The New Funkadelic Revival: Read Our Exclusive Interview with Boulevards' Jamil Rashad On Bringing Funk Back To The People and His New Album →

“Funk is the DNA for hip hop,” George Clinton once said in a television interview, when asked why his music had such staying power. It’s true, funk music is the double helix of sorts for the hip hop that rose from the streets to the top of the record label chain and to a sort of a blanketed commerciality that makes the rap music of today seem very watered down. This is where Boulevards comes in – not only are they bringing back the downhome funkiness of hip hop, they are also making funk music for the 21st century, which is amazing. Click here to read our interview with Boulevards' Jamil Rashad on his new album and bringing funk back to the people. 

Watch Small Black's Incredibly Touching and Cinematic Music Video for the Track Boy's Life

Small Black's music video for the track Boy's Life, off their upcoming album Best Blues (out on October 16th on Jagjaguar),  is a burst of youthful exuberance and heartache that may leave a lump in your throat. The video was directed by the inimitable Nick Bentgen who has been working with the band since its inception in 2009. Starting with the “Despicable Dogs” video from the Small Black EP, Bengten and the band have collaborated on three other videos since then. Small Black lead singer Josh Kolenik says of Bentgen, “He functions almost as a fifth band member, assigning images to the sounds that come out of our heads, populating them with sprawling casts and endless locales, yet never missing the quiet moment. With ‘Boys Life,’ he's getting at a simple reflection on being young, and the many identities we all try out on our paths to figuring out how we might be. Falling through the city on the way to our lives.”

Premier of Autre Ne Veut's Video for The Track “Age of Transparency” Off Upcoming Album

Since announcing his new album, Age of Transparency, this past August, Autre Ne Veut has shared a video for "World War Pt.2,” a jazz version of that single, the single “Panic Room” and its accompanying video, featuring Ashin singing acapella. Today, in a special collaboration with Yours Truly and Wetransfer, Arthur Ashin of Autre Ne Veut shares a music video  for the titular single, Age of Transparency, as the final tastes of the album before its release next week (on Downtown). Director Allie Avital, who is responsible for both of the album’s previous videos, claims Age of Transparency’s cover art as her inspiration. She explains; “I caught one of the marble figures eating Thai noodles during lunch and was really moved by how beautiful and somewhat sad that image was. Over the course of the last few months, we [Avital & Ashin] developed this mythology of a dystopian office where the businesspeople have turned to marble, and this mischievous Puck-like character plays amongst them.” Click here to preorder the album. 

Hear The First Track Off John Malkovich's Insane Plato-Inspired New Album In Collaboration With Yoko Ono and Others →

John Malkovich is releasing a concept album entitled Like A Puppet Show in collaboration with producer Sandro Miller, famous for the series of photographs featuring Malkovich in recreations of the some of the most iconic photographs. The album features Malkovich reading Plato’s Allegory Of The Cave over a score composed by Eric Alexandrakis. Click here to listen to the first track. 

Read Our Convo With Surf Noir Quartet La Luz's Frontwoman Shana Cleveland On Their Patently Sinister Sound and The Accident That Almost Ended Everything →

It seems like something dark and catastrophic always happens right before surf-noir quartet La Luz records an album. Before the first album, it was a mass shooting in Seattle. Before the second album, it was a catastrophic car accident on a highway whilst the band was on tour. All of this misfortune, perhaps melded with the dark overcastness of the Pacific Northwest, gives the band a murderous and deliciously baleful sound. Click here to read the full interview. 

For Autre's Fourth Friday Playlist We Present A Selection Of Tunes To Help With Your Post Fashion Week Comedown

The last two weeks have been madness for those of us amongst the art and fashion media. Who ever decided that New York Fashion Week and Art Gallery Back to School should fall on the same week is a terrible person. Perhaps there wasn't as much overlap in the art and fashion worlds when this was decided? Click here to listen to the ultimate playlist – a little ambient, drone and chilled out IDM – to help with your post fashion and art week come down. 

First Look At Deer Hunter's Psychedelic Music Video For the Track Breaker Off Upcoming Album

Deerhunter have shared a new track 'Breaker', the second to be aired from their forthcoming new album Fading Frontier, out October 16th via 4AD. 'Breaker' finds two of Deerhunter's founding members, Bradford Cox and Lockett Pundt, sharing vocal duties in their first ever duet. The track follows the premiere of the intoxicating garage funk of 'Snakeskin' last month. Directed by Bradford Cox (additional photography from Lockett Pundt), the luminous 'Breaker' video stars Cox and Pundt alongside Deerhunter members Moses Archuleta and Josh McKay. Click here to preorder. 

Grimes Protégé Nicole Dollanganger Shares Video for Angels of Porn

Canadian based songstress Nicole Dollanganger is one of our new artists. It's no wonder since Grimes found her first and put her first album out on a newly created record label Eerie Organization. Dollanganger's album, entitled Natural Born Losers, will be out on October 9th and she will be going on tour supporting Grimes.  Natural Born Losers finds the artist stepping out of the bedroom and into the studio for the first time. Dollanganger's tender, harrowing portraits of secret pain and suffocating loneliness now occupy a much wider and grander canvas than ever before, confidently realizing a new level of scope and detail that her previous work only suggested.

Noah Wall Called A Bunch of His Cool Friends and Asked What They Did or Do Call Their Grandparents And Made An Entire EP

Today is officially National Grandparent's Day. In honor of this special today, not only do we urge you to visit, call or think about your father's father or mother's mother – we also urge you to listen to Noah Wall's amazing new EP. With the simple question: ‘”What did (or do) you call your grandparents?” – Wall encouraged 100 of his friends to send in their answers. With those replies, he created an amazing EP and a subsequent short animated film with 217 spoken grandparent names. Wall, who has been known for embedding himself as an audio spy in a Guitar Center and creating a series of Good Morning Instagram videos, described the project: "This pot of Nanas, Papas, Opas, Gidos, Booboos, Gagas, Gogis, and Yeahyeahs was starting to resemble some sort of psychedelic Rosetta Stone lesson." You can click here to listen to the full EP and download the album. 

For Autre's Third Friday Playlist We Invite You To Tune In and Drop Out To Some Japanese Psychedelia

No one seems to do psychedelic rock as joyously blistering as the Japanese. In this playlist, you'll find some of the most ear scorching psychonaut rock n' roll out there. Within this list is the progenitors of this whole thing, Les Rallizes Denudes, with their vampiric doo-wop stomper 'Night of the Assasins.' The immortal Kawabata Makoto is well-represented on this list, with his band Mainliner's 'M' and longstanding project Acid Mother Temple's 'Starless and Bible Black Sabbath." Kawabata's sound philosophies are a strong stand in for the philosophy of this blissful form of music. Equally influenced by Stockhausen as he is Hendrix, Makoto marries the most mind-altering textures from rock, noise, drone, and jazz to bring an aural onslaught that pummels as much as it enlightens. Click here to listen

Get Lost In A K-Hole With The Second Friday Autre Playlist That Explores Mid-90s Pro-Arena Techno

Get ready to enter a K-hole of musical nostalgia – Adam Lehrer explores a world pre Skrillex, pre Deadmau5 – the halcyon days of underground raves and candy flipping – when electronic dance music made a brief, but beautiful emergence on the mainstream radio and kids all over the world were wearing wide jeans and popped a pacifier in their mouth. Click here to listen to the playlist - with tracks by the Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy and more.  

Watch: the Music Video for Kenton Slash Demon's Track "Harpe" Is A Magical Misfit Dance Party

Copenhagen, Denmark based Kenton Slash Demon are set to release their Harpe/Syko EP on September 11th on vinyl and on September 18th digitally via Future Classic. Today, the Danes release the music video for their track Harpe off the new EP. Director Jenna Mangulad says, “The idea for the video was to create a scene that could be from a feature film, where different types of people at a bar, come together and share their love for music and dancing. The video is about those moments you experience in life, were you just let go, and lose yourself to the moment.”

For the First Friday Autre Playlist We Present a Bevy of Late 70s Art Damaged Punk Rock from Los Angeles →

For the first of Friday Autre playlists, I thought it most appropriate to highlight the quintessential Los Angeles-based punk rock bands of the late 1970s (and some '80s). Perhaps this is a cliché move, but Autre is of course a Los Angeles art magazine. The Hollywood punk bands were decidedly art leaning without exactly aspiring towards art. That is the Los Angeles art attitude; a sort of nonchalance that allows for the word to spin out of control and occasionally achieve the transcendental. Click here to read more and listen to the full playlist. 

Premier of The First Installment of Haelos' Music Video Trilogy for the Track "Earth Not Above"

Leading into the release of Haelos' “Earth Not Above” 12” on Matador, the London trio -- Arthur Delaney (vocals), Dom Goldsmith (vocals, production) and Lotti Benardout (vocals) -- present their first video, directed by Jesse Jenkins. As part one of a video trilogy, the “Earth Not Above” video carries the mood of the EP, treading the fine line between darkness and euphoria.

The Chemical Brothers Music Video for 'Sometimes I Feel So Deserted' is A Dystopian Mindfuck

Sometimes I Feel So Deserted is the second single from The Chemical Brothers' current album 'Born In The Echoes'. The music video, directed by Ninian Doff, has a distinct Spaghetti Western feel that cinematically lines up perfectly with the "discombobulating Escher-esque rhythm track." At some points during the video it's hard not to wince, but its even harder to look away. 

Sound and Vision: Read Our Interview With Eskmo On His New Album That Was Inspired By The Sun →

Brendan Angelides, better known by his stage name Eskmo, is one of those rare musical artists and composers that can combine the natural sounds of the earth and digital elements with a romantic, alchemical simplicity that is orchestrally abstract, but also extremely beautiful - like a soundtrack for a flying dream. Eskmo has used samples of field recordings from Icelandic glaciers, the rain falling in Berlin, tour bus fan noises while passing through the American Midwest, and parking garage construction in San Francisco. Indeed, Eskmo is a constant diarist of sound and vision. His latest album, SOL – which was released back in March – takes a slight departure from his previous albums, but still holds true to the lineage of using samples and drum beats – it is also rife with Eskmo’s discernible aural brush strokes that are cinematic and otherworldly. Click here to read the full interview. 

Read Our Convo With Composer and Musician Holly Herndon on The Future Of Dance Music →

Photograph by Maria Louceiro. 

Many people are quick to label San Francisco based musician and composer Holly Herndon a “futuristic” artist, but the truth of the matter is that she may actually more present than many other artists that are working in electronic music genre. Present in the sense of her intentions and her use of the tools of our time. It is the music of the future imagined ten or fifteen years ago when composers were still primitively discovering and harnessing the power that computers can offer in terms of the construction of music. Moreover, Herndon is coming to the electronic music genre with a scholarly background and a deep understanding about the processes of music – after leaving Tennessee for the Berlin club scene where she immersed herself in the sounds of that culture, she received her degree from Mills College in Oakland. She studied under the likes of John Bischoff, James Fei, Maggi Payne, and Fred Frith. This year, Herndon saw the release of Platorm on the 4AD label. It is her second official album and it is being lauded by critics across the board. Autre was lucky enough to catch up with Herndon for a convo – she discusses the state of club music, her early experiences as a choir girl growing up the South, and her blurring of the line between academia and pop music. Click here to read the full conversation.