India Jordan has shared “Only Said Enough,” a high-energy track that showcases their infectious sound at its boldest.
Jordan made “Only Said Enough” on the train up to Hull in northern England for a gig in February 2020—one of the last shows they played before lockdown. The show was a back-to-back with Finn, and it was actually the same club night that they and Finn were involved in a few years back, so it was a bit of a homecoming moment.
Born in Doncaster, Jordan and their work have traditionally been inspired by long journeys, but this new EP is a result of their own pattern of movement being forcibly changed by lockdown. In effect, their main source of influence shifted from cross-country and international travel to head-clearing bike rides and walks around London. The EP title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to cycling in the British capital.
Watch Out! follows on from the hugely popular For You, released last year via Local Acion.
Tracklisting
01. Only Said Enough 02. Watch Out! 03. You Can’t Expect The Cars To Stop If You Haven’t Pressed The Button 04. Feierabend 05. And Groove
Watch Out! EP is scheduled for May 7 release on Ninja Tune. Meanwhile, you can stream “Only Said Enough” and “And Groove” below. You can pre-order the EP here.
Late last month, Infiné Music released Rone‘s latest LP, Rone & Friends.
According to the label, the album was born out of the pandemic, when, due to canceled tours, the desire to connect resulted in a collaborative LP that “traces the fine line between pop and forward-thinking, avant-garde electronics.”
While much of Rone’s back-catalog is instrumental, Rone & Friends places the voice and lyrics front and center, pulling from a wealth of talented artists such as Georgia, Caspar Clausen of Efterklang, Melissa Laveaux, and Jehnny Beth to provide unique vocal work for Rone’s spacial electronics.
In support of the album, Infiné has offered up a cut from the LP, “Faro,” as today’s XLR8R download, available to XLR8R+ subscribers below. The track, which was inspired by Rone’s soundtrack work “Vers Marseille,” is a collaboration with mysterious French artist Malibu. Across the track, and also her work more generally, Malibu utilizes the voice as an ethereal layer, twisting it into cloud-like atmospheres that float wistfully by over the three-minute run time.
Rone & Friends LP is out now and can be picked up over at the Infiné 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.
Julie Campbell has released a new single as LoneLady, titled (There Is) No Logic.
(There Is) No Logic is Campbell’s first release since the Cries And Whispers single, which landed in 2019 on Warp. Switching out her guitar for sequencers, synths, and samples, she created a playful, punchy take on electro with dark but humorous lyrics inspired by “Memento Mori” paintings, a medieval art style that served as a symbolic representation of the inevitability of death.
“It just really encapsulates so many cool electro sounds and even some R&B vocal stylings,” Campbell tells XLR8R. “It was fun sampling ‘do’ and ‘dah’ vocals and running them through the sequencer to get that choppy-collaged effect, definitely a Cabaret Voltaire influence there. The technology gods were happy that day and it all came together in a really fresh and immediate way.”
Born and bred in Manchester, Campbell started making post-punk-inspired recordings while completing a Fine Art Degree. She’s released two albums on Warp, namely’s 2010’s Nerve Up and 2015’s Hinterland, exhibiting electronic and funk influences. We’re told that the single is a sign of the “creative engine igniting once again,” so expect new music soon.
Tracklisting
01. (There Is) No Logic
(There Is) No Logic is available now on Warp. You can stream a lyric video below.
The Canadian producer, real name Gino Serpentini, signed to Brainfeeder in 2018 after his tracks became a staple in Flying Lotus’ DJ sets. He has since released three EPs on the label, balancing intricacy with explosive bass weight: YATDC (2020), LOST IN SPIRALS (2019)—which was informed by math rock, textural noise, acid techno, and jungle—and ENTER (2018), inspired by the Gaspar Noé film “Enter The Void.” You can read more about Serpentini’s work in his long-form XLR8R feature here.
A Fragmented Love Story, Written By The Infinite Helix Architect is a “sprawling masterpiece juxtaposing rhythm, tempo, melody, and form,” we’re told by the Los Angeles label. Heavyweights of the bass genre Amon Tobin and Flying Lotus appear on the record, as do SABROI, Tutara Peak, and Shrimpnose.
According to Little Snake, the album is “a signal to those who have experienced the consciousness of a dualistic pattern they may find themselves in,” he says. “It is intended to be the most generalized amalgamation of the furthest corners of all tangible emotional complexes and perceivable spectrums known to humankind and beyond.”
To accompany the announcement, Little Snake has shared the Flying Lotus single “Fallen Angels” with an extravagant experimental video directed by Little Snake and produced by Strangeloop.
Outside of the worldwide DSP album release, Little Snake will offer a limited edition USB stick of the album housed in holographic packaging. Copies of the sticks will be available on Little Snake’s Bandcamp page and will include unreleased music and art.
Tracklisting
01. exterior to me 02. Fallen Angels (feat. Flying Lotus) 03. hang in there.. 04. Decimation of Movement over Time (feat. SABROI) 05. FEVER DREAM (feat. Shrimpnose) 06. Loophole (feat. Amon Tobin) 07. The Machine 08. In My Head 09. Raining Teeth (feat. Tutara Peak) 10. this interlude presents: Absurdism !! 11. TO FIND LOVE IS TO SEEK THE END (feat. Flying Lotus)
A Fragmented Love Story, Written By The Infinite Helix Architect LP is scheduled for May 7 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Fallen Angels” feat. Flying Lotus and “Loophole” feat. Amon Tobin below.
Medieval Femme is a suite of 10 tracks that expand on ideas formed in Atlantics, a soundtrack Al Qadiri recorded for French-Senegalese director Mati Diop’s Cannes 2019 Grand Prix-winning feature of the same name.
The album aims to capture the state of “melancholic longing” exemplified in the poetry of Arab women from the medieval period. Fatima seeks to transport the listener to “a place of reverie and desolation, to question the line between two seemingly opposite states and rejoice in celestial sorrow,” Hyperdub tells XLR8R. She does this using instrumentation from music of the middle ages, recast in a futuristic setting; expect soft-synth lutes, organs, and pipes that reverberate in space while gauzy pulses ripple in response.
Al Qadiri, a Senegal-born, Kuwait-raised composer currently based in Los Angeles, California, last released on Hyperdub with Shaneera, an homage to hometown friends and a celebration of regional queer influences. She debuted on the label in 2014 with Asiatisch, her first full-length effort.
Tracklisting
01. Medieval Femme 02. A Certain Concubine 03. Sheba 04. Vanity 05. Stolen Kiss Of A Succubus 06. Golden 07. Qasmuna (Dreaming) 08. Malaak 09. Tasakuba 10. Zandaq
Medieval Femme LP is scheduled for May 14 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Malaak” in full below and pre-order the album here.
We’re excited to announce the 29th edition of XLR8R+, diving into Florida’s rave scene and showcasing DJ Three‘s wide-reaching sonic universe. For this particular package, we’ve also doubled the amount tracks from three to six, meaning more for you.
Moving on from Goldie, who curated last month’s edition, our focus shifts to Christopher Milo, better known as DJ Three. Three got his start by throwing some of the first one-off raves across the southeastern United States in the early 1990s. After 12 years in New York City, where he counted residencies at Twilo, Cielo, Blk Market Membership, and Output, he’s become a DJ revered for his eclectic tastes and reading of the dancefloor. On any given night, he weaves rhythms old and new that still capture the feelings of Florida rave that made him fall in love with electronic music nearly three decades ago.
Away from the club, Three delivers his musical vision through Hallucienda. The label, founded in 2014, grew out of Hallucination Limited, his own limited press offshoot of the seminal ‘90s imprint Hallucination Recordings. The label allows Three to present his latest musical findings while maintaining a lineage to the previous catalogs. As you’d expect from Three, Hallucienda’s catalog is varied and unpredictable, swaying from hypnotic house and otherworldly techno to Krautrock-inspired experimentation and song-fused electronica. Beyond any genre constraints, Hallucienda hopes to present music that’ll still be played out many years from now.
Three has curated this month’s XLR8R+ collection in the same fashion, pulling exclusive works from Hallucienda artists. While several of these, like Amir Alexander, Grumptronix, and Indoor Man, he’s known for years, the others, like Slumber, Ulysses, and Fanatico (Jorge Soccarás & Mathias Schaffhäuser), are more recent acquaintances. As with the Hallucienda label, this month’s edition looks to the future while paying homage to the past, and, in typical DJ Three fashion, it’s wildly diverse, pulling from electro, house, electronica, and beyond. Underpinning it is a determination to “showcase both the eclectic nature of Hallucienda and the breadth of talent among the artists on the label,” Three tells XLR8R.
The music, PDF zine, and wallpaper art can be downloaded once you SUBSCRIBE HERE. If you’re already a subscriber, you can download the package below.
Tracklisting
01. Ulysses “Witness The Spawn of Man” 02. Slumber “Fell Into A Dream” 03. Amir Alexander “Hands Together” 04. Grumptronix “A Quiet Place” (Spacetime Continuum remix) 05. Indoor Man “Listen to the Rain” 06. Fanatico “Beneath Your Feet”
Bonobo‘s Outlier label will release the new album from Poté, real name Sylvern Mathurin.
Poté’s music has always balanced contrasting impulses. On the one hand, there’s the rhythmic, celebratory music of his Caribbean upbringing, and on the other, there’s his interest in emotive songwriting. We’re told that A Tenuous Tale of Her is a “platform for those two sides of his music to strike a fresh dialogue.”
Musically, the release builds on the foundation that Poté laid with Spiral, My Love, his debut album which saw him explore beyond his earlier, club-focused productions. Collaborating with Kojey Radical, Chelou, and Alxndr London, he became bolder in using his own vocals, and put greater emphasis on writing melodies. “I think it’s just working with other people, and people who actually write songs, and not just producers, that really shaped my ear for melodies and writing,” he says.
We’re told to expect a record that’s “tough, tender, and grand all at once.” A storyline of looming disaster runs through many of the tracks, we’re told, as Poté imagined how different people would react to the news of impending apocalyptic breakdown.
Alongside the announcement, Poté has shared “Young Lies,” a collaboration with Damon Albarn which came about through Gorillaz producer Remi Kabaka Jr.
Poté, St. Lucia-born, London-raised, and now Paris-based, began releasing music in 2013. After he released Spiral, My Love in 2018, he was invited by Bonobo to support him on his European tour.
Tracklisting
01. Under 02. Stare 03. Lows 04. Valley 05. Valley II (feat. Pierre Kwenders) 06. Pretty Penny’s Interlude 07. Open Up 08. Young Lies (feat. Damon Albarn) 09. Good2u (feat. INFAMOUSIZAK) 10. Plastic Prayers 11. Together
A Tenuous Tale Of Her LP is scheduled for June 4 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Young Lies” feat. Damon Albarn in full below and pre-order the album here.
Violet, will release Espírito, a new EP on her own Naive.
Espírito is the first solo EP that Violet, real name Maria Inês Borges Coutinho, has released since her first Naive solo EP, Togetherness, exploded in 2017. Across four tracks, she leaves behind any trace of her contemplative jungle and house concoction in favour of a commanding blend of left-field Detroit techno sonics and dramatic New York tribal house, evoking the work of Terrence Dixon and other Midwest experimentalists.
The EP comes with a remix from Eris Drew, who takes “Psyche” and delivers a super-satisfying complex tapestry of beats and textures.
The artwork comes from Shcuro, real name João Ervedosa.
In 2019, Violet released her debut album on San Francisco’s Dark Entries. More recently, she released Archives 2012-2020, a collection of material recorded earlier in her career. For more information on her work, check out her XLR8R podcast here.
Austin Williams, better known as Nu Partial, will release a new EP with Renraku, RRRRECEPTION.
Scheduled to release next month, the 24-minute experimental bass ride “powers through submerged frequency manipulation and dynamic sound collages,” the Minneapolis, Minnesota label tells XLR8R. Williams created the bulk of it while residing in Mississippi, and he completed it in Alaska while supporting his mother during a surgery.
“I don’t care if I live in Anchorage [Alaska] for another 20 years,” Williams says. “I will never get over the view. Maybe subconsciously it affects my production.”
Much like his debut EP, The Maw, RRRRECEPTION pulls from all corners of bass music, stitching together pieces of garage, glitch, noise, downtempo, drum & bass, hip-hop, and lo-fi.
Before Nu Partial, Williams released as Ascent. He joined Renraku in February of 2017 with the sixth volume of their Communication Themes series. He debuted as Nu Partial on February 2021’s Realtime compilation.
The album cover was designed by Viktor Kadic, known for his work with Mat Zo and his Mad Zoo imprint.
Loscil, the ambient project of Canadian producer Scott Morgan, will release a new album on Kranky.
Clara is a “stunning meditation on light, shade, and decay,” we’re told, sourced from a single three-minute composition performed by a 22-piece string orchestra in Budapest, Hungary. The subsequent recording was lathe-cut on to a 7-inch, then “scratched and abused to add texture and color,” from which the entirety of Clara was sampled and sculpted.
Despite their limited palette, the compositions “summon a sense of the infinite, swelling and swimming through luminous depths,” the Chicago, Illinois label tells XLR8R. Although Morgan’s compositional premise for Clara was defined, the resultant work is “wonderfully opaque and spatial, equal parts lush and lurking, traced in fine-grained gradients and radiant silences.”
Morgan, who studied music at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, works as a sound director in the video-game industry as a sound director. He releasedEquivalents on Kranky in 2019, and he followed that up with a self-released album last year.
Tracklisting
01. Lux 02. Lumina 03. Lucida 04. Stella 05. Vespera 06. Sol 07. Aura 08. Flamma 09. Orta 10. Clara
Clara LP is scheduled for May 28 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Vespera” below and pre-order here.
