NovaMute | NovaFuture Blog

out for a while: Miss Kittin – I Com [Nobody’s Bizzness | NovaMute | Astralwerks]

Artist:
Miss Kittin

Title:
I Com

Label:
Nobody’s Bizzness | NovaMute | Astralwerks

Cat#:
tba | NOMU120 | ASW77263

Release Date:
24th May 2004(original release date)
in 2019 (digital re-issue)

Format:
vinyl, CD, download & streaming

Tracklist:
A1.
Professional Distortion

A2.
Allergic

A3.
Requiem For A Hit
[feat. L.A. Williams]

B1.
Happy Violentine

B2.
Meet Sue Be She

B3.
Kiss Factory

C1.
Soundtrack Of Now
[feat. The Hacker]

C2.
Clone Me

C3.
I Come.com

D1.
3eme Sexe

D2.
Dub About Me

D3.
Neukölln 2

Press Info:
Miss Kittin releases her long awaited debut solo album ‘I Com’ through novamute on May 31st 2004.

Caroline Herve, aka Miss Kittin, has over the past five years, truly become one of the most inspiring DJs and voices to emerge within the electronic music scene. Her vocal collaborations have produced seminal moments of dancefloor heaven. Alongside long-time production partner The Hacker, tracks such as ‘Frank Sinatra’ and ‘1982’ propelled them into the spotlight whilst further collaborations with Felix Da Housecat ‘Silver Screen (Shower Scene)’, Golden Boy ‘Rippin Kittin’, Sven Vath ‘Je T’aime’ and more recently T. Raumschmiere ‘The Game Is Not Over’ and Tricky have confirmed Miss Kittin’s star billing status.

Miss Kittin has also taken centre stage as a headline DJ in her own right – the job that she truly considers her own and one that she excels at. She can flawlessly join the dots between Detroit techno, deep house, electro and Black Dog records and understands how a Prince track can fit into a banging club set. “If I don’t have fun myself, I’m not able to please people,” says Kittin. “DJing must be, in a way, something selfish. I shout it loud: I don’t do it for the people. I never pretended to educate the audience. I just share a big part of me, taking it as serious as I love it.”

French born Miss Kittin is, alongside her frantically busy global DJ schedule, working A&R jobs, hosting radio mix-shows, remixing, collaborating and writing music. “I Com” is Miss Kittin stripped bare: her first solo mission and an album rich in Kittin attitude. From her Berlin base “I Com” has been co-produced by Tobi Neumann and Thies Mynther a.k.a. GLOVE, who had previously also worked with fellow electro-pop upstarts Chicks On Speed. The album opens with the first single “Professional Distortion”, a rock meets blip-hop opus and wry commentary on her experiences in the nightlife world. From there, the album careens through the giddy electro-punk of “Meet Sue Be She” (apparently an ode to her manager) to the shimmering euro-pop of “Kiss Factory” and the icy skank of “Dub About Me”.

One thing soon becomes very clear. One of the main progenitors of the so-called ‘electro-clash’ movement has found her wings, finding a range of style and voice that far outshines such short-sighted preconceptions. On “I Com”, we find a unique personality for whom the notion of ‘electro-clash’ is now a distant memory, where the heavily-accented deadpan delivery over techno beats that established her notoriety on previous recordings has been unseated by a desire to sing, to scream, to rap and to croon, all of which she manages to do with ample helpings of sly wit and wordplay and a musical landscape that incorporates both brazen beats and intoxicating atmospherics.

Several guest appearances enhance the mood, including Chicago luminary L.A. Williams on “Requiem For A Hit” and longtime sparring partner Michel Amato (The Hacker) on “Soundtrack Of Now”. The album also features a cover version; the 1985 Euro-hit “3eme Sexe” (Third Sex) by Indochine.

‘I Com’ is preceded by the single ‘Professional Distortion’ on May 17th.

Full Track Streaming:

Videos:
“Professional Distortion”

“Happy Violentin”

Special:
“Girls In The Mix For Arte”

Recommendations:
all stuff on Mute & sublabels we featured

Buy Vinyl:
Juno
Decks
originally released in 2004

Buy CD:
Juno
originally released in 2004

Buy Download:
Qobuz
TraxSource
iTunes
Beatport
7Digital
more soon

Commercial Streaming Services:
Tidal
Anghami
Deezer
Apple Music
Spotify
Youtube Music

Websites:
Miss Kittin
NovaMute
Mute
NovaMute Deutschland
Mute Deutschland

out for a while: 2nd Gen – Irony Is [NovaMute]

Artist:
2nd Gen

Title:
Irony Is

Label:
NovaMute

Cat#:
NOMU68

Release Date:
05th March 2001 (original release date)

Format:
vinly, CD, download & streaming

Tracklist:
01.
And / Or

02.
Slowburned

03.
Buried

04.
Black Spring

05.
Vurt

06.
Musicians Are Morons

07.
Scarred

08.
Measurement 9

09.
Schism

10.
Irony Is

Tracklist US CD:
01.
And / Or

02.
Slowburned

03.
Buried

04.
Black Spring

05.
Vurt

06.
Musicians Are Morons

07.
Scarred

08.
Measurement 9

09.
Schism

10.
Irony Is

11.
And / Or
[feat. Dälek]
(Techno Animal Remix)

12.
Black Spring
[feat. Sensational]

Press Info:
biography
‘Irony Is’

“It’s really simple, no rules.” quickly responds Wajid Yaseen, when asked about the aesthetic concerns of his intense, unique musical project, 2nd Gen. “I’ve had engineers come into my studio, have a look at my desk and I see disbelief on their faces ‘You can’t do that’ It’s getting them to unlearn everything they’ve learnt. They’ve become so rigid in their thinking it’s set like cold concrete. I never had a rule book in the first place, so I’m breaking the rules without even knowing I’m breaking them.

For Yaseen, there is no division between his music and his life. The collision of hard, propulsive hip hop beats, incisive blasts of shattering noise and explosive drum patterns that detonate the incendiary Irony Is, his debut 2nd Gen album, is his life. Not a reflection or a metaphor, the emotionally charged sounds of 2nd Gen are the very essence of him at the moment he recorded them.

Yaseen excepts no division between artist disciplines or musical genres. He craves any new experience, good or bad, that ignite his deft talent for shaping thrilling and challenging sonic invention. His philosophy seems to echo Aleistair Crowley’s dictum. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”. Defining 2nd Gen’s music using hackneyed musical genre labels is nigh on impossible. Neither ‘purely’ Techno, Electro, Post Rock, Industrial or Hip Hop, 2nd Gen’s Irony Is achieves a distillation of all these musical forms, and more, bending them out of shape to serve Yaseen’s will. His primary desire, as evinced within Irony Is, is to constantly challenge himself, and those who listen to his art. In the true sense of the word, this is soul music, delivered straight from the heart and the head. “It’s a hybrid of sounds and sources, not purely done on computers, not purely done on conventional instruments”, Yaseen eludiates, speaking of the creation of Irony Is. “I’m into tactile stuff, fingers on strings, hardwiring electronics. It’s a lot of regenerated sound, twisting it back around so it almost collapses within itself.”

Deriving strength from both the decadent literature of Huysmans and Nietzschean philosophy, Yaseen abhors any accepted ‘truths’ and conventions. From the seductive rhythmic pull of ‘And Or’ to the cold brutality of ‘Buried’, the intoxicating ‘Slowburn’, through the slow, inexorable kick of ‘Scarred’, the the post-holocaust urban funeral blues of ‘Black Spring’ (featuring the spontaneous fractured guitar, harmonica and vocals of Gallon Drunk’s James Johnston), Irony Is confounds expectations. Instead it offers exciting new possibilities. “I’ll try everything. I’ll attempt everything and when the fruits are good, they’re good.”

Eager to challenge any preconceptions, musical or otherwise, Yaseen’s contempt for the artistic cowardice and vacuous aspirations of most of his contemporaries is spelt out in ‘Musicians are Morons’. “I see through their guises, their masks and their interfaces”. 2nd Gen is the direct product of Yaseen’s existence to date. Born in Manchester Wajid, at the age of 7, and his brothers provided backing vocals for their father, an Indian devotional singer. Immersed in the influence of his parent’s culture, mid eighties electro, hip hop and later on, the punk thrash of the The Boredoms and Sonic Youth, Wajid began his voyage of musical self discovery. Forming his own thrash punk band in Sweden, then playing bass with the politically astute band Fun-da-mental, later experimenting with guitar pedals to produce innovative walls of white noise and discovering the uncompromising sounds of Einstürzende Neubauten and Non while working at Mute Records, all fuelled his progress.

Forged in isolation, the extremity of 2nd Gen was developed to vent his frustrations as the perpetual outsider. The vision sharpened and a 2nd Gen EP entitled ‘Noise Sculptures’ was released on the Flo label. Inspired by this work, the daring maverick label novamute offered an alliance with 2nd Gen in 1998, providing Wajid with the support to realise his musical aspirations on a larger scale. Released that year, the dramatic 2nd Gen EP entitled ‘Against Nature’, gave notice that a radical musical force had been unleashed. Savage, arresting and bold, ‘Against Nature’ shot the listener with its lacerating sonic attack.

Having deployed the vitriolic assault that is ‘Against Nature’, Wajid has devised a more beguiling and challenging mode of assault for his first album, Irony Is. “It’s far too easy to kosh people sonically,” reflects the man who plans to bring Chuck D and John Lydon together on a future 2nd Gen track. “This time’s a bit more insidious, more a case of shaking them by the hand first.”

You have been warned. Listen with caution. Irony Is follows no rules.

release
Artwork by 2nd Gen Photos by Steve Gullick Layout by Angela Hayward

2nd Gen, aka Wajid Yaseen, born Manchester, releases his debut LP, Irony Is, through novamute on 5th March, his debut album for the label following 1998’s ferocious Against Nature EP.

A truly unique artist, Yaseen began his musical exploration at the age of 7 providing backing vocals for his father, an Indian devotional singer. By the time he had reached his teens he had begun to tutor himself in the aesthetics of noise via a new wave of US artists such as Sonic Youth and The Butthole Surfers. Forming a thrash punk band in Sweden eventually led to a link up with Fun-Da-Mental, with whom he played bass in the mid-nineties.

By 1997 he had begun to hone the extreme sound that would later define his work. Manipulating shards of white noise by looping sounds back and forth through an armoury of effects pedals, Yaseen was soon able to harness and direct his musical experiments into focused and often caustic slices of sound. By the end of 1997 he had linked up the Flo label through which he released his debut EP, Noise Sculptures in the same year.

WajidSigning to novamute in 1998, Yaseen released the frighteningly brutal Against Nature EP. An intense barrage of white-knuckle industrial strength hip hop beats and claustrophobic soundscapes, the EP signalled his intent to delve deeper into the uncharted territories of noise.

Re-entering Schism Studios in 1999, Yaseen began work on what would later become his debut LP, Irony Is. Initially working alone, and with a single minded agenda to operate outside the accepted boundaries of style and genre, he fused together beats, sounds and moments of harsh intensity to create a truly mesmerising piece of work.

With an almost arrogant rejection of convention, Yaseen has moulded an album of startling originality. Opening with the single, And / Or, released on 12th February and featuring vocalist Mau the album unfolds itself in a most unconventional style. Slowburn, sounds like a barbarous clash between Mark E Smith, Stockhausen and Public Enemy. The swamp fed Black Spring featuring James Johnston from Gallon Drunk on guitar, harmonica and vocals gives way to the languid yet ruthless Scarred, while the fabulously titled Musicians Are Morons propels itself on a tsunami of mordant beats. Ending with the tightly wound hip hop fed title track, Irony Is, Yaseen’s debut long player is a near perfect exploration of the power of noise. Controlled yet wild, Irony Is will stand the test of time and be rightly proclaimed as a pivotal release both now, and in years to come.

Snippets EU Edition:

Full Track Streaming:
“And/Or”

“Musicians Are Morons”

Recommendations:
all stuff on Mute & sublabels we featured

Buy Vinyl:
Juno
Decks
originally released in 2001

Buy CD:
Juno
originally released in 2001

Buy Download:
Qobuz
7Digital
iTunes
Beatport
more soon

Commercial Streaming Services:
Tidal
Qobuz
Spotify
Deezer
Apple Music
Anghami
Youtube Music

Websites:
2nd Gen
NovaMute
Mute
NovaMute Deutschland
Mute Deutschland

out now: Nicolas Bougaïeff – Prime Funktion EP [NovaMute]

Artist:
Nicolas Bougaïeff

Title:
Prime Funktion EP

Label:
NovaMute

Cat#:
NOMU198

Release Date:
07th May 2025

Format:
download & streaming

Tracklist:
01.
Prime

02.
Funktion

03.
Nucleus

04.
Womb

Press Info:
Nicolas Bougaïeff continues his ‘Prime’ EP series on NovaMute – ‘Prime Funktion’ arrives this May, with single ‘Funktion’ available 8th April 2025

Berlin-based Nicolas Bougaïeff follows up February’s ‘Primal Extensions’ EP with ‘Prime Funktion’, the second instalment of his ‘Prime’ EP series on NovaMute. Expanding on his ongoing exploration of prime rhythms and polytemporality, Bougaïeff continues to push the boundaries of techno with intricate rhythmic frameworks and hypnotic, high-intensity club cuts.

He kicks off this latest offering with ‘Prime’, a bleeping, twisted, and trippy late-night techno cut built around a quintuplet groove and 7:6 synth structures. The fantastic ‘Funktion’ is another potent, menacing track, where a shadowy synth loop repeats over hefty kicks in a dystopian fashion, driven by prime rhythmic divisions that create tension and unpredictability. ‘Nucleus’ is a hypnotic piece rolling on thudding kicks, with tumbling percussive lines dancing over the drums while its rational intonation scale, tuned around the 17th harmonic, brings a microtonal depth to the melodies. Last but not least, ‘Womb’ contrasts ever-evolving melodic patterns ringing down over lurching drums and unresolved loops, creating a dynamic interplay between chaos and calm. The artwork mirrors the EP’s approach, visualising prime rhythms as layered circular structures, where individual patterns remain independent yet momentarily align—capturing the tension between freedom and synchronisation that defines the Prime series.

Nicolas Bougaïeff’s ‘Prime Funktion’ once again showcases his unmatched mastery of polyrhythm, with the EP already receiving early support from Charlotte De Witte, Dubfire, Boris, Laurent Garnier, and Elisa Bee.

Drawing from his PhD in minimal techno and decades of experience, Bougaïeff continues his quest to expand the rhythmic possibilities of electronic music. The Prime series introduces listeners to prime rhythms—polyrhythms derived from prime number ratios that challenge traditional binary subdivisions—alongside his pivot mixing techniques, which allow seamless tempo integration. This explores what Bougaïeff calls ‘temporal liberation’—where intricate rhythms both literally break the constraints of traditional techno and serve as a symbolic metaphor for broader notions of personal, social, and metaphysical freedom.

Beyond his releases on labels such as Mute and NovaMute, Bougaïeff co-founded Liine, creators of the Lemur music app—famously used aboard the International Space Station. He founded the Berlin Academy of Electronic Music and reaches a global audience through his online tutorials, where he explains innovative production techniques. His videos on pivot mixing have gained notable recognition among industry peers.

Full Track Streaming:

Special:
“CLR Podcast 425”

Buy Download:
Nicolas Bougaïeff @ Bandcamp
Qobuz
JunoDownload
Beatport
iTunes
Boomkat
Bleep
Clone Digital
more soon

Commercial Streaming Services:
Tidal
Spotify
Deezer
Apple Music
Anghami
Youtube Music

Websites:
Nicolas Bougaïeff
NovaMute
NovaMute (Germany)
Mute
Mute (Germany)

out for a while: JB3 – Close Grind [NovaMute]

Artist:
JB3

Title:
Close Grind

Label:
NovaMute

Cat#:
NOMU50

Release Date:
09th December 1996 (CD, vinyl, cassette)
later (digital)

Format:
CD, vinyl, download & streaming

Tracklist Vinyl:
A1.
Time

B1.
Curb

B2.
Back Porch

C1.
Loose Kick

C2.
Presence

D1.
The View

D2.
Upper

Tracklist CD & Digital:
01.
Time

02.
Curb

03.
Back Porch

04.
Loose Kick

05.
Presence

06.
The View

07.
Upper

08.
Believer

09.
Forklift

Press Info:
The music of Joey Beltram hits hard and strikes deep. Born 24 years ago in the tough urban surrounds of Queens, NYC, the sound of Joey Beltram is a product of his environment, uncompromising, unrelenting, man versus machine. Being brought up next to the subway track to Manhattan, the rumble and clatter of passing trains seems to have seeped into his subconscious, re-emerging in a distilled form in his numerous outings in a variety of guises over the past few years. From the mesmeric ‘Energy Flash’ to the hard and direct ‘Mentasm’, the track that spawned a legion of imitators with it’s distinct, and at that time, original ‘hoover – esque’ sounds over a raging techno beat. Joey Beltram has carved his own distinct groove, a man who does not specialise in easy listening. Twisted music that snarls in the face of mediocre corporate disco.

Frustrated with the claustrophobic surrounds of his New York world Beltram initially found release through his graffiti art. “We always used to hang out in the train yard late at night” he remembers, “because you wouldn’t be able to hit the trains until two in the morning. So we’d sit by a bonfire, tell graffiti tales and listen to the biggest, loudest boom box on the block.” Inspired by the sounds of Tony Humphries and his regular slots on New York’s underground radio shows. 16 year old Joey eventually took his urban art in a different direction, stringing together primitive sounds through a beat up old mixing desk, to come up with tracks that would form the basis of Beltram’s recording career. Raw, moody and distinctly urban, the Beltram template was formed.

Switch to 1996, via his recent outings for Tresor, for whom he recorded ‘Places’ in 1994, his atmospheric and distinctly deep offerings as Code 6, we find ourselves gawping in amazement that Beltram still holds the potential to mainline the hardest hitting sounds around directly into your skull. December 9th sees the release of his first album under the guise of JB3, ‘Close Grind’ for NovaMute, recorded in Joey’s new hangout of leafy, upstate New York. With most tracks tried and tested on acetate in clubs around the world, the album proves itself as a record distinctly oriented towards the dance floor. A record with the ability to leave the weak hearted handbag brigade gasping for breath and running for cover with it’s barrage of satanic electronica and atom bomb beats.

From the hard, tribal musings of ‘Back Porch’ to the strangely aquatic Captain Nemo – esque techno of ‘Presence’, ‘Close Grind’ leaves you disorientated. Scary stuff. Opening with the minimal ‘Time’ with its schizophrenic snare barrage, the album rapidly picks up pace. Via ‘Curb’, laced with phased, out funked up guitars over an undulating bassline [Joey Beltram goes disco ?] we are dumped at the feet of ‘Loose Kick’ with its unrepentant, deep and dark approach, direct hard techno in its purest form. ‘Loose Kick’ lets loose wild electronic stabs that drift in and out of the track like a wasp possessed by Satan. Taking the sounds of hell further, Beltram wheels out ‘The View’, with its menacing throbbing sub bass that could scare the jazzy drum and bass fraternity out of the jungle. With the CD version of the album carrying the previous NovaMute singles ‘Believer’ and ‘Forklift’, ‘Close Grind’ refines the raw industrial heart of NYC into blood curdling techno sounds. Joey Beltram, king of Queens.

Snippets:

Special:
JB3 aka Joey Beltram – “@ ADE – 2012”