James Dean Brown and Helena Hauff’s live project presents a recording from Les Siestes Électroniques.
The new split release on Return To Disorder spans “lo-fi hardcore rave” and “psychotic art punk electro”.
Tony Poland and James Manning touched down in Krakow to witness some of the surprises at this year’s edition of Unsound festival.
Ciara once sang: “when it comes to love I’m like a surgeon,” which seemed like a pretty bizarre statement on the surface. Surgeons may be bound by the directive to do no harm, but operating tables are not usually thought of as romantic places. However, something about that phrase sticks in my mind when listening to Discreet Desires from Helena Hauff, a surgeon in her own right. Spending time with the Hamburg based selector’s debut album gives one the feeling that you are being precisely manipulated throughout – your nerves tweaked, your serotonin levels flushed with a tactful incision to the gastrointestinal tract.
A raft of marquee albums from Helena Hauff, DJ Richard, and Kahn, Gantz, and Commodo was complemented by fine 12″ releases from Different Fountains, John Roberts, L.I.E.S. and more.
For his latest Separate Mind column, Richard Brophy profiles Bunker Records association Panzerkreuz, speaking with artists like Alessandro Cortini and Ekman along the way.
We speak to the Hamburg DJ and producer about her new label which will arrive next month with a debut release by Children Of Leir.
The Hamburg-based artist will release Discreet Desires in September through Werkdiscs / Ninja Tune.
After Actio Reactio announced her arrival in the recording world via Werkdiscs, Helena Hauff now finds herself in an interesting position creatively some two years later. The Hamburg resident is unquestionably part of the analogue revival, with a devoutly hardware live jam studio method that pushes up against the limitation of ubiquitous devices such as the 808 and the 303, and the instantly-recognisable character of such machines positively surged out of her early releases. Last year’s Return To Disorder release for Panzerkreuz still came from a long line of drum-focused hard-as-nails acid techno, but really the secret of Hauff’s success to date has been in her particular way of processing those sounds and layering them up with an industrial attitude that speaks more to the punk roots of the style rather than the icy mechanisms of sound design that abound in the work of other artists.
The Hamburg artist will release the five-track Lex Tertia EP next month.
The Hamburg artist will issue 60 minutes of original material as part of the Handmade Beats tape series from Handmade Birds next month.
As a natural cynic, this writer harbours an in-built suspicion of musical trends. As soon as a few similar releases appear or a bunch of labels start to put out records that inhabit the same artistic space, the alarm bells start ringing. Therefore, the whole reissue concept jars. Why are these labels all suddenly discovering obscure ’80s producers and why are they putting them out on cassette? Who even owns a cassette player any more? Sure, some labels do the past with style, recreating the original artwork with high-end finishes and re-mastering the music to give it added clarity. Others aren’t quite as diligent and there are represses knocking about that sounded like they were mastered in a crack den.
The Chemical Brothers, Autechre, Holly Herndon, Evian Christ, Helena Hauff and more are among those scheduled to appear at next year’s festival in Barcelona.
The Golden Pudel resident DJ returns to Darkroom for a second time this year and we have a double pass to the event and a test pressing of her new 12″ for Lux Rec to give away.
It’s easy to be cynical about Helena Hauff and her fast rise to prominence. She’s the resident at an in-vogue club, has released on many of the ‘right’ labels and is playing a fusion of sounds – acid, EBM and minimal wave – that are very much back in. Viewed this way, her ascension could even have the whiff of a premeditated campaign to it. However, such suspicions quickly dissipate with the release of Shatter Cone. It’s easily the German DJ’s best record so far, because it doesn’t play to stereotypes.
The Hamburg selector’s forthcoming debut for Lux Rec can be fully soaked up.