The desert rockers run through their new album and some old favorites.

Queens of the Stone Age played the Wiltern in Los Angeles last night, running through the entirety of …Like Clockwork along with old favorites ‘No One Knows’, ‘Little Sister’, and ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’.

Watch the show below, via NPR. NPR has been on it this week, also releasing footage of a James Blake concert. The setlist follows. The star-studded …Like Clockwork is due out June 3/4.

It could be ‘New Slaves’, but it could be anything.

Like last Friday, Kanye’s website has been updated with a map of locations in North America, Europe, and Australia. Drilling down shows that projections are scheduled in various cities for tonight, Saturday, and Sunday, and further poking around shows some cities that could have something scheduled in the future.

While Def Jam France’s Twitter account suggests that the projection will be of ‘New Slaves’, it could be anything — considering the source and the subject. [via Consequence of Sound]

The Odd Future affiliates return with another free album.

Jellyfish Mentality is the third effort from Jet Age of Tomorrow, following 2010 debut Voyager and 2011′s increasingly-psychedlic Journey To The 5th Echelon. The group is comprised of The Internet’s Matt Martians and Hal ‘Pyramid Vritra’ Williams.

The free album is a guest-heavy affair, featuring Odd Future family Earl Sweatshirt, Hodgy Beats, Mike G, Domo Genesis, Vince Staples, and Casey Veggies. Kilo Kish, Mac Miller, Jesse Boykins III, and The Step-kids also appear, and interlude ‘Panic on Pluto’ is co-produced with SBTRKT.

Stream Jellfish Mentality below or download it now.

With each passing week, listening to the deluge of mixtapes, radio shows, and live sets from electronic producers and hip-hop artists alike becomes an even more insurmountable task. Quality offerings can fly under the radar, either added to our ever-growing “to listen” list or — more often than not – disregarded all together.

This week’s round-up has something for everyone: entertaining rap tapes from promising newcomers (Travi$ Scott), resurgent veterans (Gangsta Boo), and those somewhere in-between (Chuck Inglish, Dorrough Music, Ballout). As for DJ mixes, Kingdom, Vjuan Allure, and Cosmo Baker run the gamut of club music, house music, and party music. Meanwhile, two acts that couldn’t be any more different — Hype Williams’ Inga Copeland and Atlanta duo FKi — continue to do whatever they damn well please.

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Notoriously convivial Cologne-based techno label, Kompakt Records, turns twenty this year.

Rather than simply releasing a massive best-of boxset, producing a variety of celebratory merch items, and holding a series of birthday rave-ups (actually, they are doing all of these as well), they’ve asked composer, Gregor Schwellenbach, to create an album of classically-inclined arrangements of some of the standout tracks from the label’s back catalogue.

Having trained at Hannover’s prestigious Hochschule für Musik und Theater and studied with composers such as Heiner Goebbels, Michael Nyman, and electronic music pioneer Rüdiger Rüfer, Schwellenbach is steeped in a tradition stretching back centuries. His own compositions have been performed at esteemed international festivals of new music and for a wide variety of national theatres and broadcasters – he’s even written an opera about sugar.

For Gregor Schwellenbach spielt 20 Jahre Kompakt, the Cologne-based composer chose twenty tracks from throughout the history of the label in discussion with DJs, producers, and label heads. For the most part though, Schwellenbach says, “the label let me do whatever I wanted.” It’s a policy that has drawn some of the best talent in electronic music to the German indie: “Treating the artist like a friend.”

For a more detailed view of the process from floor-filler to chamber suite, we went through each track one-by-one – complete with sizeable clips of each for you to sample – discussing the composer’s decisions, techniques, and inspirations.

Jürgen Paape – ‘Triumph’ (1998)

[listen to the original here] 

“I am obsessed with tracing back traditions,” Schwellenbach admits, “That must be one reason why I studied classical music.” So naturally when developing the concept for this album, “I looked for catalogue number KOM1 and found that the label started with a consummately timeless rhythm.

“With a beat as strong as Paape’s, Schwellenbach knew he had to “keep that rhythm as exact as possible.” Instead of sticking to a standard orchestral percussion group, however, he sought to utilise, “all the sounds from the inside body of a Steinway grand piano. I didn’t make elaborate preparations,” he elaborates, “only some strings were dampened by velvet and paper. The rest is simply plucked, scratched, and knocked strings, construction bar, and soundboard.”

Justus Köhncke – ‘Was Ist Musik’ (2002)

[listen to the original here] 

Right from the start, Schwellenbach knew he had to include at least one Justus Köhncke track. “When I moved back to Cologne in 2001,” he explains, “I took seeing him walk down the street in my new neighbourhood as a proof of having chosen the right place to live.” This proved easier said than done. Köhncke, explains Schwellenbach, is “the kind of producer whose tracks often catch you by the sound itself rather than by a melodic hook or a specific bassline.

Finally, he was drawn to ‘Was ist Musik’, for its “Kraftwerk-like melody,” its “universal text,” and perhaps most important of all, the fact that, “it’s got violins in it.” So naturally, the composer adopted a string quartet arrangement, “the perfect instrumentation for this song that lays claim to being a universal statement on music in general.”

Closer Musik – ‘Maria’ (2002)

[listen to the original here] 

It was Wolfgang Voigt who drew Schwellenbach’s attention to ‘Maria’, but the composer, “immediately liked it.” At first, the rhythms and the harmonies of the original suggested “some Steve Reich kind of sound-meshes.” Only at the eleventh hour, just before mastering the record, did Schwellenbach change his mind and decide, “that a very slow piano version might be even more interesting.”

One of the key differences between dance music and ‘concert’ music, Schwellenbach says, is that a contemporary classical composer “wouldn’t dare to try and control the listener’s emotion. His goal is to create music that no one ever heard before,” he explains. “The listener’s emotion seems to be hardly more than a desirable side effect. In contrast a producer of electronic dance music will try to make people dance first of all.”

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Fancy heading to Manchester on June 8-9?

Manchester’s Parklife Weekender is quickly looking like one of those festivals that makes you wish you lived up North. They’ve got a devastating set of artists lined up, from rappers Action Bronson and Joey BadA$$ to producers TNGHT, Julio Bashmore and Martyn all the way through to alt-pop sensation Jessie Ware and ‘Harlem Shake’ man Baauer. FACT were actually asked to co-host a stage, and we’ve roped in Danny Brown, Disclosure, Four Tet, John Talabot, Daphni, AlunaGeorge, Lapalux, Krystal Klear and Cyril Hahn.

Sadly, weekend passes have now sold out, but don’t dispair, FACT have managed to procure a pair of VIP weekend tickets which we’ll be handing out to one lucky reader. If you fancy your chances, just shoot us an email at competitions@thevinylfactory.com, with ‘Parklife VIP’ in the subject field and your name and telephone number in the message body. It’s that simple – we’ll see you there.

For more information on the festival and to purchase tickets head here.

Free Agents is a new feature series where we shine the spotlight on an up-and-coming act who’s yet to have a proper release – at least, not one that we’re aware of, and yes, we know that the phrase “proper release” is a bit of a cloudy one these days – but that we think is onto something special regardless. 

Artist: Sublo
Origin: San Francisco
Style: Grime

Soundscapes is such a naff word, but when it comes to Sublo it seems an appropriate one. Jerel Bromley makes vivid grime music, but it’s not for MCs and we’re not even sure it’s for the club: although his tunes sound good in the mix, they’re more likely to startle dancefloors than than make them dance. On ‘Snow Blind’, drums tumble back over themselves like they’re climbing a hill, frosty arpeggios obscuring their vision, while ‘Miasma’ blends Black Sun-esque detuned synths with rhythms that are mangled to the point of barely being in time. Our pick, though, has to be ‘Realm Freeze’ – when those strings come in, it’s game over. You can stream all three tracks below.

Rap game Spanish inquisition?

Influential New York radio station Hot97 today grilled polarizing rapper RiFF RAFF and asked him the questions many have been wanting to throw his way since he burst onto the scene. Station veteran Ebro, clearly not a fan of the Houston-born rapper’s chosen path, told RiFF RAFF that to him the rapper’s persona was a big problem, saying ”It looks to me like a stereotype of a certain type of black person”.

RiFF RAFF defended himself at length, and without giving too much away about his background (he’s been notably mysterious for some time now) he seemed to eventually get the trio of interviewers at least partially on-side, noting that he represented a desire to “have fun and not have nothing negative around me at all times”.

To be fair the grilling is a little insistant and definitely pushes into mean spirited territory at times, with Ebro basically throwing the same accusation at RiFF RAFF for the interview’s twenty-odd minute duration, but it makes for interesting viewing, and offers discussion on a question many of us have no doubt pondered.

We’ll leave you with this choice quote from RiFF RAFF: “I don’t like being around humans.” – make of that what you will.

On June 15, Soundcrash are bringing a seismic bill of dub-heavy noisemakers to London’s KOKO.

Kevin Martin’s remarkable will perform as The Bug, with Flowdan and Daddy Freddy joining him for the occasion. Bad Company graduate dBridge will up the bpm, and DMZ hero Mala will be on site as well. UK dub legend Mad Professor will round out the bill.

With the show fast approaching, FACT are giving away an assortment of tickets and goodies. The winner will bag group tickets (x5) to the KOKO show, plus two copies of The Bug’s 2008 LP London Zoo and a copy of the ‘Hardcore Lover’ 7″. To be in with a chance of winning, send an email through to competitions@thevinylfactory.com, including your name, telephone number and the words ‘The Bug’ in the title field.

Tickets and further information are available here. A teaser video for the night is available to watch below.