Two original tracks and two edits from Detroit’s up-and-coming talent: Val G. Her youthful fresh style shows she’s learning to stand on her own two feet behind gear that’s been around decades longer than she has.
001.Features
The Smoke Clears – S/T [ACTSCLPX1]
The Smoke Clears is the abstract ambient project of producer John Daly. He debuted this alias with an eponymous LP in 2013 on Further Records and this is a part 2. Following up his 2013 LP of the same name, this record builds upon it’s predecessor’s ambient abstractions while adding another layer of nuanced melodic contemplation. Kicking off with “Fathoms” a deceptively calm track but with a paced sense of urgency which is evident throughout the LP, belying it’s calm undertones. Continuing at this pace for the rest of the first side the LP takes a side turn with the lush “Slipstream” melting into the only vocal track of the LP – the dubbed out bliss of “Oh My Days” featuring Cian Finn. Showcasing a side that might not be so familiar, this is lush downtempo machine music equally as at home cranked up one louder soundsystem style, or for late night home listening.
Monadh – Muara [FUR103]
Everyone’s looking for inner peace of some kind even warmongers. As most intelligent people know, music is one of the most effective ways to achieve that blessed, blissed state. The debut album by Seattle producer Monadh (Jake Muir) offers yet more crucial aid in the war on stress. Muara is an ambient album in the purest, chillest meaning of the term. Its seven tracks are awash in aquatic signifiers and textures; each one is a rejuvenating dip in healing, icy waters. (Muara is Javanese for “estuary.”) Which isn’t to say that Muara should be filed in New Age sections of record shops (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Rather, what the album most resembles is the ambient output of artists like Biosphere. Loscil, and The Sight Below—musicians who uncannily make you warm to cold tones. “The way I make music is really stream of consciousness,” Muir says. “My friend calls it ‘slow improv.’ I happened to be watching a lot of older Japanese cinema, especially samurai stuff, from the ’50s to the ’70s while making the album.” Natural habitats also played a significant role, Muir notes. “My favorite music is informed by mood and place.” This deep into the 21st century, it’s not easy to create ambient music that sounds vital and untainted by hackneyed tropes. Monadh succeeds in this difficult task, through a combination of his field recordings from the Pacific Northwest and meticulously chosen samples mostly lifted and pitchshifted from library records of a pastoral and romantic bent. He also cites Andrew Pekler’s Sentimental Favourites and Biosphere’s Shenzhou as inspirations.
Ryo Murakami – Esto [BDNLP002]
Eleven, deft, darkly-lit, sometimes despairing soundscapes by the Osaka-based producer, for his third album. ‘The thoughts of a rebellious spirit are always accompanied by music,’ he says. Esto, existence.
DJ Ice Tits – Songs About Myrtle Avenue [DANG002]
A second utterance emerges from the tomb of DJ Ice Tits. Who was this ancient priest of Memphis whose sarcophagus lies entombed within the Metaphasic Pyramid, inscribed with the Analogue Hieroglyph? These five recently discovered FM transmissions from the underworld, entitled ”Songs about Myrtle Avenue,” may contain the key to this mystery.
October – OCT01 [OCT001]
Following up from his critically acclaimed industrial flecked debut album on Skudge White; Bristol’s October comes correct with a new series of 10” records, each featuring under-polished no frills club cuts aimed straight at the floor, rough enough to strip paint from the walls.
Blixaboy – Humanoid X [CPU00100011]
Humanoid X is CPU’s deepest foray into Detroit techno so far, from Blixaboy aka Mwanza Dover – Texas based artist, friend of Cygnus and very much part of the local electro scene. Dover presents an album influenced by the pioneers of the hypnotic groove. On first pass you’ll find elements of krautrock through to the Belleville three, all with finely crafted arrangements that reveal themselves in more detail on each listen. A cyberpunk theme runs throughout as Blade Runner-esque synths wash over the album evoking late night electric-city noodle restaurant contemplation. Blixaboy has selected 4 of the more DJ friendly tracks from the album for the vinyl E.P. treatment.
Dmitry Distant – Lucifer & Lust [EE011RTM]
Lucifer & Lust is a 10-inch mini album by Dmitry Distant, showcasing the diversity of his talent. The 6 tracks by the Russian-born artist who currently resides in Latvia reflect the atmosphere of the Baltic and the mystic sides of electronic music. Showing where his devotion lies, Dmitry experiments on the verge of techno, wave and industrial. On this mini album, he grasps our attention with minimalistic trance-like rhythms covered in fluctuating painful melodies, using wonderful analogue sounds and exotic instruments such as the electric violin.
Versalife – Self-Replication [TRUST027]
Best known to the techno world as Conforce, Boris Bunnik’s sprawling body of work reaches far beyond his acclaimed techno productions. Recording under names as Silent Harbour, Hexagon, Vernon Felicity, and Versalife he has contributed sublime releases to the genres of ambient, electronic dub, acid house, and electro over the years. It is his Versalife project that now receives its first outing on DJ Glow’s long-running TRUST imprint, and if any further proof is needed that Bunnik is a master of the resurging electro genre, this should easily win over any doubters. ‘Self-Replication’ starts out with a nod to the aquatic innovators of the genre on ‘Raptures of the Deep’, but quickly leaves their many imitators behind in its wake, effortlessly contrasting subtle textures with clanging beats, spiraling arpeggios with grumbling basslines. Bunnik’s sonic boldness peaks on ‘Gentrification’, a sprawling 7-minute journey through jittery rhythms, bottomless echoes, and foreboding harmonies, before ‘Pathogen’ closes the EP almost with a touch of pop, combining a Boards of Canada-style bassline with FM chimes that hark back to the golden days of synth music.
OTTO – Greatest Hits [CHAR009.5]
Charlois presents the summer cult hit of 2016 by OTTO, a new project of Alexander Arpeggio and Cid Hohner. Weirdo German Organ tracks, specially made for the Disko.
Dubmasters – 12 Bar Disco [COS002]
Dubmasters come back strong on their second release on our catalog, with a heavily road tested banger. 12 Bar Disco is a caleidoscope of surfed out guitar riffs, dubby chops and vintage pads over a funky 90’s Manchester synth bassline, that has proven to shake dance floors around the globe. For this E.P. the original is taken on a slight dubbed out deviation with tape delays taking the foreground on the mix, cosmic pads and extended psychedelic breakdown, definitely a monster. Remixes by Phunktastike and Ilya Santana.
Kalbata – Al Shark [FTN007]
Fortuna Co-Founder Kalbata takes the controls for this new, Middle Eastern techno banger. Al-Shark is a banging Arab Farfisa excursion played frantically on an analog techno rhythm section. It’s the first release from the Fortuna camp which is not a reissue, but worry not, this could easily be an ancient Lebanese proto-House experiment unearthed from a dusty reel. For the B-side Kalbata takes things even further with a tribal relick of the original, placing us in a voodoo ceremony where ghosts of sinners come to dance.
Not Wawing – Redacted [ELP023]
Forever a label willing to revisit previous tape-only wares if the demand is there, Sam Willis and Ale Natalizia’s Ecstatic turn their gaze to one of the latter’s earliest Not Waving documents. Originally issued on highly limited, gold cassette way back in 2012, Redacted was produced during Walls downtime by Natalizia and expanded on the “classified” themes of his Remote Viewing-inspired debut LP Umwelt. Fans of the most recent Diagonal-released Not Waving LP, Animals, should be thrilled to see how far Natalizia’s project has developed in just four years with the prevailing mood on Redacted a sort of murky and brutish EBM that is wholly satisfying.
Omnibus – Israels / Rhythmus (1980 – 1985) [JUP001]
The Omnibus Band was founded by Jarda Zajpt and Petr Dikan in 1979 in Czechoslovakia. Having met at the Electronic High School, electronics was their field of expertise. Over time, Petr Dikan constructed several sound devices such as the Sileny Fridrich (SF, Crazy Frederick) Keyboard and the VSD (vsude samy draty/wires everywhere) Generator which he operated during the recordings and also at concerts. At that time, heavily influenced by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp from the King Crimson band, Jarda Zajpt played the guitars, using all kinds of effects, pre-recorded tapes, and one or more interconnected tape recorders. The first record, ‘Israels,’ was produced between 1980 and 1982. In 1985, Jarda Zajpt swapped a guitar for a keyboard and a new member arrived – Pavel Zvolensky – who programmed and played the automatic percussions. Martin Bauer, playing the bass guitar, completed the trio. They have produced a second album, ‘Rhythmus,’ in this assembly. Remastered from unreleased tape recordings. This is the first release in the framework of the project Jupiter 08 – Archeology of the Slavic electronic sound.
EYE – Sabine LP [KH005]
EYE is a project from Laurène Exposito from Rennes (France), where she runs the intimate label Waving Hands. EYE’s debut album ‘Sabine’ takes us into Laurène’s silk-covered dreamworld, at once mad and serene, sounding like a breeze and a blast at the same time. Bedtime stories or lucid nightmares? You decide…
VA – Wosto / Kilian Krings Edits [SBZ002]
Sign Bit Zero strides onwards with a set of punishing dancefloor interpretations of forgotten industrial gems handpicked by Hamburg’s Wosto and label head honcho, Kilian Krings. While Wosto’s previous output as half of Fallbeil is as much informed by Chicago house as EBM, his contributions to SBZ002 focus on the C90 experimentation which roughens the edges of the duo’s past efforts for Contort Yourself and New York Haunted. Kilian Krings explores his passion for Neue Deutsche Welle and its various offshoots in his edits here, setting a bold statement for the future of both his own and Sign Bit Zero’s no-compromise approach. SBZ002 sheds light on crucial yet often overlooked aspects of 1980s industrial experimentation. Wosto and Kilian Krings morph their discoveries into club-ready headspinners, assured to prove a highlight of any adventurous DJ set.
Fabio Monesi vs Hissman – Abduction EP [HM009]
Following a couple of strong releases on labels such as Russian Torrent Versions, Dog in The Night and Wilson Records, Fabio Monesi finally makes his debut on his own Hardmoon London imprint in which he released his music, since 2014, under his alias Hissman.
Hieroglyphic Being & The Truth Theory Trio – The 42 Laws Of Maat [BDN011]
Two compositions, scored for trio: Papyrus is excursive and melancholic, with giveaway distorted kicks; the flip is more hard-hitting and propulsive, with an industrial intensity lifted by simple piano motifs.
Jackmaster Hater Presents Jeremy Williams – S/T [KR009]
Jackmaster Hater presents Jeremy Williams with four jackin Chicago tracks on K-Starke Records.
IXVLF – Involuntary Movement [PRECEPT007]
IXVLF is back at it again following the Language Of mini-album released earlier this year as part of our ongoing tape series. Pushing it further from where we last left off, Connor Clasen’s vinyl debut reflects our ever growing desire to re-interpret club music in its most primitive and cartilaginous nature. While cleverly obscuring any reference to a specific period of time, Involuntary Movement shows a sense of the American-based producer stretching disorienting imagery over the existing landscape of proto-industrial — matching the visual interpretation of Ailsa Ogden undertaking the artwork by way of a new collaboration to be expanded over a handful of releases — where unpolished synthesizers and rhythm machines collide and bawl in a controlled crash. It is an exercise of existing in various states of detachment; a fixation on mechanical repetition and unpredictable behaviors through the haze of helium laughter. Definitely one for the animals.
The Hipodrome Of Music 