Mixtape #139


A seasoned musician with a background in drumming, and membership in rock and pop groups, Antoine Pasqualini began releasing music under his Monolithe Noir moniker in 2013, coinciding with his love for modular synths. The project gives him freedom to push himsef further into uncharted territory and bridge his influences across prog, ambient, electronica, folk, and Italian library music. Later this month he is releasing his third full-length studio album, Rin, a cosmically entrancing and groovy record brought to life as trio. We couldn’t be more stoked to kick off the month with a rad mixtape put together by Antoine. Tune in and zone out.

  1. Slowdive – Rutti [Creation Records]
  2. Roxane Métayer – Mille Pics [Morc Records]
  3. s t a r g a z e*, Greg Saunier – Returning the Screw [Transgressive Records]
  4. Ka Baird – Teaching Lodge of the Arrows [Rvng Intl.]
  5. Rémy Couvez – Dans le Désert
  6. Accident du Travail – La Boule [bruit direct disques]
  7. Roxane Métayer – Plus Brume, Que Lune [Morc Records]
  8. Green Ribbons – The Well Below The Valley [Matière Mémoire]
  9. Thomas De Pourquery & Supersonic – Love in Outer Space [Quark Records]
  10. Monolithe Noir – Balafenn [Capitane Records]
  11. June Chikuma – Broadcast Profanity Delay [Freedom To Spend]
  12. Roméo Poirier – Sarakiniko [Kit Records]

Serengeti set to release surprise album With Greg From Deerhoof tomorrow

Much to our suprise and fortune, Chicago rap experimentalist David Cohn aka Serengeti has revealed he has a new album coming out tomorrow October 29th. The record is a collaboration with Deerhoof’s drummer and composer Greg Saunier and is aptly titled With Greg from Deerhoof. In the summer of 2018, nearly a decade after they first met when Serengeti opened for Deerhoof at a Chicago show, the two were at the PEOPLE residency in Berlin and they both happened to sign up for the same slot in one of the recording studios. With nothing prepared in advance, the pair performed ‘I Got Your Password’ to a small audience, including recording engineer Jonas Verwijnen and a few other musicians. Greg got the audio recording earlier this year and sent it to Serengeti, who decided to make a full-length album. As a superb taster for With Greg From Deerhoof, Serengeti has shared two fine singles, ‘Wasps’ and ‘Première’. Take a listen now.

With Greg From Deerhoof is out on October 29th through Joyful Noise Recordings.

Suuns announce ‘2020’ Remixes, first contributions unveiled

A longtime favourite of ours, Suuns boast excellent musicianship reflected and augmented on live shows. The Montreal based quartet have to date released four excellent albums, including one of our Album Picks of 2016, and a collaborative one with Jerusalem In My Heart which made it to our Album Picks of 2015. Suuns’ second album, Images Du Futur, released in 2013, featured a song called ‘2020’, which according to them, “was a prediction that in the year 2020 we would discover alien life.” The band have further stated:

“Today, living in 2020, the idea of discovering life outside our planet, as huge and as awe-inspiring as that would be, seems almost quaint. There is a sentiment that if we were to discover other life, then it would somehow unify humanity. Witnessing the disparities in our own backyard begs the question as to what we would be unifying around.

This year has not been about looking into outer space, but rather, looking into oneself. This year has further underscored to us the enormous privilege that we enjoy as a band of four white guys—the freedom we enjoy touring around the world with relative ease and security, in stark contrast to the way some of our neighbors live day in and day out, just a few doors down the street. This year, having your head in the stars isn’t going to cut it.

Like it or not, in the future, ‘2020’ will be the song that people remember Suuns by. And the year 2020 will be the year that we didn’t discover aliens, but instead discovered another part of our humanity.”

Suuns have invited other musicians they admire to remix ‘2020’, and will release these digitally on Bandcamp over the next few weeks on a Pay What You Can basis, with all proceeds going to the NAACP. A first instalment has been unveiled and features stellar remix contributions from producer and multidisciplinary artist Kelman Duran; Vive La Void, the solo project of Sanae Yamada (co-founder and keyboard player of Moon Duo); Deerhoof’s drummer and composer Greg Saunier; post-punk musician, producer and Shimmy Disc founder KRAMER, and singer/guitarist Brian Case of FACS and Disappears. For a taste of what’s on offer, here’s the first remix to enjoy, courtesy of Kelman Duran.

s t a r g a z e and Greg Saunier’s Deerhoof Chamber Variations EP out today

s t a r g a z e - Data

Today sees the release of Deerhoof Chamber Variations, the joint EP from Berlin’s instrumental collective s t a r g a z e and Deerhoof’s drummer and composer Greg Saunier. Conceived as a continuous piece of instrumental music, the material was originally written for Deerhoof, and this collaboration saw Saunier arrange and recompose these 9 1/2 song for a classical chamber ensemble. He used “exactly the same notes as in the originals while rearranging the songs structurally, in a kind of miniaturizing and abstracting way”, explains the press release, adding that “s t a r g a z e adapted this new composition to their particular line-up and the musicians’ personal skills”.

Here’s a fantastic taste from the EP, ‘Data’. It comes with a video directed by Robin Coops. Watch it below and grab the EP through Transgressive Records.