New York City producer Mike Bloom debuted his first release on Safer at Night earlier this year with the track “Owls“on the Nyctaphelia compilation, which featured a collaboration with fellow track maker, Jorge Balarezo. Mike has continued on a trajectory towards new horizons all year, while continuing to hold down his residencies at some of the city’s most well-known institutions including Output, Le Bain, and Le Baron, opening for acts such as Disclosure and Stephan Ringer.
Currently, Mike Bloom is spending his time in the studio creating original tracks for a new EP and preparing to introduce the first release on his own label, Maddjazz. Coming up on November 29, Bloom will be playing along side four time download alumni Milo McBride at Le Bain at the Standard High line in NYC. Today, Bloom is offering up the track “Nahual” as an exclusive download right here on XLR8R. “Nahual” showcases the chiller-side of Mike Bloom’s production process, while also having a bit of breaks and deep house sprinkled in for good measure. You can find out more about Mike Bloom and his label Maddjazz by visiting him on Soundcloud, and you can pick up the exclusive track “Nahual” by clicking on the media player below.
MIRA is a music and visual-arts festival that was launched in 2011 by Oriol Pastor in his home city of Barcelona. The cultural event originated four years ago, when Pastor felt a desire to create a better experience for people in his home city, where large scale festivals such as Sónar and MUTEK have become the norm.
As a fan of such festivals, but with a preference for more intimate settings, Pastor decided to combine his passions for music and visual arts, resulting in MIRA. The goal was to ensure a place where both formats could be fostered, all the while creating an immersive experience for the public. The festival’s motto, “Exhibition, divulgation, and education,” stands for its aim to elevate culture. As stated by the festival: “[MIRA] enables the emergence of new projects and supports relationships from collectives, associations, and individuals linked with visual creation and technology, thus the non-profit organization feature and the volunteering participation make the outputs to be reinvested in promoting an attractive and sustainable culture.”
Tell us a bit about the philosophy behind the festival. Why and how did it start? We started this project in 2011, mainly because I had this desire to organize a festival with the music I love. Of course, in the city of Barcelona we already have big festivals like Sonar—but I just wanted to make something smaller, where people would feel comfortable in a closer, small-scale environment, while also helping to empower the presence of visual arts. I have a lot of friends doing installations and visual art, and I also know how music in general is already very talked about; but I felt like most of the times the visual part was kind of left aside or forgotten. As a result, we decided to organize a festival that would include both elements. Since then, we��ve organized about 200 performances in four years, and they’ve always had a visual part so we’re really proud of that.
How has the festival been received by the city? Would you say the festival compares to others like MUTEK, for example? There’s always a lot happening in Barcelona. I guess there are other cities without much artistic activity, but there’s always some sort of event going on here, so I think for people here it’s just another event among many. We receive support from the city and from the venue, which is great, and they also help with banners and publicity in the streets. We follow festivals like MUTEK quite a lot, actually. The first time I heard about it was when they started doing it here in Barcelona, then I realized they also have it in Mexico City and in Montreal. We happen to collaborate a lot with the SAT in Montreal, personally—we organize workshops with them about dome projections given that we also have a full dome stage. For the most part, we like to think we fit in the same category of festivals like Unsound or Atonal, where the number of attendees stays between 2,000 and 3,000.
Who’s in charge of the event curation? We are three people. It’s me, David Domingo, who does the installation and visual part, and Pere, who does the show bookings. Visual artists also contact us directly and then we try to see what kind of music can complement the visuals in the right way.
What are the acts that you’re mostly looking forward to seeing this year? I’m mostly looking forward to our national artists because here we have a chance to give them a platform to be in a proper stage, especially since we have a lot of great artists from Barcelona and Spain in general. As for the international artists, I’m a very big fan of Nosaj Thing and also A Winged Victory For The Sullen; I love this type of classical music combined with visuals. It will also mark the first time that both acts have ever performed alongside a visual artist, so it will be quite special in my opinion. Then, of course, I’m very much looking forward to Ben Frost and Dopplereffekt, especially because I’ve been a big Dopplereffekt fan since the 90s. Overall, I think we have a lot of different music styles and I’m looking forward to seeing people smiling and having fun.
Where do you see the festival going in the future? Well, we feel comfortable with the size and programmation of the event as it is. I think our main aim is to have a sustainable festival—in terms of artistic and economic welfare, at least. The other main aim would be to bring a bigger number of visual artists and concerts every year, and increasing the presence of the festival in Barcelona by spreading to other venues in the city. By doing that, however, the production can sometimes get more complicated, especially when you want to give the feeling that you are giving a concert in one venue and another in a different venue—then you end up without feeling (like you say in German) the “Stimmung,” just the general mood of the event. Another plan that we have is to have a seated theatre for some of the performances like we’ve had sometimes in the last two years. This year, we don’t have dance performances with visuals, but one of the main aims is to continue with these. Those are the main plans for now.
Cubenx is the alias of Cesar Urbina, a producer from Mexico and family member of InFiné Music, the international and eclectic music label based out of Paris, London, and Berlin.
His debut full-length album, On Your Own Again, was released on InFiné in 2011, though his new artistic approach seems to be about saying goodbye to the past with a real sense of satisfaction, and at the same time, inventing a different present tense from which he can create in. Having released his music on labels like Static Discos and Cyan Records, Cubenx has built his creative foundation on a minimal style that is moody yet sombre, and full of emotional tension. He is also constantly on the move between studios all over the world, with his tracks already finding favor with artist like Agoria and Michael Mayer.
Cubenx‘s next album, Elegiac, is due for release on November 6 on InFiné and includes 14 original tracks, with three of them exclusive to the 12″ vinyl version. The CD and digital versions include 11 tracks, with today’s download being an exclusive track only available here on XLR8R. “Phase Rotation” starts with a melodically rising pad rhythm before quickly segueing into a synthetic stab session with hissing high-hats, moving into a more heady and psychedelic plucking of the chords towards the end.
You can pre-order Elegiac by Cubenx right now over on Bleep, and you can download the exclusive track “Phase Rotation” by clicking on the media player below.
Jordan is a DJ and producer coming out of Brooklyn that is currently blurring the boundaries between spatial density and emotive rawness. Jordan is also at the helm of the label Division Point Industries, which includes a club night that holds a residency at Bushwick’s Bossa Nova Civic Club in New York. Jordan’s latest EP showcases a mix of floor-fillers and atmospheric floaters that find space in the shared frequencies of unprocessed house and organic techno. The What We Have Forgotten EP features five original tracks and is currently only available on 12″ vinyl.
You can stream previews of all five tracks by clicking on the Soundcloud player below, and you can pick up a fresh copy of this rapidly selling record over on the Hardwax website or by visiting the Soul People Music store on Juno Records.
Ableton has unveiled updated versions of its Push and Live technologies following its first Loop music summit in Berlin. As FACT reports, the new Live controller Push (which was designed in-house rather than with Akai) features improved pads and more accurate reads on waveforms, effects, and mixer levels. Users can also manipulate and play samples recorded with Live, and load VST instruments and Audio Unit with a new controller.
Key improvements to Live 9.5 reportedly include “an overhauled version of the software’s Simpler sampler device… an array of analog-modeled filters embedded throughout the software’s built-in instruments, as well as improved waveforms and volume meters.” Ableton has also announced a new technology, Link, which syncs Live with compatible i0S apps through a wireless network. Watch Link and Push 2 demos below, and head here for more complete information on all the new products.
In October, the former XLR8R podcast contributor Laurent Garnier joined Red Bull Music Academy in Paris as part of its ongoing lecture series. Over an hour and a half, Garnier touches on key points in his 25-year-plus career, including his early musical inspirations and experiences at legendary Manchester club Hacienda. Watch it in full below, and keep an eye out for new lectures, which will keep rolling in over the coming weeks.
The Home Treatment will be the second release on Behzad Et Amarou Records (a.k.a. BEAR), which was launched in early 2015 by French duo, and Concrete residents, Behzad & Amarou. The four tracks on The Home Treatment present a dark, atmospheric sound, bookended by textural pads, haunting ambience, and galloping rhythms.
“Find Your Dive,” opens proceedings with a raw kick drum, ricocheting hats and ethereal pads, subtly morphing across its seven-minute run time for a heady preview of things to come. Ahead of the official release, “Find Your Dive” can be streamed in full below.
Sicaa is a sound designer, producer, percussionist, and DJ born and raised in the 19th district of Paris. Having a passion for music since a young age, Sicaa has focused on hybrid styles, melting abstract hip-hop, electronica, future beats, trap, and bass music, fusing them all together to create his own cinematic universe.
In the past, Sicca released three EPs on Unc Audio, and has worked with imprints like Château Bruyant, XVIIIème Péninsule, Unlog, Highlife Recordings, and Moose Records, on which he released his first LP The Source in March 0f 2015. Since then, Sicaa has joined the Exploration Music crew and provided two tracks on the Setting Forth LP, which also features the forward thinking tunes of Yan Kaylen, Nulpar and Hazeo. Setting Forth is the first release from the Paris-based label and party crew Exploration Music. The crew has made its mark on the blooming Paris electronic music scene by inviting artists and labels such as Sigha, Shifted, AVN//OCS, Trevino, Lucy, Truncate, Truss, Vakula, Henning Baer, Tessela, Stray, and Akkord.
Setting Forth is also a double vinyl album featuring four artists from the label. It is an album in the sense that the music has been carefully curated into a seamless eight-track LP. From ambient to bass music, techno, dub, or hip hop, no boundaries have been set and it will be up to the artists from the collective to define the label’s sound as time progresses. The album itself tells the story of the up and downs of setting up new projects and preparing for new adventures. The second disk is a bit darker, but the story has a happy ending which is provided here by the heavy but positive instrumental hip hop and trap beat “Frantic”. The track summarizes all the lessons learned while pulling together the label and the album, putting all doubts at rest, and confidently setting forth into the unknown.
You can pick up the Setting Forth LP by Exploration Music by clicking here, and you can pick up the track “Frantic” by Sicaa by clicking on the media player below.
Seattle’s Decibel Festival is a multi-venue, club-based festival with a forward-thinking aesthetic and attitude. With its 12th year now in the bag, Decibel has certainly cemented itself as one of North America’s best festivals. The volunteers involved, as well as the artists, the crowd, and the city itself, present a no-nonsense and welcoming attitude that makes for five vibe-filled days of world-class parties and performances from acts such as Bonobo, John Tejada, DJ Tennis, Roman Flügel, Lusine, Bob Moses, Function, Marcel Dettmann, and many more.
This year, XLR8R TV travelled to Seattle to give you an in-depth look at the festival and the city, and to chat to founder Sean Horton, who provides great insight into Decibel’s history, its future, and the parties and people that make up (what we see as) one of the best events on the planet.
If you go back 12 years to Nathan Jonson‘s first proper vinyl release as Hrdvsion with the Oh Techo Saves EP on Itiswhatitis Recordings, you will see that Jonson is aiming to stand out as an individual amongst his peers with his strong affinity for nimble glitch and experimental rhythm patterns. Itiswhatitis eventually became known as the home base for iconic records from another skilled musician in Nathan’s family, with his brother Mathew Jonson reaching critical acclaim with his solo work on the label and with his band Cobblestone Jazz. It was also around this time that Mathew Jonson and Konrad Black began contributing to the development of Wagon Repair, the formative label that would set the foundation for Nathan Jonson to explore numerous different musical styles over the course of many years and allow him to further expand on the definitions that made up his previous musical lexicon.
Nathan inevitably released a slew of records on Wagon Repair under the name Hrdvsion during that time, along with creating multiple aliases like Cockblocker and Florian Kicks, and would eventually release and perform with his brother under the nickname Midnight Operator. Nathan capped off this period of experimentation by relocating to Berlin in 2009 and issuing his album Where Did You Just Go?, which would mark his only full-length album on Wagon Repair. According to Nathan, the decision to no longer use the Hrdvsion alias wasn’t about doing something radically different necessarily, but it was more about clearing the palette and some of the preconceptions about his previous work. Since that time Nathan has now settled on producing music under his own name, and after releasing ‘Finding My Way’ on Areal‘s Lazerwhales III compilation, he returns with his first proper 12″ for the label. Towards The Sun is a four-track package characterized by its buoyant basslines and Jonson’s well-known experimental streak.
Today for our daily download, you can grab the dub mix of the title track of Nathan Jonson’s latest EP ahead of its release on November 6. You can also set a reminder to order the album when it becomes available by checking out the record on Juno.
