We first became obsessed with Amanda Harper's enchanting Running in the Fog project way back in 2011 after hearing her lo-fi, left-field brand of pop music. Finally, the San Francisco resident is working on new material. "Silver" doesn't stray too far from what we're used to from Harper. It's a silky downtempo pop track with a stronger emphasis on bubbly synths with Harper's infatuating vocals leading the way the whole time. We can only hope this means we'll be seeing another EP arriving soon.
We've been keeping an eye out on he Norwegian, Berlin-based producer Boska ever since the release of his Without Love EP on Love OD Communications a year ago, and are very exited to announce him as the fourth (and hereby last) act for our stage at Torstraßen Festival on August 31st, alongside Iberia (SE), Yule FM and Cape. Originally educated in jazz with focus on percussion, Jon-Erik Boska has been a name of growing interest the past year as his geographical base has constantly changed — from his hometown Tromsø surrounded by the likes of Biosphere or label mates Mental Overdrive, to Oslo, Stockholm and now finally Berlin. With a few releases planned for this summer/fall, Boska schizophrenically picks his inspiration from house anno 2001 and 90's UK Funky, equably alloyed with a more time-relevant, organic approach and sublime vocal samples. A collaboration track with Nguzunguzu even took place while attending Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid back in 2011 — a rather brilliant one so to speak, but somehow nearly complerely overlooked to our utter surprise.
Have a first listen to the single track off Boska's upcoming second release on Love OD, Surgery EP, also available on vinyl very soon.
Here are the rest of the artists confirmed to the festival today: PTTRNS (Köln) / Thomas Azier (Berlin) / Erfolg (Berlin) / Saroos (Berlin) / Isis Salam (Toronto / Berlin) / Dropout Patrol (Berlin) / Mueran Humanos (Berlin / Buenos Aires) / Die Auflösung (Berlin) / Boska (NOR/Berlin) / Brabrabra (Berlin) and Jason & Theodor (Berlin).
In Japan, "ikebana" is a traditional form of flower arranging. As opposed to other forms of flower arranging, ikebana is very minimal and carefully composed to draw attention upon parts of the plant other than the flower itself. It's with this in mind that Japanese shoegaze duo Ikebana makes music. Simple strummed acoustic guitar is the backbone, while slightly off-kilter, whispery vocals fill moments of silence. The result is minimal shoegaze, reminiscent of Slowdive's Pygmalion or Grouper's works. Breathtaking.
"Kiss" is taken from When You Arrive There, their album set to be released on July 8 via Flau. Listen below.
There’s a lot of anticipation involved when it comes to Fuck Buttons. Every second of their music chugs along until the next distorted hammer drops, shaking the entire foundation any one of their songs has spent the previous 6+ minutes building. So, it just makes sense that when word gets out of an upcoming release from the UK duo, all we ever get is a three minute clip, frequently cutting the band’s long, intense build-ups down to a matter of seconds, and stripping any kind of aural peak out entirely. It’s like arriving at a neck-and-neck basketball game in the third quarter and leaving a few minutes into the fourth. How did we get here, and what comes next?
Listen to an abridged “The Red Wing” below and prepare yourself for the band’s new full-length, Slow Focus, out on July 23.
Fabric-affiliated Houndstooth, curated by Electronic Explorations mastermind Rob Booth, is still rather fresh yet already somewhat established, what probably shouldn't come as a surprise considering the high-profile names involved in the project. The label's output has been quite convincing so far, with superb productions especially by Call Super and House of Black Lanterns, next in line is a full-length by Snow Ghosts, the aptly named collaboration between Throwing Snow and London-based vocalist Augustus Ghost. The pace is considerably slower, and the overall production is extraordinary: sombre post-whatever arrangements in cinemascope, en passant gathering up the fruits of 25 years of UK electronic music heritage while gently meandering through a bleak and foggy, post-industrial English landscape. 'The waters will rise / And wash it all away', she wispers as they pass a Secret Garden, somewhere by the River Avon.
A Small Murmuration is out July 8. Pre-order here.
Ever since their excellent Imbue Up in 2011, the Brooklyn/Chapel Hill duo Pressed And have worked on refining their sound, leaving bits and pieces of their electronically leaning imprint behind, something many artists rarely tend to do these days. The duo's distinctive strenght — their ability explore a sound beyond its origin, and allow each other's strongest sides to shine through in perfect harmony, leaves the duo's brains, Andrew Hamlet and Mat Jones, in a unique position as music makers. On Stone Candles, the concretized sounds and compositions from Imbue Up are almost vanished, rather opening the physical room for experimentation way beyond the structure set to their previous material. On the other hand, the duo clearly show that they master both aspects of these soundcrafting skills, surprisingly of which has mostly (only) been covered within our little 'blog community'. It might just be about time for someone else to pick this up, I sincerely believe.
Have a first listen to "Decision Made" below. Stone Candles is out on June 4 via Mush Records.
This one has been out for a bit already but it would be a shame if anyone of you missed it. We've already reported that Stellar OM Source's forthcoming (and brilliant) full-length Joy One Mile, out June 10, was arranged and mixed by Leipzig DJ/producer Kassem Mosse, and that on top of this, advance 12" Elite Excel features a remix by him - so enough said, the typically fractured piece of outré House is available for your pleasure below.
All that focus on Ramona Gonzalez as one of underground's finest voices is certainly justified, but for me personally, it's always been Nite Jewel the producer who did the trick for me. Apparently, Good Evening was not for everyone, but the album's unapologetic italo sheen has brightened way too many northern summer nights to ever lose its standout status in my collection. Apart from that, Gonzalez is also a slightly underappreciated grade A remixer, having delivered excellent reinterpretations of tracks by luminaries such as HEALTH, Caribou, or Tomas Barfod. Her latest commissional work is a take on "Sundown", a standout on Sally Shapiro's Somewhere Else LP, which was released in February. Given their shared italo disco affection, the combination of the two artists is of course almost too fitting. Even more notable, then, that they land on two entirely different spots of the sound's spectrum. Where Shapiro's original is candidly wistful and yearning, Nite Jewel picks up a little more pace and decidedly puts more emphasis on the 'disco' side of things, and the result is surprisingly addictive piece that will force you on the 'floor without dispelling the misery that had made you come here alone in the first place.
Nite Jewel's rework of "Sundown" is part of the Elsewhere remix collection, which features versions by The Field, Henning Fürst, Little Boots, Young Galaxy, and others, and is out now on Paper Bag Records.
