Electro – Page 44 – 7th Level Music

Review: Ash Walker – Aquamarine

Multi-instrumentalist Ash Walker describes his newest album, Aquamarine, as “…like a deep sea voyage into the subconscious.” I’m not sure I can put it any better than that. It’s a lovely record of trip hop, dub, jazz, funk, and lounge electro that will surely be among my top records of 2019.

The opening electric dub drums of “Under the Sun” instantly cast you onto a shiny sea aboard a catamaran supplied with good drinks, lovely people, and even better music. The jazz drums and flute of “Time” (which, like the track before it, features soulful vocals by Laville) make you forget time, much like you would on that catamaran sailing across a clear sea. “Come with Us” is a great dub track with a smooth trumpet solo.

“Brave New World” brings in acid jazz flair. “Finishing Touch” keeps the acid jazz drum beats, but sprinkles trip hop on top of them and Laville’s guest vocals smooth them out. The title track tick-tocks in a soothing, hypnotizing manner. The flow of “Sanity” reminds me of a rowboat bumping against a dock as slow waves come into shore. The beats get snappy on “I Need Money,” and Walker’s inclusion of electric piano adds a sweet touch.

As one might expect, “Fat King Smoke,” is one of the funkiest tracks on the record. I love the slippery beats, the Theremin-like synths (which could really be a Theremin for all I know), and the weird electro bass line. “Ain’t Got You” (with more guest vocals by Laville, who appears four times on the record) is dancefloor-ready. “The Dagon’s Cashmere Jumper” might be my favorite song title of the year. I hope you get the reference and realize that, yes, a Dagon might need a cashmere jumper now and then while strolling around on land.

Aquamarine is otherworldly, and a pleasant journey that I’m sure sounds and feels different every time you hear it. Dive in, the water’s fine – great, in fact.

Keep your mind open.

[Dive into the subscription box while you’re here, too.]

Anna Meredith’s new single, “Paramour,” is a good omen for her upcoming album – “FIBS” – due this October.

Anna Meredith – “one of the most innovative minds in modern British music” (Pitchfork) – today announces her eagerly anticipated second studio album, FIBS, out October 25th via Black Prince Fury. Alongside the announcement, she shares the lead single / video, “Paramour.” The one-take video and song forbids you from turning away. Its sweeps, jerks and wrong turns pin your ears to the speakers whilst heading for warp speed at a blistering 176 BPM, rounding out with an (utterly unexpected) tuba-led half-time rock-out.

Arriving three and a half years on from the release of her debut studio album, Varmints, an album that juxtaposed hulking slabs of cross-rhythm and electronics with brittle gusts of delicate confession and irresistibly addictive pop melody, FIBS marks her first new music since the soundtrack of original compositions for the Bo Burnham directed film Eighth Grade. Meredith is a well-known classical composer, having been Composer in Residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and regularly commissioned by orchestras around the world. Additionally, she was the first female composer to be commissioned for both the First and the Last Night of the Proms and was recently named a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to music, making her Anna Meredith MBE.

FIBS is 45 minutes of technicolour maximalism, almost perpetual rhythmic reinvention, and boasts a visceral richness and unparalleled accessibility. It is no Varmints Part 2. Instead, if anything, it’s Varmints 2.0, an overhauled and updated version of the composer’s soundworld, involving, in places, a literal retooling that has seen Meredith chuck out her old MIDI patches and combine her unique compositional voice with brand-new instruments, both acoustic and electronic, and a writing process that’s more intense than she’s ever known. Despite Meredith’s background and skills these tracks are no academic exercise, the world of FIBS is at both overwhelming and intimate, a journey of intense energy and joyful irreverence.

FIBS, says Meredith, are “lies — but nice friendly lies, little stories and constructions and daydreams and narratives that you make for yourself or you tell yourself”. Entirely internally generated and perfectly balanced, they can be a source of comfort and excitement, intrigue and endless entertainment. The eleven fibs contained on Anna Meredith’s second record will do all that, and more.
Watch the Video for “Paramour” –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjmZLaymJU8

Pre-order FIBS –
http://smarturl.it/FIBS

Download hi-res jpegs and images of Anna Meredith –
https://pitchperfectpr.com/anna-meredith/

FIBS Tracklist:
1. Sawbones
2. Inhale Exhale
3. Calion
4. Killjoy
5. Bump
6. moonmoons
7. Divining
8. Limpet
9. Ribbons
10. Paramour
11. Unfurl

Anna Meredith Tour Dates:
Sat. Aug. 3 – Hackney, UK @ Visions Festival
Fri. Aug. 23 – Helsinki, FI @ Helsinki Festival
Mon. Feb. 3 – Leeds, UK @ Belgrave Music Hall
Tue. Feb. 4 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Wed. Feb. 5 – London, UK @ EartH
Thu. Feb. 6 – Bristol, UK @ Trinity
Sat. Feb. 8 – Glasgow, UK @ Art School
Sun. Feb. 9 – Coventry, UK @ Arts Centre
Mon. Feb. 10 – Brighton, UK @ Old Market

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

Ash Walker releases new single, “Finishing Touch,” ahead of upcoming album – “Aquamarine.”

In advance of his forthcoming album, Aquamarine (out July 19th on Night
Time Stories), the London-based multi-instrumentalist Ash Walker shares new single, “Finishing Touch”, featuring the smooth voice of Laville, alongside
it’s Louis Hvejsel-Bork-directed video.

Watch Video For New Single, “Finishing Touch” —
https://youtu.be/3BbobhRJpQY

“Set in an uncanny valley of a richly coloured world, we see Ash navigate and explore his world through music and curiosity,” explains Hvejsel-Bork.
“Through the power of his music, he unlocks something deeper within a
totalitarian society. A lost individual is awoken by his music, forsaking her
enslavement and planning an escape to a freer future.”

In order to create an otherworldly look, the video was shot with an infrared
camera using a brand new filter that replicates the old Kodak Aerochrome
look. There’s only one company that makes this filter, which was shipped
specially for this project from the US. Originally, Aerochrome film was used
during WW1 for better aerial surveillance, allowing unseen details of terrain. This was later adopted in popular culture through people like Jimi Hendrix
and Frank Zappa in photography.

Aquamarine is a projection and culmination of all Ash has absorbed. A cosmic explosion of sound and colour, rhythm, shape, and patterns. The arrival of an unassuming dreamer now projecting his unique flavour of expression.
Aquamarine is the take-off of this audial spaceship, a sound discovered in the
grooves of thousands of records, united in one.

Ash will celebrate the release of Aquamarine with a special secret show in
Central London on Saturday, July 20th where he’ll perform the album in its
entirety for the first time. The location will be revealed only to ticket buyers.
Tickets are available for purchase here.
Stream “Under The Sun” (Feat. Laville) —
https://youtu.be/Uy_9g3v8uhw

Pre-order Aquamarine —
https://orcd.co/aquamarine

Keep your mind open.

[A great finishing touch to this post would be you subscribing to my blog.]

Review: Mexico City Blondes – Blush

Blush is a lovely electro record from Mexico City Blondes (Greg Doscher and Allie Thompson) that blends dub beats, trip hop touches, and lounge jazz.

The album opens with the snappy, funky “Out to Dry,” with Thompson’s vocals hopping around Doscher’s processed beats and effective rhythm guitar work. As soon as you hear “Addio,” you realize the decision to make it the first single from Blush was a no-brainer. The Blondes make no attempt to hide their love of Portishead as Thompson’s vocals move like a warm breeze across a rooftop nightclub full of frisky people.

“Road Noise” builds to a cool groove for the afterparty following that rooftop nightclub. Thompson’s vocals on “Thick as Thieves” remind me of Emily Haines from Metric, but Doscher keeps the track from drifting into stadium rock by rooting it with elements of synth wave in-between the electro-pop. The rattlesnake-like beats of “Yellow Sunshine” add a thrilling touch to the adventure offered by Thompson’s lyrics (“We are only looking for peace of mind. We are always keeping our eyes on the prize.”).

“Thin Line” has Thompson revealing dark secrets as she sings, “I know what it’s like on the other side.” Doscher brings in an acoustic guitar to surprise us at the beginning of “Crimson” as the beats and Thompson’s vocals swell to a trippy bliss. Thompson’s vocals are especially lovely as she sings about the risks of love on “Off the Hook.” “Sunny Day” is deceptively heavy (and those little saxophone flairs!) and deserves to be mixed by DJ’s worldwide. “All night, I keep on thinkin that you’ll never change,” Thompson sings on “All Night.” She knows she’s in a relationship that will ultimately go nowhere, but she can’t resist the moments as they come. “Reasons Why” flows well between dance beats, ambient synths, and trip hop flavors. The album closes with “Planet Caravan,” the sexiest song on the album with its languid guitars, Thompson’s mirage-like vocals, and slow seduction beats.

So far, Blush is the best make-out record I’ve heard this year. It’s also one of the best chill records and electro records I’ve heard so far in 2019. You’ll dig it.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t leave the subscription box out to dry.]

Jacques Greene and Cadence Weapon brings us to “Night Service.”

Producer Jacques Greene is pleased to present new single, “Night Service” b/w “Silencio”, both featuring Cadence Weapon, via LuckyMe. Greene teams up with a longtime friend, Canadian rapper and poet Cadence Weapon, to give us the most direct banger since his breakthrough, “Another Girl.”

Originally teased in a mysterious YouTube upload by Greene in 2018 where he showcased an hour of new music, “Night Service” was heavily requested in the comments, and has been in-demand ever since.

“Rollie and I have known each other for years,” says Greene. “Finally making music together for his last full length felt long overdue and ever since we’ve met up in Toronto and made a bunch of stuff. ‘Night Service’ and a few others felt… different. To the point where there was a moment when we wondered whether we should fully form a band and pursue this ‘vibe’ we’d stumbled upon. It’s always felt quite special to me and so does ‘Silencio’. It’s a pleasure to finally share them with the world. A love letter to the club.”

Cadence Weapon adds, “After working together on two songs from my 2018 album Cadence Weapon, Jacques Greene and I continued working on music whenever we’d hang out. ‘Night Service’ is the result. The song is inspired by our personal nightlife experiences in Montreal and the enduring history of underground dance music in New York, specifically Larry Levan and Paradise Garage, as he was one of the first DJs to make the connection between religious devotion and club music.”

Since the dawn of dance music there have been parallels drawn between the church and the club, with the steady thrum of “the one” in Gospel music inspiring early house, typified in Larry Levan’s mix of “Stand On The Word” by The Joubert Singers. For 40 years of dance music we’ve become accustomed to house, prog and trance offering ascendant experiences to those looking to God as a DJ. Now more than ever, the idea of finding salvation in gritty, marginal, underground-spaces makes perfect sense. Greene is a producer who has always basked in wide cathedral reverbs on vocals, set amongst hardware synthesisers tugging back and forth on the threshold of melancholy and euphoria. A producer who brought 1200 people to rave in the esteemed East London church, St John of Hackney, “Night Service” is a song that perhaps was always on the cards.

Greene will play select dates this fall, including shows in Berlin, London, Manchester, Brooklyn, LA and Montreal. A list of dates is below.

“Night Service” Feat. Cadence Weapon – YouTube – https://youtu.be/S1JaoIYJ-PE

Buy / Stream – https://jg.luckyme.net/

“Silencio” Feat. Cadence Weapon – https://spoti.fi/2ITscm1

Jacques Greene Tour Dates: Thu. Oct. 17 – Berlin, DE @ Burg Schnabel Fri. Oct. 18 – London, UK @ St. Pancras Old Church Fri. Oct. 18 – Manchester, UK @ Warehouse Project (DJ set) (late show) Wed. Oct. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust Fri. Oct. 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo Sat. Oct. 26 – Montreal, QC @ Ausgang

Keep your mind open.

[Do yourself a service and subscribe.]

Monomotion gives us some tasty “Mango” on his new single.

Monomotion, the project of French electronic musician Erol Engintalay, is pleased to share a new single, “Mango” (with FEYNMAN) from his forthcoming EP, Fujisan, due July 26th via FAKE MUSIC. Following the gentle, evocative beats of lead single, “Ecocline Patterns,” “Mango” lusciously unfolds into tick-tock techno. It’s “the result of one of those magic moments we share in the studio with Yoann,” says Engintalay. “I’m really thankful that these are still happening after ten years of collaboration.”

Written and recorded over a year and a half, the seven-track Fujisan EP is a reflection on the positive aspects of life—a sense of breaking through and moving forward that imbues the project as a whole. Inspired by a warm Japanese spring, Engintalay describes Fujisan as “a life test after every challenge I’ve gone through, physically and musically. It’s very spiritual, representing climbing mountains and breaking through walls to get further in life.” Yoann Feyman, in addition to appearing on “Mango,” contributed to sound and the art direction of the EP.

Stream “Mango” (With FEYNMAN) – https://soundcloud.com/monomotionmusic/mango-x-feynman/s-f4LIm

Listen to “Ecocline Patterns” – https://soundcloud.com/monomotionmusic/ecocline-patterns/s-EcsS0

Pre-order Fujisan — http://smarturl.it/FM024_FUJISAN

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe while you’re here?]

Blanck Mass shares new single and announces North American fall tour.

Blanck Mass – the solo electronic project of Scotland-based musician Benjamin John Power – shares “No Dice” from his new album, Animated Violence Mild, out August 16th on Sacred Bones, and announces a fall North American tour.

Following the “forceful beat + vocal sample combination” [Tiny Mix Tapes] of lead single “House vs. House,” “No Dice” is led by crashing percussion and punctuated by warped vocals. “‘No Dice’ is about denial. It’s the voice in the back of your head stopping you from moving forward, the separation between your head and your heart,” says Power. Animated Violence Mild is Power’s fourth full-length as Blanck Mass, and his most emotionally direct statement yet. The album was written throughout 2018, at Power’s studio outside of Edinburgh. These eight tracks are the diary of a year of work steeped in honing craft, self-discovery, and grief – the latter of which reared its head at the final hurdle of producing this record and created a whole separate narrative: grief, both for what Power has lost personally, but also in a global sense, for what we as a species have lost and handed over to our blood-sucking counterpart, consumerism, only to be ravaged by it.

Stream “No Dice” – https://youtu.be/Lsnb6GBrQP8

Stream “House vs. House” – https://youtu.be/7DJ12asti2k

Pre-order Animated Violence Mild – https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/products/sbr220-blanck-mass-animated-violence-mild

Blanck Mass Tour Dates (w/ Helm): Fri. Sept. 20 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott Sat. Sept. 21 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere Mon. Sept. 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA Tue. Sept. 24 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe Wed. Sept. 25 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s Thu. Sept. 26 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Fri. Sept. 27 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Sat. Sept. 28 – Toronto, ON @ Velvet Underground Sun. Sept. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz Tue. Oct. 1 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey Thu. Oct. 3 – Portland, OR @ Holocene Fri. Oct. 4 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Sat. Oct. 5 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon

Keep your mind open.

[No dice needed to subscribe. Just drop your e-mail in the box to your left.]

Review: Andre Bratten – Pax Americana

“I’ve always been fascinated with how a sound can make you feel without being something you can touch,” Oslo-based DJ and producer Andre Bratten writes in the press release I received for his newest album – Pax Americana. Recorded in a studio he built in his garden after stepping away from late night DJ sessions at clubs around the world, the new record is indeed an evocative piece that changes your perspective and makes you move.

Lead single, “HS” (one of my favorites of the year so far), is a great example of this. It’s bubbly yet laced with a little darkness to keep you grounded as you let it sink into your feet to get them tapping. The title track, comparing the current state of the U.S. to the Roman Empire, has an underlying nervous tick that bumps against soothing synths. I’m not sure if Bratten is trying to tell us Americans that everything will be all right, despite what some may fear, or the reverse of that message. It works either way.

“426” continues the dark themes, with bass lines that slow to a creepy crawl while up-tempo electro high-hats move like a rattlesnake around you. The gothic “Commonwealth” is like an Art of Noise track if Art of Noise decided to make synthwave music for horror films that take place in the year 2999. “Ranx” goes further down the darkwave rabbit hole to the point where you’re not sure it’s fading out or lulling you into a trap. The closer, “Recreation 26B,” starts with a simple beat and then builds like a rising morning tide with bright synths. It’s the kind of track that tends to take you by surprise. You’re enjoying the opening riffs and then find yourself in another mental place by the end of it and wondering how you got there. It’s a worm hole in space and time.

Pax Americana is a soundscape more than a dance record. It’s a soundscape for your garden studio, your garden party, or your mental garden (which, let’s face it, all of ours need cultivating).

Keep your mind open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAh11-Ff0o

[Hey there. Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

Mexico City Blondes release the lovely trip-hoppy “Addio” from new album – “Blush.”

Mexico City Blondes have released the first music video from Blush, their full-length debut album out now on Burger Records. Premiering today on woman artist focused music site Gold Hand Girls, the video was directed by Anisha Sisodia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86m0WPnDmP0&utm_source=REVIEWS&utm_campaign=f919b44c13-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_01_15_11_30_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_de87ca5e20-f919b44c13-98274215

Trip-hop tinged “Addio” has its roots in a personal loss experienced by vocalist and keyboard player Allie Thompson.

“Writing the song Addio, began with a loss.” Thompson says. “Over time, it also became about not looking over your shoulder for the next loss to come around. It’s about accepting the unacceptable, about letting go instead of holding on. “

Consisting of multi-instrumentalist / producer Greg Doscher, and vocalist / keyboard player Allie Thompson, both from Santa Barbara, Mexico City Blondes achieved surprise success with the release of their first single “Fade.” The track became a breakout hit after getting picked up by an assortment of music blogs, and landing in the top spot on Hype Machine more than once over the next few months.

The duo’s full-length debut album, Blush was written and recorded in Doscher’s garage recording studio. “The writing was difficult at first because we were approaching it under very different circumstances,” Doscher said of the process of making Blush. “Eventually we hit a certain stride and all the writing and recording seemed to fall into place.”

Blush takes Mexico City Blondes deeper down the dreampop rabbit hole they began to explore with their first release and its subsequent EP. Mexico City Blondes debut full-length album Blush is out now on Burger Records on CD, cassette and vinyl and streaming on all major platforms.

Keep your mind open.

[I’d blush if you subscribed.]

Carmen Villain releases new single, “Type,” from upcoming album due July 12th.

“Lush downtempo that splits the difference between Fourth World ambience and smoky trip hop.” – Resident Advisor

Today, US-born, Norwegian-Mexican artist Carmen Villain shares “Type” the second single from her new, instrumental album, Both Lines Will Be Blue, out July 12th via Smalltown Supersound. The track is accompanied by a visual by Norwegian artist Solveig Lønseth.

Villain describes the inspiration behind “Type” : “I was very inspired by Ana Mendieta’s art (still am!), and was especially moved by her video performance art at the time. For example her Silueta series, or her powerful Blood Sign/Body Tracks. The films were spinning around my mind while making this song. After putting down a rough version of it, I had Johanna to come in and gave her free rein to improvise on top, before I finished arranging it.”

Listen to “Type” – visual by Solveig Lønseth https://youtu.be/2I8tQRKZmUc

Listen to “Observable Future” – visual by Ida Aurora Høiklev Ribu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG0auwx9w48&feature=youtu.be

Following 2017’s Infinite Avenue and 2013’s Sleeper, Both Lines Will Be Blue is Carmen’s first full instrumental album. A 7 track collection of cosmic excursions and dubby ambient-jams, the album is written, recorded, played, produced and mixed by Carmen in her Oslo studio. The soothing atmospherics are made up of tapestries of field recordings, synths, piano, drum-programming, zither and modular sounds. Throughout, Carmen’s music is colored by experimenting with different sounds and learning new techniques or by adding new instruments to the mix.

“I’ve been playing around with instrumentals for a long time, and it was something I wanted to do more with after I finished Infinite Avenue,” says Carmen. “Leaving out my voice and lyrics got me out of my own head a bit, which I needed. Working with sound is to me the ultimate meditation and is a more unconscious way of expressing whatever is going on inside.”

The flute, played by Johanna Scheie Orellana, is a central part of this new album. Carmen got her in to the studio to both record melodies that she had written, as well as making plenty of room for impro/freeform. Prins Thomas also appears on the record, playing percussion on “I Could Sit Here All Day.”

Both Lines Will Be Blue Tracklist: 1.Observable Future 2. Are You For Real 3. Type 4. I Trust You 5. I Could Sit Here All Day 6. Sometimes I Love You Forever 7. Impossible Colour

Pre-order Both Lines Will be Blue: http://smarturl.it/sts349-preorder

Keep your mind open.

[I’ll be blue if you don’t subscribe.]