FACT Magazine Download Shlohmo and Jeremih’s collaborative No More EP, featuring Chance the Rapper @ Musique Non Stop |
- Download Shlohmo and Jeremih’s collaborative No More EP, featuring Chance the Rapper
- Footsie teams with Trouble & Bass duo Nevermind for ‘Don’t Get Gassed’; download it now
- Call Super announces debut LP for Houndstooth, Suzi Ecto
- DJ Q and DJ Haus return as Trumpet & Badman with an EP of Jersey house jams — stream it now
- Win VIP tickets to Summer in the City, a secret meal with Gordon Ramsay’s Union Street Cafe and more
- Soulful house, Surgeon and modular synthesizer: the week’s best free mixes
- Premiere: Stephon Alexander and Rioux recruit No Wave icon Arto Lindsay for ecstatic ‘I Guess We’re Floating’
- Scott Walker and Sunn O))) detail collaborative album, Soused
- Arcade Fire musicians to play composition controlled by heartbeats on BBC Radio 3
- Forgotten Classics: Mr & Mrs Smith and Mr Drake
- Stream NYC house producer Eli Escobar’s Emotion/Strong 12″ in full
- Unsound 2014 adds The Bug, Robert Hood, Craig Leon, Pinch & Mumdance and more
- Stream the fourth of FACT’s Best of the 1970s list mixes
- Part 6
- ST Holdings to cease trading
- Pioneer unveils back-to-basics PLX-1000 turntable
- Hear Jamie xx debut new tracks from James Blake and John Talabot on Radio 1
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 10:00 AM PDT
The long-awaited project sees the light of day. We’ve been waiting for this since Wedidit’s Shlohmo first teamed up with R&B crooner Jeremih for ‘Bo Peep’: a full EP of collaborations. While Shlohmo had complained on Twitter that “major label bullshit” was holding up the release (Jeremih is signed to Def Jam), he’s shared a link to website that includes a free download of the EP and some merch. Download the EP here. The EP features previously released cuts ‘Bo Peep’ and ‘No More’, an extended cut of Shlohmo’s ‘Fuck You All The Time’ remix, a collaboration with Chance the rapper and more. |
Footsie teams with Trouble & Bass duo Nevermind for ‘Don’t Get Gassed’; download it now
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:59 AM PDT
The L.A.-based duo add the grime don to one of their debut tracks. Nevermind is the duo of Grenier and Petey Clicks (formerly of Clicks & Whistles), who between the two of them have released for Tectonic, Symbols, Party Like Us, Embassy and more. Their debut EP as Nevermind features the grime-laced techno of ‘Heckno’ and the martial, mutant grime of ‘Arrow Loop’. In advance of the EP’s release on July 29 via Trouble & Bass, the duo have shared ‘Don’t Get Gassed’, a remix of ‘Arrow Loop’ that adds Newham Generals veteran Footsie on the mic. Download ‘Don’t Get Gassed’ below. Nevermind has plans for two more EPs on T&B, along with a mixtape that feaures refixes of everyone from Schoolboy Q to Wiley. Last year, FACT TV spent an afternoon with Footsie. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:58 AM PDT
The Berlin-based producer readies a full-length statement. Joe “Call Super” Seaton emerged back in 2011, but didn’t really catch our ear until his trio of EPs for Fabric's in-house label Houndstooth, kicking off with the fractured-but-funky techno of The Present Tense. The producer will release his debut LP, entitled Suzi Ecto, on September 15 via Houndstooth. The cover art and tracklist are below; otherwise, all we have is this cryptic message: The fears and passing joys of the world pouring in through mouth, nose, eyes and ears. React against what we cannot stand: the coopted postures all over the land. Here now with the contradictory mix of the blissful, the panicked the paranoid that thrives place to place. Drowning us. Veins, organs and mind are filled until we blur into these cities and skies and our reactions fade away.Last year, Call Super delivered a fantastic FACT mix and sat down for an interview with Hessle Audio’s Joe. 1. Snipe 2. Dovetail 3. Sulu Sekou 4. Hoax Eye 5. Raindance 6. Fold Again At Last 7. SE 8. Rosso Dew 9. Coney Storm Drain 10. Okko Ink 11. Acephale I |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 09:04 AM PDT
Two of our heroes drop a “FACT EXCLUSIFFFF.” Last year, DJ Haus and DJ Q joined forces as Trumpet & Badman, dropping a sizzling EP of Jersey house and garage jams that we couldn’t stop playing. The pair are back to their old tricks with a second EP: a rowdy four-track effort that is rounded out by a bassline remix by Q himself. “This one is pretty simple,” says the PR, “it’s hot, we like to party in the hot weather.. so heres some music to party to in the hot weather. BE SAFE OUT THERE PEOPLE!” Works for us. Stream the EP below. It’s due out via Unknown To The Unknown & Hot Haus Recs In Effekt. While you’re listening, check out DJ Haus’ four (!) forgotten classics. The UTTU bossman also teamed with DJ Q and Toddla T for the FACT Singles Club. |
Win VIP tickets to Summer in the City, a secret meal with Gordon Ramsay’s Union Street Cafe and more
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 08:29 AM PDT
LWE’s Summer in the City is almost upon us. The bumper event is set for Saturday August 9 at London’s Tobacco Dock, and the lineup is already looking unmissable. Sitting in at the top of the pile is Chicago’s “house gangster” DJ Sneak, and Brit dance duo Groove Armada, but the list goes on. There are sets confirmed from Anja Scheider, Waze & Odyssey, Lee Foss, Kate Simko, Matthew Jonson, Subb-An and loads more. If you haven’t managed to snag yourself tickets yet, don’t despair – FACT have managed to acquire a pair of VIP passes to the event, and that’s not all. One lucky winner will also be treated to a secret dinner for two at Tobacco Dock hosted by Gordon Ramsay's Union Street Cafe (check out an example of the food below), and will receive a whopping 150 quid to spend on a new outfit at Original Penguin. Phew! All you need to do to be in with a chance to win is shoot over an email with your name and contact details to competitions@thevinylfactory.com with the subject line “Summer in the City” before 12pm GMT Wednesday July 23. You can watch a preview of the event below, and if you fancy purchasing tickets, head over to the LWE website. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 08:21 AM PDT
Each week, FACT's Mixtape Round-Up trawls through the untamed world of free mixes, radio specials and live blends so you don't have to. We've now decided to break this into two features: the week's Best Free Mixes (think Soundcloud, Mixcloud) and the week's Best Mixtapes (think DatPiff, LiveMixtapes). Naturally, there'll always be some level of crossover between the two, but for now we've split the columns up, with Mixes running every Thursday, and Mixtapes every Friday. For this week’s outing with the new format, we’ve got another collision of sounds: restrained ambient jams, hybridized drum ‘n bass, modular synthesizer experiments and plenty more.
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Posted: 17 Jul 2014 08:14 AM PDT
A Brooklyn-based electronic-psychedelia producer and a Trinidadian astrophysicist/sax player walk into a bar… It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke, but that’s roughly how the new album by Stephon Alexander and Rioux came about. Discussions about music and astrophysics led to recording sessions that would eventually result in Here Comes Now, an album described as “part Sun Ra, part Brian Eno” that contemplates space, time and our place in the universe. Featured on the album is No Wave pioneer, DNA co-founder and bossa nova revivalist Arto Lindsay. “While living in London, my friend Brian Eno invited me to dinner in 2001 to meet two of his close friends from his days in the Downtown New York Scene,” recalls Alexander. “Over dinner I got to know Arto and became good friends with him over the years.” “Over a decade later when I started working on Here Comes Now, Rioux mentioned that one of his influences growing up was Arto, and Arto and I had always spoken of collaborating. So it felt natural for me to send Arto some demos of what we were working on. He recorded his vocals in Rio De Janeiro and sent them over to Rioux, who was dumbfounded with joy to be mixing Arto’s vocals into the track.” “‘I Guess We’re Floating’ isn’t exactly the kind of noise music or bossa nova that Arto’s is most known for,” Rioux admits, “however his contribution to this track showcases his versatility as a vocalist and his open-mindedness towards new schools of musical thought.” Stream ‘I Guess We’re Floating’ and watch a video about the collaboration below. Here Comes Now LP is due on August 4 via Rioux’s Connect imprint. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 07:54 AM PDT
The album is due out in September. Following the teaser announcement earlier this month, 4AD has detailed the collaborative album by experimental artist Scott Walker and drone overlords Sunn O))). Titled Soused, the 50-minute album is due out on September 22/23; the first double-LP pressing will be on red vinyl. The album was recorded early this year and features Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley, Greg Anderson, and Tos Nieuwenhuizen. It was produced by Walker and Peter Walsh with assistance from musical director Mark Warman. According to the label, Sunn O))) approached Walker about appearing on 2009′s Monoliths & Dimensions, and while Walker declined, he approached them with music he’d written specifically for a collaboration in 2013. Walker’s Bish Bosch was one of the best albums of 2012; SUnn O)))’s O’Malley recently shared a monstrous FACT mix. [via Pitchfork] Soused (CD/digital) 01 Brando 02 Herod 2014 03 Bull 04 Fetish 05 Lullaby Soused (LP) A1 Brando A2 Bull B1 Herod 2014 C1 Fetish C2 Lullaby |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 07:53 AM PDT
Satisfyingly strange stuff from Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and an ensemble of beating hearts. Mara Carlyle has always been one of the more interesting musicians to cross the classical/non-classical boundary, having worked with everyone from Plaid, Matthew Herbert and Joe Goddard to the cream of the classical world, incorporated Purcell and Vaughan Williams into her own songs and covered Lauryn Hill with a classical choir. Her stints presenting Radio 3′s Late Junction have reflected all of this, and tonight’s edition features a particularly interesting session from Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire together with the band’s violinist Sarah Neufeld and the London Contemporary Orchestra: a composition in which each musician’s part is played according to the speed of their own heartbeat. “Every note, and everything that any of the musicians plays, is played either in sync with the heartbeat of that player, or with their breathing, or with the breathing of another player,” Parry explained to NPR recently. “You have a stethoscope and you have an Ace bandage. The Ace bandage is wrapped around your chest, and it presses the stethoscope to your heart.” We’ve heard it, and what could have been a really dry academic exercise is actually amazing. Mara herself will also be playing songs by Joanna Newsom, Benjamin Britten and Brandy & Monica performed on harp, so that’ll be good too. Tune in tonight at 11pm BST or listen via BBC iPlayer, where you can catch up with the rest of this week’s shows; the Late Junction mini site also hosts a recent collaboration between noise provocateur Russell Haswell and cellist Lucy Railton. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:53 AM PDT
Forgotten Classics is a weekly feature where we ask FACT contributors and noted diggers from across the spectrum to pick an obscure gem that they think has been unfairly brushed under the carpet and explain why it's worthy of re-appraisal. This week:
MR & MRS SMITH AND MR DRAKE
Mr & Mrs Smith and Mr Drake (The Alphabet Business Concern, 1984)
Picked by: Alexander Tucker, Thrill Jockey soloist and one half of homespun psych duo Grumbling Fur
“Wild thing, you make everything groovy,” sings Sarah Smith in a soft choral melancholic call across the bleak landscape of this album’s penultimate eight-minute plainsong cycle ‘Dergo’. This nod to The Troggs’ classic can also be heard in an altogether more manic and cut-up delivery on Cardiacs song ‘It’s a Lovely Day’, of which Tim Smith, Sarah Smith and William D Drake were all members. Released in 1984 by Cardiacs’ own label The Alphabet Business Concern and available through the Cardiacs Fan Club, this brilliant jewel has illuminated the dark corners of obscurity for too long. A CD reissue came out in 2004 on Tim Smith’s All My Eye and Betty Martin Music, but sadly outside of Cardiacs circles this record is almost completely unknown and deserves some vinyl validation to a wider audience. I came across Mr & Mrs Smith and Mr Drake when I was 14 through my secondary school art teacher Nick Goodman, who luckily for me was massive Cardiacs fan. I was intrigued by this unfamiliar side to the band, so I asked him if he would order the tape and a T-shirt for me as I wasn’t a member of the fan club yet. A few weeks later Nick handed me a postal package in art class – the tape cover looked like a Cadbury’s chocolate box cover of crushed purple silk and the band’s name and information in gold gilt lettering gave the artwork a tongue-in-cheek classical atmosphere. The album also enables the listener to focus on three key members of the original Cardiacs line-up showcasing their individual talents as musicians and arrangers. Tim Smith, Cardiacs’ main composer, brings a degree of clarity to his playing, employing turning classical guitar phrases and thick bass tones, and swapping his usual high-pitched vocal for a deeper singing voice. William D Drake for the first time displays his weird music hall folk dirges, recalling ancient May Day celebrations and summer equinoxes, employing piano and synthetic keys to unfold his tales. Sarah Smith (now Sarah Cutts) shines throughout, her sax and woodwind creating orchestral layers underpinning each composition, while her childlike singing adds a sweet but sad atmosphere to the three’s choral reveries. Tim and Sarah Smith separated in the early ’90s so Sarah could “be a full-time witch and live in the woods with the snails”. For subsequent releases the trio changed their to Sea Nymphs, by which time Sarah and William D Drake had moved on from Cardiacs, but still remained a trio until the mid-90s. The unique combination of each player is crucial to the sound of early Cardiacs, and with percussionist Tim Quy leaving that same year, the orchestral element was replaced with a heavier wall of guitar sound. Medieval and folk are words that crop up over the course of this album, but as with every aspect of the Cardiacs’ world, descriptive terms or genre-defining can be misleading – something may start out one way and come out the other end totally transformed. What Cardiacs do best is to describe their own personal cosmology, like The Beatles referencing songs, giving clues and insider knowledge on different albums. The Mr & Mrs Smith and Mr Drake tape adds another delicate piece to the Cardiacs puzzle. It’s a strange fit within the intense world of The Alphabet Business Concern, but one I’ve returned to again and again and again and… Grumbling Fur release their third album, Preternaturals, on August 11 via The Quietus Phonographic Corporation. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:18 AM PDT
The NYC DJ and producer has crafted another gut-punching set of tracks for his latest release. Eli Escobar‘s no newcomer riding the current Disclosure-wave of nu-house either – after growing up in NYC in the 80s, he was enamored by the effervescent club scene, and by 1999 he’d already produced a string of 12″s and was a well-known fixture on the party scene. Over the last decade, Escobar has become one of the city’s best underground house DJs, even manning a show on the sorely-missed Manhattan outpost East Village Radio until its closure in May. ‘Emotion/Strong’ is a testament to his legacy, and a timely reminder that house music can still exhibit the same soulful drive that it used to all those years ago. You won’t be finding Sam Smith lurking in the corners here, trust us. You can stream the entire 12″ in full below, and download opener ‘Emotion’. Emotion/Strong will be released on July 22 via Nervous Records. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:06 AM PDT
The artfully curated Krakow festival will also host showcases from Diagonal and Janus. Poland’s Unsound has announce the second wave of acts for this year’s event, which takes its theme as “the dream”. Nommos composer Craig Leon will give a rare live performance, while The Bug will also be live accompanied by several guests on his excellent new album Angels & Devils, including copeland, Flowdan, Manga and Miss Red. Other live acts include Detroit originals Robert Hood and Dopplereffekt and Atom™ & Robin Fox, who have been commissioned to work on a project called Double Vision. Powell’s Diagonal label will host a showcase featuring the debut live set from the label owner plus appearances from Russell Haswell, Bronze Teeth and EVOL, while cutting-edge Berlin clubnight Janus will bring residents Lotic, Kablam and M.E.S.H. plus Amnesia Scanner and the previously announced Total Freedom. Kassem Mosse, Pinch & Mumdance, Novelist, Traxx, Karen Gwyer, WANDA GROUP and the debut live set from Jam City have also been added to the bill, joining the previously announced likes of Ben Frost, DJ Stingray, Joey Anderson and Swans. Full week and weekend passes have sold out, but tickets for individual events will go on sale on August 24 via Unsound’s website, when the full line-up will be also revealed. The festival takes place from October 12-19. [via JunoPlus] |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 05:35 AM PDT
We’re onto the fourth of our 100 Best Albums of the 1970s mixes! We’re profiling the finest albums of the 1970s over the course of this week, with the complete rundown being revealed on Friday. In addition, we’re also uploading a daily mix to accompany each clutch of records, each curated by a different member of the FACT team, designed to showcase the diversity and quality of the albums we’ve plumped for. You can still catch up with Monday’s #100-81 session, Tuesday’s #80-61 and Wednesday’s #60-41. The fourth mix, based on the #40-21 bracket, has been pieced together by Joseph Morpurgo and features some genuine chart hits (!) alongside a slew of wibbly synthscapes, motorik euphoria, bare-chested disco sleaze and complete rock’n'roll meltdown. Click on the track names below to read more information on the release it came from. 02 Buzzcocks – Orgasm Addict 03 The Last Poets – Black Thighs 04 Cerrone – Supernature 05 Steve Hillage – Garden of Paradise 06 Fern Kinney – Under Fire 07 Cymande – Dove 08 Sly & The Family Stone – Just Like a Baby 09 Brian Eno – Discreet Music 10 Dadawah – Seventy Two Nations 11 Cabaret Voltaire – Photophobia 12 Kraftwerk – Autobahn 13 Pere Ubu – Non-Alignment Pact 14 Linda Perhacs – Chimacum Rain 15 Genesis – Aisle of Plenty 16 Gila – Young Coyote 17 Neu! – Sonderangebot 18 Comus – The Herald 19 Steve Reich – Music For 18 Musicians 20 Patti Smith – Land: Horses / Land of a Thousand Dances / La Mer (De) |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 05:32 AM PDT
"When I was making more mellow stuff like that, I was in my early 20s. Now it's 20 years later and I just think the world's a mess. I can't really just write pleasant doodles." So said Matthew Herbert of his earliest output following the release of last year’s The End Of Silence. A sonic commentary on the Libya conflict built around the sound of a bomb exploding, this gruelling album was just the latest evidence of a wider career shift for the veteran producer. Once Herbert was house music's eccentric genius, harnessing his leftfield proclivities in pursuit of dancefloor bliss. In the past decade, however, the producer's work has wandered into more rarefied terrain – mostly as a result of its growing conceptual aspect. It's cross-pollinated with other disciplines, too, and found its way into some of the UK's most revered cultural institutions – the National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, the BBC. Partly, of course, this is about growing old gracefully. Dance music remains, for the most part, a young person's game; the world of Arts Council funding and six-month commission cycles is precarious in a rather more middle-aged way. But there's also a political dimension to the shift. For all its gestures towards being emancipatory, Herbert's line goes, dance music is little more than a distraction from the "perfect storm of shit" that is global current affairs. Surely contemporary music should be attempting to address these issues, rather than blithely looking the other way? However invested you may be in dance music culture, it's difficult to entirely disagree with Herbert's standpoint. Which makes it all the more puzzling that he seems to have changed his mind. '123' – the lead track from Part 6, the first release under the Herbert moniker for eight years – is pop-house as only Herbert can do it. The clean-cut tones of Hejira's Rahel tell a familiar story: "So tonight for an evening / Or perhaps for two or three / It's the perfect kind of feeling / It's the only place to be…". As the song progresses it's unclear whether she's describing a romantic assignation or the communal pleasures of a night on the tiles, but that ambiguity in itself makes for a sentiment as old as dance music. It's almost as if Herbert, realising he was backpedalling, decided he might as well go all out. He was absolutely right to do so – '123' is gorgeous, and will doubtless be well received by the sizable portion of his fanbase who find that the highbrow stuff gets in the way of the pretty tunes. Elsewhere, Part 6 is less successful. Billed as a followup to the Parts 1-5 EPs of the mid 90s, attempts to reboot that beloved material fall a little flat. 'My DJ' is named for its chipmunked refrain – just the sort of insular dance music gesture which we might have expected our man to detest, but hey, the outcome is a serviceable enough. 'Manny' and 'Grab The Bottle', meanwhile, are similarly respectable, if ultimately doomed, efforts to capture the fevered mischief of a Herbert classic like 'Take Me Back'. If Herbert is going to make a prolonged return to dance music then he'd do well to move on from past successes. Still, whatever he decides to do, it would be churlish of us to complain too loudly. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 02:25 AM PDT
Distribution company ST Holdings will cease trading at the end of the month. The Bournemouth-based company, which launched in 1998 and became a key distributor for drum’n'bass, dubstep and more, scaled back its operation earlier this year, dropping over 150 of the labels that they distribute. Owner Andrew Parkinson claimed at the time that “We set out to build something that empowered the underground independent artist and gave them freedom to focus on their art.” “Things have changed… the ethos is getting lost and STH and its labels are dissatisfied. Personally I do not feel that STHoldings can and should continue on its current path. I have decided to hit the reset button and for STH to return to its roots … Starting today, we are only going to work with a small number of approximately 30 record labels that reflect this ethos.” FACT can confirm today that ST will stop trading at the end of July, and aim to pay any money owned to labels in early September. Several of the labels that worked with ST, such as Exit and Soul:R, have already set up direct-to-customer webstores. Prior to this year’s changes, ST Holdings’ roster included Hessle Audio, Swamp81, NonPlus+ and more. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 02:20 AM PDT
Some gear porn to start your day. Pioneer is better known in the industry for its professional quality CDJs, so when the company teased a classic vinyl turntable at Germany's Musikmesse technology showcase earlier this year, our curiosity was piqued. And here it is: the direct-drive PLX-1000 is a fully analogue bit of kit with a back-to-basics set of knobs – start/stop and tempo controls on one side, tempo fader on the other. The tempo controls are the only unusual bits, as RA reports, allowing you to switch from plus/minus 8 all the way up to 50. There’s also a tempo reset button, removable power, ground and phono cables and some clever stuff about damping, isolation and feedback. Watch it in action in the video below. The arrival of the PLX-1000 seems very well-timed, with vinyl sales at their highest for over a decade and a swathe of new vinyl specialists opening across the UK. |
Posted: 17 Jul 2014 02:00 AM PDT
Jamie xx brought some classified material with him as he stepped in to cover Benji B’s Radio 1 show last night. The guest mix was an exclusives-only affair provided by his pal and recent collaborator John Talabot, while James Blake also popped in to deliver an untitled new track. Listen back to the whole show, which also features a handful of unreleased material from the Young Turks label, via BBC iPlayer. Talabot recently joined forces with Axel Boman for a new single, ‘Sideral’, which appears in remixed form on the show, while Blake has apparently been collaborating with Kanye West and Bon Iver. |
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