Wednesday, May 29, 2013

hear a new track from juan atkins and moritz von oswald's BORDERLAND collaboration

juan atkins and moritz von oswald are teaming up to produce a new album called borderland. both many-aliased artists should be household names for techno heads, but a quick refresher, just in case: atkins is one of detroit's most iconic producers, while berlin's von oswald is probably best known for the pioneering dub/techno soundscapes crafted alongside mark ernestus as basic channel and rhythm & sound, and alone under the name maurizio. (pardon my bias towards von oswald: the BCD compilation and a bunch of stuff on the BC sublabel chain reaction played a huge role in my initial forays into the world of electronic music.)

borderland is due out on tresor on june 10th, but before then you can take a wander through "mars garden," the first track publicly shared by the label. sounds very nicely spaced out, and the rest of the track titles seem interesting enough... looking forward to hearing the whole thing!



01. Electric Garden (Deep Jazz In The Garden Mix)
02. Electric Dub
03. Footprints
04. Electric Garden (Original Mix)
05. Treehouse
06. Mars Garden
07. Digital Forest
08. Afterlude

Friday, May 24, 2013

friday funk: BOARDS OF CANADA (new track!)

yeah! hopefully you've heard the news: fuzzy electronics duo boards of canada are returning with a new album, tomorrow's harvest, due out june 10th on warp records. i wasn't too impressed with the rambling promotional campaign that preceded the actual album announcement, but now we've got something a bit more tangible to chew on. first single "reach for the dead" was posted on youtube yesterday - give it a try:



tomorrow's harvest will be the duo's first album in eight years - and suddenly it's one of the 2013's most anticipated albums, for me at least. if you need a refresher or an introduction, i heartily recommend previous long players music has the right to children (1998) and geogaddi (2002), my personal favorites. though the wax is expensive and/or hard to come by these days, youtube is chock-full of their songs. i'll point you to just one personal favorite, "rue the whirl".

pre-order options for the new album are listed on the boards of canada homepage. for stateside vinyl buyers, it looks like amazon.com is the cheapest option for the 2xLP at the moment. you can click the "local" button for physical store options as well. try not to get too giddy, and check the tracklist and cover art below. hail satan!

01. Gemini
02. Reach For The Dead
03. White Cyclosa
04. Jacquard Causeway
05. Telepath
06. Cold Earth
07. Transmisiones Ferox
08. Sick Times
09. Collapse
10. Palace Posy
11. Split Your Infinities
12. Uritual
13. Nothing Is Real
14. Sundown
15. New Seeds
16. Come To Dust
17. Semena Mertvykh

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

anatomy picks: movement 2013

yes, really lame, i know: i won't be traveling to detroit this weekend for movement 2013. (it hurts, seriously.) but! that won't stop me from pointing out some artists that i think are worth seeing, should there be any detroit-bound techno fiends in need of some tips. this is certainly not a comprehensive list, as the festival's lineup looks particularly good this year. nonetheless, i submit these ten anatomy picks for your consideration:
[UPDATE. lucy and marcel dettmann have canceled their appearances due to - you guessed it - "visa issues".]

LUCY the stroboscopic artefacts boss has a two-hour slot to open the underground stage. intriguingly, lucy is booked before a pair of (relatively) more house-oriented dj's in nina kraviz and steffi. but i'd be surprised if he did not stuff that room full of dark, atmospheric techno. anyway, lucy is certainly one of the movement 2013's most forward-thinking bookings. an excellent reason to get to the festival early, and my top pick for saturday at hart plaza. underground stage, saturday, 2-4pm

DAVE CLARKE his previous detroit appearances are seemingly spoken of only in hushed, reverent tones, and he does not play the US very often (up until a few years ago, it had been close to a decade since his last visit). a rare stateside opportunity - on the big stage, no less - to see the so-called "baron of techno" at work. rbma stage, saturday, 8:30-10pm

BEN KLOCK b2b MARCEL DETTMANN oh how this duo should have gotten a longer set. methinks techno heads surely would have been satisfied with a slimmed-down program where klock and dettmann would have three or more hours to work with; at least, it would be more must-see if they had a longer set time. still, look for these two berghain favorites to hit it pretty hard while they can. underground stage, sunday, 7:30pm-9:15pm

AUDION hooray for the return of audion! i've grown a bit weary with matthew dear's 'pop' meanderings over the past few years; it's usually interesting stuff, but i think he's better when he gets out of his big black car and dives into the intensely hypnotic sounds of his audion alias. there's hardly been any new material or live shows from audion in three or four years. and now there's this return to detroit (he's also billed for wavefront festival in chicago in july). dare we hope for more action from audion this year? rbma stage, sunday, 8-9pm

DANIEL BELL i'd be a fool if i didn't recommend some of detroit's top homegrown talent, because as usual, there's a ton of it at the festival. you could probably get a pretty wide-reaching history lesson by setting up shop at the made in detroit stage all weekend. i'd also recommend checking out terrence parker and ryan elliott, to name a just a few, but my top pick of the locals is daniel bell, whose closing set is likely to be filled with smooth, minimalist techno and house. made in detroit stage, sunday, 9pm-close

PLANETARY ASSAULT SYSTEMS unfortunately, this one has a bunch of overlap with daniel bell's set. if you've got the courage, the underground stage is the place to be sunday evening, as it marks a very rare US appearance for luke slater - and his live alias, planetary assault systems (he'll also be dj'ing at an afterparty, see below). slater is one of my favorite artists: his 2011 album the messenger, produced as PAS, ranked #2 on my top LPs from that year, and to my ears, it's been unmatched by almost every techno album released since then. either way, he certainly ranks among the genre's finest, most open-minded talents. this is my top pick for sunday - and for the entire weekend! underground stage, sunday, 9:15-1030pm

DABRYE tadd mullinix is a man of many hats. one of them, dabrye, is filled with abstract hip-hop jams. though i only occasionally tune in these days, his 2001 LP one/three was one of my first "favorite" electronic albums. this set could be pretty good way to ease into monday afternoon. rbma stage, monday, 3pm-430pm

ECHOLOGIST aka brendon moeller, he'll be opening up the underground stage on monday. the charmingly spaced-out echologist album subterranean was (like the PAS LP) one of my favorites back in 2011, but i'd expect him to be a bit more floor-friendly with this set. underground stage, monday, 2-3:30pm

MIKE PARKER he just played an unsurprisingly fantastic set here for his chicago debut, and i'm sure his bag will be properly packed as he plays the festival for the first time (and he'll be playing a friday-night party in his detroit debut, see below). consider mike my top pick of monday's program. underground stage, monday, 3:30-5pm

RROSE okay, now i'm just going through monday's underground program one by one - i'll stop now, but it's really that good, especially on the front end. mysterious man/woman rrose has been moving beyond his affiliation with the (apparently) defunct sandwell district, and further refining her psychedelic style via his own label, eaux. this set should have your head swirling by the end. underground stage, monday, 5-6pm

... and then there's a whole catalog of afterparties happening around detroit. i helped write this guide over at RA, which i think is pretty comprehensive. then there's this very long listing. here's some quick recommendations, along with a few choice artist picks.

friday
perc trax showcase - the works | perc, mike parker, rrose
smart bar/tv lounge opening party and bbq - tv lounge | derek plaslaiko, cassy

saturday
CLR detroit - st. andrew's hall | marcel dettmann b2b radio slave
deep detroit v.5 - 1515 broadway | kyle hall, norm talley, kai alce

sunday
interface 42 - scene 10 - the works | luke slater, rødhåd (top afterparty pick), silent servant
ok, cool - tv lounge | rick wade, mike huckaby, michael mayer
ghost in the sound - 4264 grand river ave. | deepchord presents echospace, population one (aka terrence dixon)

monday
klockworks label night - the works | recondite, ben klock

... and that's all from me. what shall i be doing this weekend, you might ask? i'll probably be staying indoors and off my feet, listening to music, and menacingly closing my curtains. to those going: safe travels, stay out of trouble and have fun!

Monday, May 13, 2013

new label news: dave twomey's MARIANA WAX

first off, and i know it's a bit belated, but still: thanks a bunch to everyone who came out to the don't trust humans party the saturday before last, especially those who stuck around after mike parker's fantastic set to hear me play some records! fun times.

now for some very cool news from a former anatomy mixer...

dave twomey - aka tr nch, who contributed anatomy 16 back in late 2011 - is starting a new label, mariana wax. it's based off his concept party in tokyo called mariana, which just turned four years old, and which has hosted plenty of anatomy favorites like abdulla rashim (who's also starting a new label!), cio d'or, mike parker, peter van hoesen and kassem mosse.

the label's debut release, mariana wax 000, is due out later in the month, first on limited vinyl, then digitally. it'll have tracks from tr nch along with mike parker - hooray! - and wata igarashi. check the vinyl artwork at right. then check below for the tracklist, and a peak at the jams via the label's soundcloud. (and for a little more information, check this piece i wrote for RA on the new label.)

A1 Tr nch - Challenger Deep
A2 Mike Parker - Below Zero
B Wata Igarashi - Valve




even more dope acts are lined up for future production and/or remix appearances, dave says, including stanislav tolkachev, conforce and vril... so yes, this should be a label to watch!

Friday, May 3, 2013

friday funk: mike parker

a quick post for now... let's keep the vibe alive with some tracks from mike parker, ahead of tomorrow night's party:









Thursday, May 2, 2013

new patty mix for DON'T TRUST HUMANS

hooray! i've finally cooked up a new mix. this all-vinyl jam is for my fellow chicago techno hooligans, don't trust humans. you can check it out below; click through for a tracklist.



thanks to DTH for hosting me. you can learn more about them by checking out their website. aside from the only for robots podcast, the collective also functions as a netlabel (releasing music from hal floyd, lokua, debbie and komprezzor) and, of course, as a party-throwing crew. they'll be hosting me, along with komprezzor, jeff derringer and the one and only mike parker at primary here in chicago this saturday. i'll be closing, so prepare for a long night. check the flyer at right and click here for more details... see you there!