As May rolls around each year, many dance music fans in America and around the world instinctively reach for their wallets and begin making preparations for Detroit’s annual electronic music festival, Movement.
Author Archive: Steve Mizek
LWE Podcast 51: Matthew Styles
It’s our great pleasure to bring you LWE’s 51st exclusive podcast — more than an hour of expertly mixed and cunningly catchy house music — by Matthew Styles. It took more than a year to orchestrate, but this irresistible mix proved well worth the wait.
DOTW: The Juan MacLean, Feel So Good
This week’s Download of the Week arrives care of Studio !K7 and Juan MacLean — “Feel So Good” being the exclusive track on his DJ-Kicks mix.
Download of the Week: SECT, Thieve $crilla
LWE’s latest Download of the Week comes from self-described Culprit boy band, SECT, who offer up their new tune “Thieve $crilla.”
Unknown artist, The Freeze/The Melt Down
The latest record to receive Juno’s largess tries to seem anonymous in spite of its striking, purple marbled vinyl and a garrulous press sheet that makes The Freeze/The Melt Down seem like a blind item: Which boldfaced U.S. house producer drew dancers to the booths at Panorama Bar and Fabric with this incognito platter?
DOTW: Tampopo, Helicopters Got Cameras (tobias. Remix)
To celebrate five years of existence, Belgium’s Curle Recordings rounds up some of its favorite tracks and makes Tobias Freund’s remix of “Helicopters Got Cameras” by Tampopo available for free.
DOTW: Tin Man, Scared
The vaguely mysterious Tin Man has surfaced once again to release his newest album, Scared, on US record label White Denim, offering the title track as an intriguing aperitif.
Little White Earbuds Interviews Kyle Hall
Save your free pass for another youngster: Kyle Hall gets by perfectly fine on his own merits. Boundlessly optimistic and precocious to boot, it was my pleasure to speak with Hall in advance of his Movement ’10 appearance about his passion for the visual arts, how he’s dealt with success, and the future as he sees it.
DOTW: The Hundred In The Hands, Dressed in Dresden (Kyle MF Hall Remix)
Warp wisely recruits Detroit’s latest rising star, Kyle “MF” Hall, to remix dance punk duo The Hundred In the Hands’ “Dressed In Dresden.”
DOTW: Gadi Mizrahi & Soul Clap, Beautiful Thang
Download of the Week is a new feature on LWE in which we showcase the best MP3 giveaway we snapped up in the last seven days. Things kick off with a free track from Gadi Mizrahi & Soul Clap.
LWE Podcast 49: Dan Curtin
In anticipation of Lifeblood, his ninth album, we grabbed Dan for LWE’s 49th exclusive podcast — an hour of “Dirtysexxxy” house and techno, as he put it. Mr Curtin was also generous enough to answer a few of our questions about how his surroundings have impacted his sound, the importance of hip-hop, and his tireless thirst for sonic innovation.
LWE Podcast 48: Aaron-Carl
We’re proud to present our 48th exclusive podcast from Aaron-Carl, a light but thoroughly gripping mix of unexpected house cuts and some of his own savored selections. This is also our first podcast offered at 320 kbps, something we look forward to continuing in the future.
LWE Podcast 47: Agnès
For LWE’s 47th exclusive podcast, Agnès brandishes his considerable DJing talents across an hour of achingly well mixed house music, including a clutch of hot unreleased tracks and remixes.
Kyle Hall, Kaychunk/You Know What I Feel
In a city with a rich and diverse cultural heritage like Detroit, it’s not difficult to understand how so many of its native electronic music producers have avoided being penned into a single genre like techno. Following in the footsteps of artists like Kenny Dixon Jr. and Anthony “Shake” Shakir, Theo Parrish and Omar-S, young turk Kyle Hall is the latest to throw off the yoke of listener expectations and create without concern for categories. Hall was raised by a creative clan who engulfed him in house music at an early age and fostered his innate talents with an education at the Detroit School for the Arts. Add to that unfettered access to a world’s worth of music care of the Internet (something his predecessors could only dream of) and you’ve got a free-thinking, well-equiped producer for whom genre boundaries are as outmoded as landline phone service. So far in his relatively brief discocraphy he’s offered everything from delectable house melodies and grinding techno grooves to loose-limbed hip-hop beats and sprawling jazzy excursions. The genrebusters at Hyperdub proved keenly aware of his capabilities when they asked him to remix Darkstar’s “Aidy’s Girl Is A Computer” and positively prescient in nabbing him for his own 12″, Kaychunk/You Know What I Feel. It’s easily his most accomplished release to date.
LWE reviews Speaking In Code
For many Americans, most electronic dance music lacks the overt personality they demand from music, as it carries on without an obvious beginning or ending and can be reduced to an easy to mock “oontz oontz oontz.” Aware of this popular perception, Amy Grill placed the focus of her documentary, Speaking In Code, on contemporary artists and important figures in techno and house scenes rather than examining their history or the finer points of sub-genres. Early on, Grill (who narrates the film) states that her hope is to rehabilitate electronic dance music in Americans’ eyes. But given the difficulty of their task, it’s easy to forgive them for doing more to contrast the tribulations of passionate American techno fans with the wealth of choices and opportunities open to artists and their fans across Europe.
Lindstrøm & Christabelle, Real Life Is No Cool
At this point in Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s musical career, audiences know he can go the distance. The Norwegian producer first cruised over the ramparts of Oslo’s relatively small music scene and into DJs’ crates on the backs of lengthy, interstellar disco grooves made for heaving dance floors. Collaborating with compatriot Prins Thomas on their self-titled and II albums, the pair refined extended jam sessions into still sizable explorations of the spaces between funk, prog, and Kraut rock at Balearic tempos. And then there was Lindstrøm’s 2008 opus, Where You Go I Go Too, whose three elongated movements streamlined into one epic excursion through the hyper-colorful depths of his creative vision, rendered with a grandiosity redolent of Vangelis. Going long has its drawbacks as well, like relegating Lindstrøm to niche markets too narrow for such a multi-talented musician. The dilemma he faces, then, is showing he can be concise while maintaining the appealing traits teased out of his lengthier tracks. With long-time collaborator Christabelle by his side, Lindstrøm tackles that challenge on their new full-length, Real Life Is No Cool.
Steffi ft. Elif Biçer, Kill Me
One of Ostgut Ton’s greatest strengths has always been the canny A&R work involved in each release. Their ear for talent is nearly unmatched in contemporary house and techno, having provided big breaks for Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Tama Sumo and Marcel Fengler, and hosted career milestones by Shed, Prosumer & Murat Tepeli, and Cassy. Yet there is no sign of Ostgut Ton resting on their laurels or their reputation as the label arm of Berlin’s most highly regarded clubs. The imprint’s first release of 2010 is also Panorama Bar resident Steffi’s debut solo single, one so skillfully and confidently produced it all but insures everyone involved will reap rewards for their efforts.
Download: Derek Plaslaiko, The Unforeseen
Chances are that if you heard Derek Plaslaiko’s name mentioned in the last 15 years or so it was in the context of his internationally renowned DJ sets. These days, however, it seems his focus has shifted towards producing music instead of placing it in context. As an appetizer for his set at the Bunker Unsound Edition 1 on Friday, February 5th, Plaslaiko is giving away “The Unforeseen,” his production debut. The tune can also be found on Halcyon’s free Unsound Festival New York Compilation. We also had a quick chat with Derek about the tune, how a long DJing career impacts his productions, and his new focus on making music.
Little White Earbuds Interviews Todd Edwards
Rare is the artist who can credibly claim their music inspired a musical movement; and while New Jersey producer Todd Edwards might not suggest so himself, there are plenty of admirers who would jump at the chance do it for him. His effervescent brand of garage house is the result of a visionary’s ear for making disparate sample sources fit together to create dazzling new melodies — moving mosaics that have influenced producers well beyond the limits of underground dance music. His tracks for i! Records and Nervous and remixes for everyone from St. Germain to Kim English were like a lit match for the U.K. dance music scene’s fuse, setting off an explosion of sample heavy 2-step that’s still smoldering today. Feverish fans even dubbed him Todd “The God,” although as a devout Christian he would likely prefer the title “Man of God.” His faith has certainly colored and informed his music, often in the form of positive, sometimes even praise-styled lyrics. But what might seem like a risky move for music geared towards a largely secular community only further distinguishes Edwards as an artist who believes completely in the messages laced throughout his work and has the guts to be forthcoming about it. After a few years spent on the sidelines, Todd Edwards is back with a raft of new tunes, remixes, and finally a legitimate way to procure his hard to find back catalog. He was kind enough to talk with me via phone about his methods, his message, and the Almighty in his life.