• Music

    Stephen Mallinder – tick tick tick

    May 9, 2022 - By 

    With the death of Richard H. Kirk last year, my hopes are dashed for new material from Cabaret Voltaire.  However, Stephen Mallinder is carrying the torch of mid-period Cabs by combining a dark soundscape with rough electro-funk.  From his Bandcamp website: “Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Stephen Mallinder’s second solo outing for Dais further distills his signature fusion of minimal synth, oblique wordplay, and “wonky disco” into a riveting rhythm suite ripe for our age of escalation: tick tick tick. Channeling the temporal malaise of lockdown through a lusher palette of modular electronics and stereo strings, the songs embrace ambiguity and plasticity,…

  • Music

    Various Artists – Shaytoon Records: Sounds from the Iranian Ultraverse

    April 7, 2022 - By 

    Shaytoon Records has released a compilation introducing some of the finest minimal techno coming out of Iran these days.  The label is based in New York, but the bands come, more or less, from the motherland, though America’s Persian diaspora is well-represented. The beats are rather icy and cold, reminding me of acts like Front Line Assembly and Delerium, though bearing a more mellow hue.  These acts are definitely worth exploring.

  • Music

    FRKTL – Prose Edda

    February 15, 2022 - By 

    FRKTL is the nom de plume of British-Egyptian composer Sarah Badr, and her work straddles so many genres that it’s quite hard to describe accurately (a wonderful thing, as it means her work is incredibly fresh-sounding). There are, of course, long, drone-y elements to the music, but once you go into tracks 3 and 4 (Hverfa af himni heiðar stjörnur and Hart er með hölðum, respectively, you start hearing elements of techno (!), bleak synthetic choruses sounding like the angels reciting the liturgy over the bowels of Hades (or, in this case, Hel, in order to maintain a proper cosmology). …

  • Music

    Cabaret Voltaire – Shadow of Fear

    September 21, 2021 - By 

    Today is a terrible day, as we’re reeling over the loss of Cabaret Voltaire multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Richard H. Kirk.  He was 65 years old. The Cabs were one of the most influential bands of their era, whose work would have serve as inspiration to genres such as Industrial, post-punk, EBM, avant-funk, electro, acid house and techno. The album we share today was the first one by Cabaret Voltaire, with Richard doing the album solo, in 26 years.  It’s as bleak as the old material, though better recorded, and it sounds like a culmination of those early, gritty experimental recordings, that funky drum machine…

  • Music

    John Tejada & Ulrich Krieger – Silversonic

    July 17, 2021 - By 

    Two legends from rather different backgrounds collaborate on this EP. Austrian-American DJ John Tejada is a legend in electronic music as has thrived in the scene as a sought-after remixer.  I had the pleasure of meeting him several times while working at a record shop in Los Angeles during the 1990s, and it pleases me to no end how far his career has taken off. Ulrich Krieger is a composer, improviser and experimental rock musician from Germany whose work you may have heard either as a composer or interpreter of contemporary classical music with Zeitkratzer/ or as a member of…

  • Music - Youtube

    ISQ – Ode To Myself (Arthur Baker Remix)

    May 18, 2021 - By 

    ISQ are a band based out of London who have managed to carve out a rather nice niche in both the alternative jazz and house music worlds.  In this new release, their track, Ode To Myself, has been remixed by legendary producer Arthur Baker, who has worked his magic with bands like New Order and Afrika Bambaataa.  The vocals are smooth, the beats are warm.  This should make the rounds at all the summer dance hotspots.  If you prefer to hear this on Bandcamp, the song can be accessed here.  It sounds phenomenal as a FLAC file.  

  • Music

    Joachim Spieth – Textures [Sound Library]

    May 15, 2021 - By 

    Saturday afternoons tend to be a great time for me to let my mind wander a bit while I’m doing minor chores.  This Saturday’s release comes from Joachim Spieth, DJ extraordinaire, remixer and owner of Affin Records, one of my favorite modern techno labels.  This album is a departure from his normal oeuvre.  We have 57 tracks, most less than a minute in length, of ambient music which can be shuffled for hours of truly easy listening.  It’s not audible wallpaper like most ambient music is supposed to be, but it serves as a good soundtrack for drifting the day…

  • Music

    David San – Frabulloso EP

    May 10, 2021 - By 

    Thanks to our dear friends at Colombia’s fine techno label, Miniline, for introducing us to the work of David San.  This is a one-track release of danceable tech-house from a composer, whom I believe, works out of Colombia.  There seems to be an amazingly active electronic music scene popping up, to go along with the other, more traditional music which the country is noted for.

  • Music

    DidJaws – Home Made Techno EP

    April 14, 2021 - By 

    DidJaws is a French lo-fi IDM producer who works with his compositions in an absolutely stripped-down manner, without the overproduction and cute tricks that some IDM-related artists rely on.  This feels raw, and the ideas coming out of these songs feel fresh.  Not a bad release at all, and it makes me wonder what work he could do with full production capability.  Let’s see how his work develops.