Today marks the release of Daft Punk’s highly anticipated album, “Random Access Memories” and last night, I had the honor and privilege to witness one of the collaborators from the album. With the help of the Red Bull Music Academy, Hansjörg Moroder, better known as Giorgio, the Italian disco icon, made his first DJ appearance in the United States yesterday at Output in Brooklyn, NY.

If you have never heard of Giorgio, he’s the man responsible for convincing Donna Summer to sing, helping the disco queen produce some of her greatest hits.  He’s also produced for notable artists such as David Bowie and Blondie amongst others.  Most recently, Giorgio helped produce track three on Daft Punk’s newly released album, titled “Giorgio by Moroder.”

Output was packed as can be last night.  I can’t remember the last time I was at a club crowded as yesterday’s event.  I was told this was the most requested event on the RBMA NYC 2013 schedule and they weren’t kidding.  

The producer came on just before 12:30am with his music director who assisted him for the entire set.  After a quick intro, it was disco time.  In his set, he performed “Racer,” a song he produced in collaboration with Google Chrome Experiments.  He then proceeded to play some disco classics such as “Love to Love You Baby,” “I Feel Love,” “On The Radio,” and “Hot Stuff,” all by the late Donna Summer.  To end his show, he recreated “Giorgio by Moroder,” which he kickstarted with his bio, just like on the Daft Punk album.  But unlike the abridged version, he gave us a little more info on his life.  Some interesting things he shared with us is that the bio on the album is actually shortened from three hours.  He also spoke about meeting Donna Summer for the first time and how he helped her come out of her shell by asking everyone in the studio to leave the room so he can have some “privacy” with her.  Then, this happened…

After the track, everyone in attendance showed their appreciation with an overwhelming round of applause and I had an epiphany…whoever said disco was dead must’ve been crazy.  

On the heels of Exit Earth’s promising 2011 EP, Peck, Heavy Eyes boasts a dirty, lo-fi approach accented by shoegazey breakdowns and surging choruses. The UK indie rock trio’s angsty debut LP should appeal to fans of Bloc Party and Interpol. “Brandon” starts things off with a catchy, propulsive chorus and earnest lyricism from frontman Symrun Johal. The song is followed by layers of fuzz sitting atop ample percussion on “Dalston Grilz,” making for one of the album’s high-water marks.

For all its strengths, there are moments on Heavy Eyes when Johal still seems to be finding his way vocally. “Sisters,” for instance, is a throwaway retro punk track that attempts to get by on energy alone and mercifully ends after a minute of unintelligible wailing. As the Leamington Spa, England band formed only two years back, inevitable kinks must be worked out before they’re able to kick over buildings with their bare feet. They’re off to a good start with Heavy Eyes.

After dropping the EP late last summer, denitia and sene are back at it again; this time with a full-fledged collaborative effort. Seven new tracks round out the LP which dropped on 19th, rightfully titled, “his and hers.” Being a big fan of the EP, this project was definitely a long awaited one. Right off the bat, the album starts off with seven tracks produced by Sene (with some post-production and instrumentation help provided by Jay Jennings, Sly5thave and Cooper Heffley). The promise of head bopping production is not lost on this one and denitia starts right where she left off, serenading the crap out of you with her smooth voice.

The standout tracks to check out are casanova., again. (new ride.), trip.fall. and the three original tracks from the EP (she’s not the only one., how to satisfy., and blah blah blah.). This is honestly one of the best projects of 2013 thus far and I strongly encourage all of you to take a listen to the stream below and if you like it, support your independent artists and pick up their LP via iTunes.

Big shout out to J57 and DeeJay Element (Brown Bag AllStars) who were involved in producing both she’s not the only one. and how to satisfy.

because we are fools.
call u.
casanova. *
again. (new ride.) $
lucy,loosie. ^
trip.fall.
stupid world.
she’s not the only one. +
how to satisfy. +-
blah blah blah. =

performed by denitia and sene.
produced by sene.
+ produced by deejayelement and j57.
+-produced by j57.
=produced by illingsworth and nolan thies.
*bass by sly5thave
$post-production by jay jennings
^baby grand piano and trumpets by jay jennings. percussion by cooper heffley.
mixing/post production by nolan thies.
mastering by joe rogers.

It’s no secret that we’ve been anticipating Jarell Perry’s Debut LP, Simple Things, for more than a hot minute.  Released earlier last week, Perry and his camp decided to drop the LP for free.  

It’s easy to draw comparisons between Jarell and the current class of Alt-R&B cross genre artists which includes Miguel, Frank Ocean, and The Weeknd.  As indicative of this class of talents, Perry and producer Hassan musically dip into aural exchanges between EDM, Hip Hop, R&B, and points in between.  Ultimately, however, what sets him apart from this new breed of talents is a much fuller and developed vocal quality; where his peers thrive on fluttering falsettos and such, Perry’s brand of crooning rests on the sublime perfection in his voice.

Jarell effortlessly glides through Hassan’s production work, together elevating the LP from ‘just another free indie-R&B record/mixtape’ into an artistic and diverse delivery of R&B.   We’ve previously featured three tracks from the album, Getaway, First Time, and Aviation High.  While these three tracks are a good sampling of Perry’s work, the LP does much with regard to really fleshing him out as an singer and truly giving you a look at his proclivities as an artist.  There is an almost unbridled restraint in the way that he projects his vocals and emotions through the LP, which works well on 9 2 5‘s flip on Temper Trap’s Love Lost and on the dubstep infused Happy 4 U.   Speaking on behalf of his genre-bending, it is an impressive feat when an artist can jump his sound from that of a more traditional balladeer on All Aboard, flip his vocal coverage to something more akin to Bruno Mars on If It Ain’t Too Late, and also dance his voice around heavy EDM styled bender, Wake Up.  ILWYHO (short for I Love What You Have On) is an excellent example of wrapping all of these sounds and stylings into a neat package, as he is able to shift back and forth between the aforementioned Mars styled influences and a more open vocal approach during the tracks shift between its airy R&B beat shift to its EDM/D&B flavored upbeat.

As commercial debuts go, Simple Things is an impressively solid effort, which is made even more so by the fact that his artistic approach and mix of different musical styles does not feel forced.  There is a certain level of respect and reverence paid by Jarell to the different genres that he has explored through the course of the LP, and that is what makes this album worth listening to.

Bonus Nod

• Peep his unexpected vocal interpolation of Paula Cole’s I Don’t Want To Wait aka the Dawson’s Creek Theme Song on Perfect.
• Also… we need to get a collab between Jarell, Hassan, and Def Sound together… peep this for evidence… pretty amazong track if you ask me.

For More Information:

Jarell Perry | Download Link To LP Here on his Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Youtube | Tumblr | iTunes | Spotify

Special thanks to:

Candice, Grant, and Kim for getting us learnt on JP.

One of the interesting things about the existence of a group like Autechre is the reaction from those who experience the duo’s ever-changing music.  There are those who cling to the first few albums, checking in for the next 20 years to critique and long for a return to Sean Booth and Rob Brown’s ambient techno style; many graduate and fixate on 2000’s Confield, judging every subsequent album according to that standard (and many of those fans initially dismissed and now either repent or play off their feedback for that record as being too complicated and “cold”).  Regardless of the opinion, these people all have one, and it’s often a really fervent online-forum-esque rant.  Anything that causes this much passion and tension must have something to it.

The other admirable trait Booth and Brown possess is that, at this point in their career, they seemingly only respond and react to their own work (I will follow up on that in a moment).  Despite also being at the top of their inimitable game, with most of the Warp Label pioneers, the listener can still trace an influence and critics can string together genre / name-dropping, such as the drum ‘n’ bass and prog-rock legacies in Squarepusher, or the folkish contingent in Boards of Canada, or the obsession with Acid in even golden god Aphex Twin (again, that is not meant to take anything away from these artists’ heritage). Autechre’s singular voice of mid 20th Century pioneers of Concréte meets latter half of that era’s electro / hip-hop keeps being just that: singular, incomparable and seemingly un-phased by anything but their last record.  I digress, but see the last paragraph for insight into this tangent (and I had to show some sort of worth and tenure in the lexicon as I approach the Ae tribunal).

In 2010, Autechre released Oversteps, a marked “new direction” (or, in parallel with any scientific community, a “new discovery”, or, if you are in business, “disruptive innovation”, the new term for “game changer) for Booth and Brown’s construction of organic robotics with feeling(s).  Less focused on a blaring spotlight of “beats”, Oversteps explores dense synthesized melodies and flouncing, blizzard-like processing (Brown from the liner notes: “This time we didn’t want to make a beat-centric album, but we wanted to challenge ourselves with using space while still retaining a rhythm.”)  Taking in the innovation and technological advancement of the onscreen / literary universes where Blade Runner and Tron are set (add in the Cantina Band on Tatooine and The Enterprise bar set in 2360), one can imagine Oversteps as what music in The Future could be.

Exai continues in the march of Oversteps’ two themes: liquidity and tumult.  The album is based on the classic threefold: drum machine, bass machine, something churning out leads and sustained pads; copious reverb, clever compression (note “nodezsh” which decays for the last minutes, the duo applying a hard stop on the limiter and ducking knobs with each pass of repeating synth stab) and virtuosic filtering works as a palette knife to chip around at the vanilla, discarding or turning the flecks into other ideas to squish back into the mix.  However, closing your eyes, the music visually inspires an onslaught of the biggest, toughest alien versions of these engines that dwarf Daft Punk’s pyramid; turn these on, let them run wild (there is a “live” performed feel throughout the tracks) between 80 and 150 BPM and listen to Ae command and juggle the reigns of this beast.  On the macro scale, there is an effortless movement, mixture and congruity despite the disparate palette and techniques that shouldn’t work together (or at least baffle most engineers when trying to mix juxtapositions and explosive collisions). Looking at each hand-crafted sound*, there is a meticulous treatment of every single sonic event; tumult, as in an ever-so-slight-to-extreme interruption to the quantization of a rhythmic pattern, a variety of attack, decay, delay, dynamics, fizzle etc. on every snare hit.

A common sentiment inserted during interviews with and reviews of Autechre is “they don’t care what anyone thinks”.  No, that’s reserved for the guy who turns on an unwavering square wave, shrieks and spends 45 minutes flipping off the audience and pounding vodka (or those guys who continue to try to trick you with Trap and Autotune).  Based on the tremendous effort expended on forging this two-hour, weirdly-embraceable cactus, the duo is obviously dedicated to bringing you perfection.

The fancy physical version of Exai (quadruple album or double CD packaged by The Designers Republic) is available March 5^th, 2013 in the US, but the legal download is available from Bleep.com.

* For example “Flep” whose construction resembles the aural events I experienced while discovering a leak in the kitchen, examining it, trying to repair with a hammer, ripping the sink out and laboriously repairing it – except chop up every one second event and assemble it into something Antipop Consortium or cLOUDDEAD alumni might rap over.

After signing with Stones Throw, Homeboy Sandman has been riding a crest of critical smileys including a nod from the notoriously rap-unfriendly Rolling Stone. This is his second EP in quick succession following on the heels of late January’s Subject Matter. Cats got open to “The Miracle” and “Cops Get Scared Of Me” kept it moving, albeit in a more sublime direction. Chimera features more of these type nonpareils.

“Illuminati” requires utmost attention and really needs to be revisited a few times to appreciate. “Look Out” is the total package with a truncated Men Without Hats loop provided by Paul White and lyrics that are both self-deprecating (“male pattern baldness symbolic of my crown of thorns”) and clever (“paddle ball with the Padawans”). Most listeners don’t mind being challenged but without a beat to nod along to, what’s the point.

The Sandman also provides his fans with some stunning video components. Where “Mine All Mine” (off Subject Matter) was seemingly a bit of a family affair, “Hold Your Head” is a more introverted look at the artist’s struggle and psyche. The song is poignant and timely for many of us.

While he may not be photogenic enough to become a true blog darling, HS delivers product that will satisfy an equally fickle demographic, that of the hip-hop purist. With this charismatic effort, Sandman has proven to be the audio equivalent of creeper weed.

Not blessed with the most immediately engaging vocal quality, Sandman’s unorthodoxy will lose some of the uninitiated, but that may be a good thing. Buy this record and look forward to his full-length coming before the Mayan Apocalypse.

4 Stars.

URB recently sat down with the Brooklyn duo to talk rap, Vera Ward Hall, and reality.

URB: How long did the album take to make, and what was your process like?

Eibol: The album took a year and a half to create from start to finish.

Cidida: As far as process goes, we knew from the jump we didn’t want it to be a conventional hip-hop album. So the only guideline we had was, there shouldn’t be a guideline — the music should reflect all the influences we gathered up until the point of creating this album.

Eibol: We’d watch documentaries and listen to everything from Prince to Vera Ward Hall, hit up different museums and galleries before we would sit down to create. Once we began cooking up we relied heavily on the instinct and feeling in the room at the time, vibing off one another.

URB: Was there a particular statement you wanted to make with the album?

Eibol: We wanted this record to connect with people from all walks of life using both humanity and emotion as a catalyst.

Cidida: Yeah, there tends to be a giant gap between what a lot of artists in the spotlight are talking about and what everyday people are going through. We wanted to focus on reality.

Eibol: On this record we want to show people it’s okay to be “Sorry”, to have “Belief” — as well as take a stand to “Do Something”. That was important for us.

URB: Where do you think you fit in todays music scene?

Cidida: Our goal isn’t to fit in to any particular scene. Thats the problem with classification, you end up boxing yourself in trying to meet the markets standards. Have you seen the markets standards? It couldn’t be less involved with the concern of actual talent. They place a spotlight on image and ignorance over originality and skill. So to answer your question, we’re more concerned with creating our own scene than fitting in.

URB: How has the music landscape changed since your last release?

Eibol: The obvious change for me would be companies as well as fans have gone totally digital. I can remember when it was corny to say you had online fans. Now it’s all about how many downloads you have and how many followers you rack up. I like it though, it allows a lot of power and freedom at our fingertips. You can do so much more on your own now to connect with people. That is until the powers that be start fucking with bandwidth.

URB: Whats next?

Cidida: Touring around the album, creating new music as well as implementing live instrumentation to my repertoire.

Eibol: Staying busy, Cidida and I already have plans for the next project together… I also have an EP in the works I’m producing for Key Huggins who was featured on “Jewels” and “Why”.

DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM FREE AT: www.ludwigcanyouhearme.com

De La has made a career out of doing the opposite of what their fans may have wanted. Exhibit A, De La Soul Is Dead. Daisy-Aged suburbanites wanted another 3 Feet High Rising, instead they got something altogether darker (perhaps their second best album, IMHO). Buhloone Mind State took another left turn, departing from the derisive “Ring, Ring, Ring” shit and while Stakes Is High may have circled the wagons (featuring a developing Dilla and the discovery of Yasiin Mos Def Bey), many pundits were non-plussed. When the Plugs finally returned in 2000 with the AOI series (keep in mind they never finished the trilogy), many fans wanted more “Ooh” (featuring Redman) and less Ghost Weed. The Grind Date may have been their only other album asshole critics and jack-ass fans didn’t get riled up about but that was 8 years ago.

So it is with great disappointment to report, this is De La’s most unsatisfying ‘record’ to date. The concept is always relevant and well-conceived and who better to offer cautionary tales about “making it” in the rap/music industry than the Amityville duo. However, the production end (provided by French tandem Chokolate & Khalid), while soulful in more than one spot, is just plain tinny in too many others. Try as the old-head might, it is difficult to pinpoint even one song he might want to revisit. De La’s lyrical content has always been dense, but this album comes off like a mostly unfunny episode of Monty Python. Heavy on the inside jokes and light on the Ministry Of Silly Walks bits.

De La mastered the art of the hip-hop skit with the help of Prince Paul (and one can’t help to view First Serve as their answer to Paul’s A Prince Among Thieves) but why they felt the need to make a whole album out of an extended gag is simply baffling. Perhaps posted up in Paris on the Rive Gauche counting their Gorillaz loot sipping Pernods and chowing on Quiche Lorraine made them just a bit hoity-toity and disconnected. This album may just find its time, but now is not it.

No one who creates art for the masses is above criticism (they signed on for this) and while some fools will try to prop up De La as sacred cows, this attempt at mocking the whole musical landscape just isn’t sharp or fun enough. The accompanying artwork and videos land somewhere between the domain of Yo Gabba Gabba and that unforgivable Mase & Blinky Blink song/vid from The Rugrats Movie back in ‘98-’99. If only the album played out as well as the Tumblr page for it.

This is not a bad record, just not what the game needed from De La at the moment. Yes the music industry is a maze designed by the Children Of The Corn, we all get that. But that’s precisely why we hoped De La would save the day again. There’s no “Rock.Co.Kane.Flow” here, nothing you could even consider zoning out to, just a bunch of satirical anecdotes from the Plugs’ 20+ years in the Babylon trap. De La does their own thing, they always have, no one can be mad at them for that, it’s just too bad the fruits of their labor wound up dead on the vine this time.

For the Scorekeepers: a reluctant 3 stars. Commence talking points.

All that has changed with his second Ghostly LP, Planet High School. Mux Mool now seems completely at ease with his creations and ready to take listeners on a journey through sound that’s at once cohesive and contrasting. No single sound is on display, but common touchstones keep things united throughout with beats hitting with a ringing force that is further emphasized with chimes and bells lingering around the breaks. Like many of the individual tracks, the album follows a path that while easily discernable, still retains a satisfyingly deep variety of styles and influences. The changes phase in naturally with the ups and downs showing up as comfortable surprises.

Things start off with deep, chunky beats and murky melodies on “Brothers” before “Live At 7-11” unleashes harsher breaks as it delineates the build, topple, rebuild things a bit differently cycle that eventually emerges as the album’s overriding theme. By the middle of the set he lets loose his most mesmerizing creation. “The Butterfly Technique” wanders through sample after sample to create far more distinct musical moments than would seem possible, even with its unhurried six-minute runtime. “Hand on the Scranton” brings forth a sly rhythm that seems to walk backwards with a bit of sly funk on top, but sadly, the album version is missing the oddly perfect Steve Miller Band sample that graced early promos, which leaves the song a bit short on excitement. From here on out, the album hits harder with refined versions of the electro breaks of Mux Mool’s past before closer “Baba” carries things off with spacious grooves and restrained rhythms.

By the time the set has run through its 43-minute lifespan, it’s clear Mux Mool hit a stride with these creations. The songs have room to breath. The effects are wielded with a lighter hand. The overall esthetic is curated and refined so no song locks too tightly into itself. Instead his beats grow and change, synthesizing routes to new views of the previously defined scene. This is a disc with massive high points and few low moments. It seems that just when Mux Mool understand High School, it might be time for him to graduate on to something bigger.

Rather than one long trip, each track renders more like a different strand of greenery and the occasional water pipe full of Salvia Divinorum. Some are intense head rushes, others are creeper highs. No tripping balls with bats flying around you somewhere near Barstow stuff though. Instant rushes are felt on tracks like “Drink Up” featuring Roc Marciano, “Dump Truck” featuring Prodigy & “Gladiator Shit” featuring Kool G. Rap while others like “Top Instructors” and “Odds Cracked” require a few coughs to take effect. The Alchemist, while still an average-at-best MC, manages to pull off the rhyming act on most tracks, noted improvements over many of his lyrical endeavors (his penchant for fecal-themed raps is not a good look though). In contrast, Oh No is developing nicely on the mic, his nasal baritone rests favorably against these irreproachable knocks. The production here is sharp and insightful, more straight-ahead than the Gutter Water project, dirty boom bap at its finest.

The interjections and cut-aways punctuating above and below the tracks are sublime and often hilarious, much like the promo videos the Decon crew collected/conjured on Livers For Sale (personal favorite is dude with the pipe and Mr. Miyagi headband). This is just one entertaining ride for hardcore hip-hop fans all the way down the corridor, one that economically rocks your knot at just under 42 minutes. First quarters are usually lackluster, early 2012 may just be remembered as the winter of Ayahausca. Dedicated to those that wanna hear moves.