XLR8R News and Features |  |
- Young Turks Details Final 'YT2013' Installment and Compilation
- Carlotek & Rasingtheroof "Donna"
- Listen to Dâm-Funk's and Snoop Dogg's '7 Days of Funk' LP
- Check Out Carl Craig's Remix of Factory Floor
- Moodymann Announces New Album
- Download a New Mix from Conforce
- Stream Graze's Debut LP in Full
- Opal Block "Star of David"
- Terrence Parker Readies New LP for Planet E
- LuckyMe Celebrates the Holidays with Audio Advent Calendar
- Burial Teases New EP for Hyperdub
- XLR8R's Best of 2013: Top Downloads (100 - 81)
- Beyond Jack: Breach Is More Than Just One Massive Hit
- Mite "Witch Doctor"
- Akkord
- Win a Launchpad Mini from Novation!
- Fast Times "Comfort Zone"
- Preparations EP
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 11:53 AM PST
 London's Young Turks label has been showcasing its diverse roster throughout the year with a limited-edition 12" series titled YT2013, each release featuring two unreleased cuts or previously released highlights. Today, the label has announced a third and final 12", along with a complete collection of the tracks in CD and digital formats. read more   |
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Carlotek & Rasingtheroof "Donna"
Posted: 02 Dec 2013 11:00 AM PST
On its latest 4x4 EP collection, the 1980 label offers up four new tunes from the techier side of house, including this sleek workout from budding Londoners Carlotek and Raisingtheroof. Focusing on a set of descending chord stabs for most of its six-plus-minute run, "Donna" is a calm, collected dance tune, but not one afraid to venture into percussion-heavy breaks or unexpected moments of refracted vocal processing.
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:53 AM PST
Set to drop via Stones Throw early next week, 7 Days of Funk—the collaborative album from the G-funk dream team of Dâm-Funk and Snoop Dogg—is now available to hear in its entirety.
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:29 AM PST
 Set to appear on a new 12" via DFA next week, Carl Craig's remix of Factory Floor can now be streamed in full. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 10:22 AM PST
 Detroit house veteran Moodymann (a.k.a. Kenny Dixon Jr.) has announced a follow-up to this year's ABCD mini-album (a vinyl-only release on the producer's own Mahogani label), fittingly titled ABCD: The Album. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:53 AM PST
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:26 AM PST
 Out today via New Kanada, Edges, the debut long-player from Graze (a.k.a. Adam Marshall and XI), is now available to stream in full. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST
Manchester's Opal Block—a producer said to have been raised "on a diet of analog synths and 8-bit MIDI software"—dropped his debut release, the genre-hopping Tyson, late last month as part of an ongoing tape series from the fledgling Astral Black label. Opening the 10-track effort, "Star of David" is a production seemingly at odds with itself—its stuttering boom-bap and precious melodic adornments seem to come from two entirely different worlds.
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:50 AM PST
 Legendary Detroit DJ/producer Terrence Parker has been keeping XLR8R on its toes quite a bit this year—releasing a new remix EP, wowing us at his hometown's annual Movement festival, and delivering a classic XLR8R podcast. And the hardworking artist is now set to kick off 2014 in style, with a brand-new LP ready to drop via Carl Craig's Planet-E label. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:40 AM PST
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:04 AM PST
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST
 Every year, XLR8R posts something in the vicinity of 1,000 tracks for free download. It's a practice that, though once common, seems to be nearing extinction among music blogs and websites as a whole, which makes it almost a point of pride for us to strive to continually bring new, exciting, and, most of all, free music to our readership on a daily basis. Some of the tunes in our Downloads section are ridiculously obscure, some of them are surprisingly mainstream, and others actually come from some of our favorite artists. But regardless of their origins, each free download has an equal opportunity to climb the popularity chart, and every once in a while, we like to give some extra shine to the most exceptional of the bunch. Now that December has arrived and the end of 2013 is just around the corner, it's once again time for us to kick off our annual Best of the Year coverage, and we're starting things off this week with our list of the top 100 downloads to hit XLR8R during the past year. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST
 It's safe to say that no one could have predicted exactly how huge "Jack"—Breach's sharp-edged house bouncer and a track originally released on a one-off EP for Claude VonStroke's Dirtybird label—was going to be, especially not the creator himself, Ben Westbeech. By the end of the summer though, the sleek, sex-charged tune had become one of 2013's most ubiquitous cuts, finding its way into an increasing amount of DJ crates and festival sets as it was picked up by a major label, given a proper video treatment (the clip currently boasts well over five million views), and broke into the top 10 of the UK singles chart. Even considering its massive success, "Jack" still represents only one small part of Breach's music, which in turn is only one of the latest chapters in the career of Ben Westbeech, a decade-long veteran of UK dance music with a long list of projects to his name. Now, in the post-"Jack" era, Westbeech appears to be left with the tall task of reconciling his newfound commercial success with the underground credibility he previously spent years accruing, or at least figuring out if he should really be concerned with maintaining either one. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 06:00 AM PST
 Ahead of Distal'a and Mite's forthcoming split-cassette, Concrete Space (out on December 3), the latter Atlantan producer's "Witch Doctor" tune has been sent over as a preview. The unwieldy dance track crashes in with knocking beats, wobbling pads, and a motoric rimshot pattern, tumbling around a plushy bassline and steady claps. Along with the release, Distal and Mite have teamed up with West Coast design company Nocs to give away 15 high-end headphones with the first 15 orders of Concrete Space, as well as 10 cassette players for the first 10 buyers. Info for the sweepstakes can be found after the jump. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 05:00 AM PST
 As far as bass music goes, one would be hard pressed to find a more accessible producer than Synkro (a.k.a. Joe McBride). The Manchester producer's last solo release was called Acceptance and bore the implications of the title out in swooning, heartbroken melodies and the blush of nylon-string guitars and detailed, inventive drum programming. McBride has shown that he's also capable of the steeliest techno vibes as one half of Akkord—his collaborative project with fellow Manchester resident Indigo (a.k.a. Liam Blackburn)—without giving up the core accessibility and inventiveness that define his approach. Techno—of the scrappy, metallic variety—is in vogue thanks to labels like L.I.E.S., but Akkord's take is unique. Although the duo gets a lot of mileage out of fractured, jagged samples for its drum hits, the vibe here is more Consumed/Closer-era Plastikman than, say, Unit Moebius, with tracks patiently coalescing around towering rhythmic riffs. There are no real melodies to speak of, and yet Akkord is an especially articulate album, one that offers a series of wintry industrial scenes that fade into each other with growing urgency. If this is techno, it's the genre at its least monolithic. At every turn, Akkord pushes against the grain of the 4/4 grid, laying heavy swing over the otherwise straightforward stomp of "3dOS" or flirting with 2562/Demdike Stare territory on the eerie fourth-world invocation "Smoke Circle." read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 04:00 AM PST
 Diligent readers may have noticed that XLR8R has been working with Novation to give away a handful of its new products to a some lucky people over the past few months, and we're wrapping up that series of contests this week with the Launchpad Mini. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 03:00 AM PST
 Newcomer Jorge Day has logged time behind a synth in the Plastic Flowers band and dabbled in production work, but his new project, Fast Times, is the culmination of a year spent traveling and crafting his own demos. read more   |
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Posted: 02 Dec 2013 02:00 AM PST
 Having previously gained a little bit of attention for his "DMT Usher" single, which saw release last year via Samurai Music, the New Zealand-based Fis (a.k.a. Olly Peryman) has retreated further from his already idiosyncratic vision of drum & bass with his recent Homologous EP for Void Coms and Preparations, his debut release for Tri Angle. The four-track EP presents listeners with some seriously murky skeletal sketches of tunes, which bear only a passing resemblance to the sort of drum & bass that most people are familiar with. Defined by abstract textures, a unique rhythmic sensibility, and deep, ominous bass, the Preparations EP is a release with an eerie, claustrophobic intensity. read more   |
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