Anthony Child aka Surgeon returns to Tresor with new LP, Shell~Wave. Retaining the minimal equipment list and studio-version-of-live-show-sets approach of the previous album in order to focus on the work itself, Shell~Wave is a deeply personal document of both where Surgeon is and has been, converging three decades of experience with a continued curiosity in the untested.
Tresor Records is fortunate enough to be sitting on a catalogue of past releases that no other label in electronic music would turn down. One of the finest in this collection were contributed by Surgeon. His inimitable combination of Detroit techno and post-industrial sounds emanating from his British homeland found its fullest expression in these masterful trio of releases. Tresor Records have decided that its time to give ‘Balance’ another airing.
Tresor Records is fortunate enough to be sitting on a catalogue of past releases that no other label in electronic music would turn down. One of the finest in this collection were contributed by Surgeon. His inimitable combination of Detroit techno and post-industrial sounds emanating from his British homeland found its fullest expression in these masterful trio of releases. Tresor Records have decided that its time to give ‘Basictonalvocabulary’ another airing.
Tresor Records releases “Crash Recoil”, a new album by Surgeon. It marks Anthony Child’s first techno LP in five years, following a period in which he felt uncertainty in his role as a techno producer and found it tough to locate inspiration. This new album encounters him drawing on spontaneous techniques to arrive at unchartered topographies. “Crash Recoil” originates from Surgeon’s recent live sets, where he experimented with constraints in performing and embracing the twists, turns and paradoxes that arrive from this.
Mental Disorder presents “Scoundrel”, a release consisting of 3 tracks, written and conceived by label founder Reeko and Surgeon. Anthony Child and Juan Rico bring to life the twenty-sixth in the mental disorder catalogue, giving a truly unexpected musical twist. Rogue rhythms at 175bpm bordering on drum n’ bass, gangster bass sequences with funk influences and eerie atmospheres, healing melodies and hypnotizing riffs that seem to come from vanished civilizations.
Since 1991, Tresor has provided a home for artists to germinate their ideas for advanced new sounds and broadcast them to the world. The pioneers that first traversed the Detroit-Berlin connection and were at the forefront of a new cultural movement gave to Tresor its original and continuing mission: community, resistance and reshaping the world to come. The Tresor 30 compilation represents a major land- mark in this continuing history of electronic music. This unique collection of music profiles some of the artists that gave the previous three decades of Tresor its sound and foundation, but it also casts its gaze forward. Writing new postcards from the future, this collection brings new artists who main- tain a connection to that original mission to the fore, charting ways in which this ethos can contin- ue to build bridges and break walls in the next 30 years. Bringing together 52 essential tracks – both clas- sics and exclusive commissions – each of the 12 records in this box-set charts a unique line of flight from those artists that helped define the shape of this new music to those who continue to pattern its landscape further.
Surgeon is back in the Zenker Brothers Operating Room slicing up four deep and moody techno cuts with the surgical precision he is known for.
Surgeon has taken the techniques and inspiration from this live creative process and distilled them into these four tracks. ‘Convenience Trap’ follows on from the techniques learned in his ‘Bland Ambition’ release also on Dynamic Tension.
Surgeon appears with the superb new release on Blueprint ‘Search Deep Inside Yourself’. This 4-tracker features a brand new full colour label sleeve to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this classic techno label.
The seventh Surgeon album. Anthony Child claims that the inspiration for his seventh artist album came from using hardware to receive transmissions from far-flung galaxies. He then hooked up with astrophysicist Dr Andrew Read – a former collaborator – to work out the bewildering track titles. That’s the concept. The reality is that From Farthest Known Objects is a dense, grainy work. It feels like Child has deconstructed or in some more extreme situations has hacked away at tropes like minimalism, clicks and cuts and dub step to reveal an inner, hidden world. On the first few tracks, this alternate reality resounds to a sluggish pace, amid the crackle and groan of cleaved percussion and tortured subs, but it gradually comes round to stepping, broken beat techno and lunging rhythms. That these also descend into pulverising walls of white noise and nausea-inducing frequency shifts at times also serve as a reminder that Child has tuned into something other or inner-worldly.
Ben Sims presents ‘Theory Of Completion’ the final release on his label Theory. He unleashes four forward forward-thinking Techno cuts for 050.2, two of these receiving the remix treatment from Planetary Assault Systems and DVS1. On 050.3, Sims goes all out with a grip of dancefloor killers, backed by a stunning remix from none other than Surgeon.
If you are looking for a massive slab of techno, you won’t find anything released this week that’s as hefty as Aphelion. A triple vinyl box set from Belgian label Token, Aphelion is essentially a primer for the best in contemporary techno, featuring contributions from Surgeon, Rodhad, James Ruskin, Karenn and Planetary Assault System alongside some label regulars. You will have probably already heard “Fixed Action Pattern” from Surgeon, it’s possibly one of this year’s finest techno 12″s, but it’s got some stiff competition here with Ruskin in particularly funked up form on “No Trace”.
Semantica celebrates release #50 with this double A-side by Surgeon and labelhead Svreca, teaming up with Skirt. Dark techno from the off.
Sect receives the awe-inspiring accolade of remixes of Jolka’s magnificent ‘Five’ from two of the most trustworthy guardians of the craft, Surgeon & Silent Servant.
The Hipodrome Of Music 