Newly signed to Friends of Friends, and member of the exploratory online producer collective 6BIT, Dreams has just relocated to New York and dropped this new track as part of FoF's sampler of what's in store for 2013, Show Me The Future. While his album last year for Astro Nautico was treading similar bass-driven, dystopic territory to Kingdom and Nguzunguzu, "IN2U" draws more on 2-step rhythms and that genre's sense of lovelorn romanticism.
Couldn't resist sharing this remix of Lol Boys' endlessly replay-able "Changes" from always on-form UK Garage veteran Todd Edwards. Honestly I've been waiting for this to drop ever since I heard about it ~6 weeks ago, listen and enjoy.
In anticipation of the second album from LA beatmaker Groundislava, real name Jasper Patteron-- entitled Feel Me and due to be released August 28 on Friends of Friends-- we've asked him to compile five videos that inspired the upcoming album. Only two of the videos he selected for us is musical, with the rest pointing to Patterson's hyper-contemporary mix of extra-musical influences, such as video games and Korean BBQ restaurants.
Feel Me is excellent and a leap forward from the hazy hip-hop instrumentals and 8-bit influence of his debut, instead offering a more mature palette that veers between 80s nostalgia interventions and liquid downtempo ooze that recalls something like The-Drum. As a teaser for the album, have a listen to album track "Cool Party", which dropped on soundcloud today:
And the 5 videos:
"A clip from one of my favorite games, Dark Souls. This game is ridiculously hard, almost unfair, but it's part of what makes it so much fun. It also happens to be one of the most atmospheric and surreal experiences across all mediums. You always feel incredibly alone in this game, and the world is mysterious and hard to grasp. I was playing this in the middle of the production phase of Feel Me and I think it definitely influenced a few of the tracks."
"I've spent a lot of time this past year watching videos of people making live house and techno using synced drum machines and synths-- AKA the old fashion way. I've started to do it a bit on my own (with a little less gear haha). I really enjoy interacting with the different instruments/machines, turning knobs and manipulating sliders and switches. I've probably recorded like 10-15 demos of this kind of stuff in the past few months."
"I spend a lot of time at Korean bars, restaurants, shops and cafes. My love for the culture started with the BBQ though. There's all sorts of amazing meats... pork belly and baby octupus and innards and shit. It has to have had some sort of impact on me musically, I'm soaking up the Korean culture of Los Angeles so often."
"I'm all about the Yakuza series. I never played 1 or 2 but I've been obsessed since 3. They aren't even really great games per se, they're just loaded with so much bizarre content and writing, funny shit, and convoluted crime drama tales. I've always got one game I'm slowly chipping away at. It's on my mind when I'm doing other shit too."
Enjoying this latest vid from LA beatmaker Groundislava, which hones in on a particular technological ground-zero moment with its over-saturated footage of CD-ROM manufacturing. The aptly named "TV Dream" is spectral and woozy in its understated way, repurposing a synth-heavy richness towards a bright-eyed temporally-ambiguous utopia.
