AD 93 to Present James K EP Featuring Yves Tumor

AD 93, formerly Whities, will present a new EP from James K featuring Yves Tumor.

036 is the first music James K has released since her debut LP, Pet, in 2016. Equally organic and electronic, her sound is a combination of odd dreams, layered textures, and vocals, both “incomprehensible and appealing,” we’re told. Yves Tumor features on “Open,” the opening track.

James K, a New York native born Jamie Krasner, has established herself within the New York and Berlin scenes of experimental artists, and she’s released her music with labels PAN, Dial, 1080p, and her own label, She Rocks!

Tracklisting

01. Open (feat. Yves Tumor)
02. Ultra Facial!
03. Everyrose
04. Subliminal Burn
05. I Can Not Remember

036 EP is scheduled for March 19 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Ultra Facial!” and “Everyrose” in full below and pre-order here.

Black Light Smoke Announces New LP; Shares Live Performance Video

Jordan Lieb has announced a new Black Light Smoke album retrospective, titled The Early Years.

The Early Years, which drops on Cut Mistake Music, compiles eight tracks written mostly in 2010, a year before the project’s official debut on Francis Harris‘ Scissor and Thread—Lieb provided the label’s first two releases in 2011, a set of 12″ EPs titled Switchback / Black Stripe and Lovework / Decisions.

The tracks on The Early Years flirt with a range of styles including new wave, post-punk, and proto-synth, pulling from a “period of unfiltered creativity and adventure in the artist’s development,” we’re told.

The announcement arrives with a live video for album cut “North Korea,” a chugging proto-disco track performed on an array of synthesizers, drum machines, and various effects pedals.

Lieb last appeared as Black Light Smoke last year on Scissor and Thread with City Life and Nothing Makes Me Feel (Good Anymore).

For more information on Black Like Smoke, check out his XLR8R podcast here.

Tracklisting:

01. Up Up And Away
02. Springtime For Rioters
03. 123456789
04. Black Light Smoke
05. Burn
06. North Korea
07. The Figure
08. Celeste

You can pre-order The Early Years via Bandcamp, with the live version of “North Korea” streaming in full via the player below, along with album track “Burn.”

Podcast 687: Matthewdavid

In a thriving Los Angeles electronic music community, Matthew David McQueen, better known as Matthewdavid, has been an integral figure for over a decade. Besides a storied experimental beat-maker of his own, having collaborated with the likes of Flying Lotus, Mndsgn, and Botany, he helms Leaving Records, a reliable outpost for beats of all kind originating from California. With over a decade in the game, Leaving is beginning a new era, and McQueen’s podcast serves as a marker between the old and the new.

McQueen, originally from Atlanta, Georgia, began his musical journey in Florida, where he attended school and began making trap on a pirated version of Fruity Loops. He moved to Los Angeles in 2006, where he was met by a bustling collective of artists rooted in hip-hop but straddling IDM, R&B, ambient, psychedelia, and jazz. He took up an internship at local label Plug Research, where he put out his first release, and began presenting it on Dublab. His music was different in that it sampled the New Age tapes he’d picked up in Florida, and news of it spread, importantly to Flying Lotus, who signed him up to Brainfeeder in 2011.

By the time Outmind came out, Leaving was already up and running. Beginning with work from Dak, the label has delivered music from Samiyam, Deantoni Parks, Laraaji, and the late great Ras G. McQueen himself also features semi-regularly. Alongside the likes of Brainfeeder, Stones Throw, and Alpha Pup Records, Leaving has cemented itself as a pillar in a web of cross-pollinating communities that can fade as quickly as they flourish. After years of interdependence on distributors, McQueen says the label is now fully independent, freeing him to dig even deeper into his swirling sonic universe.

Because of this, McQueen’s new XLR8R podcast is symbolic of Leaving’s new beginnings. He recorded it last month in his Los Angeles studio, pulling from a treasure trove of unreleased music on his computer. He intended it to cross genres, but instead it hones in on the sort of experimental jazz and innovative ambient that we can expect from the label moving forward. Consider it sample of Leaving’s calming future.

01. What have you been up to recently?

Parenting, gardening, being a first-time dog caretaker, mixing, mastering, curating Leaving, making music, drinking coffee, and micro-dosing.

02. How have you been managing in lockdown?

We have been able to manage. I’m feeling lucky, and I count my blessings everyday. When lockdown hit, I put all my extra efforts into keeping the label and the surrounding community of artists sustained and thriving as much as I possibly could while still being present for my family and my own health.

03. What music have you been listening to?

I have been creating experimental textures that have been the most therapeutic of any sounds I’ve been able to generate lately. There’s also been some modular techno and house from Baltimore modular producer Colloboh, and lots of Outkast. And lo-fi footwork from AshtreJinkins. I’m always listening to Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, plus the forthcoming Green-House album, Music for Living Spaces, coming this spring. Plus the moody experimental ambient jazz of Celia Hollander, and MATTIE from Dallas, Texas, produced by Black Taffy, is a force.

04. You said to me that you’re entering a “whole new era” for Leaving Records. Can you explain what you mean by this?

For the last eight years, Leaving has been working with a label partner in a joint venture situation and now we’re independent. I was also personally working for various record labels and distributors on the side throughout this time, and before, but now I’m only working for my community, my family, and myself. Leaving Records is in full-focus, finally, again. Come join our all-genre Discord server to learn more and engage with our community.

05. Where and when did you record this mix?

At home over the last few days in February. Last September my family and I moved into a new home, an actual home. For the first time I have a real home-studio in Los Angeles, and a home office, so now I can make mixes for XLR8R. And work in deep concentration.

06. What can the listener expect?

I was toying with the all-genre approach, but within that spectrum what happened here is a focus on experimental jazz and experimental environmental ambient. Except for the Celia Hollander single, all of this music is unreleased. I have a vault, and I’m lucky to be working with a diverse array of visionaries in my community who share music with me each day.

07. What’s on your agenda for 2021?

More evolution, more progression, and more inclusion. I’m reinventing and redefining what a record label is and could be in the future, and also now in 2021. I’m also realizing a bigger picture of Leaving as a trusted curator and facilitator of an important, experimental all-genre musical community. Also, for what it’s worth, Web3 and blockchain technology as it pertains to the future of ownership.

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. Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Matthewdavid “Live at Deep End Club” (Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar album release show 2018) (Unreleased)
02. Matthewdavid “Zither Diner” (Unreleased)
03. Celia Hollander “5:59 PM” (Leaving Records)
04. J Foerster & N Kramer “The Fountain” + Sam Gendel & Matthewdavid “Saxofone & Norns Improvisation” (Unreleased)
05. Matthewdavid & EMV “Super Harvest Mycelium Moon” (Unreleased)
06. Matthewdavid “La Tierra De La Culebra” (Unreleased)
07. Omari Jazz “Light Leak” (Unreleased)
08. Droopy Eye “Lullabiz” (Unreleased)
09. Asa Tone “New Forms” (Excerpt) (Unreleased)
10. Matthewdavid “Norncelium” (Unreleased)
11. Yialmelic Frequencies “The Giantess” (Unreleased)
12. Andrew CS “Valp” feat. flute by Matthewdavid (Unreleased)
13. Matthewdavid “Granular Cenote” (with field recordings from John Rondono) (Unreleased)

Roman Flügel Unveils Album and Preceding EP on Gerd Janson’s Running Back

Roman Flügel has unveiled a new album and an accompanying EP on Gerd Janson‘s Running Back label.

Eating Darkness follows Flugel’s Tracks On Delivery, a collection of reissues from his series of the same name. His last full album of original material came in 2018 with Themes I-XIII on ESP Institute.

Eating Darkness is affected by the fundamental shock of 2020, but it’s not the result thereof, we’re told. It aims to capture the colorfulness, happiness, beauty, and drama of the dancefloor using rigorous sound design and minimalist beauty. The album also reflects Flugel’s weakness for pop music with the use of short motifs.

As a precursor to the album, Flugel will release Anima. The opener, “D.I.S.C.O,” and its dub version, link the euphoria of last year’s “Garden Party,” available on Running Back, to the present day. The second two tracks, “Eating Darkness” and Anima,” pave the way for the long-player.

In 2018, Flugel compiled an Influences podcast for XLR8R, which you can hear here. He also contributed “Good Beat #2,” an unreleased work, back to XLR8R+ in 2018.

Tracklisting, Album

01. Magic Briefcase
02. Chemicals
03. Wow
04. Jocks and Freaks
05. The Best Is Yet To Come
06. Cluttered Homes
07. Eternal
08. Locked
09. Charles

Tracklisting, EP

A1. D.I.S.C.O (Extended Version)
A2. D.I.S.C.O (Dub)
B1. Anima
B2. Eating Darkness

Anima EP is scheduled for March 19 release, with Eating Darkness scheduled for May 7. Meanwhile, you can stream “Eating Darkness,” taken from the EP, via the player below.

Swedish Sound Artist Tomas Nordmark Delivers Second Album

Photo: Martin Croser

Swedish sound artist Tomas Nordmark will release his new album, Exit Ghosts, in May.

Nordmark, from Västervik, Sweden, takes his inspiration from the phase-shifting minimalism pioneered by New York’s avant-garde community of in the ’60s, and he’s set out to blend that with his pop-oriented upbringing. He’s since been pursuing an intellectually rigorous musical style that blends cathartic melodies with a deeply felt ideal of truth through art.

Exit Ghosts is a “spiritual sequel” to his debut album, Eternal Words, released in 2019. He began to work on it in March 2020 using a strictly limited technical palette, mirroring the process-based work introduced by minimalist composers.

Informed by the choral hymns and folk tunes of Nordic tradition, Nordmark began editing and cutting fragments of melodies layering and then sequencing them according to a strict process of creating new melodic textures through a process he calls “hyper-anachronism.” From there, he let the process work itself out, using the intuition of the notes themselves to guide the direction of his work.

We’re told also that the album is partly influenced by the history of film scores and the aesthetics carried by that tradition. It lands on New York label Valley of Search.

Tracklisting

01. Exit
02. Ghosts feat. Waterbaby
03. Dreaming
04. Spirit
05. Aftertime
06. Nights
07. Becoming
08. Outsides

Exit Ghosts LP is scheduled for May 14 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Exit” in full below and pre-order here.

Alessandro Cortini is Back with More “Kaleidoscopic Melancholia”

Alessandro Cortini will release SCURO CHIARO, a new album, via Mute in June.

SCURO CHIARO is Cortini’s second album for Mute, following 2019’s VOLUME MASSIMO, an album of “kaleidoscopic melancholia.” With this work he developed a process that would be carried into his new album.

We’re told that SCURO CHIARO comes from a place that “delights in the affirmation of life’s constant variations,” and that it simultaneously presents both bewilderment and vulnerability with its somber hues and pulsing, synthetic surfaces. There’s a great volatility across the album, we’re told, and its beauty lies in its contradictions. The abrasive elements that cycle in and out of focus all find resolution in the warm ambiences that crackle and hiss into life in the background of every track.

“​I think that the emphasis on the therapeutic element of the record is really important as that’s the way that it was created,​” Cortini says. “​I think I’m trying to make who I am artistically fit with who I am as a human being as much as possible, and for the two things not to fight each other, just to collaborate in order to reach happiness. I think at the end that’s all that matters, it’s just finding a way to be balanced as a human being​.”

The album’s title plays on the term for heavily contrasting light and shadow in painting and other visual arts. It’s the opposite of chiaroscuro, the use of light and shadow to give strong contrast, “and in a way it shows that no matter how you order things there’s always going to be two elements that tend to be the opposite of each other that make up the truth, or make up everything,” Cortini explains.

For Cortini, this is best captured in “CHIAROSCURO,” the lead single, which is available to stream below. It represents the record and where Cortini was emotionally, we’re told.

Cortini recently collaborated with electronic musical instrument manufacturer Make Noise to create a bespoke instrument and effects unit, Strega. Cortini describes it as a “successful attempt to condense my sonic aesthetic into a music making box,” and he incorporated the unit across the album.

For more information on Cortini and specifically the instruments behind his work, check out his Studio Essentials feature with XLR8R here.

Tracklisting

01. ECCO
02. CHIAROSCURO
03. LO SPECCHIO
04. CORRI
05. SEMPRE
06. VERDE
07. NESSUNO
08. FIAMMA

SCURO CHIARO LP is scheduled for June 11 release. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “CHIAROSCURO” in full below.

Loraine James’ New Album is Next on Hyperdub

Photo: Suleika Müller

Loraine James will release her new album, Reflection, on Hyperdub.

Reflection is the London artist’s second album on the London label, following 2019’s For You And I. She made it in the summer of last year while unable to tour and build on the success of her album full-length. Instead, she focused on her studio work and dug deep into drill and R&B, and these listening habits “seep through” across the album.

In contrast to the brash splashes of For You And I and the grimy anger of Nothing, her latest EP, Reflection is more confident, as it takes the listener through how the year felt as a young Black queer woman in a world that has stopped moving. It features several of her longtime collaborators, including Le3 bLack.

Ahead of the release, James has shared “Simple Stuff,” which consists of minimal elements. Percussion forms the backbone, with a lone bass tone inserted throughout. Running through the song is a singular lyric, an auto-tuned, monotone British declaration: “I like the simple stuff, you like the simple things—what does that bring to me?” We’re told that the lyrics are a “minimal, gentle plea” to be treated equally.

James, a product of Enfield, north London, is one of electronic music’s more adventurous artists, lauded for blending grime, jungle, and IDM with woozy ambiance and jazz. For more information on her work, check out her XLR8R podcast, an hour of abrasive electronics from north London.

Tracklisting

01. Built to Last (ft. Xavier Stone)
02. Let’s Go
03. Simple Stuff
04. Black Ting (ft. Le3 bLack)
05. Insecure Behaviour and Fuckery (ft. Nova)
06. Self Doubt (Leaving the Club Early)
07. On The Lake Outside (ft. Baths)
08. Reflection
09. Change
10. Running Like That (ft. Eden Samara)
12. We’re Building Something New (ft. Iceboy Violet)

Reflection LP is scheduled for June 4 release on Hyperdub. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream the lead single, “Simple Stuff” via the player below.

XLR8R is Launching an NFT Marketplace for Electronic Music

XLR8R is launching a platform for independent artists to create, mint, and auction non-fungible tokens, widely known as NFTs. [Update: due to its speed, low fees, and minimal energy consumption, we’ve announced we will be running on xDai.]

An NFT is simply a record of who owns a unique piece of content—proof of ownership, which you can’t counterfeit because it’s stored on the Ethereum blockchain. This allows artists to create rare pieces of art, whose value is rooted in scarcity. They’ve been getting massive attention from the music industry of late, where they represent the ownership of digital products such as an original copy of a song or artwork. Clarian recently became the first artist to auction an entire album as an NFT. NFTs can also record who owns a physical product, such as a piece of merchandise or a rare vinyl test-pressing. 

The value of music and the art that surrounds it has been eroded in the streaming era and NFTs can bring it back. By creating these rare pieces of art—exclusive tracks, albums, physical products, publishing rights, sample-packs, or whatever they wish—artists can connect with and, importantly, monetize their loyal fans away from centralized digital music platforms. What’s more is that artists will be paid a royalty whenever the NFT is resold, opening the doors to sustainable careers that aren’t so reliant on touring. [For more information on NFTs and specifically their application to music, we recommend you read Pitchfork’s feature here and Rolling Stone‘s longer feature here.]

XLR8R has been fiercely supporting independent artists and the wider electronic music community for over 27 years. This begins with cutting-edge editorial but it’s evolved into our music subscription service and member community, XLR8R+. We’ve long been exploring ways on how the music industry can benefit from using decentralized technologies and better support artists, and we’re ready to take that step forward.

By working with our NFT platform partner, Cargo, a group of artist advisors including Clarian, plus several other advisors who have been involved in the crypto and decentralized space for the past seven years, we are readying to launch a curated NFT marketplace dedicated to electronic music. This will allow artists and labels to: (i) create NFTs; (ii) and market and sell NFTs, thereby placing the control of art back into the hands of the creators, allowing them to be paid directly for their work in perpetuity.

We plan to launch in April. 

For more information contact us at [email protected]

Visionary Artist Clarian Becomes First Artist to Auction Album as NFT

Clarian has released his latest album, Whale Shark, as a rare NFT, meaning non-fungible token—becoming the first artist to do so. The auction is currently live, scheduled to end on March 20.

NFTs are one-of-a-kind digital pieces of art whose proof of ownership you can’t counterfeit, like digital collectibles, and their value comes from their scarcity. They’ve been taking over the music industry, where they represent the ownership of such things as an original copy of a song, artwork, or merchandise.

Jacques Greene sold the publishing rights to his new single for around $20,000. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda sold a digital piece of artwork for $30,000. Shortly after Clarian’s auction began, Kings of Leon released their album as an NFT.

The album itself, a 12-track outing in dark-wave synth pop, is available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp, but with the NFT version you can own the actual album files, transferred directly from Clarian himself, in perpetuity. This includes the masters and publishing rights, which allows the winner of the auction to do whatever they wish with the album, whether that’s stream it online, licence it for soundtracks, or even destroy it.

There’s hope that NFT’s could change music’s financial model in the future. Not only does it allow artists like Clarian to monetize their art outside of the remit of the streaming giants, but they’ll even be paid whenever their NFT’s are sold on, opening the doors to sustainable careers that aren’t so reliant on touring. The winner of this auction will have invested in a fairer revenue model for musicians moving into the future, Clarian explains.

“Today, I’m making a bet against the music industry that I can sell my new album, Whale Shark, for 100 thousand dollars’ worth in Ethereum,” Clarian continues. “Why? Because A, fuck music streaming, and B, it’s good stuff, and I can only tell you its future value will be worth much more than that. I’d rather sell it to one person who will cherish its value than have to share it with the CEO of Spotify and keep feeding that dead-end music machine.”

For more information on NFTs and specifically their application to music, we recommend you read Pitchfork’s feature here and Rolling Stone‘s longer feature here. Meanwhile, you can read more about the auction here, ahead of a countdown event on March 20.

The reserve price is set at 100 Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency, which equates to approximately $180,000.

Tracklisting

01. Strange Vibrations
02. Whale Shark
03. Dancing In The Shadows
04. Virtual Misery
05. Blue Blockers
06. Camera By The Sea
07. The Stranger
08. Ballad Of X
09. Frozen
10. Melting
11. Memories Change
12. Condo Generation

The Mars Volta To Reissue Career Discography On ‘La Realidad De Los Sueños’ Vinyl Box Set

The Mars Volta will release a massive 18-LP box set, La Realidad De Los Sueños, meaning “The Reality of Dreams,” collecting the band’s recorded material plus some unreleased content.

Only 5,000 copies of the box set will circulate among the public. It includes the band’s debut EP, Tremulant (2002) plus all six of their full-length studio albums, beginning with 2003’s De-Loused In The Comatorium and leading to 2012’s Noctourniquet.

The unreleased material includes Landscape Tantrums, a collection of unfinished original recordings from the De-Loused In The Comatorium sessions. There’s also some rare recordings of “A Plague Upon Your Hissing Children” and “Eunuch Provocateur,” both recorded during the De-Loused In The Comatorium sessions, plus a photo book of behind-the-scenes archival content.

Before the announcement of the new box set, The Mars Volta issued the first digital release of Tremulant. Originally released April 2, 2002 on Los Angeles-based label Gold Standard Labs, Tremulant features guitarist and songwriter Omar Rodríguez-López, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, keyboardist Isaiah Ikey Owens, sound manipulator Jeremy Michael Ward, bassist Eva Gardner, and drummer Jon Theodore.

The Mars Volta broke up in 2013, although Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala continued on with The Mars Volta drummer Dave Elitch and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea with a new project named Antemasque.

In 2019, Bixler-Zavala hinted at the band’s return, saying the reunion would involve “2 grown ass men using essential oils and bold new perfumes, shooting ideas and scooting their ass across the fucking lawn trying to get rid of these worms.”

La Realidad De Los Sueños is scheduled April 23 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Eunuch Provocateur” below and pre-order here.

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