Shed - The Traveller (Ostgut Ton)

Albums from dance music producers are always tricky business; do you churn out another set of beat-driven DJ tools, designed only for home listening techno heads, or forge off down experimental pathways, gaining critical acclaim and leaving nothing for DJs to meddle with? With 2008's Shedding the Past, Shed aka Rene Pawlowitz managed to hit both targets with a great mix of pure techno numbers and more experimental sketches and structures. This time round, it's a far more introspective affair - full of songwriting and expressive doodles and far less targetted for dancefloors. That's not to say it's a collection of pretentious 'movements' or meandering electronica - Pawlowitz continues to dissolve the boundaries between dubstep and techno, and the likes of Keep Time and Atmo - Action can be deployed across any DJ set, offbeat as they are. The Traveller throws a few wild curveballs throughout, and 44A (Hardwax Forever) opens not with a booming Berghain kick drum, but a sketchy, delay-heavy synth line - of course, once it melts down, it comes in with that deep technoid sound, arpeggiated flares of synth lifting it up to euphoric levels. Similarly, Leave Things totally detaches from the techno / dubstep ground he's previously occupied, and sees Pawlowitz surging forward, Analogue Bubblebath style, at 160bpm. The sounds and rhythms are so perfectly pulled off, AFX ought to be checking his home security. The Traveller is clearly a labour of love for Shed - the broad palette and (un)subtle homages demonstrate an artist really trying to pour everything of themself into one work. Tough going at times, and a lot harder to love if you don't get the references, but for those who love Berlin, techno and all things minimal, this is a beautifully instropective journey and a bloody great album.

MJ Cole

Sub:stance, Scuba's Berghain night celebrated two years of breaking down barriers between Berlin 4/4 darkness and the syncopated sounds of UK urban music last month. Happy birthday and all that. We're currently really enjoying the recording of MJ Cole's set from that night - a wired jitterbug mix of dubby chords, deep house melodies and garage syncopation, it's both forward-thinking and reverential. Nice work guys.

2 Years SUBSTANCE - MJ Cole [panorama bar] by Melissa

Den Hann get sparkled.

This advert Den Haan's gig in Berlin in September is full of win and wtf?

Ostgut Ton Digital - Reviews

Off the back of Ben Klock's smash Berghain mix comes a handful of awesome 12"s, including a tasty futurist-meets-retro split from Kevin Gorman and James Ruski,n with one operating in the crystalline, metallic territory of Vainio, the other going for wheezing, fractured machinations. Suffice to say, the whole package is excellent, but here's my two choice picks....

Berghain: pt 3 - Echologist / Jonas Kopp.
This one's currently getting my vote, with a Ben Klock re-edit of Echologist's Dirt on the A-side conjouring dark, post-industrial landscapes, full of hiss and glitch, with the kick drum mutedly thumping away, deep in the mix. The shaky dub chords push their way upwards, evolving on a minute scale, with only the clatter of the snare breaking through the tension and destabilising the taut atmosphere. On the flip, Jonas Kopp conjours a fresher, cleaner take on dark dub, with pin-prick hi-hats breaking through the cloud of decaying bass and a cleaner chord snaking it's way upwards.

Berghain: pt. 1 Martyn / Roman Lindau
My other favourite from this series is definitely the Martyn / Roman Lindau split, with Lindau representing a much more conventional techno pallette - deep filtered kicks, shuffling hi-hats and tight percussion embedded in subtle melodies. Martyn heads in a wildly different direction with Miniluv, a groove-driven monster based around syncopated percussion, throbbing kicks and twisting off-beats. Breaking down in rattle of redux-heavy metallic percussion, it finally falls in line with a steady, rhythmic piano riff that neatly straightens the wayward percussion. As it builds and tightens, bringing in a shuffling hi-hat pattern that leaves Miniluv feeling like an unusually heavy Theo Parrish number. With both techno and dubstep / funky pedigree, it's going to be a gig cross-over number, though maybe not quite as massive as Klock's rework of his and Spaceape's Is This Insanity? Epic 12" nonetheless.

Everybody's Gotta Post Sometime

Punch And The Apostles - the spazz-influenced romantics who always bring a Parisian sadness mixed with Mingus nonsense to the fore - are back with two [yes, TWO!] releases. One of them is called Meat In Summerland, and is their new LP. Having a large soft spot for both Zappa and Mr Bungle, it's a big ol' boat-floater of the interesting variety

The second release is Hymn Of Death and doesn't matter. It's an instrumental [this isn't true] and instrumentals are just boring [again, not true. 'Albatross', anyone?]. Anyway, enough procrastination - let's hear some tracks as these guys are wonderful, Glaswegian and back [though they live in Berlin]

Latest tracks by Punch & the Apostles

More Berlin Grafitti.

So aye, some great art from both the Berlin Wall gallery and a few other spots around the city.Faster than a speeding bullet. Hell yes. I love the linework and the shading, as well as the EPIC charging stance; I think it's just captured the intensity perfectly. "At faster than the speed of light, time begins to bend: Flash Fact!"I love the subtle implications of totalitarianism and industrio-military complex in this one. I've got some better shots of it somewhere too.
This is part of the official wall gallery, and reminded me a lot of the brilliant Alex Proyas film Dark City. I liked that this woman wandered into shot, it gave it something extra...

Dr Nojoke - Sublimacy ft Kid Ritalin

I was across in Berlin recently to record with Dr Nojoke. Obviously, I had a little extra time, so put it good use.Berlin's graffiti culture is awesome, and O2 World has become the biggest symbol of vapid capitalist culture. The Television Tower was the greatest symbol of totalitarianism; an overarching eyeball reminding east Berliners that there was nowhere for them to hide, and a raised middle finger to the west stating technological superiority.
There's a Starbucks around the base of it now.

The O2 arena is the capitalist equivalent; a fat, homogeneous beast crouching amidst the cultural vibrancy of the East; a white sprawl looming over the dense psychedelia of the Berlin Wall Gallery. It's a bland tribute to money and conformity, and in a city famed for it's club culture and experimental music scene, O2 world is the venue of choice for bland pop, over-wrought dinosaur rock bands and big-chain CD stores.

I'll post a few of the better images from elsewhere in the city later, for now, here's the finished Dr nojoke / Kid Ritalin collaboration, due to be released as part of FUCKNO, Little Rock Records epic compilation.
Sublimacy Ft. Kid Ritalin by Liam Arnold

Thanks again to Dr Ruth for the art.

We have the technology. We can rebuild it.

"As long as kids play, adults will build walls. And those wall break. Let’s patch them up with colorful plastic pieces. Life is serious, so that makes playing sometimes even more important.”

(Jan Vormann via WebUrbanist)

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.

No Joke.

"UNOIKI is an upcoming platform for non-stereotypical electronic music, visual and related art settled between the cornerstones CLUB and ART.
The aim of UNOIKI is to build up a collective of individual, independent, but like-minded artists with an original and unique vision and promote these ideas under one banner."

- Unoiki Manifesto, Dr Nojoke.
Dr.Nojoke - 15-16 by UNOIKI
Nice. Dr Nojoke's forthcoming audio platform Unoiki is set to launch in the new year. Post-modern, reverb-heavy techno, sound-art, non-music concepts. Exciting stuff, and with the involvement of the excellent J-lab as well. Looking forward to hearing where this goes.
Undefinition. Non-genre. Post wave.
Storlon - Undefinition by UNOIKI

Ben Butler and Mousepad in Berlin

Ben Butler And Mousepad - Perform With Star6! from Star6 on Vimeo.

Well, it might be for the purposes of demonstrating an Iphone application, but I reckon this video of Ben Butler and Mousepad (Joe From Gay Against You/ Germlin) is pretty damn awesome.

Nuff respect to Joe for making waves in Berlin. We're still keeping The Niallist's collaboration with BB under wraps, but rest assured it's awesome and we will bust it out soon enough.

Friends from Berlin, Pt 2: Tropic

I know I said I was going to leave it, but I just can't...

Tropic is a label run by one of the nicest people I met at Maria Am Ostbahn, Daniel Tischer, or D-Soul .

We dont like Trance, Hardtechno, Vocal or ElektroHouse, Metal or Independent Guitar Rock to release here on Tropic!

-Tropic's contact page, regarding demos

While we at Little rock would like nothing better than to release an elektro-rock, hard-trance, vocal-thrash-house anthem, I do have a lot of time for Tropic's purity of purpose. The shit-hot nature of the tracks I've been slowly trawling through helps.

You might do what I did, and start with TRO 56; an EP by Manchester's Slow noise, "Groovemospherica".



Track one and I was sold. Let us know how you get on.

Friends from Berlin, Pt 1: Phonocake

Phonocake are one of the labels we met, and who I clicked with musically and personally. The latest album on their site is by Mr Incognito. It's called LHC, or "Largest High Church", described on their own site as a particle-'enhancer', which gets the missing blackhole generator activated, supported by the other dimensions headquarter - "Massive Dynamics". I think it's safe to assume he smoke weed and watch manga movies.




PHOKE58 : LHC
by Mr. Incognito
It's been my soundtrack for cooking myself soup. Later on I'm going to delve a little deeper into the label, but for now I need to get ready go to a rehearsal.

Too Much Music!

Kreuzberg, Schlesische Tor

As well as my favourite cafe and countless bars, falafel joints and the rest, Kreuzberg was home to some amazing artwork by local and international graffiti artists, notably some HUGE stuff by Blu...

His work dominates the area (that one is by Watergate, and was how people directed me there), and is often baffling in terms of legality and access. Dude either has permission, nobody cares, or he has some SERIOUS balls.



We first fell in love with Blu hard when he did Motu, whcih I'm sure you'll agree is the shit.

Sunday in Wendel, Tuesday in Glasgow

Wendel is a cool wee cafe at 42 Schlesische Strasse in Kreuzberg. They do a mean hot chocolate and a nice cup of Kräuter Tee. Add a kick ass jazz band, and you have the perfect way to unwind after a hectic weekend of intense musical exercise.

The band was Tré from Zurich, and I bought their album;




I'm back in Glasgow now, and I'm barely afloat, swimming in new music. I have records, CDs and about a million things on various other digital formats to wade through. I've been at it for hours, and I haven't even touched the live recordings we made at the festival, or the stuff I was writing while away. I feel like Scrooge McDuck in a vault of sound.

Feels good, man.

More later, for sure.
For now, I think I'm going to get into my Netaudio panel-mate Andrew Dubber's book, The 20 Things You Must Know About Music Online.

See you on the other side.

Day one, and Berlin has our hearts and minds tied up in the boot of it's beemer.

Dr Nojoke on stage with TRIoon, one of the acts on the insanely packed Netaudio Berlin lineup.
The good doctor had a few of the early arrivals up to his pad for some beers and some banter last night, and we soon became friends. An unassuming man, he lives in a beautiful ex-squat in the middle of Berlin's activist neighbourhood, a beacon of laid back cool among a city full of the same.

We'll be coming back with some of his music, so keep your ears peeled.

In other news, FUCK YEAH.

Ricoloop Rocks It