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