Octobird Salad #5 | Mind-bending Monotony

Oh my dear Analord! I just realise that it’s been quite a while since my last recorded confession. So forgive me as I have been hiding in dark places jamming out tunes. What actually brought me back into recording another episode of Octobird Salad was a quite significant update in my gear arsenal. I just recently got myself a pretty good deal on an Allen&Heath Xone:DB4 mixer. And as most A&H DJ-Mixer this one is in particular great for straight on Techno music, advancing the gracile art & craft of carving out elements and layer them over a workspace of four decks.

Preeminently I went for a certain style of Techno I think I first encountered through the one and only Developer. A hypnotic and driven sort of music, embedded in evolving textures and floating hi-hats, worn by a straight four to the floor kick drum. It vehemently refuses catchy hooklines and replaces it with repetitive textures and sequences to drill itself a path into ones subconscious.

Another representative of this guild is probably Luke Slater under his alias Planetary Assault Systems. Unbelievable he only managed to get on my radar two or three years ago. Especially on his recent releases on A-tone Records (a very courageous, offbeat offshoot of the Berghain label Ostgut-Ton) he indulges these style elements with immense sensitivity. His current release Plantae is no exception from this development.

And just before it might get a bit too repetitive, we take the branch into the relatively sluggish rhythms of electro. Not only to carry the current release of my trusty companion Vortex Traks into the world. With Kafkactrl’s “Entropy Model” they travelled again into harsher areas, which are personally always my favourite.

Last but not least, Animistic Beliefs deserve a mention. While the finally played track still makes use of the usual tools of electro, particularly on their current release Mindset: Reset they managed to give the genre a very personal touch. Perfectionist, smooth and yet playful enough to let both sides of your brain play table tennis together.

TRACKLIST:

1 Etienne Jaumet: For Falling Asleep (Christian Vance Slow Burning Saxless Remix) [Versatile Records]
2 NHK yx Koyxen: Parallel Displacement [-ous]
3 S Olbricht: T
4 Donato Dozzy: Back [Tresor]
5 Staffan Linzatti: Dizziness [Balans Records]
6 Planetary Assault Systems: Give It Up [Mote-Evolver]
7 Developer: Over the Eurphrates [Coincidence Records]
8 Simon Haydo: Contortions [MindTrip Music]
9 Israel Vines: Afterever [Interdimensional Transmissions]
10 DJ Spider & Franklin De Costa: F Planet [Berceuse Heroique]
11 Ekman: Doomsday Argument [Crème Organization]
12 Kafkactrl: Occam’s Razor [Vortex Traks]
13 Animistic Beliefs: Digitone X005 [Solar One Music]

“Tram Komputer” out on Zanderhythm

Tram Komputer is the first compilation put together from a vast number of eight-track-sessions recorded at Vodor L. Zeck‘s Studio over the last five years. On a regulary basis Vodor L. Zeck, DBH and Octobird (and who ever else wanted to join in) came together, simply to create portions of energy made with electronic machines, press record and catch some magic.

The tracks captured on this tape were cut and edited as less as possible and then mastered by Octobird. While all these sessions over the years spit out a vast variety of sounds and styles ranging from Hi-Speed Acid to Trippy Downbeats to Speed-Ambient, this first release represents the more melodic Brain Raves.

A special note of thanks also goes out to Vertical67 for the Tape Cover Design visualizing the different Tram stations it took to get to the Zanderythm studio in Berlin Marzahn.

Octobird Salad #4 | Unrestrained Sphere Diving

Warp Records just rereleased B12’s Time Tourist Masterpiece. A-Ton Records keeps going on to release the Chronicles of The 7th Plain. Who is nobody else than Luke Slater, rather known for driven Techno Bangers.
But these classics are a dreamy proof of how much warmth can be wiped out of a digital DX7 Synthesizer from the early 80s. And this heritage miraculously continues into present days with artists such as Reedale Rise, Stereociti or Charlton.

Always nice and deep, but not a bit pretentious!

Baikonur EP | out on Pr0gramma Records

  • Beitrags-Kategorie:HouseReleases

Octobird’s latest EP just got released on Pr0gramma Records.

“With a progressive blend of uncanny melodies and warping harmonics, the Baikonur EP feels almost like a computer data process that somehow got itself locked into techno rhythms. The organic timbre even lies oddly between raw synthesis and heavily processed acoustics. These binaries ultimately balance but provide a mysticism that uniquely destabilizes the listen. Particularly Baikonur and The Gate exemplify this eccentric mix of evolving musicality and an odd sense that it’s all just data being filtered through melodious substructures.”

This is Octobird’s second EP release after last year’s 1st of Octobird.

Tentacle Loot #10 | Tihomir Zdjelarević – Mikrowelt

“Tihomir Zdjelarević is a Berlin based musician. He works with modular synthesizer, string synthesizer, guitar, Four track and hardware effects to create a large soundscape with a kosmic vibe”

Tihomir pretty obviously follows the paths of classic ambient music from the golden age of the analogue synthesizer. But he does so with a lot of passion and sensitivity. He put’s the Warp Speed Engine straight on 1 Lightmeter per hour and follows the routes of Cosmic Music, Krautrock and Psychedelia slowly and carefully. Therefore this music is by all means meditative, as it takes you to a place you’ve already been before – somewhere save – and lets your mind wander and expand.

So we highly recommend to just take these 40 Minutes off. Put away your smartphones turn off your computer, shield yourself from the surrounding Wifi and find a way to listen to MP3s in this rather uncommon setup.

Damn, what a stressful world.

Tentacle Loot #9 | Mindcolormusic aux4410

Mindcolormusic’s one man label mastermind DJ mnvr has been pretty busy releasing wonderful little mindbending braindance gems since last year. Sympathetically he skips back and forth between Compilations, EPs and Split-Eps on which he relies less on proven formats than on his sense of coherent track compilations. And so – behind the superstructure of Braindance, Acid and IDM – his publications  always tell a flush story beyond genre boundaries.

The fact that we are choosing the aux4410 from these short stories is, of course, due to the fact that Veglord Vodor L Zeck contributes his part on the knobs here. But together with Quadratschulz, Bromic, Sonornote, Bovaflux and a few others, it creates a wonderful something of nervous drum shuffle, sprinting acid lines and hovering disharmonic megarave emotions.

May the end of this story remain open for a long, long time!

Tentacle Loot #8 | Oxvac – Partials

As part of the American electronic music collective Pr0gramma Oxvac has been releasing his music since about 2015.

On his latest release “Partials” he clearly demonstrates references to abstract rhythm constructs as they were cited by greats like Autechre in the Warp era . However, he neither tries to make himself comfortable in homage nor in practising some kind of beatmashing-competition but adds a very personal coloring. Which, in its warmth, happily stands out from the cold, mathematical IDM sound. The warm analog origin of the modular system responsible for most of the synth sequences is clearly audible and the background noise that accompanies us throughout the whole album sets itself like a little piece of meadow under the tracks so that the organic melodies may writhe on it. The beat structures also seem to hover between complex patterns and a wide-breathing 4/4 bass drum.

So yet again another happy accident to find such beautiful electronic music from the U.S. of A. From this side of the Atlantic’s perspective I can  just say it’s nice that you’re no longer necessarily get overpowered by EDM-Metal-Dubstep, but can also lift the actual treasures (which have always been there!). At least on platforms like Bandcamp and Co.

Tentacle Loot #7 | Musik der Sterne Vol 1

“We are part of the universe and music is the code…“

This quote from Vangelis adorns the inlay of the tape compilation from Berlin-based tape label Per Musica Ad Astra. After a couple of vinyl releases and regular broadcasts on Intergalactic.FM they took the opportunity on their first compilation to run free on their obvious fondness for so-called Kosmische Musik . Restrained driving beats nestle in soaring pad sounds on their journey trough space to maintain a very homogeneous travel speed over the course to all eight representative planets (or artists as some may say). 

Well done Captain!

Inhalts-Ende

That's the bottom of the sky.

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