Swampthing techno by one of Sweden’s finest experimentalists…..
experimental
M. Rav – Common Purpose [LIES088]
Max Ravitz has made a name for himself with his hazed dance not dance productions over these last couple of years appearing on a handful of different labels under a handful of different monikers. Here on the 15 track, ”Common Purpose” cd we get Ravitz in all of his different forms as he teams up with numerous artists from his local Brooklyn scene and beyond, serving up unheard cuts from numerous recording sessions done over the last years. Through the record we hear the producer’s versatility from tripped out downtempo vibes, to mid-paced acid, to high bpm dust burners, as Ravitz and Co. explore almost all possible avenues while in the studio. Collaborators include Huerco S., Jahiliyya Fields, NGLY, Terekke, Bookworms, Cloudface, and Josephine.
VC-118A – Shift Register [TABR036]
Over the last few years, Dutch electronic misfit VC-118A has delivered a number of killer EPs and 12″ singles, each packed with sharp-edged electro, spacey techno, and industrial-strength analogue house. Shift Regsiter is his second full-length excursion and offers an expansive and hugely atmospheric journey through his trademark sound. Naturally, there’s much to admire across the 14 tracks, from the woozy, spaced-out electro-dub of “Input Mode” and the sparkling IDM of “Serial Data Transmission”, to the ultra-deep throb of “Radiation Curve”, and the hard-wired dancefloor bounce of the Drexciya-like “Apex”.
Nick Klein + Maoupa Mazzocchetti – BNK007 [BNK007]
Nick Klein and Maoupa Mazzocchetti recorded some wild jams while touring together last year for an Unknown Precept label showcase. Combining noisy sounds with live melodic synth riffs as well as a jacking 808, Klein and Mazzocchetti made some harsh left-of-center techno. With time signature and tempo changes mid-track, this music has a zero fucks given attitude.
Hieroglyphic Being – The Disco’s Of Imhotep [TCLR015]
Seriously strong Jamal Moss LP under his Hieroglyphic Being moniker. “The Disco’s Of Imhotep is about creating Frequencies and Vibrations for the Listener that are conducive for him or her to Heal The Mind and Body and Enrich the Soul by creating Hemi-Synced Harmonies and music that contains embedded Binaural Beats. We have been made to believe that electronic sounds are just for Movement, Enlightenment, Primal Afflictions and Entertainment purposes, but it’s much more… It’s Sound Healing, but the ancestors would call it Frequency Medicine. Medicine is Healing and this project is dedicated to one of Earth’s first Healers: High Priest Imhotep. The One who comes in Peace, is with Peace.”
Juju & Jordash – Live at Downbeat night. Madrid, December, 2015 [DOWNBEAT010]
Juju & Jordash again on downbeat, 8 records after, celebrating the 10th release. This is the recording of the live act performance at a Downbeat night on December, 2015. Slow jams with tropical vibes progressing leisurely in both sides.
NHK yx Koyxen – Doom Steppy Reverb [DIAG034]
Japanese experimenter Kouhei Matsunaga has been quietly building an exceptional discography as NHK yx Koyxen and the numerous variances. With prior NHK yx Koyxen output on PAN, Skam and Raster Noton, Matsunaga’s growing alliance with Powell’s Diagonal label makes perfect sense. A fresh NHK yx Koyxen LP that expands on his fuzzy, texture-laden, leftfield techno blueprint. So, while there’s plenty of industrial-influenced darkness, claustrophobic tape hiss, and redlined rhythms, the Japanese artist also includes quietly beautiful textures and hazy, looped melodies. This is most evident on the foreboding, late night swing of “Y”, where the application of dub delays helps emphasize the skewed, doom-laden mood.
Ron Berry – Where Dark Forced Meet [VOD145.RB]
Born in Manchester, UK 1947 Ron Berry became interested in electronics as a child in the mid fifties making radios and other electronic projects. His first musical instrument was a home-made electric guitar made out of scrap wood with pickups fashioned from magnets and coils found in old headphones. He played in his first band at school 1962 and then in various groups as lead guitarist in and around Manchester during the Beatles led Mersey beat era. The “Where Dark Forced Meet” album was first released in 1982 on cassette by Flowmotion label.
Clay Rendering – We Are Aware [HOS463]
Clay Rendering, the tortured pop project of former Wolf Eyes member Mike Connelly and his wife Tara, pledge three diverse but unmistakably gothic sacrifices to Hospital Productions. Soused in the spirits of black metal, coldwave pop and shoegaze, their new cuts reflect a black indigo spectrum of tastes with an inflamed desire for proper song structures and the kind of hooks that hearken back to teenaged thrills and what allured them to music in the first place -and it makes for perhaps their most realised set of tracks yet. With Dominick Fernow as producer and effectively acting in a 3rd band member role, they triangulate a sound that’s nostalgic for the gothic undertones of ‘80s and ‘90s darkness, getting into gear with the hearse-cruising coldwave pop rocket We Are Aware, and casting a long, northern-pointing shadow of BM toil and shoegaze anguish in Never Pass Away.
Space Dimension Controller – Orange Melamine [ZEN231]
Floating Points – Kuiper [FP002]
Sam Shepherd drops a surprise 12” still riding the wave of his impeccable, all-conquering 2015 LP, Elaenia. ‘Kuiper’ that was written after the producer started touring with his live band (Leo Taylor, Alex Reeve and Susumu Mukai), and is “completely different” each time it’s played. Here we have a new version, a riotous, stargazing 18-minute version recorded by the band at 8am. Flipside the B, ‘For Marmish Part II’, meanwhile, is an early demo version of the same track on Elaenia that includes Shepherd flexing his vocals.
Jonny 5 – BAH030 [BAH030]
After taking the helm for the label’s inaugural release, Jonny 5 returns to Bahnsteig with more genre-fluid stylings for the leftfield dancefloor freaks. “Deja Vu” opens the set with a space age textures, stadium slap bass and cinematic guitar licks, firing up the wind machine for some coiffured coastal romance. With the linen suit needing the dry cleaners, Jonny 5 steps aboard the “Last Train” for some oddball NDW rock and roll. Imagine if the B52s if their cartoon was redrawn by Frank Miller – dark and deranged machine music. B-side opener “Miami Slice” continues the lunacy but with added wow and future, taking us on a tape mangled tour of post punk history. The grand finale comes in the form of “Slow Bodies”, a 100bpm cosmic bopper retrofitted with Linn percussion, hypnotic arps and the best in zero gravity delay.
Stephen Cadman – Big Smith Stays in Bed [VOD145B1SC]
Stephen Cadman is a synthesist from Leeds, GB now living in Australia. In late 1980 he produced and released a C60-Tape on his own Big Smith’s Nose Tapes-Label. His synth music and style in the vein of Tangerine Dream and other german electronica bands of the 70’s found interest to Ian Dobson and was then distributed via Ian and also (re)-released shortly after on the Flowmotion-Label.
Vakula – Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa [DKMNTL040]
Vakula has been a Dekmantel label member ever since the very early days. The Ukraine based producer now drops his album Cyclicality Between Procyon And Gomeisa on the label. ‘This album is about cycles, repetition and interaction’, says Vakula, whose Cyclicality between Procyon and Gomeisa is the third of a series of albums and reflects a dashing experimental record that evokes the endless and captivating potential of electronic music. It creates a mesmerizing journey through various music genres, exhibiting a singular sonic experience, whilst he works through a process of improvisation and refinement. Once again the mastermind proves to be capable of creating complex, yet diverse musical pieces beyond genres and trends. The result: an audio adaptation of his fascinating mind. ‘There are two parallel processes that come together in my work: me writing music and working on the sound I want to achieve, and the energy from outside that flows and transforms into thoughts, correlations, and actions.’ The track titles relate to the source of Vakula’s inspiration and connect the dots between his obsession for the vastness of our universe and electronic music. ”To wonder about the universe and to dig into mythology and scientific research discovering at least some of its secrets is what keeps me endlessly motivated as a producer.”
Fred P – Sound Destination [SPMBLP002]
Sound Destination is a project that crosses genre to find its own space. Soundscapes, downtempo, ambient, and house music all find a place in this aesthetically complete project. There’s a simmering, hovering quality about the whole album, as a pastoral ease settles over the listener. The record flows like a vague narrative, a non-specific sort-of journey album, a meditative jazz-house trip. Fred Peterkin shows yet another perspective of his expression. bursting out of the style-box, to draw you in to his own dimension.
Afrikan Sciences – Means & Ways [DBRV006LP]
Bursting out of Oakland into the ionosphere, a hot pocket of free jazz, house, blues, African & Latin rhythms, a fully shuffled deck of everything that might expand your head, all fed into the MPC, and hot-wired right into your heart. Some five years after it was released digitally, Aybee’s Deepblak label revisit the wonderful Afrikan Sciences LP Means &Ways to grant it a double LP vinyl edition. For those unfamiliar with the album, the 11-track set showed Eric Porter refusing to stand still, variously touching on polyrhythmic IDM, dusty jazz-hop, dense post-techno wonkiness, hard-to-pigeonhole madness (see “Alpha Male Syndrum”), sparkling aural experiments (“Ways & Means”), and pleasingly off-kilter dancefloor fare. Amongst this category you’ll find deliberately out-of-time deepness, slipped broken beat, and dense drum workouts (“NanoRock Skank”). As usual, Porter’s tunes are bizarre but brilliant.
Leonardo Martelli – Previsto [ATN029]
Electro kicks, raw textures, ominous choirs: L’ immaginario, Previsto’s opening track, ties a bound between Martelli’s two releases on Antinote, giving us one last glimpse at the uninhabited post-apocalyptic landscapes drawn in Menti Singole. However, this time Leonardo Martelli explores a more urban universe, as the use of rap samples on Negli abissi and Lo Schema suggests. Martelli exploits their aggressiveness in a way that somehow reminds us of minimalist rap tapes from Memphis. The third track’s title makes it even clearer: called Leggende Metropolitane, the song is a trip into the darkest blind alleys of the city, an invitation to wander among human wastes, driven by its light kick. La Luna, is the most contemplative moment of the album, offering us a meditative break before the nightmarish Il registro, Martelli’s brutal come-back to raw electro with a tune which depicts us a hellish engine room for expiating souls. Finally, the record concludes with Previsto, a haunted title track, filled with wailings that give us to contemplate a cruel vision of the urban misery we’re stuck in.
45 ACP – Graveyard Shift [LIES083]
From scratchy ambience to dramatic slow tempo bpm cuts to melodic house tracks, 45 ACP shines on this ep showing his versatility and reinforcing his reputation for strong song writing and composition. Once again diverse enough for club or home listening, warm up or peak time…let the djs make the choice.
Dino Sabatini – Concentrica [OUTISOPERA002]
After inaugurating the ‘Opera’ sub-series of his Outis Music label with the ‘Omonimo’ double LP, Dino Sabatini has invited some choice allies to help define the vocabulary and expand the vision of the new imprint. The aforementioned album, which wove together Sabatini’s atmospheric conjuring skill with the piano flourishes of Antonello Salis, already exhibits the label’s commitment to dismantling the ‘either-or’ logic of contemporary genres by successfully merging a variety of supposedly irreconcilable styles, talents, and worldviews (e.g. both mythological and the technological perspectives). The follow-up EP, ‘Concentrica’, draws on the material from ‘Omonimo’ and delivers it into the hands of additional remixers in order to continue the Outis Opera voyage.
Kneebody & Daedelus – Kneedelus [BF058]
Two members of Los Angeles’s alternative music scene, beat freak Daedelus and instrumental quintet Kneebody, team up for a collaborative album on Brainfeeder. Titled (amazingly) Kneedelus, the album articulates the notion of technological singularity – the idea that humans and computer technology will increasingly blend together – in its straddling of jazz, rock, and electronic production.
The Hipodrome Of Music 