single | | atractivoquenobello

The Knife – ‘A Tooth For An Eye’.

8 March 2013

news

It’s no secret that feminism is a mode of thinking that is extremely close to Swedish electronic duo The Knife‘s heart. So what better day to drop another single and video from their highly anticipated album Shaking the Habitual, out on their own Rabid record label, April 8, than International Women’s Day?

Another brilliantly primal call to arms, buttressed by incredible rhythms, ‘A Tooth For An Eye’ follows their provocatively deviant ‘Full of Fire’ video, directed by feminist director Marit Östberg. But rather than featuring a diverse array of women in every non-conformist guise they could think of, ‘A Tooth For An Eye’ complements the glitchy synth bounce with all sorts of bodies dancing led by a fierce young girl in braids.**

Co La – ‘Melter’s Delight’

21 February 2013

news

The fact that Baltimore sample-based electronic project Co La (aka Matt Papich) sounds like it could be a soft drink isn’t far removed from its sound. With a second album, Moody Coup, due for release on Daniel Lopatin’s Brooklyn-based label, Software, May 6, the lead-single, ‘Melter’s Delight’ is an effervescent trip of asynchronous poly-rhythms and fractured dub vocal samples.

Where Papich’s 2011 album, Daydream Repeater (on NNA Tapes) was an exuberant frolic through the gilded dancehalls of reggae and 60s pop, ‘Melter’s Delight’ is an abstracted portrait of music at its most modern. See the album track listing below. **

TRACK LISTING

1. Sukiyaki To Die For
2. Melter’s Delight
3. Remarkable Features
4. Deaf Christian
5. Un
6. Suspicious (Sandman Fix)
7. Baby’s Breath
8. Head in Hole in Space
9. Sympathy Flinch
10. Make it Slay (Barbershop Solo)

Mykki Blanco – ‘Feeling Special’

20 February 2013

news

We predict big things for Mykki Blanco (aka Michael Quattlebaum Jr) this year. After last year’s brilliant Cosmic Angel: Illuminati Prince/ss drop and Mykki Blanco & the Mutant Angels EP before that through UNO, there’s the announcement of a follow up with a new persona in the Betty Rubble: The Initiation EP in March.

As a first taster of what to expect, Quattlebaum has posted ‘Feeling Special’ on his tumbr and it’s a moodier wander through the weird wonderland of Mykki Blanco while moaning, in deeper-than-ever vocals, “follow me down that rabbit hole”. He also slips in some lines from the earlier ‘Kingpining’ single, while barren bass lines are provided courtesy of San Francisco producer Matrixxman. The latter happens to be a member of the same 5kinAndBone5 collective who produced Le1f‘s pumping hit ‘Wut’ and points to an even grimier sounds to come. Listen to ‘Feeling Special’ here. **

Planningtorock – ‘Misogyny Drop Dead’

18 February 2013

news

With a planned release of her latest single ‘Misogyny Drop Dead’, out on her own Human Level Recordings on International Women’s Day Friday, March 8, it’s looking like Berlin’s Planningtorock is going to be making as big an impact as her Swedish electronic counterparts The Knife. The two acts not only have a shared creative relationship -recording 2010 Darwinian opera Tomorrow, In a Year, along with Mt Sims -but they also nurture a similar attitude with regards to sexual equality. Far from shying away from a feminist agenda, Rostron has been making it abundantly clear where her sentiments lie, ever since releasing last year’s ‘Patriarchy Over & Out’.

In an interview with aqnb in 2011, around the release of her brilliantly wonky debut W, Rostron anticipated a universal desire for new voices in art and music: “I’m just fucking bored. Really, I’m so over that. I really want something else.” With ‘Misogyny Drop Dead’, it’s sounding like that ‘something else’ has arrived.**

Brandt Brauer Frick (feat. Om’Mas Keith) – ‘Plastic Like Your Mother’

14 February 2013

news

Weirdly, the opening of Brandt Brauer Frick‘s new single ‘Plastic Like Your Mother’ sounds oddly similar to the growling opening of Fever Ray’s ‘If I Had A Heart’. The relevance of which is completely lost on us except that the latter’s Karin Dreijer Andersson has an enormously anticipated release with her other band The Knife coming in the near future also. Back on point, though, the Berlin-based trio of manual tech-heads have a third album (since 2010’s Make Me Real and the following Mr. Machine) Miami coming out on !K7 Records, March 18 and are performing soon thereafter at London’s XOYO, March 21.

Since we covered their second album in 2011, they’ve dropped the ‘ensemble’ from their name and loosened up on their puritanical approach to their ‘organic dance music’. Don’t get us wrong though, there still isn’t anything like it and, if the pulsing bass beat and stuttering vocal sample of Om’Mas Keith is anything to go by, the Berlin trio may revolutionise dance music yet.**

Slava – ‘On It’

14 February 2013

news

Rightly placed on the inculturally-aware line-up of Fatima Al Qadiri and Nguzunguzu at last year’s Unsound, Slava Balasanov (aka Slava) was a close contender in most visceral mind (and body) scramble. It’s just as well too, considering the Moscow-born, New York-based producer has had several fierce releases already, not least on Heiroglyphic Being’s Mathematics label and a little-known appearance on Coral Records Internazionale’s #Seapunk Volume 1, along with aqnb favourite Le1f .

Slava’s upcoming album debut though, Raw Solutions, is out on Daniel Lopatin’s Mexican Summer imprint Software, April 23, and it will be the second with the Brooklyn label since 2012’s Soft Control EP. With one less Britney sample and plenty more brutal beats, it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.**

Youth Lagoon – ‘Mute’

12 February 2013

news

Here’s a new track from the Californian dream pop performer Youth Lagoon, in anticipation of his second album, Wondrous Bughouse, out on Mississippi-based label Fat Possum Records, March 18. Led by a an undulant guitar melody, the hallucinating amble of ‘Mute’ is another promising harbinger of what’s to come after the lush composition of January’s ‘Dropla’ followed by the haunting repetition of “you’ll never die”.

Making his mark with the spartan sentimentality of 2011’s The Year of Hibernation, Youth Lagoon promises another romantic escape into his bizarre and world weary universe, while production from Animal Collective and Washed Out producer Ben H. Allen lends a distinctly deviant pop sensibility to his sound. **

TRACKLISTING

1. THROUGH MIND AND BACK
2. MUTE
3. ATTIC DOCTOR
4. THE BATH
5. PELICAN MAN
6. DROPLA
7. SLEEP PARALYSIS
8. THIRD DYSTOPIA
9. RASPBERRY CANE
10. DAISYPHOBIA

Night Works – ‘Long Forgotten Boy’

8 February 2013

news

Ex-Metronomy man Gabriel Stebbing has his album under his Night Works moniker coming out via Loose Lips on March 4. This will be the solo debut from Stebbing since leave the Mercury Prize nominated band in 2009 and, although a looser, more ambient listen it’s still steeped in the rhythmic compositions Metronomy, by virtue of its very name, was founded on. The last of three Daniel Brereton-directed films for Night Works, ‘Long Forgotten Boy’ sees Stebbing galavanting across areas of London and Paris -a perfect summation of what aqnb is all about. **

Hervé ft. Katie Stelmanis – ‘Save Me’

23 January 2013

news

UK producer Joshua Harvey (aka Hervé) follows last year’s debut Pick Me Up, Sort Me Out, Calm Me Down with a surprising U-turn from the bass-heavy dubstep et al of his earlier work. The lead single ‘Save Me’ lives up to the implications of his upcoming second album title The Art of Disappearing, as his throbbing club sounds dissolve into its own spectral soundwaves. Classically-trained Katie Stelmanis of Canadian electronic outfit Austra lends her vocals here with the promise of more collaborations from Niki & The Dove, Seasfire and Maria Minerva to follow. It should be a welcome diversion from the Machines Don’t Care crew member’s early work, while this tripped out video, directed by fellow Londonder Tim Kelly, is clear on the essentials.