An insanely difficult record to find featuring Master Plan, with synthesizers by Tom O’Callaghan and vocals by Pepper Gomez, ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’ was born in the early Chicago House Days and went on to achieve cult status and become part of the history of House forever.
The next 12” in Dark Entries Editions is one of the all time Italo Disco club classics: My Mine – ‘Hypnotic Tango’. My Mine were the trio of Stefano Micheli (vocals, keyboards), Carlo Malatesta (vocals, keyboards), and Danilo Rosati (drums, keyboards) formed from the ashes of Italian New Wave group Ipnotico Tango in 1982. They shifted focus from the experimental post punk sounds towards something more commercial with which to try and enter the market, namely to make a record. Their catchy 1983 hit “Hypnotic Tango” is one of the essential underground anthems of the scene, so influential that it was remixed by Frankie Knuckles (his legendary 1987 Powerhouse mix is featured on this very edition) and sampled by Detroit innovator Carl Craig.
Mannequin Records and Platform 23 come together to start a series of stand-alone reissues of the music of post-punk / industrialists Bourbonese Qualk, starting with their 1983 album Laughing Afternoon. Formed in Southport during the late-70s, the band came to prominence out of South London’s squat scene via their own Recloose Organisation. Early releases including the band’s first experiments put to tape and the now highly sought after Sudden Departure compilation featuring luminaries Colin Potter, Eg Oblique Graph (Bryan Jones) and Lol Coxhill, laid the foundations of their burgeoning sound. Recorded and produced at the Recloose Studios in Camberwell in 1983, Simon Crab, Julian Gilbert and Steven Tanza infused their music with politically charged atmospherics, instrumental exploration, heavily laden reverb and dub, all projected by drum machine rhythms to assemble a musical collage which encapsulated strands beyond contemporary music. Track titles decipher little, as with the music, a discourse not belonging to a set style or movement, but crossing boundaries of supposition, pushing distortion and outernational leanings towards something else, a primordial discant. While tape loops warp the ears and spoken vocals propel songs like Blood Orange Bargain Day and To Hell With The Consequences and contrasting guitar acoustics pierce the mood on Qualk Street and Spanner In The Works, the overall embrace is claustrophobic, embedding a foreboding for the times. This unique, indulgent, cross genre melting pot where pounding rhythms, wailing trumpets, mournful melodica and electronic pulses all spiral in a contagious dissonance that heralded Bourbonese Qualk to the wider world.
A new work produced by Zurich Dada, a duo from Porto, who play a kind of calm and melancholic Synth Pop. The release comes with two original tracks from them. On side A with ‘Peta Bytes’, which includes Antoni Maiovvi and Franck Kartell remixes, who are back on Aspecto Humano. On side B is included ‘Kites’ with a banger remix from the house by Anbau.
Well renowned bass player extraordinaire, Osynlige Mann from Gothenburg releases long awaited new solo material on Hoga Nord Rekords. This 7inch contains high voltage material; ‘Airports’ and ‘Exodus’ brings tense seventies synth and early eighties electro to the table. The A-side ‘Airports’ is a Kraftwerk inspired elegy over the lumpenproletariat of the machines – aeroplanes. ‘No sleep for the big machines, no rest for the sad machines’. The B-side, ‘Exodus’ carries more obvious characteristics from Osynlige Mann’s other electronic projects.
Now-legendary producer, DJ, and art director Juan Mendez arguably reset techno at least twice. Once with his surreal and Europe-by-way-of-LA ’80s surrealist apocalypse culture aesthetics for Sandwell District, and again–as Silent Servant–with his “Jealous God” imprint that captured the youth-driven mutation of crossover electronics and dark parties churning in the American underground, which followed directly in the wake of his game-changing modern classic, Negative Fascination. Mendez has evolved to more aggressive and stripped-down acid punk electro dance attacks on Silent Servant’s equally vital follow-up, Shadows of Death and Desire. While many would stall after the success of a now contemporary cult classic, Mendez took his time to deliver a more raw–yet refined–brutalism in his second album.
FRAK are back on track with this dreamy album with deep dark hypnotic slow rhythmic tracks. This is experimental analog and haunting dancemusic at slow BPMs which gives you a glimpse of Swedish smalltown dystopia in all its glory. The A1 track might give the impression that this is a romantic record and the A side in general will make big city people feel the urge to move to small towns again, but on the B-side it just gets darker and weirder (the smalltown kinda reveals its ugly underbelly) and it all ends with a track that would make the taped nipples fake fetishists in techno city shiver. I could say you need a mask to play this out, but lets not take it that far.
In 3 years DJ Nephil has taken Gravitational Waves into the contemporary dance music paradigm with tenacity. Nephil has built Gravitational Waves into a formidable entity and the culmination of this effort brings results with his latest EP. Here the label continues in powerful form with 6 cuts of raw metallic persuasion from Nick Klein, Enrique, Hannibal lll, Unhuman Betek and DJ Nephil himself.
“Klirrfaktor” is Berlin-based producer Hanno Leichtmann’s second release as Gesetz Der Oktaven, once again on Third Ear. Gesetz Dr Oktavn is strongly influenced by ’80s bands Liaisons Dangereuses, CH BB, and sporadically DAF but goes more in the direction of Techno and Electro. As before, the musical instruments and equipment define the project and the sound. Hanno used a drum machine, a MiniMoog sequenced by a TB 303, a vintage Drum Synth and six effect combinations for the delay / reverb tracks, all though a large Soundtracs desk from the 1980s with 16 channels and 6 Aux Sends for effects. Once again, all the track titles are old or obsolete studio/audio terms.
808Hz comes back with his second EP, this time as the first 12″ release of CAF?, a newly born swiss label. It contains five darkwave-oriented tracks filled with a feeling of anger brought back by the insecurity of being confronted to a pessimist over-industrialized future. Entirely composed of analogic vibrations, Cabane 8 is a relentless robotized assembly line made of a powerful core that won’t ever stop pulsating.
For his latest release on Bordello, Uabos builds on his past sound while folding new elements into his layered style. “Shadow” is the eponymous introduction, a track that sways between dawn and dusk, light and dark, as it dances between bright addictive keys and twilight tones. That search for contrast is carried into the thick beats of “Egoland”, beats countered by cascading notes that slip and slide from sweetened funk to devil-may-care debauchery. Industrial undercurrents and greying skies arrive with the Chicago inspired fuel that is “Elevator.” The curtain fall comes in the aptly named “Emotion.” A supremely powerful piece of snapping snares, full-bodied bass and cutting keys for a terrific finale for a terrific 12”.
The wunderkind from Wichita, Kansas collates another wonderful release on his own Moran Music Group, featuring music from Karlos’ archive old and new. Expect more of the same deep and warm vibes, all made with a special and loving touch.
TSC 1 is Too Smooth Christ’s first release on AVA. Records. Five fine dance tracks straight from Paris, great for every occasion.
Northern Powerhouse kick things into gear on their sixth release with snarling and grizzly analogue bass on the A and machine heavy percussion and distorted tones on the flip. One for dark rooms and deafening sound systems
NYE Musical Tasting: standing dinner & party / 31.12.2018
Continue reading “New Year’s Eve Musical Tasting @ Habermann Markt (Sibiu) 31.12.2018”
The Hipodrome Of Music 