taste of chicago: music lineup announced!

hundreds of thousands of hungry people are sure to flock to downtown chicago for the 30th annual taste of chicago. the free street festival starts on friday june 25 and culminates in an independence day celebration on july 4th.

the event is known primarily as a (usually costly) showcase for local restaurants, but it also brings in a variety of music to play in grant park. check out the lineup for the petrillo music shell, which is sure to be filled to the brim with people...

friday 6.25 - rob base, slick rick, doug e. fresh; salt-n-pepa, bell biv devoe
saturday 6.26 - gavin rossdale, opening act TBA
sunday 6.27 - emily osment, allstar weekend
monday 6.28 - broadway in chicago
tuesday 6.29 - los lobos, los lonely boys
wednesday 6.30 - mat kearney, brett dennen
thursday 7.1 - trey songz, teairra mari
friday 7.2 - rob thomas
saturday 7.3 - steve miller band
sunday 7.4 - passion pit, robert randolph and the family band, carney

check out more information about the festival here. being a classic rock head, i'm really looking forward to the steve miller band performing on july 3.

expect plenty of updates here as more information for chicago's huge supply of summer street festivals is announced...

stream nax_acid's anatomy 01 mix!

i've activated a fairtilizer account to store mixes. if you haven't listened yet, you can stream and download nax_acid's initial contribution to smilecoldanatomy's fledgling mix series here:

you can get all the info and tracklist at the original blog post here.

i'll hopefully be able to present anatomy 02 soon. be patient...

foods for thoughts

here's a few interesting articles on music for your saturday pleasure:

playing favourites: ben klock
resident advisor chats up ben klock, one of the resident dj's at berlin's infamous berghain club, about some of his favorite records. included are oldies like maurizio and green velvet, as well as newer stuff by dvs1 and a track from marcel dettmann's upcoming album.

monolake in full
check out this lengthy and very informative interview with robert henke (monolake). points of discussion include, but are not limited to: ableton live (the music software program whose development henke played a crucial role in), henke's moving away from a 4/4 techno aesthetic and appreciation of the recent dubstep explosion, and the influence of torsten profrock (t++) on the monolake project.

180 grams
a short but interesting blog article about the importance of vinyl record weight, and thus thickness.

okay, that's all for now. will hopefully have some more reviews soon as well as another contribution or two to the infantile anatomy mix series...

techno power!

here's 3 sets and 8 hours worth of for your sunday evening...

sandwell district - live @ planet rose, nijmegen - 14-02-2009
four hours of sandwell district in action. i'm not sure who is playing in this, although i'd guess that function and/or regis, the founders of the sandwell imprint, may have been involved. i think these guys do live+dj sets, which would make sense: we've got what sounds like standard dj mixing blended with those immediately-familiar, bleeping, polyrhythmic loops the label is known for. deep, aggressive, intense... very nice. and if you don't know already, edm archivist extraordinaire r_co is responsible for this download link. go check out his soundcloud for plenty of other great sets.

speedy j live @ some old nazi bunker in norway 01
another set from last year; i believe speedy j uses a 'digital dj' setup, with 2 computers and 2 midi controllers in place of turntables (sorta like richie hawtin), and here the question of supposed 'authenticity' with such a setup does not apply, because this is some serious shit. lots of loops strung together into three hours of faceless, super-rhythmic, driving techno (although it seems like the download only yields a 2+ hour recording). that bunker must have been dripping from this set...

RA201: 19.454.18.5.25.5.18
anonymous dj/producer(s?) for the win! grab this while it's hot, because resident advisor likes to 'archive' podcasts within a few weeks of their release. this is 'only' 70 minutes long, but i love the concept: ambient beginning with a discussion about the future, techno with the occasional dubby breather, and then an excellent peverelist track followed by a spacey outro to end it. i don't know much about this numbered figure besides the fact that he's associated with the horizontal ground label... check out the RA interview and the forum discussion for an almost-complete tracklist.

what's going on this week?

some interesting upcoming events as chicago continues to get teased by warm weather...

wednesday - aeroplane & orchard lounge @ smartbar
belgian disco/house duo aeroplane make their first chicago appearance at smartbar later tonight. supporting acts include local dj darlings orchard lounge, and kid color.

thursday - orchard lounge @ adler planetarium: 'adler after dark' series
here's something neat: after their supporting slot at smartbar the night before, orchard lounge will provide a 'space disco' soundtrack for the monthly 'adler after dark' program at the planetarium. the 21+ festivities run from 6 to 10pm, with complete access to the planetarium as well as a cash bar and full cafe. check out the adler's website for more information about this event.

friday - matthew dear & gui boratto @ spybar
an interesting double-headliner bill at spybar this friday. smilecoldanatomy favorite matthew dear will be playing a dj set, while kompakt heavy-hitter gui boratto will bring his intense and emotional live set. ladies get free cover all night, and guys get free cover before midnight (and reduced after), by saying the password 'pure' at the door.

saturday - phil stone and john johr @ lokal
wicker park's lokal has turned into another cozy home for dance music in chicago, particularly with the 'lokal yokals' regular event. this month sees phil stone supporting detroit dj john johr. no cover and drink specials all night.

temperatures in chicago are supposed to flirt with 80 degrees for a few days this week - enjoy it while you can!

upcoming new niederflur album: 'bipolar' (and live preview mix!)

another new album to get excited about: german-based experimental techno duo niederflur are preparing a new album, bipolar, to be released this summer!

christopher bleckmann and hannes wenner have made music under a variety of aliases, but it is perhaps the niederflur moniker that is the most well-known, with a cd album release on m-nus in 2002 (and more recently an EP release on archipel). the music is mostly deep, slow, reduced techno, given some warmth and ambiance by field recordings from the subway system of cologne, germany, where the duo is based. resident advisor is reporting that niederflur will also include dubstep sounds on the new album, which will be released via the duo's digital label niederflurtracks. according to RA, bipolar will be released on june 15, but according to niederflur's soundcloud, it seems like the album will be released on may 1. a new track can be streamed at their soundcloud, as well as this very tasty half-hour-long set previewing material from bipolar:
Niederflur - Bipolar Live Pt 1 - Nord by NIEDERFLUR

for more information about this and the other projects by the duo, check out their website. smilecoldanatomy looks forward to the future with niederflur!

plastikman - time warp 2010 footage/recording

after years of silence, richie hawtin's plastikman is back in action, as proved by this footage from the world tour opener at germany's time warp festival a few weeks ago:



this youtube user seems to have recorded most of the set so check out his other clips for further psychedelic audio-visual goodness. and while i haven't listened yet, here's a download link to an audience recording of the 90-minute set. thanks to the people responsible for sharing this footage! this show looks like quite the spectacle. check out the official plastikman website for the rest of the tour dates; next week sees richie debuting the show in the u.s. at california's coachella festival, the only other u.s. date besides detroit's movement festival late next month.

reviews!

it's been a while since i've reviewed anything on here, so here's my thoughts on a pair of recent releases:

milton bradley - the unheard voice of outer space
a newcomer to the prologue crew, the sounds milton bradley creates on this EP fit in nicely with prologue's penchant for deepness, with titles that definitely fit the otherworldly productions. the eponymous first track is perhaps the most dance-floor ready, with an urgent thumping beat paired with a sonar sounding off into (you guessed it) outer space. but it's the other two tracks that intrigue me the most as the EP gets progressively deeper. both employ syncopated rhythms: 'interdimensional entity' features more ghostly echoes slicing through a cloud of crackling static, and the final track 'somewhere beyond my illusion' is even more reduced, featuring not much more than a broken bass pulse and decaying sound structures. up to this point, most of prologue's material has been anchored by a danceable 4/4 beat, but i hope these guys continue to dig deeper into abstraction and minimalism.

dettmann - remixed
fresh off the ostgut ton presses is this collection of short tools in preparation for marcel dettmann's debut LP in just a few weeks. apparently the 'originals' of these remixes will not be included on the upcoming full-length, so we may never have a clue what these tracks actually sounded like... anyhoo, we start with two norman nodge remixes: 'shift' features a looping, slowly developing rhythm section accented by a quick and sudden vocal sample, a droning synth stab that occasionally doubles up... and not much else, while "unrest" throws in some unconventional percussive sounds and swirling atmospherics. the other two remixes come courtesy of one wincent kunth, who seems to be making his 'production' debut her. both tracks feature more melody than nodge's remixes, with 'vertigo' using a repeating bassline under a hazy atmosphere, and 'wound up' showing off a swirling dubby chord that slowly builds in intensity. each track clocks in at under six minutes and seem to be not much more than dj tools. i'm hoping the incoming LP will feature more variety (and i'd like to hear more from wincent kunth), but for now, this EP is solid but nothing spectacular.

monday night depth

here's a few more journeys into some deeper sounds...

ercolino - process part 199c
a wonderful, compact mix as part of a stroboscopic artefacts showcase on the modyfier blog. be sure to give the mixes by xhin and lucy a listen, but this has become my favorite of the three. i had never heard of ercolino before this besides seeing him cited on a stroboscopic release, but if this mix represents his style, i definitely need to hear more. in only 47 minutes, ercolino blends a variety of tempos and styles, weaving some stroboscopic tracks into and out of hazy triphop and other reduced techno, and finally ending with some gorgeous ambience. you can check out the short tracklisting here. HIGHLY recommended!

marcel dettmann - live at sonar festival, barcelona, june 2009
finally got around to listening to this. as i've ranted a few times, i was in barcelona during sonar but skipped this in favor of cheaper partying in the city. still, this is a solid set, and dettmann covers a lot of ground in 100 minutes, from minimal techno to more house-y elements, and ending on bit of an electro rave-up. check ben klock's excellent remix of depeche mode right smack-dab in the middle... very nice. according to the stories i've heard about dettmann's sets in his native berghain club in berlin, this would probably be representative of a much longer set where dettmann takes the clubgoers on a multi-genre journey. solid.

sleeparchive - vienna, austria livePA 2006-1-1
ah yes, i almost forgot how much i like sleeparchive's productions, and i recently stumbled across this very cool livePA. if you're not familiar with sleeparchive, go ahead and check this out... a highly repetitive combination of simplistic drums, electric discharges, and cosmic bleeps, all swerving in and out of focus with each other. get digital...