Vanessa Maria is a London-based DJ and broadcaster of German and Jamaican descent. A graduate in psychology, she first made her mark in music on 1020 radio, a weekly show at Bristol university. Then, in early 2019, after enrolling in some DJing workshops called Mix Nights run by Saffron Records aimed at introducing more female DJs into electronic music, she became hooked. “It was the way that music made me feel; it made life exciting, and it resonated with me,” she tells XLR8R. “In a way, music ‘got’ me; it understood how I felt before I even knew myself!” She learned to mix and, after a few guests mixes, the booking requests—from festivals like Wireless and All Points East to more intimate spots like Corsica Studios—were rolling in. “It really just escalated from there…,” she says.
What makes Maria’s sets stand out is the sheer diversity: from high-energy Jersey club, hard drum, and afro-trap to hip-hop, grime, trap, and pop, she plays it all. It’s all part of a driving desire to “push the boundaries “of what a DJ can do, she tells XLR8R. She holds a monthly residency on Foundation FM and recently compiled a DJ mix series in collaboration with Notion magazine highlighting underrepresented regional talent. Outside of playing music, she collaborates with RA on a podcast showcasing prominent Black talent in electronic music and hosts a music and mental health-related podcast and documentary series. Last year, it was hardly a surprise when The Facenamed her in directory of people shaping the future of nightlife in London.
Recorded in her east London apartment, Maria’s XLR8R podcast has a simple concept: she uses it to showcase her favorite tracks from up-and-coming artists. Across its one-hour run-time, you’ll hear tracks from DJ Præda, DJ Flex, and Sir Hiss, spanning trap, pop, drill, afro-house, and so much more. Though it’s more laid-back than what you’ll hear Maria play out in clubs, this is a feel-good mix that sets that’ll have you dancing wherever you are.
01. What have you been up to recently? I’ve been working on some music and mental health workshops and documentaries alongside DJing and learning how to produce.
02. What have you been listening to? I’ve actually been listening to a lot of blues and soul: Ricky Nelson, William Bell, Donny Hathaway, Etta James, and Nina Simone.
03. When and where did you record this mix? In my sunny kitchen in east London overlooking my garden.
04. What setup did you use? Pioneer DDJ-FLX6 controller!
05. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included? I selected on the basis of what I’ve truly been loving and all the tracks, both old and new, are ones I’ve had on repeat over the past few weeks, in and around the club! I’ve been travelling as well so parts remind me of Berlin, Milan, and Copenhagen. It’s a mixed bag of emotions!
06. How does it compare to what we might hear you play out? It’s more laid-back than usual; some tracks I’d definitely play out but overall I’ve included the tracks that I’ve not been able to reach for!
07. What’s next on your horizon? Production!
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.
Editor’s note: a tracklisting will be added to this mix soon.
This week’s Web3 Wrap includes the Bright Moments hosted NFT Art Berlin, featuring, among others, Boreta, Mark Reader and Moritz Von Oswald, Aasthma (Peder Mannerfeld and Pär Grindvik), and Neon Chambers (Kangding Ray and Sigha), Pianity’s secondary market launch, Friends With Benefits’ first festival, and music NFTs from Sweatson Klank, Kabuki, Mathew Jonson, and more.
Check it all out below.
Editors note: projects can be pitched and sent to [email protected]for inclusion in upcoming Web3 Wraps.
Berlin Hosts Bright Moments NFT Art Expo, Featuring Boreta, Mark Reeder and Moritz von Oswald, Aasthma (Peder Mannerfeld and Pär Grindvik), Neon Chambers (Kangding Ray and Sigha), and More
Bright Moments Gallery will host an NFT art expo in Berlin from April 6 to 22.
Taking place at Kraftwerk Berlin, NFT Art Berlin will feature an immersive fusion of digital art and electronic music, presenting a 10-day-and-night feature program, The Berlin Collection, that will find 10 internationally regarded artists who will each offer 100 unreleased NFTs, available to be minted solely by guests attending the event. Boreta kicked things off on April 6, followed by Holger Limpan on April 8, Alida Sun on April 9, Gabriel Massan on April 13, MP Koz on April 15, Jeff Davis on April 16, Loren Bednar on April 17, Jason Ting on April 20, Ellie Pritts on April 22, and Casey Reas on April 23. There will also be a collection of NFT art not available for minting by Nusi Quero, Pussy Riot, and more.
NFT Art Berlin will also feature a diverse array of musicians and DJs soundtracking the event, including Cheng NWSH, Vivian Koch, Yushh, Alan Oldham, Mark Reeder and Moritz von Oswald, Aasthma (Peder Mannerfeld and Pär Grindvik), and Neon Chambers (Kangding Ray and Sigha).
Every night, attendees can also catch the first edition of the Icon Series, which will find Bright Moments collaborating with Philip Glass and Robert Wilson to immortalize their seminal work Einstein on the Beach.
Available within the existing Pianity platform, the secondary marketplace will offer much of the same features from across the current secondary NFT ecosystem, including the ability to resell NFTs at a fixed price or via an auction (with functionality to include a reserve price), and what Pianity is calling Artist’s Resale Right (ARR), which, according to Pianity, attempts to address “a major inequality that musical artists face” by giving them 80% of the earnings made on the first sale of their NFT, and 8% each time that NFT is resold in the secondary market.
More secondary market features are reportedly on the way.
You can read the full press release here, with the secondary market here.
Friends With Benefits Announces Festival
Popular DAO and Web3 community Friends With Benefits (FWB) this week announced FWB Fest.
Taking place from August 12 to 14 in Idyllwild, California, FWB Fest will be a three-day festival of culture and Web3, curated by the FWB community. The dedicated website promotes that the festival will feature “town halls, raves, wellness, live music, keynote speakers, culinary, outdoor activities, artist in residence, and long walks with friends.”
Early-bird tickets, which were only available to those holding at least 75 $FWB tokens, have sold out. General sale tickets will go on sale sometime in May and will be available to anyone holding at least 5 $FWB tokens. All ticket levels will grant the same access at the festival and includes “event attendance, programming, food, drinks, and live performances.”
More information on talent, speakers, and how to contribute will be provided in May.
XLR8R’s NFT Picks, Featuring Sweatson Klank, Kabuki, Mathew Jonson, and More
This week, the XLR8R team trawled Pianity, Nina, and Catalog and selected our favorite music NFTs, all detailed below.
Pianity has a host of new drops, including a long-form live percussive masterclass by Parallells & Maalem Omar Hayat; psychedelic liquid drum & bass by Sunchase; mind-bending breakbeats by Mathew Jonson from the new Caprices compilation; Blade Runner-esque deep grooves by Dandy Jack, also from the Caprices compilation; and typically razor-sharp house from Silverlining.
Nina’s expert curation continues with a soaring bass-driven number by Kabuki; wide-screen chugging electronics from Joel Eel; an atmospheric hardcore cut with masterful sampling by Baiz Mazgi; a tripped-out sound-design excursion by kaotec; nimble broken-beat grooves by LLMAR; and score-like psychedelia by Olga and Brad.
On Catalog, you can find jazz-tinged grooves from Mija; swinging dusty beats by Abjo; head-swirling bass from MELO-X; haunting, tender ambient by meroitic; a smooth-as-silk smile-inducing instrumental by Mad Keys; hyperactive tropical rhythms from Mark Redito; beautifully meditative sonic wonders from Sweatson Klank; and a stunning piano-driven piece by Mark de Clive-Low.
What to Join and Who to Follow:
CHAOS: a new project from Song Camp alum, “a headless band of 80 artists.”
Seb Wildblood has announced his second album with the release of a new single, For Emotional Use Only.
Do You Feel It Too?, the album, is described by Wildblood as a “sonic time capsule” soundtracking his life changes after relocating from the United Kingdom to Los Angeles. Fusing ’90s piano chords with groove-laden, minimalist tech-house sentiments, its fuelled by the Los Angeles landscape and informed by his early education and influences in dance music. We’re also told that it “celebrates a renewed sense of togetherness and empathy after a period of relative solitude.” It’s a record largely directed at the dancefloor, touching on many of the references that have led Wildblood to this point in his sonic journey.
The album lands on All My Thoughts, Wildblood’s own label launched in 2019. Previous releases have come from Tom VR and Wildblood himself. Since Wildblood put out his debut album, Sketches, there, the label has become a staple home for subtly euphoric, deeply moving sounds, primed for meditative dancefloor moments.
The new single is accompanied by a limited run of vinyl, numbered 1 to 50. It comes with previous single “Jobi” on the the flip.
Speaking on the single, Wildblood says: “When approaching the album track selection, I’d often thought of it as a DJ set, and wonder where each track could fit. ‘For Emotional Use Only’ is definitely the crescendo of the record, built for those peak time moments.”
For more information on Wildblood, check out his XLR8R podcast here.
Tracklisting
A. For Emotional Use Only B. Jobi
For Emotional Use Only is available now. You can order it here and stream it in full below.
Ambient Music for Watering Plants, the latest EP from Past Palms, better known as Sam Friedman, is incoming on Friday, April 22 in harmony with the celebration of Earth Day.
This is Past Palm’s fourth release following the excellent Empyrean, and it again takes inspiration from nature. Blending lush ambient soundscapes, warm nature samples, and bass-heavy beats, the music once again aims to encapsulate the “feeling of surrounding yourself with an oasis of tropical houseplants while living in a grey, nature-less city,” the New York producer tells us.
The release meanders through five tracks that pay homage to Brian Eno’s seminal album, Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
In support of the EP, Past Palms has offered up the first single, “Meditation II. Monstera,” as an XLR8R download, available to XLR8R+ subscribers below. Press play now for a a hazy dream of rainforest sounds, blooming strings, ambient textures, and cascading harps.
Zaheer Gulamhusein has teamed up with Justin Tripp for a new album as STRING on Hamburg label V I S.
Gulamhusein is an Ismaili who produces, releases, and performs electronic music as Xvarr. With Tripp, who releases as Georgia alongside Brian Close, he presents “an immersive exploration of the unknown,” we’re told, realising a “virtual vacation” from which he and Tripp “never returned.”
Without defining the scope, STRING tumbled through “a dark musical zone that stretched to the horizon, letting the sound shape itself while falling discreet into an appealing abstract space,” the label explains. We can expect a “truly authentic aural hardware journey” that’s hauntingly adventurous, calm, and surprising.
There are eight tracks, or “weightless, fluid clouds,” each “rendered in swirling sci-fi noir tones, siren-like chorales, and plangent off-planet pads.” The sound sits adjacent to Coil, Conrad Schnitzler, Werkbund, and Jeff Mills’ “deep space missions.”
Last Index Of...follows the German label’s Ditterich von Eulberg-Donnersberg album. It comes in an edition of only 300 copies, housed in individually numbered heavy duty carton sleeves.
Tracklisting
01. Phase Transition 02. Age Of Tide 03. World Line 04. Plus Operator 05. Degrees Of Freedom 06. Fringe 07. Kepler Mire 08. From The End To The Beginning
Last Index Of...LP is scheduled for April 29 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Age of Tide” in full below and pre-order here.
Perel, real name Annegret Perel Fiedler, has signed to Kompakt for her first full-length album since 2018’s Hermetica on DFA.
Interacting with acid, EBM, and electro, Jesus Was An Alien is comprised of 10 new cuts “rich in spirit and allusion,” we’re told. Its influences are myriad, from the indie dance hitmakers of the early 2000s—Hot Chip, Simian Mobile Disco, Justice—to rave compilations and various more abstract inputs. The album features Perel’s voice almost entirely, but there’s also a collaboration with Canadian songwriter Marie Davidson on the title-track.
Conceptually, the album is a “discourse about whether Jesus was an actual alien,” Perel explains, “but also a social debate about what is and implies religion today.” She describes the release as a soundtrack “through the intricacies and ironies of modern belief.”
Alongside the announcement, Perel has shared the title-track, on which she lays out a disciplined electro pulse, with Davidson’s proclamations growing more fervent over the song’s stride. “I already said everything with my synthesizers and the melodies I created,” Perel explains of the collaboration, but “somehow she gave the song a voice I couldn’t!” The single is available now alongside two club edits.
Jesus Was An Alien follows a string of EPs and singles by Perel, including 12″s Real, from earlier this year, and 2021’s Star. You can read more about her in her XLR8RBubblin’ Up feature here.
Tracklisting
01. The Tragedy of CG 02. Jesus Was An Alien feat. Marie Davidson 03. Real 04. Hunger 05. Matrix 06. Religion 07. The Principle of Vibration 08. Kill The System 09. Life Aquatic 10. Am Kanal
Jesus Was An Alien LP is scheduled for May 13 release. Meanwhile you can stream the title-track and the remixes below.
With a discography that includes visceral 12”s and timeless albums on Ostgut Ton, NovaMute, and his own Mote-Evolver, Luke Slater is one of electronic music’s most prolific and revered artists—so much so that Daft Punk name-checked him next to Derrick Carter and Robert Hood on their “Teachers” track. Over a career spanning more than three decades, Slater has put out house-orientated cuts as L.B.Dub Corp, ambient as The 7th Plain, and infectious, psychedelic techno under his birth name, including milestone albums like 1997’s Freek Funk and 1999’s Wireless. His hard-edged techno as Planetary Assault Systems has played a pivotal role in establishing and reinventing the techno genre.
Slater, born in Reading in 1968, found music by playing around on his father’s reel-to-reel tape machine. By listening to Street Sounds Electro Hip-Hop Vol. 1, he learned that music didn’t have to confirm to standard song structures, and through this realisation he fully immersed himself in Britain’s embryonic acid house scene. By the late ’80s, he was DJing at the legendary London gay super-club Heaven and releasing his own original tracks. After early releases on DJax as Clementine, on GPR as The 7th Plain and Morganistic (with Alan Sage), and on Peacefrog as Planetary Assault Systems, he’s continued to release music with breathtaking frequency. In recent years, Slater has continued dropping applauded albums, such as Arc Angel as Planetary Assault Systems and Side Effects as L.B.Dub Corp. Between all this, he tours through Europe, playing everywhere from Berghain and Fabric to Dekmantel and Awakenings.
Later this month, Slater will release a remix package of “Rip The Cut,” 11 years after it featured on his fifth album as Planetary Assault Systems, The Messenger. Slater provides two reworks of his own, and he’s joined by Dubfire and the The Lady Machine, who delivers a weighty slab of industrial techno. To mark the release, he’s recorded a much-anticipated XLR8R podcast. Recorded in the midst of a heady weekend in Berghain, its full of Slater’s favourite hard-hitting dance floor weapons. The mix opens with a psychedelic slice of Planetary Assault systems and, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear one of Slater’s remixes of “Rip the Cut.” Press play for 60 minutes of gleaming Detroit techno, intense groove, and hardcore breakbeats from a British luminary.
01. What have you been up to recently? Working and creating.
02. What have you been listening to? Well, I’m in the studio a lot when I’m not doing gigs, working on remixes, and collaborations, so apart from promos, that consumes my ears. There’s a lot of good alternative electronic music I get sent, too.
03. You’re set to release a remix package of Planetary Assault Systems’”Rip The Cut” later this month. How did you go about choosing the artists to do the remix? Dubfire and myself thought it would be an interesting thing to try, and Heidy and I thought The Lady Machine would be a great fit musically to tackle that track. I think both came out amazingly great!
04. Where did you record this mix? In the studio.
05. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included? I just came back from playing a great Sunday at Berghain so I’m still vibing off that. I focused it around tracks with stabs in as a theme.
06. What can the listener expect with the mix? Part of what I play out. No messing, intense groove. New promos, unreleased grooves. Straight to the point.
07. How does it compare to what we might hear you play in a club? It is what I play in a club, near the peak-end.
08. What’s on your agenda for 2022? Thankfully touring again: Holland, UK, and Mexico this month, so it’s good to be able to do that! I’m writing in between, and reading my daughter bedtime stories in character. She’s a good critic so I have to be on it.
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. Planetary Assault Systems “Unreleased” (Unknown) 02. Reinier Zonneveld x Speedy J “Kicktrack” (Original Mix) (Filth On Acid) 03. Dj Dextro “Xzibit” (Original Mix)(Suara) 04. Black Girl/White Girl “Primal Soul” (Unreleased) 05. ALNA “Trust” (Fred Asquith Remix) (Out of Ctrl) 06. Dok & Martin “Dynamic Range” (EI8HT) 07. Toni Alvarez “That Days” (Plus8 Records) 08. Axel Karakasis “Throb” (Tronic) 09. Ultrastation “Klymat” (Clean) (Something Happening Somewhere] 10. S-File “I Am” (Gene Richards Jr Jackin’ Cut) (GND Records) 11. Reinier Zonneveld x Speedy J “Nummer 3” (Original Mix) (Filth On Acid) 12. Truncate “The Drill” (Truncate) 13. Planetary Assault Systems “Unreleased” (Unknown) 14. M.F.S Observatory, Lazy Ants “Lassameperdere” (Kneaded Pains) 15. Unknown “Unknown” (Planetary Assault Systems Remix) 16. Kashpitzky “Defensive Approach” (Be As One) 17. Steve Bicknell “A Day in the Life 04” (KR3.005) 18. Peter Eilmes “Biadan” (SENSOR) 19. Kracht “Juno” (Original Mix) (Krachtvoer) 20. Planetary Assault Systems “Rip the Cut” (Luke Slater Remix 2) (Mote-Evolver) 22. Mark Broom “100% Juice” (Rekids) 23. Unknown “Unknown” (Unreleased) 24. Phara “Excess Retorics” (Original Mix)(Phaaar)
Vancouver label will Pacific Rhythm will release a new album from Sudi Wachspress (a.k.a Space Ghost), entitled Private Paradise.
As Space Ghost, Wachspress purveys a soulful breed of deep house that’s sure to make you move.
A resident of Oakland, California, he grew up in a small town a few hours from the East Bay area, but his relationship with house music kickstarted through his teenage years while he studied at the California College of the Arts. As he became deeply engrained in Oakland’s rich experimental music community, he launched Late Feelings, a series of all-vinyl dance parties, and began channeling a profound love for ’80s funk minimalism and ambient lo-fi beats into releases for Sweat Lodge Guru and Astro Nautico. He signed to Tartelet in 2018, delivering 12 cuts which, with their sweeping sci-fi synths and twinkling sound design, recalled Lone’s cosmic psychedelia, but the record still felt uniquely meditative. Aquarium Nightclub, a boogie album inspired by African and Brazilian music from the ’80s, came a year later, then last year Wachspress delivered Dance Planet, an album of shimmering deep house “created to heal and energize.”
Private Paradise is an ode to Wachspress’ time spent at Sea Ranch on the northern California coast, a place he and his partner visit to refresh their spirit and regain optimism for the outside world. Like Dance Planet, Private Paradise possesses a “rare ability to restore, rejuvenate, and inspire through each listen.” We’re told to expect “deep, contemplative, and uplifting audio that compels its listeners to focus on the positive forces in the world and the power of being present in a moment.”
Tracklisting
01. Virtual Age 02. Inner Focus 03. Save Point 04. Sounds of Peace 05. Time Station 06. Heal 07. Private Paradise 08. New Day
Private Paradise LP is available now. You can stream it in full below and order it here.
Hello! We’re back with another round of submissions, made through our portal. This February, we’re delighted to have welcomed new music from Australia, Mexico, Croatia, France, and Wales, covering dream pop, Italo disco, trip-hop, and even new beat. (Plus the usual house and techno.) There’s also music from Bostock, an exciting British producer, and Radondo who, after a spell on Mufti’s Fucanglong Files, delivers his ear-worm melodies on Berlin label Loose Fit Records. We’d also like to take the opportunity to highlight nola shade, an artist we know nothing about but whose work has touched over deeply over the past few weeks. Go check out 22 silk dubs, their latest album, streaming below. Thank you once again for all your submissions, and we look forward to hearing more soon. And please dig into these.
Editor’s note: we’ve made a point of linking each artist’s Bandcamp page, or a place where you can buy their music, and we encourage our readers to support these independent artists by buying their music. Let’s keep independent culture alive!
For those unfamiliar, XLR8R+ is a member-supported music community and curated music experience. Every month, you will get three exclusive tracks—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.
Varaz has been studying classical music since a young age and, more recently, he’s moved into jazz piano. With a sound that sits somewhere between minimal house and electro with a touch of nostalgia and futurism, he’s put out two releases on Moodfamily, based in Ghent, Belgium. Here, we’re streaming the title-track of the latest EP, released in September, with remixes by Lawrence, Dewalta, and Moodfamily’s own AMyn.
The productions of London-based, Southampton-born DJ-producer Bostock range from emotional deep house to contagious techno, but they’re all geared for the dancefloor and flavoured by his love for UK bass. “Initalize” is the opening track from Unplugged, his latest EP, available now. (We strongly suggest you check out I’m Good, on Paper, Bostock’s earlier EP, too.)
A former bass guitarist and pianist, Loxxe is a Toronto-based artist who took up DJing and producing while living in Osaka, Japan, inspired by the city’s energy and intensity. Her sound is versatile, teetering effortlessly between hard, driving techno and warm, dreamy deep house. She also draws inspiration from retro gaming culture. “Ultra” is a slice of fast-paced melodic techno she uploaded to her Soundcloud towards the end of last year.
Edgar Mondragón is an electronic musician based in Mexico City. His sound, which blends ambient, drone, noise, dream pop, and techno, has seen him play across Mexico, United States, Canada, Colombia, and Japan, including at festivals like MUTEK and SXSW. “Tensión Hacia Tres” is a musical piece inspired by the work of Mexican abstract artist Manuel Felguérez. (More recently, he shared “Pluralismo,” inspired by José Chávez Morado, which we recommend too.)
“Voyage to Afterlife” is the latest track from Wandour, known for their downtempo and melodic house jams. The track itself starts with a mellow ambient key but, as it progresses with its sweeping pads and floating string bass, it transports your mind and moves your feet. It forms part of an EP of the same name, available now. (“Seventh Heaven,” the flip-side, is also worth your time.)
Acopia is the collaborative project of Melbourne artists Kate Durman (a.k.a Purient), Lachlan McGeehan (a.k.a Liluzu), and Morgan Wright. Their debut album, Chances, an intimate excursion of dream pop, is a tender and emotional journey, reminiscent of Portishead. “Anything You Want,” a slice of hazy electronica that weaves beneath glassy-edged vocals, is a late summer lullaby and one of the album’s standout moments.
We don’t know anything about nola shade. But what we do know is that “browneyes,” a track they submitted to XLR8R this month, forms part of the 22 silk dubsalbum, available now on the similarly mysterious her face label. What we also know is that’s it’s sublime and beautiful which, we must say, is the same for the album.
Lun Moonatik is a musician from Rijeka, Croatia. After publishing his first EP, Parallel Heat, on Indonesian label Love International, he’s turned to self-publishing via Bandcamp. So, recently, he’s put out two albums, Questions and Manifesto, but “Time pt2” is the closing track from Time, his latest EP, released in February.
The sound of Spectateur, an electronic music producer and beat-maker from Nantes, France, is rooted in trip-hop and ambient atmospheres, but with plenty of bass and percussion. Spectateur released his first album, Yateveo, in 2016, before returning with 2017’s Their Dreams, which marked him out as a beat-maker to be reckoned with. “Only You,” an uplifting blend of beats and electronica, forms part of a new EP, available now on Loci Records in Portland, Oregon.
David J Bull is a Cardiff-based DJ-producer who has been a key player in Welsh electronic music for nealy a decade, co-running the TEAK and Studio 89 parties. For his debut EP, Body & Beat, on DKA Records, he nods towards the new beat sound that “emerged and vanished” between ’88-’90, he tells XLR8R. Across four tracks, Bull pulls together a collage of sound sources and mixes them in with FM synths, bass guitar, and Cheetah drum samples (a budget drum machine made in Cardiff back in the ’80s), resulting in a dark and wacky electronic record ready for an alternative dancefloor. “Body Gum” is the second track.
Dany Rodriguez is a Belgian DJ-producer who runs LINK Audio. To open the label’s catalog for the new year, he’s delivered two cuts that aim to bridge the gap between electro and electronica. While “Spirit 82,” the opener, is a deep and squelching machine-funk track with dark vocal cut-ups, “Brain Picture” features glittering electronics and atmospheric keys. The EP is available now.
In February, Loose Fit Records, known for its output of Italo disco and electro, released the debut EP from Radondo, an alias for Jimmy Horton. After spells on Mufti’s Fucanglong Files and Slow Motion offshoot Wrong Era, the Berlin artist further showcases his love for ’80s influenced synth work and driving bass excursions. On top of the two original cuts, on the B-side two Italo contemporaries add their own touch: Slow Motion co-founder Franz Scala takes on “Dust,” but our pick comes from Good Timin’ boss Jex Opolis’ playful and joyous Italo house take on the title-track, which is sure to be heard across dancefloors this summer.
LP.8, a nine-track album, was created in the aftermath of Owens’ sophomore album, Inner Song, during the early days of the pandemic. Facing the realization that her world tour could no longer go ahead, and keen to make use of her untapped creative energy, Owens made the spontaneous decision to go to Oslo, Norway for some undisturbed studio time. There she spent time with Lasse Marhaug, known for his work with Merzbow, and Jenny Hval.
Together, Owens and Marhaug envisioned making music somewhere in between Throbbing Gristle and Enya, artists who have had an enduring impact on Owens. In doing so, they paired tough, industrial sounds with ethereal Celtic mysticism, creating music that “ebbs and flows between tension and release,” we’re told. One month later, Owens called Smalltown Supertown to tell them she had created something of an outlier; “an album that will ripple infinitely with me personally,” she says.
LP.8 is Owens’ third studio album, following Inner Song and her 2017 self-titled debut.
Tracklisting
01. Release 02. Voice 03. Anadlu 04. S.O 05. Olga 06. Nana Piano 07. Quickening 08. One 09. Sonic 8
LP.8 is scheduled for April 29 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Sonic 8” and “Olga” in full below and pre-order here.
