In aid of Wormhole Records, the LA-based cassette imprint founded by post-internet personality and musician Snow Wite, comes the first single from the grunge trio DSTVV, who is set to release their EP Underground Product in May. All though we can't deny our lack of excitement around 90's vector art and constant tumblr references in the band's visual approach (and Soundcloud tags such as "Mollysoda" and "Seapunk"), "Crusher" is an epic dive into the grungy corners of the otherwise sunny California, with obvious influences to Nine Inch Nails and the nostalgic psychedelia.
If you happen to be based in LA this week, try to bounce by one of their upcoming shows starting tonight — see dates below.
3/27 @ Hyperion Tavern, Los Angeles, CA (with Skin Town)
3/28 @ "MYSTERY SHOW"
3/29 @ Burger Records, Fullerton, CA (with Useless Eaters, Snow Wite, Froth)
3/30 @ Silverlake Overpass, Los Angeles, CA (with Acid Baby Jesus, The Abigails, Useless Eaters +)
More exciting, Young Echo-related news this afternoon, details are finally out on their highly anticipated first collaborative offering, the 13-track LP Nexus. The Bristol collective, which stands for pretty much everything that NFOP loves about the contemporary UK electronic music scene and that incorporates long-standing favourites such as Vessel, El Kid, Kahn, and Zhou, attempts to showcase a representative cross section of the musicians' impressive work so far, a collection of individual tracks that emphasize the unifying aesthetic without negating the differences, an approach that is, we can only assume at this point, not totally different from London collective Old Apparatus' concept. for the time being, watch the video for "Jupiter Rise" below.
On top of that, stream another track of the LP below, Seb Gainsborough aka Vessel featuring Lily Fannon's "My Child My Chain", a track that I believe we've mentioned already a couple of times before – a truly haunting piece of pop music, and in our humble opinion one of Vessel's finest productions. As far as we're informed, the track itself is about two years old, and as it's likely to be taken down from Soundcloud as soon as the Ramp people realise that it's still up there, we'd suggest you enjoy it while it lasts.
Although having released on the coveted Punch Drunk label, Kahn is still widely known for his membership to one of the more exciting crews of electronic composers, Young Echo. Kahn’s blend of electronic music follows a more genre-defined approach, compared to his contemporaries, combining strands of UK bass music: grime, dubstep and garage. His latest EP on another Bristol-based label, Black Box, sees Kahn collaborate with one of the most distinct voices in grime, Flowdan. "Badman City" has all the attributes of a vintage grime record, beats that are sparse but pack an unnerving punch, a scattered string section and a single toned bass that conveys all sorts of sinister urban imagery. Kahn's track creates the perfect space for Flowdan’s sonorous wordplay to flourish, as he portrays inner city life. It is a collaboration that heralds similar results to the now infamous partnership between Flowdan and The Bug - therefore a recommended track.
"Badman City" is taken from Kahn's self-titled EP out on Black Box Records on April 8.
Also check out another track off the EP, "Snake Eyes" featuring Young Echo's Jabu:
Lee Noble is a marvel. One of the few truly unique figures in contemporary underground music, his unassuming compositions could count as the essence of left-field American pop in the post-chillwave/hypnagogic landscape, but one might suppose that it's his own reticence and knowing aloofness that keep the LA artist from seeking the larger audience his work would actually deserve. Seeing him perform at Neukölln's grubby Loophole recently, completely immersed in his shambolic setup of keyboard, tape player, and a bunch of effect pedals, delivering his set in a curiously academic manner as if sitting at a library table, it became clear to me that Noble has already obtained a place in modern music that is entirely his own.
And that one's indeed more than remarkable: Informed both by harsh noise exploration and subtly psychedelic ambient on the one hand, and unashamedly gracious, disarmingly honest pop tropes on the other, his previous full-length Horrorism was my second-favourite album of 2011, and the upcoming follow-up Ruiner seamlessly draws on the predecessor's convincing concept while cautiously deepening the pop aspect of the music, with more discernible hooks, without abandoning the overarching, gently meansering drones that characterise Noble's songs. First single "December∞" is a perfect first taste of the album, a melancholic but not pessimistic tune that blends clear, vivid pop structures and dequantised textures of warm and encompassing ambient.
We first came across LA resident and Non Projects head Brian Allen Simon aka Anenon sometime last year, when Laurel Halo re-imagined his excellent "This Is What I Meant", from his Inner Hue LP, for Ad Hoc's seminal compilation. Simon's latest work under the Anenon guise is the upcoming Sunsets and Clocks EP, a four-track piece originally made for a japan tour of Japan together with Leaving Records mastermind and fellow LA artist Matthewdavid. The four tracks further the composer's tested formula of lingering yet complex ambient soundscapes and more upbeat, if mostly still somber, explorations of multilayered beat constructs. On the title track, which falls into the latter category, what's most striking is the expert employment of some delightful sacophone licks and subtle string phrases that manage to carry the tune into different sonic spheres. Highly recommended, take a listen below.
Sunsets and Clocks is out April 16 via Non Projects.
Originally published via their own label in 2011, Oakland psych-poppers Mwahaha are about to re-release their eponymous debut on LA-based Plug Research, extended with two previously undisclosed bonus tracks, "Das Space" and "Amba". You may take an exclusive listen to the latter track below, which is heavier on the electronics than the band's previous material, see in comparison LP standout "Love" for instance. Still, the trio's indebtedness to unabashed psychedelic playfulness remains untouched. "Amba" starts inconspicuously, but slowly builds up a massive, impenetrable wall of noise and chaotic synth incursions, eventually giving way to a rousing finish of frizzing drum machine intervals and a surge of erratically surfacing sounds that strangely make sense in the end.
Mwahaha is out in the US today, with a UK release scheduled for June 24. Get it here. Watch out for a Boiler Room LA appearance on April 9, and for the band opening for Sigur Ros in the UK at Eden Sessions on June 30.
Ever since releasing The Colours Of Darkness in late 2011, Irish project Goodtime passed the album's tunes around for everyone to play around with them. The results have largely been convincing - revisit Jape's rework of "Can't Get Away" here. Today we got another delightful artistic incursion, this time a neat manipulation of slow-burning album opener "Behind This Sun", executed by Lasertom aka Dublin-based Simon Cullen. The young producer apparently had no intention to dwell on the original's gentle melancholy, instead opting for a smooth yet funky vocal house cut in almost classic fashion, dancefloor-ready with arpeggiated synth chords and synchopated bass lines. Very nice. Apart from remixing duties, Lasertom has an album forthcoming on London's Bearfunk, due sometime later this year.
Check out the collection of reinterpretations over here.
Misteria might be Chicago producer Dolor's proper debut EP, but the young chap already made quite some fuss a year ago, first with his acclaimed and approved reinterpretations of The Weeknd's extensively reworked tracks, then with the excellent Drugs mixtape, produced together with Ninja Tune heavyweight Lorn. As expected, the upcoming five-track EP taps into similar terrain, murky beats and obscure textures creating haunting soundscapes that take inspiration from left-field R&B and hip hop just as much as they exploit tropes of contemporary UK bass. The tracks work with vocals (as on EP cuts "Pull Me In", featuring Dolor's own voice, or the menacing, programmatic "Classic Is Over" together with St. Louis' 18andCounting) as nicely as they do without, the instumentals faintly recalling the oeuvre of other lauded hip hop producers of late who've also mastered the post-modernist, trans-Atlantic hybridization of electronic music styles. Listen to the premiere of the title track below.
The Misteria EP is out on vinyl April 15 via London-based imprint Technicolour Music.
