minimal synth
Aleksa Alaska @ Red Light Radio 15.09.2018
VA – Some Have to Dance… Some Have To Kill… TWO EP [MEC033]
Second instalment of Mecanica Records compilation focused to obscure techno/EBM/electro. A selection of new and unreleased tracks by six projects from different latitudes. The opening track is a collaboration between Dmitry Distant (Latvia) and Gestalt (Russia) with a dark electro tune that works perfect as warm-up. Deep Pill (USA) offers a versatile technoid tune and Blac Kolor (Germany) closes the A side with a hard and hypnotic piece. Viktor Kalima (Finland) opens the B side with a body music attack, followed by Santiago (USA) with four minutes of pure psychosis and dementia, and Rendered, the duo formed by Daniel Myer (Germany) and Clément Perez (France), closes this sonic trip with a strong and massive cut that will leave you attached to a never ending loop in your head.
PNKMIX-18 | Myn – Clockwork Shredder Device
Marsman – Broken Dreams 01
Alessandro Adriani – Inverted Audio MIX 284
Black Merlin – KØK Podcast 003
KØK presents a vinyl mix from Black Merlin during their party in Nantes from 15.06.2018.
King Ende Shneafliet – Dimension Mix 01 [AD004]
Having previously released some rare solo material from Ende Shneafliet member Hanjo Erkamp AKA Dr. C. Stein, Artificial Dance is now serving up something special from the cult Dutch minimal wave band’s lesser-known side project, King Ende Shneafliet. The result is the first ever vinyl release of tracks from the outfit’s cult Dimension Mix series.
Mick Wills – Ravage Mix Series 74
Recorded at “We Are Monsters” at Monarch – San Francisco (23rd June 2018)
Jon Krocker – Monolog [DE228]
Dark Entries presents the first ever vinyl issue of Jon Krocker’s debut album ‘Monolog’ originally released on cassette in 1983. Jon is from Winnipeg, Canada and got his start as half of the synth noise duo Dialog. In 1981-82, while studying for a BA in Film Studies, he would go to the studio and practice. No writing or patch memories, composing on the fly. His set up consisted of a Minimoog, Oberheim Two Voice, Roland RS-202, Roland Space Echo, EML 400, Roland DR 55, Roland System 100 mixer. After playing some of the songs to Impulse Records store owner Roman Panchyshsyn, he agreed release the album on cassette on Contagious Records. Primarily influenced by the German school typified by artists such as Conrad Schnitzler and Kraftwerk, Jon’s music exhibits the cold machine ethic of the neumusik. The 12 instrumental tracks are stark and minimal, at times anxious but overall space orientated and flexible.
VA – Kale Plankieren: Dutch Cassette Rareties 1981 – 1987 Vol. 2 [KH016]
After last years excellent discoveries from Volume 1, another batch of ‘lost’ and unreleased Dutch (cassette) material is coming back to the future. For this sequel we dug deep into the Dutch lowlands and again found some independent music that’s still relevant today. In the process we met even more amazing musicians and heard great stories from a distant-not-so-distant past. Expect a wide palette of DIY and experimental sounds by artists from Groningen, Zwolle, Arnhem, The Hague, Rotterdam, Tilburg and Deurne.
VA – Prophecy & Progress: UK Electronics 1978-1990 [PM24]
Peripheral Minimal presents ‘Prophecy + Progress: UK Electronics 1978 – 1990 LP’, a thirteen-track compilation that represents the burgeoning Electronic music scene in the UK. This isn’t simply another synth pop compilation, or some nostalgic frippery, but an eclectic mix of acts that were experimenting with newly available technology at a time when the punk scene had imploded and the music press was busy coining new genres as an attempt to continue its legacy. In the bubbling underground were a myriad of experimenters recording in relative secrecy in Industrial cities like Sheffield or post-war London, at a time when the Tories came back into power and utterly altered the political landscape, and produced a generation of, ‘Thatcher’s Children’ (selfish, arrogant and materialistic). The antidote seemed to be quiet rebellion in the shape of dark and alienating soundscapes by acts that are now considered ‘pioneers’, or achieving cult status, in a new era of throwaway pop and trite ‘new wave’ impersonators. This compilation is an attempt to rekindle those heady days of experimentation and to encourage new generations to rebel and forgo the fashionable posturing that comes with anything vaguely ‘interesting’.
Max Vincent – Beograd [DCM006]
One of the biggest sampling innovators and the pioneer of electronic music in Eastern Europe, Max Vincent initially played in Belgrade’s Max & Intro band. “Beograd” is a lost LP album which consists of 8 previously unreleased tracks made in period 1986-1999 which Max wanted to use in a single concept album. This is ultimately an intriguing album, dark, cloudy, with unpredictable solutions and transitions between rhythm, paths, synth textures, vocals and other layers. One of the records that every fan of the 80s electronic must have.
Mick Wills @ Operator Radio (Rotterdam) 17.07.2018
Alessandro Adriani & The Hacker @ Strange Sounds From Beyond 23.06.2018
Aleksa Alaska – RUBBER TIJD
Zmatsutsi – Hookep Up [MMLP1001]
Discover the sex-appeal of Leeds with the trio Joe Gill, Heidi Armitage and Tim Hutton aka Zmatsutsi. They deliver on this mini-LP a mixture of s’mazing slow beats tracks, a bit like Rimini was meeting Dusseldorf in a Golf VR6. ‘Hooked Up’ is a hazy and psychedelic trip into druggy, slo-mo disco territory. Built around head-nodding drum machine rhythms, undulating arpeggio lines, trippy synthesizer motifs and breathy, poetic spoken word vocals, it’s a hugely atmospheric and enjoyable affair. There are occasional forays into more boogie-inspired territory, but even these outings tend towards the throbbing, pulsating and hypnotic. Of course, we expect little less from the inspired Macadam Mambo label, but we were still surprised by the dizzyingly high quality threshold throughout.
PNKMIX-12 | Dollkraut – Negative Pleasures
Muziekkamer – II – Popmuziek [CYRE01]
Left of centre experiments from the Dutch underground of yesteryear. Muziekkamer was the name of the home recording studio that gave birth to the twelve tracks on ‘Popmuziek’, an intriguing document of sketch arrangements and primitive, fairytale sampling wave cuts. This is music which excels due to its inherent naivety; the limitless ambition of ‘Black Box’ almost sounding like a precursor to the 90s ambient techno of Likemind or Stasis. On ‘Being Home Tonight’ we can hear an early form of what the likes of Tolouse Low Trax have been bringing to the forefront of contemporary club culture whilst the erratic art-rock of ‘Walkman’ mirrors what Leven Signs & co were doing over the pond. In trying to create something which represented ‘intrusiveness’ as a contrast to an earlier ambient tape the trio incidentally blurred the lines between various musical fashions to come. An amazing snapshot of time and place.
Colin Potter – The Where House [DE214]
Colin Potter is a sound engineer and musician currently based in London. He has worked within the fields of electronic and experimental music for over 35 years. He started the esteemed ICR (Integrated Circuit Recordings) label in 1981 releasing a clutch of wonderful home recordings of his own, over half a dozen small run cassette only releases. ‘The Where House?’ was recorded in 1981 at IC Studio, a converted wash house in Sutton on the Forest in North Yorkshire. The album was self-released on cassette that same year via ICR. This expanded double LP edition features all 13 tracks from the original tape on vinyl for the first time plus 4 bonus tracks. ‘The Where House?’ is a prime example of early UK post-punk/industrial electronic music.
The Hipodrome Of Music 