www.kyoto-sound.com - Friction Dub : Redirection [instabil08]

Part two of the Kyoto meets instabil project. This time it's Hieronymus and Xoki delivering the originals and Daniel Stefanik doing the remix part. All four tracks are just as awesome as the ones released on Kyoto: Hieronymus delivers another of his extremely slow, dark dub pieces while Xoki likes it slightly faster (which is still very mellow though) and seems to prefer a rather uplifting mood. Daniel Stefaniks edits of this are straight 4/4 beaters but still extremely dubby. However, be cautious: The second one develops into a heavy piece of dubtechno!

4x MP3, 192kbit/s, all together 36.3MB:
Download here.

Official text:
welcome hieronymus! welcome xoki! welcome kyoto-sound! a new and fresh collaboration starts between kyoto-sound and instabil - splitted on two releases on the danish and german netlabel. brilliant dub-minimalism and deep deep scapes, made and mixed by xoki, hieronymus and daniel stefanik you can download and collect on www.kyoto-sound.com and www.instabil.org. enjoy!

Urban Force / Daniel Stefanik [KY_D11]

I was extremely looking forward to this collaboration of two of my favorite netlabels. Accordingly, my expectations were fairly high - and they've all been exceeded. Here is the first part of this project, the one released on Kyoto: Urban Force and Daniel Stefanik deliver two deeeep dubtechno movers, both more than twelve minutes long. They have a great "live" touch, seem to resemble a flowing jam session. There is much use of noise, giving these tracks an extremely analog feeling. And of course, much delay for dubby atmospheres. Hieronymus takes this even further with his remix - a downbeat dub bomb I've been waiting for in netaudio for a long time. And Xoki's one is great as well...

4x MP3, 192kbit/s, all together 50.2MB:
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Official text:
Here it is finely, our collaboration with Instabil. Urban Force present us with a highly functional techdub burner, while Daniel Stefanik dives into dark minimal techno realms. Hieronymus dubs and transforms Urban Force's material into his trademark zen minimalism, and Xoki turns on the lights with his dub og Stefanik's Microstruttura. Check out the second part of this release here http://www.instabil.org, where Hieronymus goes deep, deep, deeeep into subatomic particle territory with his Friction Dub, while Xoki goes the opposite way into a maximal upbeat dub with organs and funky skanks. Enjoy!

Zvezdara - The Dawn of New Possibilities [skm007]

You have to be in the right mood for this one. It's mellow, it's somewhat melancholic, it needs to be listened to closely. And that's why I love it.
This music is not very complicated. But it's beautiful. It uses a few samples and only a handful of instruments, mainly guitars. This is a 38-minute trip somewhere else, far far away. And I would love to stay there forever...

6x MP3, 192kbit/s, 52.2MB ZIP-file:
Download here.

Official text:
Zvezdara presents their first album, THE DAWN OF NEW POSSIBILITIES.
David and Sasa lead us into a poetic world, where the tracks are smooth and slow, and where each moment is important. This is an album to be listened at certain times and precise place, in the evening, or while lying lazily in the sun... to contemplate in wonder at the spectacle which nature daily offers to us .

Sectorchestra - No Morchestra [thn081]

It's sad enough that Danny Kreutzfeld shuts down his Sectorchestra project with this release. I bemoan this loss even more after listening to this one hour trip through dubby downbeats and clicky techno. Though I have to admit that I don't like the freakiness of what's supposed to be the climax of this album, namely "Extinguish My Flame" and "Jamaica Hub". But the rest is absolutely superb and ah... this sound is just too phat to describe!

10x MP3, 192kbit/s, 81.4MB ZIP-File:
Download here.

Official text:
"No Morchestra" is a vast collection of tracks created in the past years that are now compiled into a constitutive album format. Sectorchestra is/was Danny Kreutzfeldt's project for abstract atmospheric house constructions. The contributions Danny did on Thinner under the Sectorchestra guise were known to be discrete releases, critics favourites, with both richness and diversity in terms of sound and rather dark aesthetics.

Banguru - Bang The Guru! EP [id027]

There are some who claim that pop does not belong into the world of electronic underground. That's an understandable attitude - as long as pop equals commerce. And that's why I'm thankful for Ideology. And for Banguru in particular. Honestly, it's not my type of sound but I think it's quite amazing that these four Portuguese produce a technically absolutely admissable mini-LP with a blend of electronic, catchy tunes and influences from traditional music styles. And they give it away for free - plus three phat self-made music videos! If that's not worth mentioning, I should stop writing...

6x MP3, 192kbit/s, all together 35.3MB;
videos: 3x mov, all together 74.2MB:
Download here.

Official text:
Nobody bangs it better! Our beloved master of catchy tunes with a track attitude is in to teach us another lesson in the shape of his second EP on iD.EOLOGY.
From a loungy and dubby start the guru takes us straight to the madness of a proper club-banger, only to slow down and then let us off into the extatic euphoria of some poppy indian vibes.
As the smart disciples we are, we follow the path the master has shown us, and we cheerfully smile after we´ve learned another lesson: the bang is all about controlling the energy-flow.

Bobby Baby - Four Remixes [corpidex007]

You should listen to the originals on corpid extra 005 before digging these remixes. As simple as her music is, I have to admit that I love Bobby Baby. She's got a wonderful voice and a feeling for sticky melodies. That's why I was anxious to see what these four remixers made out if it. And I think all of them did a good job - because they made use of the vocal material given. Drei Farben House added some housy dancefloor appeal to "Lads Are Fun", Christian Walt prefers some Kompakt-feeling for "Lovsonr" and Nicorola decided to stick close to the already great original of "Bobby" - 1oo% correct decision. The only remix I've got my problems with is Rupert's - I just don't have much of a disco heart beating in my chest...

4x MP3, 192kbit/s, all together 31.0MB:
Download here.

Official text:
Unfortunately only in German...

Mloski - Dream About... EP [mnkm009]

I like this release because of its fat broken beats. They create a powerful moving rhythm contrasting the dreamy, almost kitschy melodies. In "Tulips Love" these pads are somewhat of an overkill, I would have used a less pompous instrument instead - just as Mloski does himself in "Cell Abstracta". But nevertheless this release is a must - for the sake of this awesome heavy drum&bass intermezzo in "Skyscraper" alone.

4x MP3, 192 kbit/s, 27.9MB ZIP-file:
Download here.

Official text:
Mloski provides us with easily accessible expression of his recent sleeping experiences, shaping it by hard oldschool hiphop beats. His "Dream about..." EP is a four-direction landscape of mostly troubled dreams of a delicate and sensible mind. While "Tulips Love" and "Cell Abstracta" build dark and sometimes paranoic space that disables the environment distractions and makes your senses turn to your inner world, "Starfish" draws the curtains of your room for the warm sunlight of the early autumn. This track appears to be the natural center of this release with its shining dream pads and deliberately inaccurate 4x4 beats. While "Starfish" calms your soul down and draws a positive line in this EP, it is "Skyscraper" that restores the desperate mood with its dark and almost suicidal strings and slowly leads you to the final fragmentary intrusions of frantic percussions.

If:then:goto - Another Syntax Error [one022]

Usually I'm not into songwriter stuff. But this one here is quite impressive: When you listen to it, you imagine a sort of depressed guitar band (which is nothing judgmental - I thought exactly the same when I heard Coldplay for the first time) - but in fact, it's a one man show! And a good one, too: With low-key instrumentation, Paul Benham focusses on his vocal part - a task he's obviously pretty good at. The first songs are a little bit to draggy for me, but with "Painting By Numbers" and the remixes the real highlights follow soon...

8x MP3, 192 kbit/s, 54.4MB ZIP-file (incl. artwork):
Download here.

Official text:
'Another Syntax Error' qualifies simply as good song writing. Nothing tech, nothing too fancy - just good production, soulful vocals, inspiration, and catchy choruses. A mixture of brit-indie, guitar, and electronic music taken down his own path.
Finding Paul Benham's music was like stumbling across a favorite band I had somehow missed. Then I found out it was only one person, an avid songwriter with a prolific output that would be admired by many musicians.
To top it off and spin things up, 'ASR' is closed out with 3 remixes from favorite One artists - including Emil Klotzsch, Bad Loop and Recue.

Minus - Solar [arh015]

Arhiva7 is new to me although they've had 14 releases so far. This one is number 15 and makes me curious to browse that label backstock. "Solar" is a mixture of almost corny melodies and heavy electronica. Sometimes this is too wearisome for my ears ("lunie dimineata"), sometimes it's exactly the stuff i like ("Expn35b", "Expn36dream3"). Give it a try and find out for yourself...

7x MP3, 192kbit/s, 28.7MB ZIP-file (incl. cover):
Download here.

Official text:
Minus gathers with this release 'Solar', 7 songs that are evolving in the most quiet and intimate mode, being the description of a late july afternoon, hidden and lost in your bed-sheets, in your lover's arms. It's the hours with your eyes closed, with the most intense laziness in your bones, with your nakedness, with the most naive games and the impossible thoughts.
Time goes by slowly, the sun is warming up your feet, scratches your back and tickles your ear. Everything is sweet and warm.

Nq - Omghi2u2 (Remix Compilation) [tA_E_nqrmx]

A nice compilation of electronica. Some pieces are just wonderful ("nq - across the water (preft rework)"), some I have difficulties to find access to ("on on inakte (xenoton edit)"). Take your time to listen to it closely, it should be worth it!


6xMP3, 192kbit/s, all together 37.6MB:
Download here.

Official text:
dedicated to the possibilites the internet has to offer besides dating lines, commercial use and total boredom, this compilation assembles 6 artists reworking material by nq.
for all the late night chats, for the knowledge that is shared through various internet forums, for the friendship.
6 tracks by 6 artists from 5 different cities and 3 countries, offering little beauties that range from subtle movements and textures to abstract beat structures.

Shalma - Second Blur EP [mn007]

This is definitely a weird one: The first track ("pretension") comes with seemingly chaotic sound patterns and a rich amount of warped samples. Tracks two and three are somewhat more relaxed but still no easy stuff to listen to: "kohtao" creates a dark, ominous ambientish atmosphere whereas "yokudo" is a hectic piece of melancholic electronica. However, it's actually the last piece that got me: "formranks" is closest to the opener but not as crazy, more forward instead - and it's got a nice groove.

4xMP, 192kbit/s, 28.4MB ZIP-file (incl. cover):
Download here.

Official text:
Too long to quote. =)

Igor O. Vlasov - Mellow Bits [1bit010]

No comment on this one...
=)

5x MP3, 192kbit/s, 38.5MB ZIP-file (incl. cover):
Download here.

Official text:
Due to a flood of releases on different netlabels within the last few months, Igor has already been called "the John Tejada of netaudio" as his immense productiveness covers all styles of house and techno as well as dubby and experimental stuff. After the great success of Sven Tasnadis 1bit 009 we chose to go for another 4/4-release while making sure to stay somewhat compatible to couch listening culture. So we selected some of Igor's deeper tracks for 1bit #10 - the "Mellow Bits". Enjoy!

Katzo - Raindrop [1008AD]

I have to admit that I haven't come across after-dinner so far even though they already had a release by Dub Kult of raum...musik fame. When I got the release info about Katzo's "Raindrop" I decided to give it a try because it said "minimal dub" as style discription. As usual, I was rather sceptical because not many in netaudio's scene seem to share my definition of "dub". And I was pretty surprised by what came out of this one - not necessarily because of its dubbiness but rather because the first two tracks are simply cool pieces of minimal shit (the other two are a bit of a yawn).

4x MP3, 192kbit/s, 40MB ZIP-file (incl. a trashy sleeve):
Download here.

Official text:
Enter the world of minimal dub with Katzo's Raindrop EP. The four tracks are ambient but upbeat and minimal but rich... dubside.
(What an ambiguous release info...)

Social System - Trial of Errors [arch012]

Ok, I have to admit that I love Pheek's music. So there is no question for this release on his own label to be in here. This time Pheek teams up with Jason Corder aka Off The Sky once more and it's this collaboration effect that literally thrills me. All three tracks - unfortunately there are only three of them - are clicky, glitchy, up-to-the-edge minimal stuff that makes me unable to hold my feet still. Deep shit and highly recommended!

3x MP3, 256kbit/s, 122MB ZIP-File (contains .ogg, 64kbit/s- and vbr-MP3 as well): Download here.

Official text:
The twelfth release is the Archipel debut for Social System, which consists of Jean-Patrice Remillard (more widely known as Pheek and the owner of Archipel) and Jason Corder (also known as Off the Sky and works with labels like Autoplate.) They join forces here to create "Trial of Errors" which is a gentle melting pot of Corder's deep and dubby sound combined with Remillard's stuttering and spasming percussive and glitchy workouts.

Muhr - We are Desolved [ser001]

Kick-off vor nwl. with the kick-off for Serein - debuting with a nice piece of electronica. Having a bias for dreamy sad melodies and glitchy sound design, Muhr succeeds in creating his own musical universe - not forgetting to show his listeners the entry to it.

5xMP3, 192kbit/s, 23.3MB ZIP-file (incl. cover):
Download here.

Official text:
It is with great pleasure that we bring you the first release at Serein, by Canadian artist, Muhr. Five tracks in all comprising sampled instrumentation, field recordings and carefully layered sound synthesis. A conceptual follow up to his release at Miasmah, Muhr has once again managed to deliver a beautifully sparse and organic sound that is becoming very much his own. We look forward to hearing more from him in the near future!