experimental

Warp Factor 9 – The Atmospherian [ESP056]

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WARP FACTOR 9 - The Atmospherian

Warp Factor 9 is a one-off project by John and Russell Kilby of esoteric post-rock bands The Crystal Set and Bhagavad Guitars respectively. The Atmospherian originally appeared on their self-released 1993 album Five Days In A Photon Belt. Carpentaria made an edit of the track linearly and replayed certain elements from scratch along with some re-recorded vocals from John. During this process, Tamas and Paul generated elements that would subsequently be used for a remix by fellow Aussie producer and prodigy Tornado Wallace.

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Warp Factor 9 – The Atmospherian [ESP056]

Harmonious Thelonious – Abel [VER117]

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Stefan Schwander aka Harmonious Thelonious is definitely not a newcomer. He has been around for a long time and has already released lots of amazingly varied music on labels such as Emotional Response, Italic, Meakusma and Diskant. He’s also an integral part of the infamous Duesseldorf / Salon Des Amateurs axis that is an obvious hotbed of talent. He describes his style as “American minimalism vs. African drumming vs. European sequencing”, a heady mixture which is clearly evident on this EP though with a definite Middle Eastern twist. Here at Versatile HQ we were introduced to this clutch of tracks by one of the members of Acid Arab and we were totally blown away. Stefan has a very unique production style, fusing all of the above elements with a hint of Gamelan, a dash of tweaked FM synthesis type sounds with a dose of warm ambience and finally his own singular touch on the mix. We are very happy to present you these 4 tracks to you, an essential EP from one of European music’s true originals.

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Harmonious Thelonious – Abel [VER117]

Parrish Smith – Genesis Black [KHD001] [FREE DOWNLOAD]

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In the second part of the Unlocking Sounds collaboration between the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision’s RE:VIVE initiative, the Research Center for Material Culture and Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum, Dutch producer Parrish Smith digs through the Tropenmuseum’s ethnographic music archive and reads between the lines of ethnomusicology to confront the Netherlands’ colonial past. Assisted by the writings of Surinamese slave resistance writer Anton de Kom, Smith delivers a gripping social commentary entitled GENESIS BLACK.

Parrish Smith – Genesis Black [KHD001] [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Indoor Plants – Udacha 15 [UDACHA015]

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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.

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Indoor Plants – Udacha 15 [UDACHA015]

Charles Manier – Luxus Steroid Abamita [BOP007]

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Tadd Mullinix’s Charles Manier project returns with a third double-LP, Luxus Steroid Abamita, an edict of nine new amorphous transmissions and clustered, clangorous, hemi-synthetic funk. This is experimental machine music: it’s inspired by the fringes of dance, but skirts petrified arpeggios and other stock Wave and Technopop emblems. Its spirit elicits Sheffield Post-Punk and Düsseldorfer NDW desiderata, but exploits are crisp, psychedelic, and expansive.  Lyrics come as laconic Dada, sociopolitical impressions—in counterpoint to concrète tape smears, echoing guitar deluges, and entrenched in ever-shifting grime. A wide spectrum of density is proffered. Atmospheric zones are submerged, modulating knells. When tempos increase, sample & hold mutations make synthesizers sputter and writhe. The title track and opus,“Yopo (Calcium Tree)” carry this with heavy pulses—storming like locomotives.

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Charles Manier – Luxus Steroid Abamita [BOP007]

The Hands – The Hands EP [ESPHB001]

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Freaked out crunchy psychedelic trips on ESP. label promo text:”Whilst on a Balinese surf safari searching for a secret spot where pink dolphins populate the line-up, The Hands would be my guide. I’d been warned he had recently been busted trying to purchase human flesh on the black market. Bombing through the jungle, The Hands hit play and the truck was bathed in Gothic Berlin toilet techno. ”Holy shit,” said I,“what is this?” The Hands said, “The Hands.” But what else was I to expect from an Austrian/Balinese techno cannibal? —DJ Harvey”

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The Hands – The Hands EP [ESPHB001]

Khidja – Microb [MT011]

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Khidja are back on Malka Tuti and this combo cannot and will not dissappoint. They continue their current direction of leftfield-club music exploration, this time in the form of Microb, a track that is a wolrd of its own, fusioning heavy industrial vibes with their own take of “worldly music” to create this peak time dancefloor bonanza. On the flip side Salon Des Amateurs Tolouse Low Trax delievers two takes on the original track, stripped down and turned upside down, adding those Massive vocals. These takes are hypnotic as they are groovey and they complete a unique package for the modern dance floor explorers.

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Khidja – Microb [MT011]

VA – Terra Incognita [ERC034]

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Emotional Rescue starts its 5th year by shining a light on one of Europe’s best underground 80s’ label in Spain’s Auxilio De Ciento. Their Terra Incognita Volumes I and II collated an international mix of synth-pop, new wave, world and industrial sounds to a small but appreciative following. Released in 1985 and 1986, the Volumes have become highly regarded and rightly sought after, finding a place in discerning playlists from London to Amsterdam and Dusseldorf to Glasgow. Here, taking a premise of avoiding the songs unearthed on other recent reissues, is a unique album itself. Starting with Denis Mpunga & Paul K’s esoteric Criola, a fusion of fourth world ideals and poly-rhythmic funk. The music of Mal, Bene Gesserit and La Caida De La Casa Usher, however, soon highlight that the decade also belonged to dark, minimal synth as to shiny balearic ideals. The inclusion of Hector Zazou with Bony Biyake and their contribution Komba, is a fitting continuation from their cult Noir Et Blanc LP before, things continue with US avant-artist Danny Alias and his humorous Big Brother “response” to Laurie Anderson’s Superman O. Image Pour Image loose indie-pop and the inclusion of seminal Beast Of Burden lead again to a Zazou contribution, this time in his collaborative Stranger In A New Light, before the compilation eclectically ends with the dadaesque Lakota and the post punk dub of Instead Of’s closer, Angels .

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VA – Terra Incognita [ERC034]

Philipp Gorbachev & The Naked Man – I Don’t Give A Snare LP [ARMA016]

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Arma presents the debut Philipp Gorbachev & The Naked Man album. Philipp Gorbachev, the Russian musician and DJ, has been throwing killer parties and making some of the most innovative and exciting electronic music to come out of Moscow in years. In 2014 he released his debut album Silver Album but when invited to perform a live Boiler Room he had something else in mind: a band scenario. The resulting concoction was not something locked into a 4/4 beat but rather a much more organic, groove-based sound with funk-strutting bass lines and live drums that rolled and flurried around the beats that jumped around leading the charge of the songs along with Gorbachev’s Damo Suzuki-like vocals. Taking that experiment into the studio, ‘I Don’t Give A Snare’ is a wild ride that jumps genres, switches paces and alters tones frequently. The opening ‘Goodman’ exploding in intense rhythms and heavy, spiralling riffs that at times recall Sabbath but the ever-shifting drums and gargling electronics give a wonky freshness that feels impossible to place into genre. Whilst Gorbachev cites a range of influences from Beck to Blind Willie Johnson as being core to him, the primary motivation is the live nature of the project itself. ‘The main influence is the constant live experience we have as music players and performers. I want to get the most out of every party, every jam, and every dancefloor.’

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Philipp Gorbachev & The Naked Man – I Don’t Give A Snare LP [ARMA016]

Kӣr – Imrali (Live At Medika Zagreb) [CREMECS002]

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Recorded live during an Ekstrakt party, in the legendary Medika squat in downtown Zagreb. Kӣr is the production moniker of WhyBaneWhy, resident DJ of Belgrade’s dankest technoclub, Drugstore. Bane’s sets incorporate a wide range of influences and travel far off the beaten path, drawing in influences from techno to new wave to power electronics, obscure ambient, folk music, twisted echoes found deep in lost wormholes and whatever else it takes to distort your feelings, lost and disorientated whilst working up a sweat. Kӣr takes all this and pushes the envelope with punishing hardware. Its visceral music, embracing drones, repetition, rippling soundscapes and obscure sonic horizons, to boldly go where others throw in the towel.

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Kӣr – Imrali (Live At Medika Zagreb) [CREMECS002]

Gunnar Haslam – Kalaatsakia [BK025]

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The latest transmission from the world of Gunnar Haslam, Kalaatsakia wildly sprawls across the intersections of techno and more abstract sounds to take us on a wideranging journey from the subterranean to the coastal, from blown-out dub tones through fractured rhythms. An incredible work that is not easy to pigeonhole, Kalaatsakia is a full length album that navigates and sketches landscapes where new languages are created from old, dead ones to emerge as the lingua franca of interconnected immersive zones. Haslam is an avid home listener of dub, dancehall and calypso, and that influence is quickly felt as Kalaatsakia launches with a tight electro snap and dubwise crash. Kalaatsakia advances and retreats seasonally, tightening up for the floor with the chrome-plated ‘Broadcast’ and ‘Kjolle’ while splintering apart on ‘Kalapuyan’ and ‘nxbound’. Its constituent parts are often left to collapse in on themselves, smearing themes into residual trails. As the narrative of the album disintegrates and unfolds into more deconstructed territory, it stretches out even further with a striking skittering mental tease, settling into burbling sub-audible vocals and resonant spaces that all form a part of Haslam’s self-created subconscious language.

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Gunnar Haslam – Kalaatsakia [BK025]

Fontän – Fontän [HNRLP010]

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FONTAN - Fontan

There are many ways for a band or an artist to compile an album: some make it in a week and some let the process go on longer. The latter approach does often mean that that the record will not be better than had it been recorded and mixed within a short amount of time, rather the contrary. However, there are those albums that just could not be made within in a week or a month, those compilation of songs that needed the time to melt together to form an album. Fontän’s third album titled ‘Fontän’, released on Hoga Nord Rekords is that kind of an album. Put the opening track ‘Mangsebung’ on, then stay with the record until the closer ‘Shadows’ rings out and you will go clear, sharp, and mildly messed up by the listening experience because this is an extremely well directed trip in mind-altering music! This album needed time to reach such heights. With Johan Melin’s and Jesper Jarold’s love for music and non-sentimental creative approach, this album proves that the band never gets hung up on trying to sound like the past masters, but to develop what they once started.

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Fontän – Fontän [HNRLP010]