1. Blank Blue – Eyes Closed (Private Stash Version)
2. Kona Triangle – Airlock
3. Roof Light – Cakes, Biscuits and How’s Yer Father
4. Roof Light – Heart Like an Airport Runway
5. Nocow – You Got Me (Digital Bonus)
6. Nocow – Overnight
7. Paula Daunt – Simples Mente
8. Burial – Stolen Dog

Bass · burial · Dubstep · electronica · glitch hop · paula daunt

Techno through a bass music filter.

It’s actually kind of sad that Cosmin TRG’s exploration of genres has been a talking point—can’t an artist, you know, do more than one thing?—but such is life. The Romanian producer was a dubstep/garage dude when he started out back in 2007, hopped over to house for a bit and is now residing in techno country. One by-product of this restlessness is the name Cosmin TRG (or TRG as he was initially known) has adorned many a leading label these past four years—Hessle Audio, [NakedLunch], Tempa, Immerse Records, Hotflush, Hemlock and Rush Hour being merely a selection of them. The latest to put a welcoming arm around him was Modeselektor’s Fifty Weapons. Separat / Izolat, released at the beginning of 2011, signalled Cosmin’s intention to get truly stuck into the tough stuff, while it seemed the dream had been fully realised when it was announced in June that a full-length offering was in the works for Fifty Weapons.

Try as it might Simulat wasn’t quite able to shake off Cosmin’s roaming past—which is exactly what made it so great; RA.277 suffers the same affliction with exactly the same outcome. This is techno but not quite as you know.

What have you been up to recently?

Well, since finishing my album I’ve been playing some nice places, reading some pretentious books, putting together Ikea nightstands. Would love to say I’m working on my German but the truth is that every day I hope I wake up magically speaking it without the actual academic / linguistic effort. That would be grand.

How and where was the mix recorded?

In my living room, on a computer.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

I’ve been trying to put this mix together for the past six months, went through all stages of human emotion, made about a million playlists, tried to think of a very clever concept… It only worked when I woke up one day, played a few tracks together and it sort of clicked. Then it sucked, so I recorded it again. And again. In the end the idea was to put together some tracks that I really like, which convey my favourite sonics, from the past as well as the present. I think this one is as accurate as it gets at the moment.

Now that you’ve had some time to sit with it, how do you feel about what you recorded for the album?

Curiously I’m still very comfortable with it. Out of everything I wrote in the past years, it comes closest to what I want to sound like. The time I spent on it was the best time I ever spent in a studio, and I actually can’t wait to record another one.

You’re famously restless when it comes to genres. Do you see yourself sticking with techno for a while?

I’m restless when it comes to sound in general. I think genres are still too political. In my early days as a producer I’d find myself involuntarily trying to prove something, and I’m well over that now. I think my current format fits my ideas and I’ll stick to it as long as it suits what I’m trying to say. A lot of people are acting patriarchal over genres and it’s not something I’m into. At the same time there’s a thin line between experimenting and inconsistency, one which I skirt with equal amounts of pleasure and caution.

What are you up to next?

Going to turn in a Skudge remix about eight months past its deadline. I’m also happy to have contributed a track on the forthcoming Ann Aimee Inertia compilation. Other than that, a few more things before the end of the year and then taking on 2012 and whatever this will bring.

Download RA.277 Cosmin TRG

via iTunes

via Direct Download

Filesize / 66.44 MB
Length / 00:55:18
RA Podcast XML link / http://www.residentadvisor.net/xml/podcast.xml

Bass · Cosmin TRG · Dubstep · podcast · RA · Resident Advisor · Techno

A rare DJ mix from one of electronic music’s chief practitioners.

Alva Noto is a pseudonym of German sound/visual artist Carsten Nicolai. It’s difficult to bring into focus the breadth of Nicolai’s achievements in the various disciplines he’s been involved with since the early ’90s, but he is perhaps most well-known in music circles as a co-founder of the groundbreaking Raster-Noton imprint, and his collaborative work with Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The pair has proffered several full-length pieces through Raster-Noton in the past decade, and Nicolai has been no less prolific elsewhere, releasing around ten albums over that time period either solo or in tandem with artists like Opiate and fellow Raster-Noton founders Olaf Bender and Frank Bretschneider. As with most things Nicolai turns his hand to, the music of Alva Noto is characterized by fierce experimentation. Wild packs of glitches, tone generators, looped oscillators and communication signals are tamed and assembled into sprawling ambient passages and/or rhythmic explorations, the latest of which, univrs, sees release on October 17th.

On RA.276 Nicolai somehow captures the breadth of the Alva Noto sound world in a 51-miute set that moulds the music of Fennesz, Andy Stott, M.I.A., Steve Reich, Nine Inch Nails, Byetone and Donnacha Costello into a coherent whole.

What have you been up to recently?

I was very busy finishing my album univrs and now I prepare the visual presentation for the live show for the new album. There will be a special video of one track that I want to implement into the live setup. There are two possible live shows, one is a small scale live show with a single projection and the other a live show with a triple projection that I call uniscope version.

I also work on some visual installations for an exhibition in New York at The Pace Gallery on 22nd Street end of September. End of the month I will go to Japan for a small tour with Blixa Bargeld and the 15th anniversary show of raster-noton at Womb in Tokyo. Following a tour in smaller venues across Europe in October and November we will also celebrate raster-noton’s birthday at Berghain in Berlin with an outstanding line-up.

How and where was the mix was recorded?

I recorded the mix in Croatia on an island during my summer holidays.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

In a way it’s kind of an Alva Noto techno-style mix. I occasionally started to DJ a few years ago for specific occasions. Everybody who has joined one of my DJ sets maybe knows that I’m quite dance floor-orientated but with a big variety of style, so it’s not a pure style of classical techno. It’s a mix of contrasts, and the BPM is always very different.

I have to say I was very inspired by visiting Berghain in Berlin. I think I saw a set by Marcel Fengler and I was amazed about how experimental the sound was on the dance floor that night. In a way I wanted as well to explore ideas of experimentation and at the same time being dance floor-orientated.

What is the most interesting difference in electronic music in your mind from when you started until now?

I would say the tools have rapidly changed. You have much more flexibility now. In the beginning when I started using tools in real-time there was hardely anything possible. Now the term ‘real-time’ is not only involved in playing live with music—we have lot of possibilities creating visuals with real time, working with very complex video arrangements in real time. Things you would have needed a huge truck of equipment for in the past can now fit in a backpack.

I think technology has moved really fast. And technology almost disappears because it’s so small. Interfaces become more important, they bridge back to instruments, so the computer is not only a computer. It is just the core and you can build around it and make it more visible instrument as it used to be. I think it is probably a big advantage.

Would you say that over last few years you were no longer afraid of stepping into traditional forms? Why is that so?

I think one of my goals was always to bridge things. To use ideas of transformation, bridging experimental with classical pop elements with new elements, etc. I have never been afraid of confronting experimental and popular music. My new album opens a space for experimentation but there is also a drive to dive into. I like creating a flow rather than breaking everything apart.

What are you up to next?

There are a lot of things like I said in the beginning; the live tour, continuing working on visual installations and objects. At the moment I plan to create some short films again and maybe next year I’ll start working on the xerrox series again.

Download RA.276 Alva Noto

via iTunes

via Direct Download

Filesize / 61.55 MB
Length / 00:51:15
RA Podcast XML link / http://www.residentadvisor.net/xml/podcast.xml

alva noto · RA · Raster Noton

fuck off out (off me nut) 1 minute track compilation by Michael Forshaw

Crazy · London · mad · Michael Forshaw

light years away (128kbps) by VVV

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