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Al Lover Gears Up to Release Zodiak Versions

The ever talented San Francisco producer and DJ, Al Lover is releasing a new album entitled, Zodiak Versions. He´s one of the best and brightest young mixologists and we´re always pleased to learn when his new music surfaces!

Zodiak Versions - a twelve track LP. The brain behind it, Al Lover, has said it best with his own words: It´s all about the groove! Hiphop, bass, kraut, rave culture, psych, dub, tribal music - it´s all there in Al Lovers universe. But that´s not the main point. Neither is the fact the he´s been compared to artists and producers like J-Dilla, Edan, Sun Araw and Gaslamp Killer. Or that some of his remixes includes artists like Goat and White Fence. The interesting part of Zodiak Versions is the entirety of the album. A fluid listening experience. The samples, looping and editing will make you zone out. Beats and ambient bliss for all the dubbed up heads out there!

Zodiak Versions will be released on vinyl/Digital world wide the27th of November through Höga Nord Rekords (Europe) and The Reverberation Appreciation Society (North America) But is available for pre-order today atshop.hoganord.com

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Toronto band on the rise: Highs

One of Toronto's bands on the rise (it's not an accident that they are on our chart of Top 15 emerging local artists) HIGHS play a rhythmic, bouncy version of ambient pop-rock, inundated with beautiful harmonies and a playful rhythm section. In their debut, self titled EP HIGHS consistently utilizes a high energy, mellow vibe to bring the fun, blending in a soca beat to bring the danceability that can keep a room pulsating. Opening track Summer Dress (streaming) does that to perfection. Third song “Harvest” - on the other hand - introduces a slower beat, a soft atmosphere and a great build, and acts as a pace break between the other faster songs, emphasizing the space and harmonies and functioning as a beautiful centerpiece to the EP. If you're looking to maintain a summertime frame of mind into the upcoming winter, these songs are the perfect soundtrack. - Cody Wright

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Album review: Bloodbirds - MMXIII

(Photo by Todd Zimmer)
 
Twenty-year veterans of the LFK/KC underground music scene, Mike and Brooke Tuley have played with a number of bands familiar to local rock audiences. Best known for their time with Ad Astra Per Aspera, they established Bloodbirds in 2011 with the intent of cutting loose and shaking things up.
 
And they have. Dense, dark—equal parts Fun House (Stooges), Spacemen 3 and Black Angels—Bloodbirds’ newest release MMXIII may also be their swan song, given the departure of bassist Anna St. Louis for Chicago. In some ways, it is St. Louis whose playing defines the band. Forward in the mix, and by no means shy, St. Louis plays with punchy authority, reminding of some of the other great “lead” bass players like Jon Entwistle and Peter Hook. Brooke Tuley is a powerful drummer; her parts are simple, but dead-on. She locks perfectly with St. Louis.  Mike Tuley plays on top of their aggressive foundation, a canvas for his arsenal of shimmering hammer-ons (“Modern Sympathy”), punishing riffs (“Did You Say”), and sometime dulcet tones (the comparatively clean Blue Mask jangle of “Convalesce”). Depending on the song, his sound can be metal harrowing or as ropey, surf-psychedelic as the theme from Repo Man.
 
About those songs: they’re functional, gripping, emotional soundscapes, not necessarily bound by pop hook conventions. They hit you with the shape-shift intensity of vintage heavy rock like Blue Cheer or modern darkness merchants like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Which is to say the focus here is not necessarily on hum-ability. Even allowing for that, it would be nice if the vocals had a dash less delay density and a bit more clarity in the mix. Lyrics and vocals on MMXIII are more about mood than meaning (or mood as meaning), stray lyrics emerging from the driving murk to arrest your conscious mind here and again.
 
The tough thump of “No Trains Coming Through” totally belies the song’s title. With Roky’s manic intensity, the song “Did You Say” features the ominous, repeated line “Did you say you want the end to come right now?” And the music echoes the sentiment. “Round Moon’s” cascade of guitar features some of Tuley’s most expressive fretwork, summoning up the incantations of bands like the Icarus Line and the guitar howl of the Stooges’ Ron Asheton. For an album that emphasizes a certain heavy-osity, MMXIII manages to shift mood and tone effectively.
 
Brothers and sisters, the Bloodbirds can make a show-stopping addition to anybody’s Psych Fest. Live shows may be few and far between, given the departure of St. Louis, but they have reunited in support of MMXIII occasionally and the members remain close friends and open to the odd gig. Go catch them if you have the chance.
 
—Steve Wilson
 

 





The Deli's NYC issue #44 is online!

Deli Readers,

I know, it seems like we put our latest issue out just the other day - but no, we haven't switched to monthly. It's just that the fall in NYC is a busy time for us, and with CMJ week and our NYC Synth Expo (linked to BEMF) coming up, there's a lot to write about.

Here's our 44th issue of The Deli NYC (one of our finest!). Check out cover band Stolen Jars, they'll be performing at one of the (several) Deli CMJ 2015 shows!

READ THE DELI NYC'S 44TH ISSUE HERE!

The Deli's Staff





BOMBÓN X PELIGROSA Is the Dance Record You Need to End Your Summer

Peligrosa, Austin’s premier Latin electronic music collective, has just teamed up with Houston-based collective Bombón to release what is absolutely one of the can’t-be-missed beat records from Texas this year. Now, electronic music collective is a term that probably brings up images of a council of brightly colored rave-outfit bedecked youths sitting about a table in their most regal of kandi jewelry and discussing molly-related group policies (No? Just me?), but in Austin, that concept more often refers to the complex and eclectic crews of veteran electronic producers like Applied Pressure, Feedback Alliance and the legendary Peligrosa.

Peligrosa has been a shining beacon of fun, smart beats in Austin since their birth back in ’07, and just this year they have taken their hard-won production and music-industry acumen to the next logical step by creating Discos Peligrosa, their very own label.

This record, a split aptly titled BOMBÓN X PELIGROSA, is one of the first releases by Discos Peligrosa as a new label, and it features Peligrosa and Latin robot soul mates Bombón taking turns dropping killer tracks one after the other for 7 stellar pieces of future Latin dance music. Both of these groups are all about taking the traditional sounds of Latin instrumentals and song structures (especially beats) and melding and exploding them from their original states into the newtech, future-leaning world. Both crews are on point in their efforts toward this highly commendable endeavor with BOMBÓN X PELIGROSA, which is exciting and dynamic from end to end and is actually scientifically impossible to avoid dancing to (Being Ultra Music Expert Geniuses, we know this to be a fact.).

Of particularly special note on this record are the kick-off track “Chamba” by Bombón and “Santa Marta” from the Peligrosa side of things. “Chamba” comes in with a bit of a hip-hop meets Latin electronica thing, and whose oddly reassuring deep demon vocals anchor the track’s party vibe to somethin’ that’s fun-ly sinister (I get the evil toons from Who Framed Roger Rabbit dancing to it in my head). “Santa Marta,” on the other hand, starts out about as light and chill as a track can with some pan flute bars, but this being Peligrosa, it quickly transitions to some bouncy melodic dance mallet-work (something like a xylophone sounds like) and then to straight-out, nuts-ass electronic wonkiness at 1:11 in. Frankly though, that’s just my particular taste on this record when it comes to best tracks, because there is not a weak one in the bunch here. Slink-beat album-closer “Vientos” with it’s Atlantic City boardwalk in 2060 vibe almost knocked off “Chamba” for my top spot, and the weird warped hedonistic “Me Gusta” is definitely one of the best weed tracks since Madvillain’s “America’s Most Blunted.”

Get up on this thing below and blow your friends minds by dropping some of the most undeniably sick future dance music available in the world at yer next party instead of That Goddamned EDM again, and keep up with Peligrosa at their blog here, which is frequently updated and has some pretty damn decent writing if we do say so. Viva Peligrosa.

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