In which The xx beat machine/mastermind devolves Four Tet’s fellow Elliot School alumnus Four Tet’s most straight-forward track to date into a puddle of floating dub madness. Jamie Smith’s remix of “Lion” might as well be three songs as it jumps tempos drastically every two minutes or so. The one consistent factor is a writhing low end that never ceases even at the remix’s most docile moments. If Smith has proven anything in his solo work, it’s a mastery of emotion through bass. Some might call this simple, but Smith has always maintained an intended minimalism about his music. This remix actually reminds me of Pinch & Shackleton’s self-tltled 2011 album in its balance between heavy atmospherics and a steady beat. Stream below and pray to the Halloween gods that these two will collaborate in the near future.
Way back in ’09, remixes of The xx tracks like “Islands”, “VCR” and well, the whole album, were all the rage in blog world. Actually, they still are today. The band’s use of empty space and minimalist ethos lends especially well to the remix game. I’m not sure whether it’s due to a more critical eye on my part, but the large majority of Coexist remixes I have listened to are god awful. Four Tet’s take on “Angels” is one of the few worthwhile reworks out there. And there are a lot. Kastle’s Symbols Recordings recently released Druid Cloak’s The Grove EP, a brilliant take on modern bass music that has garnered support from the likes of Machinedrum, Cedaa and Bambounou. Not much is known about Druid Cloak, but he (?) does claim to adhere to “what the earth tells [him to make].” He recently remixed Coexist standout “Fiction” in a bout of half-step (is there any other way to remix The xx) wizardry. Stream below and grab the track for free from Symbols’ facebook.
At midnight on Halloween, DJ Funeral will release his debut EP on Body High, an odd combination of horror flick samples and club music. But not just any club music, Body High club music. The Los Angeles-based label has taken North American club music by the horns over the past 12 months and not let go. Not much is known about DJ Funeral, but he materialized out of thin air (or so I’ve heard) to perform at the Body High/Boiler Room event last Tuesday to play some spooky sounds.. Out of a stacked lineup including Samo Soundboy, Delivery and Myrryrs, Funeral’s set was impressively dynamic and featured the most unheard tracks, presumably from the new EP. Pop this on (or this Hits from the Grave mix) at your sexy halloween party if you have the guts. Stream above and have your trigger fingers ready come midnight on Hallows Eve.
I’ve been patiently awaiting this album since I first saw Bhatia tweet that he’d covered Flying Lotus’s “Pickled” on his last release, the gorgeous EP Strata. What kind of future-jazz craziness might await on Yes It Will? On Tuesday, My questions were answered. I must admit upon a third listen this is very challenging music. It is certainly not background music as the opening track ironically suggests. This isn’t foreground music either. Like the best free jazz and bebop, This is music that forces you to reinterpret the dimensions in which you thought music existed. More than that though, this album is bursting with life.
I had the pleasure of seeing Bhatia and his band play “Try” and “Endogenous Oscillators” from this album live at Pianos NYC during his residency there and I was blown away by the freedom of “Endogenous Oscillators” (also my favorite track on the album) endlessly developing on itself and changing its own rules, behaving almost like the stream of consciousness of a very caffeinated and scatterbrained person. it enters a system of a couple of repeated polyrhythms and riffs, then leaves it behind, seemingly forgetting it, to move on to a more searching guitar solo. Then the guitar blends with saxophone and trumpets and they get tied into an arhythmic conversation, all the while the percussion and bass accenting and contextualizing every moment. After a perfectly disheveled drum solo, we revisit the two earlier themes, one building and fading into the other, and the song ends.
The affirmation and confidence of the album’s title can be heard in Bhatia’s braving of uncharted time signatures with a sense of purpose, repeated statements of unconventional harmony and disharmony as common in his guitar licks as in the full orchestra he employs at certain points. Needless to say that we are kept on earth by both the use of real instruments and the musical training of real instrumentalists. lots of them. Some moments call to mind Pat Metheny, Elvin Jones, the Coltranes, Herbie Hancock, and friends, but there are so many new inspirations Bhatia willingly absorbs into his music, as though it was Jazz becoming a snowball rolling down a hill of music, picking up math rock, minimalism, ambient music, electronic music, and contemporary classical music along the way, and hitting you in the face at the bottom of the hill.
You can almost hear someone saying, “This won’t work.” and Bhatia saying “Yes It Will.”
I got a sense that Bhatia’s music is impressionist music, aiming to not only convey emotion, but to process chaos of modern life by finding parallels and intersections between the Jazz medium which is a staple of such expression and the electronic medium which has potential as a modern day tool for this expression. If you like Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage, and you like Flying Lotus’s Cosmogramma, you’ll love this.
Zürich’s own Look Like continues to establish himself as one of our favorite house music entrepreneurs with “Talk To Me”, a euphoric number punctuated by breezy synth pads. The track will appear on San Francisco-based Anabatic Records’ Nu-Bay$$ Vol. 2 compilation. Volume one was centered around the type of bass-heavy house championed by Dirtybird, and featured Kill Frenzy and Pasteman. Stream below.
Leon “Scratcha DVA” Smart has never been one to genuflect to dance music standards, making a career producing off-kilter, often indigestible tune under the UK Funky banner. March’s Pretty Ugly LP was a challenging listen to say the least, and while DVA’s refusal to acquiesce to convention is admirable, the album is ugly and twisted at times. Next month (November 20), DVA returns for his second release of the year on Kode9’s legendary Hyperdub and based on the previews, he has ironed out many of the wrinkles imposed on Pretty Ugly. The Fly Juice EP consists of four stuttering, soul-inflected house tracks that borrow from all corners of the bass music sphere, from funky and garage to grime and techno. DVA calls it “power house” and it’s hard to disagree considering the heart pumping nature of the EP. Astral Plane fave French Fries will contribute a remix (!), as will Hype Williams member Inga Copeland. Stream the previews below and be sure to grab one of the year’s most exuberant dance releases on November 20.
This is the third or fourth unreleased Marci jawn this month alone so I’m going to dispel with any pleasantries. “Bozack”. Marcberg reissue on legendary NYC record shop Fat Beats’ record arm. Mad Max, bad backs, bleed tomato on the street ladle. Gully, gutter or grimy. Or all of the above. Stream below and grab the reissue on October 30.
Recently, Australian psych rockers Tame Impala released their sophomore album Lonerism and it struck a chord within me that I’ve been struggling to place ever since. While psych rock is generally based in a sort of 1960’s/70’s nostalgia, but Lonerism sounds decidedly new and fresh, far flung from the original freaks. I’m no psychologist (that’s Madeline’s forte), but when I listen to Lonerism, I feel an intense sense of familiarity, not like I’ve heard the album many times before, but as if I associate it with an indescribably calm mental state.
From an objective standpoint, Lonerism hits all the marks of a great album. It’s indebted to the past, but ignores outdated song structure. Its bubblegum sweet choruses are juxtaposed with buzzing guitar solos, all done with an impressive technical ability. Kevin Parker’s lyrics are suitably weird without falling into obsessive minutiae. Parker’s background as an engineering student is apparent throughout Lonerism and the band’s attention to detail and maturation from their debut is palpable.
I still can’t place the feeling of familiarity though. A number of hyperbolic comparisons come to mind, but that doesn’t really help. It’s not like Lonerism is homely, because it reformats the boundaries of rock music as Tame Impala see them. It’s an unsettling, ye weirdly satisfactory emotional response to have to an album and one that has kept (and will keep) songs like “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” and “Endors Toi” in rotation for weeks. I highly recommend Lonerism to anyone with that prickly sensation at the base of their cerebral cortex that you just can’t place.
Kuhrye-oo is a Montreal-based weirdo pop artist who runs in the same circles as Grimes and Purity Ring. He’s also the latest artist to receive the remix treatment from the one and only DJ Sliink. The track marks a distinct turn for Sliink as he steps away from club-oriented hip hop and R&B. His approach to “Give In (For The Fame)” is far more nuanced than usual, giving the audience time to actually stop and catch their breath. Always impressive to see an artist experiment and succeed like this. Stream and download below.
Incest generally has some negative connotations, but when it’s remix incest between members of Jacques Greene’s Vase label, I just can’t get enough of it. It’s fair to say that Jeremy Rose aka Zodiac has shed the weight of the expectations built on The Weeknd controversy and built an impressive resume of individual productions. Rose’s latest is a remix of Arclight’s “Vitamin D”, off of the Hollographic EP. Whereas the original explores abstract ambience, Zodiac kicks it into gear, applying hip hop percussion for a result not dissimilar to Shlohmo’s first few beat tapes. Breathing and heavily chopped vocals are utilized as the main instruments amid Rose’s blunt percussion. With Arclight’s impressive vocal work and Zodiac’s dexterity in the realm of hip hop and R&B, the duo could prove formidable if they ever get together again. Oh and Vase stays winning. Stream below. (Via.)
The Astral Plane 