Frosty Ice Cold

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August 12, 2014
New Music
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15 days ago with the concurrent creations of a Twitter account, a Soundcloud account, and a Tumblr page, Frosty took its first minute steps into the world of Social Media to announce itself as a brand-brand-brand-new mix series. Started by Hana Risk of PC Music fame (yea yea PC Music Cute! Fun! Pop Mirror!!) Frosty is run out of London and comes with a lot of new original music and without a clear mission statement. The basic structure so far is a ~ 20 minute mix with like five Wiley accapellas (not the only emcee but a strong favorite) thrown over a mix of bootlegs, original productions, and vips curated by some of the more interesting artists/labels out there.

The first edition was brought by Parisian traxman Le Dom and a quick second came from Sega Bodega (recently given a piggy-back by Ryan Hemsworth’s Secret Songs label). Yesterday, Manicure Records was invited to let its members have a spin with the preface, “all ur fave grime acapellas over all ur fave non-grime beats!” Each mix is free to download off Frosty’s Soundcloud and feature full tracklists.

These are Hot! Hot! Hot!

Listen to Frosty Mix 3 below.

New Lotic – “Headlock”

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August 11, 2014
New Music
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After the massive critical success of M.E.S.H.’s Scythians EP and Lotic‘s “Damsel In Distress” mix, Berlin’s Janus club night has been elevated to an exciting new theoretical stature. Alongside nights GHE20 GOTH1K, Janus has a purpose, a stated intention to differentiate itself from the ever-growing mass of club nights the world over. This attitude is made ever-clear in interviews with co-founders Dan Denorch and Michael Ladner, but also in the disparate sonic stylings of night’s aforementioned residents. Scythians is the best illustration of the deconstructive school of club music and Lotic’s recent signing to Fade to Mind points to a future rife with opportunity fo the Texas-born producer. “Headlock” is the latest track to appear from the latter, a seeming one-off with a distinct gunmetal sheen. For classification purposes “Headlock” follows something along the lines of a dembow rhythmic structure, while twinkling synth rotations and distant Rihanna sample lull and build anticipation in equal measure. No word yet on an official release for “Headlock” or any more news on the F2M front, but it’s easy to see that the presentation of the unknown is to Lotic’s liking.

Premiere: Know V.A. – “Prisma”

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August 11, 2014
New Music
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European footwork producers generally either comprehend the fine details of the genre and its culture, or they completely miss the point entirely. The hip hop and ghetto house influence isn’t always easy to grasp, and the off-kilter nature of the footwork sound cannot be replaced with simple drum programming, breakbeats, or a sped-up Lex Luger kit. For every Feloneezy and Jackie Dagger, the Continent generally conjures up ten painful misappropriations of the venerable Chicago sound. Amsterdam-based duo Know V.A. (Marijn Brussaard and Feico De Muinck Keizer) don’t exactly peddle explicit footwork, but their productions generally do reside roughly around 150-160 beats-per-minute and retain the cross-eyed fervor of the genre. Last year’s O Horizon EP, out now on Lowriders Recordings, featured manic rhythms combined with the bountiful precision of dubstep and an overarching hip hop aesthetic. DJ Earl & DJ Taye, as well as Rabit, contributed remixes to O Horizon and the duo has since opened for Evian Christ and Mssingno, and collaborated with recent RBMA inductee Torus, placing them at the forefront of Amsterdam’s growing cadre of non-traditionalists. It’s no surprise that Marijn and Feico point to Los Angeles’ beat scene as a key influence and like many of their global contemporaries, their output seem to rapidly unspool the more you rinse it. In the months since the release of O Horizon, Know V.A. haven’t released another official project, preferring to work on their live set, watch the EP percolate and spend time in the studio. “Prisma” is the result of that studio time, a sly, aggressively circular heater with more than a few footwork and jungle signifiers dug into its fabric. It’s clear that Know V.A. have a keen understanding of the past history and contemporary historicity of the music they peddle and songs like “Prisma” represent the care with which they approach dance culture.

New Clap! Clap! – “Kuj Yato”

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August 7, 2014
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With an imagined island as conceptual backbone and plenty of field recordings and rain sticks in tow, Italian multi-instrumentalist Clap! Clap! (née Cristiano Crisci) is preparing his full-length debut, the Tayi Bebba LP, for a September 8 release on Black Acre. Last month, we heard “The Rainstick Fable”, a fascinating footwork re-interpretation featuring clanging organic production and beatific, children’s choir singing. It goes without saying that Clap! Clap! is a different breed of Western producer reinterpreting “global” sounds and his songs rarely involve the cringe-worthy, bloviating signifiers that cloister “world music” into the disreputable “genre” it is viewed as today. “Kuj Yato” is the second taste from Tayi Bebba and features a hi-res interpretation of trans-Atlantic percussion, comfortably resting in a contemporary hip hop framework.”Kuj Yato” rolls, dives and slams like the best of Iamsu! and might just be one of the more fun-loving club songs to emerge all summer. Crisci’s combination of beyond-impressive production quality, left-field instrumentalism and comprehension of the basics of club music sub-culture point towards Tayi Bebba being a wildly enticing listen.

Celestial Trax Mix For The Astral Plane

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August 6, 2014
Mixes
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celestial-traxThe “is grime a sub-form of hip hop?” debate has raged for years now and while nearly all of the genre’s major players have had their say, the dregs of forum culture are still ablaze with cathectic “controversy”. And while countless words have been scribed in an attempt to contextualize grime’s past and future, the fact of the matter is that the genre is only ten-plus years old and, essentially, needs more time before its legacy can be analyzed with any sort of clarity. A far more worthwhile goal in 2014 is to draw tangible connections between disparate sonic and cultural elements within both grime and hip hop. The atmospheric rattle of gun shots in both Lil Wyte’s Memphis odysseys and Jammer’s best instrumental work. The joyously over-the-top chipmunk sampling techniques utilized by Dipset production duo The Heatmakerz and Blackjack. The contemplative, dagger-like wordplay of Trim and Scarface. The fact of the matter is that the Atlantic is less a cultural barrier than a short wall meant to be leapt over, chipped away at and, eventually, torn down.

New York-based producer Celestial Trax has, quite literally, leapt over the wall after spending time living in London. His latest EP, Paroxysm, was released on Rinse and features what he considers a “rainy gloomy London night” vibe, but he’s hardly a purest and often, both directly and indirectly, references hip hop, jungle, footwork and contemporary R&B in his productions. The influence of American luminaries as disparate as Young Chop and James Nasty are reticent on Paroxysm alongside the more obvious Devil Mix and Metalheadz influences and the EP thrives when it picks up a particular emotion and expounds on it. For most of the EP, that emotion is anxiety and Paroxysm can be viewed as a genre-blended explication of disquietude. On Paroxysm, that anxiety is directly rooted in the physical environment of the aforementioned “gloomy London night,” a tangled web of apprehension and sublimated hysteria. Unfortunately, in electronic music, the subject has been touched on ad nausea and while the kitchen sink approach to Paroxysm is its greatest strength, the emotional superficiality gives it a peripatetic monotony at times.

Which is exactly why the move to New York has done wonders for the Celestial Trax sound. Vocal-like melodies drowned in squarewaves no longer take on the maudlin character they used to. Every kick, metallic swipe and chime seems to have fallen into place and his work with vocalists has taken on a singular focus. Anxiety is still the dominant emotion, but it’s a far more nuanced anxiety. His Astral Plane mix is made up of twelve original tracks, features MCs Shady Blaze and Tynethys, and, considering his adherence to crafting “songs” vs. “tracks”, is more of a production mix than something a DJ’s DJ might put together. Again, the strain of the austere urban environment takes center stage, but it’s appended this time with desire, loss and just enough melancholy. With a small, but effective hardware set-up, Celestial Trax has synthesized his influences into a sound that functions with or without a vocalist and with a breadth of affecting inputs and outputs. Realist hip hop (“Stargate”) sits alongside druggy, elegiac edits (“I Don’t Sell Molly No More”) and foreboding, on-the-cusp grime instrumentals (“Illumination”) that could easily find a home in a Visionist set. The wealth of influences are still palpable, but they have been compounded into a sound that Celestial Trax can proudly call his own.

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New Aerial – “Strut”

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August 5, 2014
New Music
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Los Angeles’ Private Selection crew has been making major moves in their native municipality as of late and are quickly entering the popular consciousness. Dreams, Arkitect and Aerial, the chimera that runs PS, has developed a sound that coalesces techno, electro and bits and flecks of Jersey club into a wintry stew of angular percussion and simple, hi-res synth work. With a little bit more schmaltz, it wouldn’t be difficult to view fellow Angeleno Egyptian Lover as a clear precedent (especially for Dreams), but PS certainly trends towards the frozen and austere, bringing to mind Drexciya instead. Aerial’s “Strut” is the latest track to emerge from the crew and sees the producer flex on a stomping club track that appears at once stunted and bubbling. It’s exactly the type of clean, linear aesthetic we’ve come to adore here at The Astral Plane and Private Selection is one of its premier proponents. Stream below and grab a free download of “Strut” courtesy of XLR8R.

Stream Timbah’s ‘No Bootlegs’ EP

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August 4, 2014
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Over the past several years, Timbah has experimented with a number of oversized sonic aesthetics, a balancing act of grime, bassline, funky and dubstep that could hardly be considered restrained. It’s this busy, sometimes overbearing sound that has seen the Nottingham-based producer draw favor from the likes of Kahn and Madam X and release on labels like Bad Taste and Tumble Audio (his latest home). The No Bootlegs EP is the latest Timbah effort and continues a stream of braggadocious lift-off riddims, replete with enough outsized effects, eski moments and raw bassline energy for a career of releases. Remixes from Checan and Sentiment top off the package, which is out now on Tumble Audio.

6MAKA6 Mix For The Astral Plane

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July 30, 2014
Mixes
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The role of manipulation in DJing and dance music in general has always been misunderstood. Whether critics are deriding what they deem malicious sampling, trite looping, or overweening effects usage, the technological maneuvering inherent in both “playing out” and production is oft-confused with sloth, unnecessary spectacle, or, worse, lack of musical ability. Regardless of outside opinion though, the rise of CDJ DJing and, to a lesser extent, controller usage has created a world wherein the manipulation of technology is not only a useful tool, but a necessary, oft-fruitful means of re-contextualizing the music being played out and separating oneself from the ever-growing mass of disc jockeys. Which is not to say that DJs and producers have only recently begun to manipulate “sounds” in a novel manner; on the contrary, it’s an indelible part of dance music history. In recent years though, manipulation has taken on a somewhat meta quality in certain circles with DJs making alterations (pitch/speed being a favorite) to songs that would never be described as far from their purview. This form of manipulation is not novel in the chopping-up-an-obscure-Balinese-psych-rock-sample fashion, or drawing-unconventional-sounds-out-of-a-conventional-machine lineage, but rather in the micro-level, re-contextualization of contemporary sounds.

I’m thinking particularly of Shlohmo‘s Resident Advisor mix, Dubbel Dutch‘s Slow Club mix and Hesk‘s Take It Slow Vol. 1 & 2, which slow/screw big room house, Jersey club and footwork respectively. Each mix is awkward, distended even, at times, but offer a slightly tongue in cheek “outsider” representation of each respective genre involved. Out of the trio, Hesk’s efforts are easily the most manageable, the screwed footwork rhythms fluctuating between swimming low-end punctuated by otherworldly arrangements and edits that could have just as easily been intended for an early-aughts garage set. It’s confounding how a set of high speed, mid-2000s rap sampling tracks could be re-interpreted as sex-driven late night club jams and Hesk’s work deserves its plaudits.

Around a year after the release of Take It Slow Vol. 1 and Montreal’s Hesk has revised the sensibility expounded on the tape in the form of his new alias: 6MAKA6. If the Three 6 Mafia and Snoop Dogg samples were removed from the picture and the thumping, drum-heavy carcasses of screwed footwork left intact, the result would be exactly the sort of progressive, machine-led manipulation oft-derided by the unfamiliar. The screwed footwork also plays a fascinating historical role, illuminating the pathway from ghetto house to juke to modern footwork. The canny vocal repetition and space-filling claps are easily recognizable to any Dance Mania disciple and while much ink has been spilled on the lineage, audial examples are far more incisive. As 6MAKA6, Hesk has taken that lineage and dumped it on its head, melding the raw spirit of analogue techno with the roguishness of ghetto house and the braggadocio of Jersey club. With only a few songs to nom de guerre so far, it’s already apparent that Hesk’s latest venture is his most utilitarian, a refined sound meant for making bodies (every body) gyrate on the dancefloor. 6MAKA6 is also Hesk’s most overtly technological project to date, involving metallic percussion and factory sounds into the stripped-down melange of songs like “Helium and “Clap Backk (Clap For Me)”. Like many other producers making “drum trax” these days, Hesk isn’t beholden to any one genre or sound, just a ruthless demand for dancefloor efficacy. A slowed version of DJ Rashad’s seminal “Ghost” ends his Astra Plane mix and while the disorienting calm that ensues belies the hectic-nature of the 30 minute mix, the totemic intention is clear.

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Astral Plane Radio 002

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July 24, 2014
Mixes
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Professional mix CDs are a dying breed in the era of the internet, but that’s not going to stop outlets like Fabric and Rinse from plying their trade at the, in relative terms, archaic format. The recent Pinch b2b Mumdance effort on Tectonic is a masterpiece and there certainly is still a semblance of hope in the pay-for-mix system. That being said, magazines (FACT, Resident Advisor, The Fader, Mixmag), radio stations (Rinse, NTS, Berlin Community Radio), blogs (Truants, Sonic Router, Hyponik, Liminal Sounds) and personal mix series (Slackk, Slackk, Slackk, Slackk) have dominated the mix market of late and operate at no cost. The advent of easy streaming and effortless file sharing has led to a glut of mix work and has arguably positioned the medium as the go-to path for debuting, testing and flexing new material. Playing out demos live will always have a place in the culture, but it’s undeniable that a choice placement in a mix can rocket a song to ravenous popularity months before its release. And then there’s Boiler Room, the ultimate “wot u call that one?” platform and a space that walks the line between recorded mix-land and live (at least temporally). Which gets me to my final point: what makes a listener gravitate towards a particular mix or mix series?

The idyllic answer would be content and content alone of course, but that’s not necessarily true and the most successful series shine quite a bit of light onto the common selection process. DIS Mag churns out my personal favorite series, a full-bodied audio/visual experience that balances exclusivity, narrative and on-the-ball design work with results that range from tantalizing coherent (Hysterics) to scene-defining (defying?) (J-Cush) to expectation shattering (Palmistry). The design website’s focus is clear with the series and despite the overtly-trendy intonations and lack of curatorial rationality, DIS’ series is consistently effectual. Here at The Astral Plane, we have a small, tightly-wound team and as a result, our curation could also likely be described as tightly wound. Our artwork is simple, consistent and generally understated and while that can’t be said about the often-bombastic sonic content of the series, we attempt to package the series in an unadorned fashion that allows the guesting artist to shine. Astral Plane Radio is a different, less coherent project that attempts to coalesce the “sound” we cover into a biweekly series. It might achieve that, but it will most likely offer a performative aspect to the website that will hopefully give a little glimpse into our world and our perspective. Thank you!

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Rabit Remixes Chemist’s “Defiance”

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July 23, 2014
New Music, Remixes
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Houston grime provocateur Rabit has a special way of tearing apart an original and rearranging and reorienting it in his own, oft vicious, more often beatific style. The man has seemingly had his hand in every new mutation that grime has endured in recent months and the latest recipient of the Rabit treatment is Coyote Records representative Chemist. Rabit’s gurning square waves take center stage while uncomfortably harsh snares play the propulsion role and bare 808 blips prove a necessary respite from the blaring sub bass. Grime can often function on a level of extreme poles with oft-sickly sweet melodic content on one end juxtaposed with unremitting inside-the-box masculinity and aggression on the other, but Rabit consistently manages to draw the two apart and smash them back together as one. Chemist’s Defiance EP is out via Coyote in digital form on July 29 and physical August 11.