Philly’s Metasplice are back with another double LP’s worth of unique soundscapes. To be sure, they’re previous sides for Morphosis’s Morphine label and they’re own imprint _bruxist have been some of the most engaging works of electronic music in recent memory. This collection of new works is even more arresting and vital.
Traxx – Formulated-Unconventional Theories
“Nowadays, artists are afraid of diverting from a well-known stylistic path which seems the style dictates the track, not the maker.
Traxx is a totally different story.
although a lot of people appreciate it, most don’t understand Traxx’ approach to music as its been labelled diverse and eclectic which shows how significant it is for him to follow the innovative footsteps of his heroes.
in this distinctive podcast he provides a dramatic euphoric high energy, that opens gates to an esoteric and unpredictable sound beyond boundaries endlessly exploring unruled electronics of unrestricted, under the table music with no boundaries pushing the vision forward+expanding into the modern day of his interpretation.”
Helena Hauff returning to Actress’ Werkdiscs with a 5-track EP. In the producer’s own words: “Lex Tertia is a further exploration into the idea of grimy, sonically crushed, dysfunctional, insane stuff that kicks on where Actio Reactio left off.”
Die Form is a French post-industrial and electronic band formed in 1977. In 1982 Die Form released their debut vinyl album Die Puppe. These are the first esoteric electronic experiments, often improvised, from what would become the sound of the project.Songs range from hypnotic, minimalistic proto-IDM to pure, daring experimental sound manipulation. Unable to fit into any genre, Die Puppe is in a class of music all its own.
Kink’s first ever release on the Pets Recordings label. It finds the Bulgarian live specialist and techno innovator serving up a fantastic new cut and comes with a remix from raw American talent Truncate. Comes with 10 vinyl-only locked grooves.
For a brief moment Turin was Italy’s Sheffield, producing an astonishing number of DIY electronic groups. In the context of a wider Europe, Italy has never been thought of as a hotbed of minimal electronic music, but Mannequin Records compilations Danza Meccanica: Italian Synth Wave 1982-1987 have shone a light on a scene little heard, even within Italy’s borders. But the history was still incomplete.. some new horizons now must be unveiled, showing that between the years of 1982 and 1984, the city of Turin in northwest Italy was home to a quiet underground renaissance of experimental electronic music.
Afrikan Sciences aka Eric Douglas Porter is back on PAN with more outer-space wares built to make you question everything you thought you knew about cosmic electronic music. Circuitous has some moments of tender beauty and some moments of fiery experimentalism, but it never stops being thrilling, shocking and captivating. With the spirit of free jazz, the convention-less beats of the Brainfeeder posse and an irrepressible delivery that is all his own, Afrikan Sciences has excelled even his high standards on Circuitous.
Marco Shuttle releasing his first solo album ‘Visione’ on his Eerie label. ‘Visione’ is a cohesive and compact work, which draws on Shuttle’s design background to unfold an audio narrative with a strong aesthetic approach. With a more abstract sound than his club-focused records, ‘Visione’ retains a cinematic scope while maintaining a common texture of sound throughout the tracks: the detailed productions were created with mainly analogue equipment with meticulously modulated oscillators, creating tracks that are by turns psychedelic, cosmic and sinister
Solar One Music present a very special project. Arne Weinberg (Valanx) and Robert Witschakowski (The Exaltics) join forces as “Val_Ex” and present their first album. Dark and deep tracks are featured on both sides of this album, the intention and atmosphere is undeniably pure darkness. The common goal of achieving this is audible each second of this record. The music ranges from ambient to electro, industrial and electronica.
Gunnar Haslam returns to LIES records for his second album, Mirrors and Copulation. Following a slew of 12″ releases this year, Gunnar delves deep into his darkest palettes for a return to his patient, haunted soundscapes that shrouded his debut LP, Mimesiak. Across eight tracks of ambient techno both brooding and tumultuous, Gunnar Haslam unravels a narrative on overpopulation and its potential environmental ramifications inspired by the Borges quote the album title references. “Meter By Me, Sybil” cascades arpeggios through a thick fog that never leaves Mirrors. “Ajapajapam Version” cuts through with a sluggish 3/4 strut and nauseated 303 bassline, but the rest of the A side is fully enveloped by the Gunnar’s peerless recreation of the wet ambience of a ghostly rainforest. “Cloud Castle Lake” offers an uptempo cut buoyed by a blasted kick drum and frenetic 606 workout. Still enshrouded, “Cloud Castle Lake” further explores Gunnar’s sonic terrain with the force of a freaked dancefloor’s momentum, much like the album finale, “In Argo Teurano”, which blasts forth from the mist with a weathered adventurer’s grit.
Heidi Lord is the wife of Rephlex/WeMe artist Jodey Kendrick. Three of Heidi’s tracks are featured on the famous “EDM” Compilation Albums This is the Debut album from Heidi Using a unique pallet of sounds from MRI machines to modular synthersizers to conversations in a super market to her own processed voice Co produced by her Husband “I could describe what the album means to me, But i would much rather leave it to listener to experience and feel and to interpret how they see fit”.
Andy Stott returns with his first new album since 2012’s ‘Luxury Problems’, straddling analogue club music and vocal pop songs. ‘Faith In Strangers’ was written and produced between January 2013 and June 2014, and was edited and sequenced in late July this year. Making use of on an array of instruments, field recordings, found sounds and vocal treatments, it’s a largely analogue variant of hi-tech production styles arcing from the dissonant to the sublime.
In 2011, Julia Thompson (DJ Black B1tch) gave me a TDK SA90 tape of a spontaneous live jam by Insync recorded in her flat in Forest Hill, South London in March 1991. She had found it in a drawer when clearing out stuff. She gave it to me to listen to simply thinking I might be interested in hearing it. Of course I was, particularly because the date on the tape immediately told me that the session was recorded more than a year before the release of Insync’s debut, the seminal Storm on Irdial Discs. In fact Storm was recorded before this session but not released for more than a year after it. The A side of the cassette is a live jam comprising a bass-line/repeating melody and one other four-note motif. Other than that, Lee Purkis rinses a Yamaha SH101, SPX90, Roland 909 drum machine and some delays, to create a 43 minute journey that passes through beautiful elegiac ambient passages to crashing drums that had me nodding my head to the point that I had to force myself to sit still because of the shooting pains in my neck. Insync was accompanied by Paul Chivers aka Ramjack. Ramjack was playing an Ensoniq Mirage containing samples of himself playing various percussion instruments. I listened a few times to see if there were four 7+ minute sections that could be released as an ep. I thought there were, and here they are. Lee Purkis gave his permission for Third Ear to release the cuts, and the whole jam (available as 3eep201409). Next I contacted Stefan Betke at Scape Mastering to ask if he would listen to the tape to assess whether he could create a master that would sound good enough on a big sound system. Together we decided that he could. The sound quality of these cuts is a testament to Lee Perkis’ sound engineering and to Stefan Betke’s mastering. Judge for yourself. Guy McCreery.
Beau Wanzer delivers a 12 track LP of archival material culled from tapes stored away from years past, the tracks in question being plucked between 2002-2008. Wanzer has stuck to his grotesque guns over the years, keeping his music personal, grating, and down right bizarre. Each track takes a narrative of its own, from the languidly vocaled, yet uncannily catchy ”Mob Boss” to the possessed murmurs of ”Love Tone,” Wanzer has created a completely unique collection of music which engages the listener all the way through.
Crazy etherial collection of some previously released and some unreleased tracks presented in album form. The album is hugely varied within it’s basic drum machine and synths template; from the psychedelic blowout ‘The Seer Of Cosmic Visions’ and the distorted, ruptured crunch of ‘How Wet Is Ur Box’, to more delicate meditations like ‘Space Is The Place’ or ‘Letters From The Edge’. From the the shimmering rhythmic noise of ‘A Genre Sonique’ to the the woozy tribal funk of ‘134340 Pluto’ or the rough darting strings of the off-kilter ‘Calling Planet Earth’ and finishing on the relaxing gaseous drones of ‘Strange Signs In The Sky’, the album never fails to transport the listener to another state of mind.
Here’s something to excite those of an experimental techno bent: a collaborative set from veteran producer Function and drone/industrial sort Vatican Shadow. Given the qualities’ of both producers, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Games Have Rules is rather good. Like any good collaboration, it tempers the more outlandish aspects of each producer’s work, delivering a set bristling with icy textures, bittersweet ambience, dreamy atmospherics and, perhaps most pleasing of all, sprawling techno (see the brilliant “Bejewelled Body”). Highlights are naturally plentiful, from the crystalline mood of “A Year Has Passed” (reminiscent of Selected Ambient Works era Aphex Twin) to the murky textures and spooky electronics of “The Nemesis Flower”.
Cabaret Voltaire member Richard H. Kirk with an experimental electronic release including the great dancefloor track ”Never Lose Your Shadow.” On the EP, there’s tracks originally recorded between 1978 and 1987, which have never before been released on vinyl. The title track, Never Lose Your Shadow blurs the lines between harsh industrial, dance floor, and no wave. The other three tracks are more experimental and reference ideas Kirk was exploring in Cabaret Voltaire at the time.
Deeper and advanced electronix on Valcrond Video, the label run by sound and image artist Luke Wyatt (Torn Hawk). Ari Russo is an NYC based multi-artist whose engagement with abandoned media finds an outlet in the video bursts he culls as OfficeFern. As a programmer, he’s produced innovative music generation tools such as the Diamond Arpeggiator. He returns to his own music with this collection of challenging and transporting structures
The Hipodrome Of Music 