25 May 2010

New Netlabels

Twitter trawling yields netlabels. Here are some of my new favourites.
Solida Netlabel.

Techno / house with funky stuff. 'Nuff Said.

Zymogen
I've been listening to Nicholas Bergier and Simon Trottier's single-track EP The Market Fresh, which evolves at an almost tortuously slow pace - 20 minutes long and brimming with reverb and echo-work, it explores the density and beauty of every single sound, from rich sax tones, to the discordant string scrapes. It has a lot in common with the Radiation Line's doomscapes - seemingly Eno-esque "Wallpaper music", turn it off suddenly, and you realise how wrapped up in it you've become. Awesome stuff.
Zymogen's remit covers indie, electronica, ambient and the associated fields, varying from putting out extended jams, to releasing more succinct song structures. It takes a little time to unlock all the beauties this label has to offer, as each release demands time, patience and attention, but the three releases I've been studying so far are pretty awesome. Dig.

AstorBell
Right up my street: 15 releases in now, and I've only just picked up on what they do. Minimal, dark, experimental, and techno. Roughly summed up - it's twisty weird shit with wonky vocals, done in as many ways as you can imagine. I'm really enjoying Socket Science's Ephedra EP at the moment - just enough bounce and melody to grab you, but a playful feel for experimentation that makes up for nine minute wander-pieces.
Def Leppard by DonnyKarson is great too - industrial, pseudo-Berghainisms collide with a far more misanthropic technoid mindstate. We are not the sleek chrome robots of the future, we are the lurching, clanking throwbacks dreaming of electric wolves in sheep's clothing.

Monokrak
Dub techno. Very dubby. Big spring-reverb wring-outs that shudder and return, minimal clicks and pops. Bass. The predilection for space and reverb has me hooked, as does the blurb on the site: "For those who are out of the music business, just because they are not a “good product”, there is another chance : netlabels. No more money in the affair, just music. The feeling to be free and to produce what or who you want is now a reality."

Broken Drum Records I've only listened to the Glidepath EP so far from this netlabel, but enjoy the fusion of two-step, Garage and Broken beat. Kung Fu Magic contains two of my favourite things - wobble bass and dubious chop-socky samples, whilst the title track kicks in with one of those euphoric string sections that should be cheesy, but backed by distorted snares and droney synths is actually pretty awesome. Plus, there's an obvious Shackleton / Muslimguaze influence in the use of poly-rhythmic ethnic percussion and instrumentation - it manages to pull this off without sounding worthy or dubiously middle-class.
Will find more and get it up.

There you go, five new and gorgeous netlabels putting out great content for free. Use that magic button that computers have to receive a continual stream of music straight to your inbox.
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1 comment:

  1. Hey, thanks for the review! You're right about the Muslimgauze influence - one of our faves -but less so about Shackleton. We're aware of him but he's not an influence as such. Anyway, we were doing this when he was just a little nipper! The next Secret Archives of the Vatican EP will be out in early June and will have a harder, industrial, dubsteppy, Persian sound...

    Vince
    Broken Drum Records

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