Page 92 – XLR8R

Podcast 691: Toada

Valdir da Silva was born in Angola but raised in Lisbon, where he developed his earliest memories after his parents had fled the civil war. “I have only Portuguese nationality and in my heart I feel Portuguese, but of course the Angolan culture is somehow present, mostly in a subliminal way,” he tells XLR8R. He grew up around Sintra, a charming Portuguese town situated within the cooling hills of the Sintra Mountains, with his mother, brothers, and his sister, and it was nothing short of wonderful, he recalls.

It was in Sintra that da Silva discovered a “deep connection” with music, he recalls. Through lessons with electric guitar and performances in various hard rock bands, he developed his basic musical instincts. But these instincts soon took him away from metal and into electronic music, albeit initially only as an “avid listener.” On his radar were Aphex Twin, Herbert, 4Hero, The Cinematic Orchestra, Thievery Corporation, and Dopplereffekt, plus British garage acts like The Streets. It was a particularly rich period in his musical upbringing.

Then, in 2015, da Silva conceived Toada, an amalgamation of several music projects that began in Lisbon and matured in Berlin, where da Silva bases himself. His releases began in 2018, all of them through Plūma, set up for his own work. Peso Pluma came first, capturing Toada’s electronic pop sound, and there’s since been several EPs and his debut album, Cambiante, which served as a reflection of human diversity. His latest work, Viveza, landed earlier this month.

We learned of da Silva when he submitted a free download, and we signed another one to XLR8R+, releasing it alongside exclusive material GARZA and Blue Fields, better known as Mike Shannon. At the time of the release, da Silva was fine-tuning his live set, expecting to be able to share it over the summer, but that was before the pandemic took hold. Now, as hopes of live music’s return grow each day, he’s decided to share one of his first ever live sets as this week’s XLR8R podcast, recorded in his home studio and featuring only his own material. At just over one hour in length, it’s emotive but fierce, characterized by emotional melodies and playful rhythms.

01. What have you been up to recently?

I’ve just had a new EP come out on April 2, and I spent a lot of time making sure this body of work came out the way I envisioned.

02. How has the lockdown period been for you?

Creatively speaking it has been great. It has given me enough time to explore new production techniques, and more importantly it has given my mind the necessary space to express itself artistically. However, generally speaking, the world is currently going through unprecedented times; there’s a lot of people suffering right now, so I hope this pandemic ends as soon as possible.

03. What music have you been listening to?

I haven’t listened to much new music lately because I’ve been focused on finishing my EP. But the new Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders definitely got my attention. I’ve also been enjoying music from Andy Stott and Alessandro Cortini.

04. Where and when did you record this mix?

I recorded this live set in my home studio.

05. What can the listener expect?

My music tends to take people on a journey and that’s what I think happened with this performance.

06. How did you choose the music that you included?

I just chose a bunch of tracks of mine that I think are really fun to play live.

07. We understand it’s one of your first live sets. Talk to us about how you went about it?

I have a lot of interest in live performances because it’s a chance to connect directly with people, but due to the pandemic it’s definitely a hard scenario to achieve right now. For this XLR8R live set, I used a few pieces of hardware, like an Elektron Octatrack, SP-16, Analog Heat, and a JU06a synth. This set was a combination of prepared material and improvisation, including many charismatic mistakes during the track transitions. It’s the right balance for me. I like it when live sets, especially in electronic music, are alive and dynamic, and not totally perfect!

07. What’s on your horizon for 2021?

While in lockdown I intend to do more music; who knows, I’ll eventually release another EP or perhaps even write another album. But for sure, once things start to look a bit brighter and venues start to open, I’ll definitely focus more on playing live!

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. Toada “Intro” (Unreleased)
02. Toada “Apaziguada” (Plūma)
03. Toada “Fervor” (Plūma)
04. Toada “Matiz” (Plūma)
05. Toada “Mosaico” (Plūma)
06. Toada “Auge” (Plūma)
07. Toada “Vendaval” (Plūma)
08. Toada “Airosa” (Plūma)
09. Toada “A Movida” (Plūma)
10. Toada “Tempelhofer Feld” (Plūma)
11. Toada “Amparo” (Plūma)
12. Toada “Outro” (Unreleased)

Pan Daijing Unveils New Album, ‘Jade’

Pan Daijing will release Jade, a new album on PAN.

Jade is Daijing’s first album since 2017’s Lack 惊蛰, also released through Bill Kouligas‘ label. Since then, the Berlin-based sound artist, born and raised in Guiyang, southwest China, has presented a series of exhibition performances at institutions including Tate Modern.

In contrast to these projects, Jade‘s nine tracks have been written “without the imperatives of direct address to performers or audience.” For this reason, the album “speaks inward,” inviting a kind of “rhetorical listening.”

While Daijing leans on materials that’ll familiar from her previous work, which is to say ascetic electronic textures and voice bent in irreverent directions, her arrangements here “linger in tension, extending curiosity towards the delicate void that nourishes extremes.”

The album is mixed and mastered by Rashad Becker.

Tracklisting

01. Clean 一月
02. The Goat 二月
03. Dictee 三月
04. Tilt 四月
05. Dust 五月
06. Ran 乱
07. Let 七月
08. Metal 八月
09. Moema, Forever 九月

Jade LP is scheduled for June 4 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Dust 五月” in full below and pre-order here.

Experimental Guatemalan Cellist Mabe Fratti Delivers Second Album

Experimental Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti will release a new album, Será que ahora podremos entendernos?, meaning Will we be able to understand each other now?, in June.

Será que ahora podremos entendernos? is the result of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right people, we’re told. In early 2020, Fratti, whom we’ve featured previously, found herself staying in La Orduña, an artist space in an old factory outside of Mexico City, with her cello and other musical equipment for work on other projects. The impending lockdown saw her stay at the space for a month, alongside a host of other notable musicians from the inventive local scene. But she “didn’t feel inspired at all,” she says. “I felt like it was a terrible moment.” Almost by accident, however, an album formed.

Instigated by the time at hand and the people around her, Fratti’s feelings began to change. She found herself inspired by La Orduña, and in just the few short weeks, she had recorded the entire album.

Across the album’s nine “immersive and diverse” tracks, Fratti constructs “striking new worlds,” we’re told, all of which stemmed from those improvisations. She based each song on her idea of “diagramation,” having a start point and an endpoint, and then exploring the different journeys she could take to tie them together.

Having initially played music with her sister, Fratti went to study at a small academy, and while her sister chose to focus on the violin, she chose the saxophone, only to be told she didn’t have the breath for it. Instead, she chose to learn the cello but abandoned it after some years of academic learning. She later returned to music by playing in bands, and these experiences gave her the confidence to produce her own music in her early 20s.

While her debut album, Pies Sobre la Tierra, was an inspired collection of twisted sounds, Será… finds space for lyrical invention, focusing on human’s issues with communication. “The everyday act of communication is contradicted by the idea that communicating with others, and yourself, is never simple: it’s ultimately an absurd desire to want to be absolutely understood yet we insist to be because we have this human desire for connection,” Fratti says.

Alongside the announcement, Fratti has shared “Hacia El Vacio,” which showcases the album’s more complex side, presenting dark drone waves, spiky electronics, and shifting temperatures. “This song is about the quest to understand something that has been said and how slow the process of explaining can be,” Fratti says. “How words serve as a kind of bridge, but that finally there is a point where we can only trust that we understood.” Claire Rousay features with field recordings and cymbals, and the video, streaming below, was made by Mexican filmographer KIX.

You can read more about Fratti in her XLR8R Bubblin’ Up interview here.

Tracklisting

01. Nadie Sabe
02. Mil Formas de Decirlo
03. Hacia el Vacío
04. En Medio
05. Inicio vínculo Final
06. Aire
07. Cuerpo de Agua
08. Que Me Hace Saber Esto
09. Un día cualquiera

Será que ahora podremos entendernos LP is scheduled for June 25 release on Unheard of Hope. Meanwhile, you can stream “Hacia el Vacío” feat. Claire Rousay in full below and pre-order here.

Rochelle Jordan’s Left-Field R&B Next on TOKiMONSTA’s Young Art Records

Rochelle Jordan will release Play With the Changes on TOKiMONSTA‘s Young Art.

Born in London to British-Jamaican parents, Jordan and her family relocated to the east-side of Toronto in the early ‘90s. Her father, a drummer, encouraged her love of art and instilled an appreciation for northern soul, Jamaican reggae, and dancehall. In the early years of the last decade, she forged a close musical kinship with KLSH, who discovered her through her YouTube uploads of classic ’90s R&B covers, and her first release, ROJO (2011), immediately became an important work in the realms of left-field R&B. Three years and several EPs later, she released 1021, her debut album.

Play With the Changes stems from a contemplative period marked by spiritual and artistic growth, and it follows collaborations with Jimmy Edgar, Machinedrum, Jacques Greene, and J-E-T-S. Machinedrum and Jimmy Edgar actually produced the record alongside KLSH, and the result is 12 “slinky, dancefloor-packing burners” that channel roots in the United Kingdom, we’re told. The Los Angeles label describes it as “relentlessly innovative, suffused with transcendent soul, replete with imagination and wild style.”

Ahead of the album, Jordan has shared “GOT EM,” “NEXT 2 YOU,” “ALL ALONG” and “SOMETHING,” all of which can be streamed via the Bandcamp player below.

Tracklisting

01. LOVE YOU GOOD
02. GOT EM
03. NEXT 2 YOU
04. ALL ALONG
05. BROKEN STEEL (Feat. FARRAH FAWX)
06. COUNT IT
07. ALREADY
08. NOTHING LEFT
09. LAY
10. SOMETHING
11. DANCING ELEPHANTS
12. SITUATION

Play With the Changes LP is scheduled for April 30 release, with a physical release following on May 28. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here.

Sasu Ripatti (a.k.a Vladislav Delay) Next on Planet Mu with Rap and Footwork-Inspired Album

Sasu Ripatti will debut on Planet Mu with an album inspired by rap and footwork.

Ripatti, from Finland, has been torching the fringes of electronic music since the mid 1990s. From the skeletal jazz deconstructions of his 1997 debut as Vladislav Delay, The Kind of Blue, to the blurred dub techno variations of 2000’s Multila and 2012’s Kuopio, Ripatti has exhibited a voracious passion for sound. Fun is Not A Straight Line builds on this legacy, retaining his sonic signature and adding a playfulness that “harks back” to his deep house smash as Luomo, “Vocalcity,” we’re told.

Across 11 tracks, Ripatti draws from rap music’s rhythmic complexity and anarchic structures. “I bought Nas’ Illmatic when it came out in ’94 and have more or less been listening to rap since,” he explains. “I’m not really sure why now, but that rap influence wanted to come through.”

We’re told that the album is flavoured by chopped rap vocals, booming subs, and gritty, neck-snapping beats, drawing a crooked line between DJ Premier, DJ Screw, and DJ Rashad to form the “most accessible” and “unashamedly enjoyable” album Ripatti has produced in years.

The album’s fifth track, “Flowers,” was released last year as part of Planet Mu’s 25-year anniversary compilation.

In February, Ripatti revealed a new album, Rakka II, as Vladislav Delay. To learn more about his work, check out his studio feature with XLR8R here.

Tracklisting

01. filthyfresh
02. cmonolith
03. motherfuckyou
04. speedmemories
05. flowers
06. everyday
07. 90 dreams
08. wants interlude
09. videophonekitty
10. movathat
11. girl is hip

Fun Is Not A Straight Line LP is scheduled for June 25 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “speedmemories” and “flowers” below and pre-order here.

Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington Detail New Darkside Album

Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington have detailed Spiral, their second album as Darkside.

Spiral is the first new music from Darkside in eight years, following the duo’s celebrated 2013 debut, Psychic, also on Matador. News of it surfaced in December when the pair shared “Liberty Bell.”

In the years that followed the Psychic tour in 2014, Jaar and Harrington moved along parallel and occasionally intersecting paths. Jaar has released five albums under his name and two collections of club music as Against All Logic. Harrington has worked as a producer and composer, and released two albums with his Dave Harrington Group.

In the summer of 2018, the pair rented a small house in Flemington, New Jersey, where they spent a week making a song a day. While it took another year-and-a-half to complete their second album, six songs from Spiral were written and recorded during this initial session.

“From the beginning, Darkside has been our jam band. Something we did on days off. When we reconvened, it was because we really couldn’t wait to jam together again,” says Jaar.

Jaar and Harrington met while studying in Providence through their friend Will Epstein. In the summer of 2011, they toured Europe and Australia in support of Jaar’s debut album, Space Is Only Noise. Upon returning to Providence, they continued to write together, releasing their self-titled EP in 2012 and Psychic in October 2013.

Tracklisting

01. Narrow Road
02. The Limit
03. The Question Is To See It All
04. Lawmaker
05. I’m The Echo
06. Spiral
07. Liberty Bell
08. Inside Is Out There
09. Only Young

Spiral LP is scheduled for July 23 release on Matador Records. Meanwhile, you can stream “The Limit” below and pre-order here.

LSDXOXO Explores Black Nostalgia for XL Recordings

LSDXOXO will release Dedicated 2 Disrespect, a new EP as part of XL Recordings‘ house bag series.

Dedicated 2 Disrespect follows LSDXOXO’s Waiting 2 Exhale mixtape in October 2020. It’s his first EP with both original compositions and vocals, aiming to deliver “an illustrious portrait and narrative of the intersections between rave, techno, house, gender, camp, sexuality, and race,” we’re told by XL. It’s a project that “oscillates between the politics and the party so effortlessly.”

The EP leads with “SICK BITCH, the latest display of LSDXOXO’s deliciously eclectic brand of pop techno. He wanted to make a pop anthem with vocals that had the playfulness and vulgarity of Chicago ghetto house, LSDXOXO says.

The track comes accompanied by LSDXOXO’s first music video, conceptualized alongside Mischa Notcutt. Inspired by Black nostalgia, the video emulates “the fine line between feeling sexy and feeling messy, a quintessential rave modality,” XL tells XLR8R.

LSDXOXO, real name RJ Glasgow, is an artist from Philadelphia who made a name for himself in New York, known for the way he manipulates mainstream sounds by craftily layering pop tracks and vocal samples between Baltimore club, ghetto house, hardcore, electro, and techno. He currently resides in Berlin, Germany, where he runs his own club night, Floorgasm.

Tracklisting

01. The Devil
02. Baby
03. SICK BITCH
04. Mutant Exotic

Dedicated 2 Disrespect EP is scheduled for May 14 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Sick Bitch” below and pre-order here.

Andy Graham (a.k.a. Sei A) Preps Second AG-Sounds EP

Glasgow producer Andy Graham, better known as Sei A, has announced the second release on his newly minted AG-Sounds label.

The EP, Strata, continues where the first left off, presenting a fuller and more expansive interpretation of soundtrack and classical electronics with ambient and dub undertones. Each release on the label will also include a remix; while the first featured a rework by Graham’s Sei A project, this second one comes with a remix by legendary US producer John Beltran, who turns in an interpretation of “All Things Last.”

Cellist Joe Zeitlin also features on the original of “All Things Last.”

Under his Sei A alias, Graham is known for his melodic take on techno, releasing music via the likes of London-based label Aus Music. AG-Sounds serves as a space for him to experiment with ambient, classical electronic, techno, and even soundtrack material.

Tracklisting:

01. All Things Last
02. Strata
03. Ours to Listen
04. Midnight Runner
05. All Things Last (John Beltran Remix)

Strata EP is set to drop on April 16 and can be pre-ordered via the AG-Sounds Bandcamp page. Meanwhile, you can stream the title track via the player below.

Portico Quartet’s Sixth Album Explores American Minimalism and Ambient

Portico Quartet will release Terrain, a three-part suite drawing on American minimalism and ambient, and the group’s classic sound pallet of drums, saxophone, bass, and hang-drums.

Duncan Bellamy and Jack Wyllie, the driving forces behind Portico Quartet, began working on Terrain in their east London studio in May 2020, when most of the world was in the midst of the first lockdown. The unique impact of the pandemic became the backdrop to their time composing and recording, causing them to plot a musical path defined by longer, slowly unfolding pieces, which are perhaps the most “artistically free they have ever made,” we’re told.

“We’ve always had this side of the band in some form. The core of it is having a repeated pattern, around which other parts move in and out, and start to form a narrative,” Wyllie tells XLR8R. “We used to do longer improvisations not dissimilar to this around the time of our second record, Isla. On Terrain, we’ve really dug into it and explored that form.”

All three tracks are “subtly different,” we’re told, but a short rhythmic motif that repeats is the starting point in all three. “There is a sense of a shared journey to all these pieces, they move through different worlds, with a sense of horizontal movement that lends the music real momentum. There are obvious influences, such as American minimalism, but the pair were particularly inspired by the work of Japanese composer Midori Takada.

Working alongside Milo Fitzpatrick and Keir Vine, Bellamy and Wyllie released Memory Streams, Portico Quartet’s fifth studio album, in May 2019. Their debut album, Knee-Deep in the North Sea, was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize. To read more about their work, check out their XLR8R Influences podcast here. Meanwhile, you can read Wyllie’s Artist Tips feature with XLR8R here.

Tracklisting

01. Terrain: I
02. Terrain: II
03. Terrain: III

Terrain LP is scheduled for May 28 release on Gondwana Records. Meanwhile, you can stream “Terrain: II” in full below and pre-order here.

Podcast 690: Xyla

When Xyla, the project of Alyx Henderson, relocated to San Francisco in 2013, she had little-to-no knowledge of electronic music. Her move was motivated by the opportunity to continue her examination of the French horn at the city’s esteemed Conservatory of Music, but life in the city brought her closer to rave music and the emotions it could invoke in her. Inspired, she enrolled in an Ableton class through the conservatory’s newly founded Technology and Applied Composition program. Three years later, she released Ways, a patchwork quilt of sounds and genres, rich in IDM and footwork, on Matthewdavid‘s esteemed Leaving Records.

Despite its freewheeling rhythms, Ways was meticulously constructed. Growing up in Houston, Texas, Henderson circled hip-hop, R&B, and classical music, but little of what she listened to really made her move. As she became deeply immersed in dance music, she needed to discover what she was going to make. Towards the end of 2019, she visited Berlin, intent on digging deeper into dance; while there, she’d attend gigs and parties alone, only to explore genres, and she’d spend her time at home delving deep into her favorite labels’ back catalogs. All of this informed her own palette and she began to craft her first compositions. After returning to San Francisco, she delivered some sketches to Matthewdavid, who signed her up. Ways landed in October 2020.

Recorded in her home in San Francisco, Henderson’s XLR8R podcast is full of the beats and rhythms that have resonated with her during her time in club music. She leans heavily on music from friends, and each track triggers a specific memory of the dancefloor. Beyond a heady mix of left-field club rhythms, it exhibits the feel-good dance music that drew Xyla into the genre, and gives us an idea of what we can expect to hear from her soon.

01. What have you been up to recently?
This probably won’t be a shock, but I have been spending a lot of time at home due to the pandemic. I’m teaching and making music, working on various production projects, and going on walks.

02. How has the lockdown period been for you?
The pause in seemingly “normal” life has a blessing and a curse. There is momentum and stillness, high points and low points, laughter and sadness. I’m really just taking things day-by-day, but I am lucky to have a bad-ass circle of close friends out here to get through it.

03. What music have you been listening to?
I’ve been arranging my record collection and listening to a lot of my friends’ mixes, like Infinite Jess and Primo Pitino. They’re such talented local DJs and friends, so I love it when they hit me up with a mix to listen to! And I think my favorite record I always come back to when I’m going through my collection is “Alpanya” by Europa; I’ve actually included a track [from this record] on my mix! It’s such a beautiful and emotive lo-fi electronic record!

04. How did you find your way into electronic music?
For the longest time, my life circled around hip-hop, R&B, and classical music—genres I adore, listen to regularly, and have shaped me into the musician I am today. When I found myself at my first underground rave back in 2018, I was just floored by the variety of sounds that gave me the same emotions and even had similar elements to the music I was already listening to. I started going to parties alone, just to dance on my own and explore the genres. It was these environments that allowed me to learn about music in a way I had never experienced before. I mean, listening to music at a club is so different, environmentally speaking, to studying in a conservatory setting! But it was this difference that drew me in closer to electronic and specifically dance music.

05. When and where did you record this mix?
I recorded this mix over the last month. I think a lot of people assume that all producers can DJ and vice-versa, but I fall into the category of producers who haven’t Dj’d or performed my music live. After spending many years as an orchestral musician, performing began to feel like a chore, which is why I found solace in producing music for myself, alone in my room! So this mix is actually a first for me!

06. What can the listener expect?
Oh man, I have a lot of music in this mix from different friends in the Bay Area; it’s full of music that brings me back to specific places and conjures up great memories of getting down on a dancefloor. I cover a variety of genres including ambient, house, footwork, hip-hop, club, glitch, and more.

07. How did you go about choosing the tracks that you’ve included?
It wasn’t difficult because I focused on friends’ music and music I’ve enjoyed at various times in my life. Generally, I chose what fit my mood on the days I was working on the mix, which is why there is a change in overall vibe and speed throughout it.

08. What setup did you use to record it?
Since early 2020, I’ve been practising vinyl DJing, which I think has provided me with some ear-training skills needed for mixing. But for this mix, I decided to put my Ableton skills to the test and used a MIDI controller to execute EQ changes in between tracks. There is a ton of automation and other effects that I use as well. I think some believe that making a mix in Ableton isn’t creating a “true” DJ mix, and I agree to an extent, but it’s hard! Using Ableton just opens up a plethora of ways to get creative and surgical with your mixing, and sometimes it’s hard to have a streamlined process with so many choices!

09. What’s on your agenda for 2021?
Surviving is my priority right now. This last year has been so messed up in so many ways. I’m honestly proud of myself for just getting out of bed most days. Because of our society, we are expected to just keep grinding—keep working, keep producing, keep spending—through the death, poverty, brutality all around us. So, my primary goal in 2021 is to do whatever it takes to just live well. And if I can do that, any upcoming projects I have are just an added bonus!

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. Xyla “Higher” (Self-Released)
02. Europa “Pulsewave Dream” (Transatlantic)
03. Nailah Hunter “Ruins” (Leaving Records)
04. AshTreJinkins “GOOD 4 U” (Self-Released)
05. Rose Cherami “so far off” (Self-Released)
06. Quaid “Mirage” (Apron Records)
07. Loraine James “Hmm” (Self-Released)
08. Rental VHS “neva leave u” (Self-Released)
09. Sokro “Can’t Say” (Self-Released)
10. Ray Kandinski “Whatchu Want” (Self-Released)
11. Salush “pull up” (Self-Released)
12. STAY HIGH “LAST THING” (Self-Released)
13. Milky J “DROP IT” (Self-Released)
14. cakedog “CLIMB ON TOP” (Self-Released)
15. Osaya & Sketchy “Babygirl” (Self-Released)
16. INVT “ESPIRITU JUNGLE” (Self-Released)
17. Banal “Soko” (Visions for Artsakh)
18. BADSISTA “Erva Venensosa” (Rec Room)
19. SNVS “Deserve You” with Gianni (feat. JAY3M) (Self-Released)
20. 4D “You & I” (Self-Released)
21. devonwho “Alphaloop” (Leaving Records)
22. Count Bass D “Can We Hang Out Tonight?” (1320 Records)
23. Monica “So Gone” (J Records)

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