quête:monolith

Microdosing is a series of compilation 12”s selected by Julienne Dessagne aka Fantastic Twins, and designed in collaboration with French visual artist Geff Pellet. Microdosing is a collective experiment aimed at helping you fighting back your modern obsession with happiness. You may deserve a nice day but the day does not need a nice you, nothing should be forced, everything is permitted. Microdosing will provide you with sonic healing weapons on regular basis and at irregular dosage. Those doses will favour psychedelic social techniques against self help tyranny, creation over soma, provoking over numbing, our outer-selves over our inner-selves. Microdosing refuses the fatality of the pleasure principle. Life is a struggle, time to embrace it. —— "My battery is low and it’s getting dark” We at Microdosing will make Opportunity’s famous last words fully ours. Some would see these as an epitaph on a black screen, we embrace them as a reclaimed fragility. Are we grains of sand wandering in space, hoping for a goal? No. We are the cosmos, the cosmos is us, unafraid of the end, unafraid of the void. Before the rise of the infinite silence, Microdosing brings you new guiding lights, white sun or black hole being a simple permutation of the kinetic rainbow. Oceanic’s “Parallel Lines Of Stripes” is a meandering mantra, an synthesised Moebius ring, a mission to your heart, that furthest star in the sky. Gilb’R’s “Cosmogonie” simply reminds us of the profound relation between spatial systems and the holy act of birth (cosmo, world and gon, conceive). The universe is a body, your body is your universe. Lucas Croon’s “Threshold Stimulus” is the soundtrack of a never ending voyage, the man is on a trip to the core sanctum. Imagine Space as a reverberation room cladded with bakelite. Losing yourself in delay repeats sometimes is the shortest way. Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge & Sam Irl’s “Faeden” is another hymn to the umbilical chords joining us to the outer world, a black monolith of kraut acid, a pagan dance as portal to a destination only you can choose. Microdosing will be back soon with more enablers, helping to turn your petty struggles into a search for a meaning of life. The Quest lives on.

Heady, deep dive into techno's more psychedelic spaces, true to form, "Dimensions Doors" EP kicks off with the rolling kicks of "Portal Opening", a trippy exploration of shifting ambiances and rhythmic noise, punctuated by a siren tone. AWB steps up with a broken beat remix of "Portal Opening", layering Clotur's ambiances over low-slung percussion. "Hyperspace Travel" brings up the energy with galloping kicks and rippling resonant synths. BLNDR follows up with a pounding remix, building Clotur's sweeping textures into trippy loops circling over a monolithic kick. "Irregular Frequencies" pulls even further into the portal, with a relentless, rubbery synth squelching along over driving, percussion. Clotur lays a gentle, but uneasy atmosphere over this trippy tool. He brings us back down with "Forbidden Level", another complex rhythmic track featuring glitchy percs and robotic warping over a tough low-end workout.

“True Lies” was originally released in 1999 on Daft Records and showed Dirk Ivens (The Klinik, Absolute Body Control) once again changing the game to create another refreshing and groundbreaking album. Suggestive industrial with distorted vocals, metallic rhythms and noises perfectly balanced with up tempo dance beats and technoid rhythms.

Production on this work is shared with the talent of Ivan Iusco (Minus Habens Records, Nightmare Lodge) and Eric Van Wonterghem (Insekt, Monolith).

"True Lies" is available for the first time on vinyl record with all original songs plus extra tracks from the singles "Two Faced Man" and "Broken Meat", some old compilations and a bunch of cover versions to classics by Suicide, The Normal and The Klinik. Limited edition of 550 copies on double blue colour vinyl with gatefold sleeve, printed inner sleeves and numbered card.

CTHI Records is back again after a little pause given by the development of the Jaxx Madicine project started initially by the label founder Parker Madicine and Turbojazz. Through out this time the label has productively been joined by Veezo, italian pianist and producer, for the making of their Distant Classic album and various EP’s and remixes published on many different international labels as Local Talk, Visions Rec, Dirt Crew and Eureka. CTHI is now ready , after the recent Japanese tour as Jaxx Madicine Trio, to be again the front stream for the debut EP of Veezo ‘Monolith’. An 8 tracks EP playing the essential “manifesto" and inspiring heritage of the artist. Raw and dirty grooves made in 12bit res, tape delays and acid Ms20 arps on top of which you’ll appreciate afro elements, warm rhodes and pad chords allowing you to perceive the whole Veezo musical ambient creativity. Two singing tracks - unique featurings by David Shorty and the Technoir Duo - are providing deep house/boogie atmospheres and jazzy spiritual moods. There are various musicians participating into this project leading through bass, flutes and drums that will surely provide you the feeling of an orchestral setting guided and directed by a solo person inducting all those elements through an Akai taperecorder. The result: close to a mid 90’s forbidden cartoon enriched by the cover of the Japanese artist Tokio Aoyama.

From the mists of 1989 comes The Landlord with this monolithic slab of rave history - 'I Like It'. Instantly recognisable, those widely sampled piano stabs, that bassline.... it's all there. Produced by Canadian super-producer and Big Shot Records label owner Nick Fiorucci this much sought after rave anthem was highly prized and coveted by those in the know back in the day, no-one had any idea as to how huge the record would become as it soundtracked every dancefloor, warehouse, field and loft from '89 onwards, this is it, the real deal! Enter: The Maghreban. One of R&S Records contemporary artists and an unashamed Hardcore / Jungle / Breakbeat enthusiast, he seemed like the perfect remixer. Maghreban's mix is respective of the roots and the legacy of 'I Like It', referencing some of it's later sampled incarnations in a clever and knowing way, a true DJ tool that has been road-tested and checked in clubs across Europe and beyond, his epic 'Revenge Remix' shows a deep understanding of the history of these particular records and how they work on the dancefloor. This one will have people crying for more! Also featured on this special RSD 2019 release is the OG 'Blow-Out Dub', the one that started it all. Classic material from end to end right here. Essential business from Above Board distribution and Nick Fiorucci / Big Shot Records.

Hip hop heads, 7" freaks - Check this one!

Earth shattering early 80's Bronx sounds transmitted back to us as fresh as the day they were terraformed!
NYC's Easy Street label is known for it's contributions to house music, electronic disco and boogie, but there was a handful of early rap singles on the label too including this megaton bomb from the freshly monikered Lil' Jazzy Jay & Cool Supreme from '85, all the way live. This record has it all, dubbed out FX, vox, cuts and brain frying vocoders..... not to mention the monolithic drum machines and dope braggadocios rhyming.

This is the FIRST TIME this mid 80's rap rarity has been made available on a 7". Both the 'club vocal' & 'dub instrumental' are featured here, cut at 33 rpm for maximum sonics. Made available courtesy of Above Board distribution for 2019. Shout out to Easy Street, %100 legit re-issue, re-master & re-press, essential wax!

Aperture records has always been about discovering new artists and bringing them to the forefront and italy is well-renowned for its electronic music, both former and current. so, from one italian duo (t.e.s.o.) to another... introducing Diaster.
Diaster aka Teo & G grew up in treviso, listening to the most experimental music they could find in their small rural city near venice.
With Matteo inspired by metal and musique concrete and Gianluca a researcher of old electronic/instrumental music, they decided to experiment with their various experiences in house, techno and drum n bass, inserting strata of industry and noise into their material. after 'Enchantments', a debut ep on DVNTT which deserves more recognition, and an accomplished follow up on Subsist records; 'Final Beginner', aperture records brings you their latest contribution; 'Clustered Non Symmetry'.
On first acquaintance, this 8 track album appears on the minimal spectrum; monolithic and indivisible. tension builds slowly and influences, mostly of a similar vintage, come through. arrhythmic incursions of stark and contorted electronics conjure up a hesitant, stealthily-undermined delineative framework.

4x12" Set , Special 15th Anniversary Edition, with Special Deluxe 4 Gatefold, shrink wrapped incl Download Card

Celebrating its 15th anniversary as well as the monolithic catalogue 100, Figure releases a gem-packed compilation featuring 15 artists who are shaping the current sound of the label. Ranging from machine-driven stompers courtesy of Juxta Position, Kirilik or Lady Starlight, to punchy electro by Viers and UBX127, to Nocow's signature style wavey melancho-electronics, or the straight-up high-voltage-techno of Shlomi Aber, Lewis Fautzi and captain Len Faki himself, all adequately framed by Setaoc Mass' beautiful ambient pieces - this 4 LP-set encompasses everything Figure both past, present and future. Arriving in a unique gatefolded sleeve that carries the exclusive handmade visual art by Munich artist Julia Schewalie. Whether long time fan or newly recruited follower, this one is a must-have entry in every techno-lover's collection.

07042016 (live at St.Paul's Anglican Church, Athens) is the debut album of Modal Analysis, brought by the Greek experimental band of MMMD (also known as Mohammad). Nikos Veliotis and Ilios are currently performing as the MMMD duo, with further focus on deep monolithic sounds, low frequencies, inter-modulations, dark textures, and distant folk nuances through custom made instruments (Cello & Electronic Bass) and software.
The release carries parts of the MMMD live performance at St.Paul's Anglican Church in Athens, recorded on the 7th of April 2016. The concert was hosted by Fasma Festival, on the opening day of its 2016 edition.

Planet Mu are excited to announce Ital Tek's 'Bodied', the follow up to his acclaimed 2016 album 'Hollowed'. Stepping in a different direction from that album, It's as if Hollowed's detailed world has been fleshed out and filled with the spectre of human voices.

As on his last album, the sounds on 'Bodied' are highly designed, but this time barely a whisper of dance music remains. Instead it's built around acoustic elements and ghostly choral arrangements, refracted and transformed into atmospheric, alien forms which are given the time to settle and transform. Rhythm is used only as a tool to give his world a sense of dark, mechanical momentum.

Alan explains; "After completing 'Hollowed' I had over a year away from writing any of my own material. I was working, composing music for a video game and a number of different projects. I needed to find a way back in and I rediscovered the joy of music being a release as opposed to a job. I was getting up really early and sketching out lots of ideas very fast, squeezing in quick bursts of writing at the beginning or end of long studio day spent working on other musical projects."

"It was important for me to define the world that the album was going to inhabit before taking it any further, so I put a much greater focus into the sound design and palette than I had before. I wanted to make the music sound very physical, geometric, and monolithic, as if it inhabited a physical space."

"On 'Bodied' the music focuses on the interplay between the minuscule and the vast, beauty and brutalism. With this album I was much more concerned with dynamics and the discipline of holding tension; the use of space and silence to provide a counterpoint to the intensity."

"Most importantly, I was keen for there to be a human acoustic foundation, so I did a lot of live recording of cello, violin, harp and guitar - anything I could get my hands on. I was certain that I wanted there to be a greater vocal presence - nothing lyrical or at the forefront but to give it an underlying organic quality - to impart some humanity into the music."

As Ital Tek moves further from his roots, he's creating new sounds and spaces in which his music can exist. It's up to the listener to decide what kind of world 'Bodied' evokes, but it's certainly one that's beautiful and rewarding to spend time in.

Drum & bass pioneer and Hospital Record's crown jewel Danny Byrd is back! He's set 2018 ablaze with monolith anthems 'Devil's Drop', 'Salute' ft MC GQ and 'Hold Up The Crown' ft Ky Lenz, now he proudly presents his first album in five years.

A 15-track funk-fuelled compendium of rolling dancefloor-fillers that tributes to the jungle foundation moulding his early discography. Collaborations with the likes of I-Kay, Maduk, Ownglow, Times x Two and MC GQ, fuse with powerful
doses of Danny's hip-hop and R&B infused 174BPM productions. 'Atomic Funk' is undoubtedly Mr Byrd's finest work to date and includes one of the biggest future D+B anthems 'Holy Star' that's brought to life with vocal delights from MC Foxy.

'Just A Step Away' (ft. Ownglow) has become a silver bullet for the Byrd, taking a spotlight in his DJ sets as his finishing move. With its gorgeous vocals, volatile rave synths and humming sub-bass, it's not hard to see why. However, that's
far from the only weapon in this legend's locker. 'Roll The Drums' is a certified sub shaker bringing a fierce bassline and thundering percussion, plus there's raw jungle madness with 'In The Meantime' (ft. Hannah Symons). With fifteen incredible tracks from Hospital Records' longest standing signing, 'Atomic Funk'
is Danny Byrd at his best. Crafted for the dancefloor and Feel-good from start to finish, a must-have for a true Hospital fan.

Planet Mu Are Very Happy To Be Releasing 'vicious Circles', The Debut Ep By Sinjin Hawke And Zora Jones, Who Aside From Producing Music Also Run The Audio-visual Production Unit 'fractal Fantasy'. Zora Released Several Collaborations On Last Year's 'visceral Minds 2' Including 'dark Matter' With Planet Mu's Jlin, While Sinjin Has Collaborated With Dj Rashad, Just Blaze And Mikeq, And Also Produced Music For Monoliths Like Kanye West And Frank Ocean. Remarkably, Given The Breadth Of Their Work, 'vicious Circles' Is Their First Collaborative Ep, And The First Time Either Have Released A Vinyl Record Too. The Ep Is A Great Showcase For The Duo's Emotional, Maximalist Chimeras Of Abstract Pounding Beats. From The Punchy, Circular, Grandiose Build-ups Of Opener 'vicious Circles', To The Unyielding Melancholy Of 'god' With Its Sinister Bulgarian Choir Sample Against A Peak Timbaland-era Rhythm, The Record's Potent Synths And Manipulated Vocals Are Both Simultaneously Fierce And Friendly. 'source Of Conflict' Is A Poised Dance Between Pulsing Ambient Textures And Drilling Beats, While 'lurk 101' Pits A Volley Of Abstracted Juke Toms Up Against A Hammering Drumline. 'babyboysosa' Feels Like Drum-less Drill, Manipulating Vocals Into Strange Alien Shapes Over A Bassline Before Spiraling Toms And Hi-hats Start To Form A Forceful March. The Ep Concludes On The Love Anthem 'and You Were One' With A Chipmunked Vocal Running Through Its Wonky Chorus Of Bent Notes And Chords.

After an excellent 12inch on Rosten label SSTROM drops his first full length Otider, which is by far the most diverse offering of the project encompassing elements of different genres and putting them in woolen and dense sonic textures. Otider could be loosely translated as un-times or non-times. It positions the tracks out of specific context and rather represents them as some rediscovered artifacts relating to personal experiences of the artist. Otider slightly distances SSTROM from techno label as the compositions elegantly drift between lush transparency and thick grooves of outsider/lo-fi house as in Kronofobi or Svvaren or sensitive, yet subtly monolith and mellow techno on Damm and I Huvudet. In Modernisten we can even trace echoes of coldwave/synth aesthetics with melancholic guitars sweeping over hypnotic rhythmic patterns, while closer Sov Nu introduces something which reminds a darker form of garage music with light synthpads constantly surfacing among raw mechanical beats. All the tracks were created over a relatively long period between 2010 and 2017 by employing the process where he let his hands work automatically without interference from his head. This freedom could be felt across the release, which juggles with different musical forms so lightly and organically, but at the same time maintains a coherent vision, which illustrates the vast scope and diversity of the artist.

Double Vinyl edition of 300 copies w/ download code and etched d-side.

Breaching is the debut album from Leeds-based, 6-piece, post-metallers Hundred Year Old Man. Hot on the heels of recent EP Rei, Breaching emitsthe same heaving intensity and unforgiving, wall of sound approach. Dense and billowing riffs are intertwined with field recordings and spoken word passages to form an unyielding, sprawling piece of work that delivers the bands artistic vision perfectly. The more ambient, drone sections of the record compliment and allow the real songs to take flight. Debut single Black Fire is reworked to give the track a new lease of life, whilst the other heavy hitters here; The Forest, Long Wall, Disconnect and Ascension are a continuation of the excellent work found on the Rei EP. Breaching contains masses of atmosphere and is a ferocious and immersive listening experience. An epic, monolithic voyage full of texture, depth, aggression and emotion. This is an album that should be approached as a whole, with patience and attention. The rewards will deliver a unique, crushing and quite simply superb record.

2x12" Repress

Answer Code Request returns with his sophomore album Gens on Ostgut Ton, entering darker but equally bass-heavy territory.
Answer Code Request's 2014 debut LP Code was an exciting moment for electronic music in Berlin - one that offered a break from the eternal hall and monolithic 4/4 kicks that ruled the city's club landscape. As a hybrid gesture, the album's spirit recalled an especially fruitful era in the German capital from the mid-90s to early 2000s, when dub and paddriven Detroit techno cross-pollinated with Berlin's industrial aesthetic to create one of the city's most exciting musical chapters.
Today the musical vision offered by Berghain resident Answer Code Request, real name Patrick Gräser, has proved far-sighted. While at first glance electronic music in 2018 seems increasingly balkanized, borders between genres have once again become fuzzier.
Now, on his follow up LP Gens, Gräser looks beyond the bass euphoria of Code toward darker horizons and a desolate atmosphere befitting of current global circumstances.
In a sense, Gens (Latin for tribe or lineage) reverses the notion of the hardcore continuum as proposed by music journalist Simon Reynolds: embedded in a tradition of US andcontinental European techno, Gräser seeks its disruption through hardcore outgrowths, from ambient jungle to later variations of British bass music and IDM. It's an interesting twist when seen in the larger biographical context of Gräser who, born and raised outside of Berlin in early 1980s, jumped from East German youth radio DT64 to American hip-hop, acid and early UK hardcore - a radical shift of musical interest born of a radical shift in political circumstances. On Gens, the unsettling atmosphere is established early on with the fading rave opener of the album's synonymous title track, and continues through the scrambled military communications and post dubstep rhythms of 'Sphera'. From there, sci-fi pads, heavy phasing and alien syncopation lead explorative third track 'Ab Intus' out into space. Aglimmer of otherworldly positivity arrives with the warm, distorted breakbeats and interwoven synth melodies of album standout 'knbn2', while Gräser's most dancefloororiented melds jungle and techno, Amen and 4/4 kicks, on 'Cicadae'.

Two of Hospital Record's most electrifying artists have formed an allegiance for a true coming together of titans. Bournemouth's Krakota and Sao Paulo's Urbandawn have combined their production talents to create the five-track 'Focus Shift' EP - a real drum & bass mash up of styles and sonic sequences.
The aptly named 'Coyote' is an absolute howler, unashamedly powerful and loaded with energy, distorting and plunging itself into new streams of audio chaos throughout.
'Laguna' fits with their alter-egos - sweet, pensive and majestic. Operating within a more classic Hospital framework, this rolling stroke of musical bliss will leave no party unsatisfied.
Sitting in the middle of this concerted creation is title track 'Focus Shift'. Informed by both liquid-funk and tech styles, it's gelled together with scathing bass riffs and high profile percussive chops.
'Epigram' has all the bassweight you'd expect from such a monolith collision of production powerhouses. Crisp and sinful, with a consistently militant atmosphere this song is pure depth, darkness and danger, with a genuinely intriguing sonic progression that renders this track as devastating as weapons grade plutonium.
Seeing the release home is 'Paladin'. An ardent dancefloor destroyer that fuses the power of the stepper with the groove of a roller, that even angels would find themselves bustin' a skank. Uplifting and powerful with cosmic subtleties in the low end twinned with sombre melodies and skittering drum-work all tempered in unison to create a certified banger.

* Atheos is a ferocious new collection from Rotkeller, which sees the Swiss electronic duo (Laurent Schmidhäusler and Federico Sutera) double-down on the brooding energy of their previous releases with a renewed intensity—fusing bold electronic experimentalism to dense, maximalist techno.

* Whether on the slow-burn immensity of opener 'SW', the monolithic, doom-laden expanses of 'Malz' or the spellbinding surge of '17. October', Atheos showcases a dark melodic complexity from the duo—in part brought on by the use of both digital and analog recording techniques.

* While the mesmeric, choral melancholia of EP closer 'Godless'—its eerie and beguiling textures echoing all that has preceded it—offers-up ominously open-ended ending; solidifying Atheos as Rotkeller's most atmospheric and cohesive work to-date.

* As if that wasn't enough, EOMAC (Stroboscopic Artefacts, Killekill, Trilogy Tapes, Bedouin) caps Atheos off in style, with a savage edit of '17. October'. The remix that pushing Rotkeller's original track into new rhythmical directions—the glassy rhythms splintering like shards of light across an eternally eclipsed landscape.

Set for release in both physical and digital formats on May 5th, Atheos marks Rotkeller's first EP for Swiss-based record company Thrènes (which takes its name from the Greek word for funeral lament) and are a label dedicated to the release of tenebrous electronica and techno.

Dance floor taskmaster REINHARD VOIGT is at it again,

dropping a new set of raw, willful techno cuts that follow his much-acclaimed solo release REISEN & SPEISEN (KOMPAKT 338) and a stirring split EP effort with Michael Mayer on TIME IS RUNNING (KOMPAKT 328). He even found time in his busy Kompakt schedule to throw in a rare remix for El_Txef_A on rising underground imprint Forbidden Colours. Voigt's latest outing KONTRASTE fits snugly in the artist's tradition of powerful, minimalistic techno with a headbanging twist: oscillating between pure movement,

and monolithic, abstract riff, the a side's THE SINGING SAW interweaves several rugged synth motives around a stoic, empowering bassdrum, while b side jam TRUST takes the scenic route, building its simple, yet highly effective lead sounds up into a towering grinder with a touch of silkiness. As we've grown to expect from REINHARD VOIGT, the whole is always greater than the sums of its parts, with these new recordings again proving his mastery of all things banging.

Beautifully Designed 1LP, 180g Vinyl Press kit: Following his Extended Play EP on Other People last year, Jream House is the turbulent and spiritual debut LP of Mark Hurst aka A Pleasure. Blending mathematical composition with an unrestrained studio experimentalism, the sound of A Pleasure charts a space where formative influences confront the most immediate performative impulse. Using a process of numerical transposition, the names of personally significant bands and composers are converted into drum patterns. He then lets loose, improvising around these structures with a variety of traditional and unorthodox instruments: bass and guitar, bowed cymbals, drum machines juggled like turntables, blowtorch on aluminium, to name but a few. With his influences as start-points, he builds rhythmic structures literally in their namesake, blasting their hulls with walls of noise, monolithic basslines and any other jam-yielded shrapnel. Despite the chaos and complexity of the process, the results sound neither clinical, nor garbled. The tracks always find their way to an emotive melody or strong groove. Lush guitar strums and yearning keys ride the high-speed beat of Slow Channel", which seems to soar through cloud-cover as one snaking mass. The Order of Things' folds a cosmic guitar-part into a backdrop of heavily side-chained noise. Arthur Russell' features a neck-snapping rim-shot and crushed snare that splash up the bits of an elegiac vocal part. Through violent and idyllic atmospheres, Jream House jettisons its inspirations like landing shuttles, always in search of new ground. These are songs, not just experiments.