Blame it on Capgras Syndrome, but I'm pretty sure I went to High School with a Mike Volpe, and that Clams Casino (also Mike Volpe) may either be that very Volpe, or possibly a simulacrum of aforementioned Volpe. Upon further investigation, I realized that both Mike and Volpe are common names in my former neck of the woods. Nevertheless, this Mike Volpe has incontestable talent, and can surely paint a soundscape.
His latest oeuvre, the Rainforest EP, out yesterday on Tri-Angle Records, shies away from neatly categorized forms of hip-hop while retaining some of his signature style: an in-and-out-of-consciousness, washed-up-on-shore, near-death reverie, with the familiar serenades of washed-out voices on a lonely forgotten island.
Via Bookmat: "Clams Casino might just be the hottest producer on the planet right now. For some time his electrifying beats have been lighting up mixtapes for Lil B, Soulja Boy and other unique personalities in the new rap underground, but recently he's stepped out of the shadows to become acclaimed in his own right, releasing his own instant-classic Instrumentals mixtape, and now proffering a timely EP on Tri Angle, his debut release proper . . .Rainforest is an isolationist hip-hop epic that accords perfectly with the Tri Angle aesthetic while also affirming and deepening Clams' singular production style; it's a new benchmark in the bedroom hip-hop revolution, the real sh*t, and totally essential."
Jay Z's online mag Life + Times also featured the EP earlier today; check it out here.
While you're at it, go over to MTV Hive for a Q&A.
Three days ago, the lusty, desperate voice of Abel Tesfaye--better known as The Weeknd--was revived in all our heads through the bare, sparse beauty of his new track, "Rolling Stone." Per usual, an intense focus on sex, drugs, and possession anchor the song. One moment Tesfaye sings, "I'm going to keep on smoking till I can't hit another note," and the next he begs, "Baby, love me before they all love me, until you won't love me, because I won't love me". The tiniest jangling sound, almost like jacks in a child's hand, provides a haunted, anxious heartbeat for Tesfaye's echo-heavy vocals: like the sleigh bells on Liz Phair's classic "Fuck and Run," it's this disembodied, but somehow very human, sound that blesses the song.
Beyond "Rolling Stone," there have also been a slew (6, to be exact) of unreleased tracks, all as gorgeous as, frankly, we now expect them to be, if Tesfaye is putting them out. Check those out below as well:
The grand online mystery that is Just A Number 05272011 gets a melancholic revamp with Lisa Alma's remix of "He Didn't Want A Love Song," as well as a simple, black-and-white accompanying video. We covered and followed-up on Just A Number sometime back, and wondered aloud, with every other lucid blog writer, what will happen on May 27, 2011? We're five days away now, post-Rapture and still kicking, and what we do know is that, if nothing else, May 27 is the date of Just A Number's first live show at the Spot festival in Denmark.
If you can't make it to Denmark, quench your Just A Number cravings below:
L.A. crowd pleasers Nguzunguzu (a.k.a. DJ duo Asma Maroof and Daniel Pineda) killed it on their self-released 2011 EP Perfect Lullaby, showcasing everything from silkily familiar R&B samples to floor-shaking UK bass, juke, reggaeton, and more--and you can grab it for a fat, glorious cost of nothing over here.
Given Nguzunguzu's place in our hearts--and me being an L.A. native--we were practically salivating over their remix of Jhene Aiko's "Stranger". As XLR8R points out:
The ubiquitous use of reverb and delay on Aiko's sultry acapella quickly reminds us of a few of the deeply emotive tracks by folks like The Weeknd or How to Dress Well, though the frenetic drum programming and thick bass tones are purely the DJ/production outfit's own.
The Weeknd comparison is perhaps particularly apt, as Nguzunguzu seem simultaneously invested in a danceable but yearning aesthetic that produces, at once, spontaneous memories of dim-lit slow dancing, and--maybe less like The Weeknd--danceyourfaceoff nights of miraculous drinking and fun. Take a listen below:
Take the sampling ease of J-Dilla, the sharp articulations of Flying Lotus' bass and percussion, and the nostalgic glaze of authentic hip-hop with quirks à la Nosaj Thing, and you might have some small inkling of what to expect from Limerence, Young Montana?'s recent full-length off Alpha Pup. In our recent interview, Solar Bears tipped us off to Coventry producer Jon Pritchard's excellent, delirious experiment in sample-laced street bass, but maybe it would be better to hear it from the horse's mouth. In a 2010 interview with FADER, Young Montana? promised:
I think I’m probably more electronic but I still wouldn’t like to box myself in like that. I guess I probably do take an almost hip-hop-esque approach to sampling. There aren’t a lot of people really doing that shit anymore. But I ain’t just gonna sit there and churn out something from the ’90s all over again. My album’s gonna be a sonic adventure really, but I guess the most recurring part of the dream is an underlying hip-hop beat, in some smacked out form. The further removed from hip-hop it all becomes the better, I think the album will emphasis this more than I can articulate.
The promise, we can assure you, has been amply fulfilled. For a taste, listen to the album sampler posted on SoundCloud:
As far as personal favorites go, it's tough. Like most of the work we write up, Limerence is best listened to in its complete form--it's built on a kind of seamlessness between tracks that really impressed us. But, if we had to pick our top two, Ray's vote goes with "Mynnd" and "Legwrap," where Alex throws down for "Sacre Cool" and "Hot Heathrr," which you can sample for yourself below:
Irish pioneers John Kowalski and Rian Trench have a revolutionist agenda in their Solar Bears project: Take the complexities of human emotion and drama, and translate them into a subtler medium; change the purpose and meaning of electronic music into something that isn't removed from the human experience; and draw us closer to a concept of electronic music that focuses on artistic value rather than just beats. Their debut album She Was Coloured In is the result of this agenda, and it reflects an intellectual competency the likes of which we unfortunately are not regularly exposed to within the wider genre.
We took the liberty of asking a few questions to delve deeper into the collective mind of the duo:
IMT: You guys have spoken about the director Tarkovsky in other interviews, and we were wondering about the relationship of your music to film. What is it about Tarkovsky that you like? Do you think the visual influences the sonic for your music, and do you mean for your production to seem cinematic?
SB: He was a visionary. Metaphysics is something that fascinates me greatly. His imagery is still unparalleled to this day. All his films are timeless. They are transformative in that they shape your opinions, viewpoints and dreams.
IMT: You’re cited having Aphex Twin as a relevant figure for you guys personally. Has James’ music influenced your music in any way? Is there any tradition you’d like to be seen as coming out of?
SB: I am against tradition for the most part, same goes for convention. We try to go against type as much as possible. Drukqs by Aphex is one of our favourite records. It has a freeform approach that is really appealing to us because of its scope.
IMT: You’ve mentioned you’re interested in philosophy—who are you thinking of, what philosophers do you love? You guys seem to have an almost Hegelian interest in dialectics, creating the synthesis through the album itself, which is always juxtaposing one musical palate against an entirely different one…
SB: Deepak Chopra, Alan Watts, Descartes, Nietzsche, Sartre and Socrates. Contrast is very important from digital and analogue to synthesis and acoustics. We listen to music from all decades and ages.
IMT: Is cross-genre music important to you—some of the songs (especially those with guitar) seem to have been composed on a Desmoiselles D’Avignon logic, all styles all together at once?
SB: How we compose is dependent on mood and spontaniety. Allowing things to happen and not ruling anything out lends itself to a sprawling record. Some of my favourite albums have the same current/spirit like Screamadelica and Contino Sessions.
IMT: It seems, artistically, that the focus on spontaneity in your work is really similar, in some ways, to Dada and Surrealist principals—how does the dictates of the unconscious influence your work?
SB: An artist is a channel. Bob Moog described it well when he explained he is simply open to inspiration, it is in the ether/atmosphere. Having no style is just as effective as having a defined sound.
IMT: What artist deserves buzz? Who you think we should feature?
SB: Right now I am really impressed with two producers in particular. Young Montana? is one and Moths is another. They are both quite young but they are creating waves already.
IMT: Is there anything about Ireland, or the music scene in Ireland, that you feel contributes significantly to the UK music scene at-large? What are your feelings about the traditions that are being started here in the States within the scope of electronic music?
SB: The music scene in Ireland is stronger than ever. There are many up and coming acts that are getting attention abroard. Sites and publications are paying more attention to what is happening here more and more. I was speaking to Rian about this yesterday. We felt that the American electronic scene has almost overtaken the European one.
IMT: Lone produced a fantastic remix of your ‘Twin Stars,’ one of our personal favorites of the remixes of your tracks, as well as Keep Shelly in Athen’s remix of ‘Cubs”. Will we see any future collaborations with either of these artists? Do you have any upcoming remixes we should know about?
SB: There should be a new remix online soon but I am not at liberty to say who is behind it at the moment. Stay tuned.
Below is the aforementioned remix, followed by Lone's remix of "Twin Stars," off Solar Bears' Inner Sunshine EP:
New track by Welsh producer Dauwd put up yesterday on SCloud, out 5/16 on Pictures Music. This one remains in the house-infused tradition his earlier tracks; it radiates a lush and expansive feel, like what you could hear in some Floating Points numbers.
Hyetal surprises us with a clever and tasteful take on 80s synth pop with his ten-track debut LP Broadcast; watch the video for the track 'Beach Scene' below:
Filmed at a now-abandoned Portuguese water park called OndaParque, the promotional footage used for the video seems to translate the nostalgia hinted at in the album. Buy it here.
Fresh kuduro by Portuguese knee knockers Buraka Som Sistema, in collaboration with Vienna's Stereotyp—and as expected, this one's as catchy as the rest (via Pitchfork). The video was directed by João Pedro Moreira ("Kalembe" and "Sound of Kuduro") and Carlos Afonso, and takes you across the African lusosphere where fans dry-bump uglies on stage. Priceless point in the video: 0:29.
The “Hangover (BaBaBa)” EP is due to drop June 6th on Enchufada, the first off their new album, Komba, out later this year.
Also, check out BSS' remix for M.I.A.'s "Internet Connection," one of the many well-staged interventions for her less-than-hypable album:
With so much hype surrounding the royal wedding, marriage is most certainly in the public's consciousness. People are still talking about it in the US—and frankly, the wedding hat memes are insufferable, if hilarious. Still, we don't get to have a princess who wears a crazy pink toilet seat on her head—we just get Michelle Obama and her teeny right eye (but you know we love our FLOTUS, regardless).
The wedding aside, it's clear the UK has been a significant cultural influence for the US, especially recently, at least in terms of how it's shaped our bass music scene. As an American, it's great to support American artists and musicians, but the UK at-large seems to be pumping out amazing producer after amazing producer—and when props are due, they're due.
Star Slinger, whose high horse is as well-deserved as it is well-groomed, is one such producer; his remix of Gold Panda's "Marriage" serves as tangible evidence. Visual artist Anže Sekelj and photographer Lucijan Kranjc, a.k.a. Slovenian duo How Do I Computer, put together a music video exhibiting an unparalleled control of vision, using projections and light mapping. According to XLR8R they attempt to"add motion to non-moving objects in real space without physically interfering with the environment and trying to give a new perspective with portraying the intangible in marriage." Still images of average household objects become canvasses for a visual breadth of emotions.
Below is the video for the original single, by Israeli artist Ronni Shendar. From her site:
"A very lucky me got to make a new video for dear-talented-heartbreaking-dreamer Gold Panda’s beautiful track ‘Marriage’.
When Gold Panda approached me, it was a period I was touring (with the Glitterbug live show), so the only way to make the video was to do it along the way. And so I used the opportunity to film the wonderful people and places I met.
I wanted to keep the personal humbleness of the track, it’s warmth and beauty and to simply focus on people and the notion of something shared, regardless of place, situation or climate zone… I always showed whoever I filmed footage from previous shoots, so people would see one another, and in some sense strangers became friends and the video grew a life of its own.
The amazing thing was that many strangers came up to me along the way so fascinated by the light of the lantern and asked me if they could please have one… So I left most behind and came back home loving the idea that the video just continues on its own around the globe."
Grimes, the moniker of Montreal artist Claire Boucher, has been under-the-radar for some time now--roughly since the release of her geidi primes cassette, a little over a year ago, off Arbutus Records--but she comes out of an intelligent electro-pop tradition that, we can only think, is good for the music stratosphere at-large. That geidi primes debut cassette can still be had, free of charge, on Grimes' Arbutus Records page: grab it here. For those of us who found early Nite Jewel too distant, and had hoped for a more emotive downbeat disco, this is the download for you:
Grimes' sound has been self-described as "goth-pop" derived from "Medieval organum, R&B and hip-hop," an observation that could be lost on no listener: she has an almost Palestrina-esque moan; her version of pop is one with near ties to sacred music. But that's not to over-hype Grimes--when we speak of sacred music here, we're speaking of the quality of sound, which is something like the sound of a lone woman rhapsodizing in a cathedral. It has that lofty, sweeping sensation that makes her new cut, "Vanessa," off her recent split 7" with d'Eon, a tremendous success, and contributed to the haunted, gorgeous atmosphere of her Halfaxa LP, off which you can find the excellent "Weregild" offered below.
Needless to say, "Vanessa" represents an enormous forward step for Boucher--positioning herself where, before she re-exploded onto the scene, Robyn might have been some time ago. We're all ears on further material, whenever it should surface, and we encourage you to keep an eye on her too, via her Myspace.
Oh, and the art at the top of the post? Claire Boucher's work. We, folks, are in the presence of one hip, hip lady.
Here at image:music:texts, we like to cover good music, but we'd also like to celebrate art and photography as well. So, this is a shout-out to all artists, illustrators, photographers, and enthusiasts, and fans:
Send us an image of what you feel captures the spirit of electronic music in NYC. We will choose one and construct an hour-long mix in the theme of the winning image, the first in our IMAGE:mixseries.
Submit your images to us at imagemusictexts@gmail.com; we'll be taking submissions until June 1st.
In the meantime, for some inspiration check out some of Tessa Farmer's incredible artwork for Amon Tobin's ISAM here, and our review of the album here.
Cults 7", the massively catchy and roundly lauded debut from Cults, made for nostalgic, love-lorn whistling all of last year. The exceptional cuts, "Go Outside," and "Oh My God," in particular, brought the million-watt bulb of online press attention to bear on the rapidly exposed, considered, and swiftly loved duo. This week, they made the leap one craves from any well-received group: a decisive (but not wholesale) shift away from the whimsical naivety of their early tracks. The 70's-sunshine-infected "Abducted"--off their Cults LP, slated for June 7th via In the Name Of/ Columbia Records--marries touches of folk, pop, and electronic in a feel-good, synth-glazed lament for these young spring days.
What a treat on this, the most auspicious of holidays: Amon Tobin posted his upcoming album, ISAM, for preview in full on SoundCloud earlier this morning, following an announcement on the Ninja Tune site that the album is now available digitally after leaking online earlier this week. You'll find few perceivable resemblances to his previous LPs here; there are, however, similar themes in this one: a balance between fulness and negative space, darkness and light, tenderness and coarseness; the effective theme is a mechanical portrayal of nature. He plays with a wider range of acoustic textures and conceives a veritable work of art. Overall, it's a another one of Tobin's trips across a wide soundscape of emotions, calcimined by a nostalgia for something that never happened.
"Journey Man" and "Piece of Paper", as well as "Lost & Found" (featured on Ninja Tunes XX Anniversary box set), all recall the Eskamon project, with a crunch for every well-placed abstracted percussion sample. "Lost & Found" seems to be the progenitor for the rest of the album's tracks, and provides a context for the album at-large.
"Surge" feels like a Foley Room castaway, only without the familiar structure that made many of those tracks memorable in their own right; it's one of the more amorphous pieces with a will to lull.
"Goto 10" is reminiscent of tracks made for his Two Fingers collaboration (cf. "Trickstep Rhythm"), while "Bedtime Stories" opens up soft and sweet, like Foley Room's title track, but instead of coasting on a recognizable plane, it unfurls into something heavier.
"Wooden Toy" sees Tobin experimenting with vocals again, in a similar way to "Horsefish" of the previous LP, except here it's set to the backdrop of a lonely night near a dimly-lit carousel.
"Kitty Cat" can be imagined as a collaboration with the Gorillaz; it is a rare number that features singing in verses (a notable departure), not just vocal play.
"Calculate" is a curious number in how novel it is in Tobin's cannon, and it's also the shortest on the album. It has as a shimmering-fog-style approach found in Télépopmusik's Genetic World; this is a singular and almost parenthetical track, and the feel of it is distinct in its slow, innocent build-up to a quiet recursion.
Here's a video with Tobin on a Continuum Fingerboard, showcasing his designer spectral morphing, as well as a few others, as heard on ISAM:
ISAM is available digitally now at the Ninjashop and iTunes with bonus track "One Last Look", and is set to be released in physical format May 23rd.
Go to the ISAM site here for more info about the album and the upcoming art instillation, opening May 26th to June 3rd at the Crypt Gallery in London.
Just under three years ago, three dudes from Leeds join forces and etch their place in bass music history; Hessle Audio unleashed upon the world not only its creators, Ben UFO, Pearson Sound (a.k.a Ramadanman) and Pangea, but the likes of Blawan, James Blake, and Peverelist. May 16 will see the imprint's first compilation titled 116 & Rising, a double-CD/ triple-vinyl project that will no doubt have the same reception as Hyperdub's 5, fixing a well-deserved place for the label on the Mount Olympus of UK dance.
We've taken the liberty here to provide links for track previews where available, with the tracklisting below:
Nottingham's Lone, a.k.a Matt Cutler, releases in 6 days sounds from the other side of the Bermuda Triangle: the Echolocations EP made for skywalkers lounging on beachclouds 5 miles above the Galápagos. This 6-track, double-12" debut for R&S is a follow-up to Emerald Fantasy Tracks, and continues Cutler's tropospheric-bent old-school rave and Chicago house his style's been recently couched in.
Two days ago, Just A Number 05272011 quietly released a new mp3 to TheFader. "Business" indulges a more club-oriented vein than the earlier tunes, "He Didn't Want a Love Song," and "The Pain," both of which we covered a few weeks back.
In our minds, the rise of Just A Number 05272011 is inseparable from that of the rather unfortunately named Christian AIDS (also on our blog some weeks ago), maybe because they caught our attention--and then everyone else's--at nearly the same time. In that respect, we hope (or do we?) that the two outfits aren't somehow playing a nasty trick on us: if you asked a paranoid, he might say you could hear the rave-happy Christian AIDS producing the track behind those shrieking vocals. They're probably not one in the same, but still. Now we've got you thinking.
That said, this is excellent music, and we should all be happy for the mystery...while it lasts*.
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*We would like to throw our hats in here to offer, perhaps, a possible solution to the mystery of Just A Number 05272011. Now, while the moniker sort of suggests that we not question whether the number is anything other than a number--it's "just a number," no need to investigate--the opening line of The Fader's post caused a thought to pop miraculously into our heads:
Just A Number 05272011 have, bar none, the most unwieldy name ever in the history of time and all names in all art forms ever. Just kidding probably. It’s up there for sure though.
It just sort of occurred to us--and I'm sure to many before us--that the number is a date. Maybe for an album: 05/27/2011. Who knows?
Visions of Trees, the London duo of Joni Juden and Sara Atalar, are probably best thought of as near relations to the wonderful jj pair--the flower children to jj's gangsta, we might say. That is, Visions of Trees' atmospheric conditions are close to the phantasmagoric--their tunes have a nostalgic affinity with, we like to imagine, Druid societies and small towns with co-ops, where the young go partying with every substances you can think of off the top of your head, lost in the woods.
The cuts below are only a sampling of the groovy, Balearic-leaning duo's best work. For a thorough introduction, one might best start with the title track from their February EP, Sometimes It Kills (Moshi Moshi Records), the body of which is as impressive and perhaps, on a track to track comparison, more pop-oriented than the single.
Don't forget to check out the exuberant video for "Sometimes It Kills," either:
The "No Flag (ANR Remix)" and the unexpected but dead pretty Ariel Pink cover, "She's My Girl" are our particular favorites, the Ariel Pink cover offering a spot-on and meaningful correlate for the group artistically. They, like the lo-fi king they honored, seem to be interested in the intersections of nature, sound, and transcendence. The floating, chilled-out quality of their work is miles away from Pink sonically, but they share an obvious, kindred heart.
As holds true for a group like, say, Keep Shelly in Athens, Visions of Trees can remix with the best of them. To wit, we give you their remix of oOoOO's "Burnout eyess"
For a comprehensive look at their work, check out their Souncloud, visit their Myspace, follow them on Twitter and, for the love of God, someone get some blog love on these folks.
