News: 31st January 2009

I have a fresh mix up over at Modyfier, check it out here.

I hope you enjoy it!
Noah

Chart: January 2009

1. STP – The Fall – Peverelist Remix (+ T++ Remix) / SubSolo

2. Synkro – Just To See Her / Synkro

3. Frozen Border – FB01A / Frozen Border

4. Unknown – Tarpuntine Sun / Seldom Felt

5. “Unknown” – Unknown Material

6. “Unknown” – Emotion Reset

7. EQD – Equalized #002 A / Equalized

8. Dimi Angélis & Jeroen Search – Ratio / Smallville

9. The Village Orchestra – Tober / Stuffrecords

10. Nukubus – Skylark – Dub Mix / Vonk

Review: STP – The Fall Remixes

Label: Subsolo
Catalog#: sub04

Tracklist:
A: T++ Remix

B: Peverelist Remix

Buy here

Recommended!

T++ and Peverelist are key producers of the music I like, they always push things into what seems limitless directions, throwing in so much energy in the productions that it’s unbelieveable.

Here they remix Shed’s first release on the Subsolo label, that under the moniker of STP got released two years ago, which of course is one of my favorite tracks. The T++ remix is a heavy weight monster that fills the sound spectrum with industrial distortion and noise, combined with broken and delayed snares and percussion, fitted together with a hardcore-ish bassline and subtle synth variations that comes in from every direction. Weird sound structure that blasts it’s way into the heart of sound from 2009.

Peverelist expands the sorrow in the original track, filling it with a electric and excentric synthline, that adapts to the wall of sound and takes the track into a whole new level. Panned out and spacious percussion and improvised-like noises remains close to the bassline that lies at a more subtle state in comparsion to the A-side. The focus is instead on the melody, that as well as the original is a class of it’s own with it’s ever-growing state and no compromise techno-fuel, brings in a sense of what to expect from the promised combination of Shed and Peverelist.

Excellent release, you need to get this!

Review: Ben Klock – Before One EP

Label: Ostgut Tonträger
Catalog#: o-ton19

Tracklist:
A1: Napoleon Hill

A2: Subzero

B1: Before One

B2: Init Two

Buy here

Recommended!

One of the most inspiring releases this year comes from Ostgut and Ben Klock. It’s haunting and mesmerizing sound captures what the most interesting techno of today stands for.

Ben Klock has recently put out a lot of his own material together with a few remixes, but the ‘Before One EP’ is definitely the best one.

Starting off with ‘Napoleon Hill’, a track with a vibrated synthline and 0 degrees pads swirling in the background, combined with Klock’s remarkable beats and sounds, senses that he has established a new direction in his own sound – a direction that feels a lot more inspiring and confident.

‘Subzero’ on the A2 is drenched in oil and howling beats, a rolling bassline with brush stroke-percussion and ambience, filling the excellent synthline with more depth and darkness. Unbelieveable power that only does justice on a well invested soundsystem.

The most tripping and mesmerizing piece on the release is the title track ‘Before One’. Resembling to the previous tracks of the release, ‘Before One’ picks the pace up a notch and removes most of the frills in comparsion to the A-side. Lot’s of focus on the melody and ambience, with small variations going on in the background to keep you peeled. A focus that comes to a climax with the ambient track ‘Init Two’, which is lifted from Klock’s debut album ‘One’.

Highly recommended release that sounds as 2009.

Review: Tadeo – Contacto

Label: Net28
Catalog#: NET28CD2 / NET2802

Tracklist:
1. Virgo
2. Eclipse
3. Titán
4. Transmisión
5. Heliopausa
6. M31 Andromeda
7. Orión
8. Captación
9. Reflection Nebula 056N
10. Júpiter
11. Zona de fluctuación en el espacio-tiempo
12. Metro

Buy here

‘Contacto’ is Tadeo’s debut album, which is filled with his minimalistic, clear and sharp style of techno. The spanish sound of Alex Under, Tadeo and Damían Schwartz is distributed by their collaborate company Net28, which now is the parent label of their own respective labels.

While Alex Under enjoys farming tools and bicycles, space and circular variations seem to be a favorite theme of Tadeo’s, which between January and December 2007 made a bunch of tracks with the space theme, that now gets released on ‘Contacto’.

A few of these tracks saw their way onto Apnea as the acclaimed ‘Cosmos’ 12″, which later on got remixed by both Cassy and Substance. Together they are two of 2007 best releases.

I had built up a good ol’ hype for Tadeo’s ‘Contacto’, since I really enjoyed his recent material very much. But after giving it a thourough listen through, I feel that even though he seems to have worked a lot on these tracks, they lack large amounts of depth and energy. Yes, he makes reduced techno tracks that are supposed to be a bit more unbarked, but they sound too narrowed down. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an excellent producer that delivers his own sound in a consistent way.

‘Virgo’ starts things off by introducing a steady and pulsating beat, with lots of transformation and space-exploration in the foreground, keeping things on a line between reduction, extention and extreme duration. Maybe I don’t “get it”, but as far as variation goes, all tracks from the beginning until ‘Captación’ seem to be variations of a theme that got stuck on ‘Virgo’ – but, ‘Captación’ and the tracks thereafter are really top notch. ‘Reflection Nebula 056N’ is an anthem that really captures the essence of Tadeo’s skill and emotion, full with pulsating energy and signature sounds which is transformed into a more experimental state over the remaining tracks.

‘Contacto’ should’ve been more diverse and powerful, as Tadeo has showed numerous times that he is capable of that.

My favorite tracks:

M31 Andromeda

Captación

Reflection Nebula 056N

Review: The Village Orchestra – The Dark Is Rising

Label: Stuffrecords
Catalog#: stuff006

Tracklist:
A1: Dwyer

A2: Dwyer Bonus Beats

B1: Afanc – 2562 Refix

B2: Tober

Buy here

Fresh out of the camp this one, with a sound that can be best described as sample based hardcore with the techniques of dubstep, ranging from techno attitude to reduced electronica.

The ‘Dwyer’ tracks on the A-side are wild and unstructured in a good way, making things funky while maintaining a perfect blend of samples and sound architecture. With the ‘Bonus Beats’, things are getting more straight forward and more floor friendly.

On the flip there’s a refix from The Hauge’s finest 2562, kicking things down a notch and revealing a more suble side of the record. Slow paced percussion combined with a sleeping and droning pad behind the scenes, comfortly introducing the classic 2562 stabs and appearing as glue in the entire structure of the track.

The last track ‘Tober’ is a darker number that sounds very inspired by the Chain Reaction crew, but paying hommage to the previous tracks style. Emerging energy right from the start with well perceived melodic structure and ambience, flowing through until a Detroit-infected synthline comes in to spark things up – really nice work here.

Thanks to Richard over at Stuffrecords for the record!

News: 24th January 2009

Thank you for all the comments and feedback, I really appreciate it and I read them all! Makes you know in what direction to take things.

A interview is coming up as well as the last part of ‘The Best of 2008’, together with a review of Kurbits Records first release and some other ones as well.

Hang in there,
Noah

Review: Unknown – Seldom Felt 4

Label: Seldom Felt
Catalog#: SELDOM FELT 004

Tracklist:
A: Untitled

B: Untitled

Buy here

Recommended!

This is a very experimental piece from Seldom Felt. Putting this next to the previous releases, it differs a lot from them.

On the A-side, things are very tripping and sounds like nothing I’ve heard before. Pushing synthlines are combined with a deep and subtle kick, swirling percussion that goes up and down as the track progress, combined with a walking bassline – high end production!

The B-side reminds me a bit of Choice – Acid Eiffel from 1993. Structured around a inaudiable vocal that really puts things in place together with futuristic pads and the classic techno percussion. A anthem for the new year to say the least.

Review: Various Artists – Round Black Ghosts 2

Label: ~scape
Catalog#: ~scape57

Tracklist:
1. Peverelist & Appleblim – Circling
2. TRG – Ghetto Romance
3. Zed Bias – The Cauldron – Instrumental
4. Scuba – Bleach
5. Pole – Alles Gute
6. Martyn – Vancouver
7. Ramadanman – Blimey
8. Untold – Yukon
9. Kode 9 vs. Badawi – Den Of Drumz
10. Martyn – Natural Selection – Flying Lotus’ Cleanse Mix
11. Kontext – Blinkende Stjerne

In the early summer of 2008, ~scape released the first ‘Round Black Ghosts’. A compilation of very present dubstep and on-the-edge-of electronica / IDM tunes. In February it’s time for the second installment, with a few unreleased tracks as well as previously embraced material.

Starting off with ‘Circling’, a track that’s been on several releases already, a sense of repetance of the last few months appears. The first ‘Round Black Ghosts’ was so groundbreaking compared to this one.

Looking at the tracklist, it gives hope of strong tracks from various outputs and geographical locations (although they are relatively close to each other) – stripped down dubstep material with urban expression. A correct view would be to define this release a bit more settled in than the first one. Lot’s of the experimental side of the previous CD have been lost or maybe it’s because I now know more about the dubstep sound?

Well, there is a very good sense of ~scape’s ability to summarize a lot of extreme quality dubstep, although the effort here seems a bit less fun.

Putting this CD in the hands of a person that doesn’t know so much about dubstep or hasn’t heard so much of it would be a brilliant idea. Every artist is a heavy piece in the scene, with a wide range styles and emotion, this would be a great way to introduce somebody to the music.

My favorite tracks:

Scuba – Bleach

Martyn – Vancouver

Untold – Yukon

Kode 9 vs. Badawi – Den of Drums

Review: Ancient Methods – Third Method

Label: Ancient Methods
Catalog#: AM-03

Tracklist:
A1: Else – Ugandan Methods Mix

A2: Else – Radio Edit

B1: White Flames

B2: Burning – Reprise

Buy here

Recommended!

I was at Hard Wax last weekend. Just as I was ready to pay for the tracks I’d checked out a few crates of vinyls came in. They played one on the store sound system and I wondered if it was a new Ancient Methods. Luckily I was right – after 10 minutes I had a copy in my hands!

One of the heaviest and dirtiest labels out there is Ancient Methods. Their releases are fierce industrial techno, with attitude resembling to British Murder Boys. In fact, Else – Ugandan Methods Mix is co-produced with Regis.

The previous two releases sounds more experimental than this one, which has a more technoid approach to it. This one feels more melancholic and emotional than AM-01 and AM-02, which is a pleasant surprise rather than the contrary. As for the production, it’s out of this world. Strange sounds and great use of distortion adds to the energy and makes it more powerful – one of the Hard Wax guys called it a classic record as soon as the first track was put on.

The B-sides are a bit more funky and has a less mystical vibe to them, built around a broken beat and a steady rhythm, the mechanical noises and structures makes them one of this years most impressive productions.