friday funk: ben frost - venter (new album upcoming!)

you should make sure this one is on your radar: a new album from iceland-based producer ben frost. it's called A U R O R A, and it's due out through mute on may 26th.

for more than a decade, frost has been cooking up abstract and often very aggressive music that defies simple genre tags (though i suppose 'ambient' might work the best). counted among his works are a handful of solo LPs (i first discovered him by way of by the throat, his last solo album from 2009) and film soundtracks - he self-released three albums on that front in 2013. you can hear a lot of his stuff streaming on full over on his bandcamp page.

apparently there's a press release that describing A U R O R A thusly: "starved of all the adornments of its predecessor... a defiant new world of fiercely synthetic shapes and galactic interference, pummelling skins and pure metals." i want to go to there! for now, frost has kindly posted a track from the album, "venter" for free streaming via soundcloud. nervously chiming bells, searing synths and heaving drums abound... tune in and hold on:

  
the album seems to be a collaborative effort, with frost getting some help from some friends. he's about to lead a live group on tour in support of the album, and i'll hope that some US dates are in order. i was able to see him perform here in chicago about four years ago and was really impressed. anyway, follow ben frost on facebook and twitter, and check out his homepage too. happy friday!

friday funk: dor - RA.180

an "oldie" but goodie, this is one of my favorite RA podcasts, and it still gets played pretty regularly. it comes from dor, an israeli dj and affiliate of the hamburg label dial and its offshoot laid. deep, smooth, emotional house music is the theme here, with plenty of dope detroit stuff (that moodymann jam!) and tracks like kassem mosse's "untitled" for laid and basic channel's "phylyps trak II." and no, it doesn't really sound like it's more than four years old. if you haven't tuned in yet, you must.

this is available to stream *and* download over at dor's soundcloud page, and you can find an interview and tracklist over at the RA podcast page. happy weekend time!

   RA.180 Dor (09.11.09) by dorl

friday funk: cio d'or!

it's friday, and it's almost time... for cio d'or to make her chicago debut!

cio will be coming to town tomorrow to play smart bar, and i am quite giddy with anticipation. in the wide world of techno (and electronic music in general), cio is one of my absolute favorite artists. she's also very warm and inspiring on a personal level; we had a nice long chat when i met her in detroit during movement festival a few years ago. she does not play in the US very often, and in 2014 she'll be focusing on her own music, and much less on touring. so, for those in or close to chicago who crave deep, hypnotic abstract techno, this one is not to be missed! (more details over at the facebook event page.)

to help get ready for tomorrow night, here's a selection of discogs links and youtube players with some of cio's music. i've started with two tracks from her 2009 LP for prologue, die faser - "goldbrokat", perhaps the album's most well-known track, along with my personal favorite "brokat".

cio d'or - goldbrokat


cio d'or - brokat

friday funk: mikkel metal - kenton (marcel dettmann remix)

it has been a busy week, but it is the weekend now... so here's this:

marcel dettmann recently put out his sophomore LP II, which follows his 2011 self-titled album, which has been one of my favorite techno full-lengths from recent years. i haven't given II a full listen yet; instead i'm gonna jump backwards in time - to 2009 - and revisit his super-dope remix of mikkel metal's "kenton".

to me, the original is decent if a bit by-the-numbers, while dettmann's take is one of his better remixes, as well as one of the best tracks to come from copenhagen's echocord label axis (the two-tracker was released on the echocord colour offshoot). cleverly counting out five measures at a time atop righteously syncopated kicks, it's a fantastic slice of noir-ish, dubbed-out techno. happy friday!

friday funk: luke slater, jeff derringer, lokua

happy friday! and now i'd like to share three varied shades of techno, a track from each of the three artists playing tomorrow night at smart bar: luke slater, jeff derringer, and lokua.

this should be a good one - it'll be slater's first chicago gig since 2002. you can learn more about this night with oktave and prosthetic pressings via this preview piece i wrote for ChicagoMusic.org - it's jam-packed with info and full of music links. head to the facebook event page for a few more details, and a reason to arrive early. read, listen, see you tomorrow!

(and thanks be to youtube, as usual.)

luke slater (as planetary assault systems) - call from the east | ostgut ton


jeff derringer - compassion | M_REC LTD


lokua - underly2 | CPKAY RCRDS

friday funk: oliver ho - seduced

some of oliver ho's tracks can be a bit hit or miss for me, but there's no doubt that he has made a ton of really interesting (and often unconventional) stuff over the years. recently, i grabbed a few of his older records, including the 2xLP listening to the voice inside from 2000. the strangely blissful "seduced", with its razor-sharp percussion and cut-up, spiraling female vocals, is one of that album's finest moments. listen below, then listen again, damnit... and have a happy friday!

friday funk: vladislav delay - huone

it's been a while, and i need to toss my computer out the window, so this edition of friday funk will be a quickie... sorta. "huone", which made its way into the fantastic cd multila, is one of my favorite tracks from vladislav delay - all 22 minutes of it. absolutely delicious! check it out below, and have a good weekend.

friday funk: see a weird new video for rossella's "phytoplankton" remix

time for friday funk! which today takes the form of a new video for a remix from rossella.

originally released back in 2011, rossella's reinterpretation was one of three for an original track from electric indigo and irradiation called phytoplankton; dasha rush and jennifer cardini completed the ladies-only digital EP. and now, we have this very strange visual accompaniment to rossella's charmingly spooky, syncopated effort. watch and listen:

... and if you seek some more sounds for your afternoon/evening, go tune in to rossella's wonderful anatomy mix from last year. happy friday!

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

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:

friday funk: RUSH

friday funk: terrence dixon - from the far future pt. 2

hey all, it's been a little while since my last post... but now here's this:

nax_acid's anatomy 01 turned three years old yesterday. and in related news, alan backdrop's anecumene [anatomy 09] turned two years old yesterday. both worth a(nother) listen, methinks. i'll have a few more anatomy mixes to share starting next month (probably).

but for this edition of friday funk, let's focus on something a little newer: terrence dixon's from the far future pt. 2, which was one of my favorite albums from 2012. this seems to have eluded me before, but it looks like the tresor label offers up full streams of a bunch of their more recent releases via soundcloud and it's there that you can tune into the 2xLP version of dixon's album. if you haven't heard it yet: shame on you, and here's your chance.

   TRESOR 256LP - Terrence Dixon - From The Far Future Pt.2 by Tresor.Berlin

friday funk: new jam from sleeparchive

sleeparchive recently shared (for streaming) a new track on his soundcloud page. you can check it out below... and join me in eagerly anticipating a new record from the german techno experimentalist, which will apparently be out "soon" on tresor.

friday funk: fresh mix from casual violence

coming at you with another quick edition of friday funk...

need some really weird techno to soundtrack your evening? then check it out: a new set from casual violence - who you may recall made this still-stunning anatomy mix back in late 2011. this one, called gestalt, was recorded for subsekt and broadcast on fnoob techno radio earlier this week. tracks from the likes of pan sonic, forward strategy group and silent servant are all put into play on this one. if you know what's good for you, you'll do it to it!

friday funk: a love from outer space

here's something particularly funky for your friday, thanks to a mix-of-the-day nod at RA...

a love from outer space is a party thrown in london (and beyond, occasionally) by UK stalwart andrew weatherall and DJing partner sean johnston. low-slung jams of all shapes and sizes - that appears to be the sound of the series, so this two-hour recording should be a perfect way to wind down your week (or wind up your weekend). fantastically diverse selection here, so expected the unexpected, and also some steve miller somewhere in the middle!



(oh, and you can hear the full four-hour set on mixcloud.)

friday funk - mixes

time for a frank friday funk discussion of some mixes, new and old, that you should check out this weekend:

juho kahilainen - end of irony | mixtape 2012 it's always a pleasure to see (hear) juho in the mix and here is a nifty selection, as usual, from the finnish artist. it features some stuff from the limited EP he put out this summer on M_REC LTD, we heard it coming (which i happily reviewed on RA), along with tracks from the likes of rrose and jeff mills... do it to it!

big strick - LWE podcast 144 super-dope deep house and raw techno from a detroit dj and producer. big strick has put out some very nice records on FXHE and his own label, 7 days ent., and here he wins extra points for mixing in a couple of my personal favorites from rick wade and gunnar wendel (aka kassem mosse).

Ø [phase] - RA.337 belgian imprint token has been one to watch recently, thanks in part to phase, who in early 2012 crafted one of the year's most anthemic techno records, binary opposition. (an excellent release that i think was subjected to an overly indulgent remix treatment.) this dj mix is one is for those who like their jams hard and fast.

abdulla rashim - prologue portefeuille podcast 04 an artist to watch, i say. abdulla rashim's tracks reveal a penchant for the driving, textured sounds that i'm such a big fan of, and his mixes are just as good. this one for prologue has been on constant repeat. it's easily one of my favorite mixes of the year, and working in what just might be my favorite track from giorgio gigli, "introspection," is always a huge plus.

neel - voices from the lake mix this set is a few years old, i think, and it 'pre-dates' the excellent voices from the lake collaborative album from neel and donato dozzy. if it's not obvious: all things deep are covered here. (thanks to mnml ssgs for posting a new official.fm link.)

that's all for now but be sure to watch this space next week for another mix: anatomy 20 is incoming...

friday funk: new record upcoming on haknam

fresh and exciting news from haknam - a shadowy berlin-based label whose slow but steady vinyl output has been very impressive: from emad parandian's marangai waikawa to last summer's fourth record, hubble's floating souls. next up, finally, is the fifth EP from the equally mysterious (to me at least) cyl. more deep, eclectic moods abound, along with some evocative photo artwork (seemingly from esther suave, who has done haknam's other vinyl artwork)... try out the samples below and check soundcloud for more details.

friday funk: sleeparchive

here's something certainly worth an hour of your ears: a 2006 live set from minimal techno maestro sleeparchive, found via soundcloud. now, no more talk, just bleep. happy friday!

friday funk

for now, just a handful of tracks that i've been feeling recently, arranged in a somewhat clever order, i hope. some new, some old, all tilted a bit towards the dark side...

(hear a full track from this project here)

friday funk: chris liebing at smart bar TONIGHT

more friday funk, no way? yes way. this one is for the chicago heads, tonight, at smart bar, with oktave and little white earbuds:

it's been a long time since chris liebing last came to chicago, and tonight shall be my first time seeing him in solo action. if you don't know, liebing is the mind behind the always-interesting techno label CLR, and the voice - that very charming voice - who commands the equally worth-your-time CLR podcast. i am looking forward to seeing what he puts together at smart bar. jeff derringer from oktave, who this week cooked up a set for smart bar's smart mix series, and qbot, fellow local dj and destination unknown radio host, will also play sets. enlighten yourself further by checking out a recent interview with LWE, and find any more details at facebook. see you there!