Das Zeitgeist Zimmer, 16.07.12-22.07.12

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Name: Sam Willis
Based: London
Listen: ‘Winterval’
Need to Know: One half of ace ambient techno act Walls

Herder: Much like a good wine, or the proper comprehension of cheesy wanker Alex James’ monumental cockishness, the best minimal techno takes time to flourish. As one half of Kompakt duo Walls, Sam Willis knows that better than anyone. If you liked their album Coracle, released on Kompakt last year, you’ll like this, a prime example of the art of taking things nice and slow. Word.

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Name: Airbird
Based: New York
Listen: ‘Free Mind’
Need to Know: Side project of Joel Ford of Ford & Lopatin renown

Hegel: There sure is a lot of this hazy synth music about the internet, and by a lot I mean a FUCK-TON of it. To top it all off, the vast majority of this hypnagagogic-chillwave-lo-fi-ambient drek is mind-shatteringly tedious, predictable, lazy and incompetent, and it seems to be accumulating at an exponential rate. This stuff is everywhere, and it haunts my dreams. So usually when another bedroom producer named after an ’80s children cartoon pops up I want to go and forcibly shove his MicroKorg up his micro-urethra. The pain is sure to focus his creative energy into something a little less deathly in its laid-back chillaxitude

Of course, there are some very notable exceptions to all this tedium, and Joel Ford is one of them. He’s done some first-rate work with Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never, and Airbird is his equally excellent solo moniker. His ‘Romance Layers’ EP is due for release soon, and in the meantime you can listen to the rather excellent ‘Free Mind’ up above. The track prominently samples Mariah Carey’s ‘Prisoner’ to hook-tastic and lively effect. To put it simply; this one has some real postmodern pep to it. So more bizzaro pop bangers like this please, and fewer tracks that are seven minutes of lo-fi synths incoherently burbling along like a toddler whose just been fed a hefty dose of whiskey.

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Name: Gaslamp Killer
Based: Los Angeles
Listen: ’Flange Face’
Need To Know: Brainfeeder man out of commission since 2010

Hegel: It’s been a while since Gaslamp Killer put out anything. In fact, it’s been a whole two years, which is about 450% more years than is acceptable (you do the maths because I sure can’t). In any case, this tragic drought is about to finally end thanks to the imminent release of his aptly titled debut LP Breakthrough. It is, of course, coming out through Brainfeeder, and is all set to land on September 18.

So that’s got us bloody excited then, because this dark mustachioed beatsmith is one of the finest on Brainfeeder, and that’s saying something. Brilliantly, you can now listen to an excellent cut off the new album up above. ‘Flange Face’ is silly-heavy, more banging then a Large Hadron Collidor, and features some incredibly lush string samples to boot.

No idea what a ‘Flange Face’ is, though. It sounds like a venereal disease that only androids experience. So just be careful, robot people, always be sure to use a fresh USB cable. Better safe than flange-faced.

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