Sign Bit Zero’s next output is Black Seed, the alternate identity of Turin-based DJ and producer Matteo Viani. The project is a showcase of his excavations into the realm of electro-tinged techno and live experimentation. Using the sharp edges of a raw, tribalistic robot funk sound as tools for crafting rhythm, Black Seed generates unsettling yet grooving scenarios, basemental bangers of danger dunked in smoke and hypnosis.
Staffan Linzatti is back with a well balanced spaced-out techno triple pack on the ever evolving Field Records. Ever since ‘The Event’ we knew that our reality was becoming more hostile towards our presence in it. The very fabric of it was changing, and we would either have to change with it, or change our reality. A program called ‘The Dispatch’ was created as a means to preserve human existence through an infinite number of simulated universes. A simulation in which each universe would serve as a world for future humans. A world indistinguishable from the ‘real thing’. As we write this, ‘The Dispatch’ – your future as humans – is being coded and compiled. During execution, our existence will end – and your new world will replace ours. Our story, our memories will live on in your reality. Our creation, embedded deep within the ‘The Dispatch’, will be a brave tale of perhaps our greatest achievement – if not our very last.
Italian based trio Agents Of Time with their debut EP for Curle ‘Xylo’, offering both atmospheric but firm techno, complemented by a healthy dose of floating melodies.
Skudge levitates into 2017 with tracks from a well-known place… Infectious groove and stabs reflects our most fond warehouse memories. For starters, ‘Circles’ reminds us of the first three releases, but in a updated shape – the beats are as tight as ever, with the accompanying melodies fitting right into their place. The A-side track has that special Skudge vibe that managed to establish them as a force to reckon with. As proven with the LP from last year, things are sounding and looking as exciting as ever! In stark contrast to the straight to the floor A-side, ‘Tundra’ on the flip resembles the calmer and on the edge of careful sound that Skudge has been running in parallel of their club oriented material. Sure, this one works well in that environment too, but it’s more minded approach might require some extra attention on the floor – however, this first EP of the new year facilitates what was promised with the LP: this is exciting times for Skudge.
Ron Maney aka DJ Skull presents some new tracks on the second part of his own series called “The Dj Skull Saga”.
Deep sci-fi techno by these techno veterans and Delta Funktionen’s mentors from back in the days! ‘As technology consumed the Antikytherian Empire, the council of conjunction had no choice but to take desperate measures: Probe 2187 was launched into the event horizon of Markarian 335. Its mission was to find an escape route into an alternate reality. A hazardous mission and as the orbit failed, the probe made one last transmission before it was submerged into oblivion. The Phantom Regiment, with their time manipulation abilities, managed to capture these signals. Trusted sources claim transmitters 1200 & 1210 are the only reliable outputs for these remnants of a technologically advanced society. The Antikytherian Empire, believed to be the first cosmic empire, was never heard of again…’
Finally we can announce that The Hacker is onboard at the Stilleben ship with some amazing electro that lurks in the shades of Kraftwerk and other fine electronic acts, but with his own significant style and signature. 3 electro songs and one more italo/electro disco that was hidden on a old hard disk. We are very happy to continue the electro journey on Eargoggles Stilleben with this strong and beautiful release.
Recorded live during an Ekstrakt party, in the legendary Medika squat in downtown Zagreb. Kӣr is the production moniker of WhyBaneWhy, resident DJ of Belgrade’s dankest technoclub, Drugstore. Bane’s sets incorporate a wide range of influences and travel far off the beaten path, drawing in influences from techno to new wave to power electronics, obscure ambient, folk music, twisted echoes found deep in lost wormholes and whatever else it takes to distort your feelings, lost and disorientated whilst working up a sweat. Kӣr takes all this and pushes the envelope with punishing hardware. Its visceral music, embracing drones, repetition, rippling soundscapes and obscure sonic horizons, to boldly go where others throw in the towel.
The second edition of Blue Hour’s ‘Remixed’ series features four distinctly diverse cuts. Mark Broom delivers a peak time take of ‘Common Ground’, followed by Substance’s (AKA DJ Pete) dub driven remix of the untitled hidden ambient track which appeared on ‘Reference 97’. On the flip Hessle Audio’s Pangaea re-captures the jacking and functional energy of ‘Falling Lines’, then closing the EP is a raw and dreamy electro workout of ‘Introspective II’ from VC-118A.
Delsin is to put out an eight track compilation for the tenth release on its Cameron series, taking in stronghold names as Claro Intelecto and Vril, as well as former contributors to the series Shlømo, Artefakt and Gunnar Haslam. As has been the mission for the series before, there’s eye for new talent too – in the names of recent Delsin newcomer Sentomea, The Invariants and Cameron. All contributors look beyond the dance floor to offer a mixture of moody and atmospheric sounds, and everyone was given free rein, which has resulted in a collection that covers so much stylistic ground.
Panorama Bar resident Nick Höppner gets to “Work” on his second solo album on Ostgut Ton, connecting the territories of House music with the ease of Alt-Pop. Work as in labor. An axiom that fuels the capitalist system just as the Techno/House scene economy says that one needs to keep oneself busy to make a living. As a musician, things are complicated of course. It’s a long way from the romantic idea of creating music simply for the sake of art to becoming a full time musician. Those who have accomplished this feat often find themselves in a professional loop of writing the music, producing it, promoting it (with an info text like this), releasing it and then hopefully selling it. After leaving his full time job as Ostgut Ton’s label manager in 2012, Nick Ho¨ppner went fully freelance, focusing on his musically diverse, deep and dynamic DJing in and outside Berghain’s Panorama Bar, but more importantly spending more time in the studio. The result was his critically acclaimed debut album Folk (Ostgut Ton, 2015), various 12′ releases and remixes, and now his sophomore LP, Work, which, more than ever, lays out his refined production skills and his talent to work the machines until they reveal their inner ghosts: nine new songs that now dodge the dance floor, then fully embrace it.
Detroit legend Rick Wade steps up for the fourteenth release on vinyl only imprint Shall Not Fade with his melodic, dancefloor fuelled ‘Guardian Of Forever’ EP.Rick Wade or Big Daddy Rick is an artist who needs little introduction, a true House music legend, Rick serves up three of his signature style tracks, accompanied by a remix from LK. The four track EP features jazz fuelled cuts, perfectly suited for the dancefloor.
Irishman Derek Carr makes his mark on the Romanian imprint Why So Series with the “Liquid industries EP”. Starting off with the loopy and hypnotic deep house of “Theta” he then gets stuck into some vintage hi-tech soul on the energetic Solar Storm”. On the flip, “Sub System 7” follows in suit channelling the vibe of greats like Aril Brikha while “Exodus II” gives you your fix of sunny swing fuelled tech house.
Berlin’s resident Electroid funkmeister Vertical67 is the latest release from the Magic Waves label with a 4 track EP of ‘Positive Vibes’ to get your summer into gear with. Vocodered electro builder ‘Clacid’ opens proceedings before we’re hit with the summery anthemic and futuristic Italo sounds of ‘Back In The Groove’, while on the flip ‘Let’s Dance’ continues that feeling before we’re whisked off ‘Into The Night’ with the closing track in pure aquatic Detroit styled bliss.
Another side of Steve Rachmad. Preceeds and album of archive tracks that shows the far reaching talents of this master producer. Some things are just too good to be hidden from view. That’s certainly the case with ‘Things To Think About’, the first album from Dutch electronic music legend Steve Rachmad’s lesser-known Sterac Electronics project.
Mytron & Ofofo debut on Bordello with an intoxicating blend of sleaze and synth, disco and depravity. “Airforce One” smoulders. Dripping in funk, samples and smooth keys are bolstered by burbling bass for a track that glides and slides in glazed steps. “Hewa Kenya” keeps the vocal snippets, building them into fevered points as rhythms rumble. Medlar strips back the original percussion, crisp snares forming a base for shimmering synthwork and cascading chords in a shifting remake.
The latest transmission from the world of Gunnar Haslam, Kalaatsakia wildly sprawls across the intersections of techno and more abstract sounds to take us on a wideranging journey from the subterranean to the coastal, from blown-out dub tones through fractured rhythms. An incredible work that is not easy to pigeonhole, Kalaatsakia is a full length album that navigates and sketches landscapes where new languages are created from old, dead ones to emerge as the lingua franca of interconnected immersive zones. Haslam is an avid home listener of dub, dancehall and calypso, and that influence is quickly felt as Kalaatsakia launches with a tight electro snap and dubwise crash. Kalaatsakia advances and retreats seasonally, tightening up for the floor with the chrome-plated ‘Broadcast’ and ‘Kjolle’ while splintering apart on ‘Kalapuyan’ and ‘nxbound’. Its constituent parts are often left to collapse in on themselves, smearing themes into residual trails. As the narrative of the album disintegrates and unfolds into more deconstructed territory, it stretches out even further with a striking skittering mental tease, settling into burbling sub-audible vocals and resonant spaces that all form a part of Haslam’s self-created subconscious language.
Tabernacle Records presents Bill Converse’s first release outside of the U.S. is spaced out over a double pack format, focusing on his lengthy, trippy jams.
The Hipodrome Of Music 