The ill-ec-tro-nic

OK, so the fact that we officially closed this blog in 2010 serves as some excuse for not dropping by here to give an update on things sooner but this post is a little overdue so as I'm here now, I'll cover off a couple of bits at once.

As mentioned previously, my main musical focus after quitting blogging was always intended to be making music of my own and last year finally saw the official release of some my music - hoorah! My debut EP, Beyond The Green Wall, came out as a digital release on Broken20 at the end of November and is available to buy via Boomkat and direct from the label. The EP contains two tracks from me plus two remixes from Broken20 label boss TVO and another from Spatial. It picked up nice reviews from Boomkat, who also put it on their 'recommendations list, and Bleep 43. Getting such nice comments from both of these camps made me really happy as I hold both organisations in high regard and have long used their views as a staring point for hunting out music to buy myself.

The EP proper also came with a great little bonus release; four additional remixes - one from me plus fellow Broken20 label mates Erstlaub, Production Unit and Kwaidan. The companion release is FREE and you can pick up a copy here.

So that's the main news from me on my Nanorhythm front - I started a new Nanorhythm blog over on wordpress so you can keep up with my production adventures there.

As it's the start of the year, I figured on also throwing my hat into the ring for a 'best of 2011' roundup. Characteristically, I'm somewhat late off the mark with this as people seem to be putting lists up earlier each year - some even starting as early as November which seems rather strange to me but there you have it.

For various reasons, I didn't really buy that many 12s last year but the pick of my rather limited crop was: a smattering of Sandwell District EPs, the awesome Black Dog 'Liber Chaos' remix package, the first part of the Drexciya reissues on clone, a couple of nice things Burial was involved with ('Street Halo' and the collaboration with Four Tet & Thom Yorke), Tropic of Cancer's 'The Sorrow of Two Blooms' plus a great Digital Mystikz remix of Lee Scratch Perry's 'Like The Way You Should'.

Album-wise my favourite was probably Zomby's 'Dedication' - it has loads of great moments that really do it for me although it's definitely something to be listened to in its original context as many of the tracks are ridiculously short and the album feels like a mix in parts with tracks effortlessly flowing between one another. On the dancefloor front, Byteone's 'Symeta', Omar S' 'It Can Be Done But Only I Can Do It' plus Sandwell District's 'Feed Forward' (which actually came out very late in 2010) were all brilliant. Lucy's Wordplay For Working Bees' has some great moments and save for the guitar intro (sorry boss) I really like TVO's 'Amid the Blaze of Noon'. Kangding Ray's 'OR' is a sonic delight and finally Tropic of Cancer's 'The End Of All Things' is also very enjoyable, albeit that it doesn't really have any particular standout moment for me, unlike the awesome 'A Colour' from their Blackest Ever Black single that I mentioned earlier.

Anyhow, that's my brief roundup - no links I'm afraid as getting bogged down with such tedious admin was one of the reasons why we got bored of this blog in the first place. If you're interested enough, a quick google will soon help you track the releases down.

Bye for now and I'll hopefully be back later in the year with some more Nanorhythm news. Until then you can always drop by Cafe1001 on the second Thursday of each month to catch Langer, myself and a bunch of our mates dropping some of our favourite tunes as per the flyer Langer posted up previously.

Labels: Broken20, Erstalub, Kwaidan, Langer, Nanorhythm, Production Unit, Spatial, TVO

Another installment in my irregular updates and it's good news on the Nanorhythm front again.
This time, my alter ego has taken to the decks and knocked out a mix / podcast for his new home, Broken20.

Clocking in at around 70 minutes, Bunker Funk dishes up a helping of stripped down warehouse-friendly techno, featuring cuts from some of my favourite dancefloor-focused producers and a cheeky little number, hot from my own basement studio.

Head on over to Broken 20 to check it out for yourself.

Tracklist:
1. Nanorhythm - Micron [unreleased]
2. Marco Fuerstenberg - BBT (edit) [a.r.t.less]
3. Unknown Artist - FB06 - B [frozen border]
4. EQD - EQD004 - A [equalized]
5. Kevin Gorman - Shakey Metallic Beats [mikrowave]
6. Pattern Repeat - Ofetriade (Ben Klock Remix) [echocord colour]
7. Martyn - Seventy Four (Redshape Remix) [3024]
8. Redshape - Blood Into Dust [styrax leaves]
9. Conforce - Stop Hold [meanwhile]
10. N/A - Variance (Function Edit) [sandwell district]
11. O/V/R - Interior [blueprint]
12. Robert Hood - Museum [m-plant]
13. James Ruskin - Graphic [ostgut ton]
14. Mark Broom & James Ruskin - Hostage [blueprint]
15. Silent Servant - Untitled (Regis Edit) [sandwell district]

Things are shaping up nicely on the release front too, with my debut EP, 'Beyond the Green Wall', scheduled to drop around June / July time, featuring two cuts of my own plus remixes from TVO and Spatial. You can check out Spatial's remix as the opener on his recent mix for Hyponik. Keep your eyes on the wider Broken20 schedule too as there's some killer releases on the way in the shape of superb dubby techno from Isodyne (Forward Strategy Group) and utterly immersive ambient drone from Erstlaub which is about to drop and available at a ludicrously cheap price from Boomkat.

Labels: Broken20, Erstalub, Forward Strategy Group, Hyponik, Isodyne, Nanorhythm, Spatial, Techno, TVO

Hello again!

OK, so three months on from our 'final' post, things have been going pretty much as planned on the musical front with me having actually finished some new tracks and got round to sending some demos out. The vinyl release that I'm hankering after still eludes me but my release debut is looking ever more likely on the Broken20 digital imprint I mentioned previously.

You'll have to wait a little while until you can spend your hard-earned on some Nanorhythm product (I'm currently pencilled in for Broken20 release #4) but today sees the the first release on Broken 20 hit the shops so I figured it was worth me dusting off my blogging hat for the occasion.

Release number one comes from label boss The Village Orchestra / TVO and despite the quality of the goods on offer, I'll avoid a lengthy dissection and upbeat appraisal of the content as it would be hard for me to write a fully balanced review when I clearly have a vested interest in the label doing well so I'll resort to my tried and trusted method of getting the message across by providing some sound files instead - check it out here.

The label pivots around a concept rather than a specific sound or genre with the focus being on music "concerned with decay, erosion, entropy, mistakes and errors, line noise and tape hiss, hum and buzz." The five tracks on offer for the inaugural release help to showcase the way in which the label's aesthetic manifests itself in its varying roster with the first track actually being an hour long recording of a live performance from earlier this year and is a meandering sonic experiment which slowly evolves through drone and ambient territory with the interspersion of spoken word, choral excerpts and all manner of distorted effects before introducing rhythmic elements towards the end of the arrangement. These rhythmic elements hints at what is to come with the four shorter tracks on offer here which themselves showcase the label's alter ego where the textures are woven around a more DJ oriented track structure.

The release is scheduled to come out on limited DVD-R later in the year where visuals from the live performance will also be included but for now you'll have to make do with the mp3s which can be purchased from digital stores such as Boomkat.

In addition to the 'paying' releases, Broken20 also has a Podcast series, now in it's it's sixth installment, as well as the free 'BrokenZero' series which re-releases selected cuts from the label artist's archives.

Labels: Broken20, The Village Orchestra, TVO

Since having heard Production Unit's 'It's Personal' on The Highpoint Lowlife 2010 Mixtape I've been waiting eagerly for it's release. It seems like an age has gone by since then but the Ghost Track EP on which it features is now available via the HPLL website and I think will be hitting the main digital retailers within the week. The track and in fact the whole EP itself is not something that's easily pigeonholed although both dubstep and techno influences can clearly be heard throughout. The net result on It's Personal and, to a lesser extent, Axel, sounds like some kind of futuristic spaghetti western soundtrack. The rest of the EP is similarly intriguing and melds together distorted vocals, rave stabs and a variety of other electronic trickery on top of common themes of throbbing bass and crisp percussion. My biggest gripe about the whole thing is that (I think) it's a digital only release as this would surely have been an addictive piece of black crack.

It's Personal can be downloaded via the link below and the full EP can be previewed via Production Unit's Soundcloud page although if you've got any sense, you'll just head on over to HPLL where for the paltry sum of £3 you can bag the full release for your takeaway pleasure.

To help promote the EP, Production Unit has also put together a mix for Clash magazine - I've not checked it out yet but the tracklist is pretty interesting so I'm looking forward to doing so.

Production Unit - "It's Personal" by highpoint lowlife

For those not aware, Production Unit was part of the now defunct Marcia Blaine School For Girls which takes me nicely onto this little video which involves the other two members - Bryan Kerr on visual duties and Ruaridh Law aka TVO on the sonics. As regular readers will know, TVO has featured several times on these pages previously and given his varied musical output, each new offering is both a treat and a surprise. This time, the music is abstract and experimental and one for headphone listening. Taken from the forthcoming album 'Amid The Blaze Of Noon', again out on HPLL but not until late summer. The album will be out on both CD and DVD and while I tend not to spend masses of time watching visuals in a home environment the A/V pairing on this particular project seem to complement each other perfectly.

Dalston. Ala from Bryan Kerr on Vimeo.

Labels: Highpoint Lowlife, Marcia Blaine School For Girls, Production Unit, TVO

For today's post, I'm going to try and dispense with some of the usual hyperbole in order to try and keep things trim and concise for you guys as well as to help minimise the time I spend staring at the screen trying to think of suitably expressive ways of describing what your own ears will tell you anyway. There's also no real theme or connection between the tracks featured other than the fact that they're taken from releases which have tickled my fancy in recent weeks.

Labels: David Squillace, Prins Thomas, Tudor Acid, TVO

As I mentioned shortly after it's release, LJ Kruzer's Manhood & Electronics is a truly delightful slice of ambient electronics perfectly suited to a spot of horizontal listening. However, as I'm sure you've gathered by now, I also have rather a penchant for doing the techno shuffle so was excited to learn that select cuts from the LP were being given the remix treatment with the express intention being to give them a little dancefloor oomph.

The Manhood & Electronics EP comprises two remixes each of both Poil and Tam with all of the tracks coming from different producers. TVO and Trademark tackle Tam and both versions follow a similar formula whereby the original ambient melodies form the backdrop of the revised track whilst kick drums plus additional percussive and synth elements have been added to provide the danceability (as you would expect!). I've not heard any of Trademark's work before so wasn't really sure what to expect but their version is a kind of laid back tech-house affair albeit with a bit of a disco vibe - pleasant enough but not really my thing. TVO's Dead Weight mix is much more up my street - truer to the electronica vibe of the source material and steeped in atmoshperics and tension. The kick doesn't drop until the 2 minute mark and then only stays for a while coming back in every now and again for a small flutter of activity to punctuate the dense orchestral tapestry TVO has a fondness for weaving.



The remixes of Poil are handled by Cyan341 and Ukkonen and again both bring something very different to the table. Cyan's341 mix is a heads down minimal workout with little resemblance to the original version although the fact that the album version provides some of the few percussive moments of the original LP it's probably fitting that such a beat-laden version features on the remix package. Ukkonen's version makes good use of Kruzer's fondness for pianos and is more in keeping with the overall feeling of the original source material even though things are glitched up a bit here. Ukkonen is another artist I've not come across before but apparently hails from Finland and has releases due out on both Uncharted Audio and Rednetic later this year. At a shade under three and half minutes, this initial glimpse into the working's of this producer left me very hungry to hear more so we were particularly delighted when Uncharted Audio offered us another of his tracks as a blog exclusive.

Ukkonen's Tam remix doesn't form part of the official remix package but is provided here for your listening pleasure. Similar in feel to his Poil remix but with a 4/4 structure this time, this mix provides another interesting take on the original and I can only assume it missed out on inclusion on the full release by a whisker. All in all then, this remix EP is a very worthy accompaniment to the original long player and provides enjoyable dancefloor moments whilst helping to expose LJ Kruzer's music to new audiences and new environments.

The digital version is available now and the limited vinyl edition was due out this week too but has been delayed. However, the nice folk at Uncharted Audio are doing a great deal whereby if you pre-order the vinyl direct from them now, they'll give you the digital release while you're waiting for the wax to arrive - can't say fairer than that!

LJ Kruzer - Tam (Ukkonen Remix) // Blog Exclusive

Labels: Cyan 341, LJ Kruzer, Trademark, TVO, Ukkonen, Uncharted Audio

Another slightly overdue post, this time featuring two heavyweight releases from the rather prolific TVO.

First up is his 'Rooks' 12" for Stuff, a two-tracker featuring a fresh mix of Afanc plus a new track Dots & Hashes. The original version of Afanc featured on the limited CDR given away with early copies of the Dark is Rising EP, although it's probably the 2562 remix on the aforementioned 12" that's the best known version to date. It's TVO on the remix duty this time round and he takes the track back to it's original techno structure but ups the pace a bit and delivers a constantly evolving version that sounds, in parts, not dissimilar to Aril Brikha's early works but finsihes in glitchy cinematic soundscape territory. Dots and Hashes is another constantly shifting affair but this time the haunting melodies and broken percussion kick off the proceedings before the track morphs into a full blown 4/4 workout around the halfway mark, throwing more ideas into a single track than the average minimalist manages in a whole EP and delivering a barrage of low-end party fun.

Copies of Rooks are still available here.

Moving onto 'The Starry Wisdom' on Highpoint Lowlife, opening track Akio Cut With Saffron carries on perfectly from where Dots & Hashes left off with another helping of old-school bass but this time underpinned by hypnotic percussion and a dark, Detroit-tinged undercurrent. Where Rooks had a broadly techno feel, Starry Wisdom leans more into electro and electronica territory although as ever with TVO's work he tends not to get stuck into any one particular camp for too long, so it's no surprise that so many influences are on display here. 'Akio' is probably my favourite track but the booty bass fun of Non-euclidian is also a particularly strong offering as is The king in Yellow. All in all, this is a very solid package and Highpoint's decision to put this out on vinyl after following a 'digital only' path for a while pays testament to the quality of the goods on offer here.

TVO - Non-euclidian // Highpoint Lowlife - buy vinyl or mp3

Before I go, one final thing to mention is TVO's recent mix for Fact magazine. Sure, I'm going to be a little enthusiastic about this one as it happens to feature one of my own productions, but putting that aside, this is a seriously killer mix, taking in all manner of electronic delights and exhibiting the vast influences and creativity that can be heard in Ruaridh's own work but also showing that he can cut it with the best of them behind the DJ booth too. Check it out here.

Labels: Highpoint Lowlife, Stuffrecords, TVO

As with most of my posts, this is somewhat overdue as it contains a recording taken from my debut live gig which was a good few weeks ago now.

As advertised on these pages at the time, Langer and I put on a party at London's Concrete and despite a few technical issues with the venue we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were happy with how the night went. TVO played a superb live set and then went on to DJ from his laptop back to back with Goodhand when we discovered one of the decks was broken - in hindsight the broken kit was a blessing as the pair rocked it good style between them.

I also got to burst my live set cherry and again depite a few minor glitches (of my own making) I was pretty happy with how it went. I've just put the set up on my website (you can get the track listing there too if you're interested) but figured I'd put it up here as well. All tracks are unreleased and pre-demo. Hope you enjoy.

Nanorhythm - Live at Concrete (July 2009)

Labels: Goodhand, Langer, Nanorhythm, TVO