Aya Sinclair, better known as AYA, will put out her debut album on Hyperdub in October.
im hole follows recent appearances on the likes of Local Action (with Air Max ’97 as A2A), Houndstooth, and Allergy Season, and we’re told that it “throws open the curtains” to the British experimental artist. Expect “me. More,” Sinclair says.
Now, contorting language, dialect, gender, and sexuality between intermittently controlled bursts of noise and “aural goop,” she has sculpted a set of 11 “autobiographical vignettes” that “challenge established norms, question supposed truths, and affirm a spectrum of interlocking experiences,” we’re told.
The release also lands physically as a hardback book of lyrics, poems, and photographs, designed in collaboration with Oliver Van Der Lugt (a.k.a Air Max ’97). It’s the first time Hyperdub has released an album in this format.
Sinclair started out playing drums when she was about six years old, and then guitar and piano a couple years later. Through her former LOFT pseudonym, with releases on Tri Angle and Astral Plane, she has become known for forward-thinking club inversions founded on breaks and bass. She’s DJed at Manchester’s boygirl parties and performed live at Poland’s Unsound.
Tracklisting
01. somewhere between the 8th and 9th floor 02. what if i should fall asleep and slipp under 03. once wen’t west 04. dis yacky 05. OoBros Prosthesis 06. the only solution i have found is to simply jump higher 07. still i taste the air 08. Emley lights us moor (feat. Iceboy Violet) 09. tailwind 10. If [redacted] Thinks He’s Having This As A Remix He Can Frankly Do One 11. backsliding
im hole is scheduled for October 22 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Emley lights us moor” featuring Iceboy Violet in full below and pre-order here.
Justin Cudmore, the Brooklyn-based DJ-producer and host of the Balance party series at New York club Basement, has teamed up with Hiroko Yamamura, an XLR8R favorite and staple in Chicago’s electronic music community, on a sharp, acid-tinged EP for HE.SHE.THEY. Records. The pair have shared a friendship for over a decade, having played back-to-back several times, but with the freeze on touring prompted by the pandemic, this is the first time they’ve been able to collaborate on original music. They recorded each beat independently before whizzing files back and forth until they had three original tracks, and then they enlisted Heartthrob, the alias of Berlin artist Jesse Siminski, for a remix.
As its name suggests, the pair’s Midwest Panic EP is in part an ode to the Midwest rave scene that unites them. Cudmore, whose bold, acid-flecked distillation of house and techno has landed on The Bunker New York, Detroit’s Interdimensional Transmissions, and San Francisco’s Honey Soundsystem Records, was raised in Illinois and found himself DJing college parties as a youngster. He followed his intuition to Chicago, where he met Yamamura, who at the time was still just carving her name into the local electronic music landscape. Her jacking Chicago techno is inspired by the windy city’s house, acid, and straight-up techno parties, but she flavors it with her love for classic science fiction and dark animé.
Recorded through online file exchange, the pair’s mix brings the best from both worlds, fusing Cudmore’s snaking acid lines and offbeat rave melodies with Yamamura’s hefty beats and industrial techno. It’s both feel-good but dark, comprising a selection of the tracks they’ve discovered through lockdown and can’t wait to play out. It’s rare that we do back-to-back podcasts, especially when they’re completed remotely, but this one is well worth your time.
01. What have you been up to recently?
HY: Finally getting back to gigs and touring, and trying to reintegrate into society. As a rather anti-social human by nature, the pandemic and lockdown just kind of pushed me deeper down a ridiculous well of isolation. Luckily I have some great humans in my life, and music in my corner, and I can confidently say that I’ve turned a corner and I am looking forward to trying to live my life again instead of hiding behind drum machines and video games!
JC: I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by supportive friends and family through the pandemic. I’m happy and grateful to be gigging again in New York and around North America. I am looking forward to a few gigs in Europe in October.
02. You’ve just come together for Midwest Panic. How did the EP come together, and what can we expect?
HY: Justin and I have always had ideas, loops, and lots of discussion on projects and tunes we wanted to get done, but we’ve never been able to actually get it done. When we have the chance to hang out, we end up going dancing or eating Chinese food. The stars really aligned for this release, where we suddenly had a bunch of time, a whole lot of things to express, and an activity we could enjoy remotely via the wonders of the internet. Soon after the amazing guys from HE.SHE.THEY approached us about some ideas, and we all just vibed right off the bat, and it was shocking how much all of our passions were lining up. The EP definitely challenges a few standards and expectations that both of us can sometimes fall into. We wanted a release that was about more than making a dancefloor burner, and hopefully conveyed some of the emotions and conflicts we were going through at the time. With the resurgence of the acid sound we are deeply involved with, it’s important to flip the script once in a while and challenge existing conventions. It was also super important that we brought in the person who actually introduced us, Heartthrob, into the project, because his sound and production were so incredibly formative to ours.
JC: Hiroko and I have been friends since I lived in Chicago almost 10 years ago. Since we met, we’ve shared similar music tastes and tried to find the optimal time to work together and collaborate. When the pandemic hit in 2020, it provided a break for us to slow down and be creative. We were able to work together and share files and jam sessions remotely, then build upon each other’s work. Almost like remixing each other’s files until we liked the end result.
03. Where did you record this mix together?
HY: Justin and I actually recorded this mix by passing blocks of mixes back and forth over the internet and yelling at each other over FaceTime. It’s the first time we’ve tried to do this, but I think it nicely emulated the way we switch off in back-to-back sessions when they’re live.
JC: Yes, we did a remote back-to-back! This was the first time I’ve attempted it but I’m really happy with how it turned out. Hiroko and I have done some back-to-back sets together in person and appreciate the same style of mid-western, hypnotic, raw body music, so I was not worried.
04. How do you think your back-to-back sets differ from your solo sets?
HY: You always want to respect the direction the person you’re playing with is going, all the while making sure you move the dancefloor the way you want! Over the years, I’ve learned that I can only play back-to-back with friends and colleagues who play similarly, understand the ebb and flow of a mix, the appropriateness of when to play things, and how to read the crowd. Playing with friends is always going to be the best as simple nods and eye contact can let you know where to take things. When you’re playing yourself, you (most of the time) can tell where you want to go pretty quickly after a set starts. If you’re going back-to-back with someone, it’s best when the combination makes a whole new experience for everyone, and it’s even better when you enjoy the company of the person you’re sharing the booth with!
05. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included?
HY: For me, I kind of chose songs that have been on my playlists for the last few months from a wide array of genres. I’m a DJ that likes to ignore genre labels and I don’t even know if a song is being overplayed at big festivals by celebrity DJs because I’m not at those events! I just play songs that move me, and pick the next track based on how it’s inspired by the previous one. I tend to play songs from friends and heroes, because this adds a sentimental attachment to them, and illustrates how they’ve become part of me.
JC: When we were compiling tracks for this mix, the news of Paul Johnson’s death landed. Both Hiroko and I have come up in Chicago, so the loss weighed heavy, and we wanted to include his music, especially with the tone of the music and our EP focused on the Midwest. Also, when choosing tracks for a back-to-back, I always find it very improvisational, going off of what the other person is playing to keep the vibe going but slightly change it up a bit each time to keep it interesting, especially for a studio mix.
06. What setup did you use?
JC: Three CDJ-2000 Nexus 2s and an Allen & Heath Xone 92 mixer.
HY: My setup is actually DJ Hyperactive’s swanky new Pioneer CDJ-3000 and V10 rig he let me use to record.
07. What can the listener expect?
JC: We really wanted to have a feel-good party mix that celebrated a variety of sounds and vibes. There’s a little darkness to complement the feel-good moments. I hope folks enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it. Let’s move past these microcosms and elitist structures that have been plaguing the underground dance music scene for years, and get back to just enjoying music. Good music.
08. What’s next on your horizons?
JC: I am hoping to turn this rekindled inspiration post-reopening into producing more music and continuing to play shows. I’ve been wanting to finish an album so that’s something I’ll be continuing to work on over the next year. Also, I’m excited to bring Balance back to Basement this fall.
HY: I am really looking forward to working with HE.SHE.THEY on projects, and you can expect a few more fun things from Justin and me in the future. Right now I’m trying to figure out what to do with the hundreds of loops and ideas I’ve recorded over lockdown, to see which will be developed into songs. I have some fun festivals and shows over the next year and I am cautiously keeping my eye on how to proceed responsibly. It’s important to look back on the friends and family that won’t be joining us in these moments, and it’s up to us to continue their story and pass on their contributions.
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. Maher Daniel “Orbatar B” (Creature) 02. OSCAV “Marcel Prosed” (Bunk A Ball) 03. Paul Johnson “A Little Suntin Suntin” (Peace Frog) 04. Harvard Bass “Techno Nights” (Bump City Records) 05. Chuck Daniels, Shaun J. Wright “Feel You” (Planet E) 06. IPSE DIXIT “Feel the Bassline” (Bank A Ball) 07. Paul Johnson “Acid Makes Her Want To Play” (One Love Records) 08. Mono Junk “Electric Chair” (Skudge White) 09. Boys Noize “Xpress Yourself, Pt. 2” (BoysNoize Records) 10. Viers “I’m Gonna Get” (Turbo Recordings) 11. Trike “Nachtfahrt” (BPitch) 12. Heartthrob “Woody” (Unreleased) 13. Hauswerk, Gene Farris, Doorly “Put Your Back into it” (Get Physical) 14. Robert Hood “Low Life” (M-Plant) 15. Marc Houle, Claude VonStroke “Fly Guy” (Dirty Bird) 16. Eric Sneo, DJ Rush “Body Control” (Truncate remix) “Tronic Music” 17. Justin Cudmore, Hiroko Yamamura “I’m not a Trip, I’m a Journey” (HE.SHE.THEY) 18. DJ Hyperactive “Soul” (4track Recordings)
Sorza, real name Roeland van Rijnberk, has put out his debut solo album on Alpha Pup.
I IDENTIFY started as a way for the Dutch artist to process a difficult period in his life. April of last year wasn’t a great time for him and we’re told that there were various personal circumstances added on top of the pandemic that made it all quite hard. So he gravitated towards music as a way to express all of this. He didn’t actually consciously make an album, but it just started flowing out and the record almost wrote itself.
“I was in a really weird headspace and I definitely wouldn’t say that it felt very good, but on the flip side I have never felt more connected to the music I made before. I could fully express myself through audio,” he recalled in an interview to Headbang Society. “I think it worked out very well, you can definitely hear that the music comes from a place of struggle. Fortunately, it doesn’t just fully stay inside that dark world. There are also very hopeful and redeeming moments within it”
Across 12 tracks, Sorza combines raw beats and high level production. There are no lyrics, but each track expresses a range of negative feelings and how these can affect your view on the world around you.
Little is known about Sorza, other than that he discovered bass music through Noisia, and more recently he’s gotten interested in raw production styles, and also the music of Tsuruda and Shades. He began producing with Jozef van der Veen as The Outsiders, a DJ-production duo based in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Tracklisting
01. Creating An Oasis 02. Ego Dissolution 03. Augmented Reality 04. Lucid Disconnect 05. Perceptionist 06. Rotten In Silver 07. Catharsis 08. The Surroundings Are Changing 09. An Oasis Is Created
I IDENTIFY LP is available now. You can order it here and stream it in full below.
British-Nigerian composer Klein will release Harmattan, her new album, via classical label Pentatone.
Described as “a soundtrack of epic revolt against beginnings and ends,” Harmattan expands our notions of what classical music means today. It starts with jazz-inspired piano improvisations, and gradually gains in ambient breadth, “transforming classical musical inspirations into Klein’s unique sound universe.”
Its foundations stand resolutely within grime, R&B, and drone.
Welsh singer Charlotte Church lends her vocals to the track “skyfall,” and London-based grime MC Jawnino also features.
The album follows a run of notable releases for Klein, including 2019 album Lifetime, plus a more recent full-length project called now that’s what i call r&b. She put out Tommy on Hyperdub in 2017.
Alongside the announcement, Klein has shared the self-directed video for first single “hope dealers,” which you can stream below.
Tracklisting
01. for solo / piano 02. roc 03. trapping in C major 04. unknown opps 05. the haunting of grace 06. ray 07. made for ibadan 08. skyfall 09. not a gangster but still from endz 10. hope dealers 11. champions
Harmattan LP is scheduled for November 19 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here.
Welcome to the first Web3 Weekly Wrap, a new column detailing our favorite NFTs, artists, and DeFi and Dapp projects in the Web3 space.
This column will drop at the start of each week and will feature a handful of bite-sized pieces for you to peruse and explore further. This week features Damien Hirst’s first NFT project, music streaming service Audius, an NFT game by Louis Vuitton, NFT comics by Method Man, and more.
Electronic artist Holly Herndon is using NFTs to sell more than just music—she’s auctioning off the use of her voice as a creative tool. Herndon collaborated with machine learning software company Never Before Heard sounds to create Holly+, a tool that allows users to create music and art with Herndon’s voice and image. She’s now accepting submissions for user-created content to feature in the newly debuted Auction House by Zora, via which Holly+ creations will be auctioned. Auction House is an open-source protocol on Ethereum that allows virtually anyone to create and manage their own NFT auction houses.
For works to be listed on the Zora marketplace, they must first be approved by the Holly+DAO. The Holly+DAO is a decentralized group of supporters that steward the goings-on of the artist’s digital likeness. Every season, a call for submissions is made, and selected pieces are minted as 1 of 1 NFTs on the marketplace. The first season begins with the auctioning of the first Holly+ NFTs (machine learning models of Herndon’s singing voice and speaking voice), and ends once the user-submitted artwork is minted and sold. The DAO will then use those funds from the first season’s sales to create tools that will be used for season 2. Only submissions that are approved by the Holly+DAO will be minted on the genesis smart contract, and so far, there is no set number of pieces that will be included in the collection. You can read more about (and submit to) the project at https://holly.mirror.xyz/
The Currency is Damien Hirst’s first foray into the world of NFTs and is an intriguing project that explores the relationship between digital and physical art by one of the world’s biggest artists.
Five years in the making, The Currency was launched with the help of Heni, an international art services business, last month with 10,000 NFTs minted from professionally scanned original Damien Hirst dot paintings. The NFTs had a price of $2000 and were offered up and sold to randomly selected users that signed up during the application process, with close to 40,000 users applying. And this is where the project gets really interesting: each buyer who purchased an NFT would have one year to decide whether to keep the NFT (the digital artwork) or its original, physical doppelganger (the physical artwork painted by Damien Hirst and his assistants). If an NFT owner decided to keep the original, then Hirst would burn the NFT; if the owner decided to keep the NFT, then Hirst would burn (literally, with fire) the original painting.
Over the last week, a handful of artists released new drops on XLR8R‘s NFT marketplace, XNFT. All three chains—Polygon (Matic), xDai, and Ethereum—were utilized for the drops, allowing users to buy the collectibles with their token of choice.
The new collections include Falling Through Eternity, a stunning audio-visual collaboration between Rashid Ajami and Walter Crudop; the second set of Acid Heads, a collection of psychedelic minimal house collectibles; Sound and Colour by Hyper9, which offers seven different character-driven animations cut to a variety of genres; an EP of deep IDM and experimental electronics from Idea Unsound; Glia’s “Milaje,” a moody reflection of silky smooth beats; two hypnotic and utterly transfixing shoegaze pieces by Darwin Chamber and Amos Bransford; and a Polygon-inspired industrial beat collectible by Shadowsweat.
You can check out all the new NFT editions at XNFT—make sure to toggle through the different chains in the top right of the screen.
Web3 streaming service Audius last week announced it now has over five million active monthly users, which, for a community-owned decentralized music protocol that launched late in 2018, is quite some feat and provides a positive roadmap for the possibilities that blockchain technology provides for music and streaming.
Audius is a decentralized protocol, meaning every one of those five million users is also essentially an owner, with its utility token ($AUDIO) offering its owners clear ways to influence and change the service to fit their needs. “Because our community decides what features they want and need, they come up with initiatives and build the things they want,” Roneil Rumburg, co-founder and CEO of Audius explains. “They are invested in the community, because in the end, they own it.”
In celebration of what would be luxury product designer Louis Vuitton’s 200th birthday, the Paris-based company is releasing a mobile game dubbed Louis The Game. The game, as described by CEO Michael Burke, unlocks stories about the founder’s origins, detailing a familiar ‘rags to riches’ tale told through the lens of a monogrammed wooden figure named Vivienne. What’s more, LV is putting 30 collectible NFTs inside of the game, 10 of which were designed by American artist Beeple.
As players traverse the digital environment, banners for NFTs will occasionally pop up and gamers will have a chance to collect them to a digital wallet. The contents, however, will be locked until 2022, and it doesn’t look like there will be a way to sell the NFTs after collection. “We’re not making any money from this”, Burke is quick to point out. Instead, the aim seems to be to create a learning experience for customers and get them introduced to the concept of NFTs and web3 interactions.
Louis The Game is releasing on iOS, Android, and is launching alongside a documentary, novel, and triptych by artist Alex Katz.
Method Man to Launch NFT Comic Series Tical World
Rapper-gone-actor Method Man is making his debut into the NFT world by releasing an original comic book series in collaboration with New York-based artist Alex Smetsky. The comic, titled Tical World, is based on unpublished recordings and will feature music by the rapper as well. The first edition (dubbed “The Origin”) will feature unreleased music, a 3D animation, and character art, and, interestingly enough, will even dip into the physical realm; creative pieces from the comic world will be available to VIP gold cardholders and sold through the rapper’s athleisure clothing line, Tical Athletics.Tical World will also be the first “community-owned crypto-characters” on Dapper Labs’ Flow Blockchain.
A release date is yet to be set.
Bauhaus Partner With Crpto Art Pioneer Coldie for NFT Collection
Post-punk pioneers Bauhaus this week announced their debut NFT collection, which landed via Nifty Gateway in collaboration with crypto-art original Coldie. The series features three 3D NFTs, all of which include cuts from and are directly inspired by the band’s “Bella Luiguisi’s Dead” track.
Launched yesterday, all three editions are, unsurprisingly, sold out, with the lead piece going for $30,000. That piece features a 3D animated collage of the band members and handwritten lyrics of “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” as well as a clip from the song.
Maelstrom and Hussam Eissa minted and sold “Warehouse,” a programmable 20-minute live set of rave music on Async.
US Senate voted on game-changing cryptocurrency regulations; new rules could stifle the fledgling industry before it really takes off.
Coca-Colajoins the cryptocurrency landscape by offering NFTs in Decentraland.
Ethereum founder Vitalik Butterin joins Mila Kunis on animated NFT show Stoner Cats.
Def Jam Records founder Russel Simmons will launch a series of hip-hop NFTs titled Masterminds of Hip Hop, which will feature unreleased music from Snoop Dogg, Chuck D., Busy Bee, and more. The NFT collection is set to drop this Friday on Tokau.
Forbes released their latest magazine cover as an NFT on the OpenSea marketplace. The piece was a collaboration between the company and digital artist Pplpleasr, known for her colorful 3D works.
The Tezos network underwent its sixth forkless upgrade last week, enhancing the consensus algorithm and reducing block verification time from 60 to 30 seconds.
Abe Rounds, an Australian drummer, vocalist, and producer based in Los Angeles, will release an EP on Colorfield Records.
The Confidence to Make Mistakes is Rounds’ first solo outing and it represents a moment of “unapologetic self-expression” through 11 tracks of percussion, drums, and vocals.
Growing up in Australia, Rounds was exposed to world-class musicians at a young age, and his father is Sydney musician Victor Rounds. He moved to Boston when he was 20 years old to attend Berklee College of Music and he’s since become known for being a member of Meshell Ndegeocello’s band. He has also since recorded, toured, and performed with Pino Palladino, Seal, and Andrew Bird.
Alongside today’s announcement, Rounds has shared “Twenty Twenty,” a “brief snapshot” into his neural network, we’re told. It’s the “tip of the iceberg” for a record “full of deep drumming explorations and experimentations.”
Tracklisting
01. Otorongo 02. Run 03. Eagle 04. What You Waiting For 05. Screen Time 06. Green Card 07. Mofongo 08. Jungle 09. Mantis 10. Twenty Twenty 11. Too Much Party
The Confidence to Make Mistakes EP will land on September 17. Meanwhile, you can stream “Twenty Twenty” in full below and pre-order here.
HTRK, the collaboration of Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang, will release their fifth album on their own N&J Blueberries label.
Recorded in their native Dandenong Ranges, Australia between April and May, Rhinestones is an elegant nine-song suite of windswept emotion and heartbreak noir, crafted through guitar, voice, metronomes, and effects.
The album is inspired by the pair’s infatuation with “eerie and gothic country music,” and moves from “whispered lament to acoustic eulogy to downtempo vignettes,” we’re told, “tracing muted embers of loss and lust through haunted city streets.”
Yang, the band’s guitarist, cites friendship as the album’s central muse, “particularly the forging of it, and its potential for new feelings of telepathy and trust.”
HTRK, pronounced as “Hate Rock,” formed in Melbourne in 2003. They released their latest album, Venus In Leo, on Ghostly in 2019.
Tracklisting
01. Kiss Kiss and Rhinestones 02. Valentina 03. Sunlight Feels like Bee Stings 04. Siren Song 05. Fast Friend 06. Real Headfuck 07. Reverse Déjà vu 08. Straight to Hell 09. Gilbert and George
Rhinestones LP is scheduled for September 17 release. Meanwhile, you can stream opener “Kiss Kiss and Rhinestones” below.
With a sonic palette as wide-reaching as that of Georgia Anne Muldrow, it was almost impossible to know how her Influences podcast might sound. Would it take us into the mind-bending hip-hop of her Ms. One project, or be centered upon the brash instrumental beats she showcases across her VWETObeat tapes? What about the funk and soul she released on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label in 2018, earning herself a Grammy nomination in the “Best Urban Contemporary” category, and mirroring the magic of her debut solo album on Stones Throw. You might even expect something like the world of Jyoti, her infrequently used vehicle for jazzier sounds. Muldrow, let’s not forget, has been surrounded by jazz music her whole life, with her father, guitarist Ronald Muldrow, playing aside Eddie Harris and her mother, Rickie Byars, performing as a lead singer for Pharoah Sanders Ensemble.
Instead of choosing one part of her musical heritage and peeling back its layers, Muldrow uses this Influences platform as a dedication to Black women across the musical spectrum, who have inspired her life more generally, beyond her music. As James Baldwin famously said, to be Black living in America “and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all of the time,” and yet 60 years later, that rage lives on, demonstrated so tragically with the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Tayler, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade. Against a backdrop of this senseless violence, these women stand up and their work is much “too beautiful to be denied.” Across its 45-minutes runtime, it covers all Muldrow’s music touch-points but that must not blunt its message.
“This is a mix dedicated to Black women all over the spectrum of music. I just wanted to show love to people who I know, people who I don’t know so well, people who show support to me, people who are just amazing. And trust me, there are many more mixes to come, because I feel as though we are just too beautiful to be denied. So here’s to all the sisters in the world. Here’s to you; you’re beautiful. Keep jammin’. Keep jammin’.”— Georgia Anne Muldrow
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 below. 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. Shaun Ross “Shift1” feat. Ursula Rucker (JEX Records) 02. Rickiebyars “Star Above” (Someothaship) 03. Tekitha “Emotional” (Antipodes Music) 04. Georgia Anne Muldrow “Always” (Rush Hour Music) 05. Latoiya Williams “Vintage Love (LaToiya Williams Entertainment) 05. Jaime Coryn Woods & Melissa Poliwar “Inner Me” (INgrooves/Universal Music Group) 06. Tiombe Lockhart “Gon Git Cha” (Lockhart Dynasty) 07. Rolynne “Don’t Lose Your Heart” (Rolynné Media) 08. Renee Neufville “Something to Believe” (WJ3 Records) 09. Donn T & Georgia Anne Muldrow “Can’t Let Go” (Epistrophik Peach Sound) 10. Teedra Moses “Make Me” (eOne Music Canada) 11. Hiatus Kaiyote “Red Room” (Brainfeeder) 12. Yameen “Light of Love” feat. Lady Alma & Shock G (Ropeadope Digital) 13. Georgia Anne Muldrow “Unforgettable” (Foreseen Entertainment)
QRTR, real name Meagan Rodriguez, is a DJ-producer based in Brooklyn, New York, known for fusing her bass-driven house beats with a distinct R&B flavor. She’s inspired by the likes of Tokimonsta and Shlohmo, and her music hits that sweet spot between emotional and danceable. Subscribers to XLR8R+ will possibly be familiar with her work through our recently XLR8R+031 compilation, where she contributed a previously unreleased track alongside Wylie Cable, CLYDE, and Gnome Beats for a Dome of Doom takeover.
For those of you who missed that, Rodriguez was raised by a father from Puerto Rico and a mother from Madeira, a Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco. She decided she wanted to produce and play music out in 2014, after an enlightening psychedelic experience at her first music festival, and she’s been intent on that pursuit ever since. Last year, she released Drenched, her debut album, on Dome of Doom which, as its name suggests, is a love song to the ocean’s depths.
What made Drenched so fascinating was that it was her first full release. She began working on it straight after her 2017 self-released EP Absinthe Party, taking conceptual inspiration from the dystopian worlds of Haruki Murakami and the meta-cognitive dissertations of Jia Tolentino’s surrounding music, drugs. Research about space filled the sonic gaps in between; she wanted to incite the same feeling as a YouTube video of sounds recorded by the NASA Voyager passing by Jupiter. The album takes influence from QRTR’s early college years, where she’d listen to remixes of Miike Snow and Crystal Castles, and also from dancefloor-driven acts like Jamie XX and Jacques Greene.
Now, no more than a year later, she’s back with a new album, infina ad nausea, which is also rooted in house but deviates more widely through drum & bass, ambient, classical, and IDM. She produced much of the album through the pandemic at various home studio locations around Brooklyn, but some of the material dates back to 2017. It features Los Angeles vocalist artemis orion and New York artists Braille, Daniel de Lara, and CSLTY. We’ve been excited by Rodriguez’ style for some time and figured that now would be a good time to snap her up for the podcast.
Recorded early this month, the mix includes a selection of bass-driven grooves, taking in the garage, rolling house, and moody breaks that Rodriguez has been playing out of late, mixed with a set of her own tracks that will be included on her upcoming album. It’s an immersive collection of dancefloor cuts perfect for the summer nights ahead.
01. What have you been up to recently?
Freaking out about the release of my new album! And also working on new music, playing shows again, and enjoying the hell out of another summer in Brooklyn!
02. What have you been listening to through lockdown?
I definitely leaned into the headier, moodier side of dance music, and became obsessed with all the breakbeat-inspired tunes coming out lately.
03. Your new album is coming later this month. Can you tell us about it?
It’s difficult to express my excitement. I’m making the kind of music I’ve always wanted to make. It’s high in energy, but emotive and playful, weaving between my favorite genres and yet still uniquely mine. It feels like the beginning of a new era for me.
04. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded this mix on a scorching hot August afternoon at my home studio in Brooklyn, New York.
05. How did you choose the tracks that you’ve included?
I sorted through tracklistings from a few recent parties I DJd and picked songs that reminded me of the incredible energy of those rooms. I also sprinkled in a few unreleased tracks from infina ad nausea!
06. Where do you imagine it being listened to?
Ideal listening conditions are to indulge with over-ear headphones outside on a balmy evening right around dusk on the way to meet friends—maybe a beer or two and maybe something rolled in hand. Dancing alone on the sidewalk is strongly encouraged.
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. QRTR “Want Me 2” (Dome of Doom Records) 02. Wayward “Orissa” (Sunday Best Recordings) 03. Flora FM “Hallucinogenic Worm” (Wave Mix) (Kalahari Oyster Cult) 04. Burt Cope “Years” (Wub Club Records) 05. INVT x Coffintexts “FRESA” (INVT Records) 06. QRTR “Rewind” (Dome of Doom Records) 07. Bailey Ibbs “Warriors Call” (VOITAX) 08. Overmono “So U Kno” (Poly Kicks) 09. Redlight “Domes” (Dream Vision Future) 10. Direct “Visions” (Direct) 11. QRTR “Like That” (Dome of Doom Records) 12. Randomer, Hodge “Second Freeze” (Original Mix) (Livity Sound Recordings) 13. QRTR “Fractals” (Dome of Doom Records) 14. Yosh “Gen 1” (Shall Not Fade LTD) 15. Keeno18 “Ajh” (Ultramajic) 16. Rochelle Jordan “Next 2 You” (Young Art Records) 17. The Sanctuary “hold on” (The Sanctuary) 18. BABii “Shadow” (Gloo) 19. QRTR “The Outer Edge” feat. ambientkitty (Dome of Doom Records)
The central theme of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Guide to the Universe is dreaming, and across six tracks the dub legend takes listeners on a sonic trip through drone, jazz, rock, noise, and of course dub. Perry, real name Rainford Hugh Perry, provides the vocals.
“It felt natural to team up with an artist well known for boldness and experimentation,” says New Age Doom drummer Eric J. Breitenbach. “We never expected him to say yes, but at the same time, never doubted that he would. Once he was aboard, everything else just fell into place.”
The album features Tim Lefebvre on acoustic bass, electric bass, and synthesizers, as well as Cola Wars on synthesizers and keyboards. Donny McCaslin plays saxophone, plus there’s jazz trumpeter Daniel Rosenboom and Dahm Majuri Cipolla on drums and gong. Ryan Dahle is on multiple instruments and backing vocals. Dahle is also responsible for the album’s analog mix and master.
The album was recorded between August 2020 and January 2021, and it saw each collaborator remotely and independently laying down their parts, which were assembled by New Age Doom and Dahle.
Alongside the announcement, the group has shared “Life Is An Experiment,” on which Perry intimately guides us that we must recognize that life itself is an experiment. These lyrics float on a bed of bass, textural synth drones, and ethereal saxes and trumpets.
You can read more about Lee “Scratch” Perry in his XLR8R podcast here.
Tracklisting
01. Life Is An Experiment 02. Holy Love 03. Fly In The World! 04. Holy Dub 05. Step In Space 06. Conquer The Sin
Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Guide to the Universe is scheduled for November 5 release on We Are Busy Bodies. Meanwhile, you can stream “Life Is An Experiment” below and pre-order the album here.
