"It's rare that a one-word song title can accurately capture the feeling of the track it represents, but Star Slinger's "Mornin'" does just that. This is the sound of the morning after, where befuddled notions of time and place slowly creep back into focus as you stumble out of bed on jellied legs. That passage back into the world is eased into shape by samples of the Staple Singers' "Let's Do It Again", which begin as murkily coagulated and lightly pitch-shifted cut-ups that continuously gain more traditional form as the track progresses. The journey out of bleary-eyed nausea is held together by J Dilla-inspired beats that drive the track to its clear-headed destination, which is completed in an impressively brief timespan that runs just over the two-minute mark. "Mornin'" is a fitting mood setter for Volume 1, Star Slinger's Bandcamp-released album, but his ability to stretch out a perceptible narrative using abstract sound sources also makes it work extremely well as a singular slice of ibuprofen pop." - Nick Neyland / Pitchfork
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"Establishing a sonic personality without lyrical assistance or some unique personal backstory can be tricky, especially when you're in the middle of a room crowded with your peers. The space in question is the one with a "for fans of Flying Lotus" sign posted over the door, and there hasn't been a ton of vacancy in there lately. Those who've broken out have done so by tweaking the sonic imprint of decaying beats and melting analog chords until they come across as distinctly tactile things, humid and slippery, blown-out and elastic.
Reaching out to clutch the music on Shlohmo's Bad Vibes might cause it to crumble in your grasp-- and then cut the hell out of your fingers. The L.A. producer's sophomore full-length comes after a handful of singles, EPs, remixes, and compilation appearances, as well as last year's disorienting debut, Shlomoshun Deluxe. And in that short yet busy time, Shlohmo has dredged up something strange: an aesthetic that's jaggedly delicate, filled with melodic beauty but jostled by abrasive percussive hitches, undercut with sandpapery patches of ambient fuzz. It's a deft merging of gentle, wafting electronic tones and intricately beat-to-shit rhythmic atmosphere, the sounds of old technology trying to reconcile its former gloss with its fading functionality.
The cynical ears that still can't get past the nostalgic surface of chillwave might have their own bone to pick with the cassette-deck/VHS fidelity of Bad Vibes, which stands out pretty prominently in hissy tracks like "Same Time" and "Parties". But instead of celebrating corroded, neon-pastel magnetic-tape detritus for its own sake, the music on this album leans closer to an appreciation of the actual rhythmic counterpoints, quirks, and resonant qualities of white noise. Alongside the moments that seem to revel in the flutter and crackle of old equipment are stretches that draw similar vibes from the sound of literal rainfall ("Seriously") or birdcall-strewn field recordings ("Big Feelings")-- not to mention the texture you can get from good old-fashioned feedback, like the keyboard squall of "Trapped in a Burning House".
The beats themselves are striking enough, whether they're the distant trickling clicks of "Sink" or the sharp, crisp snap-thump grooves that push along cuts like "Places" or "Same Time". Yet even the moments where the beat feels secondary to the other instrumentation have a pulse to them, run through floaty guitars or humming synthesizers that converse with the ambient hiss in compelling ways. Still, neither the melody nor the ambience overwhelms the other. It's easy to hear the silky, billowy tones through the dying-battery distortion, but hard to picture what they'd sound like without it." Nate Patrin / Pitchfork
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"Michigan native Zach Saginaw (a.k.a. Shigeto)—who now calls Brooklyn home—crashed onto our radar last year, dropping two EPs and his debut album, Full Circle, on Ghostly International. However, despite his childhood proximity to Detroit and current presence on Matthew Dear's label, his music has little to do with techno, instead lifting grooves from further back in Motown's history, namely the world of funk, soul, jazz, and hip-hop. And the kid certainly knows how to keep busy: In 2011, he's released the Full Circle Remixes LP, toured with Mount Kimbie, and this Friday, April 29, he'll be playing a special XLR8R-sponsored show with Sepalcure in San Francisco. (Go here for all the details on that.) In the interest of adding even more to his overflowing agenda, we enlisted Shigeto to assemble an exclusive mix for the XLR8R podcast series. His selections include plenty of familiar suspects, many from the fertile Southern California and UK music scenes. Expect plenty of broken, hip-hop flavored beats, washed-out synths, emotive vocal snippets, and an unshakeable desire to nod your head while listening." - Shawn Reynaldo / XLR8R
Shigeto on Facebook
“When we think about the burgeoning tape culture that’s been really picking up steam as of late, slow-brewing bass music is certainly not the first sound that comes to mind (nor the second, third, or fourth for that matter), and yet here we are. From a forthcoming full-length album by Atlanta’s Time Wharp (a.k.a. Patrick Loggins) for the Wonder Beard Tapes label, “mandelbrotset” is a post-dubsteppy slice of click-clack rhythms, swelling synth melodies, and ghostly vocal manipulations served up with a heavy wash of lo-bit fuzz.” XLR8R
Time Wharp on Facebook
$8 in adv, $10 DOS, 18+
Doors @ 9 pm
Advance tickets available @ Ticket Alternative, Criminal Records,
Decatur CD, Fantasyland Records and the following CD Warehouse locations: Buford, Duluth, Kennesaw, Lawrenceville and Roswell.
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