★★★★☆

Not quite a spicy melting pot, not quite a slow cooker, Adam Scrimshire’s third LP is bound by the open air. A diarist to a day of road trips, campfire closures, a spot of impromptu partying, and facing forks in the road, his is a free spirit that enjoys taking and taking on a little piece of everything.

The singer-songwriter nudges the cusp of coastally-placed comfort, after nature’s course has lead him to louder climes. Indie pop and trip hop, put into down-looking-up and happy to be jaded categories, would appear to be at Scrimshire’s analogue/organic base, as folk strummings that lead to a hazy, surf’s down air and imagining post-dubstep from afar (“Convergent,” “Siren”) branch out yet stay supportive. It’s here where the album, close-knit in its creations, evolves out of sight, writing out a checklist of places to see and things to do, mixing up male and female vox, linking impassioned performance and above-a-whisper insights.

On Scrimshire travels, a touch of blue grass house on “Corporeal” giving the idea of a travelling band, also telling of the live element his convoy effect. Coming to rest at the cinematic and the ambient though always seems to be the album’s most gratifyingly natural path. Of long and winding wind-beaten roads, “No More” makes a case for audiovisual assignment, and “Kindle a Fire” makes as much sense as an intermission of glowing embers. Pack your bindle and press play.

File under: Morcheeba, Hidden Orchestra, Skeletons

★★★★☆

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, dieting on synth cycles streaming and straining to be first past the finishing line, it’s a rare occasion where you can find a Panda behaving with an upright, inquisitive vivacity as it commutes. The student from the School of Asian and African Studies all the while appreciates house and dance electronics that can run as a compact travelogue from a position on the couch, showing there’s no place like home.

Developing the shades of Lucky Shiner into neon colors that won’t sting your eyeballs, GP’s crafty implementing of international features turn holiday slides 3D; the chimes to “Junk City” bring a vision of Asia without plastering it in Kanji, and the new age traveller “Brazil” just loops a chant as means of sightseeing commentary. Maximalism as altruism, with a supple, soft-sided urgency, takes hustle and bustle in its stride.

From an electronic standpoint, Panda doesn’t go rustic when slipping outside of the bright lights, opting instead to detune indigenous instruments on “We Work Nights” to keep on city slicking. Off the gas, “My Father in Hong Kong 1961″ and the meek tumbler “S950″ see commotion lapse, stepping back to appreciate nuances and finer points of the vista at large. “Flinton” and “Enoshima” allow themselves a little homesickness with neat and precise electronic evocation continuing to show Gold Panda in a bold, assertive light that contrarily, exhibits an understated personality that just wants other to share in his sunshine.

File under: Caribou/Four Tet, Shlohmo, Joy Orbison

2013 is shaping up to be quite an excellent year for Guy Gerber. The Tel Aviv-based DJ/producer has taken on Ibiza with his Wisdom of the Glove Wednesday party at Pacha, and he’s been pushing his sound forward in a big way. Today Gerber dropped a free album — not a DJ mix or EP, an album – on his SoundCloud, and it’s deliriously good. The album features 11 slinky tracks and captures the vibe of his night on the White Isle featuring notable guests like Four Tet, Jamie XX and Mathew Jonson to close friends like dOP, Shaun Reeves and Bill Patrick. Props to Gerber for rewriting the rules for Ibiza and putting the music first and foremost.

Who’s Stalking Who? Tracklist

1. One Arm Man Blues (Intro) 00:31
2. The Night of the Glove 08:56
3. I Never Wandered Where Your Heart Beats 04:02
4. Disorientation (2013 Version) 04:06
5. 25 Stitches 04:54
6. Can I Borrow Your Knife 06:10
7. Sign Of The Times 04:40
8. Who’s Stalking Who? 05:52
9. Chaim- Blue Shadows (GG White Isle Remake) 08:47
10. Irma and Lynda Bang The Drums 05:52
11. Run Herman, Run (Outro) 02:06

Fans of Game of Thrones will know actor Kristian Nairn for his portrayal of the the simple gentle giant Hodor, defender and transporter of young Bran Stark who was paralyzed after…well, never mind…you’ll just have to watch the HBO show or read George RR Martin’s books to find out more. When Nairn isn’t acting, he’s apparently a working and successful DJ/producer/musician in his native Ireland. According to his website, the Belfast-based Nairn “has tread the boards with such acts as Scissor Sisters, Mylo, Calvin Harris and Alphabeat, as well as being part of bands such as AJ Suzuki and Dublin’s very own Daddys Little Princess.” As a producer his website reports that his remixes have been played by Freemasons and Grant Nelson while serving as a resident DJ at one of Ireland’s most popular nightclubs, Kremlin, for over a decade. So Hodar is a DJ. This begs the question: could a Big Shot Guest Mix be on the horizon?

For Throwback Thursday we dial the clock back to 2011, when we talked to M83′s Anthony Gonzalez about his ambitious double album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, which was regarded as one of the best albums of the year. Here we talked to Gonzalez about the ambitious album and how ’90s alt-culture informed the now-classic album.

When you hit play on disc one of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, the new album by M83, you know you’re in for something big. The album’s intro opens with a rising ambiance intercut with an arpeggio of synthesizers. A frail monologue can be heard among the rising action before we hear M83’s mastermind, Anthony Gonzalez, yell out “I carry on!” His voice sounds like it has never before – a commanding lead that wails into the night sky. The rest of that opening track is handled by Zola Jesus whose chilly tenor gives the album a stately and memorable intro. Speaking with Gonzalez about the collaboration, it was apparently a mutual desire to work with each other. “I just wanted to do something with her for a long time. I’m a big fan of her music and for me it was almost obvious I needed her for the album. She was a fan of M83 as well. It was cool. We were both very fond of each other.”

The size of Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a large factor in the listening experience. M83 songs are always aimed skyward but this record also packs in as much lengthwise. At two discs, totaling at a length of 72 minutes, it’s their longest and perhaps best work to date. The inspiration for such a large scale structure came from a few different places, one of them being from ’90s alternative heavyweights, the Smashing Pumpkins. “When I was a kid and I first bought Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, I remember I was so excited about it. I mean I skipped school to be able to go to the record store, and waited in line in the morning and then went back home to listen to the album like ten times in the same day. I was just excited, and I feel my new album is kind of a tribute to this era of music where we used to go to the record store and wait for the album of our favorite band.”

“I feel my new album is kind of a tribute to this era of music where we used to go to the record store and wait for the album of our favorite band.”

Aside from the ballad “Wait” borrowing a little bit of Billy Corgan’s guitar tone from “Thru the Eyes of Ruby,” the Pumpkins influence is more in the vein of size, not sound. Continuing the nostalgia-fest started on Saturdays = Youth, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming relies heavily on 1980’s style production, an age of gated reverb and squeaky clean sonics. “The sound of the ’80s is a big influence. The way they used to mix the albums at the time and the way they used to produce albums was definitely a huge influence on this album. You know sometimes when you listen to an ’80s album and it sounds super clean and bright sounding. We wanted to achieve the same thing in terms of soundscape.”

Helping Gonzalez achieve that sound was one of the unsung heroes of the ’90s and 00s, Justin Meldal-Johnson. Best known for his work as Beck’s bassist, Meldal-Johnson has performed with dozens of seminal artists since the early ’90s such as Air, Goldfrapp, and Tori Amos. Meldal-Johnson came into contact with Gonzalez when he was touring with Nine Inch Nails in 2009.

“Justin is one of the nicest guys on the planet and I felt like because we shared this same vision of music, it was like really easy to work with him, you know, he was flawless. And we never had any issues of communication. We were always getting along very well…He came to me very genuinely, in a very sincere way saying that he wanted to work on this album with me. And I trusted him and am really happy with the results.”

Those results are pretty spectacular. Tracks like “Midnight City,” “Reunion” and “OK Pal” are all mountain sized anthems that pull at the heartstrings and your dancing feet at the same time. Breathy ballads like “Wait” and “Splendor,” the latter which features Brad Laner from Medicine, are lovely dreamscapes that wash over with a heavy euphoric feeling.

While Gonzalez had reportedly set out to make a dark record this time out, he ended up making his most accessible and varied and one that asks the listener to hurry up and join in the fantasy.

★★★★☆

A daring orchestral, regressive vision remix project quite within its right to fly over heads, going beyond the conductor’s baton with rustic chamber house and solemnly threadbare instrumental pieces from the king’s quarters, a band of bewigged players and radicals upholding pomp and ceremony. Scholarly composer Schwellenbach strips back and time travels Kompakt favourites; if you’re not familiar with the source material, it’s an experience to imagine the angular German label taken back to days of yore or tracing its family tree with re-arrangements penned on parchment. Of course, it’s also an extension of the label finding new, gimmick-avoiding ways to rest on the ever prized cutting edge.

With a reputation for audiovisual theatre, wide open spaces let emotions run high from low. Schwellenbach alone with his piano can be a stirringly sparse spectacle, if you’re open minded enough to give these as-one scale-downs time to resonate. Closer Musik’s “Maria” and the pulsating “Departures,” Gui Boratto’s “No Turning Back,” Voigt & Voigt’s “Vision 03″ and Saschienne’s “La Somme” are among those prescribed darkened room solace. Out of the dramatically raw and acoustically taut, Schwellenbach’s attention to detail rouses an equally humbling, firefly mystique, with Jonas Bering’s “Melanie” telling of unrequited love.

Charming in opposition are the lo-fi house trundles playing at a bards-only disco; Oxia’s “Domino” even formulates an ornate euphoria, while Voigt & Voigt’s “Gong Audio” will leave raving playwrights and campanologists parched. A work of art unconcerned whether heads get it.

File under: Michael Mayer, Wolfgang Voigt, Gui Boratto

★★★☆☆

After a compilation and alter ego LP within the last year, Luke Solomon is on the grind again. Whether because he has remixers in support to inspire him, or is just using another album as another mood, Solomon flies free in his dance floor crossings dominated by vocal collaborations. The big room takeovers feature song structured swing and an informal pop preponderance.

Solomon reaches out and away from fixed house and techno conceptions, bearing the lanky, geeky “Not Coming Home” and “Hey Giorgio” blurring back to the disco, as the album also contrasts long with quicker fixes. The husky road-tripper “Gods and Monsters” is a little more predictable with its guitar edge, though it’s suiting to a deep strutting Waifs & Strays remix shows timely backups are in place for any rare missteps. As an aside, Ewan Pearson actually arrives with no original to partner, his mix of “Lonely Dancer” somewhat confusing the remit. A better six stringer is to be found when “Let’s Bleed…” sets off on a big twanger of a riff, on an indie-dance free-for-all spooned from the same melting pot as carnival concern “Say Something.”

In turn, this huddles up with “Heading for a Breakdown” and “We Go” — fresh, Latin-zested runs within a minimal techno appraisal. The same DNA comes together on the more expressly Chicago “Interceptor”, with Solomon’s sound, based around but not confined to the club, consistently interesting by not fitting the bill.

File under: The Digital Kid, Hot Chip, David August

We’re giving away three copies each of Steve Mac’s Mac’s House and Andrea Bertolini’s Progressive House Tools to three lucky Big Shot readers courtesy of Loopmasters.

Enter to win by e-mailing your name by 6pm EST on June 20. No purchase necessary. Good luck!

Did Disclosure fake their live set at Capital FM Summer Ball last weekend? After a photograph of the UK duo’s performance showing the plug for their gear not connected to a power source, some have accused the pair of “pulling a David Guetta” (or faking their set). Disclosure’s Guy Lawrence has vigorously defended himself on Facebook, stating “we didn’t try and make it look like we were mixing. We left the fucking plug on the floor on purpose, didn’t even plug phono leads into the master out, turned all the EQs fully down and the master out AND DIDN’T EVEN TAKE HEADPHONES for god sake!!”

With this accusation Disclosure join Justice and Steve Angello, all of whom have been accused of faking the funk. Meanwhile, Disclosure’s album Settle currently sits atop the UK album charts right now and anyone who knows anything about how pop show operate will know that singers nearly always perform to backing tracks for these types of shows. Lawrence’s full statement is below.

Hello I Love Bass Music and everyone who is talkineang about this photo… so. here is how and why this happened. Capital FM made us do this show with a backing track playing but allowed the vocalists to sing. They said that they had to trigger the tracks themselves to sync visuals. We pleaded with them for weeks and weeks to let us play fully live or at least let us mix but they just weren’t having it. You will also notice this was the same for a lot of the dance acts playing that day (i.e. the duke dumont pic you posted)

It was incredibly frustrating and horrible for us to hear our music at Wembley and not actually be able to play it ourselves, as anyone with any knowledge about disclosure knows that we play fully live seen here… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THeSe3XqObQ AND can mix…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTAhk7FXb-I

Notice also that we didnt try and make it look like we were mixing. We left the fucking plug on the floor on purpose, didnt even plug phono leads into the master out, turned all the EQs fully down and the master out AND DIDNT EVEN TAKE HEADPHONES for god sake!! LOL if at any point we touched the mixer it was…well, you try standing infront of 80,000 people and not touching the mixer… go on… its really hard hahaha!

I would also like to point out that people like David Guetta ect who have also been accused of pretending to mix, actually try and cover it up and pretend to blend tracks into one another and hide it… but with us, we played three songs with vocalists b2b with gaps in between, so even if we had been mixing, there would have been no beat matching involved anyway + we didnt try and hide it at all!!

But yeah it was a very strange experience and one we will not be going through again. Capital have been amazing to us and they play our songs roughly 400 times a week across their various networks and we wanted to thank them for all the support.

Guy x

Image via Facebook