Ex-Crystal Castles drummer Cameron Findlay is currently working under the moniker Kontravoid. The name harks back to a limited run cassette from the 80s – positioning his self-titled LP within a historical period flush with industrial and new wave sounds. 80s English rock serves as an ally on tracks such as “Forgotten” and “Cut to Cleanse”, where rich aerated synths hold focus. Grainy vocals samples, especially prominent on the first two tracks, tinge the album with a dystopic drive.

“Native State” features striking female vocals that sound automated in their commanding intention. The single received colorful collage treatment from artist Felix Kalmenson, who has been tapped to produce videos for Kontravoid in the past.

Vocals other than Findlay’s own provide a nice buffer to his hefty reverberating words – “Silent Visions” and “Expulsions”, in particular, are kept afloat by choir-esque background vocals. “Killed in Action” is easily the most forceful track on the album, showcasing incessant synths that build alongside livid chorus lines. High-pitched female vocals join in to echo the three-word chorus and create a ricocheting effect. The energy encapsulated in this gothic electro album is amazing; it’s a musical vision everyone needs to experience.

If you reside in or around Toronto, be sure to hit up Kontravoid’s LP Release Show at The Cave on March 2nd. Stream the album below and grab your own copy of Kontravoid’s debut album released through Tarantula X Records.

It’s fair to say that the Bristolian house duo Waifs & Strays have just enjoyed an exceptionally good year in 2011, by anyone’s standards. With productions appearing on both the Jamie Jones compiled Fabric 59 and also Matt Tolfrey’s ‘Five Years Of Leftroom,’ appearances behind the decks in some of the world’s top clubs and props from major house players such as Laurent Garnier and DJ T, the duo are making ripples both at home in Bristol and further afar on international shores. Combining a rich and eclectic musical background in Chicago House, and Drum ‘n Bass respectively, Amos Nelson and Rich Beanland have put out a stream of quality tracks on heavyweight stalwarts such as Futureboogie and Get Physical. And by today’s standards, it does not get much bigger than a release on the “label du jour” that is the Lee Foss and Jamie Jones’ own Hot Creations, which the guys notched up with the sexy throbbing stomper “Body Shiver” in November of last year. We caught up with Waifs & Strays on Valentine’s Day, who were able to take the time for a quick chat amidst an increasingly hectic tour schedule to talk 303s and Womack & Womack – here’s how it panned out.

Good evening guys. What’s going on with you at the moment in terms of upcoming releases and gigs?

We are pretty flat out with gigs at the moment, which is amazing. We have been really fortunate how things have panned out and we have been lucky to do some great shows. We are off to Paris this weekend which we are really excited about!

Releasewise, we are just in the finishing stages of EPs for Leftroom, Futureboogie and Hot Creations that will all hopefully come out later this year. We are also working on various remixes and collaborations with other Bristol artists. All in all pretty exciting times ahead.

Amos, we know your musical background is primarily rooted in house- we’re seeing a real resurgence in “grass-roots” house music at the moment, and a lot of producers are revisiting classic 90s sounds- who would you say has had the most profound influence on your music from that era?

The list is pretty endless…there are so many influences and favourites from that era – Todd Terry, Marshall Jefferson, MK, Frankie Knuckles, Sneak, Derrick Carter, Kerri Chandler etc etc. The really cool thing is some of these guys are coming out of retirement and bringing that classic house sound back into the clubs!

Asides from the obvious house music choices, what music or artist would you guys recommend on an afterparty tip for the wee hours of the morning?

Prince always goes down well at a party…there’s never a bad time to play Prince!

Rich, I remember reading somewhere that you would love a “swimming pool full of analogue synthesisers”- do you guys use much hardware in your own productions, and if you could own any synth, which one would it be?

Haha…I don’t remember saying that but sounds about right. To be honest most of what we use is software at the moment. I have a couple of Novation synths but they rarely get used. Don’t think I could choose just one but if money was no issue I’d look for a Tb-303 and a Moog Modular System 55 (the latter would probably cost more than a decent car though!) Some quality hardware is definitely something we are looking at acquiring at the moment.

Which city or club would you guys say has had the most ‘knowledgeable’ clubb-goers that you have played at on your travels so far?

All the cities have a different vibe about them… the really cool thing is when you go to a place where you can lock into what the crowd want and then go off in another direction and they go with you. We have been really lucky that most of the parties we have done recently have been really good like that. The bigger cities tend to have a more clued up crowd, but that doesn’t always mean better.

On a similar note-  we’re really feeling your most recent “We’re Loving” Beatport Chart- asides from this selection, are there any curveballs you guys throw into a set which get a fantastic reaction on the dancefloor?

We like to drop the odd curveball now and again, usually in the form of something classic. The last time we did that was with George Morel’s seminal classic ‘Morels Groove,’ which we played at the Futureboogie 10th Birthday – the place went mental.

Finally, since it’s Valentine’s Day today- any soppy musical guilty pleasures that you wish to confess?

Amos: I am a big Womack and Womack fan…pure love music. Not sure if that is a confession though.

Rich: The Isley Brothers – Voyage to Atlantis is one seriously guilty pleasure of mine…the guitar intro is just so shamelessly “epic love,” perfect.

From the creators of the influential blog Get Off The Coast and fellow collaborators Crash Symbols, comes Decoder Magazine – a publication that is completely dedicated to today’s contemporary culture. The Decoder team have started a Kickstarter to gain some help with their first print issue. These guys are honest-to-god working so hard to bring quality art and music to the public. We’d love to see this mag come to life, so any support would be much appreciated!

“Decoder Magazine is foremost an attempt to interpret a world of culture and media in which the preeminent players have been the newly liberated human and the ambitious constellation of niche communities that new resources have given us digital beings unparalleled access to. Never before have so many human beings had so great a will to curate the universes around themselves or been as well equipped for it. Discussions of good and bad art have, after a long unfashionability, been replaced by tension over the means of popular access, new systems of personal art advocacy, and a growing sense of what exactly drives successful creative communities. We believe that society’s new emphasis on personal curation will grow as more gain access… to the internet, to resources, and to new behaviors. Through selected essays and prose, poetry and interviews, and a variety of multimedia features, Decoder hopes to follow the vein of humans who transcend momentary fashions, creating timeless novelties and monuments to the menagerie of human perception.

Decoder is an outgrowth of Get Off the Coast, a North Carolina music blog that expanded its cast of writers over 2010 and 2011, becoming only one part of a larger, homespun arts collective that also runs tape and vinyl label Crash Symbols and participated in Pitchfork Media’s ensemble music blog project Altered Zones, before it’s dissolution late in 2011. In 2011, the editors and writers at Get Off the Coast concluded that it was important to reconceptualize – the name “get off the coast” was itself a moniker that mostly referenced entirely temporary conditions – and Decoder is the result.

Having said that, thanks so much for reading this far and thanks for your support! Your contribution will go towards offsetting the costs of printing, with the remaining financial support being set aside as seed capital for a much hoped for expansion and a host of other projects we hope to pursue after publication. We’ve set our financial goal a little higher than we wanted to, but we feel like it’s really important that the quality of printing reflect the quality of the magazine’s content, so we want to make sure we can afford to display new artwork and comics in full color.”

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Drake ft. The Weeknd – Crew Love (Shlohmo Remix)

It’s no secret that Shlohmo has been consistently putting out outstanding remixes as of late. He’s got another one for us to add into our sound libraries. It’s his bass reinterpretation of Drake and The Weeknd’s, “Crew Love”. Shlohmo lays down the gutted bass pattern that drifts back and forth under the impeccable R&B poetry of Drake and The Weeknd. Its a trifecta of minds that meet resoundingly on the same level of worlds. Yet another brilliant remix from the man.

Evelyn Mason and Jeremiah Klein make up the Vacouver-based R&B experiment, Evy Jane. Their soon to be released 12″ on King Deluxe features two originally composed recordings and two reworks of each the numbers.

The EP’s title track finds itself nestled into a sub-terrain of Evelyn’s mind-bending precision to effortlessly lay her words on gallantly gaping floating rhythm provided by the kinetics of Mr.Klein. ‘SAYSO’ also gets remix treatment from Taal Mala which is featured last on the release.

The second track, ‘Ohso’, is an electrifying paradigm of just how gripping and exciting this duo’s collaboration really is. Again, Ms. Evy Jane passionately echoes her vocals over a bang-filled dubby beat that is ever so clear and concise. Max Ulis turns up the bpm on the original to fabricate a fine timed remix, which is also featured on the EP. Pre-order the release over here and stream it below on the label’s bandcamp. Also, check out the beautifully rendered music video for ‘SAYSO’…

This mix is my own personal way of completely escaping from the darkness and loneliness of the bitter winter season. It’s a small collection of hidden gems that were meticulously picked from way up above…

I recommend listening with a decent pair of headphones and a nice hot cup of green tea.

* Featuring an exclusive song from Ricky Eat Acid.

Tracklist:
1. Foxes in Fiction & Ra Cailum- “Residential Architecture” (0:00)
2. Josh St. Denis- “One, Two” (4:08)
3. The Bilinda Butchers- “Secrets” (8:04)
4. Keith Freund- “Mont Boron” (13:39)
5. Ricky Eat Acid- “Fuck Other People” (14:46)*
6. Sad Souls- “Meandering” (18:32)
7. Pirates of The Caribbean II & III- ” Winter Kiss” (22:04)

Cover Photography by Brian Vu
Cover Design by Warren Hildebrand

The seemingly unstoppable (and fairly young) creative-mind, Stewart Howard (dubbed Lapalux), has carried his creative beat music through several channels of vocal cuts and percussive ambiance. His latest work, When You’re Gone, surfaced earlier this week on West Coast sultry-bass label Brainfeeder. The EP is nothing shy of what we expected: lush textures, earthy atmospheres, and innovative, cerebral synthesis. Our pick of the litter, ‘Moments,’ featuring the lovely PY, eludes to the producer’s more subdued side.

A classically trained, eccentrically expressive musician, visualist, and producer; Ari Balouzian joins the Rebel catalog with an exquisitely cut, four-piece EP.

LA-based Cliff Dweller, a sonic and visual project by Ari Balouzian and friends, announces the release of their Perch Verdad EP on Rebel. Combining analog and digital, art and music, and organic and electronic, the five-track EP–including a remix from hotly tipped Baltimore beatmaker Ricky Eat Acid–truly fuses the best of both creative worlds for the aesthetically-minded listener.

A classically trained violist, multi instrumentalist and music producer, Balouzian isn’t shy of incorporating his wide spectrum of influences into a Cliff Dweller output that is all at once warm and melancholy. With the entire EP totaling just over ten minutes, each track seems much like a vignette of sound, rich with emotion and the nostalgia of analog influence. Included in Cliff Dweller’s four original mixes are accordions, piano, funky basslines, claps, vocal layering and plenty of rich elements one can’t immediately identify — which is a testament to the mastery of sonic trickery this project has up its sleeve.

Ricky Eat Acid, though hailing from the opposite coast as Cliff Dweller, provides a fitting complement to the package in his remix of the title track. The mix sees a strip-down the original’s moody elements and building on them with a more commanding beat, electronic plinks making for a contemporary yet reminiscent take on a release already full of brilliant duality.

Head over to the official release page to view the exclusive digital artbooklet.

Although A. Chal. is currently working on an original project titled Ballroom Riots, he’s still racking up attention with side projects aplenty. A distilled cut of Chal’s wide-ranging influences form the foundation of “Gotham Mix1.” You might be skeptical about a mix that clocks in just under 4 minutes, but time says nothing about its staying power. Light symphonic electro keys open up the mix before the tone plunges headlong towards a reverberating bass hook. Excerpts from the likes of Korn, Biggie, and even Vincent Gallo’s film Buffalo ’66 are impeccably placed throughout and serve as points of transition. As always, A. Chal’s visuals serve to elevate the status of his work. Get lost in a flash of fluorescent lights and his underground alabaster lair. You can grab a free download of “Gotham Mix1″ via A. Chal’s soundcloud page.

Ghostly International poly-talent Zachary Saginaw, known to the music world as Shigeto, has just released a new mini-LP entitled Lineage. The eight instrumental songs on Lineage oscillate across a wide variety of musical styles spanning the past 50 years, including hip-hip, jazz and folk music. Shigeto brings all these elements together using his sharp producer skills to create a warm, deeply personal and constantly engaging collection of songs.

With a name like Lineage and considering that both of Saginaw’s producer aliases (Shigeto, Frank Omura) are reference to family names, it’s no surprise that the artwork and songs here are both rooted in Saginaw’s family history and Japanese heritage:

“The front cover includes a photo of Shigeto’s great grandfather’s house from 1916 in Hiroshima, Japan. The back cover includes a photo of his great grandfather, Shigeto Ohmura, at the Amache Internment Camp in Grenada, Colorado after his family was transfered from Tule Lake Internment Camp. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declaration of war against Japan many Americans believed that the Japanese-Americans were spies or traitors. Thus, why Shigeto’s grandfather and other family members ended up in these camps. Layout, text and additional design created by Michael Cina.” – Ghostly.com

Stream all of Lineage below or pick up a limited edition vinyl copy from the Ghostly Store.