Siriusmo is Moritz Friedrich, a mild-mannered Berliner whose music, on the other hand, leans towards all-out mentalism. He's no newcomer—he's been putting out records for over a decade now, on a diverse set of labels including Sonar Kollektiv, Grand Petrol Recordings, Exploited, and Boysnoize Records. But since hooking up with Modeselektor, who gave him the honor of inaugurating their Monkeytown Records label, he's really been on a roll. (In fact, he's the only artist aside from Modeselektor themselves to record a full EP for the label so far—he's up to three, and counting.) As for Siriusmo's music, it really is one of a kind—he's got the bite and squelch of peers like Boys Noize and the jiggy rhythmics of Modeselektor, but there's a playful melodic sensibility that's his alone. With a new album for Monkeytown, Mosaik, about to drop, we're betting that Siriusmo is about to become a seriously big deal.

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Alexander Chen transforms the steady pulse of the (actual) New York City subway system into gentle, generative string plucks in his new interactive piece “Conductor.” The visual effect as well as the musical one is mesmerizing, as the subway is viewed in the abstract, sparse geometries of designed Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 diagram. New York subway nerds and long-time residents will note that the schedule itself is from 1972, hence the appearance of the K train and the elevated along Third Avenue (the 8), one I imagine we wish we still had. http://mta.me/ The work is also a glimpse of the Web as a canvas (figurative and literal) for this kind of work – your browser as your very own virtual chamber music setting. And it’s a window into some of the challenges (cough, buggy audio implementations!) to making that happen. Built in HTML5′s Canvas element with SVG vector data and JavaScript, the application must rely on Flash as a back end for audio delivery, though via a very cool JavaScript tool, SoundManager (which also supports HTML5 audio if its implementation improves). There’s also some use of open source sounds of string plucks, via the freesound project. Important as the technical details are, though, I find what Alexander says about the inspiration for music made from subways to be the most compelling. He shares with CDM some insight into the process, technical and artistic. How did this project come about? What made you decide to translate subway schedules into music? I’ve been kind of interested in turning everyday things into music. I did a project in 2003 called Sonata for the Unaware, where I used security-cam style footage of commuters and generated music from that. This project sort of started last September when my friend David Lu (velluminous.org) and I were having a conversation about an idea he had for an illustrated string instrument, where drawn lines turn into plucked strings. This turned into a project (which is still in progress) called Crayong. So I had written code for that. As a violist, I really wanted to duplicate the feel of grabbing and pulling a string, how there’s more tension near the pinned points. Once I had that string code, I started brainstorming other things I could do with it. My wife and I started talking about a subway map that you could strum. My friend owns a print of the 1972 Vignelli map, which is really beautiful. I liked the idea of the trains being the performers. And with all of the realtime location-sensitive information we can get now, I thought about a website that starts off feeling realtime, but then time starts unraveling. How it was put together — good notes on your site, but want to share any tips that you learned in the process? You had to give up on HTML5 audio, it seems; was that in all browsers or just some of them? With Flash for sound and Canvas for visuals, seems the results are at least largely compatible, yes? I’m excited about HTML5. The graphics went pretty flawlessly, but unfortunately there definitely were limitations in the audio layering. There’s an in-detail post at my site: Limitations of layering HTML5 Audio I ran into problems layering multi-shot triggers of the same sample. It could layer a handful of sounds (seemed to cap off around 8), but would increase load time unnecessarily. This was at least happening in Safari, where I could see the HTTP requests. I tried some workarounds but every approach had its trade-offs. So all in all, I think Flash still performs better for the audio portion of these types of experiments. But I’m hoping that will change, as it would be nice to not rely on any plugins. For projects where I am triggering say, 30+ samples, I often compile them into one audio file and manually store the start times of each sample in the code. Seems to load faster overall, because each HTTP request has some overhead. (But I didn’t have to do that here, because I only had 20 notes.) I also think it’s nice to work with technical limitations. For example, Flash has a limit of how many sounds can be simultaneously layered. Instead of trying massive code fixes, I decided to simply use samples with shorter sustain. That’s why I ended up going with cello pizzicato instead of say, a sustained harp. The samples are from the http://www.freesound.org, recorded by user corsica_s. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? About me – Besides doing interactive work, I’ve released three albums as Boy in Static and one as The Consulate General. I’ve toured on-and-off the past few years, usually performing on viola and vocals. I’m currently working at Google Creative Lab in New York. Besides various new art and technology projects I see everyday, my wife and I recently found a DVD of Al Jarnow’s stop animation from the 80′s. Incredible mathematical grid-based animation experiments done by hand, frame by frame. More on Alexander: chenalexander.com presentcompany.tv Music: theconsulategeneral.com boyinstatic.com His day job is at the Google Creative Lab.

An icon of the Brazilian dance-music scene since the '80s, DJ Meme has just about done it all, from remixes for the likes of Mariah Carey and Ricky Martin to soulful, disco-drenched house anthems like his mixes for Fish Go Deep's "The Cure and the Cause." Speaking of his new mix CD for Defected, Defected in the House Brazil '11, it's obvious that several decades of accolades haven't dampened his passion—Meme obviously brings an infectious enthusiasm and a rare degree of humility to his work. Defected's Simon Dunmore says, "DJ Meme's work was first recommended to me by none other than Dimitri From Paris. I was super impressed by his production values, which blend the best disco vibes with the Latin rhythms of his native Brazil." Read on for an in-depth interview with Brazilian house music's most eminent ambassador.

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The title says it all really, but for those of you who require an introduction Jay Haze is the man behind the record labels Contexterrior and Tuning Spork as well as being responsible for innumerable house and techno flavored productions as a solo artist and one half of Fuckpony.

He is also one of the more philanthropic DJ's out there - at a recent gig in his new home town of Lima, Peru he donated his DJ fee to buy local children toys. You can read more about that and more in this fascinating Resident Advisor Interview.

Love = Evolution is rumored to be Haze's last artist album. It features a number of collaborations and as well as the expected soulful and techy house sounds, there are numerous diversions into dub and more laid back listening experiences.

Hit this link to grab the album.

Tracklsiting

01. Loveevolution
02. Tonight feat. Laila Tov
03. Soul In a Bottle feat. Big Bully
04. I Wait For You feat. Laila Tov
05. The Darkest Disco feat. Ricardo Villalobos
06. You Drive Me Mad feat. Sao Paulo Drum Circle
07. Feel the Electricity feat. Rockey
08. I Need a Lover feat. Chela Simone
09. I'm Riding High
10. The Light feat. Paul St. Hilaire
11. Time To Explode

Via Resident Advisor

Wolfgang Gartner takes a page from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States with the new video for his track "Illmerica." From slavery and genocide to political corruption and pop culture, the clip offers a grimly unvarnished account of the nation's history. The title of the song, clearly, is self-explanatory. Fortunately, under the direction of Mackingwell's Ryan McNamara, it's visually engaging enough to avoid being too heavy-handed. Next up from Gartner: "Forever," a new single featuring will.i.am.

Watch this video on Beatportal

Ninja Tune have announced that a new album from Daedelus - Bespoke will be hitting the shelves in April. The first single off the album comes in the shape of ‘Tailor Made’ ft Milosh, and is backed up with remixes from Tokimonsta and Floating Points.

A firm favorite with the Brainfeeder camp, Daedelus' forthcoming album also features guest spots from rising chill-wave star Baths and neo-soul hero Bilal. The album is musically a far more varied experience than Daedelus’ last release, which came out on All City as part of a collaboration between himself and Teebs.

Tracklist

1) Tailor-Made (feat. Milosh)

2) Sew, Darn, Mend

3) Penny Loafers (feat. Inara George)

4) One and Lonely (feat. Young Dad)

5) Suit Yourself

6) What Can You Do? (feat. Busdriver)

7) French Cuffs (feat. Baths)

8) In Tatters (feat. Kelela Mizanekristos)

9) Slowercase D

10) Overwelmed (feat. Bilal)

11) Nightcap

Tailor Made ft Milosh is out 21st March whereas the album Bespoke is out via Ninja Tune 11th April.

Spanish festival L.E.V. have recently announced the first round of names for the 2011 edition of the festival.

Based in Gijón, Northern Spain, the festival has a habit of rounding up some of the finest names in the business and this year is no different.

2011 brings The Bug's side project, King Midas Sound to the stage as headliners. Icelandic ambient classical composer Jóhann Jóhannsson will be playing, as well as the post-bass auteurs Darkstar. The festival also makes a return to the live stage for Photek and Jon Hokins who has just scored the stunning sci-fi film Monsters.

All in all, a nice unique alternative to the monsterous Sonar which takes place every summer near to Barcelona. More details to come but in the mean time watch this space for more names.

Here is a small preview for 2011:

L.E.V. Festival 2011 takes place in Gijón, Spain on the 29th and 30th of April

Google is set to debut its new Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system this week at a press event, so what does that mean for music fans and the experience of Google Music?

Bloc Weekend tickets have now sold out for the 2011 show. The festival is set to take place on March 11 - 13 at Butlins resort, Minehead. It will be the fifth anniversary for Bloc, with acts that include Aphex Twin, Magnetic Man, Laurent Garnier and LFO.

No Age just released the new video for the song "Fever Dreaming," off of their album Everything In Between.

2011 is going to be a huge year in music. Huge. With the much anticipated debut from London-wunderkind, James Blake; a collaboration between the kings of hip hop, Kanye West and Jay-Z; expected releases from Coldplay, Dr. Dre and the Foo Fighters; firm rumors from U2, R.E.M., The Beastie Boys and The Cars (what decade is this again?), there truly will be something for audiophiles of every taste.

Now you can get the jump on the SXSW 2011 lineup by listening to their stream of hundreds of songs in what they're calling the SXSW Player.

Lollapalooza organizers chose Santiago because it's a cool, hip city with a good musical backdrop and a space that works for up to 100,000 people. They've got international acts like Jane's Addiction, Kanye and The National as well acts more local to Santiago, Chile.