07 May 2014 — Kelsie Brown
Our friends over at Ceremony know of our undying love affair of ambient techno producer Albert Swarm and invited us to share with you the debut video from his latest release, The Cage EP. According to the producer, the video for the EP's title track is "pretty much the first video (he) made from start to finish". The video follows the hazy landscape set in place by the track, with (ambient) imagery of skulls and ghostly faces underneath an eerie purple glow.
The Cage EP is available now through Ceremony Recordings. Check out the video for "The Cage" below:
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05 May 2014 — Evelyn Malinowski
Newcomer to the Valcrond Video realm Ari Russo has excellently accented the driven, inquisitive mood of his track "Purple Earth" with Valcrond-appropriate imagery. Drawing stylistically from the material aesthetic of black plastic juxtaposed against green, boreal settings, an artist-specific approach awesomely called "OfficeFern," Russo's music reflects the texture and ether of such a juxtaposition. With "Purple Earth," the beat drags simiarly to the way a lot of Torn Hawk's work staggers and laments the end of the age of discovery (the 1980s); but, if hearing Russo's work by itself, without knowing that it is a Valcrond release, I wouldn't necessarily think it sounds like Torn Hawk, that is, they're similar but not alike. There's an essential difference in Russo's sound, perhaps it is the clarity and looping in tighter rhythms. Torn Hawk's loops are wider, and more protracted. I would, however, if hearing the music for the first time under impressionable circumstances, jump up to see who the artist was because the synth's pulsating repetition is just right. Then I'd get pulled into a happy daze of romantic feelings about the array of 80s throwback footage and the pace at which they fly around. You might get pulled into the same daze.
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30 Apr 2014 — Henning Lahmann
Dublin-based men's clothes shop/arts website This Greedy Pig met up with recent Stratosfear alumni Ships aka Dublin duo Simon Cullen and Sorca McGrath to film a beautiful live rendition of their superb track "None Of It Real", the b-side of their 7" on our precious little label. Apart from performing, the two also talked briefly about having to leave their beloved home, where the duo's musical identity was formed over the past year, and where fittingly and wistfully the video was shot as well. Considering the circumstances, it's hardly surprising that the shot live version is more distant and sad than the interpretation found on the record, as observed by Cullen. It's mysterious and pretty, so go and watch it below.
The 7" is both physically and digitally available over here.
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25 Apr 2014 — Henning Lahmann
"Consider it very rare if you happen to have an actual copy of the GUNKTV Volume 1 VHS tape at all. Consider it very rare if you happen to have an actual copy of the GUNKTV Volume 1 VHS tape at all. Hold onto it, as its a very valuable artifact documenting a very specific scene and time period (2010 GUNKTVRECORDS scene in Bushwick)."
Yes, good times back in 2010, when the world still had a blog scene that mattered, and...sigh. Anyway, as you'll certainly remember, Zak Mering/Greatest Hits/The Sweethearts etc. was a big part of that whole glory, so it's been more than delightful to learn that Zak has made the effort or transferring a classic, insanely limited VHS of superb material into the digital realm, available for streaming till eternity. Enjoy your throwback below and check out the complete tracklist over here.
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25 Apr 2014 — Henning Lahmann
Admired London label Astro:Dynamics has announced the release of its next cassette, a half-hour effort by producer Simon Lord, otherwise known as making music as Arclight together with Lukid, under his Lord Skywave moniker. As far as content-form relationships go, Cardamon Copy was clearly meant to be released on magnetic tape: The music's warm and hazy four-track manipulations are calm and contemplative, making effective use of the format's inherent sonic qualities, without ever getting lost completely in meditation for the pure sake of zoning out, instead focusing on subtle shifts and compositional alterations. Check out the video for "Lab Mouse Maze" below.
Cardamon Copy is out May 12.
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23 Apr 2014 — Trey Reis
Doing these write-ups can be so interesting. Sometimes, I receive an email about something new coming out and I’ll recognize a band name, microgenre tag, or just a label and decide to check it out. Sometimes, I’m thinking, “Hey, I wonder what [band] has been up to recently,” so I check their Bandcamp releases, Soundcloud posts, etc. And sometimes you kind of fall into something through a complex series of links and wonder, which, without the forward and backward buttons, would be entirely impossible to recreate. To me, this is the only way to actually get lost on the Internet. Obscured at the destination. Caught between the possibilities of search engines. And your trail of bread crumbs disappeared into the gamma glow of the computer screen.
Staring at the juxtaposed images of this video for a track entitled “Den Nya Kusten” by a band called Skeppet, I felt that haziness of being lost where I was. This wasn’t one to save for later. Who knows what distractions the Home button would hold. This write-up had to be done now before the filters and information of the Internet obscured the state of wonder its finding and 8-minutes of synth textures left me in. And the only information I have for you is that it’s an excerpt from a forthcoming LP on Not Not Fun entitled Phase 3. No date besides “2014”. It kind of reminds me a bit of that Branches tape from a couple of years ago. The one that came out on Solid Melts. Check it out. Get lost, find something, and keep an ear open for the whole thing sometime later this year as NNF282.
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22 Apr 2014 — Evelyn Malinowski
Blondes are heroic. While this attribute sets them up to almost parallel the lovely likes of Teengirl Fantasy, who are also a dynamic duo, Blondes are in no way stylistically, conceptually, or viscerally duplicable.
Almost a year after the release of Swisher (a masterpiece, in my opinion), RVNG Intl. has gifted us with a succint remix EP with submissions from Huerco S., Claro Intelecto, Simian Mobile Disco, and Function. Rewire is true to the original, moody "Wire:" each remix preserves the pitter-pattering acid drums and the grumpy, uncertain synth. Manchester's Claro Intelecto gives us a revision that contains a big and round character; conservatively melodic Function delivers a trancey-er, breathy, and masterfully constructed edit. Huerco S., in applying his distinctive style, gives us a repetitive, buzzing version. The remix is straight up techno but hard-to-chew and sort of holographic, complete with distortion and phasing. The "visual single" accompanying Huerco's remix is a fitting counterpart, and simultaneously explains the entire biological profile of Earth but through some weird 3D-glasses that make everything Google-pixelated, black and white, and gendered. The two giant sex symbols, which leak black fluid into each other, could perhaps be representative of the human population while the rest of the screen, fixed while the sex symbols dance around, is the rest of life on the planet that has to deal with our meandering. In the middle of the video, we seem to get a glimpse of their or a psychedelic genetic code being erased before the male and female symbols boisterously return. Check it out below.
Simian Mobile Disco's remix of "Swisher" transforms the feisty original it into a clean, progressive, and slightly chipper track. It serves not only as an excellent opening track, but also as an impressive black sheep among other fantastic remixes of a different song. That said, if you are unfamiliar with any or all of these artists, "Rewire" is an appreciated omnibus for exploring tropes and styles of either upcoming or already reverenced techno producers.
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22 Apr 2014 — Trey Reis
Chalk this one up as one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Here’s the lowdown: Crystal Dorval, who is known for her hazy, minimal White Poppy project, and Beau Devereaux of Samantha Glass renown have teamed up for a collaborative effort, aptly named Dorval & Devereaux, for a late April 2014 cassette release from Moon Glyph. And this video for “Heavy Hands” from the forthcoming release is as hazy and gloomy as signifiers surrounding the release would suggest, its images darkening enough of the otherwise familiar images to leave them new, but recognizable. Each thump of the drum pattern calling to mind aspects of Devereaux’s catalogue, while still trudging forward into the foggy but native call of the White Poppy. And on top of all of that, the video is directed by Mr. Francesco De Gallo who runs Hobo Cult Records. If hashtags were an NFOP thing, this post would be #’ed out.
Check out the video for “Heavy Hands” below. Then, head over to the Moon Glyph Soundcloud page for a stream of two of the other songs from the album. Lastly, buy this beautiful (physically, artistically, aesthetically, aurally) tape before all 150 of them are gone!
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