Finnish techno artist Kimmo Rapatti, aka Mono Junk, seems like a strange choice to release on Rat Life. The Uncanny Valley spin off imprint has put out The Pagan Rites’ post-punk, Mick Wills edits and label owner Credit 00’s dance floor tools. While at times identifiable with the dance floor, Rat Life’s approach comes more from an edit/crossover perspective rather than the precise, crisp purism of minimal techno.
The Rat Life subsidiary of Dresden’s Uncanny Valley isn’t a typical label; for its first few releases, it put out sample-heavy house – including a track from its boss Credit 00 – and obscure ’80s material, reworked by Mick Wills and Nation boss Traxx. For this, its fourth release, there is a marked change in focus.
Uncanny Valley’s sub-label turn to the elusive Swedish minimal wave act for their fourth release.
Label founder Credit 00 provides the Uncanny Valley sub-division with a solo two-track 12″.
We return to Dresden as Uncanny Valley artist Credit 00 lays down a 75-minute mix that demonstrates his influences and acts as an introduction to the Rat Life Records label.
At what stage does fact become stranger than fiction? On this second Rat Life release, it seems that the truth is hard to believe. According to Rat Life, the recently launched sublabel from the Dresden collective that spawned the Uncanny Valley label, “Wir Sind Soldaten” (we are soldiers) is the work of Neue Wohnkultur. Autonervous meanwhile, is a contemporary act whose “Enfant Terrible” is brutalised into bassy techno form by Mick Wills.
Preview the two obscure and Cold War-inspired tracks from Rat Life Records’ second release.
A sub-division dedicated to “providing tools for a working DJ’s night out in the wilderness” launches later this month.
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