Features

Deep Inside: Daft Punk 'Random Access Memories'

Hype is a necessary, though often dangerous tool for marketing music in the digital age. Now seemingly more than ever, an album's or single's success relies heavily on how many people and media outlets are talking about the product across social media and other corners of the internet before they hear it. This approach to selling records is important for obvious reasons, but isn't without its side effects, the worst of which might be how it inflates the public's expectations. When fans are worked into a tizzy over a span of months while a label slowly leaks out minute details about a particular release, they are practically manipulated into thinking this music might very well be the best thing they could ever possibly listen to. 2013 has seen an above-average amount of hype so far, with long-awaited records from acts like The Knife and Boards of Canada making unexpected appearances in the year's release calendar, but none even come close to the fanfare which preceded the fourth album by French duo Daft Punk, Random Access Memories. Read more »

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05/21/2013

10 Lessons We Learned from Together Festival

In terms of sheer scope, Together is gargantuan. The 2013 edition of the yearly Boston event was spread across eight days in a citywide selection of venues, acting as much as a test of endurance as a music festival. And based upon everything we saw this past week during our attendance of the event's fourth annual incarnation, there appear to be no signs of organizers scaling things back. Processing it all was no easy task, but after persevering through a week-plus run of DJs and live performers taking to the various Boston stages, we've come up with a list of 10 key observations about what this year's Together had to offer. Read more »

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05/20/2013

Press Play: Daphni, Wiley, Nautiluss, Glimpse, and More

Record streams, remixes, DJ sets, unreleased tunes, music videos, and more fill out the space of this week's Press Play, with an array of excellent artists—like Wiley, Nautiluss, Daphni, !!!, Steve Summers, Ejeca, Glimpse, Mark Fell, and others—contributing their fresh productions and well-curated selections. We think the music on offer is well worth the time it takes to start clicking those play buttons, which can be done after the jump. Read more »

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05/17/2013

High Five: RP Boo

When throwing the word "veteran" around with the players of Chicago's juke/footwork scene, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that RP Boo was making moves roughly a decade before the likes of DJ Rashad and DJ Spinn. The artist born Kavain Space is credited with being a key part of creating the hyped-up ghetto-house sound back in the late '90s, and he certainly has the experience, stories, and production chops to prove it. Maybe that makes him something of a legend in relation to his contemporaries, which is why it's even more surprising that RP Boo's debut LP, Legacy, was released just this week via Planet Mu. To do our part in marking the special occasion, we asked Space to select for us five tunes he believes to be integral to the history of footwork, and the DJ/producer came back to us with a list of music and anecdotes spanning eight years of Windy City music and culture. Read more »

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05/16/2013

Hi, Doctor Nick! - Tips for Working with Vocalists and the Audience Adds to Some of the Doctor's Past Advice

We're not ashamed to say it. We love Nick Hook. And not just because he's funny or cool or knows lots of rad DJs and producers (although all those things are true). It's because he genuinely wants to help. He's been around the music game for a while, has picked up a lot of wisdom along the way, and is truly happy to pass along the knowledge he's accumulated. That's certainly what happens here every Thursday morning, when the good doctor answers questions from our readers about music, DJing, travel, production, gear, romance, and more. Hit him up doctornick@xlr8r.com. He just might help you too.

Hey y'all.

Hope all is well. It's hard to believe that May is already halfway over.

I've been hiding out since Term One of RBMA ended. I'm just trying to learn some new stuff over here. Read more »