Archive
Test Dept. release new album, Disturbance
Test Dept have released their first new album in 21 years. Titled Disturbance, the album sees the band maintaining the protest roots of their work through their first period of activity during the ’80s and ’90s.
Ahead of its release, you can stream the album in full above, exclusively via tQ. “The mess we’re in now is unbelievable, hence the title,” says Test Dept’s Graham Cunnington of the themes explored on the album. “It’s disturbing in the extreme.”
The album’s roots lie in a project Test Dept undertook in 2010 involving their extensive archives of protest music. They wanted to sort through their old recordings to, as Cunnington puts it, “re-establish our history and get our music out there again.” This was after many of their 14 albums had gone out-of-press.
A film installation and live dates followed the return to Test Dept’s archives, and then the question of what music they would play during those shows came up. They set out reworking older material and working on new music, which makes up their first album since 1998’s Tactics For Evolution.
Cunnington says there’s a positive message to take from the new album, and that they are “trying to see something optimistic in the potential of building networks and in positive protest, instead of just rioting and looting. We wanted to show the possibility for change and escaping this scenario.”
One Little Indian released Disturbance on March 1, 2019. Order it here.
Lisa Morgenstern releases single + video, Answers
Lisa Morgenstern announces debut album + single
Lisa Morgenstern announces the release of her forthcoming debut album ‘Chameleon’ with new single ‘Answers’ (out February 22nd).
With her debut album ‘Chameleon’ (scheduled for release in April) Bulgarian/German pianist, singer and composer Lisa Morgenstern finds herself taking dramatic strides to expand her range, marching her far-sighted approach to both snyths and piano with her background in classical music. Recorded in collaboration with Berlin based Argentinian producer Sebastian Plano the songs showcase her extraordinary octave-spanning voice that combines expressive elegant piano instrumentals, baroque synth-pop and atmospheric electronica.
‘Answers’ is the first track taken from the album – Lisa Morgenstern details it here:
“Sometimes it is not so easy to be honest with yourself or with the people who trust you. Many answers to a question can be the truth and a lie at the same time. At certain moments I can feel that there is not just one spirit in my head. I think there are many of them with different opinions, different needs and different moods. Everyone knows that on bad days your mind changes your view in a pessimistic direction. But that’s not really what I mean. It’s more than that and it’s certainly not always negative to see many horizons. For example, you can easily empathise with different people and adapt to many situations, but, it can also drive you crazy when you adjust to the wrong people. You might get insecure about who you are, what you want and what is good for you – then, it is easy for the demons to win, to act destructively, in many ways, and to lose control.
That was the case back then when I wrote this song, and I very much blamed myself for my mistakes. Now though, I have, most of the time, found a way to avoid this confusion, and to accept the fact that there are actually people who care a lot about me and that life can be good, if I let it.”
LISA MORGENSTERN ‘Answers’ First single from debut LP releases February 22nd
© Miguel Murrieta
Lyrics, photos & cover art: https://press.bettercallrob.tv/Lisa-Morgenstern-Answers-press
Lisa Morgenstern – links: http://www.lisa-morgenstern.com https://www.facebook.com/LisaMorgensternSongs/ https://www.instagram.com/lisamorgensternmusic/ https://twitter.com/li_morgenstern
Lakker announce ‘ÉPOCA’ LP on R&S March 15
Lakker return to R&S with their stunning new album Época, March 15 on R&S. Following 2016’s conceptual 8 track maxi-EP “Struggle and Emerge” (using field recordings of TV and radio broadcasts from the Dutch National AV archive) Época is a bracing return to form, combining caustic electronics with fresh inspiration from the prepared piano of John Cage, plaintive folk melodies, the explorative label Sublime Frequencies and the raw rhythms of Kampala’s Nyege Nyege Tapes.
The rich and deep work of Época finds the duo reinvigorated from their hiatus (with solo LPs as Eomac and Arad in 2018), using their own voices extensively for the first time, alongside regular vocal collaborator Eileen Carpio. This leads to an at times more melodic and poppier feeling, balanced out by the off kilter rhythms and blasts of feedback and weathered reverbs that intertwine throughout the record.
The natural evolution of the tracks and their rougher, looser production sound parallels the Irish duo’s interest in two separate ideas: ambient and natural sound, especially the background noise – a sense of time and place – that is inherent in old recordings of folk and classical music; and an interest in herd dynamics and flock patterns / murmurations, both in the natural world and in human society. Alongside the use of physical modelling synths the album contains recordings and samples of violin, guitar and bodhrán, the stringboard of a piano at EMS Stockholm, phone recordings of family gatherings in Dublin and 1970’s dance music from Jaipur.Época is a challenging album of diverse and intense soundscapes that expands on the scope of Lakker’s already multifaceted music, finding them at the peak of their artistic powers.
Resident Advisor album announcement + ‘A Whisper in Your Ear’ track stream
NOW BOOKING:brand new live AV show ft. 3D captures of bodies and golden landscapes+ live and DJ sets
brandon [at] lb-agency.netBlack Acre announce debut single and EP from Evadney
Debut EP ‘Sold Love, Sold’ on Black Acre
Released 8th March 2019Consuming you in one swoop, across the 3 track EP of poetic electronic-pop odyssey’s Evadney captures his own outsider experience. Throughout ‘Sold Love, Sold’ his distinct and melancholic voice acts as the guiding force, weaving between driving electronic elements, subdued rhythms and almost beatless moody textures.
The politics of sexuality, identity and Evadney’s intersectionality are played out across this cinematic piece of work. He claims “I couldn’t find an open reference for the black gay male when I was growing up. As it became my experience it also became my struggle.” On ‘I Think Of Being In Love’, Evadney’s vivid storytelling flows effortlessly throughout, as he sings about believing in love enough to find it and explore it. ‘Who’ll Raise You?’ acts as an exaggerated version of love, with its possessive flavours of infatuation, obsession and lust. Whilst ‘Jamaica’ is about navigating the sea of grief that followed his grandmother and aunt both passing away.
Growing up in the UK in a big Caribbean family, Evadney’s sound has been shaped by a variety of different sounds, from hearing old school soca and calypso tunes at family parties, to his love of bold artists like Bjork, Kate Bush and Grace Jones, and later studying the likes of John Cale, Stockhausen and Musique concrète during his MA in Music Composition at Goldsmiths University. “My mum is from Jamaica and my dad is from Barbados so island life is in me. Being at the sea triggers a lot.” Now splitting his time in Brighton between making music, working part time at a charity organisation and DJ’ing at the weekends, his debut EP looks set to solidify Evadney as a bold new voice on the UK music scene, bringing with him a new world of melancholy, narrative-driven pop.
Tracklisting:
- I Think Of Being In Love
- Who’ll Raise You?
- Jamaica
Welcome to LittleBig :: Evadney
Every now and then someone very special lands in front of our eyes and ears, and blows our tiny agent minds. And this is the case with Brighton-based singer and producer, Evadney, our most-recent signing, who’ll release his debut EP, ‘Sold Love, Sold’ on Black Acre, 8th March 2019.
Consuming you in one swoop, across the 3 track EP of poetic electronic-pop odyssey’s Evadney captures his own outsider experience. Throughout ‘Sold Love, Sold’ his distinct and melancholic voice acts as the guiding force, weaving between driving electronic elements, subdued rhythms and almost beatless moody textures.
The politics of sexuality, identity and Evadney’s intersectionality are played out across this cinematic piece of work. He claims “I couldn’t find an open reference for the black gay male when I was growing up. As it became my experience it also became my struggle.” On ‘I Think Of Being In Love’, Evadney’s vivid storytelling flows effortlessly throughout, as he sings about believing in love enough to find it and explore it. ‘Who’ll Raise You?’ acts as an exaggerated version of love, with its possessive flavours of infatuation, obsession and lust. Whilst ‘Jamaica’ is about navigating the sea of grief that followed his grandmother and aunt both passing away.
Growing up in the UK in a big Caribbean family, Evadney’s sound has been shaped by a variety of different sounds, from hearing old school soca and calypso tunes at family parties, to his love of bold artists like Bjork, Kate Bush and Grace Jones, and later studying the likes of John Cale, Stockhausen and Musique concrète during his MA in Music Composition at Goldsmiths University. “My mum is from Jamaica and my dad is from Barbados so island life is in me. Being at the sea triggers a lot.” Now splitting his time in Brighton between making music, working part time at a charity organisation and DJ’ing at the weekends, his debut EP looks set to solidify Evadney as a bold new voice on the UK music scene, bringing with him a new world of melancholy, narrative-driven pop.
Tracklisting:
- I Think Of Being In Love
- Who’ll Raise You?
- Jamaica
Stream link https://fanlink.to/Evadney Bandcamp https://evadney.bandcamp.com/ Ben Frost presents Widening Gyre, 360 show
Ben Frost live – VERSION01 from Rosforth on Vimeo.
With Frost’s critically acclaimed 2017 LP The Centre Cannot Hold as a departure point, Widening Gyre combines the unique studio approach of the album into a new live performance concept; a powerful and highly volatile multi-point sound environment performed in the round.
Created as part of a residency at ZKM Karlsruhe, Widening Gyre sees Frost dive deep into the physicality of spatialisation. Synthesis, analogue tape and live guitars are all fed in real-time through an array of digital objects which relentlessly push and pull against one another in a new kaleidoscope of sonic ecology.
Notes on performance space:
The show is infinitely flexible and readily adapts to new space. Churches, warehouses, craters, strip clubs the stranger and more unique the space the better. Architecture with huge natural reverberance are especially effective. It can be seated or standing, it can be focussed listening or a nocturnal acid-fuelled sweatbox. It requires no stage at all, only that Frost performs from the centre of the space with all channels of audio radiating out from that central point, louder and more physical than a jet engine.
Bobbie Johnson live at Musicbox Lisboa
Superstar-in-the-making, Bobbie Johnson, chatting and performing live at Musicbox Lisboa
Welcome to LittleBig :: Test Dept.
We are absolutely thrilled to announce that the legendary Test Dept. have signed to LittleBig for worldwide representation (excluding North America).
Back in 1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government.
37 years later, 2019 sees Test Dept. return with their first album for twenty years – Disturbance – with a sound that is as incendiary as ever.
Contact Debbie & Mia for bookings.
Test Dept. announce first release in 20 years
In an ideal world, Disturbance, the new album from industrial pioneers Test Dept, would not exist. It wouldn’t need to. Britain would not stand divided by xenophobia. Working class communities would not be under siege. Capitalism would not have created a climate change crisis pushing the planet towards a dangerous brink. And the Thatcherite ideals that Graham Cunnington and Paul Jamrozy spent Test Dept’s early years raging against would not be so terrifyingly back in political vogue.
Back in 1981, Cunnington, Jamrozy and a revolving door of talented talented artists from disparate disciplines and backgrounds formed Test Dept, forging an incendiary new sound from a squat in New Cross that made them underground heroes, landing the group under surveillance by the British government. 37 years later, on Disturbance, that sound is as incendiary as ever.“It began with a project to do with our archive,” recalls Cunnington. It was the early 2010s and Test Dept had been dormant for years. The pair wanted to sort through Test Dept’s old recordings to “re-establish our history and get our music out there again” after record label red tape left many of their 14 albums out of print.
When attention turned to the “next logical step of a new album”, an idea emerged – taking germs of ideas from old songs and turning them into new, sledgehammer-heavy sonic experiments full of powerful protest poetry. Politics had come full circle. It felt fitting to do the same with their music.The result is an album that at once peers into the past and roars into the future, across eight tracks that conjure the raw power of Test Dept in their original, 1980s incarnation while adding new elements. “We’re different people now – not spring chickens anymore,” laughs Jamrozy. “We’re still angry but it’s tempered by a slightly different wisdom. We tried to upgrade the sound, to soup things up further.”
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer to shape it,” the poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht once wrote. It’s a mantra that continues to drive Test Dept. who return to their past on this eviscerating new album in order to move into a bold new future. They hope Disturbance can soundtrack a society doing the same.
Release Date: Mar 1st 2019
The album will be available on black heavyweight vinyl and CD.Jon Hopkins’ Singularity nominated for a GRAMMY
61ST ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS (2018)
Nomination ::
BEST DANCE/ELECTRONIC ALBUM
Singularity, Jon Hopkins
“So thrilled that Singularity has been nominated for a Grammy for best Dance / Electronic album. Massive thanks to all of you for all the support and love this year, it’s been surreal and beautiful” Jon Hopkins
Holly Herndon + Jlin “Godmother” (ft. Spawn) – AI single + video
Today Holly Herndon dropped her track “Godmother”, a collaboration with footwerk producer Jlin and Herndon’s own AI baby Spawn. Emulating Herndon’s voice to the rhythmic patterns evocative of Jlin’s music, Spawn produced the track as well as the video morphing of their two faces below.
Read the full statement from Herndon on the making of “Godmother”, evolution of Spawn, and future of music in the wake of AI here.
NOW BOOKING: Holly Herndon Ensemble AI AV shows for Spring + Summer festivals and select special events. Contact brandon [at]lb-agency.net
Actress ‘Young Paint’ EP + live AI AV debut
Actress released an EP from his AI alter ego Young Paint on his new Werk_LTD imprint of Vinyl Factory this Autumn which was included in RA’s Best of October and can be streamed in full via FACT. In Actress’s own words:
The EP is about gradients of learning, from a humanist perspective investigating the vacant soul of computer language, determination and logic at its most basic natural level … Exploring complex simplicity and reimagining it as a sort of sonic paint with splats, sprays, splashes, dots in an Impressionistic fashion.
He will be presenting it’s live AV debut at CTM / transmediale in Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt on Feb.1 + 2, 2019. The show will feature Young Paint projected lifesize on stage performing beside Actress in his own virtual space with virtual gear. Visuals will be produced by Werkflow however Young Paint will be in control of his own movements and musical choices. No two shows will be the same!
Young Paint has been progressively learning and emulating the shadowy, unpredictable, UK bass- and rave-inspired music of Darren J. Cunningham, aka Actress. Over the course of 2018, the AI-based character has spent time programming and arranging Cunningham’s sonic palette, learning not only how to react to his work, but also to take the lead with the occasional solo.
The show has also been announced for Sonar Barcelona next July with more dates including London TBA very soon!
NOW BOOKING: Actress Young Paint AI AV show, Actress live AV and techno DJ sets.
Contact ned [at] lb-agency.net and brandon [at] lb-agency.netDopplereffekt ‘Athanatos’ EP out now on Leisure System + “Hayflick Limit” video
Dopplereffekt have followed up last year’s ‘Cellular Automata’ LP on Leisure System with an EP ‘Athanatos’, exploring the “genetic conditions and chromosomal influences defining mortality.”
Ray Philp, in his 4/5 RA review, highlighted the track “Mitosis”: for its driving beat—they’ve not made anything this urgent in a while—but the harmonies summon a special awe. Shifting in and out of richly dissonant phases, they suggest someone wrestling with a discovery they can barely comprehend. It could be the secret to immortality, or something even more disturbing.
Check out the video for “Hayflick Limit” dir. by Michael Tan. The track is a collaboration with Raster-Noton cofounders Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender.
NOW BOOKING: live AV shows. Contact brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Aïsha Devi “Light Luxury” and “DNA ☤ ∞ / Inner State Of Alchemy” videos via Boiler Room & PAPER Mag
Boiler Room 4:3 have premiered the phantasmagorical video for Aïsha Devi’s “Light Luxury” dir. by Tianzhuo Chen. It’s an epic aquatic work drawing on the excess of the nouveau riche in China with fantastic demons.
And Emile Barret’s spiralling 3D VR video world for Devi’s tracks “DNA ☤ ∞ / Inner State Of Alchemy” is premiered as part of a feature on her and their longterm audio-visual collaboration for PAPER Mag. Prepare to be totally tripped out!
NOW BOOKING: Aïsha Devi live AV shows ft. immersive projections by Emile Barret + select AV shows with Tianzhuo Chen. brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Mariel Ito – 2000-2005
Esteemed electronic producer Eric Estornel recently reignited his much loved electro-centure ‘Mariel Ito’ alias to huge acclaim in the form of a 12″ single which was shortly followed by a retrospective album on the esteemed R&S Records, which has quickly gained support from the likes of Resident Advisor, Mixmag (Electro Album of the Month), DJ Mag (cover feature + Album of the Month), Dancing Astronaut and most notably, an exclusive appearance on the BBC Radio One Essential mix which can be heard below.
“Electro might be in the midst of a revival, but Eric Estornel is no fair-weather fan. The man otherwise known as Maceo Plex was making electro as Mariel Ito as far back as 2004, putting out records on labels like Modern Love and Connaisseur Recordings. His label Lone Romantic is even named after one of those earlier tracks” – Resident Advisor
Littlebig welcomes Gábor Lázár – Now touring his fresh ‘Unfold’ show
It’s with great pleasure to welcome Gábor Lázár to the agency. With an impeccable live show presenting his new album ‘Unfold’ and having received rave reviews from his recent performances at Atonal, Unsound, Norberg & Terraforma. The videos and press speak for themselves.
UNFOLD ALBUM REVIEWS
Boomkat, Quietus, Cultural Bulletin, Vinylmeplease, Norman Records, Forced Exposure
LIVE: Berlin Atonal Review – Crack Magazine
“Some standout live performances this year include Gabor Lazar, Hiro Kone and Group A. First Lazar: Unfold is surely one 2018’s best records, and live, the Hungarian producer is in complete control of his uniquely urgent strain of club music, propelled by elastic beats and crystalline synths which land like glass mallets.”LIVE: Berlin Atonal Review – Fact Magazine
“Gábor Lázár’s set on the Wednesday brought a rave spirit to the usually gloomy Stage Null, illuminating the space with flashing LED lamps and digital frequencies that pushed against the space’s challenging acoustics. It was a talking point for lots of people I spoke to afterwards.“LIVE: Unsound Review – Crack Magazine
Two more Hotel Forum highlights are Gabor Lazar and Async Figure. Lazar’s 2018 LP Unfold has cemented his status as one of the most forward-thinking club music producers out. For his live show, he rifles through styles at a thrilling pace whilst staying true to his icy, elasticated signature sound, from gritty electro to what sounds suspiciously like grime instrumentals.Littlebig welcomes Giant Swan // EP on Whities out now
We are thrilled to welcome Bristol’s blistering noise techno punks, Giant Swan, by arrangement with Qu Junktions! Over the past few years of extensively touring the UK and Europe’s DIY circuit, with festival appearances including Berlin Atonal and Unsound, they have developed a reputation for uncompromising, in your face, propulsive live technoid sets reminiscent of Fuck Buttons, Lightning Bolt, and Suicide.
In their path, Robin Stewart and Harry Wright, have dropped a number of singles via Howling Owl (2015), FuckPunk (2016), Timedance (2017), Mannequin (2018) and most recently Whities (2018) as Giant Swan. These fresh features from Resident Advisor and Mixmag attest to their “awesome power”. Take a peek at the Boiler Room below for a glimpse of the intensity they bring!
They’re not the first to approach techno from a hardcore punk sensibility, but their energy on stage is pushing them into a league of their own. Imagine Container and Alan Vega attempting a peak-time techno record, and you’re halfway to grasping the Giant Swan sound. RESIDENT ADVISOR
A Giant Swan show is heavy and direct; there’s a physicality you won’t find at most live techno shows. The duo throw themselves behind every synth squeal, crashing snare and vocal wail with an energy often echoed by its audience. MIXMAG
Their tracks induce odd perceptual tricks through prolonged repetition. What was hitherto still becomes slippery: drones go kaleidoscopic; electricity itself dances. WIRE
Their live performances are exceptionally potent, recalling the ecstatic dance-not-dance music of early Holy Fuck and the pure WTF?! gristle and energy of the first Rezzett records. THE QUIETUS
NOW BOOKING: Contact Ned (ned [at] lb-agency.net) & Brandon (brandon [at] lb-agency.net)
Powell Tillmans EP on XL Nov.16 // Watch “Feel The Night”
On the 16 of November, XL Recordings will release Spoken By The Other, the first EP by Powell Tillmans. It’s a collection of recordings from two of the most interesting artists in Europe, and one whose short length belies its radical tenderness, sonic language and political ambition.
Oscar Powell and Wolfgang Tillmans first met at the Tate Modern, where Tillmans was programming a series of performances to coincide with his 2017 exhibition. Quickly the conversation turned to talk of a full collaboration, and following Tillmans’s video for Powell’s track Freezer, over the Summer they got into the studio to begin making music. Recording took place in Berlin, London and Turin, with Tillmans’s vocals working in tandem with Powell’s synthetic processes. Rather than a simple producer-vocalist arrangement, explains Powell, “Wolfgang’s voice and my sounds drive toward some sort of shape or feeling together.” These tracked were workshopped live at Berlin Atonal and Club To Club in the second half of 2017, and with no small number of emails and voice files exchanged, these ideas evolved into the final EP this year.
For Powell, working with Tillmans was liberating: “I think a lot of Wolfgang’s work is to do with vulnerability. He’s never been afraid to express that, or highlight it, or lift it up as something worth showing,” he says. “Recording the EP was almost the process of losing the expectations that might be placed upon myself. People have described it as a vulnerable record, and that transparency and honesty is how I felt making it. It made me feel very out of my comfort zone, but I think working with Wolfgang has pushed me to trust myself more. To feel more.”
For Tillmans, whose support for the EU and migrants rights against the rising tide of nationalism has formed an increasingly urgent backbone of his work, the statement is political. “If everybody hardens up in this polarised world, we cannot come out of it in one piece. The solution is not to hit back all the time but make a new better alternative and which is not authoritarian and hard but is so kind, it’s combined into a love song. We can’t let the haters overtake our lives. We must keep on partying; we must keep on loving, and living.”
Spoken By The Other will be available across digital platforms, as well a Single Pressing Limited Edition 12” vinyl on XL Nov.16. Single + video for “Feel The Night” out now. x-l-r.co/spokenbytheother
RA review 3.8/5
NOW BOOKING: Powell live/DJ hybrid set brandon [at] lb-agency.net
Gazelle Twin shares Glory video
‘Glory’, from the album ‘Pastoral’ by Gazelle Twin. Out now on Anti-Ghost Moon Ray. https://www.gazelletwin.com
CREDITS: Director: Tash Tung Producer: Femi Anderson PM: Adam Logan DoP: Lee Thomas 1st AD: Rob Akin Focus Puller: Jon England 2nd AC: Maggie Stanaszek Drone Op: Ed Stone Gaffer: Jack Hamilton DIT: Katrina Tung Runner: James Barrett Driver: Kaivalya Brewerton
With thanks to: Bradley at The Original Tea Hut, Epping Forest Jan & Jim Emmyland Ltd. Starring: Crispian Belfrage Gazelle Twin Fiona Fletcher Teri Varhol Earl Wan Chris Thomas Femi Anderson
Jon Hopkins shares new video, Feel First Life
Taken from his critically acclaimed new album, Singularity, Jon Hopkins is very happy to share the video for ‘Feel First Life’. Featuring a meditative piano solo that morphs into a 15-part choir, ‘Feel First Life’ marks the mid-point and distinct change in pace of the album from the energetic into the transcendent. The video was directed by frequent collaborator Elliot Dear.
On the heels of a sold out coast-to-coast North American tour, Hopkins continues to dominate the live circuit with tour dates across the UK and Europe including 2 sold out dates at London’s Brixton Academy plus a very special show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire for War Child UK as part of their Learn to Live Campaign. A full list of dates can found below.
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Praise for Singularity:
“His long standing enchantment with nature, electricity and mindfulness glimmers anew on Singularity” Q 4*
“One of the most celebrated electronic musicians of his generation.” New Yorker
“A sonic realization of a better world, conceived in the depths of psychedelic experimentation” MOJO 4*
“Pitched between heat-seeking acid house and ambient bliss, the techno auteur’s first album since 2013 is a beat-music odyssey that thrums with spiritual resonance” Pitchfork, Best New Music
“A beautiful bastard of a record” Mixmag 9/10
“Jon Hopkins knows how to fill a dance floor with techno that throbs insistently. But he’s also got a tremendous gift for the comedown; for warm, ambient baths of sound that slow the blood and settle the mind” NPR Music
“Hopkins remains in ascension and no one is on his level right now” CLASH 8/10
“Hopkins’ open-minded take on an altered state becomes an experience that reveals itself a little more with every glorious listen” Loud & Quiet 9/10
“Singularity amplifies Hopkins’ music to blockbuster proportions.” RAUpcoming Jon Hopkins live & DJ dates
10th Oct – Rockefeller, Oslo SOLD OUT
11th Oct – Nobelberget, Stockholm
12th Oct – Den Grå Hal, Copenhagen SOLD OUT
13th Oct – Movement Festival, Turin
18th Oct – Vicar Street, Dublin SOLD OUT
19th Oct – The Galvanizers, Glasgow SOLD OUT
20th Oct – Paradiso, Amsterdam SOLD OUT
20th Oct – Het Sieraad for ADE, Amsterdam (DJ)
24th Oct – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels SOLD OUT
25th Oct – Columbiahalle, Berlin SOLD OUT
26th Oct – Le Trianon, Paris SOLD OUT
27th Oct – BIME Live, Bilbao
2nd Nov – O2 Brixton Academy, London SOLD OUT
3rd Nov – O2 Brixton Academy, London SOLD OUT
17th Nov – Boiler Shop, Newcastle SOLD OUT
22nd Nov – Albert Hall, Manchester SOLD OUT
23rd Nov – Spazio 900, Rome
25th Nov – War Child presents Safe & Sound @ Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
28th Nov – La Riviera, Madrid
21st Dec – Jon Hopkins Curates Fabric, London (DJ)BOBBIE JOHNSON RELEASES DEFIER EP
Bobbie Johnson, a solo hip-hop artist from the UK, mashes her multi-genre influences of hip-hop, grime, garage and glitch, to form an amalgamation of sounds that showcases her conscious thought and social commentary. She uses the self-healing tool of music to explores self-reflective themes of love in her upcoming EP ‘Defier’, out October 8, on QM Records.
Defier shows an artist evolving; her production skills reach a fresh and complex twist on her sound as you know it. Citing influences such as James Blake and FKA Twigs, the ‘Defier EP’ plays around with ideas of rebellion, it highlights the struggles in love – futile love, unrequited love, destructive love and the importance of self-love.
Listen to Another Man, from Defier EP
‘Rainbow Flags’ is very close to Bobbie’s heart; spitting topics of homosexuality, being overly sexualised, commercialized or suppressed. ‘Another Man’ – the first single from the Defier EP – talks about the social commentary of relationship games, sexual fluidity and learning about yourself. All guided with the garage-reminiscent vibe and dreamy vocals. Her quick wit is showcased on follow up single ‘Go Get Mine’ featuring up and coming Brighton rapper Taff. A sound that is more familiar to the Bobbie you may know, focusing on your career but with a cheeky look back into the past to see how far you’ve come, all over a grime-influenced beat.
Defier EP
Out October 8, 2018Manager Cara Topping cara.topping@gmail.com
Label Nicholson contact@qmrecords.com // press@qmrecords.comJon Hopkins shares Singularity video
Jon Hopkins – “Singularity” from the album of the same name, out now on Domino Record Co.
Taken from his critically acclaimed new album, Singularity, Jon Hopkins is very proud to share the video for the title track. Directed by Academy Films’ Seb Edwards, ‘Singularity’ is a visual pinnacle of the album’s arc and a continuation and deepening of all the themes that pervade Jon Hopkins’ work.
Jon Hopkins says of the video: “This is the single most epic video I’ve ever had made. Seb has been a friend and collaborator for nearly 15 years now, but this is the first opportunity we’ve had to work with total freedom on a video for my own music. The power of what he has done left me speechless the first time I saw it. He translated the themes of destruction and defiance that I fed into the music into a powerful, violent ballet between male and female and I totally love it.”
Director Seb Edwards adds: “I’ve always loved Jon’s work and we’ve been wanting to collaborate for a while. ‘Singularity’ is such an incredible track, its merciless intensity somehow reflects our troubled times. I wanted to capture the feeling of defiance that rises from the initial brutality. The track is ultimately about acceptance and finding peace in nature. I hope I did it justice.”
In what has been an incredibly successful 2018 so far, Hopkins is currently on a sold out tour in North America and will be returning to Europe and UK for a slew of sold out dates including two at London’s Brixton Academy in November. A full list of shows including festival appearances can found below.
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‘Singularity’ video credits:
Production Company – Academy Films
Director – Seb Edwards
EP – Medb Riordan
Producer – Ash Lockmun
Cast: Aliashka Hilsum
Cast: Jarkko Mandelin
DOP – Khalid Mohtaseb
Production Designer – Robin Brown
Choreographer – Hofesh Shechter
Stylist – Bratsk
Local Service Production Company: BAS Productions, Belgrade
Editor: Sam Rice-Edwards @ Assembly Rooms
Sound Design: Mark Hills @ Factory Studios
Colourist: Jean-Clement Soret @ MPC London
VFX by Mikros-MPC—
Praise for Singularity:
“His long standing enchantment with nature, electricity and mindfulness glimmers anew on Singularity” Q 4*
“One of the most celebrated electronic musicians of his generation.” New Yorker
“A sonic realization of a better world, conceived in the depths of psychedelic experimentation” MOJO 4*
“Pitched between heat-seeking acid house and ambient bliss, the techno auteur’s first album since 2013 is a beat-music odyssey that thrums with spiritual resonance” Pitchfork, Best New Music
“A beautiful bastard of a record” Mixmag 9/10
“Jon Hopkins knows how to fill a dance floor with techno that throbs insistently. But he’s also got a tremendous gift for the comedown; for warm, ambient baths of sound that slow the blood and settle the mind” NPR Music
“Hopkins remains in ascension and no one is on his level right now” CLASH 8/10
“Hopkins’ open-minded take on an altered state becomes an experience that reveals itself a little more with every glorious listen” Loud & Quiet 9/10
“Singularity amplifies Hopkins’ music to blockbuster proportions.” RA
Buy Singularity now:
65daysofstatic release test render
Ahead of their upcoming October and November tour dates, Sheffield’s 65daysofstatic have shared results from their recent exploration into new ways of harnessing algorithmic music techniques in the form new track ‘Z1’. The band state:
“We’ve been busy trying to write music that isn’t also a song at the time. So – here is some brand new music from us. It is a live take of some machines we made to make music like we make, except in ways we might not have thought of ourselves.
At this point there is probably hours of 65 audio that these machines have churned out. We’ve alienated ourselves from our own creative production. Full automation, a Fordist’s dream. And you all thought 65days weren’t commercially viable! Well, you were dead wrong. We’ve solved music now, so are currently looking into franchising options. Hit us up if you’d like to run your own 65daysofstatic branch locally. Also give us a shout if you’re a venture capitalist billionaire who still thinks technology will save us from Full Spectrum Doom, we will take your money and buy lots of drum machines.
No.
Look here instead. It’s a video of a new 65 song manifesting itself. Is it a true representation of the algorithmic process or a reverse-engineered illusion of the algorithmic process? Is the fact that we wonder about this difference a sign of the importance we attach to oblique creative processes as a valuable defence against the endless demand for content, or is it actually evidence of how capitalism has ruined our imagination to the extent that we can only perceive music in fixed commodifiable forms instead of endless streams of potential? Or is it the reason we don’t get invited to many parties any more?
Just kidding we never really got invited to any parties.”
Decomposition Theory Live
12.10 AMFest, BARCELONA | TICKETS
14.10 Paradiso, AMSTERDAM | TICKETS
27.10 Funkhaus Kultursaal, BERLIN | TICKETS
19.11 The Contemporary, NOTTINGHAM | TICKETS (support from Johanna Bramli)
20.11 Village Underground, LONDON | TICKETS (support from Johanna Bramli)
21.11 Band Studios, BRISTOL | TICKETS (support from Johanna Bramli)
22.11 CCA, GLASGOW | TICKETS (support from Johanna Bramli)
23.11 Howard Assembly Room, LEEDS | TICKETS (support from Johanna Bramli)
24.11 Sage 2, GATESHEAD | TICKETS (support from Johanna Bramli)Clark announces E.C.S.T. T.R.A.X. EP
Clark will handle the first release on his new label, Throttle Records.
The label name might feel familiar to fans of the Warp mainstay—in the mid-’00s, he released three EPs with “throttle” in the title, followed by the Throttle Monolith compilation in 2012. The first 12-inch, which lands on September 21st, features two tracks, both of which were inspired “as much by classical/orchestral and avant garde greats as dance music,” according to the press release.
The EP, E.C.S.T. T.R.A.X., was recorded in partnership with sample library and virtual instrument company Spitfire Audio.
Harpischord E.C.S.T.
Taken from the double A side 12″ ‘E.C.S.T. T.R.A.X.’. Released 21 September 2018 on Throttle Records, Clark’s newly established record label.Piano E.C.S.T.
Taken from the double A side 12″ ‘E.C.S.T. T.R.A.X.’ release 21 September 2018 on Throttle Records, Clark’s newly established record label.