Another Austin band that will be melting minds at Levitation Austin this year is SURVIVE. They play a cool, creepy style of synthwave that pays great homage to John Carpenter and they’re well known for their work on the Stranger Things soundtrack. They’ll play the second set at Stubb’s BBQ on April 28th starting around 9pm. This will be the show to see if you’re in the mood for something spooky at the festival.
Keep your mind open.
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DJ Koze Shares New Single “Pick up” Listen Hereknock knock Out May 4th On Pampa Records
[Photo by Gepa Hinrichsen]
DJ Koze recently announced the release of his new album, knock knock, out May 4th via Pampa Records. Along with the announcement he shared first single “Seeing Aliens” and followed up with “Illumination” featuring the ever-unique Róisín Murphy. Today he’s sharing the final single to be taken from the album in the form of the rolling, infectious dancefloor filler “Pick up.” Of the albums varied and intriguing array of tracks, “Pick up” is the most immediate, a track that instantly gets under the skin and becomes more satisfyingly joyful with each passing minute.
Like all DJ Koze records, knock knock exists outside of trend and influence. In fact, Knock Knock is a step further beyond: absolutely every single thing here, from grooves to voices to handclaps, is otherworldly and unique. Which is not to say it is utter alien abstraction. There is still disco, there is still soul, there is still techno, there is still hip hop, there is still psychedelia – there are even wafts of easy listening and lost crackly thrift store record memories – but though it may sound familiar, it never does what your brain thinks it’s going to do.And that’s what is crucial here. Koze is a world-maker, knock knock is far and away his greatest statement of that. You don’t get to choose how you hear his music – you enter his world or you don’t, that’s it. knock knock is an album that came together slowly and steadily, his working processes arcane and mysterious in their steady accumulation of sound and inspiration. It’s so complete and bursting with detail and consistency in every way that you’d swear it was meticulously planned (but there was no master plan) to create a definitive artifact: the record itself decided when it was ready. And now it is ready, the most perfectly constructed portal into that other world, you had better be ready too!
Kyle Molleson, otherwise known as Makeness, has given us a record that sounds like meticulous electronica and yet moves like free-flowing dance tracks at the same time – Loud Patterns.
The title track opens the record, bringing to mind a jungle DJ putting down tracks at a party in the House on Haunted Hill. “Fire Behind the Two Louis” is as slick and hot as a grease fire. “Who Am I to Follow Love” has lovely female vocals behind Molleson’s drums and sounds that make for good lounge slow jams.
“Stepping Out of Sync” has fat bass and more lounge synths combining for one of the best cuts on the record. “Gold Star” is another choice cut, with big synths and floor-shaking dance beats throughout it. I don’t know if the bass in “The Bass Rock” refers to fish or low-end sounds. I’m guessing the former because the bass grooves on it are somewhat subdued.
“Day Old Death” is a bit creepy, as you’d expect from such a title. I like the metronome-like beat in it to remind you of some masked killer stalking you. The building synth-bass of “Rough Moss” has a great payoff. It might be the most danceable song on the record. “Our Embrace” is as jubilant as you hope it would be with such a title. The synths are bright and bouncy and the drums keep you moving. The bass on “14 Drops” is so fat that it needs to go on a diet. The album ends with the appropriately titled “Motorcycle Idling,” because that’s just what it sounds like for a little over three minutes.
Loud Patterns is indeed both loud and full of wicked beat patterns. It bodes well for Makeness’ future, and for your next party.
Keep your mind open.
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North American Tour With Unknown Mortal Orchestra Starts This Month
[Loud Patterns artwork]
Scottish producer Makeness has shared another new single from his debut album, Loud Patterns, coming out this Friday, April 6th via Secretly Canadian. Crafting tracks which make a virtue of disparate influences, the sparkling “Who Am I To Follow Love” sees Kyle Molleson team up with Babeheaven vocalist Nancy Andersen to create a reflective mood and showcase another side to his versatile songwriting talents. The track is accompanied by a new webpage designed by Kyle, featuring a collection of images documenting the making of Loud Patterns.
Loud Patterns is an album that’s noticeably indebted to house and techno; there are 4/4 rhythms, and a no-nonsense directness that harks back to the Detroit pioneers. Channeling avant-garde experimentalism and an outsider’s interest in pop, Kyle embraces the distance between those two poles. The album arrives after a series of releases that have established his particular, in-between approach to dance-minded music. He put out two EPs on Manchester-based imprint Handsome Dad, a one-off single with Adult Jazz and the self-released Temple Works EP; Whities also released a limited-edition white label of a Minor Science dub of one of his tracks.
Following the release of Loud Patterns, Makeness will tour with label kin Unknown Mortal Orchestraacross North America and parts of Europe.
Makeness Tour Dates: April 12 – @ London, UK @ Corsica Studios April 22 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 23 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra April 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 1 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 12 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Unknown Mortal Orchestra May 31 – Edinburgh, United Kingdom @ Hidden Door September 1 – Dumfries & Galloway, United Kingdom @ Drumlanrig Castle (Electric Fields Festival)
Today, Unknown Mortal Orchestra says through music what we all know to be true. “Everyone Acts Crazy Nowadays” is perhaps the first straight-forward dance song off the forthcoming album, Sex & Food (out 4/6 on Jagjaguwar). The track was leaked early to fans who pre-ordered Sex & Food via a mysteriouspackage that arrived on Thursday. It contained a pamphlet simply titled “Age of Paranoia.” The pamphlet included comics and lyrics by Ruban, as well as a link to everyoneactscrazynowadays.com. The song appeared there Friday morning.
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA TOUR DATES: April 22 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street w/ Makeness April 23 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall w/ Makeness April 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness April 26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel w/ Makeness April 27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Makeness April 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Makeness April 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale w/ Makeness May 1 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre w/ Makeness May 2 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall w/ Makeness May 3 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre w/ Makeness May 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue w/ Makeness May 7 – Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre w/ Makeness May 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/ Makeness May 9 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater w/ Makeness May 10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater w/ Makeness May 11 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern w/ Makeness May 12 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s w/ Makeness May 18 – Hamburg, Germany @ Uebel & Gefährlich w/ Makeness May 19 – Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus w/ Makeness May 20 – Heidelberg, Germany @ Karlstorbahnhof w/ Makeness May 21 – Düsseldorf, Germany @ zakk w/ Makeness May 22 – Paris, France @ La Gaîté Lyrique w/ Makeness May 24 – London, United Kingdom @ Roundhouse w/ Makeness May 25 – Bristol, United Kingdom @ SWX w/ Makeness May 26 – Manchester, United Kingdom @ Strange Waves May 27 – Leeds, United Kingdom @ World Island May 28 – Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique w/ Makeness May 30 – Bordeaux, France @ Rock School Barbey May 31 – Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound June 3 – Nantes, France @ Indigènes Festival June 4 – Dublin, Ireland @ Forbidden Fruit Festival June 7-9 – Porto, Portugal @ NOS Primavera Sound June 10 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands @ Best Kept Secret Festival July 6 – Richmond, VA @ The National w/ Shamir July 7 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel w/ Shamir July 8 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse w/ Shamir July 9 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre w/ Shamir July 11 – New Orleans, LA @ Republic w/ Shamir July 12 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall w/ Shamir July 13 – Austin, TX @ Stubbs BBQ w/ Shamir July 14 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater w/ Shamir July 16 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre w/ Shamir July 17 – Ogden, UT @ Ogden Amphitheatre w/ Sylvan Esso, Shamir July 18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Vinyl at Hard Rock w/ Shamir July 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom w/ Shamir July 23 – Missoula, MT @ The Top Hat July 24 – Billings, MT @ The Pub Station July 26 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre Aug 9 – Budapest, Hungary @ Sziget Festival August 9-11 – Basel, Switzerland @ Open Air Basel August 10-11 – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Haven November 21 – London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall
Chicago’s Mamby on the Beachmusic festival returns with another impressive lineup of hip hop, EDM, and rock acts. Getting Common, Spoon, and Cold War Kids all in the same weekend is impressive. Grizzly Bear will probably put on a mind-bending set, Jamila Woods impressed a lot of folks at Pitchfork Music Festival last year, and Jai Wolf‘s DJ set will most likely be a must-see.
Electro / shoegaze quartet Ladytronare set to release their first album in seven years. The as yet untitled album will be out later this year, but the current single, “The Animals,” is already available.
Ladytron have started a PledgeMusic campaign for the album to celebrate the new album’s upcoming release, and it has some great perks. A CD of the new album signed by the band is just $25.00. There are big bundles of signed music and merchandise, handwritten lyric sheets, colored vinyl copies of the album, and you can even get your name listed in the album credits. Each pledge level comes with a digital download of the full album and an immediate download of “The Animals” and a remix of the track.
DJ Koze returns with his second single from knock knock, his forthcoming album on Pampa Records. “Illumination” follows the previously released “Seeing Aliens” and is the first knock knock track Koze has shared featuring vocals. The ever-unique Róisín Murphy becomes a cyborg funk diva on “Illumination.” “Working on a song together with Roísín is even better than not working at all,” says Koze. Listen below.
Like all DJ Koze records, knock knock exists outside of trend and influence. In fact, knock knock is a step further beyond: absolutely every single thing here, from grooves to voices to handclaps, is otherworldly and unique. Which is not to say it is utter alien abstraction. There is still disco, there is still soul, there is still techno, there is still hip hop, there is still psychedelia – there are even wafts of easy listening, lost crackly thrift store record memories and indie rock – but though it may sound familiar, it never does what your brain thinks it’s going to do.And that’s what is crucial here. Koze is a world-maker. You don’t get to choose how you hear his music – you enter his world or you don’t, that’s it. And that’s why individual influences, whether it’s the trippy German techno that’s always rippled through his albums or the beat-scene abstract hip hop that he incorporated into his DJ-Kicks mix in 2015, are all but irrelevant. Though he’d never compare himself to anyone else, Koze only makes sense in the way that other world-builders do, from Bowie to Sun Ra, Outkast to Kate Bush. And Knock Knock is far and away his greatest statement of that. It’s an album that came together slowly and steadily, his working processes arcane and mysterious in their steady accumulation of sound and inspiration. It’s so complete and bursting with detail and consistency from every microsecond that you’d swear it was meticulously planned (but there was no master plan) to create a definitive artifact: the record itself decided when it was ready. And now it is ready, the most perfectly constructed portal into that other world, you had better be ready too!
In case you weren’t aware, Afrofuturist / electro-funk artist / cyborg Janelle Monae is set to unleash her first album in five years, Dirty Computer, later this year. She’s calling this project an “emotion picture” and, judging from the trailer she release, it looks like it deals with many of her favorite themes – the future, the blurred line between technology and humanity, love, sex, and female empowerment.
She’s already given us “Django Jane” from the upcoming album, and she just delivered the Prince-inspired (with whom Monae was working before his death) bisexual anthem “Make Me Feel,” which is easily the hottest and sexiest track of 2018 so far. Anything that hopes to top this in terms of getting your groove on will have to bring serious chops.
Monae is an innovator and free spirit, and we need her and many more like her not only in the world of music, but also in the world at large. This is probably going to be one of the best albums of the year.
I first heard Caroline Rosewhen I got sent a press release about her first single off her album Loner. The song was “Money,” and it ended up being one of my favorite singles of 2017.
Loner, it turns out, is already one of the best releases of the winter. Her deft use of organs, synths, and keyboards turns the record into a blend of psychedelia, power pop, and electro. Plus, she’s one of the wittiest songwriters I’ve heard in a while.
“More of the Same” is a great opener about ennui and people wanting to be individuals just like everyone else. She unleashes impressive vocal chops as she sings about all of her friends having “alternative haircuts,” school being a colossal bore and a haven for crushed dreams, and wanting to get away from the ruts the world at large has created for her. “Cry!” reveals Rose’s love of Devo in the opening synth chords.
“Money” adds spaghetti western guitar and is one of the wildest cuts you’ve heard in a long while. Rose flat-out admits, and calls us out on, how much of her / our day-to-day activity is for the pursuit of cash. The roller rink keyboards of “Jeannie Becomes a Mom” perfectly sum up the fear, joy, and uncertainty of the song’s subject. Plus, the electric beats are wicked.
“Getting to Me” includes what sounds like a plucked violin as Rose sings about the life of a waitress who craves more out of life but yet is a master at her craft. Rose gets a David Lynch-vibe going on “To Die Today” with its echoing guitar, subtle percussion, and her haunting vocals about the feeling and release of death. It’s fitting that the follower is “Soul No. 5,” a song about embracing life (“I ain’t got a job, but I got a lot of time.). The synths during the chorus are exuberant, and they’re laced with surf rock on “Bikini” (a song about the benefits of sex appeal and the objectification of women).
The stabbing synths of “Talk” push the desperate narrative of the lyrics, in which Rose sings of blissful, sexy silence with her lover. The closer, “Animal,” with its synthesized handclaps and trippy keys, is a sexy song about two lovers in the throes of passion.
The whole album is a mix of sex, death, mishaps, and comedy. In other words, it’s about real life. Rose might consider herself a loner, but she’s really all of us.
Keep your mind open.
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