Five Decibel Festival Showcase Recommendations

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September 25, 2012
Festivals, Live
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Over the past nine years, Seattle’s Decibel Festival has established itself as one of the premier purveyors of forward thinking electronic music in the world. While not quite as recognizable as names like Sonar or MUTEK, Decibel’s focus on live performance and technology, both through its panels and showcases, has elevated it to revered status among fans and artists alike. Like any festival, the lineup poses many difficult choices, but because Decibel is held at venues across the city, discerning festival attendees usually have to choose one or two events to hit a night. To possibly aid your decision making process, we’ve chosen the five showcases that we are most excited about. Of course, it’s impossible to predict which showcases will be the biggest hits and there will certainly be more than a few surprises. With legends like Carl Craig, Orbital, DJ Shadow and Erykah Badu’s Cannabinoids project on the bill, as well as a special visit from The Boiler Room, it is sure to be a special five days. And to be honest, you can’t really go wrong with any of the dB showcases. Without further ado, our recommendations…

Beat Prodigies Presented By LFTF Feat. Dabrye, Samo Soundboy, Kid Smpl, Keyboard Kid and Katie Kate (Wednesday September 26 @ Barboza 21+)

Unsurprisingly, the good folks at Live For The Funk have put together one of the most diverse, eccentric showcases of the entire festival. Beat Prodigies is headlined Beat scene legend and Dilla disciple Dabrye who has laid low for the the past half-decade. The Detroit native has only released one EP (as James T. Cotton), but his left-field sampleology still sounds as fresh as ever. Samo Soundboy is the founder of Body High and one of the foremost purveyors of American club music. His latest release, the 5 Dollar Paradise EP, is an exhibition in acid sounds bridging the TR-303 with contemporary club sounds that should light a fire under the Barboza dancers. Contrasting the upbeat hip hop and club sounds of the two headliners, Kid Smpl will bring the Night Bus vibes to the club. Rounding out the lineup are Keyboard Kid and Katie Kid. Expect tempos to swing wildly throughout the showcase and be prepared to vogue.. or whatever you do.

Find our Thursday-Sunday recommendations after the jump…

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Melé Hits Big With “Space Jam”

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September 25, 2012
New Music
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As we all eagerly await the maximalist banger that will eventually become song of the year, Merseysider   Melé is giving the Glaswegians a run for their money. With a few veritable hood classics under his belt in 2012 already, Melé has elevated himself into the club elite, proving he is as dexterous a producer as any, switching up his sound palette with every new track. “Space Jam” will appear on an Annie Mac compilation (due on October 8) alongside tracks from Disclosure, TNGHT, AlunaGeorge, Julio Bashmore and a gang of others. “Space Jam” is an anthemic hip hop jam that sees Melé elevating his game into the stratosphere. The synths are lofty, the hooks are unavoidable catchy and this might just be Melé’s best track yet. Stream the astral video below and grab the compilation in a few weeks.

Stream New T. Williams EP, ‘Pain & Love’

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September 24, 2012
New Music
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T. Williams demonstrates the UK house sound better than just about anyone pumping out tunes at the moment. With the Pain & Love EP dropping today on PMR and an upcoming mix album for Rinse, the London native is forcing himself into the production elite. “Moving Fast” is the EP standout, reinvigorating some tried and true Garage methods. PMR has been on fire this year with standout releases from Jessie Ware and Julio Bashmore. Stream the EP below.

Black Moth Super Rainbow Provide Synthesizer Seratonin

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September 21, 2012
New Music
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While we wait for Black Moth Super Rainbow’s fifth studio album, Cobra Juicy, to explode like a piñata (filled with ayahuasca instead of candy), sink your tentacles into an unreleased demo of “Iron Lemonade”, which appeared on 2009’s Eating Us. The demo version kicks both the volume and tempo up for a more in-your-face take on the album cut. October 9th can’t come soon enough. Stream the demo below.

 

Three Decades Of Kush Clouds Collide

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September 21, 2012
New Music
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“Kush Cloud” is five minutes of paranoiac kush raps from three of hip hop’s stoner dons. It’s fun to gaze through the blunt smoke and into the annals of history to remember that the first Bone Thugs formed right around the time Spaceghostpurrp was birthed. Well daddy don’t you know that things go in cycles? Ostensibly this is a posse cut, but we all know that Freddie Gibbs puffs the tuffest. Krayzie Bone and Spaceghost (still a better producer than MC) play capable foils, but there isn’t another rapper who carries across that “always looking over the shoulder” paranoia as Gangsta Gibbs. Looking over his shoulder while rolling up another dutch of course. Stream “Kush Cloud” below and look out for Gibbs’ Baby Face Killa tape on September 25th.

New Nosaj Thing Single From His Upcoming LP

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September 20, 2012
2012, New Music
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My oh my…This has been a long time coming. LA producer, Nosaj Thing, has been off the radar from the blogosphere for what seems like an eternity. Since his release of his debut LP Drift, Nosaj has been at work on his follow up LP Home and doing specific mixes for select shows (check out his mix for Mary Anne Hobbs here). Home is set to drop in 2013 from the good people at Alpha Pup. Before that though, we will see a 10″ with the album single, “Eclipse/Blue”, dropping from Innovative Leisure. The single is driven by low key beats that are only accentuated by Kazu Makino’s (of Blonde Redhead) cooing vocals. Stream the single in full below and hopefully we will see some more material off the album soon.

New Lapalux – “Forgetting And Learning Again”

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September 20, 2012
New Music
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Brainfeeder’s UK representative Lapalux will release his second EP, titled Some Other Time, via the the seminal LA imprint on October 16. In  “Forgetting And Learning Again”, featuring lush vocals from Kerry Leatham, the Essex native has given us our first taste of the EP. In typical fashion, the track balances Leatham’s vocals with swirling synths and slightly off-kilter percussion for a slightly off-kilter, yet highly manageable sound. Grab the track for free at Lapalux’s Bandcamp and stream below.

Hopping On The RATKING Bandwagon

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September 20, 2012
New Music
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I’ve been meaning to jump on the RATKING bandwagon for a minute now, but for one reason or another, haven’t gotten my shit together. Now I have the perfect excuse. For the uninitiated, RATKING is made up of NYC teens Wiki, Sporting Life, Racerra and Hak. Last year, they released the Wiki93 EP and garnered a good amount of blog hype, inciting people to rave about their looking back to the future approach to New York hip hop. Soon enough, XL Recordings snapped up the crew and the EP was promptly removed from the internet. In the months since, the group has simmered quietly below the surface, and although little new music has been released, their profile has quickly grown. In November, XL will re-release Wiki93 in a remastered format. For a taste of the re-release, stream “Wikispeaks” below. Hyperbole is the norm when a new, seemingly prodigious hip hop group comes around, especially one from New York, but it’s hard not to indulge with these guys. Just read Wiki and Sporting Life’s interview with Complex from back in March. The dudes just ooze confidence and maturity and are clearly the master’s of their own universe. Anyways, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from these guys come November and that a cavalcade of “overrated/underrated” arguments will then ensue. In the meantime, enjoy the music.

All Bruiser Brigade Errthing

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September 20, 2012
New Music, Remixes
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Everyone has a posse these days, but few are as vile as Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade. Hopefully as a precursor to a full-length, Brown, Dopehead and in-house producer SKYWLKR let loose this EP via Scion A/V. For some reason I can’t even begin to comprehend, the EP’s four tracks are all edited, with that obnoxious warped sound throughout. Fuq dat. Anyways, with Brown at his lugubrious best and Dopehead playing the littler brother role more than capably, the EP is a nice primer to the crew, although hearing from Chip$ would have been preferable. Remixes from Ryan Hemsworth and Lockah prove that one of Brown’s most overlooked assets is his esoteric beat selection and willing to experiment. Those Gucci samples on “Errthing”? Yeaaahhhh. Wouldn’t mind a full project from those two. Head over to Scion A/V to grab the full EP.

Four Tet Remixes The xx’s “Angels”

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September 20, 2012
New Music, Remixes
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When I look up The xx’s 2009 debut in my iTunes, I’m almost always taken aback by the sheer number of talent that lent their hand to both official and unofficial remixes. Pariah, Dark Sky, Mount Kimbie, Nosaj Thing, John Talabot, Four Tet, and of course Jamie xx himself, all put forth impressive reinterpretations, with “VCR”, “Basic Space” and “Islands” (by my count) being the most popular remix fodder. Even that Biggy mashup tape was quality and highlighted Jamie xx’s handle on hip hop percussion. Surprisingly, despite Coexist being released over two weeks ago, there has been a dearth of quality remixes. It’s not like the album isn’t remix-able either. With even more empty space and sparser production, the album is arguably more open to reinterpretation than xx. Enter Kieran Hebden. Four Tet’s sprawling remix of “VCR” was one of the two or three best from the debut and his take on “Angels” might be looked back on in a similar fashion in a few years. Unlike the nine minute shoegaze exodus that was “VCR”, Hebden’s take on “Angels” is charming and beatific, maintaining the restraint of the original. The remix could appear on an EP alongside a Jamie xx remix of a recent Four Tet jam. In the meantime, stream “Angels” below.