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You’ve probably had that moment when you’re at a show having a great time, and you start to think to yourself “How in the hell do they do that?” Well, you’re in luck, as electronic music guru Four Tet took some time out from making hypnotizing beats to sit down with onlookers at the Red Bull Music Academy to explain exactly how he builds his sets, and the secrets that make them so brilliant.

Using Ableton, a Monome 256, and tons of samples that he keeps on constant loops, the clip finds Kieran Hebden going into professor-mode and talking about how he crafts those lucid sounds that seem to build up for ages. He builds the tension so well that he has total control. “Then the real kick is going to come,” he explains to the small crowd. Check out the video below to find out exactly how he does it below.

The post Watch: Four Tet Explains The Secrets Of His Live Set Up appeared first on CMJ.

The enigmatic Californian rap producer Madlib is exactly the type of person to make a new track, put it on a 7″ single, only make 300 copies of that single, and then only sell those copies to the people who show up at one specific show. His new two-track single Rock Conducta is only available at a forthcoming San Francisco show, and one of songs is “The Mad March,” which chops up a funky marching band stomp into a time-stretching ripple. Listen below.

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As far as we know, the great inward-looking indie singer-songwriter Cass McCombs has no plans to drop a new album on us anytime soon. But this summer, he will release a split 7″ with the veteran folk-music outsider Michael Hurley. McCombs’s contribution is a warm and buoyant shuffle called “Three Men Sitting On A Hollow Log,” and you can hear it below.

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Having just returned from an East Asian tour that took Wesley Eisold and his band Cold Cave through Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, and of all places Nepal, Eisold offers up another one-off single with sweet & dour “Black Boots”. The Casio drum track and the, ahem, cavernous vocal echo are a nice homage to the Joy Division sound, and the bare-bones track does enough to carry Eisold’s anxious croons about bodies, death, sex, and agoraphobia. Listen to the art-rock, dark-wave single below:

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/93169290" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

The “Black Boots” 7-inch comes b/w “Meaningful Life” is available now from Cold Cave’s website. And while it’s not much compared to Nepal, the band will be hitting the road in June with Boyd Rice. Those dates are below.

Read our recent, heart-on-sleeve interview with Wesley Eislold.

Cold Cave 2013 Tour Dates:
06/15

by Bill Pearis

Prog/psych/folk quartet Syd Arthur hail from Canterbury, England and released their debut album, On and On, last year, which got four stars in Mojo. While the album has its share of time signature left turns and trippy elements, pop songs are at its core -- with some nice jazzy moments too. One of the band's distinct sonic elements is violinist Raven Bush, whose aunt is Kate Bush. Paul Weller is also a fan. Maybe you saw them at this year's SXSW? You you can can stream a few tracks below and the whole record's up on Spotify.

As mentioned, Syd Arthur will be coming to the U.S. next month for a show at Mercury Lounge on June 18 with Celestial Shore. Tickets for that show are still available. It's their only North American show, but all upcoming dates (mostly in the UK) are listed below.

Continue reading "UK quartet Syd Arthur playing NYC in June (dates, streams)" at brooklynvegan

Apologies for those who already know, but before “Crazy” and “Fuck You” and The Voice, Cee-Lo was one fourth of the ridiculously great Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob, whose first two albums are indisputable essential classics and whose third album is kind of sneaky-great. Last year, the group reunited on (of course) The Voice and released a somewhat perplexing new song called “Is That You God.” They’ve now announced plans for a full-on reunion album with the kinda-hilarious title Age Against The Machine, and its new single is a pretty great piece of stomping circus-funk called “Special Education.” Janelle Monáe shows up to supply a showily art-rocking hook. Listen to it below.

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It’s only been three years since electro-sulk masterminds Mount Kimbie graced us with their debut album Crooks And Lovers. But much has changed for Kai Campos and Dominic Maker since 2010. They’ve played countless live shows and toured the world, and using those experiences they’ve crafted a new record, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth, to sound just as good in your headphones as it does live.

Where the first album was delicate and sparse, this new collection of tracks is eclectic and expressive. Each song has its own distinct sound but somehow they all fit together perfectly. “They are kind of like different islands or different chapter headings,” explains Dominic when I speak to him at the Warp offices in Manhattan.

Cold Spring Fault Less Youth will be out on May 28 through Warp, and I was able to sit down with Dominic and Kai to pick their brains about how much has really changed in three years.

It seems like you guys have become more comfortable with vocals on this album. Why is that?
Kai: The types of songs we wanted to write were a bit different this time. After we finished the first album we both felt like we had taken that sound as far as we wanted to really. Other people were doing it as well—felt like it was time to move on really. Just like a natural thing that happened.

You’ve never had a rapper go over your stuff. So...

Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories hits stores today, and while the cat’s been out of the bag for a whole week now, there’s one more surprise to enjoy: a Japanese bonus track. Titled “Horizon”, the light meditative stroll is without a doubt the most tranquil piece of music they’ve composed to date, and comes sprinkled with Eno synths, Michel Rubini guitar work, and Tangerine Dream moods. If you daydream too far, you might find end up here. Take a listen at NO BPM.

Random Access Memories is out now via Columbia. In related news, we recently bundled all of Daft Punk’s past collaborators into an easy-to-read feature — check that out here. And if you’re already tired of RAM, then perhaps you’ll enjoy its alternate version.

Chief Keef shares his thoughts on everyone’s favourite pasta.

He was only released from Dekalb County Jail this morning after being arrested for disorderly conduct and marijuana possession, but already Keith Cozart is back in the driver’s seat leaking this brand new cut. It’s business as usual for the polarizing rapper, and finds him awkwardly slurring over a decidedly synth-heavy backdrop.

‘Macaroni Time’ isn’t breaking any new ground for the Chicago drill superstar but this is Chief Keef we’re talking about, and from the sounds of things he’s been pretty busy recently. [via Complex]

You never, as a music dork, stop learning this lesson, but the truth behind it stands: It’s always, always a bad idea to dismiss an artist based on a terrible name. That rule is right up there with “horrendous rappers get better all the time, so stop believing it can’t happen,” and we break the rule just as often as that one. Case in point: Majical Cloudz. And, I mean, holy gods what an awful name. It’s name that conjures Trapper Keeper designs and rap-metal fake-toughness (that Z!) at the same damn time, and it makes the group seem, immediately, like a halfassed joke, like the sort of band whose music videos consist entirely of floating psychedelic CGI landscapes. And it didn’t help that, up until now, the only things that most of us knew about them were that they were from Montreal and that they were friends with Grimes; Grimes is turning into a pure force of cultural badassery, but she can still align herself with some wack shit. At SXSW, I didn’t just skip multiple chances to see Majical Cloudz live; I actually made the “pssh” noise out loud when presented with the opportunity. This was stupid. This was a mistake on par with high-school me hating on Daft Punk because they had “punk” in their name but weren’t actually punk. As their new album Impersonator makes crystal-clear; Majical Cloudz don’t just make good music; they make the sort of good music that creeps its way into ...

'Anna Nicole' kicks off BAM's 2013 Next Wave Fest...

BAM has announced the 2013 Next Wave Festival which runs from September 17 - December 22. The line-up features a diverse range of programming including opera, theater, music and dance. This year's fest kicks off with the US premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's opera Anna Nicole which has performances at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House from September 17 - 28:

The 2013 Next Wave Festival launches with the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and New York City Opera co-production of Anna Nicole, an opera by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Richard Thomas based on the flamboyant life and tragic death of Anna Nicole Smith.

DIY auteur and consummate independent filmmaker Jem Cohen (Museum Hours, Instrument, Benjamin Smoke) collaborates with a supergroup of acclaimed musicians-- Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), Jim White (Dirty Three), T. Griffin (The Quavers), Efrim Manuel Menuck and Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), and Jessica Moss (Thee Silver Mt. Zion), plus guest vocalist Mira Billotte (White Magic)--in this cinematic lov...