minimal synth
Alessandro Adriani – Cxemcast 043
Alessandro Adriani – Crow / White Swan [MNQ083]
The new Mannequin Records serie “Death Of The Machines” is launched with their own Alessandro Adriani first up. It features a banging Mick Wills edit of the unreleased ‘Crow’ backed by ‘White Swan’, hypnotsing, and truly psychedelic electro tune.
Kirlian Camera / Stonith – Wiedergaben Vol. 1 [A+WX]
Trevor Jackson – Feel My Bicep #54
This mix is a portion of a live DJ set Trevor Jackson did at the New Dance Fantasy Festival at Griessmühle in Berlin earlier this year in July.
Mick Wills – DJB Podcast #398
Executive Slacks – Seams Ruff LP [DE128]
Executive Slacks began in the hot, humid summer of 1980 Philadelphia by Matt Marello, John Young and Albert Ganss, three bored, broke, anxious art students. Starting out with performance art in subways, they soon took their angst-ridden act to galleries and night clubs. The band found their moniker in a run-down bookstore after seeing an ad for men’s polyester pants. They pieced together sounds that captured the growing paranoia of an age predicted by Orwell and the growing inequalities of the 1980s. They excavated two cassettes that contained their earliest recorded material from 1980 and 1981. “Seams Ruff” is a 13 song compilation from these cassette collections plus a bonus flexi disc featuring a live performance on WXPN from 1980. The tracks were created with the use of heavily modified synthesizers and noisemakers, the broken innards of a grand piano, metal oil drums and a spray painted Harmony Rocket guitar. The Slacks drew their influences from contemporaries like Cabaret Voltaire and Tuxedomoon, as well as Disco and Dadaism. Dripping in nihilism, the song’s lyrics tackle the existential dread of the late 20th century and three of the songs are taken from “Mann ist Mann” a 1926 play by the German modernist author Bertolt Brecht. Executive Slacks’ unique brew of primitive electronics, harsh guitars and aggressive vocals inspired many bands like Ministry, Front 242 and Skinny Puppy.
Intergalactic Gary @ Shadowplay Essential, Dada (Beijing) 29.07.2016
Slick Chick – Pinkman Mix
Mick Wills @ 2 Years Phormix Anniversary, Six D.O.G.S. (Athens) 05.02.2016
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.
Repeated Viewing – Street Force (Soundtrack) [GDLP005]
Repeated Viewing’s soundtrack to the “not totally sure if it’s real or not” film of the same name slinks out of your speakers as if Badalamenti and Goblin had made sweet regretful love one night and created a baby so dark and brooding, only the ‘Trv Synth Fr33ks’ would take it in and raise it like wolves. Following the story of one man’s revenge across 1982 New York, this is Death Wish if we lived in some kind of alternative universe where Lucio Fulci had directed it instead of Michael Winner. From Ballads to Disco to Minimal Synth, “Street Force” is a masterpiece of faux soundtrack bliss and definitely not to be missed.
Nagamatzu – Above This Noise [DE127]
Nagamatzu were the British duo of Andrew Lagowski (SETI, Legion, Terror Against Terror) on synths, guitar, and programming and Stephen Jarvis (Pure Motorised Instinct, Terraform) on synths and bass. Formed in 1982 after messing around with old tape machines and drum boxes, making numerous contributions to international compilations and erratically releasing their own cassettes. Their name comes from a character in JG Ballard‘s “Atrocity Exhibition” and their music reflects his influence. Nagamatzu self-released their debut cassette “Shatter Days” in 1983 after messing around with old tape machines, drum boxes and effects. “Above This Noise” is a compilation of 9 songs recorded in the period between the release of ‘Sacred Islands of the Mad’ in 1986 and ‘Igniting the Corpse’ in 1991. It gathers tracks which surfaced on some of the international compilation cassette releases that the band were invited to contribute to in the 1980s as well as some previously unreleased songs. The band’s working method was for Andrew to first record a backing track, usually rhythm, sequence, samples. Then both members would layer more electronics, samples, guitar and bass over the top, recording the whole piece in one take. These instrumentals combine stuttering bass, guitar bursts and funeral keyboards draped over a dragging drum machine beat, calling to mind Clock DVA, early New Order or Cocteau Twins. Their sound is full of complex rhythm patterns and dark electronics.
All the Madman – Tape Recordings 1980-1983 [VOD145B1ATM]
All the Madmen were Neale James Potts, Michael William Richardson, Christopher Paul Bailey and Richard Roger Weston-Smith from Stoke-on-Trent, UK. They called themselves minimal synthesizer-punks. ATM started in 1980 as an Anti Rock group, believing that the way that music was played and produced should change forever. One track called ”Superior Life” made it onto the LP ”Cry Havoc”.
Mick Wills – outline.27
Vinilette – Beyond The Meridian
Juanpablo – Bastardos Podcast 004
Intergalactic Gary – Sounds of Sónar
Bernardino Femminielli – Plaisirs Americains [MINDLP002]
12″ LP, vinyl record, varnished 350g premium quality paper sleeve. Limited edition of 400 copies.
Severed Heads – Stretcher (USA Stretched Version) [MR060]
Medical Records presents it’s 60th release with the much needed reissue of Australia’s Severed Heads and their 1985 release – Stretcher. The Severed Heads story continues with the expanded and Stretched 2LP reissue. After personnel changes in 1985 (Garry Bradbury and Paul Deering left the band), Sev was now down to a 2 piece (Tom Ellard and Stephen Jones). Stretcher was originally released to be a compilation to introduce the band to an American audience, but it was ultimately sold in three versions due to other countries desiring their own version (an EP in Canada and England and an LP in Australia). The name was taken from the sign on the emergency stretcher at the front of every Sydney ferry during that era. This version is based on the Volition release (Australian version) but with all the tracks from the other versions for a full collection of 17 tracks over 2 LPs. A bit more “accessible” than the previous City Slab Horror with a number of dance floor stompers filling out the collection such as the 12″ versions of Halo and Petrol. The collection mostly consists of new tracks written for the multiple releases for each country release but also contains a few older tracks remixed and even a demo version of Harold and Cindy which would be later fleshed out on The Big Bigot. The Heads toured the LP across Australia in 1985 resulting in a lot of “exciting adventures with audiences who wanted to kill us” – Tom Ellard. Two other interesting facts in regard to this collection is that it was the first time Sev used MIDI and a DX7 and every track has some radio signal mixed in there somewhere, always by accident. The original version(s) are all long out of print and becoming rare on the collector’s market. Presented in a beautiful gatefold 2LP on high quality classic black 160gm vinyl with original artwork as well as new gatefold layout by Tom Ellard with extensive liner notes detailing the back story and creation of each individual track. Get lost in it.
The Hipodrome Of Music 