To mark the fourth anniversary of Love What Survives, Mount Kimbie are releasing two unheard tracks from the album sessions, “Black Stone” and “Blue Liquid.”
Frank Lebon, a friend of Mount Kimbie and art director for the project, has brought in artist Peter Eason Daniels to direct a video for “Black Stone” that also debuts today. “The video is about waiting, moving, and stopping,” Daniels tells XLR8R. “Collective moments of solitude experienced between one place and another.”
The music is classic to the Love What Survives universe, with chugging sonics expanding atop a post-punk back beat.
Mount Kimbie are Los Angeles-based Dom Maker and London-based Kai Campos. The pair released two albums on Warp, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth in 2013 and Love What Survives in 2017.
You can download the tracks by signing up via email, or pre-order the white label 12”.
Los Angeles label Peak Oil will release Invariant, a new album from Hoavi.
Hoavi is the alias of Kirill Vasin, a rising artist born in Kineshma who has been living and working on music in St. Petersburg, Russia since 2008. He put out Phobia Airlines on Fauxpas Musik in 2018. While his sound is rooted in early ’90s UK rave, with these eight tracks we can expect “emotive and intricate homages” to “the “slippery nature of genre.” They were intended for pre-pandemic release.
Invariant is the first album that Peak Oil has put out since 2019.
Afrotek sees the London grime and bass artist, formerly known as Scratcha DVA, exploring his UK gqom style. Across four tracks, plus an extended version, he fuses the sounds of South Africa with his favorite UK club sounds. Collaborators include South African producer Mxshi Mo, plus Baltimore’s 3LON, who has previously worked with Moor Mother and Kingdom. Northern UK MC Mez and producers Scotti Dee and DJ Polo also feature.
Alongside the announcement, Hyperdub has shared the title-track featuring Mxshi Mo from Pietermaritzburg near Durban, South Africa. It’s a dark creeper with seesawing gqom and catchy melodies that’ll have you tripping over your feet.
In 2016, Smart put out the NOTU_URONLINEU album on Hyperdub.
Liz Harris will release her 12th album as Grouper in October.
Shade, a collection of nine songs spanning 15 years, is Harris’ first album as Grouper since 2018’s Grid of Points. She recorded some of the tracks on Mount Tamalpais during a self-made residency years back, and some pieces in Portland. The others she completed during recent sessions in Astoria.
Conceptually, the songs touch on loss, flaws, and love. More widely, the album reflects on Harris’ deep connections to the Bay Area and the north coast, with its unique moods of solitude, beauty, and isolation.
We’re told that Harris “threads a hidden radiant language of voice, disquiet, and guitar, framed by open space and the sense of being far away.”
01. Followed the ocean 02. Unclean mind 03. Ode to the blue 04. Pale Interior 05. Disordered Minds 06. The way her hair falls 07. Promise 08. Basement Mix 09. Kelso (Blue sky)
Shade LP is scheduled for October 22 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Unclean Mind” in full below, and pre-order here.
Jesse Crowe will release a new EP as Praises, titled EP4.
Crowe is a Toronto-based producer and vocalist signed to Hand Drawn Dracula. The Praises project emerged at a time when Crowe was struggling to find an outlet to release their inner conversations. Dark and theatrical, Praises’ influences move through the hum of Rachel Goswell’s murky shoegaze and the art-gloom of Beth Gibbons’ sultry jazz. They’ve since put out three EPs and a debut album, In This Year: Ten of Swords, in 2018.
On EP4, Crowe pushes beyond their recent industrial synth-based offerings into an intimate and collaborative songwriting process. EP4 was composed as a combination of two songs that never felt like they had a home until they were met with two new tracks formed in collaboration with Shortbloom, real name Sachin Mohindra.
In what Crowe describes as a “gruelling time of human reckoning,” the songs grew slowly and reflective. We’re told that one is about the quieter moments of love in the storm of 2020 (“Apples For My Love”), one is a vicious anti-Trump declaration (“We Let Go”), one is a call of protest (“Soil”), and the closer, “A World On Fire,” is about war.
The tracks were mixed by Josh Korody at Toronto’s Candle Studio and mastered by Heather Kirby at Dreamlands.
Praises has nearly completed their sophomore album, In This Year: Hierophant, to be announced soon.
Tracklisting
01. Apples For My Love 02. We Let Go 03. Soil 04. A World On Fire
EP4 will land on August 5. Meanwhile, you can stream “A World On Fire” in full below and pre-order here.
Sudi Wachspress will return to Tartelet Records with Dance Planet, his third album of emotionally-charged house music as Space Ghost.
Wachspress, an Oakland, California native, has always represented a beacon of shimmering house, particularly on his previous Endless Light and Aquarium Nightclub albums for Tartelet and on his swathes of self-released music. We’re told that Dance Planet “carries a greater responsibility to spread spiritual affirmations” than his earlier work because the dancefloor community is “emerging from a mentally-taxing recess.” You can expect 10 tracks of chill-out breaks, uplifting deep house, and low slung R&B that are “pointedly created to heal and energize.”
“On this record, I had a lot of different ideas forming and melding into one, from house, downtempo, and hip-hop to old video game soundtracks,” says Wachspress. “During the pandemic, I began discovering the music of both Soichi Terada and Toyin Agbetu. I really wanted to make an uplifting record with all sorts of sounds, some clear dance tracks, and some a bit slower and more trippy.”
The album is available in a limited-edition bundle with a bonus 7″ featuring “Deep” and “Tuff World.”
Tracklisting
01. Emotional Healer 02. Be Yourself 03. Deep (Vibes Mix) 04. UFO 05. Afterglow 06. Back to the Source 07. Emotional Healer (Back Room Mix) 08. Soul Shower 09. Dream Weaver 10. Be Yourself (Motivational Mix)
7″ bonus
01. Deep (7″ Mixx) 02. Tuff World
Dance Planet LP is scheduled for September 17 release. We’ll all pre-order links and public streams as they become available.
Tejada and Krieger discovered their mutual love for techno during a student portfolio review at CalArts. Tejada was excited to learn that Krieger had attended Tresor in Berlin in his early years, and shared that he had played and even contributed a remix to a Tresor release. Soon after, the two artists tried creating something together.
Krieger recorded a catalogue of saxophone and contrabass-clarinet sounds for Tejada, which included long tones, air sounds, key clicks, and other so-called extended woodwind sounds, which are all acoustic, but have a quasi-electronic quality to them. Tejada began writing an original piece, using and re-working—almost exclusively, apart from some drums and sub-bass—the acoustically-created sounds that Krieger had provided. He sent his raw track back to Krieger, who would overdub, replace, and add material and send it back to Tejada. After passing it back and forth a few times, “Silversonic” was completed.
The original version of “Silversonic,” a techno track that charts a journey from epic, melodic swells to pummelling hi-hats, is a blend of Tejada’s electronic production and Krieger’s saxophones and clarinet. It features Krieger’s signature blend of microphonics, a specialized playing style involving microphones and feedback that he is known for.
Rounding off the EP are two remixes from Josh Wink, who makes his first appearance on Palette. His first interpretation builds on the work of the original, adding a driving kick drum and a layered melodic build of synths that compliments Krieger’s playing. Wink’s second interpretation reduces his remix into a more DJ-friendly rhythmic version.
Tejada and Krieger have also shared a beatless mix, which focuses on Krieger’s playing and arrangement.
Minneapolis bass label Renraku will present the tenth volume in the Communication Themes series, featuring five previously unreleased and unheard works from Vhsceral, N², Catawake, Boingo Hotspot, and Nu Partial.
Initiated in 2016, the Communication Themes series started “out of necessity,” we’re told. During the label’s formative months, initial discussions were focused on individual artist releases, then the team had the idea of putting out a four-track compilation to “provide a snapshot of what everyone was working on, to pique interest in the artists involved with the label, and to showcase contemporary sounds and ideas the label roster has been exploring,” label founder Kaya Bowman tells XLR8R. Over time this has evolved to showcase both the visual language of the label through its artwork and to provide “a glimpse at the cutting edge of electronic music.” Initially each release was meant to be four tracks, “the time is right to slowly expand the Communication Themes series by adding more artists,” Bowman continues.
Like its predecessors, Communication Themes Volume 10 is “abundant in style and form, percolating with intensity as new electronic forms emerge through the fusion of experimental bass, glitch, IDM, left-field, and so much more,” we’re told.
Alongside today’s announcement, the label has shared N²’s “OBLIVION ARCHIVE,” which started as a foray into some more esoteric physical modelling techniques and “grew to encompass some of the more familiar sounds associated with post-trance and early 2010s neurofunk,” we’re told.
Tracklisting
01. Vhsceral “Superbounce” 02. N² “OBLIVION ARCHIVE” 03. Catawake “Room999” 04. Boingo Hotspot “Room You Die In” 05. Nu Partial “Major Ki”
Communication Themes Volume 10 is scheduled for July 30 release. Meanwhile, you can stream N²’s “OBLIVION ARCHIVE” in full below and pre-order here.
Cimm, real name Cimm Mann, has become an established name in bass and dubstep circles, with a sound informed by reggae, dub, and hip-hop. Growing up in north-west London, he taught himself to play piano, guitar, and bass but fell into electronic music by accident, when his school friend showed him Cubase. As it dawned on him that you could play all the instrumentation he had committed his teenage years to learn through one single computer, he knew this was the pathway for him. “I thought it was a sick evolution,” he says, “and the control freak in me loved it!” He began producing grime and hip-hop, but steadily his style shifted to straight-up bass through attending gigs across the English capital and ultimately making his own sketches. He put out his first EP, Split Minds / Redshift, on Tempa Recordings in collaboration with Daniel Lockhart (a.k.a Youngsta) in 2016.
Fast-forward to today, and Cimm is a regular on Youngsta’s Sentry Records, and just recently he put out a couple of soundsystem shakers on the London label. You’ll also find his work on Artikal Music UK. While his music is rooted in dubstep, Cimm’s work is deeper and more dub-driven, and it stands out for its moody basslines and high tempos. A similar thing could be said of his DJ sets, but there he explores a wider range of tempos, and his XLR8R podcast is an expression of this versatility. He’s infused it with a bunch of his latest unreleased tracks and edits, but beyond that it’s explorative and wide-reaching, pushing the limits of what he believes bass music can do. You’ll possibly recognize familiar tracks from Tsuruda, Ivy Lab, and Warp’s Mark Pritchard, but under the surface, you’ll hear a rising dubstep talent defining his voice as a DJ.
01. What have you been up to recently?
I have been in the studio, learning new tricks, and, of course, making new music. I have set myself a little goal of trying to make as much multi-genre stuff as I can to break the mold and evolve my music. It’s been fun but super challenging. I’ve also been learning blues on the guitar which is proper jokes.
02. How has the period of lockdown been for you?
Lockdown has been full of ups and downs but I have made a conscious effort to keep my vibrations high. I focused a lot of my energy on making music and keeping a positive outlook as much as possible. Mental health is important and I think it’s crucial to have a support system with friends and family. We have all struggled at one point but the key is to never feel like you are alone, because you are not. Lockdown has been testing for everyone but there is light at the end of the tunnel.
03. What have you been listing to recently?
I’m a huge fan of ’80s music so I have been listening to a load of Italo disco. It became a bit of an obsession but a worthy one. Also, I love listening to all sorts of music because I play a lot of different styles instrumentally. I definitely have an eclectic taste and without that, I’d be a bit lost. Notable artists I’ve listened to a lot recently are Shigeto, Aphex Twin, Tame Impala, Botany, and Clap Clap.
04. When and where did you record the mix?
I recorded this mix last week in my home studio. It was boiling but very fun!
05. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included?
I really want to start bringing my music knowledge into my sets so I kept it flowing through a range of tempos. The mix goes from 110bpm all the way up to 160. You will definitely see me doing more multi-genre sets, but they’ll always be linked to bass-heavy music. The way I see it is, if you love it, mix it!
06. What can the listener expect?
Lots of different flavors mixing into different flavors. I do a lot of preparation work on all tunes I play and I often make edits to play. You will hear many of these in the mix.
09. What’s next on your horizon?
I want to continue making as much music as possible and focus on limitless genres. I feel it’s important to me to learn the techniques of each genre and learn as much as I can from them. This way I can understand the motives and passions of my favorite artists and attempt to apply them to my own music. You will see some new releases dropping soon and you might start seeing some live elements in my sets.
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.
We’re back with another roundup of submissions, and that means a slew of artists that we’re stocked to have discovered. Our picks from this month, while they’re perhaps more downbeat and calming than on our previous editions, are even more geographically diverse, coming from Morocco, Australia, and Iran, in addition to the usual spots. We welcome back Detroit’s Filthiest, but other than that these artists are also new to us. Emin Gok, with his fusion of jazz and Turkish folk with electronica, is something we highly recommend, and also Dami.an, a promising young lo-fi talent. In terms of mixes, this month is especially rich, and Kamyar Keramati’s recent one for KIMCHI Records in Berlin’s Neukölln district is 70 minutes of wonderfully paced transcendental madness that engrossed us until the last beat. If you’re looking for something more upbeat, dig into Mort.domed’s recent set from Denver’s Milk Bar. With its bone-rattling acid, breaks, and peak-time techno, you’ll probably need to unwind, and we can recommend Broken Atoms, Maddrigal, and Aurelia for that! Dig in, please.
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.
Anechoic, a Moroccan producer now based is Paris, has shared his work through labels including Konsequent, Subsist, and Skryptöm. His remix of Martyn Päsch’s “Path Transitions” encapsulates his sound perfectly: techno that’s trippy, textural, and blissfully melancholic.
Broken Atoms is the alias of Chris Adam, a producer based in Essex, southeast England. By combining floating guitar and synth melodies with glitched drums, he creates genre-bending electronica with a post-rock twist. His most recent EP is called Journey and, with its soaring soundscapes, ambient drones, and soul soothing textures. “Koganoya Adventurer” is our favorite track.
Casper Hastings’ sound stems from his teenage years DJing at under-the-radar raves and local parties in rural Ireland. His sound leans towards bouncy but dark techno and warbling electro. Later this month, he’ll release Recreational Murder, a six-track EP on Dublin’s Yin Yang Label and the EP’s title track underlines Hastings’ long-running love for jungle. (“Good Medicine,” the EP’s fifth track, is also well worth your time.)
Maddrigal, a sound explorer based in Paris, left classical music behind to focus on something that can broadly be described as electronica, downtempo, and dark ambient. He’s “constantly looking for new ways to compose,” he says, and he’s inspired by Oneohtrix Point Never and Alice Coltrane. After releasing his first EP, Blacklight, he’s now back with Essence/Lack Thereof, a collection of five tracks that invite us to “cross the mirror to enter a world apart. A sensitive world.” We’re playing “Alma,” the impossibly soothing opener, here.
Dakuan is the techno alias of Darnell Stewart from Memphis, Tennessee. He’s better known as DJ DanceAlone, but as Dakuan, Stewart delivers “glitchy techno with occasional micro-samples and sample collages.” “Vacancy” is one of the standout cuts on Memphis Innovation, a 12-track album experiment that merges lo-fi recording techniques with straight up Detroit techno.
Emin Gök aims to reflect on the many facets of the human condition through sound. His melodic influences span from jazz and Turkish folk to blues and rock, but the structures he uses take advantage of the freedom of contemporary electronica. “Bataille’s Will” is the spellbinding first single from Gok’s upcoming project, Prayer in a Void.
Aurelia De La Costa (a.k.a Aurelia) is an artist based in Los Angeles, California. Her latest single, “Midnight Sky,” which features Dyan, is a hypnotic and soulful house jam, with powerful vocals and a romantic message.
Julian Shamou began DJing as a teenager in the mid-’90s and has gone on to produce over 100 tracks under aliases including DJ Nasty, Digitek, and 313 Bass Mechanics. After moving to Detroit in the summer of 1983, Shamou became a part of the city’s emerging ghettotech scene. As Detroit’s Filthiest today, he makes hip-hop beats, bouncing electro bombs, and warehouse techno. In June, he released Imitated Never Duplicated, an EP of four tracks, and we’re streaming clips here.
Charles F. Moreland III is an American producer living in the Annapurna Mountains of Nepal. His sound exists between ambient, lo-fi, and trip-hop, and his most recent EP is Trails of Light, which leans on field recordings, analog drum machines, and modular synth patches to paint three surreal soundscapes. The title track is a dark organic trip that we keep coming back to, and we think you will too.
Dami.an, a 25-year-old based on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, only began producing music at the start of the pandemic. He’s spent the last six months working on S.O.M.E.T.I.M.E., an album of lo-fi house, and “Black on Grey” is the standout track.
Raised in the southwestern Andes, Derrok aims to preserve the essence of his homeland through music, bringing the wilderness to the dancefloor with a mix of electronic and organic elements. He’s put out two albums on Nomade Records, and earlier this month he shared a remix of Charo Bogarín (a.k.a La Charo) and Uji, delivering a trance-inducing composition that fuses indigenous and natural soundscapes with the modern dance music aesthetics.
Nother is the solo project of Stefano Milella, who has built a career as a producer, drummer, and composer for movies and television. After the loss of a close friend, Milella felt the need to create his own project starting from what he really cares about: the music. “Lines,” with its bright synths and vocals by Moon Leap, is both engrossing and calm. It’s the second single from the Future is Bright, Nother’s first album, coming soon.
Born and raised in Austin, Texas, Mort.domed, started DJing clubs at the young age of 16. He’s now 22, and this month he’s delivered a live recording of a recent set at Milk Bar in Denver. Expect just under 90 minutes of acid, breaks, and peak-time techno.
Teresa Ferreiro is a PhD student from Universidade de Vigo in Spain. Besides being a cultural researcher and visual artist, she DJs, and in the set she’s presented to XLR8R this month, you’ll hear Asturian folk music mixed in with IDM and drum & bass. It’s her attempt at resuscitating the powerful emotion of anagogic tradition within new forms of music.
Hailing from Tehran, Iran, Kamyar Keramati didn’t have much access to music growing up, but that didn’t deter him. Instead, it inspired a “strong drive to push boundaries,” he tells XLR8R. From a young age, he was heavily influenced by the likes of Queen’s Brian May, and he spent his youth learning guitar and experimenting with music production. As part of electro-rock group Langtunes, he released Teherantor, a debut album, in 2014, and he currently forms one half of Tonnovelle. With Keramati’s recent mix for KIMCHI Records, a record shop in Berlin’s Neukölln district, you can expect 70 minutes of wonderfully paced transcendental madness that’s as hard to label as it is to pause.
