Giveaway: IHC Presents Kastle, Plastician, Swindle, Patrick Brian & Swelta

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July 28, 2015
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It has been a good while since we’ve brought you a giveaway for IHEARTCOMIX’s Club IHC series, but this Thursday’s throw down is just too good to pass by. Plastician and Swindle, coming in from London, headline the traveling talent while Los Angeles’ own Kastle, Patrick Brian and Swelta round up the drop dead bill. Expect plenty of classic East and South London sounds, as well as a heap of new band-oriented material from Swindle (although he’s only bringing out the DJ set for this date). Plastician has been running game on his Rinse FM slot and pushing eclectic big room sounds via his Terrorhythm outlet, all while working with some of the biggest MCs around and facilitating a reeducation among young fans in the roots of grime and dubstep. Kastle has an excellent new EP coming next month on his own Symbols label and has taken his own productions and his label is increasingly abstract, boundary pushing places as of late. And if you’re not familiar with LA’s own Patrick Brian and Swelta, then you have to hop on the train soon because these too should be heading up bills in the not so distant future. Enter your favorite Swindle classic below for a chance at a pair of tickets to Thursday’s show. Tickets can be found here and more info can be attained here.

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Premiere: Krueger – Jungle Walk

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July 27, 2015
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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.

New Track: Margaret Antwood – Coincidence Part 2

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July 27, 2015
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Initially garnering attention with the Energy Plaza EP in July 2013 (out on Cocobass), Margaret Antwood has been floating on the periphery of the dance music world for the better part of two years now, consistently flirting with a breakthrough into the wider club consciousness, but generally preferring to engage from an outsider perspective. Out tomorrow (July 28) on B.YRSLF DIVISION, Antwood’s Work Focus EP, should change that immediately, its six tracks offering a fully fledged view into the producer’s mechanized world view. Alongside fellow B.YRSLF artists Trap Door and Tsvi, Antwood has effortlessly merged retro synth flourishes with machinic percussion and dystopia-rendering sound design. Tracks like “Work Focus” and “Coincidence Part 2” don’t just sound metallic or pump along at a predictable pace though, they seem to embody the workmanlike spirit of automated labor and the factory environment at large. Premiered below, “Coincidence Part 2” consists of heaving hydraulic noises and piston-esque kicks, recalling an alien Detroit sensibility with a distinctly modern twitch. Look out for Work Focus tomorrow and check out a few other previews from the EP here.

Giveaway: RUN 7.25.15 w/ SHEEN

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July 22, 2015
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RUN with sheen

For the second consecutive weekend Los Angeles’ RUN crew are bringing through a huge lineup to Shambhala Studio, Saturday’s (7/25) affair headlined by Night Slugs representative SHEEN (formerly Georgia Girls). It’s rare that an artist with no official release and barely any material out garners so much critical attention, but SHEEN has a slew of support in no small part because everything he’s released to date has been remarkably on point. From the first few edits of Night Slugs hits surfaced to his recent Nguzu x JoJo blend, everything SHEEN has touched turns to gold and his recent shows on Radar Radio show he has the curatorial skills to match his efforts behind the boards. Filling out the bill on Saturday are Zernell, DJ Chap, Pachuco, TenTwentySeven and RUN’s collection of excellent residents. We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away for Saturday’s throw down, available in exchange for favorite Dirty Sprite 2 track below. And despite bringing out Victoria Kim last week, expect the RUN folks to bring it just as hard on Saturday.

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GROVESTREET Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 22, 2015
Mixes
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GROVESTREET

In an era of rapid production and even quicker consumption, it’s easy to forget that the process of delivering music, and art in general, to the public can, and often should, be a drawn out, long winded procedure. As pleasurable as the instant gratification system of Soundcloud is, it’s easy to become lost under the deluge of one offs, release previews and mixes, a crush that blogs like ourselves certainly facilitate and urge on. As far as both releases and mixes go, we’ve reached a boiling point of sorts wherein listeners can’t possibly have the time to take in every new bit and artists often feel pressured by the constant scroll to release music that either isn’t ready, or shouldn’t be released at all. On the mix front, the deluge leads to a glut of uninspired production mixes, rehashes of scene trends and efforts that somehow manage to blur lines between artists instead of defining them.

Oxford’s GROVESTREET has been an Astral Plane favorite since we premiered his track “If U Wanna Try” towards the end of 2013 and his stripped down percussion tracks and energetic grime numbers have quickly infiltrated the club massive in the years since, garnering attention from artists and journalists alike. Official releases on Tight Knit Records and Trax Couture are both excellent touchstones for entry into the GROVESTREET sound, but besides a few low bit rate uploads, the young producer has kept his release rate relatively slow. And while tracks like “Ground Zero” and “Disqualified” can be found in the mixes of many contemporaries (the former was remixed by Byrell The Great and M.E.S.H.), GROVESTREET’s most insightful work to date might be his DJ mixes, which tend to sprawl across genre, but always involve the same roughhewn, minimalist spirit.

Not that the track selection or mixing itself is minimal, drawing lines between Memphis rap, modern R&B, ballroom, Jersey club, reggaeton, industrial-tinged grime and, sometimes, trance. GROVESTREET’s productions are high energy club burners, built out in an overdrive fashion with plenty of peculiar samples and his mix work not only allows the listener to peek into his library, but also his creative subject matter. There are plenty of contemporaries involved in his Astral Plane mix, from Endless rep Lexxi to ballroom don MikeQ and up-and-comcer Sugar Shane. Sissy Nobby, Black Jonas Point and Tommy Wright III sit comfortable together as ballroom classics are mixed with tranced out hard house and earworm R&B is twisted into the intervals. And whereas the final product (a GROVESTREET production) is aesthetically singular, it’s important to delve into a musical polyglots library to work out the building blocks.

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Premiere: Otik – Futile

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July 21, 2015
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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.

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Premiere: Bangkok Snobiety – Help

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July 16, 2015
New Music
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bangkok snobiety

Columbus, Ohio’s Apothecary Compositions outlet has never had a singular focus, often switching between beat-based abstractions, dancefloor burners and R&B oddities in the span of a few releases. Lisbon duo Bangkok Snobiety also prefer not to be pigeonholed, pushing a sound loosely based in techno, but drawing from a multitude of other areas of well. Next week (7/24), Bangkok Snobiety will release their debut To The New Era LP on Apothecary, an eight track sojourn through oversized kick drums, haunting vocal snippets blaring industrial noise. While rarely fun in a breezy sense, To The New Era has a number of sneaky dancefloor numbers, “Help” being our favorite of the bundle. With an atmosphere that can lightly be described as uneasy, “Help” is one of several four-on-the-floor stompers on the LP, matching the huge, dusty kicks with equally dusty piano and an only slightly disturbing cry for help. Pre-order To The New Era here and look out for the full tape next Tuesday!

Big Dope P Mix For The Astral Plane (+ ticket giveaway to ‘Hit Da Blokk’ London release party)

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July 15, 2015
Contest, Mixes
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big dope pIn hindsight, a small Parisian label pressing tunes from DJ Tameil, James Nasty, DJ Rashad and Traxman to vinyl in the late 2000s doesn’t come across as an especially brave or counterintuitive move, but in reality, few, if any, tastemakers were talking about or buying Bmore, Jersey club or footwork at the time. With dozens of international labels (still too few) releasing the sounds of Baltimore, Newark and Chicago now, it’s easy to look back with rose tinted glasses and assume that this was always the case, ignoring the fact that few people cared about, or even knew who the aforementioned titans of Jersey club and footwork were back in the late aughts. Founded by Big Dope P in 2007, Moveltraxx was one of the first international labels to push the sounds of Jersey club and footwork, along with other visceral house-oriented sounds from Chicago (Todd Terry, Waxmaster), and introduced many fans, 18 year old myself included, to a sound that has become hugely important to contemporary dance music at large.

As a curator, Big Dope P’s legacy is unassailable, ranging from the banging Da Movelt Posse compilation series to his work with fellow Frenchmen Canblaster and Feadz, simultaneously pushing a genre bending sound on his own productions and introducing the Continent to American club music. And with a few exceptions, Big Dope P has released all of his original music on Moveltraxx, drawing together various nodes on the rap map, footwork, ghetto house,  Bmore, Jersey and Philly, spastic funk and a multitude of other genres into his own kinetic productions. His latest release, the Hit Da Blokk EP, is one of his few excursions beyond the confines of Moveltraxx and comes on Nightwave‘s Heka Trax label. Comprised of three originals (one a collaboration with Feadz) and remixes from Rustie, Ikonika, DJ Earl and DJ Tim Dolla (vinyl exclusive), the EP trespasses across traditional dance music structure, filtering the maximalist spirit of Glass Swords into a stripped down, footwork-inspired framework. It’s huge, over-the-top club music and Big Dope P executes it perfectly, showing off a keen understanding of his source material as well as the will to go above and beyond his influences.

To celebrate the release of the white vinyl edition of Hit Da Blokk, Big Dope P is bringing out a number of friends, Feadz, Nightwave, Joseph Marinetti, Dudley Slang and Maribor, for a party in London. Going down at Birthdays in Dalston on August 7, the Moveltraxx don’s set will likely sound something like his entry to our mix series, part workout club trax, part throw your hands in the air rap fun and part clattering, factory rhythms. It’s fun as hell to run to and I can’t imagine tracks like “Ibogance” and “Hit Da Blokk” won’t sound good on the Birthdays system. Along with the mix, Big Dope P has gifted us two pairs of tickets to the release party, a can’t miss opportunity for our London readers to catch a real club music innovator with a cadre of friends and likeminded artists. Find more info on the party here and enter to win a pair of tickets after the jump. You can also find the (packed) track list after the jump and be sure to tune in to Big Dope P’s regular slot on Radar Radio.

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Mobilegirl Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 9, 2015
Mixes
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If you haven’t noticed yet, we have quite a bit of love for Stockholm’s Staycore crew, featuring crew leader Dinamarca in the mix series back in May and letting loose Mechatok‘s tightly bundled contribution just a few weeks ago. In the meantime, the Ghazal and Dinamarca headed posse released the excellent Staycore Summer Jams 2K15 compilation, a mission statement of sorts, but also an introduction to the crew’s wide-ranging talents and individual components. Dembow, tarraxo, kuduro and gqom are the rhythmic forms that draw Staycore together, but across the compilation’s13 sprawling tracks, a multitude of individual aesthetics exist, tied together by an undeniable drive for percussive experimentation and, well, fucking up the dancefloor. Munich’s Mobilegirl has been a source of admiration for a good while now and when she sent a small pack of her productions over in April, we knew we had to enlist the multifaceted talent for our mix series.

Without an official release and only a handful of tracks and bootlegs available, Mobilegirl’s musical career is in an exciting nascent stage, drawing in influences at a rapid pace and churning out a kaleidoscopic take on contemporary R&B and trans-Atlantic/tresillo rhythm-based club music, all seen through a shattered mirror. Tracks like “Ice Sheets” and her take on Dinamarca’s “How About” show a measured restraint and an almost meditative quality while her remixes of TLC and Brandy show a more jagged side of the Mobilegirl sound, bringing out the bite in the vocals on top of propulsive, harsh drums. Her entry to our mix series is a wild affair, more of a collage than a traditional mix, although the untrained listener might consider it haphazard. Running through tempos, vocalists and blaring synth-based melodies, Mobilegirl touches on tracks from Staycore label members (including several tracks from Summer Jams), as well as contemporaries like DJ Nigga Fox, Angel-Ho and DJ Jio P. At times, the fabric of the mix seems to tear apart, but before the listener can adapt, a new track, chant or trance-indebted synth line has entered the picture and carried the project into the next stage. Boiled down to its individual components, It could be a party mix, but simply sticking with the beat is hard enough, let alone following the non-existing groove. And at this point, it’s difficult to foresee how Mobilegirl will sound in six months, a year, two years, etc., but the current output is tantalizing and if her Astral Plane mix is anything to go by, the future is bright for this young producer.

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Outlook Festival 2015: Boat Party Preview

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July 7, 2015
Festivals
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Outlook - boat by sunset - credit Marc Sethi

With Outlook Festival 2015 under two months away, anticipation is nearing a fever pitch and planning has begun in earnest, much of it focused over the past few weeks on the festival’s infamous boat party circuit. And while several of the daytime parties have sold out, there are still tickets available for a number of absolutely out-of-control soirees. If you already have tickets to the Butterz, Bandulu, Deep Medi or Swamp81 (the list goes on) parties, then the rest of us can only look on in jealousy, but we still do have an opportunity to catch DJs like Kode9, Mumdance, Paleman and many many more. The following three parties are our personal selections (you’ll find us there) and hopefully offer up a good cross-section of what the day time programming has to offer. This is all purely hypothetical as 2015 is our first jaunt over to Pula so bare with us.

1. Resident Advisor Sunset Boat Party w/ Kode9 & Mumdance – Friday
The Hyperdub boss and grime provocateur take over this sunset boat party from start to finish and are sure to bring out a huge range of sounds. Considering that each has covered a remarkable amount of ground in their own productions, it’s almost inconceivable where this party will go. We do know that it will be a carefully curated experience covering the finest in on-the-cusp grime, dubstep and maybe a little mahraganat and footwork if we’re lucky. We’ve been lucky enough to catch Kode9 come through the United States a few times, but had the chance to see Mumdance so this will be an exciting occasion for our traveling team.

2. Wavey Garms w/ Artful Dodger, Hatcha (old skool garage set), Spooky – Saturday

It’s not often that we in the US get an opportunity to catch garage legends and when they do come, they’re often shoehorned into overproduced house clubs or tacked onto the end or beginning of populist dubstep parties. It’s unfortunate, but there isn’t much of an American garage massive and even though the occasional DJ EZ jaunt across the country brings out droves, the groundswell of support needed to sustain a culture is rarely found. Which makes the Wavey Garms (“the kind of Facebook garment groups”) party that much more exciting for us, that once in a lifetime chance to catch legends like Artful Dodger and Hatcha bringing their livest records to a boat in the Aegean Sea. Spooky rounds out the lineup to complete the circle, offering different eras and perspectives on the classic 2 step sound and while others parties might offer more in terms of contemporary talent, Wavey Garms might just be the highlight of the whole trip for us.

3. Just Jam w/ Paleman, Big Narstie, Barely Legal, DJ Milktray b2b Tim & Barry – Sunday
While not the most stacked bill compared to some of the label parties bringing out their entire rosters, the Just Jam boat affair is sure to bring out a good collection of heads for buzzing Swamp81 repper Paleman, commentator/MC Big Narstie, Just Jam regular Barely Legal, and Glasgow’s DJ Milktray going back to back with Tim & Barry, the duo behind the whole operation. Not only will the boat party have a spectrum crossing array of sonics, the Just Jam folks know how to throw a good party as they’ve been doing in London for the last 15 years. One for the heads.

Check out the full Outlook Boat Party schedule after the jump…

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