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13 Aug 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Only a bit more than a year after 2012's enchanting Commotus, Berlin via Los Angeles imprint Human Ear Music has announced the upcoming release of Lucrecia Dalt's next full-length Syzygy. While the intricate and sophisticated Commotus kept us abuzz for a large part of last year, the Colombian native and recent Berlin transplant's third album undoubtedly marks another major step forward in the young artist's career. Inspired both by the theorists Walter Benjamin and Italo Calvino, and by the oeuvre of filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman or Michelangelo Antonioni, Syzygy is as meditative as it is engaging and challenging. The nine tracks rarely ever stray away from a certain mood of wistfulness, but within their quiet, withdrawn and frail textures, moments of unexpected and unassuming structural complexity surface, with little, carefully inwrought details gradually emerging from the arrangements that make repeated, meticulous, and most of all patient listening not only rewarding but virtually required. Syzygy feels deeply personal, like the work of an artist who has only recently discovered the true power of her own musical language as a means to reveal her essential state of being.
Syzygy is out October 15. Watch the official teaser video below.
Photo of Lucrecia by our very own Tonje Thilesen.
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12 Aug 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Sometime last fall, elusive UK/Berlin-based producers Shifted and Ventress launched Mira, a sublabel of their Avian imprint conceived as an outlet to specialise in 10" vinyls which explore the rearmost corners of contemporary techno, those ill-lit realms that seamlessly fade into drone, noise, and crudest industrial-leaning rhythms. The label's fourth release will be the initial effort by Worn, Ventress' new moniker that is taken as an opportunity to delve deeper into oppressive sonic nightmares not suitable for your average dancefloor (not even in Berlin). Indeed, the four tracks on Feminist mostly abandon a clearly identifiable beat in favour of unnerving, disconcerting patterns that might sound vaguely familiar to anyone who's checked out material by Sandwell District or Glasgow's Broken20 label. The EP's clear standout is the title track, which is a collaboration with NFOP favourite Nicholas Wood aka The KVB, whose coldwave-indebted guitar work stunningly complements Worn's gritty, unsettling synth musings. As Worn, Ventress had already contributed to the excellent recent Immaterial Visions Remixes 12" by Wood's principal project on Minimal Wave sublabel Cititrax. Moreover, Juno reports that Wood will have a release on Mira as Burma Camp probably before the year ends. More on that hopefully soon.
Feminist is out August 26, highly recommended. Artwork done by Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant. Stream excerpts of all four tracks below.
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12 Aug 2013 — Parker Bruce
I can't help but love The Garment District because it's the name of a thrift/costume store back in Massachusetts where I grew up. It's of course also the work of a woman named Jennifer Baron from Pittsburgh. The new video for the Sonic Boom remix of her song "Nature-Nurture", directed by Gordon Nelson, teeters on turning into an old horror movie. Baron says: "Filmmaker Gordon Nelson incorporated found and manipulated footage to create this visual journey of a young girl discovering some of the mysteries and beauty of insects, nature and science," much like in this Eckhaus Latta video by Alexa Karolinski where they "are without external simulta aside from a looping video of plants playing on various monitors around the home. The harsh juxtaposition of 'nature' with their fabricated surroundings further feeds their boredom, fixing them in an inescapable trance of disengagement." It perfectly fits the song and its theme, the nature teaching our heroine things nurture never could. Get the remix here (Baron's cousin Lucy Blehar sings on it) thanks to French imprint La Station Radar. The Garment District's next album will come out this fall thanks to Night-People.
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12 Aug 2013 — Henning Lahmann
As you know, we occasionally recommend events happening here in Berlin that we find particularly exciting and/or relevant. However, we sure are no listings site whatsoever, so please never think of us as a reliable source for anything that's going on in Berlin's infinitely varied club scene. In fact there are other website for that sort of things, most notably Don't Panic Berlin, the local smart sister of the much bigger UK enterprise based in London. What the friendly folks of Don't Panic Berlin put up is certainly not to be missed if you want to stay relevant, so in case you live in this town, be sure to keep a close eye their recommendations.
As part of their ongoing guest mix series, they asked me to provide one, which you can now stream or download below. There's also a brief interview about NFOP which you will find over here. Enjoy.
Tracklisting:
(1) JJ “Fågelsången” (Sincerely Yours 2013)
(2) Airbird & Napolian “Special” (Cascine 2013)
(3) Jack Dixon “No One Is Watching” (Tender Hooks 2013)
(4) Paul Woolford “Untitled” (Hotflush 2013)
(5) JJ “Fågelsången” (Sincerely Yours 2013)
(6) The Haxan Cloak “Mara” (Tri Angle 2013)
(7) Interplanetary Prophets “Zero Hour” (Planet Mu 2013)
(8) Basic House “Ultra-Misted” (Digitalis 2013)
(9) Black Sites “N313P” (PAN, forthcoming 2013)
(10) DJ Ford Foster “Corridor” (Opal Tapes 2013)
(11) Wanda Group “OVERR AREA” (Cleaning Tapes 2013)
(12) Jabu “Flying (REI’s Icarus Mix)” (unreleased 2013)
(13) John Ola “bd” (No Pain In Pop 2013)
(14) Body Boys “Mute” (Opal Tapes 2013)
(15) Kahn “Cover Me” (Black Box 2013)
(16) (forthcoming)
(17) TVO “Outside the Brighton Church” (Broken20 2013)
(18) Young Echo “Slow Jam” (Ramp Recordings 2013)
(19) Special Request “Capsules (Lee Gamble Remix)” (Houndstooth 2013)
(20) Tuff Sherm & PMM “Raymond Sees the Dog” (Opal Tapes 2013)
(21) Ñaka Ñaka “004000” (Opal Tapes 2013)
(22) MM/KM “Lost in NPE2” (Trilogy Tapes 2012)
(23) Acteurs “Cloud Generating” (Public Information 2013)
(24) Helena Hauff “Micro Manifesto” (Werkdiscs 2013)
Sample Sources:
İşte AKP vahşeti Taksim’deki bu çığlığı unutmayacağız, Istanbul, 12 June 2013
President Obama’s speech in Berlin, 19 June 2013, CNN
George Zimmerman verdict, 13 July 2013
Morsi Opponents Killed in Egypt Clashes, 10 July 2013, Associated Press
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12 Aug 2013 — Tonje Thilesen
This morning, Tom Krell rolled out of bed and and decided to record some vox over Tink's "Can I", taken off her free mixtape Winter's Diary; and hey, isn't this a glorious little treat for a rainy monday afternoon? I sure think so. Listen below.
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12 Aug 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Newcastle producer Nick Cooke aka Cuttooth's recent debut LP on 4 Lux Recordings was a pleasant surprise with its intricate rhythms and a notable selection of guest vocalists. The artist recently announced an EP of remixes of tracks from the self-titled album, starting with SwamiMillion – the new side project by seminal Hyperdub-affiliated producer LV – adding new twists to Cuttooth's signature single "Old Tape Machine", which features vocals by King Midas Sound member Hitomi. Check it out via bandcamp below, and watch out for more remixes forthcoming courtesy of Mr Bird, Anodyne, DJ Cam, and Eliza Shaddad.
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12 Aug 2013 — Henning Lahmann
Not entirely sure what the exact current status is regarding Rangers, San Francisco via Dallas artist Joe Knight's famed and acclaimed project that gave us some of the most exciting music of the last years that could loosely be filed under the hypnagogic pop tag, most notably his 2010 and 2011 releases Suburban Tours and Pan Am Stories on Olde English Spelling Bee and Not Not Fun, respectively. In any case, a little while back Knight set up a new website in order to showcase new music that "doesn’t quite fit under the Rangers moniker", the latest example being the pleasantly jangling, unassuming instrumental rock piece "Drive Through Home", which you may stream below:
That aside, there's however 'new' Rangers material coming, too, namely the double cassette Scrap via St. Louis-based tape imprint Bezoar Formations. The tracks on the cassettes are old yet newly mixed Rangers jams according to Knight, and they may serve as an opportunity both to remind yourself of the lo-fi heaven that constituted our blogging world not even that long ago, and to compare the two surely related yet still somewhat opposing faces of Joe Knight's musical output.
Scrap is out September 1. Get it over here.
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12 Aug 2013 — Andi Wilson
Julianna Barwick’s video for her latest single “One Half” is so aesthetically pleasing that it hurts. There is sense of hope with shots of sunlight, oozing fruit, and mesmeric forestry. The exhaustion and darkness are lifted with some complexion of mutual understanding by the end of the video, while simultaneously giving the viewer a daunting curiosity of what even happened to begin such tangled emotions. Compared to Barwick’s 2011 release The Magic Place, where her voice is layered upon layers, “One Half” reveals lyrics to treasure. "I guess I was asleep that night, was waiting for..." gives us a notion of what the anticipated third album, Nepenthe will bring.
Dead Oceans is to release Nepenthe on August 12. Watch the video for “One Half” directed by Zia Anger below.
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