A Weekend Set Up

Sorry about the lack of blog action recently, it's going to continue for a while i'm afraid. Another quick post, this time a few more techno sets that have been rocking my one functional headphone recently:

Perc at This is Techno, Reading

The best mix I've heard from Perc for a few months, some great tracks including the classic Throw by Paperclip people- not as industrial sounding as some of his recent mixes (which is why i prefer it), rather it's a mix of good solid techno:

1) Dustin Zahn - Wet Skin - Mindshake
2) Misstress Barbara - Four On The Floor (Perc's Dub Mix) - Iturnem
3) Nitin - Silent Scales (Osunlade Remix) - No19 Music
4) Ben Klock - Goodly Sin (Robert Hood Remix) - Ostgut Ton
5) Lucretio - Good Words - Restoration
6) Paperclip People - Throw - Planet E
7) The Scientist - The Bee - Kickin
8) Pacou - Drift - Cache
9) Dustin Zahn - Dutch Rudder 420 - Mindshake
10) Babyl-tr0n - Responsibilty (Gary Beck Remix) - Perc Trax
11) Mike Dehnert - Black Smoke - Fachwerk
12) Perc - Trapjaw (Xpansul's Dub Mix) - Perc Trax
13) Joey Beltram - Game Form (Perc Beats Edit) - Tresor
14) Sleazy Mcqueen - Naked (Kink Mix) - Hairy Claw
15) BCR Boys - Rorschach - Sleaze
16) Gary Beck - Drifting (Perc Remix) - Perc Trax
17) Mould Impression - Morgan's Bass - Primate
18) Dustin Zahn - Pad Of Eternal Life - Enemy
19) Robert Hood - Obey - M-Plant

Kevin Gorman August Cookery

One i've pinched from mnml ssgs, a new Gorman mix including a slew of top tracks from Zimmermann, Klock, Silent Servant, Wax, Dehnert... need I say more?

Monolake - Gobi
Los Updates vs Ricardo Villalobos - Bank Brotherhood (Andrew Grant remix)
Jens Zimmermann - X11
Byron Bogue - BUT Fool (Jens Zimmermann remix)
Ben Klock - Subzero (Function & Regis remix)
Kevin Gorman - Cyclic (Peter Van Hoesen remix)
Mariano DC - Bourbon of Wizards (Jonas Kopp remix)
Silent Servant - Discipline
Thomas Brinkmann - Studio 1 Variations (Adsum remix 1)(unreleased)
Staffan Linzatti - See
Debo - South Side
Wax 20002
Artist name tbc - Cotton (featuring Benga)(unreleased)
Mike Dehnert - Umlaut (Levon Vincent NY basement remix)
DJ Hell - Totmacher (Baby Ford remix)

XLR8R Labels We Love: Modern Love

Manchester's Modern Love has a unique gritty sound that combines dubby techno, chicago house, and dubstep influences. If you don't know the label, this is a great intro including classics such as Dependent, One State, and Exigen, as well as new releases on sub-label Daphne.

01 Demdike Stare "Haxan Dub" (Modern Love)
02 Andy Stott "Peace Of Mind" (Modern Love)
03 Claro Intelecto "Dependent" (Modern Love)
04 Move D "Drøne" (Modern Love)
05 Andy Stott "Brief Encounter" (Modern Love)
06 MLZ "One State" (Modern Love)
07 Deepchord Presents Echospace "Untitled" (Modern Love)
08 Pendle Coven "Exigen" (Modern Love)
09 Claro Intelecto "Rise" (Modern Love)
10 Millie "Gunshot" (Daphne)
11 Andrea "Temper Tantrum" (Daphne)
12 Andrea "Black Hammer" (Daphne)
13 Unknown "Pretty Boys Don't Survive Up North" (Hate)


Dino Sabatini Prologue Portefeuille Podcast

The first of Prologue's new podcast series featuring the label's regular artists. A good mix of atmospheric Italian style techno, inclding lots of forthcoming releases on Prologue.

Olophonic Dream - Modern Heads
Komentomoduuli - Samuli Kemppi
Ozone - Modern Heads (soon on Prologue)
Krees - Dino Sabatini
Temporary Suspension - Planetary Assault System
Monotoys - Modern Heads (soon on Prologue)
Pharaoah rmx - Touane
Tempo - Giorgio Gigli (Prologue)
Concentricy - Modern Heads
Kuolonkellot - Juho (Prologue)
Nuel - unknown
Dubarmoniks - Modern Heads (soon on Prologue)
Aguaplano 1111 - Dozzy & Nuel

netlabels mix tape 01

As part of this netlabels series, I'll do a mix after each posting, only comprising the things that I downloaded from netlabel sites that I've just written about. So, this first one comes following the Grünfeld Tonträger and Schall labels piece. And, in the spirit of the mnml ssgs guys, the exact track listing will follow a few days after. So, for now just listen, explore these two great netlabel sites and I hope you enjoy it.

netlabels mix august 2009 [direct download]

Netlabels September

So, we are still watching (or listening to, I guess) the netlabels. And, on this particularly grey day in Berlin, it seems fitting to follow some of the more brooding pieces.

Polymorphic Music

Trawling some slightly average, and some slightly less than average, netlables is, at times, a frustrating experience. Passing by sites with variable levels of graphic design capability presents a somewhat challenging experience on the eye, and an even more troubling experience on the ear. But then you come across a gem. A shinning beacon of expansive, guitar based ambient soundscapes from Gareth Dickson, on the polymorphic music netlable.

Dickson's sound is a spacious blend of guitar, soft male vocals and airy, somnambulate sound scapes. Beautiful, subtle, not really electronic in the sense of this blog's main focus, but perfect for a slightly grey day that leaves you blue. The Dance is repetitively lulling, brooding and deep and a highlight of the Gareth Dickson Sampler.

Hal with The Raw Deal EP is currently making my ears buzz with a low-frequency bass-sample overlaid with micro-clicks and hisses. It's fantastically dark, slightly oppressive but if you enjoy a bass induced state of relaxation, then I think 750 Hurts could hit the nail on the head. Ate Bit Bite - is reduced, a radically clipped vocal over a slowed-down four-four beat with a really quite beautiful underlying melody (of sorts). Every good story on the other hand eschews the beauty for some more bass induced oppression, incorporating a haunting synth-loop that seems to gradually shift and change as the track progresses.

This is a netlabel to watch for things more left-field, which seems to release with a consistent quality, but varied set of, mostly electronic, styles. Spatial's Dynamite Skank is another slice of minimalism, but with a bleak dub-beat and hissy, breathy, clipped samples.

Releases

Polymorphic Music

Cism

Cism, a label from Smolensk, Russia, which 'is a non-commercial netlabel focusing on deep music with dub mentality.' And the dub-mentality certainly shines through. Vacation by Christopher Schindling on the Cism_7 release is as floating, yet dance-inducing piece of deep-techno as you are likely to get. Reminiscent of STL, or Deepchord, this a track that will certainly be getting play-time in future sets. Its production values are superb, and it is eminently, throughly body-moving music, yet intricately deep at the same time. Inside on the same release does a similar job, with the added joy of a tiny, yet radically precise high-hat that pierces the bubbling ocean of dub-synth. The Havantepe remix of Vacation plays with the original, cutting it up slightly and adding a slightly more bouncy bassline and a more liberal sprinkling of snares over the synths. It doesn't exactly vary much along its way, but nevertheless, it supplies the atmospheric space of the original with a more up-beat tone. Releases from Mr Cloudy, such as Long Wandering, follow a similar aesthetic (not surprising considering the stated ambition of the label), but in a slowed down fashion. The Marko Fuerstenberg remix of Long Wandering picks the pace up somewhat, turning a home-listening track into a bit of a dancefloor rotation. The dub-atmosphere remains, but with a couple of build-ups and drops thrown in, this has more appeal in a club-space. The other remix, from grad_u throws everything up in the air, lets it absorb a cubic-mile of oxygen, then brings it slowly, but thunderingly, back to earth. Much, much slower and quite intimidating in its spaciousness, this is one for those 7am mornings of anxiety and dislocation.

Have a look at their website (as both of the above are flash, I can't link to the specific tracks and pages.)

Cism

If it's something more of the 6am minimal weirdness you're after (which is something, I've realised, we don't address on this site so much), then a release from the Monofónicos netlabel is where you'll find it. According to their blurb, 'Monofónicos is a creative space of digital action. A colective initiative from Medellin, Colombia seeking an exchange of musical ideals with a modern spirit of organic electronic music.'

Monofónicos

The V.A. Colores: Ocultos release contains those Konrad Black like tracks that would be at home on a Wagon Repair release, or in Matt John's record box. Odd, menacing and completely inducing early morning paranoia in those still in the club, these releases stand their own against anything I've heard from more professional labels recently. The delightfully named Hairy Guys' release of Blattod (Original Mix) chugs away with the determination of those who just won't sleep, interspersing a sparse minimal-beat with freaky hushed out vocals and a disquieting underlying synth. Snail by the equally pleasantly named Rat puts a Troy Pierce type spin on things, also moving at that somnambulate pace and playing with a mournful sound-effect that is a mix between water, an early echo-chamber and some kind of distorted electronic device, before dropping back into the well programmed drums. Weird Number by Abstrakt, conversely, is less weird than the other two, and steps the pace up a degree, but still using the classic pitched down vocals (why are they so low? who knows... but it works). Sounding something like a Gaiser release, the production values on this, as on the other releases here, are excellent.

Monofónicos Colores release

Ok, so some things to have a look at if you're interested in this extensive scene. And, with all these releases, I'd pay good money for every single one on Beatport, and here they are, sharing them with the world, gratis: thanks.

A mix of last months net-labels to follow shortly.

September sees the fourth installment of Oblique. And we are pleased to welcome North Wales' Tom Demac, playing live, to the dark confines of Undertone.

Summer is almost over - but there is still time to revel in the final warm evenings of the season, and join us for a night of quality techno, house, minimal, electro and dubstep. It's only the weather thats getting colder as we move into Autumn...

MJ and Thomas provide the support, and welcome you to another night of Oblique.

About Tom Demac:

After spending the last few years in Manchester and Barcelona, Tom Demac has returned to the picturesque setting of his native North Wales. Having developed a convincing alter ego, he manages a web development team most days and returns to a familiar guise in his spare time, creating a live collage of his thoughts.

Gathering inspiration from the surrounding landscape, a big dose of Detroit Techno, as well as influxes of Electronica, Dub and Jazz, Tom Demac writes and records live electronic music from the soul. From early sessions in a friends garage (containing a few rusty boxes and a four-track), Tom went on to study music technology in Salford University. Since then he has developed his own characteristic sound based on a philosophy of creating music aimed at the dance-floor, but melodic enough to appreciate at home in the living room.

After releasing records through Free Rotation collective imprints Mindyourhead records and Mindtours, Tom Demac formed the label' Electronique Audio. The first 3 records echoed his fresh and diverse take on electronic music (Decisions, New Beginnings and Liquid Staircase) and went on to gather international exposure and support. 2006 saw the collaboration with good friend and fellow resident of North Wales, Duckett, and together they recorded the 3 ep’s, Critical Distance (Electronique Audio), Unnecessary Cosmetics (STHLM Audio) and Climate Flu (Disappear Here).

Vinyl Only #4

The fourth in the vinyl only series is two recent releases by Traversable Wormhole. TW have been producing dark and forward thinking techno on white labels for the past year. With no description, info or detail as to who is behind them, they are one of an increasing number of artists (particularly Hardwax affiliated) who seem to favour this anonymous method of distribution for 'serious' techno these days. Their four releases to date have all been stripped back techno that fits that cavernous sound well, combining industrial soundscapes with a mix of off kilter and 4/4 beats and deep, rumbling basslines, reminiscent of Mills or Luke Slater's Planetary Assault Systems.

Both releases fit this mould and neither strays too far from TW's tried and tested path; the A side of TW03 features a clanking two note hook over a deep, menacing bassline, before a melodic synth shines through the darkness after four minutes. The TW03 B side has an off kilter drumbeat, burbling bass bursts, vocal snippets and a lot of reverb in a little changing but effective composition.

Following a similar pattern, TW04 dedicates one side to a deeper dancefloor track, while the other side follows a more industrial route. TW 04 uses a simple piano and synth combination to build up to a moody and deep techno track with industrial percussion and off beat hi hats, and this is the side I will play most. The B side is the slower and more industrial side of the two, a deeply layered, hissing, squealing and clanking factory of a track that would feel at home with recent Ostgut tracks.

Anyone who hasn't heard it should check out their mnml ssgs mix from earlier this year, a superb mix that moves from deep to driving melodic to hard edged industrial pot banging techno, as well as taking in a couple of their own releases along the way.