I LOVE the new Benga record! I especially love Benga’s particular twist on dubstep and the acid house influences that weave throughout this album. Listening to Diary of an Afro Warrior, I feel transported to a renegade soundsystem party, under the stars, listening to Benga create synasthaethetic stories on the fly! ([More →])

I originally wrote this album review of the new Autechre record – Quaristice – for my “day job” at MOG.com. This is a slightly different version here because you are a different audience!

Longtime fans of Autechre will probably be ecstatic about Quaristice. It hearkens to early Autechre music – more experimental, more chaotic, and less dance friendly than the last 4 albums or so. I’ve been a fan for ages and bought nearly every album they ever released. But I started to pine for their earlier sounds, when they were trailblazing the experimental electronic scene that later became known as IDM. This is the Autechre album I was longing for! If this sounds like you, you need to listen to Quaristice!

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Overall, the album sounds less clinical than many of Autechre’s more recent releases. The sounds evolve more organically and the sequences have more random elements to them. I LOVE it! The synths on Quaristice sound like an Evolver (Dave Smith Instruments) with its quirky sounds and step sequencers. If it isn’t an Evolver, I would still hazard a guess that this music was inspired by some new piece of hardware. It’s just a guess, but this album sounds so much like a return to hardware for the band. Either that or some serious cut-ups and processing like the Matmos albums based on surgery instruments.

Autechre explore new ground with the use of human vocal elements on “IO” (something they rarely incorporate). The human vocal is nicely balanced by one of the most recognizable machine voices ever: a Speak-n-Spell (or Speak-n-Math). The main vocal in “IO” isn’t very comprehensible since it’s filtered through what sounds a bit like a megaphone and a distortion petal. It’s graininess is perfectly complemented by the digital voice of the T.I. toy.

([ Click To Add "IO" To Player ])

A few songs into the album, it begins to remind me of certain songs by Coil: experimental synth stuff like Elph vs. Glitch or Music To Play In The Dark or similar… My impression keeps changing with each song, because they all sound so different. The tempo varies widely from one song to the next, from ambient washes to triplets at 120 bpm. However, the closest thing to a dance track in the collection is the schizophrenic hip hop beats of “90101″ that sound like a Timbaland production on 45 rpm.

It wasn’t until Track 17 “WNSN” that I started to hear the Autechre that we have come to know in more recent years. A few tracks later, “Notwo” (track 19) gets so minimal it’s downright zen. “Notwo” and “Outh9X” (the last two tracks of the album) are pure atmospheric bliss, very similar to the planetary music of murcof, and a beautiful way to fade out the album. This is an unexpected pleasure of Quaristice – the music varies so much. No two songs are alike and they convey a range of influences and skills.

Autechre will gain many new fans with this album at the same time they renew most of their existing fan base.

Another summer, another amazing music festival lineup. The 15th Annual Sonar Music and Art festival in Barcelona takes place 19-21 June this year and they just announced another amazing lineup. There is a strong female presence from M.I.A., Goldfrapp, Roisin Murphy, Kid Sister, Miss Kittin and an assault of amazing electro, techno, noise and pop from Shackleton, Diplo, SebastiAn, Justice, DJ Scotch Egg, Ove-Naxx, Neon Neon, Spank Rock and more! ([More →])

The dance craze of the 90′s is aimed to be the dance craze of the new millennium with the return of Utah Saints to the scene! The original UK dance-trance team is kickin it old school in the new video for “Something Good ’08″:

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A Heatwave mash-up of General Levy and Lily Allen titled “Mad LDN”:

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The continued popularity of Drum N Bass is greatly due to the tireless efforts of UK’s DJ Grooverider. He’s one half of the BBC Radio show “Fabio and Grooverider” and has promoted UK dance music for as long as I can remember (since the ’90s at least). Unfortunately, he has been sitting in a Dubai airport jail for three months for pot possession and was sentenced this week to a full 4 years in jail! ([More →])

You’ve probably heard T2 and Addictive’s sugary sweet tune “Gonna Be Mine” plenty by now, but have you seen the new video? T2 also has a new song out called “Butterflies”.

T2 feat Addictive “Gonna Be Mine” Official Video:

Super shiny and low-budget like a video produced by MC Pressure and crew… ([More →])

I now have more remixes for Benga & Coki’s “Night” than any other tune in the past year. M.I.A.’s tune “Paper Planes” was the most remixed tune on HearingTest for a while there, but now “Night” remixes have far outnumbered “Paper Planes” remixes. This latest one isn’t clearly credited, but the gory hyperbass lettering reeks of L-Vis 1990 and the user who uploaded it has almost the same name: sivl09.

Benga & Coki – ‘Night’ – SQUID ANIMATION Remix from L-Vis 1990

L-Vis 1990 music $pace

Benga & Coki’s original squid animation for “Night” debuted last week and I still get warm and fuzzy inside watching it. If you get tired of listening to “Night” try watching it with other spaced out electronica too. I recommend anything by Scuba or Nommo Ogo…

Benga & Coki – ‘Night’ – DUB SQUID ANIMATION

A new compilation from Ninja Tune – You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts – is filled with 50 tunes that map the sonic territory the label has explored during it’s 2 decades in the biz and adds sonar imagery of what lies ahead. The 3 CD set features tracks all the way 1998 reppin for the label’s early days (Mike Ladd’s rare classic “Blah Blah”) and big hits from every year since plus 9 tunes slated for release later this year! (Yet-to-be-dropped tunes like John Matthias’ fragile and ethereal “Evermore”, The Bug’s toxic dancehall slayer “Poison Dart”, and Pop Levi’s superb, princely “Dita Dimone”…) To celebrate such an amazing audio history, the Ninja Tune extended family is hosting a 3-room banger at Electrowerkz this month that features many of the artists on the 3CD collection!
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Every time I see an amazing lineup for live music, like this one for Ninja Tunes’ record release party or the Bang Face Weekender, I have to ask myself an important question: Do I live on the wrong side of the pond? When every flyer and lineup that I drool over is happening in or near London, it gets more and more difficult to understand why I stay in the US, with the ever-weakening dollar. This is the time of year where party people in the UK and Europe start to promote major music festival weekends that have me gazing at my passport with longing. Next up is a Ninja Tune extravaganza at Electrowerkz in London. On 15th February, a massive posse of premier musicians will take over 3 whole floors of the Electrowerkz nightclub to celebrate the new release of YOU DON’T KNOW: NINJA CUTS – one floor for each CD in the monster compilation! (There’s a whole post about the Ninja Tune compilation too, so scope that next.) ([More →])

As soon as I saw the lineup for the Bang Face Weekender, I started researching flights to England. It’s that exciting! Alas, the dollar is weak and gas ain’t cheap, so it’s only wishful thinking for now. This happens every year with some music festival or another and the lineups just get more siiiiiick every year. Bang Face hails itself as “A Neo-Rave Explosion of Acid, Jungle, Rave Hardcore, Drum & Bass, Breakcore, Techno, Electronica and Abstract Dance” which only hints at the range of amazing talent presented each year. The 3 day festival takes place at the end of April at Camber Sands and features three different staging areas – the Rave/Jungle/Breakcore Room, The Electro/Bass/Techno Room and a round-the-clock chill-out room. ([More →])

Classic Kode9 & the Spaceape tune and video. “Audio Addiction” vid directed by Mo Stoebe & Jasmin Jodry…

Kode 9 & Spaceape – Audio Addiction

Ninja Tune is releasing an epic compilation album called You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts that drops March 11th. It weighs in at 3 CDs, stacked with 50 Big Tunes from 1998-2008, from Mike Ladd to Pop Levi and from Roots Manuva to Wiley! Last year, HearingTest featured a few of the tracks that made the cut:

The version of “Free” by DJ Kentaro on You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts is actually an “Armani XXXChange Remix” and the version here is the original edit from Kentaro’s Ninja Tune LP Enter. (I don’t have the remix yet)

Tempa just dropped the best dubstep video ever for Benga and Coki’s infectious anthem. Tempa rules! Turn the lights down low, light up a fatty and get lost in this:

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I just received this epic flyer from WARP with loads of news about the new Autechre album Quaristice and a bunch of live shows. I’ll post a full article when I get a chance, I just wanted to share this with you right away. It’s a big image, so it might take a minute to download, but it’s worth it. If you just want to cop the new album, jump over to BLEEP.com now. Check it out: ([More →])