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viewing 1 To 8 of 8 items
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LP
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PLZ 034LP
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In partnership with Arts Council England, London-based record label PLZ Make It Ruins have announced a 40-track compilation of original loops from popular artists across the spectrum of contemporary music. Each track is exactly 1.8 seconds long and has been crafted with the intention of being looped repeatedly, creating a uniquely hypnotic rhythm. The compilation's net proceeds from the release as well as the project's merch package being split between ACLU and Liberty UK -- organizations that fight systemic inequality on both sides of the Atlantic. Among the list of contributors are Blood Orange, Arca, Clairo, 100 gecs, Kenny Beats, Dominic Fike, Four Tet, Floating Points, label head Vegyn, and many more. Artwork for the project comes from Isha Dipika and Travis Brothers. The phenomenon of locked grooves is something that has captured the attention of DJs and record collectors alike for decades; the final note on a record forming a coherent loop as the album comes to a close, creating its own abstract beat. This abstract beat is then used by DJs as a tool to seamlessly blend tracks after the song's final moments. This purpose is the genesis of the idea behind the project, allowing popular artists from all genres of music to give their own take on the formula with a host of different sounds and atmospheres. The project launched today with a one-off special on NTS, hosted by Vegyn, that explores the music of all the project's contributors, as well as including a mix created from all 40 loops on the project. Also features ARTHUR, Buddy Ross, Channel Tres, Daniel Aged, Dijon, Duval Timothy, Eris Drew, HAIM, John Glacier, Kelsey Lu, Kelvin Krash, King Krule, Lauren Alder, Loraine James, Matthew Tavares, Mica Levi, Mk.Gee, Mura Masa, object blue, Octo Octa, Oli XL, Otto, Overmono, Porches, Raveena, Romil Hemnani, Shygirl, Skrillex, tn_490, Yawning Portal, and Zsela.
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Cassette
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PLZ 027CS
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World Greetings is a tongue-in-cheek welcome handshake to the world of commercial music from Otto, while also being a maximalist, unpredictable electronic journey. He's prepping a full album, also due on PLZ, that will contain more "delicate" pop songs, but wanted listeners to meet his most surrealist side first. "It's maybe like the bread basket before the meal," he explains, "but the bread is a deep-fried cheese ball with a fully ignited cheese sauce. Not necessarily a meal, but something to jolt the customer." The EP opens with the immersive, triumphant track "Greeting", before fizzling into life with the off-the-wall production of "Bathroom On The Bus": a high-octane club production that balances light flashes of synth melody with a rubbery bassline. Then there's "About You Now", a melancholic interpretation of the song first recorded by UK girl group the Sugababes, and made famous in the US by kids' TV star, Miranda Cosgrove. In Otto's version, the melody echoes out as if recorded in a deep cavern, while chaotic drum patterns erupt all around it, giving the impression that time is slowing down and speeding up at once. The EP reaches its frenetic peak with "Hiding From the Cops in My Range Rover", a skittering, paranoid track that was inspired by an infamous paparazzi shot of Paris Hilton. "I made 'Hiding From the Cops' very quickly in a common area in a dorm one Friday evening," says Otto. "I made it during a period where I was making mostly drum-focused tracks that I could program solenoids [electromagnets] to play. Also during this time, I would usually try and push the tempo as high as possible, making things uncomfortable but not 'too' uncomfortable."
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PLZ 030LP
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Those voices become even more prominent on Otto's upcoming full-length album, Clam Day, which leans more into his songwriting capabilities. While sprawling, psychedelic tracks like the seven-minute composition "Microplastics In My Bloodstream" and the taut, elastic opener "Sprained My Ankle In Gristedes Juice Aisle" continue to showcase Otto's flair for strange electronic textures, he also provides what feels like a parallel universe pop song with the dreamy "Guess My Crush". Starting life as a song he wrote on the guitar, "Guess My Crush" is "just four sine waves slightly detuned," explains Otto, "which I find really fascinating. It's one of the most low-level simple sounds one could synthesize -- but it gave me this incredibly peaceful feeling and I knew that I had finally found a song or sound that I could use to channel a lot of very specific feelings into." Otto's music may sound playful, but it also reveals his preoccupation with the idea of material (especially electronic) waste, and so a vague sense of decay and dread clings to the fringes of his songs. Imagine the face of a cartoon character staring at you from beneath the translucent sheen of a trash bag -- that's the funny-yet-grim space that Otto's music occupies. "I find it funny and also very troubling that 15-20 years after all of this kids' media, there are still bits and pieces of these obsolete franchises drifting around in the form of cheap plastic shit, now in landfills and contributing to lakes of toxic leachate," he reflects. "It's something I feel pretty stressed out about." That very real anxiety gives Otto's songs a sinister edge: those corporate sprites can often sound like they're taunting you, and soothing tones can shift to something more somber in barely a beat. That discomfort is part of the joy of Otto's strange, bristling music. His songs never make clear exactly how you're meant to feel -- what would be the fun in that?
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PLZ 019LP
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Woof Woof has existed somewhere for a long time, throbbing underneath the surface and masquerading as anything other than the pure energy it is, waiting to be extracted and molded into a form that can be consumed by everyone. With Woof Woof, Arthur beams pure-pop-liminality straight into the world, full of contradictions and twists, confusion and magic. This is an album that thrives in the in-betweens it creates then slips itself into. Decisions that may seem off-kilter or strange to other artists seem effortless to Arthur, pulled from another world, a world hidden to the average listener, hidden maybe for good reason. Woof Woof leaves you wondering from what dimension Arthur crossed over and how you can get there as soon as possible. There is a valley between sound and music that Woof Woof fills in with objects seemingly grabbed at random, from voicemails to dog barks, an uneasy path is created to bridge the divide. There is a maze in Arthur's debut LP and he doesn't care if you make it out in one piece.
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12"
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PLZ 010EP
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With Drekerd -- Testset's three-track sophomore release for PLZ Make it Ruins -- they dig a little deeper into the groove, exploring familiar sonic territory to the well-tempered chaos of debut release Dirge Grid EP (PLZ 005EP, 2015), now with a calibrated urgency that oscillates insistently from deep meaningful space, to the shallowest depths of "Drek". Testset's palette is far-reaching in its enquiry: escalating tessellations disrupt and dissolve; specks and flecks fluctuate in focus; tropes suggest and imply distant dance-music half-memories, both immersive and playful; all with an attention to micro-rhythmic detail that implores physical movement.
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12"
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PLZ 008EP
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"Phone Phoneys" immediately delves into familiar and focused textures, backed by woozy synths, dancing between glitzy euphonious melodies. The drums and rhythm section channel the energy of prior dance classics but still feel eager and are original in their deployment. On the flip side, "PLZ XX" diverts expectations by jumping between several frenetic moods, all whilst maintaining an energetic frivolity found throughout the record as a whole.
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12"
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PLZ 005EP
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Testset imagines a new music which admittedly harks to the rave days and refuses influence from the fickle and vacuous factions of daily internet minutiae. However, the rhythms are reanimated - those pixelated syncopations and tacky 16-bit pads have been feverishly fermenting - and the result is set as a test to others. Testset's sonic fingerprint foregrounds intertwined micro-rhythmic clutter, honed, chiselled, stirred and distilled until they reveal a uniquely independent, tessellating brew - drawing magpie-like pop-cultural tropes from all and sundry. The Testset sound is euphoric sonic pattern-making at its most exquisite - multi-layered, playful and immersive.
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12"
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PLZ 004EP
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Janhui is Vegyn's debut EP and comes via his own PLZ Make It Ruins label. Crack the record open and you'll find the percussive bass-heavy composition of "Cancel Cancel", the functional and fun "Trybl", club experiment "BB", and the astral club banger "Imran" (a collaboration Lydes). These tracks were honed at GÆZ, the club night that Vegyn runs with PLZ producer Ersatz and the label's visual artist Greedy Goons. As well as a catching a 9/10 review score in Mixmag, Vegyn has also recently been featured as a writer and producer on Frank Ocean's Blonde (2016) and Endless (2016).
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