Read More

In today’s club music landscape, the concept of honesty is adrift and it’s far easier to find yourself interacting with shrouded personalities and several layers of irony than you are any creative or intellectual honesty. New York’s Rizzla, part of the Kunq collective and a longtime Fade to Mind representative, has always been an outspoken social media advocate, laying down prescient post-colonial and identity critiques when few others are willing to step up. Utilizing “Iron Cages” and “Twitch Queen”, two tracks from his Iron Cages EP (out now on F2M), the video below is the sort potent statement that few contemporary musicians are willing to make, a synthesis of footage from several dozen uprisings, both from news stations and handheld cameras. Tonight, Rizzla celebrates the EP release with Kingdom, Prince Will and Dangelxxx in Los Angeles, bringing his spastic, 140+ styles to the basement of the Belasco Theatre. And if you’ve never seen Rizzla or the F2M crew throw down, you know that this one will be special, both a celebration for the release of Iron Cages and another reason why the label still has so many biters.

“El Cuerpo” is about a lady who used to drive out my evil spirits. When I was a little girl, she taught me that “el cuerpo” or the physical body was the only thing we had. She taught me to embrace and accept death, and distance myself from the fear associated with nothingness. It’s a lesson that has stuck with me ever since.

Imaabs gave the track a ritualistic tone that’s much more melancholic than the original. The darkness is hypnotic and closer to the version we play live together. He’s managed to make a version I like more than the original. I love it.”

Astral Plane Recordings is back with our second compilation release and the follow up to 2014’s Heterotopia. Out in full in only two weeks as a free release (Oct 27), the good folks at FACT Magazine announced Psychotropia earlier and premiered GROVESTREET‘s noise excursion to jump off the campaign. The tape features 12 artists new to The Astral Plane family and an array of left-field takes on club tropes past and present. We’ve had a busy summer working on a show for Radar Radio, compiling our monthly For Club Use Only column, and preparing this tape so it’s a real pleasure to get this out as we enter the cold months.

Next Thursday (10/22), Still Life is bringing two Astral Plane favorites to Los Globos, Ninja Tune artist Lee Bannon and Pelican Fly/Thread/Teklife reppin’ Nadus. The two are hardly easy to pin down, although expect plenty of moody, harmonically dexterous hip hop interpretations, booming Jersey kick patterns and the occasional foray into jungle and footwork. Bannon’s Alternate/Endings LP, released by Ninja Tune in 2014, marked a breakout for the longtime hip hop producer from Northern California, an on-the-cusp foray into rhythmic experimentation that tended to leave the mellow side of his beat repertoire in the past. This year’s Pattern of Excel, also released on Ninja Tune, sounds more post-rock than jungle, but maintains Bannon’s unique timbral qualities and is a thoroughly pleasing listen.

Meanwhile, Nadus’ tour schedule feels never-ending and coming off the back of 2014’s Broke City EP, he joined Rustie on a massive U.S. tour. One of Jersey club’s foremost ambassadors, the man born Rahshon Bright prefers not to be limited by the Newark scene he’s helped develop, a point he noted in an excellent interview with FACT Magazine yesterday. Rounding out the lineup are Charlotte MC Deniro Farrar, Gianni Lee and J Drago. Enter your favorite Ninja Tune single in the entry form below to be entered for your chance at a pair of tickets for Thursday’s show.

Since he popped onto the scene some years ago, Chicago resident (and Philadelphia born) Krueger has been a fixture in the American club music world, pushing percussive sounds well before they became web cool. He’s also a member of the Silverback Recordings stable, the Belgium label that has become one of our favorite outlets anywhere over the past few years. Released this past Friday (7/24), Krueger’s Marbled EP is his second extender player on Silverback and his first release since taking a step back from the Krueger alias late last year, comprised of three original tracks and remixes from Victoria Kim and Taskforce. We’ve got “Jungle Walk” on deck for you today, an acid-driven track built around a twisted Bmore framework and a childlike invocation to “take you back to the deep, dark jungle.” It’s the weirdest song on the record and shows that Krueger is more than willing to merge traditional dance music tropes with more contemporary forms. Get the Marbled EP here and be sure to check out Krueger’s Tools Vol. 1 pack from earlier this year.

Intended as a companion record to May’s Emphasis EP (on Tessier-Ashpool), East London producer Otik‘s Strangelove EP (out July 24 on Infinite Machine) comes in as another piece of well-executed breakbeat revivalism focusing on various strains of the ‘ardkore continuum. Like contemporaries Wallwork & RZR, Tsunga, Benton and Tessela, Otik prefers to drop the tempo down into the 130 range from hardcore, jungle and drum and bass’ raucous pacing, drawing out the classical elements in those forms and recontextualizing them across contemporary space. This is readily apparent throughout Strangelove, a record where classic reese bass bumps up against Missy Elliot samples and a clear sense of songwriting exists throughout. Tracks like “Futile” (premiered below) and “Glimpse”, while banging in a club context, also feature extremely well-conceived sound design and are pleasurable to listen to outside of the mix, the former featuring a beautiful soul sample that recalls the better side of the late 2000s pitched down R&B craze. The Strangelove EP is out this Friday (July 24) and can be previewed after the jump. Also be sure to tune into Otik’s Radar Radio sessions for a consistently on point update on the breakbeat-based musics past and present.

Read More