Mills, Hood and Atkins among the acts on the forthcoming comprehensive collection
The release of universally acclaimed Richard Fearless album Deep Rave Memory last year truly put his Drone label on the map, but as we discover, from studio neighbour Daniel Avery to Michigan’s D’Marc Cantu, there’s a lot more to the stable than just Fearless himself.
A common theme for any review of a new commercially-released mix CD is to berate/mourn the viability of the format in an age where near infinite online variants are freely available. Objekt’s mix for Tresor’s irregular Kern series, however, reaffirms just how middling a lot of these online podcasts can be, exposing the lack of effort that goes into them and how we take that for granted.
TJ Hertz has put together a hefty 36-track selection for the third edition of the mix series due in July.
The German techno institution has actioned the remastering of Basictonalvocabulary, Balance and Force + Form.
I interviewed Drexciya’s James Stinson twice. The first occasion was for the release of 1999’s Neptune’s Lair, the second was ahead of the original release of The Opening of the Cerebral Gate in 2001. Both interviews are no longer available; the first was published on a website that ceased operations in 2002, the second appeared in a print magazine that suffered the same fate around the same time. Stupidly, both pieces were on a computer that gave up the ghost and was not backed up.
We speak to Marcelus ahead of the French producer’s third EP for Tresor due later this month.
Classic Drexciya, Italian improvisational music featuriung Ennio Morricone and the soundtrack from one of the greatest action movies ever made feature in August’s best reissues.
Originating from a live performance by Peter Van Hoesen at a Time 2 Express label night at Tresor in July this year, Life Performance captures the energy that often evades techno artists when they sit down to record a studio album. Attribute it to the fact that Van Hoesen was toying with a new live set-up on the night or put it down to the Belgian producer’s general ability to push the techno envelope, but whatever the explanation, Life Performance teems with fresh ideas and glistening, futuristic rhythms, all segued on the fly and in direct response to his audience’s needs.
Fourteen years and 145 releases since Savvas Ysatis first appeared on Tresor, the Greek producer returns to the seminal techno label with Archiv #08.
For his latest Separate Mind column, Richard Brophy traces out the path and music that make Terrence Dixon one of Detroit’s last true enigmas.
Kern 2 is the ultimate crate digging exercise. Tasked by Tresor to come up with a mix that united old and new house and techno, DJ Hell retreated to his bunker – in reality, a basement full of tens of thousands of records – and began his search. There are references to modern-day grooves on the mix, the most notable of these being Jonas Kopp’s tracky “X” and the huge droning bass-driven “DRGN” by fellow Bavarian Recondite.
Time changes everything and everyone. That’s the message behind Borderland, the first true collaborative release between Von Oswald and Atkins. It’s exactly twenty years since these two iconic artists – surely they are among the very few electronic producers who are deserving of that description? – first appeared together on a record. It was an auspicious opening salvo too, with Von Oswald teaming up with Thomas Fehlmann as 3MB in 1993 to go head to head with Atkins’ Model 500 project for the high paced, hyperactive rhythms and epic melodies of “Jazz is the Teacher” and the loose drums and lush electronic warbles of “Cosmic Courier”, sometimes known by its German name “Die Kosmischen Kuriere”.
Last month’s Separate Mind column focused on the enduring influence of a specific location. As this month’s releases show, great electronic music no longer needs to have come from one inspirational home; it merely has to be going in a compelling direction.
Tresor will release a new collaborative album from Juan Atkins & Moritz von Oswald under the Borderland name.
Tresor has reanimated its dormant Archiv series of reissues for a fresh instalment featuring two classic Juan Atkins tracks.
The word ‘Kern’ in German means seed, nucleus or core, with the last translation providing a particularly fitting one-word description for DJ Deep’s approach to the first mix in this new series from Tresor.
“Today, kids want to be more Kerri Chandler than Kerri Chandler,” says DJ Deep, his words accompanied by a gentle flutter as he leafs through his enormous record collection. A man whose two-decade career has seen him forge a close personal and professional relationship with New Jersey’s house pioneer, he’s in a good place to judge. “Just because something sounds like Kerri Chandler doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to put it out,” he continues, “because Kerri already did it 20 years ago.” His voice lilts gently down the line from his Parisian office. He doesn’t sound upset by the sudden re-emergence of the Chicago and NY house sound he’s been obsessed with since he was 16. Instead, he’s fascinated at its cycle. When it comes to music, Cyril Étienne des Rosaies is always fascinated.