Adam ‘X’ Mitchell revives his Traversable Wormhole project after a four-year hiatus. Since the last instalment, the US producer has focused his energy on the rough and raw ebm/industrial ADMX-71 project for L.I.E.S and his own Sonic Groove. In the wider world, there has also been much change; techno has sped up and toughened up, with some artists veering towards the 140bpm end of kick drum distortion. At the other end, some have collapsed in on themselves in acts of abstract navel gazing. None of this seems to bother or interest Mitchell who has taken inspiration from his own catalogue to deliver this record.
Dominick Fernow’s label will release Shifted’s third solo LP.
A Gathering Together will arrive on Dominick Fernow’s label in September.
The Italian artist will release another album on Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions label next month.
For two artists whose records are characterised by dramatic flourishes, iconoclastic imagery and distinctive sound palettes, the Games Have Rules collaboration is a decidedly understated affair. While it focuses on a largely ambient approach, the album was conceived in and inspired by New York and is fuelled by a sense of quiet determination and undulating vitality that defines that city. If there are prior reference points in either producer’s back catalogue, they are traceable back to Dave Sumner’s releases. The former Sandwell District member has recently been engaged in a series of projects that brought him back to his roots since the techno collective closed its doors. First, there was his debut solo album, Incubation, which contained influences from the 90s output of Speedy J and Plastikman in its sleek rhythms and teemed with acid ticks and trancey synth bursts.
After five days at Berlin’s Atonal festival I arrived back in London with a refreshing palate of sound buzzing through my head. If you remove the old school Berlin factor of Monoton and TV Victor from this year’s edition, and the marquee bookings of Abdullah Rashim, Richard H. Kirk and Sendai, left over is a niche clutch of artists like Fis, DSCRD and Neel, to Raster-Noton’s Senking and Danish artist SØS Gunver Ryberg. And with Vatican Shadow a participant of the event last year, there’s no seeing why an established artist as obscurely underground as Lussuria couldn’t be shortlisted for such an opened-minded event in the future.
In the early days of digital downloading, some net labels used to release vinyl versions of tracks that were popular online. While the same approach does not apply to Avian’s re-release of Auto Body – originally available as a limited cassette edition of 42 copies on Hospital Productions – it does nonetheless raise the question about whether increasing numbers of cassette-based releases will eventually make it onto wax.
The Games Have Rules LP will arrive via Hospital Productions next month.
It’s extremely difficult to articulate exactly what it is about the music that resonates with a listener at the deepest level. This is why providing a review of Sonno proved to be such a challenge for this writer. Before moving onto that task, a brief background about the album. It’s the work of Alessandro Cortini, one of the key members of Nine Inch Nails, and was recorded on a Roland MC 202 in hotel rooms, presumably when he was touring. According to the label, Cortini experimented with the sound of everyday items like taps, windows and doors, as part of the process. This was Cortini claims, a “very relaxing” way to make music.
The Nine Inch Nails band member will release Sonno on Dominick Fernow’s label later this month.
There is every chance you may not have heard of Italian duo Ninos du Brasil. If so, you’re not alone. Very few picked up on Nicolo Fortuni and Nico Vasculeri’s 2012 debut album for Tannen Records, Muito N.D.B, and their 12” releases have been minimal, to say the least. Thankfully, Hospital Productions have been paying attention, and here present the duo’s follow-up. The duo’s relative obscurity belies not only the quality of their productions, but the exciting nature of their trademark sound. Fortuni and Vasculeri are obsessed with the twin attractions of Brazilian drums – more specifically heavy Batucada rhythms – and experimental electronics. As a result, their tracks veer between ritualistic intensity and clandestine spookiness, in turns promoting woozy, melancholic moods and intense, in-your-face rhythms.
Records from Recollection GRM, Dark Entries, Into The Light and Hospital Productions are among March’s selection of the best reissues and archival releases.
Ron Morelli is known as the driving force behind the ultra-prolific but always engaging L.I.E.S label. The challenge now facing the straight talking DJ and occasional producer is to step from behind the shadows of the behemoth he has created and to carve out his own identity. Surfacing on Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions label, Spit is Morelli’s own statement, but it is one that remains inextricably linked to the aesthetic that underpins L.I.E.S.
Full details emerge on the L.I.E.S. head’s debut album on Hospital Productions.
To say the Juno Plus editorial team is excited by the imminent release of Silent Servant’s debut album is to dabble in the realm of gross understatement. And with the erstwhile Sandwell District member’s Negative Fascination arriving this week, a video for album track “A Path Eternal” has emerged.