Following the recent announcement of their forthcoming new album Summer 08, Metronomy have today shared a remix of “Old School” from rising Dutch producer, Fatima Yamaha.
Entirely written, played and produced by auteur Joe Mount himself, Summer 08 finds the multi-instrumentalist reflecting on his experiences around the time that Metronomy first landed a major breakthrough with the Nights Out album–the guilt at spending key moments in loved ones’ lives in the back of a tour bus, and the confused mania of finding himself a critical darling.
Ahead of the album’s July 1 release via Because Music, Fatima Yamaha’s remix can be streamed in full below.
Acclaimed French director JR tells the story of Ellis Island, the former emblem of the United States’ immigration policy and now a crumbling, abandoned shell of itself, in the film “Ellis,” with narration by Robert De Niro and music scored by Nils Frahm and Woodkid.
On July 8, Erased Tapes will be releasing the soundtrack via LP, CD and digital formats. All proceeds from the record go to the Sea Watch initiative, a non-profit charity dedicated to the protection and rescue of civilian refuges.
The film score, which was composed by Woodkid and performed and co-written by Frahm, features two pieces, “Winter Morning I” & “Winter Morning II.” The first piece is instrumental, while the second piece features the narration of De Niro taken from the film.
The film comes at a critical time for the United States as it questions and re-approaches its immigration policy, with the public and US policy standing at a socio-political crossroads headed into a charged presidential election this Fall. Ellis Island, a former beacon of hope, new beginnings and the first taste of the American Dream for countless immigrants beginning their journey there, now stands crumbling, decayed and forgotten in the shadows of the past.
Nils Frahm and Woodkid had the same to say on “Ellis” and the score:
Frahm:
“The opportunity to work on JR ́s fantastic short film “Ellis” came through my good friend Yoann (a.k.a Woodkid). We agreed on recording the piano parts in my studio in Berlin, and so it happened that JR and Woodkid were guests at Durton studio on a wonderful late summer day in 2015. We managed to record all the crucial elements that day. The music fell in our laps and melted with the images: a wonderful experience. The film has stuck in my head ever since; it moved my heart and changed my soul.
A couple of weeks later I had to cancel a trip to Brussels because of a terror warning; all events got cancelled and I stayed home, having an unexpected day off. I felt rather depressed that day, thinking that the Europe I knew was already gone. I sat down at the harmonium, listened to Robert De Niro’s voice and played for the rest of the day. The result is “Winter Morning II,” the B-side of the “Ellis” soundtrack release.
Robert says it all in 17 minutes. We are not facing a refugee crisis. We are facing a crisis because we do not embrace, we do not sympathise and we cannot give up fear. Art can encourage so I hope this project will help fight the fear in all of us.”
Woodkid:
“Ellis is my second collaboration with JR after the New York City Ballet piece for Les Bosquets. I initially wanted this piece to sound like it was recorded on an old piano that we found in the ruins of Ellis Island, in the restricted area that is not open to the public, where JR pasted the pictures on the walls for the film “Ellis.”
I had worked with Nils before and I wanted him to create a sound for this piano part that I composed that was extremely gentle and organic. I wanted the listener to hear the mechanisms, the breathing of the instrument. I wanted it to be imperfect, to sound like a ruin, a trace, an echo, the way the pastings on the walls seem to be ghosts, almost imperceptible.
After a few rehearsals, Nils stripped down my piano parts and we removed almost all orchestration around the piano. He then worked on the extended version that is his interpretation of my piece, with Robert de Niro’s vocals. Because this film and this recording is historically meaningful, it was important for us to create this piece as an echo to the immigration situation in Europe, and decided to release it in support of Sea Watch.”
Tracklisting
01. Winter Morning I 02. Winter Morning II w/ Robert De Niro
In advance of the July 8 release, you can stream a trailer for the film below. The release is available to pre-order here.
Leading electronic music platform electric minds has revealed the remaining dates for its 10th anniversary year. To mark the occasion, the team will arrive at some of the world’s most respected festivals and global music hubs, with shows in New York, Berlin, Copenhagen, Marrakech, Barcelona and Paris, plus special London dates.
The international string of dates includes a night at NYC house and techno mecca Sublimate on Saturday August 20, with sets from Hessle Audio‘s Ben UFO, seasoned spinner, Joy Orbison, Sublimate founder, Sagotsky, and electric minds’ head-honcho, Dolan.
On Friday October 14, electric minds will descend on Panorama Bar for special extended sets from dancefloor maestro Move D and analog synthesist, Harvey Sutherland and Edward.
The next pin falls on Copenhagen on Friday October 21. Rapidly emerging as one of the most exciting electronic music outputs, the city’s most prominent night-spot, Culture Box will prove a fitting host for a dancefloor masterclass from electric minds cohort, Move D, and Prosumer.
The international tour reaches it’s finale at revered Parisian nightclub Concrete on Friday November 4. Move D will once again helm the bill, alongside Kowton. Ahead of his upcoming release with electric minds, Endian also join the bill, alongside Parisian underground staple, Theo Muller.
Closer to home, The Columbian in London will host an intimate night of music, as Mano Le Tough takes to the decks for an all-night session on Friday August 26.
Offering something a bit different, electric minds will bring a night of forward-thing music to Camden’s Jazz Cafe on Saturday July 9.
For more information, including full listings and tickets, please visit here.
Following a string of dancefloor singles since 2012 including “Let Me Tell You” and “Strike,” Jimmy Edgar is set to return with a fresh sound that is to become his signature for Ultramajic. Over a period of two years, Jimmy has been building this new sound. Where rhythm was the primary in his dance music, he has flipped focus and intensely studied melody, chords and music theory.
Dreamz Come True EP is the beginning of a new path; one that continues trajectory from his quintessential releases on Warp Records, over 10 years ago.
In advance of the EP’s June 24 release, Edgar has shared a new track, entitled “4Fourth Dimension,” which is streamable in full below.
Matthew Dekay and Lee Burridge have announced plans to bring their All Day I Dream party series back to Berlin this coming summer, following on from last year’s debut success.
You sure can’t accuse SHXCXCHCXSH of doing things halfway. There’s the title of the mysterious Swedish duo’s new album, for one: Steering clear of an obviously descriptive moniker like, say, Grey Scales or Synthetic Mire, the pair opt for a name that’s hazily evocative of arcane rituals, with the added bonus of being completely unpronounceable. The same could be said for the title of the pair’s new album—not to mention those of its individual tracks, which range from “Ss” to “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” over the course of 15 tracks. And, of course, there’s the music itself. As with SHXCXCHCXSH’s previous two LPs—like this one, released on the Avian label, home to experimentally-inclined electronic-music artists like Shifted (who runs the imprint) and Peder Mannerfelt—it’s a rigorous, serious-minded work, awash in deeply textured patterns that range between ambient mood-pieces and outsider techno.
Listen to SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs casually, and you might get the impression that the album is nothing but a series of bleakly monochromatic soundscapes. That’s due, at least in part, to a tonal consistency that runs throughout, defined by grainy drones, creaky keyboards, synthetic choirs and a variety of distorted scrapes, thumps and wheezes. Tune in closer though, and it’s clear that the duo is doing a lot with that handful of elements, largely in service of creating a mood—one that can sometimes be unsettling, at other times comforting. “SsSsSs” modulates a clonking, descending synth line, adds a pair of organ-like fragments—one stabbing, one gliding—and a few dub effects, and that’s more than enough to give a the cut a sense of gravity-fueled tension. ‘SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” goes in the opposite direction, with its escalating pings and spring-action echoes adding bounce to its thudding tempo. “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” takes a similar rhythm and wraps it in Tesla-coil voltage; “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” is a factory-floor fever-dream of a track, all magnetic hums and gear-shaft clacks; “SsSsSsSsSsSsSs” adds a quavering keyboard to that template, adding a layer of emotion that’s hard to pin down, but that’s undeniably there.
Though not quite as lithe as 2014’s Linear-S Decoded,SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs is also not as austere as SHXCXCHCXSH’s 2013 debut long-player, STRGTHS—and the album is at its best when the duo opens a window, allowing a prismatic ray of sunlight to shine through. There’s an elegant melodicism that edges past the album’s murky pulses, one that seems to be reaching for a higher plane, as with opener “Ss” and its following cut, “SsSs”—their somber intonations rise and fall, lending the songs the aura of something ceremonial and solemn. Staccato rhythms punctuate the entwining synths of ‘SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs,” while a subaquatic feel permeates “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs,” with anxious sonar signals and pulsing bass merging into something both claustrophobic and sublime; the clicking static of final track “SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs” is overwhelmed by a blanket of celestial sighs. Songs like these possess something approaching a spiritual edge, one that transcends SHXCXCHCXSH’s unwieldy nomenclature and uncompromising aesthetics.
SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs is due out on June 6, and can be pre-ordered at Juno.
Yossi Amoyal‘s Berlin-based imprint Sushitech has announced the release of its second Tessera compilation, due out in the coming months.
The label dropped its first Tessera compilation back in 2009, and is now set to follow up from where it left off later this year. 18 tracks will be spread across a five vinyl pack, including two cuts by Delano Smith, and contributions from the likes of XDB, Tobias., Ryan Elliott, Efdemin, and label head Yossi Amoyal in collaboration with Steve O’Sullivan (who also offers solo cuts as Bluetrain and The Wise Caucasian).
A specific release date is yet to be released. More details are set to follow.
Tracklisting: A1. “Prelude” A2. Paul St. Hilaire & Rhauder “Skank” B1 Steve O’Sullivan & Yossi Amoyal “Singularity” C1. Eric Miller “From A Distance” D1. Bluetrain “Read My Mind” D2. Monoaware “Hanami” E1. Delano Smith “Without Reason Part.1” E2. Delano Smith “Without Reason Part.2” F1. Leonel Castillo “Stealer” F2. XDB “Frost” G1. Thor & Sanasol “All Sides Will Be Lost” G2. The Wise Caucasian “Agent Orange” H1. Ryan Elliott “P’s Keys” H2. Tobias. “Styles 2” I1. Efdemin “Flight” I2. Monoaware “G-Train To Shibuya” J1. Fluxion “Overcast” J2. Paul St. Hilaire & Rhauder “Not Saying Much”
A “bossa nova drummer who got bit by a techno-fly,” the Helsinki-based producer Josu Mämmi is gearing up to release his debut EP, a self-released five-tracker titled Spring/Summer 2016, which will be available digitally on June 6. Despite this being his first release, Mämmi’s outright electronic sound feels full and refined: an overall appropriate choice for getting dancefloors to where they need to be.
Ahead of his juicy debut, Mämmi has kindly offered up the EP cut “Open Your Eyes” as today’s XLR8R downloads. The track escorts the listener with gentle, stilted percussion and grand soundscapes before dropping into a clamorous, contagious, and texturally rich drum pattern that is as fervent as it is unmerciful.
You can download “Open Your Eyes” below via WeTransfer.
Since the initial release of the unique audio-visual app Takete for iOS, the developers at Refined Stochastic Technology have worked tirelessly to expand and improve the programs capabilities. Along with a crisp new look, new features on the iPad app include seamless video FX, modes for controller touch, a powerful looper, and much more. Takete remains the “only piece of software that is able to perform an immersive AV live performance on any device” and has proven itself to be a prominent and affordable tool for those looking to blend their own sound with visuals of their choosing.
As demonstrated in the video above, this app allows users to import their own audio and video files and record their creative visual and audio output either separately or combined. You can check out the list of features below.
You can learn more about Takete by going here. Purchase Takete here.
FEATURES:
– Flexible architecture – Audio Instruments (File Player, Long Player, Touch Loop, Granular Synth, Sample Drum, Recorder & External Input) – Import your own audio and video files from iTunes, other apps and the camera roll – iCloud import and export – Controllers (External MIDI, Matrix and Touch) – MIDI Learn functionality – Audio FX (Overdrive, Lofi, Delay, Plate Verb, Filter, Compressor) – Video FX (Contrast, Repeat, Pixellate, Tunnel, Mirror, Reverb, Posterize, Scale, Dot, Edge) – Switchable video blend modes (Add, Subtract, Dodge, Saturation, Multiply, Divide) – High quality video output to projector using VGA, HDMI and Airplay – Professional audio quality – Extensive automation available – Ableton Link integrated for wireless sync
The Dutch have long had a love affair with techno: since the early days of legendary brands such as Djax-Up-Beats, to more underground establishments like Bunker Records, they have cultivated their own unique take on proceedings with heaps of character accompanying it. Today, you’ll still find the culture being widely celebrated across the country with that same vigour, in clubs and festivals from Amsterdam to Utrecht.
In the latter of those cities, Soenda Festival has been rocking the crowds that descend on their Ruigenhoek Groenekan site for almost a decade now. At this year’s one-dayer outdoor event, a well-balanced lineup of acts that covered everything from the soulful, disco-infused house jams of Motor City Drum Ensemble, to the relentless techno stylings of Blawan & Pariah were divided over five varied stages. Voices From The Lake performed their live set, while DVS1 spun on the Java Stage, and Virginia played alongside Steffi and Dexter on the back of her new album on Ostgut Ton. Earlier in the day, Roman Flügel moved crowds at Soembawa, while British techno titans Ben Sims and James Ruskin went back to back elsewhere. For an insight into the proceedings, we’ve put together a handful of snapshots from the festival that should help to paint a picture of one of the most important events on the Dutch festival circuit today.
