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.
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.
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 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.
Hypnus Records is spacing it up with a beautiful, aquatic Ambient Techno immersion from Luigi Tozzi.
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.
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 first collaboration between SARS & Abdulla Rashim sees a diverse long player of aggressive industrial, drone and live electronics. A melancholic story in the manner that has come signifiy the sound of northern Europa.
Having broken the barrier for murky skewed house with his 2014 white label ‘A Place Called Ballacid’, Hungarian scene founder S Olbricht returns with a full album on Lobster Theremin that channels his distinct brand of thumping, sludgy techno, weaving through repetitive drone-laden ambient and Hague-esque escape soundtrack house. ‘For Perfect Beings’ is a sound-palette tour de force, picking ‘n’ mixing tempos and tonal balances that shift throughout each track and side of vinyl. Which strangely starts on a 12″ LP slab and ends with a pseudo ‘bonus’ 10″ two track experiment.
Known and admired for its rich and moody ambient and techno output, Field Records is presenting a brand new LP from Iori. His mesmerizing ambient excursions come under the title of Cold Radiance, and the album features eight tracks that suck you right into his world. Each track here is a long and absorbing affair that slowly unfolds and pulls you right into its grainy core. There are dark, texturally rich tracks that are full of menace as well as more heavenly, suspensory and angelic ambient offerings.
Vigilant electronics and desolated soundscapes by Lundin Oil aka Abdulla Rashim with the first long player under this moniker.
As both a producer and the helmsman of the Outis Music label, Dino Sabatini has carved out a distinctive musical style that shows a great reverence for both ancient archetypes and future possibilities for change. With one foot planted in a mysterious past and the other foot planted in a world yet to arrive, Sabatini’s works are carefully realized emotional journeys that intertwine shimmers of optimism with undercurrents of poignancy or nostalgia. His latest full-length offering, ‘Omonimo’ (that’s ‘homonym’ for non-speakers of Italian), brings all of this to fruition on a record that demands (and rewards) deep listening.
Continue reading “Dino Sabatini – Omonimo [OUTISOPERA001LP]”
New Yorkers Matt Morandi (Jahiliyya Fields) and Max Ravitz (Patricia) take the buyout, cash in their 401k’s, and opt for early retirement down to ”Deep Florida” on their debut LP for L.I.E.S. Titles like Humid Widow, Dark Duties, and Chasing the Dream set the tone for what can only be called a tropical storm of synthesizer chaos atop dusted drum programming and hazy vibes.
ARTS Transparent shaped his form in many different ways into electronic music, giving clear directions to any other label out there, emotionally and technically. This time the label will focus on the first Dub Master Series, a collective of the best Dub Techno Artists we have around the globe. Zoltan Solomon / Grad_U / IXM aka Kaelan / Hydergine.
B12, one of the UK’s first wave of pure techno acts, are back again to take you above and beyond with their trademark deep space techno and electro soundscapes. After appearing on the ‘5 Years De:tuned’ album with the track ‘Let Me Free’, B12 return to De:tuned with more transient music for the mind.
The Invariants are back with a new record in similar fashion. Synths to mess with the mind, hypnotising drums to stimulate the body. The A side features a jam in two parts supplemented by two acid filled cuts on the second side.
Sova Stroj is the nom de plume of Luxembourg-based producer Michel Flammant. With a history in black metal, rock and synth pop bands, he has now ventured out on his own, delving into experimental and electronic music. Sova Stroj’s debut album ‘Silent Earth’ explores feelings of willful desertion through forty minutes of highly concentrated and almost teleologically dark ambient patterns. Musically the album is centered around an abstracted industrial music influence paired with precise and evocative melodic and harmonic explorations.
It’s been two years since Tagwell Woods first appeared on W.T. Records. His rich and refreshingly unique techno style caught the ears of the faithful. Finally, finally, the Londoner is back on vinyl with six pieces of his original brand of machine music. And the wait is worth it. Tracks like “Christmas” and “Training” pulsate with feeling. Others like “Rabbit Society” and “Chance” build on that emotion. Crisp percussion and heartening strings are weaved as lush moments and textures unfurl. The 12″ is incredibly deep and flooded with sentiment. But don’t be mistaken into thinking Tagwell Woods deals in weight, instead it’s his lightness of touch that sings. “Tied Waves” is fragile and delicate, whispering before blossoming into being. The finale, the beautifully uplifting “Velocity”, has that same deftness. Mecca defies classification. Electronica. Techno. House. Acid. All are lovingly melted together to produce an absorbing and soulful second release, a release which is testament to the talent of this fledgling musician.
Collapsing Market release their first record. Eszaid (aka Louis Vial, one half of Mura Oka) inaugurates the imprint with four foreboding & gloomy trips that traverse through techno’s darker shades into haunting ambient. Louis Vial merges slow drum patterns with foggy textures and sparse arrangements. This is an incredibly affecting and mature first EP from the young producer who launches the label in the best way possible.
