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Best Electronic Albums - (with more info)
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Acid Jesus - Acid Jesus
http://www.discogs.com/Acid-Jesus-Acid-Jesus/release/23268
Label: Klang Elektronik
Catalog#: KLANG CD 1
Format: CD, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 1993
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Experimental, Acid
Credits: Written-By, Producer - Jörn Elling Wuttke , Roman Flügel
Notes: Produced at Klangfabrik Studio, between December '92 and July '93.
Tracklisting:
1 MF 1 (9:07)
2 Move My Body (5:35)
3 Faith In Acid (4:50)
4 Disappear (5:33)
5 H. A. L. (5:57)
6 MF 2 (9:28)
7 On The Couch (4:34)
8 Mulunga (4:54)
9 Odyssey (7:22)
10 Fairchild (5:33)
11 Razzblaster (5:54)
12 Jesus (6:13)
MF1
Move My Body
Jesus
Profile
I met Roman a while ago, he was a gent. love alter ego and his own sets!
Does this sound dated?0 -
I met Roman a while ago, he was a gent. love alter ego and his own sets!
Does this sound dated?
I don't actually know any of Alter Egos more recent stuff, I've had this 'electro-house' type association with their more recent work for some reason... right or wrong, I must give them a listen. Huge fan though of their early work and 'Decoding The Hacker Myth' is another favourite of mine, must add it here actually.
As for Acid Jesus, I don't think it sounds that dated... but I'm probably the wrong person to ask there as I try not tag music as dated or not, more good or not :pac:0 -
Aidan Baker & Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie
Label: Alien8 Recordings
Catalog#: ALIEN81
Format: 7 x File, FLAC, Album
Country:Canada
Released:14 Oct 2008
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Abstract, Drone, Noise, Ambient
Tracklisting:
1 Phantom On A Pedestal (5:50)
2 Hymn To The Idea Of Night (5:19)
3 Auditory Spirits (3:44)
4 Skeleton Dance (3:02)
5 Gallery Of The Invisible Woman (7:18)
6 Dream Of The Nightmare (4:20)
7 Fantasma-Parastasie (4:50)
Brilliant album. Its a no-brainer for any Tim Hecker fans to listen to this.0 -
Leftfield - Leftism
Best electronic music album ever released, every song superb from top to bottom.
Have to do some work here, so this is all I have time to put up, sorry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leftfield
Track listing:
"Release The Pressure" – 7:39 (featuring Earl Sixteen and Cheshire Cat with Ad-Libs by Papa Dee)
"Afro-Left" – 7:33 (featuring Djum Djum)
"Melt" – 5:21
"Song Of Life" – 6:55
"Original" – 6:22 (featuring Toni Halliday)
"Black Flute" – 3:46
"Space Shanty" – 7:15
"Inspection (Check One)" – 6:30 (featuring Danny Red)
"Storm 3000" – 5:44
"Open Up" – 6:52 (featuring John Lydon)
"21st Century Poem" – 5:42 (featuring Lemn Sissay)
Last 40 Seconds of "21st Century Poem" are a hidden track
Exactly what i would of posted, when i got rid of all my vinyl (over 1200 LPs) this is the only album i kept0 -
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Cheers Lief, must get that album with Tim Hecker, love his solo work so must check this out.0
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The Detroit Escalator Company - Soundtrack [313]
Label: Ferox Records
Catalog#: FER CD 2
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 09 Dec 1996
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Ambient
Credits: Artwork By - Kelvin Govey
Producer, Written-By - Neil Ollivierra
Tracklisting:
1 Gratiot (4:15)
2 Abstract Forward Motion (As A Mission) (3:41)
3 Force (8:54)
4 The Inverted Man (Falling) (3:48)
5 Tai Chi And Traffic Lights (4:47)
6 Gathering Memory (5:48)
7 ∆ (3:38)
8 Shifting Gears (8:03)
http://www.discogs.com/Detroit-Escalator-Company-Soundtrack-313/release/40266Review by Andy Kellman
Neil Ollivierra, known at earlier points in time as the Music Institute's promoter and the Transmat label's manager, has done his part to help curb record bin overpopulation, what with only two albums to his credit. Had he released his 1996 debut on a higher profile label, it'd likely be regarded as an ambient techno classic, like Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92 or Global Communication's 76:14, instead of a cult favorite. Mostly beat-less, the album is nonetheless dynamically rhythmic and frictional throughout its 43 minutes, and it is often unspeakably gorgeous.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wzfyxqljld6e0 -
Yagya - Will I Dream During the Process?
Label: Sending Orbs
Catalog#: SO 005
Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition
Country: Netherlands
Released: 22 May 2006
Genre: Electronic
Style: Dub Techno, Minimal, Ambient
Credits: Artwork By - Jeroen Advocaat
Mastered By - Arnar Helgi Aðalsteinsson
Producer - Aðalsteinn Guðmundsson
Tracklisting:
1 Wind And Thunder (6:43)
2 Choose (8:16)
3 As It Is (6:43)
4 But If These Words Are Heard (7:39)
5 We Lose Ourselves (8:05)
6 Their Blood Is Black And Yellow (7:13)
7 Like The Noise Of Great Waters (7:49)
8 Change (7:29)
9 A Very Long Daydream (7:05)
10 When They Stood, They Let Down Their Wings (6:50)
http://www.discogs.com/Yagya-Will-I-Dream-During-The-Process/release/674596With a cover straight out of Athena's 1980 'fantasy-art' section, Yagya's 'Will I Dream During The Process?' is the follow-up to 2002's 'Rhythm Of Snow' - with the Icelandic producer further indulging his love of all things Basic Channel. Carved from a deep and minimal place, 'Will I Dream During The Process?' displays a much richer emotional element than Yagya's (aka Aalsteinn Gumundsson) earlier work - opening proceedings with the brooding synth waterfall of 'Wind and Thunder', wherein a caliginous soundscapes strains at the seams as it rubs up against a fragile web of spectral beats. From here, we're straight into the path of 'Choose', with it soon becoming apparent that Yaga is aiming for big-beast status as yet another wave of grandstanding machine-music soars skywards with wild abandon - a situation that is brought to a more muted level of exuberance on the fantastic 'We Lose Ourselves'. Covered in broad watercolour strokes, 'We Lose Ourselves' is a series of micro-emissions writ large, as the fathom deep backing highlights the skeletal rhythms being made to hold court up front - a sound reprised on 'When They Stood They Let Down Their Wings' and 'As It Is'. Layered like a an OAP in midwinter, 'Will I Dream During The Process?' is chilly without becoming austere and manages to just about divert your attention away from that awful cover... Yagya Yagya Yagya!
http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=224570 -
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69 - The Sound Of Music
Label: R & S Records
Catalog#: RS 95078 CD
Format: CD, Album
Country: Belgium
Released: 17 Jul 1995
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno
Tracklist
1 My Machines
2 Microlovr
3 Jam The Box
4 Desire
5 Rushed
6 Sub Seducer
7 Sound On Sound
8 Poi Et Pas
9 Filter King / No Highs / Finale
http://www.discogs.com/69-The-Sound-Of-Music/release/12424R&S compiled the 1994 EPs Sound on Sound and Lite Music, released by Carl Craig as 69, for this 1995 collection. It spotlights his most consistently funky, lo-fi material with classics like "Jam the Box," "My Machines" and "Microlovr" leading the way.
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:w9fexqejldhe
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Cherry Bomb - Electronics For Dogs
Label: Freedag Nuveaux
Catalog#: FDAG CD1
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1995
Genre: Electronic
Style: IDM, Techno
Tracklist:
1 Internot
2 Matrix
3 Nothing
4 Electronics For Dogs
5 Handset
6 Sooth
7 Seven Point Four
8 Neon
9 Swim
10 -Ism
11 Dark Matter II
12 Zoppo
http://www.discogs.com/Cherry-Bomb-Electronics-for-Dogs/release/92181
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Scan X - Chroma
Country: France
Released: Jun 1996
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Ambient
Tracklist
1 Dust
2 Grey Lights
3 Secrets
4 Voodoo
5 Earthquake
6 Wood
7 Blackmoon
8 Turmoil
9 Blue 072C
10 Requiem
11 Red Dogs
12 Wasteland
http://www.discogs.com/Scan-X-Chroma/release/511
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After reading through this thread, I have decided,
Felix is my hero.0 -
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Insync vs Mysteron - Android Architect
Label: 10th Planet
Catalog#: TPR 005 CD
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: May 1997
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Electro
Tracklist
1 Gravity Pull
2 Next World
3 Landing Sight
4 Human Loop
5 Android Architect
6 Science Fact
7 Auto Glide
8 Missing Link
9 Dig Deep
10 Train Of Thought
11 Naked I
http://www.discogs.com/Insync-vs-Mysteron²-Android-Architect/master/6458
A good review below taken from a discogs member...A superb "unknown classic" on a label that is sadly underrated, this collection of tracks could only be bettered if another piece of vinyl had been added to include the extra tracks that featured on the CD version. Well, perhaps I can live without the dub attempt, "Naked I", but "Dig Deep" and "Train Of Thought" would have been most appreciated on the vinyl.
Thankfully, "Science Fact" did make it on - a tear jerker of a techno track with its lush, deep synth-led atmospherics. Like all the others here, full of the brilliant rolling TR-808 and TR-909 drum machine programming, almost subliminal electro beats, and fabulous deep and complex basslines that formed the signature of this superlative British production outfit.
"Landing Sight" is another track to look out for; throbbing bass, rattling hi-hats/claps, and twinkling synths. "Human Loop" continues the trend of powerful, emotive music that never wants to remain as one thing, always moving on. All wonderfully confusing and warming at the same time.
Perhaps the overall lack of "upfront" dancefloor material on this record has kept it out of DJs record boxes over the years. That would be a shame as its full of rhythm. If you own it, get it out and have a nice loud listen. It may not be bang bang bang, but thats the whole idea!
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Jacob's Optical Stairway - Jacob's Optical Stairway (4 Hero Alias)
Label: R & S Records
Country: Belgium
Released: 01 Jan 1996
Genre: Electronic
Style: Future Jazz, Drum n Bass, Experimental
Tracklist
1 Fragments Of A Lost Language
2 The Naphosisous Wars
Featuring - Josh Wink
3 The Chase The Escape
4 The Fusion Formula (The Metamorphosis)
Featuring - Juan Atkins
5 Majestic 12
6 Solar Feelings
Saxophone - Lascehes
Trumpet - Niles Hailstones
Vocals - Samantha Powell
7 Jacob's Optical Illusion
Guitar [Rhythm] - Quincey
8 Harsh Realitys
9 The Engulfing Whirlpool
10 Quatrain 72 (Red Horizon)
11 20 Degrees Of Taurus
http://www.discogs.com/Jacobs-Optical-Stairway-Jacobs-Optical-Stairway/release/74822
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Ian O'Brien - Desert Scores
Label: Ferox Records
Country: UK
Released: 1996
Genre: Electronic
Style: Tech House
Tracklist
1 Mad Mike Disease
2 Homeless
3 Dayride
4 The Man Fron Del Monte (A Fantasy Theme)
5 Dark Eye Tango
6 Video Games & Data Movements
7 Granpa's Drawers
8 Eurydice
9 Desert Scores & Fusion Daddies
http://www.discogs.com/Ian-OBrien-Desert-Scores/release/40092
Discogs member review...DESERT SCORES has classic written all over it, and with good reason. From the opening track, the Detroit-fueled "Mad Mike Disease," there's a melodic and rhythmic propulsion that's impossible to ignore. The electro-funk-jazz of "Homeless" shows a complex understanding of the interaction of melody and syncopation. But the undoubted highlight of the album is the epic and beautifully askew "Dayride," which works with dynamics the way others can only dream of. "Monkey Jazz" takes on a Spanish flair, replete with horns, but if you're in the mood for more straight-up techno, "Granpa's Drawers" will get you moving in no time. "Eurydice," rather than being a journey to hell, takes you straight to heaven. This album is nothing but excellence from start to finish.
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Petar Dundov - Escapements
Label: Music Man Records
Country: Belgium
Released: 29 Sep 2008
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Minimal
Tracklist
1 Kanon
2 Desert Island
3 Sparkling Stars
4 She In Purple
5 Rain
6 Oasis
7 Waterfall
8 Anja's Theme
http://www.discogs.com/Petar-Dundov-Escapements/release/1439568
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Speedy J - G Spot
Label: Warp Records
Country: UK
Released: 27 Mar 1995
Genre: Electronic
Tracklist
1 The FUN Equations
2 Ping Pong
3 Fill 25
4 Lanzarote
5 Extruma
6 The Oil Zone
7 Treatments
8 Fill 17
9 G Spot
10 Grogono
http://www.discogs.com/Speedy-J-G-Spot/release/3616
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Burial - Untrue is an album i have been listening to alot since i first heard it. Its a bit more recent than some of the other albums on here but i thought it deserves a mention.
Untrue is the second album by the dubstep producer known as Burial. It was released on 5 November 2007 as a 13-track Digipack CD and a nine-track 2xLP from which some of the beatless pieces were edited.
Initial critical response to Untrue was very positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 90, based on 23 reviews.[11]
The album has received many plaudits:- Named the best album of 2007 by Sputnikmusic;
- Named second-best album of 2007 by The Wire;
- Placed eighth in Tiny Mix Tapes' albums of 2007[12];
- Appeared at number 10 in Pitchfork Media's Top 50 Albums of 2007[13];
- Second-highest rated album of 2007, according to the review averaging website, Metacritic[14];
- Received a Mercury Prize nomination in 2008, charting at #58 on the UK album chart the week of the nomination.
- Appeared at number 41 in Pitchfork Media's Top 200 Albums of the 2000s [15];
- "(untitled)" - 0:46
- Contains a sample from David Lynch's Inland Empire
- "Archangel" - 3:58
- Contains samples from "One Wish" by Ray J
- Contains a sample from the intro video of Metal Gear Solid 2.
- "Near Dark" - 3:54
- "Ghost Hardware" - 4:53
- Contains a sample from "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera.
- Contains a sample from Metal Gear Solid.
- Contains a sample from the film Girl with a Pearl Earring.
- "Endorphin" - 2:57
- Contains sample from "Lost Carol" by Akira Yamaoka and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.
- "Etched Headplate" - 5:59
- Contains a sample from "Angel" by Amanda Perez.
- Contains a sample from "Ready For Love" by India Arie.
- Contains a sample from DVD extra cast interviews for the film Bullet Boy (spoken by Claire Perkins).
- "In McDonalds" - 2:07
- Contains a sample from "I Refuse" by Aaliyah.
- Contains a sample from the film Bullet Boy.
- "Untrue" - 6:16
- Contains a sample from a cover of "Resentment", originally by Beyonce
- Contains a sample from "Whisper" by Ernie Halter.
- "Shell of Light" - 4:40
- Contains a sample from "Whisper" by Ernie Halter.
- "Dog Shelter" - 2:59
- "Homeless" - 5:20
- Contains a sample from a cover of "Who's Lovin' You", originally by Smokey Robinson, probably via "Hold On" by En Vogue
- "UK" - 1:40
- "Raver" - 4:59
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Definitley going to sticky this thread.
Has anyone else heard the album Oversteer by Wreckage. I just bought it on Amazon as sounds pretty cool from what I have heard.0 -
The Future Sound Of London - Lifeforms
Without a shadow of a doubt this is the best Ambient/Chill out album ever made,a masterpeice from the legendary FSOL.
Disc: 1
2. Ill Flower
3. Flak
4. Bird Wings
5. Dead Skin Cells
6. Lifeforms
7. Eggshells
8. Among Myselves
Disc: 2
1. Domain
2. Spineless Jelly
3. Interstat
4. Vertical Pig
5. Cerebral
6. Life Form Ends
7. Vit Listen
8. Omnipresence
9. Room 208
10. Elaborate Burn
11. Little Brother
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVpWQcLZzIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xCFRhJkPSs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqwh45LEvQ4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csOw3lKXMSw&feature=related
eh i don't think so
http://www.discogs.com/Aphex-Twin-Selected-Ambient-Works-85-92/master/5650 -
Elecktroids - Elektroworld
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electro
Year: 1995
Tracklist
Future Tone
Perpetual Motion
Japanese Elecktronics
Check Mate
Mystery World
Silicon Valley
Midnight Drive
Thermo Science
Stun Gun
Floatation
Time Tunnel
(Silence)
Untitled
Elecktroids
Real Name: James Marcel Stinson
Profile:
While the line up of Elecktroids has been debated at length amongst the electronic music community, and it is known that the project involved a member or members of Drexciya, the exact membership is unclear.
In July 2008 when Warp Records re-listed the CD version of the "Elektroworld" album on their Warpmart site, the promotional texts stated "Produced by Drexciya's late James Stinson".
Members: Gerald Donald, James Stinson
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Elecktroids
James Marcel Stinson
Profile:
Born on September 14, 1969, James Stinson grew up on Detroit's east side and graduated from Kettering in 1989. He died September 3, 2002 of heart complications in Newnan, Georgia, where he had moved earlier that year for health reasons. A memorial service was held at the James H. Cole Funeral Home, 2624 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/James+Stinson
Silicone Valley
Perpetual Motion
Japanese Electronics
Check Mate
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Gas - Gas 0095
Tracklist:
1. Generator 0000
2. Experiments On Live Electricity
3. Microscopic
4a. Miniscule
4b. Pixels
5. Vapourware
6. SeOCl2
7. Earthshake
8. Mathematics And Electronics
9a. Timestretch
9b. Earthloop
10a. F
10b. H2TeO3
11. Discovery
12. Generator 0072
Microscopic
http://www.microscopics.co.uk/electronic_music.html#gas0095
Reviews...'Gas 0095' - now re-mastered and re-released provides a new opportunity to properly appreciate a timeless, cult classic.
"Exotic, perplexing, unusual and cool..." Mixmag
"...will be at the forefront of labels offering slot-in brain cards as accessories to the listening experience...personal and brave music" On Mag (hotlist)
"Seductive... brain image circuits run into overdrive on its cool waves of electronic pulses... the ideal soundtrack to a 20 hour IMAX film on the total history of space travel." DJ Magazine
"...'Microscopic' introduces you to the Gas world of cinematic deep space electronics, cool, crafted and curvaceous. Melodic, suggestive and mighty strange..." Upfront Magazine
"...However the real monster here is 'Microscopic', which is a very emotional journey from deepest space to the higher planes of there, as Sun Ra used to say. One of the most hypnotic and transcendental ambient-house tracks of the year. This is an essential release." XLR8R Magazine
"...the nano-systems funk of Gas... take electronic music on new and uncharted journeys, playing with conscious hearing and the subconscious ear... unmissable" Melody Maker
"Gas offers the listener music that functions as mental stimulus rather than gentle narcotic... riveting" LA Weekly
"Remarkable strange & beautiful the sound of Isaac Asimov's robots let loose in a recording studio an album upon which Emit carved its enviable reputation for innovation, quality and subtlety. "the sound of machines crying''. 5/5 Ambient Music Guide
"Escape from New York meets 2001 A Space Odyssey in another green world; pure class." THE ORB0 -
I've had this on repeat most of the week and worth bumping this thread to add here...
µ-Ziq - Bluff Limbo
1-1 Hector's House
1-2 Commemorative Pasta
1-3 Gob Bots
1-4 The Wheel
1-5 27
1-6 Metal Thing #3
1-7 Twangle Frent
1-8 Make It Funky
1-9 Zombies
2-1 Riostand
2-2 Organic Tomato Yoghurt
2-3 Sick Porter
Written-By - Francis Naughton
2-4 Sick Porter
2-5 Dance 2
2-6 Nettle + Pralines
2-7 Ethereal Murmurings
Gob Bots
Sick Porter (ambient bliss!)
Twangle Frent
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Mike+Paradinas0 -
2562 - Unbalance
Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Dubstep
Year: 2009
1 Untitled
2 Flashback
3 Lost
4 Like A Dream
5 Dinosaur
6 Unbalance
7 Superflight
8 Yes/No
9 Who Are You Fooling?
10 Narita
11 Love In Outer Space
12 Escape Velocity
http://www.discogs.com/2562-Unbalance/master/191447With his debut album under the 2562 moniker, Dave Huismans produced one of the most stylistically perfect dubstep full-lengths to date. Fusing his unique sense of swung dance floor rhythms with the stark stabs of synthesizer that techno pioneers Basic Channel made prudent, Aerial was—as the bleak artwork reinforced—an impeccable exploration of the shadows of greyscale. The follow-up, Unbalance, is even better, seeing him discovering colour, embracing the lighter scales and sometimes even twinkling with melody.
From the get-go, with just a distant flicker of a high pitch behind the most forcefully danceable opening drum break you're ever likely to hear, "Flashback" marks Huismans defiant statement. Where Aerial spliced the bass weight of dubstep with the driving, minimal drum work of techno, Unbalance explores the new multi-limbed bastardization of bass music in full by pooling an array of lighter sounds and synth tones and layering them over warm bass tones rather than the dour stabs of low end that littered his debut.
"Like a Dream" does this perfectly, wrapping elementally calming bass notes around a simple staccato beat and tumbling melody. "Dinosaur" is the opposite, with galloping kick drums and a garage snare pattern taking the flux away from the overrun lounge pianos that swirl up through the octaves. Everything from the ascending bass notes of "Superflight" to the hesitant hum of the synthesizer on the title track point toward the fact that Huismans is now texturing all of his productions differently.
These 11 tracks are happier than any previous 2562 work to date and they make Huismans, as a producer, categorically shimmer. Despite the minor keys on "Yes/No," "Narita" and "Who Are You Fooling?" his unfathomable talent for drum programming and surmising a groove in an 8-bar loop, pushes past the subtly delayed nuances and snatches of melody and headlong into the pulses of low end and this new arsenal of technicolour fizzing synthesizers.
Unbalance feels a bit like a zenith for techno-tinged dubstep in 2009. There hasn't been an album that sums up the attitude and style of a producer so well since Martyn's Great Lengths and its plush decadence. Similar to that record, these tracks work just as well away from the dance floor, just as comfortably soundtracking that last slow tussle with consciousness as they do your 4 AM drunken peak.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=6716
Flashback
Lost
Dinosaur
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Label: NovaMute
Released: 29 Mar 2004
Genre: Electronic
Style: Abstract, Techno, Electro, Experimental, Industrial
Track Listing:
1. "Persuasion (Motor Remix)" - 5:01
2. "Hot On The Heels Of Love (Carl Craig Re-Version)" - 9:05
3. "What A Day (Hedonastik Remix)" - 5:57
4. "United (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix - Vocal Version)" - 5:22
5. "Hamburger Lady (Carter Tutti Remix) - 4:45
6. "Hot On The Heels Of Love (Ratcliffe Remix)" - 8:01
7. "Still Walking (Carl Craig Re-Version)" - 7:37
8. "HotHeelsUnited (Carter Tutti Remix) - 6:30
_______________________________________________________________
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Moritz Von Oswald Trio - Vertical Ascent
Label: Honest Jon's Records
Released: Jul 2009
Genre: Electronic
Style: Dub Techno
1. Pattern 1
2. Pattern 2
3. Pattern 3
4. Pattern 4
http://www.discogs.com/Moritz-Von-Oswald-Trio-Vertical-Ascent/release/1824832
Pattern 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RYOcpxI32o
Pattern 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLCQi-qvo20“Live” is a tricky word in electronic music. Live sets, even by favorite producers, are too often disappointing. In reducing performance to a traditional recital mode, selections are limited to the artist in question’s own tracks, a sense of flow can get lost in the shuffle, and worst of all, the performer is frequently seen doing little more than staring at a computer screen, occasionally clicking. The effects of this approach — not naming any names, but I’ve heard laptop sets which featured a sound uncannily reminiscent of the “you’ve got mail” tone — can be frustrating at best, depressing at worst. Part of what’s exciting about electronic dance music is the spontaneous flux, the dispersed authorship, the paradoxical live-ness of a great DJ set. So what’s the point of “live” performance, anyway?
With Vertical Ascent, Moritz Von Oswald, Sasu Ripatti, and Max Loderbauer offer a compelling argument in its favor. The Moritz Von Oswald Trio is appropriately presented like a jazz ensemble, in which the leader gets top billing but his numerically specified group is of vital importance. Though Von Oswald is the most eminent participant for his innovative and vastly influential work as half of Basic Channel, Maurizio, and Rhythm & Sound, to name a few, Ripatti and Loderbauer make their presence felt. In fact, Ripatti, better known as Luomo or Vladislav Delay, could arguably be considered the creative engine of the trio’s performance style. A trained jazz percussionist who cites Philly Joe Jones — the energetic drummer of Miles Davis’s first great quintet — as a major influence, Ripatti’s intricate, shifting rhythms, played on a drum set of his own construction, form a complex imaginary landscape for his bandmates to color with their inventive and emotive synth work. Loderbauer is also experienced with an improvisatory approach to live performance, in a mostly ambient mode with his earlier group Sun Electric and now with Tobias Freund in NSI.
None of this would matter if the music wasn’t fantastic, and there is no doubt it is. Each track is simply named “Pattern” and its respective number, but perhaps the plural would have been more appropriate. There are levels upon levels of patterns at work here that, in spite of frequent genre allusions, add up to something startlingly original. The drifting tones of “Pattern 1″ are anchored by a pulsating high-hat pattern that seems alternately jazzy, funky, or housey, while “Pattern 3″ seems to glide into and out of a Latin clavé. Ripatti never lets a loop rest, adding to and restructuring rhythms that both draw from and inspire complementary shifts in the synthesizers. “Pattern 2″ is the slowest, most ambient of the four tracks, its kick drum lurching between the sound of mallets striking guitar strings while Von Oswald sprinkles atonal Fender Rhodes improvisations on top. “Pattern 4″ is where the leader’s celebrated dub reggae influence — one of his most influential contributions to techno — is heard in full form. With sweeping synth washes coating a monstrous bass line and a strangely effervescent cowbell sound, the track sounds like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Edgard Varèse stuck in a space shuttle with nothing but a mixing board to keep them company.
The interplay we hear from this band — and it is a band — brings to mind the work and theory of another jazz legend, Ornette Coleman. Appearing in the late fifties with a style of improvisation in which timbre, melody, and rhythm became as or more important than harmony, Coleman shocked the music world with his radically innovative quartet — and later, for his landmark Free Jazz album, a double quartet — which in retrospect seems not only virtuosic, but downright telepathic. Coleman eventually gave a name to his improvisatory theory: harmolodics. This idea is, in many ways, is a precedent for dance music: though some DJs mix by key, most of us match beats and tones. The Moritz Von Oswald Trio has made this connection even more apparent, by using electronic instruments and dance styles to improvise freely in the manner of Coleman’s Free Jazz, for which almost nothing was written beforehand. Von Oswald edited Vertical Ascent together from parts of various freeform jam sessions recorded with Tobias Freund, bringing to mind Miles Davis and Teo Macero’s work in the 1970s when reel-to-reel audio tapes and scissors were instruments as essential as Miles’s trumpet.
Add the Moritz Von Oswald Trio to names like Octave One, Kraftwerk, Underground Resistance, and the few others on a short list of live electronic music performers who are truly worth hearing. We can only keep our fingers crossed that more appearances by this group are forthcoming; in the meantime, Vertical Ascent is an essential, absorbing listen.
http://www.littlewhiteearbuds.com/review/moritz-von-oswald-trio-vertical-ascent/Sterling techno credentials doesn’t guarantee great live music, but the Moritz Von Oswald Trio manages to bridge in-the-studio and on-the-fly sound shaping quite successfully on their debut Vertical Ascent. It probably doesn’t hurt that Moritz Von Oswald (Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound, Maurizio) and Sasu Ripatti (Vadislav Delay, Uusitalo, Luomo) have passionately engaged with non-techno styles such as modern dub, vintage reggae, jazz and classical music, while Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric) has had a business relationship with Can’s Spoon label.
The trio do work plenty of the intricate, propulsive beats and feel ‘em in your breastbone bass frequencies that should please their established fan base, but they’re at least as likely to stump the faithful by straying from that four-on-the-floor pulse. The way their endlessly variant polyrhythms and seamlessly blended electronic textures blend and weave might speak more directly to unreconstructed fans of In A Silent Way or Soon Over Babaluma.
Playing synth, Rhodes piano and tuned metal sculptures, as well as computers and effects, Oswald and his partners have developed a hybrid sound that not only hurtles like traffic on the autobahn; it throbs like a good King Tubby mix. On “Pattern 1,” Ripatti’s metallic percussion ratchets up the tension by varying how far he gets ahead or behind the machine groove, and there’s a breath-like rhythm to the give and take of the other two men’s swooping synths and hovering organ fills. “Pattern 2,” on the other hand, is an auditory hall of mirrors. The echo on each strike of a metal bowl or berimbau varies slightly while bells chime and ghostly tones ripple in the background; the deeper you listen, the more you hear.
“Pattern 3” is even more absorbing. Soft piano notes drift from within the rhythmic matrix of hand-stroked metal that shimmers and dances like neon-lit calypso crossed with dance floor-oriented gamelan. The constant streams of sounds moving in and out of the grid, leaving and returning, feels even more like the work of diaphragm and lungs that “Pattern 1.” “Pattern 4” closes the album with an edifice of massive sub-bass and equally substantial keyboard swirls. It feels indomitable, but at the same time little bits of sound flake off and spin away in eddies of echo that bump against each other, like whirlpools in a turbulent current. It’s the sound of decay and rebirth, of music being made and remade in the moment.
By Bill Meyer
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/51290
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