Aquasky - Images

Classic Athmospheric Drum'n'Bass with Jungle twist - an early gem from the Aquasky camp that is now being re-released on their "Shadow Era" album.

Keith Rowe / John Tilbury - Enough Still Not To Know [Sofa Music Promo]

Soon to be released via the Norwegian label Sofa Music is the massive "Enough Still Not To Know" 4CD box set containing improvised music created by experimental musicians Keith Rowe and John Tilbury under the conceptual guidance of the visual artist Kjell Bjørgeengen. Rowe and Tilbury who've collaborated for an incredible timespan of nearly 50 years now create a sparse, extremely reduced audio environment perfectly fitting for headphone consumption on this 3+ hour long journey, a musical sphere of seemingly random sounds that might well be pure Field Recordings, long periods of near silence and tender, accentuated piano intermittences, emitting short glimpses of beauty and harmony into an endless space which, the further the "First Part" (CD1) progresses, evolve into longer sequences that don't become melodies yet but are more like pupae, fragile constructions of art that might unveil more beauty in a future to come whilst Keith Rowe's experimental soundscapes partly become darker and more intense before vanishing into near silence again. The "Second Part" (CD2) continues in a similar vein and starts off with scrooping sounds and a light, continuous background noise accompanied by tense and intense piano sequences of film noir'esque qualities - a perfect contrast to all the crackles and harsh tearing sounds laid out as experimental foundation of this second hour. But, after the first half of "Second Part" has passed, we see the overall feel temporarily become more violent and threatening, the tearing, scratching and drilling takes on a more aggressive note whilst the piano keyboard is hammered with destined force, sometimes even touching the borders of brutality. Going into the "Third Part" the piano seems reminiscent of instruments like glockenspiel or gong whilst a deep background bass drone adds a spatial dimension of a certain kind, later replaced by minute long periods of silence from which super fragile strings slowly emerge and die away again, before gong like sequences close the circle towards the end of this third hour. Finally we see more melodic structures with a jazzy twist in conjunction with wildly rattling, seemingly modular sequences in the "Fourth Part" which stretches out over 30 minutes only, also coming back to the tearing and ripping of the "Second Part" and the contrast of tender and forceful piano (ab)use. A long journey for dark winter nights.

baze.djunkiii - Acid Ultra 2005 (A-Side)

Acid Ultra 2005 - A-Side by Baze.Djunkiii on Mixcloud

Side A of a rediscovered Acid mixtape from back in 2005. Digitized in 2k15 for public pleasure.

Polwechsel - Untitled (No.7) [God Records 031 Promo]

Improvisation and improvised music is always hard to describe, explain and judge as there are - in many cases - simply no rules that apply nor formal structures one might refer to. This goes for the music of Polwechsel as well which have been making waves in the Improv scene for two decades now and only recently released their seventh longplay effort via God Records. Mostly percussive and meandering around varying structures free floating between a Free Jazz-reminiscing approach, improvised, simmering tribalisms and the loose rhythms of conjunctional works created by the likes of Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit all tracks - "UNX", "UNY" and "UNZ" - are built around drums and other instruments abused as such whilst string instruments like guitar, bass and cello as well as xylophone cater additional, non-melodic, yet complimenting textures and, especially in "UNY", a calming, cinematic layer to a buzzing percussive antsiness or, talking "UNZ" here, a playful take on both melancholia and off-kilter outbursts. Thrilling.   

Takashi Hattori - Old & New

When heavy Rock drumming meets UltraPhonk and layers of hyperelectronic chaos the result might be the most intriguing Easy Listening track you've ever heard. We are stunned.

Leslie Winer / Carl Michael von Hauswolff - Can I Take Your Order

This is one of the most unsettling and spooky Spoken Word meets Dark Ambient tunes to be released in 2k15. Pure darkness.

baze.djunkiii vlog #24 - did anybody say music video ???

The Crystal Apes did and so I went to record a scene for one of their forthcoming videos. Also did other stuff as well. Like eating ice cream.

Sascha Müller [Supersix Records Extra 036]

The producer that never sleeps is back with another album on his very own Supersix Records Extra imprint, catering a new bunch of ten previously unreleased tracks from his impressive archive. Friends of stripped down, bleepy ClubTechno and tender piano chords will be pleased by the opener "Lomographie", a combination which is quite atypical tune for Sascha Müller's musical work, whilst the follow-up "Los Puros" brings back memories of Marco Zaffarano's or L-X-Carbo's TechTrance productions in and around the year 2000 and the mighty "Magnetkern" brings in dry bassdrums and razor sharp hi-hats alongside decent, soft yet trance-inducing background melodies. The 12+ minutes long "Mars Attacks" is built on a foundation of super dry drums and raw, unprocessed claps as well but focuses on abstract, high frequency flashes and psychotic MonoAcid, "Megashira" fuses monotonous electroid vibes and decent, acidic filter works, "Messure 1" is on a Hi-NRG DiscoTech tip and "Mind Control" is a killer dancefloor weapon, serving hammering, supercompressed bassdrums, hounded hi-hats and trippin' ClubTechno synths - tool'ish but masterly crafted. Furthermore the sawtooth-synth heavy "Moontrip" brings back Heckmann'esque RaveTechno at its best, "Negative Houser" leaves out on the House aspect but caters excellent, floating, high quality AcidTrance for true lovers of the genre instead and the final "Killer Instinct" serves Techno with a nice, hectic, yet melodic twist for happy, uplifting moments on the floor. We're currious what comes up next.

Fagottmädchen - Cupin II [Raketenbasis Haberlandstrasse 023 Promo]

Fresh on the Munich-based label Raketenbasis Haberlandstrasse is "Cupin II", the sophomore album of the semi-legendary Fagottmädchen-project which is back with an astounding selection of thirteen tracks here, starting with the Industrial Trance-banger "Ilja Rogoff", going into weirdly filtered Distortion Techno with "Inzestuöses Gesocks.x" and serving super dry, lo-fi Hardcore for those who know with "Carmen Fizkth Merop". The "Gulip Highway" leads into trippy IDM / Phonk territorities with an Experimental Drum'n'Bass twist before a banging 4/4 and quirky melodies with a spiritual touch take dancefloors by storm, "Samen Gegen" pleases all lovers of trueskool Techno being hammered through heavy rigs set up illegaly in large warehouse spaces and "Doetinchem" closes the A-side with thrilling bits of proper, anthemic but bass-lacking Rave Techno. Going into the flipside with "Wooden Fusilli" we find killer Electro Phonk with weird and pretty unneccessary German lyrics that unfortunately destroy the tunes fascinating atmosphere, "Kaerean Gohtzith" provides a dark, threatening, score'esque sci-fi feel based on funky low frequency works, decent 4/4 structures and a quite futuristic approach whilst "Pet Pisser Reprise" is fast-paced Techno on a close-to-Hardcore override. "Over The Tophhh" is on an uncompromising, stomping Unhappy Hardcore tip and adds up a little bits of psychedelic Acid here and there, "Zyclin Ropollet" brings back dark and muffled analogue Techno and Trance for oldskool tape fetishists, "45.66.Ex" easily exceeds the 180bpm benchmark with hard, yet gummy bassdrums and uplifting Trance / Rave elements and the final "Bitonhhh" caters advanced Electro / IDM with a playful vibe to late night floors of underground venues. Recommendable stuff for oldskool lovers, although the crew of Raketenbasis Haberlandstrasse seems to be rolling the dice in terms of catalogue numbers lately.

Martijn Tellinga - Positions [Cronica 097 Promo]

Released earlier this month via the Porto, Portugal-based imprint Cronica is Martijn Tellinga's debut album "Position" in which the artist, who's also been a part of the great experimental project Zona Fumatori which has released one CDr named "Enteng" via the Staalplaat-related label Stichting Mixer in the early 2000s, explores experimental territories as well albeit these are of organic, largely unprocessed nature instead of being based on electronic knob fiddling. The opener "Three Modulators, for trombones" immediately reminds us of large cruise ship horns echoing and clanging through Hamburg's harbour - yep, we are located not far away from that area -, "Truth, exercise for a listener" combines Field Recordings of audience and background noise, wind, deep bass drones and general chatter with tenderly played trombones before surprising the listener with off-kilter pipes throughout the compositions last quarter whilst "Branching Into Others, for a large instrumental field" serves layers of deep, bewailing lugubriousness and heart-felt melancholia."Three Modulators, for basses" transfers the approach and composition of the opening track into the musical world of double basses to a more agitated, unsettled and partly even disturbing result and the final "Positions, for those involved" is a fragile structure built of Field Recordings, echoes and droning frequencies from a far distance - without any real instruments involved. An interesting one for sure.

#scrt brln snfn 01 #dada27 - video art by uli sigg

Stunning video by Mr. Uli Sigg for #scrt_brln. Ambient Techno meets visual art at its best.

Dr. NoiseM - The CDr A-B-C: C [Dr. NoiseM Tapes]

Scheduled for release in mid-September is the third part of Dr. NoiseM's new ongoing twentysix-pieces album series "The CDr A-B-C".  On letter "C", an approximately 61 minutes long one track album, we explore a musical world of isolationist Dark- and Death Ambient which is build on a slow and steady sublow frequency swell whilst cold and deadly hissing sounds are in- and decreasing, time decays and one gets sucked in into a desolate maelstrom of secluded blackness and deadness. An album blacker than the unenlightened space between galaxy clusters but one of the best Deep Listening albums to be released in 2k15. Also limited to 26 CDr copies worldwide - grab your copy quickly! 

Varga Nova - Nur Mit Dir [Major Label 074 Promo]

Due for release on September 29th, 2k15 is Varga Nova's forthcoming EP "Nur Mit Dir" which is a kind of surprising addition to the catalogue of the Jena-based Major Label in terms of its musical focus. Usually known for gravitating towards the more Punk / Avantarde / ElectroPunk side of things and having a thing for the twisted and rougher side of the spectrum in general the four songs on this EP are somewhat crossing borders between melancholia-driven Pop and IndiePop territories recorded with a minimalistic setup mainly containing of drums, acoustic guitar and vocals sung, except the more uptempo "Couldn't Be Like You", in German. This fusion sounds a little too much like the vulnerable, weepy side of the so-called Hamburger Schule meets some of the still popular male and conscious German speaking Pop singers of the 90s to us in general and, due to the fact that both of these don't mean much to us, this is why our verdict comes to a below average conclusion - especially in comparison to the labels output we love. Fans of the genre might come to a different valuation, though. 

Sylvain Chauveau & Ensemble Nocturne - Down To The Bone: An Acoustic Tribute To Depeche Mode [Ici D'Ailleurs Promo]

Recently re-issued via Ici D'Ailleurs on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of its original release is Sylvain Chauveau's "Down To To The Bone: An Acoustic Tribute To Depeche Mode" which is... well, the title says it all. Eleven takes and variations on the greatest SynthPop band of all time, executed acousticly and romanticly with piano, strings and vocals including hits like "Stripped", "Policy Of Truth", "In Your Room" and "Never Let Me Down Again" amongst others are to be found here, but - not only for Depeche Mode being one of the earliest musical influences and amongst the most favorite band for the author of these lines - the bar seems to be set too high so the cover / tribute versions are falling short of impact; too familiar are the original songs, too bound to Dave Gahan's lead vocals and the original SynthPop instrumentation. Fans - and not-fans as well - will immediately hear and compare the genre defining, anthemic original versions in their heads whenever one of Sylvain Chauveau interpretations starts to play and it'll be surely hard for them to appreciate the artists tribute for what it is, with the well-performed, scenic and beautiful "In Your Room" being the exception from the norm.  But other than that, die-hard Depeche Mode fans like us will not be impressed.

Erik Griswold - Pain Avoidance Machine [Room 40 Promo]

What to do if one's not satisfied with the governmental musings of the country you live in? And what to do if one's exhausted from going through a two years period of composition? Erik Griswold's answer to this question is simple: make another album and go back to what you're best at. In this case this meant going back to work with the prepared piano. The result is the "Pain Avoidance Machine", a 15-track album piece recently released via Room 40 that, unlike Hauschka's famous prepared piano works which have gained some attention by a wider audience throughout the past decade, focuses on the more rhythm-oriented side of this special piano technique, sees the percussive plucking and picking of strings as a quintessential foundation and structure of the majority of compositions that sometimes even get a marimba'esque feel whilst classic piano notes play only an accompanying role in these raw, yet beautifully simplistic, fragile and often repetetive sketches. A different and interesting take on the prepared piano for sure.

baze.djunkiii vlog #21 - chart haul 09/2015

Check out baze.djunkiii's channel for more videos!

baze.djunkiii Charts 09/2015

01. Source Direct - Approach & Identify [Nonplus Records 030]
Killer re-release here, bringing back the original, dark and complex Jungle / Drum'n'Bass vibe we all loved about Source Direct in the 90s. On the flip we'll find a remix crafted by Demdike Stare who's taking the tune to a whole new level stylewise, serving a hauntingly abstract, alienated, industrial-sounding Dark Ambient / Electronica fusion that'll perfectly accompany any forthcoming sequel of "Alien" movies for sure. Threatening as fuck.

02. Angels Dust - Slow Tapes [Hit + Run 048]
Highly recommended red vinyl 10" pressing. Limited to 400 copies only these six tracks perfectly fuse the foggy, dubbed-out fascination of Peaking Lights' Folk approach and the deep, crackly feel of Portishead's first album with the result of being nothing less than a perfect PsychoFolk record. Get, hunt down, buy blindfolded. 

03. Hainbach - Ashes [self-released tape]
See review for details...

04. Ipman - Regicide / Ghostrunner [Tectonic 086]
It has been a long time since I really dug a Tectonic release and actually this is the first Tectonic after Omen's "Rebellion" 12" back in 2006 I'm really into. "Regicide" on the A-side brings in deadly SlowMotion Jungle and melodic killer bass alongside bleepy synth lines and classic soundsystem culture-reminiscing vocal wizzardry for the original Jungle feel - one of, if not the best Future Jungle tunes released in 2k15. "Ghostrunner" on the flip is more of a regular, yet very techy Dubstep tune with a ravey, hysterical edge, haunting stabs and a near static sub foundation. Primetime shit.

05. Various Artists - Doku-Aquarelle: Radlweg Pasing - Hauptbahnhof [Raketenbasis Haberlandstrasse 017 Promo]
See review for details...

06. Surgeon - Fixed Action Pattern [Token Records 046]
When it comes to functional, quality Techno Anthony Child a.k.a. Surgeon is and has always been one of the producers to look out for. The original version of "Fixed Action Pattern" is such a piece, fusing distorted drums and an uncompromising approach with soft, spiralling synth lines that reminisce of ProtoTrance but fulfill the needs of every Techno head whilst the so-called 'Dub' version on the flip is meandering in between deep, dubby Electronica and Broken Techno in hyper slo-motion. Proper stuff.

07. Gabi Delgado - 2 [Oblivion / SPV Promo]
See review for details...

08. Jubei - True Form EP [Metalheadz]
Super solid release on the beloved Metalheadz imprint from the man known as Jubei. With "Congo" we're entering the long black tunnel which stood synonymous for the feel of a lot of Drum'n'Bass releases in the late 90s whilst only the strings served in the deep, yet minimal breakdown cater some signs of relief,  the vocal tune "Paragon" featuring Rumour serves a surprisingly Liquid Drum'n'Bass feel with a floating Pop-twist whilst "Out Of Sight", a collaborational effort with Tyrone, rolls out tool'ish junglistic vibes alongside a pretty futuristic, cold sci-fi atmosphere and deadly subs reminiscing of the early Virus era. Proper.

09. -

10. -

SFX - LA Boys Live (Official Video)

This is the most brutal Phonk you'll ever hear in 2k15. We love it.

Kai Uwe Kohlschmidt - Im Wald Und Auf Der Heide: Die Schicksale Des Dorfes Jamlitz [Major Label 083 Promo]

Reviewing audio books / audio dramas ain't easy. That's for sure. And as a music writer one doesn't come across this format often as labels and record companies usually don't feel the need to branch out into these territories. But - yeah, life... - there's always an exception from the norm which is, as regular readers of these pages might have guessed already, the German imprint Major Label which has built a great rep for releasing both extrordinary music and remarkable audio dramas. The newest one, produced by Kai Uwe Kohlschmidt and released on September 4th, 2015, deals with the history of the small village Jamel located in the Niederlausitz area of Germany throughout the past century, a history that incorporates early episodes as paradisiac, idyllic home to a colony of artists, dark years hosting a concentration camp, with barracks later used by the Russian army that transformed the area formerly used by the nazi regime into an artillery range. As time goes by Jamlitz sees the now divided post-Hitler Germany evolve, the wall comes down and nowadays the Jamlitz train station which has played an essential role throughout the century that has passed has become a social rehabilitation center for lost and broken souls and street kids from all over Germany, a center which has initialized the production of "Im Wald Und Auf Der Heide: Die Schicksale Des Dorfes Jamlitz" - a fascinating journey through history that uses cut-up and audio collage techniques, combined with several narrators and, most importantly, original quotations and audio samples from those, who've lived, worked or suffered in and around Jamlitz at some point of their lives. Recommended.

Sascha Müller - 6 o'clock In The Morning EP [Sascha Müller Music]

Scheduled for release on September 24th, 2015 is  the release of Sascha Müller's new digital single "6 o'clock In The Morning" which sees the Uelsen-based producer exploring stripped down, MinimalHouse terrain with the so-called 'In The Club Mix' whilst the 'In The Acid Club Mix' rides on a similar wave but brings in some decent Acid to the equation. Furthermore the additional "Shadow Run" enters deeper Techno vs. Intelligent Techno realms, sporting dubby chords and well-floating, slighty Trance-inducing synth lines. Nice.

Steaming Satellites - Steaming Satellites [The Instrument Village Promo]

Due for release via The Instrument Village on September 18th, 2015 is "Steaming Satellites", the third and self-titled album by the Austrian, Salzburg-based band outfit Steaming Satellites which has been around for about a decade now. As the CD promo came flying in with a pretty extended info sheet that overly praised the bands achievements and sound that somehow was described as being connected to the Indie scene but also incorporating elements of Pop, Funk, Blues, Rock etc. . we - naturally - were a little skeptical after reading these references as these genres, except some Indie, are not necessarily what we're in for on these pages. But according to our policies we're reviewing each and every promo coming in, so giving it a shot was a must and although we're not finding any Indie in any of the 13 songs on their self-titled album this one might be regarded as a solid PopRock-effort by fans of the genre, seasoned with a little bit of Alternative Rock here and there, providing minor highlights with songs like "Unreal", "Move On", "Circles" or "Back And Forth" and bringing in some complexity drumwise in "Phone". Not a bad album at all for fans of late 80s and early 90s Radio Rock - Brian Adams, U2 and the likes of - but nothing that hasn't been done gazillion times before and, due to this fact, inducing more like a bit of mouldy nostalgia instead of triggering major excitement on our side. Would be interesting to see what the bands target audience and fanbase looks like, though.

Rude Kid - Shaky *Lewi B Remix

This is a stone cold killer beat.