🐣 CORD LABUHN — HEARTSHIPS

Sounds from here, sounds from there, sounds from everywhere in this buzzing collage of sound, a list of luscious samples located and lifted into the frame of 'Heartships' by Berlin-based musicmaker Cord Labuhn. Record scratches, vintage crackling thumps, bass kicks, a delicious fingerclick, trickling hi-hat ticks—a treasure trove of percussion beats out an exploded hip-hop rhythm, sparse and minimalist to an extent, but on the other hand it's also packed full of flavour, each sound texturised and four-dimensional, a snippet of life, Cord Labuhn as the lepidopterist of sound pinning each one in new shapes and patterns.

Guitar pings add to the percussive nature of this collage so far, reverbing into the gallons of negative space that brim with chill either side of the punctuation perforating the quietude. Aching moments from unidentifiable songs appear throughout, rapid sonic snapshots that resonate even after their brief flash on the bustling canvas. Things agitate towards the middle: the feeling of running or rolling downhill, picking up momentum, new samples sliding into the mix getting ever busier, packed with flavours, and then it falls back to the cooling patterns as before, subtly and simply dynamic; funny how something so clearly constructed, so abstract in execution, can also be so smooth and natural to our ears.

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• 🔔 Like previous track 'Asap Daddy', this one is also taken from the Berlin producer's OUTTAKES project. You can download the track here.

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📠
☟ Cord Labuhn Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ instagram

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🐣 SAMPHA — (NO ONE KNOWS ME) LIKE THE PIANO [LTMR REMIX]

The straight-from-the-soul beauty of Sampha's single '(No One Knows Me) Like The Piano', taken from his debut LP Process, gets a sunny reworking courtesy of Philadelphia resident LTMR. What this stands for is a mystery; acronymfinder.com suggests Less Talk, More Rock or – my favourite – Long-Term Multilineage Repopulating. But we're not here for acronyms—we're here for this remix, which crackles with vintage warmth, to where LTMR leads us, through a breezy garden sprinkled with birdsong, into this room heavy with nostalgia and resonating with dusty piano chops and heartfelt vocals, light filtering in through half-open windows.

It's the original alright, but sped-up, taken up a gear and bumped by the thud of a beat, a gratifying sidechain softly pockmarking the proceedings. Raw metallic hi-hats shiver along with it, galloping to the beat as the original track plays out in its new casing, one that highlights the loving touch on the piano keys in particular. Parts of LTMR's remix feature vocal and piano chopped with scalpel precision, strewn over a new smartly clacking beat with the snap of snare starting and the kicks ba-bump ba-bump heartbeat swing creating a sway of rhythm in this breezy atmosphere. We leave through the garden again, blue sky, birds chirping, feeling better for having heard this, a soul-cleanse, and then walking into the life of spring and the uplift of nature.

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• 🔔 This lovely little remix can be downloaded for free, which is also lovely.

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☟ LTMR Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 MECCA:83 — BODY GLOW

Here is a freshly dropped track from Manchester beatmaker, Mecca:83, a chillmatic sunsoaking piece of swaggery boom-bap inclined cocktail-by-the-pool-flavoured sample-led sultry optimism. But whilst it would fit hot sunny weather like a missing puzzle piece, there is an underlying iciness to 'Body Glow' that exists in its cold muted bubbling of the soft synths, the desolate reverb on the hollow snare clack, destined for a rise in temperature.

This frosty morning feel, animated by the alien synthetics and their continuous ambient wobble, is melted by certain elements of the track, perhaps giving it its name – take into consideration the warm glow of another human body amidst freezing bitter weather drifting around, or the warmth of love in a haze of emptiness. You have the rounded gloop of bass that grooves through, but the vocal samples lead the cheer, expertly selected for tonal variety, cut and served with rhythmic precision, each distinct from yet melting into the next. And if you take into account the trickle of birdsong at the beginning, it's nothing specific as it is general: this track is Spring itself after the thaw of winter.

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• 🔔 'Body Glow' arrives courtesy of London "Movement & Record Label", NINETOFIVE.
• 🔔 Recently Mecca:83 worked alongside British rapper Scorzayzee on their collaborative Cherish The Moment EP. You can listen to that on SoundCloud.

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📠
☟ Mecca:83 Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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