Theo Parrish presents Sound Signature Volume Two, a 9 track compilation of previous Sound Signature releases and a previously unreleased track, “Didn’t Pay Dues”.
Theo Parrish – Sound Signature Sounds Vol. 2 [SSCD06]
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Vatican Shadow – Kneel Before Religious Icons [TYPE105]
Dominick Fernow might be best known for his industrial incantations under the Prurient moniker, but in recent months his attention has shifted towards a different outlet. Fernow’s interest in electronic music (from the clamorous grind of Muslimgauze to the recently defunct Sandwell District imprint) has been well documented, and it comes to a frothy head with his Vatican Shadow project. Revolving around themes gleaned from Iraq war propaganda and yellowing stacks of newspaper clippings, the tracks on ‘Kneel Before Religious Icons’ are a perfect representation of Fernow’s modus operandi. Behind a wall of tape hiss, drum machine rhythms beat out memories of early Ministry and AFX while sickly FM synthesizer pads crawl and heave into the abyss. Like much of Fernow’s output prior to this, the emphasis is on society’s darker crevices, but Vatican Shadow is steeped in an alarming mystery and sulfuric smoke that is sure to surprise recent converts.
Actress – R.I.P [HJRCD60]
South London producer Darren Cunningham’s new album, R.I.P, underlines Actress’s reputation as one of the most eloquent voices to emerge from the sub-bass nexus of London dance music. His intuitive and original grasp of beats, textures and rhythm puts him on a parallel path to dance music innovators such as Drexciya, T++, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Burial and Basic Channel. Absolutely essential release by one of the most exciting producers of the 21st century.
Aura Fresh – Stellar Activity Cycles [CONFINELESS003]
Djorvin Clain – Pattern of Thought [SSCD12]
Pattern Of Thought speaks a believers language. It was created and processed with care. We experience time and our conscious emotions in a most individual space of mind. Our thoughts are formed by what we feel. Our own personal diary, the mind and heart guides us through. All tracks and sounds where recorded in Belgium with the use of hardware instruments and several recording techniques, from field recordings to reel to reel tape. The sounds of the album are kept authentically as possible, away from what was happening in the music world around me, it is a deepest personal reflection.
Baz Reznik – Scream From The Shore [DYFR005D]
The first album on DYFR records is a 15 track record by Baz Reznik with a pumping remix of his former release “Up” by Louis Guilliaume. A diverse album with jackin ghetto style acid, techno beach anthems, underground house, electro with disco influences and slow beat electronics. This is what you get when you live in a diverse coastal city.
Short version is FREE to download on DYFR bandcamp page.
Goliath – The Message Carriers [FR022LTD]
Frustrated Funk’s Limited Vinyl Series drops another crazy slice of experimental electro wax. Gary Kempston aka Goliath is dropping an amazing collection of tracks. Goliath has his own fresh and unique sound palette and his music is miles away from anything else.
Fort Romeau – Kingdoms [SILK022]
Mike Norris aka Fort Romeau is a UK artist based in South London. Mike began making music at 14, inspired by the slow jams of Air’s Premiers Symptômes and the warm analogue sounds of Autechre’s Amber LP he began creating, “just loops of noise and atmosphere, just playing with the sound directly.” Later, while at university in Brighton, he began DJing at clubs and the experience of being enveloped in the sound had a profound effect on his attitude to music-making. In Mike’s words, “I started really thinking about the visceral quality of the sound all my favorite music had – this deep, thick quality that just absorbed you.” Shortly after leaving university, Mike began working with the band La Roux, playing keyboards and programming the band’s live show – all the while developing his own musical practice between sound checks and airport stopovers. It wasn’t until the band stopped touring that he was able to concentrate on his music full time and, having become used to working within the limitations of a slow laptop and a pair of headphones, changed his ethos to music making “you have to learn to be very efficient, its is pretty frustrating but you live within the limitations of your equipment. That’s what really defines you as a musician I think. I only have one synthesizer, a Yamaha DX7, and this LP is really the product of me interfacing with that one synth and a 7 year old laptop.”
Steve Murphy & die Roh – The Chasm [CHIWAX001LP]
The first full length on Chiwax is coming from Steve Murphy & die Roth from Venice, Italy. The album includes 8 lovely vintage Chicago house and ’80ies Chicago house tracks.
Kan3da / 240 Interceptor – Untitled [STIL037]
Janitor Of Lunacy – Crimes On The Dancefloor LP [MNQ008]
Big release by one of the best electronic Cold Wave bands from Italy. Janitor Of Lunacy were an Italian New Wave electronic band, active in Brescia from 1981 to 1986, composed by Kovre, Claudio Asserini and Gabriele Farina. With this line up, JOL produced a demo tape in 1983 entitled ‘Crimes On The Dancefloor”, which was very well reviewed by the italian music press. Thanks to such great feedbacks, the band was choosed for various compilation of the era, playing many live shows in historic clubs like Xenon in Florence or Odissea 2001 in Milano, sharing the stage with Weimar Gesang and some others Supporti Fonografici related bands. In 1986 JOL entered in studio for recording their first full-lenght for this label, album publicized by various magazine but that never saw the light of the day, due to artistic divergences.
White Car – Everyday Grace [HIT015]
Hippos In Tanks’ carefully assembled roster, White Car are the label’s darkest, sexiest operators. Hailing from the Pilsen neighbourhood in Chicago, their debut album ‘Everyday Grace’ channels that Eurotic undercurrent of Techno/Wave/drug music which has fuelled the city’s subterranean scene since the earliest days. Like an hallucinatory audio version of the scramble suits in A Scanner Darkly, their chimeric, cyberdelic fantasia assimilates elements of 30 years + of debonaire, thrusting automatik funk, from DAF to NIN to CTI, to ’80s Bowie, Prince and way beyond, refracting each glint until it becomes an amorphous nebula of digital info masking an ice-cool, thermo-controlled interior. The stuttered vocal of central figure Elon Katz expounds ideas of bodiless cybernetic sex and binary sensuality, melding his urging physicality into a virtual matrix of jagged, shoulder-jerking rhythms and writhing synthlines saturated in bacchanalian dissonance.
Ed Davenport – Counterchange [NRKCD046]
Berlin based Brit Ed Davenport presents his debut LP on NRK Music. Counterchange has plenty of concessions to filmic home listening rather than straight up dancefloor fodder. Notably, breakbeats feature heavily up the spine of the album, as does subtle vocal sampling and plenty of atmospheric tension. Starting with the brooding drums and moody voices of “Of Light & Shade” the album unfurls through the barely restrained rave euphoria of the title track, the beautifully re-worked melodies of “New Yorkshire” and “More Red Lights” as well as touching on some sombre downbeat bleakness, bold concrete funk and under-lapping deep techno. The penultimate track, “Somewhere,” is to be the album’s forceful first single: an obvious choice for its deeply hypnotic rhythms and train-track grooves.
Nicholas – Still Playing House [4LUX007B]
Italian producer Nicholas serves you his debut album for 4lux called Still Playing House, showcasing his love for the earlier USA house sounds in 14 original deep house tracks. The album includes also 2 remixes by Hunee and label head Gerd.
Shifted – Crossed Paths [MOTECD01]
Shifted’s ‘Crossed Paths’ is a record which pushes the formal possibilities of techno and is the first full length work to be released on Mote-Evolver. On ‘Crossed Paths’ the breadth of Shifted’s ideas is both subtle and devastating. As a producer Shifted’s methodology is like that of a sculptor, he works principally with textures knowing precisely when to leave edges raw and fault lines exposed. ‘Crossed Paths’ is constructed of 11 ominous cuts carved with precision and poise.
Grand Prix – Mach 1 [SF67987]
Reissue for this super-rare space funk album from 1983, one of the holy grails of the Cosmic scene. Extremely expensive and hard-to-find in the original, this LP was created by legendary French producers Jean-Pierre Massiera and Bernard Torelli (listed here as Areisam and Bernie) and released on French label Savoir Faire. It is a superb example of the duos innovative electronic disco madness, always pushing boundaries while remaining supremely funky. Stand-outtracks are the Italo classic “Challenger” – heady synths, tough bass and astronaut vocals combine in a strange space odyssey, “Cruisin”, a superb electro-boogie style cut with a hypnotic driving bassline, and the fantastic “On The Border”, a tight funky percussive workout whipped by wild space-rock guitars.
Tazz – Adventures Of Tazz LP [TSUBACD013]
The Montreal-based producer Tazz presents his debut LP, ʻAdventures of Tazzʼ for Londonʼs Tsuba imprint. The album includes 10 tracks and sees the producer deliver synth heavy, emotive and raw vibes in a distinctly Detroit influenced style.
III – The Flame Of The Sacred Wyvr [ZN009]
New electro project on Zusammen. After the last 3 outings have been a sidestep towards a more experimental and spoken affair, it’s back to dark electro again on what could be one of the best Zusammen releases so far.
Vedomir – Vedomir [DKMNTL009]
Dekmantel presents the return of Vedomir to their imprint, with nothing less than a full length album this time. The Ukraine-based producer shows he’s getting more mature with every release, delivering a comprehensive artist album that crosses over genres easily. Ranging from downtempo, almost jazz-like slowburners to haunting Chicago house with a true analog feel, and from dark electro stuff, to the beautiful ambient soundscape: this record is a piece of stunning musical versatility.
Jeff Mills – The Messenger [AXCD045]
The Messenger is the fourth chapter of a musical science fiction series. This chapter explores the recycling of Planet Earth and the end of all Earth’s life forms. Doomsday appears to be nothing more than a agricultural reconditioning phase controlled by an alien life forms, they reveal the explosive reality of creating the Human animal for the production and harvesting of Dreams. Caught between secretive human+alien relationship, The Messenger pleads the case for more time so that humans can evacuate Earth and save innocent lives – but time has run out.
