FACT Magazine Timbaland working with Chicago vocalist Tink @ Musique Non Stop |  |
- Timbaland working with Chicago vocalist Tink
- An alleged test pressing of Aphex Twin’s unreleased Caustic Window album is on Discogs for $13,500
- Alter reveals Cremation Lily’s noisy new album Fires Frame The Silhouette
- Watch DC rapper Yung Gleesh kick back in the hazy video for ‘Gleechie’
- Brooklyn A/V duo Prism House preview new EP with eery ‘The Skyline Breathes Tonight’
- Hometown Hi-Fi: Stories from Five of History’s Most Influential Sound Systems
- King Britt announces debut album under Fhloston Paradigm alias, The Phoenix
- Deadboy readies Return EP for Numbers; watch the video for the title track
- Popcaan announces debut album Where We Come From for Mixpak
- Bryan Ferry, Jon Hopkins, Clean Bandit and more added to Øya Festival lineup
- tUnE-yArDs unveils ‘Wait For A Minute’ from new album Nikki Nack
- Footwork figurehead Traxman to release Da Mind of Traxman Vol. 2
- Green Velvet to play back-to-back with own alias Cajmere at Fire
- Hudson Mohawke drops sugary remix of Duck Sauce’s ‘NRG’
- Prince launches publishing company for his catalogue of songs “fit 4 eternal publication”
- Mix Mup and Dolan Bergin set to play London’s Dance Tunnel in May
- British man dies at Snowbombing festival
- FKA twigs announces handful of European dates
- Jeff Mills, Surgeon and a heap of Ostgut Ton B2B sets added to Amsterdam’s Dekmantel Festival
- Copenhagen’s Distortion festival lines up Todd Terje, Hudson Mohawke, Sun Ra Arkestra and more
- Breath space: the story of Steve Roach’s ambient landmark Structures From Silence
- After Forever
- Klaxons reveal druggy artwork for new album Love Frequency
- Hear Nicki Minaj and Lil Herb on ‘Chi-Raq’
- Modeselektor announce Modeselektion Vol. 03, featuring exclusives from Fennesz, The Fall and Omar Souleyman
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Posted: 08 Apr 2014 03:59 PM PDT
 Has the super-producer found a new protege? Late last month, Tink shared a photo of herself with Timbaland [below], writing that “Timbaland gave me the word last night. We ready.” Timbo has taken it one further, tweeting that “my next big project is this new artist [Tink].” Obviously, this would be a huge opportunity for the Chicago rapper-singer; she’s also been in the studio with Kelela and DJ Dahi. FACT spoke with Tink late last year and shared the highlights from her growing catalog. Her latest mixtape, Winter’s Diary 2, might be her best ever.
Timbaland gave me the word last night. We ready pic.twitter.com/cU4kEsbo90
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An alleged test pressing of Aphex Twin’s unreleased Caustic Window album is on Discogs for $13,500
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 02:00 PM PDT
 A copy of Aphex Twin‘s test pressing-only Caustic Window album is currently available on Discogs. The price? $13,500. As the story goes, the album reached the test-pressing phase in 1994, but was aborted as a full release. This release claims to be one of five TPs (the other four are reportedly owned by Mike Paradinas, Rephlex’s Grant Claridge-Wilson, Chris ‘Cylobs’ Jeffs and Aphex himself, though we’ve spoken to an ex-Warp and Rephlex employee who says there are more). The Discogs seller claims to be able to “demonstrate [the record's] authenticity & deliver by any reasonable means”. They’re also selling ‘Analogue Bubblebath Vol. 5′ for $1,000 – and in that entry, the seller claims that the record’s legitimacy can be “confirmed directly by Rephlex Records”. Update: We spoke to the seller, who says he was given the record by Rephlex in 1994. In terms of giving proof, there’s no chance of audio as the record is unplayed – and advertised as such – but there are photos of the run-out groove. Update 3: We’re not going to do this all day, but it’s back on Discogs. Update 4: The good folks at WATMM are working on a Kickstarter that would turn this test pressing into a one-time digital release. Rephlex is allegedly on-board, offering a license for the 500 people who contribute to the Kickstarter before selling the release on eBay; read more about the plan over on the forums. Of course, we all know the big question here: is it a patch on ‘Avril 1′? Ahem. Read FACT’s run-down of the 50 Best Aphex Twin Tracks here.         |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2014 01:39 PM PDT
 Brit noise explorer Z. Zsigo has been operating in the shadows for a number of years now, and is finally set to emerge. Luke Younger’s esteemed Alter imprint is set to issue the first Cremation Lily vinyl album, Fires Frame The Silhouette, which will collect up remixes and reworks of Zsigo’s finest compositions. Over the last half-decade, Zsigo has put out tapes and 7″s on a variety of imprints, including Harbinger Sound and his own Strange Rules label, but this will be the first time most listeners will get a chance to pore over his crumbling drones. Our first taster is the monolithic ‘Iron Pier’, which descends slowly from a mid-period Prurient-style harrowing synth drone into fractured tape noise and chain-rattling percussion. It’s gruesome, deeply engaging sound for those of you who aren’t afraid of a touch of darkness.         |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2014 10:26 AM PDT
 The self-described shitbag drops his latest single. As you can tell from FACT’s interview with Yung Gleesh at SXSW, the DC rapper is in a lane of his own. On ‘Gleechie’, he shows off his approach (which splits the difference between Lil B and Gucci Mane) over a loopy beat by producer Dolan Beats, flipping from languid to fired up without warning. Watch the video (directed by Will Hoopes) below. ‘Gleechie’ will appear on Gleesh’s forthcoming Cleansides Finest III mixtape, which is due out this summer. Download it now. Check out our interview with Yung Gleesh and our review of his recent mixtape Your Favorite Rapper's Favorite Rapper.         This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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Posted: 08 Apr 2014 10:08 AM PDT
 Their latest track for Ceremony is a techno-noise sound collage. Prism House is the duo of Brian Wenner (music/live electronics) and Matt O'Hare (live visuals). After debuting last year with the Reflections EP |
“The record’s vibe is urban and dense and truly embodies what we find exciting about today’s electronic music landscape,” they write. “The ultimate goal of this album was to create something unique and beautiful out of a time in life that has been both uncertain and at times tumultuous.”
Stream ‘The Skyline Breathes Tonight’ below. The EP is due out April 29 and is available to pre-order now. It will be backed with remixes from Software’s Thug Entrancer and Chicago duo The-Drum.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 09:48 AM PDT
Fresh from curating a new exhibition on the history and significance of Jamaican sound system culture, Seb Carayol gives The Vinyl Factory a potted history of the scene and introduces five of the most influential sounds.
A Brief Introduction to Hometown Hi-Fi and Sound System Culture
The exhibition:My aim was to reposition Jamaican sound system culture where it belongs, at the beginning of all the practices of modern-day urban music, DJing, electro, the art of the remix, you name it. Often, people who are not into reggae specifically – especially in France, where I'm from – tend to believe that everything was invented in NYC for hip hop, or in some Detroit or Chicago warehouses for electro. Part of it was, part of it came from one tiny island in the Caribbean.
In the UK and the US it's quite different: for instance, people like James Murphy often refer to the importance of Jamaican sound system culture in what he's become today. Or you've got Andrew Weatherall who's a total King Tubby nut!
That's why I've focused my exhibition on the sound system as an actual musical instrument, more than just on reggae in general. In an ideal world, the ultimate goal would be that when a venue sees a crew that spent months and thousands of dollars building a custom sound system, the management understands it's for a reason. Would you tell Jimi Hendrix, "Sure, very nice guitar you got, but we just bought this new one that works as well, use ours instead"?
The history:
It's inventiveness born out of poverty, in a sense. If Jamaica had been this opulent country, everybody would have bought their own radio sets for their homes after WWII… But no, only some people could afford radio sets, and so they became the places where people would come to listen to the latest R&B tunes from radio stations in New Orleans or Florida. And as more people came, it meant you had to amplify a notch, then one more notch… You've got a guy like Basil Galbraith, who is a Godfather of amp building in Jamaica, but he's barely known to anybody, and is still alive and well.
There are tons of side stories like that. Sugar Minott, who basically created a full-on social/community center in the heart of the ghetto around his Youth Promotion sound system and label to keep kids off the streets… It's amazing. The more you live, the more you learn about sound system history, and the more addicted you become.
Each of the speakers we show (a bass bin from the original King Tubby's Hometown Hi-fi set, salvaged from a Jamaican backyard where it had been used as a bench for decades, another bass bin from The Wasp, and mids from Sir Harry's Active Hifi) has probably a story -or to be precise: is lucky to have a story. If it weren't for people like Jeremy Collingwood, Nico "Planno" in France or Tradition Records in Birmingham, most of these sets would have probably become firewood. Jamaica doesn't have a big tradition of preserving its own past, always looking towards the future, which is why also this island has always been so innovative. The drawback is that lack of love for the "vintage".
The vinyl:
Vinyl is still very important because the records are sometimes the only "clean" trace left of a track, especially the 45s. You have dozens of gems that were pressed once in tiny quantities, whose stampers were then lost or destroyed – meaning the only physical existence of these songs is on however many copies are left of the actual 45.
With the reign of audio files, the physical acetate dubplates have maybe had a lesser role in terms of the exclusivity they used to carry. But it's the same thing, they are sometimes the only trace left of a pre-released (or never-released) tune, or of an exclusive mix from back in the day.
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Posted: 08 Apr 2014 09:35 AM PDT
The Philadelphia dance legends returns to Hyperdub this June.
For the last few years, Fhloston Paradigm has been Britt’s outlet to revisit the sci-fi of his youth by creating analogue-driven synthesizer soundtracks.
On June 9, Hyperdub will release the debut full-length under the alias, The Phoenix (cover art below). The album promises to build on the previous Fhloston Paradigm releases: a space age techno journey (although one “without the pressure of overbearing concept”) aided by vocalists Natasha Kmeto, Pia Ercole, and Rachel Claudio.
FACT spoke with King Britt about the Fhloston Paradigm project back in 2012 — the same year he assembled a FACT mix of sci-fi soundtracks, epic techno, astral jazz and nocturnal new wave that you can stream below.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 08:55 AM PDT
The South London producer announces the follow-up to last year’s Blaquewerk.
The Glasgow-based Numbers has released several Deadboy efforts, dating back to 2010′s ‘If U Want Me’, and April 28 will see the release of the four-track Return EP.
Watch the video for the ambient title track below, which features a spaceman in a smoke-filled club and was directed by Thomas Traum. It’s certainly a departure from the beat-heavy Blaquewerk, but it does have the same lovelorn romanticism of his early material.
Last year, Deadboy launched his Total Fantasy label with a release by the mysterious Bøne Squad and revealed how to make a hit record in five minutes.
Return EP:
1. Return
2. Des Niles
3. Yhvh
4. Life Code
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 08:25 AM PDT
The Jamaican dancehall vocalist teams with Dre Skull, Dubbel Dutch and more.
Last year, Popcaan flirted with mainstream recognition with an appearance on Pusha T’s ‘Blocka’ which was subsequently sampled for Kanye West’s ‘Guilt Trip’.
The dancehall artist (and protege of Vybz Kartel) has teamed with Dre Skull’s Mixpak imprint for his debut album, Where We Come From. Production was handled by Dre Skull, Brooklyn producer Dubbel Dutch and dancehall veterans Jamie Roberts (of Young Vibez Production), Anju Blaxx and Adde.
Where We Come From is due out June 10. It features the Dubbel Dutch-produced slow burner ‘Everything Nice’, which is now being offered as a remix with fellow Jamaican talent Mavado; previously, the pair appeared on Snoop Lion’s ‘Lighters Up’.
01 Hold On
02 Everything Nice
03 Number One Freak
04 Love Yuh Bad
05 The System
06 Hustle
07 Waiting So Long
08 Cool It
09 Ghetto (Tired of Crying)
10 Evil
11 Addicted
12 Give Thanks
13 Where We Come From
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 07:25 AM PDT
Oslo’s Øya Festival is one of Norway’s most unmissable events, and its 2014 lineup is growing fast.
Already we’ve been presented with a list of artists that would have even the most discerning music fan quickly searching for cheap flights to Northern Europe – Slowdive, Outkast, Neutral Milk Hotel, Neneh Cherry, Queens of the Stone Age, Todd Terje, Darkside, Mayhem, Angel Olsen and loads more. Now, however, the next wave is making it even more difficult to restrain ourselves.
Sitting atop the list like an angry god is Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry, who we’re guessing will be capitalizing on his recent re-exposure thanks Norwegian smooth-groove salesman Todd Terje. Elsewhere, ambient pop bloke Jon Hopkins will be performing, as will Clean Bandit, Neko Case and more.
For more information and to snap up tickets, make sure you head here.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 07:21 AM PDT
Another teaser from the New England native’s third album.
After unveiling lead single ‘Water Fountain’, anti-pop pixie tUnE-yArDs has revealed another track from her forthcoming album on 4AD, Nikki Nack.
Eschewing the hyperactivity and playground vibe of the first single, ‘Wait For A Minute’ sees Merrill Garbus in more reflective mode, pairing Laurie Anderson-esque breathy coos with squelchy synth lines and a typically ambitious vocal arrangement.
As Garbus told FACT’s Chal Ravens in an interview last week, it’s ”a song about addiction, which I've thought a lot about in the past year.”
Due on May 6, Nikki Nack is the follow-up to 2011′s uniquely brilliant whokill – check out a “megamix” sampler of the new album uploaded last month, which suggests an even bolder palette of sounds with added synth and electronics. Garbus will tour Europe and North America this summer, starting in Los Angeles on May 5.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 07:08 AM PDT
One of footwork’s founding fathers, Traxman, will release his second album for Planet Mu this May.
Traxman’s discography dates back to the Dance Mania days, and he rolls with DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn’s Teklife crew. Last year, he released an album for Lit City titled The Architek - it was the third in the label’s Teklife series, after Rashad and Spinn – but here he returns to Mu with Da Mind of Traxman Vol. 2.
Stream Traxman’s FACT mix.
Tracklist:
1. Time Slip
2. Blow Your Whistle (Tha Out Of Here Remixx)
3. Nothing Stays The Same
4. Mic
5. Computer Getto
6. Make Love To Me
7. Bubbles
8. Let It Roll Geto
9. Ever And Always
10. Under Cover Jack
11. Can Nutin Hold Me Back
12. 15416
13. Gone And Hit That Shit
14. I Need Too Do It (ft. DJ Fred)
15. Your Just Movin
16. Tha Edge Of Panic
17. I Wanna Be High
18. U Got Me Runnin (Remixx)
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 06:54 AM PDT
Chicago house legend Green Velvet is geared up to drop into London’s Fire this May, to play with, well, himself.
He’ll be splicing together a UK exclusive back-to-back set with his own Cajmere alias, and exploring themes he’s been touching on for the last few decades. We don’t think that this is a set that any self-respecting house trainspotter would want to miss, let’s put it that way.
Also dropping in for a piece of the action are Boddika, Luke Solomon and Neville Watson, and room two is set to be hosted by Farr Festival (along with Random Magic, of course) who have lined up South London Ordnance, October and a selection of Otto Farr residents.
For more information and tickets, head here.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 06:37 AM PDT
Hudson Mohawke is back in the driver’s seat, this time sprinkling his fairy dust over Duck Sauce’s ‘NRG’.
For those of you who don’t quite remember what Duck Sauce is, it’s a collaborative project between Fools Gold boss A-Trak and NYC house legend Armand Van Helden, and ‘NRG’ has been snipped from their forthcoming full length Quack.
Hud Mo of course turns the track into a stadium-sized banger, with all the chest-punching rhythms and saccharine vocals you’d hope for.
Take a listen below.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 06:34 AM PDT
The Purple One brings his publishing in-house after release of ‘FALLINLOVE2NITE’.
Prince has launched his own publishing company to look after his vast back catalogue.
NPG Music Publishing will focus on the songs he reckons are “fit 4 eternal publication”, which when you think about it is a hell of a lot of songs.
Exact details are scant, but the new company was reportedly involved in the placement of the latest Prince single ‘FALLINLOVE2NITE’ in an episode of US sitcom New Girl, in which Prince also appeared.
Prince's catalogue was previously managed by Universal Music Publishing until the deal ended in 2012.
Earlier this year we got the bunting out to celebrate Prince’s Hit And Run Tour of the UK and compiled the 10 best Prince songs you never knew existed. [via CMU]
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 05:43 AM PDT
Mysterious German producer Mix Mup drops into London’s Dance Tunnel for Electric Minds in May.
There’s not much we can tell you about Mix Mup to be quite honest, save to mention that he’s part of Kassem Mosse’s esteemed crew, and dropped last year’s phenomenal ‘Copa Jams’ on Hinge Finger which was one of the most unassuming floor destroyers of the year.
As if that wasn’t enough to lure you out of the your London pad, Dolan Bergin is also set to mash together a set of rugged, beat-heavy house and techno to keep yer feet shuffling all night.
For more information and tickets make sure you head here.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 04:53 AM PDT
Unpleasant news: a young British man has died at Austria’s Snowbombing Festival.
As The Guardian report, the 25-year-old from West Bromwich collapsed yesterday afternoon. He had previously been complaining of chest pains. According to local police, the man ”was treated by paramedics but lost consciousness and died.”
A postmortem will take place on Tuesday. The festival organisers have issued the following statement:
“We have offered every assistance and our thoughts are with the man’s family. His next of kin are being contacted. We cannot comment further at this point.”The 5000+ capacity Snowbombing, which runs until April 12, takes place at the Mayrhofen ski resort, situated in the Zillertal valley. This year’s bill includes The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, Carl Cox, Four Tet and Groove Armada.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 04:12 AM PDT
FKA twigs will take her experimental slow-burners across the Channel for the first time.
Later this month, European audiences will have a chance to get hip to the Gloucestershire singer and her heat-warped R&B. The Young Turks signing has plotted a short Continental trip, taking in stops in Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels.
Cast your eyes southwards for dates.
Live dates:
Apr 30: Paris, Carreau du Temple
May 1: Amsterdam, Trouw
May 2: Brussels, Botanique
[via Dummy]
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 03:59 AM PDT
Two dozen acts added to the 2014 line-up.
Dekmantel Festival has announced another batch of names for the August event, starring five back-to-back sets featuring names from the Ostgun Ton roster: Marcel Dettmann v Luke Slater, Ben Klock v Ryan Elliott, Efdemin v Marcel Fengler, Steffi v Answer Code Request and Atom TM v Tobias.
Elsewhere on the line-up there’s a Detroit-focused B2B session from Kyle Hall and Jay Daniel, plus sets from Jeff Mills, Surgeon, Andrew Weatherall, Boddika, Nina Kraviz, Julio Bashmore, Jimmy Edgar, Joey Anderson and Bicep.
Local faces Young Marco, Mark du Mosch and Interstellar Funk round off the announcement.
The bill also features several intriguing team-ups, including Axel Boman and John Talabot as Talaboman and Blawan and Surgeon as Trade, along with sets from the Detroit supergroup 3 Chairs, comprising Moodymann, Theo Parrish, Marcellus Pittman and Rick Wilhite.
Dekmantel Festival takes place in the forest of Amsterdamse Bos from August 1–3, 2014. For more information and tickets head to the festival's website. [via RA]
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 03:23 AM PDT
Global line-up for day-to-night urban festival.
Copenhagen’s Distortion has announced the first batch of names for its 16th edition, billed as “a week of emerging dance music and orchestrated chaos.”
Distortion is one of the more unusual propositions across Europe’s festival scene, with street parties across the city’s neighbourhoods in the daytime, clubbing at night and one huge knees-up at the end of the week – the Final Party, which features over 11 stages plus spectacular fripperies like champagne boats and the prospect of “giant surprise explosions”.
Neon champion Hudson Mohawke, cosmic jazzers Sun Ra Arkestra and globetrotting footworkers DJ Spinn and DJ Rashad are among the eclectic names announced so far for the festival, which takes place from June 4-8 in Denmark’s capital.
Also on the bill are nu-disco king Todd Terje, with his first live performance in Scandinavia, plus Kompakt boss Michael Mayer and US rapper Mykki Blanco.
Brodinski, Club Cheval and Ivan Smagghe will fly the French flag, while Skream and Blawan rep the UK – check out the full line-up so far below.
Head to Billetto to get hold of a ‘Turpas’, a ticket allowing entry to all events during the festival. Tickets are also available for individual events.
Line-up so far:
Blawan (UK) – Friday 6 June, Culture Box
Boys Noize (DE) – Friday 6 June, Klatrehallen, Blocs & Walls
Brodinski (FR) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Club Cheval (FR) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
DJ Spinn & DJ Rashad (US) – Wednesday 4 June, Rust
DVS1 (US) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Hudson Mohawke (SC) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Ivan Smagghe (FR) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Joe Ford (US) – Friday 6 June, Pumpehuset
Matmos (US) – Thursday 5 June, Jazzhouse
Michael Mayer (DE) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Mr. Ties (IT) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Mykki Blanco (US) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Nisennenmondai (JP) – Wednesday 4 June, Jazzhouse
Noisia (NL) – Friday 6 June, Pumpehuset
Skream (UK) – Friday 6 June, Klatrehallen, Blocs & Walls
Sun Ra Arkestra feat. Marshall Allen (US) – Wednesday 4 June, Jazzhouse
Superpitcher (DE) – Saturday 7 June, Final Party, Refshaleøen
Todd Terje (NO) – Thursday 5 June, DGI-byen
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 02:38 AM PDT
There are some well-polished treasures celebrating their 30th anniversary this year: The Smiths’ debut album, Double Nickels On The Dime, Purple Rain. Add Steve Roach’s Structures From Silence to that list – by our reckoning, the best ambient album of the decade.
Structures From Silence might be less trumpeted than, say, Eno’s Ambient records, but in terms of emotional affect and textural flair, it more than trumps them. Released in 1984 on Fortuna, this three-track collection of brocaded synth composition is a world away from the tacky lovebombs lying undetonated in new age thrift bins. Instead, Structures From Silence offers an ambient music that, although subtle and slow-moving, throbs with life – music which, like a flagging Chinese lantern, appeared to have gently bobbed down from the cosmos. On the 30-minute title track in particular, Roach’s work is deep, majestic, coruscating as coral. In fact, if you’ve never had the stomach for ambient, Structures From Silence is as good a starting point as we can think of: we didn’t crown it out tenth favourite album of the 1980s on a whim.
According to Roach, Structures From Silence emanates from – and embodies – “that sigh – that expansive place where you breathe out and then you breathe back in.” Speaking from his Southern California home, Roach walks me along the musical breadcrumb trail that first led him to Structures From Silence‘s magic place. Roach’s primary musical influences were the usual roster of Krautrock adventurers: Klaus Schulze, Popul Vuh, Manuel Gottsching and his Ashra Tempel, and Tangerine Dream. Correspondingly, Roach’s first band – Schulze-besotted combo Moebius – and his first two “Berlin-school influenced” albums (1982′s Now and 1983′s Traveler) opted for showy synth-wizardry and cosmic freakouts. Although these elements would hardly disappear from Roach’s work – see 1986′s exhilarating, highly sequenced Empetus – Structures From Silence would propose a radically different new route of travel.
The distinctive Structures From Silence sound – airy clouds of synth, patiently circling in loose but noticeable orbits – first developed as a corollary to those early “high-energy” pieces. “Through the course of playing those pieces or getting ready for concerts, the place that I would arrive at towards the end of a concert or preparing for a concert, everything would start to melt down or slow down in the building of the set. So it was a natural progression through the day, as things start to change and shift.” Roach credits the elliptical, slow-moving works of Harold Budd and Eno (with Robert Fripp in particular), but he’s keen to stress that, really, Structures From Silence is a California album – inspired by the “desert landscapes that I was constantly drawn to”, and conceived in line with an ever-so-Cali flower child upbringing (“I think I would rather breathe deep than smoke cigarettes day and night.”) For all his reputation as a hippy-ish channeller of the ether, Roach used to be a professional motorcyclist – and it’s not hard to read endlessly scrolling desert landscapes into Structures From Silence.
Like diligent meditators, let’s return to the breath – something which runs through Structures From Silence at the very deepest level. Roach developed the album’s three pieces by sitting at his Oberheim OB8 and “going into that state where you become fully aware of your breath and your body presence.” It’s not a happy accident that Structures From Silence feels so human – indeed, Roach’s working method was very deliberately an attempt to fully invest himself in the synthesiser, to dodge the plug-in-zone-out trap: “Musicians who play wind instruments or acoustic instruments – non-electronic musicians, let’s say – they have to be engaged. You have to be awake and present. If you’re playing a wind instrument, you have to show up 100% to make it work. But the synthesiser – early on at that time, I could already see that you could basically be in any sort of state if you were awake, and be making some sort of sound out of it, but not be fully engaged with it.” When played mindfully, the synthesiser was an instrument with remarkable potential – “almost like a Rorscach instrument, where you could impose your own will on it at any point in time, and do something like Structures in one moment, and something very dark and threatening or intense on the next day.” (For the curious, a list of the gear used by Roach on the album is included at the end of this article).
Roach insists that, for all its quietude, Structures From Silence fed off the hubbub of night-time L.A. and the Hollywood machine: “With Empetus, and Strucures, and [highly-regarded 1990 live LP] Stormwarning, all that music was created in the atmosphere of living right in the depths of LA. I was living in a little bungalow right close to the MGM film studios – it was a bungalow built for film lot workers, so there was a lot of energy going on all the time. You could just feel it coming in under the door at night. That’s an invigorating environment, and it’s also very powerful to distil that too and just bring it down into this still point, which is what Structures was.” Structures, it seems, was something of a bulwark against a frenzied world – the same sort of chalk-circle effect as Burial’s “angel’s spell”: “In its most pure form, Structures was created as a space for me to inhabit and create this sanctuary in the middle of all the energy of L.A.. It was really creating your own zone to inhabit and support and keep the sounds of the outer outside world at bay. Which is what I think is the best quality of this non-invasive, less melodic, more textural kind of art form – it’s so abundant everywhere, but I think it’s so great, because it’s so supportive of what we need today.”
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Posted: 08 Apr 2014 02:23 AM PDT
Available on: Dekmantel
"I’m doing such a favour to the listener, getting them to hear this guy," Levon Vincent said of Joey Anderson back in 2012. The occasion was Vincent's Fabric 63 mix, which used Anderson tracks 'Earth Calls' and 'Hydrine' as its cryptic centrepieces. He was right of course, but it's striking that Anderson's music – unlike that of his New York and New Jersey colleagues DJ Qu, Fred P and Vincent – needed a helping hand to reach an international audience.
Then again, an encounter with his unusual brand of deep house will probably explain why. In an Anderson production, the beats shuffle and flicker rather than settling into solid grooves; the synth lines dance teasingly around a hook without ever spelling it out; and piano licks fall just the right side of aimless, a little like the soulful tinkling of Nu Groove if the Burrell brothers had decided to hit the notes between the notes. Perhaps Anderson's background as a house dancer is relevant – these are dance tracks that provide only half the answers, inviting your body to fill in the rest. With this in mind, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Anderson's debut album is a brow-furrowing affair. A busy 2013 showed that he could produce anthems of a sort – the weepy 'Press Play' was one of the year's finest tracks. But After Forever is, even by Anderson's standards, intensely subtle and withdrawn.
Granted, there's the odd more straightforward groover – 'It's A Choice', say, or the sprightlier 'Sorcery', which rolls along for almost nine minutes, doing a lot with very little. 'Heaven's Archer' and the gorgeous 'Sky's Blessings' are also dependable presences on the album's digital version (both are taken from prior Dekmantel EP Fall Off Face). But mostly Anderson seems intent on withholding simple pleasures. 'Brass Chest Plate' is probably the best example of his dogged pursuit of the unresolvable. Aside from its stolid techno groove it's in a perpetual state of flux, with a large cast of synth patterns drifting by in succession. Just as things seem about to settle, some new chord or melody wrenches the mood out of joint. It's an intriguing effect, but a pretty exhausting one too.
Here and elsewhere Anderson's structuring feels modular, with these conflicting moods and intensities as its building blocks. In fact, in a couple of places the recombinant approach is taken further: the same circumspect piano line appears in a pair of beatless numbers, 'Space Between Curtains' and 'Space Colors Ideas', while the grandiose synth line from 'Heaven's Archer' is reused in 'Archer's Ceremony'. It's almost as if these tracks – and perhaps all of Anderson's music – were the output of a single ongoing alchemical process, and we're sat in the lab watching the test tubes bubble. When the formula's a good'un it's a pleasure to observe. But by the end of After Forever you might find yourself wishing you could get straight to the gold without all the hard work.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 01:46 AM PDT
Klaxons have revealed the artwork for their new album, Love Frequency.
Fans of the space-cat that fronted the group’s last album, Surfing the Void, will be disappointed: this one’s more spartan. In fact, it’s just a pill with the Klaxons logo on it.
Draw your own conclusions below. And while you’re at it, see how well Klaxons’ last single fared in the FACT Singles Club.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 01:45 AM PDT
Minaj takes Chicago’s young buck to the dark side.
Nicki Minaj has dropped another breadcrumb in the trail leading to her new album, this time teaming up with Chi-town rapper Lil Herb for the mean and moody ‘Chi-Raq’.
Built around little more than a creepy piano loop, chimes and a few snare hits, ‘Chi-Raq’ fits neatly alongside the nastier-sounding tracks Minaj has appeared on this year, including her own ‘Lookin Ass’ and the remix of Young Thug’s ‘Danny Glover’.
The track ends with a teaser from Minaj, who’s set to release her new album The Pink Print later this year: "I might give you a new trick every week until this album drop.”
Earlier this year Herb impressed with his mixtape Welcome to Fazoland, which FACT reckoned set “an impressively high bar for Chicago rap in 2014″.
Posted: 08 Apr 2014 01:40 AM PDT
Nosaj Thing, Akkord and Henrik Schwarz also feature on the eclectic mix.
Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary have revealed details of their third Modeselektion compilation, another eclectic pile-up of tunes from across the spectrum.
This time round, the German duo known as Modeselektor say they’ve curated a mix that’s “a little less in-your-face” with “a touch more schmaltz”. Exclusives come from Fennesz (on opening track ‘TOM’) and, remarkably, The Fall (with ‘Fibre Book Troll’). There’s also a brand new Modeselektor edit of the inimitable Omar Souleyman.
Elsewhere they’ve squeezed in tracks by Buraka Som Sistema, Illum Sphere, L-Vis 1990 and new Monkeytown signing Alex Banks.
The 19-track compilation is available as a double CD, a digital bundle and a slimmed down double 12″ plus two vinyl EPs. It’s out on June 27 through Monkeytown Records.
Modeselektor recently filmed their journey to Mumbai to meet Charanjit Singh, the Indian synth wizard whose 1982 album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat was a striking premonition of acid house.
Tracklists:
CD 1:
01 Fennesz “TOM”
02 Nosaj Thing “Dy”
03 Solar Year “Way”
04 The Fall “Fibre Book Troll”
05 To Rococo Rot “Miles An Hour” 6 Cid Rim “Pastis”
07 Akkord “Gradient”
08 Robot Koch “Sun”
09 Howling “Signs”
10 Born In Flamez “Time Hurtz”
CD 2:
01 L-Vis 1990 “Funk 4D”
02 Schlachthofbronx feat. Buraka Som Sistema “Volumen”
03 Illum Sphere “Bullet”
04 French Fries “Shift”
05 Alex Banks “Be the One feat. Elizabeth Bernholz”
06 Onra “Blast”
07 Henrik Schwarz “We Are Bankrupt”
08 Brandt Brauer Frick feat. Vic Mensa & Om’Mas Keith “Jungle Love”
09 Omar Souleyman “Edamat / Modeselektor Edit”
2xLP:
A1 Fennesz “TOM”
A2 Nosaj Thing “Dy”
A3 Solar Year “Way”
B1 To Rococo Rot “Miles An Hour”
B2 Cid Rim “Pastis”
C1 Akkord “Gradient”
C2 Robot Koch “Sun”
D1 Howling “Signs”
D2 Born In Flamez “Time Hurtz”
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