Archive

  • Welcome to LittleBig :: Bobbie Johnson

    ‘Music is my only release, it’s the only thing that soothes my soul. It’s my stabiliser, my passion, and my wife.’
    — Bobbie Johnson

    UK producer and rapper Bobbie Johnson combines hip hop, grime, garage, and glitch to form an amalgamation of sounds that showcase her conscious thought and social commentary. She has gained the nickname of the ‘Rapping Adele’ increasing her fan base with every show she commands, promoting a new age voice of hip hop.

    Bobbie is based in Brighton, UK, and draws inspiration from a range of musicians, including James Blake, FKA Twigs, Kendrick Lamar, OutKast, Queen Latifah, Tom Misch – and many more – and has supported Children of Zeus, The Pharcyde and Roots Manuva, and has also toured with Rag ’n’ Bone Man.

    She released her debut EP ‘You & I’ in 2016, which catalysed attention and local support that she has been garnering over the last few years, followed up with 2018 EP ‘Defier’, and single ‘Another Man’.

  • Gazelle Twin shares new Hobby Horse video

    4:3 is proud to present Gazelle Twin’s ‘Hobby Horse’ from new album, Pastoral, out on 21 September on Anti-Ghost Moon Ray.

  • Aphex Twin announces COLLAPSE EP

    Aphex Twin has shared release details for his forthcoming EP, alongside a new video for first track ‘T69 collapse’.

    Released on 14 September across digital and physical formats, the ‘Collapse EP’ features five new Aphex Twin tracks – the first on Warp since 2016’s ‘Cheetah EP’.

    Watch the visual for first track ‘T69 collapse’, directed by Weirdcore below.

    The ‘Collapse EP’ is available to pre-order via:

    Aphex Twin Store • Bleep • iTunes

    ‘T69 collapse’ is available to stream now:

    Youtube • Spotify • Apple Music • Google Play • Deezer

  • The Field announces new album ‘Infinite Moment’

    Swedish minimal techno stalwart The Field has announced his new album Infinite Moment via Kompakt on September 21.

    The new album takes a more expansive sound as its blueprint, moving away from the darker direction the producer took on 2016’s The Follower. On Infinite Moment The Field explores a lighter atmosphere, crafting an album a press release asserts is “filled with hope and draped in a diffuse, appeasing light”.

    Infinite Moment will be available on CD, vinyl LP and digital formats via Kompakt on September 21, and is available to preorder now. Check out the album artwork and tracklist below.

    Tracklist:

    01. ‘Made of Steel, Made of Stone’
    02. ‘Divide Now’
    03. ‘Hear Your Voice’
    04. ‘Something Left, Something Right, Something Wrong’
    05. ‘Who Goes There’
    06. ‘Infinite Moment’

  • Gazelle Twin announces album, Pastoral

    GAZELLE TWIN – PASTORAL
    NEW ALBUM OUT 21 SEPTEMBER 2018
    ON ANTI-GHOST MOON RAY  

    “Bound to shake your walls and rattle your windows” Max Reinhardt, BBC RADIO 3
    “The first bit of evidence that Elizabeth Bernholz’s next album Pastoral – due out in September – could be her best to date”. THE QUIETUS
    “Will likely be one of the year’s very best records.” CLASH 

    “What species is this?
    What century?”

    Forged in a rural idyll in Middle-England, the new album Pastoral, by Gazelle Twin, exhumes England’s rotten past, and shines a torch over its ever-darkening present.

    Told through a troupe of multi-gender voices, in vernaculars old and new; from the shrill echo of folksong to tabloid-tinged jaunts, the artist aka Elizabeth Bernholz, presents the notion that “there is horror in every idyll, and danger lurking beyond the “quaint” ”. The village square – once host to centuries of public torture – becomes a floral framed postcard, dolled-up for the Summer Fête. A sunny, afternoon walk over the hills unsettles a cloud of angry flies feeding from unidentifiable remains. Bigoted vitriol gently murmurs amidst tearoom chatter, as the neatly framed pastoral picture dissolves into a solemn ennui.

    Four years in the making, amidst life-changing events, including a move far out of the city, Pastoral will be the first major release by the artist since her widely acclaimed LP UNFLESH (2014, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) and is seamlessly on-theme, together with Bernholz’s J.G. Ballard-inspired A/V show ’Kingdom Come’ (soundtrack released November 2017, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray) – a fascism-infused hellscape, this time set in deepest Old England.

    As its sole creator, Gazelle Twin “The Composer, Musician and Producer” has crafted an album overflowing with a frenzy of traditional and contemporary musical tropes; from early music instrumentation – the harpsichord and the humble recorder, fed through myriad electronics – to the compelling, ritualistic application of found sample-looping. Beyond Bernholz’s signature choral-infusions, here reverberating like a warped Sunday Service, there are even shades of ‘90s house and the once-thriving rural rave scene, albeit recalled as a watery, second-hand memory. In its consummation it is an album that feels pan-century, even pan-species.

    Set against a verdant backdrop of hedgerows and steeples, Gazelle Twin “The Artist and Performer”, constructs an eccentric and commanding visual embodiment of all-of-the-above – a costume fit for a court Jester of the 21st Century. The colours of Neo-Nationalism. Coke cans, and DANGER. “It” (not “she”) hints at folkloric traditions with a footy mascot twist. The “Ye Olde” and “The Everyman” of the English cliché. Brandishing a sneer and a hobby horse. A riddle and a recorder. A jeer and a square dance in red, Adidas Gazelle’s, and a mad, fixed GRIN – first glimpsed in the single, ‘Hobby Horse’ (22 June, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray).

    A deranged, absurd reflection of deranged and absurd times.

     

    Pastoral is released on 21 September 2018, on Anti-Ghost Moon Ray (cat number AGMR035), and is gratefully supported through the PRS Foundation Momentum Fund.

    www.gazelletwin.com

     

     

     

  • Max Cooper presents ‘One Hundred Billion Sparks’

    MAX C

     

    Max Cooper has announced the release of his next album ‘One Hundred Billion Sparks’. After spending a month in complete isolation at a remote cottage in Wales, Max Cooper presents ‘One Hundred Billion Sparks’, his third studio album, in which he interrogates notions of identity whilst profiling the complex mechanisms that make us all wonderfully unique.

    Every piece of music on the album is a score to the visual story underpinning the project. Each chapter conceived in both musical and visual form from the outset, and carried forward as collaborations with visual artists. These chapters are explained in detail on an accompanying website which will be released alongside the album. On his process, Max explains:

    “Nature is like art – full of structure, complexity, paradox and many other things which invoke awe, beauty, peace, confusion, frustration and feeling. That is why I involve scientific ideas in my projects; they are a rich source of aesthetic and feeling.”

    As one of the leading artists exploring the intersection of music, science, art and technology, Max Cooper has sustained a reputation for providing insightful projects via sound, visuals and immersive installations. ‘One Hundred Billion Sparks’ advances that reputation, with an artistic exploration of ideas communicating the marvel of our existence.

    QUOTES 

    • “Absolutely incredible, utterly enthralling…goosebumps.” – Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6 Music
    • “The always awesome Max Cooper.” – Tom Ravenscroft, BBC 6 Music
    • “Digging everything Max does.” – Charlotte de Witte, producer/DJ
    • “This is some really top-end intricate and poised electronica, he’s so talented this guy” – Chris Hawkins, BBC 6Music

    HIGHLIGHTS

    • Features on Resident Advisor (Japan too), Tsugi (FR), Nerdcore (DE), House Of Frankie (IT), The Playground (ZA), Electronic Groove (UK), Orb Mag(UK), Decoded Mag (UK), A Closer Listen (USA), We Are Machine (USA), XLR8R (USA), Data Transmission (UK) among others.
    • Groove magazine is doing a 3 page studio feature on Max in their September or October issue too.
    • Plays European radio stations, support in the UK from BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 1 and more
    • Video for ‘Hope’ with over 45k views (across Youtube & Vimeo)
  • Powell Boiler Room Santiago DJ set + live/DJ hybrid show for NTS

    Press_01 low

     

    Powell has been busy this year showcasing his chops as the punkest MF behind the decks with a rave-tastic DJ set for Boiler Room in Santiago, Chile last month and via his latest Melon Magic show for NTS, playing with a new live modular synth + DJ hybrid set up which he will be taking on the road with true to form twists and turns special to each performance of the show.

    NOW BOOKING DJ and live/DJ hybrid sets brandon [at] lb-agency.net  

     

  • Aphex Twin sells out 8000 cap Berlin venue

    ! SOLD OUT !
    Thursday 01.11.18
    Entrance: 18:30 Uhr, Start: 20:00 Uhr
    Funkhaus Berlin, Shedhalle Room. Nalepastrasse 18 12459 Berlin

    Screen Shot 2018-05-21 at 17.03.15

    The mastermind of ‘Windowlicker’ and ‘Come to Daddy’, who notoriously shuns the spotlight, selected Shedhalle, Berlin’s spectacular warehouse concert hall in the GDR broadcasting station to host his first show in Berlin in 15 years.

    The reappearance of the most celebrated and influential electronic artist on a former cold war stage that recently transformed into the world’s most noted music complex, is highly anticipated.

    Facebook
    Tickets:
  • Miss Red debut LP ‘K.O.’ (prod. by The Bug) out July 13 – stream lead single “Dagga”

    MissRed-KO-press

    Miss Red’s warcry of a debut LP ‘K.O.’ will be dropping with full force on July 13 via The Bug’s new label PRESSURE, following his Flame 1 collab with Burial. The Israeli MC’s one of a kind flow has been all over The Bug’s live sets and tracks for the past few years and first made a splash with her 2015 Murder mixtape ft. production by Evian Christ, Andy Stott, Mumdance, Mark Pritchard++ w/ videos for “Murder” & “Fever” and has since release singles via her Red Label imprint of Sounds of The Universe and guested on tracks with Warp’s GAIKA.

    ‘K.O.’ is dedicated to her grandfather, a renowned prizefighter who passed away during the making of the album and is featured on it’s cover. Of the album, Red says: “For me, reggae is the foundation of this record but the album’s movement is freer. It mirrors my need to move and keep challenging myself. As a white Israeli girl working as an MC in the music industry, and in particular as a singer, it’s a BIG battle to be taken seriously, and as a woman in the music industry, I am in an obvious minority, the situation is clear, the MAN is still in control—that has got to be addressed, and changed.”

    Album announcement via XLR8R, FACT + lead single ‘Dagga’ coverage The Quietus, CLASH, MixmagFACT Singles Club

    Plenty of MCs have accompanied Martin over the years, but the Israeli has a seductive yet savage chemistry that suits the limber brutality of the music perfectly. Bathed in red light and smoke, the pair completely brought the house down. – RA review of Simple Things ’17 

    For all the ruckus that Martin inevitably brings to the show Miss Red is still 100% the star – it’s a testament to her presence and flow as MC that she’s able to ride all over the avalanche Bug riddims that thunder about the place, as ever her vocal range sharp glass amidst the dense racket. – The Quietus review of Unsound ’16

    miss-red-ko-digi-art-1000px-web

    Now booking The Bug ft. Miss Red live sets brandon [at] lb-agency.net

     

  • Aphex Twin to headline Club 2 Club festival

    The 18th edition of Club To Club, #C2C18, will take place in Turin from 1st to 4th November. The first name in the lineup to be unveiled is one of the most iconic and influential musicians of the past 30 years: Aphex Twin.

    LB_AT_Tavola disegno 1 copia 124(1) (1)

    Born in Ireland and raised in Cornwall, Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin first found fortune with his imprint Rephlex and subsequently with cult label Warp Records, on which he released a plethora of records that went on to become contemporary classics: his productions have touched many different genres yet they remain unclassifiable, just like his logo (and his face) have become pop icons. While his ironic, media-shy approach has contributed to build around him a legendary aura, Aphex Twin’s musical legacy, broad as much as it is indisputable, has paved the way to new sounds and approaches, changing the history of music forever.

    Club To Club is also pleased to announce the theme for the new edition: La luce al buio [light over darkness].
    Inspired by Nicolas Jaar’s lead track of his #C2C17 closing set, an unusual and distinctive edit of Franco Battiato’s L’ombra della luce, it was a track made by Jaar, enriched with samples from a Battiato interview.

    Super Early Bird Weekend Passes (Friday 2nd + Saturday 3rd) are now on sale at €65 – limited availability: http://bit.ly/C2C18_TICKETS

    More news will be announced over the next coming weeks.

    http://clubtoclub.it

  • Actress Update: LCO Album + new tracks + live video

    Never one to sit still, Actress aka Darren Cunningham has been busy on multiple fronts recently. Just announced is the collaborative album with the London City Orchestra “LAGEOS” – out May 25th on Ninja Tune.

    Actress x LCO will perform their second Barbican show on May 26th following their sold out performance in 2017. We are now booking select collaborative shows in UK and EU – contact Ned.

    Check the Crack Magazine mini feature on the project:

    Meanwhile, the Actress live AV show is evolving over select shows worldwide and will continue to tour through 2018 and into 2019. Always a different flow depending on location and where Darren wants to take it, check a recent full show at the ARTE Festival in Paris:

    New music has also been surfacing:

    New ‘Watercolour Challenge’ track on Modeselektion EP

    A remix of Daniel Avery’s Slow Fade:

  • Listen to Dopplereffekt on the Clone Records takeover

    Dopplereffekt made a rare radio appearance for Clone Records’ takeover on Rinse FM. Listen here.

  • Rival Consoles premieres new video, Hidden

    Taken from the album ‘Persona’ out on 2LP/CD/DL: http://phonofile.link/rivalconsoles-p…
    Director: Dan Medhurst

  • Jimmy Edgar is back with Burn So Deep single Feat. DAWN

    After a period of hiding out in his new Portland studio, Jimmy Edgar just dropped a huge single, Burn So Deep Feat. DAWN on the Big Beat (Atlantic US) label. It has been receiving extensive UK radio support.

    Jimmy is available for select touring through 2018 both for solo DJ sets and for JETS live shows (with Machinedrum).

    Check out the hot video directed by Robert Fox.

    Having signed to Warp Records aged 18, the Detroit native Jimmy Edgar went on to release albums for both K7! and Hot Flush. In 2013 he subsequently set up his label Ultramajic alongside friend Machinedrum. Jimmy also collaborated with Machinedrum to create another project titled JETS. Ultramajic continues to regularly release singles, EPs and albums from artist such as Chambray, Lando, Danny Daze and Kris Wadsworth, as well as Jimmy’s own productions such as his stand out ‘Shine EP’ which included ‘Let Me Tell You’ in 2015 and more recently the ‘Dreamz Come Tru’ EP featuring Rochelle Jordan. The label continues to flourish under the artistic direction of Jimmy Edgar and Pilar Zeta.

    2016-2017 saw Jimmy develop as a writer/producer working closely with Vince Staples on his album, among many others.
    2018 sees Jimmy’s first solo release of 2018 on Big Beat (Atlantic US) with a single ‘Burn So Deep Feat. DAWN’, which comes with remixes from Maya Jane Coles and Ross From Friends. Forthcoming in 2018 is also another release from JETS.

  • 65daysofstatic announces Decomposition Theory AV show

    “We’re really excited to announce a run of special A/V shows around the UK as part of our ongoing Decomposition Theory project. Each show will be a unique, live collaborative performance with generative music algorithms we made. When we started this project, it was a way to try and imagine better futures from the mire of the outmoded music industry… Automation as emancipation, not alienation!

    Didn’t turn out that way though. We don’t trust the thoughts we’ve coded into our machines. They don’t trust us either.”

    19-Nov Nottingham, The Contemporary
    20-Nov London, Village Underground
    21-Nov Bristol, Band Studios
    22-Nov Glasgow, Centre for Contemporary Arts
    23-Nov Leeds, Howard Assembly Room
    24-Nov Gateshead, Sage 2

  • Jon Hopkins releases new album, Singularity

    Singularity, the new album from Jon Hopkins, is out now.

    Listen to the album in full here

  • Braids announce new music

    “For those of u that have ever taken selfies, contorted ur body for selfies, pushed up ur breasts, hid ur breasts, hid ur ass, pushed up ur ass, exaggerated ur bulge, exaggerated ur collarbones, turned up the contrast, softened ur lines, been ghosted, ghosted, used tinder, failed at tinder, fallen down an instagram hole, deleted and downloaded it , deleted and downloaded it, deleted and downloaded it, wandered the drug store for clarity, thought hair dye could ease ur pain, at least for a couple days, and flipped the bird at 1 or all of these things – these songs are 4 u.

    We hope you can sing with them, scream with them, dance with them, laugh with them and dream of how u want to feel and deserve to feel. Take a moment for urself.”

    – Raphaelle

    LISTEN TO “COLLARBONES” and “BURDOCK & DANDELION” >

    BRAIDS’ two new singles, “Collarbones” and “Burdock & Dandelion”, reflect their quintessential sound, yet also exhibit a new, bold and potent musical and lyrical maturity.  Casting a critical eye on our fast-paced, smartphone, media-obsessed culture of consumption, these new songs vulnerably explore the perils of contemporary life and seek redemption from a world that is “moving faster / than we ever expected”.

    In “Collarbones”, online dating, impulse-driven intimacy and digital desirability is poked fun at, while “Burdock & Dandelion” turns its critical gaze towards the toxicity of ‘ghosting’, the beauty standards women face that men don’t, and the capitalism of self-care.  What emerges in these songs is sonic apothecary for digital malaise, reflecting a generation’s palpable longing for something more real, authentic, less filtered and, ultimately, more human.

    We’re here to feel something more
    But we’re just hurtling towards
    Seeing and feeling nothing
    Nothing more than an impulse
    To move on to the next thing
    And forget the last

    BRAIDS are a Montreal-based, three-piece band composed of Raphaelle Standell-Preston, Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts.  BRAIDS have solidified a decade-long reputation for their musical ingenuity and established themselves as one of Canada’s most acclaimed art rock bands, releasing three albums: ‘Deep In The Iris’ (2015), ‘Flourish // Perish’ (2013), ‘Native Speaker’ (2011), and the EP ‘Companion’ (2016).  BRAIDS’ most recent album ‘Deep In The Iris’ was a landmark record for the band, winning the 2016 Juno for Alternative Album of the Year.  With Standell-Preston’s vocals as the pillar of their sound, BRAIDS weave organic and electronic elements together amidst a lyrical landscape that is intimate and emotionally-immersive.

     

    Press Materials: http://www.flemisheye.com/press/braids
    Collarbones / Burdock & Dandelions on Flemish Eye : http://www.flemisheye.com/braids
    Instagram: http://instagram.com/braidsmusic
    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6JX35IQ1Yw84Yjzq2Y5p5i

  • Gazelle Twin announces new single, Hobby Horse

    “I want to get the fuck out of here NOW” – is the panic-stricken sentiment behind Gazelle Twin’s searing new single, ‘Hobby Horse’ – serving up the first lick of her latest album ‘PASTORAL’ to be released on 21 September 2018. The single compliments a hotly-tipped premiere and headlining performance at Supersonic Festival, in Birmingham, on 23 June.

    HOBBY HORSE’s rousing and mantra-like spoken style – first heard in the body-dysmorphia inspired album UNFLESH (2014) and later in her touring A/V live show ‘KINGDOM COME’ – this time accompanies crazed galloping, incoherent, angry stadium chanting and eerie high-pitched howls. 

    The heavily cinematic B-side ‘DEEP ENGLAND’, spotlights and upturns a very English form of nostalgia as Bernholz croons “My silver cloud, My retail park, My cul de sac, My England”.

    In-keeping with her ever-morphing performance persona Gazelle Twin is now clad in red and white, head to toe. The colours of a familiar flag. A nod to deep and recent history; A jester-come-morris dancer. A post-pagan hooligan, riding its Hobby Horse or conjuring terror with its pipe. Like a modern-day Commedia Dell’Arte characature, she reveals the madness and violence of “ye olde” traditions slammed within contemporary cliches.

    “PASTORAL is an album about growing up in Britain, looking back at how it all ended up like this, and experiencing provincial life in a political and cultural climate where I would rather be anywhere else…”

    HOBBY HORSE is released on 22 June, 2018, on the artist’s own label, Anti-Ghost Moon Ray.

    HOBBY HORSE
    b/ DEEP ENGLAND

    22 June 2018
    Anti-Ghost Moon Ray

    CAT no.AGMR034

  • Autechre take over NTS Radio

    Autechre take over NTS Radio for a month-long residency throughout April 2018,  presenting four two-hour shows of new and original Autechre music.

    NTS Sessions 1-4 compiles eight hours of music streamed during Autechre’s ongoing residency on London radio station NTS. Each of the four individual sessions will be available individually, either as a triple-vinyl record or a digital download. (It’ll also be sold as a single 12-vinyl boxset or eight-CD package.)

    The duo’s first NTS session aired on April 5th. The remaining shows will broadcast on April 12th, 19th and 26th. Pre-orders will receive a digital download after the final show, while the physical formats will ship around three months later.

    It’s Autechre’s most substantial piece of new music since elseq 1-5, a similarly sprawling package issued back in 2016.

    Read the Resident Adviser feature with Autechre.

    Tracklist
    01. t1a1
    02. bqbqbq
    03. debris_funk
    04. I3 ctrl
    05. carefree counter dronal
    06. north spiral
    07. gonk steady one
    08. four of seven
    09. 32a_reflected

    Warp Records will release NTS Sessions 1-4 on April 26th, 2018.

    Source

  • Jon Hopkins releases new single, Everything Connected

    As he gears up towards the release of his new album, Singularity out on 4th MayJon Hopkins has today shared new track, ‘Everything Connected’. ‘Everything Connected’, an epic techno workout, marks one of the many energetic highs and the mid-way point on Singularity. Listen to the track and watch the psychedelic visualiser below.

    In celebration of the release of Singularity, Hopkins will be debuting his new live show at a very special sold out performance at Village Underground on 10th May. Additionally, he will be DJing at Banquet, Kingston on 3rd May. Following these dates, Hopkins has a run of live dates and DJ appearances across the UK, Europe Japan & the US.

  • RIVAL CONSOLES RELEASES NEW ALBUM, PERSONA

    Ryan Lee West aka Rival Consoles presents his expressive new album ‘Persona’, set for release on 13th April 2018 via Erased Tapes.

    The title ‘Persona’ was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film of the same name, specifically a shot in the opening credits of a child reaching out to touch a woman’s face on a screen, which is shifting between one face and another. This powerful image struck Ryan and it inspired the album’s main theme — an exploration of the persona, the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us, the spaces in between; between states, people, light and dark, the inner persona and the outer persona.

    Stream the album in full here

    “My music is generally inward looking. I like finding something about the self within music, that doesn’t have to be specific but maybe asks something or reveals something. This record is a continuation on the self through electronic sounds. Like Legowelt once said ‘a synthesiser is like a translator for unknown emotions’, which I think sums up what I am trying to do. I think all these emotions we have make up our persona. So in a way by finding new ones you alter or expand your persona. And that is what I want my music to try to do. I deliberately aimed to be more sonically diverse with this record. I wanted to experiment more. I wanted to create new sounds and new emotions.”

    Recorded at his studio in south-east London, ‘Persona’ benefits from Ryan’s exploration of a dynamic production process that combines analogue-heavy synthesisers, acoustic and electric instruments with a shoegaze-level obsession with effect pedals. A greater depth of emotion and confidence can be heard across the album. From the deconstructed movements on ‘Unfolding’ that starts the album with a snap of delayed snares, the apocalyptic drones of the title track and thundering drums in ‘Phantom Grip’ to more restrained ambient feels of ‘Dreamer’s Wake’, ‘Rest’ and ‘Untravel’. The latter transverses six beatless minutes of undulating melodies representing “a limbo space, a feeling of ennui, of not really ever being known to others and others not ever really being known to you”.

    ‘Be Kind’ reveals a musical connection with fellow Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm, with its minimal approach and improvisational nature. On the more complex sounding ‘I Think So’ Ryan aims to replicate a colour collage with sound. Like a musical kaleidoscope, a flashing and convoluted mass. Written after he saw Slowdive perform live last year, ‘Hidden’ builds from whispers to landscapes of controlled noise. In an interview with XLR8R magazine, Ryan explains: “once you start trying to make a sound loud, then you turn your back on thousands and thousands of sonic possibilities. One of the best things to do is to start a track with a really quiet, weak sound.” Taking this idea to its ultimate conclusion, ‘Fragment’ closes the album as an innocent sounding ambient piece, almost nursery rhyme like, yielding time for reflection on how the persona has changed.

    ‘Persona’ follows the success of a series of releases — the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Sonne’ EPs, long player ‘Howl’, and 2016’s mini album ‘Night Melody’ — that saw Ryan mature into what Pitchfork has called a “forward-thinking electronic musician with his own ideas about sound”. Atypical of instrumental-electronic music, Ryan has achieved a signature sound that’s unmistakably identifiable as Rival Consoles. Going beyond typical electronic music production, Ryan defines it as “songwriting with an electronic palette of sounds”.

    The increasingly dynamic live audio-visual show, born from bespoke performances at the Tate and for Boiler Room at the V&A Museum featuring self-programmed visuals in Max/MSP, has propelled him to play around the world. Ryan launches ‘Persona’ at London’s XOYO on 12th April with further dates to be announced.

  • Rival Consoles reveals video for new track Untravel

    Rival Consoles shares compelling new track Untravel and its accompanying otherworldly visual, directed by Misha Shyukin.

    Rival Consoles – Untravel (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

    Taken from his forthcoming album Persona, released on April 13th, Untravel  transverses six beatless minutes of undulating melodies. “This piece appears towards the end of the album and was a kind of meditation and therapy to create. It is neither happy nor sad, certain or lost; but between states. A sort of unknowable nostalgia.” says Ryan Lee West.

    Inspired by the music, the video explores this feeling of being lost; “We were experimenting with various techniques of distorting the footage in order to intensify the experience of a disoriented feeling in a strange and unknown landscape, yet maintaining a constant forward motion while examining the desolate world,” adds director Misha Shyukin.

    Ryan launches Persona at select venues across Europe including London’s XOYO on April 12, before touring North America in May.

    · pre-order Persona on LP/CD/DL

    · book tickets for the Persona tour

  • The Bug announces PRESSURE label, Burial collab single + Miss Red LP

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    The Bug has announced his new label PRESSURE, building from his Berlin party series, with a big splash! The first release will be a 12″ he produced together with Burial under the moniker Flame 1, and the record pre-orders have already sold out of most shops ahead of its release on March 30.

    Listen to track “Fog” via The Quietus and “Shrine” via CRACK plus read Pitchfork‘s write-up which highlights that The Bug makes the most unlikely-seeming collaborations feel intuitive.

    Next up in PRESSURE’s schedule is MISS RED’s debut LP (prod. by The Bug) this Summer which promises to be raw, raga banger! Tom Ravenscroft already dropped the first single “DAGGA” on his BBC Radio show.

    NOW BOOKING: The Bug live w/ MCs, solo ‘In Dub’ DJ sets, and Miss Red live & DJ sets

    brandon [at] lb-agency.net

     

  • Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith launches experimental label Touchtheplants

    Touchtheplants is an encouraging multidisciplinary creative environment founded by composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. The platform grows with and for diverse artists dedicated to the joy of storytelling and exploring the spirit through music and visual arts.

    Sharing music, dance, film, poetry, photography, instruments, explorations, experiences, clothing, fortunes, symposiums and more, Touchtheplants is open to all ideas and formats rooted in the intent to encourage and edify infinite possibilities.

    Touchtheplants Presents: Electronic Series

    The Electronic Series is an annual offering consisting of a musical recording and a short comic about two friends – a plant and a human being – having an existential conversation. Each volume focuses on a different theme and context intended to nourish inquisitiveness.

    abstractions_tape

    Electronic Series Vol 1: “Abstractions” Inspired by a collection of works by experimental filmmaker Harry Everett Smith.

    Available March 21st on Cassette and Digital.

    Coming Soon:

    Rob Moss Wilson
    Chantal Anderson
    Aubrey Trinnaman
    Cool Maritime
    Tyy Wells

  • 65daysofstatic to tour Decomposition Theory

    DECOMPOSITION THEORY: LIVE ALGORITHMIC A/V PERFORMANCE

    Fresh from their critically acclaimed, infinitely-long and decidedly non-linear soundtrack to the universe-sized No Man’s Sky video game, and as active contributors to the burgeoning live-coding and ‘algorave’ scenes, with Decomposition Theory, 65daysofstatic are once again refusing to be easily categorised.

    Inspired by the ‘show us your screens’ attitude of live coders, their Decomposition Theory A/V show uses generative visuals to reveal the inner workings of 65’s musical algorithms. The code flashes by, logging every musical event as the band curate and sculpt the generative output in realtime. The musical process, not the band, is placed front and centre.

    Decomposition Theory is 65’s effort to imagine a space where music no longer has to take the shapes it is so often coerced into taking. In their own words:

    ‘Why are we doing this? No doubt, 65 are a long way from the frontline in any kind of struggle against capitalism and the abyss of a future it’s driving us toward. But perhaps there’s a minor supporting role in trying to imagine better futures. We are not railing against recorded music or albums or regular live shows, or what it can mean to be a band. However, these are all commodified forms. Almost all the ways anyone can relate to music these days are mediated through capital. Because we exist in relation to capital. We’re all drowning in it. It’s almost impossible to think outside of it. And so Decomposition Theory is some small effort to imagine a space where music is no longer shaped in commodity forms, and a live show doesn’t emphasise the ritual of performance. We are un-songing our songs and un-performing on stage.’

    This is ambitious, utopian thinking from a band at the top of its game.

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