Japa Habilidoso and Mosey make their first official outings on the DC label’s next round of releases.
The Future Times captain lays down an hour-long selection to sign off his short but sweet Gorilla Bliss mix series.
Leaving Records, Houndstooth, The Trilogy Tapes and L.I.E.S. were amongst the labels whose releases stood out in September.
Andrew Field-Pickering seems to have a 24 hour direct line available to feelings of wonderment. His work with Ari Goldman on the Beautiful Swimmers LP Son seemed to literally manifest the summertime if you closed your eyes while you played it – full of boisterous Balearic riffs, vocal clips extolling the virtues of smoking pot while getting erotic on a waterbed, and even some jazz-scatting thrown in for good measure, it’s impossible not to feel uplifted when “Swimmer’s Groove” comes on.
Function & Vatican Shadow, Boothroyd, Austin Cesear, Max D and more featured among the week’s best records.
Famed David Byrne and Laurie Anderson collaborator is the subject of the tenth edition of RVNG Intl’s ongoing series.
Stream a cut from the incoming 12″ on the L.I.E.S. white label series from the Future Times captain.
The relentless march of the the L.I.E.S. titan looks nigh on unstoppable, as the label shares a taste of forthcoming releases from Steve Summers, Delroy Edwards and Svengalisghost.
Pinning down Andrew Field-Pickering’s production style can be tricky at the best of times. When he made his debut as Maxmillion Dunbar, back in 2008, it was with a cheeky little 7” that blurred the boundaries between experimental hip-hop, boogie and electronic fetishism. He followed it up with the quietly impressive Cool Water album on Ramp Recordings, a Technicolor romp through skewed synth-hop, shimmering ambience and tropical Balearica.
With his joint role as as chief operator at Future Times, one half of Beautiful Swimmers and sole pilot under the Maxmillion Dunbar banner, Andrew Field-Pickering has been integral in releasing some of our favourite music of the past few years. Matt Anniss caught up with Field Pickering in advance of his second Maxmillion Dunbar album dropping to discuss eclectism, his love of shoegaze and percussion, and much more.
The problem with excelling at something, be it music, art or designing garden gnomes, is maintaining the levels you’ve set for yourself. This is the position producer Andrew Field-Pickering finds himself in. Under the Maxmillion Dunbar guise, he’s spent the last few years perfecting a glistening, synth-laden sound that’s simultaneously gorgeously optimistic and strangely melancholic. After first impressing with a series of electronica experiments on Ramp, he’s shown himself to be a rather accomplished maker of vintage sounding, near kaleidoscopic dancefloor tracks that sit somewhere between woozy nu-disco, futuristic Balaearica and spacey deep house. “Polo”, in particular – a track so good it was re-released by Live At Robert Johnson earlier this year – was near perfect; a modern-day electronic classic that’s almost guaranteed to have the hairs on the back of your neck straining to keep upright.
Maryland-based producer Andrew Field-Pickering seems to exist in a gloriously technicolour world of his own. Ever since he dropped his first Maxmillion Dunbar single – the synths and abstract hip-hop jam “Outrageous Soulz” – back in 2008, he’s turned his hand to numerous musical styles without ever seeming to quite fit in with any of them. 2011 debut album Cool Water (one of several releases on Ramp Recordings) saw him flit between off-kilter downtempo synthscapes, dub-laden 80s drum workouts, shimmering house-not-house and the sort of wonky beatscapes preferred by Glasgow’s Numbers crowd. While it was something of a mixed bag – both in terms of quality and production styles – almost every track was characterised by vivid, pin-sharp synths and gorgeous, head-soothing melodies. While he’d not found his niche, he was already cultivating an impressing sonic palette.
In what can only be described as a good move by all involved, erstwhile Beautiful Swimmer Maxmillion Dunbar will add the excellent Live At Robert Johnson imprint to his already impressive arsenal of record labels.
Future Times gun Maxmillion Dunbar has posted a delicious 50-minute mix which weaves its way through hip-hop, house, downtempo and boogie.