In the wake of last years critically revered debut album for Warp, "O Soundtrack My Heart", Australia's post-glitch-wave heroes PIVOT return to Europe for a short run of dates around the first big Warp 20th anniversary celebration in Paris in May. They hit London on the 14th of May (Hoxton Bar Kitchen), via Germany, Benelux and even Eastern Europe. You can refresh your memory of their heavy live show with this video of the albums title track performed at a French festival last summer:
The band have recently been back in Australia working on their next album, as well as touring with the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Gary Numan.
Also last year the band supported Yellow Magic Orchestra at Massive Attack's Meltdown, and opened for Sigur Ros on their Australian tour.
Buy a ticket for the London show from Bleep and get a free 7" : http://beta.bleep.com/index.php?page=stock_details&releaseid=185
Guillermo Scott Herren is a busy guy this year. We've already released details on the upcoming Prefuse 73 album, but a scant two weeks after its release we will see the release of the Diamond Watch Wrists.
Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian serves as an oddly appropriate introduction and companion to Diamond Watch Wrists's Ice Capped at Both Ends. Created with superstar drummer Zach Hill (Hella, Marnie Stern, etc.), DWW shows an entirely new form of Herren creations, organic songs featuring Guillermo’s plaintive vocals, guitar and studio wizardry, Hill’s singular drumming as well as previously unheard nods to 60’s European acid-folk, classic American singer-songwriters and krautrock.
While Herren would call the Diamond Watch Wrists material, “simple songs about everyday things” they, of course, strike the listener as much more. Deceptively complex in their arrangements, the songs never fail to strike a fascinating balancing act between brooding and uplifting, making for an uncommonly well-rounded album.
Ice Capped will be released on April 28th in the US.
01. My Last Time In This Place
02. Polite Passage
03. One Second Early Late
04. Onward Push Me Out
05. Diamond Falling Off My Grill
06. Dot Org Green Consumer
07. Start Wrong
08. Simple Love Notes (5 Years Later)
09. Speculative Forensic Investigation
10. Epidemic Episodes of Epidemics
11. Taped Up Swagger (High School Version)
12. Ending
When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence, the full length album from Harmonic 313 (a.k.a. Mark Pritchard) is steeped in bass, rendered in dubwisdom, piquant with minimal glitches and encompassed in indelible melodies and textures... this is one for the dancefloor as well as the headphones (just make sure you're using a set with good low-end response). Catering to those with a penchant for the deep, the dark and the dubby, Machines is setting the bar high for producers of Bass music the world over.
To commemorate this release, Mark has taken to the decks to throw together a DJ mix for everyone's enjoyment. Full of 313 remixes and originals, it's a doozy. Download and savor.
In an era of widespread digital artistry and eye-blink information traffic, we are so bombarded with the new that simply processing the amount of music emerging from blogs and file-sharing sites can’t help but draw our attention from the existing foundation of musical cornerstones. With so many splashy debuts each week, each month, each year, it’s not uncommon for them to shine brighter in the media than the latest work from an established, proven artist.
Guillermo Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73) is nothing if not proven. It’s hard to think of a name that carries as much weight in both hip-hop and avant-rock circles as Prefuse 73, who in the past year alone has been asked to remix TV On The Radio, Pelican, BLK JKS and Cornelius, not to mention his early collaborations with School of Seven Bells and Battles. These interactions have clearly helped to shape the evolving Prefuse 73 sonic aesthetic, which has expanded to include Herren’s twisted visions of prog-rock, “machine funk” and global psychedelia.
For Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian, Herren rejected the idea of straight digital recording and instead went the much more intensive route of recording to analog Ampex tape, giving the album the sound of a lost tape of exploratory studio musicians from the not-too-distant past. In addition to the recording process, Ampexian also differs in its composition, existing as a tapestry of tracks of varying lengths and moods, albeit with a remarkable linear flow and, of course, unmatched rhythmic bump.
Everything She Touched... will be out on April 14th.
01 Periodic Measurements of Infrequent Smiles
02 Hairy Faces (Stress)
03 Parachute Panador
04 NoNo
05 Punish
06 Half Up Front
07 Sexual Fantasy Scale
08 DEC. Machine Funk All ERA's
09 Get Em High
10 Ampexian Tribe of a Lesser Time
11 When Is a Good Time?
12 Fountains of Spring
13 Whipcream Eyepatch
14 Regalo
15 Rubber Stems
16 Oh Is It
17 Four Reels Collide
18 Fringertip Trajectories
19 Violent Bathroom Exchange
20 Natures Uplifting Revenge
21 Yuletide
22 Simple Loop Choir
23 No Lights Still Rock [feat. Dimlite]
24 Gaslamp Killer Feedback Text
25 Digan Lo
26 Preparation's Kids Choir
27 Pitch Pipe
28 Periodic Measurements of Infrequent Frowns
29 Formal Dedications
Last night marked the beginning of the first Nightmares on Wax USA tour. Starting with Boston and the northeast, E.A.S.E. and company will be working their way across the continuous 48, finishing up in sunny Seattle. Tonight and tomorrow be sure to catch them in NYC and Brooklyn respectively. Warm grooves begot of a Spanish roadtrip are the perfect cure for winter blues.
See you tonight! or tomorrow!
01/27 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
01/28 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
01/29 Washington, DC @ Black Cat Backstage
01/30 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
01/31 Chicago, IL @ The Abbey Pub
02/02 Los Angeles, CA @ Echoplex
02/04 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
02/06 Portland, OR @ Holocene
02/07 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Steve Ellison never seems to stop working. Hot on the heels of Kanye's much-discussed SNL appearance he has put together a murky, tweaked Burial-esque remix of "Love Lockdown" that leaves Kanye's autotuned vox swimming in reverb and under clattering rainy-day percussion. As is becoming his hallmark, the Lotus remix turns the original upside-down and casts it in a new atmosphere, making it hard not to perk up your ears and say "whoah".
With praise coming from every direction it would seem easy for Flying Lotus to rest on the strength of his accomplishments, however he’s doing no such thing. In the wake of Los Angeles release, he was hard at work in the lab putting the finishing touches on a series of LA EPs as well as remixes for Stereolab, Blank Blue and the aforementioned Radiohead. LA EP 1X3 reprised a pair of album tracks alongside mind-blowing new jams like “Rickshaw” and “Paper Crane Gang” while LA EP 2X3 sees tracks being remixed by Martyn, Samiyam, Nosaj Thing, Ras G and others. The third EP in the series remains a mystery, but rest assured it will be an excellent prelude to Flying Lotus’ installment in the seminal DJ-Kicks mix series next year.
These guys really are something live. How does one describe something as sprawling as Pivot? I suppose showing them a video of them doing what they do is a good start... enjoy.
Enter Hudson Mohawke, a new Warp signing and one of our secret weapons for 2009!
A 22-year-old hailing from Glasgow, he has been perfecting his craft since the age of 12. After only releasing a handful of productions and painstakingly hard-to-find vinyl releases in the last few years, Hudson Mohawke has managed to become a much talked about producer.
He's responsible for spearheading a movement of next generation beat music that has exploded from Glasgow this year (also see Rustie, Wireblock, LuckyMe, Numbers). It's not just a Scottish thing either - these last six months have seen Hudson set off touring America, Australia & all across Europe!
With an ear for a pop hook and a forward thinking production aesthetic, our bets are that 2009 will hold an awful lot of action for this young producer. If you don't believe us yet, wait for this killer first EP on Warp - with his debut album in the pipeline.
6-track EP 'Polyfolk Dance' will be released on 19th January - but there's 2 advance tracks available to download on Bleep now! After hearing these we hope you're as excited as we are.
Coming in Feb '09, Mark Pritchard's first full-length release under the Harmonic 313 moniker, "When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence", is promising to be a real doozy. Grumbling bassweight, glitchy traces of minimal tech, acid, dancehall and dubstep all combine to form a sound both, dare i say it, 'cerebral' and danceable. The elegant juxtaposition of these elements substantiate Pritchard's breadth in both influence and execution; after all, this is the man behind Link, Troubleman, NY Connection, Global Communication, Series 7 (with Stephen Horne), Vertigo (with Danny Breaks) and a dizzying array of other projects. It promises to be a heavy Valentine's Day next year.
But, seeing as we've still some time in 2008, the Dirtbox EP has come to quell the bassfreaks amongst us. Befitting its namesake, the title track is grungy, rough and unyielding - definite dancefloor material. It behooves any fans of lower frequencies to seek out this EP when it's released on December 9th. A killer 12" with amazing artwork and limited to 300 copies in the US. Keep an eye out, and enjoy the track.
It's been a real pleasure to browse the reviews for O Soundtrack My Heart, and seeing such a great reception puts us in a grateful mood. One recurring mention throughout the reviews and coverage of the album was the track "Didn't I Furious", which has been a personal favorite of mine as well - one to come back to and analyze while bumping loudly. It's just plain addictive - it comes in tough and it doesn't let up. I won't wax about it too much, just know you're in for a treat. Enjoy.
