Techno/House/Trance | NovaFuture Blog

out now: Laurel Halo – Quarantine [Hyperdub Records]

Artist:
Laurel Halo

Title:
Quarantine

Label:
Hyperdub Records

Cat#:
HDBCD014

Release Date:
28th May 2012

Format:
CD, vinyl & digital

Tracklist:
01)
Airsick

02)
Years

03)
Thaw

04)
Joy

05)
MK Ultra

06)
Wow

07)
Carcass

08)
Holoday

09)
Tumor

10)
Morcom

11)
Nerve

12)
Light + Space

Info:
Since 2010’s King Felix and into last year’s highly lauded Hour Logic, Laurel Halo has developed a self-contained take on electronic music, collapsing the boundaries between ambient, pop, synthetic psychedelia, dub and the techno music of her Midwest roots. Fixed stylistic territories fold in on themselves, time quickens — her music is meant for transit, body listening and loud soundsystems.

Quarantine, her debut album and first release on Hyperdub, is her most focused and evolved release yet. This is an album of transporting songs, various altitude shifts via effecting pop-concrete, built on a rich synthesis of intuitive but exacting electronic abstraction, bass pulse and heartfelt songwriting.

Like Halo’s previous releases, Quarantine slams ambient suspension and disorienting detail up against each other. The twelve songs here operate as complex vacuums, airborne harmony and movement met with incidental noise and sub bass pressure, sample details and synth lines as trails across a mutilated sonic topography.

What is different on Quarantine is that Halo’s voice is foregrounded — the vocals are dry against lush arrangements, and her confidence with lyrics and delivery is more pronounced. Her expressive singing works as a pivot in songs that eschew the usual melodic routes to generate emotion, serving as contour and human definition in contrast to the forbidden synthetic space. Sensual melodies are bent to the point of nausea, inducing the torque of a psychedelic pop that simultaneously recalls elevation and trauma. This is a kind of music you might not have heard before, and in 2012 that in itself is
rare.

Photo below by Tim Saccenti

Listen:
@ Hyperdub

Recommendation:
another great record by Laurel Halo aka King Felix, “Spring”

Buy:
Hyperdub (digital)
Juno (CD)
Amazon GER (CD)
Amazon GER (vinyl)
Amazon GER (digital)
Amazon UK (CD)
Amazon UK (vinyl)
Amazon UK (digital)
deejay.de (CD)
deejay.de (vinyl)
decks.de (CD)
djshop.de (vinyl)
Beatport (digital)
7Digital (digital)
JunoDownload (digital)
Zero-Inch (digital)
more soon

Websites:
Laurel Halo
HyperDub

out now: Bas Mooy | Chris Finke – Parallel Series 3 [Mote-Evolver]

Artist:
Bas Mooy | Chris Finke

Title:
Parallel Series 3

Label:
Mote-Evolver

Cat#:
MOTE029

Release Date:
28th May 2012

Format:
12″ & digital

Tracklist:
01)
Bas Mooy
Howl

02)
Bas Mooy
Wesp

03)
Chris Finke
Sleep When You’re Dead

04)
Chris Finke
Euphemism

Info:
Mote-Evolver pushes electronic music into new territory once again with the Parallel Series, where each release hosts two formidable artists on one vinyl.

This third edition, ‘Parallel Series 3’, comes from two well respected reference points in the international scene: Bas Mooy and Chris Finke.

Their sound identities compare and compliment, contrast and challenge each other, creating a wordless dialogue across the two sides of the record.

Bas Mooy opens the record on no uncertain terms, ‘Howl’ is a force to be reckoned with. A1 is built on a deep bed, fortified with industrial clanging and layered with off-kilter asides. The atmosphere that emerges is brilliantly sinister. On A2 ‘Wesp’ – which translates from the Dutch to ‘wasp’ – Bas Mooy has adopted the ruthless focus of this insect, the track swoons in and out but the intent is clear, to create music capable of destroying a dance floor.

The flip side of Mote029 is in the very capable hands of Chris Finke. The UK veteran’s B1 ‘Sleep When You’re Dead’ begins with all guns blazing and to the driving bass line he adds swung beats, insistent hats and the result is six relentless minutes that are optimised for peak-time club listening. B2 ‘Euphemism’ is techno that’s both dark, hard and harbouring a background haunted with subtleties. Chris Finke fills ‘Euphemism’ with such fine details that it’s impossible not to reach for headphones. And it’s exactly this tension that the Parallel Series explores, electronic music that demands to be heard not just loudly, but also very closely.

Listen:

Video:

Video created by the29nov films.

Buy:
Hardwax (vinyl)
deejay.de (vinyl)
decks.de (vinyl)
djshop.de (vinyl)
7Digital (digital)
Beatport (digital)
Amazon GER (digital)
Amazon UK (digital)
more soon

Websites:
Bas Mooy
Chris Finke
Mote-Evolver

out now: Alexey Volkov – Dust EP [Planete Rouge Records]

Artist:
Alexey Volkov

Title:
Dust EP

Label:
Planete Rouge Records

Cat#:
PLR1202

Release Date:
12th April 2012

Format:
blue splattered 12″ & digital

Tracklist:
01)
Dust

02)
Overshadow

03)
Overshadow
(Endless Remix)

04)
Corner

Info:
After gaining support from the likes of Claudio PRC, Cio d’or, Adam X, Dave Clarke, The Hacker, Pfirter and Samuli Kemppi with his Planete Rouge debut, Playground, Russian up-and-comer Alexey Volkov returns with another skulking slab of industrial-inspired techno.

Title track “Dust” launches the EP into an immediately throbbing groove, rung through with the dissonant clangs of the genre’s cold, machine-obsessed heritage. This hydraulic homage is succeeded by “Overshadow”—a closer inspection of techno’s cogs and wheels that sees Volkov tinkering with its parts over 9 minutes of cumulative atmospherics. Endless—the new collaboration between Alistair Wells AKA Perc and Giorgio Gili, based on Speedy J’s Electric Deluxe label—offers a hypnotic remix from their pooled influences of Brian Eno, Byetone, Robert Henke, Irdial and Ifach. Here Volkov’s dark and growling slow-burner is stepped up into an octane workout, dressed with Gili’s minimalistic traits and seasoned with a spot of Perc-style abrasiveness. “Corner” is Dust EP’s provocative closer. Driven by anxious, incessant hats and syncopated hisses it uses suspended melodic morsels to work itself into a beguiling anti-climax that leaves you begging for more.

All in all, Dust EP showcases a linear consciousness with ultra-modern vision from this one-to-watch producer. And as ever, the sleeve artwork has been designed by label honcho and electronic protagonist himself Terence Fixmer.

Listen:

Buy:
Juno (vinyl)
deejay.de (vinyl)
decks.de (vinyl)
djshop.de (vinyl)
Beatport (digital)
more soon

Websites:
Alexey Volkov
Planete Rouge Records

out now: The Traveller – A 100 EP [Ostgut Ton]

Artist:
The Traveller

Title:
A 100 EP

Label:
Ostgut Ton

Cat#:
O-TON 55

Release Date:
30th April 2012

Format:
12″ & digital

Tracklist:
01)
A100

02)
BER

03)
Bypass

Info:
René Pawlowitz aka Shed returns to Ostgut Ton under the new moniker The Traveller and delivers the first 12″ of this new project. Under his new guise Pawlowitz picks up at his roots and delivers a deep techno record made for the floor.

The beats on the A-Side “A 100” are fierce, the melodic synth line lifts you up while everything around appears to be burning down. The experimental first track on the B-side “BER” meanders without beats and full of broken chords around that moment of ecstasy without ever reaching a break. On the B-side’s second track “Bypass” René says hello to the techno-heroes, rolls out a red carpet and shows them what he has learned. Pack your bags and head for the dancefloors.

Listen:

Video:

Video created by the29nov films.

Buy:
Ostgut Ton (vinyl)
Hardwax (vinyl)
Juno (vinyl)
deejay.de (vinyl)
decks.de (vinyl)
djshop.de (vinyl)
JunoDownload (digital)
Zero-Inch (digital)
Beatport (digital)
Boomkat (vinyl)
Boomkat (digital)
more soon

Websites:
The Traveller
Ostgut Ton

out now: Cristian Vogel – The Inertials [Shitkatapult]

Artist:
Cristian Vogel

Title:
The Inertials

Label:
Shitkatapult

Cat#:
STRIKE137

Release Date:
08th June 2012

Format:
CD & digital

Tracklist:
01)
Enter The Tub

02)
Seed Dogs

03)
Lucky Connor

04)
Snakes In The Grass

05)
Todays Standard Form

06)
Deepwater

07)
Dreams Of Apolonia (Trying For Your Love)

08)
Bootstraps

09)
Spectral Transgression

10)
Moved By Waves

Press Info:
CRISTIAN VOGEL’s fourteenth album is already a classic. Every track is subtly shaped, full of nuances without drifting into gimmickry. Every sound is efficient and precise. With THE INERTIALS, Vogel nonchalantly provides the soundtrack for industrial wasteland. This is clubmusic beyond any genre which, while bearing the spirit of Industrial Techno, is way above the Rave-dogma which dominated Industrial Techno during the 90s. The dark side of high end production, as you may call it. With a great sense of distinct melody and harmony, Vogel as a producer roughs up the digital surfaces. This is how he adds depth and body to his music, which is something a lot of techno-related productions are lacking. With CRISTIAN VOGEL, digital clarity has patina and at the same time sounds hazy.

At a predominantly moderate tempo, Vogel, a perfectionist, cleverly combines creaky sounds with swinging rhythms. With a knowledge of Dubstep, but unimpressed by the short-lived micro-trends of clubmusic, he has assembled the newest standards of digital production on THE INERTIALS. The lively “Seed Dogs” with it’s unexpected tempo changes; the surprising “Lucky Connor” with it’s marvellously complex rhythm; the hypnotic, incredibly groovy “Snakes In The Grass”, appearing like a confident nod towards Minimal techno; the mysterious “Deepwater”, creating suspense from the very first moment like a John Carpenter soundtrack. The list could be continued indefinitely. Every track is timeless and rests within itself. “Todays Standard Form” is a syntheziser arpeggio fantasy with no beats at all, a prelude for the midi piano, if you like. And with “Dreams Of Apolonia”, dub for the first time is not just insinuated, but actually emerging in it’s own right.

In the late 80s in the U.K., CRISTIAN VOGEL with the “Cabbage Head Collective”, became engaged in the production of electronic music. He completed his studies of 20th century music at the University of Sussex. In the mid-nineties he began to deliver blueprints for Minimal and Wonky techno. His first Album “Beginning to understand” was released on MILLE PLATEAUX in 1994, the following twelve longplayers on labels such as Tresor and Novamute. In collaboration with JAMIE LIDELL, he founded SUPER COLLIDER years before Lidell gained recognition as a solo artist. At the same time, he provided work as a composer of contemporary dance and film music. Vogel did remixes for the likes of RADIOHEAD, MAXIMO PARK, CHICKS ON SPEED and THOM YORKE. As a programmer and theorist in the field of digital sound research he is just as much at home as he is as composer and songwriter.

Listen: