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News
New Releases
Festivals
Listen
Watch
Charts
Credits
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March 16-29
Earplug is a twice-monthly email magazine, delivering a handpicked
selection of news, sounds, videos, and original features to the international electronic-music community.
Earplug goes geologic — or at least geosonic — this week, with news from the worlds of sound art and rock crossover. Accordingly, we move heaven and earth to get you to Scotland and Mexico, all in the same weekend. On the video front, a transatlantic collab puts a new kink in multimedia; and downloads from Berlin, Seattle, Paris, Düsseldorf, and Baltimore leave a few more stamps in your iPod's passport. Plus, as always, our charts and album reviews put you on the inside track — no matter what your destination may be.
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The BACARDI B-Live Global Gathering Festival, hitting Downtown Miami's Bicentennial Park on Saturday, March 18th (12pm-midnight), is more than just music. A hallmark of the hugely successful European events has always been a range of entertainment beyond music, and Global Gathering deploys thrill rides and vendor villages in addition to over 50 bands and DJs on 5 stages. Click here for event and ticket info. |
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Music of the Sphere
Francisco López presents course on "real world" audio
Madrid sound artist Francisco López has written that "what we learn has no substantial effect on who we are." Perhaps contradicting himself — but more likely not — the advocate of "blind" listening, famous for asking audience members to blindfold themselves at concerts, enters the pedagogical realm with "The World as Instrument," a performance and lecture series at Barcelona's Museum of Contemporary Art. Earlier this month, the master class kicked off with a presentation and concert from phonographer Yannick Dauby; continuing on a monthly basis through June 3, the monographic course explores the history, aesthetics, and politics of field recording, with appearances by Andrey Kiritchenko, Ronnie Sundin, and Aernoudt Jacobs, who will present work in Spain for the first time. López, whose austere and immersive take on musique concrete has led him deep into rainforests around the world, lectures on April 29 and May 6, with a performance of his own on the former date. (PS)
Filling Up a Hollow Scene
Portland club launches indietronic label
Portland, Oregon, with its knitting circles and roller derbies, can sometimes feel like indie-culture central. But for several years, a cozy little club called Holocene has helped to bridge the worlds of beat freaks and rock 'n rollers, booking German DJs and Burnside punks alike. Parties to benefit the mock-separatist "Free Cascadia" movement balance inclusivist utopia with exclusivist ambitions; but then, Rip City residents have never been short on local pride. Now, with a characteristically Northwestern nudge and wink, the venue launches the Holocene Music label with the release of It's Importland to Me to Be One Step Further than One Step Beyond: Holocene Music Remix Compilation — on which local rockers like Blitzen Trapper, Bobby Birdman, and Talkdemonic get their comeuppance via rose-tinted reworkings from local button pushers such as Solenoid, E*Rock, and, well, Talkdemonic. (Boundaries always were fluid in Portland.) An accompanying 12-inch single featuring remixes of the Blow's "The Love that I Crave" by Strategy and Caro is already creating buzz as far away as London, where Sheikh Ahmed called an early leak of Strategy's take "the most astonishing electronic pop record [I've] heard in 2005," citing the "mutated vocoder vocals, dampened piano riffs, and sparingly used beats [that] elevate this to the next level." (PS)
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MORE HEADLINES
God in a Box
FM3's Buddha Machine makes Zen portable
more »
No Sleep till Beltway
Smithsonian unveils "Hip-Hop Won't Stop"
more »
Sine of the Times
Ryoji Ikeda's Dataplex perplexes
more »
Dutch Courage
I-F bets on disco, not tulips
more »
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Artist: |
Nathan Fake |
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| Album: |
Drowning in a Sea of Love |
| Label: |
Border Community |
| Release: |
March 20 |
It's difficult to know what to make of an artist like Nathan Fake, whose work is best known for others' (stellar) remixes of it. However, his first full-length — an idle, meandering flight of fancy — reveals Fake as Border Community's resident dreamer, reveling in icy, tinkling highs, backed by slow, pulsing rhythms. Widely heard as remixed by James Holden, "The Sky Was Pink" appears here in its original form, its doleful, sustained tones couched in atmospheric clouds. Lush chords and a snare saying "psst" on "You Are Here" make way for a cavalcade of slippery notes and a raging waterfall of screaming guitar; and then there's "Charlie's House," which has already seen treatment by Apparat and been granted a spot near the front of James Holden's newest 2CD mix (see below). Pristine stuff to repackage, and also full of perception and depth on its own. (NP)
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Artist: |
James Holden |
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| Album: |
At the Controls |
| Label: |
Resist Music |
| Release: |
March 27 |
Remixer extraordinaire and Border Community head James Holden refutes Richie Hawtin's claim that mix CDs are "really fucking bullshit" with a double-disc smacker, his first since 2003's sensational Balance mix. Highlighted by deep, stampeding bass and tracks manipulated with Holden's own custom controller, it interlaces his own productions ("Lump" and "10101") and labelmate Petter's "Some Polyphony" throughout the first disc, creating a beyond-genre mélange that runs from psy-trance (Midi Miliz) to Krautrock (Harmonia). That Plastikman's "Cor Ten" appears as both the second and penultimate track of the whole collection is enough of a hint these two discs are to be played in tandem — 160 minutes of breakdown-driven body music far surpassing Holden's previous offerings both in breadth and power of arrangement. (NP)
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Artist: |
Duplex |
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| Album: |
Late Night Driving |
| Label: |
Clone |
| Release: |
February 28 |
With techno continuing to branch off into countless variations, it's heartening to see a debut album made with such a masterful grasp on the core elements of the genre. Produced in Rotterdam with an obvious reverence for Detroit, Duplex's Late Night Driving is a coherent work of deep, soulful techno that plays upon the now-timeless theme of channeling the spectrum of human emotion through basic circuitry. Utilizing the skillful programming of classic drum machines, Duplex bring life to the simplest hi-hat, while melodically, the duo nods back to pioneers like Derrick May with spacey, open-ended arrangements. Taken together, the album's technological and humanistic concerns convey the feeling of being propelled through unfamiliar swaths of country — late at night, as the title would have it — and ending the journey with a bridge crossing into the modern metropolis. (CJN)
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Artist: |
Bird Show |
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| Album: |
Lightning Ghost |
| Label: |
Kranky |
| Release: |
March 2006 |
Despite Kranky's rep as ground central for (often) electronic, drone-based music, Ben Vida's work as Bird Show opens up a world that's closer in spirit to the "New Weird America," joining Krautrock pulses and Ghost's campfire folksiness in a wide-eyed circle dance of primal instincts and futuristic sound design. On the opening "Field on Water," Afropoppy plucked guitar, psychedelic swirling voices, and delicate handclap rhythms frame the chanted mantra, "You cannot separate / the water from the wave." The burbling "Pilz," flecked with triangle and gurgling electronics, sounds a bit like a blissed-out Boredoms, while "Seeds" picks up that band's tribal impulses with churning drums and squealing reeds. Form is elusive: "First Path Through" takes its shape from the meandering of feedback, while "Beautiful Spring" sparks accidental overtones by rubbing together layers of overdubbed vocals. The album is less like a lightning strike than a misty apparition whose true form requires teasing out — but rewards richly, once you've found it. (PS)
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Artist: |
Kiki |
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| Album: |
Boogybytes Vol. 01 |
| Label: |
Bpitch Control |
| Release: |
January 30 |
Judging from the track listing, Kiki's inaugural installment of Bpitch's Boogybytes mix series ought to be just another electro-house mix, stuffed to the gills with the season's hits (Fairmont's "Gazebo," Âme's "Rej") and familiar names (Gabriel Ananda, Slam, Troy Pierce). But Kiki's selection and sequencing turn out to be unusually inspired, crashing arc into arc — say, countering the fizzy high of Anja Schneider and Sebo K's "Rancho Relaxo" with the down-to-earth piano of Donal Tierney's "Verse 2 the Chorus." Kiki's own digitally spliced interludes from the likes of Ellen Allien and Andre Kraml keep well-worn tracks from wearing out their welcome. Best of all, he unearths a few stone classics from Guy Gerber and Infusion, forcing even the most jaded Teutonophiles to admit that the progressive scene can still teach the minimalists a thing or two. (PS)
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EARPLUG FAVES
Sleeparchive, Radiotransmission EP (Sleeparchive)
Mike Shannon, Possible Conclusions to Stories that Never End (~scape)
Daniel Meteo, Peruments (Meteosound)
NSI, Clara Ghavami EP (Cadenza)
Rekid, "85 Space" (Soul Jazz)
Kaito, Hundred Million Light Years (Kompakt)
Booka Shade, Movements (Get Physical)
FM3, Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat)
Pantytec, Maybe Morimelo (Perlon)
Mark Broom, From London with Love EP (Bpitch Control)
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PREVIEW: MUTEK Mexico
March 29 - April 8
Mexico City, Mexico
www.strobe.com.mx/mutek
Having barely recovered from the jetlag following its recent South American tour, Montreal's MUTEK festival is headed back across the border for the third edition of its Mexican affair. Various events take place across Mexico City, with satellite happenings in Guadalajara; Richie Hawtin and his Minus minions Marc Houle and Troy Pierce promise minimalism to the max, while more experimental strains flourish with Radian and Jan Jelinek. Local talents represent the red, white, and green, including Fax, E. Lebleu, and Manrico Montero — and the Southern Cone rises again via supergroup Monne Automne and the mysterious Surtek Collective. (PS)
LINEUP: Almeyda, Apparat, Childs, Damian Lazarus, Deadbeat, Debugger & Paravoice, E. Lebleu, Fax, Funky Dragon & Picis, Jan Jelinek, Jack's Son, Kampion, Kong, Líneas de Nazca, Manrico Montero and friends, Marc Houle, Mathew Jonson, Matías Aguayo & Roccness, Métrika, Mink, Monne Automne, Ozy, Pantha du Prince, Partner Not Friends, Pole, Radian, Richie Hawtin, Surtek Collective, Telefon Tel Aviv, Troy Pierce, Vektor, and Zofa.
PREVIEW: Triptych
April 26-30
Aberdeen/Edinburgh/Glasgow, Scotland
www.triptychfestival.com
The Scots can teach a veteran Coachella or All Tomorrow's Parties attendee a thing or two about festivalgoing. Your ears will thank you for the lesson; whether or not your liver will is another question. At the sixth annual Triptych Festival, held at various venues in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, vintage soul stirs it up next to shoegazer rock and lyric-slinging Jamaican DJs. Rail or roll to all three cities, starting up north in Aberdeen with Wednesday performances from Kool Keith and Juana Molina. Wind down through Edinburgh for Friday's do with Sun Ra Arkestra and Tarwater, then drag your tattered self to Glasgow for a Sunday finale with Aphex Twin and the Bug. After a trip like that, you might have to stay an extra week just to catch your breath. (TP)
LINEUP: A Certain Ratio, Andrea Parker, Aphex Twin, Arab Strap, Balanescu Quartet, Battles, Big Daddy Kane, Carl Craig, Cherrystones, Coldcut, David Holmes, DJ Pierre, Edan with Dagha, Future Pilot AKA, Gene Farris, Gravenhurst, Jackson & His Computer Band, James Blood Ulmer, Jerry Dammers, Juana Molina, Kool Keith, Max Richter, Mogwai, Philippe Zdar, Radioactive Man, Rankin Joe, Roxanne Shante, Silver Jews, Soil & Pimp Sessions, Sonic Boom, Sun Ra Arkestra, Tarwater, the Bug, U-Roy, Wolf Eyes, and more.
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Dapayk: Live at Golden Gate, Berlin, October 2005 (MP3)
Mo's Ferry's Dapayk takes time out from his busy schedule racking up credits on Orac, Textone, Trapez, and Musik Krause to deliver a rockin' 80 minutes of detuned funk, machine shuffles, and general tomsquealery. Listen »
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Theo Parrish and Rick Wilhite: Live in Seattle (MP3)
You may not often think of Detroit and Seattle in the same breath, but back in December, Sound Signature legend Theo Parrish and 3 Chairs' Rick Wilhite brought some serious Motor City madness to the rain-slicked streets of the Pacific Northwest, slipping from house to techno to vintage disco and back again. Listen »
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Move D: 10/11 — Live at Johanneskirche (MP3)
Despite a few releases on Bruchstuecke and Liebe Detail, Source German's Move D has been distressingly quiet of late. Fortunately, net label Thinner/Autoplate tracked him to a Düsseldorf church, where he draws upon jazz, funk, and glancingly minimal techno for a rich listening experience worthy of its setting. Listen »
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Pascal Rioux: Dance to the Drummer's Beat (MP3)
Parisian crate digger Pascal Rioux puts the "mega" back in "mega-mix" with a Kool Herc-styled selection of breakbeats that lingers just a little bit longer than normal on each selection, peppering the breaks with a tasty hook or three. Listen »
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Diplo: Mad Decent Worldwide Radio #1 (Podcast)
Hollertronix's Diplo complements his new Mad Decent label (soon to debut with a single from Brazil's Alice in Chains-sampling Bonde do Role) with a quicky mix of Baltimore Club — finally giving non-Eastern Seaboarders the chance to check out a scene that's made all the magazines, but rarely gets heard outside "Bodymore." Listen »
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Looking for more hot mix sets and fresh new tracks?
Check out Blentwell for an
ongoing document of the evolution of blended music online.
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AGF.3 + SUE C.
Mini Movies
Asphodel, CD/DVD
Francis Bacon, the renowned British painter identified by his abstract and often grotesque imagery, is credited for keenly observing that "the job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." As is often the case with art that occupies a more theoretical and intellectual space, objective critical analysis becomes nearly impossible; instead, we revel in our own unique interpretation of the artist's intentions. An intriguing, collaborative multimedia effort from German musician/producer Antye Greie-Fuchs (AGF) and San Francisco video artist and photographer Sue Costabile, Mini Movies rests its success on the fact that, unlike a painting or sculpture, the audio and video provided on the CD and DVD are wholly malleable and undeniably mysterious. Each is a unique component that can be used with or without the other — perhaps even to construct our own mini movies.
The DVD includes ten shorts assembled from thousands of manipulated still images, with the most significant contribution being "fortythousand3hundred20 memories" — a nearly 28-minute tribute to the transient connection between time, place, and the audio-visual memories that stay with us even when we uproot and move on. The pair take calculated steps to declare that "everybody is a disaster," but both the shorts and the accompanying 19-track CD of fissured electronic glitches argue otherwise, instead providing the sort of melancholy that precedes moments hinging on exciting, slightly terrifying decisions. Using proprietary software called Jitter, each of the shorts — some combining still photography with hand-drawn and self-tattered elements — mirrors the tonal and physical qualities of a cloudy reminiscence or a half-remembered mental image. Then again, you can interpret Mini Movies any way you choose. That's one of the beautiful things about art without discernable boundaries — or clearly confirmed rules. (SM)
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MORE VIDEO
The Knife, "Handy Man"
watch »
Jimmy Edgar, "LBLB Detroit"
watch »
The Presets, "Girl and the Sea"
watch »
Psapp, "On Site"
watch »
Wax Tailor, "Hypnosis Theme"
watch »
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Each week, Earplug sneaks a peek inside the crates of our favorite DJs. We'll even help you beef up your own bag: click on selected titles to preview tracks, download MP3s, or purchase vinyl.
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Karl Hyde
(Underworld)
London, England
www.dirty.org/underworld
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- Theo Parrish, "Falling Up (Carl Craig Remix)" (Third Ear)
- Robag Wruhme, "Worktabular (Tobi Neumann Remix)" (Musik Krause)
- James Holden, "A Break in the Clouds" (Border Community)
- Konrad Black & Ghostman, "Medusa Smile" (Wagon Repair)
- Paul Woolford, "Erotic Discourse" (unreleased)
- Roy Ayers, "Tarzan (Âme Remix)" (BBE)
- Luciano (and Salif Keita), "Yamoré Rmx" (Cadenza)
- LocoDice, "Carthago" (Cocoon)
- Dario Lotti & Guido Nemola, "Jack in the City" (Junior Boy's Own)
- Zoo Brazil, "Make You Mine" (unreleased)
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View all of this week's charts »
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Editors:
Melody Caraballo
Jocelyn K. Glei
Doug Levy
Sascha Lewis
Steve Marchese
Philip Sherburne
Jon Spooner
Cyrus Wadia
Founder:
David J. Prince
Cover Art:
Mateu Velasco
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Contributors:
Andy Cumming
David Day
Carl Hagen
Jorge Hernandez
James Jung
Craig Kapilow
Colin James Nagy
Cameron Octigan
Tomas Palermo
Nick Parish
Tim Pratt
Dustin Ross
Maggie Stein
Bruce Tantum
Mark Teppo
Toby Warner
Production:
Anjuli Ayer
Morgan Croney
Pilar Gallego
Sander-Martijn Milks
Judah Wiedre
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About Us |
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Earplug is an email magazine dedicated to electronic music and its many dynamic styles and influences. Published every two weeks, it features a handpicked selection of music news, cultural spotlights, tip sheets, CD reviews, original reporting, and music festival previews and reviews. Earplug offers only pure editorial and unbiased news — no money is accepted from any artists, labels, promoters, or companies seeking mention.
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Media Partnerships |
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Every other week, Earplug presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on Earplug and across all Flavorpill publications.
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Cover Art |
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We have an open call to create the covers that run at the top of each issue.
If you would like to submit a design, please email us at design
and we'll send you the necessary specs.
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Submissions/Feedback |
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Tell us what you think is exciting and worth including in Earplug by dropping us
an email at tips.
Writers interested in getting even more involved should reach us at contribute.
To criticize, praise, or generally comment on this publication,
please send an email to feedback.
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