Techno News

VAYA001 - Selected Electronic Music from Leipzig: Filburt, Josi Miller, Lydia Eisenblätter, Mbius, subkutan, Varum. Vor dem Hintergrund, dass durch die Covid-19 Pandemie sowohl Clubs als auch Kulturstätten unter erheblichem Existenzdruck stehen, wollen wir unseren Beitrag zum Clubund Kulturerhalt beitragen: der Erlös aus Vinyl und digitalen Verkäufen kommt dem Live Kommbinat und somit Leipziger Veranstaltungsstätten zu Gute.

“What motivates us as human beings?” Zobol muses. Some might argue that the present day has produced a new culture of inefficiency and burn-out – a world where greedy landlords reign supreme, where broken bureaucracy flourishes and where people have become slaves to the system. But all is not lost. Hope sits on the horizon, and Jon Chmielewski is exploring the possibilities. For the 12th release on Welsh imprint Haŵs, the undeniably genius producer presents an electro EP that seeks to communicate something far bigger than himself.

‘Empathy Droid’s Lament’ is a cascading opener, quaking with all of the energy of a determined figure reaching into their reservoir for just one more push. ‘Rogue Landlord’ sits in a twilit world of ghostly melodies and swelling horns that cohabit with a dark restlessness at each other’s presence – but an irony lies in the harmony of the situation.

On the B-side, ‘R U OK?’ dilutes rippling synth lines with a bulky bass and inquisitive melodies, purging itself of emotions like a late-night spent soul-searching. For the closing remix, Reptant strips down and warps the original into fresh drum patterns, rupturing the rhythm into a storm of glitches, pops and perfectly sequenced percussion.

Zobol and Reptant are clearly on the same mission: to breathe life into the humdrum and start the road to recovery on the dancefloor. ‘Diminishing Returns’ posits an answer to its first question: that innovating with what we have is the way to overcome monotony, as well as reassuring that the collective pulse is still very much warm.

Adapta and Uexkull find themselves becoming affected by recurring nightmares and visions of strange alien beings including greys, blue doctors and bugs. Eventually they'll have to confront their frightening visions,.. real or not...

Repress

FM Label reconnects genres and builds new bridges between music, fashion and design. Established in 2019 by Milan Fatrla, the label enters Prague's flourishing scene with a vision of music, in which the new revisits the old. A vision where strongly-rooted love for hip-hop merges with passion for everything electronic and danceable, to offer records where these two genres meet and intertwine. With its modular attitude, FM Label plays with norms of record sleeve design and fashion. In its first phase the label will put out three trilogies, each trilogy in a different package developed with local designers and artists. The first release sees an exciting mix of German's Rat Life Records head honcho Credit 00, and LA's Eight-Oh-Motherfucking-Eight don Egyptian Lover. Credit 00 is known to be inspired by American 80s Ghetto music, so this mix of artists is not so distant as one might think - see it as a study and application of this strain of music in two different parts of the world. Super Scratch 12" is held in a special cardboard sleeve which can be reshaped into a vinyl display holder.

Part 3 of the "Astra Spectra" series features none other than Berlin Electro duo CYRK with 3 intense and dark electro tracks great for any part of the night. Rounding off the release is a remix of "Human Mind" by Syrte. The inspiration given for this release was that CYRK were to imagine themselves as two engineers, working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the planetary alignment of an entire solar system stable. Stefan Weise envisioned the “Astra Spectra” series as a celebration of mankind’s vision for space exploration, past and future, while also expressing a love for space science, science fiction and the spirit of discovery. Each release in the series is representative of a color frequency in our sun’s absorption spectrum and the element which is represented by that, hence the name, which means “Solar Spectrum”

Can Love Be Synth are in love with old analogue machines and define their specific sound in the legendary Synthesizer Studio Hamburg. A synth collectors paradise hidden behind the big grey walls of a Bunker building and the club Uebel & Gefährlich between the Reeperbahn and Schanzenviertel district in Hamburg, Germany.

Their new song ‘Bunker’ is now available as a digital and vinyl release on A CLEAN CUT including fantastic remixes by Richard Fearless, Terr and quadratschulz.



The Bunker building is currently extended with a 54-meter-high superstructure for an ultra-violent instant gentrification. In the original version of the song the heavy blows of hammers are clearly audible. This sound journey from zen to noise is a beautifully shimmering ‘black hole made from music’, where implosion and explosion energetically meet. If it needed another reason for the clubs to reopen, this song would be the one - it is perfect for long nights and for days without light rays.

The album encompasses some of Loess' most expressive and melodic yet otherworldly works to date. The opening cut blaen pulsates in odd forms yet is propelled by a micro garage beat that sounds as if alien AI might have constructed it.
On the flip side, Totems is not about experimentation for experimentation's sake. For instance, the album's midpoint track, bentalls, might be Loess' most melodious work to date, warmly catchy but firmly set in the world of Loess.
The duo has been quietly creating their style of electronic music for two decades in placing ambi- ent, dub, garage, and IDM into their aural blender. Totems is an excellent example of Loess' adeptness at genre contorting.

Alder and Fasme are two young producers based in Nantes. Influenced by acid house and braindance, their tracks exude a sweet perfume of loony 303 that Ceephax would not deny. A pure lesson of delightful electro made of violence and beauty!

The 10th release sees the debut album of both Cleric and Setaoc Mass.

E-Missions co-founder P.Leone returns to Radio Slaves’ Rekids Special Projects dropping four high grade techno cuts. Known for releasing on labels such as Work Them Records and his own co-run E-Missions, P.Leone has firmly become of the most exciting artists within the inner circles of driving underground music. The Berlin-based American artist and Radio Slave collaborator is now welcomed back to Rekids, bringing his versatile sound that encompasses dark techno and groove driven house. 'Beyond Me' opens with eerie warehouse glitches, cavernous drums that ring out into a huge open space while unsettling pads and textures grab your attention, 'Hard to Find' is a rugged, relentless cut with perfectly forward moving rhythm with detailed edgy synths that keep you in suspense. 'Lenox' continues the energy with distorted drums, hitting hard beneath a blistering groove, 'The Genes is of A Flower' then takes control as an atmospheric track with structural synths.

It’s been a while since we last heard from Steve Summers, one of the
many musical aliases of former Brooklyn and Berlin resident turned
Chicago-based producer Jason Letkiewicz. When he last landed on proudly
Chicagoan imprint CLEAR with the robust and unearthly “Artificial
Light” EP, it was on the back of nine years spent building up Steve
Summers as a purveyor of forthright club cuts that pushed at the limits
of acceptability.

That was 2017. In the three years since, Letkiewicz has prioritized
projects that indulge different sides of his complex musical persona.
There was the critically acclaimed, all-action Mutant Beat Dance
“record album booklet” on Rush Hour – a collaboration with Melvin
Oliphant III and Beau Wanzer – and then the EBM, electro and
industrial-influenced grooves of Opposing Currents on Artificial Dance.
2018 also saw him release the sophomore set from his 1980s horror
soundtrack-infused Death Commando project, while in 2019 Letkiewicz
finally put out his first album under his given name – the picturesque
new age and ambient movements of “The Reflecting Pool” on Into The
Light.

But that was then. Now Letkiewicz has finally donned the Steve Summers
pseudonym again for a return to CLEAR that’s defiantly intense and
otherworldly in tone, “Counter-Factuals” is powered primarily by the
kind of psychedelic acid lines and thrusting machine drums that have
long been a hallmark of Chicago house. This is no nostalgia-fest
though, with Letkiewicz’s take on “acid” being more abstract and
unorthodox than the music of his predecessors.

Proof of this analysis arrives straight away, with EP opener “Counter-
Factuals” ratcheting up the intensity through waves of hallucinatory
acid lines, blunted electronics, druggy male vocal samples and clanking
machine beats. Letkiewicz takes similar sonic approach on “People
Watching”, whose full-throttle approach cuts a path through jacking
acid house, surging EBM and the more dystopian aspects of 1980s
industrial music.

Over on side B, Letkiewicz combines all of these sounds and
inspirations on a cut that pivots around the twin attractions of trance-inducing acid lines and hypnotic analogue beats. Clocking in at
a fraction less than nine minutes, the track surges forward
relentlessly on a tornado of off-key electronics, fizzing TB-303 acid
lines and barely audible speech snippets. It seems a fitting conclusion
to one of Letkiewicz’s most impactful releases to date.

Mission Escape: signal incoming...Escaping Earth - file loaded...press enter --> program launched! When things become too much, escaping might help. Take a seat and join the ride with CYRK's first full length musical player on CHILDHOOD. After having released outstanding records on labels such as Running Back, Rawax, Burial Soil, Vakant, Avoidant, Dred, Science Cult, Lone Romantic and their own Time Zero imprint, the seminal Berlin machine funk duo launched their analog spaceship studio once again to tell their most advanced and versatile intergalactic tale to date. Escaping Earth is a story that comes in 8 episodes and showcases Sam and Pascals mastered skills in detailed sound design and arrangement, while always keeping a focus on powerful dancefloor oriented electro grooves. Ranging from Detroit influenced bassline bouncers to slower acid variations, this album will let you dive deeply into CYRK's beautiful musical language and range: a soulful journey from the light to the darkness and back. Above all, this album is at all times pure analog electronic funk and won't let you go from beginning to end. Sometimes escaping helps. This musical story will make you travel the stars with ease. The album is pressed DJ friendly on 2 x 12" vinyl and includes a download copy. A limited edition of 100 numbered copies comes in double colored (red/green) records and will be exclusively sold via CHILDHOOD's bandcamp page as well as the CLONE store. Vinyl to be released on September 13th 2021, followed by the digital release on September 24th 2021.

Kerrie made her impressive Cultivated Electronics Ltd debut in July with 'We Continue Part 1' which has grabbed the attention of media and DJs alike, recently featuring in DJ Mag's Staff Picks amongst other accolades. She now returns in September for Part 2. This Irish born, Manchester based DJ and producer has been rising in the ranks since first joining the Eastern Bloc crew and over time has taken her analogue live shows to the likes of Freerotation and The Warehouse Project. 2021 has also seen the launch of her label, Dark Machine Funk Recordings (DMF). Like her own label name suggests on 'We Continue Part 2', Kerrie delivers four more raw electro tracks bringing dark, twisted bass driven machine funk to Cultivated Electronics' vinyl-only offshoot, Cultivated Electronics Ltd.

The Raval Breakers strike back, blasting a rather fitting soundtrack to the dystopian times we are living in. This third volume gets together old and new friends of the M.U.S.A. family who show their personal takes on electro. The first track is a deep and explosive yet somehow contended cut; made in Rub by its legendary producer Univac, inspired by The Hague and remixed in Russia by the duo Fractions. La Maquina Corrupta sends a trancy, breaky and acidic cut from Berlin and Sistema, which inaugurates his new alias Brodmann 41 for some paranoid electroclash action. On the flip, Privacy does a great remix of Exzakt & BFX, mixing electro rhythms with a narcotic and nocturnal atmosphere that adds dubstep flavor to the formula. Finally, Barcelona's own RNXRX closes this third EP with a broken and dirty track that sounds like a high-definition face punch.

Debut release by Asymetric80. Music made during lockdown, a reflection of these uncertain times. From Apoptygma Berzerk to Covenant, with a genuine ‘Valencia Sound’ from ’90s.

Repress

Automatic Tasty (Jonny Dillon) has been away from Central Processing Unit for five years now, releasing on labels such as AC Records and Furthur Electronix in the intervening time. However, new EP The Future Is Not What It Used To Be shows that the chemistry between label and artist is still in good nick by offering up four tracks of contemplative electro-boogie.

While the preceding CPU/Automatic Tasty drop may be 2015's The Life Parochial, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be actually has more in common with Sentimentalist's Choice, Automatic Tasty's CPU debut which came out back in 2013. This is not due to a huge stylistic shift - all three records bring together classic electro, techno and boogie sounds to create charming and melodious tracks - but more to do with the tone of the record. You see, while The Life Parochial was a squelchy machine-funk delight, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be is a more pensive affair befitting its title.

This isn't to say that The Future Is Not What It Used To Be is a muted EP. Far from it - this record contains some of the most gorgeous electro joints you'll hear all year. The vibe is established on its eponymous opening jam, a vocoder-laced production pitched somewhere between the more ruminative tunes on Posthuman's 2018 LP Mutant City Acid and contemporary boogie acts such as Funkineven/Steven Julien and Galaxians. The track is made by the beautiful, bittersweet timbre of its synths, and these are maintained on following number 'Romance In The Old Country'. Given the offbeat skip in its groove and sunset-glow ruefulness of the keys, 'Romance In The Old Country' is a cut which invokes the instrumentals of Jessy Lanza LPs - and even (whisper it) a little Sade.

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be is an EP of evocative track titles, but there may be none more accurate than first B-side 'Rising Sun'. Here, Automatic Tasty tweaks the wistfulness of the A-side cuts into something more uplifting. While a thoughtful quality remains in 'Rising Sun's soft synths and skittering 808s, the track is driven by the exuberant energy of the 'Woo! Yeah!' drum break to become the sort of tune you drop as dawn begins to break over the rave. 'Rising Sun's afterglow falls over the closing track 'Adventures In The World Of Becoming', a steady IDM-electro pulse that channels the spirit of Aphex Twin's seminal Selected Ambient Works 85-92.

'The future is not what it used to be - no past, no memory'. With this robo-voiced intonation, Automatic Tasty returns to Sheffield's Central Processing Unit with four moving, poignant machine-funk tracks.

Summer has arrived and with it our first club release in ages, a high energy burner by KΣITO from Tokyo, Japan. We are more than excited to welcome this talented MPC finger drummer Keito Suzuki to fiery post-lockdown dance floors. He draws inspiration from the South African Gqom and percussive music, and in his own stately way he merges big room intensity with an experimental explosion of weirdness. Expect bare bones techno, full of earworm hooks. Tolouse Low Trax and Kӣr complement this record with a bunch of psychedelic remixes, creating a great balanced journey.

Artwork by Marta Marinotti.

Detroit electro legend DJ Di'jital returns to TRUST with a second volume of raw and banging techno bass jackers. Injected with Juke, breakbeats, and a hefty dose of UR-style electric sweat music, 'ElectroHop II' is an essential weapon in the assault DJ's arsenal.