Category: electronica

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Fuck Buttons’ Andrew Hung Releases a Primal New Single

Worcester, UK-born, Bristol UK-based electronic music artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer Andrew Hung is arguably best known for being one half of renowned electronic music duo Fuck Buttons with Benjamin John Power, an act that can trace its origins to when Hung and Power began collaborating together to create a soundtrack to a film that Hung had made but immediately after forming Hung and Power had started playing live whenever possible and soon began gathering a cult following for a sound that employed the use of a variety of instruments including Casiotone keyboards and children’s toys such as a Fisher-Price karaoke machine — and the result was a live sound that Time Out Magazine once described as an “adrenaline pumping, ear purging slab of towering, pristine noise.”

Their limited edition 7″ single “Bright Tomorrow” was released to critical praise from the likes of Drowned in Sound, Pitchfork, Mojo and Stereogum, and building upon growing buzz, Hung and Power played critically applauded live sets at 2007’s Supersonic Festival, Truck Festival and Portishead’s curated ATP Festival; in fact, after those sets, a number of media outlets named them as a Hot New artist for 2008 with outlets like The Observer calling their sound “a joyous racket of swirling atmospherics and percussive gunfire,” in an article highlighting them in a new, contemporary wave of intelligent, literate British pop music.  Since then the duo released three critically applauded full-length albums — 2008’s Street Horsing, 2009’s Tarot Sport and 2013’s Slow Tarot; however, over the past few years the duo have focused on various side projects and production work: Hung started a band Dawn Hunger with Clarie Inglis (vocals) and musician Matthew de Pulford. But he’s released a solo EP, Rave Cave and has co-produced Beth Orton’s Kidsticks. Power has released three critically applauded albums with his solo recording project Blanck Mass — 2011’s self titled debut, 2015’s Dumb Flesh and 2017’s World Eater.

Hung’s solo full-length debut Realisationship is slated for an October 6, 2017 release through Lex Records and the album’s latest single “Animal” is a tense and forceful track that finds Hung exploring a more organic, lo-fi-leaning sound featuring a gorgeous string arrangement, buzzing power chords, slashing synths, forceful electronic beats and drumming and Hung’s primal, punk rock-like howling. As Hung explains in press notes “Animal is a warning that oppression brings about consequences; we have bred fear and now we are reaping its effects. We cannot address the external without first addressing the internal.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known for a stint in synth punk act POW!, Aaron Diko is an Indianapolis, IN-born, Bay Area-based electronic musician, who recently returned to his hometown to record a series of solo material and collaborations with longtime friends’ Creeping Pink‘s Landon Caldwell, Mitch Duncan and Burnt Ones’ Mark Tester in a recording project that Diko has dubbed DDCT.

DDCT’s self-titled full-length debut is slated for release Friday through Empty Cellar Records and Medium Sound, and the album’s first single “Tracks” features undulating and cascading layers of vintage synths paired with buzzing power chords and a motorik groove bolstered by four-on-the-floor drum programming, and while clearly drawing from Trans Europe Express-era Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, the composition and its resulting recording manages to nod at space rock but with free-flowing improvised feel, capturing a group of musicians playing and grabbing onto a groove with a “you-are-there” immediacy.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Darren Cunningham is a Wolverhampton, UK-born, London-based producer and electronic music producer, best known as Actress, who over the past decade or so has developed a reputation for crafting abstract yet churning and rumbling techno with pulsing kick drums, jittering percussion, chopped and looped samples; however, interestingly enough, the renowned British producer has publicly mentioned that he’s wanted to make classical music for a modern generation. And that desire has lead him to collaborate with the London Contemporary Orchestra, crafting expanding arrangements of his dark and brooding sound and new material, including “Audio Track 5,” which finds the renowned British producer pairing skittering beats and swirling electronics with a blasts of twinkling and shrieking strings to create a stark and icily minimalist yet entirely cinematic composition. But underneath the bracingly chilly surface, the producer reveals a subtle yet ambitious and progressive take on chamber music.

 

 

 

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US Tour Dates

Aug 23 – Seattle – Kremwerk

Aug 24 – Chicago – Empty Bottle

Aug 25 – Detroit – El Club

Aug 26 – New York – MoMa PS1

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their critically acclaimed album Hide Before Dinner, the Melbourne, Australia-based electronic trio F INGERS, comprised of Samuel Karnel, Carla dal Forno and Tarquin Manek, have quickly become one of the Southern hemisphere’s most exciting and visionary electronic acts, as that album’s material were meant to evoke the thrill, and casual cruelty, of unsupervised childhood summers – a suburban gothic of grazed knees, hide-and-seek, nettle-stings; however, as you’ll hear on “All Rolled Up,” off the trio’s forthcoming album Awkwardly Blissed Out, the material’s sound is meant to evoke deeper, much more adult anxieties and fears — the daily struggles with passing time, of ghosts looming larger and lingering in strange and unexpected ways, of perpetually creeping dread and unease. And while retaining a chilly minimalist sensibility, the new material also manages to possess a slow-burning, almost painterly quality as gentle layers of swirling electronics, undulating synths form an icy surface from which ethereal vocals float over.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Blanck Mass Returns with Surreal and Nightmarish Visuals for Album Track “The Rat”

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve come across a handful os post featuring  Blanck Mass, the solo side project of Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power. His 2015 Blanck Mass effort Dumb Flesh was written and recorded over the course of the preceding year in several different locations — Power’s Space Mountain Studios, a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London and Power’s Edinburgh Scotland home. And reportedly, frequently changing recording spaces influenced the album’s dark and sprawling compositions, which possessed elements of tense and abrasive industrial electronica with sensual, hard-hitting, deep house, complete with punishing, tweeter and rocker beats and shimmering synths seemingly bubbling from a hot, molten iron-like surface. Thematically speaking, the material focused on the inherent frailty of the human body — with the material evoking the painful sensation that our poor, dumb flesh couldn’t do more to protect us from certain catastrophe; however, World Eater, Power’s third Blanck Mass album, released earlier this year through  Sacred Bones Records was inspired by the our current, ongoing sociopolitical climate full of teeming anger, violence, confusion, frustration, hatred and despair — and as Power has publicly mentioned, the material is meant to evoke a wild, untamed beast chewing and gnawing at civilization, compassion, good, progression and the very bonds that hold us together. As Power explains in press notes, “The title is a reference to both the inner beast inside human beings that when grouped en-masse stops us from moving forward towards good.”

Now, as you may recall, album single “Silent Treatment,” built on the concept of human civilization being mercilessly ripped apart and stomped on, and of impending doom as the song featured chopped up choral and vocal samples, abrasive, industrial clang and clatter, stuttering drum programming, twinkling arpeggio synths and enormous, room rocking boom bap-like beats — and although the song managed to possess a subtly atmospheric feel, it retained the murky and punishing feel of the material on Dumb Flesh. The album’s latest single “The Rat” continues on a similar vein as it features punishing, tweeter and woofer rocking beats cascading down on the listener paired with layers of swirling, shimmering and buzzing synths — and while being one of the more ominous songs I’ve come across this year, there’s a strangely haunting beauty at its core. 

Edited by Dan Tombs, the recently released visuals forces the viewer to stare directly into his eyes and take a surreal and nightmarish trip through some of the darker and more foreboding recesses of a fairground, stopping through dancing doll towns, merry-go-rounds and warped flashbacks of maggots and decay. As Power says of the video, “The video itself is a bit of fun and filmed on a family vacation, but somehow I feel it represents discontent within a capitalist regime and a world full of sugar-coated shit.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Kraftwerk Inspired Sounds and Trippy Visuals of Heart Years’ “The Field Trip”

Heart Years is a London, UK-based producer and electronic music artist, who has begun to receive attention for a sound that based around his love of vintage synths, tape machines and 70s electronica, and his latest single “The Field Trip” off “The Great Fades” single sounds to my ear as though it draws from Trans Europe Express and The Man Machine-era Kraftwerk as layers of shimmering and undulating arpeggio synths are paired with a motorik groove. And in similar fashion to “Trans Europe Express” “Metal on Metal” and “Abzug,” the track manages to evoke the sensation of forward movement.

The recently released video for “The Field Trip” is a fitting audio-visual collaboration between the British electronic artists and indie filmmaker Bailey. And as Bailey explains of the idea shot using Lomography’s lo-fi analog, hand cranked, LomoKino movie camera, which only produces 15 seconds of footage per 35mm roll, “The film is an abstract sci-fi where extra-terrestrial life forms represented by 3 primary colour shapes take a field trip to planet earth and observe nature, human infrastructure, behaviour and sound … before leaving unnoticed by the planet’s inhabitants.” Of course, what makes the video so fitting is that it captures the trippy nature of the song while equally evoking the sensation of movement towards something.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’ve likely come across several posts on Blanck Mass, the solo side project of Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power. 2015’s Dumb Flesh was written and recorded over the course of a year in several different locations  — Power’s Space Mountain Studios, a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London and Power’s Edinburgh Scotland home. Reportedly, changing recording spaces influenced the album’s dark and sprawling compositions, which frequently meshed tense and abrasive industrial electronic music with sensual, hard hitting, deep house, along with punishing, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and shimmering synths bubbling from a hot, molten iron-like surface, and as a result it gives the material brief moments of stunning beauty bursting from a murky and uncertain mix. Thematically, the material focused on the inherent flaws and frailty of the human body — in some way, the album evoked the sensation that our flesh couldn’t protect us from what feels like certain catastrophe.

 

World Eater, Power’s third Blanck Mass album is slated for a March 3, 2017 release through renowned indie electronic label Sacred Bones Records and the material on the album was inspired by a year teeming with anger, violence, confusion, frustration and despair — and in some way, it evokes a wild, untamed beast chewing and gnawing at civilization, compassion, good, and progression. As Power explains in press notes, “The title is a reference to both the inner beast inside human beings that when grouped en-masse stops us from moving forward towards good.”

 

World Eater‘s latest single “Silent Treatment” builds on the idea of civilization being chewed apart and of impending doom as sonically the song consist of chopped up chorale and vocal samples, abrasive industrial clang and clatter, stuttering drum programming, twinkling arpeggio synths and enormous boom-bap beats — and although while managing to be a subtly more atmospheric, the song retains the tense and murky feel of Dumb Flesh; in fact, the song manages to emphasize the growing sense of impending doom, confusion, and destruction that many of us have felt over the past 10-15 days. Interestingly, as Power explains of the song “‘Silent Treatment’ is about the problems that arise when we don’t communicate. We often grow apart when we don’t understand each other. Being left int he dark can lead to fear.” May this song be a visceral warning — and may it remind us of all that we have at stake.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Sofia Kourtesis is a Berlin, Germany-based DJ, producer and activist, who as a producer and DJ has developed a reputation for a sound that possesses elements of tech house, dream-pop, new wave and others while frequently using anything at her fingertips to create something unique — and interestingly enough has been described by some as falling somewhere between the minimalism of Aphex Twin and the ambiance of Jai Paul.

Over the holidays, Kourtesis released a sensual and atmospheric remix of Me Succeeds‘ “Cool Kids” in which she uses a chopped and reversed sample of her uncle’s voice, skittering drum programming and layers of shimmering and  gently undulating synths which gives the original a mischievous yet hopeful air — and a result, a completely different air from the slow-burning and industrial-leaning original.

As Kourtesis explains of her remix “The Cool Kids remix is really energetic and playful, I thought about our new generation, these people who are young and cool on their own special unique form. Kids wanna change things and maybe save the world someday.”

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Known as the head of trendy, taste-making, French indie electronic music label Roche Musique and as a highly-regarded, up-and-coming electronic music and artist, whose production and sound possesses elements of house, R&B, hip-hop and nu-disco, Kartell, along with labelmates and friends Kaytranada, Stwo and Bondax are at the forefront of a “French touch” electronic music revival, which has also helped the Paris-based producer, electronic music artist and label head develop a growing international profile. And adding to a growing international profile, Kartell has remixed the work of Karma Kid and Lianne la Havas, collaborated with a number of renowned artists and producers, including Flares and others, as well as a busy touring schedule that included more than 100 dates across Europe, Asia, North America and South America.

Sapphire and Tender Games Kartell’s last two EPs were released to critical praise — and his soon-to-be released EP Last Glow, which his label Roche Musique will be releasing will further cement his reputation for slickly produced electronic music as you’ll hear on the house music and R&B-leaning “5 A.M.” And as you’ll hear on his latest single, Kartell employs the use of stuttering and cascading blocks of shimmering synths, boom bap-like beats, a chopped and cut soulful vocal sample to craft a song that feels sinuous and sensual and nods at Octo Octa and the 100% Silk Records roster — but with a populist, late night, club-banging feel.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Dark Post-Apocalyptic, Industrial Sounds and Visuals of Toronto’s Odonis Odonis

“Needs,” the latest single off Post Plague has the trio pairing layers of undulating synths, howled and shouted vocals, industrial clang and clatter, rapid fire, staccato drum programming, chopped up vocal samples, a rousing, anthemic hook and a propulsive, hypnotic groove in a tense, anxious song that sonically channels early Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and others — but with a contemporary and stark sense of unease, uncertainty and the realization that we’re on the precipice of our own mutually assured self-destruction.

Directed by Scott Cudmore, the recently released video for “Needs” is the first episode of a series of short films, based around the material of Post Plague that blends virtual reality with traditional video to tell a larger, fictional story. And in the case of “Needs,” the video begins with a person transferring their existence into a barely functional AI robot — and are quickly pulled into a post-apocalyptic future that somewhat resembles our own present. As Cudmore explains in press notes, the video is about “Old, entitled, white men and the system of oppression and exploitation that they’ve created to serve their…well…needs, which are usually money and power. I’m looking at this through the lens of science fiction, but I wanted to depict that power structure breaking down finally. Breaking down internally. There’s no linear narrative and you are free to think of that aspect in any way, but each image is a depiction of this breakdown as well as of repression, exploitation and desperation.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Surreal Visuals and Club-Banging Sounds of Austin, TX’s Holiday Mountain

Holiday Mountain’s latest single “Coffee and Weed” is a trap house-leaning club banger consisting of sparse, twinkling synths, stuttering drum programming and pairs it with Patiño’s swaggering yet mischievous flow about being lazy and bullshitting with some coffee and weed after presumably partying your face off, along with a chopped and screwed vocal sample and wobbling low end to craft a song that’s both ridiculously and ironically post-modern while being a slow-burning club banger.

The recently released video manages to be simultaneously surreal and sensual as it features the duo hanging out in outdoor tubs — Kagle looks like a luchador while Patiño is in a neon green two piece bathing suit, strutting, vamping, twerking and swaggering through the video.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: England’s Rude Audio Specializes in a Bold, Dub Meets Kraftwerk Electronica Sound, Paired with Trippy Visuals

Comprised of Mark Ratcliff (arrangement, production and keyboards), Amanda Greatorex (vocals and lyrics), Eucalypta LV (guest vocals), Lamis Harper (piano and keys), Tony Shea (guitar and ostrich guitar), and Owain Lloyd (mixing desk and lyrics) London-based production and DJ collective Rude Audio features members who range […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of its frontmen Manchester, UK-born and Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and based Dombrance, along with Guilluame Rosel (percussion) and Victor Paillet (bass), the Paris-based electronic music collective DBFC emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release of several singles through renowned indie label Her Majesty’s Ship Records last year. Building on the attention they’ve already received the collective’s latest single “Automatic,” which was recently released through Different Recordings will further cement the act’s reputation for crafting slickly produced electronic music that’s indebted to French electronic music and to Kraftwerk as the French collective’s latest single has the act pairing cascading layers of shimmering and undulating synths with a driving, motorik groove and ethereally cooed vocals bubbling up and then floating over the mix in a song that sounds indebted to Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and Primal Scream‘s “Autobahn 66” — but with a subtle cosmic glow around its edges.

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeously Intimate New Video for Massive Attack’s “Ritual Spirit”

Currently comprised of Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall, Bristol, UK-based trip-hop pioneers Massive Attack can trace their origins back to when founding members Del Naja, Marshall and Andy “Mushroom” Vowles split […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

William Phillips is a London, UK-based electronic music artist/producer and songwriter, best known in electronic music circles best known for his solo recording project Tourist — and as the cowriter of 2015 Grammy Award winner for “Song of the Year” for Sam Smith‘s mega-hit “Stay With Me.” Adding to a breakthrough 2015, which resulted in a rapidly growing international profile, Phillips played at Coachella and Pitchfork Festival Paris, toured throughout the European Union and North America, made mixes for BBC 1‘s Diplo and Friends and i-D Magazine, as well as seeing praise from a number of major media outlets including Pitchfork, FADER and several others.

After releasing a number of EPs, Phillips will be building upon his breakthrough 2015 with the long-awaited release of his full-length debut U, slated for a May 6 release. As Phillips explains in press notes: “This is an album that reflects on a relationship I had with someone. I called it U as the word ‘You’ looks a bit accusatory, and the tone of this album certainly isn’t bitter, ‘U’ is a shape that is balanced but also incomplete, I thought it was a nice visual metaphor for a failed relationship.

I wouldn’t describe this record as mournful or sorrow filled, merely a reflection on my first relationship. I’ve always recorded a lot of my life through my phone, whilst writing the album I found a huge number of recordings that I had made whilst being in that relationship, so my ex’s voice is all over this record. Also the sounds of the places we lived and visited together form prominent backdrops to the music.

I don’t know how to describe it sonically, it’s not really body music, it’s just a story told through different tempos and sounds. I’m not channelling any specific scene or sound, just my thoughts and feelings. I don’t really understand the term ‘electronic music’ but I suppose if pressed I’d call it that.

I have zero interest in beats and scenes, I’m much more interested in stories. I feel as though this is the biggest lesson I learnt whilst writing this album, that I don’t write music to express myself but to enrich myself. It wasn’t until finishing this album that I could truly feel at peace with that chapter in my life.”

U’s second and latest single “Run” is a slickly produced track consisting of a spectral and distorted looped vocal samples paired with layers of shimmering and cascading synths, swirling and undulating ambient electronics, tweeter and woofer rocking beats that sonically draws from house music while possessing a swooning wistfulness at its core; in fact, on some level, the song feels like a bittersweet sigh. There’s a clear sadness of a relationship ending or being irrevocably altered and yet at the same time, there’s the recognition and acknowledgement that at the very least you experienced a wonderful period of sweetness — and for that you should be grateful.

Phillips will be on tour throughout major festival season — and it’ll include a set at the inaugural Panorama Festival. Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates: 

05.07 – Dublin, Ireland – Academy Green Room
05.09 – Glasgow, Scotland – King Tut’s
05.10 – Manchester, England – Deaf Institute
05.11 – London, England – XOYO
05.12 – Brighton, England – The Haunt
05.20-22 – Gulf Shores, AL – Hangout Festival
05.25-30 – Lake San Antonio, CA – Lightning In A Bottle
06.11-12 – London, England – Field Day
06.17-20 – Dufur, OR @ What The Festival
07.02 – Amsterdam, The Netherlands @ Pitch Festival
07.15-17 – Louisville, KY @ Forecastle Festival
07.14-16 – Scranton, PA @ Camp Bisco
07.22-24 – Oro-Medonte, ON @ WayHome Festival
07.22-24 – Seattle, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party
07.24 – New York, NY – Panorama
08.06 – Oxfordshire, UK @ Wilderness Festival
09.10 – Isle of Wight, UK @ Bestival