently features music from Turbo Records founder Tiga, Detroit’s Visionquest, Jay Tripwire, RUMORS head Guy Gerber, Mikey Lion, and Clarian himself, among many others.
Audius, MODA DAO, Richie Hawtin, Deadmau5, Friends With Benefits, and More Feature at IMS Ibiza’s Web3 and Metaverse Day
Yesterday, International Music Summit (IMS) in Ibiza presented the Future Of Music: WEB3 & Metaverse Day.
The day, which was run in partnership with PIXELYNX, RCRDSHP, Sensorium, Eq Exchange, and Celo, featured panel discussions, presentations, and, most interestingly, a beginner’s guide clinic. IMS pulled in some of the Web3 space’s leading artists, including Richie Hawtin, Blond:ish, and Deadmau5, plus brands, platforms, and communities such as Audius, Coachella, EQ Exchange, Friends With Benefits, MODA DAO, The Sandbox, and more.
According to the press release, the main theme that emerged on the day was “how these new technologies will cut out the traditional intermediaries in the music industry between artists and fans, whether that’s centralized streaming services or record labels.” The disparity between music revenue and gaming was also an area discussed, a gap that speakers think NFTs and the metaverse may help bridge.
A few cautionary warnings were put forth during the day, including looking out for bad actors working in the largely unregulated space, finding working standards that fit your own, and managing your mental health in regards to the pressure of constantly delivering to fans.
Floppy, a Decentralized Audio Workstation (DAW) and First Person Sampler (FPS), has released its private beta product.
The private beta was launched earlier this week to a limited number of users (those wishing to try it out can find details on Floppy’s Twitter), allowing the beta testers access to the innovative product.
Floppy utilizes a vintage-styled UI with blockchain technology to deliver a fun and—promisingly—powerful music-making experience. The platform features artist created and curated sample packs, which can be used in a “First Person Sampler” via sequencers and in-app triggers. The sample pack creators are rewarded with tokens for adding to the platform and allowing public beat makers to use their work.
Music made on the platform can then be minted and sold on the platform’s native NFT marketplace, Crate. To mint a track, users will need to burn a “White Label” token, which in turn mints a “Dubplate” token of the recording and cover art. Every “Dubplate” token will be listed on the Crate marketplace and can be auctioned off by its owner and listened to by users.
Floppy notes that the platform will be “Splice, meets Bandcamp, with a custom metaverse MPC (CPU) to help you get from point A to B.”
Toada, the project of Valdir da Silva, is back with a five-track EP.
Instante A Fluir roughly means the “instant that flows” in Portuguese.
The EP came to fruition in 2021. While in the midst of a pandemic, to da Silva there was a recurrent conversation about the notion of time as being perceived as confusing. Sometimes it rushed, sometimes it slowed down. The EP was made with the intention to heal and renew energies while emphasising the importance of being in the now.
Emotive but fierce, with musical influences from Portuguese speaking countries such as Angola and Brazil, the release combines syncopated rhythms with intricate melodies.
Da Silva grew up around the cooling hills of the Sintra Mountains. Through lessons with electric guitar and performances in various hard rock bands, he developed his basic musical instincts. But these instincts soon took him away from metal and into electronic music.
Then, in 2015, da Silva conceived Toada, an amalgamation of several music projects that began in Lisbon and matured in Berlin, where da Silva bases himself. His releases began in 2018, all of them through Plūma. His latest work, Viveza, landed in April 2021.
For more information on Toada, check out his XLR8R podcast here.
Tracklisting
01. Fugaz Euforia 02. Desfoca À Volta 03. Sideral 22 04. Jantarada 05. Jantarada (edit)
Instante A Fluir EP is scheduled for June 30 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “Sideral 22” in full below.
Aaron Triggs, better known as Bleep Bloop, will release a new EP as Fossil Fog.
Fossil Fog is the product of Triggs’ new path, driven by his new musical education. While his other musical worlds have simmered, he’s started to pay more attention to technical details.
While in the northern California countryside during the lockdowns, his only relationship with music was playing his guitar and singing songs. He made a little bit of music but never consistently. When he got back into the habit of producing consistently, tons of music just started flowing out. So he decided to go back to school for the first time since he was 17, and from there he plans to pursue a graduate education in sound design and music technology.
“Teaching has relit the fire under my ass for electronic music,” Triggs says.
Stone Speech was produced by Triggs at his home studio in Eagle Rock, California over the last year, created using an array of digital and analog instrumentation. An abundance of material was captured during the initial Fossil Fog sessions, when he was flooded with new ideas and approaches to music as his professional teaching continued to evolve and provide new windows for growth.
We’re told that the project is “rooted in multi-chord based progressions and modular-based patched sequences,” and that it’s highly exploratory and expressionistic music that delves into the genres of ambient and musique concrète.
Few artists can claim to have been as busy as veteran electro producer Mark Kastner, the artist best known as Galaxian. Later this month, he’ll release We Are Power, the first Galaxian album since 2010’s Repent, via Shipwrec and Foul-Up. And, as if that wasn’t enough, there are several more in the pipeline. “Maybe I’ll take a day off or two,” he tells XLR8R. “At some point…”
Kastner, based in Glasgow, Scotland, first connected with music in 1991, through a pair of Technics SL1210s at his friend’s house. “I tried them out and was able to match the beats of the two records that he had given me,” he recalls. “It seemed like I had a natural ability.” Unemployed and unable to afford decks himself, he made an agreement that, provided his friend was out working, he could use the decks to make mixtapes, which he’d try to sell in nightclubs. He was instantly hooked.
His move into making music happened around 1996 when he acquired some synths to make music as Fat Fingers with his sister. Galaxian was born in 2007, with “new ideas, a new approach, and new vigor.” In the years since, he’s been putting out dizzying amounts of hard-edged techno and electro across labels like Manchester’s Natural Sciences and Helena Hauff‘s Return To Disorder. Last year, he even rolled out an album as Kas for Munich’s Ilian Tape. He also tours heavily, appearing in his militant outfit.
To celebrate the new album, Kastner has put together a rare DJ set of the sort of dizzying beats he’s been rolling out for more than a decade. Across its 90-minute run-time, you’ll hear upcoming release exclusives—including several from the new album—plus some demos alongside vintage classics and lesser-known gems from some of his favorite artists. It’s a white-knuckle ride in industrial, electro, and EBM, flavored with dark drum programming and synth eruptions, with an almost impossible amount of energy. It would be exhausting if it didn’t sound so good!
01. What have you been up to recently? Well, I’ve completed work on three albums, two EPs, and one zine that I’m really happy about. I’ve been working flat out out since late last year to get all that finished. I’ve realized the tremendous amount of effort and work involved in not only creating and getting the music right, but placing it with the right labels and dealing with all the aspects involved in making a record. At times it can be tiring and frustrating, but it’s worth it in the end.
02. You’re returning soon with your first Galaxianalbum in a decade. What can you tell us about it? That’s true. I’m delighted that We Are Power is finally coming out. It’s been such a long time in the making. It has an encompassing arc; a theme and mood that feels like a story. I guess that’s an old school way of looking at things but I like that. Some of my best listening experiences are albums that are the full package; that take me away for the length of their run-time; that represent a time, a place, a feeling. I’d hope that is what this album does!
It’s not all super intense tracks at breakneck speed. It would have been easier to make a dancefloor-ready, banger filled album but that wouldn’t have felt right or artistically honest. Sure, there are some peak moments in this but it also coasts along at some point. There are many warmer, deeper, heartfelt tracks than you may not have come to expect from me. It’s all in there. Put it this way: by now I have heard the album countless times and I’m not fed up with it, and that seems like a good omen to me!
03. Where and when did you record this mix? I recorded the mix in my living room in Glasgow on Saturday afternoon.
04. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included? I sorted through a lot of tracks, made a shortlist of what I’d love to include, then I made more lists of the different styles that were included. I narrowed it down until I had a must-play core. Then I played through them, trying to weed out the ones that don’t have the vibe or feel I was going for in this particular mix. For me it’s good to get a feel for what tracks mix well with others; I often repeat a mix of particular songs if it’s something special. There’s so much great stuff I wanted to play but I had to skip loads because there isn’t enough time to fit them all in!
05. What can the listener expect? Tough, high in energy, and high impact. I tried to keep it tight. Often I will start slowly, build up, and let things develop from there. With this one I just drop the listener right in it. It’s a trip through some of the music I’m excited and inspired by these days across a number of genres.
06. How does it compare to what we might hear you play in a club? This mix is quite representative of what I might play if I was DJing out. Normally I’m playing live at events which is, of course, all my own productions so it differs greatly. I played a few incognito DJ sets recently that went down really well, so I really want to DJ out a lot more. It’s how I started in music well before I was a producer. I really love DJing. I guess when people think of Galaxian they associate me with my productions more than my DJing abilities and when it comes to booking it’s a similar story. I’m going to be pushing more DJ shows now though. It feels easier than doing a live set: just give me a mixer with a cross-fader and we’re all going to have a lot of fun!
07. What’s next on your horizon? There’s a few releases to come this year after We Are Power. One from a brand new pseudonym I have been working on quietly. All very exciting. I’m on the verge of finishing one more EP for a very cool label. I’m also re-tooling, re-imagining the way I work, and the way in which I create and process sounds. This has already yielded interesting results.
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.
Ron Trent is set to release his first album in 11 years, WARM: What Do the Stars Say to You? (WDTSSTY).
Harking back to the ’70s and ’80s, when there was a boom in adventurous, luxurious albums, WDTSSTY is a “love letter to the long-player,” we’re told. Across 10 tracks, Trent incorporates a broad range of live instruments and electronics into a “sophisticated, euphonic whole.”
In 1990, Trent was the teenage creator of “Altered States,” a raw, futuristic techno anthem, after which he spent time in Chicago, New York, and Detroit purveying his own breed of deep, soul-infused house and garage.
To those in the know, though, he’s also a producer in the broader sense, and on WDTSSTY he seeks to demonstrate that by collaborating with Brazilian royalty Ivan Conti and Alex Malheriros from Azymuth, violin maestro Jean-Luc Ponty, Gigi Masin, and Khruangbin. At various points, he plays drums, percussion, keys, synths, piano, guitar, and electronics.
“Each track was made with that guest in mind,” Trent says.
He describes as album as being “aural soul food,” that’ll gently “ease you into balmy nights, where everything is alright.”
Sonically, we’re told that it traverses jazz funk, quiet storm, sophisti-pop, new age, new wave, kosmische, Balearic, samba, afro-beat, Latin rock, and soft rock.
The album also comes in a 15-track continuous version, mixed by François Kevorkian.
Tracklisting
01. Cool Water feat. Ivan Conti (Azymuth) and Lars Bartkuhn 02. Cycle of Many 03. Admira feat. Gigi Masin 04. Flowers feat. Venecia 05. Melt Into You feat. Alex Malheiros (Azymuth) 06. Flos Potentia (Sugar, Cotton, Tabacco) feat. Khruangbin 07. Sphere feat. Jean-Luc Ponty 08. WARM 09. On My Way Home 10. What Do the Stars Say to You?
What Do the Stars Say to You? LP is scheduled for June 17 release on Night Time Stories. Meanwhile, you can stream “Flos Potentia” (Sugar, Cotton, Tabacco) feat. in full below and pre-order the record here.
Pietro Iannuzzi, better known as Indian Wells, will release his new album on Max Cooper’s Mesh.
No One Really Listens To Oscillators explores the concept of “unfinished” in relation to oneself, art, architecture, and surroundings. The album’s initial conceptual input came from an article in The New York Times referencing a new conceptual architectural style. The term “Incompiuto” (Unfinished), which was theorized by Alterazioni Video & Fosbury Architecture, concerned unfinished works and how the reveal a new style of their own.
“The head of this article was a photo of an escalator in the middle of nowhere in Calabria, where I live,” explains Iannuzzi. “I knew this escalator very well and I immediately realized that my perception of this ‘reality’ could be really different from people who have never lived in this area. It can be said that I grew up in the unfinished—between unfinished houses and other half-built works that are now an integral part of the landscape, without really noticing.”
Before he started creating the album, Iannuzzi set about clearing his mind. After that, he went back to when he fell in love with electronic music and listened to Radiohead’s Kid A and Warp artists like Boards of Canada and Aphex Twin, Border Community, William Basinski, and Massive Attack. We can expect nine tracks of alluring melodies, driving percussion, and evolving sonics.
“I felt my last album was unfinished, and realised something had to change in my music,” he says.
Indian Wells’ last album came in 2017 with Where The World Ends on Friends Of Friends. Last year, he released New Ruins.
Tracklisting
01. An Escalator in a Storm (Incompiuto Part I) 02. Four Walls 03. Against Numbers 04. No One Really Listens To Oscillators 05. I Cannot I 06. Habitat 07. Life of JS (Incompiuto Part II) 08. Calabrian Woods 09. Before LifeNo One Really Listens To Oscillators is set for July 15 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “An Escalator in a Storm (Incompiuto Part I)” and “Calabrian Woods” in full below and pre-order here.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Coleman is certified Brainfeeder family, having collaborated with label founder Flying Lotus and Thundercat. He is also a regular fixture in the band of Kamasi Washington, who introduces Coleman onstage as “Professor Boogie.”
Interstellar Black Space represents a “new chapter” in the funk dynasty that spans George Clinton / Parliament Funkadelic, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea, we’re told, and it honours their collective ethos of freedom and experimentation. Steadfastly future-facing, but with a deep respect and passion for his lineage and the origins of Black music in the United States, Coleman shows off a “remarkable versatility” across 16 previously unheard songs.
In contrast to his debut album, 2018’s Resistance, he wanted to attain more of a live sound and to rely less on production. A big part of that was bringing in friends such as Kamasi Washington, Patrice Quinn, Ryan Porter, Stanley Rudolph, Sean Sonderegger, and Yvette Holzworth, in addition to Grammy-winner Keyon Harrold (trumpet), Ben Williams (bass), and drummer Marcus Gilmore.
“These are all artists that I’ve just always admired,” Coleman explains. “They also represent a sound and culture that I wanted to be a part of this project.”
Conceptually, the album realises Coleman’s long-held desire to create music for astronauts to enjoy on their missions, and it’s inspired by David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”
“This record is a reflection of how I felt about time, space, and celestial energy,” he explains. “I love space movies like ‘Interstellar’ and ‘The Martian,’ and I thought to myself, if I was traveling through space, what would I want to hear?”
Alongside the announcement, Coleman has shared “Blast Off,” the lead single.
“I wanted to write something that I would want to hear whilst traveling from planet to planet searching for a rare precious metal that we need to bring back to Earth,” he explains.
Tracklisting
01. Lucid Dreaming 02. On The One 03. Blast Off 04. We Change (Part I) (feat. Kamasi Washington) 05. Just Stay 06. Times Gone (Interlude) 07. Interstellar Space 08. Runnin 09. Say When 10. Get Ready 11. We Change (Part II) (feat. Keyon Harrold, Ben Williams & Marcus Gilmore) 12. Be With Me 13. Meteor Shower (Interlude) 14. Astral Walk (feat. Keyon Harrold, Ben Williams & Marcus Gilmore) 15. Lucid Dreaming 16. Mutha Afrika
Interstellar Black Space LP is scheduled for May 20 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Blast Off” in full below and pre-order the album here.
