THE S/T SCOOP: Superpitcher Tells Us Everything We Need To Know About His New ‘Kilimanjaro’ Album, Including a Video of Its First Single
Posted on January 19, 2010
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[Photos courtesy of Kompakt]
Interview by Ilirjana Alushaj
“It’s finally done!” is the first thing Aksel Schaufler says as he sits down to discuss Superpitcher’s long-awaited second album, Kilimanjaro (out May 17 on Kompakt). Which is bit of an understatement, really, given that it’s taken four years of sporadic studio work to finish.
“A long time, yes,” admits Schaufler, “although the process of layering the ideas and recordings from this period has been more intensive over the past eight or nine months.”
The producer’s recent rush of ideas—captured at his Cologne studio, and wrapped up just last week—came after a successful Supermayer run with his Kompakt mate Michael Mayer. Schaufler discusses the future of that project after the jump along with why Superpitcher’s looking more like a band these days… Read more
THE S/T SCOOP: French Duo Air Gets More Aggressive With Fifth Studio Album … Well, More Aggressive for Air
Posted on June 17, 2009
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Talk about lovely surprises. Busy playing with our iPhone 3.0 updates, self-titled had no idea that Wednesday would bring our first glimpse at a new Air album. Ah, it’s a good day. The fifth studio album by the French duo (Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin) is called Love 2 and will be released by Astralwerks/EMI on October 6. Self-produced by the pair without the help of frequent collaborator Nigel Godrich, it’s the first Air record to emerge from their own Atlas Studio in Northern Paris.
Based on our initial listen, the album is gorgeous and crisp. A broader, bolder sound than 2007’s Pocket Symphony, Love 2 sees the group sounding lively, psychedelic and more aggressive. Rather than reveling in precious, muted details, the guys are back writing delightful electro-pop anthems.
“Do the Joy,” the album’s opener, will be a viral single available July 7. “Sing Sang Sung” will be released as the record’s traditional lead single April 25. Check the full tracklist after the jump.
VISION OF DISORDER: Apache Beat Reveals New Record, Featuring Members of The Rapture, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Lightspeed Champion
Posted on May 21, 2009
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[Photo by Mike Vorassi]
By Andrew Parks
When self-titled first saw Apache Beat’s simple but scintillating video for “Tropics,” we were intrigued enough to ask the unsigned act about its impending album (pegged for a winter release at the time) and potential s/t parties down the road. While the latter’s happening tonight, Brooklyn’s latest band of Next Big Things is still tweaking the final mixes of its full-length debut, Last Chants (now set for late summer).
“Everything has been hectic lately,” says singer Ilirjana Alushaj, alluding to the meetings, rehearsals and photo shoots that have marked their mounting work schedule in the past few months. “So we are sorting exactly what we need to do to improve, if anything, in the next week.”
With that in mind, Alushaj shared a slew of almost-there cuts with us, including two clear standouts (the galloping, ghoulish grooves of “Your Powers Are Magic”; the synth-draped nocturnal emissions of “Walking On Fire”) and an extended version of “Tropics.” She describes them in detail below, along with what it was like working with two generations of true Lower East Side icons.
Oh, yeah—the following remix is an exclusive as well… Read more
IS THIS IT?: Fischerspooner Share ‘Entertainment’ Rehearsal, Reveal How They Avoided a Nasty Breakup
Posted on May 4, 2009
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[Photos by Travis Huggett; video by Aaron Richter]
Interview by Andrew Parks
“We just had a power meeting,” explains Casey Spooner, as self-titled reboots an interview that was supposed to start 15 minutes ago. Not because the singer/performance artist was busy doing more important things…Okay, he was—exhausting tasks like nailing two glitzy music videos and hosting from-dusk-’til-dawn rehearsals (Fischerspooner’s first elaborate stage show since being dropped by EMI and returning to a DIY route) within one endless week.
“With [the] Odyssey [tour], I knew things weren’t going to go well because our first show was a House of Blues in Orlando,” says Spooner. “The first performance of this tour was me and three dancers in Bushwick for 100 people. That’s the perfect place to start, I think.”
To be clear, that first performance was actually with Spooner’s old band Sweet Thunder, which once counted s/t favorite Gavin Russom among its members. Fischerspooner had its own run of back-to-basics shows soon after, however, as Spooner, beat sculptor/producer Warren Fischer, and the pair’s collective of dancers, costume designers and multimedia artists presented three public previews of their looming “Between Worlds” trek. Just 60 people were allowed into each show, but we were invited to something even better: a private tour of Fischerspooner’s rehearsal space, complete with exclusive photos and a videotaped clip of the new song “Money Can’t Dance,” choreographer notes and all.
A few days later, Spooner spent an hour speaking to s/t about the unprecedented RCRD LBL deal they recently turned down, the rise and fall of the group’s first and second phases, and what’s kept two diametrically-opposed artists together for more than a decade. Fischerspooner’s third full-length, Entertainment, is due out through their own FS Studios imprint tomorrow. Read more
THE S/T SCOOP: Wolves in the Throne Room Unveil New Record(s), Logo
Posted on January 15, 2009
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As the winter of our discontent settles in along with a deep, deep frost, we’re thrilled to hear that Wolves in the Throne Room have two new releases on tap over the next couple months. First up: a vinyl-only EP called Malevolent Grain. Due out in two editions (a 180-gram black pressing from Southern Lord, an import-only pic disc from Conspiracy Records) on February 17, it features a pair of new earth-scorching jams. A limited CD version will also be available on the trio’s upcoming European tour.
The big news, however, is the band’s third full-length, Black Cascade. Set to hit the streets on March 31, it was tracked to 2-inch tape by Randall Dunn and Mell Dettmer in Seattle over the past few months. This is the first Wolves release to feature guitarist Will Lindsay (Middian). The former touring bassist rounds joins brothers Nathan and Aaron Weaver on what’s been deemed a “wholly organic black-drone masterwork.”
Metal fans who dig the scene’s melodramatic logos are encouraged to check the Christophe Szpajdel (Emperor, Moonspell) design after the jump, along with a track from Wolves’ last LP.
THE S/T SCOOP: Black Strobe Frontman Premiers Solo Project, Exclusive New Single
Posted on December 5, 2008
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From their deviant, pitch-dark record sleeves to the flashes of Depeche Mode and Detroit techno in their singles, Black Strobe never quite fit in with the neon-doused Ed Banger crowd. Especially after the long-awaited release of their debut record, Burn Your Own Church, a mangled, metallic listen that tempered its electro undercurrents with the emerging Nick Cave nods of frontman/producer Arnaud Rebotini. (Black Strobe’s co-founder, DJ/producer Ivan Smagghe, split before Burn’s release, leaving Rebotini to form a full-on band.)
THE S/T SCOOP: The Prodigy Finally Finish ‘Invaders Must Die,’ Premiere New Single, Video
Posted on November 28, 2008
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[Photo by Paul Dugdale]
Okay, so Liam Howlett didn’t quite live up to his latest promise of delivering a new Prodigy disc by the end of the year. We’re okay with that, simply because we’re willing to wait for a record that’ll blow the Ed Banger generation away, restoring some order to the easy-to-answer question of what came first: Music For the Jilted Generation and stellar rave-era singles like “Out of Space” and “Everybody in the Place,” or such deeply-indebted fare as Justice’s “Cross” LP.
Now christened Invaders Must Die, the Prodigy’s fifth full-length is due out March 3 through Take Me to the Hospital/Cooking Vinyl. We hear it’s a return to the trio’s scene-defining days, with traces of ultra-modern techno that’ll appeal to kids who still insist on wearing neon hoodies. The first evidence of this is the title track, which is available as a free download or hi-def video, which we’re streaming below. Be sure to comment on it like you did our EXCLUSIVE Prodigy interview earlier this year.
THE S/T SCOOP: Franz Ferdinand Reveal New Record Title, Songs At ‘Secret’ Brooklyn Show
Posted on October 9, 2008
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[Photos by Andrew Parks]
Franz Ferdinand finally unveiled specific details about their third full-length at a not-so-secret Brooklyn show last night, from its title (Tonight) to six new songs that hinted at how different the LP may be.
“The last record was fast, furious, frantic, 150 beats per minute—it was like a teenager having sex,” frontman Alex Kapranos recently said in a BBC News interview. “This one’s a bit more assured and a bit friendlier for the dancefloor. It’s about 104/105 bpm.”
THE S/T SCOOP: Matthew Dear Discusses Get Physical Mix, Minitek and the ‘Music For Airports’-ish Album That’s Up Next
Posted on September 12, 2008
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[Photos by Will Calcutt]
By Andrew Parks
Matthew Dear is what most people would call a true professional. Aside from being able to balance three distinct aliases like a purposeful schizophrenic (the dank, psychedelic peak-hour anthems of Audion, the manic minimal techno of False, and the avant-pop approach of namesake albums like 2007’s justifiably-acclaimed Asa Breed LP), he treats tedious, thankless tasks as what they really are: part of the job description when you want to be seen as a continent-crossing, boundary-breaking DJ/producer/performer. That includes the following E-mail interview, which Dear feverishly delivered from an airport terminal … on the way to a wedding in Kentucky.
Yes, Kentucky. Which is quite far from where he’ll be this Sunday—playing a live set in the second-to-last slot of New York’s first-ever Minitek festival, right before sometime label boss Richie Hawtin. It’s one of two Audion appearances planned over the next month, yet another burst of productivity and split personalities that brings with it more “Big Hands” dates (his trio version of Matthew Dear tracks) and the seventh installment of Get Physical’s Body Language series. According to a press release that was slipped to self-titled a little early, “Matthew’s eagerly-awaited Body Language mix is a very personal selection, and one which reflects his own artistic interests, concerns and strategies. In a sense, he approached the project literally, seeking to explore aspects of both the ‘body’ and ‘language’ in his selection and ultimately achieve a marriage of the two … Meanwhile, the mix’s rhythmic default is one of sinewy, dancefloor-aimed 4×4 grooves, ‘body’ music at its purest and most devastating.”
Be sure to scroll all the way down for the s/t exclusive cover art and tracklisting, as well as Dear’s live dates. But first, a spontaneous Q&A …
THE S/T SCOOP: …Trail of Dead Tells All About New Album, Interscope Split
Posted on August 27, 2008
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[Photos by Shawn Brackbill]
By Andrew Parks
The last time I spoke to Conrad Keely for a story, he was ‘borrowing’ the gargantuan office of an Interscope exec for the entire week. Not just conducting interviews for the afternoon; we’re talking some serious mi oficina es tu oficina action, as the …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead frontman chipped away at the artwork and sequencing of the band’s last major label album (2006’s So Divided).
In retrospect, the idea of Keely roaming free in a skyscraper suite (the room had a goddamn stand-in shower) is ironic to say the least. After all, Trail’s break from Interscope was far from amicable, leading Keely to completely reconsider his career path after more than a decade of tireless recording and touring.
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