Parts in the post, pt. 30

Jussi Pekka's "The Dead Serious E.P." is cat.no. 006 on his very own imprint Frozen North Recordings. Once again our man from Finland delivers highly functional, thrilling minimalism and comes up with a hypnotic tool that already sets dancefloors on fire and received great response from many key DJ's. On the flip there's two version of JP's "Rave Texno" to be found. Frank Spatula's remix on B1 is one for the more advanced DJ's out there willing to take a risk as the bassdrums as well as the whole drum structure seems to be very raw and unprocessed at a quite low tempo accompanied by oldskool'ish vocoder and an ever transforming acidic synth line - useful for very intimate clubs and dancefloor packed with willing party animals, but I do not see this tune happen on big floors. The "Rave Texno" original picks up the spirit of "Dead Serious" and pays respect to pumpin' basslines used in House music like 10 or 12 years ago without sounding dated. Nice one.

Sono's new single "Whatever" is to be released on Pias Recordings soon, featuring remixes by Martinez, Motion 040 and Alexander Kowalski plus an Extended Version of the original track, which is kind of ElectroHouse-influenced stuff with male vocals on top. Not exactly the hottest shit around but functional and crowd pleasing. Martinez and Kowalski do a proper job on remix duties, but I can't get the point why Motion 040 where asked for one, too. Those guys are highly overrated these days although they deliver nothing but "The New School of Langeweile (Boredom)". To feature a Dub Mix leaving out the vocals parts of the original tune would've been a better decision.

Put on promo circuit these days is a prerelease whitelabel as teaser for the forthcoming compilation "Monsieur Gainsbourgh Revisited". A-side sees Gonzales, Feist & Dani working on "Boomerang 2005" inna Downtempo meets BrokenHouse meets HipHop-style, setting eclectic and well-educated floors on fire immediately while Portishead's rework of "Requiem For Anna" is on a more melancholia-driven homelistening tip featuring dark psychedelic guitars and Beth Gibbons characteristic vocals which always are touched by sadness, grief and despair. Don't we love Portishead for that?

Longplay love 18.0

Constellation Records are about to release the debut album of Montreal-based NoiseRock outfit Feu Therese entitled "Ferrari En Feu" on april 21st. Starting with a furious 4 minutes intro of unstructured electronic Noise, weirdo bleeps and low-fi sound FX before the first boost of guitar and drums breaks through the first track (...of the same title as the whole album) is exemplary for what the group consisting of Jonathan Parant of Fly Pan Am-fame, Alexandre St-Onge of Klaxon Gueule, Shalabi Effect and Ed Sans, sound artist Stephen De Oliveira and Luc Paradise stands for: long hypnotic tracks - five within a running time of about 41 minutes - building up slowly, effect-loaden, influenced by Bombast- and AvantgardeRock, but at the same time not feared of what might be regarded as a Pop-related reference when it comes to harmonies and chord structures as, no matter how many layers of sound are put upon each other, Feu Therese's music never becomes too harsh and disharmonic although there are noisy parts to be found and songs tend to break up sometimes and completely change direction. But whatever happens - at the end of the day remains melancholia which is, although a dark feeling, still a warm and comfortable mood.

Isis' guitarist Mike Gallagher released the new album of his solo project MGR (short for: Mustard Gas & Roses) via Neurot Recordings on march 17th. "Nova Lux" contains five untitled tracks creating a score'esque deep listening athmosphere on the border of droney Ambient and sparse PostRock minimalism if one is willing to refer to this term due to the use of a nearly unprocessed, hand-picked guitar which creates a warm and intimate athmosphere on this nice piece of organic music, which is highly recommended for headphone use in front of your fireplace, accompanied by an excellent bottle of red wine. And btw - Gallagher is responsible for the album's artwork, too, which perfectly reflects his music's expression and feel.

Cat.No. 041 on Neurot Recordings, piped for april 17th, is the second longplay output of San Francisco-based quartet Enablers named "Output Negative Space" which are exploring fields of smokey, down-to-earth AvantRock here. Spoken Word-based lyrics on top of intense tracks, each one starting out slowly, longing for a climax, finally culminating in powerful drums and heavy riffs. Defo an album that is to be listened more than once to fully unfold, a characteristic trait of what a good album should be like. For all those rather based in dance music than in Rock - imagine the intense feel of Howie B.'s 1997-classic "Take Your Partner By The Hand" transferred to Rock music and you'll get an idea of what "Output Negative Space" feels like.

Parts in the post, pt. 29

Armand van Helden's new single "Sugar" has been released via PIAS recently. Taken from his latest album "Nympho" on Southern Fried Records the CD-version holds five mixes of the this track - Radio Version featured as well as the Original Club Mix plus additional reworks by Paper Faces and CagedBaby, which take care of "Sugar" inna very effective and functional way, clearly aiming towards the primetime crowd. If you're into AvH anyway this single is another part to add to your collection.

Cat.No.008 of Worldless Records is Marko Laine's double-A-sided single "Time To Say Goodbye / No Phones" which is about to set dancefloors on fire within the next months. "Time To Say Good By" is a quite deep and slightly trancey piece of dreamy minimalism for early morning hours containing nice string arrangements, decent rave-orientated harmonies and a massive vocal hook that sticks in ones eardrums after hearing the tune for the first time. "No Phones" on the flip is more pumping and peaktime though, so this 12" delivers a proper high quality value for money package for every upfront DJ. Get it.

Mashnum PI feat. Bad Bluntclan's "Wannabeatz" has been released on a nice blue vinyl 7" matrixed MOVE IT 001 these days which is limited to 303 copies worldwide. Expect a massive oldskool'ish DarkJungle roller with ravey stabs and a whole lot of familiar samples taken out of classic early 90's tracks. As the matrix number suggests clearly this is a bootleg production and who's on vocal duties? The Original Mad Stuntman of Reel2Real-fame who used to mash up NYC's House music underground first and finally gained mainstream success in 1994 via Strictly Rhythm. File under: H-I-T!

Longplay love 17.0

Instrumental trio Diario consisting of Jan Roth, Gunar Labs and Jan Barich had officialy scheduled their third album named crypticly entitled "Things In The Mirror Appear Closer Than They Are" to be released on Velocitysounds in mid-april. Now postponed to may 1st it is still an album to look out for if you're feeling instrumental music based on Rock'ish structures but heavily influenced by a genre named PostRock with multi-layered, effect-loaden guitars and kinda pillowy, hypnotic feel that does not neccessarily exclude Pop'ish attitude as track number five, the "Well Tempered Situation", perfectly shows. But there's also uptempo stuff like the final "Various Lights" to be found on "Things In The Mirror Appear Closer Than They Are" here that'll keep specialists dancefloors alive.

Washington, D.C.-based trio Ostinato have their new album "Chasing The Form" on Exile On Mainstream scheduled for march 24th which is their third longplayer after 1998's self-released "Unusable Signal" and early 2004's massive "Left Too Far Behind" which put Ostinato on many peoples map and on mine too after I reviewed the album and saw them playing live in Hamburg and Esslingen. They'll also be touring Germany in may to celebrate the album's release live on these dates:

08.05. Hamburg, Fundbüro
09.05. Offenbach, Hafen 2
10.05. Köln, Kulturbunker Mülheim
11.05. Dortmund, FZW
12.05. Düdingen, Café Bad Bonn
13.05. Regensburg, Alte Mälzerei
14.05. München, Cafe Kult
16.05. Zagreb, Uni
19.05. Leipzig, Frühauf/ PopUp Messe

Defo I'll be checking their Hamburg gig and I'd highly recommended to attend one of their concerts when those guys are hitting a town near you. But back to music - once again there's deep relaxing textures featuring echoed guitars played solo or - in more energetic tunes - as epic, multi-effected, layered walls of sound which are often accompanied by ultra-precise high energy drumming. As on "Left Too Far Behind" Ostinato do use vocals and lyrics up to a certain amount which is small and even if they do Jeremy Arn Ramirez' voice functions like another instrument instead of being brought to the front of the mix. There's also a new facet to Ostinato's sound cosmos to be mentioned: the use of a cornet in "Antiaircraft" played by guest musician Paul Watson adding a slightly jazz improv-flava to the tracks melancholia. Cool one. Check!

Gothic-/ EBM-/ Dark Electro-project :Wumpscut:, founded by former Gothic-/Alternative-DJ Rudy R. back in 1991, have their new album "Cannibal Anthem" piped for april 4th on Betonkopf Media which will tear up dark dancefloors worldwide. As the title suggests the album is dealing cannibalism, a topic which is more discussed in Germany these days due to the strange case of sexually motivated murder on demand happening in Rothenburg a while ago. This, the fact that in 10 of 11 tracks lyrics are written & sung in german and will be understood by parents plus the ultra-dark artwork by Je Wagner also picturing cannibalism and dead human flesh might cause some rather unwanted attention of authorities so I wouldn't be surprised if this album will be rated as not to be sold to under-16s in the future. Dancefloorwise there's a fine mixture of slow ballad-esque tunes and dark bangers to be found here, especially "Jetzt" has the potential to be a massive anthem due to the blend of uptempo beats, anthemic stadium-like vox and a perfect thrilling hookline which - if the genre was Underground Pop and not Dark Electro - would be able to break into mainstream success.

Longplay love 16.0

S.P.C.'s new album named "Sense Of Music Pt. I" has been released on Super 6 Records recently, containing eight tracks of deep techy stuff big time influenced by the sound of motor city Detroit as well as Electronica. Basicly this album is not meant for primetime dancefloor use - except one plays in front of an advanced audience which appreciates a kind of more, well, experimental 4-2-the-floor sound - but for more intimate, early morning moments in small sophisticated clubs. If you've been diggin' Quazars 1999-released album "21 Hours" on Superstition back then and still love to hear it and/or even play it out now it's "Sense Of Music Pt. I" which should also be part of your collection.

Mark Ankh's "Step To Freedom" is released as cat.no. 008 of Super 6 Goodies which is a subdivision of Super 6 Records. Seven tracks of thrilling, top notch sci-fi Techno to be found here, each of them meant to cause serious damage on the dancefloor due to dark, futuristic athmosphere and alienating sounds in combination with growling basslines and kinda ravey hooks in a sense like Steve Mason used to play ravey in the mid-nineties. No cheese, just pure dancefloor madness. Excellent.

Former Sugarcubes front man Einar Örn teams up with icelandic multi-instrumentalist Curver for a new album release of his very own project Ghostigital named "In Cod We Trust" which is piped for march 17th as cat.no. 070 on Mike Patton's Ipecac-imprint and provides a sonic Tour De Force through distorted, ultra-digital beats, occasional bleeps, weird effects and a mad mixture of lunatic SpokenWord-performance and mutant Rap-lyrics performed by the likes of Sensational, Dälek, Einar Örn himself and others. Guess that's what eclecticism is about and although some people might call this album rather artsy it is for sure one to check out. Ask your local dealer to get hold of a copy...

12.03.2006 baze.djunkiii @ Art House / Thessaloniki, Greece

Once again I'm hopping off to Greece next weekend to play a freestyle selection at the well-established Art House in Thessaloniki. Escaping snow and winter for at least a bit more than a day...


Press release:

baze.djunkiii [Intrauterin Recordings / Rudel Records]
+ local support

DJ, Label Manager, Networking Person, Music Journalist - that's how Hamburg/Germany-based baze.djunkiii, mastermind of Intrauterin Recordings and co-owner of the new imprint Rudel Records, describes himself on his weblog www.nitestylez.de and as wide ranged as these activities are his DJ-sets are as well covering a broad spectrum of high quality electronic dance music.
Brought to ArtHouse / Thessaloniki for the very first time by imp-artists.com baze.djunkiii is about to present a fine freestyle selection of funky Breakbeats, deep dub-influenced House, upfront Breaks plus some eclectic specials for an advanced audience. Watch out and do not miss!

Art House
Vogatsikou 6, 54624
Thessaloniki
Greece

Longplay love 15.0

Sascha Müller's album "natural" has been released as cat.no. 016x on Pharmacom Records recently and must be regarded as true masterpiece of classical Ambient/Deep Listening music. Three warm, organic, beatless and ever changing tracks are covering a total running time of approximately 45 minutes which are highly recommended to all those who've been and still are deep into tunes like Somnambulists "Deeper Sleeper" that has been released on his "Nightflight E.P." on Electro Audio Response back in 1993. Perfect music to close your eyes, chill and calm down after spending hours out on the dancefloor. Btw - where are all those great Ambient-floors on which my generation of party people used to listen to great, kinda abstract and freestyle music floating around in the air on a lower volume level? Those places offering refreshment and relaxation, enough space to talk space and time, smoke some weed, have a drink and then go back to the dancefloor? Those meeting points where all your lost company would show up again in the early morning hours to pick you up and take back home? I want them back.

Cat.no. 016y of Pharmacom Records is Das KNO's 9-tracker "Robotopia" which is a weird mixture of instrumental guitar music, some electronics and independent homemade Pop. Although this is not bad at all I guess it'll reach only a minority people as one needs a special kind of humour to dig music like this. Target group: fans of labels like Dhyana records and similar imprints.

Jel's new album "Soft Money" is to be released on Anticon. on march 17th, delivering 12 tracks of bouncing, abstract MutantHipHop - the kind of we all love Anticon. for. Most of them tracks are instrumental, all of them deep as shit and equipped with characteristic, kinda foggy, pillowy and un-clear aesthetics in sound that also can be found in tracks produced by Downbeat/Electronica legends as Boards Of Canada or Plaid. Can be yet regarded as one of the essential HipHop Not HipHop albums of 2006 at its day of release. Buy it!

Parts in the post, pt. 28

Sascha Müller's "Natural - Friends Remixed" which is cat.no. 016z on Imp Artists is the last part of a series of three including two albums (cat.no. 016x & 016y) plus a remix single to be released on the label these days featuring three versions of his tune "Green Meadow". While ORG's rework of the first mentioned track fuses Electronica with Drum'n'Bass-elements, eVADE comes up with a deep, kinda oldskool flavored Ambient-/ChillOut-mix which will be appreciated by those used to spin tunes in ChillOut-floors or those being addicted to classic HR3 SpaceNight video-loops as well. eVADE's remix of "Blue Sky", which is also included here, starts out ambient'ish as well but later on seems to refer to some harmonic structures of classical music. Finally Bernd Spring, head of Dhyana Records, delivers the last and most obscure "Green Meadow" rework here including some really weird, sampled dog sounds. If you like Dhyana Records, you're about to like his remix, too.

Muto Records, sister-label of Hamburg-based Lounge Records, announced that the new Strike Boys 12" "Hot" is to be released soon. The Original Version is a mixture of TechHouse-elements and funky Breaks, including some vox samples plus a really driving, slightly acidic signal that's meant to drive dancefloor crowd's crazy. On the flip there's a Super Style Deluxe-remix to be found which is more on the Nuskoolbreaks-side of things and recommended to lovers of slightly nervous, bleepy and hyperactive bassline sounds.

Destination Recordings is a fresh Drum'n'Bass-imprint founded by Hamburg-based artists Homebass & Sahara which team up productionswise under the Euphoria-moniker. "Thought Control" on the A-side is a solid, storming tune that uses a whole lot of ravey stabs similar to those that caused dancefloor extasy around 2k/2k1 when labels like Aquasky's Sonix or Incident went through their first heyday plus Sahara's characteristic and highly recognisable vox. A tune which clearly holds the potential to be massive, but might be a bit annoying if played out too often which means more than once throughout a night due to it's hit-orientation. "Chaos Rave" on the flip tries to fuse kinda stop-and-go-beats, deepness, a few trancey-influences and massive basslines which is imho a bit too much of mixing up things within one track, so it loses focus a bit and seems to go nowhere. Might be working as a late night tool, but I'm not too sure if this gonna work out for me.