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‘SND.PE VOL.04: Melodic Mechanisms’ Out Now

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January 19, 2015
New Music
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SND.PE VOL.04

Continuing their run of wildly successful, sonically-themed compilations, Paris-based imprint Sound Pellegrino has released SND.PE VOL.04: Melodic Mechanisms, a tape featuring Moleskin, Sudanim and CYPHR, as well as a whose who of the label’s stable of French producers. With a focus on sound design, spatial awareness, and, of course, melody, SND.PE VOL.04 is a compilation intended for a heightened club experience, for listeners bred on Japanese video game soundtracks, trance and devil mixes. A few weeks ago, we featured newcomer Doline‘s excellent contribution to VOL.04 and the strobe light brilliance of the Parisian’s “Karidja” set the time for an immaculate listen through and through. Get your own copy of SND.PE VOL.04 in digital form or on vinyl and stream snippets of the full tape here.

Premiere: C Plus Plus – “Gunshot Riddim” (Feat. Karmelloz)

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January 15, 2015
New Music
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As Apothecary Compositions has expanded from a small, cassette-focused club music imprint to a huge online store featuring releases from PAN, Tri Angle, Hyperdub and more. While a discerning onlooker might expect the label side of the operation, headed by Joseph Morris aka Druid Cloak, to look for bigger, more populist artists in tandem with the web store’s expansion, they would be mistaken. Instead, Apothecary is still one of the foremost outlets to find up-and-coming club music flexing their abilities. Portland, Oregon’s own C Plus Plus is the latest to join the roster, bringing the Cearà LP to the Apothecary shelves. Heavily featuring fellow Portland resident Karmelloz, the two have already released a joint 7″ for Hallowed Articles, the four joint tracks show remarkable chemistry, a blend of C Plus Plus’ driving club rhythms and Karmelloz’s elegiac house flow (seen on labels like 1080p and Hoko Sounds). “Gunshot Riddim” is our favorite of the bunch, a riddim flavor packed with ballroom energy and a cyclical vocal sample at once lulling and invigorating the track into the next bar. Cearà cassettes are shipping now so get yours before supplies run out.

Sheik Remixes Tony Phorse’s “1984”

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January 13, 2015
New Music, Remixes
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sheikFunctioning as the b-side of the white label release for Tony Phorse‘s “Zartan In Reverse”, Sheik‘s “Robo Boogie” edit of Phorse’s “1984” hits on a number of contemporary sonic touchstones, but it’s an old school electro track at its core. The London producer’s rendition seems to fall into an almost half-time drawl at times, but the hi hats don’t stop before long the sharp kicks are punching again. The original “1984” came out on Phorse’s Zartan EP back in May 2014 on London imprint District Sound, a genre-mashing affair that, while a bit unfocused, is a thrilling listen from front to back. Sheik collects “1984”‘s manic energy and re-disperses it across the rigid backbone of sparse electro. The edit is “coming soon on white label.”

Premiere: CVNT TRAXXX – “Hypnotizin'”

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January 12, 2015
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If you follow our site, you’ve probably come across CVNT TRAXXX, either at his blog, regular FACT Mag column, or eccentric, ballroom surveying DJ mixes. A total package if we’ve ever come across one, CVNT TRAXXX is a journalist, scene documentarian, deejay and producer all wrapped in a single package. His next collection of original compositions, the appropriately titled 192THROWBAXX EP, will be released on Classical Trax’s Orange series and we’re lucky to bring you the ebullient throwback number that is “Hypnotizin'”. Due to a hard drive crash, the original compositions for the EP were lost, leaving only 192kbps bounce-outs, which might actually encapsulate the lo-fi ethos of the original better than what might have been released. “Hypnotizin'” certainly falls in that vein, a bubbly number that resembles the Strictly Rhythm label at its most carefree. While marking his trade with ballroom terminology and sonic touchstones, it’s clear that the UK producer is equally comfortable wading into more tried and true house territory, working diva and jackin templates into his big room ready aesthetic. Download “Hypnotizin'” below and be sure to check out the rest of CVNT TRAXXX’s creative ventures.

Premiere: Dreams – “Reactor (Devil Mix)”

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January 12, 2015
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Already three releases into their globally leaning World Series in as many months, London imprint Trax Couture is taking the show to Los Angeles by-way-of Private Selection co-boss Dreams. The first three volumes in the series have come from Trax Couture principal Rushmore, Chile’s Imaabs and France’s Sylvere respectively, the result a trio of drum track-minded EPs that press on several key touchstones in the last two and a half decades of elemental dance music. Vol. 4 sees the series’ first American contributor in Dreams and the Angeleno’s acumen for trawling everything from classic jackin’ house to South African gqom and new age into his productions makes the EP as a whole a thrilling listen. Like most of the series, Dreams’ contribution doesn’t hit on one genre, but his sound palette is immediately recognizable, a series of raw, percussive notes that can be recognized from classic drum machines and samplers, as well as core elements of grime, ghetto house and Brit-style techno. That runs true until EP closer “Reactor (Devil Mix)”, an ode to Wiley’s mixes of the same name and step out of the World Series’ unremitting flow. Whereas “Esoteric” pummels with cyclical kicks and 808 cow bells, and “Dead Zone” falls into a half-step swing replete with pulse-like hits and crashing glass, “Reactor (Devil Mix)” is more in line with Mr. Mitch’s Parallel Memories or Strict Face’s Marble Isles. Its cerebral face hides a churning underbelly of melancholy and solitary loss, a necessary flip to the unremitting aggression of the rest of the EP. World Series Vol. 4 will be released on January 21 and clips of each respective track can be streamed after the jump.

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Jacque Gaspard Biberkopf Releases Long Form ‘Video’ Productions

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January 8, 2015
Mixes, New Music
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With an Astral Plane mix in the books and a standout track on Heterotopia still fresh in our memory, Berlin’s Jacques Gaspard Biberkopf is one of our very favorite artists, drawing lines from Lorenzo Senni to Jersey club and NBA Jam. The critical theory minded producer fascination with the voice and, in particular, sports highlight clips, has shown up throughout his mix and production work and his latest effort, long form production mix Video, a combination of the sort of crystalline trance-scapes favored by the aforementioned Senni, oft-indecipherable vocal snippets and bone crunching percussive workouts based in Jersey club, kuduro and grime. Video can be read as shrewd commentary on audial representation and the human voice or the sensationalist, machismo-focused quality of sports highlights, but both critiques take on a different quality when enmeshed in 41:56 of industrial spatial dynamics and in-your-face club music. Unlike much of Biberkopf’s previous material though, Video never really breaks through into the world of club music, remaining firmly on the periphery. It’s a thrilling listen nonetheless, an at times shocking composition (entirely Biberkopf originals) that is delightfully incoherent and aesthetically cohesive at the same time, seeming to skip across the temporal plane with reckless abandon. Biberkopf is certainly an artist of our time and along with the likes of TCF, M.E.S.H. and Why Be, appears to be reworking a critical view of the club. Find a full track list for Video after the jump.

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Premiere: Arctic – “I Wish I Owned A Magic Carpet” (+ EP Announce!)

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January 7, 2015
New Music
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arcticWith releases on Liminal Sounds and Coyote Records, Melbourne-based producer Arctic has pushed a number of our buttons, releasing the sort of in-your-face grime that necessarily balances out the release-length crescendos of more orchestral-focused producers. And because Arctic’s aesthetic leanings fall more towards drum & bass than, say, Jersey club or Japanese video game music, his output on the aforementioned labels is even more refreshing. On January 19, Arctic will take his talents to Nottingham’s formidable Tumble Audio imprint, home to artists like Timbah, Boofy, Killjoy and more. The I Wish I Owned A Magic Carpet EP is definitely progression in quality for the Melbourne producer and a more-than-suitable release for Tumble Audio considering their release history. The title track, premiered below, is also the EP’s highlight, an Aladdin-sampling roller that has already garnered attention from Mumdance, Oneman, Amy Becker and more. “I Wish I Owned A Magic Carpet” is exactly the sort of soundsystem culture kitsch that works, an expertly produced piece of industrial, gunfinger-waving grime that is as fun as it is outrageously to the brink of what club music is and can be. The rest of the EP hits just as hard, a series of wildly infectious bassline and bassline-inspired groovers. Find the tack list for I Wish I Owned A Magic Carpet after the jump and check out Tumble Audio on Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud.

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Premiere: Sugur Shane & Kilbourne – “Nastee Gurl”

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January 5, 2015
New Music
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sugar-shaneWhile some musicians might opt to tread lightly in the early days of the new year, Kilbourne and Sugur Shane have thrown caution to the wind and started off 2015 with broad, aggressive strokes in “Nastee Gurl”. Hailing from New Jersey and Philadelphia respectively, Kilbourne and Shane share production duties on “Nastee Gurl” while Shane waxes poetic about everything and anything nasty in his signature rapid-fire flow. Both artists are directly involved in New York’s ballroom scene, Sugur Shane functioning as one of the culture’s foremost proponents in the greater dance music world and Kilbourne turning out regular collaborations with the likes of Rizzla, Schwarz and DJ Knockout. The collaboration proves that the Northeast’s respective scenes/subcultures are far from insular solo entities and a dialogue can, and does routinely, exist between Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. And when artists from said cities are coming together for tracks like “Nastee Gurl”, we’re all the better for it.

Download Prettybwoy’s ‘Thank You’ EP

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December 11, 2014
New Music
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prettybwoy

As grime has expanded both sonically and geographically, its boundaries have shifted and mutated (really, like they always have) to deal with the influx of production aesthetics, the wave of vocal-free tracks and the, at least for now, diminishing role of the MC. As an American, its difficult to gauge how the genre’s gatekeepers feel about the influx of young producers, international producers and the trend away from MC-driven culture, but it has been an interesting phenomenon to watch from afar and study. In that vein and without any further pretension, its a pleasure to feature Japanese producer Prettybwoy on the site, Tokyo’s closest thing to a grime insider. With a placement on Big Dada’s still breathtaking 2014 compilation Grime 2.0, Prettybwoy has been slowly diving into the ever expanding pool of artists reinterpreting grime’s classic sounds. The Thank You EP is  his latest outing into club material and eskibeat respectively, two tracks that hammer away at old archetypes until they fit anew. While “Plum” is available for criticism considering its overt eski characteristics, “Breaking Down” falls into the mutant, pounding club category populated by Sudanim, Krizzli, Rizzla and other like-minded producers. Thank You is a small taste of what Prettybwoy and the rest of his Tokyo cohort has to offer, but it’s a telling sign that producers as far flung as Japan are experimenting with both classic and cusp sounds.

New Doline – “Karidja”

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December 11, 2014
New Music
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doline

As a purveyor of fine mixtapes, it’s a pleasure to see Paris’ Sound Pellegrino team take such a liking to the format, releasing a string of drum track and collaboration-focused tapes featuring the likes of Rabit, Helix, L-Vis 1990 and Sinjin Hawke in their kaleidoscopic collections. Melodic Mechanisms is the imprint’s latest excursion into the land of compilations it might be there most inspired yet, a collection of spatially focused tracks from Moleskin, Sudanim, CYPHR and Chilly Gonzales, as well as Sound Pellegrino regulars Koyote, Mathias Zimmerman and Orgasmic. Doline, a fairly unknown name until now, leads off the comp and features as the first single. Inspired by label head Teki Latex’s excellently constructed recent “Deconstructed Trance Reconstructed” mix, Doline sent over some similarly minded tracks (see also: Lorenzo Senni) and immediately got signed. “Karidja” is the public’s first taste of what’s to come, a fluttering composition that would not feel out of place in either Teki or Senni’s respective discography. Melodic Mechanisms is out in all forms on January 19.