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New Iglew – Urban Myth

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April 14, 2015
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We’ve been a little behind on a our daily posting and while it’s been necessary to push some of that material into our monthly FACT column and various radio ventures, it would have been a travesty to miss out on covering Iglew‘s debut EP on Mr. Mitch‘s Gobstopper Records. Since hearing the demos last year and immediately signing the Leeds-based producer on for an Astral Plane mix, we’ve been readily awaiting the announcement for the Urban Myth EP and there isn’t a better place for it than Gobstopper. And while the rest of the tracks on the EP are more or less based in grime’s square wave legacy, “Urban Myth” is a solitary track built on a beatific Japanese koto sounding melody and swaths of low end pads. It’s easy to enter something of a hypnotic state when listening to Urban Myth as a whole and the title track exemplifies that best. Or as Iglew told FACT, “[I] like thinking of music in terms of escapism, whether that’s delving into your own imagination when listening individually, or becoming part of a body of individuals having a collective listening experience.” Urban Myth is out in digital and vinyl formats on April 27 via Gobstopper. Hit the jump for snippets of the full EP.

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Premiere: Kadahn – Remember

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April 6, 2015
New Music
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With releases out on his own Half Death outlet (also see: Darkmatter, Sangam) and a single out via Kastle’s Symbols label, New York-based producer Kadahn has begun to draw fans to his disassociate take on grime and other strains of soundsystem music. Silver Shadow of a Shrine, arriving May 4 via the always excellent Hush Hush Records, is both the producer’s longest and most complete release to date, an eight song tape that reads as a synthesizer-driven opus to New York. And like label-mate Kid Smpl, Kadahn clearly owes a great deal to the London lineage of dance music. “Remember” brings to mind the abstract fringe of grime, Mr. Mitch’s peace edits in particular, as well as the shuffling, sample-driven approach of Flukes, Iron Soul and other cult favorites. Silver Shadow of a Shrine can be pre-ordered via iTunes and more Kadahn material is available here.

Premiere: Riley Lake – Spliff Trak

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March 30, 2015
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_MG_5384After taking part extensively in our continuing Heterotopia project, Riley Lake will release his debut solo EP tomorrow, the architecturally-oriented Spaces. Last week, FACT debuted EP starter “Rizer”, a propulsive dance-starter full of cutting breakbeats and Lake’s own contorted vocal work. And today, we’ve got EP closer “Spliff Trak” on the docket, a nostalgia-inducing slow burner with a visual flair that seems to slowly dissolve and tear apart as the song progresses. Spaces closes out with two more essential tracks from the Milwaukee-based producer and will be out tomorrow through his own Bandcamp. Check out the video for “Spliff Trak” after the fold.

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Premiere: Korma – Silencer Riddim

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March 20, 2015
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Alongside Rabit, Mike G, Celestial Trax and handful of others, Korma has lead the charge to put the US on the map as far grime production goes, drawing both ire from his UK counterparts and praise from grime fans the world over. And despite the Atlantic-sized divide, it’s clear that Korma is a student of the culture, remixing everyone from Changing Faces to Riko Dan and churning out a high energy reformulation of the eski template with regularity. Affiliated with the Hush Hush Records clan and several other cool happenings in Seattle, Korma is staking out new territory on the West Coast, far from a grime (or club music for that matter) hotbed, and has released several must-haves in “Skyline” (out now on Car Crash Set’s Ice Rink series) and the collection of R&B refixes released on Hush Hush in 2014. “Silencer Riddim”, a remake of sorts of Africa Hitech’s track of the same name, falls into the classic eski riddim territory, reutilizing the sound palette made ever-so-popular by “That’s Not Me” and translating it into an addicting neck snapper. “Silencer Riddim” is available for free download below.

Premiere: Air Max ’97 – Spoken

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March 19, 2015
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Since its inception in January (with Rushmore’s effort), London-based Trax Couture’s World Series has set the pace for club music releases. hosting an international array of talent, including Dreams, Imaabs, Akito and more. Earlier this month, the series was made even more official with a compilation-like 12″ featuring highlights from each respective effort. But that doesn’t mean that the series is ending and World Series Vol. 6 just happens to be coming from Melbourne’s finest, Air Max ’97. Alongside a ripping Divoli S’vere feature and two other structurally proficient club tracks, “Spoken” is exactly the sort of metallic heat we’ve come to expect from AM97, a non-linear piece of sound system music that manages both a jarring affect and a startlingly danceable groove. World Series Vol. 6 is out March 25.

Kid Antoine’s Proximity EP Out Now On Her Records

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March 17, 2015
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Copenhagen-based producer Kid Antoine has been garnering accolades from across the board as of late, producers and fans alike fawning over his dubs, KA edits and the Truancy Volume that debuted earlier this month. Antoine also contributed a key track to our Heterotopia compilation, which was later remixed by fellow Her member Fraxinus. Yesterday marked the release of Antoine’s debut Proximity EP through Her Records and the tape’s militant take on the club form is a tantalizing reminder that the hyper is very real. Made of four originals and a Miss Modular rework, Proximity touches on Jersey club and kuduro mainly, the two percussive templates drenched in the producer’s now-trademark searching melodies. Alongside Murlo, Antoine has done remarkable work at conjoining an almost twee focus on melody with the harsh, bang-the-box ethos that has become the Her calling card since Miss Modular’s “Reflector Pack” single. Proximity is out now and can be bought in digital form here.

FACT Premieres Victoria Kim’s Kowloon Edit Of Rushmore’s “Moment X”

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March 4, 2015
Heterotopia, New Music, Remixes
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One week from today, we’ve got Heterotopia Remixes Vol. 2 on the docket, our third official release and the second volume in our Heterotopia remix series.

The second volume of Heterotopia Remixes has finally arrived, featuring a global collection of artists remixing songs from our debut compilation. With Air Max ’97, Mike G, Riley Lake, Rushmore and Victoria Kim involved, Vol. 2 is a thrilling run through stripped down club forms, a percussive melange that looks to Baltimore as much as it does Bristol. Angular club music has found its way into unexpected places as of late and this collection of producers are leading the way in the admirable charge to discomfit the dance music realm. This volume also features incredible art work by prodigal East Coast artist Terrell Davis (featured in Dazed, New York Times etc.), continuing the trend of reinterpreting the original release’s cover in new and exciting ways.

Out next Tuesday (March 10) via our Bandcamp, Heterotopia Remixes Vol. 2 features a selection of artists from the original compilation, as well as recent Gobstopper signee Iglew, who turned in an engrossing Astral Plane mix a few weeks ago. Check out the track list below and be sure to check back in this space over the next week for more sneak peaks of the tape.

Track list:

1.) Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf – Public Love (Air Max ’97 Bootleg)

2.) Kid Antoine – Nightvision (Mike G Remix)

3.) Rushmore – Moment X (Victoria Kim’s Kowloon Edit)

4.) Celestial Trax – Illuminate (Iglew Remix)

5.) Victoria Kim – Apgu Freeway (Rushmore Remix)

6.) Arkitect – Foucault’s Dream (Riley Lake Remix)

Premiere: B-Ju & Ticklish – “Dualities”

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February 20, 2015
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B-Ju & Ticklish (without Mask)As footwork has proliferated across the globe in the past decade, its borders have shifted and mutated, merging with jungle, acid and other dance forms. Unlike other localized sub-cultures that are rapidly engulfed in the global market, footwork’s mutations have been driven first and foremost by the Chicago’s Teklife collective and not American and/or European producers with no tangible connection to the Windy City’s musical lineage or dance culture. So after an initial explosion and some unfortunate attempts by outsiders to replicate the sound, it appears that the replication process has slowed and global producers have begun to work upon and expand on the ideas set forth by DJ Rashad, Spinn, Earl and more. Residing in Hamburg and Berlin respectively, B-Ju and Ticklish are prime examples of that cycle, artists well outside of the Chicago orbit who have, nonetheless, become adept at soothing the uneasiness of the footwork sound into their own production aesthetics. On Tuesday, February 24, B-Ju and Ticklish will release a joint effort, the Dualities EP on Druid Cloak’s Apothecary Compositions, melding their prowess in footwork, jungle and other hybrid forms across two collaborations and several remixes. Today, we’ve got the title track from the EP, highlighting the duo’s ability to flip dusty breaks into a soulful melange that dazzles as much as it soothes. Pre-order Dualities on cassette here and get a download of the full EP immediately.

 

Premiere: Akito – “Sordid Forfeit”

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February 19, 2015
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Over the past several months, we’ve brought you a good deal of coverage on Trax Couture‘s globe trotting World Series, a string of EPs that has seen the London label enlist Dreams, Sylvere and Imaabs into the fold. World Series Vol. 5 sees TC bringing the series back around to London with Akito providing four indomitable club tracks to the table. Headed up by two excellent mixes of “Dalston Dips”, Akito’s latest is another percussive monster with loads of Jersey club, techno, grime and dancehall folded into tidy 130 packages. “Sordid Forfeit” grabbed our attention right off the bat, a confluence of grime’s square wave obsession and the monolithic kick pattern favored in Jersey. It’s a track that could be abetted with a Riko Dan, Flowdan or Stormzy vocal, but also exists on its own in a space cleared out by Mumdance, Logos and Slack. World Series Vol. 5 is out on Wednesday, February 25 and can be pre-ordered here.

Premiere: Copout – “Fluttering”

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February 12, 2015
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With releases from Air Max ’97, She’s Drunk and Arctic to its name, London’s Liminal Sounds outlet has quickly become one of the go to labels for the sort of percussive club material and grime constructions we know and love. With one of the best mix series in the game and a deep stable of insightful interviews and release coverage, Liminal also still functions as one of the best blogs in dance music, a balancing act easier said than done. Last month, Air Max ’97’s all-enveloping Fruit Crush EP arrived on Liminal, his second release on the imprint and the label’s best release to date. With AM97 as a sort of flagship artist, Liminal’s aesthetic has begun to narrow and on March 9, the label will release Liminality 01, the first in a series of EPs “that will provide a space for tracks that sit outside of the confines of our usual release schedule, offering a platform to producers that are new to the label and laying the foundations for future records.” On a similar wavelength to some of the singles clubs popping up here and there, Liminality 01 features Copout, Bushido, Shining Force, JGYB and Archer, each respective producer flexing their own unique take garage, grime and more. Copout’s “Fluttering” was the immediate standout to us, although the five tracker is a fully engaging listen through and through, a slinky club track lead by on beat brass and a haunting melodic strut. Brooklyn’s Copout, who has previously released EPs with Drippin and LOLGurlz, is a welcome addition to the Liminal team, a move that naturally expands its reach to the United States. Liminality 01 is out on March 9.

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