Silent Servant / Broken English Club – Split EP [CITI014]

Cititrax presents a 4 song split EP by Silent Servant and Broken English Club. Although the two are geographically very far apart, Silent Servant based in Los Angeles, US and Broken English Club based in London, UK, the two share a similar outlook and musical approach. Both projects have been on the rise lately, and stem from a strongly rooted techno background. Combining their influences of dance music, techno, EBM, industrial and post-punk, Silent Servant and Broken English Club offer a new breed of EBM infused techno wave on the Violence And Divinity EP. They artfully create music that works both on and off the dance floor, infusing a dark atmospheric mood with addictive, pulsating rhythms. Themes of love, death, modernity and automobile crashes appear throughout this EP from the music itself right through to the cover art and one of a kind vinyl pressing.

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Silent Servant / Broken English Club – Split EP [CITI014]

Light Sounds Dark – Light Sounds Dark [LSD013]

Blimey, Light Sounds Dark really went to town on this new compilation of curios, obscurities and delights that’s spread across three 12″s. If you’ve indulged in previous slabs of LSD curated obscurity then you should have an idea of what is waiting for you within the rather tempting mirrored, triple-gatefold sleeve; namely a smorgasbord of industrial, proto rhythms and early wave sounds. Unlike previous Light Sounds Dark transmissions, there is no identifying information of any sort.

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Light Sounds Dark – Light Sounds Dark [LSD013]

VA – Underground Wave Volume 4 [WR008]

Compilation of old and new (mostly) Belgian & Dutch minimal synth tracks for the first time ever on vinyl.

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VA – Underground Wave Volume 4 [WR008]

impLOG – Holland Tunnel Dive [DE074]

impLOG was the solo project of Don Christensen after leaving New York No Wave group The Contortions in 1979. He began making music using found sounds, a Univox drum machine, guitar stomp boxes, Casio keyboards and percussion instruments. Holland Tunnel Dive is a monotone lament, with a narrator reciting a list of all that is missing in his life along to a sparse, mechanical beat. A variable speed Milwaukee drill creeps its way into the song, eventually reaching cacophonous levels. After four minutes of industrial motorik, an upbeat saxophone riff breaks out unexpectedly, unsettling the listener even further. On the B-side is a deranged version of the Lieber and Stoller show tune On Broadway, featuring lead guitar by Jody Harris of the Contortions. The record perfectly captures the dark and seedy vibe of downtown New York in the early 80’s.

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impLOG – Holland Tunnel Dive [DE074]

Campbell Irvine – Removal of the Six Armed Goddess EP [INF013]

Infrastructure presents the debut record from Campbell Irvine, the 23 year-old outsider talent who hails from Australia and has recently re-located to Berlin. Part industrial mantra, part musique concrète, this immersive and captivating debut continues Infrastructure’s re-launch, bringing genuine new talent to the table.

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Campbell Irvine – Removal of the Six Armed Goddess EP [INF013]

Yør – Lack Of Beeing EP [CR1274]

Hamburg based producer Yør is next up on Dutch powerhouse Creme Organization with a four track EP that continues in his muddy and muddled techno tradition. Taking up the whole of the a-side, opener ‘Lack Of Being’ is a swampy brew of slowly churning, buried deep drums, droning synths and crackling static that conveys a real sense of loneliness and pain. B1 cut ‘Unbennant’ is a more propulsive cut with driven kick drums racing along beneath spangled and sinewy synth lines. Train track like percussive embellishes the sense of groove and then ‘Torn’ continues to canter along, with juddering drums sounding like they might collapse at any minute. Again it feels like you are on some broken old train racing to somewhere ominous. Last track ‘Apophis’ is a little cleaner and more crisp, with icy hi hats, late night howling synth patterns and nimble, elastic basslines. This is darkly atmospheric music that is as uneasy to listen to as it is wholly captivating.

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Yør – Lack Of Beeing EP [CR1274]

Inigo Kennedy – Vaudeville [TOKEN043]

This fourth album from British techno veteran Inigo Kennedy – his first since 2010’s decidedly ambient September Pieces – has something of a “catch-all” feel. You see, Vaudeville refuses to stick to one sound, style or groove, instead referencing the many styles of techno and experimental electronic music that have inspired the popular producer over the course of his 18-year career. So, there are murky, IDM-inspired techno floorfillers (the melodious but faintly foreboding “Requiem”), early British psychedelic techno (“Plaintive”), dense, darkroom grooves (“Vallecula”), classic Yorkshire bleep and bass (“Petrichor”), Kompakt-ish organic techno (“Winter”), and spooky, droning ambience (“Narrative”).

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Inigo Kennedy – Vaudeville [TOKEN043]

RedRedRed – Pattern Completition [DE069]

Dark Entries introduce the debut album by RedRedRed, a contemporary artist from San Francisco, Michael Wood. “Pattern Completion” was originally planned as a 4 song cassette EP that was only released digitally. The A side features remixed and remastered versions of the tracks from the EP. The B side consists of four unreleased tracks, two of which are instrumental. The material on “Pattern Completion” is strongly influenced by Michael’s former live/work studio space in the Bayview District of San Francisco, an area surrounded by recycling facilities and water treatment plants. The songs reflect this industrial atmosphere, stacking treated rhythm box patterns, quivering synthesizers, and mechanical vocals. “Pattern Completion” develops the strain of futuristic, mutant industrial pioneered by San Francisco groups like Tuxedomoon and Factrix, with RedRedRedadding his own brand of damaged angular rhythms.

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RedRedRed – Pattern Completition [DE069]

VA – Rat Life 2 [RAT002]

Imagine the early 80ies, cold war is on its peak, you are a young lad in american occupied Germany and don’t feel like joining the army. What you gonna do? There is not much choice. you could crash your dads car into the next bridge and get invalided out or you just move to the island of west berlin and buy a drum machine.

”Neue Wohnkultur” is one of those bands started by renegades hiding from military service in the american sector of the german capital. Writing songs about what its like to be a soldier is definitely more fun than taking extended field trips with the comrades to the country side. “Wir sind Soldaten, Wir sind Soldaten!” M.o.m.O. Cut it! So here we are, decades later, the wall came down, east and west germans are shopping peacefully together, you are reading the press text of some record label called Rat Life. Does all this make any sense? Well you are the customer, it’s your choice, you could click your mouse now and skip to the next item before i tell you about the flip side of this record which is nothing but a repetitive loop goin on for 9 minutes. You might say “Enfant Terrible (M.W. Cut)” is not a big pleasure for home listening but its on you to make it interesting, you could mix it with your dads old records or crab a mic and rap over it

(please don’t rap over it.

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VA – Rat Life 2 [RAT002]

Abdulla Rashim – Unanimity [NE010]

Defeating apathy by creating his own world, Abdulla Rashims music thinks before it speaks. Untangled energy and drive breathes life into the rigid rhythmic structures, where the wild, almost primal, core illuminates the heartfelt and soulful layers within in his music. This musical contradiction between thought and letting go, acts as the base foundation in Abdulla Rashim’s music. As a celebration and as a aural development, Abdulla Rashim releases his ‘Unanimity’ LP on Northern Electronics.

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Abdulla Rashim – Unanimity [NE010]

Covered In Sand – Crescent Shapes Scars [MIRA008]

The release features three abrasive noise workouts. Thud of drums and ritualistic rhythms define the opener Luarica on the A-side alongside a near-melodic whine that stays present throughout the tracks. Orapa (An Interview) on the flip swallows and evokes scuffed voices of a conversation, striving into isolation, while Venetia resumes the haunting rhythm and layers of distortion.

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Covered In Sand – Crescent Shapes Scars [MIRA008]