Flying Saucepan Records

Today's recommended listening comes from Flying Saucepan Records, an Ayrshire-based archive label run by an old friend of Shallowrave. Designed to clear hard-drives, catalogue archives and provide an outlet for many projects that never saw the light of day, Flying Saucepan's first release proudly display their mid-90s heritage, channelling acid, rave and the Sheffield warehouse scene. Also rocking out the speakers is the first Panpod, a mix of influential and related projects that joins the dots between electro, industrial, rave and techno, and is really rather kinky. 

Monokrak 082 - Ehn "Time Stay Behind The Mind EP"

Ehn "Time Stay Behind The Mind"

New on monokrak, Ehn presents two tracks of minimal, warpy, screwed up techno that nods to the motor city, Sheffield and Berlin. Get these on the download right away.

Ehn - Camina Solo
Ehn - Kun

Complete package

New Radio - New Sounds

Ahead of Global SoundCloud Meet-up day, with Little Rock and Microrave Records chairing the Glasgow event, Little Rock bring you a compilation of SoundCloud-released tracks.

Wednesday 9 February is International SoundCloud meet-up day, with SoundCloud users from across the world taking part in live events; curating Glasgow’s meet-up, which features discussions, talks from Scottish music industry figures, and a music swap-meet, are Team Little Rock and Microrave Records. The event runs from 8pm – 12 at Stereo (Renfield Lane), and is completely free. All tracks in this compilation are available as free downloads.

glasgowmeetup.co.uk

soundcloud.com/groups/soundcloud-meetup-glasgow-2011/tracks

shallowrave.com

microraverecords.com

Tracklist

1. Solipsism - All your Dreams Won’t Come True – Self-Released
2. Majetic - Warschauer – Self-released
3. Sun Dogs – Captain Klaus – Self-released
4. Chunk – Do The Glasgow Dub – Self-Released
5. Scientific Support Dept – Shortwave – Self-released
6. Pyramid Head – A Hundred Cults Prepare to Die – Self-released
7. Audion – Billy Says Go (Voltergeist Remix) – via soundcloud
8. Crystal Castles – Air War (Emotiquon Remix) – Via soundcloud
9. Cottam – The Long Dark Road (unmastered) – Self-released
10. BeardyMan – Mubmai Cells (Live) – Self-released
11. S-Type - Terry Nutkins – Phuturelabs

Stream That Badboy
Download that Motherbizzle
Go to Magnetic

Monokrak vs Kosmo

1. Tumor_"Open_Moog"

2. Gr-Oy_"Morphine"

3. Damolh33_"Yulak"

4. 1ddual_"Biodance"

5. Durcheinander_"Come_Again"

6. Bo Savio_ "Shepard_Tone"

Two very cool labels coming together for an awesome co-release - minimal grooves and headspaces are the order of the day.

S-Type - Medusa EP (Phuturelabs)

S-Type - Medusa EP (Phuturelabs) - Free download 02/12/10

Shallowrave have known S-Type for years now, through his role as soundtech for Radiomagnetic, and he's something of a genius when it comes to production. As well as all the behind-the-scenes shiz for the Magnets, he's also put together productions for Laws, Tek (Smif 'n' Wesson) and Emilio Rojas, and taken part in tutoring at the Red Bull Music Academy. Now, with Phuturelabs' netlabel getting into full swing, S-Type delivers Medusa, a 3-track fusion of purple wow, crunk, hip-hop and dubstep that sounds like Rustie at the top of his game. That's Jagz the Smak or Cafe De Phresh Rustie, not pixellated bleep-wankery Rustie. Yeah, that good.

Mr. Lizard rolls in on a spray of crystalline melody, all floaty and ethereal, before a Joker-esque pitch-bend riff takes over and the lopsided crunk beat boots into action. Offsetting the bump'n'grind is a double-timed hi-hat pattern that nods to juke or footwork - a reference enhanced by the chopped-up hype vocals peppering Terry Nutkins, which follows on in a blaze of oscillating bass and g-funk synths. At 140-bpm, Terry Nutkins (remember him?) could pass for dubstep, but the strength of Medusa is exactly how many different styles S-Type manages to borrow from without sounding attention deficit or kleptomanic. There's shades everything from Prince and Afrika Bambaata, to Benga and Lazer Sword, to Dr. Dre and the Yin Yang Twins. Closing the EP is title track Medusa, which bounces along on a thick bassline and hefty percussion, the squelchy electro-prog riff continually upping the ante with pitch-bend noodling and rising melodies. It's an epic slice of cosmic crunk that ought to be killing dancefloors before the year's over - with DJ support from Bok Bok, Girl Unit and Kavsrave, it's doubtless gonna be massive.

An S-type live set is available for free download over at Phuturelabs, and he can be found in the flesh playing for Mixed Bizness at GSA on December 2nd, alongside Profisee and Hint.

Check this vid...

Free download - Sacre Noir

Apocalyptic Goblin of Doom ™ Harlequinade (Church of When the Shit Hits the Fan / Neverzone) just noised us up about some free music courtesy of INeedMusik.com - remixes of Edinburgh artist Sacre Noir, whose debut album is available through Savage Records / Dejine Rec now. With hints of 90's trip-hop and breakbeat, alt-pop and gothic melodies, it's a unique and dark combination. The remix EP features the best of Edinburgh's hip/trip-hop scene and can be found over here.

Direct downloads below.

1. For Herself - (UV Beats vs Sacre Noir)

2. Visible Ink - (Xiangxing vs Sacre Noir)

3. Chimneys - (HQ vs Sacre Noir)

4. End of the Decay - Eric Stone vs Sacre Noir

5. Visible Ink - (Savage Sound System vs Sacre Noir)

6. For Herself - (Sonaar vs Sacre Noir)

MusicKollektiv vol.2

Net Audio goodness from musickollektiv.org - 18 tracks of minimal, Neo-Detroit, techno, ambient and dubby textures. Well worth checking out.

Pre-listen to any of the tracks via the homepage here, or just download straight from the source.

Download it Here

Free Starkey

I love Amon Tobin - his album Permutation, with it's deep, psychedelic take on D'n'B played a pivotal role in introducing me to mid-nineties Ninja Tune, and was therefore a massive part of my introduction to dance music. It's as important as Keep it Unreal, the Zen comps, or the Cinematic Orchestra's Man With a Movie Camera (which, along with Biosphere's soundtrack, made studying Russian cinema a hell of a lot more accesible).

Dude soundtracked Splinter Cell.

He's possibly even more influential on my generation's psychological make-up than the widely available council hash of the 00's.

Minor memory lane trip aside - Amon Tobin's been a bit silent on the production front for a while, but his website boasts a variety of free downloads from similarly-minded individuals, including pendulum-meets-metallica bass-head Excision, and the excellent Noisa. This month, we're treated to a 3-track EP from Starkey, who I was lucky enough to catch DJing in the intimate Captain's Rest a couple of months back, and was basically awesome. Rich, beasting dubstep with a hefty hip-hop influence is the order of the day. You need to download this.

Free Music - Dr Nojoke - Clonefixnature

Unoiki's Digital Calendar continues, with this month's release from Dr. nojoke, a dark and brooding slice of conceptual techno. Free until the 9th of August.

"How would it be when we could substitute nature just by just cloning
it?
Would it help to understand how precious and unique it is?
The doc questions with his track “Clonefixnature” where it all
leads to:
From exploiting the earth over genetic engineering to the research on
cloning and robotic technology.

With its strange rhythmic clicks, the dark bass-loop and the wavering
and iridescent chords the track keeps us in suspense thus producing a
quite uncertain and desolate feeling about the future."
Download here.

For more from the Doc, here's his live set from the recent Freerotation Festival. Dr.Nojoke @ Freerotation Festival - 25 july 2010 by Dr.Nojoke

Mako

MAKO - Head Up by MAKO
MAKO + DFRNT - CLICK by MAKO Liquid Message by MAKO
Edinburgh-based dubstep / deep techno producer Mako, who occaisonally works with Shallowrave favourite DFRNT... Free tunes on his soundcloud. Go check it out.

Monokrak 050 - Smoked Monokrak

More awesomeness from the excellent Monokrak, a label who eschew polished presentation, aggressive social networking and marketing in favour of turning out excellent dub-techno on a regular basis. There's a heavy Detroit influence on both the content and delivery - the minimal advertising mindset obviously borrows heavily from UR / Basic Channel / Traxx, and the synths are pure Carl Craig. Floating Mind's Dexter's Techno is probably my favourite, with cinematic synth chords set against muted pads and raw hi-hat riffs. Like the best techno, it's deceptively deep on headphones or in the flat, but bangs with the best of them through a half-way decent soundsystem.
For an EP, it's surprisingly well-structured, with the oddly-titled 3rd track, Prologue from GeorgezB, moving from 4/4 grooves to synth-laded passages and building a deep atmospheric feel before the full on techno of Floating Mind's final track kills it in the final round. Before this, we're treated Durcheinander's Stimmen, which comes on like T++ doing braindance, with that Berghain kick sound pitted against unstable beat repeats and almost overpowering synth swathes.
One hell of an EP - a DJ tool and home listening that's a definite case in point for the Creative Commons - get it downloaded.
Get it Here.
monokrak.net

Not your average mix....

Two quite surreal mixes. The first is a more traditional DJ mix, but with a wonky bent and some total sideways time signatures - Dr Noke's from Dubno To Clickstep mix, which contains Um-Machtung (probably my favourite of his tunes to date) and the riddim of Sublimacy - also available featuring Kid Ritalin on FUCKNO.
Dr.Nojoke - From Dubno to Clikstep mix by Dr.Nojoke
Next up is DJ Gonzo's Broken Toy Orchestra mix; a compilation of oneiric blurs, crackly sketches and alt-folk experimentation. Contains probably my favourite FourTet track of all time; My Angel Rocks Back and Forth.
The Broken Toy Orchestra by DjGonzo

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.
Support the CC cause.

Free music Monday.

Man with a Mission, Chrissy Murderbot is aiming to make one mixtape a week for a year - he's at week 38, and has covered such niche genres as Classic Ragga Jungle, Bobby O, Booty Bass and Steppa's Reggae. Currently, he's going through Chicago House.
Each mixtape's preceded by a brief chat about the genre / style he's covering, The Ghettotech mixtape is particularly good.

Currently also enjoying free downloads from H.W. - A Year's Worth of Worry (right click) Lyrical, poetic, introspective hip-hop from Boston. Seems to be popular across the blogosphere / music sharing culture. Looking into his label Delusional at the moment, so expect a full review shortly.


I'm also digging the lazy slurtronica of Kember Norton, slow, meandering, unfinished pieces of ambience that gradually build emotional potency; something like Oren Ambarachi or Mum if they'd been raised on cider in the west country. Lovely dreamscape stuff. Direct download.

And there's more from DFRNT over at his website. Can this guy do no wrong? There's an awesome remix of Origin Unknown just gone up recently.

Texture - Aphasia

Two words: Fuck Yeah.

Over at Black Lantern, Texture's Aphasia EP has just dropped and has been getting heavy rinsage from Little Rock already. Stalking through the shadows cast by spoken word, hip-hop, dubstep and trip/hop electronica, Aphasia worms its way into the hindbrain and whispers dark secrets in dissambled language; pop culture is chewed up and regurgitated, reference points subsumed into the twisting mass of electronics and verbal acrobatics. Of the four tracks, two instrumental, two with vocals, my personal favourite is Impact, which sees Texture joined by fellow Black Lantern operative Harlequinade, with Asthmatic Astronaut on beats. The balance between Harlequinade's apocalyptic intonations; "will the clocks all stop at the moment of impact? / will we lacerate reality when we tear off these masks?", Texture's abstract lyricism, and Asthmatic Astronaut's feel for classic hip-hop bounce makes for a compelling and powerful finished product.

The rest of the EP sees the third member of Black Lantern, Morphamish, co-producing. Those that heard the now-defunct Double Helix project, or Morph's own material (posted a while back), will know what to expect; slick, rich production values, dubby swathes and heavily compressed synths EQ-d to perfection. It's a synthesis that works well, it's surprising to hear such richly engineered sound on 'net label releases; previous 'Lantern releases Big Whoop and Riders On the Conquering Worm were brilliantly lo-fi, and abrasive noise-core respectively. It's also refreshing to hear Morph trying more laid-back, groove-driven production, in comparison to the beasting dubstep of Double Helix.

Aphasia's still not easy listening; Texture's abstract, bookworm approach to MCing demands a intellectual fascination with density and obtuseness of (this is for fans of Doseone and ELP, not Kanye and Fiddy), and with such a combination of influences, it's doubtless going to alienate straight-up hip-hop heads. However,as the first of a trilogy of EPs, and Morphamish's own channel set to launch on Black Lantern next month, we're sure as hell going to be paying attention to Black Lantern.

And if you don't like it?
"...when you question my theories,
I say up, up, left, right, star, down continue,
suck it up motherfucker, now the word virus is in you"
Fuck Yeah.

Direct Download

Wu Tang Clan Aint Nothing....

Tom Caruana, founder of Tea Sea Records has decided to up the Rap/ Rock crossover game and splice the Wu Tang Clan and the Beatles into a two-headed chimera. I know what you're thinking, but stick with me.

Yes, the Beatles are one of those acts that are pretty untouchable; legends of their time and great innovators, while the Wu changed the face of hip-hop, and had instrumentals from the RZA.... 'What good can actually come of this union?' you're most likely asking. As soon as C.R.E.A.M. drops, following a cut-and-paste intro, you breathe a sigh of relief. This is not the dumb-as-hammers mash-up that followed Jay-Z colliding with Linkin Park, or the "Track A + Track B = Track AB" chops that 2Many DJs have made their trademark. Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers rearranges The Beatles' instrumentals into completely new and unrecognisable rhythms, which deserve praise in their own right, and shows no mercy in hacking up the mighty Wu.
Download Here
A personal favourite has to be Got Your Money, which best bridges the gap between the boom-bap backed aggresion of ODB complaining ladies aren't making it with him, and the delicate melodies of The World's Biggest Band. Uzi (Pinky Ring) brings all the jump-up energy of the original, and carefully deploys fragments of Lennon as hype vocals. Again, the experiment proves a success, adding new dynamics to classic flows. There's a few that fail to hit the mark; Da Mystery of Chess-Boxing is more of a curio - it's pretty much impossible to ruin this tune, but the remix doesn't really bring much to the table (it's still great). Similarly, Cross My Heart is a little confusing, pitting the the descending melodies of the Harvey Averne Dozen's cover of The Word against the Wu. Unfortunately, the choral vocals and mellotron nag at brain, rather than complementing the acapella, though the opening sample of "stupid fool, you're forcing me to kill you!" is just awesome.

For the most part the synthesis is succesful, and as a remix album, Enter contains some wicked updates of classic hip-hop. However, it's the attitude behind the album that makes it so appealing - Caruana's love for both acts shines through, especially in his cut-scenes which pit 1960's news broadcasts against the Wu's chop socky heritage. Money tracks down the classic interview where the broadcaster asks "are you individually millionaires yet?" and the Fab Four cheekily reply "not yet... a lot of it goes to her Majesty; she's a millionaire." There's interviews with fans, brilliantly cheesy Shaolin Warrior quotes, and occaisonal discourses between the two. As a showcase for Caruana's production abilities, it's flawless, and demonstrates that Caruana is well-versed in old-school beat-burglary and production. Well worth the bandwidth.
Download Here
Dig it.

In other news, I'm getting very into Micoland and Holly Bretton on the Dead Channel 'net label (cheers to Weaponizer for the recommendation), and will get a review up shortly. Massive Attack / Portishead - slow grind electronica colliding with glitch-pop and dub. Nice.

More Fresh Poulp, yo.

Happy Birthday Fresh Poulp! Five years they've been going, and good on them.
Nice guys that they are, they've got the third in their Octopus series for free download. Dub, hip-hop and latin / folk influenced weird shit. Little Rock loves Fresh Poulp - Five more years!











Dig it.
Download this shit.

Friends from Berlin pt. 6 - Dubtech aka Cold Form

Dubatech aka Coldform @ Net Audio Berlin by Liam Arnold

Yeah, you need this shit in your life. Bass-heavy, reverb-drenched dance music designed for maximum dancefloor destruction. Coming on after the mighty Disrupt laid waste to the place.
You can find more of the same over at Sublimeporte.

Minimal Schminimal

Turns out that beat-dismantler and tech-meddler .at/on, whose fractured soundscapes have become my late-night soundtrack, also makes some more four-to-the-floor techno. COTF has a four-track EP up on Deeplimit.net, a Ukranian net label dealing in off-beat, wonky and abstract techno. Tricksy, twisted minimal for free. Not for fans of Justice.

COTF's ep Extremist is getting some rotation at the moment, not least for the awesome cover art.
Direct Download COTFs Extremist EP

This compilation from back in November has some excellent moments too....
Direct Download 2years of Deep Limit

Radio Magnetic - No Frills.

Team Little Rock talk an awful lot. possibly too much. This week, the combined mouths of Team Little Rock are silenced in favour of a No Frills mix. New content weekly on Radiomagnetic.com Guest slots from The Niallist, Medhi Lono coming soon, as well as an exclusive live session from Ali Renault.

1. Sublinear – Your Masks – Boiling Sky
2. Four Tet – Love Cry - Domino
3. Ego Express – Telefunken (Michael Mayer Mix) – Ladomat 2000
4. Fioko – Fioletovo - iD.EOLOGY
5. Ellen Allien – Stadtkind [Turner Diesen Sommer Fällt Die Entscheidung Remix] – BPitch Control
6. Chedid - losoul re-edit – white label
7. Rectangle – Jacno – Ariola Benelux
8. Proxy - 8000 -unknown
9. Dubmood - Monkey Island – Jahtari
10. Wheeler - Breeze Blow – Jahtari
11. Burning Bright – Aberdeen – Black Lantern
12. Super Furry Animals -Smoke It (Dave Clarke mix) – Music Man Records

No Frills Stream
NoFrills MP3