Deepchord is back on Soma and drops the first single from forthcoming album, Auratones due in October. As is expected from the Detroit based sound designer, the Campfire EP is everything we have come to know and admire about his productions, from the spaced out, ambient sound fields to classic Dub Techno.
Amsterdam based artist nthng lands on Delsin with three tracks that touch on driving dub-techno and dreamy ambient. ‘Oralage’ opens with upbeat drum programming and gliding hits that make for a smooth flowing groove. Distant pads add some spacey atmospheres and the production is effortlessly warm and driving. ‘A Souls Search’ takes time out to drift in the cosmos, with waves of muted euphoria washing over you as you sink into clouds of ambient bliss. Lastly, ‘Turn To Gaia’ is a dubbed out techno roller, with long legged drums looping down low, reverberating chords adding weight and distant bell sounds charting the whole thing in a harmonic glow. It rounds out a super smooth and seductive EP.
On ‘World Of The Waking State’ Steffi stretches her wings, having created the album in a period when she found herself free from the past and more comfortable in her own skin. The shift in her mindset led to a new freedom of exploration in her creativity, enabling her to write more experimentally and logically resulting in this new album. Gone are the classic drum sounds and conspicuous melodies of her previous works. Instead, Steffi’s productions unify disparate molecular details to forge a greater whole, reflecting a serious commitment to abstract electronic composition that manifests itself here as a totally inimitable collection of tracks. World Of The Waking State is a confident and mature work of complex rhythms and refined melodies. The overall effect is as subtle, unique and thought provoking as the artist herself.
Lowercase Life returns with more melancholia out of machines made in the past. Detroit and 90’s UK vibes brought to present time in three originals and a killer electro remix by Orson Wells.
Field Records looks to L’estasi Dell’oro (Christopher Ernst, aka Penalune) for a new three-track EP for sound systems that once again takes us down the rabbit hole. Following on from his previous ‘I Look Upon Nature While I Live in a Steel City’ album in 2015, this is another masterfully drawn out and engaging affair. “Either to please or to educate” is the intended purpose of this EP release, utilizing guitar, tabla, and other electronic and acoustic instruments. The incessant movement of the metronomic tremors felt underneath our plains lay the rhythm. The threadbare dialogue we use to communicate frays slightly further. These spirals are given an explicit voice through Leader Annabelle Kuwe’s dispassioned public address to the remaining world at the Great Meeting of 2166, as recounted by Sadie LaPierre on closer ‘Achieve Ignition’.
New imprint Bogen Konzept Recordings first release comes from Todd Sines under his Cron alias. Two previously released cuts from 1994 and two immaculate productions from 2017 coded and compiled by this well known artist.
DEMENT3D welcomes Valentino Mora on board, and share with us a part of his spiritual journey. Slow Hyper-controlled Motion has been inspired by Butoh moves, but also is a homage to early New York spiritual house. In creating this record he also took field recordings in the forests of Japan. The concept of Slow Hyper-controlled Motion is to recreate this 90’s spiritual house vibe, but in a more experimental way.
Number 2 of this 4 piece exclusive 12-inch series! All tracks are specially produced for Steffi’s Fabric 94 mix CD!
Nadia Struiwigh is an electronic music DJ & producer from Rotterdam, Netherlands. Sitting somewhere between Biosphere and Boards of Canada, Struiwigh’s refined downtempo electronica takes you on a journey full of synthesized soundscapes that flirt with ambient techno. Awash with melody and warm electronics, Lenticular is an expertly crafted piece from an artist who has found her sound and is now effortlessly outputting inspiring compositions. Reminiscent of Warp’s Artificial Intelligence series, this is electronic listening music for quiet nights and club drowsy dawns. Both tracks are taken from her forthcoming album of the same name.
For its ninth release, Italian label Spazio Disponible looks to countryman Marco Shuttle for a first full length. ‘Systhema’ comes three years after his last album on his own Eerie label and finds him again focussing on an absorbing ambient techno style across eight enthralling cuts. Shuttle layers sound in subtle ways and has a meticulous attention to detail that results in a cinematic techno style that is cavernous and hypnotizing. Always operating in a region where ambient, techno and heady soundtracks become one, with this album Marco Shuttle once again confirms he is one of the finest sonic sculptors out there.
There are less than a handful of bands that can honestly say they were equally involved in the early 90’s noise scene, the mid 2000’s dark ambient scene, and what simultaneously emerged as the power noise movement in Europe. Orphx is one of these pioneers and have gracefully interwoven their tortured electronic architecture among the various subcultures of fringe electronics, while seamlessly continuing on to remain a vital part of the contemporary wave of industrial techno hysteria. Mannequin Records presents an archival collection from the what could be considered the genesis of Orphx’s unique sound. Inspired by early industrial music and new waves of noise from Japan and Europe, the compilation is gathers together some of the best material from their first two cassette releases along with previously unreleased tracks recovered from the original 4 track tapes.
The history of Planets … It has been 100 years since the British composer Gustav Holst introduced his most famous score «The Planets». An elegant musical tour to each one of our Planets in the Solar System, Holst brought forth imaginary visions of space that would survive many generations and decades after. As an important piece to the classical universe, ‘The Planets’ is regularly played throughout the World every year as it had been the most vivid translation of our cosmic neighborhood until now. The Electronic Music artist and producer Jeff Mills, pays tribute to this century of incredible musical production. He embarks to compose a sonic journey to re-discover our neighboring planets in a 18 piece suite that explores the nine planets, including the portions of space in between the Planets, the nine regions Mills calls Loop Transits.
Having begun the year with a 12″ of dub techno and ambient tracks that all boasted titles beginning with A, Vakula has decided to move onto the letter B. Musically, the script is similar, with glistening and slowly-shifting opener “Bikote” sitting somewhere between dub techno and ambient techno. With its lilting, echo-laden chords, galactic reggae shuffle and flotation tank chords, “Bifurcus” is a deep space treat, while “Biofenosis” is an altogether bolder, cheerier and more forthright trip into dubbed-out house territory (with a dash of techno thrown in). For those seeking more horizontal fare, the ambient dub epic that is closer “Binarity” should safely ease you into the required position.
Amsterdam based artist and creative technologist Andeh Lang is back on Will & Ink. After debuting on this label in August 2016 with an uncredited black label, he now serves up three more tracks that show off his interest in shaping and sculpting sounds for the main imprint. All these tracks were created with his own custom made software and self-programmed audio algorithms. Three experimental techno excursions that go by the name of ‘Susskind’ showcase a wide variety of deserted techno landscaping by a creative mastermind.
Blue Hour is introducing a new collaborative project from Blue Hour & A-JX. The duo explore classic UK rooted sounds, breakbeats and cinematic atmospheres with the 3 track EP ‘Gaia’s Requiem’.
Volumi Dinamici is the second long player of Claudio PRC, a project that combines music and art inspired by the Futurist concepts of movement and dynamism and artistic currents such as Abstract Expressionism; the name itself is a tribute to a work of Italian artist and pioneer Luigi Russolo. Volumi Dinamici is a collection of 11 tracks accompanied by the same number of illustrations, different from each other but characterized by a common technical and compositional approach. The several shades of the atmospheres and the linear rhythm of the grooves come together to form a dense and mental musical dimension, a journey into the sounds and their intrinsic symbolic value. Depth, lights, shadows and noises are tangible elements of this work that mark the beginning of a new sound research based mainly on the instinctive use of machines and analogue instruments.
When Tresor founder Dimitri Hegemann stumbled into a former bank vault in East Berlin on March 13th 1991, he had little idea that the space he had unlocked would fast become one of Berlin’s most influential and enduring techno clubs. As Tresor celebrates its 25th anniversary with this work of artists from the US, Germany, China, France, Austria, Italy and the UK, it is worth dwelling on how the cultural conditions that birthed Detroit techno – economic neglect and broken industry – were mirrored by the disused bunkers and impromptu parties of post-unification East Berlin, where techno found new, vigorous expression. This record marks the spirit of those 25 years of creativity, a paean to the psychedelic music of Dimitri’s youth. From the signature magnetic soundscapes of Vainqueur to the dark textures of upcoming Beijing producer Shao; from Jon Hassell’s slow epicurean volutes, to the ritual auras of Marcelus and Claudia Anderson’s contributions; from the dub-infused pioneering programming of Juan Atkins and Moritz von Oswald, to Mønic’s enthralling cadences, it represents some of the old and new names that continually epitomise Tresor’s perennial spirit of ingenuity.
