dublab m4y37

In early August, TRILLS were in town, exploring Los Angeles for the first time, and spent some time hanging in the studio with Ale and singing some of their tracks, a cappella. TRILLS, a folk and pop band hailing from London, are currently working on a self-released EP with Mumford and Sons producer Johan Hugo. Listen now for a few gorgeous a cappella tracks and some musical insight into the world of TRILLS.

photo by Carl Pocket This week, we present a session from Daniel Corral, originally recorded on August 28. Corral was in the studio with Ale, and presented his work Refractions, performed by himself on electronics, plus accompaniment by the Isaura String Quartet and Jeremy Kerner on guitar. Listen now to that gorgeous piece, recorded live at dublab, plus Corral’s conversation with Ale about his work and the processes behind the piece.

This week, check out an interview from last month with experimental electronic artist TALsounds on the dublab program Wave. We go in depth on her latest album, Love Sick, and talk about her compelling creative process, which is centered on improvisation. Listen for a great conversation and a sampling of music from Love Sick, too.

This week on our Live at dublab podcast, we bring you a performance and interview with Geneva Skeen, the Los Angeles-based sound artist, originally hosted by Jasmin Blasco on his monthly program Speak My Language. Skeen’s set, as she explains later, is in dialogue both with pop music and with the urgency of our current political moment — she’s interested in listening, she says, “as an act of radical dissidence.” Listen on for an essential performance and a conversation that digs into her artistic ideas and her involvement in L.A.’s crucial experimental music scene.

Last week, Frosty, on his Celsius Drop program, stretched out with producer and musician Daniel Lanois and vocalist and instrumentalist Rocco DeLuca at Lanois’ studio Bella Vista. We invite you to stretch out with them now, too, as the duo talk about their influences and inspirations and play music on slide guitars and more from 2016’s collaborative album Goodbye to Language. Listen for a sprawling, impressive view into the world of these two fascinating, storied musicians.

Last week, on his Second System Vision Radio program, Sun Araw hosted Foodman, all the way from Yokohama, Japan, as special guest. What resulted is a 40-minute jam that appears like a fever dream in the midst of Sun Araw’s regular programming — a musical exchange between the two artists that transcends distance and language and highlights both artists’ propensity for breaching and re-assembling the very fabric of electronic music. The collaboration is truly a musical journey — one that begins with the ur-human cries of some lost being before settling into a reverse-idyllic landscape; a picture whose pixels don’t quiet congeal. Here it is, in all its glory: Sun Araw meets Foodman at the edge of the universe.

Nite Jewel’s new album Real High is out now — a kind of sonic ode to the club music of the ’90s, propelled by groovy beats and Ramona Gonzalez’s smooth, sincere vocals. Her May live performance a the dublab studio is an intimate look at those tracks and more — an essential, stripped look at one of the most exciting pop music acts in Los Angeles right now. Take a listen, and check out Real High, out now on Gloriette.

If there’s anything to be said about Los Angeles’ music scene, it’s that it brims with sonic diversity — and yet there’s no other band quite like Brainstory. The band came by The Tree House, DJ Seano’s monthly program, and unfurled a red-hot live performance that reached into influences as disparate as Jimi Hendrix, Ralfi Pagan and Miles Davis. These virtuosos, who dropped their new self-titled record earlier this month, are at the top of their game and ready to make big moves — you heard it here first. Check it out, and , dublab is still deep into our Spring Proton Drive, so if you like what you hear, donate and help keep us on the air. SET: 

As dublab embarks on week three of our May 2017 Proton Drive fundraiser, we thought it an opportune moment to present to you, in its entirety, a special piece of music created specifically for the dive by Leech (AKA Brian Foote, one-half of Peak Oil Records). This year’s Proton Drive theme song is a burbling, thrumming, thoughtful piece that we hope will inspire you to pitch in a little, as dublab asks for your help in raising the funds we need to keep the station running. Please enjoy our May, 2017 Proton Drive theme song by Leech, in all its 7-minute glory. SET: 

Back in February, electronic music legend Jean-Michel Jarre stopped by dublab’s Analogue Players Club program. The 30-minute chat that ensued spanned the rebellion of his early punk years, deep thoughts on Skrillex, notions of the future of the music industry, and his own sentimental view of Los Angeles. This interview — which features a gracious, cheerful, and vigorous Jarre — is a pleasure to listen to from end to end. Slayron and special guest interviewer Mitchell Brown as they take a revealing and enjoyable look inside the perspective of a real trailblazer. SET: 

Innov Gnawa are masters of gnawa music — traditional, trance-inducing music from Morocco. Their sound hinges on communal singing, the plucked guembri, and a shifting beat created by the krakeb, or a pair of large, metal castanets. Innov Gnawa stopped into the Zebulon FMR program — hosted by the creators of the new L.A. music venue Zebulon — for a short set of this amazing music. Listen now for another essential performance recorded live at dublab. SET: 

On this week’s Live at dublab podcast, soak in an 86 minute instrumental jam courtesy of Tristan de Lee Ege, who stopped by dublab for this live performance back on March 29, 2017. It’s a fantastic set to listen to if you’re working or driving, a mellow but bouncy set inspired by the natural world, dwelling in the timbre of drums, pianos, horns and more. Enjoy the music, and make sure to pick up de Liege’s new EP, In Transition. And if you haven’t subscribed to the Live at dublab podcast yet, head over to iTunes and search “dublab.” MIX: 

Philip Jeck, a standout in the experimental music world, stopped by Mike Harding’s Long Wave program back in May of 2016. Jeck’s music consists of records played on a set of turntables and manipulated with effects, and the result is a musical expedition through found sound, unearthly tones, and dense thickets of noise. Listen now for an essential performance recorded live at dublab. SET: 

On February 5, Stephie’s Castle (AKA composer and sound artist Stephanie Cheng Smith) performed a highly sensory, deeply meditative set on violin and electronics at Non Plus Ultra. The set was broadcast live on dublab, and now is presented here for your listening pleasure. Smith, who has performed live on dublab previously, has also had her work involving manipulation of light and explorations with motor arrays featured in Experimental Music Yearbook and on the Experimental Half Hour and EarMeal broadcasts. MIX: 

Tommasi stopped by Jake Jenkins’ Friendly Futures program for a stratospheric ambient set performed, in part, on manipulated Farfisa organ. Revisit the vibes below. SET: 

Here it is: A calm, pretty set from Los Angeles singer-songwriter Green Gerry. Green Gerry’s songs are both tender and gently trippy, lulling you into a peaceful place before it scrambles your synapses. Give the set a listen, and check out Green Gerry’s new record Electric Iron, the proceeds of which are being donated to The Southern Poverty Law Center, The ACLU, The Trevor Project, NRDC, and Planned Parenthood. MIX: 

The synthesizer explorations of Curved Light — AKA Peter Tran, who usually performs with visual Deirdre Smith — take, like many of their contemporaries, several cues from the classic period of ’80s New Age meditation tapes and classic ambient endeavors a la Brian Eno’s Music for Airports and Steven Halperin’s Spectrum Suite. But Curved Air’s music has more forward momentum and conversational melodicism than a lot of other sound artists working today — in a way, the music has just as much in common with composers like Hans Zimmer and Vangelis, composers whose music represents a kaleidoscope of moods and environments, from the peaceful to the playful to the chaotic. We welcomed Curved Light to the dublab studio on March 1 while the Austin-based Tran was undertaking a short tour. Take a listen below, and keep an eye out for Curved Air’s Holodeck Records debut, Channelview, hitting tape decks internationally on May 12. MIX: 

In January, drummer and composer Matt Mayhall dropped by dublab with a couple of friends — guitarist Jeff Parker (Tortoise, Brian Blade Fellowship) and bassist Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Allen Toussaint, Meshell Ndegeocello) — to perform a cool, magnificent live set. Revisit that set here, and check out Mayhall’s new album, Tropes, out now on SKIRL RECORDS. MIX: 

Hear a rare episode of Gudrun Gut and Thomas Fehlmann’s Ocean Club Radio that’s perfect for a gray, dampened day, originally broadcast live in 2003 on dublab and Radio 1 simultaneously. Berlin’s Gudrun Gut stands at the center of ’s contemporary music scene, yet she’s always worked at its fringes. Gut played in the original lineup of crucial industrial/post-punk band Einsturzende Neubauten among others, has run the excellent Monika Enterprise label (responsible for the four-part 4 Woman No Cry series) and earned a reputation as a groundbreaking DJ. From the German electronic scene of the 1980s to the ambient dub and electronica of the ’90s to ing the Kompakt label and Alex Paterson in The Orb, Thomas Fehlmann has been a crucial link in music’s evolutionary chain. MIX: FROM THE VAULTS is an ongoing curation project produced by Ben Sinclair, resurfacing rare live performances and DJ sets recorded during dublab’s first ten years. [email protected] | Facebook

Last month, Brazilian jazz guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento stopped by the dublab studio for a brief, gorgeous set of solo guitar. Nascimento has collaborated with saxophonist Sam Gendel, singer-songwriter Mia Doi Todd, and legendary percussionist Airto Moreira and his newest album, Tempo Dos Mestres, is available now via Now Again. His performance, which you can stream and below, is not to be missed. MIX: