Disco Birds is starting the year 2015 with the label head Levente Imre Takacs aka Ivel Tax. The Romanian born producer brings up his past and current ideas into one full album release, entitled Idel de fel.
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Deep88 & Melchior Sultana – Playing Without Moving [12R03LP]
Jeff Mills – Woman In The Moon [AXCD046]
Woman In The Moon is a science fiction silent film that premiered on 15 October 1929. It is often considered to be one of the first ‘serious’ science fiction films, written and directed by Fritz Lang, who is the one of the biggest names in German expressionist cinema, the creator of Metropolis (1927). Detroit Techno music producer and a futurist Jeff Mills composed the new sound track for this classic film, initially for the Fritz Lang Film Retrospective event for Cinematheque Francaise in Paris in 2011. Since then, Mills has been consistently performing the soundtrack in the form of a cine-mix.
Portion Control – I Staggered Mentally [DE085]
Portion Control is a British electronic and industrial band from South London. The trio of John Whybrew, Ian Sharp and Dean Piavani started out experimenting with electronics in 1980. The band released their first official vinyl album “I Staggered Mentally” on In Phaze Records in 1982. This album laid the template for the harder edged rhythmic industrial sound of the 80s and 90s. “I Staggered Mentally” is as raw as electronic music gets. Dean Piavani’s anguished vocals are the lone human element amidst electric drones, metallic beats and alien analog flickers. The perfect soundtrack for the harsh, even malignant, urban-industrial nightmare.
Van Kaye + Ignit – A Slight Delay [DE083]
Van Kaye + Ignit is the Dutch duo of Ed Van Kasteren (Van Kaye) and Ignatine Bekken (Ignit), who joined forces in the city of Arnhem during early 1980. Self-released in 1981, the album pairs conceptual sophistication with disarming naïveté in a way that has been difficult to replicate since the formative years of ‘bedroom’ electronic music. Both members handle vocals (or non-vocals), and songs feature everything from new wave riffs to slowly shifting oscillator buzzes and eerie electronics over mechanical rhythms. This reissue includes the entire 11-track original c-60 cassette A Slight Delay, as well as all 4 tracks from the “Picassos on the Wall 7” spread across two vinyl discs.
Post Industrial Noise – The Official Anthology [MR045LP]
Medical Records in collaboration with Crispy Nuggets is proud to present a collection of tracks by Post Industrial Noise. PIN was an “audio artsemble” conceived in 1982 in Columbus, Ohio by the trio Robert Crise Jr, Gerald F. Nelson, and Dana Riashi Ritchey. The output of PIN could be described a more experimental/minimalist offshoot of new wave with pleasant synth sequences blanketed in rich synth tones. The opening track “Sketch” has a definite cold wave vibe with slightly echoed vocals over a subtle drum machine beat and monotonous synth lines. “Prelude” is a deep instrumental cut with synth and sample interplay resulting in a hypnotic slab of brilliance. The tracks on this collection have been restored from the original analog tape reel for this reissue.
Carter Tutti – Carter Tutti Plays & Remix Chris & Cosey [CTILP012014]
New material from Throbbing Gristle’s Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti should always be celebrated and their latest joint opus will be of particular delight to hardcore fans. Carter Tutti plays Chris & Cosey is a logical extension of the live show of the same name the pair have been performing and perfecting over the past three years, transferring revisited classics from the stage to the album format. Completed to heed requests for the release of a live album, this double LP features some eight CC classics like “Driving Blind” and “Obsession” newly reworked and recorded at their Norfolk studio. Of course it all sounds as imperious and industrially challenging as you’d expect. Excitingly for completists, there is a second LP included that houses remixes only previously available on a tour-only CD.
Levon Vincent – Levon Vincent [NS009] FREE DOWNLOAD
Levon Vincent chose to announce the release of his long-await debut album by drip-feeding information on social media. The subsequent meltdown among the online techno community may have been amusing to watch, but is testament to the Berlin-based New Yorker’s impact over the last 10 years. Typically, concrete info has remained thin on the ground aside from the fact it stretches across some four slabs of vinyl and features a homage to Levon’s cat Mona. Just before the physical copies were due for release, Vincent elected to give out the 11 track LP digitally for free so it’s highly likely you know how it sounds already. If you are a true advocate of his output you’ll want this quadruple wax edition! Next-level house and techno dedicated to the “ugly ducklings of the world”!
Zenker Brothers – Immersion [ITLP001]
“We are very happy to present our first album on Ilian Tape. At the beginning of 2014 we moved our two seperate bedroom studios into one and soon after started working on the album. All the tracks were made in about 6 months in our new Ilian Tape Space Studio in Munich. The time felt right to focus on this adventure, but without any pressure. Therefore the process became very natural and we felt free to go wherever the vibe led us. Our intention was to create a very personal and honest sound without any limitations or guidelines. It’s a reflection of all the years we’ve been growing up, working, traveling and playing together and it means a lot to us. But enough said music is not supposed to be described with words, so sit back, close your eyes, light one up and turn up the speakers!”
30drop – Tools For The Dimensional Step LP [DETUNDLTD006]
This album is the conclusion of research conducted on theories arguing for us living in a holographic universe. The songs included are parts of a whole that moves the listener towards the idea of understanding music as a universal language that hides within a dimensional leap leading to other universes. Each beat is a part of a primary equation and each song a piece of a second-level puzzle. The complete set is the key that defines the geometry applied to music as the binary expression of geometric mathematics that shapes the vacuum in a space confined by the laws of physics. Taking Detroit Techno as the primary basis for 30drop; this LP intends to develop this type of sound where repetition generates undefined mental structures and pads are the large dimensional containers for vacuum and space. A trip from Detroit’s minimalist, hard, and concise techno that cuts into predefined patterns and creates new boundaries to warm musical spaces in order to accommodate this new way of thinking.
Xtrak – Tape Archives [RAWAX002LP]
Unreleased Todd Sines tape archives from 1993 – 1994! Todd’s introduction in early 1993 to Detroit’s Carl Craig and Daniel Bell resulted in seminal releases with Peacefrog, Planet E and 7th City. Classic minimal techno when it was still maximal.
Macadam Mambo Dj’s – Ultima Sensazione [MMLP101]
The new Macadam Mambo Dj’s project by Sacha Mambo and Guillaume des Bois is now ready to strike the world. Weirdo Italo-influenced sunshine disco for optimistic minds.
Vercetti Technicolor – Black September [GDLP001]
Vercetti Technicolor’s ficticious soundtrack to the 1972 Munich Massacre, is a bleak, cold and somber work. Partly inspired by the 1999 Documentary by Kevin Macdonald, Vercetti creates a tense and brooding approach to this, the most darkest of subject matter. This is far from dancefloor material, this is doom-electronics at it’s most frightening. Giallo Disco is proud to present our first LP, Vercetti Technicolor’s Black September, closer to minimal wave than moroder and all the better for it. Remixes come from Mexico’s PLAYTONTO and Creme Organisation signing’s Francesco Clemente.
Nite Fields – Depersonalisation [FLT020LP]
Nite Fields will release their debut album ‘Depersonalisation’ on vinyl, CD and digital through Los Angles label Felte, and in Australia on cassette and digital through Lost Race.
‘Depersonalisation’ was conceived and completed over a four-year period in all three distinct capitals. Recordings were completed almost entirely by the band members in over twenty locations including garages, bedrooms, borrowed studios, stairwells and a restaurant dining room after hours. Lead singer and songwriter Danny Venzin is opinionated, passionate, and uncompromising, whether releasing works on his own label Lost Race or maintaining his diligent focus on a unified (though not narrow-minded) Nite Fields aesthetic, regardless of what music is currently in fashion. His band mates Chris Campion, Liza Harvey and Michael Whitney consist of deeply immersed players in a tight-nit local D.I.Y. scene.
Continue reading “Nite Fields – Depersonalisation [FLT020LP]”
Skymark – Waves From The Nucleus [MSLP005]
”Waves From The Nucleus” is a mixture of Spiritual Jazz, Brazilian Fusion, Soul, Disco and Boogie, composed, played and recorded by Skymark with his electric piano and old synths. This album is highly influenced by the golden years 70s-80s and the summer breeze from the marvelous city.
S.M. Nurse – Hometape Recordings 1981-1983 [DOM020]
Around 1980 Menko Konings (eM.) started the Dutch underground formation S.M. Nurse, first together with Jos Jak and later also with Anneke Stempher. S.M. Nurse experimented with collage-like music and were inspired by N.Y.-ultra, disco e.g. The band mainly performed in the Amsterdam ultra-circuit (Oktopus, Paradiso), clubs and discotheques. They were played regularly on the famous radio programmes RadioNome and Spleen and performed live on radio in the villa of the VPRO in Hilversum. They also contributed to the theme cassette Turkish Delight of the label Ding Dong and there was a cassette release on the label Top Tape. At the end of 1983, S.M. Nurse split up.
Liaisons Dangereuses – Liaisons Dangereuses [SSLP006]
One of the most important electronic albums of all time now in the rebound. Cloaked in mystery, Liaisons Dangereuses had an unusually powerful and alluring vision designed by Chrislo Haas from D.A.F. and Beate Bartel from Mania D. They found a rather magical singer named Krishna Goineau for their album who sang with passionate despair in French, Spanish, German, and a fractured gaggle of Broken English. This unbelievably romantic album was mixed at Conny Plank Studios and originally released on vinyl in October 1981. With an infectious collage of electronic rhythms, perhaps not heard of nor imagined before, combined with explosions and scenery changes to keep listeners entirely disoriented from start to finish, Liaisons Dangereuses paved the way for most all EBM music since it’s release. The album carried the single ”Los Ninos del Parque” which became an instant and obvious hit on every dance floor it captured, and twenty-two years later still remains a champion. Countless movements of electronic music (Detroit Techno, Chicago House and Electroclash to name a few) have cited the Liaisons Dangereuses album as a crucial influence to their cause.
June – Dominion [SUCTION029]
Suction Records is pleased to present “Dominion”, the debut full-length LP by June. June is the solo project of Tsampikos Fronas, originally from Greece, and now based in Berlin, Germany. “Dominion” is focused on June’s synthwave sound, utilizing hardware step sequencers to sync and control his arsenal of classic drum machines and synthesizers including Roland’s SH-101, TR-606 and Juno-60, and the minimal synth percussion staple, the Korg KR-55. The romanticism and elegance of early ’80s synth pop is clearly evident, not only in the production and instrumentation of the music, but in the artwork and song titles. Even more prominent is the influence of modern minimal synth master Sean McBride of Martial Canterel and Xeno & Oaklander, who’s sophisticated classicist sequencer composition looms largely over the material on “Dominion,” minus McBride’s distinctive vocals. Save for the gorgeous and meditative “Queen Of Flowers” cuts that end both sides of the LP, the music on “Dominion” is driving, danceable synthwave that references the past while maintaining a thoroughly modern edge.
Die Form – Die Puppe LP [DE082]
Die Form is a French post-industrial and electronic band formed in 1977. In 1982 Die Form released their debut vinyl album Die Puppe. These are the first esoteric electronic experiments, often improvised, from what would become the sound of the project.Songs range from hypnotic, minimalistic proto-IDM to pure, daring experimental sound manipulation. Unable to fit into any genre, Die Puppe is in a class of music all its own.
Le Cliché – Consumer Behaviour [MR042]
Medical Records presents the debut full-length release of Le Cliche, entitled ‘Consumer Behaviour’. The album consists of 11 songs influenced largely by European synth pop of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The music might be best described as minimal synth, synth pop, postmodernist, cold assembly line with neo consumerist themes, based on the use of synth sequences and virtual voices. Le Cliche is the synth project of Gerard Ryan, native of Limerick (Ireland). All of the tracks on the album are from the 2012-2014 period except for ‘I woke up this morning (like I always do)’, which is a reimagining of a 1984 demo of the track entitled ‘I dreamt I was dead’. ‘Production Line’, is the mostly instrumental opening track to the album which clearly displays its Kraftwerkian influences. The Le Cliche sound is attained by combining a mix of old and new technologies.
The Hipodrome Of Music 