Originally the joint project of Swedes Elias Landberg and Gustaf Wallnerstrom, Skudge today is the solo project of Landberg. The last album released under the Skudge name dropped in 2011, a product of that earlier pairing (which had earned a reputation for making tough, dark and hardware-heavy techno jams). Five years on, with the recently adjusted lineup, Balancing Point promises a sound that has “shifted into new territory.”
Balancing Point will be released on October 10 via Skudge Records.
Tracklisting: A1. Immersion A2. Polar (with Samo DJ) A3. Drifting B1. Air Walk B2. Aloft B3. Elapse C1. Vertigo C2. Tides C3. Falling D1. Thesis D2. Anode D3. Balancing Point
In his DJ sets and his original work, Djrum (real name Felix Manuel) sets his sights indisputably high. Following a 2010 debut two-tracker that spun slow, downtempo dubstep in the style of Burial, the Londoner’s releases began straying further from any specific genre mould. As his production chops expanded, so too did his comfort in vacillating at will between the tension of breakbeat, the depth of techno, and the emotive capabilities of UK garage. With the evolution of his creative output as a backdrop, Manuel’s 2016 EP trilogy from 2nd Drop Records is his most ambitious project to date. LA, the second in the series,provides a concise midway point between the duelling personalities of the instalments that precede and follow it.
June 10-released Forgetting was a patient opening EP. It concluded appropriately with the tranquility of “Forgetting Coda,” a piano track tastefully augmented with a light dose of studio slight-of-hand.
Manuel’s follow-up, LA, is considerably more direct. Without losing any atmosphere, the EP sheds its predecessor’s hesitancy to cut loose into an unrestrained break or body-moving kick drum. The title track gets the ball rolling with a soulful, dynamically arranged breakbeat piece, garage-appropriate vocals in tow. To conclude, recognizable jungle tropes are given an atypical shimmer in “Abandon Me” by expert sound design and a gravitation towards a techno backbone.
In a manner that echoes Forgetting, LA commands a particular more-is-more approach to instrumentation and composition that has marked Manuel’s work over the course of his five-year career. Unfortunately, this philosophy doesn’t always translate to a more compelling finished product, even for someone as singularly talented as he is. The melancholic strings of “LA” seem a bit out of sorts in context, convoluted further by the constant alternating between various paces. Furthermore, the interplay between wistful temperaments and dance sensibilities don’t always seem to agree on direction, at least throughout the entire trilogy’s thematic arc.
Ultimately, a minor identity crisis is overshadowed by strong musicianship. Despite clashing mood swings, Manuel manages to give compelling nuance to some of the UK’s most visible and storied electronic music traditions.
John Daly has announced his second full-length as The Smoke Clears.
Las year we profiled Irishman John Daly in our Get Familiar series: having generally been recognized for his work as a house producer for years, he decided “to lash down the tempo and see what’d come out of it,” which spawned The Smoke Clears. The project focuses on IDM and ambient creations, and so far has only produced one EP and a one full-length. The forthcoming self-titled effort is set to drop on Dublin’s All City Records, who describe it as building “upon it’s predecessor’s ambient abstractions while adding another layer of nuanced melodic contemplation.”
The Smoke Clears is due out September 12. Check out a teaser below.
Tracklisting: A1. Fathoms A2. Where You Go I Go A3. The Goose And The Moon A4. Heaven Sent B1. Slipstream B2. Oh My Days (feat. Cian Finn) B3. In Time B4. September
Los Angeles producer Elusive is no stranger to sonic evolution, he moved through the first wave of his career with the experimental hip-hop community in the ’90s , followed by the first wave of beat-centric Los Angeles producers in years after. Now entering an entirely different realm of compositional approach, jazz, electronica, and many other shades of music are finding a home within his sound. Specifically, this year finds his latest efforts winding further down the hybrid road of electronica and jazz. Roads that artists like Flying Lotus and Onra have put a lot of energy and momentum towards.
Elusive released the Textures LP with Alpha Pup Records earlier this year on vinyl and digital formats. Not even 12 months later and he’s scheduled to drop Headspace, a new LP with Alpha Pup. Launching on digital formats August 5, Headspace is another standout record in Elusive’s large catalog of 25+ releases. Flourishing rhythms and dynamic melodies are found all over Headspace, complemented with guest features from LA vocalist Flavia, jazz guitarist Emile Poree, and trumpeter and brother, Josh Koslow.
XLR8R is pleased to present two tracks from the Elusive’s Headspace, joined by a quick Q&A about the new record.
Tell us about the Headspace LP and where that falls in line with the current albums you have with Alpha Pup Records, how did it come together in the studio and what elements really stand out to you with the record?
The main theme of this album was the expansion of my creativity as a musician, not just as a beat maker. I wanted to expand on musical ideas, as well as rhythms. My favorite moments are the more jazzy tracks. I feel like that’s where my music is going. So those are the songs that I feel will bridge over to the new music I’m making now.
Headspace features the addition of recorded trumpet, guitar, and vocals. What experiences brought these people to the album and what have they added to Headspace sonically?
All of the people who have contributed to this album are artists that I’ve worked with in the past, through some capacity. The vocalist Flavia, is from a group called Angels Dust. I had done a remix for them and loved her vocals. I asked her to be on a couple of tracks, and we vibed together really well. The guitarist Emile Poree is a jazz guitarist I’ve known since I was 17. He went to high school with my brother Josh, who also plays trumpet on the album. They were in jazz band together, and the World Stage. I’ve known him for so long that he is basically part of the family. My brother played trumpet on this album, and we’ve collaborated on music forever. I grew up playing the drums, and my brother and I went to music magnet schools. With us only being a year and a half apart in age, we are close as siblings and easily inspired by the same things. Creating music with him just comes as naturally as being brothers. Much of my work lately is influenced by jazz so I’m really looking forward to adding these more organic sounds and working with other artists to create work from the kind of music that inspired me and was introduced to me at a young age. It feels like it’s coming full circle.
The huge jazz influence is something you can hear right away with this new record. Is there any particular jazz records from the past or present that were catalysts for you in shifting towards this sonic approach?
Two records that really inspired me on this album: “Love Supreme” by John Coltrane, and “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis. These albums are what made me think more about adding complex melodies, different chord voicings, and a wider range of time signatures to the new album. My albums are pretty conceptual or like themes. I wanted to be more expressive with this album and there isn’t any other music more expressive than jazz music to me.
Outside of the attachments that come with releasing records to the public, what does the process of creating and releasing music do for you as an artist and human being?
Ultimately, I make music for myself as a way to express how I feel. I hope that in releasing my music it will bring someone mentally to where I’m at or what I’m feeling when I make a song. But, equally as satisfying are if they perceive a song differently and it takes them somewhere else or makes them feel a certain way. For me, it means that it has reached them in some way that they can feel in tune with what I’m trying to convey.
Los Angeles producer Elusive is no stranger to sonic evolution, he moved through the first wave of his career with the experimental hip-hop community in the ’90s , followed by the first wave of beat-centric Los Angeles producers in years after. Now entering an entirely different realm of compositional approach, jazz, electronica, and many other shades of music are finding a home within his sound. Specifically, this year finds his latest efforts winding further down the hybrid road of electronica and jazz. Roads that artists like Flying Lotus and Onra have put a lot of energy and momentum towards.
Elusive released the Textures LP with Alpha Pup Records earlier this year on vinyl and digital formats. Not even 12 months later and he’s scheduled to drop Headspace, a new LP with Alpha Pup. Launching on digital formats August 5, Headspace is another standout record in Elusive’s large catalog of 25+ releases. Flourishing rhythms and dynamic melodies are found all over Headspace, complemented with guest features from LA vocalist Flavia, jazz guitarist Emile Poree, and trumpeter and brother, Josh Koslow.
XLR8R is pleased to present two tracks from the Elusive’s Headspace, joined by a quick Q&A about the new record.
Tell us about the Headspace LP and where that falls in line with the current albums you have with Alpha Pup Records, how did it come together in the studio and what elements really stand out to you with the record?
The main theme of this album was the expansion of my creativity as a musician, not just as a beat maker. I wanted to expand on musical ideas, as well as rhythms. My favorite moments are the more jazzy tracks. I feel like that’s where my music is going. So those are the songs that I feel will bridge over to the new music I’m making now.
Headspace features the addition of recorded trumpet, guitar, and vocals. What experiences brought these people to the album and what have they added to Headspace sonically?
All of the people who have contributed to this album are artists that I’ve worked with in the past, through some capacity. The vocalist Flavia, is from a group called Angels Dust. I had done a remix for them and loved her vocals. I asked her to be on a couple of tracks, and we vibed together really well. The guitarist Emile Poree is a jazz guitarist I’ve known since I was 17. He went to high school with my brother Josh, who also plays trumpet on the album. They were in jazz band together, and the World Stage. I’ve known him for so long that he is basically part of the family. My brother played trumpet on this album, and we’ve collaborated on music forever. I grew up playing the drums, and my brother and I went to music magnet schools. With us only being a year and a half apart in age, we are close as siblings and easily inspired by the same things. Creating music with him just comes as naturally as being brothers. Much of my work lately is influenced by jazz so I’m really looking forward to adding these more organic sounds and working with other artists to create work from the kind of music that inspired me and was introduced to me at a young age. It feels like it’s coming full circle.
The huge jazz influence is something you can hear right away with this new record. Is there any particular jazz records from the past or present that were catalysts for you in shifting towards this sonic approach?
Two records that really inspired me on this album: “Love Supreme” by John Coltrane, and “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis. These albums are what made me think more about adding complex melodies, different chord voicings, and a wider range of time signatures to the new album. My albums are pretty conceptual or like themes. I wanted to be more expressive with this album and there isn’t any other music more expressive than jazz music to me.
Outside of the attachments that come with releasing records to the public, what does the process of creating and releasing music do for you as an artist and human being?
Ultimately, I make music for myself as a way to express how I feel. I hope that in releasing my music it will bring someone mentally to where I’m at or what I’m feeling when I make a song. But, equally as satisfying are if they perceive a song differently and it takes them somewhere else or makes them feel a certain way. For me, it means that it has reached them in some way that they can feel in tune with what I’m trying to convey.
Hamburg’s Golden Pudel will not be forced to shut.
After a saga that involved an ongoing legal battle between the club’s owners (Wolf Richter and Rocko Schamoni), the constant threat of forced auction, and an arson attack back in February, the Golden Pudel has today announced it will be able to resume business as usual.
A statement appeared on the club’s site earlier today: “The piece of this earth that is intertwined with us, namely St. Pauli Fischmarkt No. 27, has been snatched away from the burning claws of the forced auction that has been threatening us for a long while. Together with the Mara & Holger Cassens foundation, Wolf Richter’s shares in the property have been acquired. The property can now be used for public cultural benefit. Consequently, the Club is now protected from the adversities of the capital market and can once again and continiously be used for counter-cultural experiments and the developing of our social idea. Happily, loudly, and forever!”
At this point it is unclear when the Golden Pudel will re-open its doors. More information to follow.
After 22 years Luke Slater’s Planetary Assault Systems keeps exploring space and time with different musical means. Staying true to the project’s initial mission statement, Slater comments on the new yet familiar musical direction: “For me music has to go forward. I’d feel I was cheating by sticking to tried and tested formulas. There’s a valid use for these, but this album has its own agenda.” With Arc Angel, Planetary Assault Systems departs to new musical frontiers by focussing on melody, but staying rooted in the purist values of techno that Slater shaped over his career.
While the album title may sound like a reference to spiritual matters, it hints to rather secular affairs. Arc Angel is a postmodernist, non-comfortist techno album, catering as much for club contexts as for accessibility in new melodic terms. Long-standing Slater followers will connect to the release, whereas the LP opens space to new listeners at the same time.
In the tradition of Slater’s previous albums with Ostgut Ton—The Messenger (2011) and Temporary Suspension (2009)—its musical motifs radiate around polymorphic and extraterrestrial sounds, using contemporary instrumental language, but putting stronger emphasis on compatible musical phrases. “With this album it was very much a case of limitation and focus around the idea of alternative melody,” Slater says.
“I love music that takes you somewhere new. All music for this album had to pass that test. At the same time I wanted to re-root the foundations of what I see as techno into that and focus on melody, rather than a track just being a beat. I moved the work of the track from the beat to the upper frequencies making them more important. I think we’ve learnt how to do the big straight beats now and I like trying to push things further without becoming abstract for the sake of it.“
Although Arc Angel started as a blank page, Slater continues his sonic explorations as heard on the recent Mote-Evolver-released 12“s – No Exit EP (2013), Future Modular (2014) and The Eyes Themselves (2015).“Arc Angel is the following album from that series of singles—there’s regression and progression going on at the same time.”
Despite its musical richness, all gear had to fit onto a small table. “I love software, hardware, technology; but because we have almost endless choice of sound creating devices it now drove me to using very limited and focused equipment by choice to express each track. Actually taking influences from the way an original Blues guy might have used an old guitar and a stomp box, yet still make very organic and spiritual music. He has the guitar, the box and voice—I have the 909 and 808, which have always been the main drivers of Planetary Assault Systems.“ The writing part itself was disconnected from the production and mixing period in Slater’s UK studio, allowing for a more reduced yet flexible set-up and revisiting individual parts of the album at a later point without major changes.
While the album’s 20 tracks will be available digitally as individual pieces, Arc Angel will also be available as a single, continuous mix and a mixed three LP and two CD version, all taking the album’s intended way of perception and Slater’s ethos as a DJ into account: take a ride through one evolving movement.
Ostgut Ton will release Arc Angel on September 30. Stream its closing track, “The Last Scene,” below via Boiler Room.
Tracklisting [Digital]:
01. Cassette 02. Angel Of The East 03. Tri Fn Trp 04. Sonar Falls 05. Interlude 1 06. Message From The Drone Sector 07. Merry Go Round 08. Interlude 2 09. Behind The Eyes 10. Bawoo Bawoo 11. Interlude 3 12. Revolution One 13. Interlude 4 14. Blue Monk 15. Groucho 16. Interlude 5 17. The Rider 18. Max 19. Interlude 6 20. The Last Scene 21. Arc Angel (continuous mix)
Into The Valley is welcoming ticket holders who missed out on the cancelled Outline Festival to attend their event in Rättvik, Sweden, at the end of July.
Due to unforeseen circumstances and unclear reasons, this year’s Outline Festival was cancelled by Russian authorities. In light of this, Into The Valley Festival has kindly welcomed any ticket holders who were adversely affected by those circumstances to join them at the end of this month at their event. In a recent Facebook post, the Swedish event explained that they wanted to “show support to this fantastic event” with the new ticket swap scheme.
Szun Waves is the newly-formed experimental psychedelic trio comprised of electronic producer Luke Abbott, Laurence Pike of PVT and Jack Wyllie of Portico.
Luke and Laurence (PVT) had been talking about the idea of doing something for a while, and it was just about waiting for the right moment to come along. Despite being located in different parts of the world (Luke in London; Laurence in Sydney), they eventually managed to get together during March last year. Joining up with Jack Wyllie, who had collaborated with Luke on a prior release, the trio embarked on a three-day recording session at James Holden’s Sacred Walls studio. The six hours of sessions were then edited and mixed by Abbott into the six-track LP.
Luke’s approach was a largely organic one, choosing to record whatever happened in the very first moments of playing together. He describes the act of capturing embryonic ideas for the first time as “the most magical part of the process”–those initial moments that are instinctively fresh and quite singular.
Following the release of this debut LP, the trio has now released a new track which is also available as one of XLR8R‘s free downloads for today.
“New High Round Temple” was originally part of the improvised performance sessions that came to be the At Sacred Walls album, but was put aside because it had a different aura to the pieces that made the record. A looming, seven-and-a-half minute meditation filled with Laurence Pike’s tribalistic drumming and Luke Abbott’s dark, resonating synths, “New High Round Temple” is a beautiful, immersive recording.
Marc Houle is set to make his debut on Dixon and Âme‘s Innervisions imprint.
Entitled Silver Siding, the four-tracker includes two original tracks and two remixes from Golden Filter and Red Axes.
Tracklisting:
A1 I Don’t Want To Watch You Read A2 I Don’t Want To Watch You Read (Golden Filter Remix) B1 Silver Siding B2 I Don’t Want To Watch You Read (Red Axes Remix)
Silver Siding is scheduled for July 27 release via Muting The Noise and as a Beatport exclusive. It will be released elsewhere on August 12.
