Slime Beach EP, my first official release on Civil Music, is out today. It features four new originals as well as a slew of remixes from some truly unique and multi-talented producers from the East Coast and London. From the press release:

‘Slime Beach’ is a slinky angry rasta crunk explosion. Manically ascending 3-octave synth kalimba arpeggios are punctuated by mammoth sharp 808 kicks and g-funk square leads rising up like a symphony, with extra vibraslap for the win. ‘Stoneskipper’ pushes uptempo, again juicing the bass bins with distorted square waves that mutate and screech, while percussion samples salvaged from a dusty Polynesian ethnographic recording keep things generally funky. ‘Back ‘N’ Forth’ is deeper, with brooding detuned pads washing over solid 808 footwork rhythms while two tracks of severely panned vocal mantras intertwine and separate in polyrhythm. ‘Island’ is the most melodic of the bunch, a jubilant glittery synth workout underpinned by quaking sub kicks constantly on the verge of erupting into new and more violent ranges of infrasound.

On remix detail, the recently unmasked Phillip D Kick (read the story of the Footwork Jungle EP Series) and Providence’s best kept secret, The Range, both rework ‘Slime Beach’. Kick’s last-ever remix takes a hybrid half-step juke-junglist route and adds club punch to what is an already arresting number. The Range meanwhile looks in a smoother and more translucent direction, swapping the emphasis to new vocal samples that grow into a majestic and euphoric epic. ’Back ‘n’ Forth’ is retooled by London’s Drop/Dead and Baltimore’s howse. Drop/Dead’s remix shifts into deep funky old school boom bap electro with a Frankenstein new vocal mantra (“What the F***?”), while howse redefines the brooding darkness of the original with a churning ambient track like early Boards of Canada but with a juke sensibility. The EP rounds off with a blast from the imagination of S. Maharba, whose haunting take on ‘Stoneskipper’ showcases his beautifully gloomy yet majestically soulful approach to beatcrafting.

Here’s a preview of the EP on Soundcloud:

Slime Beach EP (CIV028) // PREVIEW // 12” Vinyl & Digital Out 7/11 on Civil Music by Kuhn

And here’s a full play of ‘Slime Beach,’ ripped from Mary Anne Hobbs’ show on XFM last Saturday.

Mary Anne Hobbs Rinses ‘Slime Beach’ on XFM (10.28.11) by Kuhn

Gotta send huge love and thanks to my sister Paige for organizing a surprise party for me this weekend celebrating the release of this record and my 23rd birthday coming up on Wednesday. As you can see, she’s a professional baker:

Who else gets a red velvet 1200 and his first test pressing on his birthday?

Supreme happiness. Thank you all for your support.

(Bennett) Kuhn

PS - Check back here this week, I’ll be following this up with a post every day about each of the remixers, leading up to a major announcement this weekend about our next Astro Nautico release.