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"Love Is Hard Work" is a continuous 29 minute recording and something that Sean Guerin from De Lux has been wanting to make for a while. According to Guerin: "Before De Lux, I used to write long songs, but never really finish them. Written and recorded in mid 2021 for two months, it felt like a breeze to make 'Love Is Hard Work' because I had been thinking and talking about it for so long. Influenced by a lot of artists from ‘79-‘82, like Peter Gordon, Electric Mind, Evans Pyramid or Dizzy K, the track is intended to feel like a continuous flow of dance music. Instead of a stream of consciousness in lyricism, this is more of a stream of consciousness in instrumentation and songwriting; where ideas flow from one to the other without too much thought."
Purchase the limited edition vinyl, download or stream the track.
L.A.'s De Lux are a post-disco dance-punk DIY duo that sound like they could have come out of 1979 or 1982 just as easily as today. Founders and multi-instrumentalists Sean Guerin and Isaac Franco didn’t meet so much as simply appear to each other, sometime before high school ended and after learning to correctly fall off skateboards began. Even at age 18, however, it was the kind of connection that had been years in the making. Sean had been writing songs since he was 15 and had spent recent years recording and re-recording his own songs. And Isaac had been on a strict diet of classic and obscure disco and boogie music since he too was 15, figuring out the original source of hip-hop’s greatest samples thanks to an older brother with a DJ sideline and an enviable collection. They both were after the same thing in music—the groove, they say, where the bass and the beat align in a perfect way that makes you want a song to go on forever.
Ten years on from their well-received debut album, Voyage, the band now has four full length releases under their belt, including 2022's "Do You Need A Release?" Funny, profound & easy to groove to, De Lux has a host of influences ranging from 80’s new wave of the Tom Tom Club to the experimentation and imagery of The Clash’s “Sandinista!” to the cerebral DFA disco era.
Dan Tyler and Conrad McDonnell, aka Idjut Boys, are an English duo whose dub-heavy home songs incorporate their playful love of life. The duo met in the late '80s in Cambridge discovering that they shared a passion for similar music. Soon after, both moved to London and established the U-Star parties. The Idjuts' fusion of dub, house, and techno soon caught on and landed them gigs DJing all over the world.
McDonnell and Tyler established U-Star Records in 1993, releasing their debut 12" Idjut Boy. They continued releasing numerous 12"s throughout the 90's up to the current period consisting of original productions, along with remixes & re-edits of obscure and not-so-obscure material by other artists and a handful of DJ mixes. A proper Idjut Boys studio album, Cellar Door, was released on Smalltown Supersound in 2012. This was followed by Versions, an album of reworks of material from throughout the duo's career, in 2015.
On this 12" vinyl, the Idjuts remix a single, "What's Life" from De Lux's most recent "Do You Need A Release?"
Ahead of the release of their forthcoming LP, Echo Palace (due 5/12), Dutch rock band Iguana Death Cult return with a brand new single entitled "Oh No." Previously, the band shared two stellar singles, "Pushermen" and "Sensory Overload," and this new track continues the hype in anticipation of the record's drop in May.
Wrote the band of the track: "Inspired by Dutch writer Jan Cremer, I decided to write a song about how incredibly amazing I am. This sort of self-mythification seemed funny to me since I spend most of my days wallowing in doubt and worry. In the end it became a metaphor for how we polish up our lives to near perfection on our social media accounts, while mental health problems are becoming more norm rather than an exception."
To accompany the new single, the band has also shared a music video, on which they wrote:
"One night, I played the new record for our good friend Max. When 'Oh No' came on and I heard myself sing the first line, I knew it; We have to get this guy in a knight costume. Max is a 6 foot 5 berserker but also one of the sweetest guys I know. We had so much fun making this video even though it was freezing and we had to hide from the rain every ten minutes. The banter you can have with this guy is unprecedented. One of the sharpest tongues in the game. Everything was filmed in Rotterdam again. Can't represent this beautiful city enough! Because this song has a bit of an old school Iguana feel to it, Hache wanted to use a lot of video distortion like he did back in the day when he made the videos for our first record."
In celebration of their forthcoming album, Iguana Death Cult made an appearance at this year's SXSW (Austin, TX), where they played a total of nine showcases. Following the festival, Paste Magazine noted that the band was one of the "20 Best Acts" they saw there: "I knew I had to see Iguana Death Cult as soon as I heard the band’s name. And they didn’t disappoint. From the word 'go,' the whole crowd was dancing and pushing to their garage and psych-rock extravaganza."
Sam Blasucci, best known as one half of Mapache, a rock duo just as instantly recognizable for their elegant, intertwined guitar parts as they are for their devoted, Nudie-Suit wearing fanbase, shares a new video for second single "Sha La La" off his forthcoming debut solo LP Off My Stars.
Blasucci explains, "this song, originally entitled "Drag," was written in New Orleans in 2020 in our house on Napoleon right before hurricane Zeta. Major social issues were pounding at our doors at the same time as heavy wind and rain. Duct tape hanging from the ceiling and windows. It was a time of terror and bliss not unlike where the world hangs now. Some words that make me think of "Sha La La" are orange, willow, sweet-potato, strut, flame, and storm.
He continues about the video, "living in Ventura County, it seemed only natural that the band would roll into Skating Plus to give our new single "Sha La La" some wheels. Dan Horne and Molly Bremner grace us with surprise visits as well. Thank god nobody broke anything." The video was shot by Bryce Makela, edited by Sam Blasucci and features Dan Horne and Molly Bremner on skates, Bubba McNamara on sax, Rayla Johnson on bass, Steve Didelot on drums, and Stew Forgey on the Rhodes.
Off My Stars is set to be released on June 2, 2023 and can be pre-ordered at this link.
Toronto-based DJ and producer BAMBII has shared her new single “One Touch” - a heady amalgamation of dancehall, jungle and garage, merging deep wonky basslines with smooth vocals and a ceaselessly propulsive and twisting beat.
Speaking on the nostalgia-filled single, BAMBII shares, “Years ago I was in Jamaica and was surprised to hear a jungle track blaring from someone's car that made me stop and listen. I’m trying to give listeners that raw feeling of the dancehall I grew up with but with all the rage and chaos of the rave.”
It makes perfect sense that BAMBII, who helped produce Kelela's recent album, alongside KAYTRANADA, would go on to make music that captures the ecstatic thrill, joy and release of the club. Her legendary queer night Jerk has not only helped build a safe space for queer POCs in her home city but also created a riotous and exhilarating party in the process.
The blend of dancehall, jungle, garage and R&B that permeates the record may be coming out of a unique space that Bambii has carved out for herself in Toronto but there’s also big hits of UK flavour in there too. Once again, this can be linked to BAMBII’s sonic explorations of her own heritage. “I am hugely influenced by the UK music scene,” she says. “I feel like it's one of the main places where Caribbean music has pushed the electronic realm at large. I am equally invested in nostalgia as much as the future and try to convey that on every track.”
Catch BAMBII on tour over spring/summer:
6th April, Manchester, UK - 15 Years of PAN @ The White Hotel
7th, April, Amsterdam, NL - De School
8th, April, Glasgow, UK - Peach @ SWG3
27th, April, London, UK - Space 289
29th, April, Barcelona, Spain - Nitsa
5th, May, Berlin, Germany - Panorama Bar
28th, May, Bakersfield, CA - Lightning in a Bottle Festival
1st, June, Sydney, Australia - Settings @ Universal (Vivid Festival)
11th, June, Melbourne, Australia - Rising 2023 @ Melbourne INT Festival
8th, July, London, UK - Wireless