Hyperdub releases new Walton LP a.k.a. yet another delicious, sugary Hyperdub donut
All the artists on the Hyperdub roster are pretty damn sweet. It’s like, Hyperdub is the local bakery where there are 30 different kinds of donuts and when you walk in an old lady is like, “Have a sample, dearie,” but the sample isn’t really a sample — it’s like, practically the size of a full donut. And then at the Hyperdub Simile Bakery they throw an extra cookie into the bag at the end, just as a thank you. And you’re looking at all these records/donuts and they all look amazing and there’s like five different donuts with sprinkles on ‘em and like, one with bacon on top, and then there’s like HOLY SHIT IT’S THAT GLAZED DONUT WITH ACTUAL PEACHES FROM THE FARMER’S MARKET SHOVED INTO IT AND mmmmmmm so good mmmmm food coma SUGAR. And if Hyperdub is this enchanted bakery, then 22-year-old Mancunian producer Sam Walton is that juicy peach donut. (Or the bacon one, if you’re into that sorta thing.)
Walton has been with Hyperdub since 2011, when he started sending the label demo tracks and eventually signed on for the appropriately-titled Walton EP, the first of three EPs he released that year. Now he’s back with the full-length Beyond, a sassy melange of grit, grime, funk, atmospheric stuff, and… other stuff. The album, which is Hyperdub’s first full-length for 2013, drops July 1. Preceding the release is Walton’s Baby 12-inch, which just made its way into the world (and our hearts, ahhhhhh) on May 27, also via the good people at Hyperdub. Check the title track for that here:
Beyond tracklisting:
01. Beyond
02. Need to Feel
03. Help Me Out
04. Can’t U See
05. You&Me
06. Love on the Dancefloor
07. Every Night
08. Memories
09. Frisbee
10. Take My Love
11. Grit
12. Amazon
13. City of God
• Walton: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Walton/245906422119749
• Hyperdub: http://www.hyperdub.net
Boards of Canada hosted a Tomorrow’s Harvest listening party in the California Desert and all I got were these lousy fan footage streams!
Hey everyone, did you know that, according to FACT, the artists currently known as Boards of Canada hosted “a listening party for [their forthcoming album out June 11 on Warp] Tomorrow’s Harvest at the abandoned Lake Dolores Waterpark in Southern California” recently? Whoa, what a coincidence; I didn’t either! Probably because of the confusing nonstop stream of cryptic bullshit they’re using to hype their record!
But either way, it seems to have happened, and I guess fans were “allowed to record footage of the album’s first four songs played.” And I know you’re not going to believe this, but: they did. And the results are (yeah, get this) now on the internet! So here, you can now watch some fan videos of the tracks “Jacquard Causeway,” “Gemini,” (btw: how it is possible that this band has never named a song “Gemini” before now???) and “White Cyclosa” from the new album whenever the hell you want (the fourth one was “Reach for the Dead,” which we already dutifully re-hyped to you the other day). Don’t you just love being jerked around like this? I hope the new album is only available at some literally-underground farmers market I need a treasure map to find! I’ve been taking B-12 shots so that I’ll have an edge on the expedition!
“Jacquard Causeway”
“Gemini”
“White Cyclosa”
• Boards of Canada: http://boardsofcanada.com
• Warp: http://warp.net
Placebo announce Loud Like Love, massive European tour, neighbors continue banging on the wall for them to keep it down
So, the band Placebo still exists. It was easy to assume they had just faded away like so many late-90s/early-00s alternative rock bands. It’s hard to be sure if alternative rock is even still a genre. It’s also hard to muster complaints about their continued presence, particularly when they bring a sexy album title like Loud Like Love to the table. Not hard to read between the lines on that one; loud love equals bangin’. Ballin’. Layin’ Pipe. In all probability this album will be related in a big way to one of the numerous kinds of penetrative intercourse that can be had by two (or more) consenting adults.
A less likely but still possible explanation is that Loud Like Love is a concept album about two people who are deeply in love and both going deaf, although neither realizes it. So they just shout constantly. To replicate this experience, watch any Meg Ryan movie with the volume on the TV maxed. Granted, the former scenario seems more suited for the feel of the album, but both are just pure conjecture; the tracklisting hasn’t even been announced yet! The preorder goes up on May 31, so all will be revealed then.
In the meantime, a European tour has been announced, and it is extensive. Neither contrived RomComs nor raucous sexual activity guaranteed.
European/UK tour dates:
11.12.13 - Warsaw, Poland -Torwar
11.13.13 - Prague, Czech Republic - Lucerna Music Bar
11.15.13 - Leipzig, Germany - Arena Leipzig
11.16.13 - Cologne, Germany - Lanxess Arena
11.18.13 - Zurich, Switzerland - Hallenstadion Arena
11.19.13 - Munich, Germany - Olympiahalle
11.21.13 - Vienna, Austria - Stadthalle
11.23.13 - Bologna, Italy - Unipol Arena
11.24.13 - Geneva, Switzerland - Geneva Arena
11.27.13 - Frankfurt, Germany - Festhalle
11.30.13 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Falconer Salen
12.01.13 - Stockholm, Sweden - Stora Arenan
12.03.13 - Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene
12.05.13 - Hamburg, Germany - O2 World
12.07.13 - Antwerp, Belgium - Sportpalais
12.08.13 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Ziggo Dome
12.10.13 - Paris, France - Bercy
12.12.13 - Birmingham, UK - O2 Academy Birmingham
12.13.13 - Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy Glasgow
12.14.13 - Manchester, UK - O2 Apollo
12.16.13 - London, UK - O2 Academy Brixton
• Placebo: http://www.placeboworld.co.uk
• Loud Like Love: http://www.loudlikelove.com
Christopher Lee (Dracula, Lord of the Rings, other films) announces metal record, wears faded Black Sabbath shirt
Christopher Lee, the famed actor known for Lord of the Rings and his portrayal of Dracula, is 91 years old. He may also be 15 years old. That is not a criticism of any kind, but many of Sir Lee’s interests align themselves cleanly with a number of kids I knew during my high school years. An obsession with fantasy tropes, an interest in early heavy metal, probably good grades in History and English classes, probably bad grades in Math. But if a 15 year-old with a three-hair mustache made a metal album called, Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, it would be the sort of thing that gets you kicked out of the AV Club. When Christopher Lee does it, as The Guardian says he is, it makes perfect sense.
On May 27, Lee will release the aforementioned Charlemagne: The Omens of Death, the follow-up to his 2010 metal record Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross. In composing the album’s music, Lee worked with Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner. However, the record’s guitar parts were not played by Faulkner, but instead by Hedras Ramos, who was 2009’s Guitar Idol runner-up, which is a contest I just learned about.
If you’ve heard the previous record in Lee’s Charlemagne series, perhaps you thought that it wasn’t quite 100% metal. Sure, 95% metal. Maybe. Well, Lee assures you that this one will be “100% metal,” at least in regards to his singing style. “I’ve done my bits and pieces, and they are heavy metal,” Lee said. “I’m not screaming or anything like that, but it is definitely heavy metal.” My fears are assuaged. Not that I should have worried, because his previous record did win The Spirit of Metal prize at the 2010 Metal Hammer Golden God awards, which is another thing I just learned about.
• Christopher Lee: http://christopherleeweb.com
Ólafur Arnalds announces July tour of the US, declares that he is, for now, summer
Well excuse me for previously thinking that Ólafur Arnalds and cousin Ólöf Arnalds were actually the same person. Their music probably gets coverage from the same publications, and my mind tends to jumble words together whenever they exude the reliably confusing quality of being Icelandic, or just Nordic in general. “Ola… something something… Arnalds.” Likewise, it makes you wonder about the country’s ability to secretly plan something evil. Here’s a country with less than the population of Raleigh, North Carolina, speaking a language that hardly anyone grasps on a global level. Add that to the generally unthreatening, often extremely calming nature of the country’s musical output, and you have what could be a concerted effort to get everyone to, at least, think you’re harmless.
Just throwing that out there. Feel free to ponder possible conspiracies as you read about the following news: the more classical-minded Ólafur Arnalds is going on short tour of the US during the month of July. The tour consists of five dates and follows For Now I Am Winter, his latest album released this past March. He may not have been a participant in our showcase, but his performances at this year’s SXSW still received some pretty positive reviews. View a clip here.
Dates:
07.12.13 - Hollywood, CA - Hollywood Forever Masonic Lounge
07.13.13 - Pomona, CA - The Glass House
07.16.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands
07.17.13 - Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center
07.18.13 - Chicago, IL - Jay Pritzker Pavilion
• Ólafur Arnalds: http://olafurarnalds.com
RIP: Henri Dutilleux, French composer
From the L.A. Times:
Henri Dutilleux, the French composer whose modernist music has received international acclaim and is performed regularly by major orchestras, died Thursday in Paris. He was 97.
His death was announced by his publisher, Schott Music. No cause of death has been released.
Dutilleux is widely regarded as one of the most important composers of the 20th century. He wasn’t a prolific writer, but his style, singular voice and iconoclastic tendencies won him admirers around the world, inviting comparisons to fellow Frenchman Pierre Boulez and Olivier Messiaen — though Dutilleux and the former reportedly did not always get along. […]
• Henri Dutilleux: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Dutilleux
Load Records announces Humanbeast LP Venus Ejaculates into the Banquet, streams first single; #gross
Can’t a guy spend a nice late spring day sitting outside eating a ham and mayo sandwich while digging into his summer reading list without being forced to imagine a banquet stocked with the finest foods and wines being suddenly covered in a layer of sticky white fluid not entirely dissimilar to the delicious stuff he earlier slathered on the very ham and mayo sandwich that is currently on its way toward his mouth hole? I GUESS NOT.
If my rhetorical flourishes have not made it absolutely clear, the above-mentioned guy is me, and I just now heard tell of the latest Humanbeast record which is, believe it or not, called Venus Ejaculates into the Banquet. Now, I know Roman gods are all about “running amok” and “what have you,” but this is a bridge too far. Was there not, I don’t know, a sock or pair of old boxers around? Come on Venus, get your shit together. Some of us are eating.
Anyway, the Humanbeast record is out July 16 on Load Records, and you can stream the first single below. It’s called “Chandelier” as in, “the chandelier that Venus was swinging from all Errol Flynn-style as she ejaculated straight into everyone’s wine goblet.”
Humanbeast are also touring the US starting in June with Russian Tsarlag and they’ve advised concertgoers to bring condoms or ponchos. The most complete currently available listing of dates is below, but the band will add more as they arise on their blog.
Dates:
06.04.13 - Providence, RI - Dungeon C @ (Humanbeast Record Release Show)
06.06.13 - Toronto, ON - Double Double Land
06.08.13 - Chicago, IL - Situations #
06.10.13 - Minneapolis, MN - House of Rock and Roll Science $
06.11.13 - Iowa City, IA - TBA
06.12.13 - St. Louis, MO - Apop %
06.13.13 - Kansas City, MO - TBA &&
06.14.13 - Denver, CO - Rhinoceropolis
06.18.13 - Olympia, WA - TBA $$
06.19.13 - Portland, OR - Multiplex
06.21.13 - Sacramento, CA - TBA %%
06.22.13 - Oakland, CA - The Church
06.23.13 - San Francisco, CA - Division of Labor Fest
06.24.13 - Los Angeles, CA - Not Not Fun
06.25.13 - Los Angeles - Mata ##
06.27.13 - Phoenix, AZ - Trunkspace
06.29.13 - Austin, TX - TBA *
07.01.13 - Chattanooga, TN - Human Conduct Records
07.02.13 - Asheville, NC - Apothecary
07.03.13 - Carrboro, NC - Quantum Instability &
07.04.13 - Baltimore, MD - The Bank
07.05.13 - New York, NY - TBA @@
@ Angels in Amerca, SHV
# Andy Ortman, Bomb Banks
$ Mar Harbrine, Prostate
% Larva, Ghost Ice
& Mark Van Fleet, Bad News
* BabyaspirinDVD
@@ Jane Pain
## Pedestrian Deposit, Unmanned
$$ Thee Source Ov Fawnation
%% Screature
&& Drew
• Humanbeast: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Humanbeast/162383830480520
• Load: http://loadrecords.com
Prefuse 73 starts Yellow Year Records label, announces collab series featuring Teebs, Nathan Fake, Nosaj Thing, Garfield the Cat, a pizza delivery boy, Spiro T. Agnew, Mad Dog Murdock, a tomato, a human skull, and more
Does Prefuse 73 own a label? It’s a fair question. Guillermo Scott Herren seemed like he’d own a label. If I’m going with my gut, I would say, yes, Guillermo Scott Herren a.k.a. Prefuse 73 owns a label. But I’d be wrong! Except Pitchfork says that now I’m not wrong. Funny how time goes so quick like. Alongside Seattle photographer Angel Ceballos, Herren has started a new label: Yellow Year Records.
If you’ve got a label, you’ve got to put out some releases. This is really Owning-A-Label 101. As it turns out, Yellow Year Records has 12 releases planned, all part of a series of collaborative EPs titled Speak Soon. Through this series, Prefuse plans to work with Teebs, Nosaj Thing, Nathan Fake, Lapalux, Synkro, Dimlite, and, one would assume, six others. Because the world’s fun like that, allow me to predict the other six: Beetle Bailey of the comic strip Beetle Bailey, the ghost of William Shakespeare, Prince Paul, a box of matches, Harmony Korine, and Paul Anka. Check out the (unfortunately Paul Anka-less) trailer for the series below, which features music from Prefuse’s collaboration with Teebs:
• Prefuse 73: http://www.prefuse73.com
• Yellow Year: http://www.yellowyearrecords.com
Awesome Tapes from Africa have a new awesome tape: accordion-heavy Ethiopian cassette from Hailu Mergia
Awesome Tapes from Africa might be the most literal record label in the African Reissue game. They’ve got a new LP/CD/MP3/C60 release, guys. And it’s awesome. It was originally a tape. And you might wanna sit down from this one — IT’S FROM AFRICA! Ethiopia, to be exact. It’s from a gentleman named Hailu Mergia, who reworked classic songs from his home country into super awesome reimaginings based around that holy trinity of instruments, accordion, keyboards, and “low-key rhythm machine.” Hailu Mergia and His Classical Instrument drops June 25.
Now, it might not be so easy to catch the majority of these purveyors of awesome tapes in action. But that’s why the Good Lord gave us DJ nights, isn’t it? (He must’ve given them to us for some reason.) Perhaps this is also why he gave us Germany — specifically for the Awesome Tapes from Africa guys to DJ in. I mean, Dude is DJing there in three different Deutsche cities in a month. Hell, I’m not even going to be in Germany next month, let alone DJing in it.
Awesome Tapes from Africa DJ set dates:
06.07.13 - Toronto, ON - Double Double Land
06.08.13 - Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo
06.13.13 - Luzern, Switzerland - B-Sides Festival
06.14.13 - Montabaur, Germany - B-05 Galerie
06.15.13 - London, UK - Corsica Studios
06.19.13 - Berlin, Germany - Chalet
06.21.13 - Lille, France - 240
06.22.13 - Hanover, Germany - Theaterformen
• Awesome Tapes from Africa: http://www.awesometapes.com
Rhys Chatham and Oneida ring in the Guitarpocalypse with live performances of G3
If Michael Flatley is Lord of the Dance, then Rhys Chatham is obviously Lord of the Guitars. (Sorry, Esteban.) And now the Man, the Myth, the Legend (Chatham, not the other two — at least not in this news story) is bringing one of his guitar orchestra compositions on the road this summer. That’s right: the legendary Guitar Trio a.k.a. G3, begat in the Year of Our Punk Rock Lord 1977, is coming to a city kinda near you, where Chatham and collaborator David Daniell will teach this seminal piece of guitar art to a coterie of local musicians, who will then stand on stage at your local performance venue and blow everyone’s collective minds. Chatham is also teaming up with Oneida for a series of hot dates.
G3 spreads its wings for its 2013 summer vacation on June 7, when San Francisco’s The Lab will become ground zero for the Guitarpocalypse. Then Chatham jets off to Brooklyn for the Northside Fest, where he’ll be jamming along with likeminded souls Oneida. Next up: Oneida and Chatham venture to romantic Montreal, before boarding a plane to a sure-to-be-historic Deerhunter-curated ATP Festival at beautiful Camber Sands, England. Then it’s on to Croatia, where Mr. Chatham will assemble Zagreb’s finest to perform G3. Wow. Fancytime. Instead of a tour bus they have a yacht. Michael Flatley’s yacht.
Dates:
06.07.13 - San Francisco, CA - The Lab *
06.14.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Northside Festival **
06.17.13 - Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa **
06.22.13 - Camber Sands, England - ATP Festival **
06.23.13 - Zagreb, Croatia - TBD *
* G3
** Oneida
• Rhys Chatham: http://www.rhyschatham.net
• Oneida: http://www.enemyhogs.com
