First read his excellent piece on the '80s Goa scene and pioneering trance DJ, Laurent, then listen to Mothersole's two-hour tribute mix to those hedonistic times, over at Bleep 43.

A complete construction kit created by veteran loop library producer DJ Puzzle, X-Core contains 25 folders full of separate and distinct components that make it fun and easy to construct original hardcore tracks from scratch.

Lexicon has released new Windows 7 software drivers for Alpha, Lambda, Omega and the I∙ONIX U22, U42S (pictured) and U82S Series of desktop recording interfaces. Now, all of the Lexicon USB desktop recording interfaces operate seamlessly on any computers running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7, Vista or XP. Also, these interfaces operate on all Mac computers operating on OS 10.4.9 or higher regardless of whether they are based on PowerPC or Intel processors.

Ours frontman, Jimmy Gnecco, is prepping the release of his self-produced debut solo effort, The Heart.  Set for a summer release, the record delves into moments of the personal, graceful and even hymnal at times.  Gnecco will showcase the album with a upcoming tour with California troubadour, Greg Laswell, to kick off in May.

The Heart hits stores on July 20th courtesy of Bright Antenna.

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

There's a new southern spunky lady on the horizon, with pipes that bring Neko Case to mind. Indeed, South Carolina crooner Cary Ann Hearst has a big mouth and a sparkle in her eye. She has a snappy turn of phrase, a simple sense of melody and primeval sense of guitar rhythm that is a direct result of her Nashville upbringing. She cried when she woke up in Jackson, MS on her first tour bus ride with Butch Walker because she wanted to see her Grandfather’s grave. She is a small and powerful piece of artillery and she sings like Jesus’ little probate. Those who hate country music hate her especially for forcing them to like country music, but she doesn’t give a shit about what people like! Check out "Hell's Bells," from her new EP, Are You Ready To Die, out now via FILTER US Recordings.

Enjoy at FILTERmagazine.com

With a history dating back to the mid 90’s, club and record label Raw Fusion is a main backbone on the Swedish underground dance scene – and its founder Mad Mats one of Stockholm’s true DJ legends.

In this set, brought to you by R.fm, Mad Mats showcases his signature style: Deep, stripped-down house rhythms layered with jazzy harmonics and the odd club classic. Go Mad!

Mad Mats – House Studio Session, March 2010 from R.fm at Letsmix.com.

The Love Language
Libraries
Merge Records
Release Date: July 13, 2010

Tracklist

1. Pedals
2. Brittany’s Back
3. The Blood is Our Own
4. Summer Dust
5. Blue Angel
6. Heart to Tell
7. Anthophobia
8. Horophones
9. Wilmont
10. This Room

First Impressions

- After the release of The Love Language’s impressive self-titled debut in 2009, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Stu McLamb decided to work on his own (again) for a sophomore album. This self-proclaimed lo-fi junkie from Raleigh, North Carolina, decided to stick to his lo-fi root on Libraries, which will be released on July 13 on Merge Records.

- In the introductory track “Pedals,” McLamb sings the first line that will pretty much tell you what the album is all about: “The season for the both of us.” The song starts off dreamy in the beginning before growing solid with a mix of relentless drum beats and stringed instruments.

- “Heart to Tell,” the sixth track on the album, is a catchy jangly pop number with a twist that will remind you of the hey-day of rock and roll.

- Perhaps my favorite track from the album, “Anthophobia,” is a carefree indie-pop number that showcases McLamb’s soulful vocal prowess over bouncy guitar rock beats.

- In “Wilmont,” McLamb went all needy and romantic with lines like “And I want to you to be with me/Cause I have a big heart to feed” with mellow acoustic melody that later grow with ala-marching band percussion beats and choir backup vocals. Definitely perfect for sing-along.

Key Tracks

“Heart To Tell,” “The Blood Is Our Own,” “Anthophobia,” “Wilmont”

Predictions

Library is a lo-fi indie pop album heavy with bouncy rock tunes and percussion beats that interprets cynical love messages. Add that to well-arranged string lines and Stu McLamb’s soulful pipes and you definitely are looking at an album worth digging for.

 

Open source hardware may not sound like something that would produce a huge musical hit – unless you’ve met the x0xb0x. A clone of Roland’s legendary TB-303 bassline generator, the open version offered not only greater afford-ability than the now-rare antique, but expanded possibilities for hacking the hardware into a musical device you could love as your own, all with the backing of an impassioned community. The gadget was designed by Limor Fried and an unidentified “crazy German engineer” who has kept his identity private. (I wish I had my own secret crazy German engineer. Darnit. Any volunteers?) The resulting design has been marketed by Limor’s adafruit shop. The only downside of the x0xb0x’s awesomeness? It was something of a victim of its own success, with rare parts a challenge to find and an ongoing waiting list of pent-up demand. After shipping 900 units from 2005 through the beginning of this year, adafruit announced it was dropping sales of the x0xb0x.

But the story doesn’t end there. Aside from ongoing efforts by the x0xb0x community in general, one figure has stepped forward to lead sales of the project and (most exciting to me) generate new projects that share its open license and build on some of its components. As announced on adafruit (via Synthtopia), x0xb0x community member James Wilsey is launching a new design and sales effort.

My goal with Willzyx Music is to keep supplying the x0xb0x community with Parts and Kits. I have spent the last year building up a stock pile of parts and will bring the Kits back at an affordable price. Any new projects that are produced from Willzyx will have the same MIT open source license, so you can hack, modify and commercialize any of Willzyx’s original designs.

James is no stranger to the x0xb0x community, having sold his own completed kits as bitcrusher76. But his vision is, refreshingly, even bigger than the x0xb0x: he hopes this could lead to other open projects with shared resources. With the growing quantity and quality of free hardware and software projects, many with shared goals and features, I think now could be a great moment for the larger open source music ecosystem.

The new store:
http://www.willzyx.com/collections/x0xb0x

Price for a kit is a very-reasonable $185.

And for more on the x0xb0x project:
x0xb0x Forum @ Adafruit

I asked James to answer a few questions about the project for CDM.

Peter: Looking back at the x0xb0x’s first half decade, obviously it hasn’t been an easy piece of gear to get. Was it just not a goal to make it more widely available?

James: I think this is a big misconception among a lot of people involved with the x0xb0x. Adafruit made something that had a huge want factor. If you were at all interested in synths, a TB-303 clone was something that you have been dreaming about for a long time. So in 2005 a huge flood of people come and there was just no way that they could keep up with demand. They killed themselves to get 1,000 kits out. The way I look at it is this: They made a TB-303 clone that kicked ass and everyone wanted it.

That’s where I came into this. For the last year I have been selling complete x0xb0x’s on eBay and was very successful with it. I was only able to do this because of the open source nature of the x0xb0x. I started talking to Adafruit and it became clear that I have the time and resources to get the x0xbox out to as many people as possible.

Peter: What does this mean for availability of the x0xb0x?

James: If we are talking about kits, they will be coming back very soon.

Will you be accepting preorders?

Perorders scare the crap out of me.

I think demand is manageable at this point and I am not the only one selling kits. If you really want a kit you can find one if you poke around on the adafurit forums. The kit will be coming very soon and I should be able to keep up with demand.

That sounds great. So you’re looking at working up new designs, as well?

Really all I want to do is expand the firmware, I want a few LFOs and some more CVs and gates. We need to look at a new microcontroler, but its all pretty doable. The only downside is we are going to be dealing with SMDs which can be really unpopular in the DIY world.

I see listed on the site a separate item that’s just the “rare parts.” Is that idea that people could source the more common parts, then get the rare ones from you?

That is correct, the rare parts have always been a road block if you wanted to self-source your own kit. There are quite a few situations where it doesn’t make sense to get a full kit.

What’s your own connection to the x0xb0x? Do you use it in your music?”

I have always wanted a TB-303. My first attempts at making music were with Re-Birth. So that sound has always been a part of my music. When the x0xb0x first came out I had to have it! I have been in love with it ever since.

Any plans for the future of the x0xb0x?
My first priority is to keep the kits available but I am looking at the x0xb0x as a open source hardware platform for other synths that are not necessary TB-303 related. The analog synth business is very grassroots. There has been a big boom with small synth makers that might only do a run of 50 or 100 synths. It would be cool if they could just copy and paste the digital section from the x0xb0x. I am not too sure what this is going to look like but that’s the direction that I will be pursuing. Of course any of my designs will have the same MIT open source license that the x0xb0x has.

If people want to help out, what can they do to get involved?
Make and sell kits, hack the firmware, do mods but make it available to every one. Transistorize The World!

But is it as good as a 303?

I like the fact that the x0xb0x could be hacked as an entire platform, but since I missed it when picked up by Synthtopia in February, here’s a shoot-out between the open hardware and the original Roland piece.

With such a tumultuous history and the unfortunate passing of Sparklehorse frontman Mark Linkous, it is with a sigh of relief and a heavy heart, that Dark Night of The Soul has finally been given an official release date.

The collaboration between Danger Mouse, Linkous, David Lynch and a slew of special guests, will officially see the light of day on July 13th courtesy of Capitol. 

Linkous' family issued a statement about the record, stating: "Mark felt that it was an honor to be able to collaborate with so many of the artists on this record. His time and dedication to this project was immense and his hopes for its release are finally being realized. We are glad that people will now be able to hear these songs and know the beautiful gift that Mark shared with all of us through his music".

The album package will feature a series of original photos from Lynch and is also being dedicated to contributor Vic Chesnutt, who also passed away last winter.

After just wrapping up a tour with The Ruby Suns, 23-year-old, genre shapshifter, Chaz Bundick (better known as Toro Y Moi) will once again hit the road with Canadian electro mastermind, Caribou.

Touring in support of his debut, Causers of This, Bundick will premiere his full live band this May. Don't miss out!

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

Saccharine Austin indie outfit, Voxtrot, have announced that the band will break up after a short farewell tour.  The Goodbye, Cruel World tour will kick off in Chicago on May 21st and will meet its inevitable end in the Big Apple a few weeks later.

Read frontman Ramesh Srivastava's reasons behind the split on the band's official website.

Goodbye, Cruel World Tour:
May
21 Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
22 Appleton, WI - Lawrence University
27 Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
29 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall

June
3 Austin, TX - Emo's
23 Washington, DC - Black Cat
25 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom

The popular much tech mag collect together extracts as well as full footage from their production tutorials, which currently includes videos with Chris Lake, Philippe Zdar and D Ramirez.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti are prepping the release of their 4AD debut, Before Today, on June 8th and in support, have announced plans for an upcoming North American trek.  Joining along on the freak-folk fest, will be Magic Kids and Pearl Harbor for all dates. 

Check out the track list and tour dates after the jump.

Continue reading at FILTERmagazine.com

The subtle yet sleek and sexy style of London trio, The xx, is not lost in their latest clip for "Islands".  Featuring a sextet of equally sleek dancers cloaked in the band's signature color scheme, it initially appears as if the video's needle is stuck on repeat.  However, upon closer (and slower) inspection, it becomes clear that each movement signifies space.  By the end of the bass heavy song, all that remains is a lone man and woman separated by a giant x on fire.

Follow the vicious cycle below.  Their critically acclaimed self-titled debut is out now via Young Turks.

Enjoy at FILTERmagazine.com

Listening to the beautiful compositions from Icelandic artist Ólafur Arnalds, it's hard to believe that he is just 23 years old.  Wise beyond his years, his music invokes the image of a weary soul who has experienced all of the beauty and darkness life has to offer. For his second full-length album, ...and they have escaped the weight of darkness, Arnalds is focusing on the more uplifting moments of life, using classical arrangements to portray the theme, in his own words, "that there is always a light after darkness."  Having already earned recognition and buzz touring with Sigur Rós, Arnalds is set to impress the world on his own with the new record and is lining up a world tour, including his first performance with a full symphonic orchestra in the UK, with U.S. dates to be announced soon.

...and they have escaped the weight of darkness will be released June 8th via Erased Tapes, but enjoy this FILTER exclusive download of "Þú ert sólin” below.

l   Ólafur Arnalds  l  "Þú ert sólin” MP3  l