After releasing his music on the labels like Mathematics, Macadam Mambo, Hotmix and Snuff Trax, Takeshi Kouzuki, Japanese producer currently based in Kobe, starts his own label Man Made Mechanical Culture. The first EP is delivered with his own 3 raw house tracks mainly made of analogue synth and rhythm machine sounds.
After landing his malfunctioning PX-4000 on the purple planet, Captain DMX steps out of the smoldering cockpit. After barely setting foot on the dusty landscape, the Captain is startled by deep thudding from over the hills. Dragging his oxygen pack with one hand and his atomizer with the other, he sets off in search of the other-wordly din. Over the hill his pupils adjust to the stroboscopic lightning and below him lies a sea of strange creatures moving together as one body. A cosmic sermon takes place under the three suns in the sky, mechanical and stuttered frequencies set a manic pace and drive the dark creatures back and forth. Captain DMX sighs a heavy breath and starts to descend into the fray….
Under his Chemotex alias, Marcos Cabral has been one of The Trilogy Tapes most productive artists in recent times. Thulsa strives to get a balance between becalmed techno hypnotism, skuzzy grooves and gently melodious intent. This blend is perhaps most satisfyingly mixed on the industrial-tinged clank of “Delta City”, though the woozier, scuffled late night warmth of “Music For Security” pushes it close. Twice he heads towards deeper territory; first on the title track’s trance-inducing synthesizer loop groove, and secondly on the dubby, locked-in tech-house majesty of “Lorentz”.
Bookworms and Max Ravitz aka Patricia team up as Pulpo and givimg you some dusty Brooklyn haze. While it may be challenging for most dancefloors, the guts and murk of these tracks are sure to get you in the proper headspace for a night sinking deep into the couch.
For the second installment of their four-part collaboration with Amsterdam streetwear brand Patta, Dekmantel unleash a tasty long sleeve t-shirt and another three previously unheard tracks from a trio of homegrown talents. Veteran producer and former Rednose Distrikt man Awanto3 kicks things off, joining the dots between the starry sounds of Detroit techno and Mood Hut style new age deep house on the dreamy “Cover Up”. Flip for the old skool Detroit techno-meets-deep house bounciness of Mark Du Mosch’s “2nd 5ystem”, and Robert Bergman’s “Wings”, an out-there, acid-flecked trip into deep space paranoia that defies easy categorization. All three tracks are undeniably strong, making this one of the more alluring volumes in an altogether excellent series.
The first release on the new obscure Belgian label PRR! PRR! in coming from Maoupa Mazzocchetti. A proper belter for those who it love it raw and off the wall.
Super Rhythm Trax is back with a fresh new artist G-23 who delivers 2 monstrous slabs of Mongrel Acid music. “Kidding Kids” is an ultra fresh beast of a track that sits comfortably outside classification, melding Acid with a super heavy breakbeat and peppered with UK Garage references. “Mountain’s Acid” goes for a straight up 4/4 Acid track with a deep bubbling Acid line that hooks you early and keeps you locked throughout. On the B side label boss Jerome Hill is on remix duties turning in a tracky Acid version of Mountain’s Acid with a heavy bottom end and funky percussion
Norwegian-Italian producer Pelifics makes disco, infused with a strong homage to 80’s pop, and a little dash of 90s house. The result is melodic, inspiring, kicking, danceable music that leave the listener oscillating between sounds of youthful nostalgia and the future sound of disco. Next to the lush ultracrisp feel of the original track, full of light , warmths, thoughtful ideas it´s Chmmr and Fett Burger. Chmmr with his fantastic translucent strings and Fett Burger with a remarkable intro to a new ‘beatless’ approach.
The third release on the Nous Ethos Series….. this time it’s a bright and bubbling 6 tracker from another unannounced artist.
Yanneck “Quarion” Salvo has been relatively quiet of late, with his last 12″ dropping midway through 2014. The four cuts gently pull in subtly different directions, with the blissfully spacey synth melodies and long builds of “Lost Coordinates” being followed by the bass-heavy, deep house basement funk of “A Thousand Questions”. Flip for the relentless organ stabs, shaker-heavy grooves, twisted synth lines and bumpin’ bassline of “Burnin”, and the fantastically broken P-funk workout that is “You Were The Only”.
Mr. Beatnick returns to DBA after a two year hiatus following his Synthetes Trilogy series, with a new direction and a 4 track EP which represents his most floor-focussed work to date. Opening cut Stutter is an immaculately crafted deep techno bomb which features the trademark sound familiar to fans of the London producer’s work, whilst title track Formed In The Stance and flip-side Obsidian Morning explore an eyes-down, moody, broken sound which will no doubt ring a bell for devotees of the seminal Co-Op nights.
Smackos is one of Danny ‘Legowelt’ Wolfers lesser-known aliases. It was first used in 2004 for The Age of Candy Candy, a suitably eccentric experimental electronica full-length that was only ever released on CD in limited quantities. Here that album finally appears on vinyl thanks to the efforts of Berceuse Heroique, and it’s every bit as weird, wonderful and out-there as you’d expect, with Wolfers pursuing his passion for spacey, weightless electronics, far-out soundscapes, occasional skuzzy rhythms and dystopian synthesizer workouts. It’s previously been something of a hidden gem in his vast discography, and should be an essential purchase.
Alessio Natalizia’s Not Waving moniker goes from strength to strength, even since ending his collaboration with Sam Willis in the highly regarded Walls project. Now focusing on the textured, modular workouts and cinematic synth journeys seen on the brilliant two previous albums Umwelt and Human Capabilities, he returns with his most ambitious outing yet. This double LP gathers together all the material Natalizia issued on the cassette series of the same name and is a must for those who like their electronics immersive to the max. From the retro futurism of “Witzelsucht” and “It Needs No Medication” to the brazen industrial attitude of “The Behaviourist Approach” and “Creating Capabilities” there are many moods of his musical identity that he explores here. But for most part its the beauty in the soulful mechanical soundscapes that he creates on this imaginary soundtrack, particularly on “Part of Thought”, “Dangerously Well” and “Negative Reinforcement”.
For his last outing on Hospital Productions, Nine Inch Nails collaborator Alessandro Cortini utilized just two pieces of equipment: a Roland MC-202 and a delay pedal. For this follow-up, he’s expanded his toolbox a little, supplementing those hardware pieces with two further machines: a Roland TR-606 and TB-303. Musically, Risveglio inhabits a similar space to its predecessor, with Cortini creating blurry, fluid dreamscapes built around semi-rhythmic loops, distorted chords and fuzzy ambient textures. Listeners may struggle to spot the TB-303 – most often used to create ragged waves of intense electronics – such is the unique way in which Cortini manipulates it. Regardless, the Italian’s post-industrial, half-awake soundscapes are thoroughly mesmerizing.
Most pieces consist of a repeating chord progression, where the real change happens at a spectral/dynamic level, as opposed to the harmonic/chordal one. I believe that the former are just as effective as the latter, in the sense that the sonic presentation (distortion , filtering, wave shaping, etc) are just as expressive as a chord change or chord type, and often reinforce said chord progressions.
The Ukrainian techno producer Stanislav Tolkachev will release his third record with Semantica.
Cortex means the nerves in brain used for thinking. On fishing boat this part of brain can sometimes stop working due to lack of sleep and repetitive noise of sea. Alex Cortex is clever man who thinks much about music and also names because ‘Spike Train’ is actually a science word for what nerves do. This confuse simple fishermen at first because this track does not sound like a train, more like when you drive very fast and noises outside your window vanish fast into the distance so that you experience much in a short time. But does not matter as we like the sound – drums on this one are snappy and funksome with big deep bass and a lot happening to occupy nerves. As well as original there is nice mix from Florian Kupfer which is very much simpler and has loud scary kicks which are like the 90s gabber music but actually nice to listen to. ‘Multi’ EP also has ‘Time Texture’ which is maybe not so much a track for dancing to and sounds more like frog blowing bubbles in x-ray machine. Perseus Traxx takes this tune and adds a big descending electro bassline so frog can journey to centre of earth. People who wish techno to tingle head nerves and then forget about head nerves because body nerves are working should buy this record.
The Hipodrome Of Music 