Some more of Carl Craig; this time his Innerzone Orchestra combo's album, giving us some live weird-funk jazzy electronic vibes to enjoy and think about. Also out in a 5x10" box, through soulful d'n'b infected legendary Talkin' Loud.
It prooved to be his greatest step at the time - he later revisited many times this post-jazz sound and weird dance tracks with live (and live-sounding) instrumentation eventually became his trademark. Contains retakes on earlier classics 'At Les' and 'Bug In The Bass Bin'.
Innerzone Orchestra - 1999 Programmed
Info here.
Programmed
Music Is Okay
Koze's first compilation of collaborations, remixes, etc. If you liked his recent 'Reincarnations' in Get Physical (and who didn't...), definitely check this one - it might even be better than the new one.
Didn't even know it existed for a long time, then spent as much more trying to track it down. In mp3 form only, so far.
DJ Koze - 2000 Music Is Okay
Info here.
'Koze' means 'vomit', if I'm not mistaken. Reminds me of Hell (who apparently got his name out of a faded Shell t-shirt), or Highfish. I like this kind of ridiculous nicknames, they show that the persons involved retain their punk sense of adolescent humor. That they grew out of a certain scene where a lot of close friends were involved. And that they never went for the big money and fame in the first place, they would have picked much better sounding aliases - see either true or fake names or scientific terminology (Drexciya & Co. escaped that trap only through their humorous, at times satiric approach of their own material and concepts).
So, more Vomit music here and here.
Stealin' Music
Classy, forward-thinking techno and electronic dubby experiments from Cari Lekebusch.
Another Svek marvel.
Mr. James Barth - 1998 Stealin' Music
Info here.
(Not really much time to write, so I'll just up stuff here without much. For the time being.)
Stockholm
Jesper Dahlbäck's only album in his nord-house disguise as The Persuader, a tribute to the city of Stockholm.
Must be beautiful, from what I hear.
The Persuader - 1999 Stockholm
Info here.
Observation #1: CD selling for 40 to 50 euros? WTF???
Observation #2: Clavia's NordLead definitely ruled the scene back then.
Aufgang live
So, it's not a post about a lost Voigt project.
I've come to like InFiné more and more recently, a french label I had noticed but overlooked, until I came upon Donso's magical 'Somono Foly' EP. After a little research I found out it's Agoria's label, a guy that I totally respect and adore his music since the first time I heard it - so here I am now trying to hunt down those (elusive in Greece) 12''s whenever I can.
Releases are mostly produced/mixed by Agoria, while music comes from icons like The Hacker and Apparat, new rising stars like Danton Eeprom, Rone, Cubenx, Douglas Greed, Clara Moto and Fraction, plus the pianist Fransesco Tristano.
Every 12" is virtually different from the next one, most of them drawing from the generic techno background, yet common ground ends here. You might hear influences from IDM, italo disco, deep house, electro, neo-classical and trance - mostly combined in weird forms, in varying proportions so that each track is more or less unique. (Even more) exceptional releases are the aforementioned Donso one, combining Malinese vocals, deep beats and quirky percussions and the piano-based landscapes of the Fransesco Tristano ones, together with Rami Khalifé and Aymeric Westrich as Aufgang.
So, a live recording of a recent Aufgang concert is found at the Grandcrew site, here.
Also check earlier posted Carl Craig vs Fransesco Tristano concert here.
It's so good to feel that a label owner really cares for delivering something special and different than the rest of the current music production, breaking down commercially oriented style rules and trying weird combinations. By the way, Agoria's last album (the OST for Luc Besson's film 'Go Fast') is just incredible.
Long live InFiné, you have my total respect.
More Or Less Plastic
A new producer, apparently of Venezuelan origin, contacted me today and asked me to spread his recent EP, so give it a try. It's a cluster of (very) short IDM compositions, containing sweet and dreamy tracks along with punkish cut-up electroid bursts. No further info on him, except that he spreads his stuff for free all around through blogs. I liked the slow ones better, yet that's just me.
Wah? - 2009 More Or Less Plastic EP
I guess any comments with thoughts or suggestions on these tracks will be appreciated by him. This is a perfect chance for direct feedback with the producer.
Intergalactic FM
I decided to embed the Intergalactic FM player in the blog, four net radio stations of dirty, brown and miserable music for stoned aliens and robots. Hope you enjoy.
Berlin Outsiders Inside
Berlin Outsiders Inside from Liam Turner on Vimeo.
P.S. A Londoner visitor's view of Berlin; while the creators spend much of their time drawing comparisons between the local and their hometown's scene (typical), they visit a few places trying to grasp that special Berlin mood - ex-squat Tacheles, punk/HC store Core Tex and Tresor Club. The filming succeeds at least to portrait a part of the city's downtown, the architecture and the graffiti and all. The sound is a bit crap, though; and the Thomas Morr interview is indeed short.P.S.2 Oops, the video is off. If I find it somewhere around it'll be posted again.
Puzzle
I had this one for a long time, left unheard in the back of some CD boxes. Classified it as a typical french 'chill-out' CD, I'd skipped through it a couple of times and forgotten about it (except the 'Camping Jazz' track). They are I:Cube, which I already knew and liked due to his harder approach and Gilb'R, owner of Versatile.
Later I bought I:Cube's 'Acid Tablet' and their 'Baroque' one, and both EPs happily surprised me musically, while the Versatile connection with Berlin's Innervisions slowly became apparent (see also here). But I was really left speechless by their 'Body Language Vol.5' compilation, the eclectic crown point of a remarkable series (that I thought had already reached its height with Dixon's 'BD Vol.4'). A collection of mostly unknown tracks combining acid, techno beats, disco and electro plus a manic Henrik Schwarz track, it urged me to dig this one out again and give it another chance, trying to understand how could I have passed by such a serious project.
The truth is that this album is a totally different affair. By 2005-2006 the label had already built their name and been going well - with the rise of the 'nu-rave' electro-rock hype and all, as well as the success of Joakim's more idiosyncratic attempts in disco- and prog-influenced electro. For good reasons, I'd say, as Versatile sounds to my ears the most quality consistent and cerebral oriented label of all the similar french ones. Back then though the french chill thing was still big, and more or less this album follow the norms of that style, in somewhat typical chill house and downtempo structures. There are many rare elements in there though, nice deepness all around, lush synths and jazz- funk inspired beats and weird ethno references, take your pick. I've spent many hours listening to it in repeat and I can assure you, even though it might not grab you at first, it slowly grows on you.
Château Flight - 2000 Puzzle
Info here.
UR band live @DEAF 2005
person 2 person
city 2 city
state 2 state
nation 2 nation
planet 2 planet
galaxy 2 galaxy
part 1 - part 2
part 3 - part 4
part 5 - part 6
part 7 - part 8
This is a video from the live performance of the UR's Galaxy 2 Galaxy band for the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival, possibly 2005, about 75' long. The camera jerks a bit, still quality's good, considering it's practically a bootleg recording.
If you don't have it already, don't even think to pass it by.
P.S. Turns out it was not a D.E.M.F., but instead a D.E.A.F. concert (never been to either, real pity). My bad, yet it was misnamed from the start. Thanx to Fan we now know, so rename the file at will. The concert is also stored in the D.E.A.F. archive (www.thearchiver.net) as audio and video in various direct download forms here.
Autobahn animation
An 13' animation from 1979, inspired by the famous Kraftwerk track.
Where I picked it up (?...) , it mentioned that it was a back-projection for the group's live shows, which I considered to be a misunderstanding - the track hails from 1974 and by 1979 they had already fallen apart. It turned out it's actually a very early work of Roger Mainwood (better known for more commercial children animations, also check here) intended for printing on those huge video laser-disks, as mentioned here. Remember those, anyone? Anyway, it's a real '70s treat, all hand-drawn psychedelic art and stuff. Not much to do with the group's futuristic aesthetics actually, but in the end it works as a whole.
Kraftwerk - 1979 Autobahn animation
by Roger Mainwood
Check their cute Flash site here.
Most of us non-German-speaking people have probably missed the original versions of their songs, especially from the later era, which is a shame as they sound even more authentic than the international ones. Voices are more expressive and fluid, even sounding sarcastic at times (in the 'Model', for example) - far from the clinical, robotic profile they projected especially in the US. A (rather pumped up) german guy I met after the one Kraftwerk concert I've attended seemed seriously bumped due to their english singing, a reaction I then interpreted as exaggerations due to habit, or even downright chauvinism. It seemed appropriate to comment now on this, since it's my first post on them, I'm not german and since then I've realized how right the guy was.
A lot of documentaries on this seminal group can be streamed from YouTube, give it a try.
Lifechange
The last Whirlpool Productions album, along with the CD EP out of it (with a Tiefschwarz remix).
For me the more mature and complete deposition of theirs, a post-everything album full of grooving house music, disco references and style wars. Voices dominate while typically surpassing the 'weird' level, making the outcome totally surreal and immediately accessible at the same time. Definitely dancefloor music, yet for extremely friendly drunks or for funky disco aliens I wouldn't know.
I don't know if they could do better than that; no wonder they split up later.
Remotely similar to the International Pony records (see *,*) and other Ladomat 2000 stuff (*,*), with more hopefully to be posted soon. Usually I classify them under the Hamburg label.
...hold your head up high...
...music is all we need to get by...
Whirlpool Productions - 2000 Lifechange
Info here.
Whirlpool Productions - 2001 Lifechange CD EP
Info here.
Ghost In The Shell (Playstation Soundtrack)
Soundtrack from the PS game (never played it) based on the legendary anime (see here).
CD 1 is a collection of hard bangers with extra minimalistic tendencies (I guess they thought simple track structures help the gameplay), while CD 2 goes into weirder territories - not always with the best results, I might add, yet its good times are the most interesting.
All players are top notch artists, most of them at the peak of their time, see the info page. Still, I wouldn't call it really special as a compilation, just a sample of the tendencies of the time. Includes some rare mixes and good tracks.
VA - 1997 Ghost In The Shell (Playstation OST)
CD 1 - CD 2
Info here.
Btw, on my CD cover the last tracks of each CD are remixes of the Derrick May track 'To Be Or Not To Be'.
PWOG live 1995
Courtesy of Tim Freeman himself, a live set of PWOG from 1995, the Record Of Breaks era.
More than a rarity or an iffy bootleg, it's also a proof of their power in concerts, sadly a gift I never had the chance to witness in person. A lot of analog sound in there, fat and heavy, and lots of real-time FX knob twists, while samples are used in moderation and for aesthetic purposes. The mix is breathing, monotone percussion sounding clear and in your face while the more subtle atmo elements are drifting in the background, appearing in crucial moments for drama. I noticed as well their tendency to preserve the equilibrium between the ritualistic atmospheres and sheer drive, choosing their tracks well, shifting between moods. Most of the above characterize their sound at the time anyway.
Concerning structure, my favorite part is the flawless transformation of the funky take on 'A Kind of Prayer' into a 'Kraak' variation.
I guess the link comes from Tim Freeman's archive, so I hope he'll leak some more of the good stuff eventually. He released some 12"s and CDrs in the obscure I-S-I-S / Hidden (a PWOG-related den I discovered only a few months ago) as HIMOG and one half of Dogon, plus collaborations with equally respected Being - apparently all of them in good terms with the Black Dog guys (see here). Which btw did an awful lot of good to post that mix, giving them publicity and all. Because, while I truly respect the no-ego underground attitude, it strikes me as weird that even a fan like me didn't know shit about those labels - stick your heads up just a bit guys, it's a pity for you not to be recognized as you should be (and for us not to listen to your stuff).
PWOG - 1995 Live @ VPRO's Villa 65 radio show
More posts here.
I also noticed there are a few more PWOG posts by TheeBradMiller here.
Stored in zshare till I find the time to switch it to RS.
P.S. Moggieboy also got a link and already posted this set.
Trans Metro Express
To tell you the truth, I don't quite remember how I got there.
Still, this is the site and this is the video:
Trans Metro Express - Mikkel Metal in the Copenhagen Metro from Metro on Vimeo.
Fruit Of The Loop
I don't really know anything on him (some info here and here). But this is a fun record. Lots of samples, filters and Chicago-style loops combined with the Cologne pop sound, repetitive beats and house aesthetics, with the extra Lado weirdness on top. The fruit of the loop, indeed. Could have been a Whirlpool production, if they were really hooked on (...what's that word... oh, yes) loops - or a less discoid Force Inc.US release.
Arj Snoek - 1997 Fruit Of The Loop
Info here.
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