Yesterday, Hardly Art posted the first song to be released from the Dutchess & the Duke's forthcoming sophomore album, Sunset / Sunrise. It's called "Hands," and it's slower than some of their "campfire-punk" numbers, but with a bigger, broader electric guitar sound and smart touches of organ and percussion. It's dark, dimly lit stuff, and it's good (full disclosure: the D&D hasn't always done it for me, but this track seems pretty promising). Here it is:

The Dutchess & the Duke - "Hands"

This track by Seattle techno/IDM producer/DJ Jerry Abstract is tentatively set to come out on a compilation titled Still Illin’ from the resuscitated (one hopes) Miami label Schematic. It’s a gradually intensifying suspense-builder of a track—a nice combo of the intricate beat science and textural gnarliness for which Schematic has remained unjustly obscure, except among the staunchest IDM freaks.

Jerry Abstract performs at Decibel fest Sun. Sept. 27.

A few weeks ago I got an email from a Chicago DJ named Chrissy Murderbot announcing a new project: a year's worth of weekly themed mixtape. My Year of Mixtapes sounded kind of cute, but there's a lot of music out there, especially in the form of mixtapes and/or podcasts. I can barely keep up with the weekly podcast from the techno site Resident Advisor and the two offered Mondays and Fridays by London's FACT Magazine. That's not to mention both sites regularly point to other DJ sets, and that's not to mention this monster of an archive, which offers some 25,000 archived sets.

So what's one more project got to offer? In Chrissy Murderbot's case, a lot.

I haven't played all 12 of the mixes yet, though I'm working on it: finishing up no. 5, New Jack Swing, as I type this. It's fantastic—37 tracks in 67 minutes, the whole thing as smooth (or maybe I mean smoove) as that herky-jerkiest of R&B styles can be. New jack swing, after all, was the music that first merged R&B songwriting and harmonizing with hip-hop beats, and the meld could be awkward—have snares ever clattered so much in any pop style? But it sounds innocent now in a way no one at the time could have predicted—or, given how much coarser pop culture has grown in the decades since, necessarily have wanted to. Either way, the mix is great; special props for including Redhead Kingpin & the F.B.I.'s "Pump It Hottie," with its coda featuring Kingpin telling each hottie on the floor who they're going to pump it up for:

The other Murderbot mixes alternate between period and sonic through-lines, as with Week 1: Tin Pan Tape (juicy turn-of-the-'90s dancehall) and Week 9: Ambient Jungle (can't wait to A-B this with Woebot's wondrous FACT Mix 61), and thematic mixes such as Week 2: Robot Love, which contains maybe my favorite segue of the year so far: James Brown's "Sex Machine" sliding slowly into the Pointer Sisters' "Automatic." I've loved both songs for ages, and never thought in 100 years they'd work together so well—much less for the half-minute or so Murderbot uses to join them. Don't just take my word for it.

Check out the latest podcast from Made Like a Tree, featuring Jon McMillion. For this podcast, the Seattle producer recorded a live set comprised entirely of unreleased material. Jon McMillion exposes his deep side, stringing along cosmic synthesizers and braiding fresh house rhythms with an Afro-Caribbean twist. An excerpt from the Made Like a Tree description:

To you, what do you think distinguishes a studio production from a live performance (whether it be a continuous set or a track, etc)? You must have a varying ethos in your handling when engaging in either one. Maybe you can elaborate on your two approaches.

To me they can often be the same thing. I build my live sets pretty much the same way I create a studio track. Most of the time the tool set is identical. In the past when I've created sets for live performance, I've always tried to bring something out that represented what I've been working on in the studio or a feeling/idea that I've had in mind at the time. Obviously with this type of music getting people to dance has got to be on the agenda, but I also strive to get folks thinking as well.

When the live performance starts to indulge with studio experimentation, the imaginary line between studio and stage is blurred. Correspondingly, the listener's setting could be a quiet night at home, at a party or at a club. What is going on here is not simply role reversal; Jon McMillion's refreshing take on electronic dance music synthesizes and furthers both the studio instrument and the live setting. Check out his earlier releases on Orac Records for more from the frontiers of Seattle electronic dance music.

Not even a week after Thom Yorke made an anti-album stir in a Believer interview—"None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again"—Radiohead has possibly loosed its second online-only song in seven days. "These Are My Twisted Words" is a five-minute song described thusly by music blog Consequence of Sound:

A rather strange post to the [unofficial Radiohead fan site] atease’s forum simply titled “New song leaked, These Are My Twisted Words” started a little bit of commotion earlier today. The song has since made its way around the yet, however, has yet to be officially confirmed or even explained by anyone close to the band.

The "nfo" file that accompanied the MP3 on P2P sites, made by some group called "Wall of Ice," was odd as well, complete with this Yorke-ish screed tucked into it. People are starting to wonder if the leak was intentional on the band's part:

i just wanted to reassure readers
that following representations
seeking confirmation
that before your very eyes
behind the wall of ice
that the box is not under threat
however they are set to remove
other boxes
in fact i have the list in front of me
i went to a briefing on their plans
and challenged them to tell me
exactly what the cost would be

they spoke in broad terms

No matter who made it, the song's solid. Groove-centered, yet relatively aimless, with an insatiable drumbeat and "Thom Yorke" going on about something-or-other. Seems very Hail to the Thief-y.

Baltimore's Le Loup have a new song from their forthcoming full-length, Family (due Sept. 22 on local label Hardly Art), available for previewing here. The subdued shuffle rhythm (Can's "Paperhouse" meets 23 Skidoo's "Another Baby's Face"), vocals pitched somewhere between Animal Collective and Fleet Foxes, and spangly Spaghetti-Western guitar of "Beach Town" sound ideal for a lovely Indian summer afternoon's revel.

Partial press release and tour dates below.

“Beach Town” is taken from the band’s upcoming record, Family, which is set for a September 22nd release (CD/LP/Digital). Family is the follow-up to Le Loup’s 2007 debut The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Millennium General Assembly. Unlike the stripped-down and solitary nature of The Throne…, Family boasts a heightened presence from the full band that Le Loup mastermind Sam Simkoff pulled together to bring The Throne… to the live setting.

Le Loup on tour, fall 2009:
10.09.09 - Baltimore, MD - The Ottobar
10.10.09 - Philadelphia, PA - Kungfu Necktie
10.11.09 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge
10.13.09 - Cambridge, MA - TT the Bear's
10.14.09 - Montreal, QC - Il Motore
10.15.09 - Toronto, ON - The Drake Hotel
10.16.09 - Chicago, IL - Schubas
10.17.09 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
10.18.09 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown Jr.
10.19.09 - Denver, CO - Hi Dive
10.20.09 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10.22.09 - Vancouver, BC - The Biltmore Cabaret
10.23.09 - Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
10.25.09 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
10.27.09 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
10.28.09 - Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
10.29.09 - Costa Mesa, CA - Detroit Bar
10.30.09 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
10.31.09 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
11.02.09 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
11.03.09 - Dallas, TX - Cavern Ale House
11.05.09 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn
11.06.09 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
11.07.09 - Washington, DC - Black Cat

**all dates w/ Nurses

The tune that's rocking my now is Yirim Seck's "Three MC's RIP":

Something new and catchy and free from DJ Spooky: "Azadi (The New Complexity)."

The term Azadi simply means "Freedom" in Farsi. The song "Azadi" is an interpretation of an ancient poem by the legendary poet Rumi, sung by renowned Iranian artist Sussan Deyhim, with prouduction by Dj Spooky from New York City. The collaboration is a single on Dj Spooky's next album "The Secret Song" that will be out in October, 2009.

This image from djspooky.com.