Counting

I've been checking my RS downloads indicators and doing some thinking. To start with, a big thanx to everyone for checking out this page and for the occasional comment. And I've also been lucky to have the minimum of spam, which by the way I still hate so quit it.

It's amazing how popular the Drexciyan records posted here have been. Really don't know why, though I love them too. I think people recognize them or search for them and just download them. They are now of a cult status, I understand. Rightly, don't get me wrong. But I wonder if there is a logo more recognizable than 'UR'. Some classics like 'Pop Artificielle' and 'Soundtrack 313' follow with (much) lesser clicks. Some of the Rother ones also go unexpectedly well. Less popular but still strong stand some listening electronics or 'IDM' releases, but only the ones from well known names (like Pole, Friedmann, or the Toytronic one). And the Heckmann ones.
Cologne techno and listening stuff is sadly overlooked (with the exception of Gas' apparently rare debut 'Zauberberg'). For example take 'Forever Sweet', which it's an album by as much a supergroup as you can get in this style of music, it's supposed to be commercial, and I know that not a lot of people have it. But it's not that much wanted. Or the magnificent 'Dancer' compilation (which I intentionally left without comments and had even fewer downloads), some years old and not so rare but still top quality, ahead of it's time and surely worth it. Kompakt fans seem to be more interested to get the latest release two weeks before it's out than listening to something from the back catalogue. Maybe history is a totally boring lesson after all. But it still makes me sad, cause I like it.

Most of the times when I post a release, I try to keep in mind if it's available around, searching as much as I have the time. I also like to share some not-so-much known or rare numbers and low-profile compilations with unreleased tracks by famous artists. Most exceptional example of this is the 'Ego' compilation, a limited pressing, 2CDs full of unreleased improvised live stuff, good tracks by artists that are still considered top. Which was downloaded by only two persons. Or the 'Station 17+' remix compilation, the prophetic 'WiR' Ladomat compilation and the 'Music For Children' concept, which were mostly ignored.
The thing is, does a record really have to be charted to be good? Everyone with an IQ over 20 could reply to that, still more or less we all do act like it has to. If the 'Ego' CDs were released by Soul Jazz or Raster-Noton or simply Kompakt, they would sell millions and everybody would pick them. It's normal. If I find somewhere a bootleg by a band I'm sure I like, I'll pick it up with saliva dripping, but if it's a band I've heard it might be good but haven't heard it yet, propably I'll pass. There is so much more music I have to check before spending my so few but precious money, so I've got to move on. More or less this was also happening during the vinyl era, you could just miss some records even though it was later apparent you'd loved them (check so many comments on old records everywhere). But I feel this is happening in a so much larger scale now.
The info overload by all types of marketing (corporate, mouth-to-mouth, MySpace, journalists' hypes) brought us to a point where, literally, all meaning is lost. A track might be considered successful, cause it was played by XXXX XXXXX last week and it made three hundred people on coke scream at the same time (which is a really difficult thing to do...). Someone edits it out of an illegal recording directly from the mixer and plays it every night or, worse, releases it as a bootleg in 2000 copies, making money instead of the producer that created it. After two months time when the official release is at last out it's already OLD and sells merely 500, while a new super hit remix by another 'artist 'will be played everywhere in its place.
When you have thousands of people trying to be DJs/producers, i.e. trying to achieve all this as a lifestyle so they can have sex and drugs and say they do music, all you get is the current situation. Where the average teen DJ-to-be has no role model to look up to, unless he wants to be a merchant (or a pimp, as it goes for the hip hop side). Where all that can be bought can be found everywhere for free, but no one's giving you any hints what to get. And where the only hints you get are either from illiterate journalists that often get paid (in demos mostly) to support someone over the other, or the sales' charts of Beatport/ Juno/ Bleep/ Decks/ etc, which of course have some very good reasons to promote certain artists and hypes. The reasons being, some of them 'star' artists own those stores, or are friends/partners with the owners. For certain labels, it's considered worthy of having almost all of their releases, just because the last one topped for two weeks on the charts of some famous (friendly) DJ who has decided to promote it, regardless of originality, quality or time endurance . For the rare one that truly deserves this kind of treatment, a hundred others don't.

And that leaves us normal people with the share-net. Where we can propose stuff to each other, listen to their proposals in turn, help each other out of this swamp of crap floating around which sooner or later we'll feed back. Obviously, as important as the roots are for the tree, the new branches are the future. New music is important. So, dear friends, instead of posting the latest stuff just because it's new and then fight about it with someone like you because s/he "stole" the links (?!?!?!?!?!?), maybe it'd be better to write some shit about why you are posting this. Even if this means you'll post two instead of twenty records. Maybe then you'll see you don't have to listen to a lot of crap, just the crap you like most. And maybe we'll have some more time to listen to them, instead of just piling them in hard drives, lost amongst a flood of faster downloads, more downloads, earlier promos, fake exclusives, CUT.
I really believe the music we hear is overestimated. And more over-evaluated than music is the lifestyle and the mentality it promotes. Most of you are too young to know, but hey, some say there is nothing new in art. This rush for the new big thing, this feeling that no one has done it before, is only partially true. 'No one has done it like this before' would be more accurate, I think. So, when someone rushes you for something new that's old in two days, check if he's charging you for something. And take your time to decide if you like it. And if you do, stand for it and support it. Then and only then will something be of value to you or to the people you communicate with.

Hamburgeins

A Ladomat 2000 (*,*) compilation presenting the early Dial Records sound (*).

VA - 2001 Hamburgeins
Info here.

Sadly in low bitrate, found somewhere around the net. A request, but also a compilation I'd like very much to have in its 3x12'' form.

Sensorama

We knew them as Acid Jesus, now as Alter Ego. Jörn Elling Wuttke and Roman Flügel need no introduction, so I won't bother. Sensorama is the name they used for their Ladomat 2000 (*) releases.


Sensorama - 1995 Welcome Insel
Info here.


Sensorama - 1996 Zu Gast Auf Der Welcome Insel
Info here.


Sensorama - 1998 Love 2LP
Info here.


Sensorama - 2000 Projektor
Info here.

Someone had asked for one of these in the comment box. I meant to post it properly, then went for the big one. 'Su Gast..' is a remix compilation on the 'Insel" album.
All rips are 192kbps, none mine - thanx to the original uppers.

P.S. Originally posted 2009-12-04. Modified thanks to Jens, who sent a link for 'Projektor' (320kbps) that helped us fill this hole. Thanx again man.

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?".

The Golden Age

Another compilation, this time from those deep vaults of weirdness and beauty called L'Age d'Or or Ladomat2000, LadoMusic, Enduro, the old Hamburg family with friends from all over Germany.

WiR is a truly crossover compilation, extremely difficult to pin down in terms of music styles, artists' locality, or anything actually, and a very good mirror of what Lado is about. If you're looking for a tag, then Pop Music might be the most applicable answer. From vocal indie pop songs to Cologne techno, from disco and punk to dark ambient through electro hybrids too complex too be described, the Popular Art aesthetics collide with the 'indie' experimentalist mindset of the artists. This is pure and simple Music.

For reference reasons, Ladomat2000 is more oriented to danceable music, Enduro thrives on the electro 8bit pop punk side, while the parent label acts like a big umbrella for all kinds of indie pop acts. Actually, L'Age d'Or supported 'guitars 'n' drums' acts long before the French electro-rock hype, even long before DFA records. Anyway, though it might not be obvious at first sight, if you check every group name in the Discogs info link below you''ll find some very well known artist either incognito or in collaboration with members of other bands.

Mostly though the difference between Lado and a typical record label is that it kickstarted and later supported artists that later boomed on, but were considered too weird for beginners (Ascii.Disko comes to mind, Whirlpool Productions much earlier). On the other hand it provides a platform for experimentation to many established names, who are allowed to go a little crazy even if (or just because) the result won't fit in the stylistic definitions of their own labels.

P.S. Egoexpress RULE.

VA - WiR (l'age d'or - Ladomat compilation)
CD1 - Part 1 - Part 2
CD2 - Part 1 - Part 2

Info here

Hamburg greyscapes

Another Hamburg release, in the year 2000. Peter Kersten, mostly known as Lawrence or Sten had just released 'Teaser' 12'' on Kompakt and some 12"s on his own Dial label. This is (to my knowledge) his first LongPlay release, establishing his trademark sound (mostly dark strings over soft beats under grey skies). Which has not changed a lot through the years, just got refined and more crispy and occasionally bordering on happier, even euphoric feelings. Still, Melancholy seems to be the key-word to his work.

Released on both Dial and Ladomat2000 (I have the latter edition), with no track names or much other info in an artwork of hazy monochromatic urban photos, this release represents fairly good Lawrence 's early period. I also noticed that it's not very common to find on CD or in the net (most of the Dial releases aren't actually), so here it is:

Lawrence - 2000, selftitled [Ladomat 2137-2]
Part 1 - Part 2

Info here

Blaou, thegreatesthits

Blaou was a weirdo label, a kind of Berlin-based small clubby Ladomat. This CD is of the label showcase type mixed by Mitja Prinz, famous long-time resident of Globus Club (the house side of Tresor) and Dixon, best known for his connections with Sonar Kollektiv and his Innervisions label.
Including many big (or gonna be big) names in their roster (Schaffhaeuser before Ware, Erobique, Arc-En-Ciel, Pierre Deutschmann, Kissogram, Larsson, Kid Q & more) and with the support of a lot of Berlin's underground, they released mostly house music with indie mentality, paving their way since the mid '90s and managing to score a few hits and release some wonderful 12''s in the meantime. They stopped releasing at 2005 in the middle of a rather ambitious project, the release of ten 12''s of KLF covers/remixes by 'contemporary' artists (Villalobos, Deichkind, etc) of which only the first three circulated. Actually, they were rather disappointing.
Which had nothing to do with the other Blaou releases, half of them showcased here. From the hypnotic '6 Uhr Morgens' to the manic 'Jus', from deep and minimal house to distorted guitar electro, from Woody's remix on Kissogram's debut to Erobique's vandalism on I-F's 'Space Invaders', it's a sound still fresh and relevant even today. A decade later, many of those artists (then mostly newcomers) are considered artistically successful, they make a living of their music and hopefully they'll continue to do so.

By the way, the success of key Berlin free-of-style house labels (like !K7, SK, etc) also proves that the Berlin attitude on purism I've mentioned before is not adopted by everyone there. Probably it's a result of the last 5-6 years' wave of 'cultural immigration' on the techno/club scene, or something. Purism in art is the equivalent of death and stagnation, cross-breeding implies growth and evolution. And not just in art, actually.

VA - 2001, Blaou - thegreatesthits
Mixed by Dixon & Mitja Prinz
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.

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 Ladomat 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.

Du Bist Die Stadt

I found this one yesterday. I guess it says "You are the City". By the cool layout and the very informative booklet (if you read German, which I can't), I gather it's a compilation by artists participating in a festival that took place in 2002 throughout the city of Koeln/Cologne. There is also a bicycle-bar maskot, but after that it's getting confusing... I hope it was paid by the municipality (ah, those northeners ...).
It was released by the (incredibly named) Scheinselbstaending label, which in my opinion is one of the best pop oriented electronic labels, a evolutionary branch parallel in a way with Ladomat, more towards the electro-pop direction. There were definitely some strong connections with Kompakt from the beginning, while a (very) similar style was more or less adopted by Kompakt Pop later. The label boasts an amazing release by Luomo (with Raz Ohara vocals), some Pet Shop Boys-sounding 12'' by Baxendale of later 'I Built This City' fame, the first release of Drei Farben House and some stuff by Lothar Hempel aka Blitz (Auftrieb) aka Magnet (Kompakt) aka Phong Sui (Kompakt Pop) and once collaborator of Joerg Burger. Main feature artist is Brant, possibly the owner (any help here?).
The CD more or less clarifies its intentions from track one, embedding Burger-like pop techno sensitivities with Salz-like sweet fat minimal. Contains some typical mellow techno by Reinhard Voigt, M. Schaffhaeuser and the unexpectedly good Bum Khun Cha Youth (?), along some vocal pop bastardized with tech-house quality tracks by more or less unknown (at least to me) artists. Also an atypical '80s Brinkmann german vocal track and a Cologne-pop cover of The Smiths' 'Last Night I Dreamed That Somebody Loved Me' by Brant & Mr. Roper, which two years later got a remix by Ada and went on and slipped into the marvelous 2007 'Please Please Please' mix by master Tobias Thomas [Kompakt CD 58]. Who had written a small introductory text on the folder of this CD back in 2003, to come back full round.
It's unexpectedly and refreshingly good. If more pop was like this, I wouldn't need much else.

VA - 2003, Du Bist Die Stadt
Part 1 - Part 2
Info here.

A beautiful but outdated site of Scheinselbstaending can be found here.

Last but not least: check THIS.

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.