Tabula Rasa is a deep and often wistful journey into the world of Daniel Holt’s project Human Figures. Transitive and ethereal, these eight tracks effortlessly fuse elements of cold wave, post-punk, and minimal electronics culminating in a pensive opus awash in faded dreams. Another classic from the visionary artist at his finest.
Mini-album collecting early work by Tennessee’s Human Figures. “After An Ordeal” sees HF’s Daniel Holt moving forward by looking back. These are no mere embryonic demos, these are intricate and majestic anthems of defeat from Holt.
“Dead Beats 1” brings together new and returning artists to Death Decay Magic, featuring tracks by Daniel Holt, Happy707, Heidi Sabertooth, Hissarlik, Man 2.0, Stockholm Syndrome AU and label boss Black Light Smoke.
Summer 2021 sees the fourth in the Frigio All Stars series hitting all respectable shelves. Jack Carel opens the 12” with the acid burning grunge of “Fuck This Shit” followed by Sons of Traders with the chugging 4/4 nastiness of “A for All.” A trippy, dark industrial streak runs in the snares and swagger of Rambal Cochet’s “Doomsday Scenario Interface” and in the powerful introspection of Daniel Holt’s “The Recluse.” Neud Photo arrives on Frigio with a menacing debut, “The Split” which pierces a haze of smoke in this late-night floor-filler. Honored Matres who appeared on the first volume of these series, returns with the blackest of the compilation. Machine gun percussion close the 12” with Chris Mitchell offering the chopped and gnawed “Alsina”.
An album of intricate minimal wave/post punk from Daniel Holt’s new project Human Figures. Human Figures is a completely new and personal avenue of expression for Holt. “Footsteps” is liminal, lonely and misty with negative space between each instrument. Each note invokes a warm hypnagogic atmosphere, tinged with fluttering anxiety. Through these eight tracks, this multifaceted musician shows another side of his art with guitars, basslines and drum machines. The mournful “Lifted Burden”, with its cowbells and echoing vocals swaddled in warm strings, sets the tone. Haunting notes are supported by a staccato beat as Holt´s melancholic vocals sail in “40 Days” before the bare brilliance of “An Open Heart.” A spread of influences is drawn on for Human Figures: the post-punk rawness of “For My Angel”, the synth romance of “Footsteps” the cold reductions of “Passing Beyond Body.” Sombre, stirring and superb.
“Footsteps” was release also on cassette last year on Popnihil.
3 Years Compilation from Soil Records, coming with tracks by Bestial Mouths, Notausgang, TYVYT-IYTYI, Mimmo, Larionov & Daniel Holt, Urban Matrix and more.
Death Decay Magic Remixes Vol. 1 draws on the first three releases from the label: Black Light Smoke “Lines & Shadows”, Daniel Holt “Traveler”, and Man 2.0, Black Light Smoke “Holy Hammer”. With remixes from The Hacker, Cardopusher and others, DDM05 hits hard with EBM and electro vibes.
Italo Moderni brings Modernation Vol.1 it’s the first compilation on cassette and digital from 4. Another dimension of obscurities and eighties weird sounds, all focused on a new club era of madness and sad situations. Best moment to get some inspiration with the best wizards from our modern music life.
Frigio Allstars 3 comes from the murky underbelly of electronics, where the nights are long and the days are short. Ashen tones pricked with lighter shades, all smeared with attitude in this collection of underground tracks made for the underground. Daniel Holt dives deep into the darkness with the nine minute industrial throb of “Vaccuous Transient.” A stomping beat pierces sci-fi score synthlines in a track brimming with menace. Grey people debuts on Frigio with the grime smeared jack of “Bruxism.” The flip is all first timers to the Madrid label with Scannoir offering “De Panaesher.” Sitting somewhere between synth lament and uplifting wave, this track is a true modern classic from a member of the GOTT camp. Madrid’s very own Negocius Man follows with “101 Wars” a winding worming work of glazed electronics to kill any dance floor and the amazing finale, “The Smile Of The Body” coming care of Bari’s talent based in Berlin under the moniker of Sons Of Traders.
L.I.E.S. Records Various Artists compilation “How Sick Do You Get When You Look At Yourself?” with tracks from 51717, Bad News, Beau Wanzer, Chupacabras, Daniel Holt, December, Delroy Edwards, Entro Senestre, Innsyter, JT Whitfield, Krikor, S. English, Teste, TV.OUT and Willie Burns.
Popnihil returns with an album of intricate postpunk from Daniel Holt’s new project Human Figures. Besides running Ardetha Records, Holt has impressed with dungeon synth and ambient projects, his dark synth duo Vault, and a mind-melting techno 12″ for L.I.E.S. Records. But Human Figures is a completely new and personal avenue of expression. “Footsteps” features hymnal, meditative post-punk from musical polymath Daniel Holt.
Daniel Holt is one of the most prolific and talented producers out there right now, with a slew of releases on labels like Frigio, L.I.E.S., Mechatronica or Aperitif de la Mort. He also runs his own labels Atrophy Records and Ardetha Records out of his Tennessee homeland. The Black Lodge presents a full 10 track cassette album of all new and original material from Daniel that is suited for both deep listening and dancefloor mayhem. “After the Deluge” is an emotional. mythical, and spiritual journey into one of the many extradimensional portals of The Black Lodge and the deeper darker recesses of the mind – a journey of pitfalls, wonder, victories, ecstasy, losses, revelation, death, rebirth and release. Join us as we travels to parts unknown. The cassette includes full dj mix “Before the Deluge” on other side.
One half of the group Vault, Daniel Holt makes his solo 12 inch debut on L.I.E.S. with a killer three tracker. Holt immediately locks in on the a-side with the massive 11:00 minute electro-wave groover ”Demonic City”, think heavy fm synth bass, graveyard strings, and Alesis drum machines all coming together creating a sullen and hypnotic gothic-funk cut, yes that’s right, gothic funk (you heard it right). Turn to the b-side for two more wave style jams, top production on both…exploring the realms of downbeat electronics throughout. Huge debut by this up and coming American artist.
Massive 22 track compilation spanning three vinyl lps and one 45 showcasing a wide scope of subterranean American electronics. This is just a small look into the the massive contemporary underbelly of odd-ball sonic bottom dwellers making noise across the 50 states. These tranmissions come from remote government outposts, booming overcrowded metropolis’, outskirts of America’s South and even the long forgotten muck and sleaze of Northeastern suburbia. This America in its glory, a nasty place rife with tension and division, ready to boil over into complete chaos at any given moment and these are artists that walk amongst it. Absorbing it all and spitting it out, moments of clarity and tranqilty go head to head with dramatic clashes, attempting to make sense of it all or simply to isolate oneself and escape this morbid world. A definitive sonic document of modern life in a nation on the decline.
Mechatronica launches their new White series, dedicated to limited edition white label records across synth, wave, EBM and italo with a VA release featuring Inhalt, Violet Poison, Sneaker and Daniel Holt. Mechatronica White 1 opens with Sneaker’s gloomy remix of German synth-pop band Opus Leopard, followed by the electrifying instrumental version of ‘Alles’ – a relentlessly progressing piece of body music from San Francisco trio, Inhalt. On the flip, Violet Poison summons a fat, trippy EBM-leaning groove, before Daniel Holt finishes off the record with anthemic synths and a ticket to the cosmos on ‘Floating Mansions’.
The Hipodrome Of Music 