British artist Daniel Avery should need no introduction given he’s one of contemporary techno’s most revered DJ-producers. Since he released his debut album, Drone Logic, in 2013, he’s helmed a DJ-Kicks mix CD, resided over a monthly show for NTS Live, and collaborated with Nine Inch Nails synth specialist Alessandro Cortini. Oh, and that’s besides his other studio albums, including Song for Alpha, Love + Light, and Together in Static, released in collaboration with Phantasy and Mute. (In 2018, he also shared a gorgeous ambient work through XLR8R.)

Sitting at the intersection of home listening and club music, Avery’s sonic vocabulary spans these sorts of celestial ambient lullabies but also mesmeric psychedelic techno, defined by contemplative moods and woozy atmospherics. On Ultra Truth, his latest release, coming in November, Avery has revisited the art and sounds that inspired him as a teenager, from Deftones and Portishead to Nick Cave and the films of David Lynch. We’re told to expect an “intentionally heavy and dense album,” with its hooks often “hidden in dusty corners,” far away from the “misty-eyed euphoria” of his earlier work. The release features the work of HAAi, SHERELLE, Kelly Lee Owens, and Manni Dee.

In part to celebrate the album, Avery has recorded a much-anticipated XLR8R podcast, his first studio mix in years. Across its one-hour runtime, it aims to captures the essence of his latest full-length—so press play for one hour of grunge, ambient, and IDM that looks directly into the darkness rather than running away from it.

“It’s been a rush to get back on the road DJing and also debuting the new live show. In the studio it’s felt like the world of ‘Ultra Truth’ has been continually expanding and there’s so much more to share than solely the album itself, which is the idea I wanted to capture with this mix. It features a lot of the artists who first lit this path for me alongside a stack of my new music. The ‘Ultra Truth’ is now.“ — Daniel Avery

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. PJ Harvey “Horses In My Dreams” (Demo) (UMC/Island)
02. Daniel Avery “New Faith” (Phantasy/Mute)
03. Deftones “Digital Bath” (Maverick)
04. Portishead “Numb-Earth Linger” (Go! Discs)
05. Daniel Avery “Near Perfect” (Phantasy/Mute)
06. Daniel Avery “Trip” (Phantasy/Mute)
07. Daniel Avery “Higher” (Phantasy/Mute)
08. Death In Vegas “Soul Auctioneer” (Concrete)
09. Daniel Avery “Chaos Energy” (Phantasy/Mute)
10. Doss “Strawberry” (LuckyMe)
11. The Smashing Pumpkins “Lucky 13” (Constantinople)
12. Nine Inch Nails “A Warm Place” (Nothing/Interscope/Island)
13. Daniel Avery “Again and Again” (Unreleased)
14. Daniel Avery “Collapsing Sky” (Phantasy/Mute)
15. Bola “Vespers” (Skam)
16. Autechre “Second Scout” (Warp)
17. Daniel Avery “Out of Silence” (Phantasy/Mute)

Photo: Steve Gullick