America has lacked a launch vehicle for manned spaceflight for too long. Ras G just brought it back.
Our cup runneth over. And just as we’re adding our favorite stories to read to the new Reading List feature, we bring you some of our favorite listening. This is what’s playing through my cans as I’m working and meditating.
Releases
Ras G – Back On The Planet is, simply, out of this world. Forget what you know about Brainfeeder and LA; this is earning Afrofuturism comparisons to Sun Ra and George Clinton with good reason. Dense, jazzy, and splendidly improvisatory, it’s some of the most dynamic hip hop/electronic music to come out this summer. Gregory Shorter, Jr. is doing wonderful things; I hope we get to talk to him soon.
Out now on NinjaTune (digital was released yesterday).
Pitchfork earns controversy now and then, and putting numbers on music never feels quite right. But Miles Raymer nails the review for them; it’s well worth a read.
Jon Hopkins’ “Breathe This Air” single features Purity Ring on vocals. It’s as beautiful as that sounds, if you know these two artists. Out on Domino, and Hopkins is touring (a lot):
www.dominorecordco.com/breathethisairpr
Speaking of LA, Austrian-born to Austrian and Mexican-American parents, John Tejada now calls the city of angels home. And it’s delightful to welcome new music from Tejada, with beautifully-reserved, cheery, elegantly composed dance tracks in a new EP – listen above. Also, what’s that about a live hardware set at Berlin’s Panorama Bar, enroute to more of the same around Europe and at Decibel in Seattle? We may have to check in with Maestro Tejada.
http://www.paletterecordings.com/
It’s also worth noting that 50WEAPONS has joined the monthly subscriptions available on Drip.fm. A worthy antidote to the soul-sucking, music-killing likes of Spotify, Drip lets you get high-quality downloads (not streams) of your favorite imprints and supports those independent labels and artists. 50WEAPONS is just made for the service. Founded by Modeselektor, it’s been steadily releasing some of the best electronic music out there, including Anstam, Addison Groove, Bambounou, Benjamin Damage, Cosmin TRG, Dark Sky, Marcel Dettmann, Phon.o and Shed. (Extra shout out to Phon.o and Shed, who each turned in fantastic performances this weekend.) You even get extra discounts, special exclusives, and even stems and accapellas. $10 a month? What do the kids say these days, that “shut up and take my money” thing? Yeah, that.
Oh, yeah, and did we mention that Julianna Barwick’s Nepenthe is now out?
Wonderful Drowned in Sound review, reminding you that the obvious results of mixing her vocals with Sigur Ros instrumental sounds is nothing to complain about:
This music feels like a shortcut to the actual sounds the world makes when I’m waiting for the other person in bed to wake up, on the mornings I have no regrets pestering me yet, or arguments to re-play and this time I win. This is Nepenthe; I am in here; everything’s good.
Mixes
Electric Indigo. Vienna’s Electric Indigo aka Susanne Kirchmayr has kept showing up here, and will keep showing up here, for her broad span through composition, live electronic musicianship, and DJing and selection. And her playlist for PodcastBERLIN’s Klark Kennt Podcast is a brilliant survey of some of the best things happening in experimental dance music, an eclectic demonstration that “techno” need not stick to the straight and narrow. Check out, among others, Bill Youngman’s cut – his live work is terrific and we’ll talk more about that soon.
01. Manu C. – Mental Disorder [ANG 34]
02. Zeitgeber – Display 24 [Stroboscopic Artefacts LP001]
03. Manu C. – Dystopian Planet [ANG 34]
04. Adriana Lopez – Acta [Modularz 12]
05. Strck – Type Type [Fluxus Digital 19]
06. Scalameriya & Dubit – Moan / Go Hiyama Remix [Genesa 003]
07. Bill Youngman – Marmor [Suicide Circus Dark Series 003]
08. Yair Etziony – Love [unreleased]
09. Egor Boss – Prism / Thomas Hessler Remix [Mutex 009]
10. REALMZ – Trigger [Internal Realmz 01]
11. Tadeo – Morse Processing [Another Intelligence 02]
12. Pacou – Rota [Newrhythmic LTD 013]
13. PVS – Parallel / Kwartz Remix [C.R.S. 027]
14. Mattias Fridell – Coveled Part I [Affin 139]
15. Lakker – Asvattha [SAM 014]
16. Ajtim – Notime / Svreca Remix [Ensydaen 001]
17. Brian Sanhaji – Daria [CLR 068]
18. Adriana Lopez – Lines of Fracture [Grey Report 02]
19. Diamond_Version – Operate At Your Optimum [Mute Artists Limited 12DVMUTE5]
20. Clara Moto – Joy Departed [InFinÈ 2054]
21. Gain Stage – forking paths part 2 [False Industries 011]
It’s also worth marking your calendar for 12 September in Berlin, when a day-long festival curated by Electric Indigo and female:pressure will celebrate the unheralded work of female producers. It’s an answer to the excuse that there aren’t enough women to program on festivals. See:
Perspectives Berlin
and the Facebook event
Bursting at the seams with great artists in music and VJ sets, it’s positive action that proves the artists are there.
Thomas Fehlmann. Speaking of mix from veteran selectors still active on the scene, here’s Thomas Fehlmann. The Swiss-born member of The Orb who has somehow had a finger in every dance music scene since the 90s, it seems, has a lovely set of top-notch tracks for Little White Earbuds. Like Susanne’s mix above, I just keep listening to it again and again. (and it’s downloadable, so you can disconnect from the world, if you like, and tune in only to this…)
LWE Podcast 171: Thomas Fehlmann (plus a nice interview)
01. The Orb, “Fussball” (Deadbeat’s Champions League Dub) [Cooking Vinyl]
02. Dark Sky, “Voices” [Mister Saturday Night Records]
03. The Mole, “How I Understand” [Slices of Life]
04. Osunlade, “Camera Shy” (Justin Imperiale Remix) [Yoruba Records]
05. Baaz & Iron Curtis, “K.M.S.” (Soulphiction RMX) [Office Recordings]
06. John Tejada, “Somewhere” [Kompakt]
07. Alex Burkat, “Ammadomyownthing” [Mister Saturday Night]
08. Kyle Hall, “Crushed” [Wild Oats]
09. Michael Cleis, “Mir a Nero” [Pampa]
10. Zander VT, “Trying Some More” [Bpitch Control]
Moderna. LA’s Moderna (aka Missy Livingston) chills us out again and again; she contributed a summer mix to CDM, among others. Here, she has a richly-diverse mix of electronic music for an excellent series called the Modularfield AirCast (from Modularfield Records of Köln-Mülheim).
Some great artists on here, too – I like the SoundCloud comment, “makes me feel in love.”
Changes (Harmonimix) – Mala
Petrichor – Recondite
Fear of Numbers (Leo Zero Alternative Dub) – Footprintz
Geffen – Barnt
The Witch (feat. Sourya) [The Access Remix] – Dombrance
The Outcast (Morgan Geist Mix) – Tennis and Pillowtalk
EGO dub – Tomas Barfod
Wanted Exotic – Michna
Slo-Mo Girl (Fur Coat Dark After Hour Mix) – Delete
Doppelganger – IV
Without You feat. Kerry Leatham (Album Version) – Lapalux
ITEMS & THINGS PODCAST 06: MISS KITTIN by Items & Things on Mixcloud
Miss Kittin. From Grenoble, France, Miss Kittin (Caroline Hervé) is a terrific producer and DJ, both. For her Items & Things Podcast, she pulls some soulful and beautiful tracks, including, of course, Items & Things’ own intelligently-diverse catalog. Spanning from Autechre to Morgan Geist to Mano Le Tough to Benoit & Sergio, there’s a bit of everything, and of course Kittin’s own terrific collab with Marc Houle.
http://www.itemsandthings.com
http://www.misskittin.com
Jams
Chris Randall uses an Elektron Analog Four to drive an original (not remade) Oberheim SEM and Eurorack modular setup. One technical note:
Everything is sequenced from, and mixed in, the A4. It’s worth noting, if you’re thinking of buying one, that the analog inputs on the A4 have very limited controls. If you want to give up a synth channel, you have full control, but if you’re just bussing them to the outputs, you only have pan, level, and FX sends (chorus, delay, and verb.)
It’s a terrific hardware rig, though, and Chris’ musicianship is well represented here. Read the full blog post.
For something else involving an Elektron box but in every other way entirely different, we turn to Mark Mosher. He uses Elektron’s Octatrack with Native Instruments’ Absynth for something entirely ambient – no sequencing, no beats.
Lots of reflections in his blog post.
For a much cheaper rig, AuxPulse plays just a single KORG DS-10 system running on the Nintendo DS – at used prices, that might be competitive with a power adapter for one of the devices above. A blast from the past (2012, to be exact).
See you in another week or so with another of these epics – keep those submissions coming. We’d welcome guest curators, too, if you’re interested.