Planet Mu has a higher-than-average level of quality control, but you can never be sure exactly what to expect from a new release from the label. Their recent output runs from Chicago juke to hardcore jungle, and from leftfield dubstep to opalescent electronica; much of it defies genre conventions, if not description itself. (Even individual artists on the label roam widely and wantonly: just try summing up FaltyDL's varied work in a single phrase.) Even knowing that, however, 'Night & Day', the debut album from a new artist known as Oriol, still caught me off guard. Its lanky grooves and exploding harmonics bear a vague comparison to dubstep's purple contingent; you can hear scraps of hip-hop in there, and a smattering of house. But much of its bright, emotive melodies have far more in common with '80s R&B, and the album's harmonic dimensions are unusually sophisticated for electronic music. These aren't just single chords plunked over and over; there's an unusual sense of movement, with intricate chord changes laid down like stepping stones to another dimension. Thanks to the psychedelic beach imagery of the cover, many critics have linked Oriol's music to a broader resurgence of "tropical" ideas in contemporary electronic music, but the album can't really be tied down to any one inspiration or idea. True to the title, 'Night & Day' is a dynamic, shape-shifting document whose moods seem to change with the angle of the light and the lateness of the hour. We rang up Oriol (aka Oriol Singhji) at his home in Cambridge, England to find out what inspired him, how London's CDR club night gave him a leg up, and where the hell he's been hiding all this time, to come charging out of the gate with such a jaw-dropping debut.

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Spillers’ historic vinyl store has been reborn once again. Founded in 1894 by Henry Spiller the landmark shop is accredited to be the world’s ‘oldest’ record store. To the detriment to music fans everywhere the store was closed for approximately a month in June this year, but thankfully the store has now reopened.

After spending four weeks relocating stock, the family owned business is ready to start anew in Cardiff’s Morgan Arcade. Owner Nick Todd shifted to a new premise due to mounting rents and needed an authentic location, one that was not a “corporate alley”. With a cult following in the Cardiff area Spillers has enamored itself with music junkies. Spillers regularly set up shows in its intimate store with local artists and is adorned by local heroes the Manic Street Preachers.

Mr. Todd still remains positive and is leaving the shop in safe hands. Handing it over to his daughter Ashli who he says has, “got more go in her.” Nick is hoping that Cardiff’s Victorian arcades and growing public support will foster a lifeline of music for a further 116 years.

Watch this introductory series of Spillers Records below:

It's damn hard to sell CDs these days, let alone keep a record label alive. One particular label out there that has survived the worse of the music depression is German based City Slang, started out by former tour agent Christof Ellinghaus,going strong for twenty years now.

Something strange that we did notice in finding all this out, is that two other iconic independent labels that have also survived, namely Merge and XL Recordings, all started around the same time, 1989/1990.

Nonethless City Slang are throwing a massive hoedown in Berlin, in order to celebrate this worthwhile achievement and in doing so have invited their illustrious roster to come and play at the event.

Check this out:

The Notwist will play Neon Golden in full, Calexico will play Feast of Wire in full, Tortoise will play material off of their first three insanely good albums and if that's not enough witty al-country collective Lambchop will play their brilliant Is A Women in full.

The line up is mouth watering to say the least. My small two cents for best record put out on City Slang is Nada Surf's brilliant 2002 LP Let Go & Tortoise's T.N.T.

The three day event takes place from the 19th of November until the 21st of november at Berlin's elegant Admiralspalast.

Trust us, this event will sell out, tickets are a reasonable €112.50 for three days. You can get them here.

Please remember: the weekend tickets for the City Slang event are limited to 100 tix, but the single tickets are also on pre-sale.

Line up below:

19.11.2010
Get Well SoonThe Notwist (plays Neon Golden)
Calexico (plays Feast Of Wire)

20.11. 2010
Menomena
Tortoise (plays material from first three albums)
Broken Social Scene

21.11.2010
Alexi Murdoch
Yo La Tengo (plays "a City Slang-centric set“)
Lambchop (plays Is A Woman)

Digital Mystikz's Return II Space gets the album of the month nod, while Peverelist, ASC and FaltyDL also get enthused over.

Sure, it’s a Spaghetti-Western-inspired soundtrack to the hit Rockstar game called jokingly by fans Grand Theft Horse. But to me, a richly-composed musical score for a blockbuster video game sums up a lot of where music production is at these days. Composed by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, Red Dead Redemption gets a score that blends Western authenticity with more experimental ambiances. We get a first glimpse of that process with a behind-the-scenes video released by Rockstar (and reproduced on CDM with permission) this week.

Watch past the boilerplate voiceover as they get into the production, and you’ll see some glimpses of real gems. Aside from harmonica legend Tommy Morgan, they’ve got themselves one seriously wonderful collection of odd instruments. (There’s some of the organic, decayed instrumental sense of Diego Stocco here, who with Hans Zimmer made the rusty clang and bang of Sherlock Holmes last winter.)

What’s this got to do with digital music? In the post-sampling age, even the oldest, most broken-down sound can become digital. And old, entirely acoustic sonic tricks are being rediscovered by today’s generation. Sometimes it takes years behind sound-alike convolution reverbs to convince you that what you should really do is just play into a kettle drum.

There’s also a new approach to composition necessitated by games, which ironically brings game scoring – itself inspired mainly by film composition – in line with techniques associated with electronic music and DJing (stems, loops, and the like). I don’t think any game has yet mastered the challenge; game industry workflows, technical limitations, deadlines, and the sheer enormity of having to re-learn compositional narrative in interactive contexts all conspire against that. But an open-ended Old West playground seems a good place to begin.

I hope to have more with the makers of this score soon, so if you have questions or ideas, let us know.

See Robyn take an unashamedly feel good trip around the UK on the video for her latest single "Hang With Me."

Ahead of his appearance at Cable London this Saturday, the Blueprint boss steps into the mix for Fact, dropping a future-facing 42 track selection that includes Aphex Twin, DVS1, Robert Hood and Traversable Wormhole.

After returning to their comfy little beds in Long Beach, CA, We Barbarians will soon be rocking (or causing a massive groove) the people of Los Angeles at The Echo on September 9th and at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco on September 11th.

The outfit will also be heading to the studio at the end of this month to record a new EP which may possibly be accompanying the shows in September, and possibly not. You're just going to have to go to the show to find out.  

Show Dates:

September
09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
11 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill

LCD Soundsystem has already been confirmed to induce massive dancing at the year's Virgin Mobile FreeFest, now these Brooklyn electro-dancers will be hitting the road with London's Hot Chip.

Kicking things off in Philadelphia, LCD will play a few shows on their own before being joined by Hot Chip in Los Angeles.

With all of the gaps in the tour itinerary, one can only assume more dates will be announced, eh?

Tour Dates:

September
24 – Philadelphia, PA @ Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Pier #1
25 – Columbia, MD @ Virgin Mobile FreeFest
28 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre

October
09 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl *
16 – San Francisco, CA @ Treasure Island Festival
19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex *
22 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave *

* w/ Hot Chip

Check out new releases from top artists as picked by the EM editors for the August 2010 issue

Read Electronic Musician tips and techniques on using Reverb Plug-Ins for audio design

Electronic Musician looks at the production of Casiokids Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar 2010 Album

Tips and Techniques on Bouncing Tracks in Korg Kaossilator Pro Loop Recorder

Learn how to use FXpansion BFD2 drum sampler for your next audio project.

We're still working on getting our hands on Traktor's new version of Final Scratch—and maybe sneaking a spy camera in the showroom, while we're at it—but for now, Native Instruments has announced some big news: KOMPLETE 7, the newest version of their studio-standard software bundle, will be out in September. KOMPLETE 7 will include 24 instruments and effects, including five entirely new products. Perhaps the most exciting is the inclusion of Reaktor 5.5, a major upgrade of their modular synthesis studio, featuring modal and additive synthesis, a revised user interface, the new "Lazerbass" synthesizer, and more.

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