First release of five in the Kavalanic Languages series by label founder Gunnar Haslam. Four cuts of vibrant, psychedelic techno.
experimental
Intense Molecular Activity – I. M. A. [DE198]
IMA (Intense Molecular Activity) is the duo of Don Hunerberg (synthesizers) and Andy Blinx (drums and percussion). Based in New York City and active between 1979 and 1982. Don, a studio Sound / music engineer and musician, Andy an electronic clothing designer, drummer and sound reinforcement engineer at downtown clubs like Max’s Kansas City, Mudd Club and CBGB. In between doing sessions at Radio City Music Hall Studios for groups such as Ramones, Richard Hell, Sonic Youth, Liquid Liquid, John Zorn, Glenn Branca and many others, IMA took advantage of off hours to create their own music. As far as influences go, Don’s background was in electronic music and Andy’s in prog rock. To produce the songs, Don used his own method of creating patterns from 2-track tape loops and then edited them together on to a 24-track recorder adding more tracks of overdubs, In a very similar way that sequencers are used today. By 1980 the duo honed their own unique sound and version of Post Punk and No-Wave with the tools of the trade of the early 80s. Situated above the proscenium of the Radio City Music Hall stage, the studio was outfitted with a variety of orchestral instruments (timpani, bells, xylophone, etc). They self-released a 4-song EP titled “IMA” on an 8” flexi-disc which was distributed by Ed Bahlman of 99 Records. The music bridges the wild psychedelic-rock of the 60s, the synth-punk of the late-70s and the elaborate constructions of progressive-rock. There are nods to the freak-outs of Chrome and the super neurosis of Suicide, but IMA takes a more clinical approach which also takes notice of Hawkwind and Pink Floyd’s interstellar overdrive.
Joshua Cordova – Digital Tsunami 139
Sysex Ferro – Sysex Ferro [BORFT153]
Manchester, 2016. 1/3 FRAK & NEBULA = THE SYSEX MEETING. Disco – House – experimental Hip House and parapsychic jazz.
Siegmar Fricke – Kassettenjahre 1988-1993 LP [MM005]
Siegmar Fricke describes his music as ‘dynamic dancable collage-pop with a 90s technoid tendency’. The music on this release is made by Yamaha sampling- keyboards, Yamaha multieffects, synthesizers and 60s magnetic tape recorder, recorded on a four-track Tascam tape-machine. From 1987 – 1993 he produced twenty four cassette releases, some on his former label ‘Bestattungsinstitut’ and some on other tape-labels all around the globe. This vinyl is a fine selection of various tapes from 1988 – 1993 slightly edited for club use and remastered by Berlin’s masterchef Kitaro from Schnittstelle. Heavy underground dancematerial for the first time on vinyl. Comes with a strong extended dancefloor remix by Manfredas.
Tuomo Vaananen – A Small Flood [LJ009]
Typically outstanding, cultured, listenable techno by the co-founder of this excellent Finnish label, adroitly traversing dub and ambient. Nothing lunky or domineering, dystopian or Gothic, this debut LP generates senses of immediate, natural being out of field recordings (Waiting Halls, Winners, Temple) and the foibles and hiccups of the music-making process itself (New to the System, Sloth, A Small Flood).
Oscar Mulero – Acceptance [SEM070.3]
Advance 12″ of the upcoming Oscar Mulero album ‘Perfect Peace’, SEMANTICA 70 with some deep electronix.
Credit 00 Live @ Club Cosmic, Sameheads (Berlin) 02.12.2017
Șerb @ Amural Festival (Brașov) 03.09.2017
Eindkrak – Brullend Staal [PRECEPT012]
Amsterdam’s worst kept secret makes it back to Unknown Precept with his long-awaited album and first solo output since the acclaimed ‘Divine Bovine’ tape mini-album. Inspired by an evening spent in a restaurant next to a car demolition site, Eindkrak’s long player debut echoes the distant sound of steel being crushed and cars pressed into cubes. All this noise, in combination with the taste of good Italian food, lead to the eleven tracks making up for the aptly titled ‘Brullend Staal’ — loosely translated to weeping steel. A leisurely stroll on crumpled metal sheets, the acidic hints of oxidized metal and the smell of gasoline. Inaudible and distorted vocals as if smothered by the clatter and smokestacks of steel factories. Eindkrak’s first full-length is all about this disquietude made of melted and straightened scrap metal. A resounding and tumultuous din. Try to eat some nice gnocchis while listening to this album, and you’ll see what it is all about.
RA.605 Chris SSG
Benoit B – Japonaiserie [BH044]
“Japonaiserie was the term the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh used to express the influence of Japanese art. Artists including Manet, Degas and Monet, followed by Van Gogh, began to collect the cheap colour wood-block prints called ukiyo-e prints” A mini LP by Benoit B, the boss of Banlieue Records , on which he creates a futuristic environment influenced by the Japanese electronics of the ’80s. A musical “Japanaiserie” that can melt your cold cold heart.
Heap – The Brasserie Heroique Edits Part 5 [BH043]
Tentakel – Twoface [ZEONLIGHTSKIVA005]
Gothenburg-based Tentakel is a dystopian and John Carpenter-influenced solar project signed by Pontus Torstensson that presents scary and fantastic images.
Charlotte Simon – Digital Tsunami 137
Piero Umiliani aka M. Zalla – Africa / Continente Nero [RED312-13]
Along with Moggi, Rovi or Tusco, M Zalla was one of Piero Umiliani’s most revered monikers from his early period. Starting off in the early 70s, the legendary Italian electronic wizard began to release weird and wonderful shapes of kinetic electronics, often inspired by the anthropology of Africa, the Mother continent. Africa itself is one of his works from ’72, released just before the iconic Problemi D’Oggi, and it has clearly inspired whole generations of different sorts of musicians. It’s polyrhythmic waves of euphoria rarely tire of cease to provoke wonder, and this whole piece of work is a treasure chest that will simply not stop giving. For some, it’s a source for samples and inspiration, while for others it’s the perfect tool to add life to DJ sets, whether at the beginning, in between tracks, or at the end.
Benedikt Frey – Digital Tsunami 134
Powell – New Beta Vol 2 [DIAG041]
Powell loosens up and reaches out on the 2nd New Beta playground – a place to explore his more reflexive, emotive urges – with seven curious permutations that swerve from Æ-style abstraction to pointillist electro-acid and a brace of mutant diskotheek breakers. As with the first volume, he’s clearly still gassed off his new hardware, resulting in a nerve-jumping fizz and crack that sounds like he’s jamming with fingers directly in the jack ports, channelling his thoughts and feels practically unimpeded.
Antenes – Shifting Zones [SSX09]
Silent Season tap up Antenes for a rare 12″, building on the sizable impact her last and only release on L.I.E.S. had back in 2015. Here we get three trips into dark, evocative techno territory as you would expect to find on Silent Season, leading in with the doom-laden march of “Dream Uncreates The Land”. “Take Me To The Birds (For A)” ditches the drums and heads straight into the most delicate and stirring of ambient pieces, while “Metra Train Chicago 1000x” makes use of field recordings and processed static to make for an even more immersive listening experience. This is a daring release that eschews the need for functionality to take the listener somewhere else entirely.
Winter In June – Eternal Lovers [SSX06]
The Silent Season 10 Year Anniversary collection celebrates a decade of deeper electronic music. The vinyl series features artists whose music continues to inspire the Silent Season journey. Having only made spotted appearances in the past, icy ambient techno artist Winter In June makes a fine first outing on vinyl with a press of his formerly digi-only EP Eternal Lovers. It’s prime Silent Season material, using massive slabs of reverb and a foreboding sense of space as his main weapons while rolling out bleak machine matter that sounds as though it were blown across the tundra. “About Life & Death” is particularly moving with its heart monitor bleeps and forlorn strings, while “The Party Is Elsewhere” is a telling trip into the coldest of coldwave.
The Hipodrome Of Music 