MUSIC RECOMMENDATION

DUB TECHNO

We still remember the tsunami brought by Well Street Records when we discovered it a few years ago. Launched in 2017 as a record label, it already had some releases in its catalogue and we had the impression of witnessing the techno of the future: a very unique sound signature, modern, extremely fresh and creative, thanks to deep impactful basslines carried by experimental broken beats. More than bringing a brand new sound to “a world of copycats”, it “achieved the incredible”, by updating the very ageing dub techno. Label head Robert Fleck is now back with some mates in another fabulous EP, after half a year of radio silence (VA released last week in Bandcamp, but in fact in April on other platforms).

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

Altinbas, part of Brussels’ techno temple Fuse, is a great representative of the “Belgian gang”, with mates such as Lunar Convoy, Foreign Material, Sonhan, Neila and Parallel Circuit (founder of Voltage). Altinbas is very implemented in the local nightlife as a DJ/promoter, which partly explains the electrifying side of “Layers Of Compassion“, released on Non Series in 2019. He’s now making a remarked comeback by launching his own label “Observer Station” with the present EP: deeper, unpretentious but yet very trippy, with well-driven beats.

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

You can tell how much running a label is an adventure when three years of existence already brings the need to do “an anniversary”, unless it’s just “a pretext to celebrate”, as “we” – the creatures of the nightlife – have this natural tendency to enjoy partying. On our side, we won’t cast the first stone: didn’t we block our entire community for a whole week just to celebrate Luigi Tozzi’s rework of “Go“? Also, who would be unhappy to celebrate South Korea, no matter the reason? Artscope, SCOPÁVIK and Oslated‘s elegant forestal techno is every day worth a homage…

For the VA in two parts, label owner Yóhan requested his artists to use at least one traditional Korean instrument: it’s not just a superb idea, potentially emotional for its community spirit, but it also facilitates access to a dimension not enough exploited by the producers: the storytelling. Add a topic or a condition to the creative process and the artists are suddenly particularly well-inspired…

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

Not sure which substance the author of Bandcamp’s description took to link “oneiric” with a “consciousness of the past and future”, “a spiritual phase” and “an access to the various bodies that we possess”, but we would like the same!! “Oneiric” in fact simply means “dreamlike” (from the Greek “Oneiros”, the personification of dreams), an insensitive – maybe artless – consideration which becomes irrelevant when hitting play: the release, indeed “oneiric and spiritual”, is simply phenomenal. Only one reproach: the tracks are sadly too short, while having the orientation to last more than 10 minutes each, which would have created THE TRIPPY EFFECT OF THE CENTURY!!! Outside of that, it’s a wonderful release, that will – at least – last long in our memories.

DRUM’N’BASS

Meanwhile in Zodiac Music, it’s still dope…

DANCEFLOOR-ORIENTED

In fact, the hypnotic techno aesthetic is not atmospheric originally, it’s a “repetition stripped down at its core”, to paraphrase Hood. Sure, contemporary therapists (and Donato Dozzy) have noticed how the “tranquillising effect” facilitates access to a hypnotic state. You are however not on the dancefloor to share your deepest secrets, but rather to forget them… Ben Klock is teaming up again with German artist Fadi Mohem on Klockworks to make you dance like a zombie; it’s particularly efficient with the third track, a sick mental club banger.

ATMOSPHERIC TECHNO

In India, a very coloured atmospheric techno scene is slowly emerging. It however never really caught our attention, for sharing codes of tech house and electronica more than of hypnotic techno. Well, it just changed with the discovery of Qilla Records, a label also open to other music genres, such as jungle music and leftfield techno, but which is now mainly hypnotech-oriented, with well-designed tracks in a discography worth exploring. If you enjoy this EP, we invite you to check out also “Mitigatus” in the same vein, released one day before on Space Textures.

AMBIENT

Beautiful and intimate, the album is made to be listened to through headphones in a crowded city, to forget that it is crowded… Seemingly peaceful, a whole urban world can be sensed in each track, through distant industrial echoes and movements, linked together by very trippy drones, that somehow serve as drivers in the sonic traffic. It’s absolutely not what the author had in mind when creating the album, as he confessed to having been inspired by caves (which, from our listening experience, is usually translated by heavy atmospheres processed with a lot of reverb: the connection to music is so personal!). 

Based in Germany, Hainbach has a long experience with modular synthesis, which he approaches with the eyes of a child: mischievous, passionate, unstoppable in the creative process, allowing him to bring very interesting pieces, to visit and revisit.