Today’s the day: Tiësto’s Musical Freedom drops its first ‘self-titled’ compilation in 11 years of releasing quality dancefloor music. ‘Musical Freedom Unlimited’ unites 20 superb dancefloor tracks from producers across the world, bringing the club into your home with its diverse and energetic flavours.
To celebrate the compilation’s release, Musical Freedom are hosting the biggest back-to-back remote DJ set live stream ever seen. The immense line-up will consist of artists from all around the world including Breathe Carolina, Sunstars, Ice & Diaz, Valy Mo, Ayor, Magnificence, Cheyenne Giles, MOSKA, BYOR, SWACQ, Antoine Delvig, Love For Justice, Massapeals, Kodat, Softest Hard, Silkdope, ALRT, Reece Low and Olly James. The live stream begins at 6PM CEST on May 28 and can be viewed on Musical Freedom’s Youtube, Facebook and Twitch channels.
The compilation features 16 never before released productions, among them is the first production of label favourites Breathe Carolina after releasing their album 6 months ago, a pumping house groove called ‘That’s My Music’ which is peppered with old skool chord stabs. Valy Mo’s ‘WTF’ is a resounding slice of dramatic bass house that comes on like a swarm of wasps after a few cans of energy drink, while Magnificence & Ayor’s ‘Set Me Free’ pushes the limits of decency with its razor sharp buzzsaw leads that destroy all in their path.
Cheyenne Giles ‘Don’t Wanna’ is sheer lunacy, with pitched-up ravey vocals recalling early Prodigy while mind-melting riffs rip shreds out of the groove. MOSKA’s ‘90s’ is another retro leaning cut, taking some of those old school chords and marrying them to a stomping modern house groove. BYOR’s ‘Feeling Right’ blurs the lines between fierce electro and rampant bass house through its dizzying array of phat synth sounds and SWACQ’s meaty ‘POW!’ contrasts euphoric breakdowns with stuttering, bleepy grooves.
There’s incredible production throughout and a huge diversity of music on display from these brilliant producers. Wherever you are and whatever you’re able to do, ‘Musical Freedom Unlimited’ will bring energy, colour, vibe and positivity into your day. You’re going to have to carve out a dancefloor for yourself somewhere, because there’s no way you’ll be able to avoid the urge to move when you listen to it.
WILLARIS. K TEAMS UP WITH RAPPER WAVEIQ
ON FIRST SINGLE ‘CHAPEL’ FROM
FORTHCOMING EP ‘FULL NOISE’
FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF HIS CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED EP ‘LUSTRE’, FEATURING VERSATILE TRACKS LIKE ‘5 O’CLOCK’,
‘PAST LIGHT,’ AND ‘INDIFFERENT’ FEAT. GORDI
ASTRALWERKS
WILLARIS. K – ‘CHAPEL’
OUT NOW
Australian producer Willaris. K (Jack McAllister) introduced today the first taste of his forthcoming club EP, Full Noise. “Chapel” features rapper WaveIQ, who boasts writing and producing credits for Lil Yachty, Jaden Smith, Goldlink and others. Receiving a first play from BBC Radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbs, the track packs a powerful dose of bass and frenetic warehouse energy, in juxtaposition to Willaris’ latest introspective EP, LUSTRE. The post-apocalyptic rap-rave anthem is a testament to his underground sensibilities, setting the tone for more club-oriented tracks to come.
“Chapel” was born out of a midnight meeting of the minds inside a silhouetted chapel perched on a hilltop at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu. The historic edifice emanated an unmistakable energy of endless creativity as Passion Pit’s Nate Donmoyer commands a roaring bass while rapper and sound designer WaveIQ lays on the ground nearby, spitting out verses into the mic. Willaris presides over the evocative studio scene with one hand on his laptop, another on a vintage synth, while Tim Anderson (Halsey, Banks, etc.) pieces it all together with unparalleled precision.
Full Noise follows Willaris. K’s April EP LUSTRE, which was met with praise from the likes of Mixmag, The Guardian UK, Beats 1, among others. The six-track EP is a varied package of electronica, ambient, and techno cuts that showcase his artistic depth. From his first track to incorporate vocals to his abstract dancefloor rhythms, the EP is a robust reflection of sonic and personal growth nearly two years after his debut album Alchemy. Across that time, he earned performance slots at world-class festivals like Coachella, Splendour in the Grass and Lollapalooza, alongside touring with GRAMMY-nominated band RÜFÜS DU SOL and selling out his own headline shows.
Willaris’ eclectic body of work has drawn him comparisons to a league of greats like Jon Hopkins, Brian Eno, and William Basinski. His previous career as an electrical instrumentation technician led him to music on an unconventional path. While out in the field he’d collect recordings as he walked through the bushland and across the metal trays that protected the electrical cables, later feeding them into the tech-driven productions that brought Willaris. K to life. Most recently, he provided a remix of DMA’s track “Life Is A Game of Changing” and previewed new music on Untitled Group’s digital live stream with the likes of Dom Dolla, Torren Foot, and others.
Willaris. K ‘Chapel’ feat. WavelQ is available now on Astralwerks
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Artist: Kleur & Keary
EP: For You
Label: Jackie Knows Karate Records
Release Date: 25th June 2020
Tracklisting:
- For You (Original Mix)
- For You (Dub Mix)
- For You (Lotrax Remix)
Glasgow’s own Kleur teams up with local lad Keary for the next release on Jackie Knows Karate Records. ‘For You’ sees the two producers combine their unique sound to bring a dark minimal feel to the label. Pulsing synths and distorted drums create an atmospheric feel to the EPs original mix as it builds up to the vocal hook heard throughout the EP.
Following on from this is the ‘Dub Mix’ which introduces dark piano chords and long drones into the mix perfect for those late night parties in a rave cave.
Lotrax features on the EP contributing a huge remix which delivers summer vibes alongside a catchy bassline, dreamy pads and groovy drums.
Kyle Hawkins, Jackie Knows Karate Records Label Manager, said: “ As soon as we heard the original we knew the lads were onto something special and we knew it would be a big release for the label. Then you add Lotrax’s take on the original and you’ve got a winning combination.”
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Where are you currently based?
I moved to Berlin about 5 years ago from Brooklyn. A friend and I were writing music and we wanted to get away and find inspiration. It was supposed to be 2 weeks that turned into 3 months and basically we never left. Honestly, we didn’t write much music but did find a lot of inspiration…
How did you first start playing music?
I started as a Classical guitarist. There happened to be a master Flamenco guitarist, named Juan Serrano, living in my hometown in California. Somehow my parents were friends with him and I had the great fortune to be accepted as his student.
What’s been happening recently?
Not much. Stuck at home in this self-isolation weirdness.
You have an upcoming LP release ‘Ambient Inventions’ coming out via Black Diamonds on May 29 2020, what influenced the sound and songwriting for this LP?
Ambient Inventions was kind of a culmination of several collaborations since I moved to Berlin. I had started developing a different way of playing guitar that allowed me to be more experimental with sound design during live performances. I started with the Brazilian artist, Claudia de Grandi, in a live painting project and then with several contemporary dancers. It got me thinking about how to go beyond what a guitar is supposed to sound like.
So, I took a new approach to playing the guitar that somewhat resembles modular synthesis. This allowed me a lot of flexibility in sound design and fx processing but not losing the expressive nature of the guitar.
At that time, the contemporary dancer Victoria McConnell approached me about collaborating on a new project. This project presented some interesting musical challenges since it required a lot of improvisation and dynamic communication between myself and the dancers. This was a great opportunity to test my new techniques and I dove in. All the music on the album came from the creative process that grew out of this collaboration.
Please tell us about your collaboration with the dancer and all about the guitar sounds:
For this piece, we wanted to push boundaries and do something more experimental and interactive. The piece was called “arising//passing” and was about the illusion of permanence. Very deep stuff…
Since the subject matter is so abstract, I didn’t want the music to sound like something immediately recognizable. I tried to remove myself and instrument from the process and deal directly in the realm of raw sound. The guitar is really a very expressive instrument so once I shifted perspective it became the perfect vehicle for this kind of abstract sound design.
How did you go about writing the music?
As we developed the piece, we would experiment with different tempos, different moods, starting and stopping in different ways. Each time we performed it was a completely new improvisation. We ended up finding intuitive ways of communicating through certain movements and musical phrases. This dialog between dancer and musician created some unusual, stretched out dynamics that I never would have thought of on my own.
How did you approach the recording and production of the album?
Well, at the time, I wasn’t really intending to make an album. My primary goal was to experiment with my new setup and techniques. But, as a music producer, I think one of the most important lessons is to record everything. So, as we rehearsed the project I just recorded everything we did. Pretty quickly, I realized there was something special happening but I didn’t yet know whether it would translate to an album.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who with?
There was actually a large gap between the recording and mixing process. I ended up working on some other projects with the intention to come back some day and listen to all the material. When I finally took the plunge I was happily surprised how much good stuff there was and the album started to take shape.
The album was mastered by the great Rodney Hunter.
What programs/instruments did you use to record/produce?
To say the least, I had a somewhat complex setup… As I mentioned before, I took kind of a modular synthesis approach to the process. But playing guitar into a modular rig doesn’t work that well for a guitarist because you can’t really use your hands to turn knobs and plugin cables.
Of course, guitar pedals are also modular so I organized them in certain ways to produce the sounds I was looking for. I had the obligatory loopers, delays and reverbs but there were a few key bits of gear that made the unique sound possible.
Lehle also has a cool 1-to-3 switcher that I used to quickly switch between channels with different fx chains. This allowed me to have 3 separate fx chains to produce different types of sounds. The pedal allows having multiple channels active at once so I could process the same sound in different ways. This gave me some really fun possibilities like playing a melody and harmony at the same time.
The other really key element was the Vermona Filter Lancet. This is a multi-mode filter with an LFO and envelope generator that works great with a guitar signal. It is incredibly powerful and was an essential part of the sound.
This whole chain of fx went direct into my UAD Apollo interface which allowed me to approach performance and recording in the same way. I thought it important to have a stereo image so going direct made everything much easier. The guitar amp got ditched pretty early in the process.
What was the original idea/concept for the LP and did the concept change over time?
That’s a really good question. As I described earlier, the music itself was produced as a result of a series of intentional improvisations with Victoria and Alex. But there was a large gap between when the music was recorded and when I came back to mix the tracks. The content of the songs didn’t change – I only made small edits – but it was fascinating how the passage of time changed the context and meaning of the songs.
There is a certain organic and evolving quality to the tracks that I felt captured natural elements like how trees move in the wind, waves in the ocean, snow falling, clouds, etc. The seeming difference between stillness and movement. I started combining the tracks with some photos I took while hiking in Japan and the concept of the album took a new form.
What do you have planned for ‘Ambient Inventions’?
Along with the album, I will release some music videos. I traveled to the mountains of Bulgaria with the video artist Ashley DuPree and we shot some amazing videos. The last day we found ourselves on top of a mountain with a sea of clouds below. It was the most beautiful sunrise… Check the Black Diamonds Records YouTube channel for the videos.
Once it’s possible to do live shows again, I have plans to do a multimedia performance with video and dance. Just a dream at the moment. Hope we have a chance to do it soon.
What did you find most challenging and rewarding during the creation of this new LP?
Listening back through all that material was quite challenging. There was a lot… The rewarding part was the magic that came out of the collaboration. Doing something different and seeing such a beautiful creation evolve.
What do you like to do away from music?
Hiking.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Arovane released a new album recently and it got me going through his music. He’s a genius at setting the mood with some really unique and creative sound design.
What’s planned for 2020?
Hopefully, will be able to do some shows at some point. Otherwise, working on new music.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Well, during these quarantine times the only place to hang out is my apartment. I found myself watching a lot of cooking videos on YouTube to become a better cook. Currently, obsessed with Jacques Pepin and how to cook the perfect French omelette.
Melbourne Alt-Rockers The Mean Times are back with the brand new EP “Stunned Mullet” that releases today. The release includes the just dropped sludgy rocker, Faking Death and the first single She Lives on Oxygen released earlier in the year.
Melbourne Alt-Rockers The Mean Times are back with the brand new EP “Stunned Mullet” that releases today. The release includes the just dropped sludgy rocker, Faking Death and the first single She Lives on Oxygen released earlier in the year.
The EP shows a darker and harder side of the band who have been a live staple on the Melbourne scene for many years. Stunned Mullet was recorded and mixed at Rolling Stock Studios in Melbourne by Nao Anzai (Cash Savage and the Last Drinks, Kim Salmon) and mastered by Mikey Young of Eddie Current Suppression Ring.
Live the band deliver a raucous, high-energy, spirited live show that makes you smile. They’re raw yet polished; weird, yet digestible; punk yet hard rock with pop elements.
Links
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themeantimes
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4biuvyNOTAiGAcMzeoQhOS
In the back half of 2017, after nearly a decade of chaos and carnage fronting one of the most successful bands of the ’00s, and a few quiet years living in Berlin, Milan and Como, Nic Cester returned to the fray with Sugar Rush – his debut solo album. Produced by Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Queens Of The Stone Age) and recorded with his amazing all-Italian live touring band The Milano Elettrica, Sugar Rush melds soul, blues, lost Italian soundtracks and sheer musicianship.
Following the release of Sugar Rush, Nic and his band toured the world. A number of shows were recorded, and Nic now brings us Live Across Europe – a live album recorded in Bologna, Koln, Munich, and at the iconic Castello Sforzesco in Milan (a 15th century castle built by the Duke Of Milan at the time). Live Across Europe will be released on 19 June, and is available to pre-order now.
Today, Nic Cester releases a live video for ‘God Knows’, recorded at Castello Sforzesco. Nic says, “it’s probably my favourite tune on the album, certainly my favourite to perform with my live band, the Milano Elettrica. What began as a simple blues tune became a pretty epic, brooding, James Bond-esque number.” Nic Cester will perform ‘God Knows’ live from Milan for tonight’s State Of Music event.
Sugar Rush was welcomed by music lovers everywhere, with Cester’s knack for arrangements and melody and one of the most powerful voices in rock ‘n’ roll celebrated.
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“Watt’s most personal and revealing work; you just have to tune into it. If he believes, then we believe.” – Hysteria Mag
“Teeming with raw power and rage.” – Mixdown
“R U N has landed with a ground-shaking thud.” – Depth Mag
“An absolute gift for Aussie metalheads.” – Tone Deaf
Australia’s freshest heavy act R U N have surprised us with their extraordinary debut release, For You Will Never Find Peace Within Your Quiet, arriving in full today. Now streaming not only via audio, but also a fully-animated visual format, a physical product is also available for pre-order. The project’s future-oriented nature means that this product does not need to contain any vinyl or CDs. In order to streamline the process for all, and lessen the impact on the environment, it will be printed to the appropriate demand.
A duo composed of vocalist Lochlan Watt (host of triple j’s The Racket) and guitarist Mike Deslandes (YLVA/High Tension), R U N debuted their first single on 4/20 last month, to what can be safely described as a huge response. Then, they slyly unveiled one song at a time over the course of the past week, hinting of what was to come. The sequence of release saw each track title build upon the previous one to slowly reveal the name of the record and complete the journey. You can now watch the fascinating, moving artwork of the record from start to finish right here – thanks to the efforts of Patrick Galvin at Hollow Bones Studio.
A unique blend of extreme metal fury, hardcore accessibility and the heady contemplation of post-rock, the music ruminates on themes of suicide, heartache, fear, mental health, struggles with queerness and identity and, on top of it all, coming to terms with the life-threatening illness that is cancer. For You Will Never Find Peace Within Your Quiet was produced and engineered by Mike Deslandes, mixed and mastered by Will Putney (Northlane/The Amity Affliction), with session drums provided by Joel Taylor (The Abandonment/Galaxy). Artwork and animations are by Patrick Galvin (Architects/AB Original). A physical version is available now for pre-order, but just not how you’ve come to expect it…
STATEMENT FROM LOCHLAN WATT:
With where R U N has landed, we feel as though we have been handed a once in a lifetime opportunity to try out new things above the unstable ground we all find ourselves now navigating. I cherish my old CD collection, and I love supporting my friends and bands I like by buying their records, but I also almost never listen to any music this way anymore. My means of consuming music on a day to day basis are purely digital, and being an independent, self-financed band that so far only exists on the internet, we don’t have to cling to dated technology or tradition for the sake of what is now a quite visibly broken system of capitalism. I’ve seen far too many CDs and LPs end up in bins during my time in the music industry – and I know the production of them is not exactly good for the planet. We want this music to leave behind a massive impact on your mind, not the environment.
As such the physical product for ‘For You Will Never Find Peace Within Your Quiet’ will slot perfectly into your existing 12” collection, yet you won’t be able to listen to it. You will, however, be able to open the folding cover to pore over Patrick Galvin’s incredible artwork, with high quality full sized prints of all five songs and their lyrics on the inside, while you listen to the record via your preferred digital service. It being a purely cardboard creation gives us a lot of flexibility, and the size of this first ‘pressing’ will be determined by the demand. We’re also cutting Patrick in on the financial side of things here, because we think he deserves it. So, the more of these we sell, the more money all three key artists involved will make.
In these times especially, is consuming more plastic products really essential, or do we just want to be able to hold onto something special, and support the music that connects with us? This is an experiment and we welcome you to take part in it.
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Bleeding Buttercup by The Blossom is out independently now,
buy/stream it here.
TRACKLIST
1. Bored Baby Blues
2. Kill My Mind
3. Puppy Dog Tears
4. Wish You Well
5. Won’t Leave My Bedroom
Stay connected with The Blossom:
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
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Australian rapper, songwriter, and artist Zheani has today released her highly-anticipated The Zheani Sparkes EP. The record takes an autobiographical perspective focusing on dark memories from her childhood but is opened and closed with a silver lining of melodic trap that drips with positivity and escapism. On the project, Zheani stakes a claim to her background, with the lyrical content driving home harsh realities that shaped her and formed the woman she is today.
Speaking on the release Zheani states:
“With The Zheani Sparkes EP, I aimed to provide context after a year of being relentlessly picked apart and judged online. I wanted to dive back into embarrassing memories that I have for the longest time suppressed and through a process like alchemy, transmute them into music. My hope is the project will help me finally resolve and leave these memories behind and also help others that have gone through similar experiences feel less alone.
With the Zheani Sparkes EP I take a past that I was ashamed of and stake a claim to it knowing it made me the woman I am today. A woman that I am proud of.”
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Follow Zheani:
@askulloffoxes
facebook.com/zheanisparkes
twitter.com/askulloffoxes
zheani.com
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Soothsayer can today reveal the next chapter in the ever-growing Willaris. K story in the form of ‘Chapel (feat. WaveIQ)’, a heaving, post-apocalyptic rave anthem and the first single off his four-track rave-inspired EP Full Noise, which arrives Friday 19 June.
Conceived in an old chapel overlooking the Pacific at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in California with Passion Pit’s Nate Donmoyer, renowned producer Tim Anderson (Halsey, Banks, Dizzee Rascal) and US underground rapper, WaveIQ, ‘Chapel’ showcases Willaris. K’s most direct yet diverse sonic work to date. The angular track channels the frenetic warehouse rave energy from the 26-year-old producer’s globally celebrated live show, delivering an electric aural experience direct to the homes of fans across the globe. Added to that is the improvised vocal chants from WaveIQ that tie the track together, and create an atmosphere of smoke, sweat and sin.
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Leif Vollebekk
website | facebook | twitter | instagram
secretcityrecords.com
remotecontrolrecords
