Editor’s Choice: May 11, 2013

Rather than operate as a music news source, Electronic Beats operates more as a music information source. We want to share with you; we want you to know what we’re hearing, what’s reverberating through our cochleas and sending broader vibrations throughout our bodies, and by extension our audio-addled souls. Welcome to Editor’s Choice.

Lisa Blanning (Online Editor)

DJ Nate aka Bakaman – 13 The Mixtape

DJ Nate’s was one of the first footwork records I heard, because it came early in the Planet Mu onslaught. I loved it at the time, and now three years later this DJ Nate mixtape (free download here) surfaces. It’s not at all the footwork he made in the past; now it’s all about Chicago drill—but it still sounds good.

Walton – “Homage” from Keysound Allstars 2

This Manchester-based producer has a few Hypderdub releases, but this track on Blackdown‘s Keysound label (from the Keysound Allstars Vol 2 EP) is pretty different from the rest of his output. Instead of breaking out, he slips right into an old-school vibe with a tantalizingly classic-sounding jungle riddim.

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Louise Brailey (Deputy Online Editor)

These New Puritans – “Fragment 2”

And so TNPS return, and what a place this world is without them. “Fragment 2” is an incredible opening sally, featuring less percussive attack than Hidden and thus heightening the classical influences and textural micro-detail. As always Jack Barnett pulls together the diffident (precisely offbeat drums, typically sparse piano) and melodic (the trumpet refrain towards the end of the track). Oh, and he claims to have been influenced by Sondheim, Weill and Hammerstein... Suck that up, pretty much any band operating in May 2013.

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Daniel Jones (Contributing Editor)

Taylor Swift – “Red” (Teen Witch Fan Club Edit)

Remember when everyone was mad for weird pop edits a la NIKE7UP? I do, and I miss those times. Finding tracks that make mainstream pop palatable for weirdo ears is extremely my shit, and Teen Witch has often been my go-to guy for this sort of thing. Now that summer is finally here I plan to spend a good amount of time with my old friends from the Top 40, and I wait in anticipation for further edits to make them actually listenable.

Animal Bodies – “Lies in Your Eyes”

On the opposite end of the sound spectrum, Canada’s Animal Bodies have covered Snowy Red for _ever Alive, a new compilation in tribute to the underground minimal wave artist. It’s set to drop around the end of May/early June on on Weyrd Son (not to be confused with Wierd Records) and also features tracks from the likes of //TENSE//, Bestial Mouths, Led Er Est and loads more across two LPs, served up in a glossy deep black gatefold in only 500 editions. In other words: seeeeeeeex.~

Published May 10, 2013.