Celer - Sky Limits [Baskaru 035 Promo]

Within nine years only Will Long's solo since 2009-project Celer has churned out an amazing mass of, mostly Ambient, music with a discogs count of 115 releases in this period including an astounding number of 84 albums alone, including his most recent output "Sky Limits" which has been put on the circuit via the highly recommended Baskaru-imprint and which serves further explorations of Ambient music, this time featuring embedded field recordings taken in the Japanese cities of Kyoto and Tokyo throughout the years 2012 and 2013, bridging the gaps between the slowly floating, organic and possibly healing beauty of Long's compositions like "Tangent Lines", "Equal To Moments Of Completion" or "Wishes To Prolong". But, despite all this beauty, it seems like these small extracts from a foreign countries original everyday soundscape are the more or at least most interesting bits on "Sky Limits" as - a problem well known to the experienced Ambient head in general - most of the genres possibilities have been heavily explored throughout the past two decades, especially when it comes to its emotional, string-loaden and slightly kitschy side, which results in a feeling that one might've come across the musical story told in this album a few times before and at some point in the past. That said we're not about to diminish the musical quality of "Sky Limits" in itself which is well crafted and definitely living up to the genres quality standards but after having listened to a good bunch of Ambient albums before one is not necessarily taken by surprise here. For die-hard Ambientists only.

Cassar & Risko - Ninjas (Free Download)

Stone cold grimin'. Cassar & Risko providing a super sterile oldskool style riddim for real Grimeists that have been into things since day dot.  We approve of this.

Second Moon Of Winter - One For Sorrow, Two For Joy [Denovali Records 219 Promo]

Put on the circuit via Denovali Records earlier this month is the first ever release of the Ireland-based ensemble named Second Moon Of Winter which recorded their six track debut "One For Sorrow, Two For Joy" within a few short live sessions only, without any aftertouch of any kind - no editing, computer wizzardry or even overdubs involved here. This said, the result is a pretty remarkable one, swinging around in the field of Jazz Noir, Opera and supercinematic (Neo)Classical music whilst even touching the borders of medieval sounding elements, Avantgarde Music and dark Drones in tunes like "Ghandi Missed The Train"  - a piece that not only turns out to feature intense droning but also massive reverb that makes one wonder how large that south Ireland basement must've been in which this thrilling EP was recorded. Compared to the tune mentioned its follow-up "Magpie", despite sporting quite dark'ish lyrics, starts out on a more playful, even slightly romantic vibe before a heavy electric guitar cuts through the niceness, serving a crass, yet not fully disturbing contrast for a while, introducing a part driven by careful improvisations. This same guitar is making a second appearance in "Cigarette"'s first half, complementing the Opera-like vocalisms and later making way for more oriental instrumentations. Closing with "Where The Blue Meets The Green" we're through a thrilling 27 minutes journey that is surely one of a kind, not only due to the fact that it's about to appeal to Avantgarde folks as well as to a more conservative audience usually leaning towards the more traditional paths of Classical concert music. Recommended.

Murkage - Can I Live *Mike Skinner Remix

Sweet UK Urban vibes in 'ere. 

I'm Not A Band - Colours (Official Video)

This is how we do like animation videos - so much love and detail in this one. Looking fwd to see & meet I'm Not A Band with their support Eau Rouge @ Hafenklang /  Hamburg on February 14th.

Midaircondo - IV [Twin Seed Recordings Promo]

Released only a few days ago via Twin Seed Recordings is "IV", the well-obviously fourth full length album of Midaircondo which the pairing of Lisa Nordström and Lisen Rylander put on the circuit on their very own imprint. Recorded live and in front of an audience without any kind of technical safety net the our-savvy Swedes that have played around Europe, Africa and the American continent since their first album "Shopping For Images" was relased via Type back in 2005 easily flow through their set here, serving a fascinating and unique amalgamation of Dark Jazz and Noir Listening which have to be named as main and most important musical landmarks, uberly precise Downtempo Electronics, super calm Ambient ("Sun Upon You") that seems to be influenced by music for meditation from the Eastern hemisphere, threatening, bass heavy soundscapes ("Solitude") and lovely bits of Future Jazz. But not everything is about pure listening pleasure only here as Midaircondo - similar to their Icelandic sister at heart Björk - also incorporate more physically moving, dancefloor fitting elements in occasional songs like "Veins" which are, although not produced with a heaving audience in mind obviously, impellent enough to set bodies in motion at some point. The fragility and longing expressed in the thrilling Clicks'n'Cuts reminiscing "Apology" brings some tunes of Portishead's "Dummy" back to mind immediately whilst the ultrasparse "Quakes" are as playful and friendly as classic Plaid songs but, like most of the eleven pieces to be found on "IV", layered with a unique vocal approach that includes both classical singing as well as playing around with syllables and sounds created by the human voice - without any specific meaning but athmospheric presence. The closing cut "Closure" does not only sport a great name but brings back the calm Ambient sound and mix it up with elements taking from NeoClassical music and free floating Electronica, perfectly rounding off an album well-remarkable. Nice.

DRS - The Puppeteer feat. Jubei (Official Video)

Beats so simple, the bass so dark. A roller for life. Large up.

Atari Teenage Riot - Reset [Digital Hardcore Recordings Promo]

Following Atari Teenage Riot since their early days when we saw them playing live in Hamburg at a rave party around 1994 and bought their "Deutschland (Has Gotta Die)" and "Into The Death" on the legendary Digital Hardcore Recordings compilation "Harder Than The Rest" in late 1995 it's pretty obvious that we're kinda thrilled to get our hands on their new album "Reset" which is causing riots even more than two decades after the bands initial launch. And although quite a lot has changed in their music since these days e.g. the distorted Breakbeat ultraspeed violence has vanished some years ago being replaced by what's to be called a highly compressed electronic StadiumRock- / IndustrialRock-attitude even sporting some melodic, EDM-like breakdowns - see the albums title track for that - that never would've been found in their early works their lyrical message is still as raw, uncompromising and riotous as ever, especially in tunes like the massive cy-war anthem "Death Machine" or the ravaging "New Blood" , both able to shape the minds of a future generation of kids starting to embrace the music of Atari Teenage Riot whilst going through their formative years. Referring to the chorus sequence of "Modern Liars" or "Crash" the band's approach is surely slightly over the top as their adding a total kitsch-overload here, but regarding the fact that "Reset" was originally intended as a Japan-only release it all makes sense again whilst the follow-up tune "Transducer" serves an uncompromising CyberPunk-attitude. Pure grinding, slow-motion evil is served in "Erase Your Face" which might be referred to as equivalent to "Death Star" on their 1997-released "The Future Of War" and the angelic intro synths of the closing track "We Are From The Internet" are playfully abusing Trance cliches only to blow 'em with banging drums, super distorted guitars and a clear lyrical statement on the power and empowerment of a single individual in the digital realms. A high-octane fueled ride this album is and surely one that's about to make people rethink the system and the structures that do surround them.  

Lewi B - Dumpy *Instrumental

The man's on a dark Dubstep tip with this tune. Would love to see the aftermath when those twisted basslines touch down on jam-packed floors through a massive rig. Serious damage and destruction guaranteed.

Fabio Crivellaro - Comic Sans Terrorist [self-released tape]

Cassette tapes are a big thing these days, making a slightly unexpected underground comeback and so we were pretty pleased to see this little limited self-released sucker in our postbox today, bringing us the (non)-music of Fabio Crivellaro which was - according to the inlay "...produced, arranged, recorded and poorly engineered" throughout the period of 2011 to 2014. Issued as a hand-numbered edition of 50 copies only we see the artist exploring a wide spectrum of sounds within a range from grooving Rhythm Industrial / Power  Electronics to feedback loops, excursions into Tracker Drum'n'Bass and even Lowest-Fi ItaloWave that, for some reasons, brings bands like Troimucha Croupisuldos or the legendary "We  Don't Care About The Haircut" Nik Kershaw tribute compilation back to mind which both were released on the great Augsburg-based Dhyana Records imprint back in the days. Furthermore we'll find Ingenious Dilletantes crossing over with Drum Machine- / Feedback Jazz, Lo-Fi Electronica sporting all-embracing sinewave bass modulations, distorted TrackerCore, nerve-wrecking feedbacks, Minimal Wave and other treats nursing the needs of true underground aficionados (and ultra-nerds) with a vast musical variety that is, in most of the cases, pretty unlikely to be served by a single artist these days. Especially watch out for the, well..., uberhit of this rare album which is the pretty obscure Industrial Wave-cover of The Swans "I Am The Sun".

Achim Wollscheid & Bernhard Schreiner - Calibrated Contingency [Baskaru 034 Promo]

Starting into a new year with a collaborational album we see the French label Baskaru serving "Calibrated Contingency" these days, a 47 minutes live performance recording of a conceptual show set up in 2011 by Bernhard Schreiner & Achim Wollscheid.  At this show which happened in Graz both artists - wall-separated - were performing a show each on two stereo speakers in front of an audience which, and here things start to get remarkable, happened at the same time. Doing the maths this is 1 show = 2 artists / sets = 2 x 2 speakers = huge cacophonia depending on where one's location with the double stereo would be - a setup that fits the artists well as both Wollscheid and Schreiner are well-familiar with the art world as the main body of their creative work is to be found in exhibitions or installations rather than in music only releases. With "Calibrated Contingency" the stereo field aspect is emulated through a stereo recording of the performance, including a bit of talk coming from the audience at the very beginning before the sound even is on. But, although the intention is charming and a proper documentation of such events a cultural must, it seems like this recording works best for those that were present at this very place when all of this happened, able to recap certain situations, moments or sound events throughout the whole performance as - especially in the first part of the recording - not everything falls into place and harsh eruptions, cuts or dynamics seem to be of a more interfering, kinda random nature rather than to complement each other. So we see more decent droning and ambient'esque spheres presumably created by Achim Wollscheid with his set-up of computer and boundary microphone collide with Bernhard Schreiner's raw sounds created with computer, induction coil and radio, more often to an irritating than pleasing effect, sometimes just like a two random field recordings clashing or - and supposedly this is to happen more often when one's listening to "Calibrated Contingency" over and over again - at its very best moments creating something really interesting like it happens around minute 27 when some gluey alien sounds emerge out of nothing, creating a sudden thrill whilst some artificial sci-fi flies are exploring a muddy extraterrestrial environment. Possibly a grower for lovers of experimentalism in its most experimental form but for sure not a release that the vast majority of even those usually listening to Drone or ElectroAcoustics will fall for.

Huygens Landing On Titan In 2005

This is how it sounds like when a manmade spacecraft is landing on an alien moon. Stunning.

Renegades Of Jazz - Paradise Lost [Agogo Music Promo]

The year is 2015 and after a few pretty skyrocketing years with DJ-sets all over the and a residency at Hamburg's world famous Mojo Club it's time for the man known under the moniker Renegades Of Jazz to serve his sophomore longplay piece which is - to cut things short - nothing but epic. No matter if we're talking the super-cinematic opener "Haunting The North" with its dark, frosty feel via the positive Breakbeat Funk with a noir'ish twist in the albums title track leading to the action-driven "Flemish Cap" featuring Karin Ploog on vocals, which btw would serve the perfect score for a vintage spy flic, and going further into uptempo realms with the energetic Jane Kennedy feature "Neverday" - all of these tunes do prove that is Renegades Of Jazz on fire these days and there's more to come. With "Fire" featuring Aspects the sound of urban UK takes over, amalgamating rich, atmospheric and massively thrilling Funky Breaks with Ragga-toasting and Stereo MCs-reminiscing HipHop,  "Hellesens"  featuring Dylan Kennaway brings in some high speed Texicana crossbreeding with vast brass sections and heavenly choirs and the "Imperial Breed" fuses Drum'n'Bass and jiving Dancefloor Jazz to  great effect. This, as well the follow ups "Cannibal Royal" and "Tamerlane", are featuring Greg Blackman on vocal duties who performs perfectly on this triple, no matter if on top of fever'ish Voodoo-drums or crooning dope Funk whilst Chima Anya's guest appearance on "Death Grip" is more of a noir'ish crimescene kind, surely to be appreciated by all Grime- and UK HipHop-headz loving the classic Two Fingers and Sway collabo "What You Know" or rappers like Plan B to bits. Going back to instrumentals with "Lucifer's Rising" we'll find more tripping dark moods merging with beats dope as dope can get before the closing tune "Ban-Shee" serves tremulous, cinematic DarkJazz with thundering bass FX for those who know. Top one. Get.

Frank Bretschneider - Wave Of The Week

The great fun and humour of  ultimate sinewave bending. Taken from Frank Bretschneider's forthcoming album "Sinn + Form".

baze.djunkiii Charts 01/2015

01. Dub Phizix & Strategy - Buffalo Charge [Senka Sonic 001]



This tune's pure Drum'n'Grime madness. Razor sharp production and killer lyrics. Tune of the year in bass music for me and a proper example of musical realms that need more exploration in future times. Also check for the Drum'n'Bass banger "Bounce" on the flip, coz it's brillant too.

02. Various Artists - What The Hell Are You Doing? [Full Time Hobby]
See review for details...

03. Jahdubtahz - Dub Street / Long Lost Dub [45Seven 009]
Not too long ago I stopped by at my favorite pressing plant for a short visit and got a bunch of the latest releases by the great 45Seven-imprint that fuses classical Dub with more recent Breakbeats and elements of other bass music. The "Dub Street" on the A-side of their cat.no. 009 is about to please all oldskool junglists for a reason whilst the "Long Lost Dub" on the flip enters deepest Dubstep-related realms with etherial vocal bits.

04. Diphasic - Backbone Dub / Reason [45Seven 011]
More junglistic Dub and signals are to be found in the massive "Backbone Dub" that's setting floors on fire with its spaced out amalgamation of musical elements whilst the super minimal "Reason" gives us Dub inna super-experimental but still kinda militant style.

05. Dr NoiseM - Reset My Pain [T.R.U.P. Rec 037]
See review for details...

06. Ambassador 21 - Riot Generation [Restroom Records 016]
Although already released in March 2014 I came across this one only recently, a red vinyl six track piece that brings us a bunch of remixes created for Ambassador 21, the Belarus-based defenders of Digital Hardcore and the Eastern Block equivalent of Alec Empire's Atari Teenage Riot. This said it's pretty clear that the original versions of "Riot Generation" and "Fuck All Systems 14" are rage and anger-fueled explosions of electronic violence and the reworks created by The DJ Producer, The Outside Agency, The Teknoist and End.user covering a range from furious Hardcore to heavy Drumstep and Post-Breakcore are made for the headstrong only as well. Discover the dark side.

07. Beam Up - Helden / Frankie [45Seven 010]
Somewhat located in between pumping Dub and rolling HalfStep this little mother of a 7" pleases all those longing for a bridge between the roots of seemingly live dubbed bass music and todays scenes whilst the flip comes up with a deeper, more oriental and melancholia flavored feel in Dub.

08. Kasper Bjørke - Apart feat. Sisy Ey *Remixes [Hafendisko 017 Promo]
Two remix versions for Kasper Bjørke's collaborational effort with the Icelandic band Sisy Ey, originally to be found on his recent album "After Forever". Kompakt stalwart Michael Mayer is taking "Apart" to new, epic heights by adding layers and layers of soft and uplifting (Neo)Trance-strings and sweet melodies to a cosy foundation of TechHouse-drums whilst Ewan Pearson's rework on the flip goes slightly deeper with his more discoid version and ever modulating synths. Nice.

09. Pentatones - Karma Game Retouched By Steve Bug [Poker Flat Recordings 157 Promo]
This is not your typical Poker Flat Recordings 12" and the first release on the label in which Steve Bug serves his vision on what might happen when an more experimental Leftfield Pop like Pentatones' "Karma Game" song is transferred into clubland by his own hands. Defo more positive and less moody than the label's usual output, filled with cascading synths and sparkling modulations and - most importantly - sporting sweet'n'seductive vocals by Pentatones' singer Delhia De France which accompanied Steve Bug on one of his previous single as well vocalwise. On the flip we'll find a dub version - equals: same track minus vox - of the "Karma Games" retouch, but both versions are supposedly to be heard a lot throughout the coming months. Neat.

10. -

I'm Not A Band - Oceans (Album Trailer)

Simple, beautiful and totally on point. Album release via AdP Records soon.

Sascha Müller [Supersix Records Extra 029]

Sascha Müller,  the man unstoppable at his machines, comes up with his 29th album on his very own Supersix Records Extra-imprint these days, taking us to his "Wohnzimmer" - translate as 'living room' - with the opening tune, a place as technoid and spiralling as an Acid / Intelligent Techno fusion can get and a great weapon of choice for underground Techno raves on fire. Same goes for the dry, Phonk-driven follow up "Alpha Lock" which is about to please all those missing The Advent's trademark sound circa late 90s  and early noughties whilst "Mode Select" is on a Synth / Cosmic driven Ambient tip and "Starsky And Hutch" takes care of slightly distorted minimalism in uptempo Tech affairs. The "303 Music" lives up to its name, serving nothing but great, hypnotic Acid lines on top of hammering bassdrums,"Acid Eats My Brain" gets our AcidTrance-fans sorted and the hard hitting, slightly industrial-sounding "Anime" is a rattlesnake of a percussive banger that's about to cold floor large sweat-soaking crowds within a few bars only. SwampTechno might the drawer to put the well-hypnotic "Auto Speed" into due to its strange and twisted, alien sounding backward bass FX whilst "Back To Back" brings in a heavy percussion attack and impellent, agressive filter sweeps on high octane synth stabs, "Bleep And Blonk" has a kind of dark, tribal'esque and fever'ish ritual feel to offer and "Bug System I" is even able to please the Hardcore-posse with highly compressed, solid-concrete bassdrum assaults and noisy layers of intense percussive elements spraying all over the place. Finally the closing tune "Cablewire" is sporting somewhat of a minimalist DroneTechno style for the very last hours of an extended night out, keeping the crowd moving whilst using only a few basic elements and a slowly oscillating bass Drone. A perfect farewell track for sure.

Thomas Köner - La Barca Complete Edition [Thomas Köner self-released]

Thomas Köner. Well-appreciated and highly praised artist in the field of experimental music, Ambient producer and conceptualist. Back in 2009 he released his concept piece "La Barca" as double vinyl and CD with different tracklistings, a massive package of Dark Ambient vs. Field Recording pieces and the result of two years of travelling around the globe, capturing the audible fingerprints of places as different as Cairo, Beograd, Spitsbergen, Hamburg's Hochallee, Tokyo and many more, developing a cycle consisting of 22 tracks audio and audiovisual of which five remained unreleased up to this date. With Thomas Köner's self-released Complete Edition of "La Barca" the full piece, title-wise referring to the sun boats of the Egyptian mythology, is now available in its entire beauty, floating along calm, melancholic, slow and slightly melodic rivers of sound, taking us on a Deep Listening journey around the world, unveiling voices and street sound fragments to a certain degree being sonic indications of where the solar barque has lead us to throughout the past minutes. Nice one.