[MP3] Onra – Long Distance
Following from the All City records mini-feature we did in last month’s show (catch that here if you haven’t yet), we got some more free MP3-ness from the excellent Dublin-based label in the shape of a teaser for the forthcoming Onra album, ‘Long Distance’.
Ahead of the album, which drops in May, All City are releasing the lead single of the same name in April featuring 2 tracks from the album and 2 additional instrumentals. The 12″ tracks feature Olivier Daysoul on the title cut and Reggie B on ‘High Hopes’. You can stream and download a low-res of the title cut below. Also there is a pretty funny teaser vid for the album and single which you can view below – this video includes the tracks from the 12, including the rather tasty Oper8tor which is my joint on this single. As you can no doubt tell by the video the whole thing has a distinct 80s vibe to it though Onra manages to steer well clear of pastiche and cliches by bringing his own twist to the beats. I’m no big fan of 80s influenced stuff but this is definitely ticking all the right boxes and only serves to raise the anticipation for the album, his first one since the self-released 1.0.8 dropped in late ’08/early ’09.
For more on the Parisian producer be sure to hit his myspace and while you’re at why not check this exclusive ‘Soulful Joints’ mix he did for us last year featuring 40 minutes of music that has inspired him.
Big thanks as always to All City and keep a eye out for part 3 of their L.A 10×10 series also dropping this month with one side looked after by Ras G and the other by Samiyam. Nuff said!
[EVENT] April 9/10 – Fulgeance x Error Broadcast x Beat Dimensions x IDA Italy
Some event related news this week regarding two upcoming gigs in and around Bologna, Italy, and one in London next weekend all of which are in association with Rhythm Incursions.
Kicking things off is the first installment of ‘Underground’ in London at the East Village on Thursday 8 April. Put together by our friends at Brave And Bold Industries it features a rather amazing line up of London-based producers and DJs including Om Unit, Paul White, Debruit (live), Blue Daisy (live), Wrongtom, Mr Beatnick, Seldom Seen
Philth Collins, Aspex and myself. Definitely a line-up not to be missed and which promises an evening of diversity with many of our favourite producers of the moment. It all kicks off at 9pm until late and is a mere £7 on the door with 10% of profits donated to Oxfam. Check full details and RSVP on the Facebook event page.
After that we have Fulgeance‘s first live appearance in Italy on Friday April 9 organised by the people at Error Broadcast. He’ll be headlining the gig at Mattatoio club in Carpi (near Bologna) which will also feature 2phast, who we recently featured in our March show, and who won the beat battle at IDA Italy last December. Rounding things off on the line up will be my good self spinning before and after Fulgeance’s set. You can expect an evening of chopped and screwed house courtesy of Fulgeance, beats from 2phast and a bag of assorted goodies from myself, along the lines of what I air on the show every month (but with a dancefloor twist or two).
The event is in association with our good friends at Vinilificio and Bologna’s Homework collective. Full details and RSVP on the Facebook event page.
And finally the following day, Saturday April 10, IDA Italy (ex-ITF) celebrates their win at the world finals last December with a party featuring IDA champions Scratchbusters, Mandrayq and 2phast alongside IDA stalwart Tayone and special guests Jay Scarlett and Cinnaman who will be bringing their Beat Dimensions show to the city complete with James Blake. That’s a hell of a line up I think we can all agree, and once more little old me will be putting in an appearance to keep people happy and sweaty (this will be a short one though, I’m only opening for the first 30 minutes or so). Again if you’ve listened to our shows for any length you’ll know many of these guys are favourite of ours, and James Blake is definitely someone I’m looking forward to catching live. Once again full details at the Facebook event page.
Hopefully see you at any, or all, of these. Be sure to say hello if you do come through. And to keep you occupied until then here’s a mix I did for the occasion featuring a selection of stuff I’ve been feeling lately and playing out on a post-rave tip.
Primus Luta – Come Clean
We’re a little late on this but following on from his four-part The Vanguard series of interactive mixes, Primus Luta has launched his Heads Project, starting with the first single ‘Come Clean’. You can still download and stream parts 1 to 3 of The Vanguard on our site (click here) and catch part four over at our good friends’ Percussion Lab.
Where The Vanguard explored the changing sound of music and its mutations over the last decade or so, Heads delves in even further. ‘Come Clean’ kicks it off, recontextualising the DJ Premier and Jeru classic via the jazz head format. More info from Primus Luta:
“Come Clean” is the song that first brought together the various concepts being explored under the name Heads. It began with an idea to recontextualize a sample-based hip-hop song into the jazz head format, flipping the sample back in on itself. Through the analysis of the source, the hip-hop song using the sample and a Heads version of the song, it was hypothesized that the results would illustrate how each continues the artistic conversation, while maintaining their own musical uniqueness.
I pondered the idea conceptually for a while but drew a blank as to what song to use as the subject for this experiment. Then while walking through the forest one day, listening to Jeru the Damaja’s The Sun Rises in the East album, I came to a section of forest that had been recently clear cut. Clear cutting is a practice in which whole sections of forest are logged for timber. Walking through the ripped up earth with limbs and roots sticking lifelessly out of the ground, something clicked between the landscape and the haunting sample backed by DJ Premier’s hard hitting drums.
I found myself inspired to somehow bring the two worlds together. My feet, which had walked the same streets as Jeru and Premier, felt a resonance as they hiked through the lost forest, struggling to cope in a world moving faster than life itself. The phrase “Come Clean” took on a new meaning; I had my inspiration.
To find out more head over to the Come Clean mini site and follow his inspiration. Each track on the Heads album, of which Come Clean is the first single, includes an interactive multimedia installation – for this one the installation explores the idea of sample based productions as original compositions, looking at the original sample and its mutations and giving the listener an in-depth commentary on the work, both original and reimagined, and Primus Luta’s theories around sampling as a compositional tool.
As with The Vanguard, the Heads project is a serious piece of work that can take a little while to wrap your head around but rewards you in not just the music but also the information, theory and discussion that accompanies it, in its various media formats. Which is even more reason for the work to be applauded and supported.
You can preview the Come Clean single in the player above before heading over to the bandcamp site to download it (it’s free).
On April 9, 2010 Primus Luta will be sitting on a panel with Hank Shocklee (Public Enemy), William Paltry (Google’s Senior Copyright Counsel), Philo T. Farnsworth (Founder of Illegal Art) and others for the REPLAY Symposium on Sound Sampling organized by Syracuse University. For the symposium, Primus Luta will be giving a live production presentation which will showcase some of his own sample theory.
And look out for more from the Heads project in the coming months.
[MP3] Take – Incredibright
We’ve been waiting for this one for a long time here at Rhythm Inc towers. Take aka Sweatson Klank aka one of the pivotal pioneers of the L.A beat scene is releasing his second full length album next month. Dropping April 20th on the Alpha Pup label, ‘Only Mountain’ comes nearly 3 years after ‘Earthtones and Concrete’, an album I was introduced to by Om Unit and Waxfactor and which totally changed the way I viewed beats and eletronic minded hip hop. Which explains the aforementioned anticipation for this new album.
Coming on the heels of a series of EPs and remixes for labels like Eat Concrete, Friends of Friends and All City Records, ‘Only Mountain’ is a departure from the last album much more inline with his recent ‘sound’ which started appearing on his Eat Concrete EP back in 08 and was then further refined in his remix of Architeq’s ‘Sleeping Bear Laments’ or the three tracks he recently dropped on All City’s L.A 10×10 series. While different from his earlier work the music retains the same quality and composition that made it stand out from the rest in the past. This isn’t more beats by numbers, this is some incredible music by one of the unsung pioneers of the genre (if you will).
The lovely people at Alpha Pup are letting us post a taster from the album for you to stream/download in the shape of ‘Incredibright’. Also below some official words from the label:
Alpha Pup is proud to present Only Mountain, the newest release from L.A.-based beat producer Take. His most powerful and fully realized work to date, Only Mountain serves as a complete affirmation of Take’s ten prolific years in music production.
A dense and groundbreaking work, Take’s Only Mountain stands as a staggering collection of gorgeously brilliant melodies and deep subharmonic bass. Truly future music towards a brighter end.
Full tracklist for the album is below as is the download and stream links for ‘Incredibright’. Album drops April 20 on Alpha Pup label, digital and I think they have vinyl coming soon too. Here more from Take in our previous shows, browse all shows featuring him here.
Download Take – Incredibright (right click and save as)
Take – Only Mountain
1. Before You Think
2. Neon Beams
3. Horizontal Figuration
4. Crystallia
5. Don’t Look Now
6. Quartz for Amber
7. If We Don’t All Go Insane
8. Begin End Begin
9. Incredibright
10. Creosote (feat. As Is)
11. Paper Garden
12. Implosions
13. Juniper
Jammer – Better Than (Lorn remix)
Anyone who listens to the shows regularly or has been following us for a while now should know Lorn. Our story with the Milwaukee native goes waaaaaay back to the scratch internet boards days when he was making some of the most amazing, mind-bending loops for people to cut over. A few years ago he started reappearing on the radar with his own productions, and in 2009 his first proper debut album was snapped up by Brainfeeder for release (if you don’t count the extensive amount of music he’s put out for free before that, or the break record he released).
All of which only added to the surprise I got a few weeks back when Big Dada hit me up to say that Lorn had remixed the new Jammer single that the label will be releasing next week. Yes that’s right – Lorn from Milwaukee remixing Jammer, the grime legend from London. It doesn’t get better than this, literally.
‘Better Than’ is out March 15 on Big Dada, with original, instrumental and aforementioned Lorn remix which you can download/stream below courtesy of the lovely Dada people. Described as a dubstep remix elsewhere, I can see why people would say that, though personally Lorn’s take doesn’t particularly make me think of any specific genre, it’s just an incredibly heavy, crushing flip of the original, taking Jammer’s vocals into the territories Lorn is most comfortable in – dark, vicious territories with towering drums and bass lines.
If you want more from the man be sure to check his myspace, as well as the mini feature we did on him last year. And stay tuned for more previews of his album, ‘Nothing Else’ which will drop on Brainfeeder in June 2010. For now though enjoy this beauty of a remix.
Download Jammer – Better Than (Lorn remix) (right click and save as)
