Anthony Linell puts a steely force at the foreground of his latest EP, Sheltering Skies. Blunt force tension builds, layer upon layer, as an anatomy of mechanistic torsion is worked in across an opening pair of tracks. Linell holds out the respite and oxygen for the EP’s closer, undercut by aching feedback that just threatens to go again.
“As a direct response to Russia’s diabolic invasion of Ukraine, Northern Electronics assembles a sonic charity collection in order to raise funds for UNICEF, helping the children and families who’s suffering under the rage of their occupier.
All proceeds will go to UNICEF Ukraine.”
For their first collaboration on an original audio-visual artefact, Ali M. Demirel and Anthony Linell have developed a stunning and unsettling work that studies the Icelandic landscape as a motor of mythology, a snare that binds us in contradiction. Far from being an acoustic summation of the collaboration, this release is a snapshot of Linell’s musical contribution at a moment of reflection in the project’s evolution.
Noah Gibson marks his first appearance on Northern Electronics with an EP of plaintive meditations on his innermost causes and conflicts. Acidic enthusiasm spirals out of control in innumerable ways across ‘Press On,’ routing us through the reflective atmosphere that hangs heavy in the background of the thrilling adrenal spikes.
Anthony Linell’s latest suite of tracks cruise and drift with their head up. With a dizzy palette of terse and winding melodies, ‘Sculpting Energy’ feels like another new avenue for Linell on his unbreakable run of EPs. Drone surveillance-style patterns remain intact this time around, hinting at the unmistakable frozen planes of his previous works, yet with the opening track there’s the smack of bustling heat, as its title ‘Therme’ alludes to. The EP’s closing piece, ‘Vision of the Imminence’, presents a familiar sullen theme. Perhaps the measure of his latest work’s difference is in the modulating barbed wire-percussion and birdsong- synths that wrap the track’s cold core?
Having tamed last year’s havoc and disparity into the damaged rapture of ‘Layers of Reality,’ Anthony Linell is opening a new calendar with the sheared isolation of his latest album, ‘A Sense of Order.’ Linell has put his toolkit for summoning euphoria aside here, instead sculpting a glowing, diaphanous fog that swells into pensive melodies and arpeggiated whispers. Graceful for the way in which it makes the bleak hospitable, the charm of coldness invites us toward the empty and the beautiful, and away from the miserable.
There is an intricate sorrow to Isorinne’s new album, ‘Speechless Malison.’ Though broadly melodic, it feels exhausted rather than restrained; though rippling with a pulse, the rhythmic passages are sparse, their measured source a great distance away. Building on last year’s cassette, ‘Echoic Memoir,’ ‘Speechless Malison’ takes greater and emotive strides, however brittle the path.
The first collaboration between SARS & Abdulla Rashim sees a diverse long player of aggressive industrial, drone and live electronics. A melancholic story in the manner that has come signifiy the sound of northern Europa.
Vigilant electronics and desolated soundscapes by Lundin Oil aka Abdulla Rashim with the first long player under this moniker.
Acronym back on home turf Northern Electronics with five tracks of psychedelic dance floor excursions and ambient pieces.
Jonas Ronnberg aka Varg with a mini album themed around dominance and glamour. This is the statement of Penthouse Electronics.
Last year, Abdulla Rashim took time out to develop his alternative Lundin Oil project, delivering two EPs of in-your-face noise and industrial techno textures for Northern Electrics. Here, he switches back to his main creative name for a second Abdulla Rashim set that joins the dots between intense, beatless ambience and modular techno box jams. Despite the general bleakness of his sounds and method, A Shell of Speed is surprisingly picturesque and melodious in parts, with the brilliant “Crossing Qalandiya” delivering the kind of trippy, delay-laden electronic soundscapes that recall the halcyon days of IDM and ambient. Even so, it’s his more surging, rhythmically intense compositions – see “Red Pool” and “Ador Tracers” – that arguably stand out.
Since his emergence onto the scene in 2012, Acronym has carved a bold name for himself within the burgeoning sphere of techno championed by his Northern Electronics compatriots, with releases on Semantica as well as his own Dimensional Explorations imprint. ‘June’ continues to affirm the young producer’s reputation as a skilled craftsman of densely woven, atmospheric electronic music, whilst serving as a substantial contribution to the Northern Electronics catalogue.
Korridor returns to Northern Electronics with three cuts of ultra deep, twisted rhythms. Nothing for the motion sick.
Sophomore album from Jonas Ronnberg aka Varg with icey electronics live recorded. Ursviken is, unsurprisingly, a largely icy and atmospheric affair, with occasional bursts of throbbing, techno-influenced intensity (see the relentless loops and murky textures of “Vitberge”, and industrial freakiness of “Guldstaten”) punctuating the otherwise downbeat, largely ambient mood. As usual, there’s much to admire, from the bleak, dubbed-out oddness of “Raggarsvin” and overwhelmingly dreamy “Ohn”, to the understated grooves and spaced-out chords of “Skaeliptom”.
Abdulla Rashim and Varg’s collaborative project are back for another quest in sonic experiments and northern tales. Even if they do release obscure drone from time to time Northern Electronics continues to up hold its reputation as record label worthy of the tag: ‘buy on sight’. That can definitely be said about Varg and Abdullah Rashim’s second full length as Ulwhednar. For some dirty Rashim loops look to “De 92 Vita Stenarna” while for some Nordic drone splashed with Varg’s trademark space echoes check out “Kattarens Dom”, and if you want to experience what the crash landing of Star Trek’s USS Enterprise sounds like there’s “Askan Fran Balet”.
Acronym once again surfaces for five floating techno excursions on Abdulla Rashim’s Northern Electronics.
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.
From the suburbs of Stockholm Korridor transmits three ultra deep and slowly progressing techno tracks, carefully crafted in a thin layer of ice cold atmospheres and twisted rhythms.
The Hipodrome Of Music 