FP197 / Rechord – Alias Vol.1 [FS012]

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The Chicago based Finale Sessions comes with Vol 1 of Finale Sessions new ‘Alias’ series. 2 pseudononymous deep house producers, 1 from Detroit & 1 from Queens. FP197 drops a 2am bass heavy dream while Rechord delivers an atmospheric building block.

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FP197 / Rechord – Alias Vol.1 [FS012]

Charles Manier – Charles Manier [NAT013]

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Ill new Charles Manier album on Chicago’s, Nation. This self titled album takes that noise and cranks it right up over tipping point. Nation, a label designed to push the underground to a new level of electronic sound thru experimental styles of musical consciousness. In our recent releases the idea is to never go with the same formula twice. Jakbeat introduces a new concept of productions, music with a sense of novelty that can be accentuated in a certian setting a state of mind. This is a rare assemblage of recordings and live performances from the archives of the Ballard and Ridgewood-Cantullinix Studios in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Recorded 2001-2012, these are the solo visions of Charles Manier. He summons the spirit of early industrial music and breathes in it’s corpse again. Not unlike his previous releases on Ghostly International,here are virtigo endusing arpeggios that twist around a futuristic pulse, and occasionally sting. Here are ritual themesongs for the heathen cyberpunk and experimental landscapes, built from old metal and old plastic, that were designed for a lost future recommended for people who dance to Esplendor Geometrico, Severed Heads, Suicide Liaisons Dangereuses, DAF, Psyche, Executive Slacks & Das Ding.

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Charles Manier – Charles Manier [NAT013]

Smersh – Cassette Pets [DE035]

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Dark Entries has dug deep in the New Jersey basement of Smersh to release the double LP compilation “Cassette Pets”. Smersh was the duo of Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard, who started writing music together in the late 1970s. They were uninterested in traditional notions of songwriting or live performance. Everything they needed was in Piscataway NJ: a basement full of musical toys and instruments, novelty space microphones, a TR-606 (the same “Roland” who was listed as a member of Big Black), a SH-09 (Cabaret Voltaire’s favorite synth), and — perhaps most importantly — a couple of tape recorders. By 1981, this dedication to spontaneous creativity had already produced countless recordings, and the duo began releasing cassettes as Smersh via their own Atlas King label. On “Cassette Pets” are 17 songs, featuring some of the many highlights from Smersh’s vast discography, spanning 1981-1994. Smersh’s sound is a lush hybrid of techno, industrial, dance, and experimental. Sometimes easy, sometime not. Most songs revolve around driving EBM style beats, intricate industrial noise manipulation and synth melodies. The Smersh sound has so many faces it doesn’t fall into any one category.

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Smersh – Cassette Pets [DE035]

The Product – Alive Again LP [DE034]

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The Product were a duo from the small villages Kvistgaard and Espergaerde, in the north of Denmark. Dan Stielow Mortazavi wrote the lyrics and sang while Kenneth Neuhaus composed the music and played the instruments. They met in the Autumn of 1982 and recorded their sole album “Alive Again” over a weekend. The LP features 11 songs recorded in two short live takes directly onto one cassette. The Product employed a basic set up of Micromoog, Roland JX-3P and TR-606 Drumatix. Nine of the songs employ only these two synthesizers and drum machine while two songs feature a guest bassist. With these three instruments they crafted melodic, icy electronic rhythms with detached vocals. Lyrics revolve around growing up in broken homes, alienation and romance.

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The Product – Alive Again LP [DE034]

Soviet Soviet – Summer, Jesus LP [MNQ033]

MNQ 033 Soviet Soviet - Summer, Jesus LP cover art

Mannequin label from Rome release the “Summer, Jesus” LP by Soviet Soviet, first released on Tannen Records. This post punk LP includes 6 tracks and is burning mix of new wave and dark geometric linear reflections that are then.

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Soviet Soviet – Summer, Jesus LP [MNQ033]

Profligate – Videotape [NNF265LP]

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The retirement of Noah Anthony’s Night Burger alias dovetails fluidly into his latest / greatest burned-mind industrial vehicle, Profligate. Anthonys new musical operational model retains the eerie bleakness and concrete atmospheres of his previous project but sculpts them into more maximal, dynamic constructions. Videotape is his vinyl debut, and lays out the agenda with stark, menacing clarity. The title track is a pummeling ascent of chugging drum machines, flatliner synth electricities and strobe light sequencer detailsa digital bloodrush to the head one can (almost) dance to. “Conditioning Trench” rides a buzzing, dystopian bass-pulse strafed with vintage Roland claps, while a paranoid synth melody runs through a dubbed-out void into an exquisite vanishing point. Shadows of Sandwell District-ish negative techno flash forth here and there, but it’s refracted through a rawer, more physical post-noise basement worldview.

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Profligate – Videotape [NNF265LP]

Ceramic Hello – The Absence Of A Canary [SUCTION024]

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Reissue of Ceramic Hello’s seminal 1981 LP, ”The Absence of a Canary.” A long-time cult favourite among fans of obscure ’80s synthpop, this LP remains highly sought-after by ”minimal synth” vinyl collectors.

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Ceramic Hello – The Absence Of A Canary [SUCTION024]

Nancy Fortune – Remain Human [NAT012]

Cover art - Nancy Fortune: Remain Human

Minimal wave album by Nancy Fortune on Chicago label Nation. Its about times of change and transformation, where we feel odd, lost or alienated. Life comes and goes, people in our life come and go, emotions come and go. we have a limited time on this planet and nothing stays the same and everything is in constant change.

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Nancy Fortune – Remain Human [NAT012]

Altres – Archives LP [DE033]

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Altres are a band from Dundee, Scotland who originally formed in 1983. They were playing mostly instrumental, improvised electronic music at a time when very few bands, if any, were making this type of music in the UK. The Altres’ initial line-up was Jeremy Bryning (synths), Joseph Donnelly (synths), Kevin L. Guthrie (synths, sequencer, drum machine), Brian Hutton (synths, sequencer, vocoder), Mike Nelson (guitar) and Maurice Richardson (synths, sequencer, polysynth, drum machine). Most Altres compositions begin with a sequence and a drum pattern. These wrap around arpeggiated synth pulses, and are accompanied by shrill feedback. Instruments used on the recordings include Casio MT40 Moog Prodigy, EDP Wasp, Roland SH-101, Casio VL-Tone, Korg MS20, MS50, SQ10 Poly-61, Ibanez guitar and vocoder. All of the instruments are fed through various effects and echo units. Everything is played and recorded live – there are no overdubs.

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Altres – Archives LP [DE033]

Nite Fields – Vacation [LRR004]

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Nite Fields are Brisbane new-wave electro band who make cold, hypnotic tracks swimming in grim atmospherics.  Recorded and mixed entirely by themselves, the new single “Vacantion” was released on Lost Race Records. The EP includes two tracks “Vacantion” and “Hell/Happy”.

Nite Fields – Vacation [LRR004]

Benjamin Brunn – A Sun Life [3EEP201210]

Benjamin Brunn has been honing his distinctive and original sound over a series of intermittent releases. His use of the Nord Modular synth is one of the defining characteristics of his sound. He uses the instrument in a wide-ranging and original way, accompanied by a Roland TR707 drum machine. “A Sun Life” was not conceived as a piece of work with a theme. Over a period of two years, Benjamin Brunn sent tracks to Third Ear. Slowly the album began to take shape and become A Sun Life, an album full of different vibes, different grooves, different flows. “A Sun Life” shows Benjamin Brunn achieving something like a perfection of his sound.  All the tracks have a fluidity and viscosity, whether like water or oil or honey .. air or sunlight. They start, flow and grow, shift and shimmer, their latent power held in some kind of check. Then they dissipate and fade.

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Benjamin Brunn – A Sun Life [3EEP201210]

Ron Trent – Raw Footage [EB001CD]

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The tone always makes the music. But only those who actually make the sound? An ancient-house-avantgarde dream has always been there since the legendary Warehouse days of Ron Hardy, to bring more sounds and tones constantly to an independent, repetitive development. And thus beyond the limits of an executive creative artist on the otherwise purely commercial sense what we call in common beyond imagination. “Raw Footage”, the latest album concoction of Chicago house legend Ron Trent on his new imprint Electric Blue works in the best sense of Stanislav Lem heroes Trurl & Klapauciusals, cruising like those two metal brains frantically invented by the universe of 4/4-Sounds to get insane tracks out of the new material matter located there, and put them together to brand new ones. This trackwerk varies as well as of course between classical Chi-Town to the context of contemporary, epic house dubs and lives in a perfidious manner from the interaction of various computer modules that constantly spits out new and exciting interactions.

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Ron Trent – Raw Footage [EB001CD]

Basic Soul Unit – Motional Response [STILLMCD008]

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Through the years, Basic Soul Unit has established a solid following for his quality melodic techno. “Motional Response” is a work of art. A finely crafted suite of ten tracks where elaborate techno rhythms battle with intricate synth harmonies to create a genre defining full length. Throughout this album, 303s, 909s and 808s are a constant nod to Basic Soul Unit’s Detroit and Chicago influences without ever compromising his melodic vision in techno and house. The album is  including “Breath” , Basic Soul Unit’s first track with a vocalist along with a remix from label owner Jerome Derradji (with Gerald Mitchel – on strings).

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Basic Soul Unit – Motional Response [STILLMCD008]

Kris Wadsworth – Life & Death [GPMCD059]

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Get Physical presents Kris Wadsworth and his debut album – ‘Life and Death’. Opening with the dark monologue of “Alienated American”, the stage is set for a look into what Kris is capable of when he turns his thoughts to sound. “It’s the present state of the music I make.” explains Kris, “It is a look into the future of my music, what I am capable of, but also limited to by label aesthetics.” While tracks like “Definition Of” are pretty straightforward in their own right, pieces like ‘Famous Anus’ are full of irony. “Music is my career, so it is ‘Life and Death’ to a certain extent. But also, there are too many uptight people in this industry that take themselves too seriously. It’s me: Serious music which also makes fun of the world around me.” On the other end of the scale is “Girl Talk”, a deep and gripping track, bringing a perfect late night vibe together through various pads and the organic percussion. The present vocal lines provide a rhythm and weave a thread throughout not only this track, but the general spirit of the album. The album operates on a very natural level, providing deep dancefloor gems along with timeless tracks for every occasion.  It’s not your typical dance album, it pushes boundaries and challenges your expectations because that’s where it plays at it’s best – on the edge of your comfort zone, expanding your horizons and tastes while consistently delivering on all fronts.

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Kris Wadsworth – Life & Death [GPMCD059]