Ostgut Ton to release new whopping 20-track 3×12″ album by Luke Slater’s most influential pseudonym.
When Nick Höppner released Folk, his debut solo album in a production career that spans more than a decade, the former Ostgut Ton label boss told Kaput that its title pointed to the similarities of the genre to techno and house, noting that they were all initially written with rather basic arrangements and equipment. In such simple creative environments, what draws the listener in is neither elaborate edits nor intricate sound design but visceral dynamism that runs through the fabric of the music itself. And this is exactly what you find on the Fantastic Planet EP, the result of a three-day session in Berlin where Höppner teamed up with Japanese producer Sunao Gonno.
The emerging German producer’s debut full length We Grow, You Decline will arrive on Berlin’s coveted Ostgut Ton.
Zehn is comprised of thirty tracks spread across ten 12”s from Berghain and Panorama Bar regulars.
The Dutchman’s formal debut for the Berlin label, Falling For You, will arrive next month.
Steffi Doms has established solid footing in Berlin’s music community over the last six years which means she’s pretty much mastered it all. Not only can she create propulsive, textured techno tracks to rival the devastating functionality of the rest of the Ostgut Ton roster, but she can also create uplifting results when she chooses to dip into the populist side of house balladry. Coming off a recent run of festival appearances, Doms has also mastered her first live set circuit, recreating her work with improvised tactility that responds to the needs of whoever’s in front of her. Doms’ versatility was part of what kept 2014’s Power of Anonymity engaging throughout; and while this writer’s favourite moments on the LP included the borderline goofy Prince-esque squelch of Virginia & Dexter-collaboration “Treasure Seeking”, the wake of the LP finds her revisiting techno, electro and IDM roots in the form of a set of remixes from Answer Code Request and Further Reductions.
The Berliner will make his full debut on the famed techno label with the four-track 91 EP at the end of August.
The Infrastructure New York boss selects cuts from Steve Bicknell, LB Dub Corp, Cassegrain and more for the seventh edition of Ostgut Ton’s reconfigured mix series.
The Panorama Bar resident will release her second album on Ostgut Ton in November.
Why should electronic music producers be confined to writing solely for the dancefloor? For every dodgy techno ‘concept’ album, there have been a multitude of excellent projects – witness alternative (in form) releases from Regis, Surgeon and more recently Sigha and sometime Nine Inch Nails band member Alessandro Cortini over the past year. It’s heartening to see Ostgut Ton supporting this kind of thinking. After all the label has been one of the most prolific platforms for modern house and techno, so its willingness to give vent to abstract compositions that provided a soundtrack to a ballet last year is welcome.
Ryan Elliott’s mix features 35 tracks will be available for free download on August 11.
Sample each exclusive production from Ryan Elliot’s forthcoming label mix Ostgut Ton will furnish for vinyl release next month.
There’s a distinct difference between Answer Code Request and Ostgut Ton’s big guns: Klock, Dettmann, Fengler and Function. Those four are inherently linear, whereas Answer Code Request’s music has by and large remained broken and syncopated. Before the Answer Code Request project took off, the Berlin producer was making music under his real name, Patrick Gräser, and as he would later find out, adopting a new production alias would prove to be a masterstroke.
Given Tobias Freund’s post-production work on Function’s debut album last year, it is natural that listeners might draw comparisons between that release and the German artist’s own new album. Such perspectives are not lazily arrived at, and at its outset A Series of Shocks practically invites such comparisons. The album starts with the dreamy, textured ambience of “Entire” and the gentle hisses and ticks of the unobtrusive groove of “Heartbeat”, both of which suggest that there is some overlap in the 90s ambient techno sources that shape both releases.
The German producer will release Code on the Berlin institution in June.