Boris Bunnik is no stranger here at Shipwrec, having graced the label with some beautifully deep and textured music under his Conforce, Hexagon and Versalife monikers. It is to his Versalife guise that the Rotterdam based producer returns, this time for a quartet of works in the shape of Vortices. A spectrum of musical radiance from a modern day master.
Noamm is the electronic equivalent of a honed switchblade. With surgical precision the Bass Agenda alumnus incises keys, cuts chords, pierces percussion and razors through rhythms. It is this slicing sound that the Greek artist brings to his debut 12″ for Shipwrec. Seven tracks of machined melodies and frigid fire make up Psychoanalysis. The EP is brimming with calculated fury and clinical rage. From the coursing cruelty of “Ruhestimmung” and the menacing “Dance Macabre” to the future world coldness of “Das Schwarze Korps”, Noamm is direct and straight to the point with his hard hitting style and no-nonsense approach. Few respites are to be found on this 12″, “Into The Abyss Of Changing Subconsious” being the only refuge from the arctic winds and audio blasts that scour this record. Frosted ferocity from start to finish from this exciting musician.
Emile Facey (Plant43) has been at the forefront of electronic for more than twelve years. During that time the British producer has released on a host of seminal labels, expanding his style and sound in new directions. Although Plant43 is typically classified as a purveyor of electro, behind those driving rhythms and steely percussion a tenderness has always been present, an emotion expressed in lilting melodies and complex harmonies. It is these melodies and harmonies that come into focus on Plant43’s debut ambient album. On “From Deep Streams” is a rich and textured tapestry of synth work, a soundtrack that organically unfurls from nightime woodland walks and city stargazing to mindful solitude. The eight tracks offer the listener a calming journey into stillness, an excursion through gentle audio currents and a moment to pause and take in an inspiring vista of sound. Recorded over the space of 3 months, this album gives the quiet, the subtle and the sometimes underappreciated centre stage whilst casting light on yet another side of Emile Facey’s ever-evolving music.
Two miscreants of UK electronics have been drafted in by Shipwrec for a 12″ of techno debauchery. Richard Bevan and Joshu Doherty, aka Posthuman, have been addicted to acid from their first contact with the caustic and cruel chords of the TB303. Since then the two cousins have gone on to curate 10 years of I Love Acid as well as doling out some toxic classics of their own. The duo deliver the soured goods once again, starting the audio anarchy with the ominously titled “Netflix and Kill”. Drum patterns are gnarled and nasty in this slow burning jacker where basslines boil over into a thick syrup of late night revelry. The flip is taken over by the bullying sounds of “The Damocles Syndicate.” The track rumbles with venomous menace. Coils of 303 spite bulge and contract under the strict resolve of a stern beat in this ready made floor filler.
“Primus Motor” sees Ekman return to many of the sounds that gained him a reputation as an artist on labels like Bunker and Berceuse Heroique. Although harsh bucking acid lines, pockmarked notes, brutal beats and eerie echo are all present, a new tone has been added to the caustic palette. A psychological nuance, an undercurrent of the inchoate has been investigated and exploited to chilling effect. Crippling psychoses. Debilitating neuroses. Physical pain. Suffering stalks this first full vinyl album. Sinister sounds encircle the eight offerings, hovering like vultures over inhospitable plains of ashen grey, jagged peaks and dark sweeping swamps. Hope is all but drawn away in this bleached audio landscape, drained by sheer synthlines and reduced renderings. Amidst the sorrow and strain there are pin pricks of joy, albeit bleak and pallid ones. An album that unnerves as it engages, a collection of icy radiance and industrial indifference from a dutch master.
Umwelt returns to Shipwrec for his third 12″ on the dutch label in as many years. Encoding the Future sees the French pioneer deliver five tracks of on point electronics. Umwelt is known for his trademark sound of piercing percussion, serrating synthlines and industrial strength bass. These elements are all present on this latest EP but have been carved back to allow strings to soar and pads to resonate. New plains are explored. Frigid elegance is juxtaposed by coarse chords, deep basslines countered by lilting lines. Encoding the Future opens a new chapter for the Lyons based producer as he dives into new textures and tones whilst remaining tethered to his cold electro roots.
1997. ‘Drexciya don’t have no phone. They’re too busy to do your remix’. Mad Mike’s response was short and to the point, enough to put off some; but not Vincent Koreman. Addicted from an early age, the dutch producer dug deeper and deeper into the mythology and mystery of James Stinson and Gerald Donald. The sounds, images and ideas conjured up by the Detroit electro duo pulled Koreman in, his “fascination” growing ever more “intense” as the underwater dwellers sonically prospered. Fast forward twenty years and that fascination has not diluted one drop, in fact the aquatic dream of the wavejumpers is the inspiration for “Recolonization”. These tracks “would have never had existed,” says Koreman, “if it wasn’t for Stinson and Donald creating that great, energetic, abstract electronic music and coupled it with an original vision on the African diaspora, art and culture.” This music is an homage to the enigma of Drexciya, a tribute to the machine marine men who pioneered electro and a vision. Drvg Cvltvre continues that vision, one of “an underwater race” that has reconquered Earth, overcoming “big business, corporate greed and water pollution” to reclaim the surface from man. Forget mankind. Our time is over, ‘Recolonization’ is here.
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