Cititrax presents a full length LP by a new duo called Tornische. Julio Tornero and Hanna Chamiarytskaya (aka Anneq) got together in Madrid after having met through mutual friends. Immediately, they bonded and found a musical chemistry between them. They went into the studio and began revisiting Julio’s unreleased archives, incorporating what he had already recorded years ago with fresh sounds and Neu Deutsche Welle style duets. The result is a modern, chaotic, take on 80s European new wave, 90s detroit electro, and contemporary indie pop. The energy level is always high, the melodies are catchy and the vocal delivery and lyrics futuristic, subversive, italo-disco / punk, and surreal.
cititrax
L/F/D/M – Dream Bleeds [CITI026]
Cititrax presents ‘Dream Bleeds’, a new vinyl release by Brighton, UK based producer L/F/D/M aka Richard Smith. ‘Dream Bleeds’ overflows with body jerking industrial, raw acid/techno, and hints of the warehouse sound of the late ‘90s and the caustic spirit of EBM. Richard Smith says about ‘Dream Bleeds’, “attaching meaning to songs is often arbitrary but when the visceral feeling of music, particularly instrumental body music, is laid bare, the interaction is immediate and physical. These tracks thread together; each starting point completely open, each new step informed by the last. I find it interesting that the process is the same but the outcome somewhat unexpected; shaped by emotion, inspiration or even constraints of time, they evolve as they do in that time. They reach a different end point due to that evolution of circumstance.”
VA – Cititrax: Tracks Volume Three [CITI024]
Cititrax presents the third in a series of four song samplers showcasing the talents of some of the most innovative producers of the moment. Cititrax: Tracks Volume Three features the a powerful new collaboration between Amato (aka The Hacker) and Mariana Saldana (Medio Mutante, Boan), the brutal industrial techno of Barcelona based British producer The Sixteen Steps, a Polish mastermind based in Miami known as His Dirty Secrets, and the NYC underground duo Further Reductions (Shawn O’Sullivan and Katie Rose). The overall sound can be described as modern, uncompromising and guttural. Each artist reinvents dance music by bringing their own unique vision to the floor.
Regis – Live In NYC [CITI023]
The don of Birmingham techno Karl O’Connor serves up some live rarities courtesy of retroverts Cititrax. Features recently uncovered recordings of a Regis performance in NYC on January 4th, 1997 at the famed Film Academy. His unmistakeable sound and influence is integral to the DNA of the techno sound, blatantly copied but never matched. Some classics from the Downwards catalogue are contained on this EP in all their austere fashion. “We Said No” “Translation” and “Careless Pedestrian” from his seminal 1996 LP Gymnastics being highlights.
Borusiade / The Sixteen Steps – Promises & Infatuation [CITI022]
Cititrax present a split EP by two massive talents, Borusiade and The Sixteen Steps. Borusiade, originally from Bucharest, Romania began as a DJ in the early 2000s and then started producing music in 2005. With a background in classical music, she combined her love of raw electronics, obscure themes and melodic lines to create her own signature sound. She has released on the Cómeme label as well as Corresepondent. Infatuation and Confutation are dark, moody and intense tracks that catch you upon first listen. The flip side of the Promises and Infatuation EP features The Sixteen Steps, the brainchild of George Lanham who cut his musical teeth DJing and running events in the south of England. We have been listening to many of his tracks endlessly for a while now. Signals From The South and Promises On The Run are both immaculately produced, hypnotic, dance floor killers. They are sparse ebm meets smoky warehouse techno, and offer a wonderful contrast to Borusiade’s layered emotive tracks that reminisce of an East Village club in the 1980s. Themes of infatuation, appearances, and anonymity appear throughout this EP from the music itself right through to the cover art.
Marie Davidson – Adieux Au Dancefloor [CITI021]
Amato – Le Desordre Et La Nuit [CITI020]
Michel Amato aka Amato is a French producer more widely known as The Hacker. Alongside Miss Kittin, Amato has been a cornerstone of the European house, techno, and electro scene, dropping singles and album like bombs. Having contributed to a previous split 12″ on Cititrax, Amato returns to Minimal Wave’s sister label with a wondrous homage to industrial, EBM and electro in Le Desordre De La Nuit. The difference between The Hacker and Amato? The sounds of The Hacker are more constrained than this particular whirlpool of pseudo electro and gargling quasi techno. Whatever you want to call it, these four slammers are all made for the dark room dance, each one nastier than the other and all of them audibly produced by an artist with plenty of experience and effectiveness know-how.
VA – Cititrax: Tracks Volume Two [CITI019]
Cititrax present the second in a series of four song samplers showcasing the talents of some of the most innovative producers of the moment. Tracks Volume Two features the fearless and ultra-talented Chinese producer Tzusing, the raw avant-garde electronics of London based producer L/F/D/M, creative West Coast powerhouse Silent Servant, and prolific underground French producer Maelstrom. The overall sound can be described as modern, uncompromising and guttural. Each artist reinvents dance music by bringing their own unique vision to the floor.
Broken English Club – Suburban Hunting [CITI018]
Minimal Wave sublabel Cititrax announce a full length album by artist Broken English Club. Oliver Ho (also known for his Raudive alias) expands upon the themes in his earlier output. Now though, he is presenting Broken English Club as the multifaceted project that it is. He fearlessly exposes a range of emotion through varying sound, texture and song structure. The result is a manifestation of his influences (post punk, noise, techno, grindcore) melded into his own unique vision and culminating in an album that sounds absolutely massive, both on and off the dance floor.
VA – Cititrax: Tracks Volume One [CITI017]
Broken English Club – Scars EP [CITI016]
Cititrax presents a 4 song EP by Broken English Club. Sparse vocals and shards of live instrumentation over heavy, stuttering beats and bleak synths. The tracks on this EP are rich and darkly atmospheric, pulsating loudly through a smog filled dance floor. A subversive spin on dance music, the blank-stared, pin-point-focused electronics and layers of noise betray no/wave and post punk influences, dragging together industrial experimentation and pitch-black techno.
AN-I – Gutz [CITI015]
AN-I continues his love affair with electronics offering us three distinct slabs of throbbing machine funk. The opening track ‘Gutz’ is a dense mutant high energy number, modern yet timeless. ‘Rut’, the first track An-i recorded whilst still living in New York and the first one to catch our attention, opens the B side with a massive dose of syncopated teutonic mayhem, spacier and sparser than the rest. ‘Save Us’ completes the release with an anthem of dirty warehouse techno.
Silent Servant / Broken English Club – Split EP [CITI014]
Cititrax presents a 4 song split EP by Silent Servant and Broken English Club. Although the two are geographically very far apart, Silent Servant based in Los Angeles, US and Broken English Club based in London, UK, the two share a similar outlook and musical approach. Both projects have been on the rise lately, and stem from a strongly rooted techno background. Combining their influences of dance music, techno, EBM, industrial and post-punk, Silent Servant and Broken English Club offer a new breed of EBM infused techno wave on the Violence And Divinity EP. They artfully create music that works both on and off the dance floor, infusing a dark atmospheric mood with addictive, pulsating rhythms. Themes of love, death, modernity and automobile crashes appear throughout this EP from the music itself right through to the cover art and one of a kind vinyl pressing.
Further Reductions – Woodwork [CITI013]
Cititrax presents the full length LP by Brooklyn duo Further Reductions. Shawn OSullivan (Vapauteen) and Katie Rose formed Further Reductions in 2008 as an outlet for their shared passion of electronic dance music. O’Sullivan, known for his recent techno releases as Vapauteen on L.I.E.S., 400PPM on Avian and Civil Duty (with Beau Wanzer of Streetwalker) on The Corner has been quite active lately blurring the lines between techno and noise music. With Further Reductions, O’Sullivans rhythmic sensibility is fused with Roses pop leanings to create super lush and atmospheric tracks that work both on and off the dance floor. Informed by the sounds of classic techno and early house, they subtly substitute the structure of functional club music with a more primal absorption based in their unique collaboration. Seductive vocals coupled with organically evolving sequences create a complex narrative that penetrates the subconscious in a way that conventional club music rarely threatens to.
Bruta Non Calculant – World In A Tear [CITI012]
Cititrax is honored to introduce Bruta Non Calculant, a new project by Alaxis Andreas G, the mastermind behind Le Syndicat Electronique and numerous other analog electronic, experimental and esoteric industrial folk projects of the past 20 years. Alaxis formed Bruta Non Calculant in 2006 along with his brother Victor-Yann (De Frontanel). Their debut album, World In A Tear, presents 10 tracks drenched in a dark european atmosphere complete with a sound fully formed and heroically executed. Themes of death, lust and unrequited love are all bound in this brown book-esque collection. The songs occupy their own space and communicate in their own language and as such almost seem to have the ability to alter time once the listener has succumbed to their discordant beauty. An unsurprisingly impressive comeback, Bruta Non Calculants debut album blends new wave elements with folkloric balladry impeccably, and approaches this with a modern sensibility. World In A Tear is an elegant collection of seductive songs. Vinyl pressed on white 160 gram housed in a matte full color printed sleeve.
An-i – Kino-i [CITI011]
Hipodrome’s 2013 Review (Part 1 of 3)
This post is about the followers of my blog and the most successful posts, the releases that gathered the most likes and clicks in 2013 from my visitors.
Facit – Mat Åt Duvorna EP [CITI010]
The KVB – Immaterial Visions Remixes EP [CITI009]
Cititrax presents remixes for The KVB by Regis, Shifted, Silent Servant, In Aeternam Vale and Worn.