Download here. Two 4.4 sets in a row – I’m getting soft, but the techno remains hard and heavy.
1: Bhoo – Elastik Phone [Underbelly]
2: Noah Pred – Monotasking (Brendon Moeller Digital Resketch) [Thoughtless]
3: Nautilis – Zero Gravity [3024]
4: Don Froth – REflex (Anthony Shake Shakir Remix) [UNO]
5: Reese & Santonio – How To Play Our Music [KMS]
6: Blawan – What You Do With What You Have [R&S]
7: Kommune1 – Helios [Magic Wire]
8: Jeremy Greenspan & Laurie Spiegel – Drums&Drums&Drums [Jiaolong]
– I went to the coldest rave I’ve ever been to – IglooFest, featuring Ben UFO. I can tell you that a windy -18 is very cold for a dance party, but not too cold. That fact that Ben UFO has amazing taste in music doesn’t hurt either. In 2013, he sounds like nothing so much as a total distillation of British dance music – house, disco, afrobeat, dubstep, nuskool, techno, and so on. He mixes like Juan Atkins, a sort of casual, make-it-look easy flow between tracks that is actually very hard to do. Highly, highly recommended.
– I somehow went to see the various Oscar-nominated shorts, and I can tell you that Asad is great, as is Head Over Heels.
– Night Slugs Allstars 2 is out. But you’ve already got it, I’m sure.
– Bless the CIRMMT concert series. I saw a great hyperguitar performance by Guillaume Barrette, and then an utterly mad jam by Preston Beebe, performed by Zachary Hale, on Ian Hattwick’s magic surface. Said surface listens to vibrations on it (in this case marbles spinning in bowls), and then plays things backed based on the frequency content of the vibrations. This sounds strange, but it makes instant sense when you see it.
Download here. Indulging in some bigger-room house music, by way of some spacier, heavier things. Look out for the chords in Seaweed, and the dueling vocal samples in the opening two tracks.
1: Lianne La Havas – Forget (Laurel Halo Remix) []
2: Four Tet – Pyramids [Text]
3: Nick Hoeppner – Seaweed [Ostgut Ton]
4: Rye & Frank Wiedemann – Howling (Ame Remix) [Innervisions]
5: Tennis – Make It Good [Life & Death]
6: Evy Jane – Ohso (Max Ulis Remix) [King]
7: Destiny’s Child – Say My Name (Cyril Hahn remix) []
You’ll notice that I cunningly skipped week 37, due to the McGill Music Hack Day, so we are now at Week 38. Onward!
– I saw McGill Opera do Volpone on Wednesday, with vigour, wit, and skill. It’s an opera that rewards youth and vivacity, which the cast had in spades. The score was not, perhaps as bleeding edge as an opera written in 2004 could be, but it was lots of fun just the same.
– I finished the second of my two explorations into what could maybe be called ‘trap’, but I’m going to just call ‘my continued attempt to be Hudson Mohawke’. They’re trolling among people I trust for feedback now, but I’ll post ’em up soon.
– I collected my discography since I did The World Outside, and I was pretty surprised by its scope: five EPs, seven remixes, and six singles. Will there be another megamix soon? We’ll see.
Download here. This one is pretty much a straight line up, up, and then more up. Starts with my own remix of Victoria’s Fossil, and then has one of his tunes with Vic / Calgary songstress Amy Wood.
1: Fossil – Alkalosis (Fractal Remix) []
2: Fossil – Shadows in the Underground feat. Amy Wood []
3: Appleblim – Vansan [Punch Drunk]
4: TNGHT – Top Floor [LuckyMe x Warp]
5: Amon Tobin – Piece of Paper [Warp]
6: Borealis – Silkworm []
7: Rustie – Glass Swords [Warp]
Twelve hours of hacks, punctuated by delicious burritos, a fire alarm, and the ventilation failing; Montreal, you sure know how to do things right. You can see all the pictures here, and the video is here.
Deep thanks to Ryan, Julian, and Hackon for organizing with me. We’ll do it again in the fall, I am sure.
Download here. Post-dubstep through a footwork/electro/all pads all the time sort of lens; includes heat from Victoria’s own Monolithium.
1: Helipad [LuckyMe]
// Rustie – City Star (Intro) [Warp]
2: Monolithium – Bounce 4 Life [Error Broadcast]
3: Roy Ayes – Everybody Loves The Sunshine (Machinedrum Remix) [LuckyMe]
4: Flying Lotus – Putty Boy Strut [Brainfeed]
5: Limbo – FFFFfffffUUUUuuuuu [Sushi]
6: Seams – Punch [Full Time Hobby]
7: Rustie – Surph [Warp]
One of those weeks when nothing happens, but everything is about to happen:
– McGill’s miniature Music Hack Day is next weekend! You should come.
– FaltyDL’s album, Hardcourage, is really, really good.
– Oh my god, have you seen Four Tet’s chaos for Just Jam?
– Also hot mixes from Four Tet for Rinse, Jacques Greene for the Fader, and so on.
Download here.
1: Friendly Fires – Hurting (C2 Runway Edit) [Planet E]
2: Jozif – Twilight feat. Terri Walker (Dub) [This Is Music]
3: Essay – Morning Mountain [Glyph]
4: Blue Daisy & Annkea – Raindrops (John Talabot Remix) [Black Acre]
5: Todd Terje – Snooze 4 Love [Running Back]
6: Lindstrom – Rà -à kõ-st [Smalltown Supersound]
7: Lindstrom – Eg-ged-osis [Smalltown Supersound]
Welcome back to Tra La La:
– Heather Harker, who is a genius of a soprano, sang my piece Tornado Songs as part of her Master’s graduating recital at UVic, last month She sang ’em amazingly, and is amazing, and I can’t thank her enough.
– Phillip Stearns finished his colossal Year Of The Glitch project.
– Finally, the best song of 2013 is from a movie from 1959: Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye doing “When The Saints Go Marching In”.
– Australia had record high temperatures, Beijing broke its pollution index, and it was 12 degrees in Toronto. We have a problem.
