Synapsis Records with four Murph Tone Jack Session reinterpretations by Chicago producers Chicago Skyway, G. Marcell, Ike Release, and Steven Tang. Their contributions expand the Jack Session with deep and rhythmic tunes that will rock from warehouse to boats.
Latest installment of the limited series from the home of Ivan Drago. This one sees another split with Beau Wanzer back at the helm controlling the a-side with more heavy handed beat tracks made for mixing, while the b-side is a very nasty warehouse techno beast by NJB.
Here is the third and final part of my 2013 review, featuring my favorite albums released last year. In the first part of the review, the preferences of hipodrome followers are shown, according to the number of click and stars. In the second part, I presented some of my favorite events and performances from last year.
Now here it comes the serious business. Because there are so many good albums and different genders, I took the same approach as in the 2012’s review.
The list is covering all the genders that I like and post on The Hipodrome Of Music, so I came up with no more than 20 gender lists, going from house to techno, disco and funk to electro and new wave …
Here we go.
London-based “dark wave” duo The KVB are a productive lot. Somewhat remarkably, this is their sixth album since 2011. It further explores there trademark distant, discordant, murky sound, blending barely-audible vocals and shoegaze guitars with fuzzy tones, clandestine moods and atmospheric grooves. While they can do full-throttle noise – see the growling “Dominance/Submission” and “Something Inside”, which push reverb and multi-layered guitars to their limits – they’re actually at their best when exploring less intense pastures. There’s much of this on Minus One, with the wide-eyed “Passing By”, dreamy “Endless” and clandestine “Kill The Lights” standing out.
Deathday (formerly Deathday Party) is a Los Angeles based Experimental Post-punk band, formed in Santa Ana, California in 2008 by brothers Alex Guilln and Giovanni Guilln. While the title-track is an unreleased one, instead ”Dropped Into Obscurity” was already included in the Downwards compilation ”Click Heels” alongside with Tropic Of Cancer, Silent Servant, The KVB. On the B side Mannequin asked to the synth-master Legowelt to remix “After Dark”. Seldom has the post-punk revival seemed as urgent as with Deathday, who match their guitar driven dirges with esoteric industrial soundscapes and tape manipulation. Their music is often as bleak as it is violent, with low end cacophony bludgeoning the listener into submission. Lyrically, Deathday often invoke the violent culture hidden beneath the media, as well as explore the crippling aftershocks of isolation and the mysticism of the occult.
Serbian duo Sixth June – Laszlo Antal and Lidija Andonov – come with a fresh new 5 tracks 12inch EP ”Pleasure”. They play minimal, industrial synthesized music digging into the colder corners of the synthetic 80’s. Sixth June started their musical adventure back in 2007 and they are considered one of the purest talents in the minimal synth new scene. Rising from the obscure music scene in Belgrade, they re-based some years ago in the analog synthesizers paradise called Berlin. Their debut album, Everytime, released back in March 2010 by the German label Genetic Music and the previous EP on Mannequin, ”Back For A Day”, was bringing the band to play to most of Europe. The duo represents perfectly the two sides of the same coin, in fact while Laszlo is producing obscure but expressive, powerful and danceable textures, on the back side the voice of Lidija is living the shape to a wobbling atmosphere you wont escape from. Lidija, apart singing in Sixth June, is a professional actress. Laszlo, composer of all the tracks, instead is an illustrator and music video director.
“When we selected music for Cuthead’s Everlasting Sunday LP we had to leave out several great tracks due to the limited space on the record. So Cuthead decided to give it away for free as digital only album via our bandcamp site. Enjoy!”
Label boss DJ Bone mans the controls for the 38th release on Subject Detroit, laying down a typically fierce, three pronged auditory attack. “What He Said” tactfully yet forcefully treads the line between house and techno, cherry picking physiognomies from each side of that ever-blurring line and constructing something fresh but bristling with familiar Subject Detroit elegances. A favourite fixture from Bone’s more recent DJ sets, “I Do” sees bubbling, arpeggiated chords simmer and swoop from foreground to background loosely as one solitary, remanipulated ticking hat keeps things in formation. Watch out for the thunderous, doubled-up drum arrangement that crashes in to the picture out of nowhere! B Side track “Rhythm Soul Funk” is a genuine hard hitter and another that tiptoes between the old school and the nouveau.
The ESHU label waste little time in matching their 2013 output, issuing a sixth 12″ that sees Roger Gerressen, Jocelyn Abell, Daniel Lekatompessy and Ivano Tetelepta working together under the titular banner across four tracks. Taking a particularly Millsian approach to proceedings, there’s a sense of focus demonstrated that hints the Eshu collective is only getting stronger. The mood varies too with the A Side split evenly between the stripped back and alien on “Cesium” and the creeping and hypnotic “Sulfur” whilst on the flip “Mercury” is one track you could imagine the likes of Dettmann or Rodhad pulling for. The title track closes out the EP on a more downbeat note, with crawling textures offering the minimal amount of forward momentum amidst a foggy coating of static.
Par Grindvik and Function are invited guests remixers for Dystopian artists Felix K and Rodhad.
The third release from the label and artist Papers. PAPS003 brings a varied 4 track EP, exploring squelchy saw waves, slow and fast acid laden jams and everything else inbetween.
This time around it’s a bold 303 mission, with Ben Sims on the machines, Tyree Cooper on the vocals and the illusive Geeeman on the remix duties.
