British musician and producer Kelly Lee Owens shares new tracks, “Let It Go” and “Omen,” available digitally now and via limited 12” on July 5th via Smalltown Supersound. “Let It Go” was created for Owens’ DJ set at London’s Fabric earlier this year and made available yesterday via Adult Swim’s Singles Series. “Let It Go” is a high energy club track, featuring hard-hitting beats and Owens’ feathery vocals. “While working on my second album, I had my Room 1 Fabric DJ set coming up, so I decided to make a track for fun, to play out. There’s no better way of testing out new stuff than on that legendary sound system,” says Owens. “Let It Go / Omen” follows her “immensely varied and fully-formed” (Pitchfork) self-titled debut, released in 2017.
After playing dates in Europe, Owens will play DJ sets in New York and California. Then, she will return to Europe to appear at select festivals. All dates are below.
Listen to “Let It Go” – https://youtu.be/gSitKhOPmLY
Listen to “Omen” – https://youtu.be/jF3fT5SYDjk
Kelly Lee Owens Tour Dates: Sat. June 1 – Leeds, UK @ Inner City Festival (DJ Set) Fri. June 7 – London, UK @ Field Day Sat. June 15 – Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz (DJ Set) Fri. July 5 – New York, NY @ Elsewhere (DJ Set) Sat. July 6 – New York, NY @ Location TBA (DJ Set) Thu. July 11 – San Francisco, CA @ 1015 Folsom (DJ Set) Fri. July 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ 1720 (DJ Set) Sat. July 13 – Mexico City, MX @ Yu Yu (DJ Set) Fri. July 19 – Cheshire, UK @ Blue Dot Festival Fri. Aug. 2 – Ghent, BE @ Absolutely Free Festival (DJ Set) Thu. Aug. 8 – Mon. Aug. 12 – Barcelona, ES @ Boaty Weekender Cruise Fri. Aug. 30 – Salisbury, UK @ End of The Road Festival
“[Clean Air’s] gently ascending chords send the song above the clouds,
but Torske’s slowly unfurling piano fills and electric keyboard solos cast a pensive air.
It speaks to Torske’s unmatched knack for making disco that’s not just body-moving
but thought-provoking: With ‘Clean Air’ the father of Norwegian nü-disco shoots
us up into a stratospheric headspace.” — Pitchfork
Next week sees the release of Bjørn Torske’s fifth solo album and first in eight years, Byen, out July 6th via Smalltown Supersound. Byen marks the 20-year anniversary of Torske’s solo career. Recorded over the past year at his home and studio in Bergen, Byen finds the veteran musician fusing two distinct sides of his catalog—clubby, inviting house music, and side-long pastoral ambience. It continues to show his flair for fusing indelible melody with propulsive rhythms.
After sharing lead single “Clean Air,” Torske presents “Gata,” a funky yet serene disco romp primed for the dancefloor. As described by Torske, “While Byen means ‘The City’ in Norwegian, ‘Gata’ means ‘The Street.’ This is where the youth of my early years in Tromsø had to spend their evenings since there was no place for them to go. But ‘gata’ is also a Rumanian word meaning ‘ready’ or ‘prepared,’ as in ‘let’s go,’ which to me fits just as well or even better than the title’s original meaning.”
Jon Hopkins Announces North American Tour In Support of Singularity, New Album Out Now On Domino
Special Guests Daniel Avery and Leon Vynehall Will Support
photo credit – Steve Gullick
“One of the most celebrated electronic musicians of his generation.” – New Yorker
“Pitched between heat-seeking acid house and ambient bliss, the techno auteur’s first album since 2013 is a beat-music odyssey that thrums with spiritual resonance.” – Pitchfork, Best New Music
“Singularity still tells a grand story—a synesthetic evocation of how it feels to be alive.” – The AV Club
“Singularity continues in the vein of Immunity, though its depth of feeling is greater,
and rhythmic power more potent.” – XLR8R
“Jon Hopkins knows how to fill a dance floor with techno that throbs insistently. But he’s also got a tremendous gift for the comedown; for warm, ambient baths of sound that slow the blood and settle the mind.” – NPR Music
“A spellbindingly impactful LP, Singularity blends ethereal choruses with nostalgic instrumentals, all constructed around industrious, reverb-heavy noise tunnels.” –INTERVIEW
Jon Hopkins released his new album, Singularity, earlier this month. Debuting at #3 on the Billboard US Dance/Electronic Chart, #9 in the UK overall, and #1 on the UK Dance and Independent Charts, it marks Hopkins first top 10 release in the UK. Following Moogfest, Festival of Disruption, and tomorrow night’s sold out performance at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, Hopkins will return for a proper North American tour this fall. Special guests Daniel Avery and Leon Vynehall will support. All dates are below and tickets are on sale this Thu. May 24th.
Where Hopkins’ last album, Immunity, charted the dark alternative reality of an epic night out, Singularity explores the dissonance between dystopian urbanity and the green forest. Shaped by his experiences with meditation and trance states, the album explores the connectivity of the mind, sonics and the natural world. It flows seamlessly from rugged techno to transcendent choral music, from solo acoustic piano to psychedelic ambient. Its epic musical palette is visceral and emotionally honest: with a destructive opener full of industrial electronics and sonic claustrophobia and a redemptive, pure end on solo piano.
For more insight into Singularity, head over to NPR Music for a Track By Track breakdown by Hopkins, and keep your ears peeled for a Song Exploder episode, out this Wednesday.
Jon Hopkins Singularity North American Tour Dates
Tue. May 22 – Elsewhere – Brooklyn, NY – SOLD OUT Wed. Sep. 12 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall # Fri. Sep. 14 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall # Sat. Sep. 15 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre # Sun. Sep. 16 – Denver, CO @ Grandoozy – DJ set Tue. Sep. 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre # Thu. Sep. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom # Sat. Sep. 22 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos ^ Sun. Sep. 23 – Vancouver, BC @ Imperial ^ Tue. Sep. 25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel ^ Wed. Sep. 26 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
Norwegian producer Bjørn Torske marks the 20-year anniversary of his solo career with Byen, his fifth solo album and first in 8 years, out July 6th via Smalltown Supersound. Recorded over the past year at Torske’s home and studio in Bergen, Byen finds the veteran musician fusing two distinct sides of his catalog—clubby, inviting house music, and side-long pastoral ambience. It continues to show his flair for fusing indelible melody with propulsive rhythms. Upward scaling lead single “Clean Air,” is a mountain-traversing track with piping synths and crisp backbeats laid over a warm, inviting bassline. Listen to it here.
Since the release of his last solo album, 2010’s elegant Kokning, Torske has kept busy with a steady drip of single and EP releases as well as reissues of his first two albums, 1998’s Nedi Myra and 2001’s Trøbbel, and last year’s collaboration with Prins Thomas, Square One. “Apart from having made this album entirely by myself, this was also more planned,” Torske states regarding the differences between Byen and Square One. “My collaboration with Thomas was pretty ad-hoc and messy in its conception, but this album is cleaner and more straightforward—more primed for the dance floor.” Whereas much of Torske’s previous work (including 2007’s Feil Knapp) featured tracks that had been in gestation for years, Byen‘s songs were recorded entirely within the confines of 2017.
“My original idea was to keep things simple and more driven by melodies than has been my wont with the earlier releases,” he states regarding his thematic intentions behind Byen. “Still, I am always considering myself to produce music for DJs, so there is hopefully some material that will find its way to select dance floors.”
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!
As much as is said of our current times being new lows, where things have changed for the worse and we’re unsure of the future, it’s worth returning to study the past to understand how steadily low we remain.
“Nothing’s changed,” says a younger BarackObama in a sample for the opening track to Long Trax 2, the second album from Tokyo-based, America musician, writer, and photographer WillLong, out March16th on SmalltownSupersound. The album will be released as three separate 12” singles, in addition to CD and digital.
Long Trax 2 follows Long’s deep house debut, LongTrax, released in 2016 on 2016 on DJ Sprinkles’ (TerreThaemlitz) ComatonseRecordings. Receiving a 4.2 rating, Long Trax was praised by ResidentAdvisor and described as a “meditative listen.”
It’s follow-up, Long Trax 2, presents as an ongoing criticism of cultural stasis, conveyed via minimal synthesizers, sampler, and rhythm machine. Dance floors are widely perceived by the masses as safe zones, but few can imagine how to apply notions of safety and equality to other aspects of society. We shouldn’t need clubs to hide from our fears and differences in the outside world. Looking ahead, we should look not so optimistically upon what we have accomplished, but with urgency and empathy upon what we haven’t.
Since 2005, Long has produced ambient music under the name Celer, and is a member of the pop music band Oh, Yoko with Miko. He curates and manages the label TwoAcorns, and is also involved with the NormalCookie and BunTapes labels. Stream “Nothing’s Changed” — https://soundcloud.com/smalltownsupersound/nothings-changed/
It was one of their first performances without Phife Dawg, and they paid him many great tributes during it. ATCQ also came to preach and teach, and Q-Tip was absolutely fierce on the mic. The whole crowd was with them the entire time.
Cut Copy were easily the best band we saw on Day 2 of Mamby on the Beach. They played an energetic set that had the whole beach crowd jumping before it was even halfway done.
#18 – Will Clarke – Mamby on the Beach – Chicago, IL June 24th.
Speaking of great Mamby sets, DJ Will Clarke‘s was our favorite DJ set by far. He seemed to be having a great time behind the decks and inspired me to dust off my digital turntables.
#17 – Nicolas Jaar – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 16th.
We ended our Pitchfork experience with Nicolas Jaar, and it was a lovely, trippy way to end the festival. He created a neat soundscape that drifted and swirled around the crowd like a warm fog.
#16 – Derrick Carter – Pitchfork Music Festival – Chicago, IL July 16th.
If you need a boost to start your final day of a big music festival, go see Chicago house music DJ legend Derrick Carter. His set in the early hours of the last day of Pitchfork was outstanding. Everyone worked up an early sweat and enough energy to make it through the rest of the day. He put on a clinic.
Who’s in the top 15? Come back tomorrow to see.
Keep your mind open.
[Unsure of what to get me for Christmas? Subscribe! It’s free!]
IT’S ALRIGHT BETWEEN US AS IT IS, FIRST NEW SOLO ALBUM SINCE 2012, NOW AVAILABLE VIA SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND
(It’s Alright Between Us As It Is Album Art)
“best solo album from the space disco don” — Uncut
October 20th saw the release of Lindstrøm’s fifth solo album and first since 2012, It’s Alright Between Us As It Is, via Smalltown Supersound. Presented as one continuous stream of nine interlocked tracks, It’s Alright Between Us As It Is aggregates all the best elements of the Norwegian producer’s long and varied career: the Balearic free-disco excursions of his two albums with Prins Thomas, cosmic voyages in the vein of Where You Go I Go Too, and shimmering electronic pop, remindful of 2010’s Real Life Is No Cool. After presenting singles, “Shinin” feat. Grace Hall and “Tensions,” Lindstrøm now shares “Bungl (Like A Ghost)” featuring Jenny Hval. As one of three guest voices on the album alongside the aforementioned Hall and Frida Sundemo, Hval’s “creepy, cut-up vocals usher in a potently psychedelic third act” (Uncut).
Hval comments, “I recorded some vocals over this little baroque piece, and for some reason I felt like I was invading it, or haunting it. I felt like the ghost voice from classic literature. Then later Lindstrøm stretched out to a sweeping disco manifesto for the cemetery – at least that was the feeling I got when I heard the finished version. I guess recorded music can always be described as human remains. Songs contain parts of us that no longer exist, but managed to inscribe themselves into a recording before they moved on.”
As described by Lindstrøm, “This track is the glue to the album, and if it wasn’t for ‘Bungl,’ the album would not have happened. Jenny’s contribution transformed an unfinished idea into something really special.”
Day three of the Pitchfork Music Festivalstarted out a bit chilly as the Windy City was living up to its nickname, but we soon got our sweaty groove on thanks to a great set by Chicago house music legend and pioneer Derrick Carter.
Derrick Carter dropping beats like an Olympic power lifter dropping a barbell.
For those of you who weren’t dancing during his set, please see a doctor because something is wrong with you. He put on a house music clinic. It was a great way to start the day.
We also heard a bit of Colin Stetson‘s set. He plays this wild, droning, hypnotizing saxophone music that is difficult to describe but quite mesmerizing. We had plenty of time before Ride‘s set, so we met up with my college pal and his husband again before heading off to do a little shopping and eating.
Ride put on a good set of shoegaze that was a great switch from all the hip hop, electro, and funk we heard during the festival. Unfortunately, they had a shortened set due to some early technical difficulties, but they played new and old material and blasted all of us with the final song of their set. It was a loud, distorted, fuzzed-out assault. “I needed that,” said one man next to me by the time they were done.
Ride melting faces in a killer finale.
Ride did a signing at the record fair afterwards, and I scored a signed copy of their newest album, Weather Diaries (review coming soon). They were happy to meet everybody, and I’m happy to report they had a long line of fans there.
Mandy caught Jamilla Woods‘ set, which she enjoyed very much, after she’d been moved from the Blue Stage to the Green Stage due to the Avalanchescancelling their performance. According to their Twitter feed, a family member one of the band members had some sort of dire medical emergency. My college pal came to the festival mainly to see them, so he was more than annoyed they weren’t playing. He and his husband learned via a Google search that the Avalanches are about as finicky as Morrissey when it comes to performing.
Thankfully, Nicolas Jaarput on an excellent set of his experimental electro / trance music that was both psychedelic and dance-inspiring at the same time. At about the halfway point of his set, a guy in front of me turned to his friends and said, “This is the best set I’ve seen all weekend.” and then left.
Chilean DJ Nicolas Jaar creating intricate beats on the fly.
We split after that, beating the crowds and stopping to meet artist Jay Ryan so we could get one of his posters. He does really neat and cute art for a lot of bands and other projects. We already had a Bob Mould tour poster of his hanging in our living room, and now Mandy has a “It’s Time to Read” poster that will go in her office featuring bears, cats, and a wooly mammoth reading books.
I walked out with a new pair of sunglasses and CD’s by Screaming Females, Vacation, Waxahatchee, Tycho, Priests, Slowdive, She-Devils, Ride, and Wavves, and even a cassette by a band called Diagonal. I’ll have reviews of all this stuff in the coming months.
All in all, the Pitchfork Music Festival was a good time. We’d go back if the lineup was good and we could stay close to the festival. As it’s been for the last few festivals I’ve attended, VIP tickets don’t look worth the money. It’s not as laid back as a Levitation festival, but still fun. It also could’ve used a little more rock, in my opinion, but it was worth the trip.
Keep your mind open.
That’s my pal, Chris, on the far right and his husband, Darin, on the far left. Chris and I hadn’t seen each other since 1993.
[You know what else is worth it? Subscribing to my blog.]
Chicago house music legend Derrick Carterwill be playing a set to a hometown crowd at the Pitchfork Music FestivalJuly 16th. Mr. Carter has moved the genre of house back into popularity again and built a big following in Europe. He uses samples well and always has the sickest beats. I’m sure he’ll put a bit of extra mustard and relish on his set in front of a lot of fellow Chicagoans.
