littlecity.

matrixxman / in real time

with a moniker like matrixxman, it’s no surprise that charlie duff has time on his mind. a san francisco based DJ/producer with roots in arlington virginia, duff has only been making music as matrixxman for a handful of years, sparked by an early listen to a juan atkins mix cd. although his musical history spans hip-hop and ballroom house, his techno is hard-edged, restrained, impeccably produced…

harmonic navigation / an interview with yuka

yuka is a wanderer. she is a shaman. she’s a designer and an artist. she’s a collector. she’s a crate digger. she’s a songbird catcher. she’s a dancer, a guitar player and an inventor. she’s a traveler. she is so many things — but most of all, yuka is a music maker. born in 1974 in the industrial beachside town of bratsk in eastern siberia, yuka’s home offered red earth and harsh climates; a fact…

parallel dimensions / an interview with rrose

rrose inhabits a parallel dimension. at least, that’s what she’d have you believe. her music is grounded in the kind of thoughtful electronic elements that make her a perfect fit for lucy’s stroboscopic artefacts label, but at the same time, she is outlandish enough that her transportive 2015 album, never having written a note for percussion (comprised solely of a one-gong percussion piece) made…

berlin in symphony / jeff mills at the hackescher höfe kino

how soon is now? just ask jeff mills. the so-called godfather of a legion of contemporary techno djs and producers, mills aptly brought the future to the present with the formation of underground resistance; a music collective he helmed alongside mad mike banks in 1989. if you want to know how it all started, that’s where you look. in fact, if you want to know what “it” is exactly, that’s who you…

marco shuttle / the aesthetics of expression

for marco shuttle, music is a work of art. the italian-born, london-based DJ, producer and label boss has always had an eye for aesthetics — a graduate of central saint martins with a background in visuals and fashion, his interest in beauty runs more than skin deep. “whenever you make a decision, whenever you create, it always has something to do with beauty,” he says, “besides if something…

“says” that you play when your mind is wandering because every note seems to travel, too. you listened to this record so many times you could have worn it out and when you finally heard it live you understood what it means to be blown away by music. sound. movement. everything. you spent months organising an interview with nils. the…

sundaze / an afternoon with the lekker collective

there’s something to be said about sundays in berlin. unlike many other cities, there’s never a shortage of things to do on any given sunday in this city, and whether you’re brunching, burning the dancefloor at berghain, or shopping at mauerpark, there’s something strangely special about the way berliners take on what’s usually the week’s sleepiest day. certainly, then, there’s something to be…

capes and crusades / the women of wunderfrauen

who was your childhood hero? was it a singer? a movie star? the president? was it a family member? your teacher? a character from a tv show? whoever it was, it’s likely they didn’t wear a cape. they probably didn’t sport a mask. they couldn’t fly, and they didn’t have super powers. whoever they were, it’s likely they were simply someone ordinary who did something extraordinary. that’s the kind of…

anatomy of a surprise / how unsound perfected the art of the music festival

++ by scott simpson of culture chaser there are a number of great festivals around, but none have come as close to perfecting the art of the music festival as unsound has. twelve years in and unsound still has more than a few tricks up its sleeves, including this year’s theme: surprise. a relatively simple one to be sure, but one that managed to astound, delight, and confound in equal measures.…

the weird world of akiko kiyama

akiko kiyama is not your average techno artist. she speaks softly and moves quietly. you’ll rarely find her on the dancefloor. she prefers the studio to the club scene. her music, likewise, is not your average techno endeavor. she never creates with an end result in mind. she favours weird samples and strange sounds. her label, kebko music, releases cassette tapes, not vinyl. but her innate…

LC 022 / orbital mechanics

you’ve heard of the term “trifecta,” right? it means a run of three wins. a trio of golden moments that occur together, one after the other. a perfect group of three. in this case, trifecta means rusty faders, ewerx, and diagraf. it means the meeting point between audio, visual, and visceral: orbital mechanics. [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/219436176"…

fueling the zeitgeist / pop-kultur berlin in review

pop-kultur festival was nothing if not true to its name. taking place at the infamous berghain and its surrounding venues, pop-kultur was a rotating cast of the leading figures in contemporary electronica; a stack on stack of your standard music festival events. all packed into a mere three days of evening and nighttime gigs, the festival gave you exactly what you expected — almost to a fault.…

everything but the kitchen synth / an interview with morton subotnick

“i used to live across the way from 8th street records in new york city in 1967,” morton subtonick is telling the audience at the premiere for i dream of wires in berlin. he’s seated next to alec empire and the film’s director, robert fantinatto; they’ve both got the same look on their faces, a mixture of bemusement and fascination. “before i’d even gotten my own copy of silver apples of the…

things we learned at unsound toronto

who says a music festival can’t also be a learning experience? the team at luminato partnered up with the incomparable boutique electronic music festival, unsound, (based in krakow, poland) to bring the critically acclaimed event to toronto, its second north american pilgrimage in new york last year. this in itself was a lesson; as someone who is decidedly critical of toronto’s treatment of…

when i ask montrealer jesse morrisson if he’s a dreamer or a realist, there’s a long pause before he answers, “both. i tend to keep things grounded but i’m definitely a dreamer, too.” the same can, i think, be said for his music. the first time i heard jesse play live as fake_electronics, it was a journey. in the basement of the mac in montreal during the 2014 mutekunder low lights, jesse…

let diego “pior” martin tell you something about the birds and the bees. playing live as birdsmakingmachine, he gets intimate with his gear; leaning in close, hips swaying, feet pounding on the stage, twisting knobs with a certain kind of sensuality reserved for the release, the ecstasy that comes with performance. he dances wildly on stage, completely giving in to the sounds he’s created,…