Page 69 – XLR8R

Web3 Wrap: BLOND:ISH’s Social Token, Water & Music’s Research Series, Sound’s $5 Million Fundraise, and More

This week’s Web3 Wrap includes a new social token launched by Canadian DJ and producer BLOND:ISH, new music NFT platform Sound’s announcement of its $5 million fundraise, Nike’s acquisition of RTFKT studio, nftnow’s top 21 music NFT moments of 2021, Water & Music’s $STREAM research series, and more.

Dive into the full wrap below.

Nike Acquires RTFKT

Earlier this week, Nike announced the acquisition of NFT studio RTFKT.

RTFKT is most known as the creators of the NFT avatar project CloneX, a collaboration with Takashi Murakami, which has a current floor price of 4.7 ETH at the time of writing. The acquisition gives Nike direct access to RTFKT’s talented designers and developers, bringing them in-house to accelerate Nike’s metaverse plans and to develop assets for Nike’s athletes and creators. According to President and CEO John Donahoe, Nike’s plan is to “invest in the RTFKT brand, serve and grow their innovative and creative community and extend Nike’s digital footprint and capabilities.”

You can read more about the acquisition here.

Sound Raises $5 Million

On Wednesday, Sound, a new music NFT discovery platform, announced it had raised $5 million in an investment round.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with investment also coming in from Variant Fund, The LAO, Flamingo DAO, and angel investors and artists including Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst, Jess Sloss, Trevor McFedries, Cooper Turley, DJ Drama, and many more.

Sound launched last week and has onboarded and dropped NFTs from seven artists, each of which sold out in under a minute, “generating revenue for the artists equivalent to 21 million streams in less than 7 minutes.” The platform lets artists release new songs via listening party premieres, and the artists can then batch create and sell 25 NFTs for each song, selling them for 0.1 ETH ($396 at the time of writing).

You can read more about the investment announcement here.

BLOND:ISH Announces New Social Token $ISH

Canadian DJ and producer BLOND:ISH will be launching a social token called $ISH.

$ISH will be the first token launched on P00LS, a new decentralized exchange for creator tokens with a platform-independent development model. $ISH will be officially minted by P00LS early next year, although, fans can start working towards earning tokens now by sharing BLOND:ISH’s music, content, and $ISH token news on social media, and by inviting others to learn more about BLOND:ISH’s vision, the causes she advocates, and how to earn $ISH.

The token will act as the gateway to “Happy Happy World,” BLOND:ISH’s vision for the metaverse, and gives holders exclusive access to unreleased edits and tracks, new merch and discounts, and access to token-gated channels on her Discord server. Holders will also be able to buy tickets to BLOND:ISH’s shows with $ISH.

You can find out more and start earning $ISH here.

Water & Music Releases a Week-Long $STREAM Research Series

This week, Cherie Hu’s Water & Music, and its team and collaborators, released an in-depth research series on music and Web3.

The five-part research project was developed by the Water & Music team and collaborators over the last two months and focuses on the state of the music and Web3 ecosystem. The five parts have been rolled out over this past week, releasing a feature a day. Part one posed the question “Will music NFTs ever get their PFP moment?” and featured a deep dive into the stats of music NFTs and why, at this stage in the development of NFTs, music NFTs weren’t flourishing as much as their visual counterparts; part two looked at the legal ramifications of music NFTs and what it actually means to “own” a music NFT, especially in regards to those that promise and sell royalty shares; part three gives an overview of the Web3 music ecosystem and the current tools and platforms available to artists and creators; part four analyzes a range of current onboarding strategies and the “narrative and technological friction” weighing down Web2 fan bases; and part five is yet to drop but is scheduled for today.

You can check out the full series here.

nftnow Wraps Up the Year With “The Top 21 Music NFT Moments in 2021”

NFT news platform nftnow has released a list of the top 21 music NFT moments of 2021.

Although they are still behind many of their visual counterparts—at least in terms of sales and widespread attention—music NFTs and the ecosystem surrounding them proliferated in 2021. In a partnership with Coinbase and UnitedMasters, nftnow has pulled together and outlined all the key moments in what has been a monumental year for music NFTs.

Among the top 21 you can find, among many others, Jacques Greene’s February sale of “Promise,” which included the publishing rights (“in perpetuity”) to the single in one of the first NFT sales to experiment with music rights; Audius’ partnership with TikTok, which was the first time a streaming service had partnered with the social media behemoth; the launch of musician cohort and incubator SongCamp and the release and sale of its genesis NFT drops; the release and subsequent sale of BT’s “genesis.json,” a 24-hour composition of audio and visuals that loops forever in a dedicated program; and PleasrDAO’s purchase of the lost Wu-Tang album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin from the US Government.

You can check out the full list here.

What to Join and Who to Follow:

Matthew Chaim: NFT artist, music producer, and SongCamp founding member.

Interdependence: Matt Dryhurst and Holly Herndon’s brilliant podcast on “the people, projects and technologies shaping 21st century culture.”

Devaughn Dix: community manager for The Willow Tree DAO.

Mint Songs: music NFT marketplace.

Francis Harris Details Fourth Album, ‘Thresholds’

Francis Harris has unveiled Threshholds, a new album on Scissor & Thread.

Across 12 introspective ambient works, Thresholds explores ideas of thought and connection.

While the Brooklyn, New York artist’s previous albums, most notably Leland and Minutes of Sleep—as well as two albums he’s released as one half of Aris Kindt—have relied on narrative drives, Thresholds aspires to sonic universality and “the presentation of a fully formed psycho-acoustical world,” we’re told. It’s inspired by today’s ecological and political upheavals and the role of speculative thought as an avenue of global transformation.

Harris is once again by a strong list of collaborators, with vocals from Elina Glass and instrumentation by Dave Harrington, Mark Nelson (Pan American), Will Shore, Greg Paulus, and Gareth Redmond. The album was mixed by Phil Weinrobe at Figure 8 studios.

In line with the announcement, Harris has shared “Rebstock Fold,” a track inspired by a visit to Rebstockpark in Frankfurt. The track is described as an “exploration in intensive rather extensive thought.”

For more information on Harris, check out his XLR8R feature here.

Tracklisting

01. Useless Machines
02. And Everything Is One Thing After Another
03. Rebstock Fold
04. Earth Moves
05. Thresholds
06. Luck Takes A Step
07. I Can Still See Us
08. Speculative Nature Of Purposive Form
09. Cut Up
10. New Pastoral
11. On That Occasion, Landeau
12. Every Degree Of Distance

Thresholds LP is scheduled for February 25 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Rebstock Fold” in full below and pre-order here.

Web3 Wrap: Sound Launches, Tupac NFTs, Surgeon, Jay Daniel, and More

This week’s Web3 Wrap includes the launch of new music NFT and discovery platform Sound, Richie Hawtin and deadmau5’s $4.5 million fundraise, Mirror’s new dashboard, Tupac’s posthumous NFT drop, and NFT releases from Surgeon, Jay Daniel, Teen Daze, and many more.

Dive in below to check it all out.

New Music NFT Platform Sound Launches

New music NFT and discovery platform Sound launched this week.

Sound will aim to power the next generation of artists with a set of Web3 music and economic tools with the mission to allow a million artists to make a living off of their art. Sound allows artists to debut new music using a listening parties feature and by offering limited edition NFTs. Early editions are notably more valuable than later editions, so it looks to reward early adopters and put value back in the art of discovery.

On the fan side, owning a song’s NFT allows the fan to comment on the track while they are an owner; if they sell the NFT, the comment disappears and is replaced with the new owner’s comment. Each song is also embedded with one “golden egg” randomly positioned somewhere on the track’s timestamp. If an owner comments on the track at the point of the golden egg then the NFT gets upgraded to a 1/1 edition with a unique artwork chosen by the artist. The golden eggs are announced once the song sells out. Sound NFTs are also a fan’s access pass to the Sound community on Discord where “artists and listeners interact with each other through weekly hangouts, collaborative projects, and more.”

Sound is onboarding artists one by one, with three artists onboarded so far: Oshi, Grady, and Daniel Allan, with all three selling out their drops within the first hour.

You can read more about the launch here and check out the platform here.

MakersPlace to Release New Tupac Jewelry NFTs

MakersPlace and the Shakur Estate have announced a new drop featuring jewelry designs inspired by Tupac’s own jewelry.

The upcoming drop, called The Immortal Collection, is set to release on December 15 and will feature four pieces created by NFT artist Impossible Brief, titled ACTIVIST, ARTIST, SAINT, and SINNER. The NFT designs draw from and incorporate some of the most well-known pieces from Tupac’s collection, including his 2PAC and diamond solitaire rings, his Makaveli bracelet, and the medallion he wore in the last photo ever taken of him.

The drop gives fans a first look at some of the items to be featured in the upcoming museum experience titled Tupac Shakur. Wake Me When I’m Free., which opens in January 2022.

You can find out more on the drop here.

deadmau5 and Richie Hawtin’s Gaming Platform PIXELYNX Announces $4.5 Million Seed Investment Round

PIXELYNX, Joel Zimmermann (a.k.a. deadmau5) and Richie Hawtin’s gaming platform, this week announced the closure of a $4.5 million seed investment round.

PIXELYNX was founded by Hawtin, Zimmermann, and music and gaming industry veterans Ben Turner, Dean Wilson, and Inder Phull to offer “an exciting new physical and digital music ecosystem for artists to launch and control their own interactive experiences through playable worlds and NFTs.” PIXELYNX partnered with Niantic’s Lightship SDK, the creators of Pokémon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Ingress to create a new virtual world platform called Musicverse. The company also has a funding and incubation arm called LynxLabs.

The $4.5 million round was led by Animoca Brands and included investment from Solana Ventures, Alameda Research, Republic Realm, and Sfermion, among others.

The platform is due to launch in 2022.

Mirror Gets a New Dashboard

Earlier this week, Mirror released a new dashboard for users.

The new dashboard provides an improved structure to manage Mirror’s myriad features, including crowdfunding, NFT Editions, Splits, Publishing, Auctions, and the new Token Race feature, which allows individuals and DAOs to have their community involved in decision-making via voting. There is now also an easily accessible feature to switch between accounts for those managing or contributing to more than one .eth address, plus a light and dark mode. Mirror has also noted that there is an “abundance of room for all the exciting features and integrations” the platform has on the way, so keep an eye out for more.

You can check out the new dashboard and read through the features here.

XLR8R’s Favorite Music NFT Drops, Featuring Jay Daniel, Kamran Sadeghi, Surgeon, Jansport J, and More

Moving forward, every other week, our Web3 Wraps will include XLR8R’s picks from the music NFT ecosystem. This week, we trawled the latest releases on Catalog and Nina, our picks of which are detailed below.

On Catalog, Teen Daze dropped a dreamy neo-house cut inspired by Akira; Haleek Maul seals another record-breaking 25 ETH sale in “Violate,” with three more cuts available; Pussy Riot teams up with Boys Noize for a punked-up slice of proto-techno; Jansport J’s genesis beat tape lands with the silky grooves of “Nights Like These”; GRGNWMN offers up fierce bars and beats on “SECOND WIND / A_U”; and XLR8R favorite Jay Daniel delivers two cuts, an ambient piece and a breaks-driven house track, pulled from his forthcoming album.

Nina also saw a raft of killer drops, including Surgeon’s double pack of sophisticated house and techno hybrids; Igor Dyachenko’s modular synthesizer exercise, featuring art from his neural research; a nuclear tower sound installation recording by Kamran Sadeghi; Bergonist’s searing beat science; a stunning five-piece series of forward-thinking electronics by Feu St-Antoine; and chugging sci-fi disco by Space Dimension Controller.

What to Join and Who to Follow:

Michail Stangl: Zora’s Head of Culture and key music-industry figure.

David Rudnick: renowned designer and cultural thinker.

Arpeggi Labs: world-first on-chain DAW.

David Greenstein: Sound co-founder.

Podcast 726: Whodat

Terri McQueen, better known as Whodat, realized that music was going to be a major part of her life at an early age. Growing up in Detroit, she found herself enchanted by jazz on the radio, and by the age of 10 she was so deeply intrigued by new sounds that she’d spend her free time record shopping with her mother. She’d expand her tastes by rooting through crates of records from her aunt, but it took 20 years because she really considered playing her favorite records out. After losing her job, she sought solace in electronic music and one afternoon bumped into Marcellus Pittman, Rick Wilhite and, Theo Parrish at a local record store. When they encouraged her to carry on the legacy they’d established through the early 1990s, she made an agreement that she’d only start DJing if she could find a pair of Technics 1200s for $400 or less. Within a year, she’d worked up an audience in her hometown, and she’s since shared her melody-led house and funk selections as far afield as Canada, Japan, and Germany.

On the production front, McQueen has compiled a small but impressive discography. In 2013, she caught the attention of Lakuti, who signed up a bunch of her early sketches to Uzuri for The Recovery—an EP of spellbinding house. Since then, she’s collaborated with German artist Viola Klein on some deep house jams, including the exceptional “Funeral Song” on Workshop. After an instantly difficult 2020, disrupted again by the seemingly endless pandemic, we wanted to spread some optimism and positivity through some feel-good dance vibes, and Whodat was one of the first names to spring to mind. Though it was recorded in the dead of winter, with dark clouds and hazy evenings, the vocal-laden house jams of her XLR8R podcast will melt all those troubles away, transporting you to a sun-drenched patio in the middle of summer. Here’s to a better year ahead!

01. What have you been up to recently?

I’ve just rearranged my studio. I moved it into a bigger room about six months ago. Now I’m purging my record collection. I think this might take a while!

02. What have you been listening to during lockdown?

I have been listening to a lot of jazz and R&B. I love listening to jazz on 90.0 WRCJ in the evenings.

03. What have you been listening to recently?

Lately, I have just been listening to my surroundings. This is what helps me to create.

04. How did your first releases and DJ bookings come about?

Lakuti contacted me after hearing some of my tracks. She said liked the groove of my productions. That led to my first EP on Uzuri. Viola Klein was the first to book me in Europe. She invited me to her Bring Your Ass party in Cologne. We had met in Detroit a few years before.

05. What drives you to make electronic music?

I’m still trying to figure that one out!

06. When did you record this mix?

I recorded this mix on a Monday with a case of the Mondays.

07. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?

Most of the tracks were selected according to my rough few days before I had to get this mix done.

08. What can the listener expect?

Behind every dark cloud, there is a silver lining and a party.

09. What’s on your horizon for 2022?

I’m starting to feel a lot better, finally. I’m really gonna get some music done. There is a website and Patreon in the works. Maybe some other stuff if I feel up to 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. Nubia Garcia “The Message Continues” (Mark De Clive Lowe Remix) (Concord Jazz)
02. 2Lanes feat. Kesswa, John FM, Ian Fink & Shigeto “Baby’s Born to Fish” (Portage Garage Sounds)
03. Delphic “Doubt” (Kyle Hall Remix) (White-Label)
04. Hugo LX “A Wave Supreme” (People of Earth) (White-Label)
05. Tall Black Guy X Chaka Khan “I Know You, I Live You” (Kaytronik Love Dub) (Tall Black Guy Productions)
06. Claude Young “Santa Barbara” (NDATL)
07. LadyMonix “It’s A Party Dammit!” (Frizner Electric)
08. Mike Huckaby “Baseline 87” (SYNTH)
09. Big Strict “Balance” (7 Days Ent) (White-Label)
10. Larry Heard “Missing You” (Track Mode Recordings)
11. Theo Parrish with Maurissa Rose “This Is For You” (Special Version) (Sound Signature)

Podcast 725: Nemo Vachez

Nemo Vachez, a young producer based in Paris, only found electronic music a decade ago but he’s already making his mark. After accumulating thousands of records, “little by little I found the music that touched me the most,” he told XLR8R, and this naturally fed into his own experiments with production. Initially, he was inspired by UK breakbeat and French minimal wave—Trisomie 21, Elli et Jacno—but that was before house music gripped him.

In 2018, after quitting his job as a graphic designer, he began making his own music because he didn’t have enough money to buy the records that he liked. Instead of sending it to labels and distributors, he teamed up with friends Idris Bena and Nadir Sanchez to form Forest ill Records, a platform to allow them to be “completely free to offer music that was a bit different than the other stuff we were hearing.” After his breakout Terraformation EP in early 2019, he’s put out three more EPs, most recently Cyclostomes—which has now sold out. Across four tracks, the release summed up the inimitable Vachez style: swinging house and intergalactic rhythms crafted with just enough euphoria for the dancefloor. “Electronic music gives me immense emotions,” Vachez says, “and I’m seeking to share those feelings through my productions.”

Last month, Vachez released “E-Sea,” a previously unreleased track, as part of our XLR8R+034 package alongside STL, Enrica Falqui, and Dawn Razor. In support of the release, he’s put together an XLR8R podcast compiled almost exclusively of edits of his favorite tracks from the ’90s and noughties, plus some unreleased jams from his friends. So there is no tracklisting, but press play for just some woozy, otherworldly house that’ll send you to outer space for just over an hour.

01. What have you been up to recently?

Trying to come back to a more normal life after the end of restrictions in France. It was going well but with this new variant, the future is not looking bright. Otherwise, I’m spending most of my time digging and focussing on Forest ill Records. I’ve also started to work on my first album.

02. What have you been listening to during lockdown?

Less dance music and more ’70s and ’80s stuff. I was lucky to spend lockdown with seven friends who are DJs so I still had my daily dose of electronic music.

03. What have you been listening to recently?

I started digging for electronic music again in September. In particular ’90s house, of course, but also weird forgotten techno from the noughties and some progressive trance stuff.

04. Tell us about your route into electronic music: how did you find your way?

My first contact with electronic music was through video games. Then when I was around 10 I became a big fan of synth-pop. I had my first clubbing experiences in 2011, with the Concrete and Katapult parties. It was completely new for me and I became addicted to this music, so I began to collect records and I’ve continued until today. I started to make my own music in 2018 because I didn’t have enough money to buy the records that I liked, and I felt the need to make music that was at the crossroad of my tastes and influence.

05. What was your childhood like?

I grew up in Paris.

06. How did your first releases and DJ bookings come about?

My first release came on Forest ill Records, which I started with two of my best friends, Nadir Sanchez and Idris Bena. We wanted to be completely free to make our own music, and the easiest way was to start our own output. My first release, Terraformation, came out in 2019 and received a great welcome, so my friends invited me to join Rakya, their booking agency, and from there I started touring.

07. What drives you to make electronic music?

I make electronic music because it’s the only thing that I can do every day to be happy. When I produce I don’t even need to drink or eat. Just after my first release, I quit my job as a graphic designer to focus on music production. It was one of the happiest times of my life. It stopped because of the pandemic because I had to take a job to pay my bills. I hope I can start touring again soon, and that the pandemic will not continue next year.

08. When and where did you record this mix?

I recorded this mix at a friend’s place this week.

09. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?

I picked tracks that I deeply love, and I tried to blend weird tracks from each era sharing an interstellar feeling, while always keeping club energy. Most of them are edits that I’ve made, plus some unreleased stuff by myself and friends.

10. What can the listener expect?

I hope that the listener can expect something new and different. At least, that’s what I’ve aimed for!

11. What’s on your horizon for 2022?

I hope that the pandemic will end, so I could fully focus on the music again.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Web3 Wrap: Foundation Adds Collections, MODA DAO Releases Whitepaper, Snoop Dog Expands, Omar S, and Latashá Play Art Basel, and More

This week’s Web3 Wrap includes a Foundations new Collections feature, MODA DAO’s music industry whitepaper, Snoop Dogg’s one-of-one NFT with Coldie and metaverse expansion, and Miami Art Basel parties featuring Omar S, Suzi Analogue, Total Freedom, and Latashá, and more.

Check it all out below.

Foundation Adds New Collections Feature

Foundation released a new long-awaited feature called Collections this week.

Collections gives creators the ability to deploy and own their own smart contracts, and mint NFTs to it as part of a collection, such as an album or gallery exhibition. The Collections feature will allow creators to name their collection, add a logo and image, and a collection description. There is no limit to how many artworks can be listed in a collection, however, the creator will need to pay the gas fees to mint and list each work in the collection. Old works already minted on Foundation cannot be added to newly minted Collections but that utility is rumored to be on the way.

You can find out more about Collections, including how to mint, on the help page, and check out a selection of already minted collections here.

MODA DAO Releases Music3 Industry Whitepaper

Today, MODA DAO released its whitepaper, “The Genesis of Music3.”

The whitepaper aims to bring MODA DAO participants and the music world up to speed with the state of the industry and the issues it’s currently facing, yearly benchmarks, how Web3 technologies can provide opportunities for better operations, and the overall strategy and approach that MODA will take. The paper goes on to detail an ideal on-chain environment and the participants needed to realize it, off-chain on-chain bridges to approach legacy content, data hubs and funding to be used by independent MODA projects, and a creator-first community that will drive “innovation, conversation, alternative finance, collaboration, and transparency.”

You can find the full 42-page paper here.

Omar S, Empress Of, Latashá, Suzi Analogue, and More Play Art Basel Miami

Art Basel Miami is currently underway and both Zora and Friends WIth Benefits have events today and tonight with stellar lineups.

Up first, running today from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. (EST), Friends With Benefits is hosting a day party featuring the turntable wizardry of Detroit’s Omar S, LA-based artist Empress Of, Nick León, Raihan_, and DJ Skeet. The party will also have pickleball, lawn games, backyard BBQ, massages, and libations. Following that, running from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m, Latashá will host the after-hours party for Zora’s Zoratopia, which featured a day of talks, workshops, and sound baths. The after-hours will feature performances by Aluna, Jesse Boykins III, Sassy Black, and Latashá, among others.

Earlier this week, Foundation and Friends With Benefits also hosted a joint party featuring the likes of Azealia Banks, Total Freedom, Suzi Analogue, and a DJ set by Erykah Badu, and The Heart Project and Doodles hosted an event with performances and art by Aidan Cullen, D33J, Julien Klinciwitz, Lucien Smith, and surprise guest A-Trak.

You can find more about today’s events here and here.

Snoop Dogg Extends His Influence With One-of-One NFT Drop and Metaverse Land Acquisition

This week, Snoop Dogg extended his Web3 influence and foothold with a new one-of-one NFT drop and metaverse land acquisition.

The one-of-one drop, titled “Decentral Eyes Dogg,” was created in collaboration with renowned crypto artist Coldie and features a stunning collage and a new track by Snoop, as reported by Fad Magazine. The NFT will be auctioned off on SuperRare and will be on show for the duration of Miami Art Basel at SuperRare’s curated exhibitions at nftnow x Christie’s and the Flager Street Art Festival on the monolith.

According to Decrypt, Snoop Dogg is also recreating his California mansion in decentralized metaverse game The Sandbox. Snoop partnered with The Sandbox on a set of virtual lots in what is being dubbed the “Snoopverse.” Today it was reported that the lot next to Snoop’s sold for a whopping 71,000 SAND, which is equivalent to around $450,000—the small price to pay to be Snoop’s neighbor in the metaverse.

You can check out “Decentral Eyes Dogg” on SuperRare here.

What to Join and Who to Follow:

Kayvon: Foundation EO and co-founder.

Plastician: bass music OG, crypto artist, and FWB London DAO member.

The Heart Project: a community-run creative studio.

levychain: Mint podcast host and former Blockchain and Booze host.

Sean Gardner: MODA DAO and Emanate co-founder.

Download: Avilynn “Five Million Sunsets”

Avilynn will release her Five Million Sunsets EP, accompanied by a remix from Answer Code Request, on December 15.

The four-track EP is the second release by Aviylnn on her own label, Taisha, and follows her must-have debut EP, Anaesthesia, released in 2020. The new EP showcases her diverse production style across three originals, that meander through modulating synths, dub chords, and earthy sub tones, with techno titan Answer Code Request employing his typically twisted and intricate style on the A2 remix.

In support of the EP, Avilynn has offered up the title track, “Five Million Sunsets,” as an XLR8R Download, available to XLR8R+ subscribers. Recorded as a “byproduct of juggling clubbing and city life,” the track encapsulates that thirst for hedonism after a mundane week in the office, the perfect tone-setter for a long night on the dancefloor. With support from Cici, Âme, Dax J, and more, it has a sophisticated drum and bass groove with ethereal tones that would be a delight on a big system.

Subscribe and download below.

Tracklisting:

01. Why So Serious

02. Why So Serious (Answer Code Request Remix)

03. Five Million Sunsets

04. Your Eye Was Bigger Than The Other One

The full EP is out on December 15.

Full XLR8R+ Members can download the track below. If you’re not an XLR8R+ member, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Podcast 724: Laura BCR

Laura BCR, real name Laura Le Marchand, is a French DJ-producer and founder of agency-label On Board Music, where she books the likes of Cinthie, Steffi, Virginia, and Finn Johannsen and has released music from Vera Logdanidi and Diane Barbé. She takes her name from the now-closed Berlin record store Bass Cadet Records, which she founded alongside Etienne from Arcarsenal in 2013, but nowadays she’s becoming more widely known for her deep and dubby DJ sets. She began sharing her own productions last year, mostly through On Board Music’s charity compilations, and over the summer she released her debut EP, Initial, on Utrecht’s Something Happening Somewhere label. The release comprises four originals plus a collaboration with Forest On Stasys, each track focusing on a distinct strain of introspective techno and ambient.

As a youth in the south of France, Le Marchand spent her school years exchanging whatever music she could find with friends before joining a band as a bass player. She’d spend her weekends attending free parties across France which led her into buying her first records and her first turntables, and she hasn’t looked back since. It wasn’t long before she was organizing parties across Paris and playing out. To support herself after a move to Berlin, she launched Bass Cadet Records, a much-loved record store filled with her favorite artists and labels, and then On Board Music two years later. Not only did this shape her musical style, but it introduced her to new labels and artists and gave her a grounding in the German capital’s music community. Through her Influences show on Refuge Worldwide, she connects the dots between her wide-ranging tastes, while she also curates a mix series for Italian ambient label Pregnant Void.

Le Marchand’s XLR8R podcast caps a breakout year in her development. An alluring selection of immersive dub techno, it mixes music from familiar names like Eric Cloutier, Kangding Ray, and Luigi Tozzi with lesser-known gems from Le Marchand’s private collection, and cements her status as a rising DJ with something to say. She recorded it on the fly in Berlin over the weekend, aiming to deliver a “trippy dancefloor experience.” All in all, it’s a snapshot of what you can expect to hear her play out as touring picks up in the new year.

01. What have you been up to recently?

I’ve been running the On Board Music agency since 2015 and we have been expanding lately. This is my main occupation. I’ve also been working on my second EP, which is coming out on a prestigious German label. I’ve also released a couple of tracks on compilations for Semantica and Technologia Organica. And I’ve been doing a few gigs, which has been nice after all these months staying home. I’ve also started a residency on Refuge Worldwide in Berlin called Influences.

02. What have you been listening to during lockdown?

Mostly ambient, pop, and blues.

03. What drives you to make electronic music?

Everyday life, anger, and joy; a big mixture of things!

04. When and where did you record this mix?

I recorded this mix in a studio in Berlin because I needed a full setup. I don’t have two turntables and two CDJs at home.

05. How did you go about choosing the tracks you’ve included?

This mix is basically based on what I’m playing in clubs at the moment.

06. What can the listener expect?

To feel a trippy dancefloor experience. It’s quite groovy, too!

07. What’s on your horizon for 2022?

I’m part of two new compilations. One is coming on vinyl at the beginning of 2022 on Out-Er, and it includes tracks from Efdemin, Inland, Fabrizio Lapiana, and Simone Gatto. The other one is an ambient compilation on SoHaSo. Other than that, I want to work on new material and remixes, and also on the agency. The next EP on On Board Music is coming in February from Madrid duo Uanamani. It’s a beautiful ambient techno and downtempo piece.

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. LF58 “Side F” (Astral Industries)
02. Eric Cloutier “Ekpyrosis” (Palinoia)
03. Nali “Chance Encounters” (Patterns of Perception)
04. Martinou “Cirrus Apparition” (Nous’klaer Audio)
05. Laura BCR “Tryptamine” (Technologia Organica)
06. Luigi Tozzi “Flesh Mechanics” (Non Series)
07. Aleja Sanchez “The Acheron Passage” (Ilegal Alien)
08. Blazej Malinowski “Unpredictability” (Inner Tension)
09. Buck “Ora Finalmente La Luce” (Out-Er)
10. Luizar “Flowing Return” (Eclectic Limited)
11. Atomic Moog “Static Flow” (Rework) (Monument)
12. Kangding Ray “Doppler Shift” (Figures)
13. Jasen Loveland “Epoxy” (Patrick Russel Remix) (Acid Camp)
14. Benales “Untitled 04” (Analog Solutions)
15. Sev Dah “Marija Bursac” (Proletarijat)
16. Mary Yuzovskaya & Craft “Schaefer Conclave” (Monday Off)
17. Polygonia “Mùgong” (Polygonia)
18. Maurizio “M4.5” (Basic Channel)
19. 36 “Bring The Sun Down” (9128.live)

Web3 Wrap: Nina Closes First Week, Royal Raises $55 Million, The Game, Cypress Hill, and Death Row Records Drop NFTs, and More

This week’s Web3 Wrap includes Nina, a new player in the music NFT ecosystem, Royal’s monumental $55 million fundraise, new NFT announcements from The Game, Cypress Hill, and Death Row Records, a four-track EP of alternate versions from Haich Ber Na on Catalog, and more.

Dive into the wrap below.

NFT Music Marketplace and Streaming Platform Nina Closes its First Week

Last week, Nina, a new NFT marketplace and streaming platform, launched.

Nina is “a new infrastructure to buy, sell and stream music online,” built on the Solana protocol with Arweave support. Nina takes no cuts from the sales of the NFTs on the platform, although, artists pay a one-time fee when uploading, which “handles Solana and Arweave’s transaction and storage cost.” When uploading, artists get to choose the price, edition size, and the percentage cut they will receive from sales on the secondary market, and owners of a record can resell the record on the secondary market, from which Nina takes a 1.5% cut, paid by the seller. All NFTs can be streamed on the platform for free.

In its first week, the platform had over 43 releases minted from artists such as Container, Imaginary Softwoods, Torn Hawk, Helm, Gobby, Bergonist, Teen Daze, and many more. So far, 1207 sales have been made from 174 unique collectors with $3215.27 going direct to the artists.

You can check out Nina here

Poolsuite FM Executive Member NFTs Sell Out

Popular web radio service Poolsuite FM today sold out its inaugural NFT drop.

The NFT drop offered “Executive Member” cards and represented the platform’s transition to a Web3 institution under the name Poolsuite Internet Leisure Corporation. If you were a buyer, you are considered a founding member of The Poolsuite and, according to the microsite, Poolsuite will show you “an exceptional time throughout your membership and shower you with perks and gratitude commensurate with your status as a founding member.” NFT-holder perks include early access to projects and tokens, a VIP version of the popular Poolsuite streaming app, and member’s merchandise, with more member announcements reportedly on the way.

You can check out the project here.

Rap Icons The Game, Death Row Records, and Cypress Hill Announce NFT Drops

This week, rap icons The Game, Cypress Hill, and Death Row Records announced and released NFT drops.

The three drops each offer a different perspective of the NFT space, and are released with different partners, including Death Row Records’ Crypto.com release, celebrating the label’s 30th anniversary with seven exclusive NFTs inspired by Snoop Dog’s 1993 album, Doggystyle, and designed by Flux88 and TillaVision’s Lil Bitcoin; The Game lands on OneOf with Run The Game, featuring two sets of card collectibles—a gold and platinum version are available—and within each are All-Star, Compton, and Teardrop cards; and finally, Cypress Hill’s drop with Unblocked, which offers the opportunity to buy NFTs that are directly linked to fan experiences, and unique collectibles for fans that can’t attend IRL experiences.

Haich Ber Na Drops Four New NFTs on Catalog

Electronic polymath Haich Ber Na has released four new NFTs on Catalog.

Following on from his first Catalog single and NFT, “The Last Time I Saw You,” which sold for 0.5 ETH two weeks ago, the new NFTs are all alternative versions of tracks from his recent EP From Then Til Now, which dropped in February of this year. Haich Ber Na showcases his range across the four cuts, which range from the heads-down groove of “0594 Help” (Night Time Version) and its stripped-back lo-fi “Instrumental” to the beautiful pop stylings of “TODAY” (Demo) and “Think About It (MTMBO Remix).

You can check out the full drop here.

Royal Raises $55 Million

NFT startup Royal announced this week that it had secured $55 million in a new fundraising round.

Launched earlier this year by Justin Blau (a.k.a. 3LAU), Royal is an NFT-backed platform that allows fans to invest in artists by purchasing ownership in tracks, which they can, in turn, earn royalties from. In a Medium post, Royal announced that it closed a $55 million Series A round led by a16z, which included investment from artists Nas, Disclosure, and Logic, as well as venture funds Crush Music, Coinbase Ventures, and Paradigm, among others.

In the announcement, Royal also reports rapid growth, noting it has had over 120,000 sign-ups since announcing in August. It also goes on to detail the platform’s first use case, which last month saw 3LAU give away 333 royal NFTs that represented 50% of the streaming royalties for “Worst Case,” his latest single. Royal goes on to state that the song had “reached an implied value of over $6 million with fans holding half of the value, and the tokens have traded over $650,000 in secondary market volume, showing how an open market values ownership in music royalties.”

You can read the full announcement here.

What to Join and Who to Follow:

Buildspace: Web3 developer and general learning resource. The Discord is also a great place to learn.

shl0ms: shadowy artist and designer.

Mint Fund: community-owned initiative with an aim to empower artists from underrepresented communities in the NFT space.

Hvdson: producer, NFT artist, and Catalog developer.

Sound.xyz: platform building fan and artist connections, launching soon.

Jen Stark: renowned multimedia artist.

Norway’s Ol’ Burger Beats to Release New Album of Spiritual Jazz

Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Ol’ Burger Beats, real name Ole-Birger Neergård, will release Loft, a new album, in January.

Neergård captured Loft in Vatne and Oslo, Norway during the pandemic, using his deep cache of instruments “like never before,” we’re told.

Across 12 tracks, he took a different approach than past records, performing all of the material through pre-digital era instruments rather than sampling. This includes the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer 200A electric pianos, Sequential Prophets, a ARP Odyssey, plus Moog synthesizers and various percussion instruments.

The album’s vintage sounds emulate the sounds of the ’70s, and Neergård took influence from the spiritual jazz scene of the ’60s/’70s, particularly the loft spaces that housed many of the revolutionary leaders of this era for live performances and studio recordings. It features jazz legends Idris Ackamoor, Ralph Thomas, and Wendell Harrison.

Neergård released I Am Leaving, his latest album, in January in collaboration with Née Pauline.

Tracklisting

01. Return (feat. Ralph Thomas)
02. Split Seconds (feat. Idris Ackamoor)
03. Layers (feat. Ralph Thomas)
04. Inner Space
05. Impressions (feat. Ralph Thomas)
06. Sound Myth
07. Two Tribes (feat. Wendell Harrison)
08. Arid (feat. Ralph Thomas)
09. For Ras G
10. Growing Up (feat. Ralph Thomas)
11. The Garden (feat. Wendell Harrison)
12. Departure

Loft LP is available on January 21. Meanwhile, you can stream “For Ras G” and “The Garden” featuring Wendell Harrison below and pre-order here.

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