What can we say about Viette that we haven’t already said? Our favorite White Zinfandel-loving Wisconsinite has been on a tear lately. He literally lit Soundcloud on fire. It happened. I was there. He’s also got a brand spanking new Facebook page so give him a holla. He works hard. Not only has he released two exquisite new bangers in the last days alone, but yesterday, he was featured in 110BPM’s guest mix series. Doin’ big thangs. Check the mix below and hit his Soundcloud for the full scoop.
Yesterday, I wrote that the new TNGHT/Four Tet mix is “the pitch perfect melding of promethazine and ecstasy culture”. If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m prone to making sweeping statements. As hard (in the paint) as HudMo and Lunice went on Radio One, Shlohmo might have just one upped them in the narcotic combination department. Coming in at just under an hour, Mr. Laufer’s contribution to Resident Advisor’s longstanding podcast series is an exhibition in convolution. In the vein of Boston Bun’s Leanhouse mixtapes, Laufer “takes his previously stated love for chopped n screwed music, tilts back the heads of hip-hop, house, juke and R&B, and throws gallons of purple drank down their collective throats.” Kind of like Brodinski before him, Shlohmo’s mix is a compilation of his own screwed edits of house, juke, R&B and hip hop cuts. The mix is at its most successful when it exists on both ends of the tempo spectrum, exhibiting both raucous juke and lethargic R&B edits simultaneously. Head over to RA to download the mix and check the tracklist after the jump.
LOL Boys have wrangled the contemporary interweb/Soundcloud like none other over the past year or so. From the name to the artwork to the ever-changing sound, the duo have toed the line between gimmick and art with an impressive consistency. Despite this, the quality of Jerome and Sam’s releases have always seemed to lag behind their interminable internet presence. That all ends with “Changes”. Putting the tried and true methods of UK Bass music against timeless jazz stylings could go horribly wrong in the wrong hands, but Jerome and Markus, with the help of vocalist Heart Streets, blow the combination out of the water. “Changes” is simply a beautiful composition. The Changes EP drops tomorrow on Friends of Friends. Stream below.
I’m off three double stacks and I’m looking for that action
As much as it pains my hating heart, Diplo has been doing his damn thing on Radio 1Extra. Hopefully I don’t have to explain how fucking incredible two hours of Hudson Mohawke, Lunice and Four Tet laying down the phreshest hip hop beats and rhymes is so just grab a double cup and pop a squat. Seriously, stop what you’re doing. Who knew that the pitch perfect melding of promethazine and ecstasy culture would come in the form of a pasty Glaswegian and a gregarious Montréalaise. Four Tet impresses, fitting grime, R&B and a righteous Theo Parrish edit into the hip hop spectrum. I don’t think I’ll never get sick of “I’m God”. Stream below.
Stream: TNGHT (Hudson Mohawke and Lunice) and Four Tet on Radio 1Xtra
Cigarette Boats follows a simple script; Spitta plays Tubbs and Fraud gives best Crockett impersonation. The scene set is distinctly Miami and the duo makes no attempt at hiding it. The title and Fraud’s overtly 80’s indebted beats make that clear enough. Spitta inhabits a space he’s comfortable enough with on the EP. Personal wealth, classic cars, and rollin’ up are the topics he’s discussed ad infinitum, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Listening to Curren$y usually gives me a sense of comfort. I know exactly what I’m getting, but still end up pleasantly engaged by a few dozen pop culture references and punchlines. Fraud must have spent hours engorging himself on those low down shots of Testarossa’s in Vice while in the studio. He might of done the 80’s Miami sound better than anyone since… well 1980’s Miami. Cigarette Boats is free. It’s also Spitta’s most engrossing release since Covert Coup. Stream and download below.
All too often, and for far too long, musicians’ work has been associated with and affected by the artists’ personal lives; it has become a fact of the industry that fans not only absorb an artist’s music, but that they become acquainted with the artist as a human being as well, for better or for worse. Frank Ocean has been the subject a lot of Internet buzz over the past few weeks, and sadly, until Tuesday, very little of it had anything to do with the music he makes. Sexual orientation has no effect whatsoever on musical ability or songwriting talent; that being said, countless reviews of Frank Ocean’s superb new album, Channel Orange, seem focused solely upon attempting to tie various lyrics to alleged homosexual feelings or actions. That type of review is both useless and ridiculous, in light of the quality and effort so clearly apparent within this project.
Channel Orange would have been the same album whether or not Ocean had chosen to discuss his sexual orientation publicly the week before its release. The experiences he describes in the album had already passed, the lyrics had all been written, the verses recorded. Although we at The Astral Plane were overjoyed to see a respected and revered artist like Ocean publicly come out despite the potential for backlash, the blogosphere’s reactions to this announcement (positive OR negative) play no role whatsoever in the musical entity that is Channel Orange. It is rather useless to spend time either congratulating or criticizing Ocean’s lifestyle, and frankly I’m sick of reading track-by-track reviews of this album that seem intent upon pointing out the number of times per song where Ocean says “he” instead of “she,” as if attempting to decide upon the “gayest” song of the album. It’s exhausting to see so many people attempting to analyze the personal life of an individual they have never met in what should be a review of the music.
The most beautiful aspect of this project, and the thing so many bloggers seem to be missing as they scrutinize Frank Ocean’s sexuality in loose or imagined relation to the lyrics in Channel Orange, is the fact that Ocean has created a multifaceted and comprehensive portrait of love in this album. This is not love as viewed through the eyes of any one individual; instead, it is love as a concept, viewed critically and with trepidation and awe. This album is a 17-track rumination on the many flavors of fondness and affection. Read the track-by-track review after the jump.
A beat cypher, what a novel idea. Could be interesting. Those were my first thoughts when a friend mentioned TeamSupreme to me. It sounded vaguely enticing, but an unrealistic novelty in reality. 12 producers using the same two samples and contributing one minute of beat action? No way that could work. If conducted by the wrong people, I figured it would be an utter disaster. Well what the fuck do I know? Directed by Dane (The Great Dane) and Preston (of Virtual Boy), TeamSupreme has been churning out their unique “cyphers” since April and have garnered respect from across the hip hop and electronic music spectrums. With a monthly spot at Los Angeles’ La Cita in place and a stable of producers ranging from (DJ) Nobody to Boreta of The Glitch Mob contributing to the weekly volumes. We wanted to find out more about the process behind TeamSupreme so we shot some emails back and forth with Dane and Preston. Here are the results. Can’t wait for Volume 3,000 to drop.
Dane: Me and Preston were hanging out and we decided to have a little unofficial project to make a beat in an hour at the same BPM with the same vocal sample, “My team supreme, stay clean” (a Biggie quote). After we finished up we put them back to back and thought it would be cool to try it on a bigger scale with more producers. That first little project turned into TeamSupreme Vol. 1.
Who all is involved with TeamSupreme at this point? Is everyone located in LA?
Dane: We started with just our close producer friends mostly in LA or Orange County, but now we have people sending in beats from NY, Colorado, Portland and more.
Preston: Our usual suspects consists of Papi, King Henry, Great Dane, Preston James, Djemba Djemba, Fuzz, Kloud, DJ Nobody, Dot, ELOS, Kenny Segal, Nalepa, Snorlax and Colta. We’ve also had many guests including Boreta of The Glitch Mob and Kendo of Two Fresh.
Hit the jump for the full interview…
The LuckyMe seal of approval is as close to a guarantee as there is in the electronic music sphere. I don’t need to get into the label’s pedigree to illustrate this point. ANGO aka Andrew Gordon was born in Halifax (but now resides in Montreal) and is among the overflowing pool of up and coming Canucks. Gordon sings, and mans the drum machine, keyboard and electric bass for an impressive command of his synth oriented sound. “Paralyzed” is off of ANGO’s upcoming Serpentine mixtape, due on July 17 via LuckyMe. Some true to form future R&B shit right here. Stream below and download here.
Since its inception around the mid aughts, the Los Angeles beat scene has turned out dozens of stars, garnering acclaim across the globe. The residents of Low End Theory spend weeks at a time traveling and performing in locales as far-flung as Japan. Similar scenes have popped up in just about every city in the US spawning a whole new generation of talented DJ’s and producers. Flying Lotus is generally (and rightfully) credited as the breakout star, but another man, born William Bensussen, has had as much or more of a role in the promulgation of the City of Angels’ distinct sound. That’s right, the Mother.Fucking.Gaslamp.Killer. Known for his unparalleled crate digging, inexhaustible energy and the sheer number of angles his hair can point simultaneously, GLK is one of the most visible members of LA’s music community. Despite this, his production skills are often overlooked. As of September 18, that trend will surely end. That’s the day Bensussen’s debut full length, the aptly titled Breakthrough, will smack everyone who’s anyone who’s anything across the face like a cold fish. September is a long ways away so the Killer let loose the first single from the LP for all the devout followers of the church of GLK. Head over to Pitchfork to stream the Miguel Atwood-Ferguson assisted track, which will hopefully be out in some other incantation in the near future, and start the countdown to September 18.
The Astral Plane 