2XLP celebrating Malka Tuti’s 7 years of Existence. The Sheva (Seven in Hebrew) compilation represents a large chunk of the sonic spectrum that is the Malka Tuti multiverse to date. From tribal to punk and from house to leftfield bits. All tracks on the compilation were meticulously chosen throughout the past few years and slowly stitched together to comprise what is now SHEVA.
Part one of Hivern Discs’ Fragments compilation. While compilations tend to look backwards, ‘Fragments’ is far from being a retrospective. Since its launch in 2008, Hivern Discs has favoured a documentary approach, capturing the most vital and exciting sounds within its orbit at each particular moment. In keeping with the ethos of the label, this extensive compilation, comprising 29 new tracks across six 12″s, offers a panoramic glimpse of Hivern’s present and gives indications as to its near future. This is the first part and includes five tracks by Arthur Evans, Benedikt Frey, Epsilove, John Talabot and Walden.
If you ask me, DT Camp is by far the best electronic music festival in Europe. The remote location is very beautiful, on the banks of an emerald-green lake, surrounded by the wild forests of Lithuania. The crowd is equally mixed with local and people coming from all corners of Europe, all in search for the same thing. A serious rave! The vibe there is unbelievable. Everybody is on the same page, thee is a great sense of unity and freedom. And on top of this, if the weather is nice you can bathe into the warm waters of the lake.
First opus of the new series is La Batterie, by the UK’s Richard Podolor and Sandy Nelson in 1983 in the hypnotic shimmering disco of ‘Let There Be Drums.’ The music of Polodor and Nelson is being given new life by Kalahari Oyster Cult. Alongside the entrancing original are two remixes. First up is Australia via Amsterdam’s very own Max Abysmal with his ‘Spooky Remix.’ Adopting and adapting the raw energy of the ’83 version, Abysmal layers ghostly notes and spectral snares into his mechanical remake. The flip takes on a different slant with ‘Shotgun’ taken from the EP of twenty fives years ago. A super slick work of understated funk shot through with bold keys and powerful chants to show another side of the UK pair. The fiercely talented Benedikt Frey closes, turning his daringly able hand to ‘Let There Be Drums.’ He keeps the vocal line, the rest of his rework is dipped in a thick heart of darkness threat. Pulsing thumps, menacing notes and danger lurk in this jungle of Frey’s own making.
INIT’s music has the rare quality of transforming bleakness into a soothing experience. In the duo’s new EP, ‘Wildcard’, this mechanism is more intense than ever. And that might be because of the particular circumstances that surrounded its inception. Two years ago, Nadia D’Alo and Benedikt Frey decided to move from Darmstadt to Berlin. Adjusting to a rough area of a big city when coming from a quiet town necessarily brings a change of perspective. For Nadia and Benedikt, that meant experiencing the city life as outsiders while trying to figure out what they wanted from it. ‘Wildcard’ is the sonic result of this process, and proof that changes always bring growth.
There is a sense of urgency increasingly infecting the human condition, fragmenting our attention span, accelerating our needs and often influencing our motives when making creative decisions. The result is a lack of dynamics, there is no ebb or flow, its “go” time, all the time. Electronic music is one of the clearest examples of a widening division between great art created in a deeply imaginative vaccum and the soulessly formulaic and branded product that serves the impatient masses. What draws the ESP Institute to Benedikt Frey is his ability to operate on the fringe, outside the constructs artists constantly channel themselves into—his art speaks a pure language that is realized by any means necessary, a process devised solely to articulate his own message, one delivered with patience, never rushed nor dictated by the outside world. Artificial was written and produced over two years, tirelessly sculpted into a sequence abstract pieces that are fiercely independent but accumulate layers of meaning when collaged. It is electronic and rhythm-based, but never reliant on any prescribed instrumentation, arrangement or expecatation. This is our idea of well conceived and executed album; not simply a collection of tracks but a complex narrative that unfolds over peaks and valleys, pulling the listener into emotional corners before leaving a residual impression. Some may describe music very well in words, but there is always something lost in translation—a story only the music itself can tell.
One of the most unconventional techno tracks which were released during the last years. Catchy pop like and unbelievable dark at the same time. H-Friend starts at the peak and then progressively reduces itself into an intro that is actually the outro of this song. (Black) Devil like totally reverted – the start could be the end, the end could be the start. Remixed by Benedikt Frey. A typical project by Berlin based label Private Records that results in a lot more than the single ingredients. A fantastic follow up on the new Closing the Circle label. Get some magic as long as it is available.
Benedikt Frey’s Out Of Here gets a fresh new treatment in the hands of two mainstays of European techno: Roman Flugel and Simon Haydo. Flugel’s Cosmic Disco Drama Rework lives up to its name, maintaining the noir disco spirit of the original track but infusing it with tension-building sequences and strings that give it an extra mischievous twist. He also straightens the rhythmic skeleton and adds shuffling shakers to make it a relentless dancefloor weapon. Haydo’s remix delves into a more dismal terrain, transforming the vocals into haunted echoes, adding esoteric synths and topping it all with razor-sharp percussion in what sounds like a storm of ice asteroids falling into a lake of steel.
The mysterious Lopasura imprint is back with another release by Frankfurt hero Benedikt Frey who serves up the Out Of The Fog EP. This EP features some pretty functional and restrained techno, like on the mental title track. “Wolves” is equally hypnotic and cyclical with its grinding arpeggiations drawing you down into the void. On the flip “Lights” is definitely the most uplifting track with its rich layers of lush pads and glistening melodics made for some proper transcendental therapy on the dancefloor.
Benedikt Frey crafts a musical aesthetic that might only be seen in its true form from a birds-eye view—a whole greater than the sum of its parts. His playful indifference to genre specifics and pre-prescribed instrumentation or production techniques makes for a loose and refreshing collection of work, and this debut for the ESP Institute, The Lobbyist, serves up an incongruous three tracks so bewildering and narcotic we’re already impatiently fiending for more.
Having first joined forces last year to lend a hand of Massimo Pagliara’s collaborative With One Another full-length, Benedikt Frey and Nadia D’Alo present their debut full-length under the Init alias. It’s a thoroughly atmospheric, clandestine affair, with the duo delivering a dark-wave opus that tips a hat to early Depeche Mode, minimal wave, Detroit techno and the ambient soundscapes of Brian Eno. D’Alo provides the vocals, though for much of the time they’re utilized as textures, rather than the central focus of the duo’s shuffling, slowly evolving synth-scapes. As an album, Two Pole Resonance is initially attractive – albeit in a stylized, late night kind of way – but really comes into its’ own after repeat listens. It is, though, definitely worth the effort.
Benedikt Frey heads this latest offering from the Batti Batti label, teaming up with jonas.san for “Girl From Venus”, which pair the former’s signature raw drums with the latter’s outtakes of muted trumpet. Complementing this, Batti Batti’s own Owen Jay & Melchior Sultana lay down a typically deep atmospheric houser with a few twists and hidden melodies in the shape of title track “Tribal Roots” and the 12″ is further embellished by productions from debutant Lars Behrenroth and Mexican duo Romeo C & Alhan G.
Live At Robert Johnson presents a second Lifesaver compilation. The label is calling the eight-track collection, which arrives two years on from the first instalment, “another episode of togetherness.” It presents music from the LARJ roster, with Roman Flügel, Portable, Orson Wells, Massimiliano Pagliara, Lauer, TCB and Benedikt Frey all chipping in with a track each.
“Ok, so 15 years in this invigorating game is enough to get us all teary-eyed and melancholic and wandering ponderously on the meandering roads of reminiscence…..
Not! Here’s some FREE smack to celebrate this joyous occasion and onwards to the next 15 years. Part 1 so you know what that means! Get ready for the geriatric experience and special Creme ointments for your shingles. Now there’s something to look forward to.
Massimiliano Pagliara’s second album on Live At Robert Johnson. This second full-length, ‘With One Another’, is mostly made up of collaborations with locally based producers. Norwegian exile Telephones lends a hand on the deliciously Balearic “Long Distance Call”, with one-time NYC resident Lee Douglas recalling his TBD work with Justin Vandervolgen on the murky acid assault that is “Fall Again”. Elsewhere, you’ll find a range of moods, ranging from the enveloping power house of “Native Tribes of Jupiter” (a hook-up with Credit 00), to the dreamy synth-pop of “With One Another”.
After a string of twenty plus 12-inches, various high-flying mix-compact-discs, other audio-visual eccentricities and even books, she is finally ready to make a collection public that embodies the very character of Live At Robert Johnson and its affiliated club in Offenbach am Main. During this collection of 11 tracks, you will meet old and new companions; hear withdrawn songs and extrovert composi- tions, experience Frankfurt skyline techno-soul, hobo house and divergent disco. Starting off with new kid on the block Chinaski and an extended mix of the fragile “Lunch”, Live At Robert Johnson old hands Massimiliano Pagliara and Lauer are on top of their respective games, Roman Flügel sends warped and gifted droid funk, The Citizen’s Band precedes him, while newcomers Benedikt Frey and Orson Wells set good examples of their own. Not too shabby either: San Laurentino in his state of overjoy, Portable and Lcio bring their flutes of mellow madness, while the Tuff City Kids close of with “People Is A Crackhead” and some blue-eyed steppers business. Modern, old-fashioned, post-nostalgic, history-addicted and future-ridden all at the same time, “The Lifesaver Compilation” is exactly that: a life saving apparatus.
The Hipodrome Of Music 