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:

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

Tentacle Loot #13 | Neurolucifer – Keygen

Finnish producer Neurolucifer has been diligently spreading his driving Breaks and Braindancers over various net labels during the past year. For the various label cross-references alone it is worthwhile to travel with him from Cyberia via Sun Hole to the New World. With his latest release on Pr0gramma, he now has a sojourn at the label that has already given me shelter once or twice.

On Keygen he guides us through 4 tracks and 3 remixes of Braindance and Breakcore tracks with a classic Planet-µ coloring. Tense, nervous, but always optimistic enough to give the twitching brain little strikes across all emotion sectors.

And since labelhead Ismael Stein (as always) wrote a wonderfully rich accompanying note for the release, there’s not much more to do than pass on the computer keyboard in awe …

“Adopting a mythical namesake, Neurolucifer opens with some low-flying early harsh Aphex Twin-ambient/DnB fusions. These early hints of DnB and 90’s club are refined to a T with stuttering bit crushed breaks, resonating 303 lines, and space documentary friendly sound design. Heartblead and Chrysopoeia both balance this advanced-level puzzle like composition style arranging ethereal pads with fiercely chopped breaks and a squelching lower register. Three remixes round out the bottom end of the album with an initial well deserved chilled take on Heartbleed followed by two versions of Irtauduttuani – one more bass and break driven while the other floats around textures of echoing arpeggios and breaks.”

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 #5 | Beathaven – Electro Sonatas

The mighty Beathaven himself labels it Devonshire Electronic Music.

“Unknown to the masses, techno and electro was invented in the dangerous back streets of North Devon. This music is in our veins, brains and hearts.”

Like most of his releases he published Electro Sonatas on his very own playground Midievil Records. And it’s yet another excellent example of the healthy diversity of acid infected, machine loving, intelligent dance jamming scene you can find under the hood of Bandcamp, Soundcloud and on various smaller Vinyl Labels.

It’s stunning how Beathaven keeps his tunes from the straight Four-To-The-Floor recipe but still gives you no other choice than follow with your body like a wigglely worm. Add some detuned Synth Lines on top and you can imagine how life was back in Midievil times. Dark but adventurous, rough but also spontaneous. So hopefully Beathaven will keep on leading us the way trough Devonshire Forest.

Tentacle Loot #4 | Ghostband – Grime Synthesis

Got that little scamp! Ghostband is not a band! It’s a kid in a candy store smearing his tunes with glittering melodies and evil plans to put you on one leg. And before you know it you are in the middle of a breakcore massacre.

Ghostband is throwing out self released recordings since 2011 but came first into my consciousness with his Tape Release Acid Deco which got some promotion via the legendary Bleep Store (Which is an offshoot from Warp Records as far as I’m aware). It had “Acid” in it’s name, so what could you do wrong by grabbing it. But it sure wasn’t an Acid Album. It reminded me somehow of Venetian Snare’s early sample based Breakcore mayhems, that always contained this errant wicked humor. But it wasn’t a Breakcore Album by definition. Instead it took all these ingredients and tossed them around with a very playful attitude.

Grime Synthesis takes this musical diversity even further (let alone that it’s not a Grime Album). It feels like AFXs Donkey Rhubarb on heavy rotation. Rhythmically it feels like a bouncing ball that refuses to listen to the laws of gravitation and while the melodies always start kinda fluttering around friendly, you know that this ain’t gonna end in peace.

Tentacle Loot #2 | Tape Squize – XOOWO EP

It sounds like Tape Squize had to squeeze his 5 Braindancer Megahits on double tempo onto the Tape because he got a bit tight on Tape length. This guy from Portland, Oregon gets straight to the point. Highspeed Rephlex Drums, melting Acid Lines and washed out Melodies that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Love. If you are just tough enough to listen.

The YOOWO EP joins a full handful of releases from msh3005 Records. But this one is by far my favourite from what I’ve heard so far.

Collectors can get the EP in lovely old-fashioned formats. A tape version – which should be sold out by now. And also a CD version in an oldschool Floppy Disc Case.

“Handmade by the artist himself while he was struggling to find impossible (for him) inner peace and get proper amount of sleep.”

This explains a lot.

Tentacle Loot #1 | Batfinks – Mosaic

Earthy, tricky and yet impulsive. Batfinks release on Caoutchou Records is a sick mosaic of sound called Mosisac. So much grown potential which will sadly not be able to grow on, as he passed away last year.

His Mates from Caoutchou say:

Batfinks became part of the Caoutchou fam since he contributed the track ‘Shamalaalaa’ for the second Rubber Beats compilation back in ’09. 5 years later we released ‘Bibobleyboo’ on our label and early 2016 he sent us new material; an album named ‘Mosisac’. Later that year we heard the sad news that Ste had passed away.

Batfinks was a mysterious character on whom we never really got a hold. When we talked, our conversations ended up in neologistic gibberish and laughter which was simultaneously amazing and funny. When we asked about his background to compose a promo text for his album this is what he wrote to us:

“Learnt my first chords when I was 4 on a Casio MT-65 on the toilet which was very satisfying I must say. Learnt how to play 808 State and Sonz of Da Loop Era tunes when I was 7 with a mate of mine, Jim Noir. Spent a lot of time with my dad and brother going to bluegrass gigs and old folks homes. Influences were mainly old school rave music when I was younger but then got into Gong, The Orb, Orbital, Autechre and that. A lot of jazz and world music stuff which was through my brother and his mates.”

Mosisac shows us a side of Batfinks which we haven’t heard before. Instead of the usual Batfinksesque sound we are now introduced to a collection of grim and gloom-ridden tracks although his typical sound is still imminent. In his dad’s words: ‘The musical version of Hieronymus Bosch paintings… it’s a profound vision of someone on a path’

We love you, Batfinks. Forever in our hearts and ears.

Inhalts-Ende

That's the bottom of the sky.