DJ Stingray 313 – F.T.N.W.O. [MCR00004LP]

DJ Stingray 313’s highly-praised F.T.N.W.O. LP returns to heed its sonic warnings and powerful messages on his own label, Micron Audio. Originally released on WeMe Records in 2012, F.T.N.W.O. displays the high-tempo, ever forward production DJ Stingray 313 is known world around for. DJ Stingray 313 says “FTNWO was conceptually centered on conspiracy theory, science, prepper doomsday preparation / survivalism and social commentary,” and the foreboding introduction of “Evil Agenda” sonically explains just what lies ahead for the listener. The stark warning leads into DJ Stingray 313’s stomping “Dark Arts”, beginning the FTNWO experience. “Room Clearance” gets straight to business with raw, gritty and true-to-the-art Detroit electro sounds, along with a heavy, quivering lead to piece the track together.

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DJ Stingray 313 – F.T.N.W.O. [MCR00004LP]

ReQuest – Deeper Visions EP [WEME313.28]

Deeper Visions takes us back into ReQuest’s recollections of the Drexciya-induced dream worlds he explored after listening to The Quest & falling into a shamanistic trance. Cruising through fluorescent reefs, seedy backwaters & the dense algae vapor of the Conglomerate’s innumerable processing refineries, he recalls in detail the sensory impressions through a palette of hi-tech funk, sub-aquatic dance & bio-luminescent soul.

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ReQuest – Deeper Visions EP [WEME313.28]

Avina Vishnu – Transforma [WEME313.19]

Advanced soundscapes from Avina Vishnu which is a project by Heinrich Mueller aka Gerald Donald and Aina. Their release Transforma is a conceptual project that is focusing on a unification between the natural world and the artificial space of electronic music. It attempts to immerse the listener within a three dimensional sound environment that is exploring the natural physics of music and yet create a contrast between these two worlds.

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Avina Vishnu – Transforma [WEME313.19]

20 Albums from 2018

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

Heinrich Mueller – False Vacuum [WEME313.20]

This is the first time any of Heinrich Mueller’s highly sought after remodels/reworks have been compiled together. Many have been previously available only on limited releases and have patiently been awaiting discovery by a wider audience. These 9 specially selected examples embrace all facets of his approach. First up is the ultra smooth and minimal ‘Fadin’ Away’ by The Hacker from 2000, probably one of his most sublime and timeless creations. Then jump forward to 2011 when he serves up an infectious and sparse slice of robot funk for Albert van Abbe’s ‘NCS_0009121010’. By the time of Alek Stark’s ‘Halo 6’ (2014) he’s still got the dance-floor on his mind, but it’s located on an alien or perhaps underwater world in some dimension parallel to our own. In 2009 he works for the first time with fellow Drexciyan traveller DJ Stingray and delivers the hard edged but still quite delicate ‘Drone FX’. Jump to 2005 and he conjures the playfully disjointed ‘P.O.M. (Time Dilation Mix 2)’ for Duplex. In 2000, when he had a close relationship to the label, International DeeJay Gigolo, who were releasing Dopplereffekt and the first fruits of Der Zyklus, they commissioned him to make a series of groundbreaking mixes. On one of which he got to mesh his own futuristic vision with that of Stanley Kubrick on ‘Dave’ by Station Rose. The other closes this collection and is another of his most accessible works, with the best bassline, ‘What Use’ by the legendary ’70s San Francisco band, Tuxedomoon. In 2011 he also produced a darkly atmospheric and relentlessly mechanical interpretation of DJ Stingray’s ‘The Sadist’. In 2003, another of his best production efforts, again aimed off-squarely at yet another form of mutant dance floor, came out of a total revamp of an untitled track by The Advent. Fittingly this was originally included on Recreations, an album where artists were invited to do what Heinrich Mueller does best.

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Heinrich Mueller – False Vacuum [WEME313.20]

Ceephax – Camelot Arcade [WEME046]

Camelot Arcade is the new triple LP from Ceephax Acid Crew on WeMe Records. 13 tracks of Camelot goodness with all the feeling and melodies we’ve come to expect from Ceephax and his collection of classic electronic hardware. The tracks range from the easy listening sound of Phraxby to the baroque dancefloor pump of Camelot Escalator, to the trap-esque cyber feel of Yodecahedron and the Detroit moodiness of The Green Night. Creon Happy and Trusthouse Forte have an upbeat classical feel (backed up of course by Ceephax’s favourite Roland drum machines.) While Path to the None and Shadowphax Part I&II are more dark in spirit. A lot of the tracks such as Life Started Tomorrow and The Great Greatsby were born randomly of quick jams with live keyboard playing and the album has an organic feel to it which a lot of the more formulaic electronic music lacks. All in all Camelot Arcade is a wonderful breath of fresh air and is sure to go down in history as one of Ceephax’s best.

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Ceephax – Camelot Arcade [WEME046]

Ceephax Acid Crew – Acid Fourniture [WEME047]

Acid Fourniture is a journey into the darker recesses of Ceephax’s acidic mind. Simple 303 lines pulsate alongside sinister chords and detuned synths. Berlin Trip is a classic acid 4 to the floor track along the lines of Flow Coma by 808 State. Alligatored is a tight 808/303 groove made for the dancefloor. The Zone is a slower more introspective Acid, conjuring up lost warehouses and derelict minds. Alien Beacon takes a more electro acid slant, inspired by sinister lights in the sky and paranoia.

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Ceephax Acid Crew – Acid Fourniture [WEME047]

Terrence Woodard – Jack The Box [WEME043]

1985, restored from a vintage vinyl copy (masters were lost long time ago in Chicago…) Copies sold for 0. On the Youtube thread for the track a cousin of T. Woodard says they pressed 2,500 copies of this – but that seems hard to believe unless they didn’t sell and got recycled at Trax and/or were simply thrown out, as this rarely show up anywhere. This is a very early and simple track which sums up the new and experimental sounds of early 1985 along with tracks such as Jesse Sanders On & On and Funkin Keith Funkin with the Drums. Basic early house music that havent lost any of its relevance.

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Terrence Woodard – Jack The Box [WEME043]

The Valley & The Mountain – Alphanumerix [WEME040]

Due to technical limitations, numeric keys are displayed as a workaround. Numbers indicate a song’s offset from a given epoch. Alternate character codes are included for human readability.

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The Valley & The Mountain – Alphanumerix [WEME040]

Der Zyklus – Renormalon [WEME31312]

Renormalon is a collaborative effort between Elena Sizova, Heinrich Mueller: music data and Dr Olga Karelkina: visual data + encoding. Its purpose technically is to visually and sonically communicate the renormalon physics principle. Each composition is separate component of the theory representing a particular phenomenon in the realm of quantum uncertainty. The observer is to be immersed conceptually and hopefully will experience discrete states of energy which is integral in atomic behavior.

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Der Zyklus – Renormalon [WEME31312]

CN – The Derelict [WEME313.18/WR057]

Norwegian producer Stian Gjevik returns with his third full length album as CN with The Derelict. The sequel to his 2011 concept album The Expedition Beyond (Wil-Ru Records), The Derelict unravels a new chapter in the story of a space traveller wandering the galaxy in his starship only to crash-land on a foreign planet and encounter new lifeforms. The shuffle of crisp airy high hats and punchy robotic rhythms lay down the framework for CN’s signature cosmic sound. Beautiful hardware based electronic sounds paint a colorful soundscape with blissful arpeggios and soothing washed out synth pads over groovy moving bass-lines, creating lush atmospheric listen that is as chill as it is suitable for the dance foor. Ten new tracks of highly melodic motivating braindance music to get utterly lost in.

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CN – The Derelict [WEME313.18/WR057]

MNLTH – Time EP [WEME029]

MNLTH, aka Dave Monolith, returns to WeMe Records with his second EP. ‘Time’ offers 5 tracks and it was written between 2009 to 2011. It’s tracks range from the electrocuting feel-good acid anthem that is ‘Time’, the square bass plucking electro bouncer ‘ headlight, rushing melodies and pads from ‘My Rush chords’ and ‘Harrier 2’, ending with the cheeky happy-go-lucky 808 track, ‘Spwint’.

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MNLTH – Time EP [WEME029]

Black Narcissus – Fatale [WEME313.16]

The clandestine Black Narcissus project from Rephlex artist Jodey Kendrick has gone on to find a welcome home in WeMe Records. Some six months after the debut Black Narcissus LP on WeMe, Kendrick returns with a second album entitled Fatale, with ten tracks of thunderous electro that are notable for their indecipherable titles.

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Black Narcissus – Fatale [WEME313.16]

Heidi Lord – English Electric [WEME028]

Heidi Lord is the wife of Rephlex/WeMe artist Jodey Kendrick. Three of Heidi’s tracks are featured on the famous “EDM” Compilation Albums This is the Debut album from Heidi Using a unique pallet of sounds from MRI machines to modular synthersizers to conversations in a super market to her own processed voice Co produced by her Husband “I could describe what the album means to me, But i would much rather leave it to listener to experience and feel and to interpret how they see fit”.

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Heidi Lord – English Electric [WEME028]

VA – WeMe10ans [WEME10ANS]

Though many of the artists that have featured on WeMe Records have released with other labels, it’s fair to say the Brussels operation still retains a unique identity that has set it apart over the past decade. That’s certainly the impression you get from this 13 track compilation, issued to celebrate WeMe Records surpassing the 10 year mark, and a release that neatly documents the label’s commitment to electro and more esoteric fare. Entitled WeMe10ans, the compilation is filled with exclusive material and finds electro mainstays Der Zyklus, DJ Stingray and Global Goon rubbing shoulders with composers such as Francois de Roubaix and Giles Lamb and the singular Leyland Kirby.

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VA – WeMe10ans [WEME10ANS]

Radio-Logg – Sports/Tools [WEME313.17]

Stian Gjevik (EOD,CN), passionate and curious about electronic music, found in a Trondheim thrift store a tape of the norwegian legendary project : the educational music “Sports/Tools”. He contacted one of the two composers called Dildrian Schrodinger. He has managed to negociate with him a deal for a vinyl license with WeMe records. We can find in this project ordered by the norwegian state all an experimentation work with electronic machines from the 1980’s. It is sometimes accompanied by a clumsy singing quite modern at that time.

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Radio-Logg – Sports/Tools [WEME313.17]

The Valley & The Mountain – Black Planet LP [WEME313.13]

Beauty and power within art often come from unknown sources, made by people mysteriously working deep in the shadows. Detroit-based electronic music project, The Valley and The Mountain (TVTM) embody this truth.

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The Valley & The Mountain – Black Planet LP [WEME313.13]