Archive

New Music

Premiere: Bludwork – “Feel It All Over”

By
September 11, 2014
New Music
Leave a comment

bludwork

Los Angeles has always been a house music center of sorts, spawning innumerable independent scenes since its arrival in the 1980s and drawing in hundreds of emigrant producers from across the country. The dubby, tech-oriented sounds of the city’s warehouse culture have deemed the Los Angeles Sound by some, but that designation short sells everything from the hazy tapedeck productions of the 100% Silk label to the tardy hedonism of A Club Called Rhonda. Hailing from Long Beach, Bludwork has taken the stunted, hypnagogic palette preferred by so many Angelenos and wrapped it in a seedy gauze, infusing a tasteful funk into the noire-leaning draft established by two decades of Southern California producers. Bludwork’s debut EP, titled Venetian Vines, will become the inaugural release on Golden Zed Recordings on September 19 and based on the label’s ever-fresh mix series (Moscow’s Shyam & Tom Depp included) large expectations are in order for this small imprint emerging from the harbor.

Murlo Refixes Mila J’s “Smoke Drink Break Up”

By
September 8, 2014
New Music, Remixes
Leave a comment

mila-j

After the official Ty Dolla $ign, Problem & Kirko Bangz remix, and L-Vis 1990’s bifurcated redux, any producer is going to be hard-pressed to innovate on the ground work set by Mila J’s breakout “Smoke Drink Break Up”. Enter Murlo, who, along with Dubbel Dutch, has done more to bring up the collective spirit of the grime/dancehall listening public in recent months. The London producer’s take on “Smoke Drink Breakup” isn’t quite as ebullient as his contributions to the recent Her Records and Madam X comps, but few producers bring the skip and/or bounce inherent in a  Murlo production.

New CYPHR – “Ekleipsis”

By
September 5, 2014
New Music
Leave a comment

cyphr-ekleipsis

The multi-faceted approach of the Her Records squad is readily apparent in the cycle of new singles/EPs, from each member of the team, that have arrived in the past year. Each release, stylistically divergent from the last, has offered a new prong in the Her arsenal and June’s Her Records Vol. 3 compilation tied the whole endeavor together in neat, singular package. The next project titled Ekleipsis, comes courtesy of CYPHR later this month and sees the London-based producer continue the harmonic backflips we saw on his remix of Zutzut and Lao’s “Momentos De XTC”. The EP’s title track is coliseum large, but also strangely intimate, drawing on battle-drum percussion and vocal-esque pads for a wholly encompassing affect. Ekleipsis is set for a September 30 release date, but can pre-ordered now.

New She’s Drunk – “Mariah Believes”

By
September 4, 2014
New Music
2 Comments

10559957_10152329905523127_3821057916244698196_n (1)

Following recent Mixmag and Boiler Room premieres and leading into tomorrow’s Boiler Room Berlin debut (15:00-21:00 CEST !!! ) She’s Drunk has released the third track off his highly anticipated Physical EP to be released by Liminal Sounds later this month. “Mariah Believes” sees the Berlin-based club producer throwing what sounds like Thugger samples in between Mariah Carey’s (the Mariah in question) choked out ad libs. This is all tossed on top of hectic fried-out bass and Rock The Boat-esque drums to draw the tangible out of a 90’s rnb fantasy. Stream below and purchase the EP to get bonus track “Sluty”.

Premiere: BLASTAH – “Give It Up To Me”

By
September 2, 2014
New Music
Leave a comment

blastah

The globalization of American club sounds has, more often than not, lead to a devolution in the quality, affect and singularity of the source material. This is not a universal truth of course as many producers are adapting and transitioning the sounds of Baltimore, Jersey, Chicago et all into other elastic forms, but for the most part the suburbanite sprawl of club has offered only dilution. Hailing from Lisbon, a hub of native club music in its own right, BLASTAH has manage to straddle the line between co-optation and homage with aplomb, drawing out the key elements from ballroom, Bmore and melding them with dembow, sino-grime and video game music. BLASTAH’s sound is inherently youthful, adventurous and in-your-face, but those qualities has allowed his constructions to override the numerous, oft-abused originals. “Give It Up To Me” is exactly that product, a direct look to Jersey that makes up for its lack of convention with a complete reversal in mood. Exasperation and apprehension, courtesy of moody synth stabs, take the place of the jubilant sexual energy that has become the calling card of Newark and beyond. “Give It Up To Me” is undoubtedly a piece of trans-Atlantic appropriation, but by turning the track’s intent on its head, it breaths new (or different) life into the format.

New Cirqa – “Feeling Like” (Feat. Divoli S’vere)

By
August 27, 2014
New Music
Leave a comment

cirqa

Over the past six months-plus, Atlanta producer Cirqa has filled out Soundcloud with utilitarian drum tracks utilizing the barebones structure of ballroom, Jersey club, techno and Miami bass to great effect. This week, he released his connection with fellow ATLien Divoli S’vere, collecting vocals from the latter for the steamy, heavily digitized “Feeling Like”, easily the most fully realized Cirqa effort to date. Dealing mainly in the hi-res, hi-end of the sonic spectrum, “Feeling Like” is full of naked 808 sounds, bright synth stabs and Divoli’s indisputable reign on the mic, drawing the carnal nature of Southern dance music into a ballroom aesthetic; a marriage that develops smoothly under Cirqa’s supervision.

Download Mr. One Hundred’s ‘Hi Tech Soca’ EP

By
August 20, 2014
New Music
Leave a comment

Hi-tech-soca.

In celebration of this weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival, Mr. One Hundred has released a five song, free to download ep through his home at Mixpak. Hi Tech Soca might be the only appropriate descriptor for Mr. One Hundred’s particular brand of music. Raving through the American midwest as an adolescent, Mr. One Hundred tapped into Detroit and Chicago’s techno and house histories before moving to London and bearing witness to the sort of soca that can only be created in a club context halfway across the world from its home in the Caribbean (hip hop, grime, acid squelches, etc.). Allowing himself to brine in the high energy riddims, Mr. One Hundred began turning out his own productions with emphasis on techno in synthesis with soca’s rolling drum patterns. The Hi Tech Soca EP comes as a successor to the artist’s premiere EP Palm Tree Destruction and follows in its championing of the future flavor. Listen below to five edits and originals. Particular emphasis goes to the devastatingly dance worthy Mr. One Hundred bootleg of “Fire Now” by Benji Garlin and the soca transformation of Darude in “Sandstorm Riddim”.

New The Square – “Pengaleng”

By
August 20, 2014
New Music
Leave a comment

the-square

In 2014, grime crews still nominally exist, but they don’t run the proverbial street with the fervor that Roll Deep, Boy Better Know and Ruff Sqwad did in ’04. I for one was not reticent of grime as an 11 year old American boy, but recent attempts at crew revival have got me calling for a renaissance, as well as feeling a fair deal of false nostalgia. Lewisham crew The Square, a seven member producer/MC amalgam, is looking to jumpstart that revival and Novelist and Lolingo, both of whom are members, have anything to say about it, this prodigious collection might just succeed. Besides Nov and Lol, The Square includes DeeJillz, Elf Kid, Syder, Faultsz and Streema. “Pengaleng” is the crew’s first output and the first single from their upcoming The Formula mixtape, due August 25 via Nohatsnohoods.

JT The Goon Remixes Novelist’s “Sniper”

By
August 18, 2014
New Music, Remixes
Leave a comment

artworks-000088242447-oeqlno-t500x500

After flexing his abundant mic skills on Mumdance‘s “Take Time” earlier this year, Lewisham badman Novelist took to the boards and let loose the all-instrumental Sniper EP on Oil Gang. While not reaching the inventive heights of “Take Time”, Sniper is a meticulously composed effort that represents Nov’s keen understanding of grime’s beginnings; if not some of its more experimental proclivities. As a key member of the Oil Gang-sphere, JT The Goon has been one of the label’s shining stars and his timeless black key productions continue to shine in a rather timeless manner. JT is one of the few producers who can keep the GrimeForum heads at bay while drawing plaudits from the Fact Singles Club. Taking on Sniper‘s title track, JT into a child keyboard melody, sawtooth low end, gun cocks, shots and thrillingly cinematic squarewave twists and turns. At just under three minutes, the remix is something of a flash in the pan, a song that represents the ever-growing temptation of the Boxed crew to make music for someone/anyone that doesn’t regularly play out at Birthdays.

Frosty Ice Cold

By
August 12, 2014
New Music
3 Comments

tumblr_static_c1wnrskww54w4wg0s08w8kgw4

15 days ago with the concurrent creations of a Twitter account, a Soundcloud account, and a Tumblr page, Frosty took its first minute steps into the world of Social Media to announce itself as a brand-brand-brand-new mix series. Started by Hana Risk of PC Music fame (yea yea PC Music Cute! Fun! Pop Mirror!!) Frosty is run out of London and comes with a lot of new original music and without a clear mission statement. The basic structure so far is a ~ 20 minute mix with like five Wiley accapellas (not the only emcee but a strong favorite) thrown over a mix of bootlegs, original productions, and vips curated by some of the more interesting artists/labels out there.

The first edition was brought by Parisian traxman Le Dom and a quick second came from Sega Bodega (recently given a piggy-back by Ryan Hemsworth’s Secret Songs label). Yesterday, Manicure Records was invited to let its members have a spin with the preface, “all ur fave grime acapellas over all ur fave non-grime beats!” Each mix is free to download off Frosty’s Soundcloud and feature full tracklists.

These are Hot! Hot! Hot!

Listen to Frosty Mix 3 below.