Innenleben

I've written many times about Exeter's Mighty Force, a label reborn in 2019 and since then responsible for a run of great electronic albums and EPs from a huge roster of artists including David Harrow, Long Range Desert Group, Reverb Delay, M- Paths, D3, Dylab, Fluffy Inside, Myoptik, Boxheater Jackson, Yorkshire Machines, KAMS, Paddy Thorne, Golden Donna and more besides. 

At the end of October SubDan returned with a full length album, Innenleben. All ten tracks, as well as the album itself, have German titles. It opens with Denkmuster (translation 'thought patterns' or 'mindset'), a setting out of the stall, ticking hi hats, bleeps and bass, lovely machine repetition- there's a laser focus on Innenleben, absolute precision and timing, the occasional human voice dropped in, but there's also a lot of feeling and a lot of soul. 

Liebesgefluster (translation, love whispering- and don't the Germans have a word for everything) is a technoid joy, warm and minimal, the synth hook bouncing around, robotic voices just within earshot muttering sweet nothings, and the drums and bass gathering pace. 

This music, streamlined, linear and all forwards momentum, always puts me in mind of travel and transport (something Kraftwerk picked up on half a century ago with Autobahn and Trans- Europe Express)- it's the sound of gliding through miles of countryside after dark on the rails or under the sodium lights on the motorway, the white lines shooting past, miles falling away. 

Translating the song titles is a joy in itself. There is Gedankenfrei (thoughts are free) and Vorstellungskraft (imagination). At the end there is the tile track, Innenleben (inner life), a beatless and weightless ambient techno affair with loops that repeat until dissolving into nothing. Lovely stuff. Get it at Bandcamp.

Mighty Twice

A pair of  albums from Exeter's Mighty Force that are uniformly excellent and well worthy of exploration- they work as home listening and I imagine would do so in a much louder more immersive environment. They certainly work in the car eating up the miles while commuting between home and work. First is the latest Mighty Force 33 compilation, the initial offering from the label celebrating its 33rd year of business. It started by releasing the first Aphex Twin record- Analogue Bubblebath (and let's be honest, having put that out you could just stop at that point and rest on your laurels for the rest of time)- and has been resurrected in recent years with a deluge of acid techno/ electronica/ ambient. MF33 Volume 1 will be joined later in 2024 by Volumes 2 and 3, each one made up of eleven tracks, totalling thirty three by the end of the year. Volume 1 lines up a couple of the artists I've posted reviews by here over the last couple of years- Paddy Thorne and Fluffy Inside- along with many I haven't including Myoptik (whose track Nuclear Trafficlightz is a ten minute trip into an acid techno otherworld), I- hyperacusis (and their track Minimal Pulse, a bleep and echo delight) and Pushkin (whose Horce Acid Mix is strong stuff). All eleven are first rate, experimental and forward thinking tracks, the 303s and 808s front and centre. Get MF33 Volume 1 here. This is Once In A Life by Barce, a lovely, fluid piece of electronic music pitched somewhere in the centre of a Venn diagram with three interlocking circles, acid, techno and ambient. 

At the end of January Mighty Force released an album by SubDan called Inhale, Exhale, Repeat, ten tracks by Dan Schock that are tailor made for late night headphones listening, the attention to detail, subtleties and nuances really standing out when listened to closely and immersively (my spellcheck doesn't like immersively as a word but I'm sticking with it). Wake Up! kicks things off, a three note synth pattern and chords joined by rattling drums and a whispered voice, the sounds of the ambient techno revolution of the early 90s updated and reinvigorated for 2024. By the time we get three tracks in, Thin Air, is totally enveloping, a kick drum and synth pattern bringing some drama and tension, the pulsebeat keeping it moving ever forwards. 

Inhale, Exhale, Repeat is a joy that keeps giving, confident and experimental, melodic and innovative. By the time the final track arrives, Bring Back The Music, a familiar vocal sample buried deep within it, the temptation is to let it pay out and then go right back to the start. Buy the album from Mighty Force.