FACT Magazine Stream Lawrence English’s crushing new album Wilderness of Mirrors @ Musique Non Stop

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1. Stream Lawrence English’s crushing new album Wilderness of Mirrors
2. J Dilla’s Moog and MPC will be added to new Smithsonian Museum collection
3. Hear doom metal legends Sleep’s first new track in 20 years, ‘The Clarity’
4. Alabama hip-hop, Chicago acid rap, and Waka Flocka: the week’s best mixtapes
5. Plastikman shares free Sonar live mix of ‘EXhale’
6. Ekoplekz announces his second album of 2014, Four Track Mind
7. Record shopping in Montréal
8. Stream the fifth and final of FACT’s best of the 1970s list mixes
9. Lady Gaga’s former assistant to publish tell-all book
10. “We always defied expectation”: Chris & Cosey on Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats, our #1 album of the 1970s
11. Watch a teenage Kanye West rapping at NYC’s Fat Beats store in 1996
12. Jessie Ware details second album Tough Love

Stream Lawrence English’s crushing new album Wilderness of Mirrors Posted: 18 Jul 2014 02:06 PM PDT Aussie droner Lawrence English‘s towering new tome will finally be dropping onto shelves next week, and you can hear it in full first right here. Despite what people might try and tell you, this kind of music isn’t easy to produce. The nuance that makes a drone album bad or incredibly good is complicated and confusing, but Lawrence English has absolutely nailed it with Wilderness of Mirrors, his latest full length. It’s probably because he’s been knee-deep in the scene for such a long time now – both as an artist and as the boss of the esteemed Room40 imprint, which itself is responsible for releases from Ben Frost, Grouper, John Chantler and more. Certainly, the album has a pacing that can only be attained with experience, and English allows his crushing tidal waves of noise and harmonic sound to rise and fall with either grace or knee-trembling power, depending on the mood. Wilderness of Mirrors is set to drop on July 21, but before then you can now stream the album below.

J Dilla’s Moog and MPC will be added to new Smithsonian Museum collection Posted: 18 Jul 2014 12:43 PM PDT The great J Dilla may have left us, but it looks as if his legacy is safe. Today it was announced that the producer’s beatmaking gear – his Akai MPC and specially made Moog synthesizer – would be added to the permanent collection at DC’s new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. Dilla, who produced for artists including A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde and Common, is widely thought to be one of the most pioneering producers of his era, so it seems fitting that his contribution to music (which lives on most obviously in LA’s beat scene), is being celebrated in this manner. Dilla’s mother, who runs the J Dilla Foundation, was present for the announcement, and the exhibition should be open at the end of 2015, or the beginning of 2016, according to the short video below. [via XLR8R]

Hear doom metal legends Sleep’s first new track in 20 years, ‘The Clarity’ Posted: 18 Jul 2014 11:13 AM PDT It’s true, weed-obsessed slowcore rockers Sleep are back. It’s been two decades since the band recorded their mammoth Dopesmoker, and even that album sat “officially” unreleased (there was an “official bootleg” in 2003) until 2012, when the fine folks at Southern Lord decided to give it the treatment it had always deserved. Sadly, the pain of having your magnum opus castrated before it ever reached the general public meant that the band split before it ever saw the light of day, and only recently started performing together again. It was beyond our wildest dreams to expect the trio to record new material however – but thanks to the fine folks at NPR, we can now get a taste of the band’s new jammer entitled ‘The Clarity’ (not to be confused with Zedd’s ‘Clarity’). It’s like they never went away – riffage that would make Black Sabbath blush and enough marijuana references to keep you horizontal for the entire 10-minute duration. The track might officially be a one-off for Adult Swim’s ongoing Singles Club, but we’re hoping that the band have some more material in store.

Alabama hip-hop, Chicago acid rap, and Waka Flocka: the week’s best mixtapes Posted: 18 Jul 2014 09:56 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. Not every week can be as fruitful as last, but there’s always gems to be found if you look hard enough. This week’s haul includes a double dose of Alabama rap, a left-of-center Chicago newcomer and three very different Atlanta projects. Use your keyboard's arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 1/7)

Plastikman shares free Sonar live mix of ‘EXhale’ Posted: 18 Jul 2014 09:13 AM PDT In case you’ve missed the memo – techno god Richie Hawtin rebooted his Plastikman project late last year. After a well-received performance at New York’s fabled Guggenheim museum, the show (which was made up of completely made up of new material) was released last month as new album EX, and it was actually a pretty decent return to form. Hawtin didn’t stop there either – he took the show to this year’s Sonar in Barcelona, and typically stole the show with a towering light display accompanying his wormy 303 pulses and familiar 909 bumps. Well don’t worry if you missed it – Hawtin has today shared the Sonar version of his track ‘EXhale’, and you can stream and download it from Soundcloud and even watch Hawtin perform it complete with the overwhelming light show below. If you fancy digging a bit deeper into Hawtin’s immense catalogue, FACT’s very own John Twells put together a list of the producer’s 20 best deep cuts.

Ekoplekz announces his second album of 2014, Four Track Mind Posted: 18 Jul 2014 07:47 AM PDT The prolific Bristolian is back already with another LP on Planet Mu. Ekoplekz has announced his second album of 2014, following the airy and melodic Unfidelity, which FACT’s Angus Finlayson dug enough to described as “a keeper” on its release in March. Four Track Mind was largely spawned in the same sessions that produced his previous effort, as he hinted to FACT’s Joe Muggs in our wide-ranging interview with the producer earlier this year: “I think Mike [Paradinas, label boss] is quite happy with how [Unfidelity] is going, so there might well be another Ekoplekz album for him. He's still got all that other material I sent him, and I'm making more all the time – and he's always saying, ‘Although I picked these tracks for this album, there's still a lot of other ones I like,’ so we can do a different slant on the next one quite easily, take it down a different direction.” Planet Mu now bills Four Track Mind as a companion piece that “presents a slightly wider selection of moods and ideas.” It’s a limited release, with just 300 vinyl copies and no CD version available, and it lands on August 18. Hear clips via Planet Mu’s website. [via RA] Tracklist: 01 Ariel Grey 02 Tantrikz 03 Meek Street 04 Interstice 05 Reflekzive 06 Death Watch 07 D’Vectif 08 In Teak Effect 09 Four Track Mind 10 Return To The Annex 11 Fox Eyes

Record shopping in Montréal Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:29 AM PDT FACT TV’s US team took the short drive up to Canada this summer, and decided to nose around Montréal’s generous selection of record stores. Of course, to go on any good shopping trip away from home you need a guide, and we were ushered around the city by musician and label boss Jean-Sébastien Truchy. Some of you might remember JS from his pioneering work with Fly Pan Am on Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Constellation imprint, and since that influential run of records, he’s been busy recording solo material and running the stunning tape label Los Discos Enfantasmes. JS took us to three different stores – Cheap Thrills, Aux 33 Tours and Phonopolis – and had us rifling through the used bins looking for copies of a very particular record, the inspiration for the unmistakable Futurama theme tune. We didn’t do too badly, even managing to track down a rare LP from Keith Fullerton Whitman’s early noise rock band El Ron.

Stream the fifth and final of FACT’s best of the 1970s list mixes Posted: 18 Jul 2014 05:27 AM PDT We’ve finally reached the finish line with the fifth and final 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, Wednesday’s #60-41, and Thursday’s #40-21. This last collection focuses on the hallowed #20-1 bracket, and has been lovingly stitched together by John Twells. Despite representing the top half of the charts, it’s a weird one, welding splattered vintage electronics with eerie ambient music, devotional jazz, blunted dub and proto-techno – really. If you were ever wondering why many regard the 70s as music’s greatest decade, this might be a good place to start. 01 Goblin – Markos 02 Henry Cow – Deluge 03 Popol Vuh – In den Gärten Pharaos 04 Nico – The Falconer 05 Gavin Bryars – The Sinking of the Titanic 06 Peter Brötzmann & Han Bennink – Schwartzenbachtalsperre No.10 07 Black Sabbath – Lord of this World 08 Suicide – Ghost Rider 09 Hawkwind – Electronic No.1 10 Miles Davis – Black Satin 11 Alice Coltrane – Oh Allah 12 Serge Gainsbourg – Balade de Melody 13 The Upsetters – Elephant Rock 14 Tom Waits – Red Shoes 15 Millie Jackson – The Rap 16 Marcia Griffiths – I Just Don't Want to be Lonely 17 Throbbing Gristle – Walkabout 18 Cluster – Caramel 19 Klaus Schulze – Floating 20 The Saints – Wild About You

Lady Gaga’s former assistant to publish tell-all book Posted: 18 Jul 2014 04:29 AM PDT Judas strikes back. Lady Gaga's former assistant has signed a deal to write a tell-all book about the eccentric star. Jennifer O’Neill was employed by Gaga between 2009 and 2011 while the singer was on her worldwide Monster Ball tour, but in 2011 she sued her boss for $393,000 in unpaid overtime. The resulting court case hinted at some of the weird goings-on likely to be documented in O’Neill’s book, such as her claim that she was required to share a bed with Gaga because the singer didn’t like sleeping alone, and was woken in the middle of the night to change the DVD in the player because Gaga couldn’t be bothered to do it herself. In a deposition, Gage called her formed assistant a "f–ing hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn't earn." The suit was settled out of court in October 2013. O'Neill's deal with Atria Books could be worth $1 million, according to early reports, but the terms of the contract haven’t been revealed, nor is there a date set for publication. The singer born Stefani Germanotta has had a bumpy ride since the release of her third album ARTPOP, which suffered disappointing sales even before she decided to make a video with two alleged sexual predators. What goes up… [via Billboard]

“We always defied expectation”: Chris & Cosey on Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats, our #1 album of the 1970s Posted: 18 Jul 2014 03:48 AM PDT After much deliberation, there could only be one record at the top of FACT’s 100 Best Albums of the 1970s. Released in 1979, Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats marks a rupture in the history of music, “an open crack into the unpronounceable dimensions into which tumble important streams of 20th century pop, art and underground culture, to seethe around each other, mingling, festering, sprouting new and unpredictable forms which in turn would ooze out to infest vast sections of what comes after,” as FACT’s Joe Muggs writes in his exploratory essay on the album. We spoke to TG members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, who’ve been performing and recording as a duo since the break-up of the band, about the creation of 20 Jazz Funk Greats, their idea of “industrial” music, the humour behind the album and how they perceive its legacy. By the time of 20 Jazz Funk Greats’ release, Throbbing Gristle was nearing the end of its initial lifespan. What was your concept of industrial music at the time? Chris Carter: At that time, in the 1970s and the early 1980s, we didn't have a conceptual masterplan for ‘Industrial Music'. I think the conceptualisation of the genre evolved post TG break-up, when music journalists such Jon Savage, Sandy Robertson and later Simon Reynolds wrote pieces analysing, deconstructing and conceptualising what TG were and had achieved. However… reflecting now, well, as far as we were concerned anyway, the 'Industrial Music’ concept was broadly anything produced by ourselves and anything released on our label Industrial Records. But for many fans of the contemporary Industrial scene there lies the problem. Our definition of 'Industrial’ then was a very broad one, it's definitely not so much now. Cosey Fanni Tutti: At the time 20 Jazz… was released there was an emerging feeling that our mission as such had served its purpose. Industrial music then was very different to the genre it has become. As far as I was concerned I knew in my gut what ‘Industrial’ meant and my notion of it was diversity but within the parameters of the Industrial ethos – which was self-defining due to the ongoing exploratory and experiential nature of our working practice. That’s why it was prudent to analyse the concept after its termination. Definitions and analysis would have placed unacceptable limitations on the creative process. How spontaneous was the writing and recording process? It comes across as a considered, holistic work, but from what I’ve read that’s not how the band usually operated. CC: As with most of TG's recorded output it was both spontaneous and considered and holistic. Because we had our own studio we were often in there recording… spontaneous jam sessions, actual recording sessions, sampling and resampling, improvising, trying out new rhythms, recording new song ideas and so on. Before we began recording the 20 Jazz Funk Greats LP we spent time constructing a vague outline, a brief that the album would try to adhere to. There were certain parameters and vague notions of certain 'styles' that some tracks would emulate or allude to. I guess this approach is more obvious in tracks like 'Exotica', 'Hot On The Heels of Love' and the ’20 Jazz Funk Greats' track itself. CFT: I guess as far as the TG albums goes this one was ‘considered’ differently inasmuch as the references to, and TG interpretations of, other musical styles – but with the usual TG twist. The sound and vocals of all TG tracks were soaked in the personal proclivities and experiences of all members. ‘Persuasion’ was about my magazine work and a murder. We always defied expectation, so moving from the harsh live sound to this was interesting and fun for us. Like Chris said, we did a lot of jamming and generally experimenting with sound. From these sessions came ideas and/or full-blown tracks. The albums previous to 20 Jazz were more third mind exorcising, plus we’d acquired new equipment that sent us off in another direction. There’s obviously an element of humour to the whole endeavour (especially the artwork, and ‘Hot on the Heels of Love’). How seriously should we take this album? CFT: Well, the album is no joke at all. Irony and humour don’t preclude meaningful intent. CC: I've always thought that, conceptually speaking, once an album is released it takes on a life of its own that those involved with its creation have absolutely no control over. It's definitely TG’s most commercial album, and it's my favourite TG album too, there’s such a diverse range of tracks on it. But how seriously one takes the album is entirely up to the listener, who am I to say? The cover is ultimately a mashed-up pastiche of different ‘Easy Listening’ album covers you might find in any Woolworth's bargain bin. But what we produced, with our humorous elements alongside or usual recurring themes, may come across as an underlying tone of evil menace to an unsuspecting buyer. Which was pretty much the concept of the album anyway. To lure unwary music fans into a false sense of security, then… Have you detected its influence in younger generations of musicians? CC: I guess so, though don't ask me to be specific. But over the last 30 years or so I've lost count how many times we’ve seen it referenced to in interviews, favourite albums lists, etc. Judging by our PRS statements it still gets a hell of a lot of plays too, which is nice. And it's great that people still find it relevant and enduring enough to seek out and play.

Watch a teenage Kanye West rapping at NYC’s Fat Beats store in 1996 Posted: 18 Jul 2014 02:10 AM PDT The earnest Chicago kid references Alanis Morrissette in this ancient footage. Once upon a time, a 19-year-old Kanye West journeyed to New York City for the opening of the Fat Beats record store on 6th Avenue, hub of the city’s underground hip-hop scene. Former store manager DJ Eclipse recently unearthed some footage from the day and shared this clip of the future Yeezus delivering a tight verse. Eclipse told Complex he was surprised to discover the then-unknown Kanye among regulars like iLL BILL, Lord Finesse and Xzibit: “The original location of Fat Beats launched on July 14, 1994 which means FB just turned 20 years old! Business was doing so well 2 years in that Joseph Abajian decided to move the store from it’s small 9th St. basement space into a 2nd floor location on 6th Avenue. August 1996 (day?) was the grand opening of the 406 6th Avenue location. It was also the beginnings of our independent movement which had recently started bubbling about a year before. Yesterday I started converting old Hi8 video tapes to DVD and came across some interesting footage from that day. Now we had a lot of the usual suspects in the place that day such as ILL BILL, Arsonists, Lord Finesse, Adagio, Breeze Brewin, A.L. Skills, Percee P, J-Live, Mr. Live, Chino XL, Al Tariq, Black Attack, Xzibit, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Rawcotiks, Ak Skills, Rob Swift, Roc Raida, DJ Spinna and many, many more. But what took me by surprise was the appearance of this 19-year-old kid who at that time nobody knew. At least in NYC.” Kanye’s verse includes a reference to Alanis Morrissette and the very Yeezy-esque line, “It ain’t original because I stole it from the future.” Watch it below.

Jessie Ware details second album Tough Love Posted: 18 Jul 2014 01:44 AM PDT South London singer reveals album cover and collaborators. Modern soul star and all-round good egg Jessie Ware has detailed the extensive cast of songwriters and producers who’ve contributed to her second album, Tough Love. Ware revealed the monochrome album cover yesterday, and although no tracklist has been given, Ware told Pitchfork she’d been working with Miguel, Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford, Toronto producer Nineteen85, who co-produced Drake’s ‘Hold On We’re Going Home’, and songwriter Ed Sheeran. The most prominent contributors are production duo BenZel, comprising Two Inch Punch and Benny Blanco, who produced about half of the new album including the first single, ‘Tough Love’. “You’d think that it could’ve been one of the most daunting groupings, because Benny is ridiculously successful,” says Ware, “but it was the most fabulous relationship I’ve had with two producers. Not intimidating at all. Which also has to do with me understanding the artist I want to be.” Check out a snippet of ‘Tough Love’ and see the album artwork underneath.