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Beach House have had quite a release week: from New York's Bowery Ballroom to "Letterman" and now closing it out across the pond with a performance on "Later... With Jools Holland". They performed "Myth" from Bloom.

French/Argentinean producer Douster tweaks the latest single track “Strange Touch” from prolific dance music maestros Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team into what he calls a “weird house remix” which basically transforms the spaced out sounds of the original into more swagged out and tribal vibes.

Sound Pellegrino Thermal Team – Strange Touch (Douster remix) (Mediafire)

Last night was a big one for El-P. After emerging from the kind of semi-exile that swallows lesser rappers whole following 2007's I'll Sleep When You're Dead, El released two of the year's best rap albums, in two consecutive weeks: the incendiary Killer Mike record R.A.P. Music, which he produced entirely, and his own majestically gloomy fourth album Cancer for Cure. He is in the giddy flush of a late-career resurgence, and at Santos Party House, he gathered everyone responsible for the moment together.

Inside Santos, the camaraderie was thick-- I overheard people claiming to have personally "known El" for a wildly varying number of years. In this crowd, it had never stopped being 2003, and I can think of no better litmus test of this hypothesis than the fervent reaction received by the opening set by Despot, a talented galoot whose career has been stalled in launch mode arguably since it began. "I have been working on an album for 47 years," Despot deadpanned. The guy over my right shoulder screamed, desperately, as if the mere mention of Despot's abortive classic was painful to him. He plowed through the few songs he had with demonic, short-guy-in-the-crew intensity, including some promising-sounding new songs produced by Ratatat. 

El-P and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire

Despot then brought out Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, and they tore through a woozy, blunted new song produced by Spaceghostpurrp that sounded fantastic. eXquire can really fucking rap live. His voice is forceful enough on record, but on stage, it was Rick Ross-huge. After a 20-minute set, he loped off, a grinning jackal in a NYU jacket and gold-rimmed shades. 

Next was El, who takes his live shows extremely seriously, in an effortful, James Murphy sorta way. This was evidenced by the longest, most studious set-up for a rap show I've ever seen in my life. El and his band had reportedly been drilling these new songs mercilessly all week in rehearsals, and the second the first, fearsomely huge synth noise on Cancer for Cure's opener "Request Denied" fired up, the results were obvious.

El-P: "The Full Retard"

"I think I'm gonna do the whole album front to back," he announced, and then did exactly that. The sound was enormous-- I felt the hairs at the top of my head lift like I had just walked barefoot across a shag carpet. El's records, for all their grim, misanthropic lyrical concerns, have always been joyfully noisy and physical, and you could see it in his loose-limbed, even goofy demeanor as he rocked along to his music. His band, a mix of drum programming, live synths, and guitars, was both rigidly tight and visibly delighted to be playing new material; El's eyes lit up as he tested out the call-and-response potential of "Drones Over BKLYN".

Killer Mike, El-P, and Das Racist's Heems

The only hiccup came from some unfortunate sound issues during "Tougher Colder Killer", which disoriented El, Despot, and Killer Mike, who rumbled out from backstage in all black, looking nine times the size of everyone else in the building. El was visibly angry: "We cannot hear the music in the monitors," he yelled. But Killer Mike did not come all the way to New York to have his  guest verse demolished by a faulty monitor. "Hold up now, I gotta do something right quick," he bellowed, when the song was over. He then he spit his verse flawlessly, a cappella, and left with this: "I gotta say this and then I'm off your stage. I love you; you've given me new life. Finally, the world is on your dick." El blushed. Everyone screamed.

Photo by Ari Marcopoulos

The latest tribute to the Beastie Boys' Adam "MCA" Yauch comes in the form of a petition from Brooklyn residents, Billboard reports. They're asking for Brooklyn Heights' Squibb Park to be renamed after Yauch, via a Facebook-launched petition.

Squibb is currently named in honor of inventor and pharmaceutical pioneer Dr. Edward Robinson Squibb. It's in the process of being transformed into a skatepark. 

But Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kill/Le Tigre frontwoman and wife of Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, writes on the Facebook wall for the petition that there's another Brooklyn park in consideration for renaming. She tells the petitioners:

I just wanted to let you know that Adam "Adrock" Horovitz has already begun working with the Parks Commissioner to fix up and rename State Street Park where Yauch actually played as a kid to 'Adam Yauch Park'. It would be great to get people behind THIS idea as it won't hurt the Squib family and it would be awesome to fix up the bball court there as a tribute....

The New York State Senate recently honored Yauch for his contributions to New York culture with a legislative resolution. 

Watch the video for "No Sleep Till Brooklyn":

Brit punks Foals are the next in line to participate in !K7's Tapes compilation series. (Previous entries have included mixes by the Rapture and the Big Pink.) Foals Tapes will be out on July 2.

The series aims for "a selection made along the lines of an old school cassette mix tape," and Foals' entry is divided into two sides, one "more song-driven" and the other "more dance-oriented," according to a press release. It'll include tracks by Nicolas Jaar, Teengirl Fantasy, Sepalcure, Konono Nº1, Caribou, and others. 

Side A:

01 Nicolas Jaar: "Variations" 02 Clark: "Ted" (Bibio remix) 03 Dorian Concept: "Tropical Hands" 04 Condry Ziqubu "Confusion (Ma Afrika)" 05 The Invisible: "London Girl" 06 JR Seaton: "Way Savvy" (Gatto Fritto remix) 07 Blood Orange: "Dinner" 08 Tanner Ross: "B Side" 09 Teengirl Fantasy: "Cheaters" (John Talabot's Classic Vocal Refix) 10 Château Flight: "Superflight" [ft. Marie Daulne] (Maurice Fulton remix) 11 In Flagranti: "Effective Placebo Affect" 12 Tony Allen: "Kilode" (Carl Craig remix)

Side B

13 Art Department: "We Call Love" [ft. Soul Clap and Osunlade] 14 Cerrone - Give Me Love (Frankie Knuckles Remix) 15 Arnold Jarvis: "Take Some Time Out" 16 Oni Ayhun: "OAR003-B" 17 Sepalcure: "Every Day of My Life" (Jimmy Edgar remix) 18 Marshall Jefferson vs. Noosa Heads: "Mushrooms" (Justin Martin remix) 19 Julio Bashmore "Battle for Middle You" (Maurice Donovan remix) 20 Caribou: "Sun" (Midland Edit) 21 Konono Nº1: "Paradiso" 22 Gospel Comforters: "Yes God Is Real"

Watch the video for Foals' "Spanish Sahara":

Jay-Z, has owned chunks of record labels, clothing lines, restaurants, basketball teams, and now he has his own music festival. Sponsored by Budweiser, Jay-Z’s Made In America music festival is taking place in Philadelphia on September 1st and 2nd at Fairmount Park. The festival’s preliminary lineup has been announced, and it’s pretty impressive. Joining Jay-Z at the top of the bill are rock vets Peal Jam, but the festival will also bring out Skrillex, Miike Snow, Passion Pit, Santigold, Odd Future, Dirty Projectors, and Janelle Monae.

Continue reading: Jay-Z’s Made In America Festival: Preliminary Lineup

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Big K.R.I.T. just keeps on giving in 2012, he's dropped an EP and has not long announced his official debut album Live From The Underground, set for release on June 5th via Def Jam. He's now taken to SC to offer up a follow up to "I Got This" with "Yeah Dats Me" and it can be streamed in full below.

“Demons,” the best song of off Sleigh Bells less immediate, but still captivating sophomore LP, Reign of Terror, has been remixed by former tourmate and Producer of the Year (in our book), Diplo. His remix strips the song from the crunchy, explosive riffs Sleigh Bells have made a career out of, and replaces them with tightly wound blips and bloops that eventually rain down on you after a blizzard of multitracked 808s and a very catchy planar synth hook have had their turn with you. Diplo has made a bit of a mess here, but it’s the best kind.

Continue reading: Diplo Remixes Sleigh Bells

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Last night, Lupe Fiasco unveiled “Around My Way,” the Pete Rock sampling first single from his new album, wait for it, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1. Lupe fans have been waiting for a sequel to the MC’s damn near classic debut album Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor for years, and it looks like they’ll finally get it on September 25th. Listen to the first single below; we’ll update this space when more information is available:

Continue reading: Announced: Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor II

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After their Twitter feud last week, all seemed to be cool between Pauly D and

The electropop duo, Yacht, announced its "Shangri-La Tour 2012" in normal, quirky Yacht fashion--with a colorful, loud video. ... Read the full article at http://www.prefixmag.com/news/yacht-announces-tour-with-usa-is-a-ok-video/65551/

GQ's very long piece on the return of R&B deity D'Angelo is now available to read online. It contains his first interview in over a decade, in which he discusses everything from his childhood dreams of Marvin Gaye to the real meaning behind the legendary "Untitled" video to the passing of J Dilla.

It was, in fact, Dilla's 2006 death that catalyzed the comeback we're experiencing this year. Following a long battle with drugs, the collapse of his career, and a life-threatening car accident, D'Angelo learned of Dilla's passing and thought, "I felt like I was going to be next. I ain't bullshitting. I was scared then." On the day of Dilla's funeral, D'Angelo was "so fucked up" that he couldn't attend, he told GQ.

Since he began his slow climb back, D'Angelo's been throwing his energies into one thing in particular: the guitar. Questlove told GQ that "The one benefit of this eleven-year sabbatical was he used 10,000 Gladwellian hours to master the guitar. He can play the shit out of it, and I don't mean no Lil Wayne shit." Tour manager Alan Leeds hypothesized that the guitar has been a way to "take the attention away from that Chippendale's shit" that snowballed following the release of the steamy video for "Untitled (How Does It Feel?)". 

Still, while D'Angelo's been recording and touring-- and is planning to take the stage at Jay-Z's Budweiser Made in America festival in September-- he's still moving at a snail's pace. There are over 50 songs prepped, 12 of which could make it onto an album. It's tentatively planned for a September release, but nothing has been finalized.

Still: "My head is straight," he told GQ. 

Watch D'Angelo singing and playing his guitar in a video GQ made to accompany the piece:

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If Squarepusher’s latest album, Ufabulum, left you scratching your head, you’re not alone -- after ... Read the full article at http://www.prefixmag.com/news/squarepusher-discusses-ufabulum-track-by-track/65550/

How To Dress Well drops off this lush new single called “Ocean Floor For Everything” from his just announced upcoming album, Total Loss. We really adored Tom Krell’s last offering, 2010′s Love Remains, and just about everything he’s touched since, so Total Loss is one of our most anticipated albums of the year. It should arrive sometime this fall. Listen to the swirling lo-fi beauty of “Ocean Floor” below, you’ll want to grab an MP3 when you’re done.

Continue reading: New How To Dress Well: “Ocean Floor For Everything” MP3

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Early this morning we posted the Diplo remix of Sleigh Bells' Reign of Terror track, "Demons". Now comes the official video clip for the track. Directed by the band's very own Derek Miller with help from Gregory Kohn, it's a slo-mo filled live performance vid using footage from a host of dates on their US stint. It includes footage from shows in Omaha, Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Houston and you can peep it at the top of the page.

Peter Gabriel's lauded 1986 release, So, recently turned 25, and to celebrate, the art rock pioneer announced a ... Read the full article at http://www.prefixmag.com/news/peter-gabriel-announces-so-anniversary-tour/65549/

Essex, England group Morning Parade will release its self-titled debut album on June 19 via Astralwerks. The LP, produced by David Kosten (Bat For Lashes, Everything Everything), has been a long time coming as the group has built a fanbase touring (they will continue on the road this summer with Walk The Moon). Album track “Us & Ourselves" is an urgent indie rock number that veers in tempo and emotion. Be patient: the slow rise builds up to a burgeoning chorus. 

Diplo really, really likes Sleigh Bells. Back in January of last year, having spent a full 12 months ... Read the full article at http://www.prefixmag.com/media/sleigh-bells/demons-diplo-remix/65548/

We have a full version of the track "Money Makin'" from Dillon Francis and A-Trak after being teased with a snippet last week. The track is set for release on Fool's Gold and is full of feel good vibes to get you in the mood for the weekend. I'm aware it's only Tuesday but with this weather in the UK it's hard to not wish the working week away. Cut me some slack and "put the cash in my hand" and hit play below to enjoy.

Yeasayer have just announced Fragrant World, the follow-up to 2010′s critically acclaimed Odd Blood. The album will be released on August 21 through Secretly Canadian. We’ve already heard a song from the album, the hypnotic and dubby “Henrietta,” whose title apparently refers to Henrietta Lacks, a women whose unique form of cancer allowed her cells to survive after she died. Those cells lived on to help doctors cure a number of diseases including Polio. Just to give you an idea of the vibe Yeasayer are going for on Fragrant World, download “Henrietta” below:

Continue reading: Announced: Yeasayer – Fragrant World

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