Joy Orbison to Release First Long-Form Project

Peter O’Grady, better known as Joy Orbison, will release his first ever long-form project on XL Recordings.

still slipping vol. 1 is a 14-track mixtape of previously unheard tracks featuring Herron, James Massiah, Bathe, Léa Sen, Goya Gumbani, and Tyson. He recorded it in his Walworth Window studio in southeast London and describes it as “serious, future-facing sound system music cut through with a sense of warmth and playfulness much needed for these times.”

“I’ve been working on the idea of a mixtape for a while now,” O’Grady says. “I’d never really wanted to make an album, but the way I’ve been making and listening to music has changed a lot over the last few years and it doesn’t always make sense on a single or EP. I also had this realisation that I wish my records were better suited to soundtracking people’s bus journeys but so far I’ve only really given you enough music to get half way up Walworth road!”

O’Grady made a point of making the record “feel really human, light-hearted, and humorous” in places so that the weirder bits of the record “don’t seem too wanky or self-indulgent.” He’s even included voice notes from various family members. “In my head this is a soul record but I’m not sure that’s how people will hear it,” he adds.

On the record’s cover, O’Grady has chosen a photo of his cousin Leighann who introduced him to jungle, drum & bass, and UK garage at a young age. “Without her I wouldn’t be doing what I do today,” he says.

The title takes its name from O’Grady’s Slipping EP and his curated radio station, Still Slipping: Los Santos, in Grand Theft Auto V.

Tracklisting

01. w/ dad & frankie
02. sparko (w/ herron)
03. swag w/ kav (w/ james messiah & bathe)
04. better (w/ léa sen)
05. bernard?
06. runnersz
07. ‘rraine (w/ edna)
08. glorious amateurs
09. s gets jaded
10. froth sipping
11. layer 6
12. in drink
13. playground (w/ goya gumbani)
14. born slipping (w/ tyson)

still slipping vol. 1 is scheduled for August 13 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order it here.

Simo Cell Announces First Solo Record Since 2018

French producer Simo Cell has unveiled YES.DJ, his first solo record since 2018 on TEMƎT Music.

YES.DJ is a “celebration of dance music culture” comprising six “heavy-duty, titanium-plated bangers.” We’re told that “bouncy, punchy production and trouser-flapping bottom-end ensure maximum floor damage,” but beyond that are “subtle complexities,” with each piece “full of detailed flourishes where assorted sounds chop and interweave.”

“I’ve explored a wider range of tempos than before, with tracks ranging from 100 to 160 BPM. I covered a lot of different genres on this record, all styles that I love to play out,” Simo Cell says. “It’s exactly the same as the way I built my DJ sets: high energy plus versatility, with a very personal approach. Pent up frustration from lockdown is why there’s so much energy on the record.”

The release comes with a fanzine curating photos taken by Simo Cell of drinks tokens from clubs around the world.

Simo Cell, originally from Nantes, France, has released on Livity Sound’s Dnuos Ytivil, Batu’s Timedance, and Lavibe. Most recently, he put out Kill Me Or Negotiate, a collaboration with Egyptian artist Abdullah Miniawy via Brothers From Different Mothers. Last year, he released a back-to-back mix cassette with Skee Mask.

Tracklisting

01. Short Leg
02. Cegetel
03. Whispers
04. YES.DJ
05. FARTS
06. not all it’s cracked up to be

YES​.​DJ is scheduled for September 21 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Short Leg” in full below and pre-order here.

Nils Frahm to Release Dub Album with F.S. Blumm

Nils Frahm will release an album of dub with F.S. Blumm, real name Frank Schültge.

2X1=4 is the pair’s fourth album together, following 2016’s Tag Eins Tag Zwei, and it sees them rather unexpectedly exploring a dub sound that both of them have delved into before, but rarely expressed. F.S.Blumm is a co-founder of Quasi Dub Development and released an album in 2014 that featured Lady Ann and Lee Scratch Perry. Frahm often turns to dub studio techniques, particularly across 2018’s All Melody, even though his approach has always been “a little bit more German” than his influences, he says.

“Most of the music you can listen to on the upcoming album was initially developed a few years ago already,” Frahm says. “When Frank and myself wound up work on our album Tag Eins Tag Zwei, we discovered a common love for dub. We recorded some improv sessions to two-track cassette, and kept on making new songs out of these sessions and starting over and over again. It was a process that was time consuming but really fun.”

The album comes via LEITER, a new label Frahm started with his manager, Felix Grimm.

F.S. Blumm put out an album called In Sight last year. More recently, Frahm shared an unreleased album from 2009, Graz.

Tracklisting

01. Desert Mule
02. Presidential Tub
03. Puddle Drop
04. Buddy Hop
05. Sarah & Eve
06. Raw Chef
07. Neckrub

2X1=4 LP will be out on September 3. Meanwhile, you can stream “Desert Mule” in full below and pre-order the album here.

Mabe Fratti and Gudrun Gut Deliver “Powerful Hybrid Album” for Umor Rex

Mabe Fratti has teamed up with German producer Gudrun Gut and on a “powerful hybrid album” for Umor Rex.

Fratti and Gut recorded Let’s Talk About The Weather between Berlin, Uckermark, Veracruz, and Mexico City. Building a dialogue between two lands and two artists, it’s intended as a celebration of Umor Rex’s 15th anniversary. Mexico is the origin and conceptual residence of the label, but Germany is where they manufacture their records.

The album process started with Fratti and Gut having long distance conversations, asking about their whereabouts and discussing the weather. This might seem rather commonplace, but it works as a key thematic component for the entire album: the weather as the new great unknown, perceived through the optics of everyday life. Sound files were exchanged, with Fratti exploring words and vocals, and Gut working with field recordings taken from each city. In the end, the venture provided “a healing effect for both artists during life in quarantine.”

We’re told that “taut rhythms fuse with haunted vocal melodies and spoken-word, and field recordings meld with extended ambient pieces.”

Alongside today’s announcement, Umor Rex has shared “Aufregend”, the opening track of the album, which reflects upon a general lack of excitement in modern life. It wonders what the future might hold. Is it cold? Is it warm? Will it be the same?

Fratti is a cellist based in Mexico City. After various low-profile live performances across Guatemala and Mexico, she signed to Hole Records for her gorgeous debut album, Pies Sobre La Tierra. You can read more about her work here.

Artwork and photos come from Daniel Castrejón in Mexico City.

Tracklisting

01. Aufregend
02. El Cielo Responde
03. Walk
04. In D
05. Air Condition
06. Let’s talk about the weather I
07. Let’s talk about the weather II
08. Let’s talk about the weather III
09. Let’s talk about the weather IV

Let’s Talk About The Weather LP is scheduled for August 20 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Aufregend” in full below and pre-order here.

Livity Sound Celebrates 10 Years with Compilation Featuring Forest Drive West, Batu, Bruce, and More

Livity Sound will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a various artist compilation featuring original works from Forest Drive West, Batu, Bruce, and many more.

Livity Sound was born in 2011 as a vessel for new tracks from Peverelist, Kowton, and, Asusu, three Bristol artists who someone found common ground in there pursuit of a heavyweight strain of soundsystem techno. A run of hand-stamped 12”s and a three-way live show followed, while a Reverse sister-label provided a platform for emerging artists to enter the fray. Early breakthroughs from Hodge, Batu, Bruce, and Simo Cell pointed to what Livity has since become: community of like-minded artists creating dancefloor misfits that somehow fit together.

We’re told that Molten Mirrors “captures the dynamic energy” of Livity Sound, with 18 artists from the label’s roster coming together to present “an honest document of where the label is at in the present moment.” No over-arching concepts, it simply “reflects the multifaceted, technicolour energy of the here and now while celebrating the possibilities of an open, unpredictable future.” There’s exclusive material from Two Shell, Bakongo, Facta, Al Wootton, among others.

Tracklisting

01. Azu Tiwaline “Nissa”
02. Forest Drive West “Lost Signal”
03. Batu “Melts Into Air”
04. Two Shell “Big Style”
05. Al Wootton “Sancode”
06. DJ Plead “Glebe!”
07. Bakongo “Ashy”
08. Cando “It’s All Relative”
09. Facta “FM Gamma”
10. Pev & Kowton “Exhale”
11. Simo Cell “El Gato Loco”
12. Hodge “Do What You Need To Do”
13. Bruce “Just Getting On With It”
14. Kouslin “Racket”
15. Jurango “Drolle Prosse”
16. Toma Kami “Sixty Frames”
17. Ido Plumes “Albeit”
18. Surgeons Girl “Grass Labyrinth”

Molten Mirrors—A Decade Of Livity Sound LP is scheduled for September 24 release. Meanwhile, you can stream Pev & Kowton’s “Exhale” in full below and pre-order here.

Dark Star Safari’s Second Album Next on Arjunamusic Records

Arjunamusic Records will present a new album by Dark Star Safari, the project of Jan Bang, Erik Honoré, Eivind Aarset, Samuel Rohrer, and John Derek Bishop.

Walk Through Lightly is the group’s second album, following their self-titled debut in 2019. It’s the first to feature John Derek Bishop, a producer from Stavanger, Norway. This makes for a “more organic refinement” upon a methodology that sees them writing songs using a two-stage process: an initial phase of free-flowing open improvisation, and a subsequent “exploratory phase” where “hidden potentials” are “discovered and nurtured.”

Within these layered, many-textured fabrics, the lyrical imagery delivered by Bang focuses upon coming to grips with sudden transformations.

We’re told that this second album is “frosted over with a Scandinavian sense of spatiality and melancholy,” and that listeners will feel as if “teleported directly into the middle of an enigmatic film-in-progress.”

Arjunamusic Records, based in Berlin, Germany, has been focusing on experimental acoustic music since 2012. For more information on label head Samuel Rohrer, check out his XLR8R podcast here.

Tracklisting

01. Patria
02.Life Stand Still
03. Portraits of You
04. Measured Response
05. Father’s Day
06. Invocation
07. Murmuration
08. Passover
09. Disembodied
10. Walk Through Lightly

Walk Through Lightly LP is scheduled for September 24 release.

Editor’s note: We’ll add pre-order links and public streams as they become available.

Download: Olive T “This Is A Bop” (Tiro Remix)

Earlier this month, San Diego’s Bouquet Records released Olive T‘s Goin Up EP.

The four-track EP, the label’s sixth release, features two Olive T originals and remixes from Matt Karmil and Tiro. The originals, we’re told, were inspired by ’90s house, particularly Raze, Deee-lite, and Green Velvet. They both present rolling grooves that reference “smooth disco flows,” and “project a sunny disposition.”

On the remix front, both artists take the originals into much deeper territory, with Karmil presenting a tender remix of “Opaque,” which focuses on a submerged groove and fleeting vocal chops, while Tiro twists the up-front rhythm of “This Is A Bop” into a head-nodding slice of silky-smooth deep house with a low-slung groove.

In support of the EP, Bouquet Records has offered up Tiro’s remix as an XLR8R download, available to XLR8R+ subscribers below.

Tracklisting:

01. Opaque
02. Opaque (Matt Karmil Remix)
03. This Is A Bop
04. This Is A Bop (Tiro Remix)

You can pick up the EP via Bouquet Records’ Bandcamp page.

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

Nina Kraviz Teases Album with “Love Song”

Photo: Kira Tumanova

Nina Kraviz has released Skyscrapers, the first single from an upcoming, unknown EP.

The single marks the Russian artist’s first solo release since 2019, and it sees her exploring a new, more traditional approach to songwriting. It’s a melancholic, pop-leaning track, and we’re told to expect more singles in this sort of style from her.

“I wrote ‘Skyscrapers’ on one of my long trips to a far away country,” says Kraviz. “It is a love song. It is about missing someone very much even if you don’t always get along and agree on things. In moments like that you just want to run away as fast as you can, only to feel like you want to come back five minutes later.”

An album from Kraviz will come next year.

Tracklisting

01. Skyscrapers
02. Skyscrapers (Radio Edit)

Skyscrapers is available now. You can stream it below and order it here.

Innovative Leisure Welcomes New Zealand’s Arjuna Oakes and Serebii

Innovative Leisure will release a collaborative EP from Arjuna Oakes and Serebii.

Arjuna and Serebii are to musicians based in Wellington, New Zealand. They met in the summer of 2017 and become friends, and since they they’ve been working on music together. After years of collaborating indirectly on each other’s solo projects, the two decided to knuckle down and complete a project together, marrying Oakes’ skills as a songwriter, keys player, and vocalist, and Serebii’s skills as a beat-maker. The resulting EP explores feelings of heartbreak, self-discovery, and acceptance.

Alongside the announcement, the pair have shared “Even When You’re Gone,” on which you can feel the heartache and sense of loss, communication through Oakes’ vocals.

Tracklisting

01. Holding Cell feat. Mo Etc.
02. Reset
03. Satellites
04. Tangello
05. Even When You’re Gone
06. First Nights

First Nights EP is scheduled for August 27 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Even When You’re Gone” in full below and stream “Even When You’re Gone” in full below.

Lone to Release First Album in Five Years

Photo Fabula Images

Matt Cutler, better known as Lone, will release a new album in October.

Always Inside Your Head is the British artist’s eighth album, and the first in five years. It marks two major changes, with both a new label, Greco-Roman, and a new approach; it features vocals for the first time, courtesy of Morgane Diet.

We’re told that the album exists “somewhere between trip-hop, ’90s Warp, intelligent drum & bass, and ambient house.” The two main influences behind it are Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine. “I wanted to approach a range of different styles, but attack them from their angle in a way, so for example on ‘Inlove2’ I tried to imagine what a Balearic / acid house tune might sound like if it were produced by Kevin Shields”, Cutler tells XLR8R.

Although the album is rooted in club culture, Cutler leans towards a song-based sound, with several tracks edging towards the same crossover space as the ’90s hits which inspired him to make music, particularly William Orbit’s production on Madonna’s “Frozen” and Olive’s “You’re Not Alone.”

Lone’s last studio album came in 2016 with Levitate on R&S Records.

Tracklisting

01. Hidden By Horizons feat. Morgane Diet
02. Realise
03. Echo Paths
04. Visited By Astronauts
05. Inlove2
06. Mouth Of God
07. Akoya feat. Morgane Diet
08. Tree For Tree
09. Undaunted
10. Coming Into Being and Passing Away

Always Inside Your Head LP is scheduled for October 1 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Hidden By Horizons” feat. Morgane Diet and “Coming Into Being and Passing Away” in full below and pre-order here.

Page 78 of 3781
1 … 76 77 78 79 80 … 3,781