Parts in the post, pt. 12

Pharmacom Records comes up with cat.no. 012 next month, a six track E.P. by Reemo named "Elements" which bashes out some proper Drum'n'Bass here. Although he does not keep up with the latest developments of the scene like Neurofunk, Choppage or Clownstep he delivers quality, most likely for those who refer to the era of Twisted Anger, Source Direct, early Tech Itch and Photek as the climax of the JDB movement. Of course one can claim that the times of the long dark tunnel rides are gone by now and tunes tending to be more than simple dancefloor tools are hardly found or played out these days but for people who've been following JDB for a decade or more by now it's nice to see that there at least a few upcoming producers that do pay respect to JDB history with their output.

Bremen-based Techno-producer Thomas Schumacher, main man behind Spielzeug Schallplatten and the infamous Elektrochemie LK / ELK-project, provides two remixes for the upcoming single of the swedish popgroup A-HA named "Celice" on Zeitgeist. Although this might sound weird at first he manages to not go Pop but fits the vocals properly in a quiet cool ElectroHouse track which is able to rock mainstream- as well as underground-dancefloors.

Northbeatz Audio have put their fourth release in mid-september, a three track 12" by Michael Lambert named "Stalker E.P." which provides new material for lovers of fast'n'hard bangin' Techno. Especially B1-track "Blackbox" with his slightly acidic modulations is one for the headstrong and will cause dancefloor devastation for sure...

Phantasy Box & The Freestyle Files - Double Weekender @ U Bar / Hamburg

There's two events put up at Hamburg's U Bar this upcoming weekend - make sure to catch us there...


Intrauterin Recordings & Imp Artists present

30.09.2005 Phantasy Box @ U-Bar / Hamburg

baze.djunkiii [Intrauterin Recordings]
Sir Takis [Imp-Artists.com]

file under: Minimal-/ Elektro-/ Acidhouse
doors open. 11 pm
door fee: free from 11pm to midnight, 5 EU after midnight



Intrauterin Recordings & Imp Artists present

Sunday 02.10.2005 The Freestyle Files @ U-Bar / Hamburg

T.Mow [Mandarin / Hamburg]
baze.djunkiii [Intrauterin Recordings]
Sir Takis [Imp-Artists.com]

file under: DeepHouse / Phusion / Freestyle / BrokenBeats
doors open. 11 pm
door fee: free from 11pm to midnight, 5 EU after midnight

U Bar
Schulterblatt / Ecke Nagels Allee
Hamburg

A sunday's night out for all those appreciating the deep advanced grooves that electronic dance music can provide.
A sunday's night out for those familiar with decent 4-2-the-floor beats on a jazzy tip as well as vibrant breakbeats.
A sunday's night out for those who can bounce at 90bpm as well as float along the 125bpm line.
A sunday's night out for those who appreciate an eclectic selection of well tempered music.

A sunday's night out ?
Yes. Forget about work schedules - monday 3rd of October is bank holiday in Germany and due to this Intrauterin Recordings & Imp Artists team up to present: "The Freestyle Files" - a rare selection of grooves.

U Bar
Schulterblatt / Ecke Nagels Allee
Hamburg

Straight from the Ghetto - News on HipHop, pt.5

Rev Run, former member of the almighty Run DMC, comes up with his new 12" "Mind On Da Road" on Russel Simmons Music Group these days which brings together the dance vibe of oldskool HipHop-beats and energetic Metal guitar riffs. Yes, that's been done before, but still rawkks big time.

Not only HipHop today, but also a few bits of what can be called DigiSoul, R'n'B, Urban whatever...

17-year-old Teairra Mari is one of the new breed of Digisoul/R'n'B-queens associated with the Roc-a-Fella Records stable. Her debut album is to be released on november 18th but even before that date her upcoming 12" "No Daddy" will be on heavy rotation from october 28th onwards. Cool voice plus ruff, minimalistic beats provided by Sean Garret makes this one one to look forward to.

Ms. Dynamite, known to many as the princess of UK Garage/2Step, has been off the circuit for about 2 years now due to pregnancy and a mother's duties, but now steps back with a double-A-sided 12" on Polydor UK named "Judgement Day / Father" which is a truly deep and soulful piece of music. Inviting ya gal for a candlelight dinner? Make sure this is running on your home stereo at the date of release which is october 7th.

Grime r_port vol. 4

Having used the term Grime Not Grime before for the new Buttercuts-12" and it also perfectly fits for another release from the commercial circuit. Try to get hold of a copy of Ciara featuring Ludacris' "Oh" on La Face Records and play the instrumental cut pitched up to +8 and get... a perfect opener for a Halfstep set. Not for the purists maybe but a nice one anyway.

Another track ready for a more commercial breakthrough is Aron Soul's "Oh No" which is out on whitelabel now under the catalogue number Marxmen 002. Funky Halfstep beats in combination with soulfoul male vox prove that Grime purists attitude and Digisoul lovers have at least something in common although not few people will deny that at this moment. If you not into vocals at all make sure you checked the instrumental.

Dexplicit launched his own label DXP Recordings recently and causes serious dancefloor destruction with its first release named "Da Real Hench E.P.". Maybe this is the most militant Grime 12" around these days featuring heavy stakkato beats and obscure rolls that also could be taken out of any miltary march music. 'eavy.

Slew Dem Productions inhouse producer Top Dolla comes up with the massive "Phantom Of Da Opera" Riddim on Slew Dem 006 that introduces sampled elements from the same titled musical to the audience. Apart from the instrumental cut there are two MC versions to be found on this 12" - Part 1 sees Rage and Wiley Jammer spittin' on top of the track while Part 2 has the whole lot of Rage, Shorty Smalls, Kraze, Chronik, Lex and Shorty & Esko providin' a bit of lyrical overdose. Watch out, this is gonna be huge!

Boka Records are dropping their first Various Artist E.P. after two releases of MarkOne and DJ Distance under the name of the "Low End Dubs E.P.". Slaughter Mob, Sound Proof Productions, Professor J-S and DJ Distance exploring fields of bassheavy athmospheric Dubstep and especially Professor J-S kills the place with a hypnotic, trancey bassline and 'orrible, soundtrack-flavored violin samples. If you're into Distance's "1 on 1 / Empire" on Hotflush you'll surely have a safe go on Professor J-S' tune. DJ Distance explores terrain of deep MythStep here by the use of some indian (???) vocal snippets while both Slaughter Mob and Sound Proof Productions reveal thrilling Dubstep business on this cool E.P. .

Talking Hot Flush it's gotta be mentioned that they've launched their new sublabel Scuba these days with a 12" written and produced by an artists of the same name. His tunes "Timba" and "Sleepa" fuse the sparse minimalism of halftime Dubstep and the melancholic sound aesthetics of early Detroit Techno. Completely different to all Hot Flush -records I came across before and listening to Scuba's definition of sound it becomes clear why there was another imprint to be launched for this special kind of sound. Future classic, so watch out for that.

24.09.2005 X_tension - A Grime Night Out @ Komma / Esslingen

baze.djunkiii (Intrauterin Recordings, Hamburg)

Dreadlove Selection (Tensionbasement, Freiburg)

Mista Fox B2B Kolja (Tensionbasement, Esslingen)

Fauser (Tensionbasement, Stuttgart)

(Zitat von rephlex.com) Grime. Eski. Sublow. Dubstep. It's Music. Different people call it different things, depending on when they discovered it. In the 80's, maybe it was House, Techno and Electro. In the 90's it was UK-G, Drum and Bass, Breaks or whatever. Now there are so many terms for it that the journalists can’t pidgeon-hole it any more.

The purists might debate the name, but while they do that, crews around the globe are uniting in this strong and fresh dance movement. In this age of Information Technology, people are able to easily find real quality that they actually want, without being spoon-fed compromised product. Now, it is a time of change and the soundtrack is Grime.

(rephlex.com)

Während sich im UK die Szene vergleichbar mit den Anfangstagen des Breakbeat und Drum'n'Bass quasi mit jeder neuen Dubplate ein neues Sub-Subgenre hervorbringt und sich musikalische Quantensprünge dieses Musikstils im Wochentakt stattfinden, Produzenten wie Mark One oder das Virus Syndicate Alben auf etablierten Electronica-Labels wie Planet µ veröffentlichen und auch Rephlex mit seinen Grime-Compilations einen - inzwischen schon wieder überholten - Überblick über den aktuellen Stand der Szene liefert, beschränkt sich in Deutschland die Wahrnehmung auf zwar dem weiteren Umfeld des Grime-Sound irgendwie zuweisbare, aber letztendlich doch nicht voll den Kern treffende Themen wie Wiley, M.I.A. oder auch Mike Skinner a.k.a. The Streets.

Doch was verbirgt sich hinter dieser Musik, in der Namen wie Plasticman, Ruff Squad, Mark One, Digital Mystikz, Loefah, Vex'd, Skream, Lady Sovereign und unzählige weitere den Ton angeben und der die Strassen des UK beherrscht? Eine minimalistische, futuristische Version von UK Garage, jeglicher Fröhlichkeit beraubt und entweder geprägt von harten, schnell gespitteten Texten in denen die MC's die sozialen Missstände anprangern oder gespickt mit Soundanleihen aus Industrial und Dub, die jeden Track an sich zu einem Trip durch die leerstehenden Industriehallen und verwilderten Warehouses im Herzen Londons machen.

Einer dieser Grime-Pioniere in Deutschland ist der Hamburger DJ baze.djunkiii, seines Zeichens Kopf des Labels Intrauterin Recordings und hyperaktiver Networker in Sachen elektronischer Musik. Er leistete in den letzten Jahren Pionierarbeit, um den Grime-Sound weiter zu verbreiten und bringt dabei nicht nur importierte 12"es sondern auch unveröffentlichte Tunes deutscher Grime-Produzenten als Dubplate auf die Plattenteller.

KOMMA - Maille 5-9 - 73728 Esslingen

Sound Maker interview

Greek magazine Sound Maker has put up a massive - talking 2 full pages here - feature on my DJ-activities and my label Intrauterin Recordings in this months edition which is September 2005, including interview and stuff. A part of this seems to be online on their website, too, but as I'm not able to read the greek alphabet I can't tell if it's the whole thing. Anyone able to tell me?

Parts in the post, pt. 11

Hamburg-based label Sunday Service comes up with a new album from Jullander these days named "Phobos In Funkytown (Surfing The Impossible Stone)" which ain't that accessible to electronic folks as the pre-album 12" "Reworks & Continuations". Last mentioned featured a good bunch of cool remixes from the forthcoming album by artists like Lawrence, Jörg Theurer and others. In fact the new album is non-electronic purism, very deep, melancholic and sometimes gets a bit abstract when it comes to lyrics. Those are bilingual, german as well as english and more often mixed within one song which sometimes sounds strange at first. Not an easy one to take but if one listens closely and more than once things getting clearer and don't seem that cryptic anymore. Anyone minds the term IndiePop For Adults ?

Not long ago I mentioned the release of Lil' Love's "Litte Love" on german label Zeitgeist, which has been coming up with a second 12" last week featuring new remixes by Markus Binapfl and the australian duo Great Barrier a.k.a. Pete Paradise & Roger Bucks. Both mixes are on a more progressive but still happy tip and are going to work the crowd well.

By far the biggest tune sitting in my P.O. box last week is Damian Marley's Reggae-anthem "Welcome To Jamrock", originally released by Tuff Gong International and now licensed to Universal Germany. Word of mouth says that this tune has been destroying this years Notting Hill Carnival and I'm more than willing to believe that. "Welcome To Jamrock" is really, really huge now and is to be entitled as future classic, tearing up every floor and not only heating up a crowd inna di dance.

16./17.09.2005 Rudel Records Minitour

16.09.2005 @ Kulturfabrik / Mühlhausen

live :

C-Flow [Rudel Records]
Cut'n'Lupuz [Rudel Records]

DJ-Set :

baze.djunkiii [Intrauterin Recordings]


17.09.2005 @ Hotel Silbertau / Lobenstein

live :

C-Flow [Rudel Records]
Cut'n'Lupuz [Rudel Records]


DJ-Set :

baze.djunkiii [Intrauterin Recordings]


Two more days on tour, heading towards East Germany to mash up the place with a clash concept of HipHop and Grime / Dubstep. This is gonna be the first official test run - as our Hamburg show two weeks ago was set up quite short timed - for our forthcomin' tour in spring 2006. We're working hard on a proper setup and will be going through a lot of technical preparation, while our tour manager is working on an ideal routing for a tour de force through Germany & Switzerland. Hope to get a full tour schedule within the next four weeks, so watch this place for news on that.

Grime r_port vol. 3

Yeah, 'tings are gwan. Seems like german distributors are picking up more and more releases - throughout the last we saw releases by Slew Dem Productions, Roll Deep, Roadside, Young Gunz, Kano, Lethal B, Emalkay and others arrive @ Otaku Records plus presales on distributors lists.

Another great thing to mention was the reaction of some HipHop headz to my Grime-/Dubstep-selection at Komet on Friday after the live performances of Cut'n'Lupuz and C-Flow - those guys told me that they'd never known that there are Grime 12"es available in Germany and that they're downloading like 30sec. preview snippets off Juno and Chemical just to have some Grime/Dubstep to listen to at home. Never seen dem people before but its good to have at least some headz out there that don't come from an electronic music background.

C-Flow - totally amazing project consisting of six girls aged 15 to 19, four of them rapping & singing in German language plus two on keyboards and effect section. Incredible voices, tight beats. I'm listening to their album "Brandstrasse", which was recorded about two years ago - makes the youngest member of the kru aged 13 back then - like minimum five times a day without getting bored and I think it's the best music with a bit of mainstream appeal that I came across in ages. I mean, their last song on friday was a cover of Destiny's Child's "Survivor" which made me almost cry, for chrissake - it really touched my heart. Gosh, I never ever thought that a "girly band" would ever get me by the balls like they do. I'm hooked and I'm really looking forward towards our forthcoming gigs in Mühlhausen and Lobenstein in about two weeks.

But back to the Grime. Or Grime Not Grime as it's with the new single of BC 400 on Buttercuts which come from a multi- or at least bilingual HipHop background. A-Side track "Changes" on their so-called "Payback Single" is quite thrilling HipHop with loads of soul. B-Side "We Got The Flow" is more agressive, rides on a cool Grime-/Eski-influenced riddim and you can find influences of Grime-orientated MC'ing also in BC 400's rap styles as they're on a different flex than most of the HipHop MC's are.

Another whitelabel I picked up during the last weeks is Roadside's "Roadside G's". Got no clue 'bout the label it's on, but the matrix reveals KI001 as catalogue number. This one is truly anthemic, especially the main title - vocal & version found 'ere - has a good potential to break through on mainstream HipHop-/R'n'B-/ Crunk-dancefloors as the MC's are spitting fast but clear plus you never ever will forget the pathetic string arrangement after your first listening experience. On the flip there are two other Halfstep riddims to be found - B1 seems to be a remix of the main title while B2 plays around with a main hook that seems to be taken off a scottish blowpipe section and transformed into a fucking ringtone. Funny and original as well - perfectly matches with Ruff Sqwad's "Pied Piper RMX"...

If you're into the dark, psycho side of Grime check out Emalkay's "Grimecore Vol. 1" on Morphic Sounds 002. As the name suggests this quite heavy, A-side dealing with serious, dry Halfstep business. If you're hammering out Mark One's "Devil Man" or "Plodder" on a regular basis check this one, too. Flipside is more lively with two tracks well fitting into a selection ranging from Vex'd latest "Degenerate", Search & Destroy's first output on Storming Productions and Subphonic's classic album "Vega Beach Party" on TCR. Two of these already sitting somewhere on your shelves? Then it's time to check out "Grimecore Vol. 1" for sure.

Longplay love v4.0

Chicago based label Kranky announced catalogue number 086 and 087 for October 3rd.

Responsible for krank086 is Robert Lowe under his Lichens moniker coming up with an album named "The Psychic Nature Of Being" melting droney ambience and Post-Postrock structures within a running time of 42+ a bit minutes split into three tracks: "Kirlian Aures" , "Shoreline Scoring" and "You Are Excrement, You Can Turn Yourself Into Gold". Each of these three are recorded live without any additional overdubbing and/or editing - a documentary of Lichens fascinating live working process, creating a grainy clarity, a foggy brightness in sounds that can only be described as outer-terrestrian. This unearthly, hypnotic athmosphere is like an over-exposed photography of an autumn's landscape converted into sound, revealing some slightly balearic, finger picked guitar play from time to time that, in it's organic and concrete nature of sound, is the total opposite to the multi-layered, stretched tones Lichens uses to build about 90% of his upcoming album upon and it's especially "You Are Excremnt, You Can Turn Yourself Into Gold" which might be soundtracking a yet untold fairytale due to it's innocent feel that might be fitting as well as with NeoFolkists and fans of medieval music.

Christopher Bisonnette's album "Periphery" is krank087, based on transformed, re-edited and multi-processed source material of piano and orchestra sounds, which are - although the transformation and layering process always alters sound and structure of acoustic material - still shimmering through a dense melancholy, intense athmospheres and introspective fragility. Similar to albums like M. Behrens' "The Aesthetics Of Censorship / Lecture Feedback / Source Feddback" on Hamburg-based imprint Wachsender Prozess or Ekkehard Ehlers' "Betrieb" on former Mille Plateaux "Periphery" is right on the border between tonal and a-tonal music, an interesting experience in sound for those being into pure Experimental Music as well as lovers of the NeoClassical genre, the so-called Nouveau Severity.

October 10th sees the release of Ennio Morricone : "Crime and Dissonance" on Mike Patton's Ipecac-imprint, a collection of Morricone tracks from the timespan from 1969 through 1974. Having composed music for approximately 500 films during his career, exploring experimental, non-normative terrain far beyond of what might be called FreeJazz and also touching the field of popular music Ennio Morricone is one of or even the most prolific film composer of the 20th century - loved and adored or hated and misunderstood. It's "Love him or leave him" and nothing in between that. Same story with Mike Patton and his label Ipecac, heavily influenced by Morricone's sonic art - a better term than "music" could ever be, due to E.M.s not only composatory but also technical exploration of new fields, e.g. the use of stereo splittings for film music in the late 60's.
At the end of the day "Crime and Dissonance" is not made for easy consumption, but a compilation for true Morricone-lovers, collectors and those who trust in the term Uneasy Listening, as more than 80% of the featured tracks build up a nervous tension, are based upon shattering structures and loads of seemingly free improvised or in the end semi-improvised music. Only for the headstrong.

10.09.2005 Plastik Phonk @ Bernsteinbar / Hamburg

decks: baze.djunkiii [intrauterin recordings]

music: downbeat / headz / advanced hiphop

bernsteinbar
bernstorffstrasse 103
22757 hamburg / germany