06'02

Peacefrog’s subsidiary label Agenda released the first volume in the Documenta series only a couple of months ago. Brilliant summary of all good current abstract things, this collection had a broader scope than electronic music. The second volume explores the cross over between electronic and acoustic with a beautiful of collection of tracks by Mice Parade, Tarwater, Múm, Labradford, The American Analog Set, The Notwist, Calexico or Scott Heren’s Savath & Savalas. This selection alternates between purely rock structures (Tied+Tickled Trio, Labradford, The American Analog Set) and more abstract formations, and demonstrates how soundscapes can be equally as precisely shaped through organic or artificial processes, as the compiler brings to light the bond existing between them by refusing to take position for either. Highlights include Múm’s Spilar La La La, State River Widening’s Desertesque, Labradford’s S and Windy & Carl’s You. Very cleverly put together, Documenta 2 is a much needed reminder that emotion are transcended by talent, whatever form is used to induce them. On a more purely electronic note, Marseille-based Bip-Hop have now released no less than five essential volumes in their Bip-Hop Generation series. Up to now, each volume presented a selection of five to six international artists, most of them providing at least two tracks to an album. For this fifth collection of modern electronic, the formula seems to have been slightly altered as only Julien Berthier’s D’Iberville contributes three tracks. Responsible for creating the design for the label’s web site and the Generation series, Berthier creates some extremely complex layered music, very much based on polyrhythmic sections crossing and organic evolving patterns. Le Souffle C’est La Vie and Bruit Venu D’Ailleurs in particular are extremely strong moments, with phasing elements sequenced to cohabite with each other while not necessarily being related. Beside the Frenchman, Canadian musician Andrew Duke serves the impressive fifteen minute long Alphabetic, a beautifully produced moment of pure ambient electronica, reminiscent of B12’s seminal Electro-Soma or Black Dog’s Bytes in the way Duke shapes his sounds into slow moving swirls of analogue waves. Duke’s first album for Bip-Hop, Sprung is due out very soon. Other artists involved in this project include Mikael Stavostrand, Tonne, Rechenzentrum and Accelera Deck. Once again, Philippe Petit and his Bip-Hop crew manage to produce an extremely strong collection of modern electronic music. Anthony Rother’s PSI49Net record label has been steadily growing for some time now, and Electro Commando 1: Welcome To PSICity showcases its electro nature. Listening to contemporary electro records always present the listener with a dilemma. On one hand, everything seems so outdated and everything but creative that it becomes difficult to see any purpose to it today. On the other hand, there is in human beings a fascination for all things passed, and these vintage sounds appeal to the generation who experience the genre first hand. Recuperated, re-heated and dusted slightly, today’s electro has obviously a function in the music industry: documenting the experimentations made in the late seventies/early eighties and reminding the music lover that most of the contemporary musicians have more or less grown up during this area and therefore, haven’t invented anything. The genre can sound terribly tired at times, and Welcome To PSICity proves no exception. The first CD especially doesn’t seem to bring much interesting things, apart perhaps from Rother’s own contributions, PSICity, Simulationszeitaler and Biomechanik or God Of The God untitled closing track, which seem to intentionally avoid clichés to build clever patterned structures and develop their own interpretation from there. CD two has a more modern feel, and contains some crackers. Psylocity’s Psylocity & Friends, Little Computer People (another Rother project) or Si-Com’s Lost Pli confront electro with its modern dance floor counterparts, each one giving an interesting twist to their music. The best moment of this compilation is however very different altogether. Froyd’s amazing Weisses Rauschen is firmly rooted in Kraftwerk territory, and displays with pride its German ascendance by featuring Germanic lyrics. Easy and obvious? This is actually the only track here to connect so well with the origin of electronic music, while still managing to sound futuristic. Not a small achievement. Stefan Betke’s ~Scape label releases this month the third installement in the Stadtizism series. After the first volume focussing on dub and the second on jazz, this new edition concentrates on the influence of hip-hop on a whole side of electronic music. Hip-hop has always been a source of inspiration for electronic artists, and the movement has itself borrowed numerous elements of structural nature to electronic music. It is therefore not a surprise to see ~Scape recruiting some of the biggest and most important up and coming names around for this collection of eclectic beats and breaks. Some remain quite purists in their quest, with the likes of Andrew Pekler, Cappablack, or John Tejada integrating their twisted compositions to traditional beat constructions. However, it is when Bus, Jan Jelinek, Kit Clayton or Thomas Felhman, to name but a few, take the challenge to its limit that the most interesting moments arise. Jelinek’s Silver Circle or Gazoo’s minimalist Esplanade are both perfect examples of the more creative ways to expend on hip-hop bases. The approach adopted by Antonelli Electr and System are equally as brilliant, the more electro touch giving a rather more vintage turn to their respective numbers. V/A: Documenta 2 V/A: Bip-Hop Generation 5 V/A: Electro Commando 1: Welcome To PSICity V/A: Instrumentals: Staedtizism 3

V/A Documenta 2 (AGN002CD) Agenda 2002 14 Tracks. 62mins29secs. Buy this CD on line now

V/A Bip-Hop Generation 5 (BLEEP13) Bip-Hop 2002 08 Tracks. 72mins09secs. Buy this CD on line now

V/A Electro Commando 1: Welcome To PSICity (PSI017) PSI49Net 2002 25 Tracks. 153mins31secs. Buy this CD on line now

V/A Instrumentals - Staedtizism 3 (SC12CD) ~Scape 2002 12 Tracks. 55mins46secs. Buy this CD on line now