Anna Funk Damage, an Italian artist, releases his first LP on Lux Rec. Seven tracks which define the musical attitude behind the moniker. Cruel, unforgiving, harsh. Ranging from extremely slow to fast pacing. Through and through a drugged-out weave of misery and hostility. And his lamenting voice that reminds us that only failure is certain.
3 years after the original vinyl press, Pinkman and Tear Apart Tapes (Das Ding’s own imprint) join forces for a fresh take on ‘Industrial Universal’. The cassette features the re-release of the 4 tracks from the sold out EP on the A-side, and 4 new productions on the B-side. Industrial Universal 1.1 adds an extra turmoil and energy into the already time tested cocktail, delivered in Das Dings style.
New Gesloten Cirkel release on his bandcamp via his Ratsnake alias. On Acidophile, the enigmatic producer delivers four acid tracks fresh our the studio. Released as a pay-what-you-want download through the Gesloten Cirkel Bandcamp.
Tunik is an Argentinian artist based in Barcelona and this is his debut on My Own Jupiter, featuring 4 acid dancefloor tracks.
Type-303 delivers a 4-track homage to 90’s rave and acid on Zeitnot 09. Upfront and unreservedly ‘The E-Street‘ captures the soul of acid warehouse club culture with a thunderous, addictive chord melody from the word go. Belly-deep, sweltering bass made for sweaty body masses. ‘Sfääri’ takes a serene, almost dream house turn, side-chained lo-fi pads and twisting, turning acid bass. Flip the plate for more gutteral, darker acid techno – like the head-rattling ‘UglyTruth’. Disturbing broken-machine sounding hook looms over bubbling accented acid squelch, while the 303 abuse continues on ‘Uprising’; an eerie vocal sample reminiscent of classic Chicago jack tracks, with driving hi-hats and a psychedelic sliding acid line.
Indigo is Icelandic artist’s Exos fourth studio album, arriving almost two full decades after his last LP. In the meantime, the seasoned producer has never stopped to refine his production style, mastering an aesthetic that feels at once minimalist and yet richly detailed. Spanning the organic and the electronic, drawing from early dub techno blueprints and comprising the beauty of his austere homeland. From this Exos expands an absorbing atmosphere, sustaining the primal power of nature within compositions that hold an exalted presence yet never go over-board, instead, they gently push along even in their most intense moments thus vastly transcending the pure club context. The albums thirteen tracks are a sonic bliss to indulge in, each element is crafted so meticulously and balanced with care against its counterparts. Whether the luminous, spaciously glowing opening tracks “Reincarnation” or “í Skjoli Naetur ”the then-ensuing hypnotic techno-trips of “Sælureitur” and “Quad arcanum Leticia” and finally the deeply satisfying, dubbed-out backbone of the album’s main body – a series of Exos’ signature-style dub-techno cuts that he has been perfecting now for over 20 years. Seeing it all mesh together in this concentrated form, it’s the picture of an exceptionally experienced producer pushing himself beyond any limits to achieve his greatest feat yet. When the fog clears and the last tracks slowly roll out, the record leaves as smoothly as it had entered, allowing for reflection and contemplation of one of techno’s most exhaustive LP-efforts yet to date.
Darkside electro conjurations and Gnashing EBM from Medellin, Colombia, seething with raw punk energy and foamy blood around the mouth. No nonsense body music.
Rekids label boss Radio Slave ventures further into unknown territory in a three-part sophomore album entitled ‘Radio Silence’. The UK artist delivers his latest body of work in the form of his ‘Radio Silence’ album, which will be dropping in three parts. The first chapter features perhaps the most leftfield tracks we’ve ever heard Radio Slave product. There’s a rawness to the album, which is in part due to the fact each track was recorded live and without edits, using hardware and Ableton as the main sequencer. Across the seven tracks, Radio Slave hone’s in on a sound that’s haunting and hypnotic.
Sharing the same forward-facing approach to techno music, it was about time that Roman DJ and producer Adiel lands her debut EP on Stroboscopic Artefacts. ‘If Not Now When?’ is an ode to the all-enveloping strangeness of eternal nights that cuts a path of ecstatic light in the dark.
Voluminous Arts happily announces its third official release, a 12 track album entitled “Disco” by Gavilán Rayna Russom’s elusive alias Black Meteoric Star. This is not a Disco record. The title deliberately troubles the music biz’s incessant tendency to hierarchize genre classification over the experience of listening. If you must categorize these mutant sounds think of them as a proposed alternate score for those long, caffeinated sessions in Abby Sciuto’s forensics lab, the soundtrack to a heavy workout in the Westchester Danger Room or perhaps the musical accompaniment to deep body investigations of your own ancestral memories. What this record really is, and why it’s called “Disco” has to do with the layering of time and life energy present in the spaces where we have traditionally danced to music which are sometimes called Discos. From the pounding urgency of “Muscle Machine” through the unbridled night vision romp that is “Fluid Feline Forms” and the shimmering investigations of “Whispers Between Worlds” to the extended lazer pointer focus of “I’m Unmelting” this record lays out a broad slab of practice-based research into the ghosts we connect with on the dance floor. Whether it be through partying in former industrial buildings, contested spaces of labor built on lands violently appropriated from indigenous people, uncomfortably inhabiting vacuums in queerness left by the AIDS epidemic, lifting lineages through sampling, or the relentless cycle of whitening that accompanies dance music’s march into the market, our experiences in the Disco have been permeated by the spectral and the haunted. Through rhythm and frequency, organized over time, this music blurs the veil between the living and the dead inviting those who move to it to connect with experiences beyond that false binary. What you have here is another fantastic Black Meteoric Star record, as always made without multitracking or overdubbing, recorded directly from single live takes. It is is utterly consistent with all that name has come to mean, but on “Disco” Black Meteoric Star’s vision has been allowed to expand into an almost mythologically epic space. Ancestral time works differently. Settle in and absorb the frequencies. As the closing track suggests, the virtual Disco these sounds evoke is for “Freaks Only”.
Known for his grainy, analogue dance floor hits, Hungarian artist Norwell has returned with a powerful and transcendent 4-track EP, releasing through Fanzine Records. Inbetween EP is a drum-heavy, intricate series of grooves and soundscapes that draw the listener in from the beginning. While remaining faithful to the tendencies of techno, this record brings something of its own to the table in the form of acidic basslines and retro Kosmiche synth parts, resulting in a stunning array of textures. As Norwell’s first release through the Fanzine Label, this EP is dark, it is foreboding, and with the unexpected turns the rhythm takes, it doesn’t care about your feelings. If you’re ready to be punched in the face by this sci-fi horror listening experience, watch for the release of this EP, Fanzine latest addition to their roster of tasty electronic jams.
The second Raval Rave Breakers instalment continues with another strong five tracker. A Swiss knife where different sides of electro manage to coexist in blissful harmony. Some of them do so in a clean and classic way, like Dark Vektor’s “Time Space Rhythm & Bass”. A small 80s odyssey that fondly reminds of a certain quartet of well-known robots. Some others take a a more raw and contemporary approach, like Spoiled Drama (Nous, Fleisch), who plays the aches-and-pains card in a glorious way: “Drama’s Welcome To The Synthesized Pain Society” goes straight to your cortex and it won’t be easy to forget. Univac (Bunker, Moustache) sits in a more middle ground, bringing us “Collider”: a powerful electro-techno track that will uplift any possible dancefloor. Larry McCormick, head honcho of the renowned label Monoton, signs as his usual alias Exzakt, but now gets accompanied by the mysterious BFX. Their track “Close” is a as perfect as it could be: a pure, raw, super intense breaker electro rhythm, a ratchety lead, a couple arps, a distorted vocal and a tremendous sub that, even at low volumes, it might be heard even from the Mariana’s Trench. Closing the EP, Eel travels back to the more lo-fi side of the genre with “Sich Kreuzende Linien”, an eerie and hypnotic track which surrenders to an absolute jackhammer of a rhythm section.
Summer kicks off with ‘How Come U Know’, a 4-track EP by accomplished producer and DJ Captain Mustache from Paris. For this EP, he teams up with rave legend Adamski and electro goth star Linda Lamb. Title track ‘How Come U Know’ is an electro rave basher featuring Adamski’s vocals and cheeky lyrics about the all-seeing eye and loss of privacy. On ‘Bliss’, the deep and esoteric voice of Linda Lamb takes us to another world without possession – electro wave in optima forma. The remaining two tracks on ‘How Come U Know’ showcase Captain Mustache’s crispy electro pop sound, made to dance all summer long.
A few years back label boss I-F was listening to a dj-set from one of his favorite dj’s Do Te Ra Ho! which contained a track which is a weird cross-over between ambient, electro and industrial and which was seemingly without ending. He asked him what track this was and it turned out to be an unreleased track named The Last Day Lasts Forever from the mysterious outfit Onont Kombar who previously only had a release on his own imprint Ordo Viatorum. After connecting to Onont Kombar he told him he wished the track would never end and that is why he decided to release it full-length on Viewlexx to make sure it will, indeed, last forever. The title track Epitaph Of Ego is a catchy psychedelic minimal synth track which has been used as jingle on Intergalactic FM for quite a while now so you may recognize it from there. Then there is Moondust In My Eye, a wonderful dreamy dance floor track, warm and cold at the same time, almost like watching a full moon all night while being warmed by a campfire.
Since the first time Childhood Intelligence connected to Darren, they could hear a very unique energy in his music, an almost healing Spirit. They are very happy to Welcome him with his Debut 2×12 Album “A Clear Vision Of A Distant Future” – to the Childhood family and celebrate Childhood Intelligence’s 10th Official Release.
The third release on Presence Unknown contains four slamming tunes, crafted with precision by Controlled Weirdness using a variety of analogue and digital machines in his South London studio. The A-side features some deep and bass heavy electro acid for the dance floor. ”Ghosts of the Heygate” and ”Running on Empty” feature rolling 808 boom with 303 groove. The flip side starts off with ”Are you angry or are you boring?” a future-retro rave anthem with lately bass and killer mentasm stabs and has been destroying dance floors on dub during Controlled Weirdness’ DJ sets the past six months. The EP closes with, ”Strange Desires”, a slow, sleazy, slinky and salacious groove.
Regis lets his rhythmic noise opus out into the world, a bruising and hauntingly absorbing album – his first since 2001 – dispatched on his pivotal label; Downwards. On a masterful twenty-year followup to ‘Penetration’, Karl O’Connor yields a definitive solo LP that distills his passions for sonic brutalism and bastardised Chicago tracks with syncopated UK swagger and reverberating warehouse ballistics. Its lip-bitingly gripping effect is testament to a resounding reputation as one of Industrial music’s most influential producers, and sees the artist bring his own influences – from Test Department to Jeff Mills – into line with his potent palette of narcotised tones. Recorded in Berlin with Einstürzende Neubauten’s producer/engineer Boris Wilsdorf, the album’s supple, spartan, and rhythmic gymnastics notably benefit from acres of icy room to roll around and lash out. Snagged around muscular bassline revs, and caressed with keys and vocals by postpunk catalyst Annie Hogan (whose recent turn for Downwards was a total revelation), the 9 tracks portray Regis at his leanest and most mesmerising, which is all the more impressive coming from an artist who’s deliberately held his line through club music’s mutations for more than 30 years.
Completing the trilogy of releases in collusion with graphic artist Oliver Sperl, Belgian techno producer ED1999 chooses to nish on ‘Original Sin’ EP, a 4-track dark experiment of audio-visual harmony, complete with blasting industrial beats and doom- metal growls.
The Hipodrome Of Music 