Johannes Auvinen (Tin Man) and Max Ravitz (Patricia), two devotees in the cult of the TB-303, return to Acid Test with the Celestial Body Music series, a follow up to their 2020 LP Powers Of Ten. Recorded in Ravitz’s studio in Asheville, NC, Celestial Body Music once again showcases the pair’s penchant for raw yet emotive dance music. With Auvinen’s signature TB-303 programming and Ravitz’s typical melancholic flair, the duo’s styles merge seamlessly over the course of 8 tracks that harken back to the heyday of American techno and house. Following on from Powers of Ten, the pair continue to fix their eyes firmly on the stars, as Celestial Body Music’s song titles conjure visions of listening to Dance Mania 12”s on the ISS. With a tonal palette that features the well-trodden sounds of classic analog hardware like the TR-808, TR-909, TB-303, and SH-101, Ociya demonstrate their ability to breathe new life into these old instruments through thoughtful programming, arrangement, and mixing. This is made all the more significant when considering every song was recorded live to 2-track with no editing over the course of a few days. Sweet and savory both, the new material strikes a perfect balance between emotive sensibility and dance floor appeal.
Ten years ago, Acid Test began with a simple concept – each track the label released would make use of the Roland TB-303. Like a producer purposefully paring down their studio setup, or the continuous imperative within underground electronic music to reduce, this concept engendered creativity with the introduction of what seemed to be an aesthetic limit. However, the decade that followed, which now culminates in the triple-LP compilation Ten Years Of Acid Test, proves acid is limitless. That the Berlin-via-LA label would expand upon the classical conception of acid house and techno is no surprise considering the cast of characters that have come in fold over the past decade. Ten Years Of Acid Test gathers key material from the label’s extended family of acid acolytes. There’s that Vienna-via-LA maestro of sad, elegant acid Tin Man (Johannes Auvinen), whose “Afters Acid” is both a highlight within his prolific catalogue and a distillation of his symphonic approach to the 303. Detroit giants Erika and Marcellus Pittman, both of whom have released remixes on Acid Test, present their respective and singular Bass Line visions. Erika, the Interdimensional Transmissions lynchpin, crafts a dark, delicate take on broken techno on “Violet Fungus” while Pittman continues his cubist house explorations on “Unknown Species,” both tracks straying from typical acid lines in favor of the intricate textures achievable on the 303. This variation in approach applies to tempo as well. Irish-based master Lerosa, as well as Delsin affiliate VC-118A, delve into downtempo atmospherics. Meanwhile, Japanese deep techno virtuoso Wata Igarashi, SUED co-founder SW. (a regular on Acid Test’s leftfield sub-label Avenue 66) and Patricia (one-half of Acid Test act Ociya) use acid as a creative jumping-off point for complex melodic concepts. Wata layers an orchestra of synth-bliss drone overtop a squelchy bassline on “Ephemeral.” SW.’s “ChaIAnJAzzz” cycles through an array of dusted chords eventually landing in skewed, fuzzy rave nostalgia, anthemic chords held aloft by a wicked UK-flavour bass line. Patricia’s “Higher Still” explores dreamy, IDM-flavoured acid, cinematic synthlines counterbalanced by propulsive, squelching acid. Acid Test devotees will be thrilled at the return of various luminaries from the catalogue, including Achterbahn D’Amour, Skudge, AAAA, John Tejada and Donato Dozzy, whose memorable remix of Tin Man’s “Nonneo” from Acid Test 01 served as a kind of proof of concept for the label. There’s new blood too. San Francisco up-and-comer Sepehr makes his label debut with the excellent “Persian Acid Prince,” as does Andreas Tilliander’s beloved hardware techno project, TM404. Ten Years Of Acid Test is a valuable portrait of a group of artists linked by a dedication to innovation within acid, in line with the genre’s storied roots. Over ten years, Acid Test has gracefully made a case for the 303’s past, present and future, the story of acid continuing to unfurl in unpredictable, addictive patterns.
Valere Aude, the debut album from Romans, a collaborative project between New York techno producer Gunnar Haslam and Vienna-based acid evangelist Johannes Auvinen (aka Tin Man). Featuring 12 tracks of hallucinogenic, psychedelic techno, Valere Aude is an acid-etched trip to the outer reaches of the mind. The finished product is a steamy, moody record, experimenting with atmospheres, tempos, and sounds, designed for blistering hot days and cold, rainy nights. We couldn’t be more excited to share it with you.
Compilation featuring 11 exclusive tracks from the New York Haunted family. Banging and distorted techno and electro tracks from young producers like Foil, Kluentah, MEZE, Leonardo Martelli and many more. Blending EBM style industrial with modern experimentalism, compiled by Drvg Cvltvre.
Plangent Records is back with the first various artists compilation and gathers long time friends, likeminded musicians and new talent on this 10 track release. 3 years after the last Recondite release on his own Plangent label this included works of Tin man, RNDM, Scuba, Dj Tennis, Monoloc and others. Plangent is establishing itself as platform for deep, low-key, melancholic electronic techno music with this big album release.
Function & Inland’s Infrastructure introduces its next milestone – Facticity. A 4×12” vinyl box set, CD and digital compilation featuring 15 tracks by key artists, label colleagues and new faces. Function, Inland, Campbell Irvine, Post Scriptum, Cassegrain & Tin Man, Rrose, Efdemin, Vatican Shadow, Silent Servant, Blue Hour, Steve Bicknell and Cleric all feature, spinning a narrative ranging from lush, ambient electronics and post-club diversions, to contemporary club techno and back again. Carefully curated as an album, Facticity represents the foundations of what Infrastructure stands for – a manifesto for 2016 and beyond.
Killekill catalogue number 025 is a jubilee release and it’s also a milestone and turning point in the Killekill history, because with this release Killekill closes one chapter, and opens up another. So far, there is this compilation, which has been carefully compiled for your pleasure. Label regulars such as Cassegrain & Tin Man, Furfriend, Alex Cortex or Eomac have delivered high quality stuff of all kinds, but we are also introducing a lot of artists who will feature on the coming labels: Umwelt with his epic and dramatic electro, Dez Williams with his genre-crossing sound which works on every dance floor plus Power Vacuum’s Bintus who delivers his portion of electro/acid madness on Record 1. Record 2 features the legendary Detroit Grand Pubahs, who present their electro outfit Techmarine Bottom Feeders, The Fool’s Stone, which is a new project by Hard Ton, electro legend Adriano Canzian and italian queer artist Brigida plus London’s underground hero Jerome Hill, who lets it jack and roll with his Memory Machine. On Record 3 Kamikaze Space Programme surprises with some bell-driven percussive techno and what can we say It is with great pride that we include the acid techno epos by none other than the legendary ‘Prince of Techno’ Blake Baxter.
First Vinyl of the fresh new Label Pantruche, this Label has been created to extend the musical ressources of the Label D.KO Records, heart of the Parisian young generation of producers and Djs. This Various Artist presents new comers as Pieuvres, Bad Rey & Mezigue with the participation of Tin Man on Villettion Acid. Detroit inspiration, Parisian determination.
The Bunker New York delivers a second collaborative Romans EP from Gunnar Haslam and acid obsessive Tin Man. They go in hard from the off, blending extended analogue bass, metronomic rhythms and wiggly acid lines on “Enoma”. There’s a classic bleep feel about the ghostly chords on “Coptos”, which seemingly float above a hard-as-nails techno groove. They seem to soften a little on “Delenium”, which pairs the uplifting, end-of-night ethos of progressive house with classic Detroit techno sounds.
California-raised Johannes Auvinen made his name blending hypnotic techno with the distinctive electronics of acid house. His most recent album, 2012’s Neo Neo Acid, moved further towards the sounds of Phuture. Ode, his seventh full-length, sits somewhere in between, delivering a sequence of deep, hypnotic grooves that utilise acid lines not to create energy, but as melodic hooks. With the addition of his own half-whispered vocals on a number of cuts, the result is an atmospheric set that feels like the soundtrack to a hazy after party. For the most part, it’s very impressive, and has a genuinely weary, late night mood that’s strangely attractive.
Vienna’s finest electro/techno label celebrates turning 20 with three exclusive trax by Tin Man, Elektro Guzzi, and Digilog. On the front, Tin Man does his best to distill the essence of ‘Detroit’ in a pounding, acidic night-flight. Flipside, techno mann-band Elektro Guzzi go thru the tight, driving drill of ‘Radicale’, and Digilog deals the lustrous minimal techno of ‘Mind Gap’.
Veteran Italian producer Donato Dozzy and California’s Tin Man are old pals, with the latter having first remixed the former way back in 2011. Here, the two join forces for a voyage into acid-flecked late night science for Absurd’s ever excellent Acid Test series. “Test 7” sets the tone, delivering a hypnotic, heads-down journey into deep, stripped-back acid house. While it’s the EP’s most obviously floor-friendly moment, there’s something far more thrilling about the bubbling, beatless electronics of “Test 2” and “Test 3”. The latter, doused in minimal techno atmospherics, is intensely beautiful in its warm, melodic simplicity.
Romans 1 – The crumbling skeleton of a lost civilization! Romans is Tin Man and Gunnar Haslam. This is their first collaboration debut release on Tinman’s own label venture.
The Underdog series, produced last winter in New York, emphasizes on deep killer techno – This new release – the Underdog EP Part 2 – features three floor shaking techno cuts in different shapes. On the A Side the aptly titled “Swarm” features an epic minimal acid tune building over 10 minutes driven by twirling soundscapes resembling a swarm of killerbees on attack. Flipping over there is “Hack”, which bows towards Soundhack with its dirty funked up sample chords and cut up groove. The EP finishes off with “Rocky”, a masterpiece in reduction – hypnotic and deep techno.
Tin Man returns to Acid Test with the club ready track ”Mystified Acid”. the 12” also includes two remixes from his ”Neo Neo Acid” album: ”Finger Paint” remixed by RVDS and Joey Anderson’s remix of ”Futurist Acid”.
After delivering Absurd Recordings with its first Acid Test in 2011, Tin Man lines up some more acid for Pomelo. For DJs in search of drum track acid techno, “UR”, is a good start. Taking a break from acid, but remaining on the drum trax tip, “Stay Down”, is a brooding and synthy production that keeps itself from straying to close to the red – a perfect DJ tool for more reasons than just functionality.
Killekill is at catalogue number 10 and is an occasion to make something special. They had collected tracks from their regular label artists plus some guests. The compilation features dark and epic experimental tracks by Lakker, Dadub and Bill Youngman, electro stompers by DJ Stingray, Radioactive Man and The Almost People, techno and acid beasts by Furfriend, J.T.C., Cassegrain & Tin Man, Snuff Crew and Neil Landstrumm plus a breakbeat rave superhit by Affie Yusuf.
The Hipodrome Of Music 