PREMIERE: Sleem Gleam - Totally Pitted [Made of Magma, Kajunga Records]

flyover · PREMIERE: Sleem Gleam - Totally Pitted [Made of Magma, Kajunga Records]

Made of Magma is out via Kajunga Records on May 17, 2024. We hung ten with elusive clump of stardust Sleem Gleam (aka Ryote) to get up to speed on the record.

What is sleem about the gleam?

That’s the slime, the squiggle, the off-kilter, the acid, the midwest grit, the tubular factor. Paired with a humble glimmer you get a wacky little combo. It’s serious in a silly way, or vice versa. The Sleem Gleam alias originally formed to be a member of the synthpop duo Slurpuff. The band inevitably didn’t release any of the tunes we were working on, but we had fun and created interesting lore around our characters. Sleem Gleam had to live on and evolve beyond that.

Track A2 is “Totally Pitted.” It zips, it soars, it’s totally far out. It embodies the style of DJ sets I’ve heard you play in recent years. Overall, the project and record have a different sound than Ryote releases. Did the project form instantaneously, or did it take time for it to evolve?

Totally Pitted was actually the first track I started working on within this sonic ecosystem. That was at the end of 2019. I wanted to make faster music. Banging, but not too abrasive, more like rock music or something. Most of my inspiration was coming from surf rock, new wave, and upbeat psych stuff, so I tried to combine some of those elements with a techno/electro structure I was much more used to. The bass line, zappy sounds and general structure of this track sat dormant for over a year. My friend Brandon recorded some guitar parts for it, and it had a brief phase of being a full-on surf rock track. To fit my vision a bit more accurately, I eventually reworked and paired back the guitar to let the bass line and percussion shine. The track got finalized in 2023 so I could play it at TGB, where I always aim to deejay upbeat surfy stuff.

Should we anticipate more from both Ryote and Sleem Gleam? Will the projects co-exist?

They’ll definitely co-exist. As my tastes as an artist have grown and changed, I’ve alway been fine with simply expanding what Ryote can be, whether that’s fast, slow, art, music. It all intersects for me. The concept and mythos behind Sleem manifested itself so quickly that it demanded to be its own thing, truly an alter-ego. The essence of the project needs to stay pure and concise. I have more Sleem tracks to release, and I definitely wanna ride the wave as long as I can.

PREMIERE: DJN - Fine [Humboldt EP, Tiger Tapes]

flyover · DJN - Fine

Who’s DJN? Let’s find out. Humboldt EP is available now via Tiger Tapes.

Tell us about Iowa, the electronic music scene, and IowaTechno parties.

I grew up and graduated high school in Waukon, IA, which is a small rural town centered in the NE corner of Iowa. After graduating, I moved to Cedar Rapids and discovered the electronic scene a few years after that, which at that time was growing and thriving exponentially. We had multiple underground shows and parties going on almost every weekend, not just in Cedar Rapids, but also in Iowa City and Des Moines. IowaTechno started 9 years ago and was my friends and my attempt at throwing our hat into that ring, as several of the big promoters in Iowa had either ceased doing parties or were doing them very sparingly. We started small with bar shows at local dives, and eventually grew our scene and following into several warehouse spaces in the Cedar Rapids area. Things were really on a roll until Covid happened, and we struggled to get the scene back on track in the aftermath. Unfortunately, the scene seemed to have diminished in that time frame and IowaTechno disbanded, our last show being on 10.27.23. We had 9 solid years of successful parties, which is no small feat, but the environment unfortunately became unsustainable. 

You just released a very cool EP Fleur with breaks, bass, and techno followed by your new single, “Fine” off of the forthcoming Humboldt EP. How has your time living in Iowa and attending Minneapolis parties influenced the music you produce? 

Coming up in the electronic scene in Iowa, I was exposed to a lot of different genres of electronic music through my own discovery and from attending parties and listening to my friends mix. My time in Iowa I spent primarily focused on house music, but in a sense I felt pigeonholed in that respect and it made it complicated to break out of that mold, so to speak. My treks to Minneapolis opened the floodgates of what music could make a dance floor move, especially breaks and electro, which unfortunately weren’t very well received when I would try to play them in Iowa. Since I’d been regularly attending Minneapolis parties over the past year and a half, it had allowed me to open a creative part of me that had been yearning to come out for quite some time. Since I’ve moved here, I’ve written some of my best material to date, and I feel like that is heavily influenced by the events I’ve attended and the DJs I’ve danced to here in the Cities. I’m grateful for those events and those artists who showed me that it’s ok and encouraged stepping outside your comfort zone, and do/play/create what I feel, instead of putting out what I think people want to hear. It’s been very freeing from an artistic standpoint. 

How long have you been making the trek to Minneapolis parties?

Since I lived in Cedar Rapids, IA for so many years, it was kind of few and far between since it was a 5.5hr drive, but I was able to make it up once or twice a year since 2008. It was only when I moved back to NE Iowa that I was able to make the trip more frequently since it was only a 3hr drive. And now that I live here it’s only a 15 minute drive to most events, so that whole facet is still kind of unreal to me but I’m absolutely loving it. The only issue is that there is so much going on, it’s hard to choose where to allocate my energy!

Which came first, producing or DJing? How have they influenced each other?

I started DJing in early 2008, and shortly after that I started producing. I used Reason for many years, moved to Logic Pro in 2012, and now I’m using Reason rewired in Logic Pro and I’m loving the functionality of those two programs together. As for how they influence each other, I would say that the music I DJ tends to push my productions in the same direction, as I like to weave my own tracks into my mixes. 

PREMIERE: AutoClub - It’s You [Apparition, Kajunga Records]

flyover · AutoClub - It's You

Minneapolis late-night stalwarts Mike McClure and Craig Lambert, known collectively as AutoClub (an amalgamation of their respective Autokinetic and Midnight Music Club monikers), are dropping Apparition via Kajunga Records on September 22. “It’s You” is a crackling dubby house cut that toes the line between still-chilling patio vibes and peak-time warehouse debauchery. Expect similar expertise from the remaining tracks on Apparition; Kajunga’s tenth release cements the label as a Midwest dance music institution, and AutoClub brings decades of dancefloor-inversion experience to a must-have release for any house head. 

PREMIERE: Feel Free Hi Fi - Dragon Dance

flyover · PREMIERE: Feel Free Hi Fi - Dragon Dance

We caught up with the Twin Cities sound system purveyors of Feel Free Hi Fi to learn about their multidisciplinary approach and process. Stream the title track of their upcoming EP Dragon Dance above, out via Digital Sting on November 30th.

How did you two meet?

Shawn Reed: I moved to the Twin Cities about ten years ago from Iowa City and met Derek when he started dating a friend of mine who had also moved from Iowa City around the same time as I did. I'm not exactly sure what year we met. I had already been in the Twin Cities for a few years I think.  We hit it off by talking about underground music and specifically our mutual interest in custom-built sound systems. My interest is in Reggae/Dancehall history and Jamaican sound system culture and its influence beyond Jamaica. 

Derek Maxwell:  Yeah I think it was surprising for both of us we hadn't met before, having many friends and acquaintances in common through art and music. I do have a vague memory that we played a show on the same bill way back in the early 2000s at the Organ House. Like Shawn said we had a lot of mutual interest and I was really getting obsessed with building a custom sound system. Shawn was DJing and doing mix tapes at the time so I think we saw a mutual possibility in combining those passions.

Derek [left] and Shawn of Feel Free Hi Fi and Digital Sting Records.

How did Night-People Records evolve into Feel Free Hi Fi? 

Shawn: Night-People and the bands I was in during the time I was doing that label were a big part of my life and it was a prolific time. I did the label full-time for a little over ten years and toured heavily during that era as well as being very involved in booking and curating touring underground music in Iowa City. The pace I went at with all of that and the side effects of that pace on my life and mental health had caught up to me by 2013 and I fully burned out. I ended up moving to the Twin Cities and over the first couple of years of being here gradually dissolved Night-People. The project no longer made sense as my life changed and it reached a natural conclusion.  I spent the first few years living in the Twin Cities prioritizing my mental health, slowing down and processing how I wanted to go forward. I really didn't know if I would ever make music again let alone put out records, perform, etc. In the downtime from creating music, my love of Reggae/Dub/Dancehall kept growing and I really dove deeper into that music and the diaspora of it. I started collecting Reggae records in High School but it was just one aspect of a wide interest in many different types of music until it came to dominate my collecting many years later. The first few years in the Twin Cities I spent a lot of time watching old sound clashes on Youtube hunting for obscure 80's Dancehall records online and reading ancient Zen and Taoist philosophy. I did have some ideas floating around about what would end up becoming Feel Free but it was still very murky at that point. UK soundsystem culture was also something I was really digging into and Grime was a big revelation that came out of that, especially the early whitelabel/dubplate aspect, MC clashing, and just the overall gritty aesthetics in how much it related to but was different from Dancehall. Derek and I were listening to a lot of Grime, Gqom, and UK Steppers when we got going building the sound system. Overall my practice of constantly digging and my ingrained sense of DIY lifestyle is what transitioned between the Night-People era of my life to the Feel Free/Digital Sting era even though the musical style and approach changed. 

Derek’s custom sound systems and your illustrations/design/silkscreens are a unique pairing. How did you two join forces?

Shawn: I've been evolving my design/silkscreen style over the course of 20 years and the focus of it has also been its adaptability to work with new projects, different pairings etc. So I think it was just a natural fit to apply it to Feel Free releases and visuals which is the Digital Sting side of things. I think there are also a lot of common flows between how we do every aspect of the project. The music production style in many ways is similar to how the artwork is generated by taking different elements and distilling them down and reworking them, taking parts to make a whole.  Dub and collage relate to each other in the remix aspect of both processes. The sound system, the music, and the visuals are all modular in ways as well and can be set up differently, changed, taken apart, mixed etc.  Coming from a printmaking background I think influenced my musical evolution to think about parts as much as thinking about the whole since printing is largely about layers, etc. DJing, selecting and mixing is also another collage way of working.  Derek and I do inhabit different roles in the project so that's nice being able to cover more ground by splitting up duties. 

Derek: Although I don't work on the artwork part of Feel Free/Digital Sting I also have a background in visual art, so when I saw the aesthetics/imagery that Shawn was putting together it immediately made sense to me. The sound system for me is a means to an end, having been part of DIY venues and shows for decades, I think about all the parts that have to come together to create a good show. In that example you have to have a great flyer to get people's imagination going and then with the sound it's the final culmination of all the energy that went into putting a night together. Even with the production of the records I think we both imagine sounds as visual elements and like Shawn said the collage brings them together as a whole. Building the speakers was part of a big change in my life, I had always done some form of building but now I am a full time independent carpenter with my own business. So this has become my artistic/creative expression and it's been great to really be able to bring these worlds of work and art together.

Feel Free Hi Fi released their first two records on wax in March 2021. What was that process like? How did that experience compare to this second set of releases? 

Shawn: Record pressing takes a lot of time currently around a year at the pressing plant and in our recent experience plants can't really predict very well when the records will actually be done so that presents some challenges in doing the work that is needed to promote a release and time everything out properly let alone floating the down payments then waiting so long to recoup on the dollars put in. The records from 2021 had lots of delays, issues with test pressings etc. it was pretty much the worst experience I have ever had in my long history of putting out vinyl. That combined with everything that was going on with the pandemic, the uprising in the TC, Maga and facist politics becoming more and more mainstream a lot of questions and doubts were at play, like should we even be putting out records in 2020/2021, just lots of not knowing if music should be a focus or how to go forward. I think it took away some momentum in terms of the Prophet Noir records collaborative aspect with the vocalists on that record. We had originally hoped to keep that going in some way, especially after performing that material live with the vocalists right before the pandemic and the pandemic zapped that momentum.  

The upside was the records via our Distributor Rub a Dub in the UK sold really well internationally to the point we had to do a repress and that also pretty much sold out. Trying to get any press coverage for the records didn't happen but the distro aspect really delivered and the response from that network seemed enthusiastic which was great. We were really blessed to do a record with Equiknoxx from Kingston JA for one of those first two records. They are really established internationally and are one of the best, most unique, next level musical projects going in the world. That connection helped give us more confidence as well and I think made those distribution connections easier. 

This time around it's a bit unknown since it's unfolding currently. We were more prepared for navigating how it works in this current era this time around and the pressing didn't have issues other than just taking longer than expected which we kind of expected haha. A big factor right now is the economic crisis in the UK and the Euro cost of living skyrocketing because of Putin's war actions since those factors really affect the distribution and record store network we depend on. We had to lower the wholesale cost so it's going to make it even tougher to break even etc.  The digital/streaming/social media landscape is a whole other giant convo I could go on and on about haha. In short it sucks and is a bummer haha. So even though records are ridiculous to deal with and are so expensive, risky etc. it's just what we gravitate towards doing despite the sustainability of it seeming more and more difficult. Fingers crossed we recoup enough to put out the next one. 

How did the records Dragon Dance and Duppy Gun Meets Feel Free Hi Fi come together? 

Shawn: Duppy Gun is a project/group of musicians that we have been fans of for many years. I have known Cameron Stallones and M. Geddes Gengras who started the project with IJahbar since my early days of touring etc. so when we got Feel Free going and started making our own tunes Cameron invited us to start sending instrumentals to IJahbar and the record is the result of that. Being a long time fan of Dancehall music it's really been a blessing to have collaborations with Equiknoxx and Duppy Gun come about so organically right out of the gate for Feel Free since both projects in so many ways embody the most forward progressive weirdo side of Dancehall music and we were big fans of both before we ended up working on music together. Being located in the upper midwest in a very removed location having Dancehall be a primary influence we have always been concerned with embodying that influence properly and in the most respectful manner and those collaborations and friendships helped us to continue to analyze and figure that out. Another aspect that is cool is IJahbar has direct family ties to the all time great Reggae group the Congos and the Heart of The Congos was one of the first Reggae records I bought and one of the great records of any genre to me so that's just a cool circular life thing. 

Derek: Dragon Dance is the next iteration on the sonic ideas we started on with Prophet Noir. We wanted to keep developing the sound focusing on our interests in Steppers style rhythms along with industrial/electronic sounds and cinematic influences. We had both been listening to a lot of UK steppers, older instrumental versions from JA and newer music that had been influenced by these sounds. There is a sort of sonic warfare element to this style, but also a minimalism that really connected to what we were doing with the Sound System. By the time we started Dragon Dance we had a complete system that was really capable of putting out the full range from sub bass to sizzling highs. I think we were drawn to the idea of making tunes that could really utilize the full capabilities of the sound system. While the record is very rooted in the Steppers sound it definitely is its own thing. When we start working on tracks we often talk about films, and coming back to a visual, there is some idea of storytelling but in a very abstract sense.

Are y’all working on anything else at the moment?

Derek: Yes we are always working on the next thing. It's funny with the timeline of pressing records, we are well into working on the next one as this release shows up in the world. We have a full length of instrumentals that we have been digging into and getting pretty close to wrapping that up. We are also working on a video for the Duppy Gun release with our buddy Zach, who did videos for the last releases as well. I think the other thing that's on our mind is exploring live gigs more, we played recently in town and it definitely rejuvenated our interest in that side of Feel Free.

Tell us about your secret fishing spots.

Shawn: Haha this question... I try to keep my fishing thing secret but not secret haha. I don't have any spots I keep secret and have no problem sharing my experience of it. It's definitely a privilege to have access to the great outdoors on many levels and I don't take it for granted. I spend a lot of time on the river. It's my favorite so my recommendation for a spot is just the Mississippi river right at and near downtown Minneapolis. Despite the dams and the industrial urban infrastructure it still has that special magic of being the Mississippi river. There is a lot of great Smallmouth Bass and Walleye fishing right in the city along with many other species. I've caught a lot of fish in the concrete surroundings of the city.  I find people are often surprised by that and I end up in good conversations about it. I'm a catch-and-release artificial bait-only fisher person and try to participate in fishing as ethically as I can even though there are some natural contradictions in it I contemplate. How I fish has a lot in common with music, art, performing, DJing, etc. There is a lot of collecting, selecting, practicing, pattern recognition, improvising and being totally immersed and fluid in the moment just like so many aspects of music making and performance. Beyond the fishing, the river is really special even in its concrete surroundings in the city. The history of the river in and around the city, its Indigenous history, etc. is important and worth looking into and not something easy to sum up and there is so much left for me to learn.

Dragon Dance is available to pre-order digitally and on wax via Digital Sting Records.

PREMIERE: Private Guy - Zipperworld [Kajunga Records]

We have some new heat from Kajunga Records co-founder Private Guy ready to stream. Liquid Sun, The Minneapolis-based producer and ceramicist’s debut EP, drops digitally and on wax next week. Pre-orders are available via Kajunga’s Bandcamp.

“Zipperworld” is a slow burn, like that last log on the final bonfire of the season. Dynamic, locked in, wavy, and versatile, Liquid Sun's B1 has a long shelf life. Alex says his ideal deployment of the track comes early in the day and under the sun. He sees it being played when you're “getting ready to get down, afternoon style, sort of a beach party...I can definitely see it in a spacey house sort of setting...it feels very much like bringing you on an adventure.” As a long and cold winter begins to set in, we hope we’ll get to hear it played out long before we make it back to the beach.

Armed with a pair of machines from Roland’s Boutique line, Alex utilizes a tuned-in hi-hat and a dialed in snare via a TR-08. The potent bassline and ethereal melody come courtesy of an SH-01A. “That thing is a beast in the studio...it really helped me find and identify the sound I was looking for.”

Liquid Sun has been in the works for a minute. “It took some marinating for the ideas to come forth. I think with every song you’re kind of seeing something a little different. There’s a kind of melancholy side to my work, where it can be a little more uplifting and soulful, that I think really comes across with the tracks in this album...when putting them together, we kind of realized that it was saying something together, becoming greater than the sum of its parts.”

Buy the record here, and follow Private Guy on SoundCloud.

PREMIERE: devata daun - the agreement

Devata Daun is back with an eerie, blistering dance track. In “The Agreement,” vocalist Nikki Pfeifer describes a deeply personal and transformative spiritual experience over a quick and stuttering footwork beat. Since the last Devata Daun release, Nikki has cultivated her trademark “paranormal sasscore” sound with live hardware techno sets as Tekk Nikk. So why release a Devata Daun single now? 

“The universe told me to...I got into my car one day and it started playing automatically on my phone. I took that as a sign...it made me remember my passion for being a vocalist, being a singer/songwriter, because Tekk Nikk is such a different way that I write.”

Originally planned as a remix for a Devata Daun release that was ultimately canned, Nikki decided to release “The Agreement” on its own. The expanding and contracting synths paired with layered and filtered vocals connect the track to the 2018 Devata Daun EP Pye Luis, but “The Agreement” marks a departure from Devata Daun’s prior R&B via chillwave sound. As far as Devata Daun tracks are concerned, Nikki plans to continue lending lyrics and vocals to Uymitsu’s productions. 

“I really love working with producers. I do my own productions, but I don’t really enjoy devoting time on a DAW. I’d rather write a live set as Tekk Nikk. I really like working with [Uymitsu]...we’re going to continue working in that way, where I’ll be doing vocals and lyrics, and he’ll be doing production on the dance tracks.” 

Nikki hopes “The Agreement” resonates with people navigating the complexities of life on this plain, while remaining open to the paranormal called to mind in the track. “We’re so powerful, and I just want people to know that about themselves.” 

"The Agreement" is available for download via Devata Daun's Bandcamp.

Follow Devata Daun: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Instagram

PREMIERE: heckadecimal - thousands of baby spiders reverse hang gliding

Before a live set in June 2018, Josh Bestgen realized he left a power supply for his Avalon Bassline synth, the “heart of [his] setup,” at home. “I was annoyed, but I had enough stuff that I could still play, so I did.” Had the cord made it into his bag, that Heckadecimal set would’ve sounded a bit like his upcoming LP Spider Dreams. Luckily, Josh recorded a practice set beforehand, “so that’s what half the reease is based on...the other half is just sort of tracks from over the years, some recent, and some actually quite old.”

“Thousands of Baby Spiders Reverse Hang Gliding” is the uptempo seventh cut from the record. After tying up loose ends from the prior track, “Baby Spiders” gives way to a melancholy synth line, which stands in stark contrast to the track’s quick, stuttering hi-hats and muffled kick. Midway through, a couple of slippery dueling acid basslines take over and drive the energy up. “I used my Machinedrum to remix synth riffs and beats on the fly,” Josh said of his process. “It’s pretty fucking fun.”

Spider Dreams drops on Thursday, February 18, and is available for preorder digitally or on CD from Diffuse Reality Records.

Follow Heckadecimal: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Always Human Tapes / Instagram