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Angel-Ho’s ‘Ascension’ EP out now on Rabit’s Halcyon Veil

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August 7, 2015
New Music
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Co-founder of the trans-Atlantic NON Records, South African artist Angel-Ho‘s music and anti-imperial rhetoric has been making waves as of late, both for its shocking immediacy and the depth of its critique. Released on Rabit’s new Halcyon Veil label, the Cape Town-residing producer’s Ascension EP comes in the collage style favored by TCF, Elysia Crampton, Total Freedom, Why Be and the Janus collective, a shattering blend of urban noise, technological squelches and vocal remnants. It’s noisy, barb-heavy and comes across less as a club deconstruction and more as a high grade shell exploding in the middle of the dance floor. Mastered by scene heavyweight Arca, Ascension, despite the rawness of its makeup, builds a high resolution landscape across its short 19 minute run time, a landscape in material and spiritual flux built out of the failed construct of contemporary democracy. It’s a world where robotic commands boom out of the rainforest and ballroom tropes infiltrate the virtual boardroom, all tied together by Angel-Ho’s conjoining of the corporeal with the technological. This isn’t an EP full of randomly placed breaking glass and club tropes, it’s a revelatory takedown of all that we take for granted about our cities and the capitalist superstructure that guides them. Ascension can be streamed below and downloaded here.

Premiere: Byrell The Great – Flicka Da Wrist (Hand Performance Remix)

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August 3, 2015
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One of the most consistent artists in the ballroom world, New York’s Byrell The Great recently took on the still-gaining-steam summer hit “Flicka Da Wrist”, the track set to appear on London blog/radio show Beats, Banter & Bob‘s upcoming Que Pasa compilation. While not totally clear (assuming it’s left intentionally vague), the theme of the tape is different interpretations on “bob”, whatever that may mean to the contributing artists. Combining a pastiche of ballroom and Jersey club tropes, Byrell’s “Hand Performance Remix” is eminently functional in a way that few producers outside of the ballroom scene can manage, all while the form into weirder and more sonically adventurous places. Evil Streets, Pitcheno, FKA Deji and more feature on Que Pasa, which also features art work from the latter. The comp will be released on August 14 and a release party is scheduled for September 9 and will see performances from Trap Door, the Insert crew, Pitcheno and more.

Premiere: Druid Cloak – Quills (Translated by Strict Face)

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July 28, 2015
New Music, Remixes
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After the resounding success of Druid Cloak‘s Lore: Book One and Lore: Book Two, the conceptual LP series, released through his own Apothecary Compositions label, is getting a “translated” remix version with a little help from an international group of friends. In line with the original’s theme, Strict Face, Spurz, Throwing Snow and a number of others have put in there hand to rework originals from Lore: Book One, offering up some fantastical takes on standout tracks “Quills”, “The Tusk and “Wraithborne Falls”. We’ve got Strict Face’s contribution on the premiere front today, the Australian producer lacing the original with a helping of sparkling keys and heaping low end. It fits in the Gobstopper/weightless vein (even though it involves percussion), moving at a slow gait without giving up bass weight or a sense of forward propulsion. Lore Translations: Book One is out August 7 on Apothecary and is available for pre-order here.

New Track: Margaret Antwood – Coincidence Part 2

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July 27, 2015
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Initially garnering attention with the Energy Plaza EP in July 2013 (out on Cocobass), Margaret Antwood has been floating on the periphery of the dance music world for the better part of two years now, consistently flirting with a breakthrough into the wider club consciousness, but generally preferring to engage from an outsider perspective. Out tomorrow (July 28) on B.YRSLF DIVISION, Antwood’s Work Focus EP, should change that immediately, its six tracks offering a fully fledged view into the producer’s mechanized world view. Alongside fellow B.YRSLF artists Trap Door and Tsvi, Antwood has effortlessly merged retro synth flourishes with machinic percussion and dystopia-rendering sound design. Tracks like “Work Focus” and “Coincidence Part 2” don’t just sound metallic or pump along at a predictable pace though, they seem to embody the workmanlike spirit of automated labor and the factory environment at large. Premiered below, “Coincidence Part 2” consists of heaving hydraulic noises and piston-esque kicks, recalling an alien Detroit sensibility with a distinctly modern twitch. Look out for Work Focus tomorrow and check out a few other previews from the EP here.

Premiere: Bangkok Snobiety – Help

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July 16, 2015
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Columbus, Ohio’s Apothecary Compositions outlet has never had a singular focus, often switching between beat-based abstractions, dancefloor burners and R&B oddities in the span of a few releases. Lisbon duo Bangkok Snobiety also prefer not to be pigeonholed, pushing a sound loosely based in techno, but drawing from a multitude of other areas of well. Next week (7/24), Bangkok Snobiety will release their debut To The New Era LP on Apothecary, an eight track sojourn through oversized kick drums, haunting vocal snippets blaring industrial noise. While rarely fun in a breezy sense, To The New Era has a number of sneaky dancefloor numbers, “Help” being our favorite of the bundle. With an atmosphere that can lightly be described as uneasy, “Help” is one of several four-on-the-floor stompers on the LP, matching the huge, dusty kicks with equally dusty piano and an only slightly disturbing cry for help. Pre-order To The New Era here and look out for the full tape next Tuesday!

Premiere: Galtier – ‘Atmospheric Reconstructs I’

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July 1, 2015
New Music, Remixes
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Conceived of while trapped in a tiny cabin in the heart of Iceland, Australian producer Galtier‘s Atmospheric Reconstructs series is aimed at reconstituting abstract, blizzard-like (inducing?) tracks for the club. Volume one, as well as the concept behind the series which Galtier hopes to continue, was inspired by the work of Hessle Audio artist’s Pearson Sound and Bruce, particularly dire, machinic tunes like the former’s “Gristle” and the latter’s “Trip”. Considering how cacophonous the percussive side of club music has become in recent years, it comes as no surprise that a project like this could come out of fierce weather in a remote location and Galtier’s reworks, while flexed out into slightly more linear club form, retain the pressurized emotion of Pearson Sound and Bruce’s originals. Grab Bruce’s “Trip” from HES027 here and Pearson Sound’s self-titled LP here. And be sure to check out the rest of Galtier’s catalogue including releases on Apothecary Compositions and Files Rec., as well as a number of excellent remixes, bootlegs and compilation tracks.

Premieres: Chants Remixes Of MICHAELBRAILEY’s “2 Lovers” & Hudson Alexander’s “So Many Things”

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June 29, 2015
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The past few years have seen Madison, Wisconsin-based producer Chants grow out of the cozy, beat scene-indebted shell he entered the popular consciousness wearing and into more jagged, barbarous garb if you will. Still a master at twisting, melodic functions, Chants’ recent output has been firmly aimed at the club, specifically metallic, thudding rhythm tracks. His latest two efforts comes as remixes for Hush Hush Records label mates MICHAELBRAILEY and Hudson Alexander, the former out today and the latter our July 10. Chants’ remix of BRAILEY’s “2 Lovers” is out on the British producer’s Perdicardial: Remixed tape, which also features w. baer, yyy and others, and features the sort of noisy, disjointed club patterns favored by the Janus and NON collectives. His take on Alexander’s “So Many Things” is slightly more sonorous than the clattering take on “2 Lovers”, retaining a warped kinetic energy embodied in pseudo-footwork percussion (those toms!) and a swimming sensation carried through the original’s string section. With his debut LP due in the fall, its a pleasure to see more and more Chants material pop up, especially as he diversifies his sound palette and continues to churn out hard hitting club productions. If the album sounds anything like a confluence of “U Had Rhythm” and “Porch Song 1 AM”, I think we’ll all be happy. Get BRAILEY’s Perdicardial: Remixed here and be on the lookout for more tracks from Alexander’s Needs/So Many Things single.

Premiere: Tsunga – Cica Lights

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June 25, 2015
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Coming in hot with a highly tipped release on Black Acre, Tsunga is the latest artist to contribute to Trax Couture‘s monthly World Series, bringing his own brand of ‘ardkore to the London-based outlet. Support from Scratcha DVA and the “Feisar / Maris Piper” single have put Tsunga on the map over the past few months and, along with cohorts Wallwork & RZR, he has begun to makes waves with his hard-edged take on slowed down take jungle/hardcore or whatever you’d prefer to call it several years down the line from “Hackney Parrot”. Where Tessela and the Livity Sound folks take a strict percussion-focused approach to their revivalism, Tsunga indulges in rave stab-led euphoria, harkening not only to the drum frenzy of jungle, but to the earliest, rave-leveling forms of hardcore. “Cica Lights”, named after a popular 90s kids sneaker from Clarks, is the lead off of World Series Vol. 9, a four tracker highlighting fun-as-hell breakbeat productions, a donk and ghetto house-derived “Stomp Mix” and enough rave stabs to satiate us all. Vol. 9 is out July 1 via Rushmore‘s Trax Couture.

Premiere: Kadahn – Arc Eye Matter

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June 8, 2015
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Kadahn (1)
After releasing the excellent Silver Shadow of a Shrine on Hush Hush Recordings last month, New York-based producer Kadahn is back with Eraser Meditations, his arrival on Kastle’s Symbols label. A sprawling effort at 16 tracks, Eraser Meditations is made up of a series of short, sketch-like efforts, touching on bizarre, ephemeral grime and idiosyncratic beat work. Like label mate Kid Smpl (who has released on both Hush Hush and Symbols as well), Kadahn’s work has taken a harsher turn as late, pairing beatific melodic work with a busy, metallic aesthetic. “Arc Eye Matter” exhibits that approach perfectly, matching tinny steel drums and pleasant synth washes with grime’s characteristic machine gun snares and whooshing, swiping sound effects. The track swells and swells, but like the rest of the album, has no discernible drop or payoff, its constituent elements instead slowly dissolving into silence. Considering Kadahn’s source material, the effect is disarming in a deeply satisfying way, a non-combative conclusion to a series of motifs fraught with conflict and violence. Eraser Meditations is out June 16 via Symbols and if you pre-order it now, you’ll get three tracks instantly.

Premiere: Roller Truck – WIDI (Galtier ‘Drum Effort’ Remix)

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June 5, 2015
New Music, Remixes
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As Montreal-based label Infinite Machine has expanded its roster over the past few years, its scope has also expanded, each new release offering a unique perspective, all under the umbrella of a singular operation. Their latest release comes from Moscow-based producer Roller Truck and is one of the most bare bones, club-focused EPs the label has released to date, as much in the vein of their partner label Tessier-Ashpool as it is past IM releases. Strictly percussive techno, frozen electro and Club Constructions-esque machinations are the common parlance on Roller Truck Sounds Vol. 1 and like the EP title, the tracks come almost unadorned of bells and whistles. With only a single remix across seven tracks, Vol. 1 gives Roller Truck plenty of room to shine, although Galtier‘s ‘Drum Effort’ is a certain highlight. Stripping down “WIDI” into its kick, snare, hi hat essentials, the Australian producer flexes out a paranoia-filled night over six minutes that are sure to exhaust every limb. Check out previews of the whole EP here.