μ-ZIQ
Duntisbourne Abbots Soulmate Devastation Technique
ZIQ190
Planet-μ 2007
17 Tracks. 59mins58secs

It’s no secret that Mike Paradinas’ alias μ-Ziq has reached legend status in the world of experimental electronic dance music. Even Paradinas himself labels his μ-Ziq work “classic” on the Planet-μ website, and rightfully so. Along with Richard D. James, Luke Vibert, and other luminaries, μ-Ziq’s prodigiously playful releases have guided electronic music through a plethora of different styles, from the ambient techno of 1993’s Tango N’ Vectif to the rapid-fire drill n’ bass of 1997’s Lunatic Harness.

In 2002, Paradinas released Bilious Paths, his first μ-Ziq album on his own label. An exhilarating victory lap, it showed that μ-Ziq could continue to be a relentlessly cutting edge force, while still building upon a classic structure. Continue Reading »

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British experimental duo Icarus, who have previously released music on Hydrogen Dukebox, Output Recordings, The Leaf Label and their own imprint, Not Applicable, will release their latest album, Sylt, on Rump Recordings on 19 November. This is their first album since Carnivalesque, released in 2005, and their first new studio recording since their 2004 album I Tweet The Birdie Electric (The Leaf Label).

Icarus’s Sam Britton and Ollie Brown began making music toward the end of the nineties, originally focusing on drum’n'bass, before expanding their musical horizon to more experimental forms. Sylt collects a series of studio tracks and live performances recorded across Europe between 2004 and 2006.

Icarus | Rump Recordings

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CANON BLUE
Colonies
RUM010
Rumraket 2007
11 Tracks. 43mins55secs

Signed to Efterklang’s Rumraket imprint, which originally spawned Grizzly Bear, Canon Blue is singer song writer Daniel James. Originally from Virginia, James moved to New Orleans in early 2005 where he found himself playing guitar in a band. However, things soon turned sour and he returned to Virginia, escaping the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina by a couple of weeks. He now lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

James shows a taste for catchy melodies which are then wrapped in distortions, treated guitars, electronics and acoustic instrumentation, which is not without recalling Echoboy or Khonnor. Continue Reading »

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SUPERMAYER
Save The World
KOM 164 / KOMPAKT CD 61
Kompakt 2007
13 Tracks. 63mins12secs

Despite its stark minimalist aesthetic, there’s no denying the underlying sense of humor pervading Kompakt releases. Founded by veterans of the Cologne techno scene, its playful song titles, singsong melodies, and oft-eccentric samples suggest that with age comes an almost child-like compositional approach. Additionally, The Orb, the patron saints of techno absurdity, have a slough of characteristically silly releases on Kompakt. The Orb’s eclecticism, infatuation with dub, and willingness to throw out genre boundaries are a likely reference point for the risk-taking and consistently rewarding Save The World. Continue Reading »

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A little over three years ago, a formation answering to the mysterious name of Efterklang and hailing from Denmark appeared with their debut album, Tripper, and rapidly gathered critical acclaim and respect. The re-release of the band’s debut EP, Springer, originally released in 2003, a year before the album, and a limited edition one-sided LP, confirmed the band as one of the most interesting acts to have come out of Denmark. Following the release of the superb Under Giant Trees EP earlier this year, Efterklang return with their second album, Parades, on which they have developed an entirely new approach, more focused on acoustic instrumentation. In this interview, Casper Clausen and Rasmus Stolberg talk about what influences them, how their new album came to life, running their own record label and playing live is like playing football.

Continue Reading »

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TERRE THAEMLITZ
You? Again?
MULE007CD
Mule Electronic 2007
10 Tracks. 70mins39secs

Writer, DJ and owner of the Comatonse Recordings music label, Terre Thaemlitz has established something of a reputation for restless social activity and focussed artistic intent. Japan-resident Thaemlitz dabbles promiscuously with electroacoustic computer music, deep house and composed works for solo piano, yet despite all of this endless sliding, not to mention the voluminous pseudynms under which he operates, his distance from the respective styles and concentration on seducing the signs themselves animates and organizes much of his data peddling. Continue Reading »

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BLUE STATES
First Steps Into…
MI090CD
Memphis Industries 2007
13 Tracks. 47mins16secs

The history of Blue States has been a much more tumultuous affair than the band’s music. Originally the solo project of Brighton-based Andy Dragazis, Blue States got caught up in the chillout craze of the late nineties with a series of EPs and a debut album, Nothing Changes Under The Sun, released in 2000 on Memphis Industries, which showed a penchant for largely instrumental down tempo compositions and cinematic orchestrations. Determined to prove that Blue States was not just another act on a rapidly fading scene, Dragazis recruited the services of vocalist Ty Bulmer and put together a live band to take his instrumental pop to a new level, with a second album, Man Mountain, released in 2002. Following Bulmer’s departure, Dragazis was joined by Chris Carr (vocals and guitar) and Jon Chandler (durms), and released The Soundings, an album on which the band showed a much more indie pop approach, but tensions developed during the tour that followed and the band eventually imploded. Dragazis went on to produce a handful of records, including the deliciously Spector-driven Pipettes album of last year. Continue Reading »

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Following the release of the Book Of Dogma album and the reissue of Techno Playtime and The Cost Virtual EPs earlier this year, Scottish imprint Soma will be releasing an entirely remastered version Black Dog’s lost classic Temple Of Transparent Balls album, originally issued in 1993 on now defunct General Production Recordings.

This album was the follow up to the seminal Bytes. The album was famously re-released in 2002, together with Parallel, with very poor quality copy of the original artwork. For this new edition, Soma provide a completely new artwork. The album is out on 15 October.

Soma Records
Buy: CD

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ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Strawberry Jam
WIGCD199
Domino Recording Co. 2007
09 Tracks. 43mins31secs

Two years after the wonderful Feels, the quartet of Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deacon reconvene on Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective’s seventh album, their first for Domino, and it is very much business as usual. Except that Animal Collective don’t really ‘do’ usual. If they have undoubtedly developed a unique musical style, each one of their albums has seen them go in new directions, taking them from the molecular drones of Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished (2000) and the lo-fi of Campfire Songs (2003), to the luxuriance of Here Comes The Indian (2003), the psychedelic brushes of Sung Tongs (2004) and folk grain of Feels. Continue Reading »

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APPARAT
Walls
STRIKE84
Shitkatapult 2007
13 Tracks. 59mins54secs

As the press release for Walls is prompt to point out, Sascha Ring’s profile has risen rather exponentially in the past year. Most noticeably, there was his acclaimed collaboration with Ellen Allien, Orchestra of Bubbles, a best-of-both-worlds in which Apparat’s crunchy clicks and Allien’s metropolitan house fused to form a release that blurred the lines of pop, techno, house, and even psychedelic music. As Ring noted at the time, working with Allien inspired him to open up – to a more dance-based sound, and even providing his own vocals for the first time, on the exquisitely exhausted Leave Me Alone.

Fresh off letting down his confrontational guard, Apparat here returns with a smorgasbord of different styles – from isolated minimalism to warm techno bangers. Continue Reading »

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