What a nice surprise! Stream Animal Collective’s forthcoming Honeycomb / Gotham 7-inch above. Ace, as usual.
This latest BBC Essential Mix from prodigal Glasgow producer Rustie is too bonkers not to post here. A maniac amalgam of crunked out wonky and dubstep, transcendent hip-hop and R&B blends, future garage, bass, and all the unexpected places in between, this mix also features a lot of new material from the man himself. Huge.
Stream or download the full 2 hours below and check the full tracklist after the jump.
Continue reading ‘Rustie: BBC Essential Mix’
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This Elite Gymnastics remix of Korallreven and Julianna Barwick’s “Sa Sa Samoa” is all kinds of face-melting awesome. And now it has an appropriately intense and visually assaulting video that plays out like a hardcore dump.fm binge.
Ecstasy.
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Download: Korallreven (Feat. Julianna Barwick) - Sa Sa Samoa (Elite Gymnastics Remix)
Buy: Pick up Korallreven’s An Album By Korallreven and Elite Gymnastic’s Ruin (on vinyl) over at Acéphale Records.
I’m just gonna go ahead and start this post with a bit of an indictment— if you haven’t seen Illuminauts live yet, you’ve been sleepin’ a little bit. I know, San Diego is a place where it’s easy for us all to get caught up in our own little niches. And I’d guess that even for all the hip-hop and electronic music I rep these days, many of my beloved readers are unaware or perhaps even disinterested in the burgeoning San Diego beat scene. Maybe that’s on me. I feel like I was a bit late to the party too, even with all the good works and promotions by a multitude of talented artists, Kill Quanti, Liquid Geometry, The Kava Lounge, Tin Can Alehouse, Peña Film, Soulection, CityBeat, and the scene-championing Chad Deal over at The Reader. Regardless, here we are. It’s time to pay attention— trust.
Illuminauts — aka Sonny Romeri, Nicky Castañeda, and (sometimes) David Peña — have been working at building up such a scene here for a few years now and, in my mind, are very much at the creative nucleus of San Diego’s vibrant and growing community of experimental hip-hop and electronic music. Known for their impressive live presence, their beat work is grounded in improvisation and rich, hypnotic layers of synth and drum loops. They don’t have a ton of studio material available quite yet, but one of their best tracks can be found on the Future Sounds of San Diego compilation that was put out by Big Up Magazine late last year. If you’ve heard my last couple of DJ sets, you’re likely already familiar with it.
Stream and download that below or follow the link to get the whole comp, which features contributions from eLan, DJ Pound, Mike Gao, Sleeve, HM.T DM.T (RIP), and more talented San Diego beat fiends. And don’t forget to keep your eye on Illuminauts’ label work and live bookings over at Kill Quanti. On deck, respectively: a split cassette from Mystery Cave and Killer Swan, and MONO/POLY, Mike Gao, Mystery Cave, Killer Swan, and Mr. Whipple at The Kava Lounge on Thursday, March 8th. Holla at ‘em!
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Download: Illuminauts - Animo!
Buy: You can download the Future Sounds of San Diego comp (for free!) over at Big Up Magazine. You can also snag Illuminauts’ debut 7-inch, “Acid Hands / Swine Flu”, from Access Hip-Hop.
One of my major obsessions of the past couple weeks: the title track from Ghost Mutt’s Sweat Mode EP that recently dropped on Donkey Pitch.
A part of the UK’s continuing reign over the electronic music scene, this 21 year old Brighton producer combines sparkling synth with a scattering of percussive rhythms, infectious pitch-shifted vocals, and stone cold groove to intoxicating effect. Expect to hear this banger in at least my next couple of DJ sets.
You can download the whole Sweat Mode EP over at the Donkey Pitch bandcamp. Show ‘em some love.
On January 24th, Mauro Remiddi — better known by his bedroom pop alias Porcelain Raft — will release his debut LP Strange Weekend. Though produced by one man, the layered sounds of this record belie the singularity of its origin. Stream Strange Weekend in its entirety down below, via The Hype Machine.
Though often oddly overlooked by the rest of the country, the San Diego music scene has quietly remained a hotbed for some truly awesome bands. Some have modestly achieved great things while keeping their feet planted solidly in San Diego, others have thanked us for the good times and moved on to the greener pastures of Los Angeles and New York, and others still have churned out some stellar tunes without ever receiving their due. However, even in light of its past excellence, the San Diego music scene is in the throes of what should be considered a notable renaissance and is currently saturated with an impressively diverse range of talent.
Well, guess what kids? Now there’s yet another San Diego band for you to get excited about. I speak of Mothlight, the dreamy experimental pop project of one Matt Billings. Actually, Billings has been recording and performing with a revolving door of collaborators for a few years now, but my first experience with his actual music — beyond hearing him play a little acoustic guitar at a mutual friend’s house now and then — is this rough mix of the striking title track of his upcoming EP American Spirit.
Produced and mixed by Ryan Solomon of the awesomely monikered, standout San Diego band DUDES, “American Spirit” is an at-once lush and minimal drift through absorbing melodies and ethereal atmospheres, guitar-driven and yet tastefully accented with flourishes of synth and head-nod inducing beats. A cause for excitement, indeed. Check out the initial mix down below and ponder the promised excellence of the soon-to-be-finished product.
American Spirit MixXx UNO by Mothlight
Black Milk and Danny Brown have both been busy the last couple years: Black with his acclaimed 2010 solo record Album of the Year and this year’s Random Axe LP with Sean Price and Guilty Simpson; Brown with two remarkable full-lengths, last year’s The Hybrid and XXX which just dropped back in August. As each continue their own meteoric rise — Black Milk is fresh off his Jack White collab and Danny Brown just got signed to Fool’s Gold Records — it’s wholly satisfying that they decided to enter each other’s orbit for the Black and Brown EP.
Black Milk’s production is as stellar and cinematically soulful as ever, one part Stones Throw psych-hop, one part neo-Dilla chipmunk soul-chops. He also spits a solid verse on the title track, but the rest of the vocal work is handled by hip-hop’s resident force of nature Danny Brown. And Danny Brown is… well, Danny Brown. Misogynist, but so painfully clever, foul-mouthed and offensive, manic, hilarious, and brutally detailed— on the mic the man is an absolute beast.
Black and Brown drops on November 1st. Stream the whole EP down below and then pre-order it from Fat Beats on CD or vinyl.
Black Milk and Danny Brown - Black and Brown EP by BLACK MILK
In 2009, The Big Pink released A Brief History of Love, an impressive and distinctly British debut LP that was informed heavily by shoegaze, as well as the best of the 90s UK indie and electronic scenes. By the sounds of their new single, the markedly catchy “Stay Gold”, the ingredients for their tunes remain largely the same. Not that it bothers me any— this delivers with at least as much gusto as anything off the first record, save perhaps the so-good-it’s-gonna-be-hard-to-top single “Dominos”.
Check out the original version of “Stay Gold” and the remix from Dipset’s resident King Midas araabMUZIK down below. Look for LP2, Future This, to drop in January 2012.
After finally going to see Drive last night, I feel very much compelled to write something about it. I’m sure I could speak at length on the merits of the work as a whole — which are numerous — but I’ll just stick to the excellent soundtrack.
Cliff Martinez’s score is a dark and tempered work of oscillating, ambient synth that helps set Drive’s stark and austere tone. Though it radiates warmth in the brief, but beautiful and tender moments between the Driver, Irene and her son Benicio, the score spirals downward with the events of the film, morphing into a cold wave of pulsating electronics and slow drones. Masterfully complemented with songs from Kavinsky, Desire, College, and Chromatics that contribute brilliantly to the subtle 80s vibe of the film, the soundtrack is key in the crafting of a few of the best scenes in Drive. The opening title sequence comes to mind immediately: the stunning overhead shot of Los Angeles’ downtown skyline at night, the credits written in hot pink cursive, the cool, measured pacing, Gosling’s emotionless gaze (and scorpion jacket)— all set to Kavinsky’s slow-burning “Nightcall”. Perfect. Check out a couple more tracks after the jump.
Bravo to Nicolas Winding Refn and Cliff Martinez on their work. And be sure to see Drive in theaters.
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Download: Kavinsky - Nightcall (feat. Lovefoxxx)
Buy: Download the Drive soundtrack over at eMusic.
Continue reading ‘“I’m gonna show you where it’s dark, but have no fear…”’
