Read The Lastest Music News/Reviews

May began with sad news that Slayer guitarist had passed away, and it’s ended with a suitably metal-focused celebration of his life and work.

Slayer announced that they would be organising a memorial event to pay tribute to Hanneman, who passed away from alcohol-related liver failure aged 48. As Metal Hammer report, the public memorial at the Hollywood Palladium was a rammed and rowdy affair, with long queues beginning hours before the service began. The stage was apparently decked out with a painting of Hanneman, an American flag, a floral arrangement and an assorted collection of Hanneman’s guitars.

Among those giving addresses were Slayer’s Kerry King, who led a Jagermaster toast to the singer, saying “Jeff Hanneman hated Jagermeister, but I had to come up here with something to cheer my friend.” Reading off an iPhone, King paid extensive tribute to the singer

“Jeff was my doorway to punk and it really helped Slayer to become the doorway between the metal kids and the punk kids

The internet’s darling Ryan Hemsworth uploaded a nice free seven-track EP yesterday, and it’s pretty chilled out from what we can gather. There’s a lot of rainy, indoors sounds, lots of chiming bells and magic-forest chords and stuff, it’s nice, it’s pretty. You can stream it below and download it here:

Not for the first time, winsome Italo disco revivalist Sally Shapiro has handed her most recent album over to a host of remixers. 

Where Robyn pitched for the charts and Lykke Li went for the quirky pop constituency, Swedish singer Shapiro has long planted her flag in nu-disco territory. Between her charming 2006 debut Disco Romance and her somewhat cryptic public persona, she’s built a formidable cult following, and her case has been helped by some interesting remix discs: Remix Romance Vol. 1 featured edits from Tensnake and Holy Fuck, and 2010′s My Guilty Pleasure remix set tapped up Junior Boys and CFCF.

Elsewhere will collect a stash of Shapiro remixes inspired by material from recent LP Somewhere Else. The chief name on the collection is fellow Swede The Field, who applies his loop-the-loop strategies to ‘Lives Together’. Chillwaver-turned-pop star proper Nite Jewel takes on Sundown, and pint-sized electro-pop singer Little Boots is also on board. Young Galaxy, Lost Years and Dan Lissvick are also signed up to appear, as are lesser-known names like Mauvais Cliché, Henning Fürst (of The Tough Alliance) and Mitch Murder.

Elsewhere is due on May 28 through Paper Bag. The Field’s slo-mo remix is available to stream below, and shows the producer on unusually dozy form.

Elsewhere:<...

Razor-throated ex-trucker, Daughn Gibson, will release second album Me Moan on 9 July. The first in his new Sub Pop surroundings looks set to draw on even broader palette of dark influences than debut LP, All Hell. 

Recent offering ‘The Sound of Law’ saw Gibson milking every last molecule of oxygen from his smoke-blackened lungs; his booming croon slicing through the chattering post-punk guitar licks and prickly percussion. Next single ‘You Don’t Fade’ treads a murkier path with strangled hip-hop samples chopped into throbbing, pulmonic bass notes and trickling hi-hats.

Gibson’s ghostly baritone sounds richer than ever before; it overwhelms the senses, disorientating, swarm-like. We’re probably going to need a new name for these unnerving, experimental sounds. Elegiac-electro anyone?

The flip to Kowton and Julio Bashmore’s sweet’n'sour cut ‘Mirror Song’ has hit the web, and it’s a rowdy little thing. 

‘Mirror Song’ was a proper good-cop-bad-cop collaboration, with a very Bashmore hook competing for attention with Kowton’s savage drum programming. ‘And What’ is credited to Kowton alone, and it shows; without Bashmore’s moderating influence, the Bristol producer is free to indulge the rough, raw impulses that made ‘Des Bisous’ and ‘More Games’ so invigorating. ‘And What’ is Terekke-style house viewed through grime-tinted glasses – it’s gruff, gully and, if you ask us, trumps the title track.

Kowton’s been a prolific collaborator of late, working with Pev on the killer Hessle Audio single ‘Raw Code’ , and clubbing up with Hyetal to form Systems Of Desire. The Mirror Song EP drops soon on Broadwalk.

Basic Channel icon and Hard Wax boss Mark Ernestus will compile his Afrocentric Jeri-Jeri project on two new full-lengths. 

Ernestus has long been smitten with the sounds of the plateau continent: he helped curate Honest Jon’s vital 2011 Shangaan Electro compilation, and contributed to last year’s rewarding Shangaan remix series. His recent Jeri-Jeri project saw Ernestus working with Senegalse Sabar and Mbalax musicians (the former is a polyrhythmic drum music played on the sabar drum; the latter is a sabar-infused, rhythmically frantic brand of West African dance music.)

The Jeri-Jeri recordings were laid down in 2011 in Dakar, and have been dripfed to the public over five 12″s on Ernestus’ bespoke Ndagga label from 2012-13. Notable collaborators on the project include Baaba Maal, Youssou N’Dour and Bakane Seck. As Resident Advisor report, Ernestus will collect all of his Jeri-Jeri material on two new compilations. 800% Ndagga will assemble all of the vocal tracks, whereas Ndagga Version will bring together the instrumental tracks. The 800% Ndagga material in particular feels like a rootsier counterpart to Shangaan’s frenetic percussive play, augmented by Ernestus’ dubby touches and studio jiggery-pokery.

800% Ndagga and Ndagga Versions will both see release on June 3. Ernestu...

After an agonisingly long promotional campaign for the new Boards of Canada album, Tomorrow’s Harvest, it seems only fitting that the first track revealed from their new record is one of slow build.

But sure as ever, they get there, creating a crescendo of synaesthetic arpeggios and washed out synths. Was it all worth the wait? On this early glimpse, we’re assured the upcoming LP will make the last eight years since their last record all seem like a hazy daydream. Perhaps quite literally.

Tomorrow’s Harvest is out 10 June in the UK and 11 June in North America, via Warp. Listen to ‘Reach For The Dead’ beneath:

And here’s a video for the track:

[via Pitchfork]

When dull torso-nodding dubstep shattered into a plethora of delightful subgenres, Mount Kimbie