A varied cast including L-Vis 1990, Fennesz, and The Fall feature on the latest volume of the compilation series due for release in June on Monkeytown Records.
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Modeselektor’s Monkeytown Records will release a second album from Siriusmo called Enthusiast.
In the last three years, Cosmin TRG has shaken off his dubstep roots to craft some of the most innovative techno in a scene awash with staid facsimiles. On the eve of his second album release, he talks to Tom Banham about Dadaism, ancient myths and real ale.
Prolific German duo Modeselektor will soon by the subject of a new documentary film, which has been revealed in the form of a 2-minute trailer.
Modeselektor have announced first details of the second volume in their Modeselektion compilation series, featuring contributions from Egyptrixx, Dark Sky and Martyn among others.
Regarded at Juno Plus HQ to be the hardest working German duo in electronic music, Modeselektor take a brief refrain from label boss duties – aka signing up the best of their contemporaries for albums – to revisit one of the finer tracks from last year’s Monkeytown album with the above video.
50 Weapons keep rolling out the big news – the latest being a forthcoming album from Benjamin Damage and Doc Daneeka, entitled They! Live and slated for a release early next year.
Fresh from a storming set at last weekend’s Amsterdam Dance Event, it has today been revealed that Berlin techno deity Marcel Dettmann will release an EP on Modeselektor’s 50 Weapons imprint.
Being the sizable movers and shakers they are in the modern electronic music firmament, a new Modeselektor album was always going to arrive on a wave of heavy expectation. With their extensive curatorship of quality bass music and techno, not to mention their world-beating Moderat project with Apparat, since the last long player Happy Birthday dropped the Germanic duo have hardly been resting on their laurels.
What’s most pleasing as Monkeytown roars to life is that the sound they forged their name on is still intact. The album is as full-fat as you could hope, from the grinding bass to the granite beats, while the nifty edits and rave hysteria keep the tracks rolling in a thoroughly dynamic way.
As with their other albums, they’ve drafted in guest appearances, returning once again to old buddies Thom Yorke and Otto Von Schirach, as well as enlisting the leftfield hip-hop styles of Busdriver and Anti Pop Consortium. Really though, the show is all theirs. Influence from the musical circles they’ve moved in recently do make an appearance, such as on the UK Funky style beats that propel “German Clap”, but the sound is still inimitably theirs.
There’s also a healthy amount of diversity on the album, where you can leave dark mechanical warehouse fodder only to wind up at sunkissed hip-hop swagger on the excellent “Berlin”. There are moments of a more downbeat nature too, and a large amount of the success of the album can be measured by these diversions.
Where on their previous albums Modeselektor often struggled when they strayed too far from the path, the quality never dips across the whole of Monkeytown. A sign of maturity? Perhaps, but first and foremost Modeselektor have always been about making leftfield music fun and direct. Consider this album a triumph in crossing that tricky gap between originality and accessibility, while in the process marking the most accomplished album the pair have crafted to date.
Oli Warwick
Further to the news that a stellar cast will appear on Monkeytown, the eagerly awaited third album from Berlin bass bin botherers Modeselektor, the duo have ramped up the pre-release teasing with the chance to sample all eleven tracks held within.
The MUTEK festival is a finely tuned, absorbing experience that the initiated wait for all year long. One just doesn’t simply ‘attend’ MUTEK, one becomes MUTEK. The communal vibe and carefully curated showcase were on display again this year as 95 per cent of the acts played live. The North American premiere of Amon Tobin’s larger than life ISAM project, Plastikman’s astounding live show and Elektro Guzzi’s bass/drums/guitar brand of techno were just some of the many highlights experienced during MUTEK’s crazed 12th edition. We sent Juno Plus contributors Steve Phillips and Helen Luu along to witness the action. Read more
More good news for Siriusmo fans, with Monkeytown Records revealing they are on the cusp of releasing Pearls & Embarrassments, a hefty double CD retrospective spanning the Berlin producer’s prodigious output over the past decade.
Despite its many charms, Minehead’s Butlins resort in mid March is patently not Barcelona. Yet it’s here, out of season by the Bristol channel, that a musical movement is brewing to rival that of Sónar as one of the world’s premiere events catering for discerning electronic music.
Modeselektor have released a video to promote their upcoming Modeselektions compilation, in which Gernot (one half of the duo) finds himself on a mission to secure some exotic game meat from Berlin Zoo.
In case you haven’t heard, Berlin based duo Modeselektor, otherwise known as Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, recently announced the inception of a new compilation series entitled Modeselektions, compromising of an 18-track compilation plus 12” releases and a limited edition eight track LP which is due to drop in November. Well, here’s a taster of what is to come, as the pair bring us the first instalment of the series on their own Monkeytown imprint. Featuring the selectors themselves on the first track from the EP ‘VW Jetta’, a purposeful, bouncing, dancefloor-driven beat and glitched out rhythms mark a firm statement of intent right from the off. Refreshing and rebounding with life, the warm, warped sounds are coupled with hissing maraca-like effects and rich, lustrous textures which become more prominent as the tune develops into its energetic and enticing maturity.
Moving swiftly on into the next phase, Hessle Audio co-founder and man of the moment, Ramadanman follows up with the ‘Pitter’. A glorious exploration, which combines some high-pitched squeals with stretched out synthetic manipulations and rousing strings, plus copious dollops of murmuring bass. All the while the onomatopoeic pitter-patter beats build up and break down in a beautiful crescendoing wave of sound. Coming back into focus with more of a driving rhythmic pattern as we enter the final portion of the track, hissing percussion and soaring atmospherics come together to form a cohesive unit. Bringing part one of the EP to a climactic close, Bok Bok draws out a delectable finale. Breathy vocals rattle against cheeky, crackled sampled words in ‘Say Stupid Things’; a shimmering flurry of beats and gently rounded, jingling SFX rumble away with the distorted vocals injecting a short, sharp dose of humour. Sounds rebound off one another in a beautiful musical dialogue here and create an increasing sense of intrigue.
Belinda Rowse
The fifth release from Modeselektor’s flourishing 50 Weapons label-project is something rather special indeed. They’ve recruited Bordeaux bass-hound Humanleft and former Venom and Damage producer Benjamin Damage to drop these two exclusive tunes, and they’re both well worth getting excited about.
Offering a European perspective on crunky beats mixed with kaleidoscopic synth work has become Humanleft’s (aka Remy Teruel) strong suit, with some excellent releases on Tigerbeat6 already under his belt. On “Arnaud and Bernard” however, the influence of Modeselektor really shines through with some incredible bubble ‘n’ gurgle synthwork plastered throughout the track. Riding a beat that’s both crunky and UK funky, the tropical-step drums are balanced thrillingly by the pace of the arpeggio synths, which rise in octaves until a beautifully arranged breakdown. It’s a truly warm and well-constructed slab of techy-funk goodness will prove a devastating battle weapon for DJs.
Previously of Venom and Damage, who’ve rocked London’s booty bass scene for all it’s worth and dropped gems on Doc Daneeka’s Ten Thousand Yen label (anyone who heard Mdslktr-favourite”Deeper” from this year will know what’s up), Benjamin Damage goes on a solo excursion with the epic “Zeppelin”. Going heavier on a funky tip, snares and rounded sub kicks dominate giving it that real kwaito skank. A softly-building set of distressed chords are smothered over the top and filtered subtly up and down to keep you hooked for the entirety. The breakdowns reveal just how pitch-perfect those drums are, while the bass is given plenty of room to keep your ass shaking. It’s yet another marvel, and like “Arnaud & Bernard”, an instrumental that’s sure to make its way into a variety of DJ sets very quickly. So far, 50 Weapons hasn’t failed to release anything other than sheer gold – this is no exception.
Oliver Keens
These faultless Berlin techno/dubstep merchants are on very fine form at the moment, having recently announced Modeselektion Vol 1, a bumper compilation that features a heavyweight cast of international producers currently entrenched in the post dubstep sound. Their label 50 Weapons is gushing out all kinds of goodness at present, they never fail to retain their trademark sense of humour, and now they have released this excellent set of Art & Cash remixes. This Mdslktr classic from last year was perfect enough in a taut, funky motorik way but here we see Bok Bok, Roska, SBTRKT and Phon.o really expand the horizons.
Nightslugs’ star Bok Bok transfers the original’s sinuous synthlines to a way lower register, riding a huge bassline that’s embellished with some raw snares, claps and cash register sound effects, a nice sonic pun on the tune’s title. It’s prime UK bass material, and is yet another excellent Bok Bok version. Roska is someone else who’s simply unable to turn in a bad mix – staggering given the amount of stuff he’s been knocking out of late. Using his trademark kit of organic percussion (with a nice eastern flavour this time around) layered into powerfully funky sequences, he keeps the original’s booty-slapping electro snares and loosely follows the chord structure with some shivering synthlines. It’s prime Roska, even if it’s hard to spot the original Modeselektor in the mix.
SBTRKT keeps closer to the spirit of the original, using glitchy chords and bleeps in his version, but he really makes it his own with a chord sequence that tugs hard at the heartstrings and an added vocal that sounds as though it’s being dredged out of the sea. It’s a real beauty, almost like Boards of Canada on a house tip, with crisp snares that don’t over-complicate the tune. Whereas the other three mixes are pretty radical makeovers, Phon.o’s mix is possibly the one hardcore Modeselektor fans will pounce on. Upping the tempo slightly, he keeps the huge tech-riffs of “Art & Cash” in place, but adds a whole set of minimal hits in a Bmore-meets-Radioclit style, and filters sections up for maximum rinse potential. Don’t make us pick our favourite – these are all absolute gold.
Oliver Keens
Ace Berlin bass demons Modeselektor have announced the full tracklist for Modeselektion Vol 1, an 18 track CD compilation that features a heavyweight cast of international producers currently entrenched in the post dubstep sound.
UK beatsmith Ramadanman will release an EP through Modeselektor’s Monkeytown imprint, with a 45 second teaser of new track “Pitter” posted on the Berlin duo’s Soundcloud page.