Buscar:two electro
Finnish producer Aki Latvamäki also known as Artificial Latvamäki is not a newcomer to Goldmin as he already appeared on two compilations of the label. Notably with the sensational and distinctive track called "Symphony of a Metropolis" which was one of the true highlights of the Goldmin 5 Years Compilation. Yet we were desperately hoping for a proper album of him one day, checking the very few demos he was sending to us with a lot of curiosity and interest. Suunta is the result of years of creativity and of Aki's very own mastery at seeking cultivate the uncommon, and the rare sounds, might it be through an hyperactive electro-track or an organic deep techno ballad like "Baumwolle" is, he is always transposing difficulties and trumping the constraints, making techno not only a functional music for clubs but a full member medium of expression, capable of sarcasm, irony and rebellion and so all throughout a fragile and precarious melody. Has Aki escaped from this scene? That's all for the best, as he as also escaped from all these easy, prefabricated structures and schemas and is still doing his own thing as he always did.
FUSE launches its new ‘X Series’, a new instalment on the label centred around collaborations, with the first four-track offering courtesy of anonymous partnership eb_flow.
Continuing to evolve, adapt and blossom as an imprint leading the way across house, minimal and beyond, London favourites FUSE have undeniably levelled up once again as they approach a decade and a half in the game. Adding to their global events and long-standing sub-label INFUSE with sister imprint LOCUS, the brand has delivered quality productions across the electronic sphere from a mix of label regulars and emerging names, with founder Enzo Siragusa heading up and curating the subtle nuances and directions across their wide-reaching ventures. A new project for 2022, late August, welcomes the arrival of the label’s ‘X Series’ - a collaborative introduction which will see label favourites and special guests combine to unveil a string of unique releases in partnership with one another. The inaugural release sees anonymous pairing eb_flow join the label, delivering four cuts which have been essential records amongst the head honcho’s sets this year.
Opener ‘Transmission’ welcomes an otherworldly trip through hazy vocal murmurs and sweeping lead melodies as skippy percussion and rumbling sub-bass take hold before ‘Show Me’ delivers an impactful, bottom-heavy anthem fusing murky basslines beneath garage-tinged drums, funky grooves and dubby sonics.
The vinyl package comes loaded with two further cuts in the form of ‘Elevate’ and ‘Space’, with the former delivering a dreamy, mind-altering trip guided by bright stabs and loose, free-flowing drum shuffles, while the latter serves up a late-night skittering ride through resonant electronics, elongated pads and rubbery bass.
Based on an ancient Sumerian poem, MORTON SUBOTNICK's follow-up to his highly influential milestone "Silver Apples Of The Moon" is no less an adventurous sonic trip on the Buchla synthesizer. Limited edition (300 items) audiophile 180gr LP, especially remastered for vinyl. 2022 repress, 300 items.
Born 1933, MORTON SUBOTNICK is a key figure in the progress of electronic music: along with PAULINE OLIVEROS and RAMON SENDER he co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1961 and from 1963 on he worked with DON BUCHLA on the development of the early synthesizer "Buchla Series 100". In 1967 the composer and musician released his debut "Silver Apples Of The Moon", which proved to be one of the most influential albums and an undoubted milestone in electronic music (which was even selected for the Library Of Congress in 2009). A year later MORTON SUBOTNICK presented his adventurous follow-up "The Wild Bull". Loosely based on / inspired by an ancient Sumerian poem of the same name - a lament about loss and death caused by war - the two parts embark on further explorations into the hitherto unimagined creative possibilities of the synthesizer. 54 years after its initial release, "The Wild Bull" has not lost a single bit of its visionary magnitude and is still an adventurous sonic trip.
Don"t ask Rozi Plain to explain her spellbinding fifth album Prize. Its ten, magical tracks exist as if in another realm, where feelings matter more than meanings, where thoughts have room to roam and where you can live in the moment for as long as you like. Rozi"s signature, free-floating sound was set with her 2015 breakthrough Friend and cemented with 2019"s globally adored What A Boost ("Like slipping between cotton sheets" was Pitchfork"s description). Prize builds on both, but takes its cues from elsewhere. By a stretch, it"s Rozi"s most upbeat and daring album to date. Electroncia, jazz and saxophone treated to sound like strings, synths and harp all play a part. Economy is key - every sound has an impact out of proportion to its size, every texture pays dividends. Rozi"s bewitching vocals are bolder and brighter than ever before. Male and female backing vocals feel like friends dropping by.
Black Vinyl[19,12 €]
Clear Vinyl
Don"t ask Rozi Plain to explain her spellbinding fifth album Prize. Its ten, magical tracks exist as if in another realm, where feelings matter more than meanings, where thoughts have room to roam and where you can live in the moment for as long as you like. Rozi"s signature, free-floating sound was set with her 2015 breakthrough Friend and cemented with 2019"s globally adored What A Boost ("Like slipping between cotton sheets" was Pitchfork"s description). Prize builds on both, but takes its cues from elsewhere. By a stretch, it"s Rozi"s most upbeat and daring album to date. Electroncia, jazz and saxophone treated to sound like strings, synths and harp all play a part. Economy is key - every sound has an impact out of proportion to its size, every texture pays dividends. Rozi"s bewitching vocals are bolder and brighter than ever before. Male and female backing vocals feel like friends dropping by.
Wunderblock Records and La Notte Di Architetto label are proud to present a debut release of a new project, Urstadt, ruled by Michael Teplov of Wunderblock and Nikita Melnikov, also known as Relic Radiation. Been released on the Planet Rhythm label before, and now the duo appears in a pure new form with fresh techno material.
The EP is called "Ritornels Of Decay" and presents the Urstadt duo's view on the state of the electronic music scene during the post-Covid times, through the prism of classic Detroit and Birmingham techno grooves. As a special VIP guest featured Andreas Sandoval, also known as Developer, with a hyperkinetic, ultra-minimalistic rework of the first track.
Overall, all the tracks of the EP are like polyrhythmic, slowly developing mechanospheres with a touch of cold-euphoric and dreamcore harmonies, fused altogether in a modern superhybridic way. For true techno believers.
Felicity is an Australian sound artist, composer and educator based in Berlin and her latest effort "Train Tracks Recorded And Edited By Felicity Mangan" will be out world wide on tape and digital December 9.
"Train Tracks Recorded And Edited By Felicity Mangan" composed of field recordings was made during a Green Tour, while traveling only by train and ferry through Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway in June 2022.
For this release Felicity utilised raw and sampled field recordings to create a sense of slow travel by train, train networks, train delays and the moments in between waiting for trains or missed train connection in cities and small towns.
Felicity has presented projects in many different settings from galleries, gardens, clubs, festivals and online platforms throughout Europe, including National Gallery Denmark, Technosphärenklänge CTM/HKW, Sonic Acts Academy, RIVERSSSOUNDS.org and recently sound design for 100 Climate Conversations , Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia.
““Stations In Between” establishes a pulse early, recreating the initial excitement that turns to tedium. Four minutes in, the drums disappear, swept away by chimes; no longer stuck, the passenger is moving forward again. The station comes to life: another radio, a street musician, a bicycle, a cough ~ the last sound bearing a reminder of the last two years.”
Richard Allen — A Closer Listen
“the elements of sound are manipulated for effect, and the performance nature of Mangan’ work tends to be an effects driven construction of collated and improvised sounds.”
INNERVERSITYSOUND — Cyclic Defrost
“Throughout the album, it sounds rather as if Mangan had written elaborate electronic music permeated by discreet rhythms and pulsating drones equipped with a whole range of devices. The fact that this is not the case is as impressive as the actual music itself.”
— Fieldnotes Berlin
repress!
Ampoule present Pub - Single
Dense and beautiful electronic music that falls somewhere between T++ / Various Artists, early Boards of Canada, Basic Channel and Carl Craigs most epic works.
This record contains rare & long out of print classic tracks from the three Pub EP's that were released on Ampoule in 1999, 2001and 2003 respectively.
There are also two 2 exclusive cuts which have been never released on vinyl before.
Remastered by Dubplates & Mastering and new artwork by Pub.
Most audiophiles know Alan Parsons Project's I Robot by heart. Engineered by Parsons after he performed the same duties on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, the 1977 record reigns as a disc whose taut bass, crisp highs, clean production, and seemingly limitless dynamic range are matched only by the sensational prog-rock fare helmed by the keyboardist and his creative partner, Eric Woolfson. Not surprisingly, it's been issued myriad times. Can it be improved? Relish Mobile Fidelity's stupendous UltraDisc One-Step 180g 33RPM box set and the question becomes moot.
Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI on MoFi SuperVinyl, I Robot comes to life with reference-setting realism on this numbered, limited-edition reissue. Boasting immaculate highs and lows, generous spaciousness, and see-through transparency that takes you into the studio with Parsons and Woolfson at Abbey Road, this definitive edition is designed to demonstrate the full-range capabilities of the world's best stereo systems while offering listeners the convenience of having all the music on one LP.
Featuring a nearly inaudible noise floor, this transcendent UD1S edition functions as a repeat invitation to savor reference-grade soundstages, immersive smoothness, sought-after instrumental separation, three-dimensional imaging, and consummate tonal balances. Able to be played back at high volumes without compromise or fatigue, it is a demonstration record for the ages – the likes of which are no longer being made. This is the very reason you own and invest in high-end audio gear.
The special characteristics of this UD1S version extend to the premium packaging. Housed in an elegant slipcase, the reissue features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics. Aurally and visually, it is made for discerning listeners who prize sound quality and production, and who desire to fully immerse themselves in everything about this conceptual landmark. The Alan Parsons Project's most famous record deserves nothing less.
Inspired by and loosely based around the Isaac Asimov stories of the same name, I Robot delves into themes of artificial intelligence and technological dominance that make the record extremely relevant in the 21st century. Indeed, Parsons and Woolfson's pinnacle creation dovetailed with the ascendency of Star Wars, which itself is experiencing a rebirth in an age of self-driving cars, smart devices, and mindless automation. Lyrically, songs such as "The Voice" call into question human behavior – and their relationship to increasing robotic supremacy – in everyday life. Parsons and Woolfson reflect the associated paranoia, dichotomy, and transformation via shifting sci-fi arrangements steeped in drama and moodiness.
The absorbing tunes on I Robot also continue to fascinate due to their perfectionism and innovation. Borrowing from Pink Floyd's strategies, Parsons and Woolfson utilize a looped sequence on the title track to create new downbeats. "Some Other Time" employs two different lead vocalists and yet gives the illusion that only one is involved. Captivating strings, a piccolo trumpet, and bona fide pipe organ grace "Don't Let It Show." The origins of "Nucleus" stem from a unique analog keyboard concoction dubbed "the Projectron," devised by Parsons and electronic engineer Keith Johnson. Andrew Powell's orchestral and choral arrangements top it all off, with "Total Eclipse" arriving as a frightening track that presages the climactic "Genesis Ch. 1 V. 32."
Does man or machine win in the end? Decide as you get lost in Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc 180g 33RPM LP pressing. Secure your numbered copy today!
More About Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step and Why It Is Superior
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's UltraDisc One-Step (UD1S) technique bypasses generational losses inherent to the traditional three-step plating process by removing two steps: the production of father and mother plates, which are created to yield numerous stampers from each lacquer that is cut. For UD1S plating, stampers (also called "converts") are made directly from the lacquers. Since each lacquer yields only one stamper, multiple lacquers need to be cut. Mobile Fidelity's UD1S process produces a final LP with the lowest-possible noise floor. The removal of two steps of the plating process also reveals musical details and dynamics that would otherwise be lost due to the standard multi-step process. With UD1S, every aspect of vinyl production is optimized to produce the best-sounding vinyl album available today.
MoFi SuperVinyl
Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analogue lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.
Gold Vinyl
No binaries, no simple opposition. Either/or is subsumed by infinite relations and dizzying possibilities, by the perpetual crest of and/and. Freedom is the key to bring about all complex and incongruous multiplicities. Embodied, embedded, relational freedom is the key.
Mue is a duo based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal composed of Catherine Debard and Léon Lo. Formed in the Spring of 2020, the electronic musical project merges two distinct practices and explores the way they interact with each other. Drawing on early-IDM, illbient, minimalism, and natural phenomena, the resulting real-time hardware improvisations weave asymmetric patterns, create spaces, and digest various sounds.
Recorded in 2020, Les vasières explores unsynchronized hardware electronic impro-visations where individual sonic elements come to life by creating new and complex layers and organizational logics — melodically and rhythmically modulating each other.
The French album title translates to “The mudflats.” Sounds from disparate sources form an aural silt that is brought to life by waxing and waning cycles, each improvi-sation presenting a new, different mudflat scenario.
Mue asked visual artist Katherine Melançon to create the album’s artwork, which was the artist’s first dive into compost as source material. The resulting image—an otherworldly organic smear, both intimate and alien — was incorporated into graphic designer Haley Parker’s montage, hard frames recalling the flatbed scanner used by Melançon, and branch-like typography nodding to the organic concerns of all the artists involved.
The Belgian minimal synth band's three releases – a cassette and two vinyl EPs – were all titled »Against The Dark Trees Beyond«. This compilation collects the songs from these records.
"They were interesting times, the early eighties. Against a backdrop of cold war and economic crises, the DIY attitude of the earlier punk movement had spawned near countless new genres where artists and bands broke the three-chord guitar mould and experimented with new content matter, singular song structures and – in many cases – new instruments. Synthesizers became affordable and were no longer the sole privilege of rock millionaires. All around the globe, musical creativity boomed as never before, and Belgium was no exception: Digital Dance, Snowy Red, The Names, Pseudocode, Marine, 1000 Ohm, De Kommeniste, M.Bryo & D.M.T., De Brassers, Struggler, Siglo XX are but a few legendary names of bands and artists who started making a name for themselves.
In Leuven, things were happening as well. Until then, the music scene in this rather provincial town had been dominated by straightforward rock and blues acts. Not for much longer, though: in places like Arno'z and (later) The Gladhouse, where young budding artists met with kindred spirits, bands were often formed on the spot and, more importantly, started to make ripples.
Ludo Camberlin and Karel 'Bam' Saelemaekers already had a certain track record in Leuven's burgeoning music microcosm. But what they shared would become the cornerstone of A Blaze Colour (Against The Dark Trees Beyond): a fascination for new forms and instruments, a penchant for sonic adventure and a profound love for gripping songs. The full band name, by the way, was inspired by a phrase from the Irish-American novelist J.P. Donleavy, a writer who belongs in the definitely-worth-checking-out section.
After appearing on the first No Big Business LP (1981) with the instrumental 'Fisk', A Blaze Colour's first proper release, as was so often the case in those days, was a self-produced cassette. The music – which would later be dubbed 'minimal' – was characterized by the use of basic rhythm machines (Boss Dr. 55, mainly) and analog synthesizers (for the synth geeks: Korg Delta and MS20, Roland SH-2 and Jupiter IV, and the infamous Casio VL-1). Camberlin’s vocals, meanwhile, displayed an aloofness totally in sync with the zeitgeist. Equally important, though: all five tracks on this cassette were bona fide songs with a clear sense of structure, aided by a sonic mastery that demonstrated a high level of experience: 'Means To An End' started out as a proto-industrial track before bursting out into a moroderesque finale. The remix of 'Fisk' was as sprightly as the next river salmon, while 'Or Lie Again' proved the perfect soundtrack to a nightly walk through wet deserted streets. On the other hand, 'Through With Life', rife with disturbing sound effects countered by a slow portamento, could have been a prize track on a post punk 'Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. And in true dramatic fashion, 'Follow The Signs' was the perfect ending of this five-song cycle: a driving sequencer and gripping chord progression coupled with a simple but powerful vocal line. Considering the limited technical means the duo was working with, this was no less than a triumph.
A few months later, the band released a seven-inch single on its own ABLACO label. 'Dark Trees Beyond', a quirky pop song, was coupled with 'Addict Of Time', a dark and brooding spoken word piece. Not the kind of single to storm hit parades, but it didn't go unnoticed. The Minny Pops' Wally van Middendorp, who had founded the Plurex label in 1978, invited A Blaze Colour to his studio in the Netherlands, to record an EP. It would prove to be a massive step forward: recording in a semi-professional studio offered great possibilities, the recently acquired TR-808 drum machine allowed for a broader rhythm palette, and the three new tracks (next to the re-recording of 'Through With Life') showed a band on the top of their game: 'The New Ones' was a wry and haunting song built around a live drum loop and an ominous bass pattern, while 'Nowhere Else' was a near-pop track with very un-minimal vocal harmonies. And it's a mystery why 'Altitude' – another instrumental – was never used in a stylized, high-profile detective soundtrack.
Another song from these sessions, the revved-up 'Cold As Ever' turned up on the high-profile Plurex "Hours" compilation, where it shone brightly, next to songs of a.o. X-Mal Deutschland, Nasmak, Minny Pops and Section XXV.
Meanwhile, Camberlin had already carved out a bit of a reputation for himself as a producer, while Saelemaekers was a respected graphic designer. It remains uncertain if this played a big part in the end of A Blaze Colour, but the fact remains: as studio recordings go, 'The Ultimate Fight' on the "No Big Business 2" compilation, was to be their swan song. What a way to go, though: maybe their best song ever, this was a synthetic bastard funk groove, complete with shout-out chorus and punch-drunk middle-eight. It shut a door, for sure, but it did so with a resounding bang.
So there it is and there it was. Short, sweet, visionary, pioneering and highly influential. And as anybody listening to this first ever compilation will be able to assess probably one of the most colourful electronic acts of its time.
On a more a personal note, A Blaze Colour proved to be instrumental in my own coming of age as a lyric writer, when Ludo and Bam graciously adopted some of my earlier writings, warts and all. To hear them translated into songs was no less than magic, and it certainly gave me the confidence to start our own band a bit later. And the magic continued when Ludo became our producer and Bam designed our record sleeves. But that’s another story, obviously. Because this is the place and the time to dive back into the wondrous world of A Blaze Colour!"
Bart Azijn (Aimless Device)
We're glad to be back with the third instalment of our new series of DJ and Artist curated 12" mini compilations: Melodies Record Club.
Following Ben UFO and Four Tet's selections last year, Hunee helms volume three which includes three tracks this time including music from Digital Justice, Dorothy Ashby and Frantz Tuernal. Available early November in loud 12" format.
In his own words: " These three distinct pieces of music tap into different layers of my memory. One being part of the imagination, the other two rooted in the memories of a special morning in the woods of Houghton (and other times and places). On one side we have a beatless ecstatic piece of electronic music by Digital Justice called Theme From 'It's All Gone Pearshaped'. Originally released in 1994 on Rob Gretton's (ex-manager of Joy Division and New Order) label Robs Records, Pearshaped is a 13 minute live jam from two friends messing around in a loft studio full of synths, inadvertently creating magic that can "take many shapes and forms in the hands of a DJ and the movement of a dance floor, whilst its harmonic counterpoint shines through the wildest mixes and combinations"
On the flip, we have Dorothy Ashby's spiritual piece featuring Koto and spoken word "For Some We Loved" from her classic album "The Rubáiyát Of Dorothy Ashby" originally released in 1970 on Cadet and Frantz Tuernal's "Koultans" originally released in 1986 by l'AMEP (Association Martiniquaise d'Enseignement Populaire) which was also a school in Martinique. "After dancing to a set from Cedric Woo at an intimate, after-closing dance party at Brilliant Corners called "Freedom Suite" which completely re-calibrated my sense of experiencing and dancing to music, I went home and immediately searched through my collection for music to listen to and potentially play with these new found sensitivities - the very physical experience of music, the pulling force pushing one into the transcendence of time and space. Dorothy Ashby's "For Some We Loved"immediately took me back to that feeling and opened up in front of me an otherworldly-world through it's free flowing polyrhythms and sparkling Koto playing. I have yet to play my own "Freedom Suite"night, but I hope when that moment comes, I can give back what I have received back then, and "For Some We Loved"is a first step in trying just that.""I have been shown Frantz Tuernal's privately pressed 12"containing "Koultans" by my trusted music friend Nicolas Skliris from Paris a few years ago. An unlikely piece of music (a Zouk song with flamenco-inspired guitar playing) from Martinique that was both a highlight back at Giant Steps when I played the song 3 times in a row in the early morning, and a few weeks later in the woods of Houghton where a few thousand dancers were deeply moved to its melody, when the sun came up in the morning and started descending upon the lake behind the DJ booth, bathing the smiles upon the dancers faces with its reflection."
Hunee's instalment is out early November in loud 12" format, and the first press comes with a folded A2 insert with words from and about the Artists. Graphic design by Atelier ChoqueLeGoff, illustration and animation by Nevil Bernard and for the audiophiles out there, remastered and cut at half speed by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios!
Vector Lovers has remained a firm favourite of the underground electronic music scene cognoscenti and holds a coveted place among the most hallowed of record shelves, and with good reason. Since the early 2000s Martin Wheeler has explored a sparse audio wasteland in order to develop a new sonic palette that looks outward to electro, IDM and ambient.
After self-releasing a handful of his own productions on the Iwari label, Wheeler’s career defining album was signed by British label Soma in 2005, leading to the first great revival of 90s IDM. Capsule for One' was an unrivalled masterpiece that perfectly synthesised the heritage of the Hardcore Continuum with renewed airs and degree of clarity that ushered in a new millennia and sound. It arrived as a worthy successor to the venerated Warp artists of the time, while embracing new panoramas and technologies.
Capsule for One' is a melancholic album, with an almost cosmic spirituality that provokes daydreaming. From its opening track 'City Lights From a Train' it welcomes the listener onto an infinite journey at the speed of light, connecting the past, present and future, folding time and space and painting neon cities populated by cyborgs. The album reaches its zenith with 'Melodies and Memory', featuring Wheeler’s very own voice, which has arguably become one of this century’s greatest electronic ballads to date. In fact, the impact of 'Capsule for One' was such that Tracey Thorn commissioned him to produce her song 'Easy', from the album 'Out of the Woods' Virgin, 2007.
For its forthcoming release on Lapsus Records, Martin Wheeler has remixed each and every song on 'Capsule for One', as well as adding two previously unreleased tracks 'A Simulation' and 'Perfect Score', both produced around the same epoch. This extra special release, with artwork redesigned by Josep Basora, features a double marbled vinyl and a limited edition insert print.
More than three years has passed since her last release on Höga Nord Rekords but now Laughing Eye is back on the label with two tracks of electronic neo hippie beat-music. A departure from the 2019 album (”Laughing Eye”) but still true to the core of psychedelic music, Laughing eye taps in to the early eighties and primitive drum machine driven music on these two tracks.
Both ”An Die Freude” and ”Pass in Light” has an alien and outer spacey feeling to them: the titles suggests this and the music fits them perfectly. If Laughing Eye aimed at your inner space on the last album, these songs goes to seek extraterrestrial life with kind intentions.
Gothenburgs observatory lies under threat of a shutdown due to raised rents, but maybe with help from Laughing Eye and other space freaks like her, we can turn this ”development” around and secure the resources needed in the search for life on other planets!
Phase Group continue their exploration of the fringes of contemporary electronic music with a release that brings together two separate projects born from analogue hardware improvisations.
‘A Given Moment’ presents the dub-laden, mind-bending and noise-driven music of Brussels-based artist and Vastechoses label head Lostsoundbytes, and the lo-fi, early morning lysergic experiments of Lowspace, an unearthed, forgotten collaborative project by French DJ and musician Low Bat and Dresden-based producer Heninspace.
This is music that takes you deeper into the vortex, made for dark and smoke-enveloped clubs and cosmic day-break afterparty moments. On the A-side, Lostsoundbytes continues his prolific output of masterfully crafted bass-heavy and dub-wise analogue machine jams, while the B-side presents two lost psychotropic experimental recordings by Lowspace made in 2016 upon a visit by Low Bat to Heninspace’s Dresden studio.
'A Given Moment' will be out on Phase Group in December 2022
Artwork by Andrija Čugurović
Mastered in Glasgow by Murray Collier.
Professionally dubbed to cassette in Prague by Headless Duplicated Tapes.
On their third album, »Rideau«, Swedish trio Tape made their great leap forward. Released in 2005 on Häpna, following two albums of pastoral folk meets electronica, »Rideau« saw the trio of Andreas and Johan Berthling, and Tomas Hallonsten, working with an outside producer, Marcus Schmickler (best known for his post-rock outfit Pluramon). On »Rideau«, Tape’s music opened out considerably, embracing traditional minimalism, and luscious melodicism. Now, seventeen years later, »Rideau« has a new home with Morr Music, who are reissuing the album on vinyl, marking its first appearance on the format, including an extra track.
It’s only logical that »Rideau« should reappear via Morr Music. Like Tape themselves, Morr Music was a significant part of the worldwide gang busy reconciling electronica, pop, and acoustic, group- oriented sound across the 2000s, and »Rideau« sits neatly alongside other releases of similar heritage. And yet, »Rideau« feels contemporary, suggesting the creative discoveries made by the trio have ongoing resonance; their elliptical poetry echoes through recent music from the likes of Tara Clerkin Trio, and Tape’s sometime collaborators, Tenniscoats.
Asked about the album, Johan Berthling recalls, “»Rideau« was a special album for us to make”. While they had previously recorded their albums in rural Sweden, for »Rideau«, the trio decamped to Schmickler’s Piethopraxis Studio in Cologne. The creative space that Schmickler carved out for the group allowed them to explore this new material to its fullest. For his part, Schmickler found himself drawn to Tape’s music –“Their focus was a combination of seemingly timeless folk influences with noisy electronics and field recordings,” he explains. You can hear Schmickler’s influence at an almost molecular level – Tape had never sounded quite so graceful and assured with their compositions. “Marcus really shaped the music, working architecturally to build the form of the pieces,” Berthling recalls.
»Rideau« represents a collective exhalation for Tape, with the trio exploring more involved, longer pieces, which situates them in yet broader musical contexts. There are clear connections with the history of minimalism, for example, via the repeating organ phrase of »Sunrefrain«, and the insistent piano arpeggio of »A Spire«, which builds into a Reich-ian dream song, with sensuous electronics and glinting vibraphone dappling abstract shapes across the song’s stretched canvas.
Reflecting on Tape’s essence, Schmickler isolates their “uncompromised ethos, caring about small details.” This echoes most radically through the twilight environment of »Long Lost Engine«, which sets the listener adrift on impossibly radiant drones, while a gentle, almost Feldman-esque melody plays out over the song’s surface. It’s followed by the reissue’s extra track, Japanese electronica quartet Minamo’s remix of »Roulette«, a connection that would lead to a Minamo/Tape collaborative album, »Birds Of A Feather« (2007).
For now, though, here is the gorgeous, penumbral abstraction of »Rideau«, an album of whispers and clues, quiet moments and grand gestures, reintroduced to a welcoming world.
Nach einer triumphalen Herbsttournee stellen die Jazz-/Electro-Stars mit 300 000 verkauften Alben ihre neueste EP "Between Two Waves" im Vinylformat vor. Ein Neo-Jazz-Juwel mit energiegeladenen und mitreißenden Rhythmen, in denen Klavier, Kontrabass und Drums perfekt miteinander verschmelzen. Mit dieser neuen EP präsentieren Gogo Penguin eine neue Besetzung (der Schlagzeuger Jon Scott schließt sich dem Pianisten Chris Illingworth und dem Bassisten Nick Blacka an, einige Monate vor den Aufnahmesitzungen in den Real World Studios von Peter Gabriel) und unterzeichnen bei einem neuen Label: XXIM Records. Neuanfang und wichtiger Wendepunkt in ihrer Entwicklung: Die Band begann, neue Ideen zu erforschen und zu experimentieren, und erweiterte die Palette der Klänge und Stimmen in den Stücken.
A record that should never leave any HiNRG sympathetic record bag. You get two monstrous club tracks from the second half of the 80s for the price of one. These two singles put the power couple (Pascal and Denise Languirand) on the HiNRG map worldwide. “Imagination” is an electro influenced anthem that will shift gears for any dancefloor. The percussive work on the break is a ground quaking homage to freestyle/latin influences from the scene in LA at the time, (reminiscent of the unconstrained drum machine programing on “Just My Love” by Umo Vogue for example). Flip it and you're left with “I'm Yours Tonight”: a highly sought after Patrick Miller holly grail that might have been too honest to be taken seriously by the already "house" infected zeitgeist which might have been dominating the mainstream for the tail end of the late 80s. But for many faithful HiNRG scholars this would never leave our radars, so here it is again at a now reasonable price and remastered for serious club application.
A joint release by LA's Hippos In Tanks and Montreal's Arbutus Records, the Darkbloom EP is a thrilling split by d'Eon and Grimes. Harnessing the dark energy of her sophomore album Halfaxa, along with the shimmering dream pop of her debut Geidi Primes, Grimes' side represents a synthesis of her two sonic personalities. Displaying a level of clarity and craftsmanship heretofore unseen in her releases, Boucher presents a stunning new collection of ethereal dreamscapes that expand her creative palette without compromising the spectral presence she is known for. Following the Middle-Eastern-tinged R&B of 2010's Palinopsia, d'Eon broadens his stylistic breadth through reference to a number of electronic genres - for example, he simultaneously incorporates elements of Chicago footwork and new jack swing, but surprises the listener with strange forays into bygone genres such as UK drum and bass and trip hop. Presently available worldwide on CD and Digital formats, Darkbloom will be available on vinyl, for the frst time in many territories, on May 20th, 2016.




















