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Every door hides a story, discover them all at onitsukatiger.com

135

September / October 2010

Altered Natives 10

Jammer 12

Brenmar 14

Mr. 20

Lazer Sword 22

Arp 24

Salem 28

Chicago Juke 38

Shed 46

El Guincho 52

Reviews 59

Bubblin' 62

Karizma: In the Studio 64

Matthew Dear's Vocal Tips 66

Components & Videogames 68

Vis-Ed: AIDS-3D 74

Outbox: Underworld 80 ED's Rant The Chi-light Saga

Editor Ken Taylor ([email protected])

Creative director Tim Saputo ([email protected])

Managing editor Shawn Reynaldo ([email protected])

Videogames editor Ryan Rayhill ([email protected])

Editorial interns Patric Fallon, James Jano

Staff Writers Eric . Arnold, Joe Colly, Matt Earp, Rob Geary, Ali Gitlow, Derek Grey, David Hemingway, Max Herman, Ethan Holben, Justin Hopper, Josiah Hughes, Brandon Ivers, Luciana Lopez, Cameron Macdonald, Lulu McAllister, Tomas Palermo, Dave Segal, Jesse frenzy on 's south side, shot by dave quam Serwer, Evan Shamoon, Patrick Sisson, Janet Tzou, Tony Ware, Walter Wasacz, Rico "Superbizzee" As I type this, our office is bouncing back and forth between listening to the new Sam Prekop single, old Sea and Cake YouTube clips, DJ Contributing Writers Nate's "Ima Burn Him," Salem's King Night, and a ghetto-house mix Richard Attley, Michael Byrne, Brandon Bussolini, downloaded from Resonance FM. It's no secret that we've been on Michael Harkin,Tom Lea, John S.. Macdonald, a bit of a Chicago kick of late, and this September/October edition Dave Quam, Thomas Rees of XLR8R might as well be our second Chicago City Issue. That was hardly the plan, but when you look at it, if the artists found within these Staff Photographers pages don't currently live in Chicago (all the juke guys; one member Martei Korley, Morgan Howland, Paul O'Valle, Dustin Ross, of Salem), they're probably either from Chicago (Brenmar; another member of Salem), or at least influenced by the city's house-music Ragnar Schmuck, Mathew Scott, Christopher Woodcock legacy (Mr. G; Altered Natives). Whether or not there's a renaissance brewing in the Midwest remains to be seen, but it's to refute that Contributing Photographers the frequencies from the region are endlessly reverberating outward, Shawn Brackbill, Megan Cullen, Oscar Garcia, Paul Labonte, and some big things are happening as a result. Martin LeSanto-Smith, Pete Moss, Dave Quam, Yumna First up, honorary juggalo Brandon Ivers chats with cover stars Salem, from their respective bases in Traverse City, , and Chicago, , about the reality and myth behind the , as they STAFF ILLUSTRATORS release their debut LP and continue to be one of 's most Chuck Anderson for No Pattern, Derek Morris for Trophy, talked-about groups. And while it ain't exactly Chicago, Brandon also Colin Strandberg for The Work Steady shot south to Cave-In-Rock, IL, where he and photographer Kelly O went undercover to get the goods on the equally ballyhooed Gathering On the cover of the Juggalos, for XLR8R.com. Love 'em or hate 'em—this one's Salem, shot in by Shawn Brackbill worth a look. Back up in Chi-town proper, Dave Quam, the newest writer in the XLR8R stable, went deep to get the real scoop on the city's still- special THANKs burgeoning next wave of juke and footwork music. From parties like ArtRebels, Trailerpark Festival, Tom Lea, Sarah Hood, Haldan Da War Zone to hangin' in DJ Spinn's basement, Quam comes back Blecher, Dana at Biz3, Sonya & Lisa at Beggars, Melissa Taylor, with a hell of a story from juke music's frontlines (as he also frequently Judy Miller, Nate & Stephen at !K7, Leslie at does with his blog, It's After the End of the World, at davequam. wordpress.com). Turns out it's not just the rest of the US that's anxiously awaiting DJ Nate's record on —folks like 's Bok Bok also weigh in on the footwork fascination as it heads overseas. Still not convinced that something's brewing on the banks of Lake Michigan? Ali Gitlow talks to three former Chicagoans—New Yorker Brenmar (a.k.a. Bill Salas), who infuses his style of clubby house/R&B tracks with plenty of juke sensibility, and visualists AIDS-3D, who recently relocated to to continue their experiments with tech-based art—who are now making waves outside the Midwest. And lest you tire of our temporary fascinations, pop deconstructionist El Guincho also pops in for a visit, as does Berliner Shed, whose latest LP, The Traveller, takes German on a thrill ride. Where do we go next? You can start by downloading the XLR8R City Guide app at the iTunes store, where we've recently added listings for Denver, , St. Louis, Austin, and Portland. Or you can simply read on and see...

—Ken Taylor, Editor

4 Contributors SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2010

Publisher Andrew Smith ([email protected])

Oscar Garcia Brandon Ivers Advertising ManageR Ethan Holben ([email protected]; 212-226-4553)

Marketing Intern Michael Blumenfeld

Events and Online Marketing Manager Shawn Reynaldo ([email protected])

accounting manager AND SUBSCRIPTIONS Sally Mundy ([email protected])

Circulation manager Sally Mundy ([email protected])

Oscar Garcia is a Barcelona- Brandon Ivers was born in 1979 operations consultant based photographer and into a Minneapolitan bourgeois Michael Prommer journalist. His work frequently family. Educated by Jesuits, he appears in the main Spanish was an excellent pupil, but one CO-Publisher music magazine Rockdelux, quickly enraged by dogma. An Arias Hung as well as in numerous other early rift with his father—who publications. He loves combining wished him to study law—led to Advertising: Dial 415.861.7583, fax 415.861.7584, new and old photographic his choice of letters as a freelance email [email protected], or mail XLR8R Magazine, 3180 18thSt. #207, techniques and tools to capture occupation. Insinuating himself , CA 94110 the soul of the he into the Dark Carnival after portrays, who have, in the past, the release of ICP’s The Great Subscriptions: Domestic: $20 (one year, six issues) and $40 (two years, included Vic Chesnutt, Julee Milenko, he became notorious twelve issues); Canada: $40 (one year) and $80 (two years); all other Cruise, , Arto Lindsay, for lampooning the secrets of international: $50 (one year) and $100 (two years). Subscribe by credit card and Genesis P-Orridge. For the Neden Game. He currently online or send payment to XLR8R Subscriptions, 3180 18th St. #207, San this issue, he shot El Guincho in resides in Seattle, where he Francisco, CA 94110. Payment made out to "XLR8R Magazine," US funds Barcelona. wrote about Salem for this issue only. International orders must be paid by credit card or international money oscar-garcia.com of XLR8R. order. Questions? Email [email protected] or subscribe online at XLR8R.com.

Circulation: Newsstand distribution through Curtis Circulation. For direct retail sales, contact Sally Mundy at 415.861.7583 x223 Dave Quam Andrew Porter or [email protected].

Contact us: San Francisco HQ: 3180 18th St. #207, San Francisco, CA 94110; New York Office: 114 Bowery, Suite #206, 10013, New York, 10001; [email protected], fax 415.861.7584

Raised on good beer and A Brooklynite by way of , evergreen trees, Portland-born, Andrew Porter spends his days Chicago-educated Dave Quam digging through others’ clothing spends his time taking photos trash to unearth rare gems. A of footworkers, and writing freelance fashion writer and XLR8R is printed on 100% recycled fiber EcoMatte Plus and about music and he cares blogger, former public-school Reincarnation Matte papers, which are manufactured with about, as he did for this issue's teacher, former printing-press electricity offset renewable energy certificates. Battle Cats feature. A graduate owner, former Troubleman of SAIC with a BFA in all things Unlimited/Italians Do It Better camera-related, his hobbies label clean-up man, passionate XLR8R Magazine is published 6 times a year by Amalgam Media, Inc. All writing, photographs, include duppies, maps, and lover, and exquisite chef, Porter is and artwork printed within the pages of XLR8R Magazine are copyright and property of avoiding student-loan payments. truly a jack of all trades. To quote Amalgam Media, Inc. and may only be reprinted with permission from the "FRS-fueled" publisher. Please mail letters, charts, complaints, submissions, general information and Sometimes he claims to be a DJ, his mother, “Andrew’s knowledge review material to XLR8R Magazine, 3180 18th St. #207, San Francisco, CA 94110, or fax us at and sometimes people actually is 100 miles wide and an inch 415.861.7584 or -mail us at [email protected]. XLR8R is a trademark of Amalgam Media, Inc. dance to what he plays. deep.” He compiled this issue's davequam.wordpress.com Elements section.

TM

ISSN # 1526-4246 CSA # 1741454

6 Rane Sixty-Eight for Serato Scratch Live 2_FINAL.pdf 1 25/05/10 8:34 AM

What's new at XLR8R.com Exclusive music, videos, news, and extras from your favorite artists uploaded daily.

Podcast

Podcast: Alex B, Salem, Zed Bias, Sept/OCt July/august Brenmar, DJ Rashad No.135 No.134 Prepare to get juked. Seriously, this month's lineup of Music and videos from Salem, Arp, The video for Azari & III's "Hungry for exclusive XLR8R podcasts promises plenty of Chicago dance- Altered Natives, and more the Power" party goodness. First up, Salem gets all post-footwork, post- , post-industrial crazy on you with one of their spooky Scotty B's City Guide on Music from Actress, De Tropix, Mount signature mixes. They're followed by fellow (albeit former) XLR8R TV Kimbie, and more Chicagoan Brenmar, who spices up the formula with his brand of ghetto-house-influenced, chopped-up R&B tracks. El Guincho, Lazer Sword on XLR8R TV Podcasts from Wolf + Lamb, Ghosts on And if that's not enough, the genuine juke article—and recent Tape, Shlohmo, and Planet Mu signee—DJ Rashad weighs in with some weighty, An Outbox with Chapterhouse An XLR8R TV City Guide episode with frenetic bass as well. After that batch, stick around for a set C from the granddaddy of , Zed Bias, and next-level Chicago juke and footwork videos galore Alex B in Denver abstract-beat goodness from Denver's Alex B. Get your dose of can't-miss hotness and sign up for our XLR8R.com/135extras Diskjokke's Ultimate Beach Mix weekly podcast at XLR8R.com, where we feature exclusive

mixes from all across the spectrum, including new sets from XLR8R.com/134extras CM Girl Unit, Sepalcure, matthewdavid, and tons more. MY XLR8R.com/podcast

CY

CMY New content every day at XLR8R.com K Check out music news and features, free MP3 downloads, and reviews updated every day, plus photo blogs, music videos, free PDF versions of XLR8R, and a whole lot more at XLR8R.com.

XLR8R's "To the Bank" Contest Snag some awesome new , the N inja T une XX bo x set, and immy Edgar's sample bank!

It's not quite Christmastime yet (thank god!), but we're One grand prize winner will receive the Fixed Noise Jimmy already sorta getting in the giving spirit. As we segue into Edgar Rhythm Objekt sample bank, a Ninja Tune XX box the , rainier pages of the calendar, we've decided set, and the CDs listed. to offer up some killer contest prizes: a vault of Ninja Tune goodies in the form of the Ninja Tune XX box set and a bank Four runners up will receive each of the albums listed. of samples from —get it? All you've gotta do is describe for us the perfect bank heist—yes, a robbery—in Entries will be accepted via standard mail and email, under 200 words, and you might win the grand prize, which and must be received by Nov. 1, 2010. Send your entry to: includes those two door-busting items, plus Salem's King XLR8R’s To the Bank Contest 3180 18th St. #207, San Night, Jimmy Edgar's XXX, El Guincho's Pop Negro, and DJ Francisco, CA 94110 or email [email protected] with Nate's Da Track Genious on vinyl or CD. “XLR8R’s To the Bank” in the subject line.

8 P r efix: Audiofile

Altered Danny Y orke breaks rules with an aggro mix of broken an house beats. Natives

Danny Yorke lights up a spliff in his London That heaviness comes through flat and takes a patient puff before telling me both on his gully house about how he remixed Ikonika, released two Tenement Yard Volume 1 and the artist albums, and is auditioning tracks for noisy bruk-beat vibes of Serial his Eye4Eye label's next release. It's been a Vendetta, both released this busy 2010 so far; maybe he deserves a smoke summer on Eye4Eye. Yorke's tracks break. But the 30-something producer, better have a London edge and a sinister known as Altered Natives, is also calculated, groove that sounds especially pausing like a chess player contemplating his good on large speakers. While next move. Serial Vendetta's title doesn't The reticence might have something to do necessarily ill intents—it's with his admitted bad-boy past as a an anagram of Altered Natives— writer who left home at 16 and formed a other titles have a more literal hip-hop crew in North London. Or maybe meaning. "Eye4Eye is a reference it's that with song titles like "Eating Drinking to taking my own fucking life back," Fucking Sucking," "Cut, Slash, Mutilate," and Yorke says about reclaiming his autonomy post-Broadcite and

"Rage of Aquarius," he has to clearly explain O charging ahead with new output.

M his motivations. Yorke is a rule-breaker

R who eschews London music scenes, but has Now he has set his sights on been embraced by , house, and more of everything: , new bashment circles thanks in part to his 2009 aliases, and a new EP featuring single "Rass Out" (Fresh Minute), which fellow UK producers Ceramic, DJ A. PALE A.

S became an anthem as the UK funky Grayz, and Funkstar. He's also exploded. completed tracks for Tenement MA

O He's come a long way from his days in the Yard Volume 2, a single for 's early '90s making hip-hop and discovering 3024 label, and hopes to release T and jungle. Inspired by Hackney music on in 2011. "I'm artists like Overlord X and Shut Up And constantly working," he says. Dance, Yorke began producing his own "There will never be a shortage

Words tracks with an MPC-60. He made hip-hop of music—it's a matter of whether with his group The Heretics and then bruk people will get bored of it." as Da Altered Natives for Broadcite Recordings. After a few compilation appearances in 2004-'05, Yorke issued his • Serial Vendetta is out now on Eye4Eye. myspace.com/alterednativeslondon '08 solo debut, A Thousand Days of Patience. "[That album] was like my tombstone to my time at Broadcite," he explains. "I spent 1000 days with them and my patience was up. But it's all good." No, he's not afraid to speak his mind, musically or otherwise. His music is filled with gritty drum patterns, sharp lead synths, and stabby ; he even released a track called "Goya Owes Me Money," which name-checks a defunct UK music distributor. "The music I make is quite personal," he says. "I've been that demon in my tracks. They reflect my current status in life. Some of the music that I like most is really quite dark."

10 11 Five Star Five Star Five Star Five Star P r efix September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010

Jam meR

The s talwart t ells us abou t his five favori te new M .

P. Money Shorty Maxta Jammin Brand new and breaking bars His energy on stage reminds me Shorty's got a good, new range I like Maxta cos he reminds me He's someone you need to look in grime, P. Money came into of myself. He worked with me of flow and style. He doesn't talk of Kano around 2001. He's really out for. Excellent lyrical content the scene later on and was very for a long time, and put a lot of about violence—just talks about great with his , has a crazy but he's got a melodic flow, and consistent as part of the O.g'. hard work into what he's doing. life, with a catchy, broken-down high work rate, has knocked out produces as well. He's consistent With his strong lyrical content, He's also been really persistent flow that's easy to understand. a lot of tunes, and always works too, and makes a lot of music. constant appearances on the to get on the radio. He sold his He does the opening verse on with various people. Great lyrics He has a new album coming out radio, and regularly released mixtapes on the street, and the smash club track "Too Many and delivery. on the Boxfresh site, he's got a records, he's one of the most worked hard overall alongside P. Man" by Boy Better Know; this different style and he works hard called/mentioned names in 2010. Money to establish the O.g'z. song is banging at the moment! to get his material out. Download Short Man Syndrome, his newest free mixtape.

Jahmanji is out now on Ninja Tune. myspace.com/murkleman1

12 P r efix: Audiofile ITY OF A RS BL E ET These Are Powers' p ercussionist m akes lef tfield juke a nd IV O BreNmar t unes ins pired by his home town. N N U

B ERLIN 2010 W O ALI GITL

Bill Salas is chuckling during our email man band of effects pedals, turntables, tracks floating around, so I made my own

Words conversation. "I'm in Trier, loopers, samplers, and keyboards. He remixes," Salas explains. "I’m trying to keep now," he writes. "The toilet paper is like opened for These Are Powers in 2006, the sex and sensuality there—just up the cardboard." The -based producer and they hit it off. When a replacement a bit." and DJ is spending most of his summer days percussionist was needed, he was first on Earlier this year, he also released a UNIVERSITY OF ABLETON tweaking samplers on a European tour as the list. couple of original tracks. "Heavy Pockets" part of art-rock band These Are Powers. But As Brenmar, though, Salas has gone begins with ultra-slippery percussive beats amid the sweaty late-night shows, he is also through many musical phases, from pop to before upbeat sirens kick in and make it

Yumna hard at work on his personal ambient to noise, before focusing on dance seem like the police are coming for you, Buy Ableton Live 8, Suite 8, Live Intro or any upgrade project: Brenmar. music. With tunes informed by hip-hop, while "Kicked Beneath Too" features retro The project’s name is inspired by his R&B, the London bass scene, and especially synths, frog croaks, and a male vocal sample before October 31, 2010 and get free online training PHOTO brother, who was born with a hole in Chicago juke and ghetto house—staple that proudly repeats the words "bass his lung that made it difficult for him to sounds of his youth—he is quickly becoming kickin'." These tunes serve as previews pronounce certain words. While Salas known for his amped-up remixes of tracks for forthcoming releases—an EP for studied recording and engineering at by forward-thinking artists like Javelin and Discobelle and another for Sinden’s Grizzly Columbia College in his hometown of Blondes, as well as Chicago ghetto-house label, as well as collaborative EPs with Find out more: Chicago—"I’d skip class to stay at home master DJ Deeon, pop songstress Cassie, Austin producer Dubbel Dutch and LA duo and make beats," he admits—he often hung and R&B crooner Jeremih. His "Windy City Nguzunguzu. If they are any indication of www.ableton.com/university-of-ableton out with his then-two-year-old sibling. "He " of Aaliyah’s seminal tune "R U That what's to come, a steady stream of Brenmar- pretty much made up his own language," Somebody" is three parts juke, one part brand dancefloor bangers are on the way, Salas reveals. "He gave everyone in the UK funky, and 100% dancefloor friendly. "I crafted by this up-and-coming producer family their own specific name. I got wanted to play these R&B tracks but keep a who feels like he's found his sound. "I feel Brenmar. Where he got it from? Who knows." certain momentum and energy going within like I finally really know what 'Brenmar' is, After school, Salas hightailed it to my DJ sets. I also didn’t much care for the and where I want to take it," he says. Brooklyn. At the time, Brenmar was a one- big house and trance versions of those

• myspace.com/brenmarsomeday 14

L8_XLR8R_UoA_full_page.indd 1 13.08.10 11:49 Labels We Love Labels We Love Labels We Love Labels We Love P r efix September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010

AGE oF Zen

ninja tune XX: a photo retrospective of 20 game-changing years.

Coldcut "Doctorin' the House" video still, 1987

Kid Koala, 2003, by Paul Labonte

Squarepusher @ Stealth, 1996, by Martin LeSanto-Smith

DJ Food (PC & Strictly Kev) @ Stealth, 1995, by Martin LeSanto-Smith

To win the Ninja Tune XX box set in this issue's contest, see page 8 or visit XLR8R.com/135extras.

16 17 Incoming Incoming Incoming Incoming P r efix September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010

Bit ANd Pieces

Tristan Perich 's 1-bit opus takes the idea of 'lo-fi' in a whole new direction.

Tristan Perich's 2005 release, 1-Bit Music, presented an idea so straightforward, it was a little revolutionary: By inserting a single microchip, along with a headphone jack and some simple controls, into a CD jewel case, he replaced recorded music with a device that literally recreated the music each time it was turned on. Five years later, he presents a sequel of sorts: 1-Bit Symphony, an electronic composition in five movements that manages to cram more musical ideas (and more executable lines of code) into the same 8 kilobytes of storage. We asked the New York-based composer and video artist to describe his process and his continued fascination with digital audio's smallest unit of exchange. Andy Hermann

Genesis 1-Bit Music was a beginning that needed a conclusion. For 1-Bit Symphony, I returned to my role as a composer, writing music for traditional classical ensembles but strangely accompanied by 1-bit audio. Somehow combining beautiful old instruments with harsh electronics seemed entirely logical. I spent a lot of time thinking about the identity of these traditional instruments versus the identity of electronics. They clearly come from different places, but it's surprising how much primitive electronics shares with those old things.

AVR-USB), which connects to my computer, which Speaking in Code New Directions downloads the software with some open-source tools. My first 1-bit album was composed Music has always involved programming languages. entirely in code. This came out of the Traditional sheet music instructs performers on what to fact that its pitch system was based on do. On 1-Bit Symphony, I'm instructing the microchip to How We Do mathematical ratios and didn't map create sound by doing some calculations here and there I run a sweatshop out of my New York studio, where I to 'regular' instruments very well. For and outputting their results. It's this low-level approach to have four assistants who dutifully assemble each copy. 1-Bit Symphony, I wrote all the code from process that interests me. A lot of work goes into the process, including drilling the scratch, employing our traditional Western case, preparing and gluing the components, soldering the circuit, testing, and packaging. If anyone somehow gets a pitch system of half-steps, so finally my Mystery Man musical ideas could translate more directly Somehow everyone finds the process of downloading code copy that doesn't work, please write me and let me know, to encoded composition. I sketched ideas onto a chip extremely mysterious. Maybe it's reminiscent of and I' fire somebody. for the music in desktop audio software, movies, where someone has their brain rewritten with new which connected to a special version of the software, like Dark City or something. In my case it's a little electronics that I created to take input from like synching an iPod, but closer to flash-upgrading the a computer. That way I could work on the software for your 56k modem in the '90s. The chips plug 1-Bit Symphony is out now on Cantaloupe level of music instead of data. into a programming interface (in my case, the tuxgraphics Music. 1bitsymphony.com

18 P r efix: Audiofile

mr. G A L ondon house pioneer in the '80s, C olin M cBean finally sees the ruits o f his labor.

thomas rees rees thomas Though he's been practicing the art of DJing "don't always get what we deserve, and that's track; it's the picture that you've gleaned while since the late and producing since the the nature of the beast. For me, it's simply you've built the track that you'll produce again. mid-, the productions of London's Mr. G nice to get some positive feedback, because Sometimes in the studio, it's one take and the

ords

W (a.k.a. Colin McBean) are only now getting the producing can be a lonely little world, and piece is perfect, and sometimes it's 29 takes broader attention that they so richly deserve. putting out singles doesn't necessarily give me and the picture of the sound still isn't right." One of the original progenitors of a funkier, the validation that I need to hear." Yet because his live set-up is the same as low-end house that has blown up in the past After years of releasing only singles and his studio set-up, it's clear that McBean has year, McBean has always been a favorite EPs, Still Here (Get On Down) acts as a long- a pretty firm grip on the aural picture he of DJs and the techno cognoscenti, but his form way for McBean "to test out the waters, wants to create. Indeed, his one-off live sets recent debut album on Matt Edwards' Rekids to see whether I still have it." And with the are legendary, not only for the way they push imprint has brought a whole new group of accolades of the press and fans alike, it is the bass to its extreme depths, but also for fans and producers to his music. Yet McBean certain that Mr. G is still a force to be reckoned McBean's stage presence—unlike many DJs is anything but bitter about the belated with. Perhaps it's is because McBean still who simply stand behind a board, Mr. G is appreciation. uses an all-analog, MPC-based approach "doing robotics, jumps and leaps, punching the "I don't get into the bittersweet thing at to production that allows for maximum MPC," and acting like a true entertainer. all, because I try not to be negative at all in spontaneity and freshness, both in the studio "Performing live, as I get more into it, people anything in my life," McBean intones in his and live. "Blessed" perfectly conforms to that go crazy. It's about interacting with the crowd, warm, silky English accent. "Fans have simply aesthetic, building from a and slowly creating a fantastic total atmosphere for come back around to this twist on house incorporating and vocal samples that the people on the floor," enthuses McBean. music. Seeing the youth pick up on these eventually cut in and out in the places where "Taking performative risks like that, it can take sounds is a great new picture." the listener would least expect. "In the studio, time to get recognized for your achievements. That said, McBean acknowledges that I do my cuts and tweaks and jumps on the But right now, my sound is really ripe." producers like himself and Robert Hood fly," he explains. "It's more than building a

• Still ere ( Get O n D own) is out now on R ekids. mr-g.org.uk 20 Factozoid! Factozoid! Factozoid! Factozoid! P r efix September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010

events in NY & LA! FACTOZOID!!!! turn the page LaZeR SwORD for SF!

LAZER SWORD DISLIKES ANGRY DUBSTEP!!!! There seems to be some confusion about this, but for future reference, there's FREE! nothing more jarring than peak-hour muscle-step 21+ w/RSVP blaring from our runner's car when we get picked for full event details up from the airport. We're and to RSVP please visit LAZERA STAND-INSWORD HAS not so much into that type NinjatuneXX.XLR8R.com of stuff in the first place, HAND MODEL!!!! especially right after a long flight. We'd like to We're letting the cat outta the hear nice music instead... bag here, but due to our location divide, we got a stand-in hand something like Atlas model (our homie Sebastian EP. Sound or Delorean. from Montreal!) to play Bryant's part in the photo shoot for Low Limit vs. HandshakeLando Kal's Golden

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The conversation comes in intense waves, After leaving the group, Arp was initially with harder elements of German along with the roar of rush-hour traffic and conceived as a sound installation at SF's New cosmic rock, he's released two acclaimed LPs pedestrian squawks near Manhattan's Madison Langton Center for the Arts (a show curated by on Type. And earlier this year, he collaborated Square Park, where Alexis Georgopolous, the Matthew Higgs of New York's White Columns with Slapp Happy co-founder . composer//sound mixer/producer art space). But it also developed into an Arp's new release, The Soft Wave, who calls himself Arp, has stopped for a bite to ambient song cycle made with electronics and recombines all his influences into a highly eat and a long-distance chat about his life and additional strings, released as the full-length In addictive package that recalls groundbreaking work. The background is busy and chaotic, but Light in 2007. art rockers like Eno, Bowie, Cale, Wyatt, and

SEAN MCFARLAND Georgopolous' focus on the music he makes Georgopolous moved to New York the Cluster, while steering clear of mere copyism. remains steady and razor-sharp. following year. "The first three years in San As Arp, Georgopolous dares to enter the "There's a thread coursing through all my Francisco felt magical. But it eventually lost its established canon and finds its contents PHOTO work, a search for a musical identity that verve for me," he says. "New York is so , timeless, ripe and ready for the re-shaping. just feels right," he says, cutting through the with so many things going on that interest But he doesn't stop there. On "High Life" he din. "It's a nebulous space where I find my me—, dance, electronics—that adds melodic Juju and West African inspirations. It doesn't come from any one I can hardly keep up with it all." rhythms; "White Light" borrows fuzz and place." Some of that searching and inspiration More importantly, the frenetic pace of the Fender Telecaster strum from the Velvet no doubt began in early childhood, when he city's arts scene has quickly found a way Underground; and then there are classic split time between northeast Ohio, where to keep up with Georgopolous, who was analog synth sounds strewn about as well. his father taught philosophy at Kent State commissioned to compose a score for a duet "I'm constantly moving around in the music University, and Greece and , where between Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown I love," he says. "I'm learning I can make his family on both sides originates. He went dancers, has done more sound installation different kinds of records, none of which I hope through the cultural studies program at Ohio's and other collaborative gallery work, and was are an escape into the past, but a continuation Antioch College before spending 10 years in also selected to be part of The ' of experiments begun by great artists." San Francisco, where he was a member of 88-drummer live performance spectacle in funky post-rock experimentalists Tussle from in 2008. As a member of the 2002 to 2006. Alps, a trio that blends softwww.ninjatunexx.net French and Italian &Pieces Beats of Years 20 20 Years of Beats &Pieces www.ninjatunexx.net www.ninjatunexx.net &Pieces Beats of Years 20

• The Soft Wave is out now on Smalltown Supersound. 24 myspace.com/arp001 Elements Elements Elements Elements Elements Elements Elements Elements Elements P r efix September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010

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26 WORDS bewi The and no and IVERS BRANDON giving a fuck. t giving t

MID Midwes ching PHO t

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T Sa BRACKBILL SHAWN l em NIGHT cul Juggalos, ponders t MASS au ural t hen t ici t y, Salem—the trio of John Holland, Heather Marlatt, and Jack Donoghue—is a gothy/ witch-house/dream-/"fucking hipster"/ drag-step/worst.band.ever./genius/crack- core/amaaaazing/hiding-behind-fuzz/ wigger/fake-black-metal/angelic/homo- thug/Michael Stipe-endorsed/post-juke band from no place in particular.

They make the kind of music you play for adults right now—my friend just braided Chicago. They speak with a psychic drawl of likes to convince them that the world is ending soon. it—and this guy was so down with and ums and long vowels, and they politely resist And since it probably is, Salem embodies a it. We talked for a minute and I recounting their drug-addled history, though generation that doesn't care about race, sexual was like, 'Anyway, have fun with they do confirm the lurid drug- and hustler orientation, authenticity, and a lot of other that Slurpee.' I guess I respect that stories from an interview with Butt magazine last stuff that used to be a big deal. Their music they're doing what they want to do. year were true. But that's just not where they're is produced simply, probably with too much But I'm not really trying to listen to at now. bass, and in a perpetual state of stealing from [Insane Clown Posse] that hard. I "There was a writer from the New Yorker that everything they like. They got their name from think I like Juggalos a lot more than wanted to write a feature about us, and the editor the Salem witch trials... maybe. I like ICP." wouldn't let him because he read that [Butt] "Yeah, me too," Marlatt says, article," Holland says. "He was like, 'They're too In a way, you can't help wonder if Salem is just a laughing. "They're, like… so much subversive... we don't want to [run the piece]'. So totally bullshit invention—another evolution of more creative." I feel like, if we're too honest, it can limit our the Midwestern white kidz rap group, like a band "You're gonna start beef with options in other things. Do you guys agree?" of bougie Juggalos with long hair on some Jay- like, Violent J," Donoghue says "Yeah…" Marlatt says, slowly. "But I don't, like, from-Clerks trip, giving rise to the second Dark back, totally deadpan. "I saw that really care?" Carnival while pretending to be stoned... and video for 'Miracles' the other being kind of snarky about it, too. Or maybe I just day, and dude was like, 'Fucking Salem has only been around for a couple of years, can't help but wonder. magnets/How do they work?' and I but Holland and Marlatt met years before in high "I don't really know what [Juggalos] are about," thought that was really funny. But school at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, a says Holland over the phone. "But honestly, aside from that, I haven't really boarding school in Northern Michigan that Josh I don't really see them around where we live been thinking about Juggalos that Groban and once attended. anymore." much. It's a miracle, brother." Both Holland and Marlatt studied visual arts; "They're still in Chicago," Donoghue interjects. When I speak to Salem via Holland later became addicted to heroin and "I just saw a Juggalo at 7-Eleven yesterday for conference call, Marlatt and cocaine, funded by work as a station free-Slurpee day. He had a big hatchet man on Holland are in Traverse City, prostitute, mostly for married men. his forearms, and I was like, 'WHOOP WHOOP, Michigan (where Marlatt has just Holland eventually moved to attend the School yo what up, family?' I have my hair in braids bought a home) and Donoghue is in of the Art Institute of Chicago, and met Donoghue

30 while working at American Apparel. Upon their first meeting, Donoghue outlined his terms of friendship by asking Holland to "disconnect" from his other friends, to which Holland agreed, half- earnestly. In the Butt interview, Holland described Donoghue as "the hottest person I've ever met." Marlatt met Donoghue while visiting Holland in Chicago for the summer, and the three immediately clicked. Donoghue and Holland had been working on high()-energy dance music, but Marlatt's presence shifted the focus to Salem. "We just had a certain understanding about things," says Holland. "We understand without having to talk about it."

The group's first full-length, King Night, comes out in late September on IAMSOUND Records, and it'll probably be the grandest moment of the so-called "" scene's non-existence. The opening title track is a teeth- Christmas anthem perverted by fanatical choir stabs and crumbling, blown-out subs. It's basically Salem's annihilation hymn, and it puts their most fierce, polarizing foot forward. The band's previous releases over the last two years (like the Yes I Smoke Crack and Water EPs, and the "Frost" b/w "Legend" single) offered a good hint of what Salem was capable of, but they were like partially finished ideas. King Night is far more realized in comparison, taking tracks from old releases ("Redlights," "Frost," and the YouTube-leaked "Trapdoor") and re-mastering them with Brooklyn producer . The end result isn't necessarily what you'd call slick or accessible, but, along with eight new tracks on the album, Salem's towering, overblown aspirations finally begin to make sense. The songs on King Night tend to intersect around a few main components: a weird, percussive mix between Chicago juke and southern rap, a blissed-out wash of synths and vocals reminiscent of Cocteau Twins, and a fast- and-slow polyrhythm of fanned-out hi-hats and crisis sounds. There's other shit thrown in there for good measure, too—the gabber kick-drum squash on "Asia," or the almost-dubstep bass pressure on "Tair"—but pinpointing all those parts implies a reverence for influence that Salem doesn't really bother with. "We're taking liberally from so much," says Donoghue. "We're taking from rock, drone, European rave music, southern rap, Chicago, New York, whatever." When I mention specific artists like Chicago juke/footwork producer DJ Nate, Donoghue says he's never met the early-20-something beatmaker, but he's definitely a fan. "His music is so smart," he says, "but I don't think he's, like, trying to be clever." Other guys like (of whom Salem has done several unofficial remixes) and Wacka Flocka Flame are held in similarly high regard, but it's more like a detached appreciation

32 33 “No one would ever ques tion us for, like, reversing a or so mething, And, like, wi j uke, I ’m fro m C hicago. I grew up in C hicago.” than anything resembling gushing. "We don't their live shows, the most as moving as the actual music we make. These really know that much about any one kind of ballyhooed of which was at the shows were part of our exploration phase. music," says Holland. "We like so many different SXSW FADER Fort earlier this year. We're playing bigger venues than maybe we're kinds of music, but we don't do too much According to those who were there, prepared for." background research. We're just trying to find including The FADER magazine's The problem is, people still really want to see individual songs that we like." own Matthew Schnipper, the show Salem—at least people like music journalists, "We all focus on different things, too," fell somewhere between brilliantly Terence Koh, and Michael Stipe—all of whom Donoghue adds. "Like, I know Heather really not good and just not good—they showed up to what was probably Salem's third likes music that has bells in it—more than I may or may not have been booed or fourth show at Brooklyn's Glasslands Gallery do—and I like certain rap that John and off stage, it's hard to tell. At any in January. How do you keep such heavy-hitters Heather can appreciate, but maybe not listen to rate, videos from the performance away while Salem slowly, painfully perfects its it as much. John has a whole bunch of other remain on YouTube. live show? shit that I don't even know about at all. But we "I don't even care. I totally don't," says share a lot of music with each other and we When I ask Salem about SXSW and Marlatt. "I'm totally confused by that whole share a lot of ideas—verbal and conceptual. the FADER Fort videos, there's a world. I think we're more concerned with doing Salem is where all our aesthetics meet." moment of sincere confusion. performance-based things, rather than The band works on songs collectively, but "I never, like, saw the video, so I standing around... just playing music. We want each member has a specific identity within don't know," says Marlatt. to do way more than that. But up until this each track. On "Trapdoor," Donoghue raps in a "Was that, like, a YouTube video?" point we haven't had any of the resources to pitched-down, incomprehensible growl, and his asks Donoghue. "I don't get it." really do what we have . But now , "It's all blurred out/Hey bitch, I can't see "Yeah, it's on YouTube," I say. "I we kind of do, and that's exciting." ya" could almost be mistaken for Gucci Mane. guess the video was taken offline On "Traxx," Marlatt's is pure texture for a second or something?" As the interview continues, there's a loud noise amidst a haze of deathray synths, bass, and "That was only, like, our eighth that keeps barging its way into the phone call— prison clanks. And Holland sings as well. On show," Holland says after a long either a large barking dog or maybe a boar— "Killer," he conjures up a strange, rap-laced pause. and I'm reminded that Holland and Marlatt are combination that borders on "There's a lot of people that want set up in Northern Michigan—home of pure noise. to weigh in on our live show and Midwestern desolation, and suffering, how it is and how it should be," upside-down crosses stuck in the snow, etc. Salem's influences might seem a little iPod- Donoghue says, almost laughing. But I'm also struck by how laid-back and sort of playlist-driven, but in an era of Rick Ross studio "I'm just like, straight up, I would positive everyone seems to be. gangsterism and rock 'n' roll dudes coming out never talk to you. I wouldn't talk to "I feel like people imagine us as being so with macrobiotic cookbooks, it's hard to harp you about what I want my music to serious or dark or whatever," says Marlatt, "but too hard on authenticity. That said, if M.I.A. can sound like, I wouldn't talk to you it's not really like that. We don't take ourselves be burned at the stake for eating truffle fries, about what I wanted my art to look seriously, but we take our music very seriously. what does it mean when white kids with art- like, or like, hang out with you. So It's not about each of us as individuals. Like, school credentials start pitching their voices why do you think you should be 'Oh, Jack went to a party last night.' Who cares? down to sound like Gucci Mane? weighing in on things?" It has nothing to do with our music." "No one would ever question us for, like, "I wanna be like, 'Why didn't you Prior to talking with Salem, it all seemed so reversing a guitar or something," says ask someone else to do it then?'" obvious: Teams of marketing men carefully Donoghue. "And, like, with juke, I'm from says Marlatt. "People were saying cultivated this band's persona using magnets and Chicago. I grew up in Chicago." stuff like, 'Other bands would die only the best SEO-baiting tricks—some real "And I lived there for five years," adds to have the opportunities that you buzzband conspiracy shit! But it turns out the Holland. guys have, to get the shows that reality is much more banal. Their music—and "I feel like that's something a white person you get.' Like, [these bands] trying their aesthetic aura—is ambiguous and full of would say," says Marlatt. "In a way to criticize for years, and then they finally get fuzzy definitions, but Salem is not part of a JT what we're doing. It's like, to anyone that thinks to play [the FADER Fort]. And I LeRoy-style hoax; the darkness and the crack that in this era—I don't know what to tell them. don't even know what to say when smoking and whatever else come from a more It's not like we're Elvis Presley. God. What, are people say stuff like that. It's like, intuitive lack of giving a shit than some secret, we robbing the music from a different race? 'Okay, well… sorry?'" unfolding plan. Give me a break." " reason we started "I think you're giving us more credit for "There's no such thing as owning anything in doing shows was because someone thinking about our 'audience' than we actually music or art or anything like that," says offered to fly us to Rome to play," do," Donoghue eventually admits. "We're not Holland. admits Donoghue. "So we were like, even trying to be secretive or sensational. It's "Yeah, like, I've found music that has been 'Okay, that would be fun,' you know just that we're not thinking about people remade from chopped-up parts of beats that I what I'm saying? We're still trying passing judgments. We're making what we want did in high school," says Donoghue. "But I'm to figure it out, and we will figure it to be listening to. It's not like we're making happy [someone] took the song in a different out, but live performance isn't anything just to get a reaction from people. If direction. It's not anyone's song." really—we don't have that much we just wanted to be sensational or whatever, That's the sort of controversy that surrounds experience with it. We're still we have a lot more stories we could Salem these days. That, and grumblings about trying to come to a place where it's have told." n

King Night is out September 28 on Salem laces us with a podcast at IAMSOUND. s4lem.com XLR8R.com/135extras.

36 From the rise o f in the '80s and '90s to the teen f ootwork competitions and abstract juke upstarts o f today, Chi cago's circle keeps on expanding.

WORDS & PHOTOS: D ave uam Claremont is where we are right now. But it could be any number of ever-changing locations on the south side. These days, two recurring gatherings take place: Da War Zone, organized by videographer and promoter Wala "Walacam" Williams, and Battle Groundz, started by dancer AG of Terra Squad and the Leaders of the New School crew. On a good night, you'll find over 200 kids in attendance, and if not, you'll at least catch a "It's pretty good practice session. Shootings, fights, and lack of usable space might prevent the scene from having a permanent shelter or center, but, still, the city's footwork culture thrives. Here, kids leave behind street life for a different kind of quarrel—one that involves their feet rather than their hands. The energy involved is not completely unlike that of a fistfight, and someone's bound to leave the battle feeling a bit wounded. Dancers make up their own routines sofucking hot in here!" is the cry heard from almost on the floor, with their shuffling feet following the everybody in the building. That includes the DJs, lower frequencies and their bodies to the the spectators recording video with their iPods, the claps. A good footwork routine, full of "soul trains," girlfriends sitting on stray chairs and buckets, and the "Pocahontases," and "ghosts," will have symmetry— kids with red plastic cups full of liquor—but rarely from the patterns that happen on the left side are followed the individuals doing the actual moving. That is, until through on the right—and gimmicks are frowned one of them passes out from exhaustion. It's Sunday upon. And the music that accompanies these events is night in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's equally confrontational—like a Jamaican — south side, and I'm fighting through a circle of pitting DJ versus DJ, dubplate versus dubplate. Tonight, spectators to get a good view of the action at an event DJs T-Why, Rashad, Earl, Manny, Spinn, Roc, Traxman, called Da War Zone. And no better time, too, for the and RP Boo provide the soundtrack: A clattering dancers to the left of me—The Legends Clique—look maelstrom of toms, snares, and bass stuttering out of like the Voltron of footworkers. They're comprised of a portable , like an extremely pitched-up take on the original members of the legendary Chicago dance house, techno, , and hip-hop all rolling at crews Wolf Pac and Terra Squad, and the way the scales you at 160 bpm. are tipped tonight, it's not looking favorable for the It's debatable what supposed "wave" the juke and opposing team. footwork scenes are currently in. There was a time For Chicago's indigenous juke and footwork scene, when it was relegated to public-access TV, the Bud a sweaty vacant warehouse, a school gymnasium, a Billiken Parade and Picnic (an annual African-American rec center, a house party, or an El train platform can gathering in Chicago whose aim is to promote the serve as a "place of the way," much like a dojo. And betterment of the city's youth), underground battles, don't get it twisted—a martial-arts space on 57th and

Lite Bulb

40 41 " Most people, weren' t ready for t he foot work sound — they couldn' t unders tand i t."

—DJ R ashad

and high-school dances. Then there was Dude N Nem's 2007 "Watch My Feet" video, which blew up on MTV for a sec. And now that teens from the city have begun littering the web with thousands of videos, and juke and footwork tracks are ending up in the crates of London DJs, it's, well, headed off on another tangent. But you could safely say that the initial seeds were taking root long before most modern footworkers were "Like the saying goes, 'We don't dance no more. All even conceived. we do is juke.' That's what started killing the parties," In 1985, the House-O-Matics dance group, home to explains westside-born Kavain Space, known to most many pioneering dancers and DJs-to-be, was formed as RP Boo. On his mantle, there's a trophy given to by Ronnie Sloan. They'd battle the likes of U U and him by Wala Williams bearing the words "Creator of House Arrest 2 at local venues like The Warehouse Footwork Music," the other, more twisted substrain of and the Boys and Girls Club. Armando's "Land of juke. In the last decade, Boo's drum programming and Confusion," Frankie Knuckles' "It's a Cold World," and sample mutilation immensely influenced underground later Cajmere's massive "Percolator" were hugely music here, permanently changing the way footwork popular records that influenced the era, as well as tracks were made. Armed with a display-model Roland anything legendary house DJ Ron Hardy played. "I was R-70 and an Akai SO1 sampler, RP would going to The Muzic Box in '87 at 15 years old, and I create what he called "concept tracks"—jump-off heard Ron Hardy spin and loved it," reminisces veteran points that opened the minds of many. These concepts DJ and producer Traxman (a.k.a. Ferguson). became the first real footwork tracks, stemming from "That was the first place I heard 'Acid Trax.' He played it Boo's involvement with House-O-Matics in the earliest like three times. People lost their minds." days of the crew's existence. "I was given an option of At the same time, Dance Mania Records came on the either 'You're going to dance, or you're going to spin,' scene, and would eventually amass a catalog of roughly and I was more into music so I stopped dancing," he 300 twelve-inches between 1985 and 2001. Heavier recalls about the time the crew's founder, Ronnie Sloan, bass, synth- and drum-machine presets, and curse asked him choose his creative direction in life. Newer words were abundant, and simplicity played a large groups established in the '90s, such as The Dungeon, role in how the music was made. Most referred to the Wolf Pac, and Gutter Thugs, needed some fresh new sound as "trax," or "beat trax," but "ghetto house" material, and RP provided it. became the more prevalent name. Jammin Gerald, In 1997, RP created "Baby Come On," a track built Houz Mon, Parris Mitchell, DJ Deeon, DJ , and DJ from an Ol' Dirty Bastard vocal sample that repeats Slugo all cut their teeth in this era, turning the heads itself until it becomes almost unrecognizable. Later of many East Coast and European DJs. Eventually the songs like "Ice ," "That's What the Speakers Are word "jukin'" was coined, a phrase used to describe a For," and "11-47-99" (a.k.a. "The Godzilla Track") would banging party. "Juke" latched itself onto the later years continue to turn parties out, causing people to get to of the Dance Mania catalog, a movement led by the so excited and riled up that brawls would break out. He likes of Gant Man, DJ Puncho, and DJ Greedy. also once left DJ Clent so dumbfounded after dropping Juke saw some success in the late '90s and early a remix of his own track at a party, that it caused him , even garnishing major-label singles like to have an asthma attack. The structure of a modern- Beyonce's "" and R Kelly's "Real Talk" day footwork track was changed from then on, with with remixes, but this wasn't a push in favor of the scattered triplets and pulsating bass replacing house footworkers. A style of juke with less commercial aim— music's four-on-the-floor blueprint. and more focus on the dance crews—was being kept The early 2000s not only marked a time of change alive by DJ Clent ("Back Up Off Me") and DJ PJ ("Chase in the structure of the music, but the structure of Me"), both southsiders living in the area of the city footwork battles as well. "It was about pride back known as the Low End. Their drum patterns became then," says DJ Rashad (a.k.a. Rashad Harden), a former more distanced from house music's origins, and the House-O-Matics and Wolf Pac crew member, and recent new sound began to resemble what dance crews are signee to 's Planet Mu Records. "Everything was slugging it out to today. very organized at the time. When you'd go to a party, when you battle, everyone had their own turn. If you lost, you lost; it wasn't just about who was the coldest," he recounts. "Nowadays, people battle and might lose, but still think they won. There were more girls back then, too!" Along with his colleague DJ Spinn, Rashad ran with the style that RP Boo masterminded, to this day providing footworkers with tracks that even change the dancing itself. "Most people, especially those outside the city, weren't ready for the footwork sound when From TOP: Dj rashad, dj spinn

42 43 "Like the saying goes, ' We don't dance no more—a ll we do is juke.' " - RP B oo

Regardless of what strain of juke has been doing the influencing, you need only listen to Addison Groove's dubstep-tempo footwork track "Footcrab," Girl Unit's "I.R.L.," and French juke enthusiasts DJ Hilti and Kaptain Cadillac to find the connections between Chicago and the dance music coming from across the it was created—they couldn't understand it," says pond. With more transatlantic touring going on, there's Rashad, who is now a mentor to the younger producers, hope for even stronger bonds to be made. "We've been many of whom have set up in the basement studio of collecting and playing this stuff for ages!" says DJ/ Spinn's Markham home in the south suburbs to work producer Bok Bok (a.k.a. Alex Sushon, of London's on tracks. Night Slugs crew). "It just fits into the greater whole for DJ Earl and DJ Manny are just a couple of those kids us. Chicago makes sense as one of the global hubs for who you might find there. "I started going to Battle ghetto innovation." Groundz while I was in Creation [dance crew], and

[] Charles would get tracks from people like DJ It's now 11 p.m., and Da War Zone is shutting down. Solo and Clent for us to hear," says the 19-year-old DJ What goes down inside the circle tends to stay there, Earl (a.k.a. Earl Smith). "I was making footwork tracks and while a few salty losers may have stormed out in at the time, but I couldn't really get over the curve. I defeat, the community remains one of the healthiest didn't really know what a good track was supposed outlets available to both young and old residents of to sound like, but I had a passion for music. I asked Chicago. "I've been on the wrong side of the tracks Rashad if they were willing to recruit me, and when before, and because of footworking, I'm a much more they did they taught me almost everything." positive person today," explains Lite Bulb, a passionate It's that cross-generational, cross-cultural pollination 20-year-old footworker and member of the Terra Squad, that is proving to be what the future holds in store with seven years under his dancing belt. He just lost for this music. Since Farley "" Funk's "Love his friend and teammate Miah to gun violence a few Can't Turn Around" charted #10 on the UK charts in weeks back, so he relies on the scene's community for 1986, transatlantic conversation about electronic dance support. "They are my lifetime brothers," he says. "I'm music has been flourishing. As an extension of that their baby brother, they brought me up." It's obvious back-and-forth, the venerable experimental label Planet that his, and many others', evolution in this scene is as Mu recently signed three artists from the Chicago natural as anything else. "I love footworking, it's second scene: DJ Roc, for his album, The Crack Capone; DJ nature to me," he continues. "I do it when I'm sleeping, Rashad's Itz Not Rite EP; and one of the scene's biggest I do it when I wake up. I do it when I'm at work, and UK exports, DJ Nate, who released his "Hatas Our at school. The money part—I don't really care about Motivation" single and Da Track Genious LP on the making money from footworking. I do what I do for the label. (a.k.a. μ-Ziq, and owner of Planet love." Mu) first discovered footwork on YouTube, through The music creeps to a silent halt, everyone is a coworker. "I was really into Nate's sound," he says, shooed out the door, and people are dismantling "which seemed (and still seems) very removed from the the soundsystem. These 200 or so kids just took in rest of the scene. He has this very odd sense of rhythm, a piece of footwork history 10 minutes ago, the first and his percussion seems more influenced by hip-hop/ time the entire Legends Clique had danced together crunk than , which I don't hear in a lot of in battle—and anyone with the cajones to face 'em other footwork tracks." Three or four years ago, Nate are now licking their wounds. It's a massacre like I've (a.k.a. Nathan Clark) and a few other young producers, never seen before, but everyone walks away with like DJ Elmoe and DJ Yung Tellum, began uploading limbs intact. Outside, everyone crowds around parked their tracks onto the web, exposing the more broken, cars, socializing and smoking blunts like nothing even twisted side of juke to the masses. On the ground in Chicago, these artists had minimal impact, existing as happened. n part of a digital underground seemingly removed from the actual physical juke and footwork scenes, but their Listen to DJ Rashad's exclusive music undoubtedly turned the heads of many overseas podcast at XLR8R.com/135extras. and on the 'net. As a result, folks that were generally off the trail of juke's evolution were all of a sudden name- dropping Nate, tastemaker sites like 20jazzfunkgreats and writers such as The New Yorker's Sasha Frere-Jones began blogging about his music, and Nate's tracks started showing up in mixes by everyone from Salem to UK funky/bass DJs.

from top: Frost, Deryon webster

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T OS wlowitz c wlowitz a M st CULLEN EGAN . Them a Asts ll Be - hind It's almost ironic that since the release of his landmark debut album, 2008's Shedding the Past, German producer Rene Pawlowitz (a.k.a. Shed) has been viewed a savior of modern techno. His music is wildly unpredictable and doesn't quite mesh with the genre's obsession with rigid structure and functionalism. Held up as one of the cornerstones of the world- famous Berlin scene, Pawlowitz clashes sharply with the city's obsession with dark, steely techno and bright tech-house grooves. Shed's musical vision is unaffected by the poisonous purism or close-mindedness that so often lurks in local scenes, especially one as long-established as Berlin's unparalleled techno community. Instead, his music is colored by a distinct and ravenous hunger for the new and unexplored. Reflecting that hunger, Pawlowitz is uncommonly prolific: On top of nearly 20 releases as Shed, Pawlowitz has also made dancefloor-destroying singles as WAX and Equalized, and has explored a dubbier side as STP and Panamax Project. Pawlowitz has been releasing music since 2003, first on Delsin and his own Soloaction label, the latter of which would eventually yield another label, Subsolo, where Shed's pan-genre tendencies and excursions outside of techno are front and

48 "An albu m m ust be diverse...

Eight s traight t racks wi th an ar ty-farty in tro and tro m ake no sense t o m e."

center. But for his 2008 debut LP, Pawlowitz For all its variety and experimen- farty intro and outro make no sense to me," he signed to Ostgut Ton, aligning himself with the tation, it sounded of one mind. His says. He's not concerned with how well his albums resident DJs of Berlin's legendary new, second Shed LP, The Traveller, is work on the dancefloor, recognizing that an album club, who have used the label as their personal a deconstruction of the unified sound is something meant to be listened to personally. playground—and molded it into one of the finest of his first album, taking it apart and "For listening at home, it's not necessary to have a institutions in modern techno, an imprint at laying out the constituent ingredients seven-minute track," he says matter-of-factly. "My the forefront of the more experimental side of in plain view for all to see. The Traveller tracks end before you get bored!" Berlin. Still, Pawlowitz's earliest productions takes on a much more fragmented for Soloaction and Delsin sound like something feel than the gluey progression of It's clear that Pawlowitz is no standard techno that could only come from Shed, paying Shedding the Past, though it's the kind of producer, and he's perhaps known best for his homage to classic techno but infused with wonderful fragmentation where every extensive use of the , which dangles lifelike percussion and unpredictable breakbeat single track impresses in a different and thrashes in a majority of his productions. patterns. way. An album's album, each of The "There is more space, more groove," he says. "[The His unique mishmash of styles is influenced Traveller's tracks is a brief and vibrant breakbeat] gives me freedom and more possibilities by all manner of childhood experiences. First, vignette, from the epic, near-dubstep with where the track can end up. When you start the radio, and then when he got older, his crawl of "The Bot" to the sexy slam-and- with a straight drum, you're captured in that. grandfather. "He was kind of a facility manager swell of "44A (Hardwax Forever!)" to the Everybody can build a straight drum—that's not in a big location for diverse events," Pawlowitz gauzy wash of the title track interesting to me." informs. "And so I got into music technically to the sputtering jungle closer, "Leave But it's not just his use of the breakbeat that during my holidays in Frankfurt as a child. Things." sets him apart from his German peers; it's also his Playing on stages, sitting behind big mixers, There's a fragile cohesion found in open love for UK . The UK's hardcore watching musicians..." these shattered remains: If Shedding the continuum seems to course through The Traveller, Berlin Hard Wax—founded Past was a journey, then The Traveller from hardcore to jungle to dubstep, as the by dub-techno don and is an outright circumnavigation of dip and rise and time signatures are melted and currently serving as day-job employer for Marcel , with blips of land deformed. Pawlowitz rattles off a list of his favorite Dettmann, among others—proved enormously masses floating by, each with its own producers of the moment—names like Pursuit influential in his move towards techno. "I've been unique character. Pawlowitz himself Grooves, Instra:mental, dBridge, Zomby—and all buying my records there since 1992. Hard Wax is seems it. "This time it was but one are from the UK. Of course, he resists that responsible for my taste in music. My records are [about] creating a long-player," he style of categorization. "It's not standardized," he sorted in the same way as the assortment in the intones. "All the tracks were made for declares. "Just cool music." Hard Wax store!" he exclaims. the album. It grew from track to track. I Amidst all this talk of breaking boundaries and think it's more contiguous than the first. avoiding what he refers to as "standardization," In Pawlowitz's case, history isn't foremost in All but one of the tracks were made in there's one thing that Shed unequivocally loves: his mind. His debut LP, Shedding the Past, um, two months." true techno music, which he calls "Full of energy sheds a bit of light onto the idea. "I was always That kind of quick genesis shines and vigor/Not yet touched, used, or exploited," in a thinking about the past," he explains. "And through in the album's breakneck memorable spoken-word passage on Shedding the in the meantime, I forgot the today. And to pace, less than 50 minutes spanning Past. To him, it's perhaps more of an ideology than release myself and my music from this kind of 14 diverse tracks. The album format is an identifiable sound. So would he consider his depression, I created this; Shed sheds the past." important to Pawlowitz, an affinity that music "techno"? "Yes," he answers, emphatically. That first album was a sprawling but cohesive certainly not all dance music producers "It's electronic—hard beats, deep bass. Always record that effectively swallowed up past share or even understand. "An album good to have it on a big PA and to dance to. techno tropes and spit them out in a glossy, but must be diverse—a techno album as Almost always." n thoughtful, travelogue through the style's history. well. Eight straight tracks with an arty-

The Traveller is out now on Ostgut Ton. myspace.com/sheddingthepast

50 WORDS Michael H Michael

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PHO OS T FLY GARCIA OSCAR

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ING op egro t ion for an i an for ion , B arcelona's arcelona's m aginary genre. aginary E l G uin c ho crea t SO a grea t es t - LO With Pop Negro, Barcelona's El Guincho creates a greatest-hit collection for a n imaginary genre.

Pablo Diaz-Reixa, the soft-spoken fellow behind El Guincho, needed to start his interview about one and a half hours later than was originally planned. "I had the chance to ride a black horse!" he tells me over the phone, having driven to a small town outside of his current hometown, Barcelona, to ride the steed in question. "It was like a dream. I had to take that chance." This explanation unwittingly gives voice to the possibility that the arduously molded, rhythmically mesmerizing Pop Negro, the newest El Guincho full-length, recalls. It was a breakthrough of sorts for might be the dark-horse candidate for the year's best record: the record, leading ultimately to the crisp, It's immediately engaging, but more moody and mysterious heavy rhythms of the end result. He would than his prior work, and only gradually revealing its nuances. finish the album where it started, back in Barcelona, where he decided to record a In early 2009, Diaz-Reixa met with some friends at a couple more songs, finishing with the beachside Barcelona restaurant specializing in paella and twisted ebullience of "Ghetto Facil," the seafood. It was at this restaurant that he spotted what album's third of nine tracks. appeared to be a fortuitous pairing of words. "I was kind of Writing and recording, which happen hung over and started reading the menu," he explains. "'Pop,' more or less concurrently for El Guincho, in Catalan, means 'octopus.' At one point, I read 'Pop Negro.' occurred in a much different fashion for preferring that straight-to-line It was like 'Pop' was one line and the other was 'Arroz Negro' Pop Negro, his second album proper for sound to that of the small amps he ['black rice']. I misread it and I started thinking about 'pop Young Turks/XL, than it did for 2008's had been using before. negro' as a music concept." Wondering what "pop negro" highly acclaimed Alegranza!. With this first This method was something he would actually sound like, he decided that day that the album (not counting the folksy, limited picked up out of what he claims phrase would be the guiding principle behind his next 2007 record, Folías, which he didn't intend were his greatest influences while album—he would make the "greatest hits" for this imaginary for wide release), Diaz-Reixa had to go writing and recording this new style, figuring it out as he went. through a lengthy sample-clearing process, album: not so much particular Work quickly began on the album, which would be written which pushed back the US release of the artists or records, but a pair of and recorded over several months in what ended up being LP significantly. "I love sampling as an books—The Mixing Engineer's four different locations. Going into the process, he already artform, as a way to make music," he says, Handbook and Behind the Glass, two had a few songs written, including "Bombay," the album's "but for this album I just got so tired of all fairly technical tomes containing lead-off track, and "Soca del Eclipse." These songs would be the talking with the publishing companies interviews with renowned and finessed to fit into the still-nebulous "pop negro" sound, for and clearing the samples… I just thought, respected producers and engineers. which the intensive recording would happen in Berlin, where 'I'm just gonna make a straight - "I read these books and started Diaz-Reixa flew in May 2009. His work schedule there divided and-drum-machine record, and try to make listening to the records they made nearly all of his time between the studio Planet Roc and a interesting sounds by myself.'" and produced—that was the biggest small portable recording set-up in the place he was renting, Whereas songs on Alegranza! would influence," he explains. In his and he more or less eschewed a social life altogether. "When begin with four or five loops blended in a reading, one engineer with whom I was doing the record, I missed so much music. I couldn't sampler, everything on Pop Negro started Diaz-Reixa felt a certain affinity was listen to anything else," he explains, claiming it was a cycle of in the drum machine—recording kick Jon Gass, who was interviewed in real studio, home studio, dinner, sleep, studio, and so on. drums, snare, and hi-hat sounds, Diaz- The Mixing Engineer's Handbook. "I After those two months, which yielded 10 or 11 songs with Reixa would make drum patterns and put loved the approach he had to the about 100 audio tracks within each, he flew to Madrid to visit together melodies on his . In sound—the way he explained that friends and re-work this sizeable pile of material. every studio but the one at Gran Canaria, he was more like a music guy than a This second phase in Madrid, and each subsequent one, he was joined by producer Alex Mazoni, proper engineer, and how he got all would involve erasing and re-working , opening who played bass parts and engineered his sounds improvising and trying up the songs to breathe a bit, and restructuring as necessary. throughout. Together, they worked in a stuff he wasn't supposed to do," The next step came when he went on vacation to mode that Diaz-Reixa considered to be says Diaz-Reixa. Interestingly de Gran Canaria, his home in the off the coast fairly straightforward and 'pop.' "We'd drop enough, he finds Gass' work on of northwest Africa. As it turned out, a friend of his had just a drum beat, play the chords on top of Babyface's track "Tender Lover" started a studio in Gran Canaria, to which he invited Diaz- that, play some synthesizer arrangements, especially enthralling. "That record Reixa to listen back to the working tracks on his massive and work on the lyrics." On this album, sounds so huge. The stereo image is system. "I thought, 'Wow, these songs sound really cool when too, he tended towards using line amazing; so wide." Writing an you turn the kick drums and basslines up really loud," he recording for guitar and bass sounds, unsolicited inquiry to Gass via his

54 55 september – october What peopLe pLay 2010

various artists – Diary no. 1 hi Five! – mobiLee CompiLation Dop – greatest hits granD pubahs – Lee Jones – Watergate 07 Johannes heiL – Loving rauDive – Chamber musiC upon.you reCorDs CD/DigitaL – CD/DigitaL – mobiLeeCD011 CirCus Company CD/DigitaL – maDD CirCus Watergate CD/DigitaL – Wg007 CoCoon reCorDings CD/2Lp/ maCro CD/ DigitaL – maCrom19 uponyouCD001 16 exclusive tracks CCCD008 DeteLeFunk CD/DigitaL – Berlin’s legendary Watergate DigitaL – CorCD024 A modernist masterpiece that Upon.You Diary No.1 includes See them on Tour: ’ most innovative (and Det16CD Club continues their stunning With “Loving”, I want to embrace defyes the distinctions between an exclusively edited DJ mix 10.09.10 Hi Five San Francisco! fun) band of now with their long New album by Detroit’s finest mix series with Lee Jones (of My the whole world, because this techno, minimal, dubstep and and another compiled part with @ Compound. 11.09.10 Los awaited first solo album - On Paris The Black FU & Mr. O sees My Fame) and lots of exclusive journey to the origins of electronic . Dark acoustic depth 13 unreleased tracks, mixed & Angeles! @ Ecco Hollywood. Circus Company the hippest the Pubahs back in best “Funk Tracks and Edits! dance music in between Modern meets the sexiest beats of the compiled by Marco Resmann. It 12.09.10 Hi Five Chicago! @ label on this side of the moon! All Y’All” shape. check the single Out: October 2010 Detroit, high tech Soul and House year 3000. serves as both an up-to-date Green Dolphin. 17.09.10 Hi Five Out: 04.10.2010 numb, deaf & dumb with rmxs. by is coming from the very bottom of Out: Now! survey of Upon You in 2010 as Miami! @ Electric Pickle Anja sj pierre & space djz! my heart.” (Johannes Heil, 2010) well as a reflection on its origins. Schneider / And.Id –live / Clint Out: 27.09.2010 Out: Now! Out: 13. 09. 2010 Stewart / Ralf Kollmann / Dory. Out: 20.09.2010

website, Diaz-Reixa managed to get him to mix voice, and a wide array of keyboard sounds first EP include Orefiche y Valdespi, Miguel Pop Negro. To Diaz-Reixa's surprise, Gass collide to conjure an exciting, unconventionally Matamoros, and Felix Benjamin Caignet, and happened to enjoy both Alegranza! and these seductive sound. The lyrics, although entirely rather than playing these songs straight, he traversabLe WormhoLe – seCret Cinema – timeLess puLshar – insiDe DJ kaos – horny morning Loop sasCha Dive – restLess night Cours Lapin – Cours Lapin oLiver koLetzki & Fran – new recordings, even asking him for in Spanish, are worth attempting to translate. decided to employ production techniques that voL. 1-5 (an exCLusive 68 aLtituDe 2010 (inCLuDing DesoLat CD/DigitaL – (rmxs by Dr Dunks/ tvs & aera’ Deep vibes Dvr014 – CD/DigitaL Fake DiamonD CD/DigitaL – LovestoneD FDrCD011 stiL For taLent CD/DigitaL – minute mix by aDam x) remixe by sLam DesoLatCD003 JoLLy Jams001 – 12”/DigitaL “Restless Night” is: from dusk till production tricks for aspects of the record that "Muerte Midi," for instance, the name of which he thought his friends would enjoy. "To me, svt050CD CLr Create Learn realize 12”/DigitaL – gem006. Desolat is proud to present New label by DJ Kaos dawn, for a nice open-air party, NME favoured Scandinavian/ he liked. was inspired by its original filename, "Muerte. they're classics," he says. He originally CD/DigitaL – CLrCD009 Secret Cinema brings us a re- Pulshar, true musical (DFA, Clone, K7). or a gorgeous after-hour event Sensation Cours Koletzki’s “Grosstadtmärchen” midi," finds him singing about death as a imagined the process as "write, record stuff to Very Limited Edition Album release of his classic ‘Timeless heavyweights, with See him on america tour in on Ibiza. Sascha Dive’s is: Deep Lapin with their Debut. Think was the Techno Pop Sountrack Release on this much acclaimed Altitude’. The EP contains compositions that traverse the September: House of the finest! if Domino are to release the of the 2009 Berlin underground Babyface's name alone should be a tip-off that cruelly fast, cold affair. Diaz-Reixa felt that the tape, mix it down to four-track, and release it work by Adam X on Chris remixes by Slam, Secret borderlands between spacious 8 NYC, 9 10 NYC, Out: Now ultimate Vanessa Paradis album Summer. Liebing´s CLR Label! Cinema himself and others. songcraft and the futuristic 11 NYC ,12 NYC,16 Tecate, she never did and Sigur Ros to This is his new first international this record was sonically inspired by less-than- experience of a death had a peculiar resonance as a white label, cassette, MP3, etc." Luckily for Out: 20.09.2010 The 12” is accompanied by the outer-reaches of the dub-techno 17 Baja, 18 Guadalajara, produce it as a soundtrack for album – bright and unique in obvious sources. As much of the rest of the with the media type in question, which itself the listening public, these songs caught the ear digital release of the original. A universe! 19 San Francisco and . sound! must-have timeless classic! Out: 20.09.2010 Out: 06.09.2010 Out: 27.09.2010 Out: 06.09.2010 electronic world began to catch up has a kind of cold quality to it. This sort of of his label, and are being gradually rolled out Out: October 2010 with where El Guincho was at two years ago, wire-crossing lyrical/thematic synesthesia as EPs. They're really beautiful-sounding Diaz-Reixa found himself listening to early seems indicative of the El Guincho body of recordings, sweetly arranged and swaddled in Luther Vandross records, including Busy Body work as a whole—difficult to ascribe to any an iridescent, psychedelic production. These and Forever, for Always, for Love, as well as a particular genre or geographical region, a recordings end up doing more than just Diaz- number of Spanish pop productions from the collision that could only have occurred in Diaz- Reixa's friends a service, allowing El Guincho '80s—in particular, the work of Spanish Reixa's wandering mind. fans an introduction to a deep, rich well of producer Paco Trinidad, who produced for a Parallel to the Pop Negro project, and music likely unfamiliar to his listeners. mainstream, female pop-rock singer named Luz showcasing an almost entirely different side of As his recording pseudonym suggests—"El Casal. "This song he produced for her sounds Diaz-Reixa's musical personality, is the Piratas Guincho" comes from the name for a bird amazing," notes Diaz-Reixa, "[with its] de Sudamérica series. The first EP was released native to the Canary Islands that always flies Louie austen – Last man – 1010 / yeah peDer – Dirt & goLD Christopher rau – terenCe Fixmer – v.a. green & bLue 2010 mixeD by WoLF+Lamb – Love someone synthesizer sounds, the super-weird by Young Turks in July, kicking off a series of alone—Diaz-Reixa seems to perch on his own Crooning boysnoize reCorDs 12”/DigitaL – Fake DiamonD reCorDs asper CLouDs ComeDy oF menaCe steve bug & Chris tietJen WoLFanDLamb musiC CD/DigitaL compression, and the super-big, loud drums." releases featuring El Guincho covers of select musical plane, sounding little like anyone else eLeCtrotaining you! bnr050 CD/DigitaL – FDrCD012 smaLLviLLe CD 03 – CD/DigitaL eLeCtriC DeLuxe CD/DigitaL – CoCoon reCorDings – WLCD001 La musiC 2CD/DigitaL – Lam005 For the golden 50 and in Dane Peder has been recording Together with it’s Mother “Dial” eDLC010CD Cormix031 – CD/DigitaL In intimate picture of the dynamic Meanwhile, he says that the sounds of synth- South American folk songs. All the recordings in Barcelona or elsewhere, and drawing Last Man Crooning! Frank reminiscence of the very first formo’ wax, beastie boys, the Smallville are one of the critic’s With ‘Comedy Of Menace’ Steve Bug,Chris Tietjen and brooklyn duo´s sound that Sinatra, Barry White & Leonard BNR release the master himself prunes, ninja tune, . choice electronic labels year Terence Fixmer created a Cocoon release is like one made them come up on (nearly) bending Spanish hit-makers Mecano had a for this series took place back in 2008, back inspiration from things that don't seem to Cohen on steroids! Dean Martin presents two new original tracks: This is the solo follow up to by year. Christopher Rau’s true techno album: instantly first official soundtrack of this everyone´s playlist over this bearing on his songwriting, idiosyncratic as it when Diaz-Reixa bought the synthesizer he inform his sound in an obvious way, whether kidnaps Giorgio Moroder and a real BOYS NOIZE monster, the his Debut on Ubiquity – Think depth Debut is set to make no recognizable pure sound, a deep summer´s anthems in house, summer. gets very drunk with him in the neoteric 303 Acid-House track Gonzales and Portishead meet in exception from this. and dark atmosphere throughout. techno and electronic. Love Someone is hypnotic dance is in its structure. uses on Pop Negro. Vandross or Babyface or South American folk. studio before running away with named “1010” and on the flip a Brooklyn Drinking Spot! Out: October 2010 Hypnotizing and mental, Out:13.09.2010 music forged and refined (XLR8) So what do these greatest hits of the "pop These recordings, which have a warm, He's just as excited (if not more) about the his wife! Yes, his electrocrooning the gracious good-vibe-fun-house Out: 06.09.2010 yet keeps the energy and a Out: Now! majesty Louie Austen’s back with hymn “Yeah” effectiveness for the dancefloor. negro" style sound like? Not much like the R&B mysterious air about them, were originally music of musicians he admires as he is about a double dose = album & remix Out: 20.09.2010 Out: 20.09.2010 album on his own label! and Spanish pop that Diaz-Reixa name-checks, meant to serve as signposts for his musically his own music—an enthusiasm especially Out: 22.10.2010 but every now and again the listener might inclined friends towards the he so palpable in the Piratas series—and if he's as pick up on a production technique that he loves. He had been listening to the songs in adventurous as his pre-interview horse- innovating distribution since 1999 CD, vinyl, digital - made from germany borrowed from that somewhat esoteric oeuvre. question for years—this was the first music hopping suggests, he'll soon carve out another Although coming from a similar aesthetic with which Diaz-Reixa knowingly became genre as compelling as "pop negro" all over sensibility as that of Alegranza!, Pop Negro is acquainted as a boy, songs he would hear at again. n warm in a different way—bright, lean, beat- home with his father in Gran Canaria. What heavy, and vibrant. Genre-wise, it's as summery inspired the actual Piratas recordings that Diaz- Pop Negro is out September 14 on XL/ and obstinately eclectic as what's come Reixa made was his realization that none of his Young Turks. myspace.com/elguincho What peopLe DoWnLoaD before—saxophones, African highlife guitars, music fanatic friends in Barcelona had heard steel drums, Diaz-Reixa's cheery, expressive any of this music. The artists he covers on the Watch El Guincho on XLR8R TV at XLR8R.com/135extras better downloads from wordandsound

56 berlin’s advanced electronic music source test us free: whatpeopleplay.com/xlr8rautumn10 Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews New Releases Distributed by September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 201009/10 ALBUM REVIEWS

JOHN ROBERTS SHED Glass Eights CD Crooks & Lovers CD The Traveller CD/2LP Outside The Box CD/2CD BOX/4x12” BOX The debut album from American Post-dubstep pioneers Mount Kimbie On the follow-up to his highly- electronic artist John Roberts blurs float through genres with an experimental acclaimed debut, Shed further taps into DJ/producer Skream’s highly-anticipated real instruments with deep house edge, weaving the hardened spaces of the heartbeat of concise, genre-defining second album is a widescreen step music, creating a delicately enigmatic and the sad-eyed glow of Grouper forward from one of the UK’s most diversification of the Dial label’s output. into something uncategorizable. “The dance music. “In an era when many central figures in dubstep, featuring Sistol The album’s influences touch upon funk on Crooks is too intimate to be whored techno acts have reduced to guests Sam Frank, and dBridge everything from The Smiths and Bonnie out to clubs. It’s for hearth and a handful of tricks and signature tropes, & Instra:mental. “If Burial’s Untrue was Sistol (Remasters & Remakes) + “Prince” Billy to the introverted house home.” – (8.0) Shed goes broad-spectrum. Difficult dubstep’s first crossover album, Skream is music of early ‘80s Chicago. to pigeonhole, he defies the genre’s first potential On the Bright Side needle-drops.” –Dusted star.” –MOJO (4/5) Halo Cyan Kilimanjaro

Kompakt

MIM SULEIMAN MOEBIUS & BEERBOHM SUPERPITCHER MAGDA Tungi CD Double Cut CD/LP Kilimanjaro CD/3LP From The Fallen Page CD East African vocal and percussive Originally released in 1984, the In his near-decade history recording Magda creates a disorienting, traditions meet ultramodern rhythm second collaboration by Dieter and performing for Kompakt, ’s evocative album of haunted electronic trax and futuristic pop on the debut Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia) and Gerd Aksel Schaufler aka Superpitcher has soundworlds, low-slung grooves, album from Afrobeat powerhouse is at once powerful, sensual become synonymous with the sound of eerie chords and solid rhythms that Mim Suleiman (Bare Knuckle Soul, Beerbohm pop music and a startlingly prescient the label. After now-legendary remixes tell of her days growing up in Detroit. Rafiki ), produced by Maurice for M83, Dntel and Foals, Superpitcher’s Fulton (Syclops). “...a bright, breathless work of future music, featuring A darkly-tinged collection that takes It's hard to believe that the careers of Aksel new life in a re-mastered edition. Sistol also these are songs, not tracks—contain few the 22-minute proto-techno long-awaited new full-length is his most on a personal, animated Schaufler and Sasu Ripatti—you might comes with remixes and remakes by FaltyDL, hooks to grab onto, lack narrative energy, excursion into , house and tribal accomplished work to-date, featuring rhythms.” –Resident Advisor masterpiece “Doppelschnitt.” effect from this highly- know them better as Superpitcher and John Tejada, Alva Noto, Mike Huckaby, and and start to bore at a point when they the hit single “Rabbits In A Hurry.” Reissued with liner notes by acclaimed DJ. Vladislav —stretch back to the late other notables. The verdict? Despite some should begin to thrill. His real talent lies in Asmus Tietchens. 1990s. Those were heady times for minimal clever interpretive work (Alva Noto and making other artists sound better; a "Best of techno producers. Rob Hood, Daniel Bell, Huckaby, in particular), the overall mood falls Superpitcher" list would arguably include his and had already sonically flat. What sounded bold and radical at the re-works of Dntel ("This is the Dream of Evan rewired the borderlands of Detroit and turn of the century has become stunningly and Chan"), M83 ("Don't Save Us From the Windsor; the Hard Wax axis (- dated and mundane, despite the studio Flames"), and Hell ("Je Regrette Everything"), Chain Reaction-Burial Mix) reduced and enhancements. or his 2005 mix CD, Today. At his best, he recombined dubby grooves from a studio But the kicker is that Ripatti is also sings less, tinkers and tweaks the guitars and command center in Kreuzberg; and Mike Ink, releasing a new Sistol full-length at the same strings more, and keeps the action fun and before he became fully formed as Gas and time. On the Bright Side is a more expansive, flowing on the back of tasty bass hum and Kompakt exec , artfully ruled engaging record that features nearly all of well-placed drum kicks. rave and club culture from the psychedelic the artist's unique ways with dub, tech- Kilimanjaro has its highlights, though forests near Cologne. house, and space-jazz. The latter trend is they are not what you'd expect—or But Superpitcher and Delay (that latter especially exciting, given Ripatti's recent necessarily want—from a Superpitcher of whom also produced glammy vocal house work as percussionist with the Moritz von listening experience. "Moon Fever" is tracks as Luomo and drier polyrhythmic Oswald Trio. You can hear the influence on dark, brooding, and would serve as lovely Two eccentric techno ON (REWORKED BY ) I’M NOT A GUN WE LOVE MARC HOULE beats as Uusitalo) each found his own niche the gorgeous "Glowing and So Spread" and the soundtrack material; "Who Stole the Sun" has quite separate from what came before. It was noisier, more cosmic trance-rocker "Fucked- traces of Morricone melancholy and drama; Something That Has Form And Solace CD We Love CD Drift CD/2LP veterans unveil new albums, Something That Does Not CD/LP Delay who got there first, with impressive, Up Novelty." Two other tracks also stand out: and "Black Magic" features the LP's best The fifth collaboration between jazz/ Italian multi-media duo We Love struck Marc Houle’s first album for M_nus is with varying results. frigid but weirdly expressionistic dubscapes the electro-pop cruiser "A Better Shore" and vocals, though the sexy Spanish whisperings Experimental electronic pioneer improv Takeshi Nishimoto the European pop scene like a bolt of inspired by Berlin’s prolonged winter, that earned him the tag the "boy wonder" "Funseeker," both addictively danceable and, belong to Mexico's Rebolledo of the Cómeme Christian Fennesz guests on the third and prolific techno producer/DJJohn lightning with their innovative video art drawing on industrial, retro and Detroit for his prolific work on Mille Plateaux, Force strangely, reminiscent of early recordings by collective. album from French composer/producer is hands-down the duo’s best and inspired performances. Their debut influences, all with a modern vision of Inc., and Chain Reaction. In 1999, he also Superpitcher like "Tomorrow," "Heroin," and Schaufler is clearly ambitious. He says Sylvain Chauveau and percussionist Tejada Steven Hess (Pan American) under work to-date. With refined production album on ’s BPitch Control path-finding techno. This latest venture released a curious LP, made from sludgy "Shadows." he wants to make records like their On moniker. Echoes of Fennesz’s and incredible songwriting, Solace fuses the ecstasy of club-land with for the label, although inspired by the drum patterns and ever-thickening basslines, Of course, Schaufler's music doesn't or Prefab Sprout, two of his boyhood best work drift through embraces a more upbeat approach and the emotions of irresistible coldest moments of the under the name Sistol. sound like that anymore, unfortunately. inspirations. He admirably sets a lofty the crackle and pulse of a shimmering love synth-pop. year, is undoubtedly hot While the success of his other work His new LP, Kilimanjaro, suffers the same for himself, but needs to go higher, deeper, these intense, slow-building for pop anthems. as fire. overwhelmed it, the Sistol moniker has now problem that cursed his 2004 debut full- or—here's the brutal irony—just have more dronescapes. been resuscitated, and that early work given length, Here Comes Love. The songs—and fun. Walter Wasacz These titles available at fine independent record stores or online at www.forcedexposure.com 59 Retailers: request wholesale information from [email protected] Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews Album Reviews R E V I E W S September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October0 20109/10

James' more sentimental moments. Each track its stylistically austere and hollow production, from the Jesu album is elevated to a higher plain although when Edgar warms things up and of meaning—on "The Playgrounds Are Empty employs a talkbox on "New Touch" and "Midnite (Slumber Mix)," Broadrick brings the original's Fone Calls," it does sound slightly less contrived vocals up from murky depths, delays guitar lines than Chromeo. Regardless, XXX delivers 11 into gauzy dreams, and places lovely synth reliably funky, beat-driven, and retro-futuristic drones beneath it all. Thus, while the producer's songs, and after waiting for years to hear them, lyrics are still recognizable as bleak, there is a that's not half-bad. Patric Fallon hope beneath the despair that is equally heartening to both the fan and the Glasser newcomer to Broadrick's music. Indeed, a track like "Supple Hope (2009 Mix)" contains shades of !!! bassline points to his mastery of momentum; top, at least not by standards. True Panther Sounds the heavily delayed vocals of Broadrick's past Strange Weather, Isn't It? he plays loose with wobbly beats and space Busy's mic persona is brash, swagger-heavy, Albums from Delorean and Girls may have arrived while inhabiting a sound that has more in without stepping off the gas. Flying Lotus' "My and authentically Jamaican. He bigs up the with larger fanfare, but Glasser (a.k.a. Cameron common with electronic than the A decade has passed since !!!'s debut album Chippy" opens, sounding like a spaceship setting ladies, ghetto youths, high-grade marijuana, his Mesirow) has been part of the True Panther stable claustrophobic blast beats of more industrial took a snapshot of the sweat, noise, and antsy down before the rubbery bass and crisp hi-hats bank account, and the gossip talk at the "Hair from the beginning and Ring could be marked as outfits. Paired alongside tracks like the groove those guys hashed out in overcrowded of Floating Points' "Peoples Potential," a fitting Dresser Shop." He updates The Commodores, the end of the young label's first wave of releases. Kraftwerkian "Dummy (Bahnhoff Version)," parties and basements across the sleepy state first transition. Other selections, such as Kyle Phil Collins, and the Stalag 17 . His More than a year ago, the label released the Apply Broadrick displays his ability to craft music that capital of Sacramento. Fortunately, Strange Hall's "Luv for KMFH" and Brackles' own track, stylistic versatility shines on "Busy Latino," a EP, a charming effort that introduced the world to embraces listeners as effectively as his former Weather, Isn't It? proves they won't be doomed "Blo," shine, and the mix's last song, Funkineven's brassy, jazzy tune complete with en español this girl with a big voice and an otherworldly pop projects alienated them. Thomas Rees as quaint hipster schlock from the "dance "Must Move," nicely bookends the mix. Like backing vocals. vision, albeit one limited by her amateurish punk" movement of yore. Alexander Nut's Rinse mix, Songs for Endless But the album's best—and most original— production skills and prediliction for recording in Shit This album is !!!'s leanest, funkiest, and most Cities exudes a slick, sophisticated quality song is "Opera," a sparse, minimal track GarageBand. From the Cradle to the Rave accessible work ever, as well as their darkest— without sacrificing the sense of reinvention and consisting of nothing but strings, Auto-Tuned This year's "Tremel" 12" hinted that something DFA the deaths of their drummers experimentation found in the ever-churning arpeggios, and a relentless cadence. Stripped grand was on the horizon, but sonically, Ring is a 's debut full-length is also a coming-out and Mikel Gius loom high in the atmosphere. London music scene. A fitting choice to kick off a bare of the multilayered bashment riddims, quantum leap forward, a fact at least partially party for Marcus Lambkin, the spotlight-shy guy Frontman Nic Offer often dwells on betrayal label called Cool in the Pool. Patrick Sisson Busy's lyrical skills are undeniable. It would attributable to Mesirow's time spent with folks behind the unusual handle. Closely associated and isolation. "You can roll up the window/ have been nice had D.O.B. taken even more like producers Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid, with DFA, Shit Robot also embodies the label's But you can't drown out the wind," as he puts it Busy Signal experimental chances, which could have whose work with Fever Ray is an obvious meticulousness: He has only dropped an EP a on opener "AM/FM." The band later channels D.O.B. elevated the album above its somewhat reference point, as is someone like Björk. Yet year between 2006 and 2010, skipping 2008. Even 's death-disco vibe on "Jump VP predictable adherence to dancehall conventions. Glasser's music is far less alien; Ring finds though From the Cradle to the Rave's running time Back," where somber, koto-like guitar riffs On D.O.B., his third full-length release, Jamaican Then again, in dancehall, artistry has always Mesirow dwelling in warm, lush surroundings and roughly equals the rest of Shit Robot's and Offer's graveyard imagery blanket a disco dancehall sensation Busy Signal shows no signs been secondary to making butts shake to earth- her efforts sound fully realized, whether it's the Place," half-step drums swagger beneath an discography, this collaboration-driven album is a rhythm exhaled from the Paradise Garage. of slowing the momentum that has made the rattling grooves. Eric K. Arnold chimes and vocal robotics of the pulsing enchanting hook, courtesy of Taniah; "Inspiration low-stakes affair compared to the label's 2010 Guitarist Mario Andreoni deftly anchors such Saint Ann's native and Alliance member one of "Mirrorage" or the vaguely tribal percussion Meditation" features Paul Randolph brooding marquee release, LCD Soundsystem's This Is mood swings again on "Jamie, My Intentions the genre's leading proponents. Busy's known Jimmy Edgar paired with her soaring voice on wonderous over a thick square-wave , guided by flickers of Happening. This doesn't prevent the album from Are Bass," jumping from gothic textures to for his seemingly endless energy, and the mix XXX standout "Home." "Apply" and "Glad," both of crisp percussion; and on "Fly," Jenna G (most reaching impressive heights thanks to the bright, Chic-graced licks before ending the of his tireless lyrical exhortations with frenetic, !K7 which first appeared on her debut, show up again, commonly seen standing next to DJ Zinc) rides a contributions of guest vocalists like Hot Chip's tune on a melancholic note through chords hot-stock riddims makes for a kinetic listening For a producer as young, talented, and lauded as and while the repetition may be disappointing, surging house jam that is destined for the record ("Losing My Patience") and DFA's that drip like a rainshower. The closest thing experience. The kick-off track, "How U Bad So," Detroit-reared Jimmy Edgar, releasing two the re-worked versions of the songs are not. The bags of UK funky DJs like Marcus Nasty. house diva . The latter contributes a to a centerpiece, "The Most Certain Sure," sets an appropriately hectic tone, cruising along albums within four years—not counting his latter is buoyed nicely by some new horns and There is, however, an exception that disproves huge chorus to the icy dance-pop of "Take 'Em dives from a narcotic dancefloor groove into a at a breakneck tempo, with offsetting percussive output as part of Plus Device—is simply not both tracks are among the album's best. Ring may the rule. The album's highpoint comes courtesy of Up," showing how Lambkin can play to his dub-echo space where Offer's hazy vocals float flurries, tons of bass, oscillating synth lines, enough. To be fair, Edgar wasn't focusing on his not be perfect—certain songs have a nondescript, an instrumental track—featured on Martyn's 2009 collaborator's strengths while retaining the upon the ether as if easing out of heartbreak. pimp-slap handclaps, builds, breaks, and even music, per se, and instead spent the time meandering feel—but this kind of growth is mix CD—entitled "Lost on Tenori Street." analog meanderings of his instrumental work. Such uplift from dread makes Strange a whistle. Basically, everything but the kitchen exhibiting his photography and honing his video undeniably exciting, and makes both Glasser and Mesmerizing from start to finish, the track swirls Vocals also throw Shit Robot's shortcomings Weather a fitting party record for our age sink is thrown in—yet somehow, it's not over the work. So, the man keeps busy, but what has the True Panther well worth watching. around a dreamy melody, played on a marimba, into relief. Lambkin's own pitched-down voice when so many American Dreams, lived and lengthy gap between Color Strip and XXX, his Shawn Reynaldo that creates an effect something like a sedated fails to find chemistry with the bassline-driven "I fantasized, are falling apart. Pass the bottle. sophomore full-length, yielded for those of us . Sublime. Richard Attley Found Love," the closest the album comes to Cameron Macdonald anxiously awaiting his new album? Exactly what Maddslinky running in place. On its own, the song is you'd expect. Make a Change Pale Sketcher skippable, but the album's intended audience Brackles Essentially, XXX is a mirror image of Edgar's Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed would probably prefer to let the track play out and Songs for Endless Cities 2006 debut. He continues to skin '80s funk, R&B, Seven years after his LP, Make Your Peace, paved Ghostly add to the overall effect, as From the Cradle to the Cool in the Pool and electro to tautly stretch over the skeleton of the way for what the whole world now calls Listening to the career trajectory of Justin K. Rave is an album proper, meant to be experienced The inaugural mix in a series meant to , and his themes remain solely dubstep, Maddslinky is back. In fact, he never Broadrick gives one the feeling that he has as a whole. showcase young talent, Brackles' 17-track strut driven by sex. Downright jams like "Hot, Raw, actually went away, but the recent popularity of mellowed significantly with age—how else could The signature Shit Robot tune, 2007's "Chasm," through the post-dubstep landscape sounds, Sex," "Push," "Turn You Inside Out," and music inspired by his early work has brought the the man who helped bring Godflesh and Techno positioned Lambkin as a dance-music classicist at times, more like a revival than the next leap "Vibration" are energetic body movers whose man also known as Zed Bias back to everyone's Animal to the world be creating trip-hop-infused with light techno vibes. Oddly enough, the forward. Deep house sounds and two-step chilly synth melodies and skittering beats will attention. ambient ? While the sonic palette of production styles of his debut album are so rhythms are there if you want them, but it's surely fill as many dancefloors as bedrooms. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Make a Change doesn't Pale Sketcher may be completely divorced from collaboration-sensitive that Shit Robot almost the stylish, oft-kilter beats and assured, fluid Sultry standout "Physical Motion" sounds like it set out to test the ear. The opening track is an the dark, of his former projects, disappears into the background. (John MacLean's delivery that mark Rob Kemp as a DJ pursuing just missed Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/ uplifting wedge of soulful house—featuring Broadrick's precision and technical expertise still singing isn't the only thing that makes "Grim new directions. The 24-year-old co-owner of LoveSounds tracklist, and the instrumental British soul singer Omar—that sets us up for a shine through on this slab of 'demixed' tracks Receiver" sound like a Juan MacLean track.) But the Blunted Robots label maintains a tautness "Rewind, Stop That Tape" could've introduced proper album with proper songs. The production from his Jesu project's last album. Shit Robot's classicism extends to his persona: throughout, laying down a steady future- the The-Dream's latest. is classic Zed Bias (909 hi-hats, piano melodies, Initiated as a side-project to explore the more This is functional, workmanlike music built out of garage tempo that wavers slightly with prickly, Edgar has soul, even if he masks it under a Juno synths, garage percussion), the electronic side of Jesu, Pale Sketches Demixed sturdy analog technology. For home listening and prismatic beats and then snaps back into the frigid guise, and yet something's slightly flat programming is concise, and, as a result, the brims with crystalline highs, chunky percussion, for the club, this is useful music to have around. grid. Every little glitch and undercurrent of a about XXX. The music can sound over-labored in strongest beats are those with vocals. On "Hiding and a sense of longing that recall Richard D. Brandon Bussolini

60 61 Bubblin' Bubblin' Bubblin' Bubblin' Guest Reviews Guest Reviews Guest Reviews Guest Reviews Guest Reviews R E V I E W S September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010 September / October 2010

BuBBLIN' Guest Reviews: Christopher Willits

Canblaster Emeralds Brad Laner Douai, France Does It Look Like I'm Here? Natural Selections South Afric an hou se producer Bodycode ( a.k.a. Al a n A brahams) Mego Editions Hometapes on five books th at influenced Immune. Cedric Steffens used to compose music for videogames. But after Years from now, synthesizers will sound Another great solo album by one of my even more timeless. If you grew up with founding the Chub Cheval crew in early 2009 with fellow Frenchmen favorite and people. His noisy band synth arpeggio soundtracks in elementary Medicine changed my sonic world when I was , Sam Tiba, and Panteros666, the 22-year-old DJ and producer school videos, you know what I mean, and in high school. The first time I heard this, I set his sights on the club. Citing as a major influence, you'll love this record. Synthesizers help actually thought my friend's tape player was us to understand and feel the nonlinear Canblaster's tunes brim with energy and often take an everything-but- messed up. It's very diverse, with all of the landscape of space/time, and there's so much usual Laner twists and turns. He's integrating the-kitchen-sink approach, borrowing from old-school rave, classic to explore. If you like this music and you everything he knows into his solo project, house, Detroit techno, UK funky, and African rhythms, and are freaking out, you also need to listen to and the scary thing is that Brad Laner has Richard Pinhas' Variations Sur Le Thème Des whatever else strikes his fancy. Apparently it's working, as he's been not even hit his prime yet. Bene Gesserit (on repeat) as soon as possible. tapped for remixes by , Teki Latex, , , San Francisco's Christopher Willits is a bit of a virtuoso—in the past Field Music Taylor Deupree and others, including electronic music legends Underworld, who 10 years he's produced 20 albums, both solo and in collaboration Measure Shoals recruited the entire team to re-work one of their songs. with experimental heavyweights, such as and Ryuichi Memphis Industries 12K Sakamoto. His most recent solo effort is Tiger Flower Circle Sun, I really respect this band, even when I don't There's also plenty of original Canblaster music on the way—his Taylor's music just keeps getting more his second full-length for the label and quite love the hyper-self-conscious music they debut, the Jetpack EP, comes out this month on Sound of Sumo, and natural and at ease with itself. This is a possibly his most organic offering to date. That's not to say that make. The production is so tight and there's great entry point to his work. There is a will soon be followed by and second EP on the Nightshifters label. Willits has abandoned his penchant for gear and technology—the guy a great use of good-ol' hard panning. Why effortlessness and natural sway that is more practically lives in recording studios, designs his own software, and not have or guitars only on the myspace.com/canblaster alive than what you usually find in so-called still finds the time to occasionally host our tech-oriented What You right channel? The music is almost overly 'ambient' music. This is natural music, Talkin' Bout, Willits? series on XLR8R TV. Here, Willits takes a quick controlled at times, but for me it's all about unforced and created with a light touch. break from—no joke—the next three albums he's working on to let us how they puzzle the arrangements into the production. That dimension is very know about what he's been listening to lately. christopherwillits.com awesome.

Munchi Optimum SePalcure John talabot Rotterdam, London, UK Brooklyn, NY Barcelona, When slowed down The UK hardcore continuum Travis Stewart (a.k.a. ) This young Spaniard's true identity some Dutch house tracks to continues to evolve, and exciting and Praveen Sharma have been remains a mystery—the name speed and stumbled producers keep sprouting up. friends for years; the duo runs the John Talabot was borrowed from across a new sound that he Optimum (a.k.a. South London Cassette NYC parties and the online his former school—but there's no eventually called , he native Malcolm Chen) is one of the community mix archive Percussion question that the producer's work Prince Rama Cloud Nothings Les Sins had no idea that half a world away, latest, and although his name is Lab, but only began collaborating is top-shelf. The slow-motion house Shadow Temple CD/LP/digital Down There CD/LP/digital Turning On CD/digital Lina 12"/digital a 21-year-old Dominican producer new to many, he's been dabbling in on music last September. Bored of "Sunshine," bearing traces of An ethereal chorus of voices and member Avey These thirteen songs (a collection Les Sins is the dance alter ego of living in Holland would be inspired music since he was a kid, learning with their solo projects, they threw disco and Detroit techno, first put to take the sound to the next level. piano and guitar before eventually out past blueprints and delved into him on the map in 2009 and even anthemic melodies creates sonic Tare’s fi rst offi cial solo full length of out of print singles) are the per- (a.k.a. Chaz Bundick). Munchi was already a music freak buying decks and delving into '90s house, the skittering sounds of won over the Pitchfork crowd, a artifacts drawing from southeast carries you through a murky realm fect introduction to the taut catchy Out November on Carpark who'd spent years obsessing over the world of DJing. Hip-hop came 2-step, and the sexier, more soulful process bolstered by the single's Asian rituals, legacies, of sound, an alien death world of lo-fi indie rock world of Cloud reggaeton, not to mention bachata, first, but was eventually followed and melodic side of UK bass music. 2010 reissue with remixes from , , baile funk, by grime, dubstep, house, and, The Hotlfush label—home to like- Blondes and his friends from hallucinatory operas, and dance soul grooves that is both honest Nothings. bubbling, , dubstep, lately, whatever you call the minded acts such as Mount Kimbie Delorean. Artists like Glasser hall psychedelia. and otherworldly. Out October on Carpark and a litany of other sounds, but current incarnation of UK bass and Scuba—seems like the perfect and have taken notice and Out September on Out October on Paw Tracks his Moombahton Promo EP, along music. These days he's busy place for Sepalcure's talents, and enlisted Talabot for remixes, his with his bonkers remix of Datsik's making tunes, both solo—his Max released the pair's debut EP, Love own acid-flavored "Mathilda's "Firepower," all made available Power EP comes out on Planet Mu Pressure, earlier this year. Dream" 12" recently dropped on as free downloads, offered some this month—and with frequent Permanent Vacation, and a follow- of the nascent genre's first truly collaborator Ikonika, with whom up on Young Turks is in the works, original work. he's launched the new Hum and as is a full-length album. The Carpark Family of Labels: www.carparkrecords.com Coming Soon: Buzz imprint. www.paw-tracks.com Ear Pwr, , Toro Y Moi, www.acuterecords.com , Casino Versus Japan munchiproductions.blogspot.com myspace.com/optimummusic sepalcure.com myspace.com/johntalabot

62 M a c h i nes: In the studio Words Michael Byrne Photo pete moss

The Baltimore bass guru talks building drums and drama. Karizma:

In The Studio Wham City and club music aside, Baltimore is still a place think I can work with. Or, the third thing is just where you can roll up to a red light and hear deep house something completely different that would give me thumping from a car window, or find a "House Music Lives" a challenge. How can I make it way different than sticker plastered on an alley door. Before club music, house what it was, hopefully to make it a better track? I was the dance music of the city—and its old-school residents always try to throw different things into the circle remember it fondly. Right as Baltimore club exploded into so people don't become bored with what I do. the world's DJ crates, Karizma (a.k.a. Chris Clayton) got into the studio with the Basement Boys team of DJ Spen Where do you start in the studio? and Teddy Douglas, and learned how to make house [It] depends. Sometimes the [Ensoniq] ASR-10, music. After a baffling amount of remix work, and a well- because that's what I use for drums. For years, received leap into solo production, Karizma is keeping the that's all I used. I never even used to use computers house music faith alive. On a stifling early-Summer day in in my stuff. I was just too scared. I like the sound, Baltimore, we caught up with the producer and DJ on a brief the dirtiness of the stuff that's analog. I kind of do stop back in his hometown to talk about learning from the a little bit of both now—call it digi-log. I take stuff masters. from the ASR or the MPC and then dump it into Logic. The majority of the time, it starts out with XLR8R: What are some of the biggest things you my drums. And then keys or synth. learned from working in the studio with the Basement Boys? Why did you decide it was cool to start Karizma: How to structure a song. And, from Spen, I using a computer? learned engineering and the technical aspects of the studio. It just seemed like the right move. Some of my It's a big part of everything I do now. Unruly [Records] was friends were just killing it on Logic. I used to use different—[I] pretty much made the Baltimore [club] tracks a PC, which is really cheap and you can get and that was it. This was a whole different meal. I learned everything cracked—but it's not the most stable , how to make drama in a song, how to make thing. Viruses come, and then you lost your song. something happen when there is nothin' happening with 95% of my friends use Logic and a Mac, so that's voices and stuff. I don't think I would be half of what I am how I ended up making the move. [Live], I still use without that experience. [Pioneer] CDJs. I still don't have enough trust in the computer. Why did you move from making club music to house tracks? What piece of gear do you covet? It was what I wanted to do with music anyway. I had this An original . I wish I had one of Baltimore record that was nine minutes long—the longest those. club record ever. It took a year for anyone to play it. They was just used to three- or four-minute songs playing the What production technique or style are you same thing over and over. I used to tell the DJ, 'You gotta just sick of hearing? play for at least five or six minutes. It does different things.' Right now, I guess a lot of the big-room stuff I When I saw that happenin', that they didn't want to let the really don't like because it's just all the same and song do anything, that's when I became discouraged and there's nothing different. Like, you can expect that decided to move on. I thought the music should always grow 16 or 32 bars will be filtered down and come back and develop into something else. Moving to the Basement up. When I can figure a record out two or three Boys was a breath of fresh of air. I was constantly doing minutes in, those are the types of records I can't remixes, constantly doing something different drumwise— stand. I like records that take me somewhere else which doesn't apply to Baltimore club. I never used the or throw me [for] a loop. Predictability in a track is same drums at Basement Boys, and that was something I what turns me off the most. n promised I would never do.

When you hear a track, what tells you whether or myspace.com/kohesiveproductions not it's something you can work with as a remix?

If I think I can take it a different way, or it's a good song— Download Karizma's exclusive XLR8R hopefully both. If I just hear, like, a chant in the song I Podcast at XLR8R.com/135extras.

64 65 M a c h i nes: A RTIST TIPS

Matthew Dear's Vocal tips

There are two distinctly different sides to New York-based producer/ DJ Matthew Dear: his lengthy excursions into DJ-friendly techno (most commonly heard under his Audion guise) and his eponymous pop-oriented side, with which he's explored playing as a live three-piece with his Big Hands band, and has crafted two critically acclaimed full- lengths. If there's one major element that sets these sides apart, though, it's singing. Dear uses more of his voice than ever before on the just- released Black City, so who better than the illustrious Ghostly/Spectral co-founder to give us the lowdown on how to get the most out of vocal recordings? Here are a few tips from the techno-pop singer-songwriter himself. Patric Fallon

1. Consider your 2. Make some 3. Layer your vocals 4. Use effects 5. Pen your lyrics location physical changes Now blend all of those various Treat your voice. Chorus is creatively I've recorded vocals with a Stretch your neck back and takes and positions onto one always helpful, whether thick or Write cryptic lines that you can't microphone in an oven, in the sing upside down into the mic. verse. You'll get an immense thin. I like to use an AMS-DMX even figure out. Draw from the corner of brick walls, shower Record the same verse in the amount of depth. Play with the clone preset in the Eventide depths of your soul and write stalls, and on the street. When morning and at night and volume levels and panning. H8000 Ultra-Harmonizer, from the core. Confuse yourself. you change the environmental notice the difference a day of Sometimes I'll put a very which slightly delays a panned Listen to your own music for the factors and wave patterns living will have on your voice. guttural and almost inaudible pitch-shift on my voice. Subtle answers you want to find. Give coming into the mic, you're Sing a couple of takes through groan under the regular vocals delays on the last word in a verse people something they'll have to rewarded with all sorts of clenched teeth, or after you and get a strange result. or only on certain frequencies listen to again and again. Find uncontrollable benefits. drink a cup of tea. Take a shot can also add a lot of dimension. your own methods that work of whiskey and sing while sitting for your voice and singing style. on your hands. All of this will Everyone has their own pocket. change the result of what ends Find it, and you'll be happy with up in your song. the results. Others will be as well. n

matthewdear.com

66 M a c h i nes

09/'10 Components

IK Multimedia AmpliTube Korg Monotron Analog Ribbon Synth iRig iPhone Interface MSRP: $90; korg.com Apogee Gio Foot-Controller MSRP: $39.99 (hardware); ikmultimedia.com Audio Interface Remember when the MicroKorg came out? Everyone and their brother was suddenly "into" synths, and an almost equal number of bands started using the small, MSRP: $395; apogee.com affordable instrument live and in the studio. Well, it seems we ought to get ready for the next level of that integration, as Korg recently released an even more compact synthesizer, the Monotron. This little bugger fits into the palm of your hand, and boasts many capabilities of some of the biggest pieces of hardware. One VCO, one VCF, and one LFO combine with other modular controls, Korg's classic analog sound, and a ribbon controller keyboard to pack a portable punch unlike anything else currently available. The battery-powered device also has a built-in speaker for sharing your sound creations on the go, but if those get to be a bit much for your audience, you can jam out alone with the handy headphone jack. Patric Fallon

If you are a Mac-based recording musician with blazing, delicate, or down-right deafening guitar licks in your The iPhone can now take you from ringtones to ringing tone. The pocket-sized Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2 tracking plans, Apogee's Gio could be your perfect studio iRig builds off AmpliTube's low-latency Ubisoft; X360, PS3, Wii companion. Apogee, an industry favorite for their pristine gear-modeling engine. Combining an app Ultrasone HFI-680 audio converters, aims to please the guitar-welding recordist and guitar-slide-sized dongle, a mono 1/4- Headphones with this new foot-controller/audio-interface combo. inch input, and 1/8-inch stereo output, the MSRP: $249; ultrasone.com adaptor converts the iPhone headphone Technically, any Mac-based DAW (Ableton Live, for example) jack into a functional practice amp for can be controlled by the Gio, but the product is intended guitar/bass/keyboard. You can save/ for—and works best with—GarageBand '09, Logic Pro 9, recall 12 preset chains featuring one amp, and MainStage 2. Offering a standard 1/4-inch instrument cabinet, and microphone with three effects input, an expression pedal input, and an output suited for (purchased from an expandable selection, with gratis tuner and metronome). Crank headphones, powered monitors, or an instrument amplifier, a Marshall-style lead amp and modulation the Gio delivers pro-audio clarity with a no-brainer signal pedals and you're ringmaster to a throaty path. It's built like an iron ship, sporting the type of sturdy psychedelic circus. Through sliding shell and robust mechanics that can handle all the stomp panels each component mirrors much of its desktop customizability, though don't you can muster. Due to the lack of an on-board screen to expect session-worthy fidelity. It delivers provide clear preset indication, this product is really most a stable, perspiration-free entry to solo useful off the stage rather than on, but as a studio-based jamming and a surprisingly convincing foot-controller/audio-interface for the Mac guitarist, the Gio sketchpad for dialing in virtual tone. Tony Ware has a massive, power-chord-like grip over the rest of the Despite bearing the name of the almighty Clance, the original market. Ryan Edwards As the description on Ultrasone HFI- 680 headphones' packaging points Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. did little to, uh, Goose the public's out, most run-of-the-mill phones on the interest, with laggy aerial battles and less-than-spectaclar market attempt to put whatever you graphic representations of both the environments and the may be jammin' to inside of your head. planes—a cardinal sin when making a game about, you know, With its patented S-Logic™ Natural Surround Sound, these cans put the planes. Throw in the lack of online play and the game received audio around your head, and the thick, a reception worthy of an Iceman. Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2, comfortable cushioning around the however, remedies all of those issues and then some. Taking Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock acoustically designed earcups helps the helm of American, British, and Russian jet fighters, with a Activision; X360, PS3, Wii keep the professional-quality sound cast and crew to match, you must quell various Middle Eastern in (no sonic bleed coming from these

guys). If that's not enough, Ultrasone's insurgencies while doing battle with enemy forces over land, Okay, okay, you know the Guitar Hero drill by now. Play along to rock 'n' roll hits great and small proprietary ULE (Ultra-Low Emission) sea, and air in hyper-ramped-up dogfights that call out for with plastic whooziwhatsits... blah, blah, blah. What you may not know about Guitar Hero: Warriors of technology, utilizing a MU Metal an itchy trigger finger. In addition to the increased action, Rock, however, is that this time around, the game's story mode focuses heavily on the lore of Rush's buffer board, keeps the magnetic everything from the somewhat mundane (like taxiing and 2112! Gene Simmons also apparently has something to do with it, but…2112! Yes, you'll be able to radiation away from your precious brains. Comfortable and safer ear gear take-off) to the thrilling (battling alongside the Ghost Recon play 90-plus other songs including those from , NIN, and . Yes, you can still team, from another Clancy game, and UAV drone-piloting for hook up your to the Wii version to become a "roadie." Hell, you even get a free copy of the new with excellent sound, at a very un- Soundgarden(!) album a week before everyone else if you buy the damn thing. But really, hearing Ultrasone price? We're into it. precision stealth kills) is represented this time around, making PF the dulcet tones of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson narrate you through "The Temples of Syrinx" to H.A.W.X. 2 a real Maverick of aerial arcade action! RR destroy "The Beast" with the Power of Rock is really what you are paying for here. Ryan Rayhill

68 69 M a c h i nes: C O M P O N ENTS

Halo: Reach ; X360 Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Activision; X360, PS3, Wii, DS

Are you ready for more Space Marine madness?! Well, Microsoft is certainly ready to While most of us are familiar give it to you! Taking place in the days shortly with the friendly neighborhood before the original Halo kicked off a galactic Peter Parker story of Spider- firestorm, Halo: Reach follows the tale of Noble Man, there have actually been Team, a squad of pre-Master Chief Spartans several Arachni-Dudes spread who are earth's last of hope of turning back throughout many parallel an attack by the alien conglomerate known as universes, four of which come the Covenant, which, as we know—SPOILER together in the far-out button- ALERT—didn't really work out. But that's okay, masher Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, each one displaying because it's the journey, not the destination (or different strengths and some shit), and boy, what a journey Reach is! weaknesses. After an artifact of At different times allowing you to choose from arcane divination that affects a small variety of all-new weapons and abilities, different dimensions manages ranging from hologram decoys to jetpacks, with to get destroyed during a battle which to crush the alien hordes, Reach offers between Spidey and Mysterio— several new experiences for veterans of the as those sort of things tend to series—even the ability to helm a starfighter, do—it's up to the four Web- albeit briefly, in order to repel an attack on an Heads, ranging from a 1930s orbiting space station. Pure badassery abounds detective-style Spider-Man to a bio-mechanical badass, Spider- here. In addition, no technical or visual detail Man 2099—to bring order out of has been left unpolished, making Reach the chaos. Expect plenty of Marvel best-looking, best-playing Halo game in the mayhem as friends and foes series' near decade-long existence by an across the various books drop in impressively substantial stretch. It doesn't and out of this game's tangled stop there, either, as the game's multiplayer web of fanboy fury! RR capabilities take full of advantage of Halo's prestigious online multiplayer and level-building by re-imagining and significantly bolstering just about everything that has made the previous entries so popular. For any fan, Reach is a must-have. For any detractor, Reach will change your perspective. RR

70 M a c h i nes: C O M P O N ENTS

PlayStation Move Super Scribblenauts Shaun White Skateboarding Sony; PS3 Warner Bros Interactive; DS Ubisoft; X360, PS3, Wii

With the surprise success of the Wii and its waggle controls a couple of years back, it took the other guys a minute to catch up. But catch up they have, and Sony is next out of the gate this month with their personal-body-massager-esque THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED PlayStation Move. The Move FOLLOW UP TO KNOWLE WEST BOY features a prominent light-up bulb on the end that, while looking rather OUT  OCTOBER risqué, is actually quite ingenious in that it changes colors depending CD  LP  DIGITAL on the game you are playing, enabling the sensor on the PS3 to more accurately sense motion TRICKYSITE.COM and differentiate between players and their environment much more One of last year's most surprising gems Like some straight-up OG Picture Pages shit, easily. Games you'll be playing was undoubtedly Scribblenauts, a puzzle with The Flying Tomato as the Mortimer with your new toy range from what game that allowed you to type in the name Ichabod Marker to your Dr. William H. are basically extremely elaborate of thousands of objects that would then Cosby Jr., the ability to create and guide the demos like Sports Champions, appear before your eyes and then allow direction of the surfaces you are grinding which includes everything from you to complete your goal... or just cause on as you do it in Shaun White Skateboarding frisbee-golf to archery to bocce to chaos, as we often did when conjuring a medieval gladiator sim to next the likes of Cthulhu and Santa Claus at is what separates this one from other year's alien splatterfest, Killzone the same time. Super Scribblenauts has not successful franchises. And boy, does it make 3. The Move will of course be only stepped up the game's controls and a difference! Decline of a hill not steep compatible with a plethora of other physics significantly, but improves on the enough? Make it into a fibula-shattering upcoming titles, including NBA 2K11 already amazing object-summoning system monster on the fly. Want to extend that rail and LittleBigPlanet 2. RR with the ability to trick out your items with grind another 20 yards? Make it so! There adjectives. Where previously you could is also a story mode that has something write, say, "football" and kick it around to do with Mr. White leading a rebellion the room, now you can perhaps create a "flaming football," adding a whole new against "The Man" or somesuch, but more dimension to your puzzle-solving and/or importantly, did you even know Shaun mayhem production. Super Scribblenauts' White skateboarded? Or furthermore that library of items has also increased, though, he is a real person and not a magical snow unfortunately, typing "naked Daryl elf that appears once every four years to Hannah from " yields no good hawk Red Bull? Nor did I, gentle reader. Nor results. Despite this glaring oversight, did I. RR Super Scribblenauts is an impressive and entertaining experience nonetheless. RR

Def Jam Rapstar Konami; X360, PS3, Wii You say you want to make a change from a common thief to getting up close and personal with Robin Leach? Do any of you junior thuggists even know who that is? He was the Queen of England in the '80s! And if you want to meet him, as the Prince of Bed Stuy once did, then you best bust your freshest flows with this month's Def Jam Rapstar! Featuring some of hip-hop's greatest of all time, like Slick Rick and Uncle L, to more recent artists, like and Lil Weezy, Rapstar offers a tremendous amount of options for both young up-and-comers (like yourself) and ill-ass vets (like us!) to flex their skills on the mic—karaoke-style or freestyle—over the backing tracks. Rapstar also allows you to videotape your performance, assuming your console has a camera, and upload it to the game's site for the world to judge. Here we go, yo! RR

72 words ALI GITLOW

vis- ed AIDS-3D

A B erlin-based e xpat duo mashes technology, theory, '90s graphics, and high art in mi xed-media works

In the corner of a white room This monument, called "OMG Obelisk," can be attributed sits a tall, sleek, black pillar, to 24-year-olds Daniel Keller a serene-looking symbol of and Nik Kosmas, known by their collective name AIDS-3D. some thoroughly modern Originally from Detroit and form of ceremonial worship. Minneapolis respectively, the duo spent a couple years at On the front of it, the letters the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before moving to "OMG" (the well-worn Berlin in 2006 to complete their internet abbreviation term studies. Since then, they have created numerous installations, for "Oh My God") appear performances, videos, animated in blue LED lights, blinking gifs, and sound pieces displayed at the likes of the New Museum on and off. On either side in New York and the Venice of it sits a clump of lit black Biennale. Much of their work addresses the intersection of torches, suggesting that art, technology, and society, we are all bordering on crafting cheeky visions of the future using janky production religious zealotry in our ever- techniques. escalating obsession This month, they have a solo show at the Autocenter with technology. in Berlin, for which they are "making a series of custom solar panels that discuss alternative energy in an open and critical way," according to Kosmas. In addition, they'll soon be showing at the Frame Gallery within the Frieze Art Fair in London, and partaking in a group show called Smart Fridge at the Kunstverein Medienturm in Graz, Austria. We caught up with the guys while they were preparing for their autumn takeover.

aids-3d.com

Opposite: 74 Tower, 2009 75 VIS-ED

Opposite: Above: I guess it was a good lesson on the importance OMG Obelisk, 2007 Discarded Mask, 2007 XLR8R: How did you guys meet? Some of your work deals with the concept about average for people around our age... of craft—or lack thereof. They did exactly what Nik Kosmas: One of us was born very close of accelerating change—the belief that some basic understanding of image, sound, they said they would with the piece. It's just that to the summer equinox and the other was technological development happens at a video, and 3D software; mastery of none. the original was so random and then the re-do born very close to the winter equinox. This constantly increasing rate. Do you believe in it? felt a bit dry, but it's more our lack of instruction professor of ours was like, "You should NK: Yeah. We are skeptical believers, or are at I hear that you don't like to explain the name than any fault of the installation team. There's a collaborate." This was before we had anything least interested in the idea. Most of the people AIDS-3D. Any particular reason? special skill to being an artist who works more in common. We had opposite strategies for that talk about that put it in a positive light, NK: That's not true! We have a perfect like a production director, and it's something that getting problems solved. It was really eerie. but we are more in between. I just read a book explanation. Dan's mom is a branding we still haven't become completely comfortable by [Stanislaw] Lem, where he's writing as an consultant and she used a proprietary with. At some point we realized that we can't build How long have you been in Berlin? What do you [artificially intelligent being] lamenting the algorithm to generate the name based on our things to our own standards of perfection. And it's like most about the city? evolution of life. He says, "You think of algae mutual interests in state-of-the-art technology not always easy to find ways to keep the soul in NK: We've been here since 2006. We were as simpler than an eagle, but algae turns the and social activism. the work. deciding between London and Berlin. We chose flow of cosmic energy directly into life, it feeds Berlin 'cause we like Germans; we like their on a star. What does an eagle feed on? Like What was it like having your "OMG Obelisk" When and how did you guys make your video piece reputation. They have this history of taking a parasite on mice who feed on roots, a land included in the Younger Than Jesus exhibition at "Heat Death"? things very far, and I think we appreciate that variety of algae." the New Museum in NYC? Did you feel that the NK: We made it with help from a museum called sort of commitment to aesthetics. It also just piece fit in with the rest of the show? FACT in Liverpool. It's a dark, dusty office cubicle seemed more foreign, and [we thought] that How tech-savvy are you? DK: We were very happy to be selected, and I with a computer that has the classic star-field we'd grow more being put into a non-English- Daniel Keller: We'll spend a lot of time see how in a pretty literal way it fit the concept screensaver. The idea behind it that we put online of the show very well. That being said, we speaking country, although we haven't learned researching emerging technologies and is: Automated Mission Report: 3rd Planet of the weren't totally satisfied with the reproduction very much German; nur ein kleines bischen. somewhat obscure industrial processes on System Sol. the internet. But our computer skills are only of our original makeshift crappy version. But

76 77 VIS-ED

Above (from left) : Opposite: Teen Atlantis Cyber Chat, 2008 Berserker, 2009 Laser Grid, 2008

System Scan initiated: Faint signals of How do your families feel about the work win or lose using more than a test account. electronic activity....No sign of sentient life... you make? We're going to be re-releasing the work with a Humanity is wiped out in the near future and NK: They are very supportive. We are following custom algorithm. Right now it just subscribes this crappy screensaver is the closest we in their footsteps, in many ways. They are to a Collective2 feed, which is a platform for get to creating the "Omega Point" simulator/ all involved in advertising in some way or people to share and sell monthly subscriptions computer. The Universe expands forever and another, and at least two of them had artistic to algorithmic trading platforms, which are the slowly converts all energy into cold, dead aspirations, but they had to use those skills to programs that issue the 'buy' and 'sell' signals. matter, no information is stored—Heat Death. sell stuff so they could feed and clothe us. So It was part of a show called Speculations on we're sort of part two of a multi-generational The "Berserker" sculpture, a Styrofoam alien Cosmic Culture, which we had in Berlin at a project to breed some professional artists. head on a classical-looking human body holding now-defunct space called Montgomery. It was DK: I think for the most part they are very a USB stick with an image of the sculpture on it, work that discussed ideas around cosmic proud of us. There were a few issues where begs viewers to think about the piece in terms evolution and accelerating change. I think they thought we might be making things too of reproduction. How do you guys feel about these are subjects that we are going to be alienating, but overall I think they trust our copyright issues in relation to your work? coming back to over and over again, because judgment. NK: We're not really concerned... the MP3s they feel so, well, universal. and JPGs are certainly free for the taking, and Your piece "Alpha" asks that the collector who if people start making counterfeit sculptures, It made me think about how much desk jobs suck. owns it keep $25,000 in a US bank account, we'd be honored. Have either of you ever had a 9-5 office job? and the piece of wood will trade stocks, thus DK: I once had a 9-5 internship at the Chicago "growing" even after it is dead. Has someone Is there any medium you guys haven't worked in Historical Society as a digital archivist, which bought it, and are your intentions being carried that you'd like to try out? was pretty fascinating. But other than that, we out as you've stipulated? NK: Genetic engineering custom plant strains, haven't had normal jobs since before we went NK: It's a smart piece of Thai driftwood which more robotics, more algorithmic things that to art school. automatically day-trades stocks and futures, aren't gimmicky, controlling animals or their as long as it has an internet connection. It's not cells with electrodes and/or chemicals in a sold now, so it hasn't had the chance to really safe and humane way.

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