Hungarian electro wizard, Norwell presents his first release for Lobster Theremin. A kaleidoscopic journey of electro flavours and warm, punchy robotic space magic.
001.Features
Broken English Club – White Rats II [LIES136]
Broken English Club presents the second part in the White Rats trilogy, a full-length double vinyl album that focuses heavily on the dancefloor with droning techno, head banging acid and cinematic synth noise. This album continues Oliver Ho’s musical journey, fusing techno with industrial post punk and textures of death metal producing a unique electronic vision. Ideas and influences that went into the writing of the album was the dark soul of Wormwood scrubs prison in west London and the obsessions in the JG Ballard book Crash. White Rats II stands as a relentless and personal portrait of techno and all the things that feed into the creation of it.
VA – Barro 02 [BARRO#002]
Barro from Spain brings for the second release a compilation of six industrial tracks from Betek, Nole, Orlok 101 and Persona Non Grata.
Torrent – ++^. x^-_-___ EP [SBOX008]
Torrent unleashes 8 malevolent creatures that writhe, scream and fight their way across both sides.
Anatolian Weapons feat. Seirios Savvaidis – To The Mother Of Gods [BIS37]
Aggelos Baltas is a veteran of the global electronic music scene, responsible for a handful of celebrated EBM 12”s as Dream Weapons, and a particularly heady and open-ended brand of krautrock as Fantastikoi Hxoi. His newest project, Anatolian Weapons, was conceived as a way to bring together these two seemingly mismatched concepts, with the polyrhythmic percussion and wailing tones of Greek folk music serving as their unlikely bonding agent. “To The Mother Of Gods” is Baltas’ debut album for Beats In Space. Created in tandem with Greek folk musician Seirios Savvaidis, it is a work of simultaneous collaboration and subtraction whose meticulous construction becomes more apparent with every listen. An album-length exploration of what happens when the principles of dance music are applied to pre-digital musical modalities. Savvidis contributed stems of ten songs, which Baltas deconstructs and rearranges with appreciation of the ancestry of their lineage and of the deceptively ancient eerie, droning qualities inherent in the style. Occasionally augmenting Savvaidis’ recordings with his own, Baltas treats these elements as if raw materials for an architectural process. It is a record of psychedelic folk music.
Agonis / Valentino Mora – SMKMCHN#02 [SMKMCHN#02]
Smoke Machine returns with a new split EP featuring two artists from the Organik festival stable: Agonis and Valentino Mora. This will be Agonis’ second outing on the Taiwanese based label and a first for Valentino. Now 9 years in the running with a successful podcast and parties, this will be Smoke Machine’s second release on their newly established label with many more to come.
Crossing Avenue – Carmaleonte EP [SPAZIO018]
Experimental Italian techno duo Crossing Avenue return to Spazio Disponibile for their third EP on the label. Once again their four track effort explores new tempos, rhythms and moods in stylish fashion. The Carmaleonte EP counts four multi layered trips into mind melting half time jams that pairs rubbery, rolling drums with hypnotic lead synths. After the gurlgin deepness and sparsity of ‘Monoica’, ‘Carmaleonte’ is high pressure and unrelenting, ‘Santica’ got the razor sharp and unresolved rhythms where ‘Decimo Piano’ is a flurry of high speed drums and sci fi signifiers that plays out like an intergalactic space war. Techno never sounded as adventurous as this.
Retina.IT – Formant / Neural Map [NONPLUS049]
Retina.it debut on Nonplus Records, with five tracks of analogue driven Techno/Electronic music.
Jeff Mills – The Director’s Cut Chapter 3 [AX080DC]
Four track EP containing 2 remastered cuts and two unreleased tracks by Jeff Mills on his own Axis label. Note by Jeff Mills: ”Looking back in hindsight to the activity and accomplishments of Axis is with much pride – to witness the relationship between the music and listener evolving to this point. The Director’s Cut reissue project is about manicuring detail. It’s about a rare opportunity to enhance what we’ve done so that the relationship strengthens for the long term”
Dimi Angélis – ANGLS 008 [ANGLS008]
Dimi Angelis’ eighth release on his ANGLS label is essentially a tale of four brothers. Four separate tracks, clearly related yet with distinctive qualities that sets each of them apart in its own unique way. ”Out Of Nowhere” does its name justice by hitting home from its opening bars, throwing a messy sawtooth layered with evolving percussion at the listener. Following suit, ”Funky Lizard” is an amalgamy of trippy, filtered arps blended with a classic rhythm section. Damage guaranteed.
Splice – Kobold [KEY013]
Splice is the a.k.a. of Elias Landberg from Skudge. The fact that he released already on Skudge, Arsenik and Non Series… is a perfect picture of his taste. Repetitive, trippy and groovy, the perfect combination for dancers or dreamers. Close your eyes and start the journey.
Moving Thoughts – Kwantum [KEY012]
This EP represents in full effect the evolution of the solid duo from Utrecht. Four tracks where they show their roots and their influences, that definitely are techno. They don’t like to be too exposed; they like to share their concept through their music.
E.M.U. – Electro Music Union, Sinoesin & Xonox Works 1993 – 1994 [BLOW02/AVA.LP007]
Reissue of rare UK ambient techno from ’93-‘94. Cold Blow has joined forces with Berlin’s AVA. Records in unearthing some of the finest ambient techno from the Artificial Intelligence era in a beautiful double LP package. The compilation covers essential cuts from the back catalog of J. M. Adkins’ releases and includes 2 tracks available on vinyl for the first time. Aside from Descent, a previously unreleased track, the material was previously released on the short-lived Metatone Recordings which was founded by Adkins himself together with Damon D’Cruz known from his preceding Jack Trax label. Compiled from the original DAT tapes and remastered by Andreas “Lupo” Lubich at Calyx Mastering, “Electro Music Union, Sinoesin & Xonox Works 1993 – 1994” reintroduces Adkin’s work as some of the era-defining classics from the early years of techno.
Rapha – Room 353 [CHR002]
Next up on the fresh imprint is one half of the Chateau Royal, Rapha, who delivers his debut solo 12”. A powerfull and distorted electro flavored 6 tracker reinforced with a killer remix from Rotterhague’s boss DJ Overdose.
Electro Nation – Shipwrecked [ESC1201R]
The re-issue of a real Electro gem by the genious Thomas P. Heckmann. It’s the ”Electro Nation – Shipwrecked” originally released 1998 on Electrocute.
Cooper Saver – Pacifico [bio036]
Biologic Records welcomes Cooper Saver to the label with two stunning remixes from Khidja and Abstraxion.
John Talabot / Khidja – HVN C/D [HVNcd]
The new installment of the Hivern split series features John Talabot and Khidja. Both tracks have slowish tempos, are built around obsessive motifs and make an outlandish use of delays. An unsettling and menacing atmosphere, fruit of masterful exercises on tension building, that seems tailored for those early moments in a set when you feel the need to rise the pressure without causing too much of a blast. These tracks are prime examples that’s there’s space for functional tracks away from the most obvious paths. And that’s the ultimate purpose of the series.
Dreams – Beacon Of Power [PNKMN032]
Private Selection Records founder and curator Dreams comes crashing in with a 6-tracker falling between thick body music and gnarly, frenzied electro. With ragged rhythms, reverberating synths and heart-wrenching vocal elements these tracks tie together a dystopian journey beginning with sheer rampage, leading to devastation and ending in hopeless ruin.
VA – Universe [MSQ005]
The fifth release of the label returns us to the first compilation universe. This time in orbit you can hear (as in the first release) the French producer Umwelt with the apocalyptic doom core track ‘Fallen Empire’. Also a collaboration of the Mosaique label owner Moralez and the legendary American EBM/ Hard Core artist The Horrorist. They were joined by a hypnotic composition from the Mannequin label owner Alessandro Adriani and accidentally surviving track (after the death of the artist’s music storage) from Greek artist Morah, who’s was released on Helena Hauf’s label Return To Disorder.
