Juan Mendez, Karl O’Connor and James Ruskin’s label to close following a final run of releases and label showcase.
The Jealous God artist speaks at length about his upbringing in Los Angeles, merging techno with industrial music, Sandwell District and more.
The sixth issue from the Jealous God label sees them take a musical leap into the left field. Previous releases on the label had been accompanied by mix CDs that facilitated the exploration of abstract sounds and ideas. Now that approach takes centre stage and occupies the vinyl release itself. Joining label owner Silent Servant is 51717, an alias for Lili Schulder, who has released on Opal Tapes and who the more observant reader may have noticed releases as part of Shadowlust on L.I.E.S. together with Svengalisghost.
On its latest release, Dark Entries maps out the murky intersection between the tail end of ‘80s industrial and the (b)rave new world of ‘90s dance music. Psychic TV was Genesis P. Orridge and Peter Christopherson’s post-Throbbing Gristle project, one which was rooted in experimental, psychedelic sounds to begin with. However, it seems that the act wasn’t impervious to what was happening around it and by 1990 Psychic TV, which by then had shed Christopherson as a member, released Towards Thee Infinite Beat.
The techno titans will contribute a track each alongside one from label owner Anthony Parasole on the label’s next 12″.
As well as a long-awaited album from a certain Cornish producer, records from Latency, The Trilogy Tapes and Minimal Wave stood out this week.
Richard Brophy’s column returns after a summer break and assesses new and forthcoming material from Cititrax, Signals, Tabernacle, Mannequin and Sex Tags UFO.
The transatlantic pairing will appear on a joint Cititrax release entitled Violence And Divinity.
Originally released as a 10” back in 2010 on Downwards, Karl O’Connor’s project with Juan ‘Silent Servant’ Mendez gets repackaged and re-released on Minimal Wave. In part, this is to counteract the online sellers looking to make a quick buck from the limited edition original release – prices go over €70 in some cases – but it also satisfies Minimal Wave’s aim of cataloguing, archiving and curating music in great detail. To put it another way, the New York label is the Guggenheim of the underground reissue scene.
As the wall of cassette tapes grows on my desk, teetering in ever more haphazard fashion, the feeling that some of the music contained within them would benefit from a wider release swells too. Repeat listens to Lily’s Modern Malaise tape for No Corner or Luke Wyatt’s new automotive project Infiniti on 1080p lead the mind to wander how great it would be to brandish this music on wax. It’s not been made clear why Diagonal boss men Oscar Powell and Jaime Williams have decided to reissue a Streetwalker track from a 2011 Catholic Tapes cassette, but it’s tempting to visualise the mental dots aligning as the spools on their copy of Ooze wore themselves ever closer to all out degradation.
The Beau Wanzer and Elon Katz project gets remixed by Juan Mendez on the label’s latest release.
Soak up 45 minutes of Silent Servant performing live in Rome earlier this month.
It might be considered sacrilege to some Sandwell District fans, but listening to recent mixes from Juan Mendez has left this writer with the feeling he would have been much more well equipped to provide Fabric with a truly memorable mix CD than the resultant effort from Karl O’Connor and Dave Sumner. Both the SD Radio Mix 2 from a few years ago and the more recent live recording of Mendez DJing at Honey Soundsystem have remained constant listening companions, whereas Fabric 69 has become a musical memory of 2013. Furthermore, Mendez’s own productions resonate most with this writer when he pours his undeniable love and knowledge of jagged industrial sounds and primitive electronics into the music.
Juan Mendez goes solo for the third release on the Jealous God label.
Silent Servant throws down a mix of techno, EBM, new beat and industrial sounds like only he can for New York club Output.
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The celebrated techno triumvirate have revealed tantalising details of new multipurpose project Jealous God “intended for the mutants of our age”.
Regis, Silent Servant and Shifted all remix The KVB for a forthcoming Immaterial Visions Remixes 12″ from Cititrax.
US producer Juan ‘Silent Servant’ Mendez released an EP called Negative Fascinations on Sandwell District. Despite just one letter separating that 2009 release and this, his debut album, there is a world of a difference between both records.