Electro – Page 52 – 7th Level Music

Turning Jewels into Water releases title track from upcoming album – “Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars.”

Photo courtesy of Red Bull Music New York

Turning Jewels Into Water – the duo of Haitian-born drummer, DJ, educator and electronic music artist Val Jeanty and Indian-born drummer, producer and educator Ravish Momin –announce their new album, Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars, out August 21st on FPE Records, and share the lead single/video. It follows their 2019 album Map of Absences. For Our Reflection Momin and Jeanty take their dynamic musical partnership to even greater heights and more intense depths. Imbued with the spirit of collaboration and influenced by cutting-edge sounds like South African Gqom, Our Reflection reaches across oceans and continents, connecting the ancient with the modern.

As a collaborative project, Turning Jewels Into Water began when Jeanty participated in a jam session at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn while Momin was artist-in-residence there in September 2017. Their collaboration, rooted in improvisation, evokes the esoteric realms of the creative subconscious. Drawing from the Vodun religion, Val recreates the ancient rhythms and pulse of Haiti through digital beats, while Momin, whose own musical background is rooted in Indian, North African and Middle-Eastern traditions, has developed an original blend of electro-acoustic beats, drawing together the improvisational traditions in Jazz and Indian folk music. Together, they employ cutting-edge music-technological tools such as acoustic drums outfitted with Sensory Percussion triggers, Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) drum pads and Smart Fabric MIDI Controllers, but still emphasize the ritual aspects of creating music in the digital realm.

Speaking to the collaborative approach they took to making Our Reflection, Momin explains that he and Jeanty lead an ensemble of musicians from around the world, with the end product being a challenge to the ethnic fetishizing that far-too commonly comes along with global/world music. In March 2020, Momin had already reached out to other artists for remote contributions, including Iranian singer/daf player Kamyar Arsani (based in Washington, DC) and friend Mpho Molikeng, a master musician of South African indigenous instruments (based in Lesotho). Jeanty had already set up a base in Boston (for her newly appointed position as a professor at Berklee College of Music) and was also planning on collaborating remotely. “Therefore, once mandatory quarantines went into effect across the US and the world in mid-March, it had little impact on our creative process,” says Momin. “The resulting album has elements that are at once familiar and unfamiliar, as we evoke a digital folk music from nowhere.”

Accompanying the lead single is a video created by Art Jones. “The video for ‘Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars’ explores the narrative of the Siddis – Indians of East African origin, who were merchants, sailors and even rulers of Indian territories, but have now been marginalized and have had their histories erased,” says Momin. “As the #BLM movement rightfully gains prominence across the globe, we wanted to raise awareness of the anti-blackness that is deeply embedded in other cultures as well.”

With Our Reflection Adorned By Newly Formed Stars, Turning Jewels Into Water uses forward-thinking electronic music and experimentation to tap into a continuum of folk music that is as old as time itself. Also, containing remixes from Laughing Ears, and EMB, the music here is Indian, African, Afro-Caribbean and global all at once. By combining their unique cultural experiences Jeanty and Momin are bold enough to allow all of the tensions and commonalities to play freely and resolve themselves in the music.
Watch “Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars” Video:
https://youtu.be/YWb1D-aNrUY

Pre-order Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars:
https://turningjewelsintowater.bandcamp.com/album/our-reflection-adorned-by-newly-formed-stars

Our Reflection Adorned by Newly Formed Stars Tracklist:
1. Swirl in the Waters
2. Flower in Flames
3. Janjira in a Flash
4. Our Reflections Adorned by Newly Formed Stars
5. Whispers under Dal Lake
6. Kerala in My Heart
7. Crushed Petals and Stones Fall on My Drum
8. Crushed Petals and Stones Fall on My Drum (Laughing Ears Remix)
9. Flower in Flames (EMB Remix)

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Tricky asks us to “Fall Please” on his new single.

ricky announces his 14th studio album, Fall To Pieces, out September 4th on his own label False Idols, and shares its lead single/video, “Fall Please.” The legendary producer might be over three decades deep into his music career but he’s currently on an especially prolific run. In the last year, he dropped the enchanting 20,20 EP and put out an acclaimed autobiography, Hell Is Round The Corner.

Watch Tricky’s Video for “Fall Please”

“Fall Please,” a song which Tricky likens to Washington, D.C. Go-go, has a strange and twisted accessibility that surprised even the man who wrote it. “With most of my stuff, there’s nothing else like it around,” he says. “But with ‘Fall Please’ I’ve managed to do something I’ve never been able to before, which is that everyone can feel it – even people who don’t know my music. It’s my version of pop music, the closest I’ve got to making pop.”

Fall To Pieces was recorded in Tricky’s Berlin studio in late 2019. Tricky is keen to point out that the tracks on the record can be deceptive; often short, ending abruptly and moving on to the next without warning. Although instrumentation varies from bursts of tense synths, distorted dial tones, and samples, the song’s lyrics can be dark and dense. Tricky’s music has always enlisted female vocalists to carry his ideas: the majority of tracks on Fall To Pieces, including “Fall Please,” rely on Marta Złakowska, the singer he discovered during a European tour when he was left without a vocalist on the opening night. She saved the tour from disaster. “I can tell when someone is humble and down to earth,” says Tricky. “Marta doesn’t care about being famous, she just wants to sing.”

The past year in creative flurry has no doubt been a distraction for Tricky, but it’s also been a period of reflection and reassessment. Struck down with grief, he had to ask himself a question: do I fight, or go down with the ship? “You’ve gotta fucking get up and fight,” he concludes. “Right now I’m in fight mode. And I feel really good. I do.”

Pre-order Fall To Pieces

Fall To Pieces Tracklist:
1.Thinking Of
2. Close Now
3. Running Off
4. I’m In The Doorway
5. Hate This Pain
6. Chills Me To The Bone
7. Fall Please
8. Take Me Shopping
9. Like a Stone
10. Throws Me Around
11. Vietnam

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Fusilier puts a timely new spin on “Dancing in the Street.”

WATCH: Fusilier’s “Dancing In The Street” video on YouTube

Gothamist once described Blake Fusilier’s sound as “something you’d hear in a nightclub at the end of the world.” Last week that narrative shifted with the release of a meditative, deeply felt drone-ballad “Upstream.” NPR Music praised it as a “slow core revival” and Paste Magazine called it a “sweeping, minimal R&B-pop song led by awe-inspiring strings,” and one of the best songs of May, while The Line of Best Fit in the UK named it “Song of The Day.”

Now the nightclub at the end of the world returns with Fusilier’s re-imagining of the Motown classic “Dancing In the Street.” Fusilier’s version turns the song into a queer indie punk fever dream coincidentally released at the kick off of Pride Month.

Says Fusilier in a blistering critique of what the LGBTQ month of remembrance, Pride Month, had become in the pre-pandemic era: “Pride is so boring. A protest-cum-celebration of marginalized people has become a mirror for the existing hierarchies of society. The people who now need uplift and recognition are the people who ‘Gay’ movements hide. They’re women, they’re queer, they’re trans and non-binary, they’re poor, they’re HIV positive, they’re Black. They’re the ones who aren’t going to bank with Santander because they’re issuing debit cards decorated with rainbows. We should get back to our riotous roots.”

Of the song & accompanying video, Fusilier and his collaborator Kevin Alexander call upon a very different activists and artists who inspire him including Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Toni Morrison and, least known of these, Black gay minimalist composer and vocalist Julius Eastman and his composition “Gay Guerrilla”. Eastman was a major presence on New York’s ‘downtown’ scene of the 70s & 80s who died tragically before the age of 50. Now experiencing a major revival, Fusilier connects to Eastman’s legacy of pro-Black and pro-gay provocations which did not eschew a potential for radical political violence.

Thirty years after Eastman’s death, Fusilier recalls one of the few times on record where we hear the deceased artist speak—literally transcribing Eastman’s words across his own likeness at the video’s climax. Says Fusilier, “In 1980, Julius Eastman once introduced one of his most popular works, ‘Gay Guerrilla,’ to an audience at Northwestern University on what we now know as the first day of Pride month. This is how he closed his introduction:

“A guerrilla is someone who is, in any case, sacrificing his life for a point of view. And if there is a cause, and if it is a great cause, those who belong to that cause will sacrifice their blood. Because without blood there is no cause. So, therefore, that is the reason that I use ‘Gay Guerrilla,’ in hopes that I might be one if called upon to be one.”

The video for “Dancing In The Street” is an expression of my subconscious. It’s a collection of imagery that I keep in mind when I make music. It’s an acknowledgement that there’s a legacy of Black, trans and queer voices that was largely disappeared to history and a reminder that the people who they opposed are still in power.”

Fusilier’s Upstream EP is out now via Brassland and is available on Bandcamp here.

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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]

Rhye’s new “Beautiful” video is just that.

“Rhye’s music video for ‘Beautiful’ is a lesson in social distancing . . . The pandemic made Michael Milosh think about his artistic motivations, and he channeled that energy into a calming music video for his newest single.” — Vanity Fair

Rhye – the project of LA-based musician Michael Milosh – presents a new video for his “slinky, understated” (Stereogum) “Beautiful,” released earlier this month on Loma Vista Recordings. Rhye debuted the track with a hypnotic 72-hour back-to-back stream hosted on his YouTube channel. The video was directed and produced by Milosh and filmed using telephoto lenses to ensure social distancing, with each dancer shot individually. Featuring intertwining clips of people moving throughout a vibrant desert landscape, it evokes the song’s message – finding beauty in everyday life. As with the single art created by Milosh, the “Beautiful” video, awashed in a gauzy filter, maintains Rhye’s distinctive, dreamlike aesthetic. Milosh discussed the creation of the video, other Rhye visuals, and more with Vanity Fair (read the article here).

Watch Rhye’s Video for “Beautiful”

Listen to Rhye’s “Beautiful”

“[‘Beautiful’] starts with a throb of strings before cohering around a sharp beat and muscular bass line, distantly echoing solo Bryan Ferry tracks from the early Eighties.” – Rolling Stone

“[Beautiful’] slots nicely into the subtly funky Rhye oeuvre” – Uproxx

“Plenty has changed in the last 12 months, and anxieties are at an all-time high, but Rhye is intent on finding and relishing the brightest spots in his life.” – Consequence of Sound

While staying home, Milosh has been performing livestreams as part of the LA based creative community Secular Sabbath, including morning ambient performances and a sunrise serenade with Joseph August, as well as the Corona Sabbath with Diplo. Secular Sabbath initially focused on live ambient music events, but has expanded with a range of offerings in quarantine.

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Review: Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts VI: Locusts

The second of two free instrumental albums offered by Nine Inch Nails in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghosts VI: Locusts is darker than its predecessor – Ghosts V: Together. The track titles alone don’t bring to mind hopeful images like the last album. Many of the tunes on Ghosts VI: Locusts could easily fit on a horror film score.

“The Cursed Clock” is just such an example – bleak piano and creepy timing. “Around Every Corner” brings in a lonely trumpet and sounds not unlike passing buses to remind you of a film noir. “The Worriment Waltz” is a good title for what a lot of people are doing these days. “Run Like Hell” is surprisingly subtle (and that great trumpet comes back to haunt us in it).

“When It Happens (Don’t Mind Me)” starts off with Dario Argento-film score manic percussion and synths. The sounds of “Another Crashed Car” bring to mind images of an open cell phone (probably being used pre-collision) call going unanswered and windshield wipers scraping across cracked glass. “Temp Fix” is short and…odd.

“Trust Fades” fades right into “A Really Bad Night.” The two themes go well together. “Your New Normal” is like a strange breath across your neck, and “Just Breathe” might be the creepiest song on the album. “Right Behind You” calms things down a bit.

“Turn This Off Please” is the longest track on the album (over thirteen minutes) and slinks around the room like some sort of smoky adder. The piano on “So Tired” is like something you’d hear on the score to Exorcist III. The closing track is “Almost Dawn,” which is a bit uplifting after all the doom and gloom of the previous tracks. Yes, it still has some creepy elements in it (like that warped music box) but it still conveys a sense that the sun will come out soon and we’ll all embrace the light.

Nine Inch Nails seem to be acknowledging that things look bleak, but they also encourage us to not become overwhelmed. Things will turn around in time. All things are impermanent, even suffering.

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Soulwax’s next album was made with just one synthesizer.

‘EMS Synthi 100: Deewee Sessions Vol. 01‘ is an exciting new project from David & Stephen Dewaele (Soulwax) that celebrates the pioneering modular synthesizer, the EMS Synthi 100.

The highly collectible package, will be released on May 29th by DEEWEE and The Vinyl Factory, compiling a new album, created entirely using a lovingly restored EMS Synthi, alongside a 48-page book exploring the synthesizer’s history and the story beind the album. The Dewaele brothers hope to have the opportunity to create further volumes in the series in the near future.

“It was our belief that there were tons of melodies and rhythms hidden within the machine,” commented David & Stephen Dewaele. “We just had to make it sing. Every sound you hear on this record, however hard to believe, originates from the mighty EMS Synthi 100. Some were easy to make, some took days to get right. A few of the compositions were written beforehand, with the Synthi 100 in mind, then translated onto it. A couple were created by just messing around for hours, and some of it is the machine randomly playing by itself, inspiring us to build onto its unique chaos.”

‘DEEWEE Sessions Vol.01’ features the album on heavyweight 180g vinyl along with a fully-illustrated 48-page book exploring the background behind the album and history of the Synthi 100. The book compiles a foreword from David & Stephen Dewaele; an introduction from 3030, the specific Synthi 100 unit that was used for the album; a history of its creation and an exploration of its sounds; and finally an interview with Ivan Schepers, the IPEM technician who has been 3030’s long-term custodian.

Fittingly, this tribute to such an elegant machine is presented in a beautiful style, art directed by Ill-Studio. The vinyl is held in a perforated ‘patch bay’ cover with a fully artworked inner sleeve, while both the disc and book are housed in a clear PVC bag.

‘EMS Synthi 100 – DEEWEE Sessions Vol.01’ will be released on May 29th with catalogue numbers DEEWEE034 / VF301. A digital version will also be available via download and streaming services and all formats are available to pre-order from HERE.

This album was made with the kind assistance of and in collaboration with IPEM, Ghent.

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Rhye releases a “Beautiful” new single.

Rhye – the project of LA-based musician Michael Milosh – returns with “Beautiful” via Loma Vista Recordings. Known for his “reserved, understated and brilliant soul” (NPR Music), “Beautiful” is Rhye’s first proper single since the release of 2018’s JUNO-Award winning Blood. It’s sophisticated in its subtlety, opening with a flurry of strings and a taut percussive beat. Throughout, the song gently surges with humming organ and piano. Milosh’s voice shimmers over a mellow bass line and is instantly recognizable as he advocates for finding beauty in everyday life. This idea is being presented via A Beautiful Weekend on the Rhye website, where the song is paired with accompanying visuals of beauty.

“As we all share in this collective crazy moment that is quarantine, there are many ways to deal with the isolation, many ways we can truly fall into ourselves,” says Milosh. “For me, celebrating the beauty that is my partner has been a huge inspiration for me and a saving grace. Beauty is something we truly need to be open to in this moment. Find it in music, art, your loved ones, or yourself.”
Listen to Rhye’s “Beautiful” –
https://found.ee/Rhye_Beautiful

Milosh has been filling his isolation time recording new music and performing livestreams as part of Secular Sabbath, including a morning ambient performance with Joseph August and the Corona Sabbath with Diplo. Secular Sabbath, the LA based creative community founded by his partner Genevieve Medow Jenkins, initially focused on live ambient music events. During quarantine, it has blossomed with a range of offerings.

In conjunction with the “Beautiful” single release, Rhye is offering a limited edition Box of Beautiful care package which includes a tote bag, a custom scented candle by Joia, a vegan leather embossed notebook and pen, a postcard, engraved selenite, and a bandana. This custom box is available via the Rhye webstore. There will be more Rhye news in the coming weeks.

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Jon Hopkins helps us meditate with “Singing Bowl (Ascension).”

Jon Hopkins presents “Singing Bowl (Ascension),” the first in a new series of “Meditations” that is available to stream now and appears on “Quiet,” his 24-hour long collaborative playlist for Spotify. Designed with deep meditation experiences in mind, “Singing Bowl (Ascension)” perfectly fits into Jon’s transcendent selections. To create this piece, Hopkins recorded a range of vibrations created by a 100 year-old singing bowl found in an antique shop in Delhi. He then fed these into a laptop running a simple, generative system that triggered the hits and drones at random. This would allow synchronicity to play a central part in the composition process, and remove as much “thinking” as possible from the writing. An earlier version of this generative piece was used as a sound installation at last year’s Helsinki Arts Festival.

Hopkins further explains the inspiration behind the track: “Like so many people I felt pretty paralysed by this situation when it first unfolded. All my plans for the year were cancelled, and everything felt so weird and dreamlike. But gradually I found I wanted to create something – to find peace and perspective through making music, as I have always done. It felt beautifully pure to just use one acoustic sound source, and no synths. It was liberating to write something without playing anything on a keyboard – to avoid the familiar diatonic scale for the first time, and thus avoid any of my own conditioned playing habits. There was a magic in setting this generative system in motion then just letting the vibrations of this bowl create their own world. I listened to harmonics layering on top of harmonics for hours and was transported.”

Watch Jon Hopkins’ “Singing Bowl (Ascension) – excerpt”
https://smarturl.it/JHSBAyt

Listen to “Singing Bowl (Ascension)” here
https://smarturl.it/SingingBowlAscension

Listen to the “Quiet” Spotify Playlist
https://smarturl.it/JHSBAsp

Jon Hopkins Tour:
Wed. Aug. 12 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL
Thu. Aug. 13 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre w/ RÜFÜS DU SOL
Sun. Nov. 11 – Stockholm, SE @ Gota Lejon
Mon. Nov. 12 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene
Thu. Nov. 5 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal
Mon. Nov. 8 – Copenhagen, DK @ DR Koncerthuset – Koncertsalen
Mon. Nov. 9 – Paris, DR @ Salle Pleyel
Wed. Nov. 11 – The Hague, NL @ Zuiderstrandtheater
Mon. Nov. 16 – Berlin, DE @ Philharmonie
Fri. Dec. 4 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall

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Kllo release “Insomnia” to help you get through long nights of self-isolation.

“[‘Still Here’ is] light and densely nuanced at the same time.” – Nylon

“[‘Still Here’] is delicate and rollicking and propulsive and lovely.” – Jezebel

“‘Still Here’ is built around a brisk, frenetic backbeat that seems like the foundation of a dancefloor banger, but the meat of the song is melancholy balladry on the indie-pop wavelength. The resulting contrast is deeply appealing…” – Stereogum
Kllo – electronic pop duo of Melbourne cousins Chloe Kaul and Simon Lam – will release their new album, Maybe We Could, on July 17th via Ghostly International. Today, they share the new single, “Insomnia,” which simmers in a similar melancholy of lead single “Still Here.” “Insomnia” skitters with steely beats and tender keys. It’s one of the few songs written from separate locations when both artists were in North America independently, and its feeling reflects a sense of jet-lagged joy and displacement, the “high highs, low lows” as one line goes.

“It’s one of our favourites off the album and is heavily influenced by our time in North America,” says Kllo. “The song is about laying in bed fantasizing that you’ll give your all to something and that someone else will too, but knowing deep down it will never happen. The moment of the night where you can’t switch off and differentiate your truth from your imagination.“

Stream “Insomnia”:
https://youtu.be/QJdm3I0gcnI

Following the release of their adored full-length debut Backwater, two years of global touring, a handful of singles, and a near-breakup, Kaul and Lam both took time away from Kllo to make solo work. The experiences served as a reset, giving them space to learn separately, and, ultimately, to appreciate what they have together. Largely written and recorded upon their return, Maybe We Could signals a new start for Kllo. Ten tracks pairing the rhythms of dance music to emotive chords and melodies; revealing two artists at their strongest yet most vulnerable, operating as their truest selves, honest with each other and their craft. Songs on Maybe We Could grapple with familiar dynamics: unrequited love, doubts, desires, and decisions. Musically, the album finds Kllo following their impulses, embracing a more subdued and nuanced tone.

Maybe We Could mirrors the progression and growth of the two artists behind a singular project. The title references a phrase they repeat often when recording. A collective strategy towards facing uncertainty, taking chances, and making choices. Ones that become more deliberate as time rolls on. Lam sums it up, “It’s like the album started off with ‘maybe’ and ended with ‘definitely.’”
Stream “Insomnia”:
https://youtu.be/QJdm3I0gcnI

Watch “Still Here” Video:
https://youtu.be/5qguVdZs27I

Pre-order/Pre-save Maybe We Could:
https://ffm.to/kllo-maybe-we-could

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Sofia Bolt’s “All She Wants” was designed to make you move.

“Amélie Rousseaux moved halfway across the world to heal, and it is a pleasure to hear her processing.” – Pitchfork

“Bolt trades in understated indie rock ” – The Guardian
Sofia Bolt (a.k.a. Amélie Rousseaux) shares a new single, “All She Wants;” the second standalone single since the release of her debut album, Waves, in 2019, which drew praise from Rolling Stone, Stereogum, Pitchfork, and more. “All She Wants” was recorded live at Electro-Vox Studios in Los Angeles, a song written for listeners to move to. The video was created by animator Jenna Caravello.

“I always wanted to write music for people to dance to at my shows,” says Rousseaux. Her songwriting was influenced by harmonies and guitar riffs found in 1970s jazz-funk records. “My goal was to play around with tension and release while keeping a forward momentum. I listened to a lot of The Meters, Cymande, Roy Ayers while working on ‘All She Wants.’”

Sofia Bolt is the project of French-born musician and songwriter Amelie Rousseaux. In early 2017, pent-up in Paris and searching for transformation, Rousseaux moved to Los Angeles. Her first few months in LA were a revelation – she found herself surfing every day, reflecting on her relationship, and immersing herself in American culture and music. This shock to the system brought a creative blossom that gave rise to the sweeping, beautiful, honest, and acclaimed debut album Waves, released in July 2019.

Recorded live in a whirlwind five days by a cast of LA all-stars, Waves is at once casual and tightly constructed, with Rousseaux’s pop melodies leaping and diving over a bed of guitars and roomy drums. Since the release, Rousseaux has created the soundtrack to Hedi Slimane’s winter 2020 Celine collection and has toured both the States and Europe, opening for Sharon Van Etten, Interpol, and Stella Donnelly.
Watch Video for “All She Wants”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXQCI7RUck0&feature=youtu.be

Watch/Listen/Share:
Waves album stream
“Heart Is A Rock” video
“Les Journees D’Automne” stream

Sofia Bolt Tour Dates:
Mon. June 8 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom
Tue. June 9 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Music Hall

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