Eugene Efimenko aka Muzikalist, is a DJ, musician and promoter based in Kaliningrad. Here he makes his debut on Flight Recorder label with four deep acidic Chicago tracks.
RA.479 Cassegrain
VA – Ideas Of Reference & The Luna Sea [LSD014]
Light Sounds Dark’s steady plummet into the 5th dimension continues in earnest as the label reach their 14th release. A rather special unit, certain to dissipate as cleanly and as smoothly as a 150mics dose of Sandoz’ finest; best to pay the admission and take the trip now if you want in. Fortune favours the brave and fearless exploration is surely required. Gone are the boogie, cosmic and Balearic coloured fractals, replaced now by dark industrial menace, no-wave bleakness and post-punk tribal space music. Painstakingly sequenced and arranged over three discs to give you a truly immersive journey; fasten those seatbelts and take a trip on the rainbow super highway.
Night Court – Law & Order [NNF313LP]
The origins of these enigmatic VHS-scrambled prog-techno explorations are so true and tripped they’re worth quoting in full from co-chairman Christopher Hontos: “Night Court was recorded in July two summers ago (’13) in a remote cabin on Lake Namekagan (located on national forest grounds in northern Wisconsin). We usually do these ball-busting weeklong recording sessions up there with a good group of folks and a grip of mushrooms. For this one we had this idea of setting up our synths on the deck and doing a trippy somnabulistic overnight open-air recording sesh that would be called “Night Court.” However when the time came and the crew got together we interpreted the name literally and ended up jamming out an album of legal system-themed tracks. We recorded the entire album in one day every song in one take and with very little post-production. Track after track flowed and we never drifted from the theme nor spent time diverting our focus (with the exception of Farstad being vetoed after trying to start up a footwork-style track). After the session we were all so burnt-out and fried we thought little of the recordings. But as time passed we went back to them and realized we had struck gold. Italics ours – this is rare ore. A freaked fusion vision, flowing cold city collectivist synths interlaid with executioner guitar, ambulance/TV samples, alley haze, and flashing sirens sax. Insane music for insane times. Its meanings are manifold: political (a sweeping overview of the nothing-specific nature of humanity via the American legal system), metaphoric (tongue-in-cheek turns to fist-in-air, and we realize that life imitates fiction less than fiction imitates life), realistic (at the time of recording none of us had ever seen an entire episode Law & Order).”
Second Layer – World Of Rubber [DE096LP]
Second Layer was a side project of Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey, members of post punk band The Sound. The music was bleak, detached, and desolate, but very beautiful. Honest songwriting and a harsh sonic backdrop set them apart from their peers. Second Layer’s World of Rubber, first released on Cherry Red way back in 1981 – some two years after the duo’s first outing on 7” – has long been considered something of an industrial classic by those in the know. Here, it gets a deserved re-press from the folks at Dark Entries. 34 years on, it still retains the power to shock, with Adrian Borland and Graham Green’s raw, weighty mix of post-punk basslines, sharp guitars, fuzzy electronics, tape loops and basic drum machine grooves still sounding deliciously fresh. Certainly, it’s comparable to many more celebrated releases of the time, and arguably more spontaneous in feel.
Nick Höppner – Feel My Bicep Mixtape 17
VA – Omni VA : Part 1 [OMD004]
The first of the OMNI.VA series, featuring Barker & Baumecker, The Friend, Schmutz and Space Fresh. A dark territory.
VA – Acido 20 [ACIDO020]
Never a label to be afraid of bucking expectations, the 20th Acido releases sees founder Dynamo Dreesen collaborating with regular colluder SVN and, surprisingly, Dave ‘A Made Up Sound’ Huismans. Of the three untitled tracks, it’s the A side where the production touch of A Made Up Sound is most discernible, thanks to the skipping, stripped back rhythmic kicks that propel the cut forwards. You can totally see Ben UFO getting plenty of mileage out of this one. It is the B side where the abstract inclinations of SVN and Dreesen come to the fore, with “Track 2” sinking meandering drums in a thick, foggy soup of sonics and delayed modular bleeps whilst the final track is jittering, minimal electronics at its most paranoid.
Kornél Kovács – BIS Radio Show #791
Romansoff – Infinite Dreams [MÖRK005]
Mörk continues a hazy run of releases with a hard-driving, dream-techno 12″ from Romansoff. Known for raw and battered techno excursions and curation through his Raw Tools labels, Romansoff continues his recent stellar run with a more wandering, daylight-dreaming four track EP. The light-splintered techno of ‘Beyond The Self’ melting into the looping shuttered-blind house of ‘Infinite Dreams’. While the flip explores a visceral washed-out 5am sound palette, with ‘Seven Sins’s drowning modems and the incessant clattering rhythms of ‘She Forgives’.
Takeshi Kouzuki – Remember EP [MMMC001]
After releasing his music on the labels like Mathematics, Macadam Mambo, Hotmix and Snuff Trax, Takeshi Kouzuki, Japanese producer currently based in Kobe, starts his own label Man Made Mechanical Culture. The first EP is delivered with his own 3 raw house tracks mainly made of analogue synth and rhythm machine sounds.
DMX Krew – Zsagi [ZSAGI]
After landing his malfunctioning PX-4000 on the purple planet, Captain DMX steps out of the smoldering cockpit. After barely setting foot on the dusty landscape, the Captain is startled by deep thudding from over the hills. Dragging his oxygen pack with one hand and his atomizer with the other, he sets off in search of the other-wordly din. Over the hill his pupils adjust to the stroboscopic lightning and below him lies a sea of strange creatures moving together as one body. A cosmic sermon takes place under the three suns in the sky, mechanical and stuttered frequencies set a manic pace and drive the dark creatures back and forth. Captain DMX sighs a heavy breath and starts to descend into the fray….
Chemotex – Thulsa [TTT036]
Under his Chemotex alias, Marcos Cabral has been one of The Trilogy Tapes most productive artists in recent times. Thulsa strives to get a balance between becalmed techno hypnotism, skuzzy grooves and gently melodious intent. This blend is perhaps most satisfyingly mixed on the industrial-tinged clank of “Delta City”, though the woozier, scuffled late night warmth of “Music For Security” pushes it close. Twice he heads towards deeper territory; first on the title track’s trance-inducing synthesizer loop groove, and secondly on the dubby, locked-in tech-house majesty of “Lorentz”.
Pulpo – Russian Torrent Versions 16 [CCCP016]
Bookworms and Max Ravitz aka Patricia team up as Pulpo and givimg you some dusty Brooklyn haze. While it may be challenging for most dancefloors, the guts and murk of these tracks are sure to get you in the proper headspace for a night sinking deep into the couch.
VA – DKMNTL X PATTA 02 [DKMNTLXPATTA002]
For the second installment of their four-part collaboration with Amsterdam streetwear brand Patta, Dekmantel unleash a tasty long sleeve t-shirt and another three previously unheard tracks from a trio of homegrown talents. Veteran producer and former Rednose Distrikt man Awanto3 kicks things off, joining the dots between the starry sounds of Detroit techno and Mood Hut style new age deep house on the dreamy “Cover Up”. Flip for the old skool Detroit techno-meets-deep house bounciness of Mark Du Mosch’s “2nd 5ystem”, and Robert Bergman’s “Wings”, an out-there, acid-flecked trip into deep space paranoia that defies easy categorization. All three tracks are undeniably strong, making this one of the more alluring volumes in an altogether excellent series.
Maoupa Mazzocchetti – 14.07.A [PRR001]
The first release on the new obscure Belgian label PRR! PRR! in coming from Maoupa Mazzocchetti. A proper belter for those who it love it raw and off the wall.
G-23 – Mongrando Mongrel Trax [SRTX006]
Super Rhythm Trax is back with a fresh new artist G-23 who delivers 2 monstrous slabs of Mongrel Acid music. “Kidding Kids” is an ultra fresh beast of a track that sits comfortably outside classification, melding Acid with a super heavy breakbeat and peppered with UK Garage references. “Mountain’s Acid” goes for a straight up 4/4 Acid track with a deep bubbling Acid line that hooks you early and keeps you locked throughout. On the B side label boss Jerome Hill is on remix duties turning in a tracky Acid version of Mountain’s Acid with a heavy bottom end and funky percussion
Pelifics – Capitello [FP049]
Norwegian-Italian producer Pelifics makes disco, infused with a strong homage to 80’s pop, and a little dash of 90s house. The result is melodic, inspiring, kicking, danceable music that leave the listener oscillating between sounds of youthful nostalgia and the future sound of disco. Next to the lush ultracrisp feel of the original track, full of light , warmths, thoughtful ideas it´s Chmmr and Fett Burger. Chmmr with his fantastic translucent strings and Fett Burger with a remarkable intro to a new ‘beatless’ approach.
VA – Ethos Series Vol.3 [OS003]
The third release on the Nous Ethos Series….. this time it’s a bright and bubbling 6 tracker from another unannounced artist.
Quarion – Busted Moniker EP [RTR016]
Yanneck “Quarion” Salvo has been relatively quiet of late, with his last 12″ dropping midway through 2014. The four cuts gently pull in subtly different directions, with the blissfully spacey synth melodies and long builds of “Lost Coordinates” being followed by the bass-heavy, deep house basement funk of “A Thousand Questions”. Flip for the relentless organ stabs, shaker-heavy grooves, twisted synth lines and bumpin’ bassline of “Burnin”, and the fantastically broken P-funk workout that is “You Were The Only”.
The Hipodrome Of Music 