Remix albums, the ones featuring a slew of different producers reworking a given artist, are a dime a dozen. Then there's another kind, pairing a single remixer with a single album. No Protection, in which Mad Professor dubs the hell out of Massive Attack's Protection, is surely one of the touchstones of the genre. I'm not sure that Jamie XX and Gil Scott-Heron's We're New Year reaches quite those heights, but it's a project in a similar spirit.
Gil Scott-Heron is a poet and black activist whose work in the '70s helped pave the way for hip-hop; Jamie XX is the 20-something producer most famous for his participation in The XX, but with a growing reputation as a top-notch producer of left-field bass music. On We're New Here, Jamie XX pulls threads from Scott-Heron's 2010 album I'm New Here and weaves them into a radically new form.
Please enjoy this three-part mixtape brought to you by UrbanWorld Records. This mix is from a collection of the first 10 album releases on UrbanWorld Records, upcoming tracks for 2011 and some old classics. Each mix is categorized into similar genres: Part 1 features the downbeat side of UrbanWorld Records, with ethnic downbeat, dub and cumbia. Part 2 features the funky side of UrbanWorld Records, with balkan, swing, and funk. Part 3 features the party side of UrbanWorld Records, samba dub, peruvian house, balkan house, tropical and baile. For a more in-depth breakdown, check out the tracklisting provided below.
Part 1-
1. Savages y Suefo – Santor Salami
2. Analogik – Kaptain Bim
3. Oriol Vandela – Music Man (Solo Moderna Remix)
4. Copia Doble Systema – Made In China
5. Solo Moderna – Sonido Puobel
6. Copia Doble Systema – Cumbia Colegiale
7. Los Chicos Altos – Zamba Malató, Landó
Part 2-
1. Unkle Ho – Kindergarten (Rube Remix)
2. Rube – Killer Diller
3. Analogik & Ancient Astronauts – Gypsie Doodle
4. Savages y Suefo – Sweet Relish (Mash and Munkee Remix)
5. Copia Doble Systema – Cumbia Colegiala (Maga Bo Remix)
6. BxP Soundsistema – Balkan train (Shazalakazoo Remix)
7. BxP Soundsistema – Balkan train (BadboE Remix)
8. Al Lindrum – Hide & Seek (Unkle Ho Remix)
9. Copia Doble Systema – 1 Day Revolution
Part 3-
1. Farrapo & Yanez – Oliveto (Thykier Remix)
2. Los Chicos Altos – Palante
3. Analogik – Farligt Monster (Ben Horn Remix)
4. Unkle Ho – Lime Juice (Orange Disco by Savages y Suefo)
5. Solo Moderna – The Scattere
6. Copia Doble Systema – Made in China (Toy Selectah Remix)
7. Mo Fire – Muito Bom (Pepe Soup Remix)
8. LoveAvalanche – Less Corruption (Sabo Remix)
There's no Big Bang for techno; it didn't simply appear out of nowhere. The music's DNA carries traces of countless forebears, from Motown to Kraftwerk. Nevertheless, like all great cultures, techno comes with its own creation myth: the Belleville Three, the trio of three African American kids from the suburbs who gave the music its initial form. For all intents and purposes, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson invented techno as we know it. Indeed, as this week's mini-scandal over two young Italian producers unwittingly borrowing one of Saunderson's classic riffs goes to show, the Belleville Three's influence goes way beyond their mere name recognition.
We caught up with Saunderson as part of our Black History Month celebration; read on for the interview.
Big room sounds abound this week, as some of the heaviest names in the game drop powerful new singles that go the distance, and then some.
Read on for huge new tunes from Koen Groeneveld, Umek and Christian Cambas, Chris Lake, Olav Basoski, and more.
In our monster MeeBlip round-up the other day, I mentioned the stunning enclosure Michael Roebbeling made for his DIY synth kit. But that’s not all Michael has built. He’s also created a lovely, simple step sequencer with Arduino. It’s a beautiful combination of all open-source hardware, MeeBlip and Arduino. Surprisingly, it’s his first try at all of this:
After my first successful experience in electronics, building the MeeBlip, I was hooked. So I decided to buy an Arduino and dive a bit deeper. My first project was a rudimentary sequencer to work together with my MeeBlip. It took me 3 days to figure out the schematiks and code the program.
With projects like Arduino taking out some of the headaches of getting started, this is further proof that understanding computation allows you to do anything, from hardware to software, on any platform.
Michael’s project represents a simple, afternoon project, but the Arduino can also become the basis of more sophisticated gear – and some more complex groove-making. I’ll look at some of those options here, like Steve Cooley’s beatseqr, here making some grooves with an iPad running Korg’s iMS-20 soft synth and Reason running on the MacBook Pro.
There are plenty of Arduino step sequencer projects – it’s a nice project to try – but what I especially like is that Michael’s design is really minimal, meaning it could be a good starting point for your own project. He provides full code and (via a terrific prototyping tool called Fritzing), easy-to-read, colorful schematics.
If you’ve never done this before, some basic knowledge of how to read the parts, an Arduino, and some copy-and-paste skill is all you need to get going. I’m going to set aside some time to build one myself.
SimplenZAR [Blog post documentation at Carvin' Calamari]
But while we’re on the topic – and since having step sequencers around is a terrific tool for making musical patterns with all your music gear – let’s take a quick look at what else is out there.
littlescale is a must-read for musical Arduino makings, so a good first stop. He’s got his full list of projects, including a microtonal step sequencer, seen below.
Johan Larsby has a terrific project, complete with screen, with loads of details and source. You can build the whole thing for under $50 in parts, and his page is also a useful set of references to working with MIDI, physical controls, and the display.
Arduino Step Sequencer… ASS. Fine. Funny enough. But you lose out on bonus points for not making it a recursive acronym.
Mr Speaker goes through the process of how to construct MIDI step sequencers on Arduino in a blog post, as well.
That’s not a complete list, but now onto some fancier projects…
Steve Cooley’s beatseqr, created with Derek Scott, evolves from simple hardware “sketch” into full-blown, feature-packed sequencer, but it’s still got an Arduino (Mega) at its heart. Accordingly, Steve talks through the behind-the-scenes tech details on the Arduino forum.
And, oh yeah, it goes great with Reason. (That in turn means this and an older laptop could be a nice little groove station set up in a studio, to keep your machines out of the closet of retirement.)
And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome MiniCommand by Ruin & Wesen. It doesn’t in fact have an Arduino board inside, but it does use the Arduino development environment for a custom MIDI firmware framework called MIDI-CTRL. Say wha? Basically, you can use Arduino-style syntax to reprogram this little box to perform whatever MIDI magic you wish. It’s utterly insane, and perhaps a little overlooked because it’s generally associated with the Machinedrum. I’m not going to say any more now, as I know Wesen is getting some time off to work on it, and I hope to talk more about this project over the coming months.
Result: Euclid pattern generators. (I’m working on some code that does something similar, with visualization; stay tuned while I … um, finish it, in fact.)
So there you go. If it seems overwhelming, just remember, take it one step at a time – and start with the first step. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
As I said, the place to begin is doing something like what Michael did – and you can hook up his project in a few minutes.
If you give this a try, let us know! Sounds like a fun weekend project.
After finishing the soundtrack for the blockbuster Tron:Legacy, French dance duo Daft Punk recently teamed up with Coca-Cola for a limited edition bottle design and a new advert.
Following Coca Cola’s former collaborations with acts like Justice (2009) and Mika (2010), the Daft Punk edition consists of two aluminium bottles - gold and silver - that pay tribute to the duo’s helmets. The accompanying commercial will officially be released on March 4. However, there is a teaser version on Coca Cola’s You Tube channel that showcases a brief black & white video of the dance duo and a preview of the forthcoming audio track.
The limited edition collectors box will be sold exclusively via Colette, Paris starting March 21. An accompanying website is set to launch shortly.
Smalltown Supersound will be issuing a limited edition 12" from ARP in order to celebrate Record Store day on April 16th.
The American based producer recently returned from a couple of dates with Caribou and has now hired the services of the cult balearic duo Studio and Etienne Jaumet (Zombie Zombie) for his up and coming 12". You can listen to Studio's groove laden rework here.
ARP is also working on his follow up LP as we speak and a number of new remixes.
The 12" is a remix of his single "Pastoral Symphony" off the back of his recently titled album release The Soft Wave. There will be a limited edition of 500 and there will be no represss.
SIDE A
1. Pastoral Symphony I. Dominoes II. Infinity Room (Original Version by ARP) 2. The Past (Version by STUDIO)
SIDE B
1. PS (Version by MAUVE DEEP) 2. La Symphonie Pastorale (Version by ETIENNE JAUMET)
For more info on Record Store day go here. Check back Robot Buttiken to get yourself a copy.
Summer couldn't come any sooner for us, especially after seeing the lineup and pictures revealed for SunSplash Antalya 2011 taking place in Southern Turkey.
Names billed for the lengthy eight-day festival so far are José James live, Theo Parrish, Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay plus many more.
The festival takes place in the extremely picturesque southern coastal tip of Antalya, which is making us sick just looking at pictures of it.
At the festival they will also be holding workshops which include Graffiti workshops and Beat sessions; the festival will be catering to an exclusively small audience of about 500 people - and we want to be one of them!
Got a nada:brahma EXCLUSIVE for you guys! Following the success of Globetronica vols 1 and 2, Pathaan is back with a new compilation album titled and inspired by his BBC radio show, Musical Rickshaw. The album is a true reflection of the show but sounds nothing like any of his previous comps. Over 2 CD’s, [...]
Those of you in the market for a new MacBook Pro are no doubt already tuned into the product news. So let’s talk about what isn’t changed on the new MacBook line, because it’s a good thing.
You still get FireWire 800 ports on all models, including the entry-level 13″ machine.
ExpressCard is still standard on the 17″ MacBook Pro.
Your dongles for video adapters still work.
I’m researching implications for audio of the new Thunderbolt connection. My guess is it’s a little too early to say; 10 GBps storage sounds fantastic, but it’s far beyond the needs of all but the craziest audio applications. (That is, fast FireWire and USB drives work really well already.)
Where you’ll see it in audio is likely two places: one, more high-performance audio I/O, and two, clearing the bottleneck with DSP chips that has long plagued external hardware DSP. The latter is maybe a bit ironic as we look at ongoing performance gains from GPUs and integrated architectures there, but it’s no accident that Universal Audio and Avid are excited about it, as they have DSP products. And enthusiasm from Avid and Apogee means you can expect to see high-end audio with lots of I/O for this format. See the Intel technology page. As for specifics, we’ll be watching.
For adoption, this is certainly big news. Thunderbolt faced a chicken and egg problem; Apple is the 800-lb chicken.
The short version of the other specs: these machines are faster. Again, though, current audio applications run pretty well on the previous machines; I’m pleased to say we’re now in a place where people aren’t red-lining their CPU every day.
In fact, for those reasons, if you want a bargain on a MacBook Pro for audio work, now could be a great time to pick up a closeout on the old machine. On the audio side, the new models are largely appealing because their Thunderbolt port ensures future-proofing for whatever comes next – without having to give up the I/O on the previous models.
And yes, you have choices in this competitive marketplace, including PCs. But there you go – anyone who thought we’d see a step backward in I/O today can now exhale. And anyone looking for greater architecture performance, your machines have arrived. And anyone saying that laptops aren’t still awesome and improving in the age of low-end mobile and tablets? You’re just kinda all-around wrong. As for tomorrow, well, who knows, who knows…
v jame is a Slovene DJ/Radio station who made our morning here at the LetsMix office unusually peaceful! This romantic mix is both heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time with song titles as Optimal Ending, I will find You and Gold Guns Girls. As little as we know about v Jame, we do know they have a blog: vjame.tumblr.com and we know that it’s powered by Milina and Ondrej.
Gatto Fritto will release his debut album through International Feel this April. Gatto Fritto is the alias of Ben Williams who has bubbled on the periphery of a number of scenes over the last few years. He was involved with Dissident from the beginning and has remixed both Subway and Franz Ferdinand.
Though championed by the Balearic camp, Gatto Fritto's sound is lot more involved than beach music - compositions that are rich with deep emotion, electronic trickery and killer melodies are the order of the day - His Hex 12" is a long term favourite of Electronic Beats.
This self-titled album will also mark the the first album for International Feel - the Uruguay based label have carved quite a name for themselves over the last couple of years with laid back releases from the likes of DJ Harvey and The Hands of Love.
Tracklisting
1. The Curse
2. Hex
3. Grinding Of The Brakes
4. Solar Flares Burn For You
5. Lucifer Morning Star
6. Invisible College
7. My Etheric Body
8. Beachy Head
International Feel will release Gatto Fritto on 18th April 2011
At the FCC meeting next week, the Commission will be considering an item dealing with radio stations that serve rural areas, and the ability of licensees to make technical modifications to those stations that would change the communities which they serve. While, as we wrote last week, most of the attention of broadcasters has centered on the television issues to be considered at the meeting as the Commission is to begin an inquiry on the retransmission consent process. The rural radio issue poses real concerns for radio operators - especially those contemplating a move of a radio station from a community outside of a metropolitan area to one in a metro. In the name of protecting service to rural areas, the Commission may well restrict minority groups, specialty programmers, and other new entrants from bringing new services to metropolitan areas - permanently entrenching those companies who currently have major market stations as the only competition in those markets. A proposal to protect service to rural areas may well have the impact of decreasing diversity in large markets.
In virtually every large market, there is little or no potential to add new channels for FM service both because of interference protections that need to be accorded to stations in the market and because of protections to stations outside of the market but close enough to be short-spaced to any potential station in the metro area. In some cases, creative engineering has found ways for some of these non-metro stations to be moved into the metropolitan area, or at least close enough to provide some service to those markets. "Move-in stations" have allowed new entrants, some with specialized programming, to provide service to large cities - when such entrants could never afford the price of an existing in-market station, even if one was for sale. Even "rim shots", those move-ins that don't provide full coverage of a metro area, may be very worthwhile for groups with unique formats (religion, Spanish language, and other targeted programming) trying to reach a small audience that is not otherwise going to get service in such markets.
Spectrum congestion is usually not as acute in more rural areas so, to the extent that an area looses service when a station is moved into a larger market, if that service is needed (or can be profitable), another frequency can often be moved in to back-fill any service loss. Of course, a station moving closer to a larger market may still provide some service to rural areas. And Commission rules already preclude (except in rare circumstances) moving a community's only station out of that community, and prohibit the creation of "white areas" and "gray areas" - areas where residents will receive primary service from no radio stations (a "white area") or only one radio service (a "gray area"). So a baseline of service is already established by the rules.
Rumor has it that the new rules circulating at the Commission may require a greater number of stations be left in every community before any station from that city can be moved. They may also require more reception service beyond white and gray areas, and may generally prohibit the movement of stations from rural areas into metros. If this is in fact the case, the Commission may ignore the fact that all "communities" are not created equal. Some rural areas may be in sparsely populated areas, where multiple stations cannot economically thrive. The definition of "community" should also be considered, as in any metro, there may be many "communities", not all defined by political boundaries. Some communities - defined by various social or economic or ethnic classifications, may well be deserving of service not provided by the existing stations in a market. Putting the stop on the movement of new stations into a metro area may forever deny such service. That is why virtually all broadcast groups, and several minority organizations, opposed such restrictions when they were first proposed.
The rules and procedures of the allocation process are very detailed. The changes made in this process four years ago, which made it easier to move stations from one city to another, are still subject to reconsideration petitions, and still have left several procedural issues unresolved. No one outside the FCC knows exactly what the new rules provide, so we don't know how they will interact with the existing rules, and whether they may be other unanticipated results. So broadcasters should watch this decision carefully, and determine what ramifications they may have on your future plans.
Just released today by Secret Stash Records, Peruvian ensemble, Peña, unveils another impressively cohesive collection of music handpicked from their travels to Lima, Peru. If you remember their self-titled October 2010 release, you will be delighted to find out that these guys are back once again with the different styles and eclectic flavor they received critical praise for. With efforts solely intended to spread the musical brilliance of Peru, Peña wishes to indulge their listeners in a series of cultural journeys and display their passion for Afro-Peruvian music. Also, in an effort to help share Afro-Peruvian music with young musicians, musician/producer Cory Wong has assembled a live ensemble and educational curriculum that he is bringing to colleges throughout the country this fall. What may have seemed like a one off project to some people is on the path to becoming a musical force with serious longevity.
“Peña Vol. II attempts to continue to follow-up the success of the previous release with amazing results…The music is perfect for lounging, dancing, or contemplating the next release from Secret Stash.” – Inside World Music
“Unlike a lot of American-made songs and performances, the music on Peña II eschews Peruvian pop culture. There is a spirituality that is tapped when the mics are turned on to pick up the noises and rhythms.” – Record-Racks
