Beats News

zeitkratzer and its special guests SVETLANA SPAJIC (voice), DRAGANA TOMIC (voice) and OBRAD MILIC (voice, diple, gusle) present traditional Serbian songs from and about World War I.

Within its 20 years of existence, REINHOLD FRIEDL's ensemble zeitkratzer has proved its interpretatory mastership on a wide range of fields such as contemporary / avant-garde composers, electronic artists, industrial underground - and, probably most surprising on this list, also in traditional music / folklore as documented on the two albums "Volksmusik" and "Neue Volksmusik" . For "Serbian War Songs", a selection of traditional songs from and about World War I, the "modern composition supergroup" (THE WIRE) have invited some special guests: the renowned singers SVETLANA SPAJIC and DRAGANA TOMIC (who both worked a.o. with ROBERT WILSON) and the diple / gusle player OBRAD MILIC. REINHOLD FRIEDL and SVETLANA SPAJIC (probably the most acknowledged expert for traditional songs in Serbia) selected some traditional Serbian songs from and about World War I, and OBRAD MILIC contributes "Assassination In Sarajevo", a song in the classic epic form he had learnt from his father Bogdan, a famous gusla player at the beginning of the 20th century. Commissioned by Berlin's Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, the performance was recorded and mixed by longtime zeitkratzer sound engineer MARTIN WURMNEST and mastered by MIKE GRINSER at D&M.



zeitkratzer

directed by Reinhold Friedl

Frank Gratkowski, bassclarinet, clarinet I Hild Sofie Tafjord, french horn IHilary Jeffery, tromboneIReinhold Friedl, pianoIMaurice de Martin, drums, percussionILisa Marie Landgraf, violinI Burkhard Schlothauer, violin I Nora Krahl,violoncelloIUlrich Phillipp, doublebass

+

special guests:

Svetlana Spajic, voice

Dragana Tomic, voice

Obrad Milic, voice, diple, gusle



recorded and mixed by Martin Wurmnest at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, January 16, 2016

produced by Reinhold Friedl

mastered by Mike Grinser at D&M, Berlin

The fourth Hotflush release of 2017 comes from Minneapolis-based DJ and producer, TML. He made his debut in 2014 with One Inch of Water, an album in cassette form via Always Human Tapes. His style takes cues from the bass and jungle halcyon days of yore, yet in his hands these influences are pestled into anything but nostalgia.
No Memory looks forward to a place where pigeonholes don't exist; where past, present and future boil an amalgamated stew; where 'experimental' and 'clubby' aren't effective antonyms. It's an album in miniature - six tracks spanning a broad range. The unmistakable taste of jungle pervades side A, becoming increasingly less abstract as it goes: from the fractured opening of 'Face Pads', through the dub of 'Cold Sleep', to the sunrise head bang that is 'Crying'. Side two moves inside. It's darker there. The tunes - 'Strainer', 'RHU' and 'Code Library' - share a paredbackness. Their beats look askance as they shuffle big and bold.

'Kunst' marks the first collaboration between these two heroes. John Cunnane, p.k.a. dgoHn & Jodey Kendrick, a.k.a J.K., Black Narcissus, Lord Of The D. Both gentlemen have appeared on Rephlex and Weme Records. It's strikingly original, great listening but hard to describe accurately with attention-grabbing pidgeonholes: ''From ambient, moody soundscapes to rinsing, hi-tech workouts.. and beyond.''

Mixes improvisation, guitar chimes, stretched time, electronic beats, sun-shaped mantras going in & out of phase. 1 sided, hand screened, clear vinyl, 100 copies.

tags: devotional idm ambient electronica electronics techno Stockholm

Geej  is pleased to present the debut album by installation artist and mystic minister The Reverend Marco D'Andrea. The Garden is an album which began as an installation project fusing the objects of the vague Canadiana of his childhood: tents, vintage speakers and the hippie totems that line the basements of 70s suburbia. 
D'Andrea's sound art has in the past made use of various antiquated sound technologies, both dissecting and distilling old psych and classic rock records to an ambient core of shamanistic drone. In part, The Garden is a meditation on the Canadian tradition of camping, in particular Marco's own memories of camping in the 80s in Ontario provincial parks. 
'My dad had a 70s canvas tent, which has a specific feel and smell. I decided to find a vintage canvas tent for my installation and since this piece was about childhood and my father, I decided to use my dad's favourite albums as the basis of the sound. There were a few heavy psychedelic songs that made a strong impression on me as a kid.'
The Garden album is conceived as a mirror to the psychedelic sounds of the late 60s and early 70s, in particular the eponymous debut album of certiain heavy metal originators that will be obvious to keen eyed fans. 
Each piece of music is an attempt to get to the raw essence of psychedelic rock, beyond musicality and the phallic narratives of indulgent hedonism, and rather to a place of reflective worship. As such the music draws into view the essential baroque grandeur of classic rock stripped down into its essential tonalities. The title, a reference to the Hieronymus Bosch painting on the cover, is also an allusion to the biblical garden and a comment on the contemporary experience of nature as a garden that we keep for ourselves and do what we want with. This idea extends to the revolutionary aspirations of psychedelic culture, which for all its spiritual expanse and openness, was easily commodified and used to sell everything from cars to toothpaste. The lasting legacy of 60s counterculture is a lost path: as Bosch reminds us, the garden can be a dangerous place to leave.
Marco D'Andrea is an artist and an ordained Reverend based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His artwork incorporates sound art, audio recordings, sculpture and installation where objects, sounds and environments form a relationship and create meaning in the moment of listening and experiencing. D'Andrea was born in the small town of Sharon, Ontario and as a first generation Canadian, grew up with a unique mix of Italian Catholicism and hard-rocking, working-class Canadiana. D'Andrea was ordained as a Metaphysical Minister in 2017.

The new Private Records LP "Find Out What I'm Dreaming" is a journey into the world of female cosmic energy. A feminine concept music production thought up by Li Garattoni. Beautiful downtempo synth pop with a lot of krautish psychedelic ingredients - originally released on the small German label "Software Music" in 1982. The outstanding song Dornroschen (Sleeping beauty) is definitely a top notch highlight for all collectors and DJ's of deep high quality electronic music. Secure your 35 anniversary DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) audiophile pressing now - original 1982 vinyl records became unbelievable rare and selling for hundreds of euros on the collector market at the moment.

Edition of 500 numbered copies. LP presented in a heavy weight kraft die-cut jacket. Hand stamped sleeve and insert (30cm x 30 cm). Includes dossier with pictures and detailed information regarding all the bands featured on the album.

In fact, the city was late, as usual, for the musical revolution of 1976, but no one seemed to notice or care. Labels, bands, venues and trends were even more ephemeral than today, and the most dedicated collectors missed a great deal of product. Those were the times, and this is a cross-section of the underground scene of these days and it is also a sample, a recognition and a selection of pioneering artists, musicians who showed the path to many that followed. These projects enjoyed very little, if any, visibility. Most of them never got their work released, although their musical output was large and some acts did perform with remarkable success in the area of Barcelona. Others did not take the chance to get signed by a major, remaining stubbornly faithful to their musical ethos. Even others were self-produced and self-promoted affairs, with the means available at the time, merely aiming at spreading their work in a notably hostile scene, with some producing their music at home, for themselves, without much conscience of what they were doing.
More than thirty years on, our perception of what this revolution in the Barcelona music scene meant has mutated and evolved. We firmly believe it our responsibility to shed some light on this litttle-known and enigmatic instant.

Important Records presents Omminggg and Schlomminggg, the second release by continuous music pioneer Charlemagne Palestine and Grumbling Fur consisting of London based multi-disciplinary artists Daniel O'Sullivan and Alexander Tucker, the Time Machine Orchestra being the extended drone arm of Tucker and O'Sullivan's experimental avant-pop conception. This double LP captures a performance of the trio at Copenhagen's illustrious Jazzhouse in 2016. The pin-drop acoustic clarity of the venue providing an ideal setting for this mesmeric recital of eternal music.

The signature strumming of Palestine's piano augmented by Tucker and O'Sullivan's earthware electronics and processed strings create seamless sonic ripples in a constant state of unfolding. This is perhaps the most demonstrative document of Palestine's powerful vocal delivery - an alien hybrid of sacred music drawing deep from the well of the cantorial synagogue and Hindustani classical styles in a bid to channel inter-dimensional beings from ancient cultures. In some respects this could be thought of as Charlemagne in dub as Grumbling Fur carefully twist and mangle their palette of electrified harp, viola, bowed mandolin, percussion, tapes and voice transformers through chains of loopers resulting in a slowly dilating vapour.

Mixed at O'Sullivan's Dream Lion Studio with gatefold sleeve art by Alexander Tucker and a Grumbling Fur redux/remodel constituting side four, this is a unique document of portal opening music that defies time and space.

Following the release of his acclaimed debut solo album - Je suis le Ténébreux in October 2016, British experimental music artist Christopher Chaplin will release - Deconstructed" (Remix EP)" on May 26th. It's a very special and limited 12 which comes with four outstanding remixes by producers such as the recently highly acclaimed Berlin-based sound and media artist Jana Irmert, Grammy-nominated American composer Tim Story, Brooklyn-based artist and producer aka Tim O'Keefe, and Viennese multi-instrumentalist and electronic music producer Peter Zirbs.- Deconstructed is to be released on May 26th (12 /digital) on Fabrique Records.

Ltd edition official cassette release of the recent vinyl and CD reissue
of their very rare 1999 Prescription album.

The cassette comes in an additional O card slipcase and is sealed
housed in an outer card box which is stamped using the original
rubber stamper that was used on the back of the artwork enclosed with the original
Astral Disaster album issued in 1999.

In addition, we have found the original zip lock plastic bags used
to house the artwork in the original LP and these are used to house
the complete package.

Stickered with barcode and individually numbered limited edition.

New album by Keith Freund & Linda Lejsovka of the band Trouble Books:

Music for Small Ensemble & Computer is a collection of what I call the DIY shitty classical' pieces me and Linda have been working on for a couple years. Using an inherited piano, freeware, and the basement floorcore spirit of discovery to trespass into a typically more rarefied style. And thankfully a few actually-trained friends lent their skills to the mess.

To me, it's the sound of the two of us struggling to find peace and stability for ourselves, family, and small community in an often chaotic and hostile world.

I'm really excited about this collection. We previously released these pieces on as-limited-as-possible 12' runs and went through them very quickly, so it's cool that MIE is giving them a wider issue. Linda and I have made quite a few records now, but to me this is really the closest to being us'. Put a headphone jack in my tombstone and have this playing. Does any of this make any sense

Keith Freund, 2017

Could be just a coincidence, but to complete its orbit around the earth, it takes the moon not only 27 days and 7 hours, but also an additional 43,7 minutes - which happens to be the exact duration of MimiCof's latest album: An experimental sonic link between human and celestial bodies, mind and machine, gravitational ripples and rotations, Moon Synch is the result of an intricate search for converging frequencies, a wordless account of well-modulated speeds and interlocking spheres.

Kyoto-born, Berlin-based MimiCof, who's also been releasing music under her actual name Midori Hirano since 2006, quite literally breaks new ground and ventures into uncharted territory on this album because she's chosen a whole new musical vehicle: This LP is based on the recordings I made with a Buchla synthesizer during my residency at Stockholm's EMS Elektronmusikstudion,' says the composer, sound artist and producer from Japan who grew up playing the piano, an instrument she eventually studied as well. It was the first time I worked with an analog synthesizer - and a whole new experience.'

The results of her initial Buchla explorations are utterly hypnotic, cinematic layers of samples and loops, an unfolding narrative that's based on an eclectic spectrum of recorded material: There were no fixed references, no preconceived ideas,' she says. More like looking for the missing piece of a puzzle,' MimiCof ventures further and further into a realm of electrified oscillations and sonic tides with each new track: There's a whole range of different frequencies interlacing, contracting, copulating and thus forming larger sculptures and higher crests ( Rising,' Dropping'), until the first hints of melody flare up in the outer regions of space ( Burning Lights')...

Moving on and past the outer orbits, the pressure increases: bass lines cut through thick layers ( Parallel Roads'), there's an ominous vibe ( Yellow Town'), but the spirit of discovery still sets the tone, pushes things forward. Slowly adjusting different velocities and frequencies - think of those hypnotic rotating scenes in Kubrick's 2001' -, the beat fully drops with Dropping', a tune that also features her main instrument (the piano), until a single note and swathes of bass wash the pulsating sine waves away.

It's towards the end of Opal' that suddenly all frequencies are truly in synch and congruent: This is the foundation for slow-moving, shimmering rays of light that finally fill up the entire space on the title track. Perhaps it's just another cosmic coincidence, but Midori Hirano's recent Minor Planet' album (Sonic Pieces) ended with a track called Rolling Moon': Having repeatedly expressed her love for stargazing, rolling moons are indeed the kind of celestial bodies she heads for and ultimately captures with this new release.

some things are heavy and some are not. why is it like this style for instance seems to have no weight as long its timely and modern. gravity might change, but style endures. it's not how low you go, but where and when you show up. temporarily the peripheric mainstream may attract more likes then the contemporary self-contempt. gravity can be a bigger enemy then yourself. don't let gravity get you down!
mix mups new 12' is fighting for a world where gravity is for everyone, regardless of rpm, bpm or bitrate. in this times mix mup and mikrodisko are standing as proud allies together. we shape magic carpets out of black gold! M12 vinyl slices will beat the terrestrial gravity! hover the spoon. over the moon.

Almost one year after his debut LP Feed The Tape, Orson Hentschel enters new musical terrain wearing old shoes. His second LP Electric Stutter, which is almost 55 minutes long, is only loosely connected to his debut. Whereas Feed The Tape was strongly shaped by Classical Minimal Music, Hentschel now incorporates influences of Trip-Hop and Electronic Pop Music. Since his childhood, he considers artists like Massive Attack, Portishead and Björk as some of his most important sources of inspiration. The influence of this kind of popular music is clearly audible. Hentschel's new tracks are shorter, more shaped and reduced in the density of their sound material. Pattern-oriented repetitions, which where in the focus of Feed The Tape, now fulfil the function of sophisticated sub-components of the overall composition and are subordinate to the melodic forms or merge with them. Also the amount of sample-based material has decreased in order to create space for synthetically produced sounds with melodic character. Electric Stutter is more complex and more detailed than Feed The Tape. At the same time the reduced density of sound material and the higher amount of melodies form a kind of music that is more easily accessible.

Whereas the Düsseldorf-based composer started off with classical piano, he by now concentrates on electronic and experimental music and film compositions. Even though Hentschel has experienced a classical education, his composition techniques are anything but traditional. His creative starting point is rarely rooted in musical ideas, but consists of finding appropriate sound material. His sources are diverse: sounds and samples like soundtracks, film sounds, music albums or internet findings encounter polyphonic vocal-music from the 14th century and composition techniques of Minimal Music such as Steve Reich. In his compositions Hentschel draws a cross-section through the history of music and its genres in order to form his own musical expression. Considering his studies of music science in Düsseldorf and previously in Vienna and Dresden, his musical time-jumps appear less surprising.

Describing Orson Hentschel only as a composer of contemporary music does not do him justice. In his self-conception as an audio-visual artist he creates his own live show, combining lights, visuals and fog to a stunning atmosphere, which cannot be eluded. Supported by live-drummer Lukas Baumgart, Hentschel delivers a sound, whose energy is physically palpable and electrifies the audience. A live-show generating an intense experience, going to the limit and erasing any sense of time. Orson Hentschel moves perceptions not merely through sheer volume, but with driving repetitions and extensive tension.

Presented live in Los Angeles. Source material originally developed as part of mas gestos y mas caras, a collaborative performance with Rafa Esparza and Yann Novak, presented at the Hammer Museum on July 8, 2016.

Robert Crouch is an artist and curator whose work encompasses sound, performance, and technology. As an artist, he locates his work with the intersection of post-phenomenological listening practices, conceptual sound art, and contemporary electronic music. At its core, his work can be understood as a conversation between tonality, context, history and subjectivities. Similarly, Crouch's curatorial work focuses on the overlapping disciplines of sound, technology, movement, and performance.

Sublunar continues Crouch's inquiry into the complex relationships between sound, context, and meaning, first proposed in his 2016 release, A Gradual Accumulation of Ideas Becomes Truth (Line). The four tracks which comprise Sublunar were composed using field recordings from and audio files originally created for mas gestos y mas caras, a collaborative performance with artists Rafa Esparza and Yann Novak. mas gestos y mas caras was a durational performance incorporating sound, breathing, and a series of repetitive actions and gestures, choreographed within an architectural installation of adobe bricks fabricated and designed by Esparza.

Sonically, Sublunar is a radical departure from the originating performance, yet these tracks remain tethered, literally and aesthetically, to the processes and context of their construction: Esparza's labored breathing, cautious footsteps, a soft cascade of water, dust, soil. The title itself, Sublunar, reinforces an attachment to the Earth and the physical world, and intentionally resists metaphysical interpretation or decontextualization.

It is precisely through this tethering that Crouch seeks to open up a diversity of possible approaches to the work, rather than confine our reading to a primarily or exclusively musical text. The first track, Descension, opens with sounds of breathing, muted movements, and environmental noises, and serves as an acknowledgement of our collective understanding of sound, of these specific sounds, as physical phenomenon. By extension we are allowed to consider this particular organization of sound itself as a kind of sculpture, architecture, and choreography. The body becomes the primary oscillator and architect, delineating boundaries and defining the work as a space within which we might inhabit.

Schlachthofbronx conclude their Haul & Pull Up series with another strong statement of an EP. In their
trademark hybrid style, the Munich bass boys showcase their versatility from writing hypnotic and sensual
electronic melodies all the way to the ruffest club weapons. Keeping close to their roots, all of these tunes
have been extensively tested on big soundsystems to make sure they make a lasting impression. The opener Electone is an instrumental excursion into a melodic corner of club music, with lots of intertwined synth layers and a long build up, culminating in a break that will send shivers to ravers and home listeners
alike. This 'club love song with no words' is named after the Yamaha Electone organ it was written on. Following this is Take It Low, another true soundsystem weapon featuring longtime collabo partner Doubla J from Costa Rica. Stripped down to the basics, this bass monster combines both dancehall and booty bass rhythm structures and lets them collide with the well timed vocals while diving in some dubby goodness.
Pump Drop Wine ups the tempo again, coming in at 150 bpm of ultimate rolling bassline heaven. With little
more than the catchy meandering vocal to complement the beat, it is all about this disgustingly good sounding bassline that makes this a club sureshot. 'This is the part where you pump drop wine and repeat.' Always good for a surprising collabo, Bene and Jakob finish this EP off with their quite special version of
Bitch Better Have My Money (you know, the AMG one). With no other than Miamis finest
Otto Von Schirach on vocals, this 1991 cut gets transported to an 2017 club enviroment with ease.
The EP will be available digitally and on a limited edition 12" vinyl (full colour cover + banderole) via Rave
And Romance Records/Disko B/Indigo. It's the third EP in a series of three, leading up to an Haul & Pull Up
album in May 2017. With this, Schlachthofbronx will follow up their three previous original albums (2009s
Schlachthofbronx, 2012s Dirty Dancing and 2014s Rave And Romance), completed by EPs for Labels like
Mixpak, Monkeytown, Mad Decent, Disko B and Man Recordings as well as production work for artists like
M.I.A.Snoop Dogg or Bonde Do Role

Thalassa is the avant-drone project for Aaron Turner (Sumac, Isis, Mamiffer, House Od Low Culture, etc.) and William Fowler Collins. In his many guises, Turner articulates a chimerical aesthetic that intrepidly explores beyond the scope of sludge, hardcore, and post-rock. In Collins' blackened earth drones, he steadfastly engages in the elemental exploration of the New Mexican landscape that often inspire comparisons to the potency of black metal without the need for a single blast beat. It makes a lot of sense these two would eventually cross paths and collaborate.

Thalassa finds itself in very good company with Maeror Tri, Deathprod, Sunn O))) and Lustmord.

2017 Reissue of the third album called 'Quatorze Pièces de Menace' from 2013. This third full-length of the cult french dark jazz collective is the follow up of the highly acclaimed 2011 output Métamanoir - the second release for the german experimental music label Denovali. Halfway from their debut Parole de Navarre's ambient and drone driven soundscapes and the more orchestrated Métamanoir, this new collection of tracks is following their quest for dreamy but mysterious places.

A hint of 50s cool jazz, a truckload of noise and melodies, again tiny references to Twin Peaks' series soundtrack and some ghostly and deep tone voices: the Dale Cooper Quartet pushes the genre Darkjazz towards other spaces. Recorded in Brest, Britanny, France, this album always conveys an atmosphere of strangeness and beauty, the trademark of every Quartet's records. Based upon the live experiences of the band and their everlasting love for the local landscapes, Quatorze Pièces de Menace is as striking, deep, fascinating and beautiful as a storm in the middle of the Atlantic.

The Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones are returning with their 4th album called "Astrild Astrild". Like all of the previous albums, the band recorded the seven pieces at home in Britanny during several sessions between 2013 and 2016.

The characteristics of this full-length are classic drone soundscapes mixed with deep tone saxophone parts that became the band's trademark since the release of their debut album in 2006. Slowly paced, the new tracks are following the Quartet's basic structure and classical sound. Apart from that the new full length conceals more live takes including guitars, bass and Rhodes keys and even piano sounds are haunting for the first time at the end of 'Ocho Acenteur'. With these new elements the songs of "Astrild Astrild" are pushed further into a large tunnel of deafening rhythmic parts and field ambiant textures.

Vocals are a major element of the Dale Cooper Quartet & The Dictaphones' DNA since the second album "Metamanoir" (2011). Sometimes breathy, sometimes deep and often mysterious, Ronan MacErlaine, Gaëlle Kerrien and Zalie Bellacicco voices appear in the corners of the songs as ghostly figures or eerie characters.

The new album "Astrild Astrild" is a glimpse of the present live sound of the Dale Cooper Quartet: 50's crooners singers, noisy guitars, atmospheric electronic and hypnotic jazz. All of these elements painted in monochrome black.

Im Hag is the debut Ghost Box album from Berlin based Sebastian Counts' ToiToiToi.

Following on from his single for the label's Other Voices series in 2015, it's very detailed and lovingly produced music, crafted from electronic, synth, sampled and acoustic sources.

Its a wunderkammer of an album crammed with original ideas. All at once managing to be witty, spooky, melodic and abstract.

The music and design explores the polarities of folklore vs modernity, and wilderness vs civilisation.

It's an album about German culture but it pre-empts a nostalgia for the vanishing concept of internationalism, once exemplified by town twinning. It's also a warm-hearted record, hopefully a tiny morale booster against Europe's resurgent spectres.

As always the beautiful CD and LP packaging is designed by Julian House. The 180gm LP includes a free download card.

Vampillia and The Body are two creative forces that are no strangers to the worlds of experimental and abrasive music. Although both have touched upon various types of metal styles in their previous works, also has each entity shown an obvious penchant for compositions that lean heavily into the worlds of electronics and experimental music. On this LP, xoroAHbin, we sit between each of those realms, experiencing them in equal parts.

Neither group is new to the collaboration game. Vampillia counting Lustmord, Jarboe, Nadja, and µ-Ziq amongst their past collaborators, while The Body has a discography just as long and varied, with the likes of Thou, Haxan Cloak, Full of Hell, Braveyoung, Krieg, and more. And as perfectly as these artists mesh with others it makes sense that their joining together yields such a powerful result.

Each track on xoroAHbin serves a narrative throughout the 30-minute album. Distorted electronic rhythms surge and create atmosphere as heavily-effected vocals and guitar wail from the depths. Then give way to mellow passages of strings and ambient tones, before surging again with abrasive textures for which both Vampillia and The Body are well-known.

Albert Oehlen feat. Wolfgang Voigt massive. 180g vinyl
Wendy Gondeln is here to introduce and spread the dance style called Fracking.

Gondeln, also known as the German painter Albert Oehlen and longtime Red Crayola member, recently laid out the aspects of Fracking in his studio in Düsseldorf.

Realising that one thing was missing, he asked Wolfgang Voigt to provide him with two plain Gabber bass drum canvases. Wendy, a great connaisseur of this ancient form of techno, considered the offerings from the unheralded prince of the German bass drum so precious that he drove to Cologne to pick them up personally. He managed to take the delights home safely, painted over them with his bow as if it was a brush and thus completed his vision of Fracking.

Wolfgang on the other hand, couldn't stop Fracking after Wendy's visit, which resulted not only in his first Fracking track, but in his first three. Included here in the form of a Fracking triptych.

When Magazine (Jens-Uwe Beyer, Crato, Barnt) heard of this new thing called Fracking, they had to start Fracking too. Of course. Not long before this text was written, these Frackings were brought back to Düsseldorf and tested towards the end of a frenzied set at the Salon Des Amateurs. And guess what people started as soon as the bow hit the violin...
... right: FRACKING!

Electronic music composer, synthesizer connoisseur and studio wizard David Morley returns with a brand new release for the Belgian De:tuned label. 'The Origin of Storms' is a series of purely synth based tracks inspired by the music of Conrad Schnitzler and consorts. Beautifully crafted ambient presented as a limited 12 + 10 inch vinyl package, let the music take control!

Rerelease of muslimlim 001 with new artwork in a limited edition of 800

It was first in what continues to be a series of limited-edition subscription-only releases from Staalplaat, Izlamaphobia starts with an aggressive blast, "Hudood Ordinance." With a rhythm track consisting of extremely tweaked and processed electronic beats and bleeps, with only the gentlest of Arabic string instruments deep in the mix to relate things to a more familiar Muslimgauze sound, the song sets the general mood for the rest of Izlamaphobia. This said, Bryn Jones' specific talent is such that even without that, this would still sound like him, his trademark care and obsessiveness in terms of percussion again evident. Two discs long and with a variety of romanticized (some might say stereotypical) songtitles like "The Eternal Illusionist of Oid Bachdad" and "Lahore Morphine Market," Izlamaphobia has two chief artistic themes, if anything. On the one hand, Jones' incorporation of hip-hop and funk beats has never been stronger, providing songs like "Gilded Madrasa" and "The Public Flogger of Lahore" with a wickedly fierce kick and drive. On the other, the strained, alien treatments on many of the songs would be well at home on innumerable Warp Records releases of the '90s, with squelching rhythms, undanceable dance tracks and, quite unsurprisingly, a desire to avoid expected techno clichés. With these two strains combined on many songs by Jones, the results are wonderfully slamming, strange tracks such as "Khadija and Fereshta." Not everything is quite so dramatically different from past Muslimgauze releases, with the incorporation of multilayered acoustic percussion cropping up more than once, such as on "Hijab Muzzle." Everything is just that little bit dirtier in sound, though, and all the more intriguing for it. Some tracks are mere snippets and others don't quite deliver on their promise, but all in all Izlamaphobia is yet another Muslimgauze success.

"Instead of the drones and mostly beatless atmospheres of many previous Muslimgauze recordings, Zuriff Moussa presents quite a danceable switch for Bryn Jones. Dedicated to a Palestinian martyr, the album sounds like a cleaner version of Techno Animal, with Eastern influences instead of dub."Turkquoize Label" and"Brazil Marijuana" are surprisingly infectious, with distorted breakbeats and the patented Muslimgauze phased-channel drone. There are 24 tracks spread across more than an hour, so there isn't a large amount of time for each track, though several are presented in suites, like"Anti Arab America." For messed-up beat fans who are able to find it, Zuriff Moussa is close to a crucial purchase."

John Bush, All Music Guide

* On the EP f 109 Basel-based duo P.Noir celebrates the final fusion of dub and electroacoustic. Besides various feedback-loops and amps the musical elements are reduced to the max—what's left is a 30-minutes-trip into drums, drones and dread.
After an unterwelt-y 12" by dane//close and a chaos-tape straight outta Lucerne f 109 marks the third audio release of 2016 on Präsens Editionen, also home to the zweikommasieben Magazin.

* Press / Promotion: Präsens Editionen was founded in 2011 to give home to zweikommasieben Magazin. Ever since a bunch of magazines, books, zines, records, tapes and oddities have been published.
zweikommasieben is a Swiss magazine that has been devoted to the documentation of contemporary club culture since the summer of 2011. The magazine features artist interviews, essays and columns as well as photography, illustration and graphics. In addition, zweikommasieben organizes concerts, parties, club nights, matinees, raves and other fun events in various cities.

Culture Glitch Records is run by a collective of musicians, visual artists,programmers and graphic designers from Derry, Ireland. The labels' purpose is to provide a platform for artists have their works heard and seen. This release encapulates many different styles of electronica from artists such as Ryan Vail,
Best Boy Grip, Shammen Delly, Shocko & The Crimson Underground. BBC 6 Music, Radio 1 and BBC Radio Ulster recently showcased many of these artists.

Recorded live from the cloisters at Evreux Cathedral, Normandy, France by Franck Dubois, 14th June 2014, as part of L'Ateliers. With thanks to Denis Boyer.

Remastered by Thomas Köner
Photography by Jon Wozencroft

Formed from plastics and particulars by Richard Chartier, 2015 - "I am lonely, yet I feel wonderful..."
Pinkcourtesyphone is a continuing project by Los Angeles-based sound artist Richard Chartier. He is considered one of the key figures in the current of reductionist sound art which has been termed both microsound and Neo-Modernist. Chartier's minimalist digital work explores the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception and the act of listening itself.
Pinkcourtesyphone is a more emotional, dare one say musical side of his work. Pinkcourtesyphone is dark but not arch, with a slight hint of humor. Pinkcourtesyphone is amorphous, changing, and slipping in and out of consciousness. Pinkcourtesyphone operates like a syrup-y dream and strives to be both elegant and detached.

Pinkcourtesyphone has collaborated with the likes of Cosey Fanni Tutti, Kid Congo Powers, harpist Gwyneth Wentink, AGF, William Basinski, and Evelina Domnitch. Pinkcourtesyphone's work has been released internationally on labels including: Editions MEGO (Austria), Room40 (Australia), LINE (US), Important Records (US), Dragon's Eye Recordings (US), Farmacia901 (IT), Champion Version (UK), Boomkat (UK), and IO Sound (Canada).
Chartier's sound works/installations have been presented in galleries and museums internationally and he has performed his work live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America at digital art/electronic music festivals and exhibits. In 2000 he formed the recording label LINE and has since curated its continuing documentation of compositional and installation work by international sound artists/composers exploring the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism.

Norwegian sound artists Alexander Rishaug and Lasse Marhaug have worked together as a duo for almost 20 years. In this time they have produced one album, 2004's "Feel Free At Home".
Now, the pair are ready with their follow-up: "Corneal Clouds". The music was recorded in 2012, then put through an extensive and meticulous fermentation process of five years until now - at last - it is ready for the public. Rishaug Marhaug promotes positive thinking through their unique brand of electronic music.

Shorter than many of Muslimgauze's 1990s albums -- 13 untitled songs over 45 minutes -- Azzazzin, originally released as part of the limited-edition subscription series, feels more like a collection of random experiments than a cohesive piece of work per se. If not something that would intrigue the casual listener, the hardcore fan will likely find something of interest on the various tracks here. Starting with an extremely minimal opening number -- it's no surprise Finnish experimental duo Pan Sonic are Muslimgauze fans, based on this track -- Azzazzin has a much more electronic feeling than most of Bryn Jones' other albums, eschewing the traditional elements used elsewhere for a rough, quietly aggressive and disturbing feel. Comparisons with Aphex Twin aren't too far off the mark here, but this is still clearly a Muslimgauze release than any sort of ripoff. The fourth track, with its unpredictable keyboard snarls over a low, quiet pulse, and the sixth and seventh songs, with distorted, high-pitched noise tones mixed with a soft series of bass notes and a slight spoken-word interjection from time to time, are some of the strong points from this intriguing release. Beats are used in an extremely limited way throughout Azzazzin, with rhythm, always a key component of Jones' work, more suggested at points by the nature of the keyboard lines than anything else. Closing with an equally minimal track, Azzazzin won't be everyone's cup of tea, but adventuresome listeners will find themselves rewarded.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the press magnate Dominique Willem Berretty still held power over the Dutch East Indies. From the very lowest rung, this teacher's son, born 1890, raised a media empire upon a single principle, 'Activity, Activity, Speed'. As a clarion call from the future, it heralded the construction of a new world, one where information was faster than light, where modernity would be celebrated by an ever firmer grip upon the accelerator pedal. But control of his press agency (baptised Aneta, for always number one in spite of everything), driven at full bore, would begin to slip away: politicians no less than his competitors, began to tire of his monopoly. In October 1932, as his empire was fading, he commissioned architect Wolff Schoenmaker to construct the palace of his dreams: the Villa Isola, north of Bandung. D.W. Berretty would have but several months to enjoy his art-deco pearl. On December 20 1934, bankrupt, he would fly to Europe aboard a DC-2 Uiver in order to sell Aneta to the highest bidder. But he was never to complete the voyage: the first flying machine equipped with automatic piloting would crash down upon the town of Ar Rutba in Iraq.

By tracing back through time and his memories (particularly those of a trip to Vietnam), Pilooski - who we've seen in duo as Discodeine and solo, in the Dirty Edits series - would end up pushing open he door to the Villa Isola: a vestibule leading to a double spiral staircase framing a marble pediment engraved with the words M'ISOLO E VIVO (I isolate myself, and live). On the first floor lay a grand semi-circular reception room opening onto French gardens. Before the windows, leather easy chairs arranged with maniac regularity about a round table. On the lid of a grand piano, a virgin in polished glass, and on the walls, oil renditions of Dutch canals jostled with jungle watercolours. One floor up in the constructivist bar, Berretty had installed a film projector. What would he have watched, cocktail in hand, alongside his guests Herbier's The Inhuman Woman, Murnau's Tabu, or Chaplin's City Lights. Who could tell

As a tribute to this projection room, Pilooski has imagined four original soundtracks owing as much to radio broadcasts for insomniacs as they do to recorded recitals for children. With Eden Ahbez's Eden's Island album in mind, he has called upon the following contributors:

Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) has chosen an extract from Carl Gustav Jung's The Red Book; Judah Warsky has written an homage to the sun and the moon ; Narumi Hérisson (Tristesse Contemporaine) reads a passage from Ango Sakaguchi's Sakura No Mori No Makaï No Shita; and writer Simon Liberati (Anthology of Apparitions, Jayne Mansfield 1967, Eva) a fragment from one his 113 Studies of Romantic Literature.

For four exotic and minimalist pieces of spoken word, over which Clément Froissart plays flute, Axel Lecourt, percussion and Julien Vichnievsky the guitar. Together, the pieces make up Isola, the new Pilooski EP.

Artwork : Laurent Fétis & Sarah Martinon

Album of all new material from this maverick Spanish producer.

Many influential characters graced the stage of Max's Kansas City within the creative zeitgeist of New York City during the late 1970's, but one local native named Annie Bandez thrust herself into the downtown scene with her punk ensemble Annie and the Asexuals, establishing her nom de plume Annie Anxiety (later known as Little Annie') and colliding head-on with the social norms of contemporary punk culture entangling the city at that time.

After a couple years of disintegrated pursuits in New York, Annie relocated to England, finding herself at the doorstep of the famed anarchro-commune Dial House headed by activist Penny Rimbaud. It was here that Annie Anxiety established herself as a singular artist and voice with her debut 1981 single Barbed Wire Halo' on seminal Crass Records and forging a creative alliance with Crass members Penny Rimbaud and Eve Libertine. As the landscape of punk in the United Kingdom was shifting towards a more diverse, multicultural focal point, artists such as Annie Anxiety found themselves exploring musical signatures in styles such as dub reggae and rocksteady.

In the summer of 1983, Annie began work at Southern Studios on what would be her first full length endeavor which encompassed all of her creative assets at that time. Employing the expertise of legendary dub producer Adrian Sherwood to realize this vision, Annie pulled together members of Crass, Flux of Pink Indians, Family Fodder, African Head Charge, London Underground and Art Interface to record her groundbreaking dub industrial masterpiece. Upon its initial release by the unofficial Crass off-shoot label Corpus Christi in 1984, Soul Possession started the avalanche of activity that would include dozens of releases and collaborations with Nurse With Wound, Coil, Current 93, Swans and Marc Almond.

Relay For Death are the twin sisters Rachal and Roxann Spikula, whose noise mantras transcribe the harsh realities of urban blight that complicate and threaten their own survival. It was in the context of two month medical study that the Spikulas composed their debut album in 2009, grotesquely amplifying the emptiness of hospital rooms into a ghastly pall worthy of the classic works by Maurizio Bianchi. Natural Incapacity sprouts from a similar research and development, manifesting from the sonic pollution that proliferates in their current residence of Richmond, California. Clocking in at well over two hours, Natural Incapacity was composed as a seamless, glacial accretion of locomotive grind, subharmonic environmental rumble, nocturnal street sweeping, and the quavering hum of toxic chemicals perpetually leached into the water table. By design, Natural Incapacity's oil-stained drone is completely relentless, implying neither beginning nor end to this cycle of contamination. Relay For Death's industrial meditation recognizes abjection, horror, and defeat as the prevalent conditions to existence. Even as a declared rejection to those conditions, Natural Incapacity is engulfed in a bleak nihilism constantly churning back upon itself. Grizzled antecedents can be found in the apocalyptic works of Maurizio Bianchi, Kevin Drumm's Imperial Distortion, and Organum's Vacant Lights.

While intended to be a seamless document, Natural Incapacity is split over two CDs and does feature a download of the composition in unedited form. The physical edition features hand-rusted metal covers by the noted corrosion artist Jim Haynes and is strictly limited to 150 copies.

REPRESSED !
Ultra bleak, minimal, ritual electronics. Debut releases from this new duo.

From the fertile fauna of the Swedish scene comes Vargdöd, the official pairing of Jonas Rönnberg and Anders Karlsson, better known´as Varg and Celldöd. Across six long form tracks the duo exercise their keen instinct for expansive, gloomy atmospherics and techno subtleties with a spirit that naturally aligns with the overcast outlook of Opal Tapes.

This outing is not the first time the two have been seen together. The ever-prolific Rönnberg adopted his Black Leather Harness alias to appear alongside Celldöd on Krig, the first cassette release on Karlsson's own Brutal Disciplin label. From those early manoeuvres in 2014 Karlsson has quickly established himself as a proponent of uncompromising, unconventional techno on labels such as Suction
Records and Kess Kill. Rönnberg meanwhile has continued to be a potent force both with his solo and collaborative work and at the helm of Northern Electronics, most recently releasing the third installment in his Nordic Flora series. On Brutal Discipline, the tones and textures shift but the mood remains consistently foreboding. The mechanical rhythms strain through distortion and the clouds of noise billow across vast space on opening track Kennel Murder Case', while the lingering minor pad on Starved To Death' spells out a more melodious foreboding behind the gently bludgeoning drum cycle. Bitten' takes a more tentative approach, letting its fuzzy backdrop slowly purr around the delicate, snaking patter of the percussion. Sharp, rasping beats take the lead in the barren landscape of Elite Dogs Of War', and yet still the opening scuff of K9 Warrior' will jerk your head around in a most uncomfortable of fashions. Here the noise is cloying, attaching itself to any sonic matter trying to peak through the muck, yet there's time and space for a militaristic narrative to unfold towards the climax of the track. That leaves it to No Dogs Go To Heaven' to round the release off in a suitably bleak fashion, placing the emphasis on low-end industrial pulse and swirling static firing out into an uncertain stereo field.