I noticed that most popular record in this blog has been Abstract Thought's CD. I knew it wasn't common, but didn't know how much. Guess I was lucky to find it then, and actually it was much later I heard it was a Drexciyan record. Since Stinson died, demand on records of related projects has grown to stellar heights. Which I really like, since they're really worth the attention. Still I think it'd be better if the labels start re-printing old numbers than us having to pay 200 euros just to be able to hear a 12'' from 1995 or something.
Anyway, I noticed that this 1995 project Elecktroids (releasing on Warp) also isn't too common on the share-net and it's been a loooong time since I've seen it on vinyl, so here it is.
Elecktroids - 1995 Elektroworld
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Elektroworld
Artificial Material
This is the Electronic Corporation label compilation (check here for more). Eighties influenced serious electro stuff, romantic and dark and poppy as it should be. From EBM through pop and punk to electrofunk, here you'll find some more gems hidden underground. Every '80s fan should definitely check them.
MAS 2008 and Interfunk run this label. Electronic Corporation 12''s are nor easy neither difficult to find, but I try to support them as much as I can. Because these guys have been around for some time doing their thing and they are doing it really well.
VA - 2003 Artificial Material
an Electronic Corporation compilation
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Label site here.
Initial Public Offering
Broker/Dealer are a San Fransisco based duo with sporadic releases mainly in Traum and SF's Sentrall. This is their first and yet only album, in legendary Asphodel, and a weird release as far as this label goes. Deep fat sounds and lots of synths and melodies shape B/D's techhouse style, relying more on hardware and music than the rest of the minimal SF guys (the Dirtybird crew, for example). Only the first track 'Take your Time' stands out a little, the rest of the album works as a whole perfectly, from deep techno cuts to simple electronica. Exceptionally effective for those times when you'd like to hear something sweet but not totally laid back (say 6am after the club).
Ryan Bishop as The Beat Broker lately focuses on discoid releases and re-edits, with wonderful results.
Sadly, track 8 didn't want to get ripped. I also posted the 'Feel Free' video by Delray which came on the CD as a data track.
Broker/Dealer - 2003 Initial Public Offering
Part 1 - Part 2
Data track .
Info here.
Geben & Nehmen
Forever Sweet is Reinhard Voigt, Michael Mayer and Tobias Thomas.
This album went out in Ladomat 2000.
Forever Sweet - 2000 Geben & Nehmen CD
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
P.S. Tobias is one of the most interesting DJs I've ever heard. Also, one of the nicest ones and a real gentleman even when his eyes roll up on a build-up, like the killer one in their 'Welcome Back Kotter' Thomas/Mayer remix. Imagine him playing a Studio 1 track mixed with the Daft Punk remix of Ian Pooley's "Chord Memory" and saying "This is the other side of Germany, ya?".
Ambience
Today is environment blog day. You know all about the ozone hole, pollution, eco awareness, etc. If you don't, everybody has more and better things to say about all this than me. All I wanna say is:
a) Do your best, and
b) Don't fuck with Gaia (this was a warning).
Hitparade
Station 17 is a more or less rock band based in Hamburg, which with this release crossed over to the electronic side. A number of artists from Berlin, Cologne and locals remixed their work and published this CD in Mute Tontraeger in 2001 giving a strong push to this totally great project, while an album of more or less electronic tracks by the band was released about a year ago.
Stars like Thomas Fehlmann, Steve Bug, The Modernist, Antonelli Electr., J.Koehncke and Tobias Schmidt (as T.Tobsen) appear side by side with Automatique and the yet semi-known International Pony guys Koze and Cosmic DJ, while on the listening side this album is supported by holy cows FM Einheit and Pole, with contributions by To Rococo Rot, Kreidler, Barbara Morgenstern and german hip-hoppers Denyo 77.
A lot of tracks are really good, others are weird but interesting. But you HAVE to listen to Cosmic DJ's magnificent track. Totally addictive groove and crazy samples, it stands out like a prophetic mantra, as if he describes today's techno 'scene' (haha). Hey mr.DJ, play me your song.
Station 17+ - 2001, Hitparade
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Info on the Station 17 project here and here.
Racer Car
I first heard this CD during my first trip to Germany, on my way back. In my mind it will be always connected with my short stay at the Frankfurt airport (as someone once said, airports are transient), with the runway passing by sideways and with the knot in my stomach from the rush of liftoff.
Most of you will remember FPU by the cover on 'Crockett's Theme' from the Miami Vice OST, which top-charted when remixed and vocalized by Tiga. Arguably one of the top moments of electro pop in this decade, the 'original' FPU version is included here. Released on Turbo, it contains all the power and sweetness and melancholy you would expect from a Swedish guy that makes music since the mid '90s, is a friend and collaborator of Adam Beyer and Jesper Dahlbaeck and releases under his own name incredibly beautiful ambient albums (promise for a later post). Putting aside the misleading introduction track, the electro pop feeling runs through the whole CD with arpeggios pulsing melodies and vocoder vocals, never becoming cheesy or anachronistic, most of the times driven by a fat nordic tech beat. 'Racer Car' and 'Waiting For Snow' stand out as powerful dance tracks, yet the album works also as a conceptual soundtrack theme of sonic and sentimental coherence.
Yes, this summer was awfully hot and too long. I hope it's over. I'm praying for Winter to come. Some snow, maybe.
FPU - 2003 Traxxdata
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Timeless Decceleration
TV Victor is another one of those oldschoolish guys that almost nobody knows, yet those who do they love his work. Obviously friends with the Sun Electric guys and the Tresor posse and affiliates, he released some wonderful albums during the nineties of hypnotic ambient, then called (without shame) trance. Later Tresor records re-released some of them and some people (like me, for example) finally got to hear his name, still though it was a weird ambient release in a techno label and it got overlooked. Surely the name of friend Moritz von Oswald (aka member of Maurizio, 3MB, etc and officially declared demi-god of Berlin techno and dub music) drew some attention, as he participated as co-producer in CD2 (first release 1994 as "Invitation 1 (All You)", then 1996 as "Schwarzenraben Eins") and mastered CD1, written for this Tresor release.
Two CDs, three tracks. CD1 is one heavy hypnotic track, 'Agai', which borrows from the Berlin music tradition (of which I believe mr.Heitfeld had some personal experience) in the vein of Manuel Göttsching. 'All' and 'You' is a more relaxed affair, more easy listening but without becoming boring lounge shit.
HisSpace here. More of him later on.
TV Victor - 2000, [Tresor.151]
CD1 (Timeless Decceleration)
Part 1 - Part 2
CD2 (Schwarzenraben Eins)
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Welt in Scherben
Thomas P. Heckmann Musikprodukt.
Techno. Acid. EBM. Das Ende Vom Lied.
No comments.
Welt in Scherben - 1998-2000 I-V
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
Music For Children
And something blue.
This is the only CD release by respected swiss label Bruchstuecke I know and it's totally worth listening, more also as it's a co-production with Ruta 5 with great support by the Berlin oldschool scene of Fehlmann, Move D & Tom Thiel aka Sun Electric, etc.
Based on an idea by Chica (& the Folder) from Gudrun Gut's Monika Enterprise, this is a tribute to children music, full of kids voices' samples and soft melodies. The structure of the tracks ranges from over-the-edge experimental electronics to techno to pop, always with that special minimalistic edge. With tracks from all the above and Villalobos, Luciano, Pink Elln, Dandy Jack, Console, Miss Dinky, Mo & El Puma of the Elektro Musik Department, etc., mastered by Stefan Betke, it's an interesting affair and offers a nice view in the Berlin/ South America/ Switzerland interaction.
VA - 2003 Music For Children
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.
For TV junkies
Something borrowed.
If you don't know it already, there, you'll find almost everything concerning TV series, films, etc. Since I'm a series maniac, I download from there wholesale.
Everything Rapidshare
Guys, you do a great job.
P.S. This site's off... Check this one.
