Lord RAJA Returns with New EP

New York’s Lord RAJA has a new EP on Ghostly on the way.

According to the label, the release sees the producer return with “cunning, childlike purity not felt since he started tinkering with Fruity Loops aged six.” Utilizing “an arsenal of drum machines” along with synthesizers and an Allen & Heath analog mixer for production, RAJA describes a deliberate return to youthful experimentation and immediacy, clearing the way for a “vista to his childhood.”

The story behind the release is as following: having produced 2015’s PARA full-length in the confines of his parents’ home in upstate New York, he moved to Brooklyn after its release and found himself in a basement studio. Soon after, he joined Ghostly labelmates Shigeto and Heathered Pearls for an extensive European tour, finding inspiration in the continent’s techno culture—albeit in an unexpected way. “When I would go out, I would see techno DJs, but it didn’t really speak to me,” he says. “It was unnecessarily pristine. So I wanted to make the shit I would want to hear.”

Returning to the basement, RAJA then composed a flurry of one-take productions, often making tracks over the course of an evening and road testing them with walks to the waterfront when the rest of Brooklyn had gone to sleep. Imbued in them all is what he describes as “micro-choices”—the practice of very simple effects and subtle sonic decisions—in a nod to longtime influence from the nuance and subconscious innovation of Stanley Kubrick’s filmmaking.

Fans of the producer may be accustomed to productions more directly aligned with hip-hop and leftfield beats, but “his swagger hasn’t gone anywhere despite the decidedly dancier change of form,” adds the label.

The release is bookended by a collaborative piece with AceMo—a fellow New Yorker whom RAJA describes as his favorite producer—and bonus track “Fox Den,” an eight-minute cosmic meander released as part of the Adult Swim singles series last year.

Tracklisting

01. Streets of Rage (feat. Acemo)
02. Barrel
03. O.K.
04. Mantra
05. Black Coffee
06. Picasso
07. Colors
08. Fox Den

Amadeus EP is scheduled for May 18 release, with “Streets of Rage” (Featuring Acemo) streamable in full below.

Bambounou, Shlømo, and More on Taapion Records Compilation

Paris’ vinyl-only Taapion Records has released its third compilation, featuring tracks from Bambounou, Shlømo & AWB, PVNV, and Kas:st.

First up is “The Traitor” by Bambounou, one of the strongest Parisian artists of these last years. Up next are Shlømo & AWB, two of the three label heads, with “Blind,” before PVNV’s “Lost Manifest,” the third and final label heads.Closing out is “Noumene” by Kas:st.

Tracklisting

A1. Bambounou “The Traitor”
A2. Shlømo & AWB “Blind”
B1. PVNV “Lost Manifest”
B2. Kas:st “Noumene”

Various Artists EP is out now, with “Blind” streamable in full below.

Elusive Shares New Track from Forthcoming Album; Hear it Now

On March 24, Alpha Pup will release Elusive‘s latest album, Fusion Swing.

The 17-track Fusion Swing was pieced together at various studios throughout Los Angeles and is a culmination of Elusive’s history with the overlapping worlds of jazz, hip-hop, classical, and the thriving LA beat scene. With its vivid instrumentation and gritty drum programming, Fusion Swing paints a vibrant picture of Elusive’s world, and in turn positions him as one of the beat scene’s most unique producers.

Adding to the album’s grand scope, Elusive enlisted acclaimed artists Randal Fisher (sax), Emile Poree (guitar), Ardom Beltan (bass), Todd Simon (trumpet), Isaac Takeuchi (cello), and Christian Frederick Thierbach IV (harp) to provide instrumentation on 10 of the album’s tracks, while LA artist Nite Jewel steps in for vocals on “Rinse Cycle.”

Fusion Swing drops on March 24, on both CD and digital formats, via Alpha Pup Records. Ahead of that, you can stream album cut “Perceptions” in full via the player below.

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Dark Entries to Reissue Helena Hauff’s ‘A Tape’ on Vinyl

Dark Entries will soon release Helena Hauff‘s 2015 cassette, A Tape, on vinyl.

A Tape, released in 2015 and featuring 12 tracks made by house between 2011 and 2014, originally dropped via Handmade Birds but was made available on limited cassette only.

Clocking in at over 50 minutes, this collection spans Hauff’s musical universe, from jacking acid-techno to krautish zone-outs and scuzzy feedback interludes. “It’s tempting to consider it Helena’s debut album,” says the label, “but she views these tracks as mostly forgotten sketches left on the cutting room floor.”

Her equipment setup was a Roland Alpha Juno 2, Juno 60, TB-303, TR-707 and TR-808.

Both of the discs end with Hauff stepping outside of the intentionally stiff, robotic rhythms, showing her skill at crafting less conventional electronic sounds.

Tracklisting

01. c45p
02. hdowed
03. for i am dead
04. pps
05. tape7
06. Split Scission
07. ff297-3
08. btdr1123
09. l#+#l
10. $§”$43
11. 29acid3
12. yyh

A Tape is scheduled for on April 10 release, with snippets streamable below.

Intrinsic Reveals 2017 Festival Details

The first ever Intrinsic Festival will take place in France this August.

Launched in London two years ago, Intrinsic has put on several events focussing on audiovisual and ambient themes. This summer, the organizers are putting together its first ever festival, to be held at Le Parc de Joséphine Baker in Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, France for a three-dayer this August.

The lineup so far includes live performances by Roedelius & Christopher Chaplin, Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek, CHI Factory, Zoya Zerkalski, Katabasis, and SME. Nicolas Lutz will DJ alongside Andrew James Gustav, Melina Serser, E/Tape, Gwenan, Vlada and many more. Aside from the audiovisual events, the festival promises “vinyasa flow and kundalini yoga, healing arts and gong bath, voice and mantra workshops, contemporary dance, film, theatre, live painting, children activities and more.”

For more information on the event and tickets, head to the Intrinsic site.

Farr Festival Reveals Second Wave of Names

Farr Festival has added a second wave of acts to its lineup, including Tama Sumo, Leafar Legov (live), and more.

The complete list of acts included in this second wave is below, all of which is added to the diverse and exciting first list of acts that included Floating Points, Booka Shade, Craig Richards, Avalon Emerson, and many more.

Second Names

Nao
Submotion Orchestra
SG Lewis
Tama Sumo
Moscoman
Ivan Smagghe
Leafar Legov (live)
Huerco S. (live)
Wolf Müller & Cass. (live)
Terreke
John Swing
Machine Woman (Live)
Sad City (live)
Rising Sun
House Of Traps
Basses Terres (live)
Meda Fury
Ally Tropical
Aaron L
Jordan Rakei
Bonzai
Shanty
General Levy
Becca D
Donna Leake
Cedric Woo
Belle Bette
Brian Not Brian
Ece Duzgit
Deborah
Pol Vals
Scott Pelloux
Amit
Aneesh
Piers Harrison
Zutekh
Butter Side Up x Mono_Cult
Abba Hour
Dot. with Gilbey & Chig
Counting Flows
Danny Bushes
Jonny Rock
Chuggy
Straight Out Of Brighton
Coast
Hackett
Olli Ryder & Luke Welsh
Harry Parsons
SHAKE
David Mancuso’s Disco with Sax
Bangs Garcia
Fleetwood Mac Appreciation Society
Boogie Nights – Residents
Brudenell Groove
Tanz. Coast B2B Sax
Dance For The Fallen Heroes

This year’s edition takes place from June 13-15 in Hertfordshire, UK. For more information and tickets, please visit here.

Sophia Kennedy Preps Debut Album

Sophia Kennedy is set to release her debut album.

The Hamburg-based, Baltimore-raised singer will release her first full-length on DJ Koze and Marcus Fink‘s Pampa Records. Kennedy has already featured on a compilation that the imprint released last year, as well as dropping a 7″ on Staatsakt back in 2013.

The musician’s self-titled LP is described by Pampa as its first “songwriting record,” packed with “spartan arrangements and electronic textures.” Kennedy enlisted the help of Mense Reents (from label favorites Die Vögel) in producing the album.

Sophia Kennedy is expected to drop on April 28.

Tracklisting:

A1. Build Me A House
A2. Dizzy Izzy
A3. William By The Windowsill
A4. Being Special
A5. Kimono Hill
B1. 3:05
B2. Something Is Coming My Way
B3. Foam
B4. Baltimore
B5. Hello, I Found You

Benjamin Muñoz ‘Melle’

Rising UK label Push & Run has passed over “Melle,” a new single from Canadian producer Benjamin Muñoz. Inspired by Nina Simone, iconic jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal and Crazy Bald Head’s “First Born,” “Melle” is a perfect introduction to Muñoz’s complex sound world and an enticing preview for his debut EP that will arrive later in 2017.

With touchstones that include video game scores and UK dance styles, Muñoz’s music is at once familiar and foreign; his inspired use of texture and creative sampling result in sonic spaces that sound like they are “taken from the worlds of anime series like Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, and Tekkonkinkreet, to name a few.”

You can pick up “Melle”—which was Mastered by Michael Keire at Threshold Studios—via WeTransfer below, and if you’re like us, you’ll be keeping your eyes and ears peeled for more from Muñoz this year.

Melle

Shawn O’Sullivan Preps 400PPM LP for Avian

New York native Shawn O’Sullivan will return to Avian as 400PPM.

Fit for Purpose will be his first full-length under the alias, following on from EPs on Avian in 2013 and 2016.

As an artist, O’Sullivan has long since explored the juncture between hard-hitting, functional dancefloor material and more lofty, conceptual work. From a purely structural standpoint, the artist’s return to Avian bears all the hallmarks of previous output under the alias, “utilizing the same palette” found on these earlier EP’s for Guy Brewer’s label, according to the imprint. “Stripped back and driven, the music marries caustic drum-machine polyrhythms with warping, pitch bent leads and characteristically atmospheric use of reverb,” continues the label, which promises a “decidedly dancefloor offering.”

The LP artwork and sleeve notes feature photographs taken from Ernie Garcia’s extraordinary chronicle “Fabulosity.” The photo book, featuring images taken by Alexis Dibasio, documents the wildly flamboyant club scene that ruled New York in the late ’80s and early ’90s, centered around The Roxy, Love Machine and most famously, The Limelight.

Of Dibasio’s images, O’Sullivan notes that, ‘… they capture that turning point from reverie to terror, a cherished moment…,’ it’s certainly an emotional shift most people will understand, and an atmosphere that courses through the record, which stands to bear as a collection of some of the artist’s finest work.

Avian is also giving away a set of free 400PPM locked grooves, which you can find here.

Tracklisting

01. Bølling Oscillation
02. Metabolic Grift
03. New Expiration (featuring Rose E. Kross)
04. Sintered Bauxite
05. Cladogenesis
06. Into the Heap
07. Fit for Purpose
08. 8.069
09. Larsen C
10. Mauna Loa Lows

Fit for Purpose is scheduled for May 15 release via Avian.

Mood Hut Announces Neo Image EP

Mood Hut has revealed its next release.

The next EP on the Vancouver-based imprint is an untitled five-tracker by Neo Image—the first full solo release from Chad Thiessen’s alias. It’s a name that has popped up before, on the second volume of Pacific Rhythm‘s VA series. Followers of the Canadian labels will also know Thiessen for his work as part of Aquarian Foundation and Kinetic Electronix (the group behind a recent Mood Hut double pack).

According to the imprint, MH017 has been “percolating for a while now in the hard drives of the Hut.” Judging by the snippets, listeners can expect hazy, dusty house grooves alongside some ambient numbers too.

MH017 will be released soon. Stream snippets below.

Tracklisting:

A1. Winskill Dub
A2. Duckberg
B1. Positive Pressure
B2. Crystal Pool
B3. 4B (Dab Mix)

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