silent servant

VA – Where Next? [PODR011LP]

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Fans of the much-heralded Sandwell District are in for a real treat with this new compilation. This package collects in total 12 tracks that span the three producers’ respective individual careers. These tracks present some amazing moments in techno. Highlights include the amazingly haunting Regis edit of ‘Sampler 1’ as well as Function’s tribute to Icelandic minimal in ‘Reykjavik’. Also included is Kalon’s devastating techno pounder ‘Violencia’ by the recently departed Silent Servant aka Juan Mendez. Regis’s edit of Kalon’s ‘Haiku’ is downright wicked. This collection will not disappoint fans of the artists or the label Sandwell District. 

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VA – Where Next? [PODR011LP]

O! Kult – Zvestoba [KRI006]

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The new Kri record goes back to the buzzing 1980s in Yugoslavia, where numerous art projects were testing the censorship and unity of the Communist Party. One such project was a punk and later post-punk/industrial band called O! Kult which took a hard stance against bureaucracy, technocracy and alienation. Their test was successful as it brought censorship and surveillance by the state and media authorities. The track and its mystical vibe have been reimagined by Silent Servant, Christian Kroupa (1/2 of Black Dot) and 198319831983, adding fresh EBM, electro and melancholic techno edge to the record.

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O! Kult – Zvestoba [KRI006]

Silent Servant – In Memoriam [TRESOR362]

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Juan Mendez aka Silent Servant is a figure in techno history that needs little introduction. As a member of the Sandwell District collective and the label’s art director he collaborated on works that were responsible for a global focal shift in the genre as their label adapted and challenged the paradigm of minimal techno, taking influence from other sources such as dub, post-punk, and even classical minimalism.  With ‘In Memoriam’, Silent Servant’s latest release on Tresor Records, Mendez writes a deeply personal memoir of a 30-plus year career spent exploring and absorbing the shadowy side of music; a carefully crafted elegy to people, places, and times past and the lasting effect they have on the present.

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Silent Servant – In Memoriam [TRESOR362]

VA – Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX [Eskimo]

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Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX is the second compilation for Eskimo Recordings compiled and curated by Berlin-based Musician and DJ Luca Venezia, aka Curses, to explore the darker side of club music. Spread across 3CDs and three 2LPs Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX features a mammoth 49 tracks that join the dots between early industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, EBM legends like Nitzer Ebb and the post-punk experiments of people like Malcolm McLaren and Big Audio Dynamite with some of the most exciting artists around today, such as Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento and Years of Denial. Where the first Next Wave Acid Punx compilation was a personal journey for Luca, a lockdown inspired exploration of his record collection to find the thread that ran through the music that had soundtracked much of his life, DEUX is a celebration of that music let loose on the world, the thrill of music performed live, the smoke and strobe filled clubs you’ll hear it in and the artists you’ll find on those stages.

chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / CD

VA – Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX [Eskimo]

Krishna Goineau ft. MCL – 80’s Tapes [IM011]

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“Krishna Goineau is well known for his starring role in ‘Los Niños del Parque’ with Liaisons Dangereuses and in other projects such as Velodrome and Xeroox. Through one of his friends we have been lucky enough to receive a hard disk on which there are a variety of unreleased tracks by Krishna Goineau with MCL (Micro Cheap League) recorded in the year 85-86. Krishna lived in Barcelona at that time and was involved in different groups while traveling through Germany and Belgium to create new projects. After dissolving Liaisons Dangereuses in 1983 Krishna started a new project with MCL where you can identify the essence and influences that he had at that time, touches of EBM and metal synthesizers with vocals in Spanish as in the track ” No Information”. These tracks are preserved in excellent quality in which Alden Tyrell has done the mastering on vinyl and digital. Having something like this is like finding a treasure in the middle of a secret island. To finalize the release we have edits from Silent Servant, Curses, Esprit Divers. Deckard & Lucient.”

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Krishna Goineau ft. MCL – 80’s Tapes [IM011]

Silent Servant – Optimistic Decay EP [LIES178OD01]

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Los Angeles’ Silent Servant returns to the fold with his first solo offering since his 2018 ”Shadows of Death and Desire” LP for Hospital Productions. Mendez wastes no time on the opener ”Cyber Luminescence” featuring Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder on vocals, with a modern take on classic synthwave displaying a heavier production style, with fluttering kr-55 hi-hats, synthesized snares, and a chaotic punk energy. This is not without melody and catchiness, as Mallinder drives the track full on; masterfully singing about a dystopian future which we very well may be living in at this moment. “Raw Optics” is Silent Servant in true form layering an atmospheric backdrop over driving raw sequences and vicious drum programming. “Solitude Illuminated” is the real centerpiece of the record though, as Mendez goes into a new territory finding a balance between uplifting slow house music and his signature shadowy techno. Where his classic “Lust Abandon” was more Distant Dreams pt. II, “Solitude Illuminated” is more akin to something like Dearborn’s house classic “New Dimension” but taking a fresh production approach on this bassline driven seven minute anthem.

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Silent Servant – Optimistic Decay EP [LIES178OD01]

VA – Murder 03 [MURDER003]

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Murder Tbilisi, the Georgian record label, continues exploring electronic soundscapes and returns with third V/A compilation, featuring exclusive tracks from Soft Crash, Silent Servant, Volvox, Restive Plaggona, OTHR and Puritan.

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VA – Murder 03 [MURDER003]

VA – Drama Queer [PAG001]

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ADRIANI/LOKIER/E BONY/CARDOPUSHER/PRZ/SILENT SERVANT - Drama Queer

PAG Records presents their debut hard-hitting EP titled “Drama Queer”. Featuring an all-star lineup, Drama Queer is a 6 track compilation with the endless driving beats of EBM, industrial and techno that give a true glimpse into the feel of PAG’s sweatiest dance floors. This compilation features Alessandro Adriani, Silent Servant, Lokier, Cardopusher, PRZ and E-Bony.

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VA – Drama Queer [PAG001]

Years of Denial – Suicide Disco Remixes [VEYL015]

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Years of Denial and Veyl enlist Silent Servant, Broken English Club, Orphx and Alexey Volkov to remix their 2019 album ‘Suicide Disco.’

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Years of Denial – Suicide Disco Remixes [VEYL015]

VA – Air Texture Vol.7 [AIR007LP]

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Since launching in 2011, James Healy’s Air Texture label and compilation series has become something of an institution within the ambient scene. As with its predecessors, the seventh volume in the series has been jointly compiled by two artists with an existing musical relationship, in this case Rrose and Silent Servant. Their selections are on point, drowsily drifting between academic ambient compositions (see Rrose and James Fei’s “For Bass Clarinet 8.97 (Rrose Version)”, uncomfortable electronic explorations (Ron Morelli, Anthony Child), modular movements (Not Waving), jazz-flecked deep space soundscapes (Luke Slater), horror-influenced throb-jobs (Phase Fatale, June & An-i) and 1990s style ambient electronica (Octa Octa, Function).

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VA – Air Texture Vol.7 [AIR007LP]

Berlin Weekender

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After almost three years, we are back in Berlin. No plans this year, we just booked some flights and let Berlin do it’s magic.

Friday we will go to Tresor and meet our fellow Romanian DJ, who moved recently to Berlin, Aleksa Alaska. She is playing in the Globus Room with Patrick Russel, Ploy and No Moon. In the basement will be a bit hectic with Makaton, Manni Dee, Hurtado and SDX.

 

Starting Saturday night, in Berghain is the Phase Fatale ‘Scanning Backwards’ album release party with Phase Fatale of course and SΛRIN (live), Boris, Broken English Club, Reka, Silent Servant, Unhuman and Vulkanski.
Upstairs in Panorama Bar in the line-up are Lord Of The Isles (live), Âme, Cooper Saver, Lauer, Or:la, Orson Wells, alongside residents Paramida and Tama Sumo.

Berlin Weekender

Alessandro Adriani – Fuoco [MNQ119]

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The album ‘Montagne Trasparenti’ by Alessandro Adriani, originally released in 2016 on Monofonus Press, is now repressed on Mannequin Records with a full new graphic design. This is the preview of the album, an EP featuring the track ‘Fuoco’ and a remix by none other than Silent Servant.

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Alessandro Adriani – Fuoco [MNQ119]

20 Albums from 2018

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With just a few days from the current year left, I’ve compiled a list of 20 albums from 2018 that I enjoyed this year. Among these I have to highlight the much anticipated Mutant Beat Dance debut album, the first ever album from Gerard Hanson under the E.R.P. project, a new Gerald Donald project and a compilation of unreleased Heinrich Mueller remixes, a Silent Servant follow-up on Hospital Productions, a very interesting Fred Ventura compilation of unreleased house tracks, a new Lebanon Hanover, the beautiful debut album of Curses, the impressive Eindkrak album and the debut album of the Romanian producer Șerb.
The list is compiled in chronological order.

Eindkrak – Brullend Staal [Unknown Precept]

EINDKRAK - Brullend Staal

Continue reading “20 Albums from 2018” →

20 Albums from 2018

Silent Servant – Shadows Of Death & Desire [HOS613]

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Now-legendary producer, DJ, and art director Juan Mendez arguably reset techno at least twice. Once with his surreal and Europe-by-way-of-LA ’80s surrealist apocalypse culture aesthetics for Sandwell District, and again–as Silent Servant–with his “Jealous God” imprint that captured the youth-driven mutation of crossover electronics and dark parties churning in the American underground, which followed directly in the wake of his game-changing modern classic, ​Negative Fascination​. Mendez has evolved to more aggressive and stripped-down acid punk electro dance attacks on Silent Servant’s equally vital follow-up,​ Shadows of Death and Desire.​ While many would stall after the success of a now contemporary cult classic, Mendez took his time to deliver a more raw–yet refined–brutalism in his second album.

vinyl / CD

Silent Servant – Shadows Of Death & Desire [HOS613]