Sufjan Stevens – Futile Devices (Shigeto Remix)

It’s been over a year since Sufjan Stevens released The Age of Adz, a gloriously sprawling and hyperactive masterpiece whose opening track, Futile Devices, provides the only nod to a back catalogue largely devoted to delicate, spartan folk. Given the track’s fragility it’s not an obvious candidate for a remix – but even the term remix seems odd in this case.

Shigeto hasn’t touched the track’s original stems, choosing simply to effortlessly overlay the start of Sufjan’s paean with shimmers, twitches and clicks before dropping a languorous bass line and two-step beat that lend a beautifully woozy swagger to its coda. The overall result leaves the original altered, but not obscured; I would say it’s not so much a remix as a modification. Either way, it’s definitely worth your attention.

Image is by Matthias Heiderich

Emeralds – Does It Look Like I’m Here (Daphni Remixes)

Daphni, the solo incarnation of the restlessly and relentlessly talented Dan Snaith (Caribou, Manitoba), has just released a brace of remixes for Emeralds’ album track Does It Look Like I’m Here. The quality is unsurprisingly high and the result is as expected; two sprawling tracks of kinetic synthscapes and hefty proto-techno. Good, good.

Image is by Martien Mulder.

Pete Swanson – Do You Like Students?

No, Pete, I do not like students. Because they do fun things like read and learn and think and write, not turn their readings and learnings and thinkings and writings into commodities for their own expedited destruction. And, Pete, unlike the Murphy’s, I am very bitter indeed.

Nearly 12 minutes of new Pete Swanson. Yours to download. Way better than students.

Image is by David Habben.

Max Bondi – Convolution

Head of London-based Tartaruga records and ex-BHN member Max Bondi’s first full release, an album of subtly glowing, glowering and glittering electronica entitled M, came out to the fanfare of a small but appreciative few back in 2009. Since then he’s been working on various different projects, the culmination of which is an increased level of output for the label and a new solo record. This new offering sees him delving deep into the recesses of the electronic palette. Starting with spacious, glacial tones the album slowly builds its levels of complexity, intensity and emotion. Layers of drones flow under stuttering arpeggiators whilst shifting phases drift in and out of time, miring all with an invasive viscerality that seems to constrict blood vessels. The album’s zenith comes in the last four tracks as levels of scintillatingly abrasive bitter-sweetness are reached and the coup de grace is finally delivered. Check out the beautiful visualization of this moment in the video by Petrels and BHN frontman Oli Barrett, as well as the album in an exclusive full stream, below.

Image is by Andreas Gursky.

Blondes – Blondes

Here’s a little something for you to get your weekend chops around – the new full-length LP from the Brooklyn-via-Berlin duo of smooth, jacking, Chicago-inflected house purveyors that is Blondes. The last 18 or so months has seen them release a flurry of 12”s and an EP that have kept our attentions locked and our feet itching for something more juicy and substantial. Thankfully that wish has now been fulfilled and the result is about as satisfying as we ever could have hoped for. If it doesn’t see them catapulted into the limelight, becoming staples of 2012 festivals and indie music press, then we will be very surprised indeed.

Stream the whole of CD1 below and then head over to label du jour RVNG Intl. to pick up the full double disc release.

Image is safari from Sathya.H’s Flickr stream.

Julia Holter – Ekstasis

If Julia Holter’s spellbinding album Tragedy managed to pass you by last year then you really missed out. It’s a mercurial, meandering, genre-defying record that seems to shift and change under inspection, revealing hidden treasures on every listen. However, seeing as the digital age slows for no one you better get yourself up to speed quickly, as this itchingly restless artist is set to release another album in March on RVNG Intl. To whet your appetite here are a couple of teasers, but for the real deal we’d highly recommend you delve into her beautiful world fully and pick up that copy of Tragedy. Go on, treat yourself.

Image is by Emily Maye.

Porter Ricks – Biokinetics

After stamping their authority on the world of electronic music in 2011 with Pete Swanson’s Man With Potential, one of the finest and most complex dark techno-noise records of the year, Type Recordings have quickly reasserted themselves in early 2012 with another heavyweight offering of pitch black subterranean sounds. This comes in the form of  Porter Ricks’ 1996 classic Biokinetics, a long out of print release that re-framed the genre and became something of a holy grail for techno fans. Frostily sparse, hauntingly minimal and disturbingly heavy, its originality and experimentation makes it feel as fresh today as it ever has done. Check out the album in full here.

Image is by Herbert Pfostl. Delve into his Paper Graveyard here.

Barberos – Les Noisettes

So, for whatever reason, the old two-drum-kits-and-a-synth lineup isn’t one that’s particularly in vogue at the moment. Nor, for that matter, are we likely to see too many modern beat combos thrashing said instruments whilst clad in skin tight spandex onesies. Thankfully Liverpool’s Barberos have stepped forward to plug both gaps.

I caught them at an all dayer in Manchester last summer and was blown away, both by their virtuoso Lightning Bolt-isms and by the unforgiving cut of their body suits. It was mostly the virtuoso bit though, and to be honest it’s a little facile simply to compare them to Lightning Bolt because there’s more to them than that, much of which is beautifully evidenced below. The track is, as yet, unmixed, which promises much for their imminent EP , so if you like what you hear then go and see them live because they will tear you a new arsehole. For cereal.

Drawing is by Patti Jordan

Pete Swanson & Rene Hell – Waiting For The Ladies

Pete Swanson & Rene Hell were strong contenders for our favourite electronic artists of 2011. The former’s incredible Man With Potential made sweet romance with the most abrasive palette possible, combining heavyweight industrial techno and penetrative electronic drones with a startling and quite unfathomable accessibility. The latter’s beautiful The Terminal Symphony was a magnum synth opus, veering from coruscating arpeggios to glittering dreamscapes into deep, soporific ecstasies. If you haven’t heard either of them yet just click on the links above to treat yourselves to a treacly teet of a treat.

However, if you’re already au fait with the men in question no such introduction will be necessary. Simply bask in the joy of the news concerning the re-release of their excellent split LP, Waiting For The Ladies, courtesy of the Brussels-based Shelter Press. Thanks guys. Great work.

Click here to stream the tracks on the Shelter Press website.

Image is by Ansel Adams.

Nova Scotian Arms / Motion Sickness of Time Travel – Crystal Anniversary

Celebrations all round here. First off, happy new year from us. What did you get up to over the Christmas break? You hung about with your family and ate and drank too much and got some presents? Ah, how nice. Us too! And what did you get up to for new year? Wait, you did WHAT? Jesus man, that’s pretty rank. Sucks that all your vastly overpriced counselling has done you so few favours. I’d ask for a refund if I were you.

Sorry. Just bored of that conversation. Can’t have it again. Please someone tell me something that sparks more than feigned interest and an ‘oh, ahmmm’.

There is a proper celebration to be had though. Congratulations to Grant and Rachel Evans, AKA Nova Scotian Arms and MSOTT, respectively, on their crystal wedding anniversary and eponymous, newly released split LP. Hurrah! And congratulations too to Camilla Padgitt-Coles on putting together such a beautiful video to herald the festivities. Wahey!

2012 off to a blinder.

Tomutonttu – Siat Nousevat Vuorelle (Brenna Murphy video)

I was going to jump into this post with an explanation of recent negligence in terms of post capacity, citing various factors such as Christmas partying and… er… well that’s the problem. It’s as far as I got. And it’s not really much of a viable excuse, is it? So I’ll glaze over that tangent and get straight down to business.

This is a video by Brenna Murphy, a Portland-based video artist, for a track by Tomutonttu, the solo project of Finnish sound artist Jan Anderzen (who is also the frontman of Kemialliset Ystävät). Presumably that’s enough information for you to process right now. It’s made me quite tired just writing it. So I’ll resign any attempts at description to the might-do-later bin and just put up the video itself. There.

Image is by Manuel Birnbacher.

Pete Swanson – Man With Potential [Full Album Stream]

As a very brief addendum to our earlier post, and because so many people seem to have fallen as swiftly and comprehensively under Pete Swanson’s spell as we have, here’s Man With Potential available to stream in full. Once you’ve listened and you’ve liked, please do pay a visit to the Type records website. It’s one of the best labels in the world and their unerring belief in digital publicity should be supported with your pounds, pence, dollars and cents.

Image is by another land artist, Andy Goldsworthy.

M. Geddes Gengras / Miko Revereza – Refractions

Just to round the day off, here’s a little segment of a new collaborative VHS project between psychedelic electro-wanderer M. Geddes Gengras and lo-fi analogue video artist Miko Revereza. It touches on a lot of the hauntologic, retrograde aesthetics of James Ferraro and Ducktails but with a matching visual athleticism to boot. Check out a sample below and, if you’re feeling flush, pick up a copy here. Preferably to watch whilst driving through a neon desert in your pink DeLorean.

Image is from Jane Thomas’ Flickr stream.

Pete Swanson – Man With Potential

As extreme anathema (tautology?) to our last post, here’s a terror-inducing snippet from Pete Swanson’s (formerly of Yellow Swans fame) killer new LP, Man With Potential. Fans of dark, industrial techno – a la Prurient and Blackest Ever Black fare – and eardrum-perforating extreme electronic noise – in the vein of Kevin Drumm, Pita or, well , Yellow Swans – should rejoice that something that so perfectly combines both styles has come along to wrench their lives into vivid, overwhelming darkness. However those not into the two aforementioned musical genres should probably hide themselves under their bed-sheets forthwith. Pussies.

Image is by Jim Denevan.

Olli Aarni – Ylitse

Some of you may be familiar with Ous Mal, the previous incarnation of Finnish soft-tone and tape-loop artist Olli Aarni (and his girlfriend Iris), as they’ve released a number of CDs and cassettes over the years on various labels. However, many of you may well not be. We’re not, for a start.

To remedy this crying shame you could do much worse than opening yourself up to their beautiful world by listening to this new solo offering, out now on Avant Archive. It’s some of the most elegantly simple yet breathtakingly affecting music we’ve heard for a while. Soporifically blissful and somnolently beautiful. So long afternoon…

Image is by photographer and filmmaker Carrie Schneider.

Pinch & Shackleton

As the weekend looms like an overbearing, bristly-bearded uncle telling you to ‘bloody well enjoy your game of Christmas charades’, what better way to partake in the festivities and shimmy swiftly and effortlessly into your new, uninhibited role than slapping on a spanking new track from the dark lords of the dancefloor, Pinch & Shackleton. After stellar solo careers the two have finally made the logical leap to a collaboration and dang was it a good step. The eponymous LP can be purchased from all good online retailers (JFGI) and the lead track can be streamed below (BWFNTY – (because we’re fucking nice to you)). Happy Friday every body.

Image is by El Lissitzky, a selection of whose work is currently showing in the Building The Revolution exhibition at the Royal Academy. It’s very good.

Grapefruit

Shout-outs due to the ever excellent 20 Jazz Funk Greats (the blog, not the recently re-released Throbbing Gristle album – that’s another story) for drawing our attention to Portland-based synthster Grapefruit. It’s like the soundtrack to a journey on an Amstrad PCW flight simulator to a distant intergalactic world populated by conceptual binary beings inhabiting a synergetic realm of pixilated flora, fauna and geologies. Or something like that. Listen below and decide for yourself.

Image is by Ben Aqua.

Vinyl Williams

We discovered the awesome Vinyl Williams (aka LA-based one man wunderband Lionel Williams) a few weeks ago via the just-as-awesome Altered Zones. It’s a gorgeous trip, evoking late 60s psychedelia with its blues riffs, reverb-drenched vocals and occasional use of the vibraphone (massive Gary Burton props right here), much like Flaming Lips’ stonking album Embryonic. But there’s more than simple nostalgic pastiche at work, as further synth and percussive elements are added in to give it a lush, warm sound reminiscent of late Creation Records releases and (dare I say it?) more recent Radiohead tracks.

A video for one of his older tracks was posted last week, handily giving us a viable reason to post the most recent LP and an incredible psych-pop collage video for the album’s lead single.

Image is Lionel’s own.

Huerco S.

We’re big fans of Huerco S here. After discovering him just over a month ago (can’t quite believe it’s only been that long) his position in our dance canon has been solidified in concrete and reinforced with foot-thick titanium girders. Blending hefty thuds ripped straight outta Detroit with woozy analogue effects, the sound is at once vibrant and somnambulant, penetrative and hypnagogic. In brief, it’s exactly what we look for in intelligent dance music. Hopefully a physical release, compiling all his best tracks into one, handy playlist, will soon be available to purchase. Until that day though, we’ll have to content ourselves with online offerings from the table.

A few new tracks, with accompanying mysterious videos, have recently popped up on youtube and have been posted here for your perusal. We hope they will be there for your enjoyment, too.

Image is by Arthur Siegel.

Grimes – Crystal Ball (Doldrums refix)

Here’s a nice little vid to get your day started off, courtesy of No Pain In Pop. It’s a remix of a Grimes track, taken from her excellent album Halfaxa, by abstract-psychedelic electronic outfit Doldrums. Accompanied by an awesome kaleidoscopic video, it should be perfect for clearing those bleary midweek peepers.

Check out more of Doldrums videos and a stream a couple of their EPs over on their site, by simply clicking here.

Image is from Montpellier-based photo stream le nompourflickr.