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techno music

Kerridge * Fatal Light Attraction (2016)

It does not happen often that I run into a musical genre that is totally new to me, but that still proves to be highly interesting. A while ago I stumbled upon OAKE. When reviewing that latest EP I wondered from what type of scene they would come. Some fringe of industrial, some fringe of techno, experimental doom, or something wholly different?

Then I ran into Kerridge, the sublime “Fatal Light Attraction”. Kerridge’s music is very minimalistic techno, somewhat industrial in approach with pulsating rhythms and noises and (sometimes depending on what beat catches your attention mostly) a very slow pace.
So I have started doing some research. Kerridge has a few releases out. Under the monicker Samuel Kerridge there are some more and the man also has a label: Contort. There are projects like Kerridge and not just a few either it seems. Lakker, Talker, We Will Fail, Ketev, Positive Centre, Rrose, Shifted, Silent Servant, Shapednoise, SHXCXCHCXSH (who I already knew) and more. Sometimes the music is fairly typical “minimal techno” with a steady beat and ‘happy sounds’, but some of these projects make a nice piece of fairly slow and dark music (and some combine the darker tracks with more ‘easy listening’ ones. This starts to look like a scene to sift through to see what I like. So far the journey has been quite interesting!

Not all music is as good as that of OAKE or Kerridge, but I must say that from most of the music that I listened to, I like the larger part and that is something that rarely happens to me when I find a new genre. What is a bit odd though, is that there is enough of this music to ‘be a scene’, there are labels that release this sort of material and yet I have not found a ‘name’ (‘tag’, ‘cabin’) for it. “Industrial techno” is a description that I run into frequently, but this term is also used for harder types of techno ((post-)gabber). “Minimalistic techno” is also already ‘in use’. The beats are not always such that I could use the term “IDM” (Kerridge has very regular beats for example). I do not know. Yet, perhaps.

Links: Kerridge, Downwards

OAKE * Monad XXIV (ep 2016)

Discogs.comA while ago I heard a magnificent track that made me think a new Galakthorrö project was on its way. It was a track with the mysterious title “Sehtohree Diin Chromtas Vehns” and it proved to be of a project called OAKE. The track can be found on the 2013 EP “Vollstreckung”. OAKE appears to be a couple from Germany and they have quite a couple of releases available.

These releases are usually vinyl and released on labels that I do not know, Downwards, Resistance / Restraint, Noiztank, Stroboscopic Artefacts. Apparently nowhere near the industrial scene, I have not seen a place that sells their releases.

The music of OAKE and dark and mysterious. Weird dark ambient and rhythmical soundscapes that sometimes seem to lean towards IDM, while at other times there is a guitar drone that makes me wonder if this is a very experimental doom project. Like I said, in dark and rhythmical moments, OAKE could be on Galakthorrö. Especially their oldest material (2013/4) is some of the best new music I heard in a while.

“Monad XXIV”, the latest release, is again an EP. It takes about half an hour and has four tracks. “Monad” is a bit more typically rhythmical ambient, not unlike some material from a label such as L.O.K.I.-Found; sometimes a bit ‘tribal’, sometimes more IDM. The music is certainly interesting, but I like the earlier material even better.

A project to keep an eye on!

Links: OAKE, Stroboscopic Artifacts

Venetian Snares‎ * My Love Is A Bulldozer (cd 2014)

A new Venetian Snares? What would mr. Funk come up with this time? “My Love…” opens rather jazzy. Not is not completely new and I must say that I can have Funk’s jazz pretty well. Soon it becomes clear that Venetian Snares again tried to make a pompous album with classical music too, so here we have two styles combined. Then there is the (by now familiar) mix between classical and breakbeats. Sometimes the beats go out of control, sometimes the music is easier to listen to. What is more, I have not heard each and every Snares album, but I do not really remember hearing the man himself sing. He has quite a peculiar voice. He is not a very good singer, but it is not like the vocals are out of tone with the music.
There are a couple of very good tracks. Other tracks are just allright. Overall “My Love Is a Bulldozer” is a nice album.
Links: Venetian Snares, Planet Mu

v/a * Forms Of Hands 2014 (cd 2014)

Like every year Hands Productions organises their Forms Of Hands festival. Like many a year, I buy one of the 1000 copies of the festival compilation during the Wave Gotik Treffen. Like every year, the compilation contains the Hands-type of music: “rhythmic noise”. Well actually, much of the music is not that hard or noisy. Most of it, as usual, is good though. Hands seems to operate mostly on the harder side of IDM these days, but they do well. They find new and interesting projects and with a remaining high standard, buying a compilation like this is by far no leap in the dark. I said it before. The style of music is not one that I listen to very often, but every once in a while, so it is good that there is this ‘standard’ yearly buy at the Hands stand in the Agra hall in Leipzig during the Whitsun weekend!
Link: Hands Productions

Black Bug ‎* Reflecting The Light (cd 2012)

Not too recent, but I just discovered this and I want to bring this band to your attention. The energetic music of Black Bug goes from electropop to (electro)punk to digicore and then with (no)wave influences. Sometimes there are ‘wavey’ male vocals, sometimes distorted female vocals. The electronic music follows the vocals, sometimes wave, sometimes punk and this is also when the guitars get in. Yep, this is the good stuff!
Link: Black Bug

Sonic Area * Madness & Miracles (2013)

  • idm

By far the greatest show on last year’s (2013) Summer Darkness festival was Sonic Area. Musicwise somewhere between dubstep, witchhouse and IDM with a pompous sound. The album that was (mostly) performed was the magnificent “Music For Ghosts” (2012). Not all albums are as good as that cd, apparently Sonic Area is/was more of an IDM project.
Now Deezer recommended me a new release of this French project. Four wonderfull tracks which are perhaps not as gloomy as “Music For Ghosts”, but they do have the same weird approach. “Madness & Miracles” seems to be a download album only. Oh well!
Link: Sonic Area

[Haven] * Noir (cd 2013)

I mixed up [Haven} with Havan and expected dark ambient. I was not too happy to hear some soft techno with female vocals which is entirely not my taste. There are sparse darker parts which are more interesting, but I really dislike the overal sound of this album.
Perhaps the fact that this came out on Zoharum is in a way interesting. There have been releases on War Office Propanda / Rage In Eden in the past, so may I did know this project (and they sound different on this release), but you will have to like soft techno if you want to try this.
Link: [Haven], Zoharum

v/a * Forms Of Hands 13 (cd 2013)

Just like two years ago I got me a copy of the latest “Forms Of Hands” when in Leipzig. Hands appears to become more and more a label balancing between the good old “rhythmic noise” and techno music. Quite like Ant-Zen perhaps. “Forms Of Hands 13” is largely still what I can call “rhythmical industrial”, but much of this music has left the sharp edges and became somewhat technoish. Then again, the music is quite energetic like we are used to of this style and the variation between the more seriously loud tracks and the more IDM-type of tracks make the “Forms Of Hands” series a nice series.
Just like two years ago there are the relatively famous projects such as Winterkälte and Ah Cama-Sotz, allmost classic projects such as Orphx and Geistform and projects that are new to me such as Kaibun and Phasenmensch.
However I like the music live, I do not play it much at home, but these Hands compilations are a reason to buy something in the style.
Link: Hands Productions

Igorrr ‎* Hallelujah (cd 2012)

There are many breakcore artists who simply throw a whole lot of samples in the blender, put some extreme rhythms over this and thus create their albums. Initially the French project Igorrr seems to be one of those, but on closer listening, there is something in Igorrr that I miss in a lot of breakcore: dedication and detail. Try to imagine a combination between classical music (orchestral and opera), folk, breakcore, grindcore, jazz, heck, is there music that Igorrr does not use? There are flinches of Venetian Snares, not in the last place the brilliant “Rossz Csillag Alatt Született” album, but Igorrr goes way off into the extreme sound of breakcore, but at as many moments he also employs very moody orchestrations and creates the weird beats according the music. There are piano parts with accompanying beats at the speed of the piano, the same with Spanish guitar. The music goes from breakcore maddness right into some folksong and on to opera; oftentimes metal and allways with a breakcore basis. On this new album Igorrr also seems to sing himself more and his vocals are as varried as his music, from opera to screaming and death-grunts, sometimes in one track too. I am sure that this music is not for anyone. You have to be able to stand complete musical maddness and extremity, but when you can enjoy breakcore and not just the noisy side of it, you might want to check out Igorrr. In a way Igorrr falls something between Venetian Snares and Arcturus with its orchestral metal with varried vocals. Hard to describe, but if you like humour and extreme electronics… Sometimes brilliant, sometimes just good, but certainly something you have never heard.
Links: Igorrr, Ad Noiseam

Oyaarss ‎* Smaida Greizi Nākamība (cd 2012)

DiscogsGoogle translator says that the title is Latvian and means “Crooked Smile Futurity”. That sounds as weird as the original title! The music is not too common either. Oyaarss makes some kind of IDM (is that term still used today?) of the tranquil kind. So tranquil even that the music sometimes leans towards soundscapes or ambient. Here and there the sounds gets rougher and goes more into the direction of “rhtymic noise”, a sound that I somehow expect from the label Ad Noiseam. However the Last.fm info on the project speaks about “harsh and atmospheric sound, with heavy distorted beats” and even mentions the music styles industrial, post-metal, sludge and noise, this will make you overly expected about the intensity of the music. I can tell you, it is all fairly easy-listening. Not bad though, it is a nice IDM sound that serves well as background music.
Links: Oyaarss, Ad Noiseam