Continue reading “Mick Wills @ Talking Machines, Griessmühle (Berlin) 13.04.2017”
electro
VA – Simple Music Experience Vol. 2 [MMLP505]
Macadam Mambo presents a special collaboration with friend label ‘Simple Music Experience’ from Bordeaux/Marseille. Contains original Industrial, Synth-Pop, Jakbeat, Post-Punk, Experimental and Contemporary music by underground artists from France. Originally it released on tape (SM05) in 2016.
Zu Dobson – Apple Knife [BS006]
Fresh to Bird Scarer, fresh to us all; according to Weatherall all correspondence with this mystery new electroid sculptor has been done by letter (to a PO Box no less) and not even he knows who she is. Her music, however, speaks volumes: “Apple Knife” cuts with a crisp arpeggio before dropping into chunky, almost housey electro break. “Wisdom Of Rumi” softens the angularities a little with a break that’s not dissimilar to Tone Loc but awash with strange space-aged FX and numinous flourishes. According to Weatherall, he hopes there’s more to come from Zu…
DJ Stingray – Kern Vol.4 [KERN004]
For the latest volume in Tresor’s occasional Kern compilation series, the long standing German imprint has turned to balaclava-sporting Detroit legend DJ Stingray. The Drexciya associate has gathered together a typically forthright selection of techno and electro jams, presented here in unmixed form for pure DJ pleasure. Given that all the material is high quality, picking highlights is tough. Our favourites include the deep space electro brilliance of “Musik Politik” by Syncom Data, the trippy, acid-fired madness of vintage Aphex Twin wriggler “Serge Fenix Rendered 2”, the throbbing sub-bass and crusty drum machine hits of Herva’s “Slam The Laptop” and the bustling techno madness of Dynarec’s intergalactic workout “Moving Corridors”.
VA – Casa Sports Vol.1 [CSV001]
Debut release of Casa Voyager, first Moroccan label exploring hidden cultural spheres in Casablanca.5 liquid electro Detroit tracks produced, mixed and arranged by Driss Bennis aka OCB (A1, A2) Youssef Benjelloun aka Kosh (B1, B2)and Jonas Bengio aka Viewtiful Joe (B3).
Ekman – Doomsday Argument EP [CR1295]
Creme Organization returns in July with four searing electro cuts from Dutchman Ekman. Mixing up West Coast electro with tougher, more textured techno styles in recent releases for Berceuse Heroique and Bedouin Record, this artist is as much about the past as the future and proves that across this new and impressive set of tracks. Doomsday Argument is not as dark as you would expect form the name: its a lithe and slippery electro affair with crisp snares and gurgling bass all topped off by a freaky top line. The Great Filter mixes up distorted bass with rippling glass synths and sounds both spooky and cosmic, then Post Singularity Day picks up the pace with a quick and urgent Drexcyian style that is restless, dynamic and busy. Last of all Antifragile is a wild acid workout with rocking beats and ripping 303s that twitch every nerve in your body.
Dmitry Distant / Natural Magic – Dark Leader 003 [DL003]
Dark Leader 003 featuring Riga’s Dmitry Distant and Portland’s own Natural Magic. Side A begins with “Tukšums” a driving acid jam by Dmitry Distant that brings the energy level up to 11. Natural Magic’s “Most High” polishes off side A with a triumphantly positive romp that puts the love icing right on the cake. Side B opens with “Artificial Joy” a breaky acid track by Dmitry Distant that will engross the dance floor with groovy sinister funk. This release concludes with Natural Magic’s “Dude Can Dance” a drummy piece of hypnotic dance music that dabbles in experimentalism.
Indoor Plants – Udacha 15 [UDACHA015]
Udacha just gets better and better with every release, branching out into ever more exciting shapes and styles beyond their house and techno foundations. On this album from Vyacheslav Shutov aka Indoor Plants, wild fourth world visions collide with hardware processes in a dazzling display of transcendental music for those who like their thought-provoking tunes to pack a punch. The likes of “Targitaus” deconstruct club music conventions in a quest for new rhythmic purpose, and yet the soundsystem pressure is expertly sculpted out of the daring shape of the music. Elsewhere there’s surrealism in abundance, as on the wonderfully weird “Hunch”, and that’s just scratching the surface of this truly essential LP.
Mick Clarke – Play Time [FRV025]
Frigio Records is going back in time for its latest release, some 38 years into the past. Back then a young Newcastle man was experimenting with early electronic instruments and synths. Mick Clarke is his name and nearly forty years later he is still at it. Two tracks have been borrowed from Clarke’s seminal Games LP, each given a bit of modern boot polish from MinimalRome’s Heinrich Dressel and Frigio father Juanpablo. “Walls of the Night” is a blissed out work of ambient prog rock abstraction. Think rumbling horror score and soaring guitar strings. Heinrich Dressel offers a giallo dipped remix. The building bars of the original are maintained, beats added for ballast and darkened organ keys for a remake etched with murderous intent. The flip is introduced by the dreamy “Time Is Now.” Slender synthlines intertwine with gentle strings in a cerebral work. Juanpablo tweaks the 1979 material. Syrupy acid lines swim in meandering currents, a thick beat keeping time in murky waters of modulations and undulations.
Rag Dabons – Boite De 4 [CCRT7AM004]
VA – Plaza 001 [PLAZA001]
Plaza’s first physical release features 4 tracks from an all local lineup of Atripat, Consulate, Lanngman and Mike Midnight. This one comes from a special place, a place where raw electronic excursions go head to head with heavy machine fuelled jams. Conceived in the North Western Coast and commemorated from the depths of the City.
Ekman – Sturm Und Drang [SHIP051]
Roel Dijcks, better known as Ekman, is no stranger to Shipwrec. Following his Heimwee EP and Synaptic Feedback Loops comes a two tracker of serious proportions. “Sturm un Drang” gets the ball rolling. A rasping beat cuts into thick bass. A pool of liquified notes shimmers as an isolated world unfolds, a tactile world of arcing strings and clean complexity. If “Sturm un Drang” is a glimpse into an alien realm, “First Mover” is surely the beast that inhabits it. Bulbous bars trudge through a swamp of static, distortion drips from cymbals leaving melodies buried in the marshland.
XY0815 – Exahertz [BT019]
BT19 welcomes XY0815 for his solo debut, where the Leipzig based producer showcases the range of his sounds – machine incantations halfway between understated electro and brooding electronica.
Interstellar Funk – Inverted Audio MIX 249
Outermost – Intruder EP [EVR025]
When the derangement has reached the limitless limits. Like the sound of a light-beam reaching the immense gravitational waves of a black hole. Is there sound in nothingness This is your Outermost reality.
Cardopusher – Nothing Left To Believe In EP [ZONE029]
Zone Records welcomes Cardopusher for their next EP, a five track affair that is arresting from the off. Venezuelan born Cardopusher is now based in Barcelona and co-founded the Classicworks label. His diverse and experimental sound takes him from techno to electro to acid to rave to house, all with his own singular perspective. Kicking things off is the raw and raucous ‘Nothing Left to Believe In.’ It is a macho tune with fractured vocals, wild synths and slap funk drums all sounding industrial and tortured. Then comes ‘Blast Cut’, a more dynamic and stripped back electro groove with a corrugated bassline and metallic synth stabs all sounding informed by the past but looking to a distant future.
Interstellar Funk @ Strange Sounds From Beyond (Amsterdam) 25.06.2017
Timothy J. Fairplay – Mindfighter EP [HNRUK004]
Timothy J. Fairplay is revisiting Hoga Nord Rekords to release the 12inch EP Mindfighter: photosensitive electronic music from one of the pillars of the modern meaningful dance music scene. Together with Scott Frasier, T.J.F. is running the record label ‘Crimes Of The Future’ and he is also known as one half of The Asphodells together with Andrew Weatherall. This is his second release on Hoga Nord Rekords and his first EP on the label.
Mor Elian – Cymatic Ring [FAM001]
Fever AM comes from a Berlin connection between a pair of artists with roots on either side of the Mediterranean Sea and on both sides of the Atlantic. Label founders Mor Elian and Rhyw (one half of Cassegrain) share many musical reference points reaching back to early childhood right up to the present including the deeper, darker reaches of electronic music. The label is the pair s rawest and truest realisation of these influences. The first EP will be from Elian, a sublime 4 tracker that has matured after a winter in the studio and is now ready for club play – from heating up peak time dance floors to trippier after hours moments. Sprinkling her trademark stripped back sound with electro and breakbeats the release sets out the label s stall to release vibrant, challenging dance floor music.
Annanan & Maroje T. – The Brooklyn Sessions [PNKMN020]
The Brooklyn Sessions bring together old and new Pinkman friends. Annanan returns, this time with Maroje T, for three pieces of NY darkness. Acid tainted torment opens the 12″, pain and rejection catalogued in the barren “Confrontations in Terms of Sexuality.” “I Saw You” maintains that cold edge. Militaristic percussion is dipped in industrial grease, lost samples circling in a haze of distortion. The pair explore reduction with tracks being boiled down to leave only distilled dread behind. The breathy vocals of “I Am” close, drum patterns looped into machine groan and the aching abyss.
The Hipodrome Of Music 