No Pain In Pop

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Floating Points

Video by Hayden Bannochie & Alex Pissourios

What’s struck me most about Floating Points is the moment’s peace all his tunes seem to enjoy before they step into life, the way that they start out with clear sonic motives before succumbing to the intricate detail and minutiae that clutters days, emotional phosphorence that only makes itself known after-the-event, dust glowing as the lights go down. Such complications, when combined with the jazz soothe of beat lopers like Sun Ra, Metro Area and the pluvial Flying Lotus, seem to mark new evolutionary wanders in electric blues; 22-year-old Londoner Sam Sheperd with empathy enough to know all you need is to mirror and soak your noise and confusion in the music rather than have anyone radically alter the mood. The video’s a fit, the sharp angles of its pylons connected by sudden light that fizzes and pops like a dance of panicked neurones, solution found at 02:03.

‘For You’ b/w ‘Radiality’ is out through Eglo Records now - get it here. A 12″ (’Love Me Like This’ b/w ‘Shangri-La’) will arrive in the spring through Eglo/R2 and you should check out recent mixes Shepard has done for Mary Anne Hobbs and Gilles Peterson. He’s at London’s Vibe Bar on Friday March 6th and then down the road at the Truman Brewery on Saturday 28th.



MP3: After the Rain - Little Dragon (Floating Points Remix)
(via Just A Moment)

Tags: alex pissourios, eglo, floating points, hayden bannochie, r2, sam shepherd

Bliss burst the gut who forgot

There are some loops I could listen to for days - lungs seem to leap every time they return, the oxygen within alloyed into some new, ecstatic gas; disbelieving ears hooked to check once again that the sound did and continues to exist. The chest of Aphex Twin’s ‘Xtal’ swells with one such loop, driving on in its own lean, buoyant techno drift, grounded by subterranean bass and vocal murmurs that stretch upward to glance the outer bounds of the stratosphere. Its divinity dangles between the points of stars – empathetic to the repetition our hides feel in their blood and in their water, ‘Xtal’ drifts down to enrich the everyday, a glimmering deus ex machina going from innocence to experience and back again in the space of four seconds.

The MP3 comes courtesy of Belgian label R&S Records, who are heralding their return with the release of some of their most seminal archive material. Issued under the ‘Master Series’ banner, Aphex Twin’s Ambient Works 85-92 – from which ‘Xtal’ is pulled – will arrive on the 7th of April along with a Classics collection from Model 500 (Juan Atkins). May 12th sees the re-release of Model 500’s Deep Space and Derrick May’s Innovator as well as further Classics collections from both Aphex Twin and Joey Beltram. Other digitally re-mastered re-releases – from the likes of Ken Ishii and Dave Angel – will also find a way out through R&S in the spring months. You can grab another free track from R&S by signing up to their mailing list, here.



MP3: Aphex Twin - Xtal

Tags: aphex twin, r&s records

Well Iggy sells Insurance

Phil Jones - from Atlanta, Georgia - grew up hoop dreaming with the incredible strange beat brains of Teengirl Fantasy. Dog Bite calls for more. More of the summer jamz! More lazy! and slow! and everything! Run! the road! Call it off! Over!

MP3: Dog Bite - Brand New

Tags: dog bite, head rabies, roving

Hyperdubbing

Bassland barometer Kode9 was on Benji B’s 1Xtra show in the early hours of this morning, as around an hour was dedicated to showcasing his pioneering Hyperdub label, the ranks of which guarantee fine listening. Kode plays out tracks from Ikonika, Darkstar, Cooly G and LV, as well as a new vinyl cut of his own, ‘Black Sun’ out in March. Oh, there’s a couple of world exclusive first plays of new Burial tracks, too.

Listen here; full tracklist after ‘the jump’.

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Tags: 2000f & j kamata, benji b, burial, cooly g, darkstar, ikonika, jaylib, joker, kode9, lv, samiyam

Twilight of the Dogs

…or ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The Mayfair Set, our latest saints, are a potent, poignant combination of Dee Dee Dum Dum Girls and Whoever Blank Dogs Is; marrying the propeller gut dread of the latter with the former’s dawn-sun reach to give first glimpse of something that will grow in the minds of our young, and their young in turn, into something undeniably, eye-stingingly great. Loyal to tragic extents, ‘Already Warm’ flows against the blood’s tide like the swelter of an evening grown distant, but hovering close and ever-ready, for a chance to be reborn in photographs that fade away from their centre, the threat loitering even now as time vignettes the masterworks of your memory. More lost ghosts, then - who was it that fronted Black Tambourine with Pam Berry? Curtis? Or Maus? Dee Dee carries the dog-eared image of him in her wallet like a fatigued sentry, poor girl; poor girl.

The pair’ll feature on a 7″ at some point in the near future to be issued, naturally enough, by the golden gloves of New York’s Captured Tracks.



MP3: The Mayfair Set - Already Warm



MP3: The Mayfair Set - Desert Fun

Tags: blank dogs, captured tracks, dum dum girls, the mayfair set