Semantica and 12″ debut from this mysterious artist from the north of Europe.
ambient techno
Young Male – How To Disappear In America [WM009]
The debut album from White Material co founder Young Male. A collection of dark ambient and textured experimental songs created as a personal soundtrack for life in uncertain times. Paranoia, lust, virtual experience, and tension/release are themes explored in this tour through a dystopian American landscape.
Fluxion – Vibrant Forms III [SUBWAXFXCD002]
Konstantinos Soublis, aka Fluxion, and Subwax Bcn have decided to pick up the banner and release Vibrant Forms III. It contains everything anyone could hope for and more: The massive, booming basses, the clicks and hisses, the atmospheric thunderstorms, the opium smoke-scented streaks of reverb, dub echoes and the warmth. Yes, above all else the warmth: Sometimes moist and dripping as in “Safe Harbour”, sometimes blisteringly dry as in “Variant”. It’s no easy task, giving cold, dead machines warm breaths. And no-one quite does it like Fluxion.
VA – 15 Years With Echocord [ECHOCORD071]
After 15 years in the game, Kenneth Christensen’s Echocord mark that achievement with an exclusive ten track compilation spanning their broadest parameters, from a beatless panorama by STL thru mesmerising dub techno from Deadbeat. Along the way they present a clinical, squashed dub-stepper from Arovane, Struktur 1; the Detroit ghetto acid of Hoodmode by Luke Hess; purified dub suspension from Fluxion; and strangely enough, a vocal turn from Mike Dehnert in Track Providing Home.
Shifted – Appropriation Stories [HOS470]
How does one appropriate oneself? In the case of Guy Alexander Brewer, the situation is complicated by his various current projects in techno, noise and experimental electronics overlaying a once-hidden past in drum’n’bass. ‘Appropriation Stories’ tackles the matter head-on at length, the endpoint of the mounting inward focus already evident in his work as Shifted. For years shunning his previous work in Commix, more recently Brewer has learned to look back, even making sideways stabs into breakbeat territory with his Covered in Sand alias. The process grows more intricate and subtle on his new album for the Hospital Productions imprint helmed by Dominick Fernow (aka Prurient, Vatican Shadow, et al.). Here rigorous processing and studio treatments transform classic breaks into deeply hidden components that add new layers of character to his highly-developed techno sound.
Artefakt – The Mental Universe [DSR/C8]
After a fine first EP on the label in 2105, Dutch duo Artefakt are back on Delsin with The Mental Universe. This four track EP again finds Robin Koek and Nick Lapien showcasing their knack for spellbinding grooves of voodoo techno, absorbing ambient and frictionless drum programming after other outings on the likes of Prologue and Field Records.
Daniel Araya – Acid Ambient Vol. 1 [KMWL008]
What would it feel like to have your naked body slowly submerged in a pool of steaming acid? One would expect unbearable pain, of course – beyond the limits of our imagination – but with his Acid Ambient Vol. 1 on Kontra-Musik, Daniel Araya proves us wrong. The EMS Studio Engineer and producer adjusts the intricate PH levels of this corrosive bubblebath with infinity skilled hands, making the experience thoroughly pleasurable – on the verge of erotic even. Your skin melts away with a sweet sensation of laxity and your muscles and tendons dissolve sensually slow. At the end, nothing will remain below the surface but the pleasure center of your now diffused brain, pulsating with unrestrained satisfaction.
Louis Haiman – The Cosmic Memory EP [AERA017]
Louis Haiman returns to Indigo Aera with The Cosmic Memory EP, which features two originals as well as a remix by Berghain heavyweight Marcel Dettmann. His first single here is ‘How Free Am I’, and is eight delicate minutes of floating ambience and subtle, stripped back rhythm. It’s all in the bassline at first, after pixel thin synths float in like fireflies before static crackle and soft percussions flesh out the heavenly sound world. Soothing and absorbing throughout, it becomes a forceful and high pressure bit of techno in the hands of Marcel Detmann who layers in solid kicks and clacking hits to drive things along. ‘Hidden Knowledge’ is then a slithering bit of atmospheric electro with rumbling synths and pads suspending you in deep space. It rounds out a captivating EP.
DJ Ice Tits – Songs About Myrtle Avenue [DANG002]
A second utterance emerges from the tomb of DJ Ice Tits. Who was this ancient priest of Memphis whose sarcophagus lies entombed within the Metaphasic Pyramid, inscribed with the Analogue Hieroglyph? These five recently discovered FM transmissions from the underworld, entitled ”Songs about Myrtle Avenue,” may contain the key to this mystery.
Silent Harbour – Silent Harbour [TRSDLP001]
Originally released on Echocord on 27 August 2012. Transcendent Records finally releases this much wanted ambient techno album by Conforce aka Silent Harbour, completely remastered for vinyl. Boris Bunnik expresses “music for an imaginary deep mental abstract excursion” under the Silent Harbour moniker for Transcendent/Echocord. As his multifarious operations have shown, Boris is a dab hand in the studio, and Silent Harbour is the place to find those machine emissions which would never quite reach the ‘floor. Operating on the cusp of ambient Techno and electro-acoustic music, he shapes sheer scapes from elemental source material, rendering his sounds diffuse until we glimpse hallucinatory tones in the gloaming dissonance. 4/4 anchored rhythms are fractured, percussions sent to scout the perimeters while the vast space between becomes playground to radiant metallic timbres and strafing electronic apparitions. Music for Techno heads to fall into when the kicks are too much.
Simon Shreeve – Lust Product [LINO72]
Simon Shreeve appears again this year for Karl O’Connor’s esteemed imprint. The man also known as Mønic pushes the kind of highly-engineered modern industrial music on his own Osiris Musik label, so easily finds a welcome home here. On side A, harsh textural abrasions are contrasted by body bashing bass frequencies on the demonic “System Living” while the seething and slow burning breaks contrasted by eerie chimes and nefarious sound design on “Silver Sun” sounds like running through a nightmare in slow motion. The paranoid and immersive sound design of the title track (on the flip) is reminiscent of some of Trent Reznor’s soundtrack work, yet fantastic in its own right. Shreeve deconstructs the classic aesthetic of UK techstep, deconstructing it in a modern format.
Marco Shuttle – Flauto Synthetico [SPAZIO003]
Dozzy and Neel’s label Spazio Disponibile serves up a third release, with the latest one coming from Italian Marco Shuttle. The techno stylist and Eerie boss serves up three tracks that continue to mark out his heady and hypnotic aesthetic.
B12 – Brokenunbroken [FS001]
FireScope Records, the new sub label of the legendary B12 Record, is here to exist with the same ethos, quality music, quality packaging, without compromise and a product that will stand the test of time. The first release is by B12, the EP entitled BrokenUnBroken. A moody down tempo risky start for a first release on a new label, however its enigmatic beauty, sounds, artwork and themes make it the only natural choice.
VA – Plangent Compilation Vol.1 [PLANCOMP001]
Plangent Records is back with the first various artists compilation and gathers long time friends, likeminded musicians and new talent on this 10 track release. 3 years after the last Recondite release on his own Plangent label this included works of Tin man, RNDM, Scuba, Dj Tennis, Monoloc and others. Plangent is establishing itself as platform for deep, low-key, melancholic electronic techno music with this big album release.
Dino Sabatini – Concentrica [OUTISOPERA002]
After inaugurating the ‘Opera’ sub-series of his Outis Music label with the ‘Omonimo’ double LP, Dino Sabatini has invited some choice allies to help define the vocabulary and expand the vision of the new imprint. The aforementioned album, which wove together Sabatini’s atmospheric conjuring skill with the piano flourishes of Antonello Salis, already exhibits the label’s commitment to dismantling the ‘either-or’ logic of contemporary genres by successfully merging a variety of supposedly irreconcilable styles, talents, and worldviews (e.g. both mythological and the technological perspectives). The follow-up EP, ‘Concentrica’, draws on the material from ‘Omonimo’ and delivers it into the hands of additional remixers in order to continue the Outis Opera voyage.
Jeff Mills – Free Fall Galaxy [AX048]
A dark space in time absorbs whatever is on its way; without a sign of sensitivity nor compassion and on behalf of its own continuity, the Free Fall Galaxy is a threat to all which it surrounds. Beyond our ability as humans to distinguish or analyse galaxies, the Free Fall Galaxy does not retain any kind of order in its nature. Devouring and moving in unexpected orbits, all that is known is that it endlessly consumes without becoming larger in mass nor in size. Other than that, everything is yet to be discovered. We must conjecture that this Galaxy holds many keys to unsolved speculations regarding space, time and our own existence.
Roger 23 – Extended Play [ITX008]
Roger Reuter has only one previous album to his name, the woozy, edge-of-reason ambience of 2015’s Mensch 001. Extended Play is its’ follow up, and sees the experienced German producer appear on Ilian Tape for the first time. Rooted in his usual brand of unsettling, otherworldly ambience, the six tracks variously draw influence from early IDM, drone, dub techno, industrial and experimental film soundtracks. Despite these nods to familiar experimental styles, it’s an album that can easily be listened to in a variety of situations, and never drags. It’s strongest moments, such as the mournful ambient throb of “State IIX Interlude II”, are particularly beguiling.
Luigi Tozzi – Deep Blue Vol. 2 [HYPNUS010]
Hypnus Records is spacing it up with a beautiful, aquatic Ambient Techno immersion from Luigi Tozzi.
SHXCXCHCXSH – SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs [AVNLP003]
The Swedish Techno experimentalists SHXCXCHCXSH return to AVIAN with ‘’SsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSsSs’’ album. This album is wedded to the Avian aesthetic : monochromatic & wrought with tension. It’s powerfully dynamic and thoroughly organic in execution. An unbound, rolling matrix of white noise & wrought iron percussion, replete with disembodied choirs that pan uncomfortably in and out of the sonic hinterland.
TM404 – Acidub [KM044]
Andreas Tilliander returns to Kontra-Musik in a grand style with his second TM404 album. Titled ‘Acidub’, this highly anticipated release is much more of an evolution than a repetition of the first superbly self-restricted album, where Tilliander even decided to use only one of the two Roland TB-303 waveforms. Acidub is a more playful and open listening experience, no doubt inspired by his extensive live touring with the TM404 concept. In fact, you can almost hear Tilliander’s flock of acid machines breaking free from the restrained modus operandi. Every sound is like a migratory bird with a heart yearning for high altitude and favourable winds. The opening track Alinge paints a lucid picture of these acid birds leaving a cold industrial landscape behind; the flickering black shadows from their wings against the white smoke rising from a forest of chimneys below. The very last seconds of Alinge even echo of the place the silver birds are longing for, but that will remain a secret between Kontra-Musik and the avid listener. Sufficient to say, we can follow these birds of passage as they’re heading south towards a warmer climate, fleeing the cold discipline of the North. Mutron Mantra, for instance, brings us to a rainforest full of serpentine lianas, giant leaves dripping with moist and green pools of water bubbling with organic life. Don’t Defend Mascot guides us through a steaming savannah at dusk with hundreds of yellow eyes following our every step while Pade vividly describes the perils of the flight and the pace and courage needed to press on. In all, Acidub is a surprisingly exuberant follow-up to the more introspective TM404 album. But while the musical journey of this second album is quite different, the experience of sheer aural eminence remains the same. Andreas Tilliander has done it again, and Kontra-Musik couldn’t be prouder.
The Hipodrome Of Music 