From its unforgettable opening “one… two… one-two-three” kick pattern, Kate Simko ’s “Take You There” proves that a few well-placed elements are all it takes to make a minimal-house classic. The Take You There EP is yet another entry into Simko’s growing catalogue of immaculately arranged dance music—light-on-their-feet but dark-of-heart dance tracks whose precise individual elements build upon one another, combining and re-combining into a greater whole. Download the Take You There EP from The Ghostly Store.
The EP closes with “Margie’s Groove,” the standout B-side from last year’s “Gamelan” single (and a favorite of DJs including Guy Gerber, Jamie Jones, Shonky and Dyed Soundorom). “Margie’s Groove” reprises the syncopated, sinewy funk of Simko’s 2008 She Said EP, riding a relentless tribal thump through a field of slinky call-and-response melodies and sharply isolated hand claps.
Here's a free download of "Margie's Groove." Take it home and give it a spin, you'll like it.
“How can you say you’d live without me?,” intones Lerato, the thick-voiced female speaker at the center of “What Did You Say”, Alan Abraham’s new single as Bodycode. As the voice gradually distends and mutates into unrecognizable curliques, Lerato’s final refrain of “our minds and bodies… are all one” floats off into the middle distance—it’s a declaration of sorts, an announcement that the Berlin-based Bodycode has pulled back the whirlwind clicks ‘n cuts of 2006’s The Conservation of Electric Charge to reveal the tight, jacking rhythms and romantic dancefloor universalism of his upcoming second full-length, Immune.
The most striking thing about “Action/Reaction,” the anthemic debut single from Choir of Young Believers’ upcoming full-length This Is for the Whites in Your Eyes, is, appropriately enough, the use of voices. Choir leader Jannis Makrigiannis is blessed with a one-of-a-kind instrument—an elastic, versatile keen that he sprinkles liberally throughout the song. “Action/Reaction”’s loping beat and air of symphonic grandeur may be the first things you notice, but it’s Choir of Young Believers’ namesake vocal polyphony that keeps the goosebumps a-coming.
It’s that time again. Detroit, the city closest to our heart (metaphorical and literal), welcomes its yearly mob of music lovers and makers to the joyful jumble that is the Movement festival, aka DEMF. In addition to sending a few of our own artists to play the festival (including Audion, Lusine, Kate Simko, Seth Troxler, The Sight Below, and Ryan Elliott), we’re also throwing the third installment of our ongoing worldwide 10-year anniversary party on Saturday, May 23rd. Buy advance tickets here, and check out the details below.
GHOSTLY 10: DETROIT
Saturday, May 23rd
Doors at 9pm Magic Stick (4120 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48201)
Featuring live performances by:
Deastro
Michna with Raw Paw
Telefon Tel Aviv
Tycho
Two new Audion tracks have now materialized, and more is soon to come. Audion will be taking his new material on the road this summer with audio/visual accompaniment from Eno Henze, Andreas Fischer, and Audion art director Will Calcutt.
“I Am the Car”: Ten minutes of reverb-submerged bass, microscopic electronic rhumba, and tendrils of dubby, spider-fingered melody. A pitch-black production that grows more sinister and sexy with each passing minute.
“Look at the Moon”: A kicks-and-claps epic that gathers shards of syncopation like dirt and rocks on a rolling snowball. A stair-stepping synth that slices through the mix like a chunky laser. The kid gloves are off.
Audion's upcoming dates:
Berlin Germany. Berghain June 26.
Amsterdam Netherlands. Awakenings Festival June 27.
Dour Belgium. Dour Festival July 16.
Valencia Spain. Barraca. July 4.
London England. Field Day August 1.
WITH MORE TBA
Here's a stream of "Look at the Moon," while we're at it.
“My Cabal,” the third single from School of Seven Bells’Alpinisms, has at its core a rather telling bit of wordplay. The word “cabal”—usually pronounced “kuh-BALL,” meaning a secret, conspiratorial clique not unlike School of Seven Bells themselves—is here pronounced “cable,” like the electronic connector. Appropriately, the song “My Cabal” (download it at The Ghostly Store) reflects that strange conflation of technology and the supernatural, spinning a drum-machine throb, a few chiming guitars, and a My Bloody Valentine-style atmospheric “whoosh” into a sophisticated dream-pop anthem. (Stay tuned for a “My Cabal” video.)
School of Seven Bells are currently traveling ‘cross the country with Black Moth Super Rainbow. Peep the dates here.
Here's a stream of Jesu's remix of "Face to Face on High Places," in which Justin Broadrick re-imagines the Alpinisms standout as an overdriven fever dream, saturating the song with melting-film guitar tones and hard-edged electronic percussion.
Deastro’s Moondagger won’t be out until June 23rd—in the meantime, though, we get another inspirational, space-rocking single from the Detroit boy wonder. “Vermillion Plaza” miniaturizes Moondagger’s best assets and shoots them out of a cannon. Plucky synth arpeggios, end-of-the-world choruses, joyously careening melody lines—it’s all there, squashed into a life-affirming three minutes and 50 seconds. And when Deastro’s Randolph Chabot pleads for contact, singing, “Would you be my son / ‘cause all of mine have died?,” it’s less a cry of self-pity than a salute to the power of human connection.
Recently, Chicago-based photographer/videographer James P. Morse—a longtime friend and collaborator of ours—followed Randolph Chabot (aka Deastro) around Detroit for a day and edited the footage into a video profile whose warm, colorful aesthetic matches Chabot’s energy and positivity to a T. Chabot putters around his Detroit home, visits his favorite bookstore, gushes about Isaac Asimov and Simone de Beauvoir, and plays a sweaty, packed show with his band. It’s a loving portrait of an artist who stays true to his beliefs, staying passionate, engaged, and creative in all of his endeavors.
Deastro’s new single, “Vermillion Plaza” drops May 12th. In the meantime, have a listen to "Parallelogram," from the upcoming Deastro full-length Moondagger, and "Spritle," an insidiously catchy non-album track.
Detroit is the Midwest metropolis closest to our heart, the city where it all began, the cradle of Ghostly civilization. (Well, Ann Arbor really, but you get the idea.) Next month, from May 23rd-25th, the jewel of Michigan is hosting the annual Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF), and we’re showing our hometown pride by sending Audion, Lusine, The Sight Below, Seth Troxler, and Ryan Elliott to shake things down at Movement 2009. Check out DEMF’s full lineup and get tickets here.
And by sheer coincidence (ahem), we’re throwing installment three of our 10th-anniversary spectacular in Detroit on Saturday, May 23rd, featuring live performances from Deastro, Michna with Raw Paw, Telefon Tel Aviv, and Tycho with DJ sets from Mike Servito and Tour Detroit. RSVP at the show’s Facebook event, and pick up advance tickets at The Ghostly Store.
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