Octobird on Zanderhythm MIX Series

  • Beitrags-Kategorie:AllgemeinSets

What better month to choose than October for my contribution to the fantastic Zanderhythm MIX Series !

For this one I set my pretension for super fluent DJ transitions aside for a moment to focus on something different… a message. Simply a message of peace. Not even of protest or critic (which I absoloutly encourage you to present) but more of a state of inner peace which can strengthen us to get along and feel love for each other. This is something that music, and especially electronic instrumental music can transport very well.

Quite a few of these tracks are actually from Russian artists. I can only try to perceive how difficult it may be to raise your voice in Russian public in the current situation. But these tracks offer something different. An inviting hand.

Two of my favourite artists for this mix I found on a Russian based label/record store called DIG Records. Which I cannot recommend enough.

PEACE

TRACKLIST

Misha Sultan – A Light to Oneself
Koyil – Shustari – Healing Cycles
Paradise Cinema – Digital Palm
Don’t DJ – Disparata 69
Zatua – Silver Horizon
Golden Axe – Apane Koolhon KO Hilaen
Tornado Wallace – Falling Sun
Trans’4M – Amma
Jan Jelinek – Up To My Same Old Trick Again
Bitchin Bajas – Angels And Demons At Play
Leif – Rosa
Nikita Bugaev & Diana Romanova & Vlad Dobrovolski – pol
The Cinematic Orchestra – Everyday
Arooj Aftab – Saans Lo

Future Sounds of 1990’whatever | A retrofuturistic IDM.bient Playlist for the oldschool Dopeheads

  • Beitrags-Kategorie:Reviews

With a new vinyl edition of Autechre‘s “Amber” LP and B12‘s “Time Tourist“, Warp Records already revived two unforgettable milestones of an alternative future last year. Now Global Communication‘s “76:14” is moving up and Future Sound of London are providing an update from archived data sets with “Cascade 2020“. 

Time to take a look back for a glance at the future of the day before yesterday. Always with a couple of long papers in your luggage, of course!

As someone who, in the heyday of Berlin’s techno culture, mostly acknowledged electronic music with a critical sideways glance, pepped up by psychedelic rock and MPC hip-hop, my IDM entry-level drugs came more from the direction of Boards Of Canada and the typical Ninja Tune gimmicks. In order to expand my sonic emotional spectrum, it took less of a warm hug than an ice-cold lesson. And so I still remember pretty well how I nearly pissed my bell bottoms when I first listened to Autechre‘s “Tear Tear“. Just to understand that music can be much more than a mere confirmation of my emotional longings. That it could be a challenge, a profound process and … one hell of a trip.

Read on...

Buy Music Club #1 | All my Friends are on Acid

Regardless of whether you are fully immersed in global insanity or just chilling out with a tequilla on your hermetically sealed veranda. It’s good to be on acid!

I could expand this cliffhanger now. With pupils dilated in surprise, ponder where the omnipotent influence of psychedelic sound roots comes from. But the real reason for this list is that I generally have a hard time writing extensive reviews for people who are close to me personally. It is obvious! You’re just too scared of hurting your dear friends feelings.

So let’s keep it short and sweet! Shall we?!

My dearest musical colleague and friend Vodor L. Zeck gets busy! In addition to countless releases on his own Zanderhythm, he pours out some funky quirky acid stoners on Acid Waxa and Sitdownanddance!

My new favorite Argentinean trip sitters Franco ‘D and Cruz Coronado have a brand new label! The first long player on Infinit Records features wonderfully trippy downtempo acid jams. Stoned to infinity!

I only met Briain recently when he sold me his Elektron Octatrack on Ebay. Damn nice chap, part of the Berlin Skizze Crew, who (kinda like my good old Various Veterans) do their part to keep the Berlin club culture diverse. And a pretty talented Amen Breaker too!

My best pal Vertical67 has already made way too much acid. Now he lies horizontally and creates a nice ambient. I like it very much! I guess I’ll leave him there for a moment.

Gajek – a companion from the early days of our acid diaries. And someone who had obviously already way too many Kraut! I guess it helps him not to be so cerebral. But it’s the mixture of both that makes his music so great. Cerebral Kraut!

And me … Octobird. Oh, I’d rather not say anything. I am afraid to hurt my feelings!

Tentacle Loot #18 | The 36 Chambers of Danny Wolfers

Danny Wolfers, better known as Legowelt or Bontempi 666, Calimex Mental Implant Corp., Clendon Toblerone, Commanchee’s Revenge, Coverti World, Danny Blanco, Dickie Smabers & The Moerwijk Crew, Florenza Mavelli, Franz Falckenhaus, Gladio, House Of Jezebel, Jackmaster Corky, Klaus Weltman, Lords Of Midnite, Nacho Patrol, Nomad Ninja, Occult Orientated Crime, Phalangius, Polarius, R-Zone, Raheem Hershel, Ray Escortienda, Rising Sun Systems, Saab Knutson, Salamandos, Sammy Osmo, Satomi Taniyama, Seaside Houz Boyz, Smackos, Squadra Blanco, Star Shepherd, The Psychic Stewardess, Twilight Moose, Ufocus, Venom 18, Westside Box Savants is a man who needs no introduction, but a separate Wikipedia page.

 

Usually, if you are a musician with only half as many identities, you can be sure that you have lost any prospect of any kind of musical career. After all, the musical identity of one’s own alter ego is usually the creatorˋs greatest asset. And once a recipe has been found that will keep your place in the queue of abundance free, you have to stay tuned and repeat formula X-Y until you get bored and get back into freelance poverty.

So it seems that the only conceivable way to escape this creative one-way street is to have a musical output that a single imaginary identity simply cannot cope with on its own. Regardless of the question how a real person can handle this

… because Danny can.

Where (contrary to popular preferences) I enjoy to hear musicians like Kid606 or Mark Pritchard keep breaking their blueprints constantly and pushing me into completely new worlds of sound, the wondrous “Aha!” moment with Legowelt always arises when someone from my musical arena comes back to with something like: “Oh … yeah, that’s good shit, right ?! Thatˋs actually a Legowelt Track.”

All the more I blossomed through a random Bandcamp fanmail thing from Danny Wolfers, which (far too late) made me realize that another incredible treasure trove of musical parallel identities lives on his very personal Bandcamp site. And even more, mostly on a pay-as-you-please principle. While I recently bought one of the records listed there for a ridiculously low price on Discogs, I guess I will be busy looking at this level of musical effusion even approximately for quite a while now.

Overall, Danny Wolferˋs Legowelt Bandcamp site is a little bit of a personal cabinet of loving curiosities.

Among countless hand-painted, fluffy album covers that reflect a uniquely sympathetic, deliberately naive DIY ethos, circulating Tape Acid Jams and warm, analogue ambient treasures abound, which alternately plant stories of elephants in city parks, extraterrestrials in fast-food restaurants or retro-futuristic vampire societies in the listener’s imagination. And probably the greatest achievement of Danny Wolfers is that you can believe all of these stories. Because he believes in them himself. Because he chose to believe all of these stories. And so with each release you understand a little more that Danny is a great role model for the eternal child in us. Someone who takes well-groomed naivety and an exorbitant knowledge of kitschy micotrends of underground culture to create his dream worlds uninhibited. Someone who does not criticize or condemn exaggerated musical clichés like coolness, but simply soaks up everything and let his robots translate his own version of it.

Danny Wolfers, the man who makes music faster than others can hear it.

“Word.”

Octobird Salad #9 | Home is where your House is

Okay… easy, easy!

Let’s leave that headline in all its ambiguity regarding the state of the nation and devote ourselves to an extra large portion of escapism. It’s dream time, baby! Because dreaming is the only true alternative to Netflix these days. And Dream House was a genre long before Netflix was a clinically recognized addiction.

I’ve been a bit off lately from simmering velvety smooth track transitions. Instead, I was quite busy jacking up my own tracks to somehow work.

Without being among those who suddenly have a lot more time (but rather those who simply take their time) I was pretty intensely involved in expanding my own mixing and mastering skills. So why not just sprinkle one of my own compositions right at the beginning? Roughly mixed and not mastered at all, but laid back and totally unobtrusive.

With everything that follows, this seems to be more or less a Future Times Label Special. Which surprised me myself and was not on purpose at all. But I guess that’s exactly where the fine instinct of Future Times releases lies. A forward-looking sound aesthetic that uses sound colors that are already deeply rooted in our imagination. All covered with a fine digital pastel, to which we haven’t dedicated ourselves so meditatively to since New-Age Times. Rhythmically, on the other hand, these Tracks are always encouraged not to break the well-known patterns, but rather to prepare the listener patiently for some next-level experiences.

Our other companions also join this joy of playing. Among them Linkwood, who – in addition to his collaboration with Foat – recently rereleased his Disco-House masterpiece System. As well as His Master’s Voice, a fairly new pair of hands on the machines and, above all, someone who stands out in the continuing Electro trend with his excessive digressions. Not by reinventing the toolbox, but simply by completely doing his own thing. 1st class dreamer!

TRACKLIST

ARTIST
Neu Balance
Octobird
Garies
Outboxx
Linkwood & Foat
Dreems
Jeremy Hyman
Ov
His Master’s Voice
Diego
Bandhagens Musikförening

TRACK
Tread
Rubbing Fingers
Don Bongo
How You Know
Pressure
In The Jungle
Slide
Perc Song (Chords)
Taurus
Crack
Protokoll A

LABEL
1080p
unreleased
Future Times
Well Rounded Housing Project
Athens Of The North
Multi Culti
Future Times
Future Times
KCZMRK
Future Times
Northern Electronics

 

Octobird Salad #7 | Pacific Planets

I tend to go off topic. No 2020 dystopian megafuture, no winterly cold digital abysses. Instead: Which instrument would you bring on a desert island? … on a strange planet … to communicate with people there … or at least to just hang out and watch the two moons …

…fairly stoned.

In the variety of experimental house music, a handful of artists have emerged in recent years, who have given a very own coloring to the washed-out concept of world music. Far from squeezing cultural assets of non-Western cultures into banging club tracks, but also from subordinating themselfes musically to the researched cultural heritage in false humility by simply creating a prettied blueprint. Instead they trace back their own club culture as a contemporary kind of rite and ecstasy to the origins of this music, which functions far from egocentricity and self-expression. Be it as a musical concept or just as an ingredient in experimental club music.

Probably the most consistent in this ranks are Don’t DJ (which I unfortunately stupidly DJed twice in this set … sorry; /). With their percussive polyrhythms and impulsive monotonous structures, they build bridges between non-western tribal music and the raw idea of techno. The 12th Isle label preferably uses color palettes and publishes wonderfully quirky tracks, impregnated with pale pastel memories from a imaginary Caribbean vacation in 1974(ish). And then there are formations such as Groupshow (with Jan Jelinek), Tru West or even Transllusion that are deeply influenced solely by their clearly audible improvisational character.

TRACKLIST:

Dices, AEM Rhythm Cascade
L/F/D/M
RAMZi
Don’t DJ
Pavel Milyakov
Beta Librae
Kassem Mosse
Don’t DJ
Groupshow
Healing Force Project
Galaxian
Transllusion
Tru West

Pacific
Untitled (Blue)
Fly Timoun
Repercussion
Silent Elektro
Speedway
Chilazon 2
Syrian Rue
Pet Hair Magnet
Alternative Currents
Forget About It
Moment 4
Chasing The Loophole In A Relentless Spiral Of Self-indulgence

12th Isle
Clan Destine Records
12th Isle
Berceuse Heroique
ГОСТ ЗВУК
1080p
Honest Jon’s Records
Berceuse Heroique
Staubgold
On Board Music
Foul-Up
Clone Aqualung Series
Marmo Music

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 #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!

Tentacle Loot #6 | Brainwaltzera – Poly-Ana

When Brainwaltzera released Poly-Ana in 2017, coming out of nowhere, they were kinda hyped by the fact that they had no other than Aphex Twin as a true fan on their Soundcloud List. These Hypes can easily overshadow the true worth of an release or artist. But it must have worked and is granted to them.

Poly-Ana is kinda like a new Planet that all of a sudden appeared at your window and you start wondering if it always had been there. It combines the warm earthy sound structures of the ones like Four Tet with the wobbly Synth Melodies from Boards of Canada but always keeps to it’s very own emotional dimension. This helps the album to gradually break away from the mentioned comparisons in your consciousness and to develop a timeless value on its own.

Inhalts-Ende

That's the bottom of the sky.