Brainfeeder Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 16 Items

Jaga Jazzist have gone back to basics on their new LP Pyramid … well, as back to basics as an eight-piece instrumental prog-jazz ensemble can go. Eschewing the studio tinkering which characterised their previous LP Starfire (2015), Jaga Jazzist wrote and recorded the four lengthy opuses of Pyramid in a fortnight. This approach has helped them to make a more immediate and driven record, one that combines their typical sonic adventurousness with some of the most potent grooves of any Jaga Jazzist LP.

The spontaneous approach to writing is most apparent in the work of Pyramid’s rhythm section. ‘The Shrine’ is named after Fela Kuti’s legendary venue in Lagos, and the track certainly lives up to this association with some limber, Tony Allen-inspired drumming. ‘Apex’ has a cosmic disco flavour which channels Jaga Jazzist’s former remixer Todd Terje, ‘Spiral Era’s nimble lilt combines both half- and double-time, and there is an urgent stomp which underpins the second half of epic opener ‘Tomita’.

Atop these polyrhythms, the other members of Jaga Jazzist show themselves once more to be instrumentalists of the highest order. There is certainly plenty of Kuti’s legendary Africa 70 to the aforementioned ‘The Shrine’, but this track is also played with the panache and thrust of fellow post-jazz crews The Comet Is Coming and The Physics House Band. One also detects the influences of both library music, space rock and Plaid on ‘Spiral Era’ and ‘Tomita’, tracks which also balance technical pizzazz with the deft compositions of bandleader Lars Horntveth.

Norwegians Jaga Jazzist channel post-rock, jazz, prog, disco, Afrobeat and many other styles to paint new sonic landscapes on their latest full-length Pyramid.

Following the release of “Joined Ends” in 2014 – a deeply intimate and textured project he describes as his “chamber music” record – Dorian Concept performed everywhere from Glastonbury to Sonar to MoMA PS1’s Warm Up and then deliberately took himself off the radar. The time since has been spent meticulously un-learning his prodigious production process and developing a brand new sound that even the most clued-up won’t be expecting – showcased on ‘Promises’, in the most prominent use of his voice to date. The recording and processing of his vocals represent not only a more human expression of his highly technical sound, but also an inclination toward recursion – the challenge, ephemerality, and demand for attention of “unequal repetition” which shapes the build and deconstruction of energy throughout the record.

Taking inspiration from multi-generational eclecticism (‘60s jazz, ‘70s fusion, ‘80s neo prog-rock, ‘90s electronica), Dorian Concept sought to replicate “modern” music elements with old-fashioned methods, live-playing and hand-recording deceptively digital sounds in service of a tongue-in-cheek “parody of nostalgia”. Having produced the record largely in the years 2016 and 2017 – widely characterized as periods of a cultural reckoning throughout the democratic world – he ambitiously took timely themes of cumulative error, shortening attention spans and subjective experience and transposed them into his making. As is to be expected from him by now, for all the considered, high-concept musing, the result is refreshingly unpretentious: dizzying swells, cacophonous breakdowns and formidable rhythms are both expert and childlike, hyperactive and hyper-focused.

Born Oliver Thomas Johnson, the self-taught keyboardist and producer should be no stranger to those in the Brainfeeder orbit. He first caught the attention of the crew in its infancy, when head honcho Flying Lotus discovered Dorian Concept’s MySpace profile and swiftly included a remix in his lauded debut Essential Mix (2008). Dorian Concept went on to tour with FlyLo’s live band, appeared at some of Brainfeeder’s earliest international label nights in 2009 (Off-Sonar in Barcelona and the infamous Hearn Street Car Park session in London), and released a string of celebrated EPs and albums for Kindred Spirits imprint Nod Navigators, Affine and Ninja Tune – as well as remixing Taylor McFerrin, contributing production to Thundercat’s “The Golden Age of Apocalypse” and playing keys on Flying Lotus’ seminal “Cosmogramma”.

Blending synth-driven avant garde compositions and thunderous drum programming, the album sonics owe as much to modern R&B icons like Frank Ocean and The Weeknd as they do to legendary composers such as David Axelrod, Tangerine Dream and the sadly recently-departed Vangelis or contemporary breakbeat aficionados such as Sully and Jlin.

“I’m split between thinking about what makes spacey synth driven music production work, what makes rap and UK jungle work, and what makes pop and R&B work,” explains Kuedo. “I found myself turning more to what I just enjoy listening to, or to what’s really endured through history, even if it’s new to me. I realised that old music can speak to the current moment as well or better than new music. Particularly in terms of ecological, planetary anxieties, and hopes too”.

Jameszoo (Mitchel van Dinther) returns to Brainfeeder with a new album – “Blind” – embarking on further adventures on the fringes of jazz and electronica. Imbued with the same spirit of adventure and experimental outlook as his previous work on the label, the recordings were shaped by van Dinther’s studio sessions at Willem Twee Studios – the specialist analogue studio in Den Bosch (Netherlands) with an unrivalled collection of vintage synthesizers – amongst other locations.

“In music and other arts there is a heavy emphasis on the artist,” says Mitchel. “Which composer, which soloist, which performer and the shifting emphasis between them all colours what we hear. Is it possible to create something that bypasses this? A project that forces active objective listening?”

These were the questions that Mitchel was pondering as he embarked on making “Blind”. Was he successful in his endeavour? “I didn’t even come close to be completely honest,” he laughs. “But all these (sometimes silly) attempts became the backbone for this new album.”

Limited edition for Black Friday Record Store Day 2021!

Ross From Friends—AKA British producer Felix Clary Weatherall—returns with ‘Tread’, his keenly anticipated new album, due for release on 22nd October via Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint.

On ‘Tread’ Ross From Friends dials up the intricate and emotive qualities of his production style that have previously led Mixmag to praise his “idiosyncratic dexterity that not only makes your heart ache, but dance right out of your chest”. An artist who demonstrates an ever-increasing mastery of his craft, ‘Tread’ is a record that is at once sleek and melodic but also eminently danceable, nostalgic but brilliantly modern, with nods to sounds and styles that are not so much reflected but refracted and recontextualised through Clary Weatherall’s lens.

Lead single “The Daisy” exemplifies the spirit of the album. A bewitching club track that skips out of the speakers, the peppy 2-step drums cosying up to swollen pads that tug on your heart strings. Drawing its name from one of the opening steps in solving the classic Rubik’s Cube puzzle, the single also comes alongside a video which peers into the world of competitive speed-cubing. Directed by Rudá Santos and commissioned as part of Crack Magazine’s ‘Three Minutes’ program, the video also features a cameo from Felix as a speed-cubing competition judge.

It follows his highly acclaimed 2018 debut album ‘Family Portrait’—named one of the best of the year by Crack Magazine, Mixmag, NME and AV Club with further support from the likes of Rolling Stone, The Observer, The Wire, Resident Advisor and many more—and subsequent ‘Epiphany’ single on Brainfeeder, both of which were dedicated to and inspired in part by his parents and sister respectively.

Just as unique as the music on ‘Tread’ is the manner in which it came about. Frustrated by the friction to the creative process that arises when recording hardware and instruments through a computer—the constant need to start and stop recording, saving and cataloguing everything as you go—Felix decided to write and build his own piece of software. The resulting plugin—named “Thresho” and available via Ableton’s Max For Live platform—starts recording once the audio hits a user-defined threshold, then stops once it goes below that threshold, automatically saving and indexing the resulting clips alongside timestamps.

Leaving “Thresho” running in the background, Felix now found himself able to stay fully in the moment while jamming with his instruments, free to go with ideas as they happened, safe in the knowledge that nothing would be lost, or need replaying or recapturing. This revelation in how he approached the production and writing on ‘Tread’ meant he spent the first six months just experimenting with his hardware, not actually committing to any music, but with “Thresho” quietly recording everything he was doing, each session leaving its mark on an ever expanding library of his own samples. When he later came to composing the album, he was then able to draw on specific moments, either recalling the exact date or time he had made a recording, or simply browsing the now vast audio library of his own making. "Sometimes a whole tune could come from an idea within a recording or sometimes I’d just dump a random recording into an existing project and see what happens," he explains.

At the same time as writing ‘Tread’ there were also huge shifts taking place in the world outside of music. Finding himself confined over lockdown to a small stretch of the Old Kent Road in London—an area between his studio and his house that he would traverse each day—Felix discovered this was the same neighbourhood in which his Nan had worked in a sweet shop many years before, and where his Dad had attended various parties and squats in his heyday. As he wrote the record, he spent a lot of time reflecting on his own life around this area: the parties he’d go to, different friends, relationships, houses he's lived in and made tunes in. "In my mind it chronologically tied itself to the tunes I was listening to across that period too,” he explains. “How things have changed over the past 10 years in South London can be mapped with the type of music I was listening to throughout various stages of living here. I’ve basically honoured all of these musical touchstones across the album, thinking about how those memories and the tunes attached have been etched into a permanent chronology that’s completely personal to me."

This new way of working alongside Felix's inner reflections are inextricably intertwined. “I’ve amassed all of these memories from a time spent just messing around in South London, as with ‘Thresho’, I’ve amassed all of these recordings from sitting around and experimenting musically," he says. “'Tread’ refers to the marks that I’ve been permanently leaving, both in my memories and throughout the process using ‘Thresho’”.

With ‘Thresho’ being so integral to the album Felix has also made the decision to share this vast bank of recordings that were the foundations of ‘Tread’ and in doing so, offer up a peek behind the scenes at the creative process of one electronic music’s most individual and compelling voices. To be released soon, fans will be invited to explore this resource and share their interpretations, versions, iterations and interactions.

On 11 October 2010, Brainfeeder released the debut album by a 23 year old ex-skater, painter and music producer from Chino Hills called Teebs (real name Mtendere Mandowa). The title 'Ardour' means great enthusiasm, love or passion and was a fitting descriptor for his inherently warm, lushly textured beats. It’s an undisputed classic in the Brainfeeder canon and more widely considered an essential chapter in the ever-evolving puzzle of the global “beat scene”.

Brainfeeder and Teebs are celebrating the 10th anniversary with a limited special edition reissue of this landmark record. Pressed on deep pink 2LP and housed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve with artwork by Teebs himself, the new edition features six previously unreleased bonus tracks.

With roots at the ‘My Hollow Drum’ collective, Dublab and Low End Theory, Teebs has been a staple in Los Angeles music. “My creative family in LA is so important,” he explains. “It’s a part of who I am when I step outside and how others in LA view me. I love the feeling of community and trying to understand how I can be useful in it.”

Following 'Ardour' (2010), Teebs released 'Collections' (2011), 'Estara' (2014) and, after a 5 year hiatus, his most recent album 'Anicca' in 2019, with the help of a host of musical friends including Panda Bear (Animal Collective), Sudan Archives, Ringgo Ancheta aka MNDSGN, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Anna Wise. Universally acclaimed, Pitchfork gave 'Anicca' a glowing 7.8 review hailing Mandowa’s “effortless, shape-shifting tracks that make time stand still.” Meanwhile, FADER described the record as “deeply atmospheric... cool-headed and uncanny.”

Celebrating ten years of Brainfeeder Records. 4 x 12” LPs in 3mm spined sleeves with printed inners housed in a rigid board box with outer slipcase featuring “Brainfeeder X” laser die cut logo, spot gloss details and obi-style band. Artwork by Charles Munka. Includes MP3 download code.

2LP 180g heavyweight solid blue vinyl in printed inner sleeves housed in a 5mm spined sleeve with emboss and spot gloss detailing. Artwork by Marielle Tepper. MP3 download code included.

Lapalux releases his third album, “Ruinism”, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. His previous LP, “Lustmore” was partially inspired by the concept of hypnagogia, a suspension of consciousness occurring between wakefulness and sleep. Throughout “Ruinism” the British producer takes this exploration further, journeying onward to the more ominous limbo space between life and death. In this liminal space where the finite and infinite intermingle, Lapalux sounds more at home than ever.

Limited edition on blue vinyl.

Lapalux releases his third album, “Ruinism”, on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. His previous LP, “Lustmore” was partially inspired by the concept of hypnagogia, a suspension of consciousness occurring between wakefulness and sleep. Throughout “Ruinism” the British producer takes this exploration further, journeying onward to the more ominous limbo space between life and death. In this liminal space where the finite and infinite intermingle, Lapalux sounds more at home than ever.