Notfromearth is not just a Prologue project. Notfromearth is massive passion for sound research with the strong desire to push cinematic sound in combination with electronic, ambient and techno. And that is exactly why we start in 2013 with Notfromearth. “The First Contact” EP shows the complete range of electronic music with massive pure electronic rhythms to deepest techno structures.
Sigha a.k.a James Shaw confidently returns to Hotflush with his heavily anticipated debut LP, ‘Living WIth Ghosts’. For this offering he presents twelve impressive techno and ambient productions and fuses his love of classic UK techno with the contemporary sound that currently pulses through Berlin’s Berghain. Since his 2009 debut on the label, Sigha has organically shifted further and further into the straight 4/4 realm of techno, embracing the subterranean, darker soundscapes of his new production homebase, Berlin. However, hiding under all that bass, one can still hear the whisper of many long forgotten shoegaze numbers. Years of playing guitar in London bands defined Sigha’s musical start and gave him an ear for the emotive. He was able to merge both worlds after quite literally stumbling across techno by chance, igniting his love of electronic music.
Semantica celebrates release #50 with this double A-side by Surgeon and labelhead Svreca, teaming up with Skirt. Dark techno from the off.
Fantastic new release by Sascha Rydell on Fachwerk, bringing melodic & dreamy but at the same time strong forward techno tracks, accompagnied with some ambient/drone interludes.
Belgian producer and DJ Peter Van Hoesen offers a new full- length album, on his own Time To Express label. ‘Perceiver’, his second full length album following 2010’s ‘Entropic City’, is evidence of Van Hoesen’s continual experiments into sound. The textural, shifting and dynamic synth elements, hooks and arpeggios that characterise the album’s voice often reach into abstract zones, but never too far that the listener cannot easily delve into the hypnotism of the moment. Gently rhythmic pieces such as the album’s opening voyage, ‘Objects From The Past’, or the reduced modular electronics of ‘Spectral Participant’ plant the tone of the earlier tracks firmly in the high-tech, experimental realms of modern electronica. With careful editing Peter arrived at a complete and concise album, spanning 60 minutes, exploring largely varied yet complementary fields of sound. It is clear that intricacy and diversity are high on Van Hoesen’s sonic agenda. With that in mind, ‘Perceiver’, offers a telling insight into the explorations of a producer who is little concerned with fulfilling or expressing his artistic ego, and much more by the genuine discoveries one can make by diving deep into sound. The album ascends patiently from serene and perplexing sound pieces into fierce club-ready movements. With each track we find bold new percussive elements and sharp, textural, modulating synths entering the fold. In the later half of the LP the emphasis is clearly on headstrong body shocks designed for cavernous off-world clubs – the biting snarl of ‘Decoder’ – or futuristic festival settings with the entrancing arpeggios of ‘Inspection In Solitude’. ‘Perceiver’ presents an organic, flowing and modern take on techno – vitally alive, pulling us away from genre boundaries and more into the adventurous realms of electronica.
The third release of Outis Music, “Sons of Poseidons EP”, it’s a collaboration between label boss Dino Sabatini and Giorgio Gigli. “Proteus” it’s a solid, dynamic and linear track, with strong harmonic resonances and a slowly growing rhythmic in a hypnotic groove of atmospheres. “Nereus’ has deeper mental space sensations in which hypnotic noise sequences travel smoothly in a crescendo of acid riffs.
Milton Bradley’s new flagship starts with 3 new tracks and start with an unbelievable and brilliant long deep Techno journey, which transports your mind into another dimension. The B side shows Milton´s other face, 2 excellent raw Techno driven tracks combined with his unique technique and old fashioned touch from the 90´s.
Ahead of Haswell’s hugely anticipated album for Downwards, Regis, William Bennett (Whitehouse/Cut Hands) and Kevin Drumm set about his ‘Chua Rave’ and ‘Harshing’ cuts taken from a 5″ vinyl. Regis goes in first with a jagged, loopy rebuild of ‘Chua Rave’ revolving around a signature, numb hook crawling with insectoid, stereo-swarming textures and swung round a killer metallic clap. William Bennett meanwhile is back to his old tricks, refrying the same cut in a sweltering headfuck of disembowelled modular madness, but the star of the show is undoubtedly Kevin Drumm’s “GODDAMNIT!! 1,2,3” Remix. To ‘Harshing’ he applies cryptic, haptic processing, resulting a deeply rewarding noise punishment which subsides to cosmic splutter and elegiac microtonal drones reminding of his seminal ‘Imperial Distortion’ works. So damn good.
“Hidden songs” stands as a collection of previously unreleased electronic ambient/drone tracks, composed and recorded between 2011 and 2012. After a long period of fragmented construction and deconstruction, they have finally found their unifying frame and achieved physical form through this EP.
Amazing release by Polar Inertia, who already gave a glimpse of their techno brilliance on Dement3d 002, but with ‘The Last Vehicle’ it seems their craftmanship has come to full growth. This third release on Dement3d is once again formed of three different tracks, high in contrasts and emotions. Industrial but groovy, raw yet hypnotising deep techno that will create a stir in basements and warehouses worldwide.
Semantica drops a new release with Svreca’s two-tracker “Vilna/Hagagatan”. By title sounding like a tribute to the Baltic Sea region, its A-side features a galvanized treatment of “Vilna” by Orphx, an industrial-rooted collective knowing no mercy. This is honest techno with echoing thunder and distortion-coated bass, in Spanish-Canadian collaboration. Dark rhythm and noise exposure also in “Hagagatan”, which takes to the throat of a foundry with all exit doors blocked.
Bill Youngman has become one of the most important parts of the Killekill family. This record displays his wide range of interests: from dark techno in Shadent he crosses over to drone monster alert in Wespe to his very own style of melodic electro in Centrumcircuit.
The second EP of Cassegrain on Prologue shows how extraordinary talented Alex and Hüseyin are and which wide range of electronic music both definitely cover. After their first release on Prologue the Coptic EP shows again the perfect range between experimental techno, proper sound research and deepest trails in electronic music.
Spanish label Semantica have been exploring the shadowy nether zones of techno for five years now, and this 12″ sees them reach number five of their 5 Years Compilation, featuring original contributions from some of the most important names in techno. The 12″ opens with “Public Beheading”, a collaboration between Karl O’Connor (aka Regis), Peter Sutton (aka Female) and Richard Harvey; as the name suggests, its ominous tones and cinematic atmospherics paint a grim picture. The bleak tone is carried through on AW/SS’s “Nonnative”, where a solitary kick breaks the through vinyl crackle, with only wintry drones for company. The B-Side meanwhile features Ostgut Ton’s finest, Marcel Dettmann, remixing Svereca’s “Obscur”. In keeping with the tone of the EP, the beats are shuffling and suggestive rather than heaving slabs of concrete, with particular attention paid to the creaking reverb hanging over the modulating sub bass. The record finishes with Yuji Kondo, Katsunori Sawa and Steven Porter’s “Moonlight Graham”, a shadowy warehouse jam whose myriad textures bubble beneath its rough surface. In short, four reasons why Semantica is one of the most interesting techno labels in the world.
Outstanding, completely alienated and dark sounding Techno from Milton Bradley on his own label Don Not Resist The Beat.
Mike Parker comes back on Prologue, with four deepest energetic driving tracks, monster baselines and loaded with hypotonic.
Marcel Fengler launches his own label – IMF (Index Marcel Fengler) with a rich, experimental and varied 3 track EP.
Transatlantic duo Donor / Truss return on Perc Trax, with a four tracks release. ‘Endo’ represents a new peak for the Donor / Truss sound with each individual section working as both a self-contained track and a quarter of the entire Endo experience. Together the 4 parts join together to make a complete piece of music, stretching across 23 minutes and 2 sides of vinyl.
There’s a variety of ways to produce Techno and Cio creates always a unique world of deep, clear, transparent sound architectures. Even with this new Magnetfluss EP our grande madame of Techno show us a new interpretation of her own musical world. All tracks are deeply emotional designed and bare a picture of modern electronic music.
The Hipodrome Of Music 