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JIMMY EDGAR x EVERYBODY

Production wunderkind Jimmy Edgar (whose notable collaborators include Hudson Mohawke, Danny Brown, DAWN, and Vince Staples) has just shared “EVERYBODY,” another advance taste of his upcoming album LIQUIDS HEAVEN (out on November 11). “EVERYBODY features Zelooperz, who I met in Detroit while recording with Danny Brown,” explains Edgar. “10k.Caash hopped on the beat remotely. The track explores the sound of the full length album, which is all based on the idea of ‘liquid.’”

LIQUIDS HEAVEN is a psychedelic canvas of future R&B, euphoric bass, mutant tear-the-club-up rap, foundation-splintering noise, and gossamer soul, as previously previewed via a double drop of singles “SLIP N SLIDE” and “STATIC (FT BANSHEE).” The album is a starburst of avant-garde fusion, collecting a diverse cast of eccentric geniuses and re-configuring them into an anthology of nü musique concrete. But as with all his work, there is a deeper and subversive intent: LIQUIDS HEAVEN’s gestation spawned from Edgar’s explorations of “material” in the digital world, and is part of his broader ambition to change belief and intention in the digital realm – a pseudo-invisible way to summon novel realities by infusing his ultra-sleek aesthetic into transformative conceptual art. But just as importantly it bangs as hard as anything to ever bump from a subwoofer.
Jonah Yano x leslianne

Hiroshima-born, Montreal-based singer-songwriter Jonah Yano shares his new single "leslianne." The track is his second offering from his forthcoming sophomore album Portrait of a Dog, which is entirely produced alongside BADBADNOTGOOD, out January 27th via Innovative Leisure. From the very start of its rapid run time of just under two minutes, "leslianne" lays out a spacious, intricate tapestry of keys and strings for Jonah's soft story of a girl finding her way home.

For the past month, Yano has been supporting Clairo for the last leg of her North American and the entirety of her European tour dates. Yano has two more dates opening for Clairo in London before he closes the live run with a headline show of his own at Servant Jazz Quarters in London this Wednesday. 

 portrait of a dog includes the previously-released singles "always", which arrived with a video shot on location in Five Islands, Nova Scotia, and "the speed of sound!," which is at the confluence of his love of folk and jazz music. The 12-track project is an exploration of themes present throughout most of Yano’s catalog – identity as a part of the Japanese-Canadian diaspora, contemplation of different family dynamics, and the intricacies of interpersonal relationships.

It’s a focused departure from Yano’s previous recordings – establishing a clear sonic identity throughout the album’s 12 songs to weave together two complementary narrative threads of a family homage and archive, and a deeply personal recollection of a fading relationship. Beyond the co-production of BADBADNOTGOOD, portrait of a dog features additional guest work from Slauson Malone, Sea Oleena, with string arrangements by Eliza Niemi, Leland Whitty, and Yano himself. 

See Clash for more info.

Arjuna Oakes & Serebii x Guava

 Arjuna Oakes & Serebii share another recording from their upcoming EP, "Guava", just as the fragrant pink fruit comes into season. Coming in short and sweet, "Guava" opens with an amorphous intro, with hints of harp sprinkled through, only to quickly turn towards a mandala of sound.

Acording to the duo - "Guava" was originally intended as an interlude track, but grew into an exploration of style and expanse, with elements of Classical, Alternative Electronic Music, House, and Film Scores.

The EP, Final Days, is due out on October 14, 2022.

De Lux x Do You Need A Release?

After writing, performing, recording, and producing three albums themselves, De Lux have traded their typically hermetic recording process at their Burbank studio for a more collaborative experience. The result is their most dynamic record yet, titled Do You Need A Release? Founding members Sean Guerin and Isaac Franco invited their live band to record to tape at Jonny Bell’s Jazzcat Studio in Long Beach, CA. While De Lux has always been able to write immediately danceable and quirky pop songs with a strong dose of wit, these recordings get the sonic boost they deserve to match the quality and camaraderie of their intense and acclaimed live performances. 
On De Lux’s first two albums the duo tackled the innocence of youth and generational anxiety. More Disco Songs About Love flipped the switch to create an ambitious party record not about youthful musings and insecurity, but reflection and gratitude for the things and people they love. This go-around Sean and Isaac are still funny and profound and their sound remains easy to groove to, but the band is more influenced by the fun 80’s new wave of the Tom Tom Club and the experimentation and imagery of The Clash’s “Sandinista!” than cerebral DFA era disco.
Do You Need A Release? Is De Lux at their poppiest, their prettiest, danciest, but also their most abrasive. The record is built on an uncomfortable bed of tension which when released is immediately satisfying in unpredictable and surprising ways. The verses often pummel you with aggressive beats and grooves only to blossom into open, encouraging, and even angelic refrains. Or the other way around, like in “New Summers”, where the choruses don’t resolve and the drums are a never ending build up that disorients you—reminding you that summer will never be the same again. Similarly on the title track, a relentless glitch of a guitar chord repeats over a drum beat that sounds like it’s trying to break into your house. The band finally breaks the tension with a simple mantra: “Open, open you’re ready now.” These ebbs and flows are embedded in their new approach to songwriting which owes itself to another new variable: a Yamaha P2 upright piano made of walnut. 
 
De Lux’s sound has been built on iconic synths such as the Juno and Dx 7 and while those instruments are still trademarks of their identity, Sean wanted a place to sit without plugging in to write songs he could construct more organically. Playing the piano allowed him to create more emotive performances, playing with the give and take of the piano keys which lead to the new album’s organized mess of often beautiful but dissonant song structures. On the album’s opener, “They Call This Love”, it sounds like the band is announcing a special bulletin report for the upcoming apocalypse. Arpeggiated synths weave through beautiful vocal harmonies behind Sean’s urgent warning to beware of controlling lovers and then drops into an almost EDM like jam only to end with a gentle piano chord progression. Like a glimmering rainbow after a raging storm. 
The piano also reveals Sean at his most vulnerable: there are two shockingly pretty ballady tunes on the LP that feature Sean’s unique style of piano playing and his strange sense of melody and bizarre lyrical subject matter. “Morning Misses Me” is a song as seemingly silly as waking up too late, but it puts goose pimples on your goose pimples, making your eyes wet with its honesty and clarity. It’s a track about trying your hardest to be someone different, but ultimately deciding to accept who you are and always have been. It ends with a question mark of a chord just like the title of the album. 
 
Sean says that the record is filled with questions and not answers, but each riddle is its own answer as pseudo philosophical as that can sound… His lyrics are at once filled with uncertainty and affirmation. The irony is that the grooves are as solid as they’ve ever been and the band is pushing themselves harder than they ever have. Striving to make something danceable and beautiful and important. De Lux matters because they make music to dance to and be inspired by—they exist to ask us the questions we’re often too afraid to move our bodies to. That may sound hyperbolic but their ambitions are not an exaggeration. 
JIMMY EDGAR x SLIP N SLIDE

“Detroit experimentalist and texture king Jimmy Edgar is the kind of producer that opens a doorway in your mind” - BILLBOARD

“evokes a thrilling future of club music without borders”  - PITCHFORK

“One of electronic music's most diverse producers” – MIXMAG     

Announced alongside not one, but two blistering new tracks “SLIP N SLIDE” and “STATIC (FT BANSHEE)”, Jimmy Edgar’s upcoming album LIQUIDS HEAVEN (out on November 11) is a psychedelic canvas of future R&B, euphoric bass, mutant tear-the-club-up rap, foundation-splintering noise, and gossamer soul. On a surface level, it is a starburst of avant-garde fusion, collecting a diverse cast of eccentric geniuses and re-configuring them into an anthology of nü musique concrete. But as with all his work, there is a deeper and subversive intent. Edgar unleashes two mind-melting, genre-bending tracks into the ether, blending funky electronic motifs, futuristic soul, and techno to sublime effect. 

Signed to Warp Records as a teenage electronic music prodigy, Edgar has recorded for the world’s most respected imprints (Warp, K7, Hotflush and his own New Reality Now). Raised in Detroit, with stints in Berlin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York, his list of close collaborators includes Hudson Mohawke, Danny Brown, SOPHIE, DAWN, Mykki Blanco, Vince Staples, and Machinedrum (as one half of their duo J-E-T-S). LIQUIDS HEAVEN’s early gestation spawned from Edgar’s explorations of “material” in the digital world, and is part of his broader ambition to change belief and intention in the digital realm – a pseudo-invisible way to summon novel realities by infusing his ultra-sleek aesthetic into transformative conceptual art. LIQUIDS HEAVEN is the ultimate culmination of the idea of “phases of matter.”

LIQUIDS HEAVEN is not merely a technicolor dream of ethereal abstractions, however. It bangs as hard as anything to ever bump from a subwoofer. But for all the high energy propulsion, there is a counter-balance of melancholic beauty, and in a career of fascinating left-turns, it would be more surprising if LIQUIDS HEAVEN wasn’t surprising. The genius of it is that for all its cerebral intent, it remains replete with raw and visceral emotion. Out of sadness comes courage. Water, liquid, and light evaporate, become transparent, disappear peacefully. Nothing less than the sound and look of liquid are transmuted into powerful new sculptures – which are best experienced at a high volume on the far side of the sky.

Read more at CLASH, LINE OF BEST FIT & XLR8R.