Playing a Laibach set at Iklectik, London, 3. Oktober 2018.

I'll be playing a selection of rare, live and obscure Laibach plus a few classics at this special book launch event at Iklectik. 

Review: Lucy and Klock – War Lullaby Stroboscopic Artefacts SA024 – May 11th, 2015

Having previously released label mainstay Lucy’s collaboration with Speedy J (Zeitgeber), Stroboscopic Artefacts now present the results of his work with Ostgut Ton producer Ben Klock. War Lullaby is a curious title for a curious release presenting a variety of styles, none of which turn out quite as might be imagined.

The initial mood set by 'Bliss' is graceful and fluent. Rippling, gamelan-like tones and subtle bass pressure engineer a feeling that's simultaneously subtle, tense and optimistic.

The title track is instantly memorable, introduced by an eerily smooth bassline hovering in a void. Once the beat kicks in a futuristic minimal disco feel develops which is then made strange by the final element - a heavily-filtered and indecipherable speech sample. This is a very distinctive and original track and the highlight here.



With its muffled kick ‘Santeria’ initially seems dubbier/housier but a de-tuned bleepy sequence and a spiralling minmal acid line soon take it in another direction before it gradually shifts again into an uneasy form of ambient dub.

The closing ‘A Ghost Lovestory’ is essentially a long ambient outro with a hazy atmosphere made more interesting by an underlay of static hiss. The press release slightly tempts fate by stating that “ things can get very interesting when the two working methods superimpose perfectly, but can be just as interesting when the two fall slightly out of phase with one another.” The duo seem to have deliberately left gaps unclosed and allowed their techniques to drift out of synch, allowing a certain oddness to creep in to these hybrid tracks. Rather than offering a grand statement,the duo leave it to the listener to decipher and assess the tracks.

RBF + VIVID PROJECTS PRESENT: AN EVENING WITH TEST DEPT, BIRMINGHAM, MAY 28TH.

OFFICIAL AFTERPARTY FOR THE LAUNCH OF THE PC PRESS BOOK 'TOTAL STATE MACHINE'

DJ SETS, TEST DEPT. INSTALLATIONS AND LIVE FOOTAGE OF TD ACTIONS AND CONCERTS
 
DJ SETS FROM:

TEST DEPT.
STEPHEN MALLINDER (WRANGLER/CABARET VOLTAIRE)
CODEX EUROPA
ANDY BLACK FOREST

Test Dept; the authentic industrialists, sonic material handlers, utilisers and recyclers of society’s debris have re-emerged to engage with the current cultural and political climate, exploring new ways of expression in a strategic programme of actions and releases.

The symposium at Aston University where academics, contributors to the book and other interested parties discuss the influence and impact of the group will be followed by an after party at Vivid to celebrate Test Dept’s return to the public sphere.

The return is realised in the form of the book – Total State Machine – published in April 2013 by PC-Press ; an extensive documentation of the history, work and actions of the group up until their 2014 DS30 installation at Dunstan Staiths, commissioned by AV Festival to commemorate the anniversary of The Miners’ Strike of 1984/85. The book is launched in London on April 23rd and will feature a screening of the DS30 documentary. The Birmingham event will also celebrate the release of the 12” vinyl single; Tested Product for Record Store Day and the re-release of Shoulder To Shoulder; their album with the striking South Wales Striking Miners Choir from 1984 which will be re-released on 1st May on red vinyl.

 The evening will feature DJ sets from Test Dept themselves, PC Press editor Alexei Monroe in his Codex Europa guise and the legendary Stephen Mallinder. Test Dept will line the walls with art manifestos and statements from their historical archives and show footage of live performances and actions from some of their historic performances. There will be a stall selling the book, CDs, vinyl and official Test Dept merchandise.

 

7:00PM - 11:00PM £5 ENTRY

Vivid Projects

16 Minerva Works, 158 Fazeley Street, B5 5RS Birmingham, United Kingdom

Review: Mike Gervais Assailant EP

Mike Gervais

Assailant EP

Label. SYSTEM

Format. Vinyl & Digital

Cat.Number. SYSTEM002

Release Date. March 9th, 2015 (Vinyl),

March 23rd, 2015 (Digital)

This memorable new release from veteran Minneapolis techno producer and promoter Mike Gervais represents the cutting-edge of American techno. It's the second release on his System label and features two original tracks with 2 remixes. 

Assailant itself has an instant kick and an intense propulsive energy, yet is no mindless banger. The sounds are sharp and clean with morphing sounds coiling and cutting through the mix. As it progresses, drones come to the fore, creating an atmosphere that's both cold and positive.

Luis Flores' remix retains only twisted traces of the original with added Latinate percussion producing a version that's simultaneously more danceable and colder, filled with spiky detail. The Doubt remix starts with stretched, morphing tones before introducing a subtly clubby bass. The overall feeling is more abstract and minimal, with texture and atmosphere prevailing over impact.

Some producers might be overshadowed when having to follow up serious remixes of their work but in this case Gervais' own 'Stumble' outclasses even these. It's a fluent blend of elegantly arranged dark layers and acidic fragments that constantly mutate and modulate, demanding active listening rather than unthinking submission to the beat.

Review: Paula Temple - Deathvox

Format: Vinyl & Digital

Cat.No: R&S  RS1412

This is Paula Temple's second release on R&S, a sequel to her Colonized EP. Now based in Berlin and also running her own label, Noise Manifesto, Temple offers a distinctive blend of contemporary techno with acknowledged industrial influences (a brave step as there's a clumsy but vocal backlash against such influences in techno at present).

'Deathvox' fades up elegantly into distortion and a relentless, galloping beat, soon strafed by harsh, machinic screams. Underlying this are (slightly) more musical elements that provide contrast with the main sequence. After a more ambient interlude it seems to accelerate again, with crisper drums and blasts of what sounds improbably like a Tibetan horn (perhaps her own voice transformed, as the press release suggests). Given her statement that “I wanted to create a sonic movement completely transhuman, captivating, and capable of tingling every chakra in the body” this makes perfect sense, even when the beats drop away and the sound comes to the fore before the chase (which is what the faster sequences feel like) resumes, although it's still interrupted again before the end.

'Monstro' is initially marked by idealistic synth chords that are soon pulverised by massive industrial percussion in the vein of Ancient Methods. It's a slow, pounding track that takes its time and also cedes space to the spacey synths again before its end.

Shifting gear again, 'Ful' opens with very sparse, tribal percussion, plaintive chords and a more muffled beat than the other tracks. Its half-yearning, half-confrontational atmosphere is very 90s, but in the best sense, and when a massive bassline drops later in the track it establishes a direct and inspiring connection to the insurgent energy of classic R & S releases.

Review: MARCELUS Shine EP TRESOR269

This is the third EP by Marcelus (French producer Cédric Bros) Marcelus returns with the ‘Shine EP’, third 12" to be released on Tresor, which is increasingly coming to seem like a natural home for him.

Opener 'Red Dance' innovatively re-works the classic techno-minimalist sounds of Pacou's late 1990s Tresor releases. It's centred on brittle sounds with a metallic edge that produce a strong impact without sacrificing complexity.



'Worship The Bass' gradually intensifies and accumulates power and packs a strong punch, but is misleadingly-titled as it's not actually a massively bassy track. Instead Marcelus'  cold, filtered sounds compete thoughtfully with a muffled kick.



The B-side tracks (for vinyl listeners) are much more atmospheric and abstract, reminding us of the ambient side of Tresor's vast back catalogue. A filtered, metallic sound circles through 'Shine', accompanied by gauzy sounds and a disembodied female voice in a digital fog. It's certainly not a typical track and all the better for it.



'Astral' is suitably ethereal and makes for a graceful end to the EP. It's a deep and beat-less outro with a trace of the ambient textures of Harold Budd.

Live at Fluid, Friday 15th August

I'll be playing a more techno-focussed set than usual, but naturally with a few wild cards thrown in.

Hysteria, Basement, 578 Kingsland Road, Dalston. Free from 21.00 to 22.00, £5 after. Running until 03.00. Set time: 00.00 - 01.30

Review: Container - Adhesive (Liberation Technologies LTECH007)

Artist: Container

Title: Adhesive

Label: Liberation Technologies

Cat: LTECH007

Format: Digital / Vinyl

The latest release on Mute's developing Liberation Technologies label presents the work of American producer Container (Ren Schofield). The label seems like a natural home for an aggressively experimental EP that seems to acknowledge the influence of other, now historic, producers.

Opener Glaze has an almost poppy beat offset by harsher noise textures. It also recalls the work of Nova Mute artist 2^nd Gen and also has a trace of the early electronic spirit of Mute.

Slush is harsher and more abrasive track with an aggressive, punky sound full of nagging details. In contrast, Complex is quite Punky in spirit, featuring raw textures and a strange niggling sound that might be a flanged voice sample. Whatever the source, it's been successfully designed to grate and to prevent things getting too linear.

The title track is based around a harsh, scouring pattern with sudden blares and bleepy details. It's a very rough and urgent track, as reflected in the media overdose theme of the video:

Review: V/A Sulla Giostra Nell’Ombra

Artist: V.A.

Title: Sulla Giostra Nell’Ombra

Label: Violet Poison

Cat: VPN005

Release: 23rd-Jan-2014

Format: 12” Vinyl Only (Transparent)

Although only on its 5^th release, the Violet Poison label is already attracting strong interest. The fifth release is a suitably uncompromising compilation. While even some techno listeners will find these tracks too extreme, they sacrifice neither force nor subtlety.

O/H is Richard Oddie of Orphx and Dave Foster of Teste. Their track 'Delirium Tremens' kicks in hard from the start. Its pulsing analogue basslines have more than a trace of Pan Sonic and are offset by harsh noise frequencies, shaking loose all manner of sonic debris.

Irish producer Sunil Sharpe offers the pleasingly-titled 'Ground Skull' which is not quite as brutal as its predecessor, but equally dramatic. Built around atmospheric alarm bell frequencies, it also features a very dirty acidic noise sequence and a very abrupt ending.

'Function' by Belgraders Ontal initially sounds like it's going be a all-out assault, but while there's no shortage of fiercely dragging industrial percussion and noise, it doesn't punch through as expected, but keeps to a steady on/off beat marked by mechanical rasping and half-joyful, half-ominous chords.

CSA's 'Overture', may not be quite as confrontational or fast as the others, but it's a very intense and ominous piece – a blend of churning noise, twisted high chords and orchestral ambience with definite industrial overtones. A suitably uneasy ending to a very intense slab of vinyl.

10 from 2013

Ten of the most intense and storming tracks from the year, there could have been another couple of Perc tracks and mixes but I've tried to make the list more balanced. Honourable mentions for Dadub, Zeitgeber, Dettmann, Coal, Oscar Mulero, Shifted and Inigo Kennedy amongst others...

 

Review: Giorgio Gigli & Obtane - Perception Through Dissonance (Prosthetic Pressings PP039)

This is a release by two of the most interesting Italian techno producers, following on from their 2012 release A Sad Wandering Dreamer Trapped In Contemporary Memory Architectures which I reviewed for Trebuchet. Here the work is not quite as widescreen in its approach but more focussed.

Industrial Assaults is a rather deceptive title for a typically lenghty Gigli/Obtane track with a chugging bassline accompanied by mournful drones. The mood it creates is akin to some of the atmosphere of darker Plastikman tracks of the late 1990s, but it's a little colder and more formal than its predecessors.

The Rrose Remix also has a trace of Plastikman's Consumed era sound, but is more dancefloor-oriented and less bleak. Ascending and descending sequences are tightly filtered and tweaked becoming increasingly acidic as the track develops. The remix isn't quite typical of either remixer or artists and delivers something unexpected and satisfying.

Surprisingly, it's on the functionally-titled final track Ambient Drama where the two old collaborators' formula works most effectively. It's bleak yet anthemic, based around a slow but resolute bassline that pushes it forward, a great track for starting or finishing a mix and highly immersive on headphones or at high volume.

Slovak Techno set at Mor Ho!, Red Gallery, Shoreditch, November 8th.

A special 'Slovnaft mix' to round off this night of Slovak and British electronic music...

By the end of the 1990s European techno had moved from the underground to the mass market and a certain blandness was setting in. Techno DJs and listeners were starting to search for more radical and intense sounds. It was just at this point that rumours began to emerge of a club in a nuclear bunker in Slovakia where they played some of the hardest and most industrial techno yet heard. The club was Bratislava's U Club (now the Sub Club) and it would become the nucleus of a small but influential scene.Codex Europa's Slovnaft Mix is a celebration of the energy and dynamism of the Slovak techno scene and an attempt to re-construct the legendary U Club atmosphere in London. The mix will showcase the work of Slovak producers such as DJ Boss, Olga + Jozef, Loktibrada, Rumenige and more, plus remixes from their international allies. 90 minutes of some of the most rigorous, mechanical, brutal and unrelenting techno ever produced...

LINE-UP: 

Helm (UK) 

Bios (SK) 

Ink Midget (SK) 

Shibuya Motors feat. Ddkern (SK/AT) 

Codex Europa (UK) 

VJ-ING AND SITE-SPECIFIC ART by Mikaela Lilhops 

£7 pre-sale /£9 on the door drinks: BYOB

Buy Tickets

Mor Ho page

Facebook event page

Review: Coal Ontology GRVT004

COAL is a project manifesting the “dark side” of Italian producer Giovanni Paris. Like Italian colleagues such as Giorgio Gigli, Paris seems to be on a mission to carve out new conceptual spaces. This is spacious, atmospheric, wide-screen techno, backed up with a darkly atmopsheric video trailer and a more defined (and original) concept than many techno releases. The publicity text alludes to the geological processes of formation and erosion and while these tracks are not exactly direct sonic embodiments of these, the combination of such ideas with this music doesn't seem excessive (a constant risk when producers tried to graft ambitious, pseudo-intellectual concepts onto techno).

The ten minute plus 'Ontology' contains the core of a conventional techno track, but one that's been stretched and twisted, filled out with cold drones, dark undertones and more subtle sonic activity. Even in the later, faster passages there's a mournful, contemplative air to it.

The Bruno Sacco Remix is more uptempo but retains a mysterious air. In its blending of beats and uneasy atmospheres, it's a little like the darker 1990s work by Plastikman. It's a respectful but innovative mix that introduces new dynamism to the original. The final section works especially well and is arranged very skillfully.

Swopping in immediately after this, 'Potassio' opens with some bracing noise blasts swiftly followed by heavy-duty beats. This is the shortest but also most galvanising and menacing track here. Very dark chords and harsh screeches are skilfully balanced to produce a superb and original dark techno track that I wanted to hear again immediately after it finished.

http://www.gravite-records.com

End of Summer Selection