Techno/House/Trance | NovaFuture Blog

out now: Zeitgeber – Zeitgeber [Stroboscopic Artefacts]

Artist:
Zeitgeber

Title:
Zeitgeber

Label:
Stroboscopic Artefacts

Cat#:
SALP001

Release Date:
10th June 2013

Format:
CD, 2×12″ & digital

Tracklist:
A1)
Closely Related

A2)
These Rhythms

A3)
Skin

B1)
None Of Their Defects

B2)
From Here

C)
Now Imagine

D1)
Before They Wake

D2)
Display 24

Info:
Zeitgeber is the duo of Speedy J and Lucy. Both renowned techno artists in their own right, they’ve teamed up together to create a spellbinding album of abstract electronics. As the owner of Electric Deluxe, Speedy J has overseen one of modern techno’s finest imprints. He was there at techno’s beginnings as a DJ and producer, and he continues to stand at its avant-garde, pushing his artists and himself to continue to innovate. The same goes for Stroboscopic Artefacts head Lucy, whose young imprint has never failed to impress in its ambition and output. Lucy has a clear vision of what he wants with his imprint, and across the label’s three album releases you can see that it has been achieved. Zeitgeber marks a new era for Stroboscopic Artefacts. But it’s business as usual for both Speedy J and Lucy, two of techno’s leading lights.

Zeitgeber is a German word that, loosely translated, means “synchronizer.” It’s also the new project of Electric Deluxe head Speedy J and Stroboscopic Artefacts’ boss Lucy. Both artists make some of the most forward-thinking techno around, but Zeitgeber sees them pushing together even further into uncharted territories. Freed of dancefloor considerations, the duo have constructed an album that breathes with life and rewards close listening.

That’s no surprise when you consider the artists involved. Speedy J has been around from techno’s very beginnings. Based in Rotterdam, his Electric Deluxe label has consistently released techno that has gleefully tugged at the constraints of the genre. Lucy, on the other hand, is a newer name to most techno fans, but his Stroboscopic Artefacts label has quickly made a name for itself as one of the leading purveyors of the stuff.

Unpredictable and exciting are two words for much of what you get on SA. And that most definitely applies to Zeitgeber the album as well. The album kicks into life slowly with “Closely Related,” a track that sounds like a motor unsuccessfully revving up, its attempts extinguished every so often by a plate of molten glass. “These Rhythms” lives up to its name – as long as the “these” of its title is pronounced in an incredulous way. “Skin” devolves into white noise by its fourth minute, pulls itself together (barely) and then slithers onward like a snake that’s stuck in a desert looking for someone to poison.

It should be mentioned (if you weren’t sure already) that none of these tracks sound like conventional techno. They’re typified by the careful and exacting sound design of much of Speedy J and Lucy’s work but it employed to almost completely abstract ends. It’s only on “None of Their Defects” that a beat proudly comes to the forefront. True to form, though, it’s heavily swung and eventually gives way to one of the most emotional melodies of the album. “From Here” follows a similar path, building from a few simple elements to a chittering and complex finale.

“Now Imagine” shudders and quakes across its ten minute length, every single one of them completely necessary to make its point. “Before They Wake” is a gentle lullaby that hides multitudes under the calm surface. The album concludes with “Display 24” a track which seems to have taken a choir from Popul Vuh and stretched it out to epic lengths underneath a clanking, industrial-sized rhythm. It’s a terrifying ending to an album that doesn’t often let the light in.

That’s by design, however. Because when Zeitgeber do let the light in, it’s all the brighter. You’d expect nothing less from two of the most talented producers in the techno world. The culmination of 18 months of work, Zeitgeber is an album that is a collaboration in the best sense. Two artists urging other to new heights and new sounds.

Words: Todd L. Burns

Listen:

Special:
“Boiler Room Set”

Buy CD:
Stroboscopic Artefacts
deejay.de
decks.de
WOM
more soon

Buy Vinyl:
Stroboscopic Artefacts
Juno
deejay.de
decks.de
WOM
Amazon US
djshop.de
more soon

Buy Digital:
7Digital
Amazon
JunoDownload
Zero-Inch
Google Play
Beatport
iTunes
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Websites:
Stroboscopic Artefacts

out now: Bomb The Bass – Wandering Star EP [O*Solo Recordings]

Artist:
Bomb The Bass

Title:
Wandering Star EP

Label:
O*Solo Recordings

Cat#:
CATSOLO103

Release Date:
29th March 2013

Format:
download & streamig

Tracklist:
01)
Wandering Star

02)
Needy Creature

03)
Wandering Star
(The Third Mind Remix)

04)
Wandering Star
(Ken Hayakawa Remix)

05)
Wandering Star
(Swede:Art Remix)

06)
Wandering Star
(Dawn Horse Remix)

Info:
With big hitters such as ‘Beat Dis’, Bomb The Bass helped mould late 1980s acid house. Their linchpin, Tim Simenon, has led the group through a number of different incarnations, painting vivid pictures of modern culture on the albums ‘Clear’, ‘Unknown Territory’ and ‘Into The Dragon’.

More recently Bomb The Bass have settled as a duo, vocalist Paul Conboy providing lyrical complements to Simenon’s continually inventive productions. The duo have made arguably the best work under the moniker, with guests from Mark Lanegan to Fujiya & Miyagi (‘Future Chaos’), then a successful co-production with Gui Boratto (‘Back To Light’).

Simenon and Conboy return in 2013 with new single ‘Wandering Star’ and album ‘In The Sun’, both on Simenon’s new imprint O*Solo Recordings, and will take their vividly inventive electro on tour.

‘Wandering Star’ is a peek at new Bomb The Bass album ‘In The Sun’. It is an affirmative, dub-laden song with a captivating vocal. In a generous remix package, Third Mind slice the vocals with textures that appear hung on a piece of string. Ken Hayakawa uses a hypnotic four-part loop, while Swede:art slows things right down. Finally Dawn Horse evokes swirling night time mist. Also included on the EP is another brand new track, ‘Needy Creature’. The ‘Wandering Star’ video was directed by Eni Brandner.

Snippets:
@ O*Solo Shop

Video:

Related Release:
album “In The Sun”

Recommendation:
Ghost Capsules, new project featuring Tim Simenon aka Bomb The Bass

Buy:
O*Solo Shop (digital)
7Digital (digital)
Amazon (digital)
iTunes (digital)
Beatport (digital)
JunoDownload (digital)
GooglePlay (digital)
more soon

Commercial Streaming Services:
Rdio
Spotify

Websites:
Bomb The Bass
O*Solo Recordings

out now: Ghost Capsules – Ghost Capsules [O*Solo Recordings]

Artist:
Ghost Capsules

Title:
Ghost Capsules

Label:
O*Solo Recordings

Cat#:
CATSOLO102

Release Date:
12th April 2013

Format:
CD & Digital

Tracklist:
01)
Game of Thrones

02)
Inside

03)
Magnetic Fields

04)
My Red Shoes

05)
This Castle Of Me

06)
Time & Matter

07)
Morgan Le Fay

08)
I Am Dead

09)
Another Earth

Press Info (English):
Electro quartet Ghost Capsules can trace their beginnings back to a Bomb The Bass gig in Vienna. Here it was that Tim Simenon, touring the ‘Back To Light’ album, met his support band that featured drummer Roman Lugmayr and keyboard player Georg Lichtenauer. The three hit it off, so much so that Tim relocated from Amsterdam to the Austrian capital. Here the missing piece for the Ghost Capsules jigsaw was found in singer Laura Gomez, who Tim had booked to play at one of his club nights. Proof positive that there’s no business as sociable as music.

Ghost Capsules make music for the night. Dark chocolate electro, if you like, shot through with a dash of espresso, a twist of chilli even. Their beats and loops are cool and calculated, but emotion courses through each of Gomez’s lyrical statements, wreathed as they are in tales of pure fantasy. Singing of blood red shoes with killer heels, her verses are revealed under the sharply focused points of light conjured up by Ghost Capsules’ music.

You walk into a club. A club so dark everything goes black for at least a minute, after which time murky shapes slowly start to make themselves known. The one constant is the beat, falling with clinical regularity, while off the beat hands clap together like someone whetting a knife. You shiver, not just at the cold, smoky atmosphere but also at the cut glass vocals that penetrate the beats. The voice belongs to Laura Gomez, the Ghost Capsules vocalist. She sings on the self-titled album of dystopian electronic grooves that crackle with atmosphere. The accusative Mr Rain heads up these songs, with its powerful proclamation from Gomez that “I am queen, I am empowered”, while the likes of Inside and Morgan Le Fay glint in the half light of the club. The productions team stasis with movement, with long, held chords set up against busier synthesizer chatter, generating momentum that should be felt on many a dancefloor. Ghost Capsules, then, is the place where finely sculpted songs are given movement, music for the feet as well as the head.

Press Info (German):
Ghost Capsules machen elektronische Musik für die Nacht, die sich anfühlt wie dunkle Schokolade mit einem Spritzer von Espresso und vielleicht sogar einem Hauch Chili. Ihre Beats und Loops sind cool und berechenbar. Doch durch die lyrischen Statements der Sängerin winden sich Emotionen. Die einzige Konstante ist der Beat, der mit klinischer Regelmäßigkeit hämmert. Schauer laufen durch den Club, nicht nur wegen der kalten, düsteren Atmosphäre sondern auch wegen dieser Stimme, die die Beats durchdringt und die klingt, als könnte sie Glas zerschneiden. Diese Stimme gehört Laura Gomez, der Sängerin von Ghost Capsules.

Die Musik kommt von Tim Simenon und seinen Mitstreitern, dem Schlagzeuger Roman Lugmayr und dem Keyboarder Georg Lichtenauer. Simenon selbst ist das Mastermind hinter Bomb The Bass, jenem britischen Musikprojekt, das seit Mitte der 80er immer wieder die elektronische Musik entscheidend beeinflusste. Nebenbei produzierte er so unterschiedliche Künstler wie Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Sinnéad O’Connor, Seal oder Neneh Cherry. Bei einem Auftritt in Wien lernte er Lugmayr und Lichtenauer kennen. Die drei verstanden sich auf Anhieb so gut, dass Simenon direkt in die österreichische Hauptstadt zog.

Gemeinsam mit ihrer kongenialen Sängerin entwickelten sie ein bahnbrechendes neues Projekt: Ghost Capsules. Die Stücke ihres selbstbetitelten ersten Albums laufen bereits bei FM4 und der BBC rauf und runter. Cooler als die Antarktis pluckern die Beats und geben den Rhythmus der Nacht vor. Die Synthesizer rasen und rattern, während zugleich das harmonische Gerüst, das diese Schlagabfolge zu tragen in der Lage ist, mit lange gehaltenen Akkorden der Musik eine majestätische Ruhe zu geben scheint. Das Produktionsteam verharrt in Bewegung und entwickelt in aller nötigen Geduld die fein geformten Songs, die so zu einer Musik zum Tanzen, aber auch zum Fliegen und Nachdenken werden. Nicht zuletzt wegen der Texte, die Gomez mit chirurgischer Präzision darüber setzt und die vor hypnotischer Atmosphäre nur so knistern. Wobei hypnotisch gar nicht einmal metaphorisch gemeint sein muss, beginnt doch beispielsweise der Song „Inside“ mit den Worten: „When I count to three you will wake up, you won’t remember what happened.“

„Inside“ ist auch einer der beiden Songs der ersten Singleauskopplung, und Tim Simenon wäre nicht Bomb The Bass wenn er nicht gleich etliche Remixe für den Titel und die B-Seite „Sleepless“ in Auftrag gegeben hätte. So unterschiedliche Elektroniker wie DJ Lupo, der in Österreich wohnende Japaner Ken Hayakawa oder Makossa & Megablast entlocken durch ihre Versionen den Stücken noch etliche weitere Facetten in Richtung Techno, House oder Dub und beweisen, dass in Ghost Capsules eine ganze Welt voll elektronischer Vielfalt steckt.

Listen:
@ deejay.de

Videos:
“Inside”

“Game Of Thrones”

“I Am Dead ”

“Magnetic Fields”

“Another Earth (Live in Germany Extract)”

“Broken Bones (At Home Session)”

Related Release:
EP “Inside”
EP “Magnetic Fields”

Recommendations:
Bomb The Bass EP “Wandering Star”
Bomb The Bass album “In The Sun”

Pictures:
GC live at Berlin’s BiNuu, photos by Eni Brandner

Commercial Streaming Services:
Rdio
Spotify

Buy CD:
Amazon GER
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon FR
Amazon ES
WOM
Juno
deejay.de
decks.de
more soon

Buy Digital:
Amazon
7Digital
iTunes
more soon

Websites:
Ghost Capsules
O*Solo Recordings

out now: Subjected – Zero [Vault Series]

Artist:
Subjected

Title:
Zero

Label:
Vault Series

Cat#:
VAULTCD001

Release Date:
17th April 2013

Format:
Cd, vinyl & digital

Tracklist:
01)
M

02)
VX800

03)
TG33

04)
Boom Boom

05)
Concept 3

06)
Tool 1

07)
Rancor

08)
Vault 101

09)
SD1

10)
The Throne

"Boom Boom", "Concept 3" and "TG33" are released on VAULT013.

Info:
Anonymity as function, without dressy mystique or the usual clutter of clichés. No makers hiding behind masks to escape celebrity, or past, or simple recognition. No purists. No activists. No no-nonsense. Just a quiet presence making strident, statement-free techno—because the dance floor is enough. This is Vault Series. Raw, powerful, punishing dance music delivered in covert—not for covert’s sake, unpolluted by tacked-on concepts or even track titles. This is distinct and deeply identifiable techno, conceived in the shadows to be consumed in the dark. A shared sound aesthetic, attained through individual routes. A collective. A label. Just music, and nothing more.

Relinquishing biographies and the usual promotional faff, Subjected and his two Vault Series cohorts Mørbeck and Sawlin have been steadily rising to prominence on the strength of their music alone. Since setting up Vault Series in 2010 as an independent platform for the trio’s shared sonic vision, the label has fast become a go-to for consistently gratifying basement-ready club music. Defined by its industrial hues, distorted edges, thundering basslines and a resolutely floor-focused disposition, the Vault Series sound is both unique and pertinent, separatist without introspect, and containing an awareness of context whilst following its own divergent trajectory. After twelve EPs that have continued to refine the message with an ever-widening bed of nuances, comes the first full-length release from the collective’s mastermind and chief Subjected.

Without compromising Vault Series ethics, ‘Zero’ is a concept-free and entirely frill-less dancefloor album that vends the label’s recognisable trademarks over ten advantageously assaulting tracks. Opening with swirling, ominous storm clouds on “M”, the album unfurls with signature Subjected textures and foreboding atmospheres, propelled by pistons and the steely functionality of solid industrial-facing frameworks. Resounding basslines growl throughout, reaching new depths on the dub-toned “Concept 3” and pealing “Rancor”, with clanging machinery and crushing distortion characterising tracks elsewhere, such as “SD1” and “VX800”. From warm up (“TG33”) to peak time (“Boom Boom”), hypnotic build (“Tool 1”) to broken technoid close, ‘Zero’ exhibits versatility and club-consciousness with design flair and intriguing craftsmanship. Welcome to the Vault.

Snippets:

Fulll Track Streaming:

Videos:
“Rancor”

“Concept 3”

“SD1”

Videos created by the29nov films.

Special:
“Reclaim Your City Podcast 006”

Recommendations:
“Vault Series 8.0” by Subjected
“Vault Series 11.0” including Subjected track

Buy:
Hardwax (vinyl 1)
Hardwax (vinyl 2)
deejay.de (vinyl 1)
deejay.de (vinyl 2)
decks.de (vinyl 1)
decks.de (vinyl 2)
djshop.de (vinyl 1)
djshop.de (vinyl 2)
Juno (vinyl 1)
Juno (vinyl 2)
Musicload (digital)
Juno (digital)
Beatport (digital)
WhatPeoplePlay (digital)
buy links of “VAULT SERIES 13.0”
more soon

Booking:
Outlined AM

Websites:
Subjected
Vault Series

out now: Black Asteroid – Black Acid (Remixes) [Electric Deluxe]

Artist:
Black Asteroid

Title:
Black Acid (Remixes)

Label:
Electric Deluxe

Cat#:
EDLX.029

Release Date:
18th April 2013

Format:
vinyl & digital

Tracklist:
A1)
Black Acid
(Perc Remix)

A2)
Black Acid
(Alva Noto Remodel)

B1)
Pressure
(Len Faki Re-Pressure)

B2)
Hydrogen
(DJ Emerson & Angel Costa Remix)

Info:
Raw analogue alchemies delivered with all the sleek and polish of its black-on-black casing made Bryan Black’s EDLX debut last year as blackasteroid a truly memorable one, consolidating all of the Motor man’s proven Paisley Park-honed engineering capabilities into a succinct and forward-facing EP. Defined by its gritty textures, fizzy white noisemanipulations and a signature mechanical hum throughout, ‘Black Acid’ achieved a uniquely tactile sound quality, reaffirming Bryan Black as a formidable one to watch under his revised blackasteroid guise.

Recently Perc, Alva Noto, Len Faki, Angel Costa and DJ Emerson presented a series of pithy reinventions of the EP’s three lead tracks: “Black Acid”, “Hydrogen” and “Pressure”, turning in a thoroughly versatile remix package complete with fresh nuances ranging from peak time basement material to more pensive headphone moments. A recomposed body of original ‘Black Acid’ sonic material, once more sheathed in stunning minimalistic design—this time in reverse: white on white, with contrasting materials (matte laminate on the cover and a high gloss UV varnish in the detail) providing the sole differentiating factor.

This particularly considered art direction was the result of a creative collaboration between Bryan Black (a designer himself and responsible for the bulk of Motor’s artwork), Jochem Paap and EDLX designer Jan Willem van den Ban from Enchilada. Choosing to diversify from the usual colourfulness and moiré structures of EDLX, the monotone colour palette and minimal aesthetic sets these pieces apart as highly collectable art objects, meanwhile rendering the blackasteroid project in a very physical, very personal way—thoughtful design in both sleeve and sound.

In Jan Willem’s words: “To mimic the dark and powerful tracks with sounds emerging and submerging, the sleeveshows all the shades of black possible. The design of the ‘Remix EP’ has a similar visual parallel with the music; in the way the remixes are deconstructed and reassembled from the source material, the artwork reworks the same variables and puts them together in a different mixture. The result is a minimal and monolithic object, that reflects differently from every angle and forms a logical and rock solid pair of releases.

Full Track Streaming: