Press Info:
To celebrate the 20th anniversary, Collabs 3000: Metalism, the original classic pure techno album and first full-length collaboration between techno innovators Chris Liebing and Speedy J, is remastered and reissued via NovaMute.
Originally launched by Speedy J (aka Jochem Paap) as a platform for 12” collaborations with other artists, the Collabs series laid the groundwork for what would become one of techno’s most compelling partnerships. The first release with Chris Liebing, Collabs 300 (featuring ‘Trick_’ / ‘Treflon_’), landed in 2004 to a rapturous response; its machine-funk intensity and unmistakable breakdowns helped define the sound of early 2000s techno whilst revealing a writing and production chemistry that demanded a larger playground for their work.
That creative spark ultimately manifested in Collabs 3000: Metalism, a landmark record for techno. Combining the pair’s mastery of subversive electronics and peak-time techno, the album remains a career highlight for both artists: a smouldering collision of taut techno rhythms, sonic abstraction, and, as the title suggests, robust metallic beats.
The 20th anniversary edition of this timeless techno masterpiece has been fully remastered by Liebing himself and is available on CD and for the first time on vinyl across 2 discs.
Note: the track “Trikco (Live)” from the CD release in 2005 is not included.
Press Info:
Action! Once Upon A Time on A Felt Mountain…
Dark, seductive, beguiling, shimmering and deeply cinematic, this is the essence of the esoteric music created by the singular Goldfrapp. A blessed collaboration between composer, vocalist, whistler and keyboardist Alison Goldfrapp and composer Will Gregory, Goldfrapp have forged one of the most remarkable debut albums in recent years – Felt Mountain.
Taking some inspiration from classical music, movie soundtracks, 60’s French pop and decadent Weimar Republic cabaret, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory have fashioned a thrilling and unique 21st Century noir vision. Conventional instruments mix with fractured left field electronic frequencies to form Goldfrapp’s sumptuous passionate reinvention of popular music. Bittersweet melodies blend with eruptions of noise, all to heighten the tension of the unfolding emotional drama. In essence a rural soundscape that deliberately avoids the vagaries of passing musical fads, Goldfrapp’s ambiguous widescreen songs seem to evoke metaphorical images of mad love, seemingly beautiful yet terrifying future societies, half remembered dreams/conversations and sinister androids in human form.
Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory’s intoxicating music veers always between overwhelming elation and shattering heartbreak, as any great romance should. Imbued with a state of childlike wonder, Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain is an exhilarating yet defiantly undefinable experience that quickens the pulse and inflames the senses. Violence, loneliness and danger are ever near in the mix, as is love, tenderness and the hope of redemption.
Once Upon A Time… Alison Goldfrapp studied Fine Art Painting at Middlesex University and during the course of her work began to experiment; combining music with extravagant performance, visual and sound installation pieces. Though these experiences were rewarding and liberating for Alison she knew music was her only real vocation. Before she had even left college, Alison was already working with Tricky on his debut album. Having successfully collaborated with various artists throughout the 90s, including her friends Orbital and touring extensively with Tricky, Alison Goldfrapp desperately felt that her own unadulterated personal creative urges needed to be fully expressed. Alison desired to create music that was timeless, focussed and truly epic in scope.
During the late 90s a mutual friend played a tape of Alison’s compositions to Will Gregory. Gregory, a film composer (the British football hooligan picture ID is among his credits) was deeply impressed with Alison’s distinctive voice, music and lyrics. Discussion ensued between the pair, followed by an exchange of tapes containing some of Alison and Will’s favourite musical pieces and songs by other artists. Alison and Will soon realised that they shared so much common ground with their musical tastes and their own songwriting, that Goldfrapp was simply inevitable.
Retreating from any urban distractions, in the late summer of 1999, Alison and Will created a studio in an old bungalow near Bath deep in the leafy Wiltshire countryside. The pair would write, record and mix their album for the next five months. This was the sound of their collective musical dream, both avant garde and traditional, acknowledging no boundaries.
Once Upon A Time there was a certain cinematic music… Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain music.
CUT!
Goldfrapp’s debut album, Felt Mountain is out on Mute on the 11th September and will be followed by the single Utopia in October.
