Techno Vinyl New Releases - News

Guttural, pained screams from beyond converge with mangled corrosive rhythms on the sophomore EP from DiNT for Horo. 'Hooker' convenes an impromptu post punk band out of undead skeletal pulses and spits a frustrated barb to anyone in earshot. 'Shovel' slams nails in relentlessly with an excruciating vocal refrain grinding over the band of zombies undulating bass riff, decaying as it loops. 'Skewer' drags the undead to the dance-floor with a primitive rhythm that rises and ducks, wringing out the intensity with macabre vocal commands reaching through a wall of distortion.

Following the hugely appreciated reissue of Stanislav Tolkachev 'Why are you so frightened' we proudly present 'Catacomb Saints'. Two songs written during the same period as 'Yes, Today' and 'Imago', originally planned to come out in 2011 but halted due to a severe traffic accident in label manager Rivet's life followed by years of hospitalization. But times are brighter now! We hope you enjoy this quite weird and simply singular 10" by the eastern genius that is Tolkachev.

Black suitcase over Bank transfer. Music for the Vodka Booth. Presented to you by Max Gee & Funkycan

extended Ambient Techno excursions

Mica Levi presents her latest, stunning soundtrack, this time to the Phil Collins-directed anime short Delete Beach, on Demdike Stare's DDS label.
Following on from the maverick pop auteur and film composer's European Film Award-winning score to Under The Skin, and her Jackie soundtrack, this is Mica's first musical accompaniment for animation, by revered designer Marisuke Eguchi, animated by STUDIO4ºC.
Delete Beach is a sci-fi anime set in a near future where carbon-based energy is outlawed.
The film supposes a paradoxical scenario, one where fossil fuels - the ostensible accelerator of humanity's progress and decline - become energy for the toil against state oppression and enforced inequality. In doing so, it resonates with anime's strong tradition of exploring ecofeminist themes and power dynamics, both socio-political and technological.
Using a signature palette of dissonant strings and combustible electronics laced with skeletal percussive treatments, Levi paints a series of sweeping backdrops to the short's blend of classically-schooled anime and up-to-the-second CGI designs. The central Delete Beach theme, a diaphanous section of airborne synth-string contours and charred guitar distortion carved in pirouetting turns-of-phrase, appears in Japanese and English-narrated versions and an Instrumental mix. They are divided by the beat-driven Interlude 1 and interlude 2 parts, recalling a mix of string slashes mixed with opiated chopped 'n screwed rhythms comparable to Micachu & The Shapes deconstructions of London Sinfonietta.
After her work underlying and exploring complex characters in Jackie, a biopic of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the alien-woman metaphors of Jonathan Glazer's Under The Skin, her Delete Beach soundtrack follows suit with an impendingly tense, viscerally affective sound that reflects and conveys a sense of independence in the face of uncertainty, of a struggle against imposed forces or control systems. It's another beguiling testament to Levi's role as one of the most original and eminent composers of her generation.

The second release on Sbire furthers the on-going collaboration between label co-founder Gaspard de La Montagne and Nathan Baumann. 'Spectres' is a bold, seductive and wonderfully-unhurried record which shows the breadth of the Sbire sound world.

The title track is orchestral and profoundly alluring, with an earworm bassline creeping out from behind the kick drum's refined thud. You're pulled further in by the lengthy intro of 'Aube', where floating pads, draw from the instrumental flair of classical music. Mid-way through they give way to a stripped-back bassline, exemplifying the nature of this collaboration.

B-side opener 'Masque' has harmonic beams of light swirling over its foundations. The melodies transfix and the drums keep time. 'Perspectives (1 & 2)' occupies a thin veil of haze, tempering the beat and bringing out the groove in the baggy percussion. In fitting style, it ends a record whose grace comes in the striking interactions between elements far-removed.

PG TUNE presents CENTRIFUGE ONE - the first label compilation in a series of thematic installments. In the focus this time are Moscow raised producers and live performers, sharing a fresh vision of the globally evolving dancefloor universe.
NEW DANCE SOUND OF MOSCOW features music by Philipp Gorbachev, Obgon, Interchain, DEKA, Dubrovsky and ushi333. Artwork by Artem Stefanov (STFNV).
key selling points:
- D-scription is Philipp Gorbachev's first solo work since 'Unlock The Box' LP (PG TUNE, 2016)
- 2 x 12'' coloured vinyl sleeve includes insert with very special pictures of Moscow
- CENTRIFUGE started with a Moscow rave party in 2016
- All music was recorded live for dancing in new Moscow clubs (ARMA17, Rabitza), streets and DIY garages
- Features artwork by Artem Stefanov, fundamental mural artist, known for his contributions at major music and art festivals (OUTLINE, 4GB, GEM)
- DEKA is a new Moscow supergroup and will release an album in 2018
- Very early DJ support from Barnt, Ivan Smagghe, Anastasia Kristensen, Inga Mauer...

NHK yx Koyxen walks at any speed and on any surface he desires to trance-scend. His "Parallel Tempo EP" takes a mindful plunge into layers of rigorously murmuring gestures. Speed is relative to size. As they are streched and bent, the planes engage in parallel movement. This is an exploded drawing, unlocked from time.

The Japanese artist and producer NHK yx Koyxen contiunes to unveil his unique vocabulary, as the "Parallel Tempo EP" builds on a series of releases for L.I.E.S., Diagonal, DFA and The Trilogy Tapes. Publishing drawings and music alike, NHK yk Koyxen aka Kohei Matsunaga offers playful and sometimes unexpected glimpes of the "almost common". Performing on electronic music's timeless DNA, he offers those who step in a resonating space, in which loose objects are bound to embrace each other.

LP There's been an air of hypnagogic mystery surrounding Acid Test's sublabel Avenue 66 from the start. Joey Anderson's oblique, Prince-inspired incantation "Above The Cherry Moon" set the tone for a label that's sound that has found beauty in the furthest recesses of the dance floor, in the murkiest decay of kick drums and rave stabs. Fitting then, that the first album on the imprint comes from Trux, an artist who has chosen to reveal nearly nothing about themselves. Following a cult classic mini-LP for Office Recordings, "Orbiter" bears out the anonymous producer as a master of liminal, conceptual dance music. "Orbiter's" ten tracks have a vaporous, shape-shifting quality, threatening to topple over into full-on kick drum bliss or vanish into ambience. Opener, "With It," moves from heady ambient rush to skeletal piano, while "Blinko" and "Roy's Garage" spell out a hazy memoriam for the UK continuum. Forlorn pianos ring out amongst the field recordings, excitable toms and jungle bass all softened in the enveloping gauze. "Orbiter" positions Trux as an unknown auteur who puts evocative world of tone and echo into dizzying motion, content to watch from the wings.

For the 23rd release on Pinkman, Rotterdam based Mitchell Goor delivers a 4 tracker of slow, raw and warped Techno. The contrast between unpolished percussive instruments and ethereal melodies reoccurs throughout the release and gets polished and refined by haunting vocal samples and pungent acid bass lines. This gives the record an ability to take audiences on rollercoaster rides through tension and anger as well as hope and promise, powered by permanent, adrenaline stimulating, raw energy.

With releases on BNR Trax, Minimal Wave's Cititrax and a regular on Zone Records, French producer and RAAR co-founder Maelstrom makes his debut on CPU with 'Alph4', a seven track electro-leaning mini LP of one-take recordings.

Maelstrom's sound on Alph4 is comparable to Aphex Twin's more restrained Analord output. Focussed, highly detailed production alongside an abundance of evocative synth melodies will ensure these tracks become firm favourites with forward thinking DJs and electronic music fans.

Swiss artist and veteran producer Ripperton contacted the ESP Institute out of the blue mid-2017 to share a gorgeous mix of self-produced material, a collection of pieces made without any agenda outside of representing the self, not geared toward the dancefloor or a specific environment but simply a bi-product of introspective exploration. We were floored, the mix was on constant repeat in our world for weeks, then was subsequently pulled apart into separate titles to form this beautiful double LP, Ripperton's debut with the label. The title Sight Seeing speaks of someone stepping outside their current reality to look in the mirror, as if to ground themselves and keep sight of who they are in a world of extreme highs and lows. Inspired greatly by expansive landscapes and views from airplane windows (imagine your commute flying over the Alps every weekend), Ripperton describes this collection as postcards to himself, messages from his subconscious recorded on tape (both conceptually and literally), melancholy soundtracks to the Mondays that follow weekend journeys. While musical genres tend to cycle through bandwagon moments, the ESP Institute strives to operate independently of these, and while Sight Seeing is undoubtably an Ambient album, we're simply proud to revel in the chance moment where an esteemed artist such as Ripperton spreads his wings in a beautifully unexpected mode of expression.

Meat Beat manifesto formed in Swindon in 1987 by Jack Dangers (MBM's only permanent member) and "Impossible Star" is the first full length album in over seven years from the seminal electronic band.

Minimal, textural and cinematic in scope, Impossible Star follows the music innovators deeper into more experimental territory. From the thick and discordant soundscape of "One" to the cut-and-paste pastiche of "Bass Playa" to the downtempo of "T.M.I.", Impossible Star is a layered exploration of sounds and rhythms.

MBM's consistent musical invention has led to all forms of electronic musical experimentation over its 30 year history, from jungle to techno to industrial to dubstep to jazz fusion. Its long string of influential futuristic classics includes such groundbreaking tracks as "God O.D.", "Strap Down", "Psyche Out", "Helter Skelter", "Radio Babylon", "Edge of No Control" to "It's The Music"

Digipack, 4C print w/ solid color. Cover artwork expands over all pages, liner notes inside.

2 x 12", silver grey vinyl

5 1 1 5 9 3 is the first full-length album release of Vienna based artist Electric Indigo, who started DJing in the late 1980s, worked at the legendary Hard Wax record store in the early 1990s, and effortlessly manages to entertain the dancing crowd at Berghain as much as the contemporary music avant-garde at Wien Modern.
5 1 1 5 9 3 combines influences of both worlds into a consistent and coherent album. Crystalline metallic objects collide, embedded into fractured endless spaces, sparse rhythmical syncopations shaping grids, holding sonic particles in place. Rare vocal transformations inject a human touch. 5 1 1 5 9 3 offers a unique universe, full of color and light, partially flirting with current club music and at other times diving deep into sublime sonic areas.

Kris Baha turns to Pinkman with a standout 5 tracker blending influences and ranging from EBM, darkwave and experimental electronics. What makes them work together is a shared industrial edge, spine-chilling atmospheres and minimalistic vocals. By finding excellence in diversity this record is equally suited for boiling dance floors and home listening purposes.

After unanimous praise for Talker's "Battle Standards" and play from the likes of Ancient Methods, Headless Horseman, Sunil Sharpe, Mumdance, Shifted and many others, Standards & Practices returns with a powerful set of remixes from iconic UK techno artists Surgeon, Regis, and Broken English Club.

Anthony Child kicks off the proceedings with his first remix in a year, and it's one of his best to date. His version of "Battle Standard" takes the track in a radically different direction, building a hair-raising wall of sound culminating in an unforgettable melodic refrain-beautiful and brutal in classic Surgeon fashion. The A2 track is a special bonus: a Talker cut only previously available on a limited edition CD compilation. Entitled "My Favorite Color Is Gold", this is a dark and cinematic ambient take on "(Gold) Standard".

On the flip, Oliver Ho delivers a remix of DJ favorite "Snub Nose" under his Broken English Club alias. His overhaul is nothing short of remarkable - only retaining a segment of the original drum track, he adds a post-punk-esque vocal while a vicious, monotone bassline snarls underneath, sounding like it slithered off of a Big Black LP sometime around 1985. Regis closes the EP with his brilliant broken-beat take on "Battle Standard", stripping the original to its essentials for maximum dancefloor impact.

As with the label's previous EPs from Stave and Talker, this package features stunning full-color sleeve art from acclaimed graphic design studio Common Name, and a limited number are pressed on silver colored vinyl.

Crackshot wiry techno from Stockholm's Simon Haydo, putting his trusted Korg MS-20 thru its paces for Peder Mannerfelt Produktion after showcasing the semi-modular synth's myriad permutations on Avian, Hivern Discs and Studio Barnhus in recent years.
Working shades away from Mannerfelt's less-is-more style, Haydo becomes the latest in a line of producers stretching from Suicide thru Fad Gadget and Powell to fetishise and utilise Korg's classic, tactile little box for everything from kick drums to melodies and anything between.
However, The Illusion of an Alternative Choice would simply be an academic exercise in asceticism if it weren't for the remarkable diversity of sounds Haydo generates from his chosen bit of kit. Like Lorenzo Senni with his Roland JP-8080, or Mark Fell with the Yamaha DX7, Haydo reveals a wealth of variation from the Korg MS-20, revelling in its textured gradients and tweaky integers between the pulsating, viscous morph and off-kilter dissonance of Let Know to the search & destroy 'ardcore mentasm-style licks of Not For You, thru the dry, blocky roller The Go!, to the sharp-cut jakbeat of Parade Of Unhappy and unstable cosmic fuss of Out.
In effect, by proving you can create a whole record with lots of variation, but only using one synth, Haydo also cocks a cool snook at those n00b producers with expensive banks of kit who produce the most prosaic, tepid and gridlocked house - basically proving that it's not what you've got, but
how you use it.

For this release Metrist delves into a set of carefully constructed and deeply rhythmic but ear-grabbingly idiosyncratic, mixed fidelity dancefloor-geared oddities.

The first three tracks are united, in a fashion, by the artist's skill at programming a series of drum tracks that set a definite tone for the productions. Within a quite partisan field of often microscopic generic variety, largely pinned down to the tempo and timbre of electronic drums, here Metrist has pursued a tricky-to-define path. The bounce of new jack swing is twisted amongst stripped back polyrhythms, equal parts groove and glitch seasoned by some futuristic acid filters that create a constantly shifting aura of space and textural nuance around the individual drum hits. Quite often arrhythmic interjections punctuate these 'grooves', be it the sawing bursts of noise and snarled, incoherent vocals on 'An Soaep', the non-language and playful, bubbling bass surrounding the half time feel of 'On Golden Seize' that builds to something approximating an industrial take on UK Funky or the brash sub-wobbles that intrude 'Pantomimer Tongue's juddering knife-scraping-on-a-balloon stutters.

'Caaacel the Horze' closes the record in a less weighty style, with crunchy arpeggios running on a synth that sounds like it's picking up interference from a radio channel, as snatches of moaned vocals allude to a deeply ambiguous yet chilling narrative behind the music. Thudding kicks intrude on the skittish melody but in a non-rhythmic way reminiscent of someone trying desperately to snatch your attention by banging on the adjacent wall. Gauzy melodic textures in the background provide a calming counterpoint to the uneasy qualities of the composition.

William Gibson's prophetic sci-fi novel Neuromancer inspires Mumdance, Logos and Shapednoise to sensational new heights on their 2nd EP in The Sprawl trilogy for The Death of Rave. The trio's EP2 is all about 'Data Flow', or the relay of information between software, hardware and its human agents, triangulating The Sprawl as biologic semiconductors in a quantum network of emerging AI consciousness, parsing their corrupted memory flashbacks of physical ecstasy, excess and synaptic muscle memory into premonitory visions of future hardcore rave.
Arriving at the project's midway point, equidistant to futures past and the singularity, the trio's 2nd cybernetic merger generates pivotal plot twists and an expanded palette of styles in flux between virulent mutations of noise torque, hardcore techno and sci-fi cinematic memes.
Across its four tracks, each producer's recognisable characteristics are strategically subsumed, consolidated to an inseparable, if fractious, energy that describes and manifests the themes and energies of William Gibson's prescient cyberpunk fiction in hyperstitious form.
The A-side picks up directly from EP1 with the synaesthetically-enhanced sensations of Burning Chrome, titled in reference to one of Gibson's first short stories set in the fictional dimension of The Sprawl - the first to coin the word 'cyberspace' - with a turbulent roil of bruxist shockwaves unpredictably punctuated by lush pads, before the cyberpunk terror of Black I.C.E. hacks into the nervous system with visceral, arrhythmic dynamic.
On the B-side, the story really shifts up a gear or five with X System, a breathlessly brutal 150bpm techno assault that sounds like late '90s Dutch rave or NYC bunker techno dialled in via faulty ISDN connection, which makes for a steep contrast with the shocking emotive pathos of the EP closer Online Seance, where the trio fulminate a transcendent vision of cinematic synth noise redolent of Leyland Kirby's Intrigue & Stuff series, but with a vicious digital edge and serontonin-frying euphoria of their own imagineering.
This is the sound of The Sprawl really coming into their own as a thrilling, innovative, and boundary-probing prospect within the noise techno nexus.

After his well acclaimed soundtrack lp on Hivern Discs,Brussels based producer Lawrence Le Doux is returning to homebase Vlek for his next offering. And what a project it has become: Le Doux, heads first, dived deep into the Belgian national history of electronic music, and came up with a   sampler covering the various fields the Belgians have explored over the last 30 years.  
From digi dub over simple drum computer house to one­man industrial cassettes: 'Host' has it all." 
Lawrence Le Doux opened for   Matias Aguayo in one of Brussels' major venues: Ancienne Belgique earlier this year.   
Lawrence Le Doux' latest album was released on Hivern Discs (Music For Documentaries' -  3,8/5 on RA)
VLEK designer Dimitri Runkkarri's take on the analog type press / glass printing process: With Lawrence Le Doux, from the beginning (with "Terrestre", 2014) we used different materials to print out the sleeves. We used cork, overlapping letters, plastic cross for wall carving.
This time, I had some glass left at the workshop. We wanted to try. We broke it on the press then printed it with all the texture, scratch, accidents caused by the pressure of the press..."

So far, so Giraffe: for a while the Hamburg based project Giraffe loved short musical expressions.

On their debut album Juni' for the Belgium label Meakusma, most tunes stopped living after three minutes. For their latest recordings for the Berlin based - and hard to pigeonhole - label Marmo, they took the epic road and produced two adventurous arrangements that drift along a stretched musical path, that makes their outcome even more magnetic, more bewitching.

With Climate, a new member becomes part of their ongoing mission to find new sounds beyond cliche´-ridden textures. Ju¨rgen Hall, who joined Charly Scho¨ppner and Sascha Demand some time ago for their aim to create sounds that do not want to belong to any kind of genre, enlarges everything with new textures and melodic twists, that makes the sound of Giraffe more "outernational" and enables the group to shape deeper sounds through a free-wheeling improvisation.

As all three musicians can look back on a long tradition in writing and playing avant-garde music and beyond, they unconsciously know how to avoid stereotypes. Their music is unwritten/written. Some parts are ideas that Sascha could have created on his e-guitar, Charly could have punched on his drums and percussion instruments, or Ju¨rgen could have tuned in on his keyboards and electronic devices. But as for Giraffe ideas are just the starting point of a journey, they start to improvise around them, without making real improvised music. To say it in their own words: Giraffe improvises and composes ideas and principles. All live and direct in the legendary Le Garage' studios in Hamburg. All made without any archetypes. Without any reference and foremost without any exchange value. It`s strictly utility value music.

Words cannot express its meaning. Notes cannot spell out its score. For Marmo the trio did not only tune in two epic dateless trips, they also were remixed by Berlin-based Italian producer Marco Shuttle, who transformed their music into a percussive club track that stays calm without forgetting to explode gently. A gripping, detailed gathering of tones that distribute some otherworldly wonderment with passages of polyphony and polymetric juxtaposition over an un-fixed rhythmic cycle. If you join the music, their frequency modulations and rhythmic pulsations will change your very own torso climate for good.

Mastered by Helmut Erler at Dubplates & Mastering.

"A kind of crazy Soft Machine Indo / Japanese drone thing going on in there

Interchain are Eugene Gorbunov and Andrew Lee, an electronic duo from Moscow that finds equal inspiration in techno culture, punk music and Russian industrial landscapes. 'Plenum' is an album composed of a series of sketches based on Eugene's and Andrew's childhood memories about Perestroika in the USSR. As they put it, "whether it's a backwards look through the decades of an adult, or the flashbacks of childhood memory to the exact historical period, imbued by the distinctive colors, TV noises, unconscious sounds and images of the time - both perspectives interpret the past/present as a work of art, created by the entirety of society, government and technological progress". These visions are projected into 10 vibrant compositions inspired in a series of elements -from underground clubs to Lenin's Mausoleum and from USSR punk to drugs- that marked the period of political and social reformations that shook the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Despite being grounded in industrial sonics and its sparse backbone, the music in 'Plenum' has an oddly delicate and ghostly quality to it. Tracks that, in Interchain's own words, "wash away pressing issues of the day, revealing a transcendent picture, image and aesthetics - ethereal feelings far more real to the observer than actual bygone dates, events, people". The result is fascinating to say the least.

Ahrpe Records co-founder Amandra navigates a unique space between droning ambience and polyrhythmic funk on 'Dame De Bahia', his first release to emerge on Italian imprint Obscura. This is the French, Warsaw-based producer's second album and follows a string of acclaimed EPs on Ahrpe, Semantica, Tikita and Silent Season. Complex patterns are woven through sustained tone clusters to foster an unlimited sense of energy and focus. Radiant synths glisten over live percussive loops whilst infinite pads wander the boundaries of light and dark. Amandra uses minimalist techniques to build tranquil sonic spaces that evolve on their own accord, making way for carefully mapped out rhythmic cycles. The result is an immersive listening experience replete with subtle details, but never cluttered. "Moody and lightful, this album combines many aspects I cherish in electronic music. Dame De Bahia LP is a direct nod to my beloved Mediterranean roots."

One of techno's most prominent prism pushers follows work on Fever Ray's Plunge album to open 2018 with the masterful machine control of The 3D Printed Songbook, dispatched thru his Stockholm-based personal imprint.
In his highly personalised style of Scandinavian techno dub pressure, Mannerfelt pursues a signature blend of raved-up smarts with cutting-edge sound design into ever more curious, densely packed but spacious gestures on The 3D Printed Songbook by getting ever closer to grips with his elemental electronic material.
Where so much techno can feel like the work of a bored neek pushing blocks on a screen or effectively doing a colouring-in book, Mannerfelt is a fine art sculptor who has picked techno and pure, abstract electronics as his medium, manifesting a sound which works just as well for those who appreciate the tactile sensuality of manipulated noise, as those who love dancing to irregular,
warped rhythms and sensational tones.
Here, Mannerfelt blurs those distinctions and contradictions beautifully well, getting into gear with a pendulous but stuttering, sleek and jagged deep house/dancehall curl to open, before circling thru recoiling slow techno, heavy-lidded yet visceral ambient tones, to stripes of viking acid jack and the kind of depth charge dub techno that keeps Mika Vainio's memory in earshot while unafraid to steer into new terrain.
Just killer.

Brandnew album by Marla Singer.

*The No Man Is An Island EP is a single cut from the debut album of the same name by Aalko, a new project by Kebko Music founder Akiko Kiyama. Renowned for her minimal techno track featured in Richie Hawtin's seminal DE9 Transitions album, the Japanese producer reveals her another side under this new alias. The project has already created a stir as Aalko has garnered support from Gilles Peterson on his BBC 6 Music radio show and premiered a live performance at MUTEK's Tokyo launch, where she drew the audience into an inspiring frenzy.

Aalko is a culmination of Kiyama's recent practices in a wider musical spectrum that go beyond the confines of her minimalistic techno characteristics. It conjures her distinctive soundscape where a variety of styles coexists: she demonstrates her knack for breaks, ambient and irregular time signatures, her acute ears for unadulterated tone and texture of sounds standing out in sharp relief.

Taking a floor-oriented side out of the No Man Is An Island cassette album, this single cut features three tracks that work wonders in a DJ context. "Body & Soul" is an erratic rhythm experiment jumping between several beat styles. "Mixture" offers Kiyama's unique interpretation on syncopated dynamics of breaks. Wrapping up the EP is 'B.I.C', a long-awaited exclusive track that ranked among Gilles Peterson's top 20 tracks of 2017. Its dubby functionality makes it a powerful tool that can work at various stages of the night.

These tracks give the nod to Kiyama's peculiar self full of sonic idiosyncrasies, showing no fear of breaking accepted conventions.

* Fully embracing its penchant for explorative music, DAC Records invites Alex Augier.
* His work offers a cross-cutting musical perspective, allowing hybrid aesthetics that includes sound and visual components. These components interact within the stage area, taking the form of singular audiovisual performances.
* This time, Germination, his first solo EP, is purely musical work composed of organic, visceral, living sounds, both fragile and mighty. The electronic music is free of constraints imposed by the dedicated instruments. Embodied by large dynamic ranges and a constantly moving temporality, Germination tells an evolving process, in full bloom, with its share of mutations and strange directions.
* Germination is composed of four tracks, including one remix by Roly Porter. In the same vein as Alex Augier, the co-founder of Subtext Recordings explores the experimental music boundaries, both electronically and instrumentally

This is a vinyl release of the debut album from 2007 (Ubiquity Records) celebrating a 10 year anniversary
I'm kinda like a blond (less good looking) Vincent Gallo, but with self-irony.

Marking 20 years of Prurient and Hospital Productions' concurrent paths, the epic 3 hr 20 minutes of Rainbow Mirror inarguably ranks among Prurient's most compelling statements. While still the blood child of Dominick Fernow, the album's massive scope demanded more hands on board, with Jim Mroz (Lussuria) and Matt Folden (Dual Action) lending their expertise before post-production by Shifted and mastering by Paul Corley cemented this towering work of Doom Electronics for the ages.

Offered up as 'a portrait in perpetual tension', and housed in cover art created as the first collage in the pre-recording era of Prurient, Rainbow Mirror draws on the project's roots in order to locate itself in the modern day. What it finds in the process is that little has changed since Prurient and Hospital Productions' conception in '97 - the world is still a torrid, evil mess beyond control, and one that needs notions like Prurient to try and define its heaving mass more than ever.

Like Frozen Niagara Falls before it, echoes of the old world riddle the long, stark corridors of Rainbow Mirror, too. But here those echoes are more fragmented, distant and entropically obfuscated, emulating the effect of trying to find your own image in a hall of mirrors, or locating yourself drowning amid the clamour of more than 3 billion other people online, all saying the same, mundane shit at the same time.

With a length and intensity proportionately reflective of the world's increasing socio-political tension and rate of homogeneity, Rainbow Mirror holds firm as a space to immolate the senses in preparation for the ever nearing eschaton.

Granny13 opens with Nicola Ratti's 'Odd Doubt'. With the use of a modular system and tape loops, a broken rhythm is obtained by parallelism between single sound signals as LFO one or processed tapes.On the second side, Giovanni Lami's 'Johnny Leech' is made with a small bunch of equipment, just a chaotic hand-made synth (cacophonator) and a memoryman, working mainly on static electricity and leakage current in the synth used without any kind of power supply.

Reviews

The Wire
''Two Italian mucisians share a split single of glitchy fun and everyone goes some happy. Lami s piece uses a defective unplugged synthesizer to make huzzing chitters that have a kind of rhythm in spots. Ratti s contribution is a bit more structured it sounds like a record of accordion miniatures broken into pieces, then glued back together with little pieces of felt stuck onto it. Which would definitely be a pretty hep thing to hear.''

Textura
''Some releases qualify as art objects as much as musical collections, a case in point this recent seven-inch vinyl outing featuring material by Nicola Ratti on one side and Giovanni Lami on the other. That shouldn't be interpreted to mean that the musical content isn't worthy of one's time, as it assuredly is, but more to emphasize how striking the sleeve artwork by Opora is and how effectively it complements the musical content.Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and issued in an edition of 150 copies, the release opens with Odd Doubt, a concise experimental setting by the Milan-born Ratti, who's issued material on labels such as Anticipate, Preservation, Die Schachtel, and Entr'acte and who's presently working with Ielasi in the project Bellows, with Attila Faravelli as Faravelliratti, and with Enrico Malatesta and Faravelli in ~Tilde. Though Ratti started out as a guitar player, his current focus is more on beat-analog experimentation and sound installation. In Odd Doubt, Ratti's modular system and tape loops generate broken rhythms that varyingly call to mind dub-techno, even if dub-techno of an extremely wonky variety. Off-beat chords, crackle, and snare strikes add to the dubwise flavour of the material, though ultimately it registers as more of an experimental exploration than straight-up dub exercise.The flip side features Johnny Leech by Lami, a one-time photographer now known as both a field recordist and a musician focusing on soundscaping and sound-ecology. In his contribution to the seven-inch, Lami's chaotic hand-made synth (cacophonator) and memoryman give birth to blustery smears of static electricity that ultimately mutate into an Oval-like array of ripples and scratches. Johnny Leech is so removed from anything conventionally musical, it makes Odd Doubt sound like a Top 40 pop song. Like Ratti's piece, Lami's is short, so short, in fact, it gives the impression of being an excerpt from a larger sound art work. Here's a release where the abstract nature of the musical content matches its visual presentation.December 2014''

Vital Weekly 951
''Granny Records is from Greece, but the two musicians here are from Italy, of which I don't I heard from Giovanni Lami before. His piece is called 'Johnny Leech' and he uses a hand-made synth known as the cacophonator and a memory man (a delay machine), 'working mainly on static electricity and leakage current in the synth used without any kind of power supply'. It makes up for a nice piece of chaotic lo-fi sound, which is put forward through methods of improvisation. Quite a nice piece and it fits the format very well. The crackling of vinyl surely adds an extra layer. Nicola Ratti uses a modular synth and tape loops, of what seems to be percussive material, but the rhythm is broken down and the whole thing has a nice gentle feel to it, even when it bumps, clicks and glides, but the synth makes it more subtle. Here too one could say this perfect for a 7": one doesn't have the idea that this is cut from a longer part as is not unusual with this kind music. Especially Ratti seems to have worked out his music as a composition, which is very nice. (FdW)''Vital Weekly 951''Granny Records is from Greece, but the two musicians here are from Italy, of which I don't I heard from Giovanni Lami before. His piece is called 'Johnny Leech' and he uses a hand-made synth known as the cacophonator and a memory man (a delay machine), 'working mainly on static electricity and leakage current in the synth used without any kind of power supply'. It makes up for a nice piece of chaotic lo-fi sound, which is put forward through methods of improvisation. Quite a nice piece and it fits the format very well. The crackling of vinyl surely adds an extra layer. Nicola Ratti uses a modular synth and tape loops, of what seems to be percussive material, but the rhythm is broken down and the whole thing has a nice gentle feel to it, even when it bumps, clicks and glides, but the synth makes it more subtle. Here too one could say this perfect for a 7": one doesn't have the idea that this is cut from a longer part as is not unusual with this kind music. Especially Ratti seems to have worked out his music as a composition, which is very nice. (FdW)''Vital Weekly 951''Granny Records is from Greece, but the two musicians here are from Italy, of which I don't I heard from Giovanni Lami before. His piece is called 'Johnny Leech' and he uses a hand-made synth known as the cacophonator and a memory man (a delay machine), 'working mainly on static electricity and leakage current in the synth used without any kind of power supply'. It makes up for a nice piece of chaotic lo-fi sound, which is put forward through methods of improvisation. Quite a nice piece and it fits the format very well. The crackling of vinyl surely adds an extra layer. Nicola Ratti uses a modular synth and tape loops, of what seems to be percussive material, but the rhythm is broken down and the whole thing has a nice gentle feel to it, even when it bumps, clicks and glides, but the synth makes it more subtle. Here too one could say this perfect for a 7": one doesn't have the idea that this is cut from a longer part as is not unusual with this kind music. Especially Ratti seems to have worked out his music as a composition, which is very nice. (FdW)''

Mastered and cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering in Berlin.

Hana's first and self-titled LP was recorded in Autumn 2010 at Facta non Verba and consists out of 5 tracks which are techno oriented with disposal of experimental and abstract elements.

Reviews

OMG Vinyl
Hana s S/T LP is easily the best promo records we ve gotten in months. This Greek duo has somehow, almost entirely below the radar, released one of the most exciting electronic records of 2011. Their wobbly brand of techno sometimes chugs ahead at full-speed, other times easing back into a wider waver, almost resembling some weird, warped IDM. I will be shocked if this record doesn t get wider appreciation very soon. Whether that happens or not, we fully recommend it, track one down.

Cyclic Defrost by Oliver Laing
Granny Records duo Hana come correct with their first album, offering a refreshing take on techno and IDM variants in the vein of Jan Jelinek, Raime, Actress and hints of the mighty Chain Reaction label. Mastered at Berlin s Dubplates and Mastering by none other than Rashad Becker, a name that often appears in the run-out groove of artists who inhabit a curiously funky techno-not-techno netherworld Hana s debut self-titled release grows in stature and listening enjoyment with every spin. With a sense of fun and adventure inhabiting the grooves, Hana (who are also part of label-mates, Good Luck Mr Gorsky), explore experimental timbres and ghostly vocalisations with a lightness of touch that belies their recording credentials.

Starting off with an abstract, Clicks and Cuts style intro, Liv slowly finds the sweet spot between mutant Detroit electro funk, a hint of the indie/dance territory of Matthew Dear and the abstract, yet rhythmic 12 releases on the Beatservice label, by Norwegian duo Information from the mid 90s. Obermaier implies the groove to begin with, until a wrong-footed man-with-two-left-feet rhythm leads into minimal acidic flourishes. Album opener SM heads in a Ricardo Villalobos vs. Nonplace Urban Field direction, as the lopsided rhythm and sepulchral vocals add a haunted edge to proceedings. CR80 uses beautifully syncopated live drums and urgent female vocals, and adds a driving, belligerent synth riff falling somewhere in between DMZ and Gary Numan. Echoic, boingy sounds threaten to derail the beat, but somehow it manages to maintain, reminding me of Shed and A Made Up Sound; more in overall feel than in the specific sounds. For those that enjoy abstract electronics that work just as well on headphones as on the dance floor, Greece s Hana are a duo to watch.

Textura
Hana's self-titled debut album arrives saddled with a (literally) cheeky front cover one would more associate with a 70s band like Wild Cherry than a Greece-based techno outfit formed in Thessaloniki last summer. Recorded in fall 2010 at Facta non Verba, the five-cut release finds Good Luck Mr Gorsky members Thanasis Papadopoulos and Thanos Bantis hunkered down in their chemical lab concocting formulae to go along with their material's stripped-down techno beats. Using analogue synths, samplers, and sequencers, the duo brings a decidely experimental edge to their productions, sprinkling as they do liberal doses of burble and flutter over bass-heavy techno rhythms.
The opening track, Sm, sets the scene with a heavy low-end pulse thudding alongside a steady kick drum and joined by acidy synths and percussive effects that suggest a lighter being repeatedly flicked open. On a slightly more aggressive tip, the B-side's Cr80 adds truncated vocal yelps to its bleepy, elephantine throb. A dubby dimension emerges in the track, too, when echoing waves drift repeatedly across the huge bass that slithers across the track's underbelly. The album's most elaborate track comes last. Liv opens beatlessly with flickering shudders and what could pass for the amplified workings of an ant community but then progressively fills in the dots with an insistent beat pattern, voice fragments, and even the demented meander of accordion playing. Though Hana hardly rewrites the techno guidebook on the release, it's nevertheless a pleasurable listen, in part due to the multi-dimensional experience provided by the vinyl format and the always superb mastering work done by Rashad Becker at Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering.

Finally here we are with the fourth release on Last Drop Records, signed by the london-based Stavrogin. 'Collectors' takes a more subdued approach from his debut on Australian label 3BS, focusing on ampdriven ambient textures and digital experimentation. 'Sixty Acres' is a juddering mass of static textures and penetrative low-end, forcing itself to a crumbled close. Title track 'Collectors' is something like the afterglow. Weary and destitute, the track stumbles through heatwave-soaked atmospheres, fragmented voices stuttering like a malfunctioning android. 'Are These Actual Miles' is perhaps the most direct, with its tremors of noise punctuated by a rhythmic pulse. This is a feature Italian duo Ichinen have capitalised on in their closing remix, reducing the track to a warbling, dead-eyed drum workout.

Advance 12" of the upcoming Oscar Mulero album 'Perfect Peace', SEMANTICA 70 with some deep electronix!

You're Me's 2016 album, Plant Cell Division, sees its reissue on vinyl for the first time on the Knowing Something label. Newly mastered and presented across two 12"s, Plant Cell Division demonstrates attention and care to texture, melody, and rhythm.

The duo, consisting of Yu Su and Scott Gailey, delivers a recording warm and inviting, one that engages with the listener along multiple dimensions. With repeated listening, each piece reveals something new about itself, continually suggesting new ways to approach You're Me's imaginative and organic sound.

The 2xLP version arrives in a gatefold sleeve designed by Maggie Chok and retains the photo from the original cassette by Evan Mason.

From Ernst Thoma's secret vaults. First 2 chapters of Mr. Thoma's fun with the Serge Modular Music System and TMS Synthesizer, accompanied by Knut Remond on weird "laced square drum"

Live recorded at Raum 2 and at Koprod Studio Zürich in 1981 and 1982

Idiology was originally released in 2001 and is now finally back on vinyl. This re-issue is pressed on white color vinyl and presented in a die cut jacket with artworked inner sleeve and free download card. From their beginnings in 1992, Cologne native Jan St. Werner and Dusseldorfer Andi Toma have consistently challenged electronic music"s paradigm in often surprising and always intriguing ways. Idiology is the duo"s seventh album and is no exception to this rule, as Mouse on Mars surround themselves with strings, woodwinds, brass and the band"s own heavily modified fleet of machines in the St. Martin"s Tonstudio. Fans should once again brace themselves for the inevitable shock of the new as Germany"s most irreverent audio renegades have created the perfect soundtrack for a highly sinister dance party. Kicking off with "Actionist Respoke", the album"s first single, Mouse on Mars officially declare their independence from glitchtronica"s shoegazing legions. Longtime collaborator Dodo Nkishi lends a uniquely warped vocal sensibility to the track which already features Mouse on Mars"s darkest grooves to date. The rest of the album continues to thicken the group"s sonic stew. Tracks such as "Presence" and "Catching Butterflies With Hands" have their populist intentions undermined by Werner and Toma"s meddling hands, while the duo reprise their flirtation with the orchestral as heard on the opening tracks from 2000"s Niun Niggung. At the other end of the spectrum, "Introduce" is a truly evil slice of twisted lympho-zoid hip-hop. Idiology takes no prisoners in its dual-pronged assault on the conventions of modern music. Only with the loungy closing number, "Fantastic Analysis" (a term Werner and Toma invented to describe their working process), do Mouse on Mars let the arrangements breathe a long sigh of relief, the calm after the storm. To enable these stylistic achievements Mouse on Mars enlist the help of partners in crime such as: Nkishi, the multi-talented Harald "Sack" Ziegler, house icon Matthew Herbert on piano, violinist Matty Arouse, in addition to fellow programming wizards Adam "Vert" Butler and F.X. Randomiz. The latter two toured with Mouse on Mars in 2000 as they successfully triumphed over audiences around the globe.