mica_luv_49sec

DJ Chou Chou takes us for a one hour haunting winter tale.


Collerette w/ DJ Chou Chou (23/01/24)

LAVURN is the debut self-titled album from Lavurn Lee, a singer, songwriter, producer, performer and DJ from the inner suburbs of Toronto. He has also lived and worked in Sydney, Hong Kong and Berlin. His music is an emotionally complex assemblage of processed vocals, filtered pads, surgically programmed drums, haunting melodic fragments and hazy textures. This 13 track album of sparse, emotive and experimental R&B is his second for SUMAC and his first under his own name, following a previous record under the name Fake in 2018. Lavurn was made over three years between Toronto, Berlin and Hong Kong in close dialogue with SUMAC founders DJ Plead and T.Morimoto.

Previously, as Cassius Select, he has established himself as a unique voice in dance music, releasing on cult labels such as Unknown to the Unknown, Accidental Jnr, Hypercolour, Banoffee Pies, Raw Basics and Bruk Records. His side projects include collaborations with vocalists such as VV Pete and Daemon, his previous experimental R&B aliases Guerre and Fake, and BV (alongside Marcus Whale and DJ Plead).


THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS ON THE MAKING OF LAVURN

“I’m trying to make pop music. Not in the industry sense, but in the way that everyone is making their own type of pop music. It wants to be listenable, so it can create emotions. I come from bedroom song writing in the age of the internet. The lyrical content and sounds reflect my demeanor. Big ego with low sense of self-worth. Constantly posturing. At once both strong and weak. I don’t always trust my abilities. I don’t have the voice to produce contemporary radio R&B. I don’t do traditional harmonies, mine are all over the place.

It's the first time I'm writing about my own life in a literal sense. I spent years writing love songs having never been in a relationship. Whereas this feels very raw as a reflection of my experiences. To me the album sounds insular because it was made that way, in isolation. The vocals are used in a sampled way. A chorus for one track might be chopped and turned into another hook. A verse for one song is half timed and used for the chorus of another. Auto-Tune is used heavily. Some tracks are ‘written’ by pulling different beats, textures and vocals from different tracks and seeing what fits together. I tried to take self-sampling further and further. I was thinking of ways to world-build.

Most of the lyrical content on the album is about dealing with a breakup. But the album doesn’t reflect a break-up because it’s completely one sided. It doesn’t reflect the reality that I was an awful person during the relationship. Really it's an inward study of a reaction to rejection. It’s ambivalent. The attitude is “hey imma do me and improve myself”, while also desperately wanting someone back (for all the wrong reasons). There’s a veneer of self-improvement and healing. But it’s all performance. I used to think all the songs had a kind of toxic intent because of this. Trying to impress someone in a way that would make them want to return to you. In retrospect I understand the songs differently. They’re not perfect. A bit confused in their vulnerability. Maybe quite sweet in a way. I think it’s healthy for me to see the lyrics on the album as directed at myself. It’s an album about self-love. I learnt that making music can be a kind of self-care.” 
credits
released February 16, 2024

Written, recorded, produced and mixed by Lavurn Lee
Mastered by T.Morimoto
Photography by DJ Plead

LAVURN - STILL

spectrababy

Type: EP
Format: Digital
Releasedate: November 11th 2024
Cat. number: SLA23
Artwork: Maria Chiara Moro

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Money Lang — 'Godsend'

@user-785062598
@fomo-pr

"This fall (15th of November), Danish artist Sortblod is releasing his debut album ‘Nye sange’ ('New songs'), consisting of 5 songs with lyrics (in Danish) and vocals, and 5 instrumental compositions. The songs oscillate between themes of love and care, while also attempting to understand various forms of despair and their origins. Amid a collage of sounds, including ceramic keyboards, acoustic guitars, sine wave synths, and homemade beats, the listener is often guided by a present and bright vocal. Through these intimate tones, the album explores how the cute and lingering might soften some of the harsher aspects of society.

The instrumental part of the album is, amongst many other things, inspired by Ohio-based sound genius Galen Tipton, ambient legend Pauline Oliveros, and a general TikTok-paced stream of consciousness. On the album it is often the contrast between the fast and the slow that seems to emerge to the surface, commenting on our consumer society and asking questions about how to create an alternative way of thinking and being."



premiere: Sortblod - Sharing Is Caring [self-release]

Monthly hub for club geographies, place-specific constructions, architectural musics and the production of sonic space and scale. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/astral-plane/episodes/astral-plane-16th-november-2024

Topias w/ Gabriel Meier 161124

“The funny thing is.. life in that place wasn’t like it is here. It took me a few days to realize, but that place went by different rules. There, the dog were in charge. People wrestled animals, and animals were people.” Kinds of Kindness (2024)

Tracklist:

1. Prison Religion - MFTIRED
2. S280F - 132 DRONE - ALL I KNOW FT SNOWY (S280F EDIT)
3. Holy Similaun - 12,694 m/s
4. La Festa delle Rane - Sogno di Una Cosa
5. Amelie Siba - Warm Burning Cheeks
6. Flatsound - if you love, come clean
7. Martyna Basta - Speechless Lately
8. LOG - LOG 5
9. SY/N - Unaltered by anything that ever had or ever will
10. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Gallery
11. Heith - The hermit
12. Cryptopsy - Slit Your Guts
13. WEȽ∝KER - Olie
14. Westside Gunn - Allah Sent Me feat. Benny the Butcher & Conway the Machine
15. Distanti - Geloso
16. A Flower Kollapsed - Poisoned Tissue
17. Exhibit - Fortuita Ecdisi

MIXTAPE N.12

Holy Similaun x Neanche Per Sogno

Tracklist_Take_Me_Over
Heaven’s Chair - i asked the universe and it sent it to me Stone - glyph
Burial - nyc
Toriel - i can’t let go. (twerknation28 edit)
Dj kastel - 2 u edit
Headlock - love obscene
Rabit & Myth - lonely backseat love

take me over — vincent

MPE-2

katharsis is a label founded by @jjjacob focusing on the purification and purgation of emotions through music.

contact: jacobfosgrau@gmail.com