Line-up: a secret that will be a secret until … the party ends
Location:
://about blank, Berlin (Germany)
Admission fee:
5 EUR
Info (English):
STAUB – raw, mystical, vast: techno.
A party where lineups are a thing of the past and techno is left to its devices narrating a musical journey.
A party where the audience gives in to the surprise of uncertainty, carried by carefully selected artists and newcomers.
Info (German):
Namen lösen sich auf, verschwinden in Schall und Staub. Das Line-up bleibt verhüllt. Staub. Na wer weiß das? Keiner? Staub. Na wer weiß das? Keiner? Staub
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.
"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.
Info: Electronic Beats, international music magazine from Germany, started a series asking musicians and other music people about their “Depeche Moment”. So we put together a summary of the features.
Gudrun Gut
owner of the label Monika Enterprises, producer of electronica, co-founder of the 1980s band Malaria!
Thomas Fehlmann
member of avantgarde band Palais Schaumburg, remixed several Depeche Mode tracks
Carsten Nicolai
best known for his project alva noto, co-owner of the label Raster-Noton, member of Diamond Version. DV will support DM on tour in Eastern Europe
Justus Köhncke
Kompakt artist, remixed Depeche Mode song “Peace”
Daniel Miller
founder of legendary label Mute, discovered Depeche Mode
Pole
German Dub producer, Mute artist and mastering engineer, remixed “Comatose” (unreleased)
Simon Reynolds
music journalist & author of such books as “Retromania”, “Rip It Up and Start Again” and “Energy Flash”
Douglas J. McCarthy
frontman/lead singer of EBM legend Nitzer Ebb. former label mates and tour support of Depeche Mode. Douglas will also support DM on tour
Tim Simenon
man behind the project “Bomb The Bass”, producer of the DM album “Ultra” and remixer of several tracks
